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The Truth Revealed
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Trixie furrowed her brow at the exceedingly long time it had taken for them to make any progress within the cave she and Princess Cadence were trapped in.
They had managed to escape the main room they were sealed in by throwing some large rocks at the crystal wall, and completely shattering it. They counted themselves lucky that they were able to get out so easily. From there, they noticed a shining light on the far side of the caverns. At first, they thought it would be ten minute walk to the end, tops. But, as it turned out, there were so many twists and turns, that it had taken hours to cross the rather small distance.
“How long have the two of you been seeing each other?” Trixie asked desperately, not wanting to princess to break down in tears once again.
“We started dating five years ago,” Cadence said, still in awe that so much time had passed, “But we didn’t get too serious until Princess Luna returned from the moon.”
“Why was that the cause?” Trixie asked, happy to keep the conversation rolling.
“Well, he spent a lot of time looking after her, and I guess she and I frequented many of the same places.” She explained, sniffing quickly to avoid her nose running from all the tears, “And, well, just look at him. I had to lock that down!”
“Chrysalis ignored that big time, didn’t she?” Trixie chuckled, before she heard the ‘squeak’ from Cadence, “Oh, Trix—uh, I apologize!”
“I’m just… I’m afraid that I’m going to lose him to her, when she just wants to use him!” Cadence said, her eyes closed as more tears made their way down her cheeks, “She won’t care for him, love him, or cherish him! I just, I love him so much…”
“I know.” Trixie said reassuringly, before seeing a minecart in front of them, “Oh! That might be our way out!”
Instantly looking in the direction, Cadence ran with Trixie to the stone filled cart sitting on the top of the massive chasm.
“Um. Maybe we should find another way aroun—“ Trixie began, before Cadence starting trying to push the cart, in an effort to get it moving.
“We can’t give up!” Cadence managed, through her labored huffs as she put all of her weight in to moving the obstacle, “He’ll end up marrying that- that fake!”
Exhaling, Trixie knew that for one of the first times in her life, she was going to need to be doing the bulk of the work here. She was helping a Princess, after all.
“Okay, well, if we’re going to ride the minecart, we need to get rid of these rocks!” Trixie said, gently pulling Cadence away from her fruitless endeavor, “Help me empty the cart, and clear the tracks!”
Instantly, the two set off in their task to speed up their escape. From what Trixie could see, as she cleared the way, the track spun downward several times, before heading off in the direction of the entrance. From there, she lost the track in the blackness of the cavern. So, best care scenario, they would pull right up next to the exit, and they could get to somepony that could help them, or, worst case, the track ends, and they fall a very very very long way.
During their trip, Trixie’s mind had been racing with thoughts of Alpha, and why on earth he had betrayed Twilight and her friends. There was no doubt in her mind that Alpha was crazy about Twilight. And it was clear that those feelings were returned. He would stay up at night and hold her while she thrashed in agony… He was just… hold her.
Trixie had a hard time admitting it, but she wished that somepony cared for her enough to do something like that.
Still, the fact that he had turned on them was truly a surprise, if not an understandable one.
“So, Twilight’s friend threw you down here, right?” Cadence asked, as she began clearing the boulders out of the cart itself, since the tracks were no longer obstructed, “The changeling?”
“Yeah…” Trixie said, before giving her an odd look, “I was just thinking about that. It’s weird that you mention it now.”
“You were thinking about the affection they share,” Cadence said, surprising Trixie with the accuracy of her guess, “Before you say anything- I could feel those thoughts. No magic blocking field could stop me from seeing all of that.”
“Wow.” Trixie said softly, having been unaware of that power Cadence held, “Um, but, yes. Alpha threw me down here. He told me that it was for his queen.”
“Such a shame,” Cadence shook her head, already feeling pity for Twilight, “She’ll be devastated when he reveals himself to be sided with the changelings once again. It must not have been an easy choice for him.”
“What do you mean, easy choice?” Trixie asked, figuring that he had simply sided with his kingdom, because it was his duty.
“When I saw him a few weeks ago on a trip Twilight took here, I could feel every ounce of affection pouring out of his body for her,” Cadence sighed, looking back to Trixie as they removed the last of the stones from the cart, “To betray somepony he cared so much for… It must have ripped him apart to do that to her.”
“If they succeed in taking over Canterlot, maybe Chrysalis will let him keep her.” Trixie said, shuddering at the strange thought.
“We won’t let that happen.” Cadence said, her voice suddenly dead serious, “Chrysalis isn’t expecting us, and we’re going to raise hell for her.”
“Then let’s get this cart going.” Trixie smiled, raising her roof to the Princess, and she was pulled in, and sat down behind her.
They sat there.
And they kept sitting.
“Um, maybe I should push,” She said, as she began to stand up.
“Oh no, let me!” Trixie said, figuring that she should probably be the one doing the bulk of the work.
However, the tight space left little room for the both of them to move at the same time, as they wound up collapsing on each other, and shaking the cart free from its rusted confines.
They looked at each other with wide eyes as they started rolling inch by inch, until, all at once, they hit the slant, and took off on the most vomit inducing trip either of them had ever been on. Screaming, they immediately righted themselves, and held on to each other for dear life, as they tried not to be affected by the constant spinning of the world around them.
“This is terrible!” Trixie screamed, tears forming in her eyes as they were rapidly dried out by the whipping wind past her face.
“Maybe I should have let Chrysalis have him!” Cadence shouted, trying to see where the track was going after they finished this downward spiral.
Trixie was doing the same, and was clearly the first one to see what came next for them.
“Oh no.” She said, as Cadence turned back to her and gave her a puzzled look, “The track isn’t finished!”
Whipping her head back to the track, she gasped at the rotted wood that was sitting above the end of their roller coaster, “Uh, you might want to hold on to me!”
Seeing as she was already doing that, Trixie didn’t have a problem following the instruction.
As soon as they came in to contact with the stop, they were both launched out of the minecart, and sent flying through the air.
Trixie, unfortunately, just didn’t have the grip on Cadence as the princess flaired her wings, and held their altitude as she glided them toward the ledge leading to the exit.
“P-princess!” Trixie called, as she slipped off of Cadence’s back, and felt gravity wrap it’s hand around her back legs, pulling her straight down in to the abyss.
“Trixie!” She shouted, as she crashed in to the hard stone ground, and tumbled over herself, away from the black pit below her. It only took her a moment to get back up and rush to the edge again, and look down for any sign of her companion, “Trixie!”
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Trixie could barely make out her name being called as she fell to what she could only assume would be her death. It was interesting just how serine she felt at this time. She could have panicked… but what was the use in that?
“You’re not done here yet, Trixie.”
She inhaled sharply as she felt a pair of warm arms wrap around her neck.
”Fly.”
Trixie gasped as two magical wings grew out from her back, and instantly began flapping, spinning her around, and halting her drop completely.
“Aurora?” Trixie muttered, as she waited silently for a reply. But, none came.
“Trixie!” Cadence’s voice called once again, “P-please answer me!”
Looking at her wings, Trixie gave a small smile and started to beat them powerfully, and bring herself back up from the abyss.
After only a few seconds, she was back on the same level as Cadence, who was collapsed, sobbing on the ground.
“What are you doing?” Trixie shouted, trying to sound upset, as Cadence looked to the landed pony and instantly lost any sign of being upset, “Aren’t we saving Shining Armor?!”
“How did you get those?” Cadence asked, pointing to the fading wings on Trixie’s back, “I thought we couldn’t cast magic down here!”
“I’ll answer that later,” Trixie said, not wanting to sound completely insane, “Right now, we need to—“
“Need to… what?” A mare’s voice said from the entrance.
Cadence turned to face the mare, and was shocked to see her bridesmaids, all with burning green eyes, grinning wickedly at her, “What happened to you all?”
“They were brainwashed by the queen.” Trixie answered, having read extensively on the subject of Changeling mind control tactics they had used in the past, “They’re not your friends until we can break that spell on them.”
“Well... what can we do then?” She asked desperately, knowing that she could never get around them, nor could she hurt them.
“I remember reading that their minds are mostly present,” She explained, “So, if you can somehow convince, or fool them to get out of the way… They should get out of the way.”
Cadence thought back to the time she had spent with her bridesmaids, back before the wedding was even announced. She had just made a point of getting ready for it.
“You guys were right,” Cadence said suddenly, as each mare looked to her with tilted heads, “Those dresses do make your butts look big. I think we should change to the other dresses.”
Each one gasped, as they turned tail, and ran away from the Princess and Trixie, leaving them free to leave.
“I did it!” Cadence cheered, turning around and raising a hoof to Trixie with a bright smile.
“That was fast.” Trixie giggled back to her, before looking at the wings on her back as they began to fade, “But, we really should hurry to that ceremony.”
“Oh, right!” She said, her face lighting up, “I need to kick that Queen’s massive butt right out of Equestria!”
“And I need to kick Alpha in the side of his head for hurting Twilight!” Trixie agreed, as they both ran toward the exit, “They won’t stand a chance against us!”
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Celestia beamed with delight, as she looked between Shining Armor and Princess Cadence, and finally reached the climax of the wedding.
“Princess Cadence, and Shining Armor,” She began, smiling brightly. “It is my pleasure, to announce the two of you, husband and wif—“
“Stop!” A voice cried, as the main doors were kicked open by none other than Trixie, and she stormed down the aisle, “That’s not Princess Cadence!” She said, pointing to the bride and growling, “She’s the changeling queen, Chrysalis!”
“H-how could you say something like that?” The fake Princess asked, her eyes widening, as she managed to force some tears to well, “And on my special day?!”
“It’s not your special day!” Princess Cadence said, stepping in behind Trixie, panting heavily, “You’ve taken my form, so that you could feed of Shining Armor’s love for me!”
The fake Cadence, growled at the turn of events, “How did you escape my prison? And get past my bridesmaids?! It doesn’t matter. I’ve already won!”
A circle of green fire instantly shot up around her, before it became a bright beam of energy that shot in to the ceiling, completely engulfing her.
Everypony watched in horror as the fake pieces of Cadence’s body were ripped and burned away, only to be replaced with a black coat, a thin pair of wings, and long green mane.
The magic around her exploded outward, as she stepped back on the ground, and laughed deeply to herself.
“Soldiers! Show yourselves!” She shouted, as every guard in the room went through a similar transformation, revealing themselves to be changelings as well.
“Oh my god.” Alex said under his breath, as he began to charge a spell, before speaking up to the room, “I think it’s time for everypony to pitch in here!”
And they did. Twilight, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Alex all stood in a line, ready to flatten the queen if she even made one wrong move.
Chrysalis whipped around to face him, as she shouted once again.
“Alpha! Disable their magic!” She called, as he stepped out of his place in line, and cast the activation spell.
Each of them instantly felt the energy completely drain of their bodies, as they were knocked on the ground by a strong gust of wind, also courtesy of Alpha.
“W-what are you doing?” Twilight asked, as she looked back to him with a face that could truly break a heart, “Alpha?”
“Yes, Alpha!” Chrysalis cackled, “What ever are you doing?”
He gave Twilight one long look, before shaking his head and closing his eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
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