Cadence continued to walk down the hallway as she was to calm down a bit after her talk with the girls. After everything that was going on, she needed enough to energy for when she speaks to her husband and aunt. It was the just those two that she needs to speak to now.
Speaking of husband, Shining Armor was walking down the same hallway Cadence was in. He was searching for his wife hoping he could try to talk it out and explain why it all happened.
The white stallion saw his wife at the near end of the other side of the hallway as he started to run up to her while saying, “Cadence!”
Cadence saw Shining Armor running up towards her. The princess stopped walking as she gave her husband a cross stare.
Shining stopped running, when he got to Cadence, and said, “Cadence, thank Celestia I found you. I wanted to…” But before Shining could continue, Cadence crossly hissed, “You stupid royal guard.”
Shining took a step back a bit in surprise as he figured his wife is still mad at him for what Twilight had just said to her. Shining frowned a bit before saying, “You’re still mad at me, aren’t you?”
“Of course I’m still mad at you!” Cadence snapped, “I am so angry at you, the girls and Aunt Celestia for what you did to Twilight at the rehearsal while I was trapped in the caves beneath Canterlot! What were you even thinking?!”
Shining was getting more scared and nervous of Cadence’s anger right now as he was also struggling what to say next and how to explain everything.
“I…I-I really thought Twilight upset you during the rehearsal when she accused you of being evil.”
“And you actually thought she was trying to ruin our wedding and marriage when she was telling the truth and nopony else listened or believed her?!”
Shining began to rub his hoof while saying, “Well…the imposter was crying when Twilight accused her of being evil.”
“And THAT was a mockery of me!” Cadence said angrily, “I never cry the way Chrysalis did it! I can not believe you thought Twilight upset me and I ran off crying when I never do stuff like that when somepony upsets me! She was your sister, and you choose the imposter over her?!”
Shining was getting annoyed by his wife not understanding why he did and the way she was speaking as he glared at her while saying, “Well, Twilight didn’t have any proof that the Cadence during that day was evil and not really you! She just told me what she was doing before nightfall and came into the rehearsal acting a jealous pony and, of course, a filly!”
Cadence let out a gasp of shock and anger before angrily saying, “How dare you. How DARE you say that about your own sister!”
“How dare I? How dare YOU!” Shining said angrily, “You don’t understand what was going on during that day or what we went through!”
“No, Shining, you don’t know what me AND Twilight went through! I’ve been imprisoned in the caves for more than twenty-four hours with no food or water and Twilight spent most of her time during the preparations spying on the imposter like she was the only one who took the threat seriously and knew what was going on! You think trying to make the wedding perfect during the threat was awful, I could have die if Twilight haven’t freed me and saw I was the real me! And Chrysalis could have killed Twilight instead imprisoning her as well! And I bit you didn’t think to check on Twilight on the day of our wedding like she wasn’t important anymore after the way she acted during the rehearsal when she was trying to save your rear end and because nopony was listening to her!”
“I WAS planning on checking on Twilight, but the fake Cadence told me not to worry about her and just focus on the wedding!”
“So you thought Twilight just went back to Ponyville like she didn’t deserve to come back to the wedding at all?!”
“Well…yeah. But just so you didn’t forget, I was under Chrysalis’s control since she wanted my love!”
“Ah, but were you under her control during the rehearsal? Hmmm?”
“Ye…I…” That was when Shining Armor realised he wasn’t under Chrysalis’s control during the rehearsal, and it was him that decided to kick Twilight out of the wedding. He looked down in shame. “No, I wasn’t.”
“So don’t use “Chrysalis controlling you” as an excuse for me to say it wasn’t your fault you did all of that to Twilight! And how dare you thought Twilight went back to Ponyville and not bothered checking on her before getting some shut eye or in the morning before the wedding! You should be ashamed of yourself!”
Shining couldn’t help but feel even more guilty for what he had done in the past.
“And don’t go seeing Twilight, even if you want to start putting things right which I suggest you do,” Cadence continued, “She’s having time to herself and deciding whether to show you how she felt during the rehearsal or not. But you go see your daughter and make things right with her and let her come, she is right about leaving her with Night Light and Twilight Velvet. Not to mention, the nightmares could haunt her too. And if Twilight does have a go at you, you let her. You deserve it and should know how she felt when you did it to her. Do I make myself clear?”
Shining didn’t answer, instead he just slowly nodded his head at his wife.
“Good,” she said, “Now, with you done, I must go find my aunt so I can have a word with her.” Cadence walked past Shining as he watched her go with a guilty expression on his face. He was about to say something, but Cadence quickly stopped and said, “And no, Shining. I’m not planning to divorce you. It’ll break Twilight and Flurry Heart’s heart, and it’ll probably make things worst. And we already got enough problems on our hooves with poor Lightning Twister suffering from horrible nightmares.“
Cadence continued to make her way down the hallway to find Celestia as Shining watched her disappear in the distance of the hallway. He was glad she wasn’t gonna break up with him, but he was worried about the talk he’s gonna have with his sister and daughter. Shining started to walked down the other side of the hallway as he was searching for the room Flurry Heart was in.
The mane five were all in one of their guest rooms as they needed some time alone after the conversation with Cadence earlier. After everything they did wrong in the past, even when they knew what they were doing was wrong, they couldn’t help but feel like they’ve learned nothing about friendship before doing those bad moves.
Applejack finally spoke up, “You know what, girls. Cadence is right. Every time we go on an adventure and try to save Equestria without the princesses’ helping or being there, one of us is doing something stupid. We were supposed to be Twilight’s friends and the bearers of the other five elements, instead we were treating her like a side pony and not taking friendship or its lessons seriously.”
“I hate to admit it, but AJ’s right,” said Rainbow, “Even behind the princesses’ backs, we did some things to Twilight that we should be guilty of and not her.”
“What? Even when she tried to steal Queen Novo’s pearl?” Pinkie asked crossly.
“Well that was on us, Pinkie,” said Rainbow while crossing her hooves, “None of us had even tried to help Twilight see that we can have fun and help others during a mission to save Equestria as well as making sure no villains try to stop us or find the pony they’re after.”
“Says the Wonderbolt who did her Sonic Rainboom which helped Tempest find us easily,” said Applejack crossly which made Rainbow glare at her.
“Hey, I didn’t know that was gonna happen!” Said Rainbow angrily, “I wasn’t thinking straight and I was too busy being excited and celebrating Captain Celaeno and her crew being free from The Storm King’s order! And I could say the same thing to you, Applejack! You were the one who told Twilight go stay in Ponyville where it was “safe” when Discord’s vines were attacking and got us to agree as well when she was needed during the search for the Tree of Harmony!”
“I didn’t tell her to! I just made a suggestion so we don’t lose her!”
Rainbow raised an eyebrow at the farm pony while saying, “Even before she came back and suddenly got attacked by gas vines when we started to realise we’ve made a mistake?”
“Well the vines were capturing the two princesses and Twilight, even though we don’t know why they were also after her since Discord planted them long ago,” said Applejack calmly, “I was just trying to keep Twilight safe like a good friend would do.”
“Except a friend doesn’t tell them to go home when they are needed, no matter who or what is after them!” Rainbow said crossly, “And seeing how Cadence is mad at us for what we did to Twilight, how is she going to react when she finds out we made Twilight go back to Ponyville when we did needed her?!”
“Don’t forget about Celestia, Luna and Shining Armor,” added Pinkie Pie which made the four girls stare at her.
“What?” Fluttershy asked confusedly.
“Nothing,” answered Pinkie Pie, “It’s just that they were also not around during the vines attacking Ponyville problem.”
The girls were giving the pink pony the cross look since they all know what she meant by that and what will happen if they did find out what happened during the vine attack.
“You only said Cadence, okay?! I’m just making sure we’re all on the same page, in case Celestia or Luna haven’t been told what happened during our journey to the Tree of Harmony!”
“Who would think that?” Rainbow asked in a annoyed tone.
Pinkie quickly looked at Fluttershy for a second before turning back to Rainbow and saying, “Maybe Fluttershy?”
“Oh thank you, Pinkie,” said Fluttershy crossly and in a annoyed tone, “Blame the pony who is the only harmony bearer that is a mother, why not?”
“Well who else could I blame?”
“I don’t know,” replied Fluttershy angrily, “How about Rarity?”
“And why me?” Rarity asked crossly.
“Because you haven’t even said anything when Applejack started this conversation!” Fluttershy said crossly.
“I have to agree with her, Rarity,” said Applejack, “You know that we did things that isn’t Twilight’s fault and we hurt her pretty bad most of those times.”
“Even when she tried to steal the pearl?! That was on her! We didn’t cause her to do a stupid move! Besides, she used us!”
“It WAS on us, Rarity!” Rainbow said angrily, “We didn’t help her see that she can still have fun while saving Equestria and finding what we’re looking for! She used us and tried to steal the pearl, because we didn’t do our job of taking her safe from Tempest and being her friends!”
“But she yelled at Pinkie!”
“Again, on us!” Pinkie said angrily, “She yelled at me, because I hurt her by saying she doesn’t trust her friends without even realising what we didn’t do after we arrived at Klugetown! Plus we also did a stupid move! We trusted a stranger who was also a liar!”
“That’s still my husband you’re talking about,” said Fluttershy in a cross and annoyed tone.
“Oops, sorry,” Pinkie said quickly.
“Pinkie does have a point,” said Applejack, “Most of these past actions are literally our fault. We do treat Twilight as our friend, but sometimes, we don’t and make her believe that it’s her fault this happens when it’s really our fault.”
“Well Twilight should have had some prove that the fake Cadence was evil and mean when she told us during that night before rehearsal,” said Rarity.
The four glared at the white unicorn for saying that. Rainbow was about to say something, but then decided not to in case it’ll make things worst between them all. However, Applejack gave her a nod as a way of telling her to say it. And so Rainbow gave the farm pony a nod in return before turning back to Rarity and saying, “Oh I see. When one of us do something wrong, we forgive each other and move on from them while saying we know you didn’t mean to. But when Twilight does something she didn’t mean to do while none of us knew we made her do it,” she then did her Rarity impression, “Twilight should know better, and should have had some prove that the fake Cadence was evil and mean when she told us during that night before rehearsal.”
“And while we were on the subject on others finding out what we did,” said Fluttershy, “What do you think is going to happen when Lightning Twister finds out what we did during the wedding?!”
The four turned to look at Fluttershy after hearing her mentioning Lightning Twister.
“Oh yeah, I forgot about him,” said Rainbow while rubbing the back of her head.
“Come on, Fluttershy,” said Pinkie Pie, “I’m sure Lightning won’t be mad at you if he does find out what we all did before you adopted him.”
“How can you be so sure about that, Pinkie?” Fluttershy asked crossly, “He wasn’t mad after Rarity yelled at him during the Gala and he didn’t have a go at you after you upset him because he was The Storm King’s grandson. And that’s a good thing. But how is he going to react when he finds out what we did before I took him in?”
“She does have a point there, girls,” said Rainbow, “I’m feeling worried that the kid might hate us if he finds out what we did to Twilight over these past few moons.”
“Why are you so worried about him being mad at you, Rainbow?” Rarity asked, “You didn’t even do anything wrong to him.”
“Uh yeah I did actually, Rarity,” said Rainbow in an annoyed and cross tone, “When I first met Lightning, I scared him with a thunder storm and called him a crybaby without even thinking straight. And after hearing what Cold Wind did to him before he ran away, I couldn’t help but feel so guilty for scaring him and calling him a crybaby. I felt so awful doing that to him, and he didn’t deserve to be treated like that.”
“Rainbow’s right,” said Applejack, “And children can often get angry at their parents for the actions they did before having them. And even though Lightning still has a heart to love and care for us all, no matter how long Cold Wind treated him, there’s no telling how he will react to our wedding betrayal.”
“Don’t you girls think you’re just overreacting about Lightning hating us for the actions we did in the past even though some was Twilight’s own fault?” Rarity asked annoyingly.
“The actions that Twilight did WAS our fault and not Twilight’s, Rarity! Stop making things worse for us!” Fluttershy said angrily, “And we’re not overreacting, we’re worried about Lightning’s response! We’re not stupid!”
“Neither is Twilight!” Added Rainbow.
“None of us even said she was stupid,” said Pinkie Pie.
“I know that, Pinkie! I’m just saying that since none of us took the threat more seriously or even saw what was going on with the fake Cadence! She was our friend, and we treated her like we were doing it for the Elements of Harmony and because she was the student of Celestia! In other words, just using her!”
“Can I just remind you, Rainbow, that you often call Twilight an egghead like she was stupid since she reads a lot?” Rarity said which made Rainbow glare an annoyed stare at her.
“Well I now regret calling her that, even before I started reading the Daring Do books!” Rainbow said crossly, “And I now know that’s how Loyalty works! So for now, I’m staying by Twilight’s side, having her back and treating her a true friend like a true Loyalty friend!”
“And I’ll always be kind to her like a true Kindness friend,” added Fluttershy.
“And I’ll always listen to her and make sure my lying sense is open like a true Honesty friend,” said Applejack.
“And I’ll always help her smile again, when she feels down, like a true Laughter friend!” Pinkie Pie said.
The four stared at Rarity waiting for her to say her bit for treating Twilight more like a friend and as the true element bearer. The white unicorn looked at the girls confusedly.
“What? Why are you all staring at me for?”
“Well we said our bit for treating Twilight as a true friend and as a true element bearer, we’re waiting for you to say yours,” said Pinkie Pie.
“Seriously?” Rarity asked annoyingly with an raised eyebrow.
“Rarity, do you want Twilight feel upset and guilty for the rest of her life, not to mention our lives, and have Cadence, Shining, Celestia and Luna be mad at us for what we did as well make this impossible to help Lightning?” Rainbow asked crossly with her hooves crossed, “Because I’m not letting my poor nephew suffer from anymore nightmares!”
“What’s the point though? Cadence is already mad and disappointed in us! She even kicked us off her favourite girls list and banned us from attending her future anniversary parties!”
“She only said we were banned from THIS year’s anniversary party until further notice!” Reminded Rainbow, “And who cares if we’re off her list and banned from future anniversary parties? We deserved it! And I don’t really care if I’m off Cadence’s favourite girls list or banned from future anniversary stuff, all I want is to make up for my mistakes, treat Twilight as a true friend and being there for her like I’m supposed to!”
“Same here,” said Fluttershy.
“I ain’t treating Twilight like a party pooper anymore!” Pinkie said proudly.
“And I’ll be treating her like a true Apple would do,” said Applejack.
Rarity looked at the girls before saying, “Well, I suppose I will be kind to Twilight like a true Generosity friend and treating her more as a friend.”
“Then it’s settled,” said Applejack, “When Twilight has finished being alone, we let her have a go at us for what we did, if she decides to do that, and then we start treating her as a friend.”
“Agreed!” The four girls in unison while giving the farm pony a nod.
Celestia was walking down the hallway after cleaning herself up from that fight she had with Luna. After everything she just said and did to her own sister, she couldn’t help but feel like she was taking this too far, especially after happened moons ago before Discord attacked Ponyville.
Just then, she saw her niece walking down the other side of the hallway as she saw her aunt and stared crossly at her before continuing walking towards her.
“Just the aunt I wanted to speak to,” said Cadence crossly.
“Please, Cadence, don’t. I already had Luna having a go at me for my actions, and it ended badly. We’ll talk later.”
“No, we’re talking right now!” Cadence said angrily, “I don’t care how much guilt you’ve took from your talk with Aunt Luna, it’s my turn to have a word with you!”
Celestia sighed before saying, “Please don’t. I can’t take any more of the guilt. I understand you’re mad at us for how we treated Twilight at the wedding, but just so you didn’t know, I was upset with how she was acting during the rehearsal and how she was treating you which is why I left her.”
“Even after warning and telling you that I wasn’t acting like myself when Chrysalis was pretending to be me when the threat was still going on?!”
“Cadence, I thought you were stress during the preparation of your wedding and wanted it to be perfect and to be done before the threat got even worse.”
“Chrysalis was treating everypony badly, bossing them about and saying horrible stuff about their work on the wedding making them think I was stress! I never take my stress out on anypony, nor do I hurt them, boss them about or say rude things about the things they did for me! You should know that by now! I thought she knew me!”
“I do know you! I loved you ever since I took you in!” Celestia said.
“But you didn’t know when Chrysalis was pretending to be me and did things that only Twilight knew I would never do! And you just ignored her like she didn’t love me anymore and I was marrying her brother even without telling her how long we’ve been dating! Not only that, but you also hurt her with hurtful words and left her to handle a threat like it was none of your concern!”
“I didn’t mean to!”
“You didn’t mean to?!” Cadence said crossly.
“But I did congratulate Twilight for saving your wedding and Equestria from a huge threat!”
“You didn’t mean to, but you did it. You had the chance to stand by your student’s side and help save Equestria for once, but you just decided, I don’t know,” she pretended to be Celestia and walked while saying her aunt’s words, “You have a lot to think about,” she then stopped as she continued, “That’s it, you did it. Did you not think that Chrysalis might kill Twilight when you gave her the chance or maybe think she might stop being your student if she didn’t have the heart to forgive? No, you didn’t thought about that. You just thought about the wedding, thought about making me happy and thought about not caring about the threat like the shield could protect us all.”
“Let me remind you of something, Cadence. Before Luna came back, Twilight didn’t have any friends during her time in Canterlot. She may likes reading, but she didn’t have anypony to hang out with until she found out about Nightmare Moon and before I sent her to Ponyville. I made her a better pony.”
Cadence, however, wasn’t gonna take it.
“Oh you made her a better pony, huh? Well let me tell you something. Before Twilight became your student, she had me foalsitting her. She didn’t have friends during that time, but she had a fantastic life spending time with me, studying, learning new spells, having fun with Shining and trying to impress you. And she’s been trying to impress you before she became a princess and making all threats are dealt with, but you never really bothered to help out on any threats no matter if you’re cut from the elements or not.”
Celestia knew Cadence was right about that. Twilight did have a good life before she moved to Ponyville, and the fact that Celestia never really bothered to come help stop any threats from harming Equestria. She just made Twilight deal with it like she can handle it herself.
“You’re right about that, Cadence,” said Celestia guiltily, “But at least I didn’t send Twilight out to deal with Lord Tirek.”
“Oh don’t you bring that up, especially after sending Pennywise the chaotic clown out to stop him,” said Cadence crossly.
“Discord?”
“That dipstick let that demon drain everypony’s magic and made Twilight give up all the alicorn magic for her friends to live! And Spike could have been killed by Tirek if Twilight didn’t surrendered her magic! He was her baby dragon!”
Hearing all of that made Celestia remember what Twilight, Spike and the girls told her what Lord Tirek did while she, Luna and Cadence were trapped in Tartarus after refusing to tell Tirek where their magic was. Now the sun princess couldn’t help but feel more guilty for not thinking straight and putting her own student in grave danger. She looked down in shame and closed her eyes.
“Twilight has having some time to herself alone in her room,” said Cadence, “She wants to think about whether to tell you, Shining and the girls how she felt during the rehearsal or to let it hurt her forever. So don’t even think about going straight to her and try to set things right with her just yet.”
Cadence started to walk off as she went past her aunt, but she stopped and turned to stare angrily at her again while saying, “And if you ever, EVER, do something like that from the rehearsal night or similar to the Tirek situation again, you won’t be seeing or hearing from me again as I will stop being your niece. You’re lucky Twilight has a heart to forgive. She would have stopped being your student, and that would have been the second student you lost.”
Celestia sadly turned her head to look at her niece as she saw her cross look showing that she meant it. Cadence stared crossly at Celestia one last time before heading off down the hallway. Celestia watched Cadence disappear into the far end of the hallway before looking down again in sadness.
“She’s right,” Celestia said to herself, “If Twilight didn’t had the heart to forgive, she would stopped being my student. But worst than that, I could have lost her when Lord Tirek attacked. And Twilight could have lost Spike if she didn’t surrendered all the alicorn magic. Why do I keep doing this to her? She’s like a daughter to me, but I keep treating her like she can handle anything.”
A tear started to roll down Celestia’s face and fell to the floor making a tiny puddle near her hooves.