Cadence Unbridled (Sections 1 & 2)

by Flikaline

Past & Present : Part 3

Past & Present : Part 3

Cadence raced to her aunt’s room, but Celestia wasn’t there. She wasn’t at breakfast either. With increasing panic, Cadence galloped towards the main entrance to Canterlot. When she got there, she almost sent an orange-yellow unicorn filly flying.

‘Sorry,’ Cadence told her breathlessly.

The filly seemed more or less unaffected. She cleared her throat.

‘Princess Celestia has left Canterlot to meet a couple of visitors,’ the filly said, clearly having rehearsed it, ‘until she comes back it is strongly advised that no-pony leaves Canterlot. Rest assured that the Royal Guard, Hawk Talons, has been put in charge of security until the princess and the captain of the Royal Guard return.’

Cadence was horrified. Celestia was gone, the captain of the guard was gone, and with him quite a few of the other guards. Those who hadn’t gone were under the control of Raven Mocker, who could easily send them off to patrol or guard places that were convenient for his own intentions. He needed to be revealed before what remained of the Royal Guard was given commands.

Cadence would tell Shining Armor. He would help her. He would need no explanation once she told him who Hawk Talons really was. With this in mind, Cadence quickly realized that getting Shining Armor out of the way would be a high priority for Raven Mocker. It was just lucky that Shining Armor hadn’t been picked for the group that had gone out with the captain.

She turned away from the main entrance and hurried back the way she’d come. Cadence quickly caught sight of a line of guards who Raven Mocker was talking to. And Shining Armor was among them. They were probably about to be sent off! Cadence dashed towards them. The guards were rather taken aback by her speedy arrival.

‘No-pony go anywhere until I say so,’ Cadence told them, ‘Shining Armor, I need to speak to you for a moment in private.’

Hawk Talons’s lip curled.

‘They will go when I say so,’ Hawk Talons snarled threateningly,’ I would strongly advise you keep your mouth shut, Princess.’

The other guards looked rather shocked at the way he was speaking to her. Shining Armor moved out of line, and towards Cadence.

‘Don’t you dare go with her!’ Hawk Talons snapped.

‘It’s urgent,’ Cadence told Shining Armor with a pleading look in her eyes.

Shining Armor nodded, and they began to walk off.

‘Get back here!’ Hawk Talons spat, ‘Get back here or I’ll have you kicked out!’

Shining Armor hesitated for a moment, then turned his head.

‘Being a Royal Guard is about protecting Canterlot, protecting the princesses,’ Shining Armor said angrily, ‘a princess is clearly in need of help here, it would be against my duty to refuse, for any of us to refuse her. If following orders is more important than doing the right thing, then I quit!’

When Cadence and Shining Armor were a short distance away, they stopped.

‘I really hope this is important, Cadence,’ Shining Armor said solemnly.

Cadence felt incredibly guilty. Shining Armor had given up his dream for her sake. She gave a nod and swallowed anxiously.

‘Well,’ she began hesitantly, ‘it’s about Hawk Talons . . .’

Shining Armor scowled at her, and Cadence realized he thought it wasn’t nearly as important as she had made out.

‘He’s not what he looks like,’ Cadence continued, panic emerging more in her voice, the more she said, ‘I don’t know how he did it. But Auntie Tia’s gone, a large amount of the guard is gone, and I only realized a short time ago!’

‘What did you realize?’ Shining Armor responded urgently, putting a hoof on her shoulder, ‘you can tell me.’

Cadence was close to tears now, and shaking rather violently.

‘Hawk Talons,’ Cadence stuttered, ‘Hawk Talons is, he is, he’s Raven Mocker!’

Shining Armor’s face would have gone pale if he hadn’t had a white coat.

‘But he’s in charge of security!’ Shining Armor exclaimed, ‘we’ll have to find a way of revealing him!’

Cadence had been thinking the same thing and her mind fell on his armor.

They rushed back to where the guards were, hoping they hadn’t gone. Fortunately, what Shining Armor had said had inspired the other guards to ignore Hawk Talons’s orders.

‘What are you two doing!’ Hawk Talons yelled, clearly frustrated, as Cadence and Shining Armor approached at a rapid pace.

‘We were wondering how you managed to change your appearance so drastically!’ Cadence retorted.

The other guards looked bewildered. Before Hawk Talons could reply, Shining Armor had attacked him. A few of the other guards tried to pull Shining Armor off.

Starburst, who had been heading to the florists, heard the commotion, and hurried over. The three guards who were trying to stop Shining Armor were making matters difficult, and had almost overcome him. With one last effort, he managed to damage Hawk Talons’s armor enough that part of the front of it fell off, revealing a patch of black coat. For a moment, there was silence.

‘YOU!!!’ bellowed a voice full of rage.

Everypony turned their heads to see Starburst charging over. He attacked Hawk Talons with all the strength he had. The guards holding Shining Armor down let him go, realizing that if Starburst was attacking too, there must be a good reason. Starburst had managed to wrench Hawk Talons’s armor off piece by piece as they struggled, until the last piece was off. Starburst stopped to catch his breath.

Hawk Talons’s body looked even odder now. Among pieces of his natural coat colors, were many other different colors. His cutie mark seemed to be a combination of at least five other ponies’. Cadence gave a scream of horror on having an unpleasant realization.

‘His coat is made up of various different parts of his wives!’ Cadence shrieked.

She looked like she might faint or throw up. Raven Mocker leapt at Cadence, his face twisted with fury.

‘I’ll make you sorry, you little foal,’ Raven Mocker snarled.

His talons were out in an instant, and he was digging them into one of her forelegs. Cadence was screaming. The guards were charging over, Starburst and Shining Armor in the lead. Shining Armor was fast, but Starburst got there first. With an almighty kick, Raven Mocker was off Cadence.

‘Are you alright?’ Starburst asked Cadence.

‘Sort of,’ Cadence murmured, wincing in pain.

‘Let me help you,’ Starburst replied.

Raven Mocker gave a laugh. His disguise seemed to be pixelating and falling off him, disappearing into nothingness; his wings had reappeared.

‘You’re acting like she’s True Star!’ Raven Mocker sneered at Starburst, ‘By the way, how is True Star? Oh, wait, I killed her, didn’t I?’

Hot, angry tears were surging down Starburst’s face.

‘You did more than kill her!’ Starburst cried, his voice filled with emotion and rage, ‘I don’t know what you want with this poor filly but I won’t let you cause her any more harm!’

‘Haven’t you guessed?’ Raven Mocker chuckled.

Cadence didn’t know how she hadn’t realized before that Starburst must’ve been True Star’s fiancé. No wonder he was unable to cope!

None of the guards were in doubt that they were facing a threat and prepared to attack Raven Mocker and protect their princess. They didn’t notice the figures emerging from the shadows. Cadence was the first to catch sight of them.

‘Behind you!’ Cadence shouted.

Now noticed, the mutated changelings moved swiftly out of hiding and towards their leader and the ponies. This was only a small group of them but Cadence couldn’t help but suspect that there were a lot more dotted around the place, especially as Arachne and Lamia weren’t among the group.

Fighting quickly ensued.

‘Cadence,’ Shining Armor shouted, ‘get inside! Find somewhere safe!’

The guards were too involved in fighting to notice Cadence race off, or that Raven Mocker quickly gave chase.

Cadence dashed through the doors as quickly as she could. Her beating heart and heavy breathing seemed to both enflame and numb her senses. It took very little time for her instincts to inform her she was being tracked, pursued, hunted. She magically shut every door she passed through. Maybe her recent boredom hadn’t been a complete waste of time after all. It meant that she knew the castle and surrounding area better than she otherwise would have. She tried to shake him off by taking odd choices of routes, but it seemed impossible.

‘He has a very good sense of smell,’ a female voice told Cadence, ‘and he can smell your fear.’

Cadence was in far too much of a panic to think who the voice belonged to, and she was quickly running out of energy. There was only one thing to do. Cadence dived into a small room and magically locked the door. Shining Armor may have thought she’d be safer inside, but with Raven Mocker on her tail, she would’ve been a lot safer outside. At least some of the Royal Guard would have been close at hoof.

Cadence tried to quieten her rather loud deep breathing as she leaned against the varnished wooden door, willing her aunt to return as soon as possible. She could hear hooves approaching, then slowing down, and coming to a standstill. He knows! Cadence thought desperately, He knows I haven’t gone any further down the corridor!

As Cadence watched him through the keyhole, Raven Mocker looked around thoughtfully for a moment, then sniffed the air. After a moment, Raven Mocker licked his lips and slowly headed towards the door with a vile grin on his face. Cadence could feel herself beginning to tremble as she watched him coming closer and closer, hoping dearly that he did not know how to unlock doors by magic.

‘I know you’re in there, sweetheart,’ came Raven Mocker’s soft and dangerous voice, ‘you can’t hide from me.’

‘As if I haven’t heard that one before!’ Cadence retorted, before she could stop herself.

‘Why don’t you just open the door for me, sweetheart?’ Raven Mocker said in a silky tone, ‘It’ll make it easier for both of us.’

‘Not likely!’ Cadence snapped.

Raven Mocker gave a phony sigh.

‘I guess I’ll just have to unlock it myself then,’ he responded.

Cadence could hear the lock turning, and backed away from the door in horror. The door swung open, and Raven Mocker stepped into the room, his hooves making a slight scraping noise on the slightly uneven, hard floor. Cadence’s heart was pounding. Raven Mocker was walking towards her. He was getting nearer and nearer.

In her panic, Cadence managed to teleport out of the room and back into the corridor. Taking advantage of the fact she had unwittingly caught Raven Mocker off guard, she fled.

It took longer than it should have for Cadence to catch sight of the sudden increase in cobwebs. And as she stared at them, as she ran, she crashed into something. Cadence had sent Lamia flying across the room. Cadence did not ponder the probability of her crashing into so many ponies recently.

Her senses heightened. She was in trouble, deep trouble. If Lamia were here then Arachne would be close by, not to mention that the cobwebs confirmed that she had, at least, been here not too long ago. Cadence dared a quick glance behind her, as she turned into another corridor.

As she turned her head forward again, Cadence saw Arachne sending cobwebs at her, her horn surrounded by a dark pink aura.

*

‘What’s going on?’ asked one of the guards, bemused, ‘why are they retreating?’

The stallions and Shining Armor all stared as the creatures they had been fighting raced off.

‘Something isn’t right here,’ Shining Armor said grimly.

‘I thought they were trying to take Canterlot or something,’ murmured another confused guard.

Starburst shook his head.

‘Raven Mocker’s too clever to think he could take Canterlot when Princess Celestia will be returning soon. It must have been something else,’ said Starburst in a mournful and thoughtful tone.

He looked up abruptly, then turned to Shining Armor.

‘Where’s Cadence?’ Starburst inquired.

Shining Armor was horror struck, suddenly realizing what he had done.

‘What have I done!’ Shining Armor cried,’ I was supposed to protect her! That’s why they must’ve all raced off! He’s got her!’

‘Shining Armor, calm down,’ Starburst told him softly, putting a hoof on his shoulder and attempting to make out what Shining Armor was going on about, ‘Are you . . ? Are you saying you think Raven Mocker’s ponynapped Cadence?’

Shining Armor seemed to calm down a bit and nodded.

‘She’s the reason he came,’ Shining Armor tried to explain without getting over emotional, ‘I thought she’d be safer inside. He . . . He wants to force her into marrying him and . . .’

Shining Armor stopped. Starburst suddenly looked very ill and seemed to have become panic itself.

‘He wants to do the same thing to her as he did to True Star!’ Starburst managed to gasp.

Shining Armor took charge.

‘You two search the castle quickly for possible witnesses and circumstances. We need to be completely certain Cadence didn’t get away and find any possible clues.’

Shining Armor turned to a fast pegasus guard.

‘Get ready to fly to Princess Celestia and tell her what has happened as soon as we have confirmation.’

The pegasus gave a nod.

‘The rest of you,’ Shining Armor said, ‘find any other guards who might be scattered around and bring them here.’

‘Are we going to make an attack?’ Starburst asked.

Shining Armor gave a firm nod.

‘This is my fault, Starburst,’ Shining Armor sighed heavily, ‘she would’ve been safer out here.’

‘It was an easy mistake. You did what you thought was best,’ Starburst replied, ‘we’ll get her back. I would make it a promise, but, I promised True Star I would always protect her . . .’

Shining Armor thought it best to change the subject slightly.

‘I’m surprised Cadence didn’t realize you were True Star’s fiancé sooner,’ Shining Armor started to say, ‘I mean, I don’t know all the details but . . .’

‘She knew about True Star!’ Starburst exclaimed.

‘Well, yeah,’ Shining Armor responded, a little taken aback.

They turned their heads to see the two guards who had been sent to search the castle returning, supporting an injured servant.

‘Princess Cadence is gone,’ the servant told them weakly, ‘that creature took her, him and a couple of his lackeys. I saw it happen.’