by ArguingPizza
~~~
Cadence sat frozen in shock, her eyes locked on the misty apparition of Shining Armor’s Cutie Mark hanging above her bed. Obscured by the swirling cloud of arcane smoke, the condom that had been her undoing lay draped across the velvety covers.
“He was supposed to flush it,” Cadence babbled to herself as she brought her legs and wings tightly to her barrel, desperately seeking any comfort she could find. “He was supposed to flush it why didn’t he flush it?”
In an instant, Cadence leapt to her hooves as her mind caught up to the present. The look of pure hate on her wife’s face, Shining Armor’s ghostly insignia, Twilight’s raging teleportation spell…
Cadence burst through the balcony doors with enough force to knock them from their hinges. Her wings had barely extended before she leapt from the Crystal Spire, a trail of loose papers and quills following in her wake. She banked hard to the south, her wings pounding against the air’s resistance with the force of hammer blows. In seconds, the Crystal City was behind her, a shrinking outline against the horizon.
As the ground was reduced to a blur below her, Cadence cursed her magic. She may have been an Alicorn, but Twilight’s magic dwarfed hers in both power and skill. She couldn’t mimic Twilight’s teleportation, and as fast as she was in the air, it was almost a 3 hour train ride to Canterlot.
She never doubted for a moment that was where Twilight had gone; as Captain of the Royal Guard, Shining Armor made his headquarters in the Palace.
With another curse, the light around Cadence’s horn brightened. The papers and quills she had grabbed during her departure spun into a frenzy. Puffs of green smoke dissolved them, sending them ahead of her faster than lightning.
celestia twilight is coming stop her
you have to stop twilight
shining armor is in danger
stop twilight
stp twilight
sp twight
The barrage of half-written missives grew less legible with every second that passed. Cadence’s panic was overwhelming her. Fear for Twilight, fear for Shining Armor, fear for Canterlot. She hoped, prayed, that Celestia and Luna would react fast enough to her warnings to save Shining Armor. The look in Twilight’s eyes a moment before she had unleashed the tempest of arcane fury in their quarters had stuck her to the core with a fear she had never experienced.
Not even Sombra at his worst had been so terrible.
A fresh wave of disgust washed over her. She had taken Twilight, sweet, beautiful, loving Twilight, and stomped on her heart. Her betrayal had taken the most wonderful pony she had ever known and turned her into a monster.
The realization sapped the strength from her muscles. Her wingbeats slackened until the feathery appendages hung limp in the air. The ground rushed up to meet her. Her hooves caught on a treetop, and her world was upended. She tumbled through the air, the earth and sky blending into one green-blue swirl.
Her body crashed through the forest canopy, snapping branches as thick as her barrel like toothpicks. Her immaculate coat was marred by long, bloody scratches along her sides. Her chin bounced against a tree trunk with an audible crack, and the taste of blood filled her mouth.
Her body slammed into the ground, plowing through underbrush and carving a trench through the dirt. Her inertia scraped her along the ground, eventually bleeding away and leaving her in a small clearing. She wheezed for breath, and knew that only her status as an Alicorn had spared her life.
She rested on the ground, not bothering to try and stand. Her entire body hurt, and blood was pooling around her mouth. She had bitten a hole in her tongue when her jaw slammed against the tree, and her right wing had broken on landing. It was pinned under her, and any movement on her part sent white-hot lances of pain up her spine.
She had no idea how long she laid in the dirt before a flash of cobalt blue magic appeared out of the corner of her eye. She attempted to raise her head, only to collapse again when the motion threatened to make her scream in agony.
Her ears caught the approaching sound of hoofsteps, and suddenly Princess Luna appeared above her.
Princess Luna wore a deep scowl, and looked down at her as one might an offending insect. She held her glare, and when she spoke, her voice was as cold as the void between stars.
“What have you done?”
Cadence had no answer for her, and could only close her eyes in shame.