A real Canterlot wedding

by Shenzy

Double idendity

Cadance had tried to leave the cave several times, but the walls turned out too strong for her to break, also there was nopony that could hear her crying for help, so she was just stuck for now. Only thing she might could do is to get some rest, saving up her remaining power for the moment.

She needed to think of something, she could not just let roam this impostor free...

why didn't she just speak up when it was time?

There been at last a dozen chances where she could have told him, but she had get her emotions get in front of her duty.

The dream she had since so many years was about to came true and she foolishly had her self get soaked up into it. Sometimes it needs a little more than praise to make things turn out well...

She often had performed her magic upon other couples, breaking conflicts up into nothing more than thin air... but who could do the same for her?
In this case it wasn't easy like this.

Sometimes you just have to do more than let others solve your problems, by the wink of some magic... you have to talk to one another in order to sort problems out.

When she would get out of here, she sure would try to get a howl new angle on everything. Not just her behavior towards her husband, but also the other pony's around her.

This was what occurred to her.

This self-knowledge... this at least some good coming out of all of this - and she sure would make it count, if she ever would get the chance to do so... if,... making her sigh a little.

“It probably will stay a dream” she told her self “like my wedding”.

Than it struck her. She knew how she could get some help!

Of course, being excited didn't help her plan much and it took a while to calm her self down once again. She closed her eyes and took slower and slower, as well longer and longer breaths... calming her heart as much she was able to.

Being left behind so weak had also it good trades it occurred to her, it just played perfectly into her escape plan... it was almost amusing how even the worst things turn out, as long you try to keep an positive attitude about it.

A few minutes later her mind slipped away and the alicorn was sleeping.

Luna had told her once a few tricks, so she could bend her dreams to her will, being aware this was nothing more than that, but this wasn't what she was aiming for at all.

She wanted to breach the barrier of her own dream and call out to Luna itself,

if anypony was capable to hear her right now, she would be the one...

“Luna!” she shouted into what seemed an empty white void, but there was no response.

“Luna! Please help me!” she tried again, but once again the sound of her voice fated unnoticed.

Probably thousand other pony's dreamed already... tired little filly's and colts... mares and stallions of any age... and since it was evening and the sun was about to set, the number only would raise by the minute, so she had to hurry.

She did her best to focus on Luna, summoning her emblem as well thousand of lined up doubles in this empty void – filling to the borders of infinity with nothing else but her. Every encounter, every memory, every single thing she knew about her. Even a plate of strawberry cake was to be found, which was not just Cadance all time favorite.

Last but not least she added a final note, a fullmoon as bright and big she could image, covering a big part of the sky above her, alongside a star hung night of shimmering lights.

The moon it self had written >help me please< upon it, while she still whispered her name over and over again like a prayer.

Luna just was done to banish a nightmare in a young colts dream - a pirate had tried to push him over the plank, but she simply reversed the roles and so the colt was now the one in charge, pushing the mean pirate down into the cold water...

Of course, Luna had also taken away any kind of sharks or so, since this was a kids dream after all and it should stay this way, as the colt now sailed away with his loyal crew into the sunset.

Usual she would continue to fly above every dream there is and at that, being in the spiritual form of course until she would spot some other dark cloud which needed to be solved,

but right now there was one dream right below her, which may wasn't a dark cloud, but it literally screamed her name toward the sky.

Some pony's dreamed of Luna once in a while. Most of them being young and unaware of that... so she was often amused, to find copies of her self to play with children in their dreams, but this one was different.

It was obviously built, to call for her - also it belonged to a just to familiar present, so she dived down immediately into it.

Cadance still gave her best, when there was a booming voice to be heard above her.

“YOU HAVE SUMMONED ME! SO I SHALL APPEAR!” she introduced her self, in her royal voice. While on duty, she still used this voice accidentally from time to time.

Her sight rose quickly to find the moon changing form, until it was the eye of Luna's head, which appeared to cover the howl horizon. It was an incredible sight.

There was no doubt, she was the Princess of the Night and Dreams.

“Luna, is that really you!?” Cadance asked, unnecessary shouting towards her appearance.

The night princess sight wandered down onto the pony beneath her, as she spotted Cadance in the middle of this dream shrine, just to vanished like fog in a wind breeze, when her true self slowly glided down, towards her alicorn sister, to land right in front of her.

The two just stood in front of each other for a moment, till Luna broke the ice.

“You... have summoned me?” she asked, now using her normal voice.

“Uhm... yeah... I did...” pausing here for a moment “do you always have this big entry's?”

The blue alicorn blushed a little at this “well... its usual for … the kids...” she admitted a little ashamed.

If it wasn't so serious she would have giggled right now, but there was no time to waste.

“Luna, I need your help... I got imprisoned by a duplicate... and I can't tell what she will be up to next!”

Luna understood right away what this meant.

“So … she is back”.

“Yes, i'm afraid so...” she bit her lip, to feel guilt boil up inside of her “...and if had told my husband... nothing had happened...”

Luna put her hoof onto Cadance shoulder “Don't you worry, we shall defeat her, but first, speak quickly - where did she take you?”.

“I … I don't know... I think it is underground... but it would take to long to find me... also I assume this is not just about me anymore...” giving an desperate expression.

“What you mean by that?” Luna asked.

“She also... has changed” giving her a glance which explained everything, as her eyes shimmered green for just a moment.

Her eyes got wide in shock to hear this “I understand, than I shall warn the others”

“Wait! We have to do more than that!” she stopped her “The only one way she could be able to claim magic powers like this - she must have been in my castle, inside the deepest and most secure part... and found my …” she paused how to put it “my treasure... which means, she most likely holds control to every one of my young ones as well”.

Cadance lowered her head to speak the following words “If she did so...” taking one more deep breath “...you have to destroy it... it might be the only way” as tears run down her face.

Luna knew what would be the result if she did so.

Still, it was her duty to do it, as well an honest request from somepony, which would do anything for the once's she loved.

“I shall do so” she sadly replied, reaching out to give her dear sister one last hug... and despite this being just a dream, it felt real.

Luna was about to fly of, when she broke one last question to her.

“In all those years to pass... why you still hold on to this form of yours?”

Cadance could not tell, she didn't know.

Suddenly outside of Cadance cave there was a noise, which got louder and louder, as she could heard her laughter coming from the borders of the void, as well Twilight's voice along side with it and what seems blasts of magic, as the dream slowly fell apart and the copies of the blue alicorn crumbled to dust and the void began to vanish.

“It seems Twilight found me!” she cheered.

The night princess rose quickly to the night sky, which was about to lose his black color as the borders began to fate away, as Luna slipped trough the last gap of black before Cadance woke up.

The wall got blasted away, just in the moment when Cadance opened her eyes to find Twilight Sparkle right in front of her and angry at that.

“No! Wait” she tried to stop her, but it was to late, so she got tackled down by the unicorn to the ground.

Close up she noticed, that the unicorn looked handled ruff, which made her realize that she wasn't here because she want to, but because she was forced to.

She was way to weak to fight back right now and even if, she could not ever hurt her.

“Please don't hurt me! Twilight its me!” she begged, but she didn't “please you have to believe me, I have been imprisoned like you, the Cadance who brought you done here was an Impostor”

“Likely story!”

She was right, there was no reason to believe her, but there was one thing she knew, which could change that, so she got up on her feet and began, their old ritual they had performed countless times, when she still was Twilight's foal sitter, convincing her join in on the act.

“Sunshine, Sunshine, ladybugs awake, clap your hooves and do a little shake”.

“You remember me!” Twilight cheered and jumped right into a hug.

“Of course I do” she said glad “how could I forget the filly I loved to sit for the most”

This love of her gave her new strength right away.

“We have to get out of here, we have to stop her!” Twilight declared, reassured what to do next, to run of deeper into the cave, closely followed by Cadance.

It hours to find the right path and they ended up often in dead and and was forced to turn around, Twilight also had to use her teleportation spell, as well energy blasts to clear obstacles, until they almost had got out of the cave, to be stopped by the three false bride-maids.

While the two prisoners made their way trough to the underground cave, the marriage had already started and was going like planned, until the only thing left to close the ritual, was Celestia's approval words, when the doors slammed open.

“STOOOP! Twilight shouted.

Most of the pony's didn't know how to react, only a few of them felt ashamed of her friend, repeating her miss behavior once more.

The bride stomped her hoof “Why does she have to be so possessive of her brother!” making her receive a strange glance from Celestia.

She quickly tried to fake tears “why does she have to ruin my special day”, when the real Cadance spoke up “because its not your special day, its mine!”

“What!? But how did you two escape my bride-maids”?

The two quickly explained the trick with the bouquet, which Twilight had summoned out of a stone near by, when Cadance threw it as far she could, making the maids follow it like a dog an stick.

“Clever, but you are still to late!” her double said.

As Applejack broke the question which was going trough everypony's head right now “I don't understand, how can there be two of `em?”

Cadance stepped forward to face her double “She is a changeling! She takes the form of somepony you love and gains power by feeding of your love for them”.

With this words said, the double began to laugh devilish, green flames light up all around the bride, which turned into a big black changeling in front of everypony, shocking everypony even more than they already had been.

“Right you are princess and as new Queen of the Changelings, it is up to me to find food for my subjects!” to add “but who am I to teach you...?” giving Cadance an asking glance.

Now everypony in the room got silent and starred at Cadance,

when Twilight walked up to her. “What... does she mean by that?”

Far away from Canterlot Castle, Luna was on her way as fast as she could. She knew there was no time to lose, so she put everything she had to fly fast as possible.

Luckily she had left the castle right after the warning, or otherwise there would had been no way to leave it, since thousands of changelings now tried to break trough the forcefield.

Despite her being an Alicorn, the travel still took it's time, since she had to pass by the Ever Free forest, in which she even got a short glance on her old castle- making her melancholic for a moment, to fly further behind the badlands right into the Land of Changelings.

This place wasn't mentioned any map, for obvious reasons.

It was basically an dead landscape and stepping into it would result in becoming part of it.

The earth was black as well the trees which was scattered all over it.

Nothing down there had an pulse... the land was corrupted and lifeless... water was not be found for miles to come... only small puddles of green goo gave small touches of color to it, but drinking from those was an bad idea indeed, unless you had a certain wish to die, since it was nothing more than a wild mix out of poison and acid, boiling hot to fill the air around them with deadly gas.

Luna flew a while longer until she was right in the center of this nowhere land, right in front of the gigantic changeling hive.

She took a look around to search for enemies, but it was just dead silent, not even wind was blowing. Only thing with her was the dead black threes, which seemed to be twisted around them self and shaped in forms, which almost gave the impression the trees would suffer some kind of pain.

The hive in front of her, also was deep black and almost big like a mountain, littered with holes and sharp spikes everywhere, reaching up into the sky, to get lost between clouds and fog which was an constant in this land. She had no intention to fly up to the top of it, since she knew she had to go deep underground in order to find what she was looking for.

Most living beings probably had died of an heart attack to be where she was standing right now, but she was still calm and had no sign of fear to be found.

Having strong emotions could attract changelings from miles, since they had none of their own. Any emotion would lure them out, like a shark smelling blood in the water... since this was what they would feed on – emotions.

Changelings in their natural state just looked like you would cross an pony with some kind of bug, since they had bug like wings and shells to hide them below, as well eyes without pupils, fangs and holes all over their body's.

It was disgusting to look at them, but that was part of their nature. Any emotional reaction would make them grow stronger, until they would dig into the mind of pony s in front of them and use their most pressures memory's to impersonate the ones they love, to rob them blind until they collapse or at times even died.

Changelings usual hold their victims alive, to feast even longer from them, but at times it was just to much to take and the victim let go.

This insatiable hunger came from the one thing which made them different to anything else... unlike pony's, griffons, buffaloes, dragons,... and any other animal there was... they lacked a heart.

They literally had no heart, unable to experience any kind of emotion, but this was how they got created to begin with. To be heartless and the perfect soldiers.

Luna stepped into the hive and light up her horn a little bit, in order to see trough the darkness. The corridor was about four meters wide and round, almost looked like a cave, having deformed black walls and a could touch to it... but she knew this walls wasn't made out of ordinary stone, almost like bees, this hive was build by changelings, using stone, wood and anything they could find, to form into this gigantic castle.

At times Luna had to dim down her light, since she was almost certain to see body's build into this walls, when familiar shapes of pony's and other creatures appeared on them.

Every time she spotted one of those, she also lowered her head and spoke some words of forgiveness “i'm sorry”... hoping it could soothe the poor souls who might still be around.

In this moments even her emotions rose, despite her best efforts, as a mix of guilt and sadness left her body, to spread in the hive.

She walked around for a long time and with any passing minute she got deeper and deeper, being probably about twenty floors deep by now, but hadn't encountered a single changeling by now. It was possible they all had been pulled in for the major attack, which got kinda confirmed, as she passed by a bunch of empty breeding chambers, which still contained green broken eggs, some of them gave the impression to be fresh, as some green goo was slowly dripping down their sides.

Luna could not else to shake her head on this. It was one thing to hate somepony else... or hate everypony for that matter... but being born without any emotion to call their own?

It was such an sad thing to see... what had life to offer for a changeling, when the fight was over?

She tried to let go of this thought for now, since there was still an task ahead, leaving behind only some shattered tears on the ground.

It would take a few hours for her to finally reach her destination, as she stood in-front of the only gate, which wasn't made out of black stone, but instead of black metal.

Unlike the walls and everything else in this land, this gate was straight and smooth as silk, but still she could not see her own reflection in it, like the metal just had swallowed it.

This gate had no mechanism to open it and even alicorn magic just would get sucked into it without any noticeable effect... but she was told how she could get past it, which wasn't an easy task.

This gate would block of any living being, feeding of the emotions of those in front of it like a changeling it self would – and do just the same to magic. There was even a huge chance it would suck out the attacker within seconds, leaving him behind on the edge of death.

The only way this gate would open, was to have no emotions at all.

It was somehow paradox, but Luna knew how it felt, to feel nothing at all...

and may Cadance had told her the secret of the gate, her sister Celestia was the one who had given her the key to enter.

It was over a thousand years ago, after Luna's envy had took over her heart and she had changed into Nightmare Moon, making her feel hatred so deep and hot, like she would burn up from inside and it was when she had tried to take over Equestria - forcing her sister put aside her love and banish her to the moon, by using the Elements of Harmony...

The first hundred years she still felt this hate burning inside her, as she was trapped in her magic prison, in a state of frozen time...

but the elements not just hold her in place, their magic also had broken this hate, which would bleed out of her over time, until she had reached a state in which she may was still Nightmare Moon, but an empty shell as well. Having no thoughts, no desires and no emotions, while an millennium passed by like in an blink of an eye.

It wasn't until the planets aligned and broke free her prison, this hate came back to her like an evil spirit – to start once again hate inside her heart.

Luckily the mane six was able to banish this evil once and for all.

Luna sat down onto the cold ground and lowered her head, trying to remember how it was … to feel nothing at all... to have no desires... no dreams... no hope... no love... no hate... nothing inside of her.

She got her self into a deep trance, which was an dangerous state. An changeling might was born like this, but even those would try to gain feelings for their own benefit.

So if she would get lost in this state, she was even less than a changeling... an empty shell of a pony, trapped in the hive... until her body would die some day and she would become one of those poor trapped souls.

There was no way to tell how many time had passed, minutes... hours … or days.

It even could had been another millennium, it would had made no difference.

The iron gate began to move, being aware of an strong magic presence, which hold within no emotions, welcoming her Queen – the only one worthy to enter this darkest of realms there is.

The alicorn stood up, her eyes lacking any spark of life to them, as she stepped forward, unaware of her body to move, unable to feel the cold sting coming from her under cooled body, or the fear to be trapped inside.

Right after she passed the gate slowly closed it self again, blocking out everything from outside.

The alicorn stood in an giant chamber, right in the middle of it was an shrine rising, which was once again made out of the same dark metal, all around it green magic flames illuminating the room, giving everything an haunted atmosphere.

If it wasn't for this constant noise inside of the chamber, which echoed from the walls, she would been lost by now, lost inside her self – unable to return to her former state, as she suddenly snapped out of it and gasped for air, to break down onto the ground, like she had reached the water surface...

Her heart was out of rhythm and her lungs burned, her body began to shake in order to warm up once more and her mind was in a state darkness, only a few scattered emotions, memory's and thoughts in between, like a star hung sky.

It took her long to recover from this. It sure was nothing she ever wanted to repeat again, despite the fact she had to get outside somehow later...

when she felt an drag upon her self, or to be more precise, on her feelings and magic.

The more of those came back, the stronger the drag became and it was without a doubt the middle of the chamber causing this effect, so there was no time to lose.

The mare got up on her hooves and made her way trough the chamber, climbing up hundred of black stairs beneath her until she reached an black chest, standing left alone on a podium.

It wasn't big, not even a few times larger than an apple and was also made out of this strange black metal, having no kind of cresting or insignia on it, neither a lock of any kind.

Despite all of this, which made the chest look petty, she knew she just had found the most pressures treasure there is.

You could not buy anything for it... let alone the suggestion of such a thing would had led to banishment... but still, what was inside, was something, which was worth way more than all riches in the world together, so she dared to open the chest just this once, to give it a close look.

And there it was... it was almost like the day she had put it here... being the cause of the noise and all the trouble for so many years... only change being a slight purple shimmer, which was running above it.

The alicorn shattered three tears...

… the first, since it was to sad to look at...

… the second, since it proved everything wrong, which pony's thought to know...

… the last... because she had to destroy it.

Author's Note:

Oh, this chapter has one of my favorite pony's in it^^
I give you a hint: she is a princess!
*feels generous today*
... okay, one more hint; she is an alicorn! :]

---

It's Luna! Surprise! :D
Since I could not make her fit in the last story, I thought she deserved some extra time in this one and damn... love her.
Let alone her entrance *giggles*
Still... she is not just here for nothing... since she is the only one, able to get the job done.
...and if you would ask me: "how comes she is so brave?" ... well... she was literally "Nightmare Moon", how much more afraid you can get after that?
ps. and if you wonder if the colt pirate was Pipsqueak
... ye sure, why not. Like that brave boy... also his "relationship" to Luna :)