Empire of the Sun

For some reason, everypony had been told that the morning ceremony would take place in a wedding hall in Canterlot that was not the castle itself. It seemed a bit peculiar, but, it was no less fancy. It was a Canterlot building after all, so gold lining and limestone walls were just the tip of the beauty of the place.

Twilight and Spike had arrived with the general public, and when recognized at the door by the pony standing outside, she was certain at least she would be cleared for front seats. White ribbons lined the windows with tied bows at the center of every trough of the dip. Bouquets of flowers were attached to the clean white walls with a variety of colors, and two decorated the far wall where the stage was. It was a gorgeous set up, even if it wasn’t in the castle.

After the long train ride, Twilight had closed her eyes in rest, only to be disturbed by an unfamiliar voice.

“Oh my gosh! Are you Twilight Sparkle?” there was a blue mare with a brown plain mane in front of her. She was dressed appropriately for the wedding, of course, in a golden dress that was actually rather plain in appearance, only a few flower images on it.

“Uh… yes!” Twilight said, getting herself back together, “That’s me!” The mare gave a slight bow,

“Sorry, it was a dumb question,” she admitted, “But I just got too excited. I’m such a huge fan of your work!” she bounced. Really?

“Your research on exoplanet transitions is unmatched!” the mare praised her, “It’s gold, every word of it!”

“I’m the only one who’s done research on that topic,” Twilight looked around awkwardly, “But… thank you.”

“My name is Rising Star,” she said, “I can’t wait until we get to-”

“Can we save this for another time?” Spike interrupted, “The ceremony is about to start.” Rising Star dipped her head and trotted away back to her seat as Twilight nodded at Spike in relief.

The room had nearly filled up now, and Sirius had entered through the front, trotting down the long aisle where everypony was to walk. He had a unicorn next to him, dressed in the high unicorn mage robes with green eyes. Despite not knowing him, Twilight felt like she had seen the mage before somewhere. Sirius was dazzling. His armor was a bright silver instead of gold, and his blue Cataclomn crystals were polished and shining.

Sirius and the mage got to the stage where they met the string quartet and exchanged a few words.

Everypony hadn’t started getting quiet until the quartet started playing a famous Coatzart Quartet piece, that Twilight couldn’t exactly remember the name to. After a few minutes, Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Fluttershy came down the aisle with Princess Luna following. They all took positions on stage in respect to Sirius and the mage, who now Twilight guessed was the one making the opening remarks.

She was excited to see her friends playing an important part of the wedding, even though she herself didn’t apparently get the chance to. Something was odd about Luna though. She looked marvelous in her armor, a night blue, but instead of looking cheerful and happy, she apparently seemed suspicious and alert.

There was no time to think about that, though, for soon Mendelsun’s Wedding March began to play from the quartet, and all attention focused on the stage. The usual played out without interruption, the ponies chosen to play the flower fillies and close friends (and Blueblood) came down the aisle and took places on the side of the stage. Celestia, alone, began to walk down after them in extravagant armor. Twilight had never seen her like this before, where she was plated with smoothened gold, and, apparently had crystals of her own that shone like the yellow sun. They were placed in a pentagon formation on her chest plate, and a hanging golden fabric cape covered her backside, lined with white fluff like royalty.

A bit of applause escaped after some “ahhs” of awe as Celestia majestically streamed down the aisle like a shining river.

Sirius and Celestia faced each other and the mage stood between them and cleared his throat.

Twilight had been staring at the mage for a few seconds, still bothered by the fact that she had seen him before. Suddenly a memory seemingly forever ago jumped out at her.

"Hey, you there! Can I help you?”

“Oh, no it's fine, Applejack, really!”

“For the love of Celestia! I need you for something.” Gasps.

“Who is he?” there were whispers.

“Is that Discord?”

That's it!

“I am...”

Twilight gasped as she stared the mage in the face.

“That’s-” she was cut off when Sirius suddenly blinked, and the eyes that returned were not his. Solid yellow eyeballs hosted two different sized red pupils, and a long tooth suddenly sprouted from his mouth. He turned his head towards the audience and smiled in an all too familiar voice,

“Surprise!” Audience members gasped loudly.

“DISCORD?” Celestia took a step back and gasped, “What are you doing here?”

“Why I’m just-” he stopped when Celestia’s eyes suddenly flashed green, with a long reptilian pupil slit in them. A green phase whisked away Celestia’s form and gave way to Queen Chrysalis, and a quite startled Queen Chrysalis at that.

“Wait what?” he asked, as there were more gasps.

“Wait, what?” the mage suddenly poofed into exactly what Twilight had remembered. A pony no longer, a tall, green eyed draconequus stood in between Discord and Chrysalis. Discord also resumed his true form.

“I thought we agreed we were capturing Sirius!” Chrysalis exclaimed in front of everypony.

“I thought you said we were going after Celestia!” Discord retorted.

“Discord, you’re the one who told me that Chrysalis said we were going after Celestia!” Event Horizon butt in, “I’m not surprised in the least to hear that wasn’t true.”

Luna stomped her hoof in a thundering shake, “What are you three doing here?!”

They turned to her and suddenly jumped away.

    “Listen,” Discord began, striking a weird pose, “Is that a confused sister I hear?”

    “She yells at me, loud and clear!” Event Horizon responded, also striking a weird pose.

Discord jumped up,

    “In for trouble!”

    “Make it double!”

    “Disappear!” Chrysalis smiled, staring straight into Luna’s eyes.

Discord dashed in front of her,

    “Bringing chaos at a wedding crashing pace!”

Horizon dashed in front of him,

    “Dashing all hope and forcing fear in its place!”

What in Celestia’s name was happening?

“Wait a second,” Rainbow Dash interrupted them, “If Discord was impersonating Sirius, and Chrysalis was impersonating Celestia, where are the real Sirius and Celestia?”

That stopped them dead in their tracks, as they looked at one another.

“I thought you were supposed to hold Celestia,” Chrysalis glared at Discord, “That is what we agreed upon.”

“Fight me, Chrysalis.”

“Maybe I'll take you up on that offer!” she hissed, buzzing her wings up.

“That's not helping anything!” Applejack shut them down, “If you three don't know, then we have to find out where they are!

“FOOLS!” Luna roared over everypony, causing the flickering of the lights and mass silence. Her eyes were glowing white with rage, and her voice boomed of the Royal Canterlot Voice,

“You three come here to disrupt us, and can't keep track of the one you're trying to bring to ruin! Now, nopony knows where she is!” she thundered over to the three shaking beings,

“You better get busy trying to find her, or so help me, nothing can save you from my wrath!” Nodding and terrified, the three magical beings all teleported away simultaneously, sending the ponies watching in somewhat of a panic.

“Where is our Princess?”

“It's probably the work of Sirius!”

“I knew we should have banished him when we could!” Ponies began to get up and stampede out of the hall.

“Well that escalated quickly,” Spike commented. Twilight stood up to try something, but quickly, a hoof pulled her back.

“Princess Luna!” she gasped.

“Twilight Sparkle, come quickly, with your friends, to the castle!” she stumbled over her words in the noise and then spread her wings to fly through the doors over the crowd. Spike hopped knowingly on her back and met Applejack, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash who were on their way anyway.

“What do we do now?” Rainbow Dash yelled over the screaming ponies.

“Princess Luna wants us to meet her at the castle! Get Pinkie Pie and Rarity from the reception hall and meet us there, stat!” Twilight reported, “I'm going ahead to catch up with Luna! I think she knows something we don't!”

The three nodded in determination and Applejack jumped clean out of a window, while the two Pegasai flew out of them.

Twilight ran out the front door while the remaining crowd had just finished emptying the hall. Despite that being a slight shock, the entirety of Canterlot was in panic. Ponies from everywhere were running in complete fear, for very good reason. Clouds had suddenly gathered towards the castle, blackening as it got closer. What's further: the Canterlot Castle had a translucent black bubble around it, looking as if night had fallen on it only.

“Great Celestia!” Spike exclaimed, “Maybe it really was Sirius!” Wow. There was a very high concentration of magic surrounding the castle in that bubble, so high, in fact, Twilight could feel it from hundreds of hooves away.

Twilight rushed her hooves as fast as they could take her, and even then, she spread her wings and used them to accelerate her body. Like a plane doing a take off, soon she did less running and more gliding along the ground at incredibly high speeds.

When she got near the castle, she found Luna standing just outside the event horizon of the black bubble around the building. Thunder boomed up ahead, lightning flashing with it.

“Luna!” she exclaimed, stopping besides her, “I'm here! The others are—”

“There is no time, Twilight Sparkle, look,” Luna pointed with her hoof. Beyond the darkness, the castle entrance lay. The guards that had been posted there were now still and lifeless, their forms encased in stone. Their eyes stared straight ahead, never knowing what exactly had happened.

Absolute horror infested her as she stared at the two preserved guards.

“That means…” she said, “Everypony else in there…”

“Stone,” Luna answered, “except for my sister.” She stuck her arm pass the outer circumference of the bubble and nothing happened to it at all.

“Us alicorns are allowed to pass… this can mean only one thing.”

Twilight didn't know what she was getting at.

“This is the magic of Sirius A,” she answered her confusion, “For alicorns were unaffected by his magic jamming earlier, as well.” Twilight gulped and stared up at the castle. Every pony that had been caught inside there was now preserved in stone, and somewhere in the vast building, Sirius was up there, the cause of it all.

“Spike, we will need you to tell your friends that they MUST NOT enter the bubble,” Luna instructed him, “Twilight and I are going in, to confront him.” Spike couldn't even say anything; he was just wide eyed, holding his head in his claws, but nodded.

“Very well,” Luna gave a small nod and then looked to Twilight, “Let us commence.”