//------------------------------// // Silver 2 by ArguingPizza // Story: Magic of Love: A Twidance Prompt Collab // by ArguingPizza //------------------------------// by ArguingPizza ~~~ “H-hi, Twilight.” Cadence’s words hung in the air, stagnating and poisoning the atmosphere as Twilight stood motionless. Her eyes were wide in a light shade of panic, and she appeared to hang on the precipice between bolting away and slamming the door in Cadence’s face. Cadence found herself uncomfortable in her own skin, and her heart ached to see Twilight stare at her with fear and anger. A white blue behind Twilight caught Cadence’s attention, and she noticed Celestia standing atop a set of stairs that led higher into Twilight’s Castle. Celestia looked nearly as shocked as Twilight, though there was no fear to be found in the depths of the Sun Queen. Cadence glared at her suspiciously, treacherous thoughts flashing through her mind. “C-Cadence,” Twilight said in a near whisper, her voice catching. Cadence nodded uneasily, forcing herself to look away from Celestia. Twilight was breaking out of her shell-shock state, and a parade of emotions shifted over her features in such rapid succession to be nearly indistinguishable. Twilight looked behind herself, towards Celestia, then back to Cadence. She swallowed and shifted her feet, then moved to the side of the door. “Would you…would you like to come in?” she asked, her tone quickly whipped into civility. Cadence hid a wince, and bowed her head gratefully. She walked inside the Castle of Harmony and was reminded of the Crystal Spire. The entire superstructure appeared to be a single intricate slab of crystal, each feature blending into the next seamlessly. Even the stairs and bookcases seemed grown rather than built. It was a beautiful Castle, and suited Twilight perfectly, but Cadence couldn’t have cared less if she was standing in a collapsing mud hut in the middle of a burning forest. All her attention was on her wife, who was doing her best to school her feelings. She was largely successful, but Cadence knew her well enough to pick out fragments. There was hurt, nervousness, and of course, anger. From atop the stairs, Celestia cleared her throat. “I will give you two your privacy.” She looked directly at Twilight, making a point not to as much as glance at Cadence. “If you need me, I shall be in the library.” Twilight nodded as Celestia turned and left in the direction from whence she had come, leaving the two of them alone in the foyer. They stood awkwardly for several moments before Twilight cleared her throat. “Would you…like something to drink?” Cadence opened her mouth to decline, but before the words could crest her lips she noticed the desperate, dry burning in her throat. Several days of hardly eating or drinking, combined with the exertion of her rapid flight to Ponyville, had left her parched. “Water, please,” she said with a nod. Twilight turned and led her through the castle’s first floor to an enormous kitchen, nearly as large as the Crystal Spire’s. Cadence hadn’t spent much time in the Castle of Harmony, and was taken by surprise. “Wow, fancy. This is even nicer than the Canterlot Palace kitchens,” Cadence noted, trying to avoid another awkward silence. Twilight gave a noncommittal nod as she pulled a glass from a cupboard and filled it at the tap and passed it over. Cadence accepted it gracefully, chugging nearly half the glass in a single pull. Her thirst momentarily quenched, Cadence looked up to find Twilight watching her expectantly. She realized that, after having flown a quarter of the way across Equestria and showing up at Twilight’s door unannounced after almost a week of no contact, she should probably say something. This was it. This was her moment to save her marriage, to pull her own stupid flank out of the fire that she had stoked. What she had done was indefensible, unacceptable, and unforgettable. But maybe, just maybe, it wasn’t unforgivable, if she could find the right words. “Twilight, I…” Cadence took a deep breath, and as she stared into Twilight’s beautiful eyes, nothing came to her. “I’m sorry,” she said, her head falling in defeat. There was a brief quiet, like the calm before a storm. “Is that it?” Twilight asked unbelievably. “Is that all you have to say to me after what you did? That you’re sorry?” Cadence backpedaled as Twilight advanced on her, the fire in her eyes a shade that could only be sparked by betrayal of the one closest to her heart. “Twilight, I—“ “No! You had sex with my brother, in our bed, and all you can think to say to me is that you’re sorry?!” Cadence stammered wordlessly under the onslaught as she desperately struggled to put two words together in her defense. “Why? Just tell me why, Cadence!” “Because it felt right!” Cadence bellowed, the force of shout pushing Twilight back on her hooves. Twilight and Cadence stared at each other, eyes wide as saucers, each realizing the implications of what she had said. As the meaning of Cadence’s words fell over her, Twilight’s rear legs collapsed, all her fury leaking out of her in an instant. “I…” Cadence gathered her resolve, deciding that it was too late for her to turn back. Honesty would be her only refuge now. “Twilight,” she began softly, “I love you. I need you to know that. There is nopony else on this world that I treasure more than you.” She paused to ensure that Twilight was listening. Twilight’s disbelieving eyes were a painful confirmation that she was. “But there’s…there’s something wrong with me. I don’t know what it is, but it’s like this…this emptiness, right here,” she tapped her chest right above her heart. “It nags at me, all hours of the day. It started right before our wedding.” Cadence took a deep breath as the instincts she had built to protect her secrets rebelled against her, but she pressed on. Twilight deserved the truth. “I thought it was just pre-wedding jitters, at first. But then, it just got worse. Eventually it got worse, and I—“ Her breathing hitched, and she closed her eyes. “A few days before our wedding, I disguised myself in Canterlot, went to a bar, and went home with a stallion. I don’t even remember his name,” she confessed, her head hung in shame. “It made me feel a little better, at first. But then the feeling came back, and then there was the guilt about what I had done to you. I vowed I would never do something like that again.” She glanced up for a brief moment, and saw that Twilight had a steady stream of tears sliding down her cheeks. She looked away quickly. “Over the next few months, the feeling got worse and worse, and I did my best to fight it. I would always come to you first. I know you probably just attributed it to the ‘honeymoon period,’ but I was trying so hard not to fall into those depths again.” A wet spot appeared on the floor below her, and she realized that she had started crying as well. “When I couldn’t stand it anymore, I had sex with one of the castle staff in Canterlot. I think that’s when the rumors started. Pretty soon after that, I did it again with a merchant here in the Empire. I slept with a couple of Princess Celestia’s guards, and then…and that’s when it started with Shining Armor.” Cadence heard Twilight suppress a sob, but she didn’t look up. She didn’t feel like she even deserved to see Twilight after what she had done. “When I was with Shining Armor, for the first time, that empty feeling went away. With the others, it had been like putting a band-aid on a broken leg, but with him it was different.” “H-his trips to ‘oversee the Imperial Guard’s retraining?’” Twilight accused, her voice thick with contempt. Cadence nodded. When she heard hooves on crystal, Cadence looked up to see Twilight standing and wiping her eyes. “Twilight, I don’t know what is wrong with me, but I know one thing: I love you. You have to believe that. I love you more than anypony else in the world.” “Except my brother,” Twilight mumbled sadly. Cadence winced. “Please, Twilight," Cadence begged, "I don't want to lose you. I'll do anything, just please, please give me another chance." For a moment, there was silence as Cadence silently pleaded for a miracle. Her special talent was helping bring ponies in love together, and a part of that meant being able to feel the ties of love that could bind two ponies together. She could choose to feel the bonds between ponies, an odd experience which she could best describe as gravity pulling one pony towards another instead of the earth. The stronger the bond, the more powerful the pull. As Cadence stood, awaiting Twilight's decision, she felt the bond between them wane and surge. One moment it was weak and sickly, the next it was stronger than anything she had ever felt and threatening to pull her off her hooves. When Twilight spoke, her heart soared with hope— “No,” Twilight said with a resolute shake of her head, setting herself firmly on her hooves. “No more, Cadence. If you want to be with my brother, that’s fine. But I will have no part of it.” —and abruptly crashed to earth, plunging a dagger of ice-cold despair into her heart. Twilight reached up and parted her mane, revealing the thin, silver band around the base of her horn. “Wait, Twilight don't—“ Once again, Twilight interrupted Cadence, this time by deftly lifting the ring from around her horn. There was a brief flash of raspberry magic, and Twilight’s Imperial Crown appeared beside her. It was similar to Cadence’s, though with the purple diamond replaced with a pink starburst. “I hereby renounce my Imperial Crown, and dissolve our Union.” Twilight unceremoniously tossed the two objects at Cadence’s hooves, leaving Cadence to stare open-mouthed in horror. Twilight turned away from Cadence as fresh tears began to fall. Cadence stood in mute anguish, looking between the jewelry and Twilight. “I’d like you to leave now,” Twilight said without looking. Cadence debated staying and trying to force the issue, to beg and plead for Twilight to forgive her. But, looking at Twilight and the regalia she had tossed at Cadence’s hooves, Cadence realized it was over. There was no hope for her, and there never had been. Her vision clouded by tears, Cadence gathered the ring and crown in her magic and bolted out of the castle. The moment she met sunlight, her wings snapped out and launched her away from Ponyville, away from Twilight, away from everything. She stopped on a hilltop just out of sight of Ponyville. Her legs failed her as soon as they touched earth, and she collapsed to the ground clutching Twilight’s ring to her chest as if it was the last life preserver on a sinking ship. Her sobs echoed loudly across the landscape, and for hundreds of years legends throughout the area would tell the tale of the Alicorn of Lost Love.