A Beautiful Night

by bakersong

The Invasion (Part 2)

As he walked back to his house thinking about the potion he had drunk he couldn't help but wonder why he could cast his normal invisibility spell? Though he did understand enough about potions to know that sometimes it took a minute for the effects to really kick in. But just to make sure he did try to use simple levitation on a small rock, which now his magic did not want to work.

"So it does work." He said a bit louder than he wanted.

"What worked?" An angry and sad, but familiar voice asked.

"Ah there's my princes..." He trailed off when he noticed her expression. "What's wrong?"

"Um, well noting really." She mumbled. "But I uh some news from the princess."

"Oh, well I got some news of my own I want to share." He said trying to take her attention off to whatever was bothering her.

"Well I hope it's good news." She said her eyes had a little bit of hope in them.

"Yes, at least I think it might be good news." He said still smiling at her.

"Are you going to tell me then? Or do I have to guess?" She asked.

"Alright, well you know I met Zecora right?" She gave a nod and also a curious look. "Well when I met her she told me that she had a way to help with my condition. So after I finished with my paper work today I stopped by her hut in the forest, and she gave me a potion that she said will help subdue my split personality."

"That's great!" She said smiling.

"But there's one catch though." He said and her smile slowly slipped away. "I can't use magic for two days, it's an affect from the potion."

"Well lucky you don't normally use magic then." She said.

"Yeah, so what was your news?" He asked.

"Oh, um well you know my brother right?" She asked the anger coming back.

"Um, yeah Shining Armor right? Captain of the Royal Guard?" She gave a quick nod in response.

"Well he's getting married to somepony I don't even know!" Her voice raised a little. "I mean how could he do be getting married and not tell me? We were so close, at least I thought we were. What if he doesn't want to be his sister anymore?"

"Please, I may not know him personally but judging by the way you talked about him when you told me a little more about your family, I don't think he wants to get rid of you. I mean did you get invited to the wedding?" He asked after putting a hoof up to her mouth to quiet her, which she responded by nodding. "See? If he didn't want you as a sister why would he invite you? And before you say anything, even if it was the princess who had to invite you. I'm sure he wanted to tell you in person, but he's probably just busy with his duties."

"You're right, but it still bothers me that the wedding is only in about two days, and me and the girls have to be there in order to help set up everything.." She said.

"Oh, well I know you'll have fun." He said.

"What are you talking about silly? You're invited as well." She said her mood changing to a more happier one.

"Well then I won't suffer from being apart from you." He said smiling and then leaning in for a quick kiss.

---

Unfortunately after they had arrived in Canterlot the next mourning eveypony went to their assigned post. He followed Twilight as she ran to go meet her brother in a angry huff. Though he had hoped that he had calmed her down enough to prevent this. As they ran through the palace grounds he couldn't help but notice there was a lot more guards than normal.

When he managed to catch up to Twilight after being distracted she had already found her brother and looked like she was chewing him out. After getting a little bit closer he could now hear what she was saying, but then she suddenly changed her tone and body language. As she danced around her brother saying in a sing song voice about who he was marrying there suddenly was another voice.

The voice belonged to a pink mare who looked very familiar to him, but when she turned her head he realized that it was Princess Cadence. He was blocked from their line of sight, but could still see them and hear what they were saying. When Twilight saw who it was she let out a squeal of joy and then did a little song and dance, which he made a mental note that she had to show him than dance up close.

After some more small talk, which he knew from Twilight's expression she was a little hurt. But he also knew that expression meant her brain was working on something. When Cadence left he took that as his cue to enter and try to ease his marefriend even if her brother could do a better job.

"And whose this?" Shining Armor asked as he saw him walking up to them.

"Oh, Onyx there you are!" Twilight said her troubled expression changed to a more happy one, and in a moment of impulse she kissed his cheek making him blush a little.

"Ha, so this is the stallion who managed to get my little sister more out of her shell. Nice to meet you Mr. Illusion, I've heard about you from our dad." Shining said offering his hoof.

"Like wise, and don't call me 'Mr.', I think you're a bit older than I am. Just call me Onyx, and what do I call you then?" He asked.

"You can just call me Shining since you're dating my sister." Shining said still smiling, but there was something in his voice though. "But I hope you're keeping things safe, and making sure she doesn't get hurt while i'm not there?"

"Of course, I would never let anything happen to her." He answered with a nervous smile now realizing it was that protective big brother tone he had heard.

"You know i'm still right here?" She asked waving a hoof in front of them.

"So you are." He said giving her a quick nuzzle, making both of them blush.

"Ah, you two do make a cute couple though." Shining said. "But I have to return to duty, the city was still threatened."

"Right we wouldn't want to be in your way." Twilight said hugging him for a few seconds.

"See you later Twily." Shining said, and as he walked past him he whispered low enough for only him to hear. "If you ever hurt her, just now that I am the captain of the royal guard and I will hunt you down."

"Well see you later then." He said putting on his nervous grin again.

"Yeah, see you later." Shining said before walking back to do his job.

"Are you alright? You look a bit shaken." She asked her concern showing.

"Yeah, it's juts that your brother is a little more intimidating than I thought he would be." He answered.

"Well i'm sorry if he said anything that might have scared you, but I think he's just doing that to test you or something." She said wrapping a hoof with his.

"I hope so, but what about a threat to the city?" He asked.

"Oh, yeah that. Well apparently there was some kind of attack on the prison they other day, and another one not to long ago on an unguarded building." She answered.

"So they think they might want to crash the wedding then?" He asked.

"Yeah, partly that. But they think somepony might come from the outside to attack next. Which reminds me, Cadence didn't seem like herself I think she's up to something." She said a look of suspicion coming across her.

"Speaking of Princess Cadence, I saw that little song and dance. Maybe you could show me it sometime, and somewhere a little more private?" He whispered in her ear.

"Oh, um, m-maybe..." She was blushing furiously at the remark and that just made him give a chuckle.

He leaned in and gave her a kiss on the lips and smiled at her, offering his elbow even though she would be the one giving him a tour of the palace. This calmed her a little and she nodded and they walked towards an entrance. Though she had stuff to do he went with her, mostly to keep her in check.

"Twilight, calm down she's not evil or anything. She's probably just stressed, I mean her wedding will probably be targeted for some kind of attack and she has probably been preparing it for who knows how long." He said after she had just made an outburst at the table that they were sharing with her friends.

"Yeah, I agree. She has a lot on her plate at the moment darling." Rarity agreed. "But can we please change the subject, I think we're making pour Fluttershy here very uncomfortable."

"I-I'm fine, really." Fluttershy said, though they all could tell she was very nervous about them arguing like this.

"Fine." Twilight said giving up. "But i'm still sure she's up to something, but what do you want to talk about?"

"Well for starters, how about filling me in on what happened after me and Quick shot left?" Rainbow asked.

"Quick Shot?" Twilight asked.

"Oh, right she's talking about Hot shot. His real name is actually Quick Shot, but because he like's shooting flaming arrows ponies started calling him Hot Shot." He answered rubbing her shoulder to comfort her.

"Yeah, he was pretty quick." Rainbow muttered. "But are you two gonna answer me or what? What happened after we left? From what these three told me it sounds like you two had some pretty good fun."

"You two had fun without me? How dare..." Pinkie was interrupted by a white hoof.

"it's not that kind of fun Pinkie, we're talking about the adult fun." Rarity spoke in a whisper to not draw any more attention to them.

"Oooh, I see. So did you guys have really fun times with each other?" Pinkie blurted out once the hoof was removed. "I bet you did! I bet you two went at like..."

"Stop, please just stop." Twilight said as a purple glow went across Pinkies mouth. "We are not talking about that, and besides I like to hear how Rainbows night was. You did leave in a hurry with, um, Quick Shot."

"Oh it was fine, noting um, happened." Rainbow said looking away and blushed.

"Really? Cause that's not what he told me." He said giving her a smirk. "He said that you rocked his world or something like that. I think he put it as it was twenty percent better than anypony else he's been with."

"What!? He told you?" Rainbow looked at him with surprise.

"Of course, me and him have been best friends for awhile. He tell's me every single time he hooks up with somepony, though in truth he's probably only had relations with about three of them." He answered.

"I'm so going to kill him when I see him again." Rainbow said.

"But didn't you have a date with him?" Applejack asked.

"No I didn't!" Rainbow said.

"Oh please sugarcube, I saw ya with him walking past the farm. I was about to come up to say hi when y'all decided to have a face eating contest." Applejack said with her own smirk.

"Okay, can we please just drop it." Rainbow said.

"You know I could always get him to visit Ponyville again, it's not that hard especially since it's about to be the off season for the arching team." He said.

"N-no that's okay, I don't want to see him anyway." Rainbow said blushing.

"Are you sure? Cause no matter what he will most likely come to Ponyville anyway to mouche off of me anyways." He said.

"Oh look our food's here, let's eat." Rainbow said as the waiter put their plated down.

That evening everypony was getting ready for a practice run for tomorrow, the bride maids replaced with Twilight's friends. For some strange reason they just upped and left without a trace, according to the staff rumors they were only here to meet royalty anyways. Which made sense being at how this was a princesses wedding after all.

But somepony was missing, that somepony was Twilight which no one else seemed to notice until Celestia said something about the best mare. Not to long after everypony began to wonder where she was at the doors burst open. This then brought on some accusations towards Cadence about how she was manipulating her brother, treating her friends horrible, and for some reason she blamed her for the brides maids disappearing.

"I think it'll be better if you don't show up to the wedding at all tomorrow Twilight." Shining said walking away. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to comfort my soon to be wife."

"You have a lot to think about Twilight." Princess Celestia said as she walked past behind the rest of her friends.

"Twilight, i'm so sorry. But you just crossed the line this time, i'll be waiting in our room okay?" He asked with a look of concern and disappointment. "Just know that none of use are angry at you, we're just a little disappointed that you just made a bad choice tonight."

After that he gave her a comforting hug and walked away his heart wanting him to go back and comfort her more. But he knew that she had to learn her lesson from this somehow, that and he wanted to try to talk to her brother about what he said. Maybe he could at least convince him to let Twilight be apart of the audience.

---

The next mourning he woke up with a slight headache for some reason, and as he lifted his head a sudden dizziness crossed him. As he just sat there in his bed he tried to remember what happened, he remembered Twilight making accusations towards her old foal sitter. Then he went to go talk to her brother to convince him to make Twilight apart of the wedding again.

But after he caught up to Shining he remembered something was off about him, but then nothing. He remembered nothing after that, only a slight sensation. Maybe he was put under a spell of some sort, but why? Why would somepony put him under a spell when all he wanted to do was talk to Shining Armor, maybe one of the other guards thought he was going to attack him?

As his head cleared up he looked at the clock and saw that it was nearly time for the wedding, maybe Twilight would at least show up. Even if her brother didn't want her there, he hoped that she would try to apologize to him. He quickly got dress, which was harder than he thought since his magic is still on vacation thanks to that potion.

But his thoughts did drift back to Twilight, maybe he should apologize for leaving her there. What kind of coltfriend was he to just leave her all alone when she was obviously about to break down crying? He needed to make it up to her somehow, someway but for right now he had a wedding to go to.

When he got there though it already started, and he quickly took a seat in the back row watching it. He looked for Twilight as well but to no avail, and let out a sigh of regret. What had come over him last night to make him leave her? He would at least stay with her to help her a little, and then what happened when he found her brother.

"Stop! That's not the real Cadence!" Everypony's head turned and gasp in surprise at the sudden accusation as Twilight ran through the door.

"Why does she have to be so possessive over her brother." Princess Cadence try to say under her breath but her frustration made her say it a little louder. "I mean, why does she want to ruin this for us?"

"Because you're not the real Princess, I am." Suddenly another pony who looked beat up and exhausted, but looked exactly like the one at the alter, ran into the room. "She's a changling, a creature who can take the form of anypony and fest off of the love and emotions that pony gets."

Another round of surprised gasp entered throughout the room as every eye was now on the one at the at the alter. She gave a nervous glance around and knew her bluff had been called as all of a sudden a powerful green energy shot through the ground. It enveloped the now obvious fake princess and she started to take another shape, one that looked like an alicorn but more insect like.

Everypony was shocked and stunned as the now exposed fake stood in front of them gloating about how she will of course take over Equestria. While this was gong on he made his way slowly over to where Twilight stood. But before he could Celestia decided that now was the time to step in and protect her kingdom, but to their dismay their powerful princess who many perceived as almost like a goddess was defeated.

That's when all tartarus broke lose and everypony started running towards the doors carrying him along. No matter how hard he tried he couldn't get to Twilight and help her, but to his relief he saw her and her friend make a break for the door. So he went along with the crowd and figured he could wait for them outside, but then a question popped into his mind.

"Where is Luna? She should have been here to help her sister." He said knowing no pony could hear him.

Author's Note:

Well one the third part will be coming out tomorrow, hope you all enjoyed this. Because man am I tired already, so tell me what you all think so far.