The Mannequin

“Cadance?! Cady, honey, let’s talk about this. Everything’ll be alright.”

Shining Armor’s hoof scraped at the door and his magic jangled at the ornate handle. With a small scoff, Chrysalis held the lock tight with a burst of her own telekinesis. She flicked away the tears collecting on her pretty little pony lashes, and desperately tried not to laugh. Who knew all it took was a few little tears, a keening of the voice, for the elite of Equestria to submit to her every whim? Honestly at this point she was hardly even trying, and yet--

The tip tap of hooves sounded outside the door: the shuffling of Twilight Sparkle’s friends. Amidst the quiet clamor, Chrysalis could just make out the sound of Celestia’s pony shoes among them.

“Please, dear,” Chrysalis whined, with just that little bit of tremor to really sell it, “I just need to be alone for a little while. Okay?”

Not even waiting to hear the fools wander off, Chrysalis immediately turned to the plan swarming in her brain. So far, everything had gone quite deliciously. Even without extensive study of Cadenza’s habits, with just a bit of acting and a pinch of changeling magic, even Princess Celestia had fallen for her grand trick. The others went on glibly, happy to fret and fawn over a pretty bride. Shining’s love for said bride wasn’t anything to scoff at either; as Chrysalis paced her suite which she’d hidden herself away in, she could feel the stretch of her stomach, the warmth and contentment that came with a rich, filling meal. Her legs were stronger than they had been for what seemed like eons now, and as she flicked to her changeling form for just a moment, she saw the new slimy sheen dancing beautifully from her healthy, scrape-free carapace. The reflection in the body-length mirror beside her bed smirked back at her with whitened, wickedly hard fangs. She was practically a new bug! Everything was going absolutely perfectly.

Except, of course, for Twilight Sparkle.

Chrysalis scowled. She prowled to the other side of the room to her balcony looming over the expanse of Canterlot, and her flicking tail knocked one of those hideous mannequins over with a plastic thud. With a grin, she thought of Twilight Sparkle, that idiotic little foal, lying shivering and alone at the prepped wedding hall, all of her warnings falling on deaf ears…

But her smile soured, worming up on her face like a dead slug. Certainly it was a good thing that all of her friends had so far failed to heed Twilight’s words, but the fact that the mare so stubbornly kept at the queen’s throat? It wouldn’t do. Surely the little pony would only need to bury her nose in a book and discover the existence of changelings, then she would be parading around shouting about how evil her new sister-in-law was again. If even a single pony in that crowd stopped to give her accusations any thought?

Chrysalis moved her gaze across Canterlot, teeming with ponies milling about and absolutely glowing with love magic, so much so that their coats and manes dyed themselves such garish pastel colors. Then she looked upwards, to the pink shield pulsing over the skyline and casting the entire city in a faint magenta glow. What a waste it would be, if her drones were not to feast tonight.

While Shining Armor’s love tasted divine, Chrysalis wasn’t so sure the meathead’s affections could ward off the power of Celestia and Luna, at least not until her drones had broken through Shining’s barrier. Of course she had him wrapped around her hoof, ready to throw himself off a cliff with only a pretty bat of her eyelashes and a flick of her horn, but if the alicorns or the bearer of magic were to cleanse him of her influence at the last second? It would ruin everything.

Chrysalis needed to remove Twilight Sparkle from the equation entirely.

With a hum, Chrysalis instantly thought of the catacombs where her doppelganger was still waiting, all alone - assuming she hadn’t dehydrated or somehow fallen down a pit of crystal daggers and ended herself already. Unicorns and the alicorn of love had been successfully trapped there before, after all, and there were the old bridesmaids below to act as guard dogs if need be.

But then Chrysalis thought of just what little pony she was contending with. The mare had banished Nightmare Moon, if Chrysalis’ intel was correct, and currently held the title of Bearer of the Element of Magic, which came with the key to a superweapon of Harmony whose level of power hadn’t been seen in thousands of years - and true, she couldn’t access those powers without the support of her so-called friends, but that didn’t mean Celestia’s little lapdog was a threat to be underestimated. Though the catacombs were far below Canterlot Castle and had so far held an injured Mi Amore Cadenza, there was no telling that this intelligent little mare, the only one to suspect Chrysalis of anything, would be so easily thrown away.

Her mind buzzed with thought, images flitting behind her closed eyes: of Twilight Sparkle breaking through the crystal with her raw magical strength, of her finding her way through the twisting paths and minecart rails, of her simply teleporting herself back to the surface with a particularly strong effort. Perhaps it was a long shot, and that purple pesk was just as weak and stupid as the rest, but the Queen’s hive could not go hungry again. Not this time. Cast out from Equestria as she was, Chrysalis was still more of a royal than those two pompous alicorns could ever hope to be, and her drones would not go hungry because she made a hasty error only a few hours before showtime.

So then, Chrysalis thought, lifting up the mannequin she had tipped aside. She levitated it in her sickly green aura, and twisted it around as she thought. With the pretty dress draping across it, she could almost imagine this hunk of plastic was Twilight Sparkle herself. What to do about this pathetic little unicorn?

As the mannequin waved dizzily in Chrysalis’ grip, swaying along with her in a silent dance, Chrysalis thought of all the ways she could dispose of one little pony. The most obvious way, she thought with a flare of her horn, a heating of the plastic, was to simply kill her and replace her with a drone until the moment was upon them. It would be so very easy to just-- twist.

The mannequin’s head snapped from the base.

But, with a husky, clicking laugh, Chrysalis thought that was almost too easy, and a bit of a shame. True, her pony friends would probably fall for the charade for a while, but it seemed like such a waste. After all, the little mare had such a mouthwatering aura of platonic love about her…

A thought clicked into place.

A giddy laugh bubbled into the queen’s carapace, tumbled out of her hissing throat. With another thought, she twirled up the pieces of the mannequin with a wave of magic and fervor. With a few more satisfying snaps, the limbs of the mannequin had also unscrewed themselves from the base. The bits of plastic jumbled and waved like a happy pony doing a jig in place, while Chrysalis maneuvered each piece as easy as breathing. It was no longer a mannequin, but a puppet: a plastic, empty, hollow doll that danced only for her.

Chrysalis shimmied side to side, and once again felt the bulk of Shining Armor’s love within her. The stallion had given her a few rather filling portions, but she figured she had some room to spare since he was weakening, and the previous bridesmaid’s affections had been so flimsy and fleeting.

She made her little Twilight puppet bow down to her, low and lower still. Even more thoughts, more puzzle pieces, clicked into place with devious ease within her buzzing mind. It was all so obvious.

The Twilight mannequin burst into green flames before Chrysalis. It burned and smoldered all for her, at her whim, and then turned to ash along with a patch of carpet. Chrysalis smashed the flame into the floor with her hoof, but if she hadn’t, that little ember would have slowly but surely crawled its way all over Canterlot.

This day was going to be perfect. And even if it wasn’t, Chrysalis imagined she’d soon have another powerful pawn in her corner, one who even Celestia wouldn’t want to touch.

If nothing else, Queen Chrysalis was at least going to have one very satisfying snack.

Twilight sniffed harshly into the floor below her. The linoleum echoed her hot breath back over her tear-stained face, made her muzzle drip even worse than it already was, but she couldn't find it in herself to move or wipe her nose because- oh stars above, what had she done?

She had thought that she was doing the right thing, saving her friends from an evil fraud who only wanted to use her brother for his title or money or something- right? Hadn’t she? Or maybe her friends were right, and she was just paranoid because of a jealousy she didn’t want to face? Either way, she…

Twilight shivered, another pitiful sob muffled into the cold tiles. She’d never felt so awful before. She’d ruined everything. She’d gone and been her overbearing paranoid Twilight self, and accused her old foalsitter of being some evil supervillain during the rehearsal for her wedding, in front of everypony (another wash of shame flew hot and achy down her entire body because why would she do something like that?) and it had cost her everything. This one moment, a crazy accusation born from a lack of control, had lost her a place in her own brother’s wedding. Shining had never screamed at her like that before. They’d had petty fights as foals, of course, but they were always over something silly like a dog-eared page in a book, not the pony that he loved with his entire heart. Now Twilight wouldn’t get to see Shiny, in his regalia, with those happy tears in his eyes as he watched his beautiful bride prance down the aisle. Years from now, their family would look at the scrapbooks from the most important day of Shiny’s life and Twilight wouldn’t be in a single picture, because she’d so badly burnt that bridge. And Cadance… she could have had a sister…

Not to mention her friends probably hated her or thought she was even more of a neurotic mess now, and the look Celestia had given her…

Twilight just felt so cold. So heavy. The shame tore her stomach to shreds.

Eventually the racing thoughts buzzing around in her mind all smushed together into a mind-numbing static. A numbness settled over, and all she could do was lay there, and cry, and cry.

Tip-tap.

Twilight’s heart leapt into her throat so fast she thought she might vomit, and she snapped her head up with a dizzying crack. Was it her friends? Celestia?! Oh stars, what would Celestia think of her? Would she not want Twilight to be her student anymore?--

Cadance!

Cadance was standing there, eyes turned down at her, looking at this little mess of a pony that she currently was. Before Twilight could even think, she propped herself onto half-curled legs, dragged herself to Cadance’s side as her tears blurred everything together. Oh stars, she had a chance. She would do anything to fix this, anything!

“Cadance,” she croaked, “I-I’m so sorry, I…”

“Oh, honey, I know.”

And then Cadance brought a hoof to her face, so soft, so gentle. Just like when Twilight was a little foal who had hurt herself falling off the swingset, Cadance swooped her into a crushingly warm hug. Her wings folded over her shaking sides like a blanket, her mane curled over Twilight’s face and replaced everything with a swirl of pinks and yellows and the smell of her sweet perfume. Twilight relaxed and heaved a sob into that mane before she could register she was even doing it - she was a little filly again, crying to Cadance about the bullies who’d stolen her saddlebag full of books. Just falling into that warmth and comfort and--

--And Twilight didn’t deserve it. She couldn’t understand. Why was Cadance comforting her instead of the other way around? After all Twilight had said.

She pushed away from Cadance, rearing back to look at her kind eyes. She still couldn’t breathe right. Her chest was stuttering. “No, Cadance, really. I -- I shouldn’t have--”

Cadance brought up a wing-tip to shush her, her eyes sparkling as if Twilight hadn’t just denounced her as some evil beast.

“Enough of that,” Cadance said. She paused for a second as if thinking, and then, with a huff, “Oh, it is really my fault. I really have been kind of awful to you and your friends, haven’t I?”

Twilight’s heart cracked just a little bit more at that. “No! I mean- you have been different, but I haven’t seen you in years and- and it’s your wedding! Of course you’ve been stressed! I… just…”

Cadance hummed, and gave her head a shake. Her mane bobbed playfully, like it always did when Twilight had said something particularly odd or silly as a kid. “You just? What you just did, is react to me acting off when there’s currently a threat against the city that could have hurt Shining-- I mean, Shiny. I’ve been thinking about it and honestly, I’m glad you love him so much to worry like that. I forgive you, okay… ladybug?”

Twilight gaped. Her mouth was dry. Her stomach still churned and her heart pounded-- just like that. After the whole scene, Cadance would forgive her off the bat, with barely an apology. Even… even Celestia and her best friends had been so very disappointed with her, and she’d have to work to earn their complete respect again, so Twilight had assumed that Cadance would hate her forever. At least, there would be a few tense family reunions where Twilight rightfully got the cold shoulder she deserved. But Cadance really would look past Twilight’s outburst just like that. It seemed so ridiculous.

But then again, she thought, with a glowing warmth setting alight in her chest, so did most of her friendships. After all, after the terrible “Love Me, Need Me” incident in Ponyville, her friends had stepped in to plead her case - and thinking about it, accidentally mind-controlling half of Ponyville was probably worse than shouting at her soon-to-be sister-in-law, if less personal. Plus she remembered Cadance, fixing her mane after she’d mangled it with the scissors trying to cut it herself, putting bandages on her scrapes, kindly but sternly disciplining her for throwing temper tantrums. This was no different, really.

The weight inside her lifted so fast it choked her. Cadance… she was such a good pony to forgive her like that, a wonderful pony, one who Shining would be lucky to call his wife…

“Hey, come on,” Cadance laughed, swiping at Twilight’s cheeks. “I said I forgave you, didn’t I?”

Twilight sniffed, and gave a wobbly smile. “Yeah, you did. I’m so sorry, Cadance, and I promise this won’t ever happen again. I would hate for my jealousy to get in the way of your and Shiny’s happiness.”

Cadance rolled her eyes. “Oh, don’t worry about it. You know how Shiny gets, after the wedding he’ll forget it ever happened. And you know I wouldn’t let him stay angry at our Best Mare.”

Twilight started, her breath smashed out of her. “You-- I’m-- You and Shining would still have me as Best Mare? But, he said--”

“Don’t worry, Ladybug,” Cadance cooed, gently caressing Twilight’s cheeks again. “I already talked to Shiny about it. Besides, shouting and banning you from the wedding without my say like that? Well, I won’t say it was completely out of line, but with him and his temper…”

She trailed off, staring out into space. Her eyes went cold and distant, and Twilight wanted to perk up -- after all, she never really thought of Shining Armor having a temper, and it was Twilight’s fault he’d snapped-- but then Cadance pulled a face. Her muzzle scrunched as if she’d smelled something foul, and she yanked her hooves away from Twilight’s face as if she’d been burned.

“Oh, but Twilight,” she whined, disgust squirming all over her face; Twilight realized that with all her crying, she’d gotten tears and snot smeared all over Cadance’s new ponyshoes. Twilight’s face burned hot. Oh, how else could she mess up today?

“Ah,” Twilight hissed. “Sorry, I--”

“Forget about it,” Cadance snapped, flicking the mucus from her hooves. Droplets landed in the little puddle of misery that Twilight had cried herself a couple feet away. Then Cadance looked back at her, and suddenly all of that disgust melted away into a honey-sweet concern, a sad smile that warmed Twilight to the bone. “Anyway, with you crying like that, you must have some sinus headache. Maybe I can use the spell I use to treat Shiny’s migraines on you, so you can see how it really works?”

Twilight only felt dumber and dumber the more Cadance talked. Now the mare was willing to treat her well-deserved headache with a spell that Twilight had accused of being evil? She really had let the jealousy and bitterness get to her head, hadn’t she? Before she could apologize again though, Cadance rolled her eyes again.

“And we can treat it like, a, uh, truce. This is a gift, so you know that I forgive you, and now you know better than to do it again, and you can stop beating yourself up about it, okay? Really, it’s just a little spell, it won’t bother me to cast it.”

After a second of hesitation, Twilight nodded. “Of course, Cadance, if you really want to. I really am sorry about what I’ve done, and I’m glad to have your forgiveness. It will be wonderful to have you as a sister.”

Cadance smiled, so very sweetly. “Of course, Ladybug. Now you just lean back and relax, alright?”

Twilight did. The relief pooled in her chest as she settled back onto her haunches. Just a second ago Twilight felt like a broken mess of a pony, but now, because of forgiveness, because of an act of friendship from a pony who was going to be her sister-in-law soon(!), she already felt lighter. Friendship really was magic, and though she’d have to work on apologizing to Shiny and her other friends, with Cadance by her side, she had hope that things would turn out alright.

Cadance lit her horn and took a mighty step forward. Her magic, a brilliant shimmering green, sparkled off the floor like green embers, lit her fur a sickening mix of colors. Twilight smiled as she stepped forward, leaned her head down, and-- and smiled at her, like--

Cadance’s face twisted. One moment she was Twilight’s foalsitter, gently cleaning up one of Twilight’s boo-boos, and the next her face shifted into horrifying glee. Her mouth twisted up and up into a smile full of ghastly teeth, pointed and grotesque. Her eyes alit with green flame, sparkling with self-satisfied joy, so sharp, so triumphant, so cruel. Twilight felt the terror, remembered at the last awful second of clarity she had that Cadance’s magic was actually a soft baby blue, the same time Cadance’s horn touched her own. It was cold, and hard, and then came the ripping.

Twilight screamed as the pain first stabbed into her chest, then into her heart, but Cadance leapt onto her. As Twilight’s body went slack of its own accord despite the panic desperately trying to get her limbs to move, Cadance pushed her body to the ground, smashed her horn against Twilight’s with a click, covered her mouth with a heavy wing.

Twilight’s mind swam. One second she was on the floor with Cadance smashing her into the carpet, and then her mind was floating- she saw her mom and dad holding her hooves, she saw her friends hugging her close.The Grand Galloping Gala flashed by in a sickening rush of memory, all of that emotion of the night surfacing to her mind. She remembered Celestia, so desperately wanting to be with Celestia throughout the night, only to talk with her like an old friend over donuts and see another side of her for the very first time. She remembered the Running of the Leaves, defeating Discord, the surprise party for Pinkie Pie, helping Fluttershy with Philomena- and with it all came a rush of nostalgic, heart-aching love and care. It pounded in her chest, forced a smile onto her face made her feel so full and warm and happy to have such wonderful friends by her side-- and then a tug.

A wisp of that emotion rushed away like sand in a sieve. Somewhere, Twilight Sparkle cried out in physical agony at the tearing pain in her head, but inside all she could feel was the loss. So much feeling, a love which pulsed in her veins and made her feel alive and useful and loved, suddenly was nowhere to be found. Nothing but a crater was in its wake, so hollow. Then that claw of magic from Cadance twisted like a dagger in her heart again, and again, and more of it faded with a pang. She still saw her memories. She saw herself, sitting there sipping apple juice with her friends while Spike ate some baked bads, saw herself laugh-- but it was so very empty, now. Like a strand of film decaying over time, blackening at the edges and dusting over with specks of dirt. It hurt, oh stars, it hurt so bad, and she reached desperately to grab it back but Cadance just twisted the magic deeper, and deeper, and deeper, so harshly Twilight thought her brain was ripping into two meaty chunks.

Vaguely, Twilight thought about the day Spike was hatched. She knew, logically, that at the time she had been bewildered and terrified and excited. Only weeks ago, she had looked at a picture of him as a baby and almost cried at the swell of happiness, of pride, and had to go scoop him up into a hug and ruffle his head-scales.

Now she felt nothing. A numbness. A crater in her soul. Something told her that if somepony were to trot up to her right now and tell her that Spike had died in a terrible accident, she would offer her condolences to the ponies who actually cared, and then she would continue her day with only the bat of an eyelash. It would mean nothing. He meant nothing to her. He used to, maybe, but not now.

Twilight’s body felt alien to her. Something wanted to sob. Something wanted to reach out in desperation and plead, beg to give her that love, that friendship, back, fill her up with emotion and purpose. She wanted to fall to the ground and weep, and mourn, and apologize until her dying breath, but she didn’t know why. The tears were dripping down her face, her throat was raw from screaming, her body spasmed wildly on the ground in a stabbing pain worse than she’d ever felt before. But she didn’t understand why.

After all, all she was doing was reliving some memories of Spike the dragon and some of her old ponyfriends. And yes, objectively, they’d been wonderful friends in the past and she recognized the love she’d felt before, but the truth was that she just didn’t feel the same anymore. She’d changed, is all, and came to realize that she just happened to be more compatible with Cadance.

Cadance, as in the Cadance, the greatest foalsitter in the history of foalsitters, the most amazing pony ever! Beautiful, caring, kind Cadance.

Then Twilight Sparkle finally fell unconscious from the pain, and a sickeningly full Queen Chrysalis’ new plan fell into motion.

The Last Trick

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Twilight blinked as Cadance gently pulled her horn away from her own. As promised, her sinus headache ebbed away into nothing in an instant. One second there was an annoying little pain behind her eyes, and the next there was a warmth more comforting than she’d ever felt before that pushed it away. Twilight couldn’t help but sigh at the relief, and smile like a goof at her old foalsitter.

“Wow,” she breathed. Cadence smiled radiantly at her in response. “I can’t believe I thought for a second that that spell was evil; I feel great! If only I knew how to cast that back in school!”

Cadence laughed gently at her from behind her hoof, and said, “Yeah, I’ve heard from Shining that it’s pretty good at what it does. Now, does that mean you accept the truce, or not?”

For a second Twilight could only blink dumbly. The truce? What was-- and then suddenly, the events of the past hour or so mowed her over like a speeding train. The wonderful, wonderful spell Cadance cast on her had waved her worries away for a few seconds, but now it all came back. The yelling, the looks from her pony friends, the crying…

And of course Cadance was forgiving her. Honestly, doubting that Cadance would do so was worse than accusing her of being evil in the first place. She was the kindest, most understanding pony Twilight knew, and a Princess to boot! It was safe to assume she’d dealt with worse than somepony throwing a hissy-fit like a foal because she was jealous, and of course she was too golden-hearted to hold a grudge against somepony she’d foalsat for years. That still didn’t excuse Twilight bursting in and practically calling her a monster while she was stressed out about her wedding, but…

“Of course I do, Cadance. How could I not accept a truce from the best foalsitter in all of Equestria?”

She pushed forward, throwing her hooves out, and gently wrapped Cadance into a warm hug. Cadance hugged back, enveloping Twilight with her wings and cradling her close, and once again Twilight was surrounded by the pinks and yellows and sweet scents of Cadance.

“Ah-ah”, Cadence tutted. She leaned back and flicked at Twilight’s nose with a wingtip. Twilight fought back a sneeze with a scrunch of her muzzle, but couldn’t fight back the smile that wormed its way to her face. Her stomach flip-flopped, her chest warmed with a rush of affection, which only crescendoed when Cadance continued, “I’m not your foalsitter anymore, remember? Pretty soon I’m going to be your new sister.”

Twilight nearly started squealing and bouncing around the room like her old friend Pinkie Pie. She just couldn’t believe it. Because Cadance had forgiven her so readily, they were going to be family! Sisters in law! Siblings!!

--Then that excitement buzzing in her chest nearly crashed as she remembered: the wedding. The others! Shining Armor was still furious with her; what if he argued with Cadance over her decision to have her as best mare, or to invite her back to the wedding at all? And she reasoned that the others, who had stood up to Cadance when Twilight was being so paranoid, deserved some sort of apology too.

As if she could see the worry written all over Twilight’s muzzle, Cadence gave a shake of her head and giggled, “Oh, don’t worry so much, Twilight. I’m sure with a little convincing, everypony will forget this ever even happened. Don’t you worry about Shining or your friends just yet. I’ll talk to them and smooth things out, then you can worry about all of this after you’ve had some rest tonight, alright?”

“I… well, I don’t know Cadance, after everything that happened I think I--”

Green.

The world tilted. In one moment, Twilight had been feeling awful, so very awful, that her outburst had not only come close to hurting her and Cadance’s relationship, but maybe even Cadance and Shining’s as well. She had been thinking about the best way to approach Princess Celestia, as well as Shining Armor and any other pony who might have misgivings about the wedding now. Something inside of her, something small and withered but still clinging to life, screamed desperately at her that it wasn’t right to leave the situation as it was, with her friends and mentor so angry at her. That she should be the one apologizing to her friends, not Cadance-- and then all she knew was green. A sickening splash of green filled her vision, churned her stomach. Everything around her smeared into an ugly, wavering monochrome of color, and her head swam into a swirling vortex of pain as her vision circled, and circled, and her mind was scattered into a million pieces.

And Twilight wasn’t worried anymore. The green faded. In fact, she had never been worried in the first place, and she had never seen any green except the green of Cadance’s eyes. To think otherwise would be silly. There was no reason to see any random colors, and clearly Cadance had this situation under control. After all, she was Cadance.

“Really, ladybug,” Cadance sang, “leave it to me for now, okay?”

“Of course, Cadance,” Twilight said. “I trust you.”

Cadance gave a winning smile. “Of course you do.”

“Rainbow Dash, darling, please. You’re fidgeting even more than usual.”

Rainbow grunted and shimmied around in her dress, a few strands of mane once again falling out of place. “Urgh, I know, Rarity, it’s just…”

Rarity tucked the lock of mane back behind Rainbow’s ear, and watched as her eyes kept flitting to the side. Across the room, quiet and unassuming, an ornate door stood leering at them all. Really it was a nice door, Rarity thought, it went so well with the rest of the architecture, and yet it had them all in a tizzy. Or, well, more accurately it was the fact that Twilight would soon be coming through that door.

Around her everypony at least pretended to fiddle with their dresses and poke at their accessories, but they weren’t really fooling anypony. Fluttershy, instead of talking through her mantra to boost her confidence before a public event, was simply sitting and staring off at some distant point, breathing heavily as ever and probably working herself towards a conniption. Poor Spikey-Wikey was staring off at some other distant point and nervously twiddling his claws. Rainbow Dash, as previously stated, was twitching so much more than she normally did that Rarity had been forced to fix this one lock of rainbow mane at least five times now, not to mention the wrinkled state of the pegasus’ dress. Applejack was chewing at a straw, apparently the closest thing she could find to a stalk of wheat, to work the tightness out of her jaw. And Pinkie Pie wasn’t bouncing.

Rarity sighed. With a flash of blue magic, she once again adjusted her own headdress, if only to ease the tension. She had to admit she was worried about Twilight as well - Cadance had informed them that she’d patched things up and Twilight was once again Best Mare, but… well…

“We just walked out on her!” Rainbow Dash yelped. Her mane fell from place again.

Rarity tutted her, “Come now, I’m sure--”

“After we had that whole friendship lesson thingy about taking her worries more seriously!” And that was Pinkie Pie. Considering she’d been standing still as a boulder the whole time before that outburst, it came as both a surprise and a relief to see her moving again. It also caused Fluttershy to crumple to a shivering, gasping ball of feathers on the ground.

Applejack, flicking her straw to the other side of her mouth, strode across the dressing room and started to lift Fluttershy with a steady hoof. While Fluttershy untangled her limbs, Applejack grunted, “It’ll be alright y’all. Twilight’s a big mare and she can take it. Maybe we could’ve been a bit smarter about all this, but Twi’ll understand. After all, the gal was the one who messed up first.”

“Yes,” Rarity hummed in agreement. She lit her horn to smooth Fluttershy’s frizzed mane, then turned boldly to the door that had them all in this state. “I will admit that walking out in a huff like I did was most unladylike. But Twilight is our friend. We’ll forgive her for her outburst, she’ll forgive us for the way we handled it, and everything will be just fine.”

Off to the side, Spike folded his arms and sighed, “Yeah, you’re probably right. Still, I haven’t seen her this worked up since the whole Smartypants thing. I ‘dunno, I’m still kinda worried about her.”

“What if she comes in crying?” Fluttershy whimpered. “I’d hate for Twilight to cry because of me. Then I’d start crying, and Pinkie Pie would too and… Oh, Rarity, then you’d have to do our mascara all over again! How awful.”

Rarity’s whole body spasmed. The image of Fluttershy’s perfectly applied makeup, black as tar, happening to drip down onto her new gown right before a royal wedding? Twilight Sparkle, the strongest mare she knew, breaking down into tears and begging for the forgiveness they were already willing to give? Right before a royal wedding? Oh dear. B-But still-

“Oh, Fluttershy” she laughed. Or wheezed. Admittedly Rarity couldn’t quite tell herself. “It will all go swimmingly, you’ll see.”

Applejack smiled. “Yup. Twi will come in here and say she’s sorry, then we’ll tell her, then we’ll probably keep on apologizing to each other more times than I’ve bucked a tree, and then we’ll all be peachy again.”

And then the door swung open.

No knock, no hello, not even the squeak of a hinge. The golden doorknob barely let out the faintest jiggle, then the thing breezed silently open to Twilight Sparkle. A journal and quill hovered in her magical glow right in front of her muzzle, obstructing her face as she scribbled her quill rotely over each page. Her hooves carried her inside seemingly on autopilot, and she walked stiffly in without even bothering to close the door behind her.

Twilight sat down in front of Rarity’s hairdressing station without saying a word. She didn’t put the journal down.

Oh dear, indeed.

Twilight scribbled her notes as she snaked throughout the halls of the castle. It had been months since she’d last been in Canterlot, let alone this deep in the castle, but even so pure muscle memory had her side-stepping busts, decorative plants, and even the occasional guard pony that crossed her path. It helped that almost everypony was in the wedding hall by now. This way she could work on getting her outline finished as quickly as possible while also getting to her destination at the same time, all without the risk of running face-first into anypony. How efficient!

Part of Twilight hated herself for getting caught up in her studies and opening herself up to the possibility of being tardy to Cadance’s wedding of all things, but this time she just couldn’t help herself. It was too exciting; this next paper would earn her a final grade for an assignment she’d been working on for years now!

After she left Cadance to smooth things over with everypony, Twilight found a lot of time on her hooves, and began focusing on what she’d be doing after the wedding was over. After all, currently her schedule was packed with pre-planned activities she had once been planning to do with her now ex-friends from Ponyville. Obviously, seeing as she had grown apart from them, she wasn’t going to follow through with these plans, so now a new draft of her schedule would have to be written up. Not only that, but she quickly realized that the fact that her first friendship had ended meant that she had another big priority to tend to: It was Twilight’s duty to report all of her findings about the magic of friendship, from the little lessons that your friends taught you day by day, to the challenges overcome with the power of teamwork - to the very end, when that spark waned and you finally drifted apart.

Though she may have wanted to deny it, Twilight always knew deep in her heart that some friendships were destined to one day end. Now it was time for her to explain to her teacher just what it was like when they did. It was bittersweet to think about, but Twilight Sparkle had learned her final friendship lesson that the ponies of ponyville could offer her, and soon she would be writing her final friendship report to Princess Celestia.

This was a momentous occasion. Twilight couldn’t afford to slack on this assignment; this letter had to be punctual, precise, and absolutely perfect. After all, this would practically be a final exam, and she couldn’t turn in shoddy work for a final exam! So she got to work as soon as she could, prepared to make this letter her finest one to date.

Twilight scribbled a note about Cadance out with a hum - certainly she shouldn’t write so much about Cadance, right? She wasn’t exactly the subject of the report. Still, the subjects of rekindling past friendships and forging new best friendships were topics she wanted to touch upon here. Hmmm…..

Distantly, Twilight recognized that she was standing in front of a door, and had been standing there for quite a while now. She turned the ornate knob with a twinkle of magic, not bothering to even look from her outline, and strolled briskly through the doorway. She took a moment to click the door shut behind her, then started to scratch in another sentence. Halfway through her note she realized that there were ponies in here. Oh, also she was inside a room now. What was she doing again? Preparing for a wedding, right? That would require getting her mane done up and a dress put on.

Twilight looked up long enough to scroll her eyes across the room and-- aha, Rarity the unicorn was standing only a few hooves away. Stylist and hairdresser? Check. Ah, and there was an open chair right at her side. That would do nicely. She trotted over and plopped down. Now, back to what she was working on: she was wondering, in order to fully encompass the experience of a friendship waning, from devotion to apathy, was it absolutely necessary to rehash some of the old lessons she’d learned? She’d rather not think of the past with her old friends if she didn’t have to. It was so bittersweet, to think about just how much feeling had been burned away naturally by time.

…

… Her mane wasn’t being done.

Blinking, Twilight levitated her journal and quill down onto the vanity. She glanced up to see Rarity staring down at her, eyebrows drawn in concern.

“Um,” Twilight coughed, “is something wrong Rarity? We should probably get started soon; we wouldn’t want to cause a delay.”

Rarity blinked hard, her hoof fidgeting, and she probably would have stumbled if not for her experience in social situations like this.

“Oh, um, of course, you're right, Twilight,” Rarity stammered. She took a polite cough to center herself, then flicked her horn.

Twilight’s beautiful dress, identical to those of the bridesmaids except for her sash that denoted her as best mare, floated from a rack nearby on a wave of sapphire light. Rarity’s horn twinkled bright as she wove together a fabric manipulation spell. With a flash, the dress teleported almost perfectly around Twilight’s body. The soft, silky fabric popped over Twilight’s withers, gliding over her coat and gently hugging at her flanks. Twilight ogled at herself just a bit - it really was a pretty dress - then went still as she felt a tug. Rarity started some adjustments with a hum.

“Honestly, darling, we were beginning to worry that you weren’t coming. With what happened at the rehearsal…”

She trailed off, her eyes wandering to the other side of the room. Twilight followed her gaze. All around her, all of the girls and Spike (who were already dressed, which meant she was late, darn it!) stared back at her with expressions ranging from condemnation to confusion to anxiety.

Oh. Right. The whole ‘Twilight just crashed into the wedding rehearsal raving about Cadance being an evil monster’ thing.

Applejack idly fiddled with her headdress and chewed at a straw in her teeth. “Princess Cadenza told us y’all made up, and we’re all mighty glad to hear that, but--”

“It’s okay, Applejack,” she whinnied. She knew something like this was going to happen. Cadance was more than capable at dealing with ponies, but nothing she could say would replace an apology from the pony who’d caused this whole mess in the first place. “I… well, I was actually planning on apologizing to you all.”

Rainbow Dash flapped over, her head cocking to the side. Her mane was frizzed out, poking out from her headband, and her dress was wrinkled in the front as if she’d been wringing her hooves in the fabric.

“You, uh,” Rainbow started. It came out more like a cough, actually, “You’re sorry to us? You mean you’re not, like, totally mad at us?”

Twilight felt her brain grind to a stop. She actually had to stop for a moment, replay Rainbow’s words over and over in her head, and desperately try to figure out where the hay that came from.

“Mad?” she snorted, “I ignored your advice, made a huge scene in the middle of rehearsal, and nearly chewed Cadance’s head off, all after you all tried talking sense into me. Why in Equestria would I be mad at you all?”

Pinkie Pie jumped over and chirped, “Maybe because we were so busy preparing our pants off for the wedding that we didn’t pay enough attention to your problems, so then you acted all ‘Argh, my sister-in-law is evil’, which is kinda like when you went totally coco in the loco with your Smartypants doll after we blew you off last time?”

Twilight blinked. She… really didn’t know what to say to that. Beside her, as she wove her magic cooly across Twilight’s scalp in preparation of styling, Rarity placed a gentle hoof to her withers.

“It’s true that you acted a bit boarish, dear, but we’re your friends. We should have anticipated an outburst, or at the very least confronted you properly instead of leaving you to wallow all alone.”

“I know I wouldn’t want to be left all by myself if I had just been kicked out of Zephyr Breeze’s wedding,” Fluttershy mumbled.

Twilight’s mouth went dry. She sighed, a smile tugging at her lips. A nostalgic spark, candle-dim but still there, flittered deep in her chest. Maybe she wasn’t friends with the girls anymore, but a moment like this really reminded her of why she had been. Just like Cadance, they were all kind enough to forgive her and even comfort her even though she had been the one who decided to storm in and throw a tantrum like a filly. Rarity started curling her bangs, and through a curtain of her own hair Twilight stared back at them all and said,

“Thank you, girls, really, but I take full responsibility for what I did. All of you were just trying to be a good friend to Cadance, like I should have been doing from the beginning.”

Everypony glanced between one another. The fog hanging over the room lifted. Beside her, Rainbow Dash gave her a lop-sided grin, then brushed at her side with a wing.

“So, we’re all cool?”

Twilight smiled. “We’re cool, Rainbow Dash.”

Pinkie Pie squealed, a noise so high-pitched that the windows rattled. That was all the warning everypony got before she shot off like a rocket. Twilight couldn’t even flinch before a sugar-filled, Pinkie-shaped bullet hit her right in the chest. All the air smashed out of her lungs as Pinkie Pie tackled her into a hug. She snuggled close into Twilight’s shoulder, her mane curling around Twilight’s muzzle, and suddenly Twilight was engulfed in a swirl of pink.

Twilight stiffened.

It… this didn’t….

This wasn’t how hugs were supposed to feel.

Twilight’s ears rang, her whole body locking up numb as her soul screamed at her. She was surrounded, smothered in a sense of wrong, wrong, wrong. She knew what hugs were like, she remembered fully what hugs with Pinkie Pie specifically were like. So many times before, Pinkie had wrapped her up warmly, close, and Twilight would smile bright. Her coat would tingle with contact, awash with comfort. Her chest would swirl with that flare of beautiful magic, something so familiar and playful that Twilight would have to giggle and hug her back. But this…

Her skin crawled. Something inside her, something so deep down in her magical core, felt like it was burning up into dust.

An alien, foreign body was not only touching her own, but cradling it. So close. Too close. Fur brushed against fur, fabric bunched up against fabric and pinched between hair. It was so hot, body heat mixing together. Hair scratched against her cheeks, the back of her neck, tried to curl up and poke into her nostrils. It was too rough. Uncomfortable. The warmth she was supposed to feel was replaced with nothing but a cold emptiness. Nothingness. Ache.

It felt like being grabbed by a complete stranger.

“Pinkie Pie, please,” Rarity gasped. “you’ll wrinkle her gown! Oh, and now I have to fix her mane again--”

Rarity rushed forward, and with a squeal scooped Pinkie Pie up in a blue cocoon of magic. Twilight sighed in her relief, her whole body sagging and her legs nearly buckling from beneath her, as she lightly pushed Pinkie off of her with a jolt of levitation.

Twilight was struggling not to cry, for reasons she didn’t even understand, but Pinkie Pie didn’t seem to notice. She just laughed,

“Oh, Twilight, I’m so glad you get to come with us to my amazing reception party after all! Oh, and when we get back to Ponyville we should have a ‘breakdown-followed-by-bonding-moment’ party!”

Twilight shifted with a grunt. She couldn't fully focus, not after that. Her heart still panged. Her head was filled with fog. Around the edges of her vision, ugly green vines curled up around her, threatening to stab into her horn. Vaguely, though, she knew that Pinkie Pie had just assumed that Twilight was coming back to Ponyville with them, but that wasn’t right. She was staying here. That didn’t make much sense though, now that she thought about it-- shouldn’t she be going home with her friends, especially now that they’d made up? Why would she ever--

Green.

Twilight calmed. In fact, she didn’t know why she had ever been feeling so anxious in the first place. It was just Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie, after all, just hugging on anypony without concerning herself with the thought of whether or not they actually wanted to be hugged by her. It was just the kind of inconsiderate thing Pinkie Pie always did, nothing to get too riled up over. After all, Twilight thankfully wouldn’t have to worry about Pinkie Pie doing that to her ever again after today.

“Actually,” Twilight chirped matter-of-factly, “I was planning on staying in Canterlot.”

“Oh, really?” Rarity asked. She softly shoved her way past Pinkie Pie, and then her horn was weaving spells across Twilight’s dress again. “I suppose Celestia needs you for a while, then? You didn’t say anything about staying on the trip here.”

Twilight opened her mouth to answer, but then with a thought snapped her jaw shut again. It was true that she planned on staying in Canterlot; now that this chapter of study was over and Twilight had learned all there was to know from Ponyville, she reasoned that she would be packing her bags at the library and moving back into her old wing of the castle. She wasn’t sure what Celestia would have her do following this, but Twilight was ready to move on whenever her teacher felt that her final report was worthy enough of a passing grade. When that happened, Twilight would like to be here so she could get started on her new studies as quickly as possible. Besides, here in Canterlot she could spend more time catching up with Cadance once she and Shining Armor got back from their honeymoon. It was just the next logical step, to leave Ponyville for good.

The only problem was, well.... Despite them clearly having grown apart from one another, the girls still seemed awfully insistent on acting like they were still friends with her. They were clinging on to a friendship that had already died, or more likely this lack of friendliness was only present on Twilight’s side of things, and if that were true… All of them were probably going to take her leaving really hard, especially Pinkie Pie - the mare had nearly had a complete breakdown at the thought of her friends hating her once before, and that was when they only ignored for a couple of days to plan her a surprise party! Who knows what she would do when one of her friends really did want to cut things off! And while normally Twilight wouldn’t really concern herself with their feelings, and in the end she knew it would be better for them all in the long run, to be honest with them about her feelings and end this dying friendship before bitterness could seep in, this wasn’t just about Twilight or the girls anymore. These girls were Cadance’s bridesmaids, and maybe even her friends. The wedding would start any minute. How in Equestria could Twilight handle ruining Cadance’s wedding twice in one day?!

Twilight nodded to herself. She couldn’t afford the girls causing a scene this close to the wedding. She’d just have to talk her way around this for now, then explain herself later when it didn’t matter how sad any of them got. Then she could finally be done with this and move on to something that was actually important, like her research for instance.

“Oooh, what does Celestia want you to work on?” Pinkie Pie squeaked. Twilight blinked back to the real world from her planning at that, just in time to see Pinkie Pie bounce around her and point to the journal that she’d sat on the vanity desk. “Is it this?”

Twilight jolted. She flung her hoof out, desperately opened her mouth to tell Pinkie to wait, started to step forward- but it was too late. Pinkie Pie scooped the journal up into her hoof. You know, that journal. The one that had her notes in it. About her final friendship report. It being her final friendship report because her friendship with them was officially, well. Over. Before Twilight could even gasp, Twilight’s eyes were hungrily scanning over the page - Pinkie always had been a surprisingly fast reader, and with every line of text she pored over, Twilight heard the wedding bells above getting quieter and quieter, while her own death-knolls tolled.

Horseapples.

Twilight wanted to throw herself into the dungeon, or maybe banish herself to some jungle in Saddle Arabia. How did she keep messing this up? How? She thought her special talent was ‘magic’, not ‘making mistakes that could possibly jeopardize weddings and therefore ruin friendships with the most wonderful pony in Equestria’!

N-No. Twilight forced herself to take a breath. She was the former wielder of an Element of Harmony. Current protege to the Princess of the Sun. She’d banished malevolent magical spirits, gotten her way through the most disastrous Grand Galloping Gala known to ponykind, and returned the Spirit of Chaos, Discord, to his stony prison. She could handle this.

“F-Final friendship report,” Pinkie Pie murmured, the little curl at the top of her mane starting to wobble, “What does that mean? Do you not have to write letters to the Princess anymore?”

Twilight’s eye twitched. She took another breath. Deep, through her nose. She would explain this rationally, and the girls would have to simply mare-up and accept the inevitable.

“Actually,” Twilight gritted through her teeth, “Celestia hasn’t asked me to do anything. At least, not yet. It’s just that I’ve made the decision to… well, move back to Canterlot. Permanently.”.

A wave of shock gasps ripped across the room in a tidal wave of noise. Flutttershy’s whole body flinched down hard to the floor, and Twilight had to fight a grimace as the motion completely rumpled her gown into a puddle of wrinkles against the linoleum. Ack, that would cost Rarity even more precious time to get ready again, which might cause a delay! Still, Twilight sighed and prepared to power forward--

“‘What happens when friendships naturally come to an end’!” Pinkie Pie gasped. “But--”

And you know what, this would all go so much more smoothly if somepony had the decency to not read out loud something that she didn’t even have the permission to touch! Twilight groaned to the ceiling. She furiously rubbed her temples, then with a harsh spark she ripped the notes from Pinkie Pie’s hooves and clutched them to her chest.

“I’ll be taking those, thank you very much!: she snorted hotly, her tail snapping to the side. “Now as I was saying, I’ll be coming back to the library to pack my things but then I’m afraid I’m going back to Canterlot for good.”

After her shout finished reverberating around the room, everything fell toa pregnant, stony silence. Around her, tight in a quietly suffocating bunch, Twilight’s old pony friends and Spike the dragon stood circled, staring wide-eyed and still at her as if she were a cockatrice who’d turned them to stone. For what seemed an eternity everypony was locked in a cold motionlessness, only blinking dumbly at her every few seconds - then Pinkie Pie started to shake. Her whole body started up in tiny jolts, her legs wobbling so hard it looked like they might buckle. Her stiff stare melted into a heavy frown. Her eyes wavered from that bright blue to something so stormy, tears already beading up at her lashes.

“Twilight,” she whispered. Her voice cracked. Twilight could barely hear her, it broke so badly. She looked almost physically sick. “Are you leaving Ponyville because you don’t want to be our friend anymore?”

Well. That was direct. Twilight wasn’t sure what she could say that wouldn’t lead to this ending in disaster. She sighed, put on her best winning smile (which came out more like a grimace), and tried,

“Well… yes?”

Chrysalis galloped down the hall at a quick clip, making sure to put an extra sag into her legs as her pony shoes touched down, and an extra little sheen of tears into her pony lashes as she went. She relished in the pathetic mewling of the castle assistants as they scrambled behind her, spitting out desperate nonsense to get her to ‘calm down’ and ‘ignore her cold hoof jitters’. She even sighed dramatically, far too dramatically, if only to rile the pathetic mares further. The poor fools. They didn’t realize just how perfectly the Queen’s plan was going.

Only one more step before the show was set to begin - and this trick was her favorite of them all. While in the end it hadn’t mattered that Chrysalis hadn’t studies Cadance’s past in much detail, what with these ponies falling for the most paltry of performances, it was nice to know that the tiny bit of effort she had put in before putting on the mask for the first time wouldn’t be going to waste. It was always lovely, when Chrysalis got to use an old, buried piece of personal history to undo somepony, and soon she’d be pulling out such a piece of Cadenza's past for something fun indeed. This last trick would ensure that, even though Twilight hadn’t yet been as fully brainwashed as Shining Armor, not even the dropping of Chrysalis’ disguise or the incoming swarm would alert her puppet to the ruse. Just to find Twilight Sparkle, and the plan would be placed fully into motion.

She kept whining and whinnying like a foal, confident that these idiots wouldn’t even think of calling out the Princess of Love on her childish behavior, as she went to collect her favorite puppet. If she could have fun, bask in her soon-to-be glory, why not? The alicorns who dared call themselves royal demanded none of her respect, after all. As she trotted down the lushly carpeted hall towards the bridesmaids’ dressing chamber, she could barely choke down a laugh. Especially as she neared that tacky door and heard yelling of all things.

“What?! But you just said that you’re not mad at us!”

“And I’m not angry at you all, Rainbow. This decision has nothing to do with what happened at rehearsal.”

“Oh yeah? Then why the hay are you bailing on your friends?!”

“I’m not bailing on my friends, Rainbow Dash. I mean… girls, you must have noticed the distance between you all and I.”

“Distance? I didn’t notice any distance. I-Is it because I didn’t throw you a party after you finished reshelving the library last time like I did the time before? I just didn’t because I thought you didn’t like it, b-but I can again! When we get back! Please?”

“No, Pinkie, that isn’t the reason. You didn’t do anything wrong. Nopony did. It’s just natural for some friendships to end eventually.”

“Horseapples, Twi! If you felt like our friendship was fadin’, then why didn’t ya’ come talk to any of us about it before decidin’ to move away on a whim?””

“Because I knew that something like this would happen! Listen girls, I know this is difficult for you to understand, but--”

“Wait! Uh, sorry, Twi, but… you said you were moving back here to Canterlot, right? But you didn’t say anything about me. So, uh, what about me?”

“Hmmm… well you are a valuable assistant, and I would be glad to have you here in Canterlot with me, but at the same time I suppose you’re mature enough now that you could probably make your own decisions, too. You could always stay in Ponyville if you wanted, Spike. I wouldn’t stop you.”

“You mean you would move away without me?”

“Um… yes?”

“What the hay, Twilight?!”

Chrysalis couldn’t help the snort of mirth that bubbled out of her. Thankfully, she only needed to put the barest of efforts into disguising it as a pathetic sniffle. This was just too perfect. She knew that eating away Twilight Sparkle’s delicious platonic love for her friends would make her lose all interest in them, but an argument? How delectable. She’d love to see Celestia try and use her precious Elements while their Bearers were squabbling like a pack of fresh grubs.

Chrysalis hovered at the door just long enough to make it look like poor, stressed little Cadenza was debating on whether or not to intrude on their spat. Then she inched the door open and crawled inside on meek, shivering hooves, fawn-like and beyond sad. She schooled her giddy expression, morphed her fanged grin to the droopiest frown she could manage, and ducked her head just so. Not that she particularly needed to, what with the chaotic state of the ponies inside.

At first they didn’t even notice her entrance. That little dragon whelp was squeezing and clawing at his own tail like a comfort blanket, blinking back his baby tears. The obnoxious pink one was slumped, her mane flattened down to a curtain over her face, which was currently scrunched up and leaking as if for the first time in her coddled life she had felt something other than disgusting levels of happiness. Also she was silent now, quite the improvement. The blue one bursting with those tacky vibrant colors flapped overhead of Twilight Sparkle, her shivering body coiled taught like a cobra preparing to strike. Her face was dyed a hilarious anger-red. Chrysalis didn’t give much thought to the others scattered around, and instead turned her attention to Twilight Sparkle. The tiny unicorn, to her credit, stood tall against the approaching pegasus, appearing mostly just annoyed at the groups’ endless whining.

Chrysalis, Cadenza, cleared her throat oh so politely.

Immediately the room went still. Surely everypony had their own unique, stupefied reaction, but Chrysalis had eyes for Twilight alone. Instantly her eyes, still just barely tinted a beautiful green at the edges, snapped hungrily to Cadance. Then they blew out, pupils dilating, her dry mouth dropping open with a heavy gasp that shook her whole body as it ripped from a heaving chest. In one second she was transformed from simply annoyed to a dying mare, dehydrated and starving, staring wildly at the last drink of water, at her last salvation amongst the ruins. At her god. Twilight looked at Chrysalis as if she wanted her, needed her, more than the blood within her needed to pump through her aching veins.

“Cadance,” Twilight breathed, heavily, as if her throat had been cut.

“Sorry,” Cadance cried, so sad and honey-sweet, “Am I interrupting something?”

The rainbow one growled and snapped open her jaw but--

“Of course not!” Twilight cried, desperate, lapping up the sweetness with everything she had. She rushed over to Cadance’s side so quickly that her hooves scrabbled against the linoleum, that she had to claw for purchase to avoid crumpling into a bow at her queen’s horseshoes. “You look like you’ve been crying! What’s wrong? What’s happened?!”

Chrysalis gave a huffy, tearful laugh and wiped at the corner of her eye with a wingtip. She gently placed a hoof to Twilight’s withers before she could hyperventilate - the mare crooned and pushed insistantly into her touch like a starving kitten -- then said, “It’ll be alright, I think. I just… Can I talk to you for a minute, ladybug? Alone?”

For just one solitary moment, Twilight glanced back at the weepy ponies and dragon snivelling behind her. Chrysalis visibly saw as she then blinked, shrugged off any and all care about them that might still be weakly clinging to life within her husk of a soul, and instead turned to her. Chose her, above all else.

“Yes! I mean, of course!” she cried.

In a fluid motion, Chrysalis leaned forward and wrapped her darling puppet into a cocooning hug of warmth. Good drones deserved rewards, after all. Once Twilight had taken her fill of care and heat, pressed her body flush to her queen and drank in the smells and scents and sights of her Only, she then stepped out of the way. She pointed toward the open doorway with an outstretched wing and a wan smile, pointed her loyal grub toward the next destination.

“Thank you, Twilight,” she cooed.

“Without another word. Twilight turned tail and trotted from the room. Not another thought, nor another glance for her so-called friends. Chrysalis, careful to keep the triumphant bounce from her step, shuffled off to follow her out-- then stopped cold as, with a blink, one last devilish idea wormed its way to her. Loyal drones, she thought, also deserved protection against all harm from their generous and righteous Queen, and that annoying rainbow pegasus had been giving her wonderful puppet an awfully hard time…

She ducked her head back into the room. “Oh, and Rainbow Dash, I’m sorry, but… well, Shiny decided that maybe it was best if you didn’t do your Sonic Rainboom tonight after all. It’s just, with his headaches, he thought it might be enough to disrupt the shield. I’m sorry, I know you were so excited, and I think even the Wonderbolts were supposed to be here, but-- oh, I’m just so sorry about all of this.”

Then she closed the door, but not before lingering just long enough to hear the foal give her the most anguished, distraught mewl of anger and frustration.

Chrysalis smiled. Her fangs glinted in the light.

Finally, the moment had arrived.

Well, it seemed that Rarity would have to redo Pinkie and Fluttershy’s mascara after all.

She just might have to redo her own, as well.

Twilight chewed on her lip as she closed the door behind her, and watched as Cadance paced back and forth with abandon. She’d never seen her old foalsitter look… well-- so distraught before. As she stomped back and forth across the carpet, with her gorgeous dress rippling behind her as if in a wind-tunnel she was trotting so fast, her wings splayed out behind her. Usually prim and well-kept, now they frizzed at the edges, feathers jutting out at all angles, some of them-- Twilight gasped-- even snapping off and billowing to the floor. Her eyes were dulled, puffy, red, nearly looked bruised from crying. Her mane, once pulled into a delicate twirl of pink and yellow, was now frayed outwards in a birds’ nest of hair. Her energy, her magic, even, seemed dull, depleted and smothered with anxiety.

Cadance twirled suddenly to look at her, and her face was so gaunt with shadow, twitching with fear, that Twilight’s muzzle went dry.

“Twilight,” she gasped. “I can’t do this.”

Twilight inched forward, hesitant hooves smashing against the carpet. What should she do? What should she say? Was this all happening because of what she did earlier?

Before Twilight could try to offer any condolence, Cadance jerked forward into another round of pacing. Her teeth audibly scraped against each other, an awful grinding. The alicorn’s tail flicked so hard it whipped red marks across her own flanks.

“It’s--” she started, her chest heaving. “You were right. There was something off about me. There is. And now, I…”

“No, Cadance,” Twilight cried. Her heart burst. Oh, this was all her fault! “None of what I said is true. I was just jealous of you coming between me and Shining. And since you were acting a bit differently than I’m used to, I used that as an excuse to lash out. None of this--”

“You don’t get it!” Cadance screamed. She shocked forward, her whole body heaving. Her torso slumped, her head falling heavy as an anvil into her hooves. She smashed her muzzle into her forelegs, a ragged sob croaking out of a rasping throat. Tears, hot and fat, poured down her porcelain cheeks and bled darkly into the carpet.

“Twilight,” she whispered hoarsely against her legs. Twilight had to strain to har her, perk her ears up, stop her very heart from beating to detect her voice. “I’ve been lying to everypony. I-- I didn't mean to, but I have been.”

Twilight, her pulse throbbing, her whole body aching, tentatively trotted forward. As slow as she dared, she lifted a hoof and pressed it to Cadance’s shaking flank. She shuddered, and tried to breathe deep and easy for Cadance’s sake. Distantly, she wondered what this could be about-- money, magic, infidelity? Twilight couldn’t imagine Cadance doing anything as awful as she seemed to think this was, but even if she had done something regretful, Twilight needed to be there for her now as Cadance had been there for her.

“Cadance, it will be okay. I don’t know what’s happening, but everypony makes mistakes. You clearly feel bad about whatever you’ve been lying about. I’m sure, no matter what it is, your friends and family will be there to forgive and support you.”

Cadance pressed into her touch, desperate, hungry, terrified. After a moment of shivering silence, she lifted a hoof from her face. She stared at Twilight with storming eyes, wavering green and dribbling tears that wouldn’t stop.

“You would, at least,” she huffed. “Wouldn’t you?”

Twilight smiled.

“Of course. We’ll get through this together.”

Cadance smiled back. It was small, and broken, and barely there, but it was a smile. Then, she opened her wavering lips:

“The high-alert, Shiny’s barrier? It all has to do with the fact that a creature known as a Changeling was found at the city’s edge, reportedly trying to break in. Changelings are creatures that take the form of a pony, or any other being they want, and survive by feeding on the love magic of others.”

Twilight’s head spun. She’d never heard of a being like that before - something that could use transformation magic at will and eat the magic of others? She’d think the idea itself was preposterous if the fillies in Ponyville along with Zecora hadn’t taught her to keep a more open mind. But what did that have to do with--

“A-And you know, I’ve told you, that I’m an orphan. They just… found me outside of that earth pony village. For so long I had no idea who my parents were, or why I was abandoned there. But not long ago, I… stumbled across something that explains everything. Where I came from, why I was able to use love magic and become the Princess of Love in the first place. It… I…”

Cadance shifted. She took a step back from Twilight, something heavy and hurried that nearly sent her sprawling to the floor. Then she straightened. Her back went stiff, propelling her head forward, her mane billowing back. She straightened her withers, tightened her haunches, squared the angle of her hooves and stood tall, a regal and royal height which sent her shadow tumbling across the far wall. Her wings flung out wide, feathers splaying to some unknown breeze. With her gown waterfalling down her side and spilling elegantly to the floor, and her mussed mane stirring in an ethereal wind, that crown upon her brow glinting snow-silver bright, she truly looked like a Princess. No, something more. Something greater. And as her body stretched further, beyond what should be possible, as her legs elongated and darkened, as her horn twisted and rotted into something grotesquely gorgeous, as her skin mottled with holes and packed itself with spidersilk, she morphed into something queenly.

Princess Cadance, towering, shining black as chitin, oozing with phosphorescent green flecks of light, smiled shyly at Twilight with a carnivore’s fangs.

“The changelings are trying to come in to see me. I’m their queen. And tonight, I’m going to tell everypony. Will you stand by me, ladybug? No matter what happens?”

The Wedding

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Somewhere, Rainbow Dash screamed. It was angrier and sadder and more broken than Pinkie had ever heard.

Applejack’s wavering voice came next, “Now hold on, Dash. Let’s talk this through, Sugar.”

“Yes.” That was Rarity. “Girls, I simply can’t believe that Twilight would abandon our dear Spikey-wikey over something as trivial as a little spat. Surely something else is wrong?”

“Of course something is wrong!” Pinkie Pie spat. It shot out of her mouth like boiling venom, burned on her tongue like bitter burnt sugar. “Twilight doesn’t want to be our friend anymore!”

Twilight didn’t want to be her friend anymore. Pinkie Pie doubled over, curling in on herself while her happy poof drooped into a curtain all around her. She clutched her stomach like a dying mare – her tummy just hurt so much, worse than any after-party binge ever, and it felt like she’d swallowed glass, and it was so, so hot and she couldn’t breathe because– it was true this time, it was real, the worst nightmare she’d ever lived through, tumbling everything into a suffocating, cold, rock gray. Twilight, one of her bestest friends in the whole world, was angry at her because she messed up and didn’t want to be friends with her anymore and she was moving away forever now and–

No.

Pinkie Pie sniffled. Somewhere in that suffocating darkness, like a balloon trapped over her head, she felt Fluttershy hugging her. She hugged back. She and the others were saying something, arguing maybe, but in a moment of clarity she ignored them and forced herself to focus more than she ever had. She had to; this was important!

Pinkie Pie wasn’t stupid. Or, well, she knew that other ponies thought she was crazy and kind of dumb sometimes, but she liked to think that, if nothing else, she knew all her friends like the back of her hoof. Yeah, she messed up sometimes, like when she got too excited about something and talked and talked, and that made ponies like Fluttershy really uncomfy since they didn’t like too much noise but– she tried. She tried so, so hard to be Pinkie Pie, party-throwing extraordinaire, friend to everypony.

Back in Ponyville, she kept a ton of valuable friendship and party-based info on everypony in town. Actually, now that she thought about it, it probably was a literal metric ton of paper. Pretty close, at least. She especially had a whole bunch of papers crammed into those filing cabinets dedicated to her five best friends, including Twilight. And one of her biggest notes, written in sparkly red gel pen at the top of Twilight’s file – like Fluttershy’s rule of not ever, ever being pranked until she was emotionally tough enough to handle it – told her one thing. Twilight loved Spike. More than almost anything. She was practically his mama. Rarity was right: she would never ever, in a bajillion years, ever leave Spike when he was still a baby if she had a choice.

Something was wrong.

Pinkie mumbled to herself to focus as she stared at the linoleum below, wracking her brain to think back over that last interaction with Twilight. While she might forget things easily when she got super excited, Pinkie actually had a really detailed memory (how else could she ever hope to remember where all her party supply stashes in town were?). So she clearly remembered that Twilight had gone all stiff and acted funny after their hug. At the time Pinkie had just thought that maybe she was still a little grumpy after the whole incident with Princess Cadance. But could it have secretly meant something else? Was she sick? Oh, or maybe–

“Her eyes,” Fluttershy whispered hotly into her ear.

Pinkie jumped up. She grabbed up Fluttershy with a scoop of her hooves. With a lurch of her heart, Pinkie’s skin was crawling and something itch-itch-itched at the back of her skull. Fluttershy was onto something – something bad.

“Wh-What did you say, Shy?” she coughed, loud, to give the pegasus a little boost to her boasting. Pinkie’s mane was quivering.

All around, everypony went quiet. Even poor Spike, who was clawing at his tail the same way he would his Rarity plush after an awful nightmare, turned to Fluttershy with wide, watery eyes.

“It’s just,” Fluttershy started with a breath. She didn't seem nervous about being put on the spot, not to her friends, not about something as super duper important as Twilight’s wellbeing. Her stare was icy cold. “Do you remember? When Twilight was accusing Princess Cadenza of all of those nasty things, she said that she’d cast a spell on Shining Armor that made his eyes… um…”

Oh, ohh, Pinkie remembered! Twilight had made this really silly face and wiggled her hooves all around; Pinkie Pie helpfully demonstrated.

“Right. And, well, I just couldn’t help but notice that the whole time Twilight was talking about… m-moving away, her eyes were sort of, um, green-looking. I thought I was just imagining it at first, but now…”

Pinkie Pie dropped her funny face with a whimper. She nearly vomited. Something sour dropped to the pit of her stomach, cold and hard. Not only had she forgotten a really, really important lesson about paying attention to Twilight’s anxieties, and then left her to be so sad and throw a pity-party all alone but– what if they had been wrong?! What if Cadenza was actually a scary evil pony, and they didn’t believe Twilight so they just abandoned her, and now an evil enchantress had gone and put Twilight in a crazy trance and made her hate them all? What if Cadenza had hurt Twilight because Pinkie Pie hadn’t listened to her friend?!

Applejack snorted and clapped a hoof to the floor. The straw she’d been chewing on was shredded to confetti at one end. “Now hold up, y’all. Maybe Twilight was right – and if’n that’s true I hate to suggest otherwise. But we ain’t got any proof and the wedding’s about to start any minute now. If we go runnin’ in guns blazing and flinging accusation like Twi did, we’ll just end up kicked out just like she did.”

“But if she is right then we can’t just sit around and do nothing!” Rainbow Dash snorted.

“I ain’t sayin’ that, Rainbow. Just… we gotta take it easy on this one ‘til we figure out what’s going on, is all.”

Rarity wiped her mascara into a smudge against her white cheek, then nodded with a hum. “Agreed. We shouldn’t make the same mistakes Twilight has, on the chance that this is all simply a horrible misunderstanding. But we shan’t abandon Twilight either. We’ll need to keep our eyes open and prepare for anything, darlings.”

Pinkie gathered herself up, breathed deep and heavy like she’d seen Twilight do before when she was stressed.

Twilight was a good pony. She was smart, and brave, and one of her best friends in the entire world. It was Twilight who taught her to believe in her friends above all else; when they used the ELements of Harmony to blast away the yucky corruption tarnishing Princess Luna’s soul; when she led the pony conga during that fateful surprise party. Pinkie Pie believed in her and her beautiful heart, no matter what. If Twilight had been corrupted by some dastardly Pink Snooty due to Pinkie’s own mistake, she would do anything, anything, to make it right and bring Twilight home again. She would fight, hold onto that last scrap of friendship by the skin of her teeth, ‘til her very dying breath. Or, somehow, if Twilight really was just mad at them all and wanted to move back to Canterlot and not be friends anymore?

Pinkie Pie would apologize. For everything. Again and again, and hope that Twilight would find it within her heart to forgive that sin. And if, in the end, it would make Twilight happier if Pinkie would just leave her alone, well… she guessed, if it would really, truly make Twilight happy… she would have to let her go. Twilight was such a good pony who had done so many incredible things; she deserved that peace.

No matter what, Pinkie Pie decided, she would make Twilight smile again.

Twilight choked down the butterflies in her stomach, and with a twitch of her horn readjusted her Best Mare sash. With a thought, she widened her smile– but then, did that make it look fake? She didn’t want it to look fake. She just barely resisted the urge to fidget or pace in place.

It was just so nerve-wracking. Of course weddings were already stressful, and now she had this secret hanging in her chest. From her place at the head of the wedding hall, Twilight peered out over the oceans of ponies packed into the tidy pews, and saw that even now some of them were fitfully glancing at Shining’s sparkling shield. It was hard enough just to get the tiny town of Ponyville to accept a zebra who had done nothing but look kind of spooky and scrape up a hole in the dirt; what would all of these ponies do, how would they react, when Cadance revealed that she was secretly the queen of a species they were terrified of? At the first sight of one they’d already panicked and thrown up a giant dome over the whole city, for Stars’ sake!

Twilight hoped that her old friends and Princess Celestia, at least, would accept Cadance as she was. After all, they were her friends and bridesmaids, and Celestia was practically her family; surely they couldn’t turn their backs on her now? Twilight gulped dryly, then turned to look at them.

If the girls and Spike were still upset at her after their argument earlier, they at least had the good sense to bury their animosity for the sake of Cadance’s wedding. Their dresses had been pressed crisp and pristine, and their make-up was tidied up enough that you couldn’t tell they’d been crying. Even Pinkie Pie, who Twilight honestly expected to still be a sobbing mess (or at least a gray, grumpy lump on the ground), was presentable. Her mane was still noticeably not-poofy, but to compensate Rarity had slicked it upwards into a tight, neat bun which complimented her headdress and even lent her an air of sophistication that, frankly, Pinkie Pie had never had before in her entire life. There was still a tiny bit of smudging around her lashes, and if her little twitches were any indication then she wasn’t exactly all-together, but Twilight reasoned that the other ponies were far away enough that they probably wouldn’t notice at all in the face of Cadance’s beauty. Or, well, she really hoped that they wouldn’t notice. And that none of the cameras would be focused on Pinkie’s face. Everything had to go well tonight, it had to! They couldn’t afford to worry about the press ragging on Pinkie Pie’s presentation on top of everything else, darn it!

Pinkie Pie’s eyes shot to the side and met her own, burned hotly into her. Twilight’s stomach lurched. Her heart pounded up into her throat; surely Pinkie Pie wasn’t going to break down or try to say something to her now, was she? But her bristling coat settled as Pinkie Pie just… smiled at her. It wasn’t exactly a happy or pretty smile; her lips wobbled around her teeth so much it looked like she was picking something out of her teeth, and she was desperately blinking her eyes to fight back tears. Still, it was clear that Pinkie Pie was at least trying to keep it together.

Twilight gave a tiny smile back. Or, at least she tried to; did it still look fake? Pinkie Pie seemed satisfied with it, at least. When she turned back to the crowd, Twilight snorted in relief to herself. Well. At least she didn’t have to worry about that crazy mare causing a huge scene during the ceremony.

Speaking of which… Twilight jolted. Across the aisle from her, Fluttershy pivoted to stand in front of her bird choir, her hoof held up like a conductor’s wand. The crowd, who had been excitedly whispering amongst themselves and jittering in their seats, muffled all at once. A silence filled the wedding hall, broken only by a few coughs or a whining foal.

It was starting. Twilight’s throat spasmed. Oh sweet Celestia, it was starting!

Her head spun. She and Cadance hadn’t even had a chance to discuss any kind of plan before this. How was she going to explain herself to the crowd? And when? Did she expect Twilight to interject? Should she have some kind of speech prepared? Oh Stars, she shouldn’t have been wasting so much time worrying about Pinkie Pie of all things; she should have been making mental notes of what to say!

A boom of music exploded all around, a sudden cacophony of melodious noise that echoed out against the cavernous walls of the hall. Everypony jerked back to stare at the giant ornate door at the opposite end, then it creaked open to spew out a march of flowerponies, and then the Cutie Mark Crusaders hopped through in their dresses and– Twilight’s heart throbbed alongside the beat of those twinkling, chiming wedding bells. It was happening. This was really happening! All of a sudden Twilight just felt so weak; she flushed with heat, and her head swam sickeningly as all the bright flowers and banners and noise and pressure all smashed into her still-ebbing headache. Still, Twilight buckled down. She bit her lip, widened her stance, tried not to vomit all over the carpet. She could do this. Cadance needed her. She just had to–

Cadance.

The alicorn stepped into the hall, regal and pristine. Twilight’s breath ripped out of her chest as Cadance stepped primly out onto that carpet, pink and gold and glittering in the pale light. Unlike before, when her distress dulled her to nothing but grays, now she shone with impossible radiance. Her mane billowed behind her from beneath her tiara, radiating out an intoxicating magical aura of twinkling, luscious green. She pushed out her chest and put on a wide grin that burned as pure white as her gown. Then, with a shift, her steps transformed from a delicate stride to a happy bounce, her wide wings and neatly-groomed tail and long, flowing train all rippling in time as if they, too, felt her composure. No, not composure – confidence. Cadance was excited, of all things!

Twilight drooped as all the tension fell from her withers. She couldn’t believe it. Cadance – beautiful, kind, brave Cadance – didn’t seem scared at all anymore about revealing her true form. Instead, she charged in head-first, fully prepared to finally be herself.

Twilight nearly let out a giddy laugh, but caught herself and smashed a hoof to her smile instead. Had Twilight’s reassurance really helped that much? Did her support really mean that much to her? The thought made her light-headed.

From that point, as the ceremony commenced, Twilight didn’t feel the worry at all. The fact that she’d been so worried at all actually felt sort of shameful. Sure, this was a huge moment for Cadance, but even if everything went as badly as it possibly could, there was no reason to doubt. She and Cadance’s bond of friendship would get them through anything, no matter what. So Twilight allowed that tingle of anxiety in her chest to fizzle up into excitement. This really was happening. Cadance was happily prancing down the aisle, to embrace her real self and marry her true love – and Twilight was her Best Mare, with front row seats to watch it all happen!

So she let herself settle back and just watch everything unfold. Cadance walked down the aisle. She stared longingly into Shining Armor’s eyes as Celestia spoke. Vows were shared. Cadance and Shining pressed together in a beautiful, loving kiss.

Then everything went green.

Rainbow Dash shot out her wings for balance as the entire world shook. All around her, her friends and everypony in the wedding hall stumbled and broke into screams– then there was the shattering. A noise like a million mirrors busting into pieces filled the air as shards of pink rained outside, then a cacophony of buzzing and yelling and a horde of chittering hooves thudding onto the ground. Out of the corner of her eye, Rainbow spotted the hole-filled bodies of some kind of monster spewing into Canterlot from a hole in Shining’s shield spell.

Rainbow snorted and snapped her head to glare at the Princess at the same moment she erupted in emerald green fire.

On the other side of Shining Armor, who was wobbling around with eyes a sickly green, a pillar of fire shot into the ceiling before dying into embers to reveal–

A bug? Rainbow Dash blinked. The Princess, once a baby-pink alicorn with a dainty face, was now replaced with something that reminded her of the beetles that Fluttershy collected as a filly. Equine, but covered in a hard chitin and fluttering with moldy, moss-colored wings and a ratty mane.

Rainbow clenched her eyes and teeth, her chest going hot. Stupid! She was so stupid! Her friend had been right, and she’d bailed on her, and now there was a big bug-thing in the wedding hall and who-knows what outside and it was her fault! Then, with a snort and a flick of her tail she figured, so what. She messed up. It was done, and she couldn’t go back and fix it. What she could do was kick this bug into next Tuesday morning and fix whatever freaky thing she’d done to Shining Armor.

She barely even listened as the changeling – or whatever Celestia said it was – rambled on and on about how she’d brainwashed the two unicorns and was going to take over Equestria and yaddah yaddah yaddah; it was all stupid monologue, just big talk before the Elements kicked her chitinous butt. Instead she flicked her eyes all over the ugly thing, scanning its carapace inch for inch to find some sort of weak spot she could buck. Hay, more than anything she wanted to punch her right in the face, but maybe if she bucked her right in that crooked horn, it would fizzle out the spell she had over her friend’s brother.

Whipping her wings to life, Rainbow reared back and prepared her shot. Ignoring Applejacks hiss at her, she coiled her legs, took a breath–

“No. You won’t,” came a booming command from her left. “You may have made it impossible for Shining Armor to perform his spell, but now that you have so foolishly revealed your true self, I can protect my subjects from you!”

Rainbow Dash smirked in grim satisfaction as Celestia smashed her horn against the changeling’s with a sick crack. Hay, even the Elements wouldn’t need to lift a hoof – finally, their own alicorn Princess could show off her stuff and squash this thing, no problem!
Celestia, with a shout, flared her massive wings in a flash of sunlight. In two giant flaps she was suspended in the air; her head cracked backwards with the force of her own magic as her horn burst into yellow fire, then a beam as thick as Rainbow’s hoof shot, boiling, from the tip. Rainbow watched as it flew towards the changeling Queen, as the heat from it neared her own green horn– but wait.

The changeling’s horn bubbled with green magic, but she didn’t try to shoot her own lazer beam. Her eyes didn’t widen at the sight of Celestia. She was… smiling?

“Stop!” somepony yelled, and then Twilight Sparkle was jumping forward.

She threw herself in front of the changeling, nearly collapsing to the ground in a desperate attempt to block the beam hurtling towards it, and threw up a purple shield in front of her. The bubble blew out to cover both her and the changeling, and then Celestia’s fire tore at the front of it with the ripple and steam of magic meeting magic. Twilight grit her teeth against the force of the blast, and flared her horn even brighter against the onslaught.

With a choked gasp, Celestia cut back on her magic. “Twilight–”

As the beam trickled into nothing, the changeling towering over Twilight brought her hoof to a wobbling chin. “Oh, Twilight, I told you! Why do they have to ruin my special day?!”

For a moment, Rainbow Dash was flabbergasted. Why in the hay would Twilight protect this thing?! Had she not just heard it brag on forever about how its evil plan was coming to fruition?! She was the one who came in screaming that Cadenza was evil in the first place!

Twilight, with an exhausted sigh that shuddered down her back, dropped her shield. She glared at Celestia, and at Rainbow and her friends – and her eyes…

Rainbow felt the breath leave her. Her chest thudded. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie had been right. Twilight’s eyes spun with the same green as the changeling’s horn.

“Please, everypony,” Twilight gasped, “I know that she might look scary, but this is the same Cadance you all know and love. Honestly…”

Twilight swallowed in on herself, turning her sorrowful gaze to the floor. Then, with a snap, that emerald green stare burned into Celestia so hotly that Rainbow thought they might all catch on fire.

Twilight whinnied, “I expected more of all of you! I know this has been stressful for everypony, but it was all of you that taught me about the magic of friendship in the first place. Why can’t you extend that same hoof of kindness towards a changeling?”

Rainbow Dash stomped her hoof to the floor with a whinny. She wasn't sure what exactly this changeling had done to her friend, but it must be bad for Twilight to ignore the – well, everything about this whole situation. Maybe not all changelings were bad, but this one? She was oozing green mist and literally had a twisted smile on the side of her face!

Celestia, her eyes wide with shock, slowly shook her head. Rainbow hadn’t seen her look so shaken since Princess Luna came back from the moon.

“Twilight, my pupil,” she started, throwing a hoof out towards Twilight, “you must understand. The changeling has invaded your mind and–”

“Cadance has done no such thing! She only wants to be accepted for who she is!” Twilight spat.

“That’s right,” she laughed, licking at her slavering jaws, “even your precious Twilight can’t resist my magic! Oh, Ladybug, why can’t Celestia just leave me be!?”

Celestia’s face contorted in rage, the fire of her magic burning even brighter as she opened her mouth in a snarl– but before she could say a word, a beam of neon green light was barreling towards her. With a grunt Celestia doged the first blast with a flap of her wings; the green fireball impacted the wall, exploded into a cascade of shrapnel and ashes behind her. With a grin Cadance fired another energy beam. This time Celestia was prepared, and her whole body rocketed back as steam and heat pulsed from her horn. The two streams of magic clashed with a hiss and a high-pitched whine, and the colors swirled together in a wave of energy that echoed through the whole hall.

Twilight surged forward on shaking hooves, her eyes widening with grief.

“No!” she screamed, the noise ripped out of her chest so fiercely it sounded as if her throat might bleed. “You can’t hurt her!”

Then Twilight leaned forward, grinding her hooves into the carpet. Her muscles coiled tight, her eyes screwed shut, and–

Rainbow’s jaw dropped open, her wings popping open with a snap. Twilight fired a beam of magic. At Celestia.

A ragged gasp tore throughout the crowd, screams rippling throughout the hall, as a burst of lavender struck Celestia in the chest. The Princess screeched out a hollow noise, something breathy and dry, and her own magic sizzled like a dying candle. As purple light spiderwebbed across her veins and sent her spasming stiffly in the air, her own energy dropped from the sky. The changeling’s beam shot forward like a bullet and struck its mark; a sound like an exploding star filled the hall, then Celestia… fell.

Her crumpled body fell to the ground. Her tiara came loose from her head, tinked coldly across the tiles.

Before Rainbow Dash even realized it she was flying. She rocketed to Celestia’s side in an instant, stared slack-jawed at her sparking ashy horn.

“The Elements of Harmony,” Celestia murmured, her eyes rolling back, “You must get to them and use their power to defeat the queen!”

Rainbow Dash didn’t even think, just nodded. Elements of Harmony? On it! She tuned out the cries of terror rattling through her skull, the rumblings of chittering hooves shaking up her hooves into her spine, the feeling of guilt bubbling in her chest; all that mattered right now was getting the Elements and kicking some bad guy’s butt, and she’d done that before!

She shared a look with the girls, then turned to the front of the hall with a determined flick of her tail. First things first, she needed to get Twilight. The Elements wouldn’t work without her, and they’d need somepony with powerful magic to unlock the vault. And sure, Twilight was super mad at all of them right now and also brainwashed by some gross bug-thing, but Rainbow could handle that. If she couldn’t rely on Twi to come willingly…

She spotted Twilight standing shivering in place, her eyes still screwed shut at the impact of her blast. When she opened her eyes, still so green, she stared dully to where Celestia’s prone body lay, her jaw dropped to her chest and her tail flicking, as if even she couldn’t believe what she’d done.

As Rainbow flapped closer, Twilight turned to her with a defensive scowl.

“You don’t understand, Rainbow! I had to! If you all would just listen to me, I– hey!”

… She’d just have to drag her kicking and screaming!

“No time to talk! Gotta get the Elements!” Rainbow shouted, scooping up Twilight in her front hooves.

She grunted as Twilight immediately started to fight her; the unicorn wiggled wildly in her grip as she flapped her wings, throwing out her hooves in every direction and jamming her sharp elbows into Rainbow Dash’s gut. Still, Rainbow held on. She had to, or else her mistake would never get fixed.

She caught up with the others, just barely resisting the urge to give Twilight a good slap across the head as they burst from the hall and streaked across the rumbling ground.

A crowd of chattering, black bug-ponies buzzed in close, their fanged mouths clicking and shrieking. All around the changelings swarmed, their chitinous bodies blotting out the sun as pink shards of magic toppled from the air. One changeling broke from the nearest cluster, hooves extended, emerald fire licking at its hooves and horn as it dove through the whistling air. It rocketed down in a plume of flame like a bat from Tartarus, and impacted the ground next to Rainbow Dash in a spray of dirt and stone, a smoking crater in its wake. The bug-like thing, curled up in the hole like a coiled snake, let out a raspy hiss, its fangs glimmering in the light.

When Rainbow Dash bucked it in the mouth, Twilight gasped and wiggled even more fiercely.

“Stop it!” she spat, hooking Rainbow in the jaw with a flailing hoof. “What in Equestria are you crazy ponies doing?! Can’t you see these are just Cadance’s friends?”

Rainbow Dash groaned. She felt like tearing her hair out. “Can’t you see that ‘Cadance’ totally wiped your brain?!”

Rainbow Dash shot off again before Twilight could say anything - she squealed in Rainbow’s arms as the air whistled around them, and more and more changelings impacted the ruined ground on all sides. Their friends drew in close as the swarm poured in from the failing shield and–

“I said stop!”

Rainbow Dash was hit by a ton of bricks. That’s what it felt like, anyway. One moment she was soaring through the air low to the ground, the wind stinging her cheeks, and then she was stopped dead as if she’d thrown herself into a wall. Something cold and heavy constricted her chest, and her gut twisted as pressure poured over every inch of her body.

With a blink, Rainbow Dash saw a field of twinkling purple, tinged with something off-color, enveloping her hooves. Twilight was using magic on her, levitation! Only, no, that wasn’t right, because–

Twilight had grabbed Rainbow Dash in her magic plenty of times, usually to drag her back from doing something stupid. Hay, she’d even tugged her away, off in some teleportation spell. It was always kind of weird, tingling against her flesh and swooshing her stomach, and in the case of teleportation she even got singed black to the ends of her mane once. But always those were simple side effects of magic use, not on purpose, and the cool energy waves themselves were super gentle, washing across her skin like a hug. This– Rainbow Dash squinted as what felt like stones dug into her wings, crushing them in a vice as she tried to move them. When she pushed against the magic, Twilight pushed back with force, and it felt like her legs were quaking down to her very bones. The magical waves, usually so soft and airy, felt like ragged icy claws dragging at her skin.

Beside her, Fluttershy whimpered.

Rainbow Dash grunted below her breath, the air crushed from her lungs at every wriggle. This wasn’t right! Twilight would never use magic like this against her friends– or, hay, even if they weren’t friends, Twilight wouldn’t do this to anypony unless she was defending herself. This just felt so wrong.

Cadenza, or Chrysalis or whoever the hay she was– she’d really messed Twilight up. Bad. And– Rainbow Dash snorted. It was her fault.

Rainbow wanted to scream. She fought as hard as she could against the magic, pushed against the wall of spikes digging into her flesh as far as she could. As she rasped in a gasp, spittle flying down her dry throat, the telekinesis only crushed in tighter, shivering harsh against her ribcage. Rainbow bared her teeth anyway, desperately creaked open her trembling lips with a hiss.

“T-Twi…” she started.

Twilight smashed her mouth closed with a click of her teeth, one that rattled all the way through her jawbone.

“No! Girls, this is just ridiculous. You’re coming with me to talk this through with Cadance, now!”

As Rainbow and her friends floated, cold and hard as stone in Twilight’s grip, Rainbow Dash couldn’t even apologize.

She’d failed her friend.

Celestia lay a smoldering wreck at her hooves, laid to waste by Chrysalis’ power.

Her darling puppet came packing in the other Element bearers as if they were old, broken toys.

Already, her swarm, her starving Hive, was beginning to feed on that delectable supply of love dripping from these pathetic ponies.

Chrysalis gave a fanged smile. She laughed, so content and husky and clicking in the back of her throat.

This day had been perfect.

Apathy

by OfTheIronwilled

The Mannequin

The Last Trick

The Wedding