• Published 23rd Mar 2013
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A Journey Unthought Of: Revival of Chaos - Hustlin Tom



After the events of the Season 2 finale, Equestria begins to spiral into chaos in the face of a new Changeling threat, a brewing civil conflict, and the second release of Discord.

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Chapter 5

It was the moment everypony had been waiting for. All of the ponies were seated in their rows, and the wedding march had just finished. Princess Celestia had noted on her arrival that Princess Luna was not present for the ceremony. She wasn’t that upset about it; since she was presiding over the exchange of vows, the only role her sister would have held would have been to occupy another one of the front rows, where prominent members of the royal family were acting as observing heads of state.

At her queue, the Princess began her small speech to commemorate the event, “Mares and Gentlecolts, we are gathered here today to witness the union of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Captain Shining Armor in the bonds of holy matrimony. Marriage, the sacred union of two souls, the dream within a dream, is what will now bind these two together both physically and emotionally for all of time, in this life and the next. Great trials will be in store for the both of you throughout your future, but you will never have to face them alone.” The Princess of the Sun smiled to the happy couple, “Princess Cadence and Shining Armor, it is my great pleasure to pronounce you-“

“STOOOOOOP!” a loud shout called out from down the aisle.

All the ponies gathered in the wedding hall turned to look back to see an all too familiar unicorn appear from the double doors. The Princess was shocked by this sudden reappearance of her student. Last night she had witnessed Twilight Sparkle accuse Princess Cadence of being evil, and of bewitching her brother. She was confused beyond all belief; what was her star pupil doing?

“Uuuugh!” Princess Cadence growled to herself, “Why does she have to be so possessive of her brother?”

Princess Celestia looked to her niece with mounting surprise; what was this new side of Cadence she was now seeing?

Princess Cadence recovered quickly, and began to pathetically sob to herself, “Why did she have to ruin my special day?”

Her expression quickly changed to disbelief when she saw a particular unwanted mare join Twilight at the end of the aisle. “Because it’s not your special day,” the battered, disheveled, but very real Princess Cadence said, “It’s mine!”

The entire chapel was due for a round of confusion at this point as they looked up and down the aisle; two Cadences, physically identical in every way? What in Celestia’s name was happening here?

“What?!” The imposter Cadence at the altar exclaimed, “How did you escape?” She then thought to herself for a moment, “Actually, it doesn’t matter,” and then she looked to both Princess Cadence and Twilight with an evil grin, “you’re still too late!”

Applejack shook her head a little as she voiced everypony’s current thought for them, “Ah don’t understand! How can there be two of them?”

Princess Cadence raised an accusatory hoof at her doppelganger, “She’s a Changeling!” She then looked out to the rest of the ponies in the chapel, whose eyes were all focused on her, “She takes the form of somepony you love, and gains power by feeding off your love for them!”

A roaring sound attracted everypony’s attention back to the head of the aisle, and horror spread throughout the chapel, as a green ethereal fire consumed the body of the false bride to be. Where once downy wings had been, membranous gossamer wings were now. Soft fur was burned away and replaced by chitin and insectoid armor plating. Around the imposters midsection sprouted a green thorax, and a jagged, almost volcanic shard-like horn jutted from out of her forehead. Her eyes that had once been lavender were now a mesmerizing emerald.

An unholy chuckle reverberated out to the ponies from this menacing looking creature, “Right you are, Princess! As Queen of the Changelings,” the black insect gestured to herself, “it is up to me to find food for my subjects!” The monster stepped down from the elevated platform of the altar to walk towards Princess Cadence. With every step she took, her porous legs elastically expanded and contracted, and her wings produced a soft unsettling drone as she absentmindedly fluttered her wings. “Equestria has more love than any place I’ve ever encountered.” the Queen continued, “My fellow Changelings will be able to devour so much of it,” she now stood a few paces from Princess Cadence, and as she spoke small rivulets of spittle sprayed the Princess as her former captor thought of all the delicious love just waiting for her and her kind, “that we will gain more power than we have ever dreamed of!”

“They’ll never get the chance!” Princess Cadence shouted defiantly back into her opponent’s face, “Shining Armor’s protection spell will keep them from ever reaching us!”

The Queen of the Changelings chuckled once more, “Oh, I doubt that. Isn’t that right, dear?” She looked back to Shining Armor expectantly.

“Yeees, My Queen,” he said through a deluded haze, as his eyes were becoming more and more unfocused.

The Queen mockingly exclaimed as she gleefully glanced back at Princess Cadence, “Good boy! May I’ll give you a treat later.”

Princess Cadence’s shock at seeing her brave, wonderful fiance reduced to a mere pet by this Changeling fueled her anger as she charged at her enemy.

The Changeling Queen’s horn flared with emerald color, “Uh-uh-uh!” and her eyes narrowed, “Don’t want to go back to the caves, now do you?”

The threat of returning to her prison of crystal, while not a likely outcome, still caused the Princess stop. She couldn’t afford to abandon her only chance at saving her husband now by getting teleported back into some labyrinth beneath Canterlot.

Satisfied that the Princess wouldn’t attack, the Queen of the Changeling’s flew to Shining Armor’s side, “Ever since I took your place, I’ve been feeding off Shining Armor’s love for you. Every moment that ticks by, he will grow weaker, and so will his spell. Even now, my minions are chipping away at the shield around your city!” The chapel was in a state of full panic now, but no one wanted to move, for fear of raising the Queen’s ire. Ever so content with her complete dominance of the situation, she laughed once again. She cupped Shining Armor’s face in her diseased looking hoof, and turned it to face hers, “He may not be my husband, but he is under my total control now.” She then looked to Princess Cadence again, “And, I’m sorry to say, he will be unable to perform his duties as Captain of the Royal Guard!”

Princess Cadence despondently yelled out, “Not my Shining Armor!”

The Queen fluttered her wings to bring herself center to the rest of the raised platform in the chapel, from which she flew up a small way to embrace her triumphant moment, “Soon, my Changeling army will break through! First, we will take Canterlot, and then all of Equestria!”

“No,” a simple but powerful declaration echoed through the chapel. The Queen of the Changeling’s looked back to the momentarily unnoticed Princess Celestia, who now approached her. The Princess’ face was grim as she stood tall in defiance of the monster before her, “You won’t. There won’t be any conquering today.”

The Changeling Queen descended to solid ground as the Princess spoke, “I know your kind; the sort of being who thinks they can just take things because they are more powerful than most. I don’t normally get involved with this sort of thing anymore, but you’ve made your threat quite clear. You may have made it impossible for Shining Armor to perform his spell, but now that you have so foolishly revealed your true self,” the Princess of the Sun lunged at her opponent. The Queen of the Changelings also lunged, and the two royalty locked horns as they engaged in combat. The Princess broke the horn lock first, and flew up several feet into the air, “I will protect my subjects from you!” and her horn began to glow gold with awesome power. From out of it belched forth a stream of golden light which droned down onto her enemy. The Queen of the Changelings sent up her own burst of emerald magic that collided with the golden energy of Princess Celestia, and the two beams fought for dominance against each other. The Princess forced a large part of her power into the laser blast, and it began to creep toward her opponent at a mercilessly increasing pace. The Changeling Queen screeched in exertion, and her beam of magic responded by traveling back up the Princess’ own stream. Princess Celestia's eyes widened in surprise as the enemy’s magic reached the tip of her horn. A large burst of pain pierced her entire body unlike any she had ever experienced, and in that moment she lost concentration of her magic.

There was a titanic blast of green light. The entire chapel gasped as Princess Celestia, for the first time in all of recorded history, fell defeated to the ground. Her crown skittered a small distance away from her body. Her horn tip was charred black from the magical rebound of her own and her enemy’s spells. She did not move.

“Princess Celestia!” Twilight screamed in panicked fear as she ran over to her teacher’s side. Her friends joined her at her side to try and minister the Princess’ wounds.

“Ha!” the Changeling Queen exclaimed as she looked to the horrified Princess Cadence, “Shining Armor’s love for you is even stronger than I thought! Consuming him has made me even more powerful than Celestia!”

Princess Celestia’s eyes slowly opened as she became semi-conscious. “The Elements,” she said groggily to Twilight, “Get the Elements. Use them to defeat the Queen.”

Twilight nodded, and she and her friends dashed out of the chapel with several of the more panicked wedding goers right behind them.

The Queen of the Changelings cackled manically as she called out after them all, “You can run, but you can’t hide! My Changelings are everywhere, and we’re coming for you all!”

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