Chapter 3: Taser, Taser, Taser!

Having overcome the shock of being shot again, Margaret looked upon her actions with ambivalence. One the one hand, Margaret had succeeded; she had stopped the evil queen and her invasion. On the other hand, however, she had a criminal record, and Shining Armor's heart had stayed corrupted. Even worse, she failed to tell Celestia the whereabouts of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza.

Margaret's sense of grief returned with a vengeance. If only, she thought, if only the sweet release of dreams would allow her to return...

THIRD DREAM

Margaret once again found herself in space. As before, she stood upon vacuum, and before the Milky Way was Princess Luna. "Your Majesty!" Margaret exclaimed. "Welcome back!" She scrambled to curtsy.

"Consider me welcomed, Margherita. I reciprocate that welcome to you; I had lost you, but you have returned victorious! May I ask how it feels to be a heroine?"

"Honestly, I could be feeling better. I'd never seen your sister cry before."

"Worry not, for she will get over it." The princess seemed awfully cheerful. "Perhaps I should have warned you, Margherita; a changeling only changes when he wills it. How was Chrysalis to will without a brain?"

With perfect hindsight, Margret smacked her forehead. "She couldn't have! I acted stupidly!"

"Even so, you still rescued Canterlot. Why not celebrate with me at the Day Spa?"

"No way! I mean, maybe later. Equestria deserves much better from me!"

"Are my accolades alone not enough?"

"Well, I would love to be regarded as a heroine, but I also want to bring your sister closure. I must return to save Twilight and Cadenza."

Luna paused, then smiled with sympathy. "Very well, if that is what you wish. I shall await your return with bated breath."

And with renewed sense of purpose, Margaret curtsied.

***

Upon returning to her spot at the wedding, Margaret brought a different magnum made by Remington: the Model 870 Express. At its core, her plan was very simple: call for surrender, then subdue Shining Armor.

"Mares and gentlecolts, we are gathered here today to witness the union of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Shining Armor..."

Once again, Margaret entered the center aisle, but she made a scene with words instead of bullets. "Chrysalis!" she called to the bride. "These ponies may be foolish, but I am not. Reveal your true form, o sinful creature!" She recalled a time when she was very young: a trip to a museum where she "touched" with her eyes. She felt the eyes of every pony present, nudging her to shut her face and let the wedding continue.

"What?" The bride appeared shocked. "Wh-who are you talking to? Me?"

"Now is your only chance to surrender. Bring back Twilight and the princess, you fiend!"

The bride turned to Princess Celestia, who appeared as confounded as anyone. "Why does Margaret think that I'm a changeling?"

Celestia became very serious. "Human, you have a lot of nerve. On what evidence do you accuse my niece?"

"I accuse her on the grounds of what she did to Shining Armor! Look at his eyes. That's not healing magic!"

The wedding guests erupted into chatter. "She's right!" one of them admitted. "He's totally under some sort of mind control!"

Meanwhile, while facing the captain, the bride craned her neck as a signal to attack. The captain nodded, then teleported to Margaret. "Don't think that I'll go easy on you just because you're a foreigner. I look the way I do because my duties are draining me: literally draining me. Cadance has nothing to do with it; she's not a changeling, and her spells are keeping me sane." Shining Armor then summoned a javelin, and he pointed the tip at Margaret's throat. "I will not have you ruin her perfect wedding day. You better apologize, or make yourself scarce."

Margaret brought her shotgun to bare and fired point-blank into Shining Armor's chest. The captain dropped his javelin and toppled as fifty thousand volts surged throughout his body at once—the work of an XREP projectile.

"Oh, my!" the guests cried aloud.

"They're in the caves!" Margaret yelled to Celestia. "They're in caves beneath—" A stocking teleported into Margaret's mouth. The culprit was obviously Chrysalis, who had begun to glare at Margaret as a competitor. So, Margaret tore the stocking from her mouth, racked her weapon's pump, and took aim at the bride. She squeezed the trigger just as Chrysalis teleported, so she adjusted her aim and fired her weapon again. The second round missed the queen as well, and it accidentally ended up hitting Princess Celestia.

"Ah!" Celestia cried, dropping to the ground like a sack of potatoes. Everyone gasped, including Margaret.

"Sorry!" Margaret apologized, desperately hoping not to anger the bridesmaids. Suddenly, she felt a deep pain; she felt a piercing pain that hurt like nothing before it. Looking down, she discovered the source: Shining Armor's javelin protruding from her chest. Rather than collapsing on the spot, she stared at her blood as it dripped from her innards.

The captain, it seemed, had recovered, and to everyone's horror, he took to butchering Margaret. The captain yanked the javelin from her entry wound and sliced the sharpened tip down her abdomen with haste.

Margaret fell to her knees and dropped her shotgun. She felt herself collapse after seeing black, and once again, she awakened from her slumber.