Twilight had spent the past few days scoping out the Canterlot castle. She knew Cadance lived somewhere in there. Twilight slowly put a plan together to allow her to meet Cadance at night. Then finally, a plan was formed. Twilight waited for night to come and began her plan. At her hotel room, she had one of Rarity's old cloaks she had made a while back while staying at their hideout. Twilight put on her disguise ring and left the room with her cloak in her saddlebag she had with her. Twilight began to make her way to the castle. She went down alley after alley, making sure nopony was following her. Then she made it the royal garden. She quietly sneaked through the garden as quick as possible. As she did this she thought to herself, 'Ugh, this is why I have Rainbow Dash and Applejack do these jobs. Sneaking around is not my thing...'
Twilight then put on her cloak and sneaked past the door guards. She slowly went down every hallway until she found what she was looking for. While looking down a hallway she saw Cadance enter a room. Twilight quietly approached the room and opened the locked door with magic. She walked into the room as slow as possible. Twilight then turned off her disguise ring and spoke up, “Cadance.”
Cadance, who was just sitting in her room quickly turned around and saw a cloaked pony in her room. “Who...who are you? Why are you in my room?!”
“Don't panic.” said Twilight as she used her hoof to put her cloak's hood down, revealing her face. “It's me, Twilight.”
Cadance eyes widened and her jaw began to drop, “Twilight? Is....is that really you?”
Twilight smiled and said, “Sunshine, sunshine.”
“Twilight!” said Cadance with a huge smile. She immediately ran up and hugged Twilight. Twilight hugged back with a small smile and said, “It's good to see you Cadance.”
Tears began to go down Cadance's face. “Oh, I've missed you so much Twilight.”
“I've missed you too Cadance.”
Cadance stopped hugging Twilight and looked directly at her. “Where have you been all these years?”
“I've...well...let's just say I've been all over Equestria these past few years.”
“Traveling?” said Cadance with a confused look, “You never seemed the type, you always loved to stay home and study when I used to foalsit you...”
“Well...let's just say I've been to a lot of different libraries around Equestria.”
“Now that sounds more like the Twilight I know.”
Twilight gave a disgruntled look, “Okay, enough small talk Cadance. I need to ask you something.”
“Oh, of course. It's just...I haven't seen you in so long...” said Cadance as she began to wipe her tears away.
“Why is Celestia and my parents looking for me?”
Cadance's eyes widened. “How...how did you know? I just told her to change those posters...”
“I gathered that, but I'm a pony that gets information very easily. So, why are they looking for me?”
Cadance's head slumped down a little, “That's a long story...”
“I have some time Cadance.”
Cadance then looked right at Twilight, she noticed something was different about Twilight. The Twilight she remembered was all about studying, having fun and always had a smile on her face. The Twilight that stood before looked like she had been through a lot. Her expression was no longer happy, and she looked like she had lived several lives. Cadance's face slowly got sadder looking and then spoke up, “Twilight, I have to know. What happened to you?”
Twilight's face turned to an annoyed look. “Answer my question first. Then I'll answer that. Now, why are they looking for me?”
Cadance sighed and then spoke up, “Well...She is looking for you for a very special reason...Tell me Twilight, do you know of the magic of Harmony?”
Twilight's face went from annoyed to curious, “Harmony? Do you mean the myths of the origins of magic? I mean, I've read about it but I haven't researched it too much...”
“Well, it's not a myth. The magic of Harmony is very real. It just hasn't been used for centuries.”
“I don't understand. What does some myth that you say is true have to do with me?”
“Well, a long time ago Celestia used Harmony to defeat a creature of pure chaos. When doing this, she released Harmony from its resting place. In doing so, besides one more incident she never had to use Harmony ever again. Because of this, Harmony has slowly lost its connection with her.”
“Let me guess, this chaos creature is coming back and she needs it again?”
“No. The other incident I talked about is going to return and she needs a new pony to inherit Harmony.”
“You can't mean...”
“Technically, I could do it thanks to me being an alicorn. However, Celestia doesn't want me to inherit such power.”
Twilight's face became more and more confused, “Why not? If you can inherit this power, then the problem is solved.”
“Well...” said Cadance as her slumped down, “It's because...When Celestia inherited Harmony, it gave her a clue on who would inherit Harmony next...”
“A clue?”
“Yes, it showed that the one who would inherit Harmony next would be a pony...with a mark of a six pointed sparkle. Celestia was then going to inherit this pony as her student and help her inherit that power.”
Twilight's eyes began to grow, her jaw began to slowly drop. “No...you can't be serious...” she said as Twilight then looked at her cutie mark, “But...no...that can't be...”
“Yes. She believes you will inherit Harmony.”
“That's...that's....” said Twilight as she began to raise her voice, “That's ridiculous! There's no way!”
“I...I didn't want to believe it either Twilight.”
“That's crazy...there's just no way...”
“Look...I'm sorry Twilight.”
Twilight's face changed from shock to disbelief, “No...” she said as she put her hooves on her head. “This can't be true...you're lying!”
“I'm not Twilight. I'm sorry.” Cadance said with a sincere face. Then she saw Twilight's face change. Twilight's face changed from disbelief to anger. “Twilight? Are you alright?”
“No...no no no. This is a trick...”
“No it isn't Twilight.”
Twilight looked directly at Cadance now, her eyes filled with anger. “You're tricking me aren't you?”
Cadance stepped back a step and tears fell down her face, “No I'm not.”
“This...this is some trick, some lie between you, Celestia and my parents. There's no way this can be true!”
“It is! I'm sorry!”
“So...this is reason you're looking for me? My family doesn't want me, they want Celestia to use me for some prophecy, is that it?”
“No...”
“It is! Well, if that's the case...Tell Celestia I want no part of this!”
“Twilight...just what happened to you when you ran away?” asked Cadance as more tears ran down her face.
“You really want to know?! Fine, I'll tell you what happened!” said Twilight as her voice became louder and louder, “I realized that dreams are meaningless, that's what happened to me!”
“Twilight...”
“Don't tell me otherwise Cadance, some of my best friends are the same way! They were denied their dreams by this world just like me! There's no way this is true! There's no way some prophecy just happened to say that my old dream was supposed to come true!”
“Twilight...I...”
“Enough Cadance...I'm done. It seems that coming here was a mistake.” said Twilight as she put her hood back on.
“Twilight, we never meant this to happen.”
“Well, even if that's true Cadance.” said Twilight as she turned around, “I'm not the pony you're looking for. Go find another pony, I need to return to my friends...”
“Twilight...please...”
Tears began to go down Twilight's cheeks, “You just told me my destiny was to be taught by Celestia... that my destiny was my childhood dream...There's no way I can believe that.”
“Why not?”
“Because...this world taught me that destiny doesn't exist. You have to make your own path. I'm sorry Cadance, but...just go and...and find a more gullible pony. I already know my path and its with my friends.”
Twilight then left the room. Cadance on the other hand, just sat there. She sat there with tears flowing down her face. Twilight turned her disguise ring on and began sneaking out of the castle. She successfully got back to her hotel room and cried herself to sleep. Cadance got up after a while and went to Celestia. There she told Celestia what had happened and Celestia told Cadance to go to bed. Celestia told her she would handle it. Cadance ignored Celestia's order and left the castle and went to her coltfriend Shining Armor.
The next day...
Twilight woke up. She got herself ready to leave Canterlot when she then realized something. She hadn't looked at the train times. Twilight thought to herself, 'Hmm...I want to leave but there may be no trains going where I need to go today...I guess I'll just go look at the times first.' Twilight turned on her disguise ring and left the hotel to the train station. There, she found a giant crowd of ponies screaming and yelling. Then she saw the one thing she didn't want to see. On a makeshift platform at the train station, was her brother Shining Armor. He was the captain of the Royal Guard. Twilight looked at him as he began to make a speech. Then Twilight's face went pale in fear.
Shining Armor spoke in the loudest voice possible, “CITIZENS OF CANTERLOT. I APOLOGIZE ABOUT THIS BUT WE OF THE CANTERLOT GUARD HAVE BEEN ORDERED TO SHUT DOWN ALL TRAINS TEMPORALLY. THIS IS BECAUSE A CERTAIN PONY IS IN THIS CITY AND MUST BE FOUND.” Shining then pulled out a poster with an artist’s drawing on it. “WE HAVE BEEN ORDERED TO FIND THIS PONY, TWILIGHT SPARKLE!!!”