Equestria's industrial revolution happened nearly opposite of the human one.
On Earth, humanity's industrialization started with the creation of mechanisms and then doggedly chased ways to power them. Progressing from hand-cranks to steam to internal combustion to nuclear fission, humanity's progress was ever a search to find something to satisfy their exponentially growing need for more energy and electricity. Each cutting edge development that pushed the envelope — whether revolution that changed the landscape or evolution that refined an already established system — demanded a greater sacrifice to feed it. Even discoveries that reduced power consumption merely lead to greater numbers of items with lower individual draws taking up the same amount of power.
Equestria, on the other hoof, started its industrial period by solving the energy crisis and finding itself flooded with cheap, plentiful and nearly infinitely renewable power that needed a use.
Glass smashed loudly as Cadance broke the tube open with her magic. The changeling inside dropped to the floor amidst a pool of numbing fluid, flopping and gasping for air. It looked horrible — atrophied, sickly and its carapace an unhealthy ash grey. At least it seemed well-fed, but that was little surprise given where they were. The writhing creature probably wouldn't survive for more than a couple of minutes — few changelings who had been used as power sources for any length of time were able to without medical assistance — but at least it would die free.
It had been shockingly easy for most ponies to forget that every building in Equestria had one or more of those tubes in it — just put a bit of pretty wallpaper on it and it was out of sight, out of mind! Then they could reap the benefits of free electricity without having to think about the emotion-eating creature trapped in chemical stasis next to the coat rack.
And everypony knew it was better to not think about it. The changelings were just converters, after all. Equestria's leadership had gone to great lengths to remind its ponies that the true source of power was them. They were providing for themselves and could take pride in their accomplishments! The changelings were just a middle step in the process — ponies were what made it all work. So there was no guilt — just pride. And that was a good thing, too. If they didn't generate the ambient happiness and love in their lives to feed the changelings, there would be nothing to be metabolized by the pathovores and subsequently converted into electricity. Happier ponies meant more power meant quicker advancement and a higher quality of life!
So it made sense the changeling had been set up in the break room, between the vending machines. Not the most secure place, but when you were trying to power your alarm system, you didn't want to lose power. So the tube was right by where everypony had their lunch — always made with love! — and that kept the security operating. Until Cadance broke it out, at least.
The alarms taken care of, Cadance was able to cut the window open and move through the dead of night, creeping further into the building. On the surface, this was just a random non-descript regional office of Flim/Flam Corp — part of why it had drawn her suspicions was because it was so pointedly unsuspicious. It was nothing industrial: just offices and cubicles for the shuffling and filing of various forms of paperwork for Equestria's largest corporation.
She knew better. Flim and Flam might have revolutionized Equestria with their changeling power sources, but they were still two-bit grifters at heart. All it had taken was another con-pony to figure out the misdirection. It was a shame that the Guard had grabbed Trixie during the last raid, but she'd given Cadance the key. She knew where she needed to be and now she was inside, sneaking through thinly carpeted halls and under the unlit fluorescent lights.
The elevator was out of the question — too easy to get caught in. Cadance had learned that early in her crusade when two of the ponies that followed her had been captured that way. That first operation — now nearly ten years ago — had been clumsy, flailing around half-blind to break out captive changelings without thinking ahead. A third of her little group of rebels had ended up in the hooves of the Guard and the two changelings they'd rescued hadn't survived their liberation. But important lessons were learned and later attempts had been both more successful and less costly.
So the stairs it was.
If somepony did look at the building and think it was suspicious, they would have naturally been drawn to the basement. The blueprints of the basement indicated an area that had once been a tunnel that connected to a neighboring building, long since closed off. It screamed there was a secret entrance or hidden laboratory. Trixie had assured Cadance it was a decoy, likely bristling with alarms and leading nowhere..
Instead, the former Princess proceeded up to the third floor.
The center of the building was an atrium — meant to give the earth pony members of the staff a place to feel comfortable and for pegasi to flex their wings (both feeding the changeling power converters set up around the edges of it), and in turn the atrium shaped the rest of the building into a ring. That, too, was by design. Budding psychological studies had shown ponies felt more comfortable around curves than angles, so architecture had adapted to that. Maximum happiness meant maximum power, after all. That's why everything was painted a pleasant shade of beige (the most popular color in Equestria!) and the recirculated air had the faintest hint of orange blossom.
But the central atrium wasn't what Cadance cared about. It merely created a void in the center of the third floor, slowing her progress slightly as she briskly trotted to the opposite side of the building from the stairwell. That was where her goal was: an exceptionally nondescript filing room that contained one of the greatest secrets in Equestria.
Which filing cabinet was easy — Flim and Flam's misdirection finally gave way to their need for security. After all, it was the only one fitted with double locks and physically bolted down to prevent it from being stolen. It was not, however, secured from an alicorn's magic shredding the wards and peeling the side open like a tin can.
It took mere seconds of shuffling to find the proper folder.
And there it was. Secure through obscurity — the formula for the chemical bath that kept the changelings passive and dreaming within their tubes. With it, they could develop an antidote or at least a recovery treatment. Rescuing changelings from their prisons would turn from a roll of the dice to almost assured survival — and in turn? That meant Cadance and her team could finally chase their final goal: discovering the location of the changeling queen. Chrysalis was a monster, but she was a useful monster. Taking her away from Flim/Flam would cut off their ability to create more changelings for batteries and gaining her as an ally would give the rebels far more power as well as a brilliant strategic mind well versed in infiltration and espionage. They could finally move forward from flash raids and sabotage. They could go from freeing three or four changelings to dozens at a time.
Turning the folder in her magic, Cadance couldn't help but smile.
"Don't move."
The voice behind her was firm. Commanding. Unyielding. Familiar.
She moved anyway.
Turning around, her smile grew. "Hello, Shining Armor."
He stood tall in the doorway, silhouetted against the atrium, darkly visible through the glass-walled hallway. "I said not to move."
"I'm spirited." Cadance shrugged but otherwise remained still. "I thought you said you liked a mare that was strong and self-determined."
Shining rubbed his temple to ward off a headache. "As a spouse, not as a criminal nemesis."
She laughed. "Shiny, you know we're not each other's nemesis. You might have been chasing me for years, but we're not enemies. And we are still married."
"Cadance. Stop making this harder." He stepped into the room proper, staying lined up with the door to block her escape route. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the lower light — she didn't move to try and run away as they did. "Please. It's over. Just come peacefully."
Her response was a shake of the head and a little laugh. "It's just starting. I have what I need, Shiny. It's not over now, but it's going to be. I can stop this — once and for all."
He sighed heavily. "No, Cadance, you don't… Cadance, it's over. You're the only one left."
She blinked. "What?"
"You're the only one left," Shining repeated. "We cleaned out your safehouse. All of your group of terrorists are in custody. You're only free because I waited until after you left before I ordered the Guard to move in — I was hoping I could talk you down. Avoid you getting hurt."
Cadance's jaw set tight. "Were any of them hurt?"
"Almost nothing worse than bruises and headaches," Shining assured. "Maybe a twisted ankle. The only one that got really hurt is your hit-mare — the ex-SMILE agent? She's got a concussion, but she'll heal despite her shouts that we'd never take her alive. That's why I did it, not Flim and Flam's corporate security."
"Their thugs," Cadance bitterly clarified. Then she switched tracks. "How did you find us?"
The answer was just a single word. "Flurry."
Anger spiked in Cadance. "You used our daughter? You turned a child against me?"
"She's fifteen!" Shining Armor spat the venomous words back with a burst of his own fury. "And I didn't do anything! She came to me because she's tired of living on the run. She wants a real life. She wants a normal family, not one where her parents are hunting each other and every other week she needs to move so her mother can avoid capture."
That crushed Cadance to silence — bitter silence, but silence.
"It's over," Shining restated as he took a step forward. "Come on."
Cadance shook her head. "I can't. Shining, this is important."
"More important than our daughter?"
"Important because of our daughter," she shot back. "Shining, look at the world we live in! Look at what Equestria's become! Is this really the best world we can make for her?"
Grumbling, Shining rubbed his temples again. "Cadance, I'm trying to arrest you. Are you really going to pull this argument now? You and I have talked about this before and you know my opinions."
She didn't relent. "It's based on slavery! We're creating living, thinking creatures and putting them into tubes! Leeching their life force until they die!"
"They're not people, Cadance," Shining pushed back. "They're a hive mind or something, the things in the tubes are just drones. They don't have their own thoughts or feelings. And even if they did, they'd be monsters! Don't you remember what happened at our wedding?"
A dark shadow passed across Cadance's face. "I remember. But that doesn't justify what we're doing. And we don't have any proof of any of their intelligence aside from what Flim/Flam says — and you can't tell me you trust them."
He hesitated. "Okay, well, no, I don't trust them. But do you really think Princess Celestia would go along with this if they weren't?"
"Princess Celestia is given the chance to eliminate one of Equestria's enemies while helping ponykind?" Cadance snorted. "Auntie's too savvy to not take that opportunity."
There was an opening — Shining took it. "So you admit things have changed for the better! Pony lives have improved!"
"Some pony lives," Cadance shot back. "Or are you forgetting how the top qualification for every job in Equestria is how much you'll enjoy it? That nearly everything has become become about how much ambient love you'll generate?" She swung her hoof almost violently out, waving at the wider world. "Ponies getting fired from jobs because they didn't love the work enough. Couples breaking up because they're only ninety-nine percent compatible. Sporting events turning away fans who aren't passionate enough!"
Shining Armor held his hooves up in surrender. "Alright, alright, I admit there's been some growing pains."
"Growing pains?!" Cadance stomped loudly — enough to cause the filing cabinets around her to jump. "Shiny, half of Equestria is miserable and the other half is desperately trying to be happy out of fear. Ponies don't love things because they love them anymore, they do it because they don't have a choice. 'Love it or lose it' isn't supposed to be that literal and you know it."
He snapped. "Cadance!" And then calmed back down. "Yes, alright, sure, you've got a point. But was the best choice really to become a terrorist? You were a Princess. It's not like you didn't have plenty of power and influence. You could have just passed a law or a decree or something against it before it all even started. Sure, Flim and Flam would have complained, but who cares about them? Why do you think somepony would have stopped you?"
A wry smile came to Cadance's lips. "Because Auntie's too savvy to not take the opportunity."
Both were quiet after that, letting the situation soak in for a long, long minute. Shining broke the silence. "So I can't convince you to come with me, can I."
Cadance shook her head. "I'm sorry, Shiny, but no. Even if I had my title revoked, at heart I'm still the Princess of Love. And right now, love is being abused. It's hurting ponies instead of giving them joy. I can't just sit back and pretend everything is fine."
"And I can't let you go." Shining's body tensed, preparing for their fight to go from verbal to physical. "Maybe there's problems and maybe you've got a point. Maybe I don't have a solution for them, either. But that doesn't change things, Caddy. What you're doing is wrong. I can't let you keep hurting ponies with your crusade."
In the near-darkness of the office, Cadance blinked a few tears away. "If that's what it's come to. I can't give up now — not when it's still happening and not after everything I've given up."
"Not even for Flurry?"
Cadance winced. "Having her mother be in Tartarus isn't a normal life either, Shiny."
And Shining Armor… relaxed. "What if I said you wouldn't go there."
Similarly, Cadance relaxed a touch, too. Though hers was mixed with surprise. "What?"
"You wouldn't go to Tartarus," Shining reiterated. "Or prison at all. Princess Celestia and I… well, we made a deal." It was enough — at least enough to visibly confuse Cadance and buy time for him to elaborate. "Flim and Flam are willing to let you be mostly free. House arrest, basically. Just a long vacation for the three of us — you and Flurry and I in a big luxury cabin, far away from the rest of the world." He took a step forward, voice quivering with eagerness. "It would be normal, Caddy, or close enough to it. Not even princess stuff! We could just be a family without any of the complications."
She hesitated. "Why would the brothers do that? They hate me — and for good reason." Cadance didn't need to question the others involved — Princess Celestia was savvy, but she still had a heart, after all.
Now it was Shining's turn to falter before admitting the catch. "They know how much we love each other," came the poisoned pill. "And how much we love Flurry. They want it because we'd be one of the biggest power sources in Equestria, so it's a profit. But who cares? Cadance, you wouldn't have to run anymore! Flurry could grow up with a real family! So what if those swindlers will line their pockets a little?" Shining stepped forward once more, closing to just barely out of reach of Cadance. "I care about you. I care about us. ...Come home with me, Cadance. Please."
It was a hard sell and difficult to turn down. Cadance quietly asked just one question. "Where?"
Shining stopped, caught off guard. "What?"
"Where's this 'luxury cabin' supposed to be?"
Confused, he answered with hesitation. "It's just outside Vanhoover? There was an old pear orchard that's got plenty of land and—"
Cadance darted in, planting a quick kiss on Shining's cheek. In the moment he was stunned, she gave a heave of her wings and catapulted him backwards. The glass surrounding the atrium gave no resistance. It shattered — dropping Shining down to the bushes below and giving Cadance an escape route. The folder she fought so hard to gain fluttered to the floor, forgotten as she flew out and up.
High in the sky, Cadance turned herself northwestward. Towards Vanhoover. Towards that remote luxurious cabin in the old orchard. Towards her final quarry. Only one changeling was strong enough to absorb so much love, after all. Chrysalis had to be there, encased in a battery housing of her own and waiting to drink Cadance's love.
Without the rest of the resistance, there was no point in gambling to rescue the queen. But even if she didn't survive being extracted, it would still cut off Flim and Flam's supply of new changelings. It would save Equestria's future, even if it sacrificed so much to get there.
But then, Cadance was used to sacrifice by this point.
