//------------------------------// // True colors // Story: A real Canterlot wedding // by Shenzy //------------------------------// Cadance let her head hanging for a moment. This was the day she was afraid of for so long... but there was no way around it anymore. If she truly loved them, she could not hold up this lie one more minute... and so she let go. Like on the double, green flames sparked up around her, but unlike her she wasn't proud to reveal her self, as her body slowly transformed into a changeling one as well. “W... w... but......” Twilight stuttered. This... she had expected , as well none of the others in this room, except for her double and what seemed Celestia itself. The mare next to her gave Twilight an sad an ashamed glance like she did with everypony else in this room. “I'm not Cadance... I never was...” she admitted “in fact... I'm the only impostor here” she said sad and angry upon her self. The purple unicorn could not handle anything what she just had seen. The one she had grown up with was a changeling... and despite there was another fake standing not far from her, she wasn't the right one either! She could not form a single straight word at this, nopony could even imagine how confused she felt right now. Her howl world felt like a like... what was supposed to be true anymore, if her howl youth was not anything like her memory's made her believe? Celestia was the one to speak up. “Twilight... I will try to explain and this might be the hardest thing for you to learn, as my student.” At first she pointed on the black sobbing mare in the middle. “This, is the pony you grew up with... she was the one at your side in your young life... she might started out as somepony else, but she is one you learned to love as –Cadance-” Twilight still could not add anything together “This can't be, IT CANT!” she yelled in utter confusion “look at her, she s a changeling! They cant love!” now pointing to the impostor “and she is one as well! So it cant be true! You are lying! You all are! Why you lie to me!?” Her breath got fast and her heart skipped more than just a few beats, as she almost hyperventilated saying this. Celestia knew now would had to come the hardest part, so she walked up to Twilight and put her hooves around her, which she refused, still, the princess hold on to her, despite her struggling to get away, since she obviously was part of this lie which defined her life. “I'm truly sorry... we all are... but there was no way to tell you, we didn't want to hurt your feelings” Twilight did nothing more else than hammer her hooves onto Celestia's chest, crying while doing so “you lie, you lie, you lieee!” “The real Cadance is her” Celestia said calmly, pointing on the false bride “...but you never got to know her, since she was banished many years ago.” At first glance both changelings looked alike, only if you took a closer look you noticed they didn't look too much alike, almost like members of the royal guard would – similar, but different. The “Cadance” she grew up with, for once a few inch taller and thinner in appearance, having green eyes with deep green pupils, as well a green bug shell on her back, a long deep cyan mane which was hanging down and a zick-zack formed horn on her had, as well small fangs and something which seemed to be some kind of small crown growing out of hear head- ending in deep cyan marbles, additional her legs had holes, as well parts of her mane and her bug like wings, which was common for changelings, also featuring their deep black and at times green shimmering skin. The “false bride”, which turned out to be the real Cadance, was not just smaller in appearance, she also still had purple eyes with dark pupils, no shell on the back and a deep cyan mane, which had highlights of purple running in between, her horn also still straight, except a few holes in it, she also had fangs, but there was no kind of crown on her head right now, but once again she had holes scattered all over her body and her skin was also deep black, but was shimmering in a pink or purple tone in the sunlight. The green-eyed changeling spoke up once again “My name was... or is Chrysalis... and yes... I was the Queen of Changelings” She once again turned to Twilight “I'm so sorry you had to find it out this way” “Enough!” the purple-eyed yelled “its over for everyone of you anyway! Any moment my children will swarm the city and take over Canterlot! And after this, ALL OF EQUESTRIA!” Celestia would like to do nothing else, than stay on Twilight's side and soothe her, but there wasn't time. Shining Armor was under her spell and his magic shield would break any moment. “No, you won't! You might 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!” With this the alicorn princess rose into the air and shot an energy blast upon the real Cadance, which she replied with a green and purple colored beam of her self, holding against the alicorn magic and at first it seemed like she was successful doing so, but suddenly the beam got pushed back onto her self, burning Celestia's horn and throwing her to the ground, unable to get up again. She was surprised about her own achievement, which didn't hold her back from bragging about her new gained strength, which she had stolen from Shining Armor. This had ripped out Twilight out of her self-pity as she run up to the princess, which only was able to give her a last advice “You must get the Elements of Harmony and use their power to defeat Cadance!” on which the mane six ran off as fast they could. Then suddenly the forcefield bursted above their head and thousands of changelings streamed into the city, sucking out all emotions they could find – as well coming after them, to hold them of on their mission. Only one which didn't got bothered was Chrysalis, which still was sitting there in the very same spot, while the new Queen circled around her, teasing her upon her biggest triumph. “Oh... what's the matter my dear? Isn't this like you always wanted?” “It's not”. “You was the original Queen! Don't lie to me! I know better, I have become what you never could... just look at you... and look at me!” The mare seemed to have no interest to listen to her, which made Cadance quite angry. “I said look at me!” she shouted, but still Chrysalis avoided doing so. Only minutes later the mane six was brought back by a swarm of changeling minions, which left the room after a wink of her Queen, since those ordinary pony's posed no threat to her or her plans for this matter, as she got over to the group to cost a little more on this delightful victory and the painful emotions connected with it. “Its funny really, Twilight here was suspicious of her behavior all along, but she just stuck to the wrong changeling... to bad the rest of you was to caught up in your wedding planning, to realize at least a part of the suspicious where correct...” laughing afterwards on these puppets, she just had played for fools, to walk up to the balcony, to enjoy the sight of changelings roaming free and feasting upon everypony in all of Canterlot. Twilight snuck over to her brother and tried to wake him out of his trance, but there was no use. His eyes glowed green and his face was absolute mindless. “Come on brother, wake up, you cant let her win like this! Please, you must cast your spell!” she tried, but without use. “She hasn't won yet” Chrysalis said. This made everypony listen up, even Cadance. “What!? Of course I have won!” as she walked up to the mare who dared to say such a thing. “You think you can stop me!?” she yelled, this time the other changeling faced her and gave her an confident nod, to receive a blast upon her chest, which threw her across the room. The mare got up again, whipping away some green blood “and there is nothing you can do about it!” she said, before her body got caught in green and purple magic, to get thrown across the room once more, crashing trough the altar against the wall behind it. “Ha, laughable... you are not even strong enough to counter my magic... it seems you haven't fed to well upon Shining Armor, maybe he just loved me more than you!?” as she laugh once more on her own words. The mare did her best to get up “you are even more wrong than you could image Cadance... I might be a changeling, but we loved another even more than anything else... I never had to steal his love, he gave it willingly to me and so did I...” as she walked up to Shining Armor s side, on which Twilight still gave her an angry, but even more confused glance. She leand her head against her beloved husband “And that's why Luna... will destroy my heart” “WHAT!?” The other changeling could not believe was she was hearing right now. It was impossible... if Luna really would destroy it... Chrysalis would die... and along side with it, every changelings there is – including herself! Unlike Chrysalis, Cadance had fully committed her self to become a changeling and lost her own heart in the process, which was the only way to enter the chamber and gain control over the swarm, by corrupting her heart... “You... you are bluffing! That cant be true! It would kill your self!” “You know its true, we are both changelings, you know what I feel...” she sad with a bitter tone in her voice. The other mare run up to her and shook her harsh, giving her the backside of her hoof to beat some sense into her “NO, no, this CANT BE!! Tell Luna to stop, you must stop her! We will die, our children, they all will die!” she begged and cursed at her, but it was no use, Chrysalis had accepted her faith, as Cadance let her go, sliding to the ground. “Even if I wanted... there is no way I could reach her in time... its to late for all of us”. The changeling Queen stumbled confused trough the room and broke down in the middle of it. She just could not understand how she could be this heartless. Chrysalis wanted to spend her last moments on the side of her husband and give him a present - for his future, from which she had hoped to spend it together. She performed a last time her love-spell, using the memory of his proposal and the emotions he had given her, to send it back to him, surprisingly breaking the hypnotic spell in the process. “W...where.. hu? Is the wedding over!?” he asked confused. Chrysalis could not help to smile at him, being glad he was alright. He noticed just moments later his wife, as well the other changeling inside of the room, as well hundreds more roaming outside the windows, so he immediately tried to cast his spell once more, but he failed to do so, since his body was to weak. “You don't have to worry my dear, the changelings will be gone soon” she said sadly and got into his arms with this. He looked down onto his bride, but didn't know what she was trying to say “What? What you mean by this!?” but she just enjoyed his company and let the question pass by. “This fool! She want to destroy her self, in order to stop us!” the other Queen gave angry away, clenching her teeth, but unable to do anything against it. “You what!? Please don't I will stop them!” as he tried once more to cast his spell, but once again he failed. His body felt so weak and his head hurt badly each time he tried – still he gave it a few more attempts until he had to stop, before he would lose consciousness. So he gave in on his own limitations, shattering tears since he would lose his wife any moment, trying to comfort her as long she was with him. Twilight had seen all of this and began to understand, that Chrysalis maybe was the only impostor inside this room, but there was just one monster and it wasn't her. So she walked up to her and carefully placed her hoof on her shoulder, receiving a small smile. “Chrysalis, you must help by brother, please! Together you can defeat them! I know you can do so! You must try!” she begged her. The couple looked one another deep into the eyes and closed them, as their horns touched carefully and their love jumped back and forth between the two, building up to even more strength than any single one of them could have alone, as Shining Armor suddenly was able to cast his spell even stronger than before, as a bright pink and green sphere spread out all over Canterlot and banish the changelings from all of Canterlot, back from where they came. It was this very same moment as Luna was about to the destroy the heart inside of the chamber, as she already had charged up her horn, to destroy this pressures artifact in front of her, when it suddenly began to glow, forcing her to back off. The light was white and gold and too bright to look at, when it flooded the howl hive- making it shine from the inside, making the most horrific place look like a diamond for a few moments. There was no trace from the purple magic and the heart beat was even louder than before - an constant -whomp, whomp- rhythm, echoing back from the walls, so Luna decided to let go of her task, knowing that evil had been banished. Luna closed the small chest and levitated it along side with her, to the gate. As she decided to open it one last time, which reacted to this and opened for his true Queen. It took once again hours to make her way up to the surface, on which she had noticed, the silhouettes from before had lost their shape, which gave her a bright smile - thanking every time she came by such a spot on the wall. When she got outside, there was another surprise waiting for her. Thousands of changelings sat on the ground, scattered everywhere, looking disoriented what to do, since they had lost once more their Queen. The princess observed them for a while. They didn't looked like they had any evil intentions anymore and to be precise... changelings never wasn't been evil in the first place... they just needed emotions to stay alive, everything else was just the bidding of their Queen, which had created them. So if their Queen was evil, so would they... but, if their Queen had a good heart. “CHANGELINGS!” she shouted loud enough, so not just the thousands nearby could hear her, but all the others behind that... when they all turned simultaneously their head towards this food source. The swarm got up onto their hooves and partial rose up into the air to get closer, leaving no space to escape in between. Of course Luna literally hold every changelings life in her hooves, but she didn't want to use it. There was already to much sadness in this world. There was only one thing strong enough to beat this circle of suffering... to give love, willingly. The mare put down the chest in front of her feet and left it closed, of course none of this changelings knew what it meant and what was inside of it, but it didn't matter anyway. Her sight wandered around, to find her self surrounded by every changeling there is. Luckily they just had fed upon Canterlot, or Luna had lost her consciousness the moment she had stepped outside, but it would be just a matter of minutes at best, before every single bit stolen emotion would bring her down. She spread her wings to full size, so she could be seen by all of them. “CHANGELINGS! YOU GOT ROBBED OF YOUR QUEEN... SO FOR THIS YOU HAVE NO DESTINY...” she spoke once again in her royal voice. “IT IS MOST CERTAIN, YOU SHALL REST FOR ETERNITY, OR HUNGER TILL YOU ARE NO MORE!” Some of the changelings now was utter confused and looked at one another. “BUT... I SHALL OFFER YOU A LIFE... A LIFE WHICH HAS MEANING... A LIFE WHICH HAS FUTURE... A LIFE ON WHICH YOU CAN FEAST... IF YOU ACCEPT ME, TO BE YOUR NEW QUEEN!” There was no fear... There was no hate... There was only confidence and love... It could had been because of the lack of an alternative... or the renewed shock, to lose yet another Queen in their life... but Luna would like to think, it was because she had offered them a chance to have something of value for them self, to have a meaning full life from now on, when all changelings got down to the ground and laid them self flat on their stomachs, as well lowering her heads to welcome her new Queen, as she smiled upon her new children. Only one changeling didn't do so. Cadance. She had lost. She had lost on every level possible. She had lost her changelings... she had lost the battle... and soon, she would lose her freedom, since Luna would be the one to judge her. So she accepted her punishment, to be locked away behind the gate, for thousand years to come, hopefully coming back to be reformed – worthy of a second chance. The gate would only open, when she would found her heart, once again.