The next morning I awoke when I heard the sound of ringing bells and a large door slamming shut. As my consciousness wavered, my eyes gradually began to flutter open. This however instantly became a challenge as my eyelids forced themselves shut beckoning me for more sleep despite my mind's protests.

The stale air that smelt of paper and ink made itself known to my senses. A slight feeling of panic began to set in when I realized I wasn't in my bedroom. My upright position was enough evidence to distinguish that truth. Even though my mind was foggy and my vision was blurred.

I wiped the sleep from my eyes with my front hooves. Clawing at my eyelids until gradually my vision began to clear. While looking at my surroundings, my momentary fear began to subside as the memories of the previous day began to flood back into mind.

As I sat at a study desk on the second floor, my equine ears began to instinctively swivel around. They rotated around until the managed to catch the sound of hooves trotting along the first floor. To be honest, that was one of the things I was having the most difficulty with when it came to adjusting to my new situation. Sure I could handle a different world, different species, and even a different gender, but those ears... they just seemed to get under my skin more than anything else. Weird...

“Your Highness! Are you here?” A familiar voice called out from the first floor. I looked up from my study table, and over the balcony only to find myself staring down at my three attendants, Lyra, Minuette, and Lillybreeze. They all looked around in hopes to find me while they carried snacks in their magic. They all looked like they had packed up for a picnic. A picnic that I was sure had enough food for one more, at least, they'd have to make it that way.

“Up here. The second floor.” I called out, my voice was still dry and had the occasional crack at certain points in my speech.

“Alright, be right up!” Lyra yelled.

I began to slide out of my chair and cautiously focused on getting to the ground. It took a few tries but once I was firmly on the floor, I stood straight and headed for the stairs to greet my visitors. Lillybreeze was the first one to reach the top of the staircase, and when she did she paused for a brief moment and then tackled me with a bone-crushing hug. One of which I decided to return.

To my surprise tears started to collect in the corners of her eyes, and her form trembled in my embrace. She buried her head in my chest as her sobs of relief drenched my coat.

“I-I...We were so worried when we discovered that you weren't in your room. I thought somepony took you!” At this point I was slowly stroking her mane, I was hopelessly trying my best to comfort the small disguised Proto Queen. At seeing her sorry state, I began to feel a pang of guilt. I decided to make a mental note to let somepony know where I was when I went out. At least, during the time before the wedding, whenever it was going to be.

“I'm sorry I didn't tell you, I merely forgot to inform anyo-pony that I was here. In fact, how did you find me here?”

“We went and asked Princess Luna for any information on your whereabouts,” Minuette said while putting down a plate of trays at a nearby table.

Lyra walked up to me scratching the back of her head with a hoof. “Yeah, she kinda didn't enjoy Lilly shaking her awake for an interrogation. But at least, we found out where you were and are now able to have breakfast together.”

I nodded my head in response. Then I caught a whiff of the warm cinnamon buns waiting at the table. Insanely my mouth began to water, and the feeling of hunger made itself known to my senses. I let go of Lilly and stared intently at the mouth-watering food. Finally, my stomach let out a loud growl, ordering me to feed it.

“So um... is it ready?” I asked briefly pointing to the food display.

“Mostly, we are just waiting for the coffee to brew at this point,” Lyra stated with a nod.

I clapped my hooves together in anticipation as I waited for the coffee to arrive. When it did, we made our way over to the small lounging area and grabbed our food. Lilly served the coffee to everyone and we enjoyed talking to one another. I found myself smiling softly as I looked at my cinnamon bun and my new friends.

It had taken a while but I think I was finally starting to like it in Equestria.

Before long silence filled the room when everypony ran out of things to discuss. After thirty seconds of silence, things were starting to get awkward, so I decided to try starting a simple conversation.

“So, what plans do you gu-irls have for today?” I said. Then I took a sip of coffee to wash down a little of my breakfast.

Lillybreeze was the first to speak up. She stumbled over the start of her sentence a few times but she eventually got the words out. “I-I have no plans. My job is to be your maid, and everything that I've been directed to do has already been done. At this point in just waiting for your direction.” I nodded to her answer and then turned to my other visitors to hear what they had to say on the subject.

I Looked at Lyra and patiently waited as finished chugging a mug of coffee. “Ahhh, that's good stuff.” She wiped her mouth. “Oh, right plans… well, Minuette and I are going to be helping out with a wedding rehearsal we're supposed to go to. We have to go within a minute or two, but we wanted to make sure we said hi.”

“Well, in any case, thanks for passing by,” I said taking a small bite out of my cinnamon bun. “Who's wedding is it?”

All of my attendants turned to stare at me in shock. “You mean nopony told you!” They all said in unison.

“Told me what?” As I looked at their dumbfounded expressions, I began to have a cooling sensation run through my veins as dread began to set in.

“Princess Cadence is getting married in three days!”

The room seemed to freeze as my initial shock overcame me. My coffee cup fell to the ground shattering as my concentration on the levitation spell all but disappeared. I felt as if my heart had stopped, my blood quickly went from mildly chill to ice cold, and the hair on the back of my neck stood tall. A few seconds passed as the tension in the room started to grow. My attendants all began to look at me with worried expressions. Lilly was the next one to speak up.

“Hey, Princess… you alright?” My statue-like state yielded no response for my maid. But instead furthered her growing concern.

“I think we broke her” Lyra stated leaning into my line of sight and waving her hoof as to get my attention. She continued doing this until finally after thirty seconds had passed, I managed to pull myself out of my stupor.

“Th-three days?” I muttered. My voice was barely audible.

“I'm sorry what was that?”

“Three days?” I stated again. This time making sure everyone heard me clearly. My arms began to shake, and my neck struggled to keep my head up.

It was a beautiful morning in the streets of Canterlot. The sky was a nice hue of violet and the citizens trotted through the streets as if they had nothing to care for. Then suddenly out of nowhere a strange rumble was heard and the ground emitted a mild tremor. “Why didn't anyone tell me this sooner!?”

Everypony in Canterlot heard the outburst even a few in close by towns.

“Mommy the ground is shaking!”

“It is shaking! You're so smart Jerry.”

“It's Jericho you buck nugget!”

“Now there's no need for that language Jerry. Don't be grumpy like Jude over there.”

“Hey!”

“See, always grumpy.”

The group of mares in front of me nearly fell out of their seats as I accidentally assaulted their ears with the royal Canterlot voice. A faint ringing sang out as my ears felt numb. Apparently being the one using the said voice doesn't mean automatic immunity to its effects.

“Ugh, my head.” Minuette winced as her ears rang in pain.

We all just paused as we waited for the pain of my outburst to subside. Minuette, however, glanced up at the clock hanging over the door and her eyes went wide with surprise. “Hey Lyra, I think it's about time we head out.”

“What!?”

“I think it's time for us to go!” She shouted.

“....What!?”

Oh, this is just sad. I face hooved looking on at my two bickering friends. I couldn't help but feel a tinge of guilt for their condition. So in hopes of helping out with the situation, I decided to concentrate on my magic once again. It enveloped a quill and a sheet of paper and I carried them over to us I'm my telekinesis. I quickly scribbled Minuette’s question onto the front of the aged parchment.

As soon as I was done writing, I held the paper up for all to see. Lyra squinted at the lettering on the page for a moment then before long she let out a prolonged, ”Ooooohhh!” She looked over to Minuette and nodded in agreement. Getting up the pair headed to the door, both waving goodbye as they left the library.

Turning back to my maid she seemed to keep her eyes fixed firmly on me.

“Yes?”

“Huh? Oh, nothing... it's just what was that about? You looked shocked for sure but your emotions showed that it was more panicked and fearful. Why would you be scared of Cadence getting married?”

I gave a half-hearted chuckle to her question. “I'm not scared of Cadence getting married, in fact, I'm all for it. But...”

“But what?”

“I'm scared of the day she gets married, and how close it is.”

“Um... why?”

My mild smile disappeared and my face became one of complete seriousness. “Because that's when Chrysalis strikes.”

As the day got closer to ten in the morning human time the pedestrians got a small shock as they saw a small alicorn running through the streets along with a unicorn mare that was dressed in a maid uniform.

“So what you're saying is my mother's already here!?”

“Afraid so. I was waiting for a shield to appear in the sky before keeping a closer eye on Cadence but I forgot one thing about being in a bubble that encases the city.”

“What's that?”

“You can't see the edges.”

“So you didn't notice the purple hue to the sky?”

“Okay I don't get out much either, give me a break,” I grumbled.

“Fine, but how do you know for sure my mother changed into Cadence and is going to attack the day of the wedding?”

“Let's just say I've got a good source of intel.”

“...” Lilly's head dropped a little probably trying to figure out my source but to no avail. Her face contorted into frustrated frowns as she kept on coming up with empty conclusions.

“Listen carefully okay,” I said sternly in an attempt to get her attention.

“Hmm yeah?” Her head shot up looking at me with an intense stare.

“Stay out of this dispute between your mother and me.”

“What, why? I can help.”

“I need somepony to make sure the invasion doesn't happen, and on the off chance that I go missing I need you to make sure both Celestia and Luna are at the wedding. We'll need all the support we can get.”

Silence once again fell on us as we ran to the castle grounds. Lilly seemed to be wanting to say something but was having trouble getting her words out. Her inner turmoil was clearly shown on her face and it wasn't too long until she finally spoke up.

“A-Are you going to kill my mom?”

The question startled me and I nearly stumbled onto my face as my knees buckled for a second. In the time, I had spent here in Equestria I hadn't thought of that possibility. To say the least, I was hesitant to answer, but I really didn't know how bad things were going to get in the next few days. If it came down to it, I'd do what needed to be done.

“... I'll give her three chances to choose cohabitation with my subjects. But if she refuses to accept my treaty and still tries to harm my citizens, I'll do whatever is necessary to keep them safe. But I'll do everything in my power to avoid that outcome. ”

She looked at me with saddened eyes, and her head hung a little lower. “...Thank you.”

Upon arriving at the castle, I found myself panting. Running back from the library while talking does a number on one's lungs. As I slowed down to enter the palace I couldn't and the unsettling dread that I was already too late to save Cadence from being switched. Both of the guards at the entrance greeted me with a nod.

“Princess.”

“Princess.”

“Yes, hello. Um... sorry, could you help me out with something?” I said, looking at the guard on my right I waited for his response with minimal patience.

“I don't see why not, what do you need your highness?”

“Where is Princess Cadence?”

“I believe she is in the wedding chapel on the east wing of the castle.”

“Ok-gotta-go-thank-you-bye!”

Jumping up in the air I decided to take the opportunity to test out my control over the extra limbs. I fanned out my feathers and pushed my wings back. The result was me accelerating forwards through the large double doors at speeds that only left a blur in my wake.

The guards firmed their attention back to Lillybreeze with a questioning look on their faces. To which the newfound attention began to make her uneasy. Slowly she began to enter the castle gates walking backward with an awkward grin stretched across her muzzle.

“Yeah.. she gets like that... Cadence still owes her ten bits for a bet they made. Hmm... okay bye!” With that, the castle maid turned around and ran like there was no tomorrow into the premises.

My speeding form tore through the halls like sonic the hedgehog on speed. The vibrant dread that gripped at my guts continued to grow the closer I got to my destination, and it didn't show any signs of stopping. While rounding a corner, I found myself having to quickly side-step Prince asshat as he was berating another member of castle staff.

At seeing me appear with a face of determination plowing through the halls in his direction, the Prince nearly jumped out of his skin. The proud steed began prostrating himself in front of the servant chanting, “I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry,!”

I chuckled at my passenger's observation. “Yep, a little more discipline and we'll have him into a decent person yet”

Once I got to the end of the hallway I found myself to be going too fast to make the turn so in an attempt to think quickly I jumped up and used the wall. Running sideways along the top of the hall, I managed to get to thirty feet before gliding back down to the ground. Once my hooves touched the floor I skidded to a stop to find myself standing in front of the two large double doors of the wedding hall.

The door to the hall was slightly open, and from inside I could hear a feminine voice ordering around what I could only assume to be more servants. Most likely a wedding planner. I took a few more deep breaths as I tried to calm my rampant breathing and the burning in my chest. After a few moments of catching my breath, the voices from the hall began to rise in anger, and I took the opportunity of the sound pollution to lean in against the door and make out a few words.

“My apologies Princess Cadence.” The pony whom I was assuming was the wedding planner, frantically tried to explain something but was quickly interrupted. By an all too familiar voice.

“It is Princess Mi Amore Cadenza!”

“I'm so sorry Princess! I was unaware of those changed details.”

“Then you prove yourself useless for my purposes, your fired!”

“... Damn it.” I hung my head, as I silently cursed to myself. My mood dropped significantly and I started to feel guilty for not being there for Cadence earlier. Thoughts of my for knowledge and the plausible chance of preventing this first encounter raced through my mind, and a weight of responsibly began to grow on my shoulders.

As I sat there contemplating my guilt, I was brought out of my melancholy at the sound of approaching hooves. I quickly stumbled away from the door and did my best to put on a calm demeanor. Even though the exterior expression I held was somewhat normal, my heart was racing extremely fast, and the pounding beat was the only sound I could hear clearly.

The large door opened to reveal a pink Alcorn being followed by an entourage of ponies. At seeing me, ‘Cadence’ paused for a moment and gave me a cold stare. “What do you want?”

“Oh um...”

My internal pleading yielded no results for ideas. In all my zeal for coming to protect Cadence from Chrysalis, I forgot to make up an excuse for coming to check on her in the first place!

And there was my salvation, I assumed the position of co-pilot as my passenger briefly became the driver. Once she took over our heart rate immediately slowed and Faust’s attitude became quite gleeful. Like a small foal-er-child prancing around in the joy of life.

“(I came to invite you to tea at lunchtime.)” She spoke in almost in a sing-song tune, and we jumped around on the spot trying to make the ‘I'm joyful’ facade as convincing as possible.

“I'm busy” ‘Cadence’ harshly replied giving us the cold shoulder as she turned to leave. She didn't get too far though before a smaller alicorn blocked her way.

“(Aww.. but you promised we'd do something today!)” Lauren whined; stomping her hooves in a stationary trot as she threw a childish tantrum.

“I did?” ‘Cadence’ looked at us with a confused expression.

“(Yeah, and what happened to never going back on a promise.)” Faust pouted and gave Cadence the biggest puppy dog eyes this body could muster. She held her expression like that as her lip quivered.

After three or so seconds the fake princess gave in. “Oh, okay fine. But only thirty minutes. Where and when shall we meet?” Cadence said with an angry scowl.

Yes, success!

“(My room has a balcony with a nice view of Canterlot. We'll meet there when the clocks say six.)”

The fake alicorn nodded in agreement, and then we both made our separate ways. Her going to the left, and I or this body to be more precise, to the right. After we walked a little ways down the hall I regained control of our motor functions and walked back to my room to prepare for my guest. But while I was walking I still couldn't get over my surprise of how well things went and decided to give my guide to life in Equestria a little praise.

“You haven't lied to me...have you?”

“Okay...Wait what!?”

As the hours passed, I managed to set up a nice spot on my balcony for my appointment with the scouting queen. I also wrote up a peace treaty for changelings and ponies and it was waiting patiently to be revealed from my book bag.

While I was getting ready, Lilly decided to stop by and gave me a few pointers on changelings and their culture. She also mixed up a brew of love in gel form diluted in hot water. Apparently, it was the only type of tea that changelings liked. She looked over the treaty and gave me her strong approval. After that she left, so she wouldn't g risk bumping into her mother when she came.

She arrived while I was setting up some small snacks on the table. I heard the bedroom door open, and I turned around to see the pink pony princess wandering aimlessly through the room. From where I was, I was able to spot her mixed emotions of disgust and curiosity at seeing my room. It was probably too old of a style for her tastes.

“Hello. Are you here?” She called out to my empty room.

“Out here Cadence,” I called back as I trotted over to my balcony door so she could see me. When we made eye contact I called her over with my hoof. I stayed in view just long enough for her to see me, then I turned and walked back out of the door. Hesitantly she followed me onto the deck, but as soon as she walked through my french doors she paused. Her mouth slightly agape at the view.

I smiled at her awe. “Come on don't just stand there sit, sit.” My hoof motioned to the seat across from me.

The changeling in disguise hesitated for a few moments, but then finally she gave in to my gesture and sat down. Seeing that she was seated, I lifted the teapot up and poured her a cup of tea. ‘Cadence’ took the cup from my magic with her own and gave the cup a good sniff. As soon as she did her head shot up with wide eyes.

“What type of tea is this?” Her voice was quite urgent.

“Oh you know, just a little something made with a little love. I hope it's too your liking.” I said as I took a sip of my tea; to be honest, it was coffee.

“How did you get this?” Her tone was starting to become more serious and it held a slight tone of anger in it.

“A friend of mine, she said it was the only type of tea changelings like, so I got it to try to make a good impression,” I stated.

“Good impression? You said we were friends.”

“Well yes, Cadence and I are friends, but you're not Cadence.”

She gave me a cautionary stare. “If you know that then why keep me here? Why not turn me in to your oh so precious Princesses?”

I gave a sigh. Her mood was dropping fast. “Well the reason is, Chrysalis, I have a proposition for our two races. You see it's been brought to my attention that changelings have hit a rough patch when it came to acquiring food. So I thought that maybe I could make a treaty between us that allows a symbiotic relationship. So we could live together in harmony.” At this point, I pulled out my peace treaty and handed it to her. “Please read it over carefully and let me know if there is anything I left out.”

The queen snatched my work out from my magical aura, she then read it over giving it a quick inspection. After several seconds passed, she looked up at me with a blank stare. My work was then lifted up into the air and set it aflame.

“Hey, I worked hard on that!” I wined.

“Do you think I would stoop so low as to sign a contract with my meal?” Her tone quickly turned darker as her frustration began to well up in her.

“I'm trying to keep the peace. I’d much rather have our races be friends rather than enemies.”

Chrysalis decided to stand and she started to make her way over to me. “Heh, you consider us equal, don't you? Don't make me laugh! The only reason you're alive is because I permit it.” She was right up in my face now; the absent glow of her emerald eyes shining through her disguise like a flickering light.

“Please if we can't work something out then leave my kingdom alone. I'm trying to avoid a war.”

“But war is what we will get! I and my fellow changelings will devour this land until there's nothing left of it.”

“I can't allow you to do that. I must warn you, I'll treat you and your army with the same attitude and courtesy that you show my subjects and me.”

“Oh really? You are going to stop me?”

I nodded “If I'm forced to do so, then yes.”

“Fine, then I'll make sure you're not around to interfere!”

Suddenly her horn lit up and an evil scowl crossed her face. Green fire burst out of the floor below me and the flames licked at my legs. I tried to move, to get out of my impending doom, but for some reason, I couldn't. My body felt as if it was made of stone or iron. Slowly, I began to sink into the ground. The last thing I saw before darkness enveloped me was the satisfaction the imposter held in her face.

When I woke up, my mind was foggy and my memories were sluggish to return. I felt sick to my stomach and the dark damp area I now found myself in didn't help. Blackness was all I could see.

“Oh hello, my dear little pony it's about time you got up.” A voice suddenly called. It sounded slightly flirtatious, but it also sounded like two people speaking simultaneously.

I have a half-hearted chuckle while I hung my head. “Yeah, I've had a bad habit of sleeping in late since I arrived in Canterlot, so sorry about that.” A light suddenly shined, and before me, I saw hundreds of Cadences looking at me with a smug smile.

“So, imprisonment. I'll have to put that on the list of things I'll have to do to get back at you when I get out.”

Her smile only grew. “Imprisonment? Oh no, you're too much of a threat to my plans, as are the Princesses. I just wanted to do this away from prying eyes.”

BLAST!

For a moment, I saw the roof of the cave illuminated in the changelings magic, and hundreds of crystal shards rained down on me. I froze, my passenger, however, pushed forward into control and had us try to cover our body with our wings. Several shards though still went through, and one large crystal impaled my leg. It was about as tall as a standard TV remote and it was as thick as a quarter. I screamed in pain as all this happened, and I saw blood begin to strain my white coat.

Clutching in as much of the searing pain as I could, I looked up to the changeling with tears threatening to make themselves known. “You just made a big mistake”

“What?”

I stared intently at the changeling with confidence. “Didn't anyone ever tell you there's one thing you never put in a trap? If you're smart. If you value your continued existence. If you have any plans on seeing tomorrow, there's one thing you never ever put into a trap.”

“Oh yeah, and what is that?” She scoffed.

“(Me.)”

BANG!!

Hey guys! It's been a while. I hope you liked the chapter.

I'm finally getting close to the wedding

Oh and here's the box