//------------------------------//
// 26. Face of the enemy 
// Story: Rebirth of the Damned 
// by Borsuq 
//------------------------------//

Matthias walked up to the altar, not paying any attention to the other ponies. His eyes were fixed on 'Cadance'. He could see how her fear was quickly replaced by anger, only to masked by fake tears a heartbeat later.
"Why are you doing this to me?!" she cried.
That only served to fuel Matt's anger, as he realised that this was the same trick she used earlier to turn everypony against Twilight.
"I swear, if I find out that she hurt as much as a single hair on her coat, there will be no end to her suffering!"
He could see in the corner of his eyes his friends looking at him with both fear and dismay, probably thinking that he was crazy, like Twilight. He could also hear few of the royal guards coming from behind, no doubt to apprehend him. Knowing that the imposter won't do anything drastic while in front of all the wedding quests, Matt turned his head and uttered quick prayer.
A wave of Light formed before the four guard and pushed them away, dazing them a bit but not causing them much harm otherwise. Everypony else gasped and moved away from him.
Despite his anger toward the fake Cadance, he was still relatively calm, so when Princess Celestia called him, he listened.
"What is the meaning of this? Explain yourself!"
Matt knew he had to answer, not just because she was the ruler of this land or that fighting her would serve no purpose, but also because if half of what he heard or read about her powers was true, he wouldn't stand much of a chance against her.
"Forgive me for interrupting the ceremony, Princess." he said, keeping his eyes on the imposter, who was still crying. "I just thought that it would be better for the groom to not go through divorce proceedings after this whole farce is over." adressing the fake Cadance, he repeated his question. "Where are they?"
"I-I don't know what you mean!" she cried.
Matthias stomped, causing the floor to crack.
"My patience is running short. Tell me where are..." he started to say, but stopped as he felt strange force pick him up from the ground.
"Enough of this!" said Celestia, her horn glowing.
Feeling that she was not only holding him, but also trying to free 'Cadance' (which he felt she would have already done if she was more familiar with this kind of magic), he asked the Light to strengthen her bonds and free him.
Celestia gasped surprised as he landed on the floor. Matt turned his attention on the fake bride.
"Those chains are made of pure Light. When they touch such a vile creature as you, they cause immense pain. Answer my question or I will tighten them! Where are the real Princess Cadance and Twilight Sparkle, you imposter!?"
His words caused the everypony to gasp, but Matt doubted they believed him. He probably rather convinced them that he was insane. The fake princess was still crying.
"Matthias Lehner, stop this, or I will be forced to take drastic measures!" said Celestia, growing angrier. Her horn glowed again, this time brighter.
Matt started tightening the chains.
Princess Celestia shoot a beam of concentrated magic energy at him. He stombled back, despite the shield that Light had enveloped around him in the nick of time.
"You have been warned." said Celestia, her horn now bright as the sun that she raised. "Release Cadance at once!"
"That was just a warning?! Just how powerful is she?"
"Am I the only one that finds the lack of reaction out of the Captain of the Royal Guard as his bride is being threatened strange?!" he asked, hoping that at least Celestia would finally notice that something was wrong.
Celestia glanced at Shining Armor, and so did Matt. He stared into nothingness, and his eyes had a strange green hue to them.
Suddenly, the fake Cadance started crying even louder.
"What have you done to him?! Why are you ruining my special day?"
Matthias, feeling fed up with her, was about to reply, but somepony beat him to it.
" Because it's not your special day. It's mine."
Surpised, he turned his head.





Twilight knew that everypony would be suprised to see her and Cadance enter the wedding hall. After all, you don't see two identical ponies too often.
What she didn't expect, however, was to be surprised as well.
The fake Cadance, standing next to Shining Armor, was surrounded by some gold chains. Near them stood Princess Celesia, with her horn glowing, although now that she and Cadance were here the glow was fading. And in front of them all was Matt, his body glowing with Light.
As the realisation hit her - that whatever had happened before they came here was his doing - he turned his head and gazed at her with eyes that shone like suns.
As they looked at each other, the expression on his face turned from one of anger and worry to one of joy and relief.
Twilight couldn't help but smile at him.





"She's safe! Thank the Light, she's safe!" was all that he could think as he stared at her and her beautiful smile.
As everypony was gasping again, he glanced as well at the real Princess Cadance. Unlike her double, she was covered in dirt and her mane was in mess. She also looked a lot thinner.
Matt grew angry once again as he realised how long it must have been since those two switched places.
"Calm yourself." he thought, knowing only too well that anger led nowhere; now that he knew Twilight was safe, he remembered that.
"Well, you two sure took your time." he said, returning to his witty attitude. "I was starting to fear you would miss all the fun."
Twilight smile turned into half frown.
"What?" asked the imposter. "But how did you escape my bridesmaids?"
"So that's what happened to her bridesmaids..." Matt thought as he watched Twilight and Cadance exchange a glance and the princess said:
"Why, I throwed a bouquet at them, of course."
"That actually worked?"
"Hmph. Clever." commented the fake princess. "But you're still too late."
"A-Ah don't understand." said Applejack, voicing everpony's thoughts. "How can there be two of 'em?"
"She's a changeling." answered her question Princess Cadance. "She takes the form of somepony you love and gains power by feeding off your love for them."
The fake princess' eyes and horn glowed green and Matt felt the chains beginning to break.
"Do you think I'll let you get away?!" he said, reinforcing them with his will and prayer.
The changeling smirked in response.
The pressure on the chains increased tenfold, and as they broke, a beam of sickly green energy that reminded him of the fel magic of the Burning Legion shot at him. Surprised and strained, all he could do was block it with his foreleg.
The force of the impact had send him flying across the walkway. Somehow, he managed roll in the air and land on his three legs behind Twilight and the real Cadance.
"Matt!" Twilight screamed.
"I'm fine." Matthias gasped as the Light healed his limb.
"Second degree burns." he noticed. "And I think she broke it in at least five places."
As his foreleg healed, he looked at the imposter, that was now surrounded by green flames that soon erupted around her.
As the flames dispersed, the true form of the imposter was revealed. She was as tall as Celestia, and like an alicorn, she had wings and horn. But her horn was twised, and her wings weren't covered in feathers. Instead, they had insectoid appearance. Her coat (if it was coat; it looked more like a carapace) was black, and her mane and tail teal. She also had blue-green chitinous plating over her midsection, a sharp pair of fangs, dark green eyes with elongated oval pupils, and she wore a small, black crown tipped with blue orbs. Her legs, mane, and tail were full of holes and her limbs and torso were very slender.
"Right you are, Princess." she laughed in a voice that had a distorted echoed quality, as if two voices were speaking slightly out of sync. She continued talking as she came closer to Cadance: "And as Queen of the Changelings, it is up to me to find food for my subjects. Equestria has more love than any place I've ever encountered. My fellow changelings will be able to devour so much of it that we will gain more power than we have ever dreamed of!"
"They'll never get the chance!" replied the princess defiantly. "Shining Armor's protection spell will keep them from ever even reaching us."
The Queen of the Changelings chuckled in response.
"Oh, I doubt that." with her horn glowing, she looked behind her and asked. "Isn't that right, dear?"
"Mm-hmm." confirmed Shining Armor, his eyes glowing with the same color as changeling's horn.
Cadance, seeing that, was about to run to him, but was stopped by the Queen.
"Ah, ah, ah. Don't want to go back to the caves, now do you?" she asked with horn glowing once again.
Matthias, his foreleg fully healed, jumped in between them.
"You know, I heard that mares can get jealous of the bride at weddings," he said lightly, despite his serious frown, "but you've taken it to the extreme."
The changeling's attention shifted to him, and for a heartbeat she studied him with angry grimace. Matt noticed that her gaze lingered a moment on his foreleg, no doubt wondering how did he heal it so fast. But soon she turned away and flew up to Shining Armor.
"Ever since I took your place, I've been feeding off Shining Armor's love for you." she told Princess Cadance. "Every moment he grows weaker and so does his spell. Even now my minions are chipping away at it." He may not be my husband, but he is under my total control now." she laughed, holding him by his chin, and as Twilight and Cadance gasped, she added: "And I'm sorry to say, unable to perform his duties as Captain of the Royal Guard!"
"Not my Shining Armor!" cried Cadance.
"Soon, my changeling army will break through. First, we take Canterlot. And then, all of Equestria!" declared the Queen of the Changelings, acting as if she already won.
"Isn't she forgetting something?" Matthias thought.
"No." interrupted her Celestia. "You won't."
"Ah, there it is."
As the Princess confronted her, the changeling turned her attention toward her.
"You may have made it impossible for Shining Armor to perform his spell, but now that you have so foolishly revealed your true self," Celestia paused as she and the Queen clashed, "I can protect my subjects from you!"
Princess Celestia disengaged from The Queen of the Changelings and shot a beam of magical energy at her, and the Changeling retaliated with a beam of her own. Everypony watched as they collided. Immediately, Celestia had the upper hoof.
"No surprise there." commented Matt, who experienced a bit of her power. "After all, she is a goddess."
So it was a big shock to him and everypony else as after few seconds the green beam of the Changeling's Queen overwhelmed Celestia's and hit her.
Everypony gasped in terror as their Princess fell, and her crown clanged when it hit the floor.
"Princess Celestia!" screamed Twilight and was at her side in a second, along with her friends.
This kingdom shall fall...
Matthias, whose gaze lingered a moment on the crown as his mind was plagued a memory, shook and concentrated on the Queen of the Changelings. She seemed surprised as everypony else.
"Ah! Shining Armor's love for you is even stronger than I thought!" she said to Cadance. "Consuming him has made me even more powerful than Celestia!"
"Dammit, this is bad!" Matthias thought, preparing for what she would do next.
" The Elements of Harmony." he heard Celestia rasp. "You must get to them, and use their power to defeat the queen."
Matthias noticed in the corner of his eye that Twilight and the rest nodded and run towards the door.
At the same time, however, the queen disappeared in a burst of green flames.
"Now now, it's not polite to leave so soon." she chuckled at the girls as she blocked their way.
Matthias, summoning the power of the Holy Light, charged at her. The changeling either didn't noticed him in time, or was too surprised to react, but either way, he hit her in the chest with the same foreleg that she harmed earlier, throwing her away from the his friends and bursting her threw the wall into the next room.
"Go!" he screamed to them as he jumped after her. "I'll hold her off!"
"Wait..." he heard Twilight scream after him.
Using the Light to increase his strength again, he bucked the column next to the hole in the wall, causing the rest of it and the ceiling to collapse and block the entrance.
"Good."





Twilight and the others stared at the rubble that blocked their way to their friend that was fighting the Queen of Changelings.
"Calm yourself." she thought, despite how scared she was. "Matt will be alright, he knows what he's doing."
"Come on everypony!" she urged her friends as they resumed running towards the Elements.





Matthias looked as the Changeling's Queen picked herself from the floor. In the place on her chest where he hit her was a crack, that confirmed his quess that it was carapace, and a green liquid was coming out of it. Suddenly, her horn glowed and her carapce repaired itself in a blink of an eye.
"I must say, you continue to be both irritating and intriguing." she said as if she wasn't just punched through the wall. Glancing at the rubble behind him, she added: "You do know I can teleport out of here, right?"
"Who said I wanted to trap you here?" asked Matthias, smirking. "I just wanted to keep anypony from interfering."