I woke up and blearily rubbed my eyes. There was sunlight streaming through my window, so I guessed it to be somewhere around eleven o' clock. I got up and stretched, making my way to the kitchen as I did so. My left hand got very itchy as I neared the kitchen, but I dismissed it as just a normal itch. When I entered the kitchen I was greeted by a very enthusiastic Pinkie Pie.
"Hello and good morning, Mr. Sleepyhead. You always miss out on some of the best things when you sleep for that long, like Hearths Warming and that time where Flim and Flam were here squeezing up trouble and…"
I tuned her out and made my way to the fridge, grabbing a cup along the way. I poured myself some orange juice. I slowly drank as Pinkie retold what had happened while I slept, but it was pointless for her to tell me what happened. I already knew everything that went on.
"And today, all of our friends are going to have a picnic on this great hill! I should probably get going so that I'm not late to it. Twilight would be mad at me again if I was late to this. Bye!" She gave me a hug and bolted out of my house.
"Hey, remember to close the door behind you! And don't slam it." I heard the door slowly click shut and then I made myself a breakfast fit for a king. This, in reality, wasn't much for me. I finished it off within a few minutes and started to get dressed. I realized then that Pinkie had seen me in nothing but my underwear; and I got really embarrassed. I finished up with dressing and transformed before I left my house.
The hill where they were having the picnic wasn't that far off, so I made my way there doing a light jog. I got there in five minutes, and was greeted by the girls. Twilight was starting to trust me more than she previously did. I sat down next to Pinkie and I grabbed a sandwich; then I quietly munched away as I waited for Spike to come running up the hill. I was three sandwiches in when he finally appeared, heaving his way up the hill on his stubby legs.
"Twi... light! ...I... have... Lemme just..." He took a deep breath and then belched out a scroll before he fell to the ground panting. Twilight took the scroll and started to read it. I got up and backed a few feet away from the group and made my preparations to blink into Canterlot. I had to do it so that I didn't disturb Shining's barrier, and I had to land where nopony would see me immediately. I decided to blink into Celestias room, that was most likely empty and where nopony would see me.
I blinked as soon as Twilight had finished reading about who was getting married. I didn't want to sit there through that song; it wasn't one of my favorites. I felt dizzy as I landed in the room; I had no idea why though. It might have been because of the barrier messing with my usual routine for blinking, but that was only a random guess. I heard a gasp and I quickly ran to the door and opened it. It was closed with magic that had a golden glow and I gulped as I turned around to see Celestia standing in front of a mirror.
"So, why do I have the pleasantry of your presence in my room this morning?" She had the kind of smile on her face that said she was seriously ticked off; her left eyebrow was twitching at a rapid speed.
"Well, I was just making my way here for the wedding and I didn't want to bother anypony with their preparations. And I didn't want to go through that barrier that Shining put up. I figured I would just come in where nopony would be, and I thought that you wouldn't be in your room at this time. I guess I was wrong. And by the way, what were you doing in front of that mirror?"
She blushed and looked away sheepishly. "I remembered what you had said about me making the target too easy to hit. I figured I would be able to tell if my diet had been working lately. There have been no results so far. In fact, it seems to only get worse no matter what I try."
I smiled and patted her on the back. "I was just kidding when I told you that. There's nothing wrong with it. Also, I think it suits someone like you." I walked out of the room, leaving Celestia standing in front of that mirror. She had a raging blush on her face as she looked in the mirror again and shook her flank from side to side. I chuckled and left her to do what she was doing.
The whole city was getting ready for the wedding, but only certain ponies were actually helping to put things up. I saw Fancy Pants helping, so I gave him a hoof for a while. We chatted while we worked, and I learned what had happened in his life since I had last met him. He and Fleur were doing well, and that they were expecting to get married and have a child soon after they got married. I gave him a slap on the back and congratulated him and went on my way after we had finished up with what we were doing. But before I left him, I told him to get everypony in the city to a safe place during the wedding. He asked me why, but I didn't give him an answer.
I found my way to the train station right before the girls had pulled up. They got off the train and I walked up to greet them. "Hello girls, how was your trip over here? Hopefully it wasn't strange going through that barrier; security is somewhat tight right now because there was a threat against Canterlot. We don't know who sent the threat, but that doesn't mean that it is meaningless." Twilight barreled past me, heading towards the castle at a fast pace. "Let me guess, she's going to confront her brother about him not telling her about the wedding."
Rarity spoke first, "Yes, darling, she is. I too would have been angry if one of my siblings was getting married and had not invited me personally. And I would have been insulted even more if they had not asked me to design the bridesmaid dresses."
Applejack moved to the front of the group as we made our way to the castle. "Ah would have been mad too, but Twilight seems to be more sad than angry. She missed her brother, and he seems to have forgotten about her."
"He didn't forget about her, Applejack." I told her and the group as we entered the halls of the castle. "He simply has a lot of stuff to focus on right now, and he didn't have the time to do things himself. He also gets magic induced headaches from the constant replenishing of the barrier. You girls should probably get to your jobs; there is a busy day ahead of us. Same goes for the rest of the week."
They said goodbye and we parted ways. I moved towards the wall where Twilight and Shining were talking, almost running into 'Cadance' as I made my way there. We walked there together without speaking, a tense air between us. It was almost as if she could feel that I knew who she really was. We walked out onto the wall and Twilight ran up to 'Cadance' and did her ladybug dance. "Cadance simply looked at her with a look of disgust and walked up to Shining Armor.
"I've gotta get back to my station, but Cadance will be checking in with all of you to see how things are going. I think I speak for both of us when I say we couldn't be more excited to have you here. Right, dear?" He looked at 'Cadance' expectantly. She just nodded and he walked off to get back to his station.
Twilight and 'Cadance' started to go do their things, but when 'Cadance' walked past me I whispered to her, "You should know that the disguise doesn't fool my, Chrysalis. I won't stop you right now, but I will if you make an early move." She slowly blinked and then quickly made her way after Twilight. I walked back into the city to see what I could do to help.
The rest of the time spent in Canterlot was pretty much uneventful for me. I helped around the city and met with the girls every once and awhile. They spoke about how much fun they were having preparing for the wedding. Rarity only spoke about how much she wanted to improve the dresses, but she just didn't know how she was going to do it. I told her that she would definitely find some way to make them better.
I was looking through the city as I worked, trying to spot any other changelings. I noticed about eight right off the bat, because they were horrible at trying to act like the ponies they were supposed to be. The others were harder to notice because they actually knew how to act. I quietly took them out of the picture, making them sleep and bringing them to the dungeons of the castle. Nopony questioned why I was bringing in so many ponies in such a short amount of time; partly because I was royalty and the other part was about how tight security was at the moment. I just made sure that Chrysalis didn't see me bringing these guys in; this was just a precaution against her.
I woke up on the day of the wedding; I took to sleeping to look like a normal pony, ready for the rest of the day. I would just have and epic battle with Chrysalis after she foolishly revealed herself to the rest of the kingdom. But, first, I would help get Twilight and the real Princess Cadance out of the crystal caverns. I walked to the room where the practice was being held and where the actual wedding was going to be. I got there right after Twilight had gotten there and spoken against Chrysalis. As the ponies filed past me I spoke to them, "You should have really listened to her." They didn't seem to have heard as they kept on walking down the hall.
Twilight collapsed onto the stairs. "Maybe I was being overprotective. I could've gained a sister. But instead... I just lost a brother." She cried after she had sung the last part of her BBBFF song. Chrysalis moved in front of her and looked down. "I'm sorry" Twilight said as she looked up at Chrysalis and wiped her own eyes.
Chrysalis's eyes flashed green and she growled, "You should be." A green flame surrounded Twilight and she slowly sunk into the ground. Chrysalis cackled and started to walk to the door she entered from. I dashed to the flame that was slowly diminishing.
"Geronimo!" I shouted as I jumped into the portal that had been created. The last thing I had seen was Chrysalis turning around and seething in rage that I had gotten into the portal with Twilight. I fell and fell for what seemed like a good three to five minutes. When I had gotten into the caverns I opened my wings so that I could get a soft landing. I landed beside Twilight and picked her up to her hooves.
"Why are you down here? Don't tell me, she got you too?" Twilight looked scared that we had been trapped down here by a pony she thought was her old foalsitter.
"No, I jumped into the portal after you. I knew from the very start that she wasn't who she said she was; I just can't act during the wrong times. That could mess up the flow of things, and I do not like having unknowns in an equation."
She stomped her hoof. "Ug! Why didn't you do anything?! This could have been avoided if you had just said something!" We heard a cackling from around the cavern and Twilight spun around in a circle to see where it was coming from. "Where are we anyways?"
The fake Cadance's face appeared on the largest crystal in the cavern above our heads. "The caves beneath Canterlot, once home to greedy unicorns who wanted to claim the gems that could be found inside. And now, your prison."
Twilight started to panic and look around franticly for a way out. "Help! Help!"
"It's no use. No one can hear you. And no one will ever think to look for you, either. Most ponies have forgotten that these caves even exist, which is why they are the ideal place to keep the ones who try to interfere with my plans." She laughed again and disappeared from the crystal she was on.
"Plans? What plans?"
"The plans for your brother of course."
"Don't you dare do anything to my brother!"
"Only way to stop me is to catch me!" Chrysalis said in a singsong voice as Twilight fired a beam at the crystal where her face was." She disappeared and appeared on another crystal. "Over here!" As Twilight charged up another beam, I put my hoof on her shoulder.
"Twilight, we gain nothing from this. Doing this will only tire you out and serve as entertainment for this fiend. We find the real Princess Cadance and then get out of here and crash the wedding. That's the plan." I fired my own beam at the crystal where Chrysalis was and it shattered it easily, and I also made sure some of the blast transferred over to the caster of the image spell. It wouldn't hurt her, it was only meant to send her skidding back a few feet.
"Twilight looked up at me. "And how do you propose we find where Cadance really is. She could be anywhere down here! And even if we do find her, we still have to find the way out. I can't teleport out of here because the crystals are messing with my location spells."
"Don't worry about getting out; I know these caverns like the back of my hoof." I looked down at the back of my hoof. "Ooh, that cut wasn't there before! And neither was that singe mark. Anyways, the real Cadance is just on the other side of this crystal wall." I busted the wall beside us and as the debris cleared, we could see the real Cadance sitting there. Twilight ran up to her and gave her a hug.
"Twilight, how good it is to see you. If only it was in better circumstances." She hugged Twilight back and looked towards me. "Who is this other pony with you?"
"Oh come on Cadance, did Celestia not tell you about me? I'm Ordeus, your uncle, Celestia's older brother. Now that this is over with, we have to get out of here."
Cadance nodded and rose to her hooves, slightly wobbly. "Yes, we have to get out of here before Shining Armor marries the fake me."
Twilight and I helped her along the halls of the caverns, stopping occasionally so that she could catch her breath. I took us on a path that would avoid most of the cave-ins and seemingly bottomless drops. We passed a few mine cart tracks with mine carts on them and we let Cadance sit in them while I pushed her along. We eventually reached the final mine cart ride that ended with a broken track at the end. I was already flying beside the cart when it had launched into the air. I glanced back and saw that Cadance had finally gotten enough of her strength back to fly and carry Twilight. We landed with a soft thud as Cadance collapsed slightly upon landing.
"Good we just have to find the way… there!" Twilight pointed at a crack where we could see light pouring into the caverns. We were blocked by the three bridesmaids that had been sent down here to stop us."
They all said in unison, "You're not going anywhere."
I just looked at Cadance and gave a nod. She pulled out the bouquet and threw it over the edge. The bridesmaids chased after it. "Don't you think that was a bit too much?"
"There is water down there so there's a soft landing. Now, let's go save my fiancée." She rushed through the crack, startling a few ponies that were near the holed off entrance. She had fit easily through the boards.
I had to break through the boards, sending splinters flying everywhere. The ponies that had been startled by Cadance ran off when I had busted out. Twilight was right behind me, charging up her horn for a teleport spell. "No time for that!" I blinked us over to where Cadance was running through the streets. "I got this Cadance!" I then blinked us all to the entrance to the wedding room, where Twilight busted into the room to halt the ceremony. I walked in behind her slowly, causing a few standers by to gasp upon seeing me.
The fake chrysalis looked shocked and sad at the same time. "Ugh! Why does she have to be so possessive of her brother?" She gave a fake sob. "Why does she have to ruin my special day?"
The real Cadance barged in. "Because it's not your special day! It's mine!" The rest of the room gasped when she had appeared. It seemed that all these ponies could do was gasp. It was really annoying.
"What? But how did you escape my bridesmaids?"
I spoke up. "You shouldn't guard the bride, who has the bouquet, with her own bridesmaids. That was possibly one of the worst decisions you have made during this entire takeover."
Applejack glanced between the two Cadances in the room. "I-I don't understand. How can there be two of 'em?"
The real princess Cadance explained to the room, "She's a changeling. She takes the form of somepony you love and gains power by feeding off your love for them."
Chrysalis engulfed her body in green flames, slowly revealing her true form. The ponies, again, gasped. They really needed to find out how to express a wider range of reactions in situations like these. "Right you are, Princess. And as queen of the changelings, it is up to me to find food for my subjects. Equestria has more love than any place I've ever encountered. My fellow changelings will be able to devour so much of it that we will gain more power than we have ever dreamed of!" She gave a glance at her hoof, a smug smile plastered on her face. "Ever since I took your place, I've been feeding off Shining Armor's love for you. Every moment he grows weaker and so does his spell. Even now my minions are chipping away at it." Everypony in the audience looked outside to see a swarm of changelings bashing the barrier, slowly making dents and cracks in its surface. "Soon, my changeling army will break through. First, we take Canterlot. And then, all of Equestria!"
Celestia stepped in between Chrysalis and the rest of the ponies in the room. "No. You won't. You may have made it impossible for Shining Armor to perform his spell, but now that you have so foolishly revealed your true self, I can protect my subjects from you!" She shot a beam of magic from her horn, Chrysalis quickly countered. The two beams clashed against each other for a short while before Chrysalis's beam overpowered Celestia's and blasted Celestia to the ground, throwing her crown to the ground.
Chrysalis stood there in a second of amazement before laughing evilly. "It's funny, really, Twilight here was suspicious of my behavior all along. Too bad the rest of you were too caught up in your wedding planning to realize those suspicions were correct!"
Applejack walked up beside Twilight and placed a hoof on her shoulder. "Sorry, Twi. We should have listened to you."
Twilight smiled at Applejack and told her "It's not your fault. She fooled everypony!"
Chrysalis was about to respond to that when I intervened. "Uh, guys, right now is not really the time to be asking for reconciliation. You guys go help fend off the changelings while I take care of this problem." The girls along with Cadance nodded and ran off into the city to help with the fighting. "And now that they're gone, I don't have to hold back." I shifted forms and brought my Daedric armor to me while I shifted. I pulled out a large two handed sword from my hammerspace and acted like I was having trouble swinging it up to my shoulder.
"It seems that you have some changeling powers of your own, foolish pony. Why not abandon those weak ponies and join us, you could be king of the changelings! But of course, I would still be the supreme ruler and you would be under me in the hierarchy."
"Nah, I don't really feel like being under anybody in any hierarchy. I also don't want to be blasted out of Canterlot by a magical bubble." I slowly made my way towards her, still pretending that the sword was really heavy and that it weighed me down immensely.
She growled in frustration. "Fine then, don't join us! That just means that you will be crushed in our path towards conquering Equestria!" She charged up another beam of magic from her horn and fired it at me.
I slowed down time around me and simply stepped out of the way, after which I returned the flow of time to normal. The beam hit one of the doors and blew it off its hinges. She just raised her eyebrows in surprise and fired another shot. We went through these steps a few times, me moving closer every time I slowed down time. She began to panic seeing that I was slowly gaining ground even though I seemed that I was moving too slowly to have made it so far in such a short amount of time.
"How are you doing this? It seems that every time my magic is about to hit you, you simply sidestep it and keep moving." She backed up into the wall and growled in frustration again. "It seems that this method is fruitless, how about we try something else." She buzzed her wings and took to flying around the room, while trying to stay away from me.
"The truth is, I'm just slowing down time whenever you fire a blast at me. And this sword isn't heavy at all, I only made it seem that way so you would drop your guard slightly. Have you not noticed the marks on the floor that I have left whenever I sidestepped your magic?" I indicated some magical marks on the floor that I had been placing every time I had dodged her magic. I then sent a small burst of magic into each, causing a geyser of blue magical flames spurt up from the floor. "I have literally been toying with you this entire time, wasting time so that the others would have time to do what they need to do. I also do not wish to actually harm or kill you, so that's another reason why I did it this way."
She screamed in anger and shot a hail of magical energy on my position. I placed the flat edge of the blade in front of me, blocking the energy and sending it back at her. She flew out of the way of the energy and took another shot at me. This time I just flash stepped out of the way and jumped into the air. I sprouted dragon wings that were a midnight black with blood red highlights around the edges of the scales and just hovered there. Wings felt really weird, the feel of the air fitting in the pockets of membrane and giving lift was somewhat tingly. I guess that it was something you just get used to after a while of flying.
"You have been gaining new powers as you fight! That is completely un-natural! This is the last chance I will give you, join us or perish protecting these weak ponies." She charged up a large amount of energy in her horn, preparing to send a destructive ball of magic at me.
"As I have already said before, I will continue to protect these ponies while I can. I will not join you, and I will finish this fight if need be." I raised the sword in one hand and pointed it at her, me looking at her down the spine of the weapon. "And I will use lethal force if need be."
She didn't say anything before she sent the ball hurling towards me. I hovered there without moving, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike back. The ball got closer, and then finally reached the exact point I was waiting for it to reach. I swung my sword and hit the ball with the spine of the weapon and sent it back. Chrysalis's eyes widened in shock as she tried to backpedal in the air before she got hit. The ball collided with her and she lost consciousness, falling to the floor. I caught her before she hit the ground and shifted back into my pony form.
The girls came rushing into the room just a few seconds after I had reverted to my pony form. Cadance ran up to Shining Armor and helped him raise the shield again. I felt a slight push as the force field passed through me, probably detecting the part of me that wasn't pony. The changelings were blasted out of the city along with the queen. Nopony had asked me how I had defeated the one who had beaten Princess Celestia, and they were never going to get an answer even if they did ask.
Celestia walked in after the barrier had been put up and Twilight rushed up to her asking all these random questions, but most of them were asking if she was going to be okay. Celestia just bent down and nuzzled her student. "Don't worry about me. I'm fine. You have a real wedding to put together." I just nodded in agreement and used my magic to fix up Canterlot and the room from any damage it had received in the fighting. The ponies around took a deep breath in in amazement.
"How did you do that so quickly, using that amount of magic? You just defeated Chrysalis, who defeated Princess Celestia, and you still have magic to spare for such a large scale thing like that?" Twilight asked in a shocked voice.
"Hey, I have vast reserves of magical power. What I used to fight Chrysalis wasn't even scratching the surface of those reserves. And I fixed everything that way because it would have been a pain in the royal tush to have fixed everything by hoof or by small amounts of magic." I giggled as I said tush, because I was poking fun at Celestia. She seemed to have noticed, because she gave me a glare. The others simply looked confused. "Don't worry about it guys. Something between us that should stay that way. Now let's get this wedding started, it has been to long waiting."
Everypony agreed and we all gathered the wedding guests again. The wedding went as planned and the after party was a blast. I got asked to dance from a few of the classier ponies and I danced with them to appease them. I also danced with the girls, Rarity being the best dancer of them all. When Pinkie got Vinyl up to play Love's In Bloom, I got them to throw a mic to me as well. I made sure that Vinyl had gotten the record for the Aviators version, because I was going to sing along with Twilight and do the rap in the middle. When I mentioned the muffins, I found Derpy and the Doctor in the crowd and gave them a wink. We finished and were applauded by everypony in the audience.
"I didn't know that you could sing like that. Did you have it in you the entire time?" Celestia came up to me after the party had ended.
"Yeah, I just didn't feel like singing in everything else that came up. I have many other talents that I have hidden and I won't even show half of them. The next time I show myself shall be a time of great importance, for you and some ponies in a frozen wasteland."
"You don't mean…" She looked shocked, her mouth hanging open.
"Yes, I do mean what you are thinking I mean. I just simply don't know when that will happen. It could be in a few years, months, or even days. But when it does happen, I'll be there right away. Send Twilight and her friends about three days after it appears. That should be enough time in between it showing up and them finding out about its existence. Now, I shall take my leave." I trotted off to go find Twilight and the others. "Just make sure you send Cadance and Shining there immediately after it shows up. Shining can come back to escort Twilight and the others when they have to make the trip there."
"Okay, I will make sure that that is done to the point. Have a good rest." She headed off to the castle, most likely to the barracks to tell some of the guards to keep an eye out for the Crystal Empire.
I found the girls making their way to the station and joined them. They were all laughing and chattering about what they thought was going to happen next. Spike made the comment about how they would have to wait for what he had planned for the bachelor party. That elicited new laughs as we got on board the train, and it left a very confused Spike waiting for an explanation that he would never get.
The ride back was uneventful as the girls were tired and sleeping until we got back to Ponyville. I was watching the landscape from the window and I noticed a shadow coming up alongside the train. I glanced around to see if any of the girls were awake, and when I was sure that none of them were I opened the window and jumped out. I flared my wings and caught an updraft that let me hover just out of the trains slipstream. I saw that the shadow was actually Luna, looking for the train compartment we were staying in.
"I wish to speak to you about what happened today. It seems that I missed many things while I slept." She hovered beside me as we made our way to Ponyville, letting the train get ahead of us.
"You mean while you were playing your games with your blinds closed, right?" She blushed deeply, letting me know that I was correct. "Don't worry; I'll fill you in on what happened. Let's fly faster; it won't really take me that long to fill you in." We flew towards my house, me filling her in quickly and then just engaging idle chatter after I had finished. She didn't really have anything interesting to say other that she also had noticed that Celestia was putting on a few pounds. We shared a few laughs before we reached my house, and I said goodbye to her as I landed at my doorstep.
"Well, it has been fun talking to you. I have to get back to Canterlot and carry out the royal duties." She got prepared to take off again, but I stopped her.
"I'll just teleport you over there so you don't have to worry about travel time." I immediately sent her to the throne room and then I entered my house. I locked the door behind me and trudged up the stairs. I didn't even bother changing forms before I fell on the bed and drifted off to sleep.