Twilight was now certain of it. Getting to see her brother before the ceremony was going to be the next closest thing to impossible. Even Mom and Dad had only been able to see him briefly, and they admitted it hadn’t been for terribly long. Between his duties as Princess Luna’s personal guard, and the ‘preparations’ for the wedding ceremony…

Twilight blew out a frustrated breath. It doesn’t make any sense! Why wouldn’t he want to see me? She couldn’t conceive of what was going on, but the wall of guards he now commanded had turned her away every time with the same apologetic smile and phrase. ‘The Lunar Aegis is not currently receiving guests.’ It was manure that’s what it was! Some kind of dodge, hiding behind his command in order to not have to see her, but she couldn’t understand why.

In fact, about the only explanation she could come up with was he was afraid she’d be angry at him for not telling her about this. I mean, I am angry, but I’m not THAT angry. She was only going to yell at him a little for it, and then hug him and congratulate him for his new happiness! If only Cadence was here, but the instant they’d arrived in Canterlot, she’d vanished to take care of ‘other things.’ Really, Twilight was about two hoofsteps away from saying to buck with it, and going to Pony Joes until the whole thing was over.

Alas, she didn’t have that luxury. Princess Luna had placed her formally in charge of keeping everypony organized, and so thats what she had to do. Fortunately for her sanity, there wasn’t a lot of oversight needed, just a lot of schedule keeping. She examined her clipboard and turned towards the palace kitchens. She’d worry about her big brothers stupidity later. Right now, she needed to make sure this wedding went off without a hitch, so she could tell Shining Armor and her family about her own future wedding plans without them becoming a distraction.

Just before she reached those kitchens, Cadence swooped in from a window and came to a skidding halt. “Twilight, I need a minute.” Her voice was quiet, but seriously concerned. Twilight could almost predict her next words, “Shining is refusing to see me, and-”

“Shining is refusing to see anypony related to him.” Twilight snapped with a wry smile. Cadence blinked in surprise, and Twilight nodded to her. “Even me, mom and dad haven’t been able to penetrate his security.” She sighed heavily, leaning against the wall outside the kitchen doors and deeply inhaling the scent of apples coming from inside. “I’m worried too, Cadence, but what can we do? Princess Luna isn’t taking visitors either, and Celestia’s run off her hooves with her own normal work.”

Cadence opened her mouth, then shut it with a snap and a sigh. “I suppose I can’t think of much we can do to get into see him, but that doesn’t make me any less worried.” She glared out the window. “There’s so much for me to do today, ugh… I hate this. This is supposed to be a special day spent with your special somepony, not running around like a filly on Nightmare Night!”

Twilight stifled a laugh, and instead giggled softly. “Cadence, every day I spend with you is special.” She injected as much warmth and love as she could into the words, and was rewarded with an equally warm smile from Cadence. Twilight put on her best grin and shook her head. “Don’t worry so much, love. Once Shining and Luna are off for their honeymoon, we’re going to talk to my parents about our own plans, and then we’re going to have a very long discussion with Celestia.”

Cadence nodded, and nuzzled her cheek against Twilight’s. “Alright then, love. So long as you’re okay, I can stow my own complaints.” She took in a deep breath through her nose and smiled slowly. “Especially if I have Apple Family cooking to look forward to.” She reached out a hoof and ruffled her mane, and winked. “Alright, I’m going to get back to work, Twily and I’ll see you at the Ceremony.”

Twilight brushed her lips to her hoof and extended it to Cadence, who gently touched hooves with her, then brushed them back against her own lips with a cute smile before swooping out of the nearby window, once again leaving Twilight alone with her checklist. She ran a hoof through her mane, then shook off her thoughts. She would worry about Celestia when the time came, but for right now she had work to do.

She turned, and shoved open the door to the kitchens. “Hey Applejack, how’s things going in here?”

Cadence wheeled in midair and reveled in the feel of the breeze against her face. It was a glorious day for Hearts and Hooves, and the entire city of Canterlot was saturated with the magic that was her specialty. It was beautiful to see so many couples walking around the city, sharing their special day with one another, enough so that it was much easier to forget she wasn’t sharing this one with Twilight.

Instead, she hovered in midair for a moment and glared down at Canterlot castle, full of mysteries and suspicious goings on. Shining Armor wasn’t like this, and she knew it. He ought to be clinging to his family like a life raft and getting absolutely hammered to try and not be so nervous about the upcoming ceremony. Years in Stalliongrad or not, Shining had never handled public events well, and she much doubted that had changed in his years out of the spotlight. So why was he hiding?

She didn’t like it, no matter what Twilight said. A quick glance at one of the many sundials positioned around the castle told her she had a little time to spare before she did another sweep through the city looking for couples in need. Her Princessly duties demanded such, no matter how much she’d rather be trying to corner Celestia or spend time with Twilight. Still… That’ll be enough time to sneak a peek in on Shining. Maybe I can find out what’s crawled up his armor.

With a thought and plan now firmly in mind, she peeled out of the sky and dove down close to the castle wall, darting between the windows as she circled the main keep and headed for the Lunar Tower. There was no sign of aerial guards, but there wouldn’t be if Luna had anything to say about it. Her batwinged night guards prefered to keep the the shadows and watch for intruders rather than provide the more obvious presence of the Royal Guard.

Fortunately, most of them knew her by sight, and more fortunately, none of them answered to anypony but Princess Luna. So though she kept close to the tower, nopony interfered with her ascent to the royal quarters. With absolute quiet, she cast a listening spell to enhance her hearing and peeked into one of the windows.

Shiny was there, sitting lazily upon a large chair carved out of a pitch black wood and levitating a glass of wine. He looked vaguely brooding, almost sinister as he sat alone in the room… or… wait. Not quite alone. There were two mares in the room, both Royal Guards by the golden armor they wore, who stood nearby as if in attendance to him. One of them had a bright silver mane and white coat, and was kneeling to one side of him in pure silence and utter stillness.

For almost a full minute, he said and did nothing. Merely stared into the mirror and took little sips of the wine. Finally, he spoke in a voice that was not entirely his own. “Silver Trill. Tell me you have positive news.” The voice itself was frightening, almost two voices merged into one. One was distinctly… feminine and almost insect like. The other was Shiny’s normal voice, but much deeper and more powerful.

The kneeling mare spoke in a low, hurried voice. “All is in readiness my lord, and we await your command to carry out your wishes. Our Princess awaits to serve you hoof and horn, as do we.” She gave a little shiver, and even from here Cadence could sense the little trickle of love energy that seeped out of her body and was… sucked, for lack of a better term, into Shiny’s body by some unseen force. There, it simply… vanished.

Which was utterly impossible.

Love energy didn’t react like that. It hovered around whoever it was directed towards, infused them and didn’t just… vanish like that. Not even the worst seducers and cads in Canterlot absorbed love energy like that! They might feed off its presence, and revel in stealing it from those it belonged to, but they didn’t just… consume it!

Then, worse happened. Shining’s face twisted into a cruel smile. “Good. That’s a very good piece of news my little pet. And since you’ve been so very good, I think I’m going to reward you.” He pushed himself off the chair and laid down the wine glass, and it was clear his erection was growing with every step he took. What was worse, was Silver Trill’s reaction… She spread her hindlegs wide and raised her flank into the air, shaking it desperately as desire rolled off her body in sickly waves. Cadence couldn’t help but stare, the other Royal Guard’s only reaction a look of jealousy and a subtle rubbing of her hindquarters together. Shining rounded the desperate mare, and without ado mounted her on the spot.

The instant his cock came in contact with the mare, she let off a massive burst of love energy that Shining just…. sucked in out of the air with a relish that was all too plain. His blue eyes shifted into a sickly evil green, and slitted up like a Dragon’s…. and that was all she could stand. She didn’t even bother flying, but simply folded up her wings and went into a perfect dive towards the ground, hoping she could get away without anypony noticing.

Fear and horror drove her, as it became all too clear that some dark creature had replaced Shining Armor and was capable of eating their emotions for sustenance. What was worse was that creature had some means of… controlling other ponies with those emotions, and it was about to marry Princess Luna. A Princess Luna who might already be under its spell. She wanted to scream, to panic, to run like fury…

But that wasn’t how a Princess of Canterlot acted.

Instead, she quickly turned on the wing and quickly beat them as hard as she could to speed towards the wings of the palace where the wedding preparations were ongoing. She had to warn somepony, but who? She had a history with Shining Armor, a history that was not entirely positive. One which someponies might think would color her perceptions of him. She had to find somepony who would believe her. Somepony who would understand she wasn’t just overly emotional.

Her first thought went to Celestia, of course.

Unfortunately for her, Princess Celestia was currently in close attendance with Princess Luna in the Royal Offices, preparing and signing all of the vast and relevant documentation involved in the marriage of a new royal consort. Their desks were piled high with proclamations, sealed documents, and stacks of legal books. “Ah, Princess Cadence! Come to take up your share of the interminable paperwork?” Princess Luna sounded as boisterous and happy as ever, and her eyes sparkled with excitement.

Cadence thrust out her senses and could find… nothing. No sign of tampering, no signs of control or strange magic. The aura of love around Luna was almost overpoweringly strong. And more wisps seemed to be added to it with each passing moment. Cadence could feel all of her words and warnings drying up in her mouth as she landed.

There was going to be no possible way to convince Celestia of something wrong with Shining without some sign on Luna. And she had no doubt in her mind that Luna would object very strongly to any suggestion that Shining Armor was not on the up-and-up. “Cadence, is something wrong?” Celestia’s voice cut through her thoughts. She stood up, looking puzzled and worried.

Cadence didn’t know what to do. “I… Um… I’m just… you see….” What could she do? She had to get to somepony who could help but-

Twilight.

Twilight could help. Twilight would believe her. But she couldn’t risk leaving Luna alone. What if Shining came down? What if she couldn’t sense the spell because it wasn’t emotional in nature, but some kind of mental control? Luna was possibly powerful enough to overwhelm Celestia. If that happened, there’d be no way to stop whatever force was bidding to seize control of Canterlot.

Her breathing was coming faster and faster, and she felt her hooves moving on their own, backing her up towards the balcony she’d come in from. “Lulu, she’s having a panic attack!” Celestia’s voice cut through the room like a clarion call, and Luna was already rushing around the table.

She had no choice.

She couldn’t stay here.

She would just have to hope that she could get to Twilight in time, and find a solution before it all came apart.

Her wings spread and she launched herself off the balcony, and raced to the rest of the castle in search of her beloved.

Together, there was nothing they couldn’t conquer.

“Thanks, Rarity. It all looks great! We’ll grab dinner together before the ceremony!”

Rarity’s cheerful wave was a welcome sight as Twilight checked another box off her list, and silently wished Spike was here with her instead of watching over the Cutie Mark Crusaders and the other fillies and foals involved in the proceedings. Little Pipsqueak had been taking his job as the ring bearer very seriously, and had been practicing all week. She sighed happily, and checked the list. Next up was Fluttershy and-.

Her vision was filled with a flurry of pink feathers and wild violet eyes. “Come with me right now.” Princess Cadence said, and then without another word grabbed her around the middle and hauled her off into the air. Twilight saw her clipboard clatter to the ground, and only the action of her face being stuffed into Cadence’s shoulder kept her from screaming bloody murder as she was whipped out into the skies above Canterlot.

Every nerve in Twilight’s body screamed out in fear, and her mind swam as she felt herself being taken around sharp turns at a speed that she had never known Cadence could achieve. Her beloved was afraid, though, and soon enough sense overtook instinct and she clutched her forelegs tightly around her. She didn’t know what was wrong, she didn’t know what had happened, but Cadence needed her, and that was all she really needed to know.

Mere moments later, they were in a familiar, if slightly dusty room. It was Cadence’s room, once upon a time, and now was mostly sealed up and covered up with sheets and carefully placed rugs to await her return to Canterlot for an extended stay. The room was a little dusty, but the windows had been thrown open a little to allow fresh air to seep in. Cadence laid Twilight down, as though she feared for her health. “Sorry, Twilight, but I just didn’t know who else to come to…” Cadence spoke in a hushed whisper, her horn illuminating and shutting the door firmly behind her. The bolt was thrown, and the window closed seconds later. “We could all be in grave danger, and I cannot tell Celestia…”

That made Twilight frown, and feel a little chill of fear. Cadence turned to face her and… and Twilight felt her heart wrench. Her eyes were wide with fear, and her breathing was coming in such rapid pants that Twilight feared she was going to pass out at any moment. “You must believe me, Twilight. I need… I need you to believe me. Even though it’s going to sound absolutely insane.” She began to dry-wash her hooves, and licked repeatedly at her lips as though she felt them to be too dry to speak.

Twilight reached out and grasped Cadence’s hooves, squeezing them warmly. “Cadence… It’s okay. You don’t have to be afraid to tell me anything. Of course I’m going to believe you.” She put on her very best smile, and tried to project reassurance like Cadence had taught her. All confident poise and smiles. “Now walk me through it, slowly. Why can’t you tell Celestia about this?’

Cadence sucked in a deep breath and began to speak slowly, “Because some dark creature has replaced Shining Armor, and I think it intends to ensnare Princess Luna in some kind of mind control spell.” She swallowed visibly, and nearly tugged her hooves clean out of Twilight’s grasp in nervousness.

Twilight couldn’t blame her though. She took a breath, then another, trying to focus her head. “What?” She managed, the word coming out in a blurt. “I mean…. what?” The very thought of Shining Armor somehow replaced by some kind of demon-creature was absurd. Princess Luna was many things, but a fool was certainly not one of them.

Cadence’s muscles tensed, and her jaw set. “I know. It’s insane. But I swear to you, Twilight, I saw it with my own two eyes. I saw that… thing consume love energy.” She shivered in place, as though she was freezing cold and Twilight instantly moved to hold her close. Cadence wasn’t just frightened, she was terrified, and that all by itself was reason enough to bring the whole thing into easy focus.

Cadence was right - it DID sound insane. But then again, so did so many of the other threats they’d faced along the way here. “I believe you, Cadence.” Twilight spoke softly, and kept her forelegs firmly wrapped around Cadence until she stopped shivering. “We’ll figure this out, I promise, but we’ve got to be calm.” That was a good start - it’s what Cadence would have done for her if she’d been in that position.

Slowly, achingly slowly, Cadence began to stop shivering and breathe more normally. Her head sunk against Twilight’s shoulder, and it was distinctly odd to feel like the one in control for once, instead of the one needing to get control over herself. So she did her best to emulate her mentors, and slowly stroked her hoof through Cadence’s mane. “We’ve got the drop on whatever this thing is, so we can out-maneuver it before it can do anything drastic. We’ll get the Elements of Harmony, and bring the team together.” Twilight injected as much brash confidence as she could into her voice, hoping that it would help calm Cadence’s nerves. “We’ll wait for our chance and then rip off the disguise…”

Twilight swallowed. That this thing had somehow replaced Shining Armor was… the possibilities of what might have happened to him were… It took a lot to keep control, but she managed. “We’ll get your brother back.” Cadence’s voice was rough, but she was obviously far more collected than she’d been mere moments ago. “We’ll find out what happened, Twily. I promise.”

She nodded, and Cadence slowly pulled herself up. “You’ve become so strong, Twilight Sparkle.” Cadence was smiling, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears. “I’ll go retrieve the elements. We’ll do just like we did with Discord, and meet somewhere safe with the whole crew.”

Twilight bit at her lip, then nodded. “I know of one place where nopony is likely to bother us.”

The Glass Hall was nearly empty of visitors at this hour of the day, though it wouldn’t remain that way for long. With a state event in the offering, those individuals who rarely had a chance to step inside the royal palace would be treating it as an opportunity to see all of the wonders within. One such wonder was the Glass Hall, where stained glass windows represented the seminal moments in Equestrian history.

Twilight Sparkle and her friends now stood in two of those windows. and if events continued on as they were, Cadence had no doubt they’d be finding themselves in more of them. For now though, she had a far more important task… retrieving the Elements of Harmony. That meant getting to the Royal Vault at the end of the hallway, and…

And dealing with the two Royal Guards standing sentry there, stolid as ever. Except… they weren’t. Not quite. Their eyes were wrong, tinted a faint and sickly green. The mare looked like she was breathing a touch too heavily, and the male was shifting in his steps, as though trying to hide a stiffy. She might not have even seen it if she hadn’t been paranoid at that moment. “Princess Cadenza?” The foremost guard asked, his tone quiet and concerned. “Is something the matter?” Even the way he spoke was subtly off. Like he knew what he was supposed to be saying, but had to double check with something before saying it.

Cadence needed to act quickly, but what could she do? She had every right to retrieve the Elements from the vault, legally speaking, but… “Ah, I just wanted to check in on whoever was standing guard here. Given the holiday today, I thought It was a little unfair for you two not to have any time to participate.” She put on her very best, big and happy smile, and was pleased to see the guard relax a bit.

“Ah, we’re doing just fine here, Princess. Neither of us have… lovers.” He stumbled over the word, looking uncomfortable. The other guard had stepped forward and was looking at her with an uncharacteristic wariness. “We don’t need any help here, Princess. So if you would please just-”

There was too much going on here that was too fundamentally wrong. Guards didn’t start conversations, especially not Royal Guards on a vault duty, and neither did they move from their posts without being summoned to do so. They were confused, erratic, and if Cadence didn’t act quickly she wasn’t sure what they might try to do to her. So she did the only thing she could think of…. she lashed out with her magic, hitting them with the strongest blast of love energy she could possibly conjure up.

Royal Guard armor was designed to provide protection against spells, of course. But they weren’t designed to protect against ‘positive’ magic. In this case, it certainly wasn’t designed to protect against a sudden surge of lust and aphrodisiac qualities provided by her own magic. The male groaned aloud and threw his helmet to the ground. The mare did the same, and before a few seconds had passed they were all over each other, kissing sloppily and without the least possible nod to decorum.

“Sorry.” She half whispered at them, and then quickly dashed past the couple as they began to get a bit more… involved with one another. There was no time to worry about them, though. She ducked down her head and thrust her horn into the tiny, circular lock. Okay, what in the name of Celestia’s plothole was that combination again. She had to focus, calling back to mind the complex numbers, magical pulses, and other esoterica that all went into unraveling the special lock on the vault.

It didn’t help that somewhere behind her the sounds of a vigorous rutting began to ensue. In fact, that was quite counter-productive to invoking all the various arcane phrases in her head and transmuting them into magic while the pair of them made some very appealing noises. Ones that made Cadence very much wish Twilight was here to share in her mild discomfort, so she could tease her about it later.

Fortunately, she only had to endure this slightly ironic and hilarious torture for about a minute. One long, squishy sounding minute that drove her only a touch mental. By the time she’d extracted her horn and the doors began to swing open, she was pretty certain the mare was already well on her way to her first orgasm. I am not going to be jealous of her. She grumped, and slipped into the Royal Vault.

All around her were neat wooden shelves bearing countless identical matte black boxes. The boxes, Celestia had informed her once, were made of a special kind of stone that completely blocked magical auras and effects. There were things in here ponies were not meant to fiddle with, and fortunately Celestia hadn’t done any rearranging of the place recently. Near the end of the main row, a large glittering glass case held the five torques and one golden crown that made up the Elements of Harmony.

It took all of twenty seconds to stow them into her bags, and not for the first time she felt a sense of awe in merely handling the artifacts. It was astonishing to think of what these jewels had accomplished over the centuries, and even moreso to realize the pony she loved the most held the most powerful of them all. She shivered and then hurried from the vault, pausing only to shove the doors firmly closed behind her. On the ground outside, the two Royal Guards had discarded all of their armor and were now passionately entwined with one another.

Cadence felt a little whimsical smile, as she sensed the powerful aura of love growing between them as they did so. Well, at least she’d accomplished one unequivocally good thing today.

Twilight pushed the door to the study room shut firmly as Pinkie Pie bounced in through the crack, and sighed in relief. Getting her friends away from their duties had been difficult to say the least, but they’d at least been willing to hear her out when she said it was an emergency. “Now what’n tarnation has got you so spooked, Twilight?” Applejack’s tone was richly amused, but she had no small amount of concern there too. “Ya’ll haven’t been this upset since yer problem with the Friendship letters.”

Twilight turned to face her five friends, each of which was watching her with a measure of real concern. “We’ve got to be careful. Cadence found out something that…” She shivered a little, unable to repress the mental image of her beloved frozen in stark terror. “That scared her very badly. In fact, I can’t recall a moment other than with Discord where she was that frightened before.” Again, she shivered, and tried to fight down her own fright.

Pinkie Pie laid a hoof on her shoulder and gave her a gentle smile, and Twilight felt some of the fear subside. She had her friends. She had Cadence. Things were going to be okay. “Well, then just tell us, silly.” Pinkie giggled faintly, her eyes sparkling. “So we can kick this things heinie and get back to the party!”

Twilight sighed. “It’s not that simple, Pinkie.” She squeezed the familiar hoof for comfort, then turned to face each pony in the room. “It’s Shining Armor. Cadence says she saw some other creature disguised in his place.” The very thought of something capable of overpowering Shining Armor like that was frightening enough, but that something could replace him…

But now wasn’t the time for that. Her friends all turned to one another in turn, their faces masks of concern now deepened by her news. “Um… Twilight, are you sure Cadence hasn’t just… Yanno… Cracked a bit under all this pressure?” Dash’s voice was a little more timid than usual, and she fiddled with an errant pencil from somewhere.

Rarity coughed softly. “Really, darling. I know this can’t be easy for her, given how much we all know she’s had to go through because of Prince Armor, but doesn’t this strike you as a bit… odd?”

Applejack frowned, shaking her head. “I dunno, Twi. Normally I’d be right there with Dash, but…” She sighed, rubbing at her head. “But I’ve seen too much hooey happen with ya’ll to dismiss this outright. I’d hafta hear more first.” Fluttershy nodded, her forelegs wrapping around Applejack’s own foreleg and making it clear she shared Applejack’s opinion.

Pinkie Pie, however…. Pinkie just gave her a hard, serious look right in the eyes for a few long, slightly awkward seconds before blowing out a breath. “I believe you, TwiTwi.” That got a stare from Dash and Rarity, both of whom were still looking rather uncomfortable. Pinkie huffed. “Seriously, you two? Twi might be a bit kooky like me, but she wouldn’t just lead us on a wild kumquat chase for something like this!” Pinkie huffed visibly, bristling. “We’re all supposed to be a super-team of super-ponies! Not a Lame-Team of lame-o’s.”

Twilight’s heart, which had been bidding fair to sink into her hooves, rose a little bit at Pinkie’s reassurances. Well, one out of five wasn’t… disastrous at least. She took a deep breath and exhaled. “Rarity, Dash, I need you to talk to me.”

“Talk! Talk!” Dash burst out. “C’mon Twi, this isn’t like some Ponyville-only problem. We can’t just talk.”

“Yes dear, I hardly believe we should lose our heads as Rainbow seems to be implying, but we don’t exactly have much to go on except her word,” Rarity added with a small nod to Dash.

“And that’s not good enough?” Twilight wanted to smack them both, but that would hardly be constructive. “After everything we’ve been through, this is the time you pick to call her word into doubt?” She smacked her hoof on the table. “I know you and her haven’t always been on the best of terms, Rainbow Dash, but what’s she done to make you call her a liar?”

“I don’ think she’s sayin’ Cadence is a straight up liar,” Applejack put a consoling hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “I don’ think she is, an’ I’d be the pony ta know, but…”

“It’s… it is a little odd,” Fluttershy picked up for her. “Princess Luna would have been the first to notice right? If it’s true, that is.”

Twilight opened her mouth, and snapped it shut as Pinkie interjected. “Oh, c’mon Shy! We all know how lonely-pony the Princess was, even after Nightmare Night went so well!” Pinkie huffed out a breath, then turned her head away as the whole table seemed to focus on her. “I… I know what it can be like when you feel like you’ve got nopony who loves you and… and how somepony paying attention can kinda make you go blind to everything else.” She gulped, then put on a faint smile. “I been there, yo.”

“So what, now you’re sayin’ Princess Luna’s an idiot?” Rainbow gave her a stern glare. “She’s not the type Pinks. And Twilight, you honestly can’t sit here and tell me your brother and her don’t have some sort of… problem.”

“Dear, as much as it seems unlike Cadence, high society places a great deal of importance on relationships. Both unsuccessful and successful, and -” Rarity began only to have Applejack interrupt.

“Oh, horseapples to tha’!” she retorted with a fair bit of a flare. “Them two ain’t had nothin’ muckin’ each other’s lives up since tha Gala!”

Twilight felt her heart lighten a little at Applejack’s interjection, turning to nod. “Applejack’s right. Cadence and Shiny settled that score.” She blew out a breath. “Look, we all know she’s not the kind of pony to rabble rouse. Heck, more than anypony in town, she’s the one who's done the most good putting a stop to that nonsense!” She half glared at Dash. “Or do you forget who stood up for you when you let your ego get ahead of you, Miss Mare Do Well?”

“Twilight! That was uncalled for!” Rarity scolded her. “And who can say she hadn’t just buried the feelings? Something like marriage to a princess is stressful enough on a normal pony. It’s not too far fetched to think that might break some old wounds open.”

“Cadence… Cadence isn’t a… um, stressed pony,” Fluttershy said. “She knows how to calm most everypony down when they need it. If she were hiding anything…”

“Flutters! Hush for a sec!” Dash said before pointing a hoof at Twilight. “You can’t sit there and call me out for Mare Do Well when you guys were the one’s… oh, that’s right… LYING!”

Twilight bit at her lip, and grabbed Pinkie’s shoulders as she did so. “You’re right, Dash.” She kept her voice calm, but it was obvious that there was anger in her voice. “Which is why Cadence called us all out on it. Which is why she, need I remind you, spoke up for you.” She slammed her hooves into the table, making everyone jump almost a foot into the air. “Which is why, need I bucking remind you, that of everypony we know, shouldn’t her word be the one we don’t question?”

“Twi, Cadence is a great gal, but she ain’t exactly perfect. She’s lied plenty o’ times tryin’ ta keep ponies from gettin’ heartbroke, even if it needed ta happen. What if she’s just tryin’ ta… I dunno, keep Luna from havin’ ta through the same thang she did,” Applejack said with a little less sympathy than before. “An’ you!” she rounded on Dash. “What the hay’s gone up yer plot? Goin’ off on Fluttershy like that!?”

“Up my plot!” Dash spat back. “Maybe the hat’s blocking your view or something, but the whole ‘stress factor’ thing wasn’t getting us anywhere.”

The door slammed just in time to halt AJ’s hindhooves from impacting Rainbow Dash’s middle. Twilight turned on the spot to see Cadence standing there with a bulging saddlebag and a look of exhaustion on her face. “Nice to see the Elements of Harmony being so harmonious.” She said drily, shifting her gaze to everypony in the room one by one. “There were two more corrupted guards in front of the Royal Vault,” she began, making Twilight’s stomach go cold. Cadence half smiled as she set the bag down on the table. “They tried to stop me from bringing you the Elements. Fortunately, they’ll be too busy with one another to go reporting back to whatever foul creatures did that to them.”

“No, really, Lovebutt,” Dash sneered at her. “That couldn’t be because love isn’t part of the Elements, and it’s the one thing keeping us from syncing back up on this whole damn thing.”

Twilight almost forgot herself. She almost got all the way across the table before Cadence’s magic grabbed her and hauled her back by the flank. Twilight snarled only once, wordlessly, before Cadence touched her shoulder with her hoof. “You’re right. Harmony doesn’t have anything to do with Love.” Cadence said, all too quietly, and Twilight felt her butt hit the floor a moment later. “Which is why I came to you six. There hasn’t been a single challenge you couldn’t face together.” She looked to each of them, and Twilight could see the pain in her eyes. “I don’t know what I can do to fight a monstrosity like the one I saw. It was… it was eating love energy. What in the name of Harmony might it do to me?”

Twilight’s anger burned up in a heartbeat, and she took a calming breath before speaking. Somehow, somehow…. somehow, she had to bring an end to this argument. “Rainbow Dash, stop for a moment and think. This is Cadence we’re talking about here.” She pushed her hooves onto the table, raising herself up a bit so everypony could more easily see her. “Look at her, Dash! She’s terrified!” She pointed her hoof at her, her eyes narrowing. “She needs your help, Rainbow Dash. She needs you to believe in her, the way she’s constantly believed in you. Whatever you two went through, no matter how many times you competed, she never doubted that you’d have her back when she needed it.” Twilight exhaled softly, wishing she could find better words. “The same way we all count on you, Dash.”

“I… I… ” Twilight watched as Rainbow tried to find some other insulting comment to hurl at either her or Cadence, but the words seemed to die on her lips. She was just staring at Cadence, who Twilight now noticed was still shuddering every few seconds. “It’s the real deal, isn't it Twi?” she asked in almost a whisper. “Something’s really trying to… to mess with Luna’s head?” Her head was hung, and where her wings had been flared out in anger before, they were now tucked neatly to her sides.

Twilight nodded at her, then turned to Rarity. “Rarity, I understand your hesitation and suspicion. I really do.” And oddly enough, she did. She’d been around Canterlot high society to know that Rarity certainly wasn’t making up how easily those socialites could make a mountain out of a molehill. “But you know just as well as I do that Cadence is about as likely to hold a real grudge as you are.” She felt a smile tug at her lips. “As much as we all know you’d like to hold one against a certain fashion pony, we know you haven’t. Can’t you give Cadence the same benefit of the doubt?”

“Twilight, you understand all, and I mean all, the ramifications if we burst in on a royal wedding ceremony, cry fraud on your brother no less, and are proven to have gone completely mental?” Rarity threw out the words like a burst water pipe, earnestly looking into Twilight’s eyes to be sure she knew just what she was saying.

Twilight nodded, and so did Cadence. “I’ll take full responsibility, Rarity.” Cadence said softly. “If I turn out to be wrong, which I am one hundred percent certain I am not, I will make sure none of you suffer for it.” She put on a gentle, tremulous smile. “Besides, I’m sure Princess Luna won’t do much more than make me be her maid for a few years.” Her attempt to interject humor was a bit awkward, but Twilight was glad for it all the same.

“Oh, dear, regardless of what you say or do, we’ll all suffer. Horribly,” Rarity said flatly. “But… You were willing to take all the blame in the first place. I can’t say I would have done the same, but if you can accept that level of risk, it would be a shame if I couldn’t.” She stomped her hoof with a little huff. “I’ll have to do something to keep the Elements from being obvious under our gowns. If the creature is powerful enough to think it can take on a princess, no doubt it would recognize them if it saw them.”

Cadence face had lit up a bit, and she was almost genuinely smiling. Twilight felt her confidence growing by the minute, and she turned to Applejack and Fluttershy. “Applejack. Fluttershy. I know…” She took a deep breath, and forged ahead. “That Cadence isn’t exactly the kind of pony you two are used to having as a neighbor and a friend. I know that stuff like this…” She gestured to Cadence and the Elements, “Was probably really not in the plan for you two. But like it or not, we’re Equestria’s best protectors. And that means sometimes, we’ve got to accept that all of the weirdest, strangest, most bucked-up stuff just happens to us more often than it does to anypony else.”

She put on her best grin, hoping she didn’t look desperate. “I don’t need to appeal to your best instincts, Applejack, because I already know Cadence wouldn’t lie about this. Nor you, Fluttershy, because as much as you two are opposites, you and Cadence both fight for the same thing every day of your lives.” She tapped her hoof to the table. “We’ve got to come together on this one, girls. I know that’s not an easy thing to ask of you two, but-”

“Cadence?” Fluttershy abruptly spoke up, directing everypony’s attention to the alicorn in question.

Cadence turned, and brought her hoof up to move her mane out of her eyes. “Yes, Fluttershy?”

“Cadence, promise us all that this has nothing to do with you and Twilight’s brother,” she said, firm and unyielding. “If we find out you were lying, I’ll never speak to you again.”

Cadence’s mouth opened for a moment, shut, then she smiled brightly. “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” And she made all the right motions too. “I swear, this has nothing to do with what happened between me and Shiny. In fact, whatever this creature is, if it’s hurt Shining Armor…” Her eyes darkened, and for a single instant Twilight could feel the ice cold chill of that black crystal creeping around her neck before it vanished like a nightmare. “It’s going to regret it.”

“Hoo, that’s some conviction you got there, Cadence!” Applejack said with an offered hoof bump to her. “Fluttershy here nailed it on tha head. We’re in, for better or worse.”

Twilight sank to the ground by the table, and Cadence took the hoofbump with a smile. “Thanks, girls.” Twilight whispered softly, feeling a heady warmth in her chest. “Thank you all so much. I know this is a lot to ask but…” She sniffled a little and rubbed at a vagrant tear.

“Aw, stow it, egghead.” Dash grumbled, reaching out and smacking her on the back with a wing. “We’re all in this together now, so no more waterworks. Right.” She clapped her hooves together. “We need a plan, Twi. We can’t just go in there and start blasting everything left, right, and center.”

Twilight nodded, and Cadence’s squeeze around her shoulders filled her with confidence. “Right then. This is what we’re going to do.”