//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 // Story: The Reception // by sister_mike //------------------------------// Chapter 5 Rarity "When we went in here, Shining Armor was threatening to tear Twilight apart," Rarity whispered. She stood alongside Flam and Trixie outside of the room that Cadance was being held. "He wasn't there when we found her," Flam whispered back, "She was by herself." "Hmm... I wonder where he went. He was under a spell that possessed him, and his goal was to kill Twilight," Rarity said. "That's cruel; possessed to kill your own sister. This Chrysalis is really a—" "Oh blah blah blah, Twilight this and Twilight that. Can somepony please tell me what is going on and why I need to be involved?" Trixie blathered. "And why do I have what the taste of pinecones in my mouth?" "Will you be quiet!" Rarity snapped, "We're here to free Princess Cadance, who then can free Princess Luna. With their help, we can find the others, change Princess Celestia back to her normal self, and then defeat Chrysalis." "That still doesn't tell me what's going on here. Why is everypony stuck in those weird green cocoons, and who is Chrysalis?" Trixie asked. "Chrysalis is the queen of the changelings; they overtook Equestria a few months ago," Flam said quickly. "You had your brain scrambled and had become fixated with pinecones." "What? That is the biggest bunch of nonsense I have ever heard. As if the Great and Powerful Trixie's brain and magic become scrambled. And there's no way that I like pin—" "Shh! You don't need to know everything right now! What you need to do is shut up and help us free Cadance," Rarity hissed. "With those sort of manners? You really expect me to help you when you hiss at me and tell me to shut up? Please," Trixie said. She rolled her eyes. "You'll have to give me a better reason than that. I don't owe you ponies anything, let alone know who you are." "No, you don't owe them anything—but you owe me." The three unicorns turned to see Twilight, Pinkie, Inkie and Blinkie behind them. Rarity felt a huge wave of relief—so far at least two of her dear friends, and half of the Element bearers, had survived. "Ah, Twilight Sparkle—we meet again. I owe you, you say?" Trixie snickered. "Yes. I found you aboard the train, eating a pinecone. I felt too empathetic to leave you there. You've been traveling with me and my friends ever since," Twilight said, "Without me, you could have been changeling fodder by now." I see she left out the part of Trixie saving her life accidentally with a bust of magic, Rarity thought. It's probably for the best right now. "I see you've been unscrambled too," Twilight said. Trixie just stood there and glared at her. "We found Princess Luna. She's shackled down in the throne room—we think Chrysalis is trying to hastily find a way to turn her into a puppet. She said that regular unicorn magic wouldn't work on releasing her, that we needed to find an alicorn. She said that more than one unicorn could free Cadance from her crystal," Rarity explained. "Trixie is supposed to be helping us." "The princess frees you and you're arguing against her orders? Really Trixie," Twilight said, "I can't believe you. You'd think that after all you've been through the past couple of months, you'd remember a bit of what transpired." "Well I don't," Trixie said hotly, "So I don't see any reason as to why I should help you." "Fine then," Twilight said, staring hard at Trixie, "Just walk away. If you don't want to be helpful, then don't; you'll just be a coward then. One day, the memories of what happened to you will come flooding back, and you'll realize just how terrified you were, and that you should have stayed here to help. Go if you want." The two unicorns stared at each other, neither of them blinking. Rarity kept glancing around, sure they were going to get caught at any moment. Finally, Trixie looked away and huffed. "Maybe I will then," she said. She roughly pushed past Twilight, causing the purple unicorn to stumble. Pinkie caught her. "I don't see any reason to stick around and help you losers. I'm out of here." They watched as Trixie walked down the hall and turned the corner, without so much as a glance back. "You're really going to just let her leave?" Rarity asked quietly. Twilight sighed. "There's no point in keeping her here if she's going to be difficult. One day she'll come back and realize that she was wrong; but right now, we need to free Cadance," Twilight said. "I'm glad to see that you two are all ok—and Blinkie! You've survived!" Rarity said. She smiled at the dark grey mare. Blinkie nodded appreciatively. "Yes; Pinkie and her sisters saved me. I was trapped down in the dungeon with Shining Armor. He's locked down there now. CloudsArmor went to the army that's assembling in the labyrinth, to warm the other royal guards that their captain is currently incapacitated. We figured that since my brother is trapped down there, maybe we can figure out a way to free Cadance," Twilight said. "You said that Princess Luna thinks we can free her? The three of us?" Rarity nodded. "Something about one unicorn's magic not being enough. The three of us should be able to do it, especially if you're here Twilight. Your magic abilities are stronger than me and Flam's." Twilight paced for a moment. "Alright; Pie sisters, I need you to guard the door. Two of you can guard the ends of the halls, while Pinkie can stand right outside of the door. Rarity, Flam and I will go inside and use our magic to free Cadance; then we'll head back to the throne room and free Princess Luna," Twilight instructed. Inkie and Blinkie nodded, and each walked to the opposite ends of the hall. Pinkie saluted Rarity and the others as they walked into the room. "Any news of the others? Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy or Applejack?" Rarity asked. Twilight shook her head. "Hopefully they're ok; Princess Luna suggested that we use the Elements to change Princess Celestia back," Rarity said. Twilight nodded. "I know; I came to the same conclusion. The only problem is," Twilight said, her voice breaking a bit, "my Element crown broke. Shining Armor smashed it accidentally as CloudsArmor tried to fend him off. I have no idea what we're going to do. The Elements won't work." "There's got to be another way," Rarity said. She placed her hoof on Twilight's shoulder. "We'll figure something out; maybe Luna will know what to do," Twilight said. Rarity nodded. Cadance was still encased in the green crystal. She looked peaceful, as though she were dreaming. "Ok," Twilight said, after she walked around the crystal once, "I want you Rarity to stand at that point over there; Flam, you at the bottom point over here. I'll be over here." The three got into formation. "Do you both remember the spell, right? We need to concentrate together, get a feel for each other's magic, and try to synchronize it," Twilight explained. "We remember it; Flam actually freed me from a cocoon in the throne room, and I freed Sweetie Belle. Princess Luna is sending her back to Zecora's," Rarity said. "Excellent. Let's get started. Just go slow," Twilight said. Rarity closed her eyes and felt her magic pulsing through her blood and her horn. She cleared her mind and could begin to sense the other's magic around her. She tried to pace herself so that she was working at the same rate as them. Once the three of them got synchronized, the crystal slowly began to melt. After several long, tense moments, the crystal fully dissolved. Cadance lay peacefully on the floor, her chest rising and falling. "Do you think we should try to wake her up?" Rarity asked. Twilight approached the sleeping princess and gently shook her and called her name. Cadance slowly began to stir. She opened and closed her eyes several times. Unexpectedly, she threw up. Rarity looked away, so as not to throw up herself. Twilight rubbed Cadance's back. "Grrhhhuurrr..." Cadance said groggily. Twilight helped her into a sitting position and evaporated the princess's stomach contents away. "Cadance?" Twilight said softly, "It's me; Twilight Sparkle—Shining Armor's younger sister." "Twi... light Sparkle?" Cadance said. She put her hoof to her head. "The room... spinning..." "It's ok Cadance; take your time," Twilight said. Something sounded outside of the hall. Rarity glanced to the door quickly, apprehensive. She waited, but whatever the sound had been, it had been minimal and Pinkie didn't burst inside. Flam glanced at Rarity and then moved closer to the door—just in case. "Twilight," Cadance said softly, "Where am I? What... what happened? Did she... did she end up marrying him?" Twilight glanced at Rarity. She then looked back at the princess. "I don't think so. The wedding took place, but she revealed herself before the vows were ever exchanged," Twilight explained. Cadance exhaled in relief and then broke down crying. "How long ago did she take your place Cadance?" "Five months before the wedding," she sobbed, "I was visiting another town to look at flower arrangements, and she came out of nowhere on my journey back to Canterlot. She locked me up in this crystal and after a few days, I fell into a sleep." "Five months before the wedding? That's been nearly eight months now," Rarity said. "What?" Cadance asked, a confused look on her face. "The changelings have taken over all of Equestria," Twilight said gravely, "We ourselves were trapped in cocoons for two and a half months or so. Only a few ponies had managed to survive and have been on the move, all over, ever since. And since unicorns can free other ponies from the cocoons, the changelings began to attack them specifically and scramble their brains, so they couldn't remember how to do magic." "That's terrible," Cadance said, as she stood up straighter. "That's not even the worst; Chrysalis has possessed Princess Celestia. She's turned her into some sort of half-breed pony-changeling mix, and Celestia is completely under her control. Chrysalis is trying to find a way to do the same thing to Luna. As of now, Luna is immune to Chrysalis's powers, because she has the same dark energy as Chrysalis running through her. The two can't fight or defeat each other, because their magic counteracts each other. Right now, Luna is chained up in the throne room, and she says she needs alicorn magic to free her," Twilight explained. "What!? Celestia is possessed? A puppet? How could this happen?" Cadance asked, a slight tone of anger in her voice. "Since the changelings took over Equestria, they've gathered more energy than they really needed for themselves. They no longer need to take on a disguise and feed off of the love of a pony; they simply harvest your energy from the cocoons. Since they had so much excess energy, Chrysalis began to pour all of the energy into Celestia and it's changed her. She's trying to figure out a way to do the same to Luna, and even freed Discord to see if he knew a way," Twilight explained. She bit her lower lip. "Whether or not she can find a way to transform Luna, she was planning on doing the same thing to you. I fear that if we had not freed you just now, she may have kept Luna imprisoned and move straight onto you, since you do not have dark magic running through you and she is getting desperate." "But how can Celestia be possessed? It has to be some sort of trick—I just can't believe..." Cadance said. "It's true; Chrysalis turned Celestia against Luna. They were battling," Rarity said quietly. "But the Elements of Harmony; surely you have them by now and—" "We were foolish," Twilight said, as she sighed, "We tried to use them to defeat Chrysalis. She is too powerful for the Elements now. We should have used the Elements on Princess Celestia when we had the chance. They could have changed her back." "What do you mean 'when you had the chance'? Surely we can find another opportunity to change Celestia back. Come, we will free Luna now and then the eight of us can go and find—" "It's not that easy," Twilight interrupted again, "We were separated after the Elements failed and so far we have only regrouped as three. And even if the other three are ok and we are six again, my Element crown is broken. Shining Armor smashed it by accident." "It's broken? But... Shining Armor smashed it by accident? Where is he, is he ok?" Cadance asked. "Yes and no..." Twilight said. She looked away from Cadance. "He's been compromised by Chrysalis. She's put some sort of spell on him, making him believe that he has to kill me, in order to keep you safe." "What!" Cadance said. She stood up, the outrage clear in her eyes. "He's ok though! We've locked him up in the dungeon," Twilight said. "Oh! When I get my hooves on that Chrysalis, I am going to..." Cadance said, mumbling off at the end. "We all want our vengeance; but first we need to free Princess Luna," Twilight said. Cadance nodded. "Lead the way Twilight. We'll go free Luna, find your friends, and change Celestia back," Cadance said. She then grinned. "Then it's time to kick some changeling ass."