Canterlot Bridge

Twilight felt the cold air blow into her face whilst standing on the balcony or Cadance's bedroom, along with Spike. The last of the sunset had gone and it was now very dark, with only the stars in the sky making the atmosphere beautiful and calm. She smiled at all the beautiful colours in the trees that just appeared from the blackness of the night. The wind had picked up, but it was a cool breeze still. Twilight enjoyed listening to the leaves in the trees rustle in the wind as if they were playing a tune for her like it was a private performance for her to only watch. No other pony, but her. Oh, and Cadance sleeping in her bed. Oh, and Spike, even though he was a dragon.

Twilight looked back at her former foal sitter and smiled. She noticed her snoozing away in her bed. Cadance had wrapped herself in bright pink sheets and was wearing a blindfold. The alicorn was happily sleeping away and wasn't the slightest bit disturbed. Spike tried to grab Twilight's attention, drawing her eyesight from looking at Cadance, and made her look out from the balcony. She smiled and drew Spike closer.

"It's a beautiful night, Spike."

Spike tried to break himself free from Twilight's grip, but he was no match for the strength of an alicorn. Instead, he leaned in closer to Twilight and looked up at the sky as well. The brightness of the stars was bright enough to not have any other forms of light around the city, making it look beautiful and charmingly good. Spike, who was a baby dragon, after all, was very tired and struggling to stay awake. He yawned but didn't fall asleep.

"It truly is, Twilight."

But then, Twilight frowned and her peacefulness had left her. She was continually thinking about Starlight, who had been missing for the past twenty-four hours now in Canterlot, and the only place that she could think her ex-pupil could go was where Princess Cadance said, which was the mysterious Canterlot Bridge. But that was just too strange for that to be true, surely? Why would Starlight go to a bridge? What would she want to do with a bridge that no pony dared to cross?

What would Starlight Glimmer be doing on a bridge that no pony dared to cross?

"We will find her, Twilight. We will." Spike tried to cheer up Twilight, but he knew that Cadance meant a lot to Twilight. Being her old foal-sitter, Cadance was an icon to Twilight, an inspiration to a small filly who used to read alongside a princess, whilst cuddling her Smarty-Pants doll. Spike knew that Cadance could never be replaced; not even Celestia herself could do the same as what Cadance could do for Twilight. A teardrop poured down Twilight's cheek

Twilight bit her lip. There was a sudden urge that she had to go over and see for herself. She walked off the balcony and back into the room but stopped for a second.

"What is it, Twilight?" Spike asked. Twilight didn't move, but she did physically show that she had seen something in front of her that made her uncomfortable. Spike looked in the direction that Twilight was looking at and pulled a confused face. "What are you staring at, Twilight?"

Twilight walked over to the sleeping body of Cadance and stopped just centimetres from her body. She narrowed her eyes tightly, squeezing them until they hurt. Twilight placed a purple hoof on the sleeping body of Cadance and began to notice that there was something certainly wrong. The body underneath the covers was not the same shape as Cadance's body. After knowing who it certainly wasn't to be, Twilight used her magic to lift off the covers from the pony underneath and found a couple of large pillows. The eye mask was covering a large, pink ball, and on the top of the ball was a long, pink wig. Twilight and Spike gasped together at what they had just discovered.

"Sweet Celestia!" Spike cried. He looked up at Twilight.

"I... I don't understand. Where could she possibly be?! Cadance is sick! Cadance... was faking it. Oh my..."

Twilight suddenly turned a shade of white, looking as if someone had sucked all the blood from her body like a vampire.

"So, what's going to happen, Twilight?"

Twilight looked down at her favourite dragon.

"We find Starlight and Cadance. Now."

Canterlot Bridge
Night

One by one, each of the members of the Mane Six arrived at the meeting spot that Twilight had arranged. It was completely dark now, so Twilight and Rarity lit up their horns. Still, they soon realised that their magic would be no match for the hideous fog that would block their eyesight whilst walking along the bridge. They would have to walk on blind and try to find Cadance and Starlight. However, Fluttershy wasn't too keen to walk onto the bridge late at night, nor was Applejack, Rarity, Spike, Pinkie Pie and even Rainbow Dash. Twilight was very close to walking onto the bridge, but then refused and stopped just in front of the edge.

"The air..." Twilight began, "...it smells, foul. It's not right. Spike, when is Princess Celestia coming here? I thought you sent a letter, didn't you?"

Spike suddenly nodded his head back and forth very quickly.

"I did, yes. Celestia wrote back saying that she's bringing Luna along, too. Says that it's best if there's two of them, especially if Cadance is missing."

Twilight turned back to the bridge and tried to look down into the thick depth of the darkness. Using only her horn, she put one hoof on the bridge and heard a loud creak from underneath. Twilight gulped but then continued walking down the sinister looking bridge for the very first time, followed by Celestia, Luna, her friends, Sunburst and a few royal guards who were just behind them holding long, sharp spears in their arms. The darkness was bad enough, but the fog was what made it painfully difficult to see for Twilight. After all, she was the one leading the patrol and she was walking blind.

The only thing that kept her walking on was just to keep going in a straight line. Twilight knew that she mustn't be distracted by the strange sounds of the bridge and hearing the sounds of the floor giving way to rotten sections of the wooden floorboards. She walked on slowly, trying to brighten her horn more and more until it was the brightest that it could go. The lanterns on the bridge were either very dim or not lit at all, which made it extremely difficult for Twilight to see what she was doing. It wasn't until she saw the light of a unicorn's horn in the distance that she stopped and gasped in either joy or fear.

She could see two ponies standing next to each other. One was a mare and the other was a stallion. Both were wearing cloaks, covering their heads and faces. But they were certainly ponies and a mare and stallion. The two ponies remained looking directly back at Twilight and those behind her, not moving a muscle whatsoever. Celestia was the first to talk.

"Who are you?! Where is Princess Cadance and Starlight Glimmer?!"

The stallion removed his hood, revealing the face of none other than Mystery himself. Mystery walked down the bridge slowly, making the floorboards creek underneath his hooves and snapping under the pressure of his weight, but the stallion didn't flinch at the sounds, as if he wasn't afraid of falling off and into the depths of the cold water on the ground. Each step he took made Celestia feel uneasy until her left front leg was shaking slightly. The royal guards, who were surrounding Celestia, stood their ground and protected her, pointing their sharp spears towards the approaching pony.

"This is your last warning! Where is Princess Cadance and Starlight Glimmer?!"

The stallion stopped walking along the bridge and centred himself in the middle. The mare behind him walked up just behind but didn't stand next to him. Mystery decided that it would be best to answer Celestia's question before she would throw the full force of her power upon him. After all, he wasn't in the mood for doing anything messy and would resolve in cleaning up a lot of mess, especially on Cadance's bridge. He wrapped himself around in his black cloak, keeping his body hidden from view. He then chuckled evilly and placed a hoof on the bannister of the bridge.

"Well, I never thought that this day would come, Celestia. You and your "heroes of Equestria" coming to face me on your niece's favourite bridge. I was going to suggest meeting you peacefully in the castle, however, I then thought that having to face you on a bridge would be more exciting, wouldn't it?"

Celestia raised a hoof immediately after Mystery had finished, in which the stallion stopped, including the mare behind him.

"That's close enough!" Celestia shouted over to Mystery. The guards pointed their spears directly at Mystery, however, very little change of expression appeared on his face. The figure next to him, however, flinched in fear and stepped a hoof backwards from Celestia's group of guards. Twilight, who had been watching all the action from a distance with her friends, noticed that the other pony was certainly a mare, judging the head shape underneath the hood that the pony was wearing.

Twilight then left her friends' side and walked onto the bridge, ignoring her friends' cries for her to stop walking on. She walked past Celestia, who didn't interfere with her walking past the wall that the guards had made, and then walked a few paces forward until she stopped. She noticed Mystery and his companion walk closer as well, trotting slowly towards the middle of the bridge. Pretty soon enough, they were heading towards each other, like some sort of Mexican Standoff. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, but one way to fall.

Down.

Twilight and Celestia were only a few metres now from Mystery and the hooded pony. They soon stopped when they noted that if they got too close to each other, one would take the risk to attack the pony directly in front of them or the other way, so they decided to stop walking on. They were now facing each other, with nowhere to go. Celestia hoped that Mystery would eventually give up and turn back, after seeing her army behind her. But she was wrong.

Very wrong.

"Princess Celestia, Princess Luna and Princess Twilight," Mystery replied, "I know that I can't go anywhere near you. Why would I? I'm sure that one of your soldiers would've taken care of me by now."

Celestia growled loudly like a fierce dog selecting its prey at Mystery. She had clearly enough with the stallion and also with trying to find Cadance and Starlight in mind made her even the more fed up and tired of this silly game.

"WHERE IS MY NIECE?!" Celestia roared, before continuing at a normal volume, "And where is Starlight Glimmer?! I demand you tell us, coward!"

All of a sudden, the pony behind Mystery walked up to his side and used her magic to lift off the hood covering her head. Her mane collapsed to her side, revealing its bright, pink colours and at the top of her mane was a tiny crown in which belonged to a pony who Twilight and practically everypony else knew. Along with the pink coat, were the beautiful horseshoes that belonged to the ruler of the legendary Crystal Empire, and of course, there were those stunning eyes that only belonged to Cadance and no pony else. Cadance removed the rest of the hood to reveal her body all covered with red veins and infected patches. She was still very ill, but she obviously had enough strength to stand outside, especially on a bridge suspended high up, with rotting wooden floorboards and concrete walls suffocated with vines and ivory. Celestia could only gasp, leaving her jaw open in shock.

"C... Cadance?!"

Princess Cadance could only look back at her aunt directly in the eye. They twitched awkwardly as if what was controlling them had malfunctioned and was going haywire. The alicorn's legs were all red and had red cuts all over them, looking as if they had been whipped by a long piece of leather. Her wings had been clipped and there were bandages wrapped around them, not being tied up properly.

"Auntie... you, came?" Cadance called over from her side of the bridge. Celestia looked back at the ponies who were shadowing away behind her back and then looked back at the alicorn.

"Yes, Cadance. I have come to take you back home. You look awful! You need to rest at the castle."

Celestia suddenly stepped on a rotten piece of wood, making her hoof go through the floor. She gasped, but Twilight grabbed her tail and pulled her back up. Celestia looked straight down towards the bottom of the bridge, seeing that the fog was now beginning to fade, but then also saw something else that almost made her vomit.

Underneath the bridge were randomly placed pieces of rope hanging from the bottom of the complex, and each one was holding a body of a pony by the neck. All the hanging bodies were all different types of ponies; mares and stallions, unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies, unknown ponies and famous criminals of Equestria who had been on Canterlot's hit list for years.

Including the body of Starlight Glimmer.

The unicorn mare's mane was a mess. It was entangled with the rope that hung the mare's body from the bridge and it wrapped around Starlight's neck and face. There were rope burns around Starlight's neck and large gashes across her chest and face. The rope had embedded itself into the skin of Starlight's neck and on her face was a terrified expression, with her eyes partially open and her mouth frowning, with a slight gap between the top and bottom lips, which were as white as snow. Rarity screamed, and Twilight gasped.

"What? Why did...? WHY DID YOU KILL HER?!"

Princess Cadance suddenly pulled a disgusted expression on her scarred face. She trotted slightly closer to Twilight, knowing that Mystery would probably be punched in the face by this point by Twilight's own hooves. Cadance went up to Twilight and looked down directly into her beautiful violet eyes, making her back up slightly over to her side of the bridge. Suddenly, Cadance didn't look like a beautiful princess and Twilight's old favourite foal-sitter, but more of a sinister creature, with wrinkled skin and red veins inside her eyes. Cadance's make-up had been stained and the injuries all over her face and body looked as if they would open wider for more blood to pour out.

"Twilight..." Cadance replied, "...Starlight is a well-known criminal of Equestria, who should have been punished years ago. The same goes for all of these other ponies and creatures that are hanging on Canterlot Bridge as well. They have all chosen their fate. We wanted somewhere to put them without ponies or residents of Canterlot knowing where they could be. The spray of the water and the fog helps cover up the bodies, so it was the perfect place to put them."

Cadance placed her hoof on Twilight's cheek, in which Twilight looked up at her still with a frown on her face.

"It was better to let them feel no pain, rather than to let them suffer in prison."

Celestia stamped her hoof loudly, grabbing everypony's attention. "This has gone on for too long, Cadance! This idea of yours is mad! Surrender at once, for the sake of Equestria!"

Cadance immediately turned away from Twilight by pushing her to the side in the chest, before walking over to face Celestia, her once-beloved-aunt. Cadance's cloak waved in the strong breeze that flowed through the architecture of the bridge, which made a peaceful tune as it did so, however that wasn't enough to lighten the situation for those standing on the bridge itself. Cadance remained standing her ground, along with Mystery who was still next to her, threatening anypony who came too close.

"Sorry, auntie, but it's about time that I took care of Equestria's trouble-makers, and this is the way that I feel will be most effective. Mystery will make sure that neither you stop me. Now, if you don't mind, I have some bodies of ponies to deal with."

When Cadance finished and turned around to head in the opposite direction, Mystery walked closer towards Celestia, Twilight and the rest of the group of ponies against him. Celestia, by this point, had lost her patience and turned to look at her guards before walking off the bridge.

"Guards, seize the pair of them and get them off this blasted bridge!"

The white stallions responded to Celestia and then made their way down the bridge. The unicorn guards began lightening up their horns, whilst the pegasi and earth ponies grabbed hold of their spears and started forcing their way down the bridge. Seeing what they were up against, Cadance once again walked back behind Mystery, who lit up his horn and shot out large yellow electrical bolts of magic up into the air. He then swung his lasso of magical energy straight into the path of the guards, all of which were shot back, all of which were either thrown back or thrown over the side of the bridge, falling to their death in the cold depths of the water underneath. Cadance then produced a protective force field, which bounced off any of the guard's magic or spears thrown at her. She covered Mystery with the magic, blocking all attacks that targeted him whilst fighting Celestia, the Mane Six and her army. Nothing managed to get past them. Twilight, who was standing next to Celestia and producing her own force field, was holding back the shots from Mystery, which were twice as powerful as hers.

"They're too strong, Celestia!" Twilight cried.

"Don't worry, Twi," Applejack said, "we'll help you!"

Applejack pulled out her own lasso and swung it round in the air, trying to force Cadance and Mystery back, but very little effect was caused by it. Mystery dodged out of the way of the lasso, turning and twisting in the air and on the bridge floor. He then stood upright and shot a very powerful lightning-blot-shaped bundle of magic from his horn, which went straight into Applejack's chest, causing her to fall back and balance on the bridge's bannister.

"APPLEJACK!" Pinkie Pie cried.

Rainbow Dash and Pinkie trotted over to Applejack and grabbed her bottom hooves. Applejack tried to use her front hooves to grab hold of the two other mares, straining and grunting as she tried to use all her strength to pull herself up. Rainbow and Pinkie groaned and gasped in agony in the weight of pulling up a very strong earth pony, but suddenly, the situation became worse.

Mystery had summoned a storm using his magic and dragged the gathering of clouds around where Applejack was being suspended. Her grip was becoming slippery and sweaty, causing her friends to struggle getting Applejack back onto the bridge. A thin, but deadly lightning-bolt suddenly zapped the piece of bridge where Applejack was hanging onto. The blast from the bolt made the concrete fencing explode into pieces of rubble and lit up Applejack's body, causing her to light up and in doing so, showing her skeleton underneath her skin. Pinkie gasped and she let go, but Rainbow Dash grabbed her tail using her teeth and held her on the very edge of the bridge itself, and then watched as Applejack screamed whilst falling down into the foggy depths below. The last thing that they heard from her was the intended splash of when she landed in the river below.

"No! Applejack!"

Pinkie Pie remained hanging on the edge for a while, until eventually Rainbow Dash, now having less weight to hold, dragged Pinkie back onto the bridge and pulled her away from the edge. As they did so, more guards went charging up towards Cadance and Mystery, but they were also shot with magical bolts of energy, either shooting them away, disintegrating them into dust or getting swallowed into the bridge itself.

Rarity came up next to face Cadance. She teleported herself in front of Celestia and then started running towards the two alicorns in front, lighting up her horn and preparing to produce the deadliest magic that she could produce. Cadance then looked directly into Rarity's eyes and cast a curse on her mane, making it extremely long and causing Rarity to trip up and fall face-first on the floor. Rarity gasped and cried out in pain.

"My legs! My mane! Ow!"

Cadance then saw Fluttershy attempting to run up towards her slowly and very nervously. Knowing that it wouldn't be much to stop her, Cadance simply shot at the wooden floorboards just underneath Fluttershy, creating a series of sparks and flames erecting from the floor. Suddenly, just as Fluttershy ran back behind Celestia and Twilight, a large hole appeared where the flames were eating up the wood on the bridge. The pieces of wood fell down the floor and were brought down by gravity into the cold depths of the water underneath. The bridge suddenly felt as if it was snapping and falling. There was a loud creaking sound, along with the sound of crashing from the concrete bannisters cracking and coming apart. Fluttershy drove herself back before the section of the bridge gave way. The pieces of the bridge also fell down into the fog-infested river below. Rarity, who was now coming round, noticed that she would soon be falling in as well and decided to do something about it.

There was a rope not holding a body of a pony and thinking that would be the option, Rarity leapt from where she was hanging onto and grabbed hold of the rope with her mouth, then wrapping her arms in the noose. She was right next to the deceased body of Starlight, but there was no time to moan; she had to hang on without Cadance or Mystery attempting to get a hold of her.

"Hold on, Rarity!" Twilight shouted from her side of the bridge, "I'll get you!"

Twilight flew up into the air, before swooping down and flying right into Rarity, picking her up in her hooves. Rarity spat out some blood from her mouth, before clinging to Twilight for dear life. Twilight took Rarity back to their side of the bridge, far away as possible from Cadance's and Mystery's shooting range. After handing Rarity over to some of the guards, Twilight flew back to help her friends, but then soon realised that actually, it would be almost impossible.

Mystery then spread out his wings and leapt into the air, where he swooped down and crashed into Twilight. They both fell to where the bridge had split in two and clung onto the edge. Cadance watched from above, gasping at the horror that she was seeing. Mystery was pressing both hooves right into Twilight's neck, causing her to choke and struggle to breathe. Appalled by this, Cadance shouted at Mystery.

"Don't hurt her!"

Mystery looked back up at Cadance and let out a loud and sinister laugh, which crackled along with the flash of lightning and crash of the thunder in the background. The atmosphere had become just the stuff of nightmares and was no longer purposeful.

"Do you really think that I will let her go?! After everything's she seen?! You don't need ponies like this pathetic mare here! We are good enough to be together; we don't need friends or stupid oafs like all of these ponies watching us now! Time to wake up Cadance; who's side are you on?"

The rain had become stronger over time and was now a fierce storm blowing in everypony's faces. Cadance's make up had become stained and ruined, with it all running down her face. Her beauty on the outside had completely vanished... but on the inside, it hadn't. Cadance suddenly stretched out her wings and flew down to Mystery, landing on his back, causing him to let go of Twilight. Twilight gasped for air, before rolling onto her front. Cadance grabbed hold of Mystery and wrestled with him frantically, moving from side to side, before grabbing one of the ropes with her magic and wrapping it around his neck. They were balancing off the very edge of the hanging piece of bridge, trying not to trip up or fall. But eventually, after miss-stepping, Mystery slipped and fell back off the bridge. Now Cadance and Mystery were both falling. In his last moment, Mystery looked deeply into Cadance's stunning eyes, before being thrown back by the rope holding him around the neck and getting hanged from the hanging debris of the bridge.

Cadance, however, continued falling down towards the ground, before landing on a shallow part of water. All Twilight could hear from above was a loud "crack", followed by a deadly silence. A very long and deadly silence.

"CAAAAAAAADANCE!!!