We'll Always Have Canterlot

by Tortfeasor

The Truth of Things

Disclaimer: Dear Hasbro’s lawyers, I’ve told you I don’t own My Little Pony, so go somewhere else.

“Okay,” Twilight worked her jaw in confusion, “now I’m confused.

“That’s impossible.” Her equally, if not more, shocked brother said. “You’re the one behind all this. So how are you the one we rescued?”

“Just think about it.” Chrysalis shook herself around to free herself from the confines of the sack they’d found her in. “I still don’t know what that little princess of yours saw in you, but I’m starting to think it wasn’t brains.”

Twilight stuck a hoof in her brother’s face to cut off the biting remark he was getting ready to spit back out at the Changeling Queen. “If you’re here and not behind all this then there’s only a few other creatures in all Equestria I can think of that could beat either Celestia or Luna in a straight fight. So unless Discord has broken free of his prison and is somehow getting his kicks by posing as Cadance there’s only one other possibility. So why don’t you tell us how Nightmare Moon beat you.”

Chrysalis sent a nasty smirk as though daring Twilight to give her a reason to help them. But under her unrelenting glare she finally opened her mouth. “I’m not sure Nightmare Moon is the right name for her. After all that’s what you called your dear little Princess Luna during her temper tantrum. But whatever she’s calling herself these days that’s what you’re up against.”

Twilight spoke into the pause that followed. “She’s clearly taken a few lessons from you. Until we pulled you out of that buffalo camp thinking it was one of the princesses in there we thought you were doing all this.”

“No better teacher I can think of.” Chrysalis had a rather smug look on her face. “But I don’t have any intention of conquering Equestria to devour your love for some time. A good queen knows when something is out of her reach.”

“Alright,” Twilight cut her brother off once again, “so if you’re not behind all this then what exactly happened to you?”

Chrysalis sighed as she realized she clearly wasn’t getting away without suffering through an interrogation. “Little Princess Cutsey came back for revenge, clear as that. Of course if I had me for competition I can see why she felt small enough to turn into Nightmare Moon to come back and beat me to remove me from the picture. Even Shining Armor could probably figure out that without feeding on his love I was no match for a pony that could defeat Celestia herself. Once she had me locked up she started doing all sorts of unpleasant things to me. Part of it I’m sure was Cadance wanting to get back at me for being so superior. But what she was really after, and why I was hooked into all those machines, was to let her feed off the love ponies felt for their dear princess of love.”

“How would that work?” Shining Armor finally got a word in. “Nopony would ever love something like you.”

“I didn’t know you cared so much dear.” Chrysalis bit right back. “I didn’t say she was feeding off love for me. She figured out a way to use me to feed like a Changeling from the love that ponies feel for her. When ponies felt love for her, or when she used her magic to make ponies love her, it went through me and then to her as more power.”

“Now I know you’re lying.” Shining Armor scowled. “Cadance would never use her power to force anyone to love her.”

Chrysalis’ smile was quite sweet, her voice was anything but. “Just like your dear Luna would never use her power to plunge Equestria into eternal night and evil? Face it lover boy, that’s not your perfect little wife anymore. At this point you’d be better off marrying me than getting anywhere near her. And yes, that is an invitation.”

Shining Armor’s suggestion of what she could do with her invitation was something Twilight didn’t think even a changeling was anatomically capable of.

“Come on Twilight. It’s clear she’s somehow controlling Cadance like she was me. And she’s only here so we won’t suspect her while she sucks all the love out of Equestria.”

Twilight closed her eyes and sighed, it was time to go from being a little sister to Celestia’s apprentice. “I’m sorry, I think she’s right big brother. Something Cadance said to me back at the buffalo camp, that I’d learned the lessons she’d taught me. I learned how to teleport from watching Nightmare Moon. And the spell I used to get into the tent, it was the same sort of spell Nightmare Moon used to collapse a cliff under my friends and I when we were going to get the Elements of Harmony. Even the spell I used to boost your shield was similar to how she tried to protect herself once we started using the Elements on her. I didn’t learn anything from Chrysalis, Changeling magic is totally different from unicorn magic.”

Her brother sent her a look of pure betrayal.

“I know this is hard Shining Armor. Cadance is my sister-in-law too, so it hurts me to think she’d do this. But we just have to remind ourselves that this isn’t Cadance, it’s Nightmare Moon, or whatever she’s calling herself now. Once she was freed Luna went right back to being herself. And like you said, she’d never do any of the things she did as Nightmare Moon. We’ll find a way to rescue Cadance from this, and once we do she’ll be back to her old self, we’ll get Celestia and Luna back, and things can go back to normal.”

“That can’t…” Twilight watched her brother walk numbly to a chair and almost drop into it. He was going to need a few minutes to get over his world turning upside down. Out of the corner of her eye she noted Spike moving to keep an eye on him.

In the meantime she still had plenty to do. She turned her attention back to Chrysalis, who had finally succeeded in freeing herself from the bag. The Changeling Queen was clearly malnourished, her chitin skin was dry and cracked, and her mane wasn’t only stringy from lack of attention.

“All right Chrysalis, here’s what we’re dealing with. You don’t like us and we don’t much care for you. But with my friends gone, or worse, we’re all in trouble. Nightmare Moon has clearly learned from when we beat her the last time. I thought it was for good, but clearly she’s taken up residence in Cadance, and I don’t think either of us want her to suck up all the love in Equestria for the next thousand years. We can’t use the Elements of Harmony without my friends, and even though Celestia and Luna must still be alive since the sun and moon are still moving we don’t have the slightest clue where to look for them. It was pure chance we came out where you were, and I don’t think we’re going to get that kind of lucky break again. So the question is how do two unicorns, a baby dragon, and the Changeling Queen beat the most powerful being in Equestria when she’s already won?”

“I don’t know where you’re getting this ‘we’ from. You ponies have hunted us down and banished us to the farthest reaches of Equestria. As far as I can see this is a problem by ponies, and for ponies. My children are strong. We’ve lived through hard times before, and we will find a way to survive this. I have far better and more important things to do than help you overthrow one tyrant just to return the tyrant of your choosing to power. As far as I’m concerned, you’re welcome to whatever comes your way.”

Inside Twilight bit back several curses that would have made her brother blush. On the outside she betrayed nothing. Celestia had drilled into her how critical it was to control her emotions and keep a level head during a crisis like this. Silently she thanked her mentor for the lesson, and hoped Celestia was still doing alright wherever she was.

Chrysalis rolled herself over onto her hooves, stood up, and promptly collapsed back to the ground. Twilight couldn’t quite keep the smirk from her face as she watched her old enemy suffer. A second later the smirk turned to a smile as she saw a possibility open up.

“Right now I could beat you without using so much as a spark of magic. Cadance already tracked you down once after she and my brother blasted you to the farthest reaches of Equestria with the power of their love. So in your condition how long do you think it would take her to find you again and plug you back into her love devouring machine? She was at the buffalo camp, she knows you’re loose, and the only reason she hasn’t found us is because Equestria is a very big place and I can send us just about anywhere without anyone seeing us go. So if you want to go back to being her all you can eat love buffet I’ll be happy to take you back to Appleloosa and leave you there. On the other hoof, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

Chrysalis glared at her a look of loathing that clearly said she was weighing her chances back in Appleloosa.

“Okay, maybe friend was much too strong a word. But at least the enemy of my enemy is someone I can work with to beat our mutual enemy.”

Chrysalis was silent for a minute or so before sighing and rolling her eyes. “You’re lucky I want revenge on little miss princess perfect so badly.”

With a very tenuous agreement put together Twilight Sparkle was more than ready to call it a night and get some sleep. She’d brought out a pillow and blanket for Chrysalis, no sense needlessly antagonizing her, when Angel hopped back into the cottage, saw what was going on, and fixed Twilight with a glare that spoke volumes.

Twilight groaned on the inside at yet another delay to getting to sleep. She knew Fluttershy’s animals would react poorly to a Changeling in their midst, the Changeling Queen no less, but she’d hoped it was a problem she’d be able to deal with after a good night’s sleep.

“First off I was going to mention this.” Twilight couldn’t believe she was defending Queen Chrysalis to a rabbit, but here she was. “I thought we’d brought back one of the princesses until a few minutes ago, and I figured you’d already gone back to sleep, and I wanted to get to sleep myself before dealing with this.”

Under the gaze of those beady little black eyes Twilight started to understand how Fluttershy could have so many problems dealing with other ponies.

“Look, we need her.” Twilight was probably trying to convince herself as much as Angel with that statement. “Cadance has been possessed by Nightmare Moon, and she can defeat both Celestia and Luna. So unless we want to go break Discord out of his prison Chrysalis is probably the only one who can slow Cadance down enough for someone to do something to her. And no, since it turned out not to be Celestia or Luna in Appleloosa I really don’t have any idea where they are or how I’m going to beat Cadance. Besides, look at her, she’s most of the way to starvation anyways. Sweetie Belle is probably more dangerous with her magic right now than Chrysalis.”

There was an awkward silence after that, but Twilight barely held in a sigh of relief when Angel nodded and hopped away without raising a fuss.

“You are going to help us.” Twilight whirled around to stare down at Chrysalis once again. “I don’t know if my friends are still alive or if Cadance decided to simply put them at the bottom of the Mareneighas Trench without any protection. But if we hear so much as a whisper that they’re alive, we’re going to go after it, and you’re going to be right there with us.”

“Oh relax, your friends are fine. In fact, as long as you’re running loose they’re probably the safest ponies in all Equestria. Honestly, if it meant having you as a sister I’m starting to wonder if it would have been worth it to marry your brother.”

“What do you mean?”

“Oh that’s rich!” Chrysalis laughed. “You’re one of the Elements of Harmony and you don’t even know the first thing about them. You and your friends only represent your elements. If Cadance sends them to the moon without any air to breathe those fancy rocks of yours will just find some other pony to latch onto and make a nuisance of themselves.”

“That sounds rather convenient. So just where did you find all this out?”

“Don’t sound so surprised. Of course I did my homework after the wedding fiasco. A good queen learns from her mistakes. And like you said, Cadance clearly decided to learn from the best. So until she gets the complete set she’s going to keep your friends locked away safe and sound where they can’t up and die so you can find other ponies to beat her with.”

“And if she gets her hooves on me?”

“Then she’s probably got a great big family reunion going on with me and your brother as well. In other words she’ll have everyone who knows anything about the Elements of Harmony. I’m sure I’ll go back into her little love factory, or to the moon with no air to breathe, probably the moon if she has you as well. You, your brother, and your pesky friends will also catch an acute case of being living impaired. I’m sure Cadance would like some of us as trophies, but like I said, she learned from the best.”

“Cute, but didn’t you just say that if me and my friends wind up dead the Elements will just attach themselves to some other pony?”

“Yes, but to most ponies the Elements of Harmony are just words. If Celestia hadn’t pointed you in the right direction would you have ever found your lovely little friends and the Elements?”

Twilight bit down on another remark. She and her friends almost certainly knew more about the Elements of Harmony than well... pretty much anyone. If they attached themselves to six random ponies across Equestria how long would it take them to find each other and use them? Or would they never find each other? Would six ponies suddenly find themselves kinder, more honest, more generous, more loyal, funnier, and more magically gifted and make nothing of it?

“Okay,” Twilight said cautiously, “since you seem to know so much where does Cadance have my friends?”

“Your guess is as good as mine.” Chrysalis still managed to shrug from the floor. “I only did my work on the true threat to me. Without those rocks I could hardly care less about you and your silly friends past making a meal of you.”

Twilight considered wiping that smug look off her face by pulling out and putting on her Element, but that would mean revealing she had them, and she didn’t trust Chrysalis nearly enough to put that on the table.

“Anyways,” Chrysalis went on, “there’s a far better solution to our problem. I’m assuming you know how Nightmare Moon got into your dear sister-in-law.”

“Not exactly,” Twilight admitted, “but I know the general principle. Worry and jealousy turn to hate, and when that reaches a certain point it transforms into something else and takes over the pony. In Luna’s case her jealousy over ponies sleeping through her nights turned into bitterness and then hatred of them and her sister for raising the sun that hid the stars. The problem is I don’t have the slightest clue what Cadance could fear or hate that much.”

“Clearly you got all the brains in your family. Although it would be a waste of a perfectly good meal I’m rather sure that if your brother can get close enough he can do to Nightmare Moon what he did to me and my children in Canterlot.”

“And just how would we do that?” Twilight had thought her brother had gone to sleep, but where Spike was clearly asleep Shining Armor had regained enough of himself to get back up. “The way Cadance was acting at the buffalo camp I’d be a smoking cinder long before I got close enough to her.”

“That just means she knows how dangerous you are to her.” Twilight was starting to think she was going to be playing peacemaker a great deal until this was all over. “Put that little under developed brain of yours to use and figure out a way to get the drop on her.”

Twilight rubbed her head with her hooves as her brother and Chrysalis abandoned all pretense of civility and started a heated argument. She couldn’t even begin to guess what it was about, and beyond not liking each other and making that apparent she doubted they knew.

Finally she could take no more of the two and placed herself between them by lifting them both with magic and removing them to opposite sides of the room.

“You two don’t like each other. I get it, but if you rip each other limb from limb Cadance is the only one who wins. I’m not expecting you two to start sending each other Hearth’s Warming Eve cards, but I do expect you to keep your eyes on what’s important. Shining Armor, you’re a captain of the royal guards, and there is a clear threat to Equestria in front of you, so do your job. And Chrysalis, if Cadance gets all the ponies in Equestria sending all their love to her what will your swarm eat? You keep going on about how good a queen you are. Do you really want them to starve because you couldn’t do something so simple as work together with my brother?”

She had to admit a small surge of smugness herself at subduing two such willful personalities.

“Now, we’ve got two options that I’m seeing. One, we can find my friends and hope they’re still in a condition to use the Elements of Harmony on Cadance. Or two, we can try to use the power of Shining Armor and Cadance’s love to drive Nightmare Moon out of her.”

The shift in her brother and the Changeling Queen was almost scary. Before, they’d been at each other’s throats. Now they were a flurry of productivity. Twilight noted with some regret that they seemed to be focusing on the second of Twilight’s options. She could admit to herself that the plan they were working on was the easier one, but those were her friends being held in some dungeon somewhere and every fiber of her being cried out to rescue them.

She was starting to drift off herself when she noticed her brother and Chrysalis starting to flub words, repeat themselves, and show all the signs of fatigue finally catching up after a long day.

“That’s enough for today you two, time to go to bed. You won’t get much done if you’re too tired to think straight. Keep it up though, as far as I’m concerned you two can argue till the sun burns out once we beat Cadance, but until then it’s all hooves on deck.”

“One last thing,” Chrysalis struggled to her hooves, “if I’m going to be useful to this little adventure of yours I’m going to need food, and your pony food won't cut it. I can eat it, I can taste it, I might even like it, but by the time I’m back to normal off it Cadance will be running the show forever.”

“Being useful to us?” Twilight raised a skeptical eyebrow. “What brought about this change of heart?”

“When she came for me it was obvious that even though Nightmare Moon is in control, Cadance is still a going concern, or at least part of her is. And I’m pretty sure it’s the part that wants to beat me to a pulp for stealing her husband and humiliating her so completely. I hate to admit that you’re right, but you are right that if she finishes the two of you off I’m next on her list. Fortunately, my favorite meal in the whole world is right here. If I can feed off Shining Armor’s love than it’s a matter of days until I’m strong enough to leave this place.”

“What? No!” Shining Armor objected immediately. “Feel love for you? You’ve got to be kidding.”

“Oh I can make it easy for you to love me.” Chrysalis said in Cadance’s voice. “All you have to do is pretend. If you wanted I could even make it rather enjoyable for both of us.”

“Stop being creepy.” Twilight pointed a hoof at Chrysalis, and then swung it to her brother. “And you said back in Appleloosa that you didn’t care if Sheriff Silverstar had broken every law in Equestria if he could help us, well Chrysalis can help us. I don’t care how you two work it out, but I am going to go get some sleep and if I have to come back in here to sort things out I promise you’ll both be sorry.”

She whirled around on the two of them and walked purposefully into Fluttershy’s room. Under the circumstances she didn’t think her friend would object to Twilight taking her bed. Once the door closed behind her she let a small smile creep onto her face. She might be fighting Cadance at the moment, but several things she’d learned from her old foalsitter, specifically making unruly ponies fall in line, were proving quite useful. With the long day finally behind her Twilight crawled under the covers and was asleep almost before her head hit the pillow.