//------------------------------// // Through a Mirror Darkly // Story: We'll Always Have Canterlot // by Tortfeasor //------------------------------// We’ll Always Have Canterlot Disclaimer: Ten chapters in and I’m still saying this. What’s up with you people? Fine, I don’t own My Little Pony Chapter Ten: Through a Mirror Darkly Light faded to reveal a dry landscape. Twilight had sent them where she meant to. Then a wave of vertigo and fatigue crashed into her. Right, long distance teleportation without the Element of Magic was actually difficult. “Alright,” she said. “We’re where we need to be, so let’s not run into Cadance or my friends for the next few hours because I need to take a little nap now.” Then she passed out. The first thing she noticed upon regaining consciousness was that she was still on the ground. Was it too much to ask of Chrysalis and her brother to move her off bare rock? Then she remembered that moving her might require them to work together, so it may very well have been too much to ask. “...Wonderful to be back here, I can go hop back in that horrible sack without going out of my way.” Clearly they hadn’t missed a beat while she was out. “Twilight had a reason for sending us here. She said she’d found something back in Baltimare. I don’t know why it took us back to Appleloosa, but there’s something here we need.” “Forgive me if I don’t jump for joy at revisiting one of my worst moments. Would you like to take a tour of the royal castle and I’ll narrate all the things I had you do while you were under my control and I was draining your love to conquer Equestria?” “I live there, I lived there. I’ve revisited those moments over and over, and if I can do it you can do it.” “Someone,” Twilight croaked. It was quiet, but Twilight speaking managed to get attention. Soon her brother had a canteen held over her lips for her to sip from. “I’m fine,” she waved off his continued ministrations. “I just forgot how hard a spell like that is when I have to do it completely on my own. I’ll be better prepared the next time we have to go somewhere, I promise.” “Wonderful,” Twilight didn’t hear the joy in Chrysalis’ voice. “Now would you care to enlighten us as to why we had to come back to this cesspit? There aren’t enough ponies here to feed the hive for a day, what’s worth dragging us across Equestria for?” “Someone,” Twilight managed to get back on her hooves. “Back in Baltimare I saw a blurb about odd cloud formations here. Could formations that looked sort of like what a pegasus might shape, but not quite, and in any case, there aren’t any pegasi in Appleloosa. To everyone else it’s a curiosity that gets buried in the middle of the paper, but to someone looking for a rogue pegasus.” “You think Rainbow Dash came here?” Shining Armor looked down the hill into Appleloosa. Twilight had made sure to put them closer to the town this time. “I don’t want to agree with Chrysalis, but why would Rainbow Dash come to a place like this?” “The same reasons we did,” Twilight smiled. “It’s so far off the beaten track that she could actually disappear if she needed to. And, if you remember, we know a few ponies here who could help us. Rainbow Dash probably thought the same thing. If we’re lucky, we’ll knock on Braeburn’s door and she’ll be in the back room.” “Great,” Chrysalis sighed. “More ponies. If we have to add to our merry little band can it at least be a pony who hasn’t caused me no end of trouble?” “Just think of it as another step closer to being done with us.” Twilight started walking towards Braeburn’s ranch. “Now put on a face and follow me. If the ponies in Appleloosa see you we’ll have Cadance on our backs before you can say we’re in trouble.” Chrysalis grumbled the whole way, and her brother threw more than a few snarky remarks back her way, but it took them less than an hour to find themselves under the welcome shade of an orchard of apple trees. Twilight walked up to the small house, knocked on the door, and nothing. She knocked again, waited, and was rewarded only with silence. “Right,” she lightly hit herself on the head. “Braeburn isn’t off saving the world like us so he actually has a day job. We’ll wait inside so no one can see us. Shining Armor, leave your stuff and go out looking for Braeburn. He’ll probably be somewhere out in the fields, but he might have gone into Appleloosa. If you have to go into Appleloosa try to avoid the sheriff. Remember, he’s under Cadance’s control.” “I don’t mean to complain,” Shining Armor slid his bags off. “But it’s your friend we’re looking for, and you know Braeburn and this whole town far better than I do. Aren’t you the best one to go out looking?” “Yes, but I can’t. Without the Element of Magic I’m vulnerable to Cadance, and if I put it on to go out then Rarity can track the magic right back to us. That leaves you and Chrysalis, do you really want her out there alone with all those ponies? I suppose both of you could go out, two pairs of eyes might be better than one.” Shining Armor left with dignified haste. “Quite the vote of confidence there,” Chrysalis let her disguise slip. “What ever happened to ‘peace between ponies and Changelings’ and all that?” Twilight responded with a flat look. “Are you telling me you wouldn’t have taken the opportunity for a snack?” Chrysalis’ smile showed off the full length of her fangs. “Think of them like the buildings back in Manehatten, a civic service. We’re saving Equestria, they’re not, they owe us.” “No, they don’t.” Twilight had no problem seeing why her brother fought with Chrysalis so often. “They’re ponies, and we don’t have any right to just go thrusting ourselves into their lives.” Chrysalis snorted. “I’m sure the daisies that went into your daisy chips were just overjoyed to be plucked and eaten.” Twilight could only stare. “You really want to compare plants to ponies?” Chrysalis merely shrugged. “You do what you have to to survive, I do what I have to. Besides, won’t our little ‘deal’ take care of that?” Twilight was reminded that she’d made a deal with the devil in just about the most literal sense possible. Celestia would probably be furious when she heard about it, but if it brought back Celestia to be furious then Twilight would count it worth the sacrifice. “I’m not having this conversation.” Twilight decided to simply side-step the trap. “Why don’t you try telling me where you Changelings come from? Generations of pony scholars have wondered that. Did Discord create you? Nightmare Moon? You look kind of like the legendary Flutterponies, are you some sort of corrupted version? Or did you just crawl out of a pit in Tartarus?” “Secrets, secrets.” Chrysalis smiled that unpleasant smile again. “You of all ponies should know that knowledge is power Twilight Sparkle. Your ignorance about us is one of the most powerful weapons we have. I’m not about to throw that away for ‘friendship’ or whatever other silly little ideals you want to throw at me.” “And no,” Chrysalis smirked. “Don’t think you can pry it out of ‘Bon-Bon’ or any of my other children you should run across. They know how important secrecy is, and what my wrath would be if they betrayed the swarm.” “So much love for your family,” Twilight deadpanned. “Aren’t you supposed to be the benevolent and caring mother of all the Changelings?” “Don’t you punish your children when they misbehave? Didn’t your benevolent and caring Princess Celestia banish her own sister to the moon for a thousand years to save your pathetic species?” “Because she tried to plunge Equestria into eternal night.” Twilight glared at Chrysalis. “Not because she had a conversation and answered a few questions.” Chrysalis was entirely unfazed. “Ask Celestia what it’s like to rule a civilization. I think you’ll find her far more cold-blooded than you give her credit for. I care for all my children, but I have to care for all of them.” “I kind of feel sorry for you Chrysalis. You talk about caring for all your children, and I think you try to take care of them. But do you know what it’s really like to love them? To truly appreciate what it means to know that they’ve entrusted their fortunes entirely to you and that you have to do your best every day to live up to that? I know Celestia does, but I don’t think you do. And I think that’s why we beat you in Canterlot.” Twilight could see she’d clearly struck a nerve there. But before Chrysalis could make an angry retort they were both started by a knock at the door. They silently crept towards the door and peeked out the side windows. Shining Armor couldn’t be back this quickly, and he wouldn’t knock, nor would Braeburn knock before entering his own house. Twilight gasped as she saw the pony on the other side of the window and jerked open the door. “Rainbow Dash!” Logically she knew how bad an idea that was. They should have subdued, isolated, and interrogated Rainbow Dash to make sure it really was her, and not some creature wearing her face but answering to Cadance. The look she saw Chrysalis sporting out of the corner of her eye said all that quite clearly. But it had been going on three weeks since Twilight Sparkle had seen one of her friends without them trying to kill her. “Twilight!” The rainbow maned pegasus grabbed her into a hug. “It really is you! I thought I was the only one who got away from Ponyville, but then I saw that story out of Manehatten. Are you really working with the Changelings?” Twilight pointed to where Chrysalis was still standing. “Not the Changelings as such, but Chrysalis and I have formed a... working alliance against Cadance. Or I suppose I should call her Nightmare Moon.” Twilight gave Rainbow Dash the severely abridged version of what she’d been up to since that night in Ponyville. She did take the opportunity to complain at length how Chrysalis and Shining Armor never ceased to argue. Maybe now that Rainbow Dash was here she could have a conversation that wouldn’t end in shouting. “Huh, I knew you were desperate, but wow.” Rainbow Dash seemed oddly nonplussed by Chrysalis, almost suspiciously so. Back during the wedding she’d been the most ready to knock Changeling heads. No, this was Rainbow Dash, Twilight had been on the run for so long she was turning paranoid. “Well I wasn’t exactly looking for Chrysalis when I found her, but she has been useful, so it wasn’t all bad. How did you get away from Cadance though? I saw you do a sonic rainboom, but then I got out of Ponyville myself, so I didn’t see anything after that.” “Hah, you need to tell your brother that he needs to make the guards work a lot harder if they’re ever going to have a chance to catch me.” Rainbow Dash absolutely preened at her talents. “The guards were all perky and cheerful, too perky and cheerful for the middle of the night. And then Rarity’s... whatever went off, and probably woke up half of Equestria.” “Yeah,” Twilight sighed. “When this is all over I’m going to have a talk with her about how loud she made that thing.” “Don’t go too hard on her. After all, it did save us. When they heard her alarm the guards must have known something was wrong because they tried to grab me. That went about as well as you’d think, and I shot right past them. A few of them tried to keep up with me, but well you know, sonic rainboom and all that.” “Seriously Rainbow Dash,” Twilight laughed. “You don’t need to regale me with the tale. I was there for most of it. How did you actually get away though? I was worried Cadance might have teleported right on top of you, or you might have flown to Canterlot to get answers and flown right into her hooves.” “I almost did. I was all ready to fly to Canterlot and start screaming at Celestia. Then I heard your big magic whatever, and I realized that if you were running away it meant something had to be wrong in Canterlot.” Twilight was actually grateful to Chrysalis, not that she would ever admit it. Weeks of keeping a straight face around her let Twilight keep her cool when she realized this wasn’t her Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash could have never heard Twilight’s’ magic while moving faster than the speed of sound. “Lucky us,” she smiled. “I know this is Braeburn’s house, but I don’t think he’ll mind if we have some tea while we talk. Why don’t you tell us what happened after Ponyville while I go make some tea.” As she got up, Twilight made sure to turn her back to Rainbow Dash so she could send a look to Chrysalis telling the Changeling Queen to be careful around Rainbow Dash. Twilight Sparkle had a plan, but she’d need a little time to bring it off. And if Rainbow Dash managed to escape they’d never track her down again. “Well, I didn’t know where you’d gotten to, and I couldn’t find any of the others.” Rainbow Dash seemed to suspect nothing. “I went to Cloudsdale to hide, but I’m kind of a big deal there, so I had to bug out after ponies started recognizing me. You know I don’t like reading, except for Daring Do, but I knew you’d escaped too, and you’d probably pull one of your crazy stunts again. So I started bouncing around from place to place looking in all the papers for some sort of mention of you that I could go after. I saw those articles about Chrysalis controlling you, but I knew you’d gotten away so that couldn’t be true. Then I saw your little fight in Manehatten. I knew you were the only other one who had gotten away, and I had to find you somehow. But I didn’t know where you’d gone after that, and I knew that if I started leaving too many clues the others could beat you to me.” “You certainly did a good job of that.” Twilight called from the kitchen. “We almost didn’t find you. You weren’t staying here were you? I mean you did find us pretty fast.” “That was actually a lucky break. I kinda feel bad about it, but I’ve been picking fruit from the orchards around Appleloosa. I do have to eat, and I can’t exactly stroll through the center of town. I was picking some apples from here when I swear I saw your brother go running towards Appleloosa. I wasn’t sure if it was him, but I knew that if it was then you must be nearby. I decided to take the risk and here we are.” “I’m glad you took the risk.” Twilight walked out of the kitchen with three cups of tea. While she was using her magic she took the opportunity to put up a shield around the house. It wasn’t what her brother could do, but it would keep Rainbow Dash from getting away. “We definitely need all the help we can get.” Rainbow Dash sipped from her tea. Twilight had considered drugging it, but she didn’t have anything on hoof, and, unsurprisingly, Braeburn didn’t have anything for making sleep potions. “So if that was your brother I saw running out of here in such a hurry then where was he going?” Twilight didn’t know if Cadance could hear every word she said to Rainbow Dash. She didn’t know any such spell, but that didn’t mean Nightmare Moon didn’t. “He’s actually looking for you. Changelings aren’t exactly in line to win citizen of the year or anything, and like you said, we’re a little too well known around here to go strolling through town. He’s probably poking around all the orchards and caves near Appleloosa trying to see if you’re in one.” After that, they sat there in an increasingly awkward silence. Twilight was betting that putting on the Element of Loyalty would fix Rainbow Dash, but she wasn’t sure how to get it onto the pegasus. And she was pretty sure that Cadance wanted Rainbow Dash to catch all three of them. Predictably, it was Chrysalis who made the first move. After that, things got chaotic to say the least. Twilight Sparkle and Chrysalis were both accomplished spellcasters, but Rainbow Dash was one of the most talented flyers in Equestria. Even indoors she was able to dodge and weave with impunity. When this whole mess was over she would owe Braeburn a major apology, and a sizeable purse of bits to repair the wreck they made of his house. Somewhere in the frenzy of knocking doors off hinges, flipping both couches, ripping the stove out of the wall, and general mayhem, Twilight managed to grab Rainbow Dash’s Element. Now if only she could stop her friend long enough to put it on. In a pleasant surprise for a change, it was Rainbow Dash who led to her own downfall. Flying through a window was normally asking for severe lacerations from broken glass. Unless you could fly fast enough to avoid those shards. However, flying that fast meant that Rainbow Dash didn’t have nearly enough time to slow down before she hit Twilight’s shield and collapsed to the ground. Twilight briefly worried that Rainbow Dash had actually been hurt, but as she approached her friend she was relieved to see her groaning on the ground. Wasting no time, Twilight snapped the bejeweled necklace around Rainbow Dash’s neck. Immediately, Rainbow Dash jerked taut as a rictus of pain claimed her face. She spasmed for about a minute in a wordless, silent scream of pain. Just as Twilight Sparkle was beginning to fear that she’d made a terrible mistake Rainbow Dash went limp and began to gasp for air. “Rainbow Dash?” Twilight nervously approached her prone friend. “Twi...light.” Rainbow Dash rolled over onto unsteady hooves. “What did you? I want to pummel Cadance, I actually think I hate her. This is great!” “It’s great to have you back, but maybe you should settle down first.” Twilight was starting to fear she’d gone a bit too far in reversing Cadance’s control. “Relax,” Rainbow Dash took a few shaky steps. “I know it’s not really Cadance. It’s just that... Twilight, we all knew, we all know, that what she has us doing is wrong. We know that it’s terrible and it will lead to everyone becoming mindless slaves. But under that spell you just love her so much it doesn’t matter what she has you do. If Cadance told Rarity and Applejack to strangle their little sisters they wouldn’t even blink.” “Waste of perfectly good food.” Chrysalis scoffed. “Just ignore her,” Twilight said to Rainbow Dash. “So what have you been up to since Ponyville?” “I didn’t actually go to Canterlot, at least not at first, but that didn’t matter because Cadance met me halfway. She was coming to kill all of us, and I think it was only her seeing your teleport spell that saved me because she knew she’d missed you. I wish I could say I held out against her magic, but I broke in like fifteen minutes. Rarity held out for four days, and Applejack held out for a week. She was going to take me along to Manehatten, but it turns out you’re not the only one who knows something is up with Cadance. You’re just the only one to put all the pieces together, and more importantly, you’re the only one who’s a real threat to her. I was rounding those other ponies up so she could make them her puppets. Then a few days ago she told me to come here, lure you three here, and keep you waiting until she could show up.” “Lucky for us you weren’t there. It took everything I had to hold off four of you. Now, if you can walk we should go get my brother and put some distance between ourselves and Appleloosa. He went into town to find Braeburn and see if you’d been in contact with him.” Rainbow Dash’s look turned to one of horror. “Oh no, oh no no no no no. That’s bad, that’s real bad. Twilight, Cadance was here when you two snagged Chrysalis out, and Braeburn helped you. The first thing she did was to turn him and Little Strongheart to get everything she could out of them. If Braeburn sees your brother he’s going to have Cadance and the others here as soon as he can.” “Oh no, oh no no no no no.” Twilight immediately scrambled into action. Their saddlebags zipped out of the house, already she was yanking the Element of Magic out of its bag. “Let’s go. Chrysalis, throw on a face and follow us.” As soon as the green flames disappeared around Chrysalis, Twilight grabbed all of them with her magic and teleported them to the edge of Appleloosa. It ran a sizeable risk of coming out on top of an innocent pony, but if her brother was captured then that pony, and every pony, would suffer Nightmare Moon’s rule for eternity. As soon as Twilight's magic cleared they were running into Appleloosa looking for Shining Armor. If Braeburn hadn’t already brought Cadance down on them then surely the Element of Magic would let Rarity find her before long. They didn’t have to look long, an explosion echoed from the other end of town. Twilight didn’t wait for the others before she started running towards it. Almost before she knew it Twilight saw her brother running towards them. Behind him were her friends, looking absolutely furious at their escape that morning in Baltimare. Twilight grabbed her brother with a teleportation spell and put him down right behind her. He glanced about in momentary disorientation before whirling about. “Twiley, Braeburn isn’t himself. As soon as he saw me, he broke some stone and they showed up.” “I know.” Twilight planted herself and prepared to fight her friends once again. “That’s why we’re here. We found Rainbow Dash though, as long as Cadance doesn’t show up we can try to get their Elements on them, it undoes Cadance’s control.” “You won’t steal my slaves!” A voice thundered from above. Twilight looked up to see an enraged Cadance hovering overhead. “I’ll see Equestria burnt to ashes before I give them up. Equestria will love me as its eternal queen, or it will love me in death.” “Oh yeah?” Rainbow Dash shouted up at her, fury in her own voice. “We’ll I’d rather die than be your puppet again!” “That can be arranged, girls, kill them.” Cadance tried right away to make good on her command. Bolts of arcane power streaked towards the ground and only Shining Armor raising a shield above them prevented their destruction. Any hope Twilight had harbored that having Rainbow Dash on their side would make things easy was quickly dashed. Cadance’s ‘improvements’ to her friends had made them exponentially more dangerous. At most, Rainbow Dash offset that disadvantage. Rarity seemed able to conjure up an endless storm of magical needles, Fluttershy was flying with a skill she’d never shown before, Applejack’s hooves whistled through the air as she tried to pummel Twilight, and Pinkie Pie assaulted them with all manner of deadly implements that should have been anything but. As she struggled to overcome her friends, Twilight felt her anger start to build. These weren’t her friends, Cadance had turned them into mockeries of themselves. She didn’t notice the black miasma start to surround her horn right away, but she could hardly miss it when Applejack narrowly avoided impalement on a black crystal that erupted right in the path of her charge. “How could you do that?!” Pinkie Pie punctuated each shout with a weaponized... was that a confetti streamer? “First you abandoned us, then you ponynapped Rainbow Dash, and now you tried to kill Applejack! You’re being a bad friend Twilight Sparkle.” Twilight decided to ignore Pinkie Pie. It was however, a bit harder to ignore the explosion behind her. She glanced over her shoulder to see Cadance swinging a carriage at her brother and Chrysalis. At least they weren’t shouting at each other this time, but that didn’t seem to be enough to beat Cadance. “Rainbow Dash!” Twilight called out to her friend as Chrysalis and her brother scampered towards her. They weren’t going to win this time. Particularly not when they were tired and Cadance wasn’t. Rainbow Dash quickly settled down next to her. She started to jerk when the circle of green flames erupted around them, but calmed when she saw Twilight wasn’t worried. Twilight did however worry when Rarity’s horn glowed and the ground started to crack beneath them. She let her own horn glow and the ground started to settle. Then Twilight Sparkle did something she didn’t mean to. The black miasma surrounded her horn again, and Rarity screamed in pain as black crystals erupted from her horn. Twilight immediately felt sick to her stomach, and not from the sensation of teleportation. When the flames cleared and she found herself in a dark, large room she stumbled away from the group and collapsed in tears. “Twiley,” her brother’s concern was obvious in his voice. “What’s wrong, are you hurt?” “No,” Twilight gasped out between sobs, “but I’m a monster.” “What are you talking about?” Rainbow Dash walked up to her. “You totally saved us back there. Rarity would have knocked us right into Cadance’s hooves if you hadn’t stopped her.” “Yeah, wonderful job by me. You just forgot to mention the part where I used dark magic on her! I sealed up her horn just like King Sombra. If it wouldn’t mean giving myself up to Cadance, I’d throw myself in a dungeon right now.” “Twilight,” her brother said hesitantly. “You didn’t have a choice. Besides, you know how to fix it, so when this is all over you can just undo that spell and it’s all back to normal.” “No it won’t!” Twilight wailed. “I used dark magic on one of my friends. Now they’ll hate me forever, and they should hate a terrible pony like me.” “No we won’t.” Rainbow Dash grabbed Twilight to look her in the face. “I’m your friend, and I’m right here. Twilight, I was under Cadance’s control. Locking Rarity’s magic up like that is doing her a favor. It means that Cadance can’t make her do terrible things with her magic anymore. When all this is over she’ll thank you.” Twilight didn’t look convinced. “Look,” Rainbow Dash sighed. “I know I’m not all super honest like Applejack, but trust me, you didn’t do anything wrong. If you don’t believe me, let’s beat Cadance, free our friends, and then they can tell you themselves.” “Right,” Twilight wiped away her tears. “One last good thing before I spend the rest of my life in the dungeons. With her magic locked away Rarity won’t be able to track me through my Element anymore, so we should be safe wherever we are. Where did you send us Chrysalis?” “I’m surprised you haven’t already recognized it. You had a wonderful time here during the wedding.” “The crystal caves beneath Canterlot?” Twilight lit her horn to get a good look around. Sure enough, they were in a large, crystal faceted chamber. “Ironic that I should send myself here.” Chrysalis idly walked about the chamber. “But we’ll be able to come up right into the castle and avoid all of Cadance’s puppets. With your friend’s magic... indisposed of, we’ll have a real chance to beat Cadance if we can surprise her. You wallow in your pity, I go back to my hive and never speak to one of you repulsive ponies again.” “Nice to know we’re growing on you.” Shining Armor didn’t sound at all like he meant it. “We’ve got enough food for a few days, so let’s rest up and then we can save Equestria.”