//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: The Royal Wedding // Story: Princess Celestia: The Changeling Queen // by vren55 //------------------------------//   Chapter 2: The Royal Wedding “Tell the truth, or someone will tell it for you.” ― Stephanie Klein, Straight Up and Dirty: A Memoir The Royal Canterlot Wedding... The hopelessness of Twilight and her friends gave way to hope, as sparks of magic began to fly between Cadance’s and Shining Armour’s horns.  The sparks, gave way to a flickering pink light.  It was as if the sparks had caught flame, a flame that turned into a growing storm of magic.  Then, all of a sudden, the storm exploded.  A massive pink shield, infused with love expanded from those interlocked horns.  Twilight and company closed their eyes and let the wave of love wash over them, while Pinkie kept hers open and lapped her tongue out for a taste.  It was really sweet. Chrysalis just noticed the air suddenly saturate with the rich, luscious, scent of love before she turned to see the shield expanding onto her.  A formidable barrier, saturated with love, more than any changeling can hope to gorge upon. “NO!” screamed the queen mentally, before the shield smashed into her face.  As much as the formidable changeling queen tried to struggle, she found herself carried out of the window, blasting through the glass panes.  Within her mind, she could hear her changeling drones and soldiers thoughts.  They changed from the initial confusion from their queen’s distress, to shock and horror as the shield encountered them as well.  The pain that Chrysalis was feeling was unbearable, but the cries and pleas in her head only added to the despair she felt. One voice though, cut through the maelstrom of shrieks.  A fragmented signal, from a mind that was old and powerful, but it was its thought that momentarily distracted Chrysalis from her anguish. Twilight I’m sorry! Twilight Sparkle opened her eyes to see Cadance and her brother, suspended in mid-air and wrapped in a curtain of magically manifested love.  As the flowing pink magic faded, the pegasus unicorn and her beloved began to descend.  Cadance’s mane and fur had recovered its former glory and Shining Amour was the best she had seen in days. The Princess! gasped Twilight inwardly, the memory of Princess Celestia being smote by Chrysalis still fresh in her mind.  Immediately, Twilight ran to the right, and skidded to a halt.  The unicorn stood, paralysed, as she took in the figure lying by the wall of the wedding hall. The first thing Twilight noticed was the glossy, charcoal-black carapace only partially obscured by a golden chestpiece.  The next thing was the long jagged horn, blackened and burnt at the very tip.  Wings, translucent, bug wings were what the lavender unicorn’s eyes picked up after the horn.  As the horror set into Twilight, she saw the apertures in the long, slender legs adorned with golden horseshoes.   Finally, Twilight’s roaming eyes looked up and saw two turquoise-green orbs.  The creature, the thing slowly opened her mouth to reveal two fangs. “Twilight...” said the Changeling, her voice rasping and teeth clicking. Twilight screamed. The scream caused all of the ponies in the wedding hall to turn and stare.  Where the Princess Celestia was once suspended in a cocoon, was a Changeling not just any Changeling.  The long jagged horn and tall slender stature, it was a Changeling Queen. “Twilight get back!” yelled Rainbow.  The pegasus dashed forward, screaming toward the Changeling.  Before she could reach it though, the Queen lit her horn and Rainbow found herself held in a levitation spell, halted mid-air, a hoof away from the changeling. “Rainbow!” gasped the others.  Galvanized into action, the six friends charged, Shining Armour was close behind them with Cadance, their horns glowing.  Before they could reach the Changeling Queen though, they were also gripped in a telekinetic field, and try as they could, they could not break it. “Please!  Stop fighting and listen to me!” spluttered the Changeling, her voice desperate.  Twilight and Shining Armour both fired bolts of purple magic that were dodged by the Changeling.  The unicorns were about to shoot more, but what the Changeling said next stopped them. “I AM PRINCESS CELESTIA!” screamed the Changeling.  The seven mares and stallion blinked, all at the same time in confusion.  Twilight recovered first from this curious statement. “Likely story Changeling, where is the Princess?” demanded Twilight, still struggling within the telekinetic field.   The Changeling Queen, seemed saddened by the statement, but Twilight wasn’t buying it.  This fiend had taken Celestia and she was going to get it. “I do not know,” said the Changeling dejectedly, her eyes averted.  That caused more eyebrows to be raised.  The anger and rage that the ponies felt was being replaced by confusion at the Changeling’s curious actions. “Wait what?  So you aren’t Princess Celestia?” said Rainbow Dash incredulously. “I am... and I am not,” replied the Changeling. “Ah don’t understand what the hay she’s going on about!” groaned Applejack.  Twilight didn’t either and was thoroughly bewildered at what the Changeling was trying to pull.  Her contemplation was interrupted, as Shining Armour fired a feeble blast of magic towards the Changeling, who had to buzz her wings to avoid it. “Stop trying to confuse us Changeling!  You’re just trying to brainwash us or something!” growled the stallion, exhausted as he was.  This prompted a shout of approval from Rainbow Dash and Rarity. Think later, get out of magic field first! thought Twilight.  Quickly, the unicorn browsed over all the spells she knew and came across one that might just work.  The unicorn’s horn crackled, and Twilight cast a Gravitational Inversion Field over the entire interior of the Wedding Hall. The change in gravity caused the Changeling Queen to lose focus, and she found herself rocketing to the ceiling.  This caused the field to weaken, and the ponies managed to break out of the Queen’s hold.  Cadance caught Shining Armour and landed safely on the ceiling.  Rainbow Dash grabbed a flailing Rarity, while Fluttershy helped Applejack to right herself.  Pinkie Pie somehow did a one-eighty in mid-air and Twilight used her magic to turn herself the right way up.  To Twilight’s frustration, the Queen recovered and gracefully glided into a controlled landing.  Then, as furniture, decorations and ornaments smashed down all around them, the ponies went on the attack. Rarity ripped a hanging from the wall and sent it toward the Changeling, intent on subduing it, but short beam from the Changeling’s horn turned the hanging into the thread it had been made from.  The thread then wrapped around Rarity, binding her as effectively as if she had used rope. Rainbow charged, her blinding speed causing a rainbow colored blur in the air, but the Changeling neatly side-stepped the lunge.  The pegasus found herself about to run right into an unyielding pillar, but found herself nudged aside by the Changeling’s magic and into a pile of gifts. “Are you alright?” asked the Changeling as she trotted over to where Rainbow had crashed, but she found herself face to face, with the hind-legs of Applejack, coming to protect her fallen friend.  In a split-second, the Queen used one of her armored legs to deflect the kick sideways and then sharply rapped a place on Applejack’s spine.  Somehow, Applejack felt her body freeze and she collapsed. “I merely hit a pressure point, you will be fine within the hour,” said the Queen calmly.  She stood up, and was confronted, with the muzzle of a disproportionately large party cannon that had appeared out of nowhere, the string to the ignition in Pinkie Pie’s mouth. “Party time!” mumbled Pinkie as she yanked the string.  Immediately, the Changeling Queen summoned a massive wad of very sticky, high-quality, pink cotton candy that splattered Pinkie and her cannon to the wall. “MMM, delicious!” said Pinkie, licking the dessert. “I thought you would appreciate it,” chuckled the Changeling.  She turned to Fluttershy. The yellow pegasus hadn’t even attempted to face the Changeling and was cowering behind a pillar.  In response the Changeling sighed, almost mournfully, and then turned to face Twilight. Twilight was in disbelief.  Every one of her friends had been restrained with barely any effort. Even Pinkie’s infamous Party Cannon had proved completely ineffective.   “Twily!  Keep her busy while we cast the shield again!” ordered Shining, interrupting Twilight’s shock.  He and Cadance had linked horns and were busy calling up sparks of magic. “I got it BBBFF,” said Twilight as she stepped into the fray.  Calming herself, Twilight rehearsed what battle magic she knew.  It wasn’t much.  Celestia had been keen on assigning Twilight very advanced spells, but these spells were usually non-lethal.  Spells such the gravity spell she has used earlier, were meant to perform very useful tasks, that did not involve combat.  Twilight had wondered why at first, since she had been interested in learning everything regarded to magic, and had questioned her mentor. “My faithful student, while I applaud your enthusiasm to learn this branch of magic, the situations when it can be applied are a rarity in this period of peace,” said Celestia, her soothing voice not critical or even apprehensive at why Twilight would inquire on this topic. “But what if I face a Manticore or a Hydra?  Won’t I need to use battle magic then?” Twilight had asked. “In combat, your strength is not gauged in how many spells you know.  Neither is it measured in how powerful are the spells you know.  It is shown by your ability to apply the spells you know.” As Twilight took a deep breath and recalled her mentor’s advice, she knew that she could beat the Changeling Queen.  Her horn flashing, the unicorn blinked out of existence and teleported behind the Changeling Queen, her horn shooting out a beam of magic. The Changeling sidestepped the attack without even glancing backward, sighing.  “Twilight, you’ve always had good teleportation.  Try using it in a less obvious manner.”  The unicorn blinked and frowned, reluctantly acknowledging the Changeling’s advice.  The two circled, Changeling Queen and lavender unicorn, horns glowing.  While Shining Armour and Cadance were concentrated on the shield spell, they couldn’t help but observe the battle. Twilight fired a flurry of short magic beams. A circle of fire ringed the Queen and she descended into the ground, allowing the shots to sail above her head.  Jumping right, Twilight managed to dodge a glob of Changeling goo that the Queen, now to her left, had thrown.  The unicorn responded with a low aimed lance of magic.   The Queen initially dodged the beam, but then stumbled, as the fallen banner she stood upon was yanked out from under her.  Twilight followed her levitation spell with another blast, but the attack was blocked by a sparkling green shield. “Very good, my faithful student,” said the Changeling Queen, as she got up. “Don’t call me that!” snapped Twilight.  That thing was not Celestia!  The Queen winced and bit her lip. “As you wish,” said the Changeling, bracing herself.  The two glared at each other, the seconds ticking down and the maelstrom of magic between Shining Armour and Cadance growing larger by the second. Suddenly, Twilight charged, her horn coated in magic as she raced toward the Changeling.  The Queen frowned, but then met the charge with her own, green magic washing over her jagged horn.  When the two drew merely a meter apart, Twilight teleported with a blinding flash.  The Changeling Queen’s eyes glanced left and right, but saw nothing. “This is for the Princess!” screamed Twilight as she zapped into existence, right in front of the Changeling, her momentum carrying her forward.  The Changeling Queen gasped in surprise, her lips parted in horror as Twilight fired a massive wave of magic at point blank. The ensuing explosion caused the Changeling to be shot across the wedding hall’s upended ceiling, faster than a ball across a pool table.  Twilight landed gracefully on the ceiling, while the Changeling bounced, and slid for several feet. “I did it!” gasped Twilight, her horn sputtering.  The Changeling Queen groaned and slowly raised herself, her carapace blackened by the blast.  For a moment, the creature staggered and then steadied. Then, for some inexplicable reason, the Changeling’s eyes suddenly expanded to the size of dinner plates.  Green flames surrounded her once again, and she dropped into the ceiling.  Twilight glanced left and right and forward, but saw nopony. “Twilight above you!” screamed Cadance. Twilight then looked up and her heart stopped. The altar, where Shining Armour and Cadance were to sign their wedding vows, had come free of its fastenings to the floor.  It was plummeting down towards Twilight, frozen in horror. Twilight ran a few calculations in her head and realised it was too late to escape and she was too exhausted to teleport.  Reversing the gravity spell wouldn’t stop the altar’s momentum.  She guessed that the entire altar, a solid piece of furniture made of marble, weighed probably a couple hundred pounds.  It was too heavy to stop with the magic she had left, and heavy enough to crush her like a bug.  Panic closed the unicorn’s eyes, and she realized she was going to die. Death never came.  The pain didn’t arrive.  She felt ticklish all of a sudden, as if soft pointy objects were poking at her fur.  Twilight slowly opened her eyes. The Changeling Queen stood over her, sweat running down her charred carapace.  Strangely enough, they were both covered in white feathers.  Swan feathers, Twilight noticed. “Twilight, are you hurt?” gasped the Changeling.  Twilight automatically shook her head, she felt unhurt.  Tired, magic-drained, but unhurt.  But where was the altar? “What did you do?” gasped Twilight. “Shining Armour, Cadance, I am afraid we will need a new altar for you to sign your marriage vows.  Swan feathers aren’t the best surface to sign a binding document,” wheezed the Changeling, before she fell over, unconscious.