Epilogue: Cadance (Finale)
The wind howled through the courtyard in front of the Royal Canterlot Gardens. The sky was sunny, but a cloud hung over this square, turning it drab and dreary. Aside from a few leaves skittering over the cobblestones, there was only stillness. The rest of the city hustled and bustled with multitudes of ponies going about their days, and the faint sounds of a celebration could be heard off in the distance, but in this courtyard nopony spoke.
Shining Armor sat in front of the statue of Princess Cadance, staring up at his wife, and then slowly lowered his head.
"Cadance…" he said softly, "Cadance, I'm so sorry about this. I'm going to miss you, and I wish you could be here with me today. I know everypony else does, too.
"But… what you did was awful. No matter what the excuse, what the provocation, you have to be punished. It hurts that you'll be gone, but if justice is going to be done, this is the way it has to be. The actions of ponies have consequences, even if that pony is a Princess. And even if that Princess is you.
"I know it might seem like it will be forever, but we'll be together again soon. I'm going to miss you for every second that we're apart, and you'll be the only pony I think of all that time. And hopefully, when we see each other again, you'll be able to understand why things had to be this way."
Pushing himself to his hooves, he turned to head into the garden. "Goodbye, Cadance," he said softly.
"But it's not faaaaair!" whined Cadance behind him, prancing up and down in front of the statue of Princess Twilight that flanked the other side of the entrance to the Royal Gardens. "I already missed their wedding, now I have to miss the reception too?!"
Shining Armor let out a sigh, turning back to trot over and stand by her. "Yes, you do. That's what a restraining order means. And even if Twilight and Chrysalis didn't have one on you, you have one on them too, remember?"
"But… but…"
"You need time to calm down, Cadance, and time to come to terms with the two of them being together. And after what you did… well, they need time to forgive you and recover from what you tried to do to them."
"I know… but…" Cadance looked over at him, her lower lip quivering. "Can't we forget about that? Just put it all on hold, just for today? I should have been there for Twilight's wedding!"
"Cadance…" Shining Armor let out another sigh and shook his head. "You could have been at her wedding the first time. You had the opportunity; she invited both of us. And you chose to do… what, instead?"
Cadance mumbled and kicked at a cobblestone.
"I'm sorry, I didn't hear that."
Cadance let out a groan, but said, "I prepared myself for a war on Chrysalis."
"Which isn't a problem. In fact, had I not already known about them, I would have done the same. I'm talking about what happened after that, when you found out that Chrysalis really did love Twilight. What did you do when you knew it was true love, Cadance?"
"I... unilaterally decided that she didn't deserve Twilight."
"And then?"
"And then I spent months giving Chrysalis purposefully wrong advice for the explicit reason of destroying any hope of love between the two of them."
"And then?"
Cadance winced. "Then I… kind of attacked them, destroyed a restaurant, almost tried to kill Chrysalis, and tried to make Twilight love a pony that I had decided she should love rather than letting her choose for herself."
"Do you really think you deserve to go to their wedding and reception after all of that?"
Cadance hung her head. "No," she mumbled.
Shining Armor leaned against her, putting one foreleg around her and nuzzling up to her. "So you do understand then," he said gently. "After everything that's happened, it's better for all of you to stay apart, until the wounds can heal. They need to see that you truly can accept their love… and Twilight will, trust me. She's very forgiving."
"I know," said Cadance with a nod.
"And you need to see that they truly are in love," continued Shining Armor. "As amazed as I am by the whole thing… they are. They actually are. Even more frightening, I think they're good for each other. Twilight can learn a lot about being a leader from her—the parts that aren't as nice, that is. As for Chrysalis… well, the more she learns about friendship the better. Even a little bit would be a huge improvement."
"They are kind of cute together…" said Cadance hesitantly, then blushed when Shining Armor gave her a small smirk. "Well, they are! A-and you're right about them being good for each other. If anypony can keep Chrysalis under control, apparently Twilight is the one."
"And Chrysalis…?"
"And Chrysalis… might be able to help prepare Twilight for some of the more ruthless parts of being a Princess," admitted Cadance grudgingly.
"Like, say, trying to attack your sister-in-law's wedding and ruin her marriage?" Shining Armor asked with a raised eyebrow, and Cadance frowned at him.
"You know, as a Princess, I can issue my own restraining orders," she said frostily, lips pursed and eyes narrowed, "and I can apply them to things besides ponies. For instance, beds, and the activities that take place in them."
"Okay, I'm sorry," said Shining Armor nervously, holding up a hoof in a gesture of truce. "I don't mean to keep bringing that up. I won't do it again."
He gave her a look, seeing as how even as she nodded, her head was drooped and her shoulders slack.
"It's okay," he said softly, squeezing her again. "Everyone knows you didn't really mean what happened. They'll forgive you. And I'll always love you, no matter what."
"I know," she said quietly, hugging him back.
"And how is our other project going?" Shining Armor asked, taking a step back.
"It's… going," responded Cadance, making a face, then groaned when Shining Armor frowned at her. "I'm taking it seriously, I promise! It's just… letting a bunch of changelings into the Crystal Empire? That's like letting foxes into a hen house!"
"They're coming to help, Cadance! At least, they'd better be. But we need them. You know what a pain it's been trying to drag the Empire into the modern age. And not only do the changelings give us the bodies we need to do the work, thanks to Queen Chrysalis and the hivemind they actually have experience with how things have changed over the past thousand years. It might not make up for what happened at our wedding, but I'm happy with a bit of forced labor for the Empire as payback for that."
"It's a fitting punishment, I'll agree with that," admitted Cadance grudgingly. Shining Armor cleared his throat meaningfully, and she winced. "I'm working on my end too, but it's hard! I mean, finding a way to store love? I'm not a miracle worker!"
"I know, I know," Shining Armor replied soothingly. "And we're not asking for miracles. Or at least not quick ones. But collecting and storing all the excess love the Empire and Equestria produce is going to be the key to living in peace with the changelings. It's too diffuse for them to feed off of properly, and there's a limit to how much they can all feed on individual ponies."
He looked at her firmly. "And finding a way to solve that problem is part of your punishment too, Cadance. After everything you did to destroy love for a changeling—"
"I know, I know, now I need to find a way to get love for all of them." Cadance shivered. "I remember what the Princesses said at the trial. I've never actually heard Auntie Celestia use the Royal Canterlot Voice, but I think I would have preferred it to how she sounded."
"Yeah, well, if you'd been at some of the Royal Guard reviews I have… you wouldn't be saying that. I couldn't hear for a week."
Cadance giggled at him, and Shining Armor smiled back. Then his expression sobered.
"Well, I'm glad everything seems to be going well on that end, but I need to head off to the reception now," he said gently. "I'm sure they'll be wondering where I am. Are you going to be okay by yourself for a few hours?"
"I'll be fine," said Cadance, shuffling her hooves nervously. "Will you tell them… I'm sorry? Please, ask them to forgive me."
"I will," promised Shining Armor.
"And… can you give Twilight and Chrysalis this?"
Cadance reached back, pulling a small, gaily wrapped box out from under her wing. Shining Armor took it, eyeing it warily, and pushed the lid back to look inside. There was a long moment of silence.
"Oh, Cadance…" breathed Shining Armor finally.
Inside the box, nestled in its soft silk lining, was a pair of earrings. One was shaped like a six-pointed starburst, carved out of a deep green emerald. The other, in brilliant amethyst, was a pair of hole-riddled insect wings. Both were placed in settings of the purest gold.
"T-they're enchanted with the same spell I used when I was trying to—when I was talking with Chrysalis," explained Cadance meekly. "They can't share the hivemind, but this way they can at least talk to each other whenever they're apart—"
She stopped with a gasp as Shining Armor pulled her into a fierce hug.
"It's an absolutely perfect gift, Cadance," he said, pulling back to smile warmly as he gazed into her eyes. "They're going to love it, I promise. Trust the Princess of Love to come up with something as fitting as this, huh?"
Cadance blushed. "I really am sorry about everything I did. And I thought that since I tried to break them apart, maybe I could do something that would help bring them together…"
"It's a wonderful thought. I'll be sure to pass it on." He gave her one last squeeze, then turned to head into the gardens. "Okay, I'm going now. I'll see you again in a few hours. Try to find something fun to do, maybe see a play or go to a concert. Just… try to take your mind off everything for a while, okay?"
"Okay, Shining Armor, I will."
She watched him go as he walked into the gardens, until he disappeared around a hedge trimmed into the shape of Celestia and Luna's cutie marks. Hesitantly, she took a few steps forward, but then the warning tingle of the restraining order spell crawled up and down her neck, and she backed away with a small whine.
She stood gazing at the gardens for a moment longer, then turned away, head down, and began to trudge back to her hotel room.
There was no way to deny it: she had messed up. Bad. It was even worse than when Aunt Luna had turned into Nightmare Moon. At least Luna had had the excuse that she actually wasn't being given the respect she deserved, even if her reaction had been a bit out of line. But Cadance… she had acted out of spite, and jealousy, and pride. There was no excuse for that.
And look where it had gotten her. She had nearly destroyed true love—an action anathema to her very soul—because she had been so caught up in her own prejudices and preconceptions that she'd been blinded to its existence. She had hurt the sister-in-law and friend she loved so dearly, and even now she still wondered if Twilight would ever want anything to do with her again. And she'd done it all because she thought she knew the one true answer: that the only pony who Twilight deserved was Celestia. And why had she thought that? Because she was the Princess of Love, and therefore anything she thought about love had to be true.
She let out a snort as she trotted drearily through the streets of Canterlot. That had turned out well, hadn't it? Not only had she nearly destroyed Twilight's love, but everything she had put Twilight through may have even hurt her relationship with Celestia. No doubt Twilight would be looking at her mentor through different eyes now that Cadance had nearly forced her to fall in love with Celestia. And to top it all off, Celestia was still alone.
Her head slowly came up. Yes… Celestia was still alone, wasn't she? She might still have a bit of a crush on Twilight, but that would no doubt be fading soon now that Twilight was married. Celestia was nothing if not practical, and she would do everything she could to not let her feelings get in the way of her friendship with Twilight. So… she would need somepony new to love now.
Cadance began to trot faster. The immortality issue was something she'd have to consider, but when all was said and done, it wasn't a deal breaker, just something that would be nice to have. More important was the pony themselves. They had to be kind, respectful of Celestia's elevated stature while not being intimidated by it, able to deal with the heightened public attention they would receive… she didn't have to worry about whether or not they would be attracted to Celestia—what pony wouldn't be?—but getting Celestia to fall in love with them, on the other hoof…
Well, I am the Princess of Love, aren't I? Cadance thought cheerfully, nearly prancing now. And if there's one thing I can do, it's make two ponies fall in love…
Head held high, mind considering and rejecting various suitors for her aunt, Cadance continued down the street towards her hotel room. She had plans to make.
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Congratulations on finishing another fine story.
Well, I can't say the title isn't a winner. Because it is. A winner.
Sorry, I think I was channeling Anya from Buffy the Vampire Slayer for a moment there.
Oh boy... Cadence still hasn't learned her lesson has she? She's still plotting on pairing up ponies with others who may not even want to be paired up! Alright, I'm calling it. This Cadence is off her rocker. But all in all, in the words of the Ninth, absolutely fantastic ending!
8048590 in a world where Twilight and Chrysalis are together and anyone thinks that's a good idea she's the only sane mare
8048585 It really is.
The title kinda reminded me of a video game with a similar title to it called "Cthulhu Saves the World", as a matter of fact.
And now, cue Cadance trying to ask about Celestia's interest in a romantic partner in a horribly obvious way while thinking she's being "subtle."
this was beyond cute, cant wait to see their foals!
8048590 I agree. Cadance has definitely lost it.
Brilliant job, superlative story.
Personally I'm not sure about alicorns reproducing, I think it mixes weirdly with the immortality thing, so I would suggest future Chrysalis and Twilight remain very happily foal-less, with their changeling hive as their family.
Honestly I would have preferred if had Cadence been a statue for a while at the end, but it probably would have been a bit too extreme to actually fit with the story. Very satisfying though. Really, very satisfying.
On the one hand, it would be lovely to see more of Chrysalis and Twilight's interactions together, which you write so beautifully, but on the other their main battle has now been won, and anything that follows is a happily ever after, which perhaps is better imagined than seen.
Thanks for writing this
8048639 Princess mindrape still hasn't learned her lesson. I can't wait to see more of this.
8048585
I have just the thing for you.... Bunnies!
8048590
No, she really hasn't learned. The big clue here is the verbiage:
'Make', as opposed to something like 'help'
... I loved the bait and switch at the beginning. Being stoned would be a tad too harsh, while the restraining order is just hilarious for some reason.
Great ending, showing that Cadance isn't a lost cause.
I dunno, I'd probably be pretty upset of Chryssie died in season 7.
So much stuff to look forward to. Can't wait to eee the continuation of trials and tribulations and the next instalment of this.
All in all, great work and perfect as my Chryssie fix.
One would probably have though such a punishment for Cadence was too stone cold when making the decision but hey at least she wasn't petrified at the final verdict of it all. She's gonna have to show some restraint but it's not like she's gonna make it work so much so that she'll love it otherwise things might just go insane.
*hits with rolled up newspaper*
NO. BAD CADANCE.
You don't make them fall in love, you help them realise their love for each other.
Silly Love Horse
Fine Story,
And Cadance should hook Celestia up with Big Mac. Or Pinkie Pie.
8048585 I see no way that Celestia and Nightmare Moon teaming up could go wrong. None whatsoever.
8048687 Princess Mindrape? I like it.
8048931 Honestly, Cadence is the scariest princess. She may not be able to destroy buildings with her mind, or move stars, but she can force you to love litteraly ANYTHING. Need a war? Make people love fighting. Need a meatshield? Make people love jumping in front of bullets. Her domain may not be the most powerful, but it is the most easily abusable.
Darn it, that just makes me want it more!
so.. lesson not learned apparently.
So this love shenanigan will continue? Must be my birthday.
Sequel bait?
Huh. Really? I'd... read that. Nothing wrong with a non-T rated fic.
Why bnot follow Cadence I she finds somepony for Celestia to love. Hell maybe Sunset? I feel she is an alicorn now.
8048718 Is that a spoiler? Chrysy noooooooooo
8048718
Oh, I'd definitely be upset if she died—after the throne blew up under her and everyone seemed to be acting like she was just gone forever, I thought she'd gotten Sombra'd, and 'upset' is a bit of an understatement compare to how I felt.
But at least that's better than this.
8049176
C'mon, what's everyone got against the Newlings? I like 'em. Sure, the old Changelings looked more sinister, but that was kind of the point. They were bad guys so they looked sinister. They're good guys now. They join the fluffy snugglebug ranks of technicolor equines.
8049158 What? No, that's just idle speculation for now.
8049176 ... Now I'm conflicted.
8049205 And that's the problem. Among many others. That's teaching kids that judging the book by its cover is what you should do. After having been teaching the opposite prior to that.
"If I can't find a special somepony for my aunt, I'll make a special somepony for my aunt! Buhahahahaha!!"
(Epic troll beginning for the chapter, by the way. Perfect!)
*checking feed* another cha... wait, wh..Completed? Woohoo
Took me ~5 months of waiting for growing pile of ponywords. It's time to dig in 
8049205
Real One: And that's the thing, they were bad guys with the sinister looks, and suddenly they become the good guys with a gay parade worthy look to them, see the problem? I kinda don't follow the show anymore, the fandom is way more interesting, so I can't argue with how their progress at getting introduced to the Equestrian nation went, but, I can argue with the looks they had and now have, the sudden change is the problem, let's say, you really love this thing and out of nowhere without reason, the corporation that makes the thing change it completely, would you be happy with that?
8049176 Changeling mating rituals would be neat.
Changeling Mating Rituals you say? how can we get you to do that?
8048601
i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/085/146/543.png
Wow, Cadance really learned from her mistakes ... NOT. She'S already thinking about playing matchmaker after that disaster, deciding who is best for Tia and thinking about forcing love because she knows best. Wasn't this enough of a wake-up call for her? What has to happen for her to truely realize she doesn't know best, just because she's the princess of love?
8049600 She's not trying to force love, she's trying to cultivate it.
Maybe the method is a bit... relapse-ish, but she has best intentions at heart. And Celestia could always say no,
Damn, that start to the chapter was golden and oddly hilarious. Good work, looking forward to the next pile of horsewords!
Amazing story and amazing end. The balance of comedy and drama was great, especially the (starts as drama till you get it) jokes. I would totally read changeling mating rituals. Between chrysalis' shapeshifting and twilight's innocent yet inventive curiosity, I imagine kink would ensue. That being said, there's nothing stopping it from being touching, passionate, and tasteful kink.
Absolutely magnificent. I have no idea how you did it, but you turned a patently silly premise into two of the best stories I've ever read on this site. I only wish I could write half as well.
This was lovely and fun!
...I can only hope the next ones continue Chryssie's adorable attempts to assassinate Celestia. What princess wouldn't be overjoyed to wake up with a guillotine built over her bed and the trigger set to come down as soon as she pushes the sheets off? It would be the HEAD EVENT of the day!
Well, at least Cadance learned and grew from the experience... I think.
Thanks for the story!
8049228
It wasn't, though. All of the big nasties have been darker-colored. Even Discord was mostly chocolate brown visually. Chrysalis, Sombra, Tirek, Nightmare Moon - heck if I remember correctly the only reason Luna didn't show back up in S1 was "her darker theme might scare the target audience". So really it sounds like that thinking was already there according to Hasbro's team of marketeers, and that they were just using it.
8050201
When I drew my comic for the season finale, I made a list of sarcastic 'lessons I learned from this episode', and one of those was 'If you're black, you can't be a good guy'.
That was obviously me purposefully trolling and trying to be controversial, but as I later explained, I legitimately think that was the entire reasoning behind the new changelings. Like you said, I think Hasbro has rules their show writers have to follow, probably based along age demographics, and MLP is firmly in the section that say 'good guys can't be dark colors'.
Honestly, I wouldn't mind the color change so much, but it's the holes going away that bothers me the most. That was the single most unique thing about changelings; it's what made them changelings. And with the holes gone... they're just ponies who have slightly different features.
And I have to wonder again if that was Hasbro interfering. I recall an interview where the MLP team said Hasbro actually doesn't interfere much, but when they do they tend to make suggestions like 'this character should be wearing safety gear' (I assume referring to Scootalo wearing a helmet on her scooter), or 'don't make things so pointy' (probably why all the unicorns have rounded horns). And I wonder if 'not too pointy' meant 'friendly changelings can't have jagged holes in their bodies'.
8049205
I've already written two blog posts about why I hate the new changelings (and seeing Thorax in that clip from the season seven premiere has me wanting to write a third) but I'll try to sum up my feelings here.
Basically, it's exactly what you said: they were sinister looking, and now they've joined the ranks of technicolor equines. But nobody wanted that.
The changelings were the single most unique character designs on the show. Nothing else even comes close. It's why, despite not being on the show for the better part of four years, they've been consistently popular. And whether you loved them or hated them, I don't think anybody wanted them to change.
So this ended up being the worst of both worlds: people like me, who loved the changelings and wanted them to be friends, got that, but with 'fake' changelings. And people who hated the changelings (or at least liked them as villains) lost them as antagonists. No one is happy here, aside from a few people who were neutral on changelings, or those that saw them as a 'cursed' race.
And I don't mind the new designs too much, but Thorax is just... godawful. His design is literally worse than the worst OCs I've seen. The other changelings, two colors at most, aside from the purple translucent wings. But Thorax is just this mishmash of conflicting, garish colors, covered in gradients and sparkles. And his horns are dumb.
Really, Thorax, to me, represents the entire problem with the new changelings. I loved him in 'The Times They are a Changeling'. Everyone loved him. Just going off DeviantArt, I still see tons of Changeling Thorax artwork being posted, even within the last week or two. But I don't see any New Thorax art. There's just nothing appealing about him.
He's the biggest problem with the finale and the changelings 'reformation' in general. In Thorax's first episode, the entire lesson was 'look, changelings don't have to be bad, they can learn friendship'. And then the finale comes along and goes 'NOPE, FORGET ALL THAT, MAGIC EVERYWHERE IS THE ONLY WAY TO MAKE CHANGELINGS GOOD'. It completely invalidates the entire point of 'The Times They are a Changeling'. It takes an actual, real-life lesson, and replaces it with 'only magic can solve problems'. It's the epitome of what's wrong with this show when they try to do big adventure stories, and something we thought they had moved away from with the season five finale.
So that, really, is why no one likes the new changelings. They were replaced with a lamer version of themselves, and it was done in an incredibly ham-handed, deus ex machina way that practically retconned a great episode that had aired like a month previously.
I've said this in a few places, but I'm kind of thinking that the new changelings might actually be even more evil than they were before. It would be a brilliant deconstruction of the theme the show usually follows; the brightly colored characters are now worse then the dark ones. And if you really want to drive home a lesson like 'just because someone looks scary and different it doesn't mean they can't be your friend', what better way than to make a bunch of pretty characters who are the worst villains the show has ever seen? To put it another way, the new changelings and everything about the finale was so bad, I think it's a trick.
Of course, I'm not actually putting too much stock in that being the case. At least not yet. There have been hints of more intriguing story lines like this before, and they went nowhere. I believe the way to sum up my feelings right now is 'high hopes, low expectations'.
8050254
If I remember correctly they were using those rules which had already been set forth by Disney. Queens are evil, black = probably a bad guy. Thus we have princesses and anyone who goes good stops being black. (As a black man this line of thinking is actually kind of weird even for me.)
As far as the holes... I think a lot of writers on Fimfic got it right. That the holes were indicative of the 'constant hunger', and emptiness. Inability to feel or give love, and the ever-present hunger for it. If you fix that problem, why would there be holes? Yes, I agree it was unique and very interesting as a visual design. I even liked the Old Ling design. I just also like the Newlings.
i.imgur.com/nnqHKaM.gif?2
Great ending, 2 thumbs up, tenouttaten
Definitely looking forward to that series of short stories for this
No matter how I view this, I feel like she would do exactly that in every story, deciting who they should love.
The terror begins anew....
While it was nice, this sequel wasn't exactly going where I hoped it would. For my taste this ending came to soon and again I feel like wanting to see what happens afterwards.
8048669 I think I agree with the statue thing, but i vote for foals.
I can think of a reason why it maybe isn't a good thing if the foals would be immortal too, but I think we could decide to make it not that reaslistic.
8050309 I agree, I don't like how the new Thorax looked like and that exactly he was the one that turned into the next equestrian god was a bit chlichee to, that and he looked like a ugly raindeer bug Alicorn. (I like Thorax, but his new design is bad).
I don't know how to say it otherwise, but I always think about how such scenes could have turned out different, like Thorax simply turning into small multicolor Changeling and a different one into a god, I don't like it that he needed to be the god because he was the first one that shared his love.
I maybe like the smaller new Changelings, but I prefer the old look.
I VOTE FOR CHANGLING MATING RITUALS TO HAPPEN!
This was fantastic, and I hate that it ended, but nothing good can last forever.
Meh... Just blend theideas. Twilight and chrissy explore their relationship... Meanwhile Cadence goes full matchmaker. Toss in cadace and chrissy reconciling by teaming up to set celly up.
Meanwhile, Luna teams up with Big Mac (mostly luna dragging him along unwillingly) to try and set celly up as well.
It's matchmaker team A vs matchmaker team B.
And in the meantime... Celly is trying to set Luna up with Big Mac. (And niether is taking the hints.)