//------------------------------//
// The Night it all Began 
// Story: The Nightmare of Princess Cadence 
// by twilightsparkle3562 
//------------------------------//

												Chapter 2
“The Night it All Began”

By the time that Cadence’s nightmares were starting to take form, she and Shining Armor had only been rulers of the Crystal Empire for a short period of time.  Of course, they did have the moments where they missed their old lives back in Canterlot, but they enjoyed ruling over the Crystal Empire and its inhabitants, the Crystal ponies.  Cadence and Shining Armor loved them and the Crystal Ponies loved Cadence and Shining Armor.  For 1,000 years, the Crystal Ponies were ruled by the evil King Sombra, who ruled over the Crystal Empire with an Iron hoof.  It wasn’t until he returned recently to reclaim his throne did Cadence lead the Crystal Ponies in exterminating him from existence.  

But, one night, it seemed like not everything in evil terms had disappeared from Cadence and Shining Armor’s lives.  A dark shadow continued to hang over them in the form of the Changeling Queen, Chrysalis.  As Shining Armor slept soundly in the bed he had shared with the love of his life, he began to feel the bed move violently and the sounds of Cadence screaming had woken him up with a start.  

“HELP ME, SHINING ARMOR!” Cadence sobbed as she continued to shake violently.  “GET ME OUT OF HERE!  YOU’RE MARRYING A FAKE!”

Finally, she opened her eyes and sobbed into her husband’s arms.  Shining Armor didn’t quite know what to make of this, but he knew that Cadence was the real victim in the Changeling Invasion of Canterlot.  After all, Shining Armor's biggest regret was not heeding his sister's warnings about Chrysalis and because of that, Cadence continued to be scarred with the memories of being in the caves.

“Cadence, it’s all right.  I’m here for you,” he said softly as he hugged his wife tightly.  “You just had a nightmare, that’s all.”

Cadence released her grip on her husband and Shining Armor could see that her eyes were filled with tears and heavy puffy bags were underneath them.  It was more worse than when she tried to keep Sombra at bay with her magic.  During that period, Cadence barely slept and barely ate, causing Shining Armor to grow even more concerned for his wife.

“Shining Armor, it was awful,” she gasped, finally calming down a bit from her heavy sobbing.  “I was having a dream where Chrysalis returned and kidnapped me from the Crystal Empire and then threw me down in the Canterlot Caves.”

“But we sent Chrysalis as far away as possible,” said Shining Armor, trying to calm down his wife.  “We used the power of our love to banish her, remember?  She was sent deep into Equestria, remember?"

He then used his magic to give his wife a glass of water as the loud screaming had caused Cadence’s throat to become dry and the only sounds that came out of her was ragged gasps from the hard crying she had made.

“Yes, we did,” she sighed, her voice ragged from all the crying, seemingly still worried.  “But, I have this strange feeling that she’s going to come back, Shining Armor and ruin our lives again.”

She began to cry again and as she continued to let her feelings out, Shining Armor could not help but think back to the wedding rehearsal when Twilight tried to warn him, Princess Celestia and her friends that Cadence was not who she claimed that she was.  Yes, Twilight did say that they were all fooled, but not before Shining Armor kicked Twilight out of the wedding which would turn into the worst mistake he had ever made.

“Cadence,” he said, rising out of bed to come over and sit next to Cadence as she sat up for him to sit next to her.  “What you just experienced was something in your mind.  Do you remember when Twiley had those same feelings when she first enrolled in Princess Celestia’s school?  She thought that she would fail and you saw what happened.”

“But, this is different, Shining Armor,” sighed Cadence, adjusting her messed up mane.  “In the dream, Chrysalis said that she would return and seek revenge for what we did to her and the Changelings.  The memories of my imprisonment in the Canterlot Caves aren’t going away anytime soon and I fear that I am going to go back for good.”

Shining Armor then gave Cadence a handkerchief and the pink alicorn princess managed to blow her nose.  Once she stopped blowing, Shining Armor pulled Cadence towards him and looked at her straight in the eye.

“You’re wrong, Cadence,” replied Shining Armor, placing a hoof onto Cadence’s hoof and turning her face towards his.  “As long as I am here with you, you will not go back to the caves beneath Canterlot.  You realize that you have the love and support of Twilight, her friends, your aunts, your subjects and me.”

Although not fully sure of what her husband was trying to say, Cadence smiled a little, but was still scared by the nightmare that she had just experienced.  Chrysalis was the most dangerous threat to Canterlot next to Discord and it had to take Cadence’s imprisonment for both Shining Armor and Princess Celestia to realize that.

“But, I think that you are also still getting used to our role as rulers of the Crystal Emprie,” suggested Shining Armor, trying to make his wife happy again.  “And the way you act around your subjects is remarkable to an extent.  Nopony realizes that we are more loving and caring than either Queen Chrysalis or King Sombra combined.”

After a moment, Cadence began to feel tired and although she felt reassured to a small degree, the memories of that time in the Canterlot Caves on the eve of her wedding was the worst moment that she would ever experience.  After all, had it not been for Twilight, the pony that she loved to sit for the most, she wouldn’t have been married to the Stallion of her dreams and that their rule over the Crystal Empire would never have happened.  

As Cadence fell back to sleep, Shining Armor stayed awake and wondered how scared his wife really was. He knew deep down that had he and Celestia listened to Twilight at the rehearsal, then maybe things would have been a lot different.  Instead, he ignored the concerns and was taken advantage of by the Changelings, allowing their plans to come to fruition and result what eventually became the near death of Canterlot under his own watch.  

Ever since then, he had dedicated himself to heeding any suspicious warning that came his way so that a repeat of the invasion would never happen again.  But, he took note that his wife’s imprisonment in the Canterlot Caves was a warning that something was defiantly wrong with Cadence and that he was going to do whatever he could to help his wife, by any means necessary…