I opened my eyes, ignoring the dull pain pulsing through my body. I was surrounded in darkness and I could faintly hear the sound of dripping echoing throughout wherever I was. W-Wait, where's Cloud? I lit up my horn, finding myself in a cave with glassy walls. Cloud was nowhere to be seen.

"Cloud?" I called out, my voice echoing through the cave. "Hello? Can you hear me?" There was no answer. Slowly, I stood up and went to inspect the walls more closely. They seemed to be made of crystal, but so shiny that it reflected light perfectly. It was like looking into a mirror. "Where am I?" I wondered out loud.

"The caves beneath Canterlot!" Exclaimed the fake Cadence, her face appearing on the crystals. Did she replace Cadence, or has she always been that... Thing? "Once home to greedy unicorns who wanted to claim the gems that could be found inside." The faces disappeared from the walls. "And now," they reappeared behind me, "your prison!" B-But, if I'm stuck down here, and Cloud can't fight her, then... Equestria is... I shook my head to clear away the negative thoughts and regained my composure. No! Even if Cloud can't fight her, the Princesses, the royal guards and Vesper still can! I snarled at the faces on the wall.

"I'm getting out of this, Cadence!" I shouted. "And then my friends and I will stop you!" Cadence laughed.

"Oh, I love it when weak Ponies think that they have a chance! Nobody will think to look for you, especially not here! Most Ponies have forgotten that these caves even exist, which is why they are the ideal place to keep the ones who try to interfere with my plans!" She laughed again.

"The only plan I care about is my plan to kick your teeth in!"

"Only way to stop me is to catch me!" Her face switched between crystals. "Over here!" I was about to fire a magic bolt at her, but stopped myself. No, magic bolts are light based. These crystals reflect light perfectly, so that means I should use... I charged up my horn, readied my stance and fired a concentrated beam of sonic energy, warping the wall before reducing it to rubble and revealing Cadence herself in another cave, sitting next to the unmoving body of Cloud. I gritted my teeth and dived at her. "No, wait!" I tackled her to the ground. "Twilight, it's me! Please, you have to believe me! I've been imprisoned like you, the Cadance who brought you down here was an imposter!"

"You'd better call your dentist and make an appointment for tooth hurty because you're about to be de-crowned!" Before I could stop her, she crawled out from underneath me and started doing a dance.

"Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake. Clap your hooves," she knocked a hoof against one of mine, "and do a little shake." She wiggled her butt in my face. I gasped.

"It really is you!" I exclaimed, hug-tackling her.

"Of course I do, how could I forget the filly I love to sit for the most?" We hugged for about a minute.

"Wait!" I quickly released her. "What's wrong with Cloud?" I asked as I ran over to him. He lay on the ground completely limp with an unblinking, unmoving stare. His suit was dirty and torn in a few places.

"From what I can tell, he doesn't seem injured. I think he's having a mental breakdown." I gave a sigh of relief.

"Thank Celestia." Fake Cadence's laughter echoed through the caves. "Come on," I picked up Cloud in my magic, "we have to get out of here. We have to stop her!"

I happily whistled a tune as I skipped through the halls of the castle. That was the best shit I've ever had! Royal toilet paper is awesome! I carried on for a few minutes until I ran into God-Horse.

"Hey, God-Horse!" I greeted happily with a grin. God-Horse didn't look so happy.

"Hello, Vesper," she replied. "Where were you at the wedding rehearsal? Tw- Somepony told me that you were 'doing something more interesting'."

"Oh, you know, this and that. What's wrong?"

"My faithful student ruined the surprise and told everypony who the shapeshifter was. None of them believed her and I was pissed, so I made her feel abandoned and left her to feel terrible." I frowned.

"Wow, what a bitch move."

"I know, right? I was so looking forward to-"

"I was talking about you." Celestia looked surprised.

"What?"

"What happened to all the prophecy bullshit and preparing her for royalty?"

"Well, I was just-"

"How is abandoning her helping her in any way?"

"I was just trying to-"

"And not only do you abandon her when you know she's right, you leave her alone so Miyamoto can take her out without a problem!" Celestia started to look angry.

"I did not-!"

"And finally; you insult her behind her back! Great job! Well done!" I pushed past her and continued walking down the hallway. Suddenly, I was tackled to the ground by something blisteringly hot. I flipped myself around to see Celestia standing over me, mane and tail ignited into yellow flames.

"NEVER TURN YOUR BACK ON ME, OVERCAST VESPER!" She screamed. I cast Flame Mane, transforming my own mane and tail into purple flames and blasting her off of me with my own waves of heat. I stood up and glared into her eyes.

"NEVER TRY TO COMPETE IN FIRE SPELLS WITH THE DAUGHTER OF THE PONIES STRONGER THAN NIGHTMARE!" I screamed back. We glared at each other for a few seconds before Celestia sighed and put her mane out.

"I am sorry for my outburst," she said in a surprisingly calm voice. "It was indeed wrong of me to abandon Twilight and go against the prophecy." I put my own mane out and nodded, quickly calming down.

"And I'm sorry for turning my back on you." I extended a hoof. "We cool?" Celestia smiled and shook it with her own.

"Yes, we are cool."

"Anyway, we should probably go and find Twilight before Miyamoto kills her or whatever."

"Very well." We headed off to where the rehearsal was being held.

"This day was going to be perfect," Cadence suddenly sang to random music, "the kind of day of which I've dreamed since I was small. But instead of having cake with all my friends to celebrate, my wedding bells, they may not ring for me at all!" The music cut off awkwardly.

"Uh... Cadence?" I asked. "What are you doing?"

"What do you mean?"

"Why did you stop to sing?"

"What are you talking about? I didn't sing." Well, whatever. She's probably just stressed. I wonder how long she's been down here...? The music suddenly cut back in.

"We must escape before it's too late, find a way to save the day! Hope, I'll be lying if I say!"

"Why are you singing?!"

"I don't fear that I may lose him, to one who wants to use him, not care for, love, and cherish him each day!"

"If you sing, you'll only get tired more quickly!"

"For I, oh, so love the groom, all my thoughts he does consume! Oh, Shining Armour, I'll be there very soon!" We jumped into a mine cart as the music cut off again and zoomed down the tracks until it collided with some rocks, sending us flying towards a chasm. Before we fell too far, Cadence opened her wings and glided us to safety. I just barely managed to hold onto Cloud with my magic.

"Would you stop singing and focus on getting out?!"

"Why do you keep saying that I'm singing?"

"Because you-!" The music cut me off.

"Oh, the wedding we won't make, he'll end up marrying a fake, Shining Armour will be-" Cadence and the music both stopped suddenly.

"Are you done?"

"What do you mean?"

"Ugh..." I facehoofed without stopping. "Just forget it..."

"Great, so not only is Twilight missing, but Dad too," I groaned. We'd been searching for Twilight for about twenty minutes and had managed to make negative progress. "What now?"

"I am going to change the time to three o'clock and start the wedding," said God-Horse.

"Wait, you can just do that?" God-Horse pointed out of a nearby window before moving the sun to its three o'clock position. "Huh. Fair enough. So now what?"

"I start the wedding and you beat the everything out of Miyamoto. Then we find Cloud and Twilight."

"Okay." We headed down the hallway.

The wedding had started. I was hiding near the ceiling on a Support Circle, waiting for the right time to attack.

We could somehow hear the muffled sound of the wedding starting.

"Oh, we're never going to save him!" Exclaimed Cadence as I looked around.

"We will," I replied. "We just have to find-" I suddenly spotted what looked like the exit to the caves. "There!" I teleported the three of us over to it but, before we could even move, three silhouettes appeared.

"You're not going anywhere..." They groaned as they stepped into the light, revealing that they were the missing bridesmaids.

"Ugh! We don't have time for this!" I grabbed a nearby rock, cast the Want it, Need It spell on it and threw it deeper into the caves. The bridesmaids quickly followed. "Let's go!"

"Princess Cadance and Shining Armour," droned Celestia, "it is my great pleasure to pronounce you-"

"STOP!" Yelled Twilight as she ran through the main doors. Well, that explains where she is, but where's Dad? Miyamoto growled.

"Why does she have to be so possessive of her brother?!" She exclaimed/asked angrily. She suddenly realised her own outburst and changed to a sad expression. "Why does she have to ruin my special day?" She sobbed.

"Because," started the real Cadence as she walked past me, "it's not your special day, it's mine!" Everypony gasped.

"What?!" Exclaimed/asked fake Cadence. "But how did you escape my bridesmaids?!"

"The good old Want It, Need It spell!" I exclaimed proudly. "Works every time!"

"Hah, clever. But you're still too late!"

"Ah 'on' uh'uh's'uh'," said Applejack, "'ow 'n 'er 'e 'ooh o' 'eh?"

"She's the Queen of the Changelings; Chrysalis!" Exclaimed Cadence. So much exclamation today! "Changelings take the form of somepony you love and gain power by feeding off your love for them!" Chrysalis snarled before exploding greens flames around her and transforming back into the thing from before.

Oh. It is Changelings after all. Well, that explains why Dad is missing; he was probably too freaked out to defend himself.

I sent Celestia a psychic message. Now? No, I want to try fighting her myself. Okay.

"Right you are, Princess," admitted Chrysalis, "and as queen of the Changelings, it is up to me to find food for my subjects. Equestria has more love than any place I've ever encountered. My fellow Changelings will be able to devour so much of it that we will gain more power than we have ever dreamed of!"

"They'll never get the chance!" Declared Miyamoto. "Shining Armour's protection spell will keep them from ever even reaching us!" I sent a psychic message to Twilight. Where's Cloud? Vesper? Where are you? Doesn't matter. Where is he? He's having a mental breakdown so I put him in his bed so that he can rest until everything's okay. All Tartarus will probably break loose so you should probably find somewhere to take cover with the others. Okay.

I wanted to see how everything went before I ran to cover, so I didn't follow Vesper's orders right away.

"Oh, I doubt that," replied Chrysalis. "Isn't that right, dear?" Shining nodded and grunted in agreement. Cadence started running towards her, but stopped when Chrysalis stomped a hoof. "Ah, ah, ah! Don't want to go back to the caves, now do you? Ever since I took your place, I've been feeding off Shining Armour's love for you. Every moment he grows weaker and so does his spell. Even now, my minions are chipping away at it." She laughed. "He may not be my husband, but he is under my total control now, and I'm sorry to say, unable to perform his duties as captain of the Royal Guard!"

"Not my Stupid Asshat!" Cadence cried out.

"Soon, my Changeling army will break through! First, we take Canterlot, and then, all of Equestria!"

"No. You won't," said Princess Celestia, walking up to her from behind. "You may have made it impossible for Shining Armour to perform his spell," they clashed horns, "but now that you have so foolishly revealed your true self, I can protect my subjects," she flew upwards, "from you!" Princess Celestia fired out a beam of concentrated sunlight which Chrysalis countered with a regular magic beam. Much like with Cloud and Vesper the other day, Princess Celestia's beam was slowly overpowering Chrysalis's. Suddenly, Chrysalis gained a huge boost in power, making her beam cripple the Princess's. "Oh buck..." The green beam exploded on contact with Princess Celestia, sending her falling to the floor.

"Princess Celestia!" I screamed, running over to her. Chrysalis laughed.

"Shining Armour's love for you is even stronger than I thought!" Exclaimed Chrysalis. "Consuming it has made me even more powerful than Celestia!" She marched over to the Princess and I, laughing manically. "And now I will finish her for good!"

Suddenly, there was a fiery blue explosion between us and her. The smoke quickly cleared, revealing Vesper holding back a snarling Chrysalis with her Flame Blade spell.

"Alright, you little bugger," started Vesper, "are you ready for a real fight?"

Author's Notes:

Character who's blatantly overpowered for fun V.S. character who's blatantly overpowered 'cause I'm biased!
Who will win?!
Found out next time!

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Holy shit Chrysalis is a bitch to draw.

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We've finally reached the point that I've been waiting to get to for months!
Oh, the next chapter will be fun!