"Well, my sister is officially invited!" Shining Armor said happily, watching the mailmare leave with the letter he had just written.
"How wonderful!" His fiancé gave a gentle smile.
"Not only that; Her and her friends will be playing important roles in the wedding!" Shining seemed very pleased with himself. "Fluttershy will be handling the music, Pinkie Pie will take care of the reception, Applejack will be catering, Rarity will be preparing the dresses, Rainbow Dash will be... brightening up the vows a bit, and Twilight will be organizing everything."
"Very nice." She very neatly hid the boredom she felt behind the happy expression she held.
"Oh, and, though it doesn't quite concern you, Spike will be handling the bachelor party."
The fiancé's ears perked up. "S...Spike?"
Shining gave her a confused look. "Yeah, is there something wrong with that?"
She took a quiet, quick breath, collecting her thoughts. "Oh, I'm just worried that Spike may not be able to handle the responsibility... or he may just completely misinterpret the idea of a bachelor party." She said the second half jokingly.
"I'm not too worried. Anyway, Princess Celestia wanted me to talk with her about the protections on Canterlot; not to mention the fact that I have to go refresh the barrier. I'll be back in about an hour. See you!" Shining stepped towards the front door.
"Goodbye, darling!" The fiancé watched Shining leave, and as soon as the door closed, she collapsed to the ground.
"Ughh... Cadence, why is it so hard to be you..." She looked up at the calendar. She had one week until the wedding. "There really is too much love here for my own good... I can't let myself overfeed..."
She slowly stood up. "But more importantly..."
She really didn't want to think about it. Spike was going to be at the wedding. Her one big moment; the one moment she couldn't let old friends get in the way of her judgement.
She slowly made her way into the bedroom, and stepped in front of the mirror. The mirror was truly reflecting the body of Cadence; but that's not what the fiancé herself saw.
Instead she saw a black body, piercing green eyes, a cerulean mane, a gnarled horn... the true Chrysalis.
"I have to do it, don't I?"
Six months had passed since she saw Spike last. Her one friend... but she couldn't let that stop her. She cleared her throat, closed her eyes, and began to speak.
"If both in the night..."
Her voice trailed to a stop. Was she really going to do this?
"And also in light..."
Her horn began to glow as she continued the chant.
"The one must be the all..."
"Ya know, I had my doubts about you in the beginning, but you seem pretty nice."
Chrysalis's eyes shot open. It was all she could do to stop from canceling the spell. "No... I need to focus..." She concentrated, and closed her eyes once more.
"Then whether it's right..."
"This is really bothering you, isn't it?"
She winced, but continued speaking.
"Or if it's in spite..."
"You're better than that."
She gave a pained whine. She was better than this. But... she couldn't stop now. She had people to protect.
"Emotion, I shan't heed its call..."
"I won't let you degrade yourself like that."
She dipped her head and gave another whine. It hurt... it truly did...
"Thought bar the ones I must protect..."
"All I want is to be able to help you right now."
Chrysalis's eyes shot open once again, and tears began to stream down her face.
"This is the fate that I select!"
"A sonic rainboom? At a wedding? Can you say 'best wedding ever'?"
Spike took a quick look over at Pinkie Pie after hearing Rainbow Dash's query. Good thing, too; her sticking her head out the window gave him just enough time to cover his ears.
"BEST WEDDING EVER!"
Spike returned his attention to the scenery quickly passing him by. They were on the train to Canterlot, to help prepare the wedding of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Shining Armor. He should have been excited. But Twilight was upset about the entire thing, and that, more than anything, kept him out of a good mood.
He turned to Rarity, who was sitting next to him. "So you all get to help with the big fancy wedding – but I'm the one that gets to host the bachelor party!" The train passed through a tunnel, and in the cloak of the darkness, Spike hid a slight wince. "I have just one question. What's a bachelor party?"
The train pulled into the light again, and Spike heard the laughs of five mares. He backed away from the window and sighed, giving a quick glance to Twilight, who was sitting a good ways away. Of course he knew what a bachelor party was; he had just hoped to lighten the mood. But beyond the fact that he couldn't seem to cheer Twilight up, something felt just wrong to him. He noticed Applejack pass behind him, and gave a slight smile. At least AJ was taking a bit of initiative to cheer Twilight up. The others all seemed too caught up in the excitement. Hadn't they learned anything from the gala...?
Spike watched their conversation. He couldn't hear what they were saying, but he could tell that Twilight's mood wasn't improving much from it. After watching their interaction for a few minutes, he was caught off guard by a sudden outburst.
"We're here, we're here!"
He wished he had had time to cover his ears for that one, too. He didn't get much time to think about that, though, as a pink wave washed over the interior of the train car – a force field.
"Odd..."
The train skidded to a stop, and Spike watched Rainbow Dash poke her head out the door once it opened. "Whoa! What's with all the guards?"
Rarity stepped next to her. "I'm sure they're just taking the necessary precautions. Royal weddings do bring out the strangest ponies."
Spike sat stoic in the train car. This wasn't right; these weren't normal royal wedding precautions. For all the times he had been on official Canterlot business, for everything he'd learned about the Canterlot Royal Guard, this was an oddity. There weren't many situations in which a city-wide force field would be used. A royal wedding was definitely not one of those situations.
After all of his friends had left the car and gone on their way, Spike got up and walked out of the train car to one of the guards nearby. He seemed particularly troubled; but upon seeing Spike he looked down at him and smiled. "Hello, Spike. Here to help with the wedding?"
Spike gave a inquisitive look. "Kind of. Tell me, sir...
"Canterlot was threatened, wasn't it?"
"Hey, Twilight!"
Spike ran towards the unicorn. She had a checklist levitating by her, and was looking more dejected than before. "Y...you okay?"
"Hardly." Twilight glanced at the list she had. "Up first is AJ... to the kitchen, I guess."
Spike caught up and began to walk beside her. "What's up? Are you still angry at Shining?"
"No! The opposite!" She puffed her cheeks a bit. "I'm angry at Cadence!"
"C...Cadence?" Spike raised an eyebrow. What did their old foalsitter have to do with...
Suddenly, it clicked in Spike's mind. "Cadence is the bride?"
"Yes." Twilight looked at Spike with a look of disapproval he rarely saw from her. "Don't get too excited."
"B...but why not?" Spike suddenly felt his uneasiness from before coming back. "She was..."
"Exactly!" Twilight stopped in her tracks, right in front of the door to the castle's kitchen. "She was a wonderful, kind pony. But the way she just acted... She was downright awful!"
"Maybe she's just stressed out from the wedding?" Spike was lying through his teeth. He knew that Cadence wasn't one to get stressed easily.
"I don't buy it." Twilight opened the door slowly. "I'm sure that she'll be here to check on things herself. You can see what I mean then."
Spike sighed. "I guess I will." With that, he and Twilight stepped inside to find Applejack, Apple Fritter, and another assistant hard at work.
"Hiya, Sugarcubes!" She said while opening the oven. "Here to check up on the catering?"
Twilight sat down in the middle of the kitchen. "Yes," she replied simply, her voice kind of harsh.
Spike looked hopefully at AJ, praying that she would take the same concerned attitude she did before. Unfortunately, she seemed a bit too caught up in her work to do so. He sighed, and let his eyes scan the room, until he eventually let them settle on the cake toppers sitting on the counter on the far end.
He walked over, as Twilight began her checks. He could hear what she was saying, but was hardly focused on it. Instead, he was lost in thought about the two figures before him. They were most definitely Shining Armor and Cadence. He smiled, hopped up to take a seat on the counter, and picked up the two figures. It had been obvious even to him back when he and Twilight lived in Canterlot that Shining had had a crush on Cadence.
"You make it obvious almost every time you're around her."
Spike froze. Why was he thinking about that now...?
He was snapped back into reality as he noticed Twilight getting up from her seat. Unwilling to think of an excuse as for why he was holding the toppers, he started playing with them, enacting the upcoming ceremony.
Suddenly, he felt the figures being ripped from his claws. He glanced at Twilight, who was now directly in front of him, and gave a nervous laugh. She was giving the same look of disapproval from before.
Suddenly, he heard the door open. He glanced up.
"Hiya, Princess!" AJ's distinctive voice rang out to greet the visitor.
Spike watched the princess enter out of the corner of his eye. This was the moment of truth...
The cooks all kneeled before the princess. As for the princess... she seemed less than pleased. "Please, call me Princess Mi Amore Cadenza."
Spike winced. This wasn't normal, not at all; Cadence was never this prideful. Spike stopped comprehending the conversation unfolding before him as his focus turned to his racing thoughts. This wasn't the same Cadence he had known from when he was younger. This wasn't the Cadence Shining had had a crush on. So... what was going on?
He was snapped back into reality once again when he heard a paper bag smacking against metal. Cadence was already out of the door by the time Spike had refocused.
Twilight gasped quietly, and turned to Applejack. "Did you see what she..."
Spike glanced at Twilight. She seemed completely and utterly appalled. Did Cadence insult AJ's cooking? That was kind of unlikely; he hadn't met anypony who disliked her cooking...
"... our tastebuds are kind of weird..."
Spike grew still once again. It couldn't be... there was no way.
But that didn't change the fact that something was very, very wrong. He lowered his head.
He just wanted everything to be fine...
Spike covered his ears, wincing from the sound of an out-of-tune squawk. "Fluttershy, what is wrong with that bird?"
He was sitting in the royal garden; he had hoped that listening to Fluttershy's birds rehearse would give him a chance to relax, but a certain one of them kept on ruining that.
"I don't know, Spike." She flew up to the source of the ear wrenching sound, and gave a concerned look. "He normally sings bass, but... I guess he must be sick or something..."
Spike gave a deep sigh. He just couldn't seem to find a way to get away from his thoughts.
Fluttershy gave a quick glance over at Spike. "Um... Is something wrong, Spike?"
Spike looked up blankly at her, and gave himself a short moment to think. "I've just felt uneasy since we've got here. Like... something isn't right."
Fluttershy returned her attention to the bird. "Please try not to worry too much, Spike. I mean... it's a wedding. We should be happy, right?"
Spike sighed again. "Well, I hope you can get that bird to sing correctly by the time the Princess–"
"It seems that I've been appearing with impeccable timing everywhere I go."
Spike froze. That was not the voice he had wanted to hear.
Fluttershy quickly landed in front of the princess and kneeled. "H...hello, P... Princess Mi Amore Cadenza..." She was shivering as if they were in the middle of winter. "I p...presume you are here to ch...check on the music?"
"Yes. " Her answer was succinct and her voice was deadpan. It was as if there was no feeling in her reply...
"... abandon their emotions..."
Spike glanced at the princess. "No way. Th...there's no way..."
Fluttershy flew in front of the birds. "A...alright. H...here we g...go..." She stared at the birds and lifted a hoof. "A-one, A-two, A-one, two, three, four..."
The birds began their song. It started out pleasant, as Spike had come to expect, but it wouldn't take long before...
SQUAWK!
Spike's claws instinctively shot up to his ears. That sound was absolutely grating. He gave a quick look to the princess to see her wincing.
"STOP!"
The birds silenced and Flutter turned around to look at the irritated princess.
"I do hope you'll get that bird to sing in-key by the time the wedding comes." Her words were venomous, but they didn't truly seem to have anger behind them.
Fluttershy flew away from the princess and landed close to the birds. "Y...yes... ma'am..." Her voice was much quieter than normal.
With that, the Princess walked away from the garden.
Spike quickly ran over to Fluttershy. "A...are you okay?"
She slowly stood up. "O...of course. I mean, i...it's my responsibility to get the music right... It's u...understandable that she would be a...angry at me."
Spike frowned. Flutter was clearly shaken up beyond the norm. This wasn't right...
Nothing about any of this was right.
"Come on, Fluttershy." Spike forced a smile. "Let's go meet up with everypony."
Spike made a decision the second he sat down at the table. He wouldn't let anypony know he was worried. Luckily for him, somepony else decided to take the worrying into her own hands.
"Bet I can guess what you're all thinking!" She put a little trill into her last word. "Cadence is the absolute worst bride–to–be ever."
Everypony looked up at her, wide-eyed. Spike seized the chance to throw any suspicions of his worrying away, pulling out the Cadence figure. "Who, me?" he asked, pulling a quick falsetto.
"Spike! That goes on the cake!" Applejack looked down at him disapprovingly. He quickly threw the figurine onto the table and gave a nervous laugh. He was in the clear now; he could just listen to what Twilight had to say.
Rarity gave Twilight a concerned look. "Twilight, what are you talking about? Cadence is an absolute gem!"
"Rarity, she was so demanding!"
Rarity frowned. "Well, of course she was. Why shouldn't she expect the very best on her wedding day?"
"Okay. I can't really be too suspicious about that one..." Spike gave a slight smile. Maybe he and Twilight were just overreacting.
Twilight took a moment to think, and then adressed Applejack. "Applejack, did you know that after she told you how much she just love-love-loved your hors d'oeuvres, she threw them in the trash?"
"S...so that's what happened." Spike was suddenly worried again.
"Aw, she was probably just tryin' to spare my feelin's."
Twilight gave a look of annoyance. "No, she was just being fake and totally insincere!"
There was a moment of silence. Spike felt something tap his shoulder, and when he looked, he saw Pinkie holding the cake topper of Shining. "Might as well..." Spike thought, as he picked up the Cadence figure.
"She did raise her voice at one of my birds during rehearsal."
Spike froze upon hearing Flutter's quiet voice. "At one of her birds? But..."
"See! Rude!"
"That's not what happened! Fluttershy..."
Spike was snapped out of his thoughts by Pinkie nudging him. He halfheartedly started playing with her, enacting the couple.
"But he was singing really off-key..."
Spike saw Flutter pull the bird out from the corner of his eye, and winced with perfect timing.
SQUAWK!
Spike shook his head and continued playing, a little more wholeheartedly. Okay, so Cadence was being rude. It didn't necessarily mean...
"Pinkie, you had to have noticed how Cadence treated–"
Twilight noticed them playing and gave a sigh. "Never mind."
Suddenly, Spike got lost in his thoughts. What did Cadence say to Pinkie? It didn't seem as if he was going to get an answer at this point.
He quickly tried to organize what he knew in his mind. First of all: Canterlot had been threatened. That was already enough to make him worry.
Second of all: Cadence was way out of character. She faked liking AJ's food, was incredibly demanding towards Rarity, yelled at Fluttershy, and... said something to Pinkie.
Third of all: Twilight was an absolute nervous wreck. If somebody didn't do something about that–
"–there shouldn't even be a wedding!" The table was slammed with enough force to shock Spike out of his thoughts. Twilight, the perpetrator of this upset, walked off in a huff.
Spike exchanged a glance with the others. This wasn't going to go well...
Later that night, Spike saw Twilight walk out of one of the doors to the castle. To say she looked dejected would be an understatement. He ran up to her. "U...um... Twilight? Are you okay?"
She looked up at Spike, tears in her eyes. "S...Spike..."
"Twilight, what happened?" He began to lead her away from the door she had just exited.
"O...our friends are now the bridesmaids... a...and they're not listening... and I just saw Cadence... and... Shining... and..." Twilight's words were just tumbling out of her mouth, starting to lose any sense of coherence.
"Twilight!" Spike stepped in front of her and put his hands on her shoulders, looking her directly in the eyes. "Calm down, please. Start from the beginning."
Twilight took a deep breath, and her expression suddenly grew angered. "I just saw Cadence cast a spell on Shining."
Spike stepped back. "Wh...what!?"
"When she cast the spell, shining's eyes turned green and went all buggy." She looked away for a moment, then suddenly her eyes lit up. "A hypnosis spell! That's what it probably was! The hypnosis spell from Spells Lost to Time!"
"R...really?" Spike was suddenly very, very worried. Spells Lost to Time was the book he had shown to Chrysalis.
"But that was a coincidence!" he thought to himself, attempting self-reassurance.
... It was a coincidence, right?
"Hey, has anypony seen Twilight?"
Spike looked up from where he was sitting, and quickly righted himself with a figure still in hand. He really shouldn't be goofing off at rehearsal.
But as Shining had said, it did seem that Twilight was missing.
Suddenly, the door swung open, and right on cue, Twilight stepped in the room.
"I'm here!" she proclaimed, and took a few steps. "I'm not going to stand next to her, and neither should you!"
Spike gave a shocked glance towards Twilight, effectively ignoring the actions of the others. This was out of hand. If she continued...
"You have to listen to me!"
Spike was so caught up in his thoughts that the only voice he could hear was Twilight's. He watched Fluttershy fly up to her, and make a remark.
"I'm fine!"
Applejack walked up next, giving a dissaproving look towards her.
"I've got something to say!"
"No, no, no!" Spike was horrified. "Twilight, you'll–!"
"She's evil!"
Spike was snapped back into full awareness as he watched Twilight point a hoof towards Cadence.
"She's been horrible to my friends..." She teleported right up in front of Cadence, and got right in her face. "she's obviously done something to the bridesmaids... and if that wasn’t enough, I saw her put a spell on my brother that made his eyes go all–" she proceeded to roll her eyes around, and let her tongue hang out of her mouth.
Everypony in the room stood shocked, staring at Twilight. Everypony... except Spike. He was still shocked; there was no doubt about that. But he saw something the others didn't. Something very, very important.
He saw Cadence grin.
Twilight quickly got back in Cadence's face, giving a scary-looking smile.
Suddenly, Cadence burst into tears.
"Why are you doing this to me!" She then proceeded to gallop out of the room.
"Because you're evil!" Twilight yelled, watching her run. She teleported to the doorway just as Cadence ran out it. "Evil! And if I don’t stop you, you’re gonna ruin my brother’s life!"
Spike fell out of focus again. That grin... maybe Twilight was right. Cadence seemed like she was acting... It really seemed like it was just somepony in a...
"...disguise..."
Spike looked off to where Cadence had run off to. He wouldn't believe it. He wouldn't let himself believe it.
"If I were you, I wouldn't show up to the wedding at all."
Spike snapped back into focus just in time to here that defining statement. He quickly glanced at Twilight, who was looking down at her hooves. Shining was walking away from her.
The ponies around Spike began to make their way out of the room, all avoiding looking at Twilight. Spike followed them, feeling just as broken as he imagined Twilight felt.
They left Twilight in the room, and once they all passed through, Celestia closed the door.
Ba-bump.
Spike felt his heart suddenly pound in his chest. Something felt very, very wrong.
Ba-bump.
He turned to the door and let his friends and Celestia pass him. They didn't pay him any heed.
Ba-bump.
After staring at it for almost a minute, he slowly made his way back towards the door.
Ba-bump.
He placed his hand on it, bracing for what was to come.
Ba-bump.
He gently pushed against the door.
Ba-bump.
The door slowly swung open.
Ba-bump.
He took a step in...
Ba-bump!
And peered inside...
Ba-bump!
to see...
BA-BUMP!
Nothing.
"T...Twilight?" Spike stepped all the way inside, as his anxiety subsided for a moment. He glanced around quickly. "Twilight!"
His call wasn't answered.
BA-BUMP! BA-BUMP! BA-BUMP!
Spike's breathing quickened and became raspy. He fell to his knees, unable to even think about holding himself up.
His only real family had just disappeared.