Canterlot, One day before Cadance's awakening
A somber mood covered the capital of Canterlot. An increased guard presence along with the Elite Royal Guards patrolled the streets and a tense atmosphere had built up in everypony. A sense of paranoia and fear remained prominent among the population in wake of the recent attack from the Storm King.
Deep within the halls of Canterlot castle, a group including Twilight's parents sat in the royal dining room, contemplating the revelation that has shaken them all to their very cores except for the three crystal ponies.
Princess Amore was alive, and she was Princess Cadance's mother.
"I simply can't believe that Princess Amore was alive, let alone to be Princess Cadance's long lost mother..." Rarity said in shock.
"I can't believe you threatened Princess Amore." Dew said in disbelief as she glared at the fashionista in disapproval.
As Rarity slunk back into her chair guiltily, the others except Hurricane and Dew sat in uncomfortable silence.
Hurricane grew angry and moved closer to the rainbow-mane mare. "Yeah, what is wrong with you?!" He scolded Rainbow Dash, the cyan pegasus flinching back as his eyes started to give off pure icy blue magical vapour trail. "You not only straight up called her a rogue changeling, you also yelled at Princess Amore!"
Rainbow Dash could only lowered her head in shame as she sunk lower into her chair.
"Speaking of princess..." Spike interrupted, causing him and the others to look at the Princess of Friendship.
The said mare was staring out of the window, not even registering the conversation as a war was going on within her mind.
"Princess Twilight..." Clover spoke as Twilight's parents trotted to their daughter. "How are the princesses doing?"
Twilight sighed before replying. "I don't know what's going on with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, they just threw me out of the throne room when I told them everything after I unpetrified them... they told me that they wanted to process everything on their own for a while."
Both her parents and Spike hugged their family member, giving her nuzzles.
Just then, the door to the dining hall opened as a unicorn stallion walked in, getting other's attention.
"What's going on?" Shining Armor asked. "Twilight sent me a letter that told me to come here as soon as possible. I had to ask Sunburst to take over for a while at the Crystal Empire and take care of my daughter."
Suddenly, the Prince of the Crystal Empire found Pinkie Pie right up to him, almost muzzle to muzzle.
"You have no idea!" The party pony screeched. "We were just asking some question for our new friend, Skystar the hippogriff, when suddenly Cadance's nose started bleeding and she went to the surface! When we caught up with her, she was already coughing out blood and all of the sudden, she fainted! While Twilight, Spike and Fluttershy were checking on her, the party-crasher came along with her soldiers! Before that Storm King's lieutenant could do anything to our friends, three ponies jumped down from the airship above and started to beat them up! After all that drama, three airships appeared from the sky and flew over our heads! Not a moment later, a tall unicorn came out of nowhere and it turns up to be Princess Amore! Amore used her magic and some dark black mist came out of Cadance, and soon both her horn and wings were in different colors! Not to mention, Amore claimed that Cadance is her daughter! I mean, how crazy is that?!"
By the time the pink mare finished, the poor stallion has shrunk down, eyes twitching.
"I... she... what?" Shining stuttered before he registered what Pinkie Pie had said. "Wait, her horn and her wings were in different colors? That would mean her magic disguise dropped."
No sooner he said those words, Shining immediately threw his hooves onto his mouth, but it was too late.
The other's face all looked at him with shock, confusion, surprised and anger.
"You knew?" Twilight said, turning away from the window, her face being red with anger. "You knew about Cadance's horn and wings being in different colors, and you didn't tell me or us about this?!"
Shining flinched back as his family started to march toward him as they stared daggers at him, causing him gulp in fear.
"I... I..." The unicorn stallion stuttered before getting interrupted by his mother.
"Why did you not tell us or the princesses about that?!" Twilight Velvet screeched at him.
"Because I was afraid!" Shining blurted out, causing his family to flinch back and looked at him in surprise.
Twilight and her family looked at each other. They could see that his body had started to shake uncontrollable as he slowly sat down. Soon, they all surrounded him and sat down while the others all looked from where they were.
"Care to explain?" Night Light asked with an arched eyebrow.
Shining nodded before explaining. "Three years ago at night, I was checking on our daughter and Cadance came in after she had done her duty. We began reminiscing our past like how far we've come, then Flurry suddenly sneezed and let out a magic beam that caused my wife to fly into the wall. As I went to check on Cadance, I noticed both her horn and her wings were different. Immediately, I assumed that Cadance was Chrysalis. I quickly placed a shield around Flurry and started demanding where my wife was. She tried to tell that she was really my wife and I slowly started to believe her. But when I asked her to say something only my wife will remember, Cadance told me everything she remembered about the wedding incident before she started to cry."
Shining's family stared at him in shock, while the other except the three crystal ponies all grew ashamed looks.
The unicorn stallion sighed before continuing. "As soon as I saw her cry, I realised that Cadance was definitely not Chrysalis as I remembered that making her remember about the wedding incident would made her break down. I immediately went to comfort her as she continued to cry. After a while, Cadance calmed herself down and we talked about it. After a few minutes of debating, she and I decided to keep this to ourselves until we could figure it out why her horn and wings had changed colors. We didn't find any references to why she was like that."
He shook his head before he resumed talking. "We were planning on telling you and the princesses about this after the news of Queen Chrysalis's death one year ago. But Cadance and I feared that if we told you or the princesses about this, you guys would banish her or turn her into a statue without any hesitation."
The others all dropped their jaws at what Shining just said before the unicorn stallion sighed again.
"Mom, Dad, Spike, LSBFF..." Shining started, looking at his family's eyes with teary eyes. "I'm so sorry for not telling you. I was too scared about what you or the princesses would do if I were to tell you or them about this."
The alicorn stared at her brother with a blank face before sighing.
"BBBFF..." Twilight started before looking at him with an understanding smile. "You don't have to apologise. I can understand why you did it. If I were you, I would have done the same."
"Twily's right, Shiney." Twilight Velvet said with a smile, causing him to turn his head to his mother. "Hay, if your father and I were to find out that our daughter was a changeling, we probably kept this a secret as we would be afraid that Princess Celestia would take your sister away or banish her."
Night Light and Spike nodded their head in agreement.
Shining, seeing that his family understood him, hugged them all.
They stayed like that for a while before parting away.
"So..." Shining started. "Pinkie Pie said that Princess Amore is alive. Is that true?"
Twilight and her friends all looked at each other before the alicorn answered.
"Yes, it's true." Twilight said.
He stared at his sister in pure shock and dropped his jaw as he processed the words.
It took several minutes before the unicorn stallion shook his head and asked.
"How is it possible?!" Shining exclaimed. "How is Princess Amore alive?!"
Before Twilight and her friends could answer his question, Clover interrupted them with a cough, causing the others to turn their attention to the crystal unicorn.
"You know..." Clover started. "You don't have to call Princess Amore princess. I mean, since Princess Cadance is her daughter and Prince Shining Armor married her, Princess Amore is technically part of Princess Twilight's family."
There was a long, long moment of silence as the others except Hurricane and Dew all dropped their mouth open and stared at the crystal unicorn in shock. Even Shining sat frozen, as he was hit by the realization that Princess Amore was actually his mother-in-law.
Before they could processed the information, the door to the dining hall opened again and the royal sisters, along with a group of six crystal creatures that stayed behind, walked in which caused everyone to turn their head to see the princesses.
"Your majesty." The three crystal ponies bowed down in front the royal sisters.
"Please..." The lunar princess said. "There's no need to bow."
The three crystal ponies raised up as Twilight walked up to the royal sisters and asked. "Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, are you ok?"
Both the princesses looked at the Princess of Friendship and sighed.
"Truthfully..." The solar princess started while rubbing her forehead with her hoof. "We are still processing everything you have told us. The fact that Princess Amore is now alive and our adoptive niece turns out to be our friend's daughter are still shocking to us."
Luna draped a comforting wing over her elder sister, giving her a little nuzzle.
"So..." Applejack spoke up. "Who the hay are they?" The orange mare pointed a hoof toward the four crystal creatures, getting everyone's attention toward the group as they have already met with Mallow Sear and Furx.
The yak has a coat of crystal tangelo and crystal brown, his mane being moderate tangelo and his horns being shiny light blue shaded from the tip to cyan.
The bat pony has a coat of crystal grey, her mane and tail being lavender, her cutie mark being three white-petaled flowers, her slitted-pupil eyes being bright yellow and her bat wings being whitish purple.
The griffon has a coat of crystal moderate azure with grayish amber, his head feather being pale cyan to brilliant amber, his eyes being light cyan and his wings being white with trailing edges of the feathers being pale blue.
The hippogriff has a coat of crystal whitish yellow, his mane and tail being grayish green, his eyes being pinkish red and his wings being white with trailing edges of the feathers being pale blue.
"Everyone, I would like you to meet..." Celestia started before pointing the members individually. "Yeth, Midnight Blossom, Ironclaw and Sunwing."
Luna continued off where her sister said. "They now serve Princess Amore as they claimed that she saved them."
"Moon princess's right!" The yak, Yeth, exclaimed. "Yeth own her!"
"Princess Amore and her guards saved my life, and I would forever stand for them." Midnight spoke.
"She would have left me to die when I was out in the Frozen North, but instead she allowed me to stay. I own my life to her." Grimmy said.
"Princess Amore's guards saved me from blizzard after I ran to the Frozen North when Mount Aris was fell to the Storm Kingdom." Sunblade spoke.
While Twilight, her family and her friends all stared at them with surprised, the others were smiling genuinely.
"It would appear our old friend, Amore, is still kind and helpful mare even after many years." The solar princess deduced with smile.
"Despite how scary Princess Amore is." Rainbow Dash muttered while shivering.
"Well, maybe in the first place you shouldn't have threatened her." The lunar princess deadpanned.
The room became silent as Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash bowed their head down in shame.
Twilight coughed herself to get everyone's attention. "We need answers." She said. "And those answers are likely lay with Princess Amore, and maybe Cadance herself."
"That won't be necessary..." Celestia answered. "Yeth and his friends were able to give some answers to us."
The crystal creatures all nodded their head.
Luna said. "My sister, Prince Armor, Twilight, Spike and I will discuss the plan. Meanwhile, the rest of you are welcome to stay at the castle for as long as you wish. But..."
The lunar princess's voice became cold and serious. "Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Rarity are to stay within the castle."
The four mares all took a huge breath in, and wore shocked and disbelief expressions, before the solar princess continued off.
"My sister's right." Celestia said as she walked up next to her sister, her face being stern. "Think of this as your punishment for not taking the mission seriously and for not taking our niece's health seriously. Beside, I don't think our friend will be happy to see you four given how hostile you were toward her."
The four mares hung their head as they began to leave the dining hall along with the three crystal ponies and the crystal creatures. Twilight noticed Clover and Hurricane looking at her friends sadly before looking away, but decided to talk about that later.
Twilight and the others left the room, walking down the castle’s long winding hallways. Her thoughts were on her sister-in-law the whole time, and she worried for Cadance's well-being.
"Prince Armor, I want to gather my captain and my sister's captain. We will continue this in the throne room.” The lunar princess ordered as Shining threw a quick salute before trotting off.
"You alright, Clovy?" Hurricane asked.
"I'm alright, honey." Clover replied with a smile before noticing everyone staring at her and Hurricane except the crystal creatures.
"What did you just call Hurricane?" Celestia asked Clover.
"And why did you call Clover Clovy?" Luna asked Hurricane.
Both the unicorn and pegasus immediately blushed.
"Well..." Hurricane finally spoke after a few minutes of silence. "Because Clover and I are married."
The royal sister, Twilight and Spike all dropped their jaws as they stared at Hurricane before Clover interrupted them.
"We've been dating for twelve years before getting married." Clover said as her face became more red.
A loud "thud" was heard, causing all eyes to be immediately directed toward the Princess of Friendship who had fainted on her back, her hind legs twitching.
"Is she alright?" Clover asked with concern.