//------------------------------// // 5-the downhill slope, picabo twilight takes the lead // Story: the wedding is off (a reimagining) // by wertyui //------------------------------// Spike had managed to help carry in most of Twilight's things back into her old bedroom that she had been staying in all day. but the thing is her (faux) depression was getting worse by the minute (or her acting was getting better by the minute), Shining Armor saw the metaphorical face of sister deteriorate until there was nothing left, and he decided that he wasn't going to stand idly by and watch the only sister he had sink so low. "I'm not going to stand idly by and watch the only sister I have sink so low!" Exactly like that too, seriously, out loud. to nopony. what a doofus. He headed out the door and walked straight to the Castle. He met with the guards inside, instantly recognizing him, and loyal to their captain in spite of everything. Once they pulled their swords out of the cross position to let him in, he levitated the badges on his uniform off and placed them in their hooves "Captain, what are you doing?" he asked. "Turning in, this job is all yours, I'm telling Celestia that as of today, I'm resigning my role as captain," he said, the guards gasped at this. "For what?" a guard asked "For what!? He says, The attack, plus the fact that my sister has gone into a depression, and I'm afraid shes gonna commit suicide, so I'm going to do my best to get her back!" he said. The guards watched in sorrow as their captain walked away. Meanwhile, Celestia was in her throne room, looking at the hole in the stained glass window where twilight had struck, (she placed a crude drawing of twilight over it, but it didn't help none), when she saw Shining Armor walk inside, taking off his helmet. Putting his helmet in front of her he said "Princess, I can't go on living like this, I resign" "What, why?" she asked. "I'm sorry Celestia, but my sister has gone into a depression and it's all because of me, I have to set things right before its too late, which I suggest you do as well" Celestia was truly in dire straights, but she couldn't quite figure out how to address twilight, she considered " Oh and by the way you have a massive crowd of ponies outside furious with you and Luna," he said as he left the room, Celestia snapped out of her daydream and pondered. "Why would they be mad at me?" (take a fucking guess!) She decided to go out and check it out like she knows nothing, once she was outside, she was surrounded by a group of ponies expressions on the crowd that said "you're gonna die, right here RIGHT NOW!" "Hey look everypony, it's our so-called leader!" one pony said. "Let's get her!" another said, Celestia tried to retreat to her quarters, but she was soon tackled down by the crowd,she tried to release a bolt of lightning to make them disperse, but then she felt her magic seal up like glue, as she strained her neck she managed to look up and see her former student, turned ringleader of this mob, she shed a single tear of shame, of how far things have fallen. "This, my dear princess" twilight announced like a canterlot royal "is what we like to call, PAYBACK, and your gonna feel it, as long as I see fit!!!! Suddenly the crowd began kicking , punching , and spitting on the one they called leader. All the while her former student pranced around like a schoolgirl. This lasted for about a good 20 minutes until a group of guards flew over after seeing the fight trying to break it up. twilight just shot them back, the ponies then scattered like rats once it was over. Celestia did her best to get back up on her hooves, but to no avail, she had a black eye, a bloody nose, and a sharp pain in her right wing, she was too beaten to even move. i think somepony burned her hair off, i wasn't there so i couldn't tell you. Back in Ponyville, the other five were really starting to get not only tired but worried about Twilight, and for their own health, cold, desperate, pariahs in their own hometown, they had now known that if they had just listened to Twilight in the first place, none of this would've happened, yet they were too caught up in their wedding planning, speaking of which they would be too caught up their own guilt and anger to question themselves. So they thought they deserved what they were getting, but they had never known the manipulation twilight had enacted that would make the bug herself blush. At the Sparkle residents, Shining Armor approached his parents with caution, trying to avoid another verbal confrontation "What is it this time son?" Night Light asked. shining sighed, he was foolish to even try to avoid this "I've stepped down, Dad,i am no longer captain, that title belongs to my successor" "well, good for you" his dad said in a sarcastic tone "and because of what I've done, I'm going to try and talk to her," he said, his mother, twilight velvet placed her foreleg on his back "It's the right thing to do shining," Twilight Velvet said approaching him, just then a pair of subtitles appeared underneath them "Ever since the attack, she's felt humiliated because shining rejected her for no reason, you know she won't even talk to your parents, she just lies in her bedroom alone cause she's too hurt to see anypony" Night light looked down, then looked at shining and said "well, the captions are never wrong" Another one appeared "this asshat ruined her whole life and he didn't even care!" Shining Armor sighed, "regardless, I'm gonna go talk to her." "It doesn't even matter if you talk to her, she probably won't forgive you anyway, even then shes still going to be too upset, cause you can't take back what you did!" "Look, I just want...." Shining Armor tried to explain. "You went off the deep end son, and you can't fix it!" Night Light said. "I don't care, dad, I'm going up those stairs right now, and I'm going to set things right!" he said with a serious expression. As Shining Armor was walking up the stairs he shot a charge of magic directly at the door "I said, YOU CAN'T FIX IT!" "JUST LEMME TRY!" His horn glowed dangerously bright, shooting a ball of lightning directly in the patriarch's direction, he ducked at the last moment, the bolt aimed directly at his mother, twilight velvet, it shot across her face, making her drop in an instant "VELVET!!!!!!" night light shouted before running to his beloved, "velvet please speak to me" but velvet didn't say a word, she was still breathing but totally unresponsive "MOM" shining ran over to her as well "I'm.. (sob) so sorry" his words were cut off by his father punching him directly in the muzzle "I TOLD YOU YOU COULDN'T FIX IT, NOW YOU MADE EVERYTHING THAT MUCH WORSE!!!!!!" Shining could only bow his head in shame, he tried to speak "Dad i..." "Don't call me that anymore, just pack up your things, and get outta my sight" With a heavy heart, he got what little possessions he had, and headed for the local boarding house for accommodation. before he left he heard jabbering coming from outside the house, he quickly ran to the window and saw a massive crowd of ponies running to the Canterlot Courthouse, he simply shrugged it off but what he didn't know was who was in the courthouse that was the problem. The Equestrian Royalty group along with congress were holding an important parlimentary meeting with Celestia and Luna, over recent events. M.P Neighsay used the opportunity to strike at the princesses while they were down in order to advance his political career, since before the wedding, was going nowhere "Princess Celestia, what is your excuse for the gross negligence of this nationwide threat?" the later-to-be chancellor asked. "I had a choice to make, and it is one I hope never to have to make again, we didn't know who was causing the threat, we had the shield over the entire kingdom, and at the time, my student did not offer any conclusive proof. So we figured it was only jealousy and continued with the wedding." "Oh BULL, Celestia, Twilight is not a plate that you put up in a cupboard then take it out when you're ready to use it, and besides that poor martyr, you called your student has every right to quit, because from what I've seen, every time a threat comes to Equestria, EVERY DAMN TIME, you always make her stop it, what in God's name makes you think that those elements of harmony can defeat everything?!" "Because they are the most powerful artifacts in equestrian history, they have been used to not only defeat discord but reform ME as well, does that not count for something!? and has thou forgotten she went hoof to hoof with Chrysalis to protect our kingdom!? After thousands of years, one must give thou sister a break!" the answer unfortunately was not accepted "Oh, so you think, Oh well since I've discovered that Twilight's powerful, I can use her to do all my work for me, and I can just sit down on my LILLY WHITE FLANK and WATCH HER DO IT! ., well think again, princess traitor! Twilight has problems of her own you know, she can't always defend our kingdom against these (shudders) CREATURES!" Celestia hung her head in shame, Luna approached her and put a comforting shoulder on her, and proceeded to berate "she has the right to get some help after thousands of years of suffering YOU IMPUTENT, INSENSITIVE, LITTLE PRICK!!!" "Strike from the record" the high chancellor ordered "Chancellor", one meek pony argued "I may not be able to speak for the royals personally, but what I was told, they gave her the benefit of the doubt. Because if not mistaken, That’s what good citizens do, On top of that, they didn’t KNOW Cadance! How can they possibly judge one on how she normally acts if they just met said pony! and surely we can show sympathy to a princess who raises our sun!! who has been beaten by her own subjects!!! "Regardless", Neighsay retorted "any and all threats to Equestria are the business of the princess, not her student, but since they seem intent on making her do such, then maybe SHE ought to be our leader! therefore, I ask for the motion that you and your sister be disbarred!" "I'm afraid we cannot do that," the chancellor told neigh say, but if the ponies feel this seriously about the issue, then we shall vote for a special election, whether or not to remove the princesses and replace them with a president." After a long day in the legal system of Equestria, The motion was voted in favor of 51-49, a special election would take place in a few days. "This royal meeting is adjourned." a gavel slammed on the marble placeholder, As the rest of the lawmakers got up to leave, Celestia just sat there in a state of utter shock, she had just been told off again because that's how these fics go that Twilight was under pressure and being depressed because of her lousy role as a princess she was always making her handle all the trouble. Never taking her seriously from day one, she too now had to set things right. see how I made that text small, cuz this doesn't matter i could say anything look toaster sock onion no one truly cares back to the story Late that night, a crack formed in an all too familiar statue, with the CHAOS going on its no wonder HE would make an appearance discord had his own plans, to hitch a ride onto twilight's feeble mind, and his it for HIS own desires, and with what had happened these past months, it would be a cinch. Twilight slept peacefully in her tin foil crown, thinking about how swimmingly everything was going, MP neighsay was sure to get a stocking stuffer for his fanning of the fire. Suddenly she awoke in a strange alternate world, a world where space and time had no meaning, a place where rules and logic themselves had no meaning. Where everything was controlled by the whims of a madman. And there was only one who could run a world like this "Ohhh, twiiiiiiiiiiiiileeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey" Twilight shot up from her daze, finding herself floating in a sea of tranquility, heading towards of lake of fire, and in front of her lay the draconequis, on a velvet lily pad, chewing on a hookah which he stole from a caterpillar "Ahh, back away vile demon, I thought I slew you!" "Relax, twi-fi, I'm not going to hurt you, I just wanted to thank you," he said "because of your little (finger quotes) mental breakdown, you've turned the entirety of Equestria (or at least those who care enough) against its leaders, creating an inevitable power vacuum for all of your enemies, whilst at the same time, unlearning all your friendship lessons, you've made it THAT much easier for me to slip into the cracks of power" She ignored his taunt, still furious over the perceived actions of her friends and loved ones "What do you want anyways" "Well," he mused "I figured since you've done such a big favor for me, I thought it would be nice to give you something in return" Discord flipped the whole scene around, four walls of milk-white appeared all around them the two of them trapped in a completely white room, discord dressed as Morpheus and asked twilight "what if I told you, your not as innocent as you think you are, that YOU were fooled just like the rest of them" Twilight tried to protest "because I wasn't fooled, I knew the whole time!!! I knew that cadence was replaced by a changeling so THERE" she then indulged in a rather vulgar and insulting victory dance involving a lot of pointing at her posterior, it was gruesome, even for discord it looks a little like this (1:18) (1:31) "I'll try to put it into terms that even a technicolor miniature horn horse like oneself could understand, see in your frenzy to get out you tried shooting a laser beam at the crystals multiple times, this shot back into your brain, miraculously deleting short term bits of your memory, that combined with your anger, and uncertainty created the perfect arsenic concoction. So your brain filled in the blanks." he then opened a sort of mirror pool in the floor "So without further ado, here's what really happened!!!!" she saw the whole scene play out, how she reacted beforehand "See, you were already concerned with your brother marrying someone evil, you saw her act mean to your friends, and of course how can I forget, when you looked through that peephole and saw what you saw" Shining Armor: Hey... Has anypony seen Twilight? [doors open] Twilight Sparkle: I'm here! I'm not gonna stand next to her! And neither should you! Shining Armor: I'm sorry, I... I don't know why she's acting like this. Princess Cadance: Maybe we should just ignore her. Twilight Sparkle: You have to listen to me! Fluttershy: Oh, goodness! Are you okay? Twilight Sparkle: I'm fine. Applejack: Ya sure about that? Twilight Sparkle: I've got something to say! She's evil! Rest of the main cast: [concerned chattering] Royal Guard: [inaudible comment to another guard] Twilight Sparkle: She's been horrible to my friends, she's obviously done something to her bridesmaids, and if that wasn't enough, I saw her put a spell on my brother that made his eyes go all [bells jangling]! Princess Cadance: [starts crying] Why are you doing this to me?! Twilight Sparkle: Because you're evil! Princess Cadance: [crying] Twilight Sparkle: Evil! And if I don't stop you, you're gonna ruin my brother's life! Discord sat in a movie chair with a bucket of popcorn and 3D glasses "forgive me if I'm in the wrong twilight, but I don't hear any mention of the word CHANGELING in the rhetoric, you may have suspected something wrong, but you didn't catch that! what about this little number" Twilight Sparkle: I'm sorry! Princess Cadance: You will be. "You were fooled TOO! Oh here's another gem from the archives" Princess Cadance: No! Wait! Ugh! Please! Don't hurt me! Twilight, it's me! Please, you have to believe me. I've been imprisoned like you. The Cadance who brought you down here was an imposter. Twilight Sparkle: Likely story! Twilight seeing herself attack her own babysitter was enough to send her over the edge "THAT'S A BUNCH OF BULLSHIT!!! Your lying to me, just like everypony else!!!" Discord couldn't help but condescend "twilight, baby, sweetie, darling, I could lie to you anytime I want, but one thing that cannot lie to you is your heart." Discord then ripped her heart out and placed it on a scale, with a weight labeled, "lies" on it, her heart tipped the scales and sent the weight flying in her direction, smashing her right between the nose. a streak of red poured from her dented schnozz. and at that moment, everything became clear, she could deny it no longer, she WAS fooled, now that she knew the truth, she felt more of a jackass than Cranky Doodle Donkey, speaking of which, her remorse was cut off by the sound of a mule screaming through the black void of space. "And because you were not only fooled, but you fooled yourself, Equestria will fall and I will take my rightful banana seat in the ruins of your queendom. So sweet dreams "princess of friendship" "AAAH" twilight skyrocketed out of bed, realizing it was only a dream, but the implications were real, her actions were real, and she knew she had to set things right before it was too late.