We'll Always Have Canterlot

by Tortfeasor

Learning Curve

Disclaimer: This isn’t the disclaimer you’re looking for. I don’t own My Little Pony

“That’s not going to work,” Rainbow Dash said. “Charging through the front doors is just going to get us killed.”

“There aren't any back doors that would be unguarded,” Shining Armor pointed out. “And if we go running through the front doors we’ll have surprise on our side. That might buy us enough time for me to grab a hold of Cadance and end all this.”

“Cadance has everyone in the castle under her control.” Rainbow Dash shuddered at the memory of being under Cadance’s spell. “Our friends will be right by her side, you’re the only royal guard who will be on our side, even the cooks and clerks will be coming out of the walls to attack us. We've either got to drop on her at a window, or bring her to us on our terms.”

“Now why didn’t we think of that?” Chrysalis’ voice dripped with sarcasm. “Oh wait, that’s what we've been trying to do this whole time. Unless you’re far smarter than you strike me as I don’t think you’ll contribute much beyond brute force. You should get along quite nicely with Shining Idiot in that case.”

Twilight Sparkle knew Rainbow Dash well enough to grab her tail through magic without even looking. “Actually Chrysalis, Rainbow Dash being here does open up some new options to us. Teleporting Cadance to us would require a lot of magical power, even more than I could muster with the Element of Magic. Those spells of her to block teleportation make it exponentially more difficult than it should be. But with another Element of Harmony we just might be able to do it. Rarity can’t teleport the others in now, so we’d be able to gang up on Cadance, and that might just let Shining Armor get a hoof on her.”

“You really think you can do that Twilight?” Rainbow Dash stopped trying to lunge at Chrysalis as she heard what Twilight was saying.

“Only one way to find out.” Twilight picked herself up. “We shouldn't do it in here though. Experimental magic and potentially unstable roofs are a bad mix. I’ll get us out of here, and then we can start working on how to bring Cadance to us.”

Twilight’s horn briefly glowed, they disappeared from the cave and appeared in a forest.

“Welcome to the Everfree Forest. Plenty of room for us to tear up figuring out how to get through Cadance’s spells.”

“Great.” Shining Armor was brimming with eagerness to reclaim his wife. “So how do we do this?”

“I have no idea,” Twilight replied. “ I've only ever used my Element by itself, or all six at once. I don’t know if it’s even possible to use more than one without using all of them. “

Chrysalis snorted. “If you need me I’ll be over there watching this farce.”

She walked over to a large tree and settled in its shade, seemingly content to simply watch them fail.

Twilight had no intention of indulging her. “Rainbow Dash, you know better than I do how to get the magic of Harmony into a form I can use. Just think of what you did when we beat Nightmare Moon and Discord. If this works I’ll be able to tap into that magic and I should be able to cast a much more powerful teleportation spell.”

She’d clearly lost Rainbow Dash with all of her talk about complicated spell work, but the pegasus nevertheless closed her eyes and began to concentrate. Ever so slowly her Element began to thrum with a deep crimson light. It was possible to use multiple Elements without using all of them. Twilight started to wonder if it required her Element as the focus point for the magic, but then she stopped that train of thought. It would be a wonderful experiment after they’d defeated Nightmare Moon.

“Okay,” she felt the magic start to pool within her. “It’s working. Let me try some teleportation spells.”

Twilight decided to have a little fun. Chrysalis and Shining Armor suddenly found themselves disappearing and reappearing all around the nearby forest. On top of trees, upside down, even once in the air before a quick return to the ground. This could work.

“That was rather unnecessary.” Chrysalis flipped her mane with a disdain Rarity would be envious of.

“Yeah,” Shining Armor shook his head to collect himself. “We only have to teleport Cadance once, why’d you have to have us going all over the Everfree Forest?”

“One experiment isn’t enough data,” Twilight said dismissively. “The problem now is that I was just moving you two around at a short distance without any protection. Cadance has powerful anti-teleportation spells up, and we might have to bring her a long ways. I’ll have to teleport you two through an anti-teleportation shield before I know what we’re going to need to do with Cadance.”

“Well that’s two problems now.” Shining Armor walked up to Twilight. “Unless you can’t teleport through your own spell we don’t have anyone who can cast that spell.”

“Sure we do,” Twilight smiled. “It’s a shield spell, your special talent is magical shields, this should be no problem for you to pick up.”

“Twilight,” her brother sighed. “I was in Manehatten. I was right there when Cadance stopped you from teleporting. If it was any kind of shield spell I’m familiar with I would have picked it up there. Stopping you from teleporting isn't any kind of shield I know, and it’s definitely not any kind of spell that’s related to my talent. It’ll take me weeks, months, to learn how to do that spell, and we don’t have that kind of time.”

“You can do this.” Twilight was insistent. “I know this spell, and it is a shield. Yes, it’s not any kind of shield you've seen before, but you had to see all your shields for the first time at some point. You have to do this big brother, you’re the only pony who can. I’ll break the spell down bit by bit and walk you through it. We’ll have you blocking teleportation before you know it.”

For all of Twilight’s bravado it appeared her brother knew his limitations quite well. Her brother's special talent might have been magical shields, but an anti-teleportation shield was a monstrously complex spell. If Twilight Sparkle’s special talent hadn't been absorbing how to cast spells just by seeing them even she would have quailed at learning such a spell. Shining Armor was as smart as any pony she knew, he was in the top tier of unicorn spellcasters, and she knew just how to break down a spell for him. For all those advantages she might have been trying to teach Sweetie Belle how to cast an anti-teleportation shield.

Chrysalis laughed. “So much for the brave and gallant captain of the royal guards willing to do anything to save his poor, captive wife from the clutches of the evil Nightmare Moon.”

Shining Armor abruptly turned his attention to her. “Well I don’t see you being much help Miss I’m trying to save my whole race from slow starvation at the hands of the evil Nightmare Moon. Why don’t you come over here and put up a shield to keep Twilight from teleporting, oh wait, you can’t. So why don’t you just stay over there and let me work?”

Chrysalis stalked up to Shining Armor. “See how far you get without my help. Wait, you’d have died back in Manehatten because of a spell you’re too stupid to figure out when you actually have to. Tell me, did Cadance marry you out of pity? Because it’s the only reason I can think of why anyone would want to spend more than an hour around you.”

Shining Armor planted himself right in Chrysalis’ face. “So I suppose you just crawled out of whatever abyss spawned you knowing everything there is to know about magic. Well, except for that tiny little fact Cadance and I could combine our magic to blast you and your whole worthless swarm to the ends of nowhere.”

They were practically breathing in each other's nostrils as Chrysalis spat back. “My children brought your proud capital to the brink of collapse while half starved. You’re fed, rested, plenty motivated, and you can’t even do what you’re supposed to be skilled at. I know why Cadance married you now, even on her worst days she’d always know she was far better than you!”

“Twilight,” Rainbow Dash said from where she and the unicorn were watching the spat. “Those two are kind of scaring me. Are we gonna have to break them up?”

Twilight sighed at the spectacle her brother and Chrysalis were making. “I wish I could say you get used to those two, but I still haven’t. And no, they haven’t tried to kill each other yet, but the day is young. Just let them get it out of their systems and everything will go back to normal.”

Meanwhile, Chrysalis and Shining Armor had lost all sense of personal space.

“You’re a worthless failure of a unicorn!”

“I was good enough to send you packing!”

“Your wife sent me packing, with your sister’s help. You barely had anything to do with it. It’s a wonder your parents didn’t disown when you were a foal.”

“It’s a wonder your ‘children’ didn’t disown you after you failed so completely in Canterlot.”

“A good queen learns from her failures, I learned. You don’t seem to have learned anything new since walking. Can you even do the simplest of spells without Twilight Sparkle holding your hoof?”

Shining Armor’s horn flared with magic, almost as though he was about to attack Chrysalis. “Twilight, try to teleport, now.”

Twilight had more or less tuned out the argument, and wasn't particularly expecting any resistance to her spell, so she put barely any effort behind her spell. It came therefore, as something of a surprise when her spell unraveled as it hit a wall.

“I’m starting to think this is how they work together,” she said quietly to Rainbow Dash. She continued in a louder voice. “Whatever you did, I think it worked. Let me try again.”

This time she prepared a proper teleportation spell. She felt it begin to grab her, and then it fell apart at that same wall. “That’s it Shining Armor! Keep that up, I’m going to start using the Elements to punch through your shield and figure out what I’ll need to do to grab Cadance.”

The Elements of Loyalty and Magic began to glow with a dull light. Twilight wove a teleportation spell around her brother. She felt it start to fall apart at that wall, but then she used the extra magic to hold the spell together and pull it through. Her brother disappeared with a crack and reappeared next to Chrysalis.

“If that were for real,” Twilight said. “All we’d have to do is have Shining Armor standing right there to put a hoof on Cadance and this will all be over. We've still got a lot of details to work out, but we’re definitely on the right track, and now we have the pony power to pull this off.”

Twilight quickly discovered a hole in her plan. Overcoming her brother’s shield while standing next to him was easy enough. However, as she moved away from him the difficulty seemed to increase out of all proportion to the distance gained. Bringing her brother from Canterlot through his shield would have exhausted her to collapse. Bringing Cadance from Canterlot through her shield was out of the question.”

“If we want to teleport Cadance we’re going to have to be inside Canterlot.” They had all gathered after Twilight finished experimenting. “The closer we are to wherever she is the easier for me it will be, and the more I’ll have left to fight with. I could probably teleport Cadance here with all six Elements, but if we had all six Elements we wouldn't be here in the first place. Chrysalis, you’re going to have to hold enough back to get us out, because I think that even with two Elements this is a one way trip on my part.”

“So where do we do this then?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Canterlot is a big place, and there’s lots of ponies who aren't under Cadance’s control who could still get hurt.”

Twilight sat in thought for awhile before it struck her. “My old rooms at the castle! Celestia hadn't given them to anyone else the last time I was there, and there’s no reason for Cadance to use them. It’s in the castle, so I should be able to bring Cadance there without too much trouble. Shining Armor puts a hoof on her, fries Nightmare Moon, and all this is over. I fix Rarity’s horn, Celestia boots me back to magic kindergarten as punishment for using dark magic in the first place, and we try to move on.”

“Not this again,” Shining Armor sighed. “Twiley, Celestia isn't going to be mad at you for what you did back in Appleloosa. We were desperate, and she could track us wherever we went. You had to stop her using magic.”

“He’s right,” Rainbow Dash said. “I know I said it before, but that’s doing her a favor as long as she’s Cadance’s puppet.”

“I guess.” Twilight didn’t really believe them. Maybe she shouldn't have shot down Chrysalis so quickly. If Celestia exiled her she’d need somewhere to live out her life away from Equestria.

“Come on little sis.” Shining Armor clearly saw through her. “ We've finally got a plan that can really work. This is almost over, and I can’t think of anyone else I’d rather have done it with. And no matter how big a pity party you throw, I’m not going to change my mind.”

They were right. Not that she’d done the right thing, or that Rarity would forgive her, or Celestia for that matter, but she did need to stop moping if they were going to have a chance. She could deal with banishment and her friends hating her after they’d saved Equestria.

“Right,” Twilight took a deep breath. “This isn't the time or the place for that. Is there anything we’re forgetting? Some super secret protection spell around the castle, or some ancient artifact Cadance dug up, we haven’t released Discord in the last few days have we?”

“Not unless we can find more of your friends,” Shining Armor shook his head. “But I think Cadance is keeping them as close to her as she can so we can’t free any more of them.”

“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash said in agreement. “She thought it was some super powerful protection spells that had kept her magic from working on you when she tried it back in Manehatten. She probably figured it out after you freed me in Appleloosa, and she isn't going to be taking any chances with the others.”

“That’s not going to matter,” Twilight made an effort to sound optimistic. “No one is going to notice us come in, no one will know where Cadance has gone until after it’s too late, and once she’s herself again everything should go back to normal.”

“We still have to get together when the fate of Equestria isn't hanging in the balance.” Her brother then turned to glare at Chrysalis. “Some of us aren't invited though.”

“No problem as far as I’m concerned.” If Chrysalis was offended she showed no signs. “I’ll be perfectly content to never see you again for as long as I live. I have never met another creature who makes me so angry. I’m going to start punishing any of my children who misbehave by making them turn into you so I can take out that anger.”

Chrysalis and Shining Armor quickly got into another of their up close and personal arguments. Twilight was content to let them shout themselves out. She figured that if they got it out of their systems now they’d work better together in Canterlot if things went bad.

“Rainbow Dash,” she turned to her friend. “I am so glad you’re here. I had to put up with those two all by myself before now.”

“How have you not hit them over their heads with a tree by now?” Rainbow Dash looked at the argument with a morbid curiosity.

“Don’t think I haven’t been tempted.” Twilight rolled her eyes at the arguing couple. “But when they actually manage to work together they’re incredible. Like when Shining Armor picked up that teleportation shield, if Chrysalis hadn't goaded him into it he probably would have been at it for days.”

They watched Chrysalis and Shining Armor continue to shout at each other. Twilight took the opportunity to give Rainbow Dash the full story of what they’d been up to. She had of course already given her the cursory version, but telling everything allowed Rainbow Dash to give several insights from the other side of things. For example, so far as Rainbow Dash knew Cadance still hadn't found out about her little conversation with Scootaloo.

It took Chrysalis and Shining Armor about half an hour to finally wind down. Twilight thought with no small bit of amusement that their argument hadn't lasted nearly as long as some she’d listened to. Maybe they were finally growing on each other, and maybe she would suddenly become a dancing virtuoso.

“I hope you two had your fun, you can send each other cards for Hearts and Hooves Day.” Twilight walked over to them. “Now it’s time to get serious . I’ll teleport us into my rooms and then bring Cadance in there. Shining Armor, remember that you need to be standing right next to her when she comes in. We’re probably going to have a second or so before she realizes what’s going on and levels half of Canterlot to kill us.”

“I know little sis.” Shining Armor had his game face on. “This is Cadance we’re talking about. I’m not going to screw this up.”

“Last chance,” Twilight looked around at her companions. “Okay then, here goes.”

For a moment the Element of Magic shone like the sun. In a crack of energy they disappeared from the forest clearing. They reappeared in a large room Twilight was intimately familiar with. She glanced out the window to see Canterlot laid out before her. It looked exactly the same as the last time she’d seen it. If she didn’t know what evil was lurking within these halls she never would have guessed anything was wrong.

“Let’s not waste any time.” She walked briskly to the center of the room. “I’ll find Cadance and yank her here. If she’s in the castle this shouldn't take too long. Shining Armor, wait over there, when Cadance appears just put a hoof on her and love her. Chrysalis, Rainbow Dash, watch the door and the windows. I doubt anyone will spot us, but you can’t be too sure.”

“Twilight, question,” Rainbow Dash said. “What if Pinkie Pie is standing right over there?”

“What?” Twilight asked in disbelief as she looked over just in time to see the pink pony shout out in alarm. Of course, Cadance would need somewhere nearby to put her friends, and Twilight wasn't exactly using her rooms.

Twilight’s friends all came rushing out into the main room. Fluttershy turned immediately for the window in an attempt to alert others, but Rainbow Dash was on top of her and they tumbled to the ground in a tangle of wings.

Applejack sent an astronomical model through the air at Twilight. She grabbed a table with her magic and listened with some dismay as the fragile apparatus shattered. Her dismay fled however, when Applejack’s hooves punched through that same table. The table was an inch and a half of solid oak, made to stand up to the worst piles of books Twilight could generate during a marathon study session.

Before Applejack could pull her legs out from the holes Twilight whipped the table towards where Rarity was using hoof to hoof combat to hold her brother at bay. As her friend jumped out of the way Twilight pushed down a nauseous feeling upon seeing those black crystals jutting out of her horn. As soon as she saw her, Rarity let out a scream of rage and charged. Whatever Rainbow Dash and her brother said, Rarity seemed disinclined to forgive Twilight Sparkle using dark magic on her.

Twilight grabbed several books with her magic and started whirling them about to defend against Rarity’s attacks. The other unicorn seemed quite intent on not just hurting, but killing her. Twilight was hardly a novice at self defense, but she was constantly hampered by her guilt and her desire to not hurt her friend. Rarity was under no such constraints, and she steadily pushed Twilight back across the room probing for a hole in her defense.

Twilight was just starting to get desperate when her fight was interrupted by a tangle of pegasi crashing to the ground on her and Rarity. Rarity tumbled into the table Applejack had trashed and was knocked unconscious as her head met solid oak. Twilight went the other way and stumbled into Pinkie Pie as she was fighting Chrysalis.

“I don’t need the help,” Chrysalis said testily as Twilight righted herself. She didn’t however, seem inclined to turn away Twilight’s help in taking down Pinkie Pie.

The normally party obsessed pony fought with a grim determination. Her mane lay flat across her head and not a trace of joy showed on her face. She was clearly using her Pinkie Sense to dodge the storm of books, ornaments, and things lying around sent towards her by Chrysalis and Twilight. And every chance she got, Pinkie Pie sent back explosive cupcakes, razor sharp confetti, and all manner of party favors that had no business being potentially lethal weapons.

Pinkie Sense or no, Pinkie Pie couldn't defy the laws of physics. Twilight yanked a whole bookshelf into the air and sent it at the earthy pony. Being capable of neither flight nor teleportation she took a biography of Princess Platinum to the face. The book hadn't hit hard enough to knock Pinkie Pie out, Twilight didn’t want to risk breaking her nose with the book, but it more than stunned her long enough for the mist of a sleep spell to settle around her head.

Twilight had precious little time to celebrate as she heard a sharp crack. She turned to see Applejack putting another hole in her heavy oak table. She’d gotten that table as a total overreaction after a third table had collapsed under the weight of a few hundred books. It had seen her through her worst panic attacks about upcoming tests and now it was getting destroyed in an afternoon.

She started running towards Applejack and put up one of her brother’s shields around her. Completely occupied by her fight, Applejack never saw the ball of magenta energy until Twilight charged into her from behind. Applejack was too tough to be put down by that, but like Pinkie Pie it gave plenty of time for her brother to cast a sleep spell.

That left only Fluttershy. The normally meek pegasus snorted with anger as three ponies and the Changeling Queen approached her. True to her completely flipped nature Fluttershy didn’t try to run. Instead, she charged headlong into the four of them. It took them briefly by surprise, but nowhere near enough surprise to give Fluttershy the breathing space she needed to escape Twilight’s rooms and warn Cadance.

As the last of her friends collapsed unconscious at her hooves Twilight paused to catch her breath. “Well, that wasn't so bad.”

“No,” her brother said as he surveyed the wreck they’d made of her old rooms. “At least we won this time.”

“ We've done more than just win.” Twilight walked over to Rarity. Her horn glowed sullenly with a black miasma and the crystals around Rarity’s horn shattered to dust. “ We've got all six Elements, and now we have all six ponies we need to use them. We know the Elements will return them to normal, so let’s put them on and use them.”

“Back where we started.” Her brother laughed as he produced the plain sack containing the four precious necklaces. “I’m certainly not going to complain if we can just blast Nightmare Moon out of Cadance without giving her a chance to fight back.”

As the words left his mouth they were all blown backwards as the air split from a mighty teleportation spell. It cleared to show Cadance standing there. Her mane was effervescent with energy, her horn crackled with magic, and her eyes glowed with the madness and hate of a being that had nursed a grudge against Equestria for over a thousand years.

“I felt my slave’s magic return as soon as you took that block off. There’s only one pony in all Equestria who knows that spell, Twilight Sparkle. Now, no more games, no more escapes, no more mercy. I will rip you apart while you feel every second of it like a year, then I will hang your bloody corpse from the gates of the castle so every pony in every corner of Equestria knows what it means to cross me, and then I will sow this land with darkness and evil that will fester for a thousand generations.”

“Run!” Was Twilight’s only response.