Spike ran as fast as he could towards the hospital, where he knew Twilight and the girls would be. They had all wanted to be there when she was released, but he had been there for a week and he wanted to make sure the library was clean when she got back. However he had just gotten a letter, a wedding invitation, and based on whom and when, Twilight was going to be pissed.

He still had minor chest pain, broken ribs tended to be sore even after being healed by magic, and the internal bleeding hadn’t helped. Rainbow and Rarity had only been in the hospital for a day or so, having had the most minor injuries. Rainbow had a minor fracture in her lower spine, easy fix though she would need a back brace for a couple weeks. Rarity’s lower jaw had basically been shattered, another easy fix, with no complications, and of course they both had concussions.

Twilight and six had been the worst off, six had a broken arm, a spinal fracture, shattered chiton all over and some internal bleeding. Of course she was the third to be released as healing magic had been aided by her own minor healing factor. Twilight was in bad shape, she had been cut up bad in the collision with Rainbow, along with several ribs broken, a giant hole in her right shoulder, blood loss and magical fatigue. It had been two weeks now and she was set to be released today.

Her right arm would still be out of commission for a few weeks, and she would have a gigantic scar on the shoulder for the rest of her life. Shaking himself from his thought he pushed himself to move faster. He slowed as he got to the hospital, and after getting his visitors pass, he quickly and quietly navigated the halls. Finding Twilights room, he saw the doctor and girls already inside.

“Spike!” Twilight said “good timing, the doctor just said I’m free to go.”

“Yes, you are,” the doctor, a red stallion with a white mane and tail, whose name tag labeled him as Medical Jargon, said. “However, you must remember to keep that arm in a sling. Magic can repair flesh and bone easily enough, but it can only provide a lattice for tissues like tendon to heal to. As well as coax the body to act faster in the process. Come back in a months time and we’ll see about getting that sling off.”

While the doctor was talking the girls had spoken to Spike briefly, before Spike hurled up another message. Twilight caught it and gave it a quick read out loud as Spike fished into his sweater pocket for the first letter.

Dear Twilight

I am sure you are as excited as I am about the upcoming wedding in Canterlot. I will be presiding over the ceremony, but would very much like you and your friends to help with the preparations for this wonderful occasion. Fluttershy, I would like you and your songbird choir to provide the music. Pinkie Pie, I can think of no one more qualified than you to host the reception. Applejack, you will be in charge of the catering for the reception. Rainbow Dash I would very much appreciate it if you could perform a sonic rainboom as the bride and groom complete their "I do"'s. Rarity, you will be responsible for designing the dresses for the bride and her bridesmaids. And as for you, Twilight, you will be playing the most important role of all: Making sure that everything goes as planned. See you all very soon.

Yours, Princess Celestia.

The girls gave various confirmations upon hearing there part, with Rarity actually fainting from joy. “But... I don’t understand. Who’s getting married?”

Spike already had the letter in hand, proffering it to Twilight. “I was, probably supposed to give you this one first,” he said with an embarrassed chuckle.

She read it out loud, “Princess Celestia cordially invites you to the wedding of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and” it was at this point the letter was engulfed in flames. “MY BROTHER!” Not even five minutes later they had tickets for the next train to canterlot.

Six had wanted to go visit Twilight, but with the need for extra security Six was asked to keep an eye on Shinning Armour, he was no pushover, but if you wanted to kill a protection mage. Well..... it becomes significantly harder when the perfect organism acts as a hidden defence force. It also gave her a perfect reason to avoid Spike, she didn't hate him, nor was she mad, but it was still awkward as all fuck. How do you interact with a hot guy that technically owns you? Six was decidedly unsure, so she chose evasion. If she avoided him for long enough, then maybe it would stop being awkward. Unlikely, but one could hope.

On to more important matters, she had just received word that the elements where coming to Canterlot. That meant she had two things to do, say hi to the girls, and have as brief an interaction with Spike as possible.

Heading to the train station she began to wait for them to arrive. She didn’t have to wait long as only a minute later the morning train pulled in. “Hey girls”, Six said as they got off the train, trying her best to avoid looking at their dragon companion. The gave various hellos, Twilight just gave a nod as she tried to walk past, already looking like a flame elemental.

“Hey, Twi”, Six said getting the attention of the enraged mare. “Please try not to glass the entire city”.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, reverting to normal as she released it.

“Sorry, I’ve had a hard time controlling my anger the last few days,” She said.

Six would have narrowed her eyes if she had eyelids, that couldn’t be good. “Alright just let me know if you need to talk” Six said as her friend nodded and they all walked off except for Spike.

“H-hey Six,” he said awkwardly, “how have you been?”

“O-oh heeeey Spike,” she said awkwardly, “I’ve been good, good, I, um, I have to go, seeya later.” Yup still awkward, she thought as she ran off before he could say anything else. He sighed as she turned a corner, before deciding to head to the old tower and wait for Twilight, after dropping off the suitcases at the girls hotel rooms.

Said lavender unicorn was now approaching the guard post where her brother was, Six not far behind her. She burst into flames anew as she spied the stallion that held her ire. Shining wore a set of purple and gold armor with an emblem of his cutie mark in the middle of his chest. “SHINING ARMOR!” She shouted angrily, startling the stallion. “I’VE GOT SOMETHING TO SAY TO YOU MISTER!”

“Twily!” He said with nervous enthusiasm, walking down the stairs of the platform he had been on. “I’ve missed you kid,” he hoped to change the subject, especially with her looking ready to glass the area. Six found a bush to disappear into, this could be interesting, no need to intervene unless she summoned her scythe.

She grabbed his collar and pulled him down to her level, “how dare you not tell me in person you were getting married,” she growled. “And let’s not even discuss you waited so long to send invites that Princess Celestia had to do it the DAY BEFORE!”

“I-it's not my fault,” Shining stammered, “there’s been a threat against Canterlot, this, you need to see.” He teleported them to a bridge connecting two balconies, his horn charged pink and a bolt fired from it into the sky, impacting the shield causing a shimmer to glitter across it.

“I recognize your shield Shining, but about how long before should wedding invitations be sent out?” She growled through grit teeth.

“I-I ah,” he fumbled, “I thought you said we wouldn’t talk about that.” He stared at her dumbly as she scowled at him. “Ok, I get it,” he sighed, “week old threat, invites should’ve been sent out months ago, and I should’ve visited to tell you, I’m sorry.” His head drooped as he spoke.

She sighed deeply and allowed her rage to cool, “thank you, but you could’ve at least told me who you were dating. Who the hell is Princess Mi Amore Cadenza?” Twilight, immediately began bouncing around in a little happy dance upon his answer.

While Six was monitoring Twilight and her interaction with her brother and the Cadence imposter. Spike was bringing the suitcases, mostly Rarity’s fabrics and supplies, up to their rooms, struggling just a bit. It wasn’t that they were heavy, at least not to him, but they were awkward and kept trying to fall off the cart. There was a small bump and three of the suitcases fell, he caught two, but he wasn’t quite skilled enough to catch the last with just his tail. He cringed expecting it to crash open, but it never did, looking over he saw it held aloft in an aura of green magic.

“Careful,” the unicorn who offered aid said, “don’t want anything to break.” She placed it back on the pile, her magic spreading over the rest of it, holding it still, “let me help you with that,” she gave a small smirk. She looked to be between fifteen and seventeen, possibly eighteen if she looked younger than she was. She was a jet black unicorn with heterochromia, her right eye was blue and the left was green. Her mane and tail were an ocean blue, and she wore a white sundress.

“Thank you miss…?” Spike asked with a smile, she was kind, and her beauty was rivaled only by Rarity.

“Formicarium,” she said perhaps just a little too fast, “my name is Formicarium.”

“Formicarium,” he said politely.

“So, purple dragon, here for the wedding,” she gave him a knowing smirk, “you must be Spike.” He gave her a surprised look and she giggled, the sound was beautiful. He decided then that she was the textbook definition of “jailbait”. “Don’t worry, I’m not a stalker,” she said giggling, “princess Mi Amore Cadenza, is my,” she paused as if forcing the word out. “Friend. I’m the maid of honor, Shining Armor has told me quite a bit about you.”

“Not too much I hope,” he chuckled, as they walked.

“Don’t worry” she said with a chuckle, “nothing too bad.” Was she… flirting, he hoped not, he may still be a baby by dragon standards, but he wasn’t a minor anymore by pony standards.

“Well, this is my stop,” he said as he reached the first of the connected rooms the girls were using. “Thanks for the help, I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Of course,” she said with a barely concealed grimace, and a small chuckle. “That is the big day after all.” She waved at him as she left him be, she left the hotel and ducked into an alley. She quickly dropped down a manhole into the sewers, and from the sewers she made her way to a small hole in the pipe, just large enough to slip through.

She made her way through the crystal caverns, green flame destroying her disguise to reveal a changeling princess. Just as she reached the holding area of the pink pony her mother had replaced. Formica stared and the pink mare for a quick second, before lifting her dress slightly. She pulled out a small bag of food she had strapped to her leg.

“Here,” she said to Cadence, “I know it’s not much, but I had to hide it from my mother.” This was not the first time Formica had brought her food, Chyrsalis was baffled as to how Cadence was still able to stand.

“Thank you,” Cadence said, having realized after the first few days Formica wasn’t going to poison her. “You haven’t said, why are you doing this, surely the queen would kill you if she found out?”

That was true, Chrysalis had told her multiple times that she would not tolerate disobedience, she could make a new princess, if she had to. Formica sighed deeply before responding, “unlike that power hungry bitch, I want peace between our races. The other queens watch even now, and we are small and not well liked. A war like this will only weaken us both, and it’s likely another will move in for the kill if we do not make an alliance.”

Cadence paled, from what she had seen, the queen was power hungry and arrogant, but NOT stupid. If she invaded, it’s cause she had the numbers and military might to do so, and Formica claimed they were a SMALL hive. What must the other hives be capable of? “I see, it’s not that you dislike war, or see us as anything but food, but that you need our aide to continue to survive.” She said in a diplomatic tone, peace now friendship later.

“That,” Formica said blankly before smiling, “and I hate Chrysalis with a passion.”

“Then why not try to usurp her?” Cadence asked.

“I wish I could,” Formica lamented, “heck I’d just have to kill her, as a reproductive myself I’d become the queen. But she monitors the hive mind for dissent, so I’m alone, and.” She sighed, “no matter how many times I stood over her bed, knife at the ready…. I just. Couldn’t follow through.”

Cadence’s gaze softened a bit, this girl hated her mother enough to want her dead, but still felt enough for her to not be able to do it. Cadence had seen many ponies with bad parents, heck she didn’t even know her own biological parents. Yet still very few could kill their parents, maybe changelings weren’t so different from ponies.

Six was bored, so very bored. She had tailed Shining as she was told, but the guy was bland as all hell to watch. Then again she’d had all of half an interaction with him, and from the show she knew they’d get along, and Tia hadn’t said she couldn’t talk to him. By now he was on his way home, if she was correct he’d hang out there for about an hour before Twilight and “Cadence” got there. Not long after the rehearsal would take place.

She snuck in though the bedroom window while he went in the door, she chuckled slightly, this was gonna be fun. She closed the blinds after entering, plunging the room into near complete darkness. She hid above the door by clinging to the wall, she still didn’t know how she did that, but crawling on walls and ceilings was just as easy as on the ground.

After a few moments he opened the door, she moved to stay directly above him, so as to stay out of his periphery. As he began un clasping his armor, she dropped, knocking him to the ground and pinning him there.

At least she had intended to pin him. What actually wound up happening was he used the momentum of their fall to throw them into a roll, before pinning her.

“Gah, fuck!” She hissed, “alright, you win, get off.”

“Thanks for that, “ he said with a smirk “you scare the guard so often most of them use a flashlight to get to a light switch, so I’ll be able to lord this over them for a long time.” He gave a small chuckle, “so what can I do for you? Figure you need something, seeing as you broke into my house.”

“Honestly, just want to talk to you, your captain of the solar guard, we see each other every day, but have had all of half a conversation.”

“Fair enough, though honestly, up until like last week, I didn’t think you could talk.” He replied sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head.

“Not far off actually,” she hissed, gesturing to her necklace. “Your sister enchanted this for me, it translates my hissing and screeching into words, but that was over a month ago.”

“Makes sense,” he said with a proud chuckle “she is pretty great with magic.”

“That’s the understatement of the century,” six screeched. “According to my qu… Tia, she’s one of if not the most powerful mage to ever exist in terms of raw magical power.”

Shining swelled with pride though his face held a sad look, “yeah, too much power,” he didn’t elaborate on what he meant. “Anyway,” he said with a smile, happily changing subjects, “you probably want to know how I was able to counter that attack.”

“I kinda figured it was just training and skill, you’re captain for a reason after all.” She said before squinting, not that he could tell with her eyes hidden beneath her chiton, “are you implying you knew I was there?”

“Yup,” he said pulling something off his belt, she recognized it immediately. “Motion detectors from Weyland Yutani, military has had ‘em for a while, but now the guard is getting access to surplus. The magic even allows you to filter out friendlies and use it as a heads up display as long as it’s on you,” he was clearly happy with the toy, and he pulled another out of his pocket spell. “I was told to give you one, so kinda perfect you’re here.”

He handed it to her and gave her a quick rundown of the controls, she set up the hud and placed it into her pocket spell, as it technically counted as on her. “Thank you shining,” she said, “change of subject, I overheard you talking to a bunch of guards about running an O&O campaign, don’t suppose you have room for another player at the table.”

His face broke into a wide smile that became curious as he heard the door open, “ah, I think Cady is here, to answer your question, yes, just get me your character sheet a little after I get back from the Honeymoon, we’re starting two weeks after I get back, level three.”

Six nodded and with a glow of her horn vanished into a corner with a quickly cast shadow veil spell.
As soon as she was hidden she stopped moving, making it appear as though she’d left with a shadow walk spell, which she was still practicing but couldn’t do reliably yet. She’d noted that this world was far more violent that the show, and wanted to keep an eye on Chrysalis when she was with Shining. Technically she could have prevented this all together, but she did want to dance on the grave of the timeline any more than necessary. Keeping things on a mostly foreseen path held the most benefit for her.

Six sat in the shadows just outside of the throne room, where the rehearsal was happening. Everyone had just stormed out, and now Six was just waiting to make sure Chrysalis warped Twilight away, instead of killing her. What threw six off was when Twilight fallowed them all out in her flame elemental form. Seething about how they should have trusted her.

This was bad, Twilight should be curled in a ball crying, but instead she was ready to commit murder. What it came down to was how Twilight was responding to stress, when she got angry in the show, she was typically in fight mode. So the question now was, why was she stuck in fight mode? Six could think of one good explanation, but hoped she was wrong.

Twilight was angry, skip that she was furious, she was so mad that the ground where she stepped was left with flaming footprints. All of them had ignored her, convinced that all the differences in Cadence were just nerves. Just a bit of pre- wedding jitters, luckily Luna had stepped up for her at the rehearsal, insisting that she be allowed to come to the wedding, though she had lost the position of best mare.

Twilight quickly made her way to her old tower, for once happy to see that Spike hadn’t come back yet. She went over to the mirror and unleashed a scream of rage while hurling magic at it. The enchantment on it held up, absorbing her unleashed power, steadily becoming a darker and darker purple. When she finally stopped she could only barely see her reflection, surprising herself, she must have had more restraint than she thought.

She stared into the mirror as it began to slowly revert to normal, releasing the stored magic harmlessly into the air. Calmer now, she began to cry, they were probably right about it being nerves. Meaning all she’d managed to do was alienate her family and friends, for no good reason. Tears slowly fell from her face onto the vanity below the mirror, while she stared at her rarely used makeup. She stayed like that for several minutes before she heard shuffling behind her.

Startled, she glanced quickly at the mirror before whirling and firing off a spell in fear, it left a scorch mark on the wall. It had been a perfect shot, hitting exactly where his head had been, or rather, where she had seen it. She proceeded to search the entire tower, horn ready to fire, fueled by fear and anger and hatred, the magic on her horn felt almost sickly.

Everything was locked and in perfect order, she was alone, had been alone the whole time. Yet still, she had seen him, she had seen Magnus, standing just at the other end of the room. She scanned for teleportation, astral projection and even illusion spells, but still, there was nothing. He wasn’t real, and yet she’d seen him as clear as day. She slumped to the ground against a wall, and began to sob, shivering in fear. She never noticed the wisps of sickly purple ethereal smoke pouring from her eyes, as they faded with her canceled magic.

She covered her eyes, and continued to sob, curled up in the fetal position. She sat like that for quite a while before her horn tingled. It felt like someone was trying to build a shadow walk spell off of a shadow veil spell. Which was possible, but it was much easier to build it off a teleportation spell. Especially since then you just used shadows to remove the limitations like needing to have see the location. Only downside is the extra mana cost, being almost twice as much. Building it off a shadow veil meant building it off something that was itself built on an invisibility spell which was already built off a cloaking spell. On top of that it was done wrong, any worse and it wouldn’t have worked, and would probably have exploded.

“Ow” the caster, now revealed to be Six, said as she climbed out from under the bed. “That hurt,” she shook her head and looked at Twilight, “I saw what happened at the palace, are you ok?”

“Y-yeah, I’m fine,” Twilight said wiping away some tears.

“Then why are you crying?” Six asked cautiously.

“I-it’s not that, it’s… something else, I-I don’t want to talk about it.” She looked away.

“That’s ok, I get it,” six said in a comforting tone. “There’s something’s I don’t talk about either, though I know it will help. When you’re ready, you can talk to me.”

Twilight smiled softly looking at Six, “thanks Six, you can talk to me as well, when you’re ready.”

They stayed there in comforting silence for a little while, till Six had to leave to look over tomorrows guard regimen. Twilight stayed in her position on the floor for a while longer before finally standing up. She took one last glance at the mirror, before laying down for a restless night.

The wedding was going off without a hitch, which bothered Six as by her memory, Twilight was supposed to walk in with Cadence about now. Not to mention she had no idea who the maid of honor was, adding a whole new factor. It was some unicorn with a changelings coloration and heterochromia, so of course a changeling, of importance. Oh and to top it all off the best stallion appeared to be Idol Hooves from changeling of the guard. He had this big dopey smile on his face, meaning chrysalis had already whammied him, so he would be useless when the fighting started. If his story held true he would vanish in order to rail this worlds Topaz. The timeline was well and truly fucked, and there was no way back, which gave Six a headache.

Six had tuned out the ceremony in her thoughts, and suddenly realized that there were two pillars of green fire at the altar. Everyone was staring in shock except for Shining, Idol and Twilight. Shining was blank, Idol was smiling stupidly, and summoning a teleport spell, and Twilight looked about ready to create a third pillar of fire, but with an underlying smugness. She was charging a spell, of dark magic, Six was relatively positive she shouldn’t know dark magic just yet, but filed it under “shit to ask My Queen about later”.

Six watched as Idol vanished and the two pillars died out revealing two changeling royals. One was a recognizable Queen chrysalis, even if she was far more humanoid, the other, Six had never seen before. On the bright side that means the timeline was fucked from the very beginning, and thus had nothing to do with six… probably.

Six charged up a spell on her horn, focusing on the spell rather than Chrysalis’s monologue. She was vaguely aware of where in the monologue the queen was. It was the same shadow walking spell she had used the night before. All shadow spells were difficult to cast, probably because, if Sombra in canon was anything to go by, they belonged more to dark magic. Meaning casting them with light magic was inherently wrong. At least that’s why Six thought it hurt to cast shadow walk. Gritting her teeth so as to avoid shouting she sank into the shadows.

Chrysalis had just finished talking when Celestia called out for Twilight and her friends to go get the elements. Twilight cut off the spell she had been channeling as she left, once more unaware of the sickly clouds leaking from her eyes and horn.

Chrysalis raised her hands to her back and pulled two longswords from their sheaths. Her royal biology giving her the strength needed to wield them easily. She charged Celestia, who batted her strike aside with her swiftly summoned morningstar. The weight of the weapon easily throwing Chrysalis’s attack wide.

Behind the changeling monarch her daughter had just put on her iron knuckles. The girl went to join the queen, only to trip as she felt something grab her leg. She looked back to see some kind of monstrosity with a six branded onto it’s head climbing out of her shadow. She rolled, kicking herself free and throwing herself around into what looked like a break dance move, before somehow popping up and landing on her feet.

Six swiped at the girl with her claws, intent to rip a hole in the changeling princess. However it seemed Formica had chosen her weapon to fit her fighting style, not because she thought it was cool. She easily blocked and dodged around the swipes, throwing counter blows every chance she got. Not wanting to fail the princesses Six picked up her speed, pushing herself as fast as she could.

The monstrosities swipes with its claws and tail became much harder to dodge. However sheer power would never outshine absolute skill, for every swipe that carved a new gouge into Formica’s chiton. She delivered five blows that cracked her opponents, pushing Six back.

Six lashed out at the changelings legs with her tail, but Formica spun into the air. Driving a spinning kick home into six’s face and knock her over. Not letting her opponent get back to her feet Formica rolled forward on landing. Grabbing Six’s tail she spun around and, using her magic to empower her muscles, hurled the monster through a window, shattering it and send the beast far into Canterlot, away from the castle.

Author's Note

It took me forever to write that letter because the “Show Preview” button is a fucking liar. The standard letter format on this website is how the quote command appears in stories. The liar button will tell you otherwise, do not trust the liar button. Also Medical Jargon is definitely not me being unable to find medical jargon that sounds enough like a pony name and I like, so long, that I just gave up and used Medical Jargon, and how dare you suggest it.