It took the young heroine a good moment to shake off her embarrassment, making way for elation as she rushed over to me. By faust, I had already wanted to be related to the ultimate adorkable pony in Equestria, but the sheer wave of familial love as she saw me told me that my desire to have her as my little sister was NOTHING compared to how she already saw me as an honorary big sister.

How the fuck did Chrysalis manage to snub the second biggest of source of love for Cadence without even blinking?! Rejecting this ball of affection, even if she wasn’t a hero of Equestria, just because you didn’t plan for her is the DEFINITION of cutting your nose to spite your face!

...oh wait, she had done that already, repeatedly, for the sake of pride! I’m surprised she had a face by the time I got here!

Moving on from my internal monologue, I brought focus to what I was gonna do. I could follow along with the dance, dispelling Twilight’s doubts, but then again I was gonna unmask myself to her later on anyway, so there was really no point. I could avoid it, then explain to Twilight that I didn’t want to at the reveal so I didn’t take Cadence’s thing from them, even though that’s a flimsy excuse at best, and would leave her to be suspicious of me all day…

The real deciding factor was this: did I really want to waste the opportunity to do something super cute and girly with my future sibling for the sake of my cover?

“Sunshine, Sunshine! Ladybugs awake! Clap your hooves and do a little shake!”

Oh hell to the fuck no, I wasn’t gonna waste it!

With the ritual complete, Twilight happily rushed up, wrapping her… fuck it, I’m calling them arms, her arms around my neck, while I return the hug with one of my own. “So I take it that you received Shining’s Invite?”

“Yeah, I was still a bit mad though, he made it so formal, it felt like it was just one of those official invites Celestia would print out and send.”

I turned my head to give a rather half-hearted glare at the stallion in question, who had the sense to look bashful. “Oh, did he now? Well then, I think I can spend some time during the honeymoon to punish him for that.” The shudder that ran through him was delicious.

“C-Cadi! Not while Twilight’s here!” he said with a reddened face, although Twilight was just a bit too innocent to catch the conversation that was really going on.

I giggled softly before moving away from Twilight and over to ‘my fiance’. “I’d love to stay and talk with you, Twilight, but I have so much preparation to do. It’ll have to wait for tonight, okay?”

Shining took the moment to speak up, putting a hoof over my shoulder. “Right, I have to get back to my station too. But you should still see Cadence as she checks up on the others. We’re both very happy to have you here, Twilight.”

“I couldn’t agree more.” I say with enthusiasm, cuddling up to Shining. “I can’t wait to meet your new friends!”

As Twilight left with a smile, I turned to Shining with a devious smirk as he asked. “So what brought you up here?”

I jumped on the chance ferociously. “Oh, I was wondering if you’ve been having any headaches recently~.”

He flinched, giving me all the answers I needed as I moved in. “w-wait, Cadi, not out here, what if-”

“Shining, if you have them, I will help with them, no matter what~.” I say with a purr as his dread danced in the air, while my head slipped under his barrel.

“Cadi, please, we can find a closet or spare room or-oooohh buuuuck~.”

Best pick-me-up ever, I needed this…

Keep in time to the rhythm, walking down the aisle is an art, you must always walk with left forehoof first, then right hind, then right fore, then left hind, repeat, repeat, repeat-

MY QUEEN!

“GAH!” I almost stumble from the sudden loud noise in my head, only now realizing I was walking around the courtyard. What is it?? I say to who I believe to be Thorax.

Are you alright? Your hive-mind signature registered you as ‘dead’ for a moment.

...oh.

I’m fine, I was just mentally dead, who knew ‘walking’ practice would be so horrifically boring?

Well, the drones have passed along the news to Cadence… she is finding herself very relieved that she followed along with your plan.

Yeah, I bet she is. I grumble, before I blink and take a brief assessment, Aisle Walking practice is finished, that means I need to check on the catering service… hosted by Applejack.

“Your Majesty?” a passing guard spoke up. “Are you alright, your mouth is… watering.”

“Huh? What?” I grab a few leaves and wipe my reddening face. “No I’m not! You saw nothing, got it?!”

“Yes, Your Majesty!” he said automatically, and I continued on my way to the kitchen.

As the doors opened with a wave of my magic, I took note of the chefs bowing, while Applejack was trying to be a little more personable, Twilight off to the side was handling Spike, who I no doubt believe to have been messing around with the Bride and Groom Cake Decorations.

“Hiya, Princess.” Applejack cheerfully greeted with her rather calm yet upbeat tone.

“Please, call me Cadence, you’re one of Twilight’s friends, and I hope I can be yours too, Applejack.”

“No problem, Cadence.” she accepted happily. “Take it you’re here to check out what’s on the menu for your big day?”

“Well, if you’re alright with it I’d like to do more than ‘check out’ what you have, a practice session earlier cut into my lunch time and-”

“Say no more, Cadence!” she replied eagerly, leading me over to a plate of fresh, sweet smelling and most assuredly sugary Apple Fritters. Even without the new insectoid instincts I had a sweet tooth like no other.

I picked one up, took a bite and…

Okay, for context to my reaction, I’ve been stuck on a rather minimal hay diet because the wedding planners wanted me to have an ‘appropriate figure’, and I couldn’t exactly tell them that being a shapeshifter I could just make myself an appropriate figure. Hay’s not really bad, but considering it’s unseasoned, uncooked and given to me in ‘Canterlot Portions’, that being barely enough to spread on a cracker, if I was even allowed a cracker to do so… yeah…

And before that, I had human food, which has had no magical influence in any of its fundamental stages, has been on a planet rife with pollution, toxic chemicals and whatever manner of genetic engineering that improves one aspect at the cost of weakening another.

Now I’m having my first taste… of real equestrian food, that has been fed natural magic throughout the entire process from Tree to Plate. Crafted by an expert in the field of apple culinary arts, and made with so much love, which to a changeling is more than just a figure of speech.

“Cadence, are… are you crying?” Twilight asked cautiously, everyone else was just stunned.

I blink, bringing my hoof to my face, wiping away some tears. “O-oh… I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to lose my composure like that. It… the food is really good.”

“Well… well dang, I didn’t expect that reaction.” Applejack stated, a little dumbstruck.

I blushed, but couldn’t help but ask. “Could… could I have some more to—” and already I had a couple bags of fritters to take with me.

Skipping ahead, I was on my way to Rarity’s when I caught sight of a maid in the hall.

“Oh! Um… hey, Tulip.”

She looked at me, and beamed. “Hello Princess!” she looked around, noticing we’re alone. “I mean, my queen~.” she giggled a little.

“Oh… right… I’m kinda sorry about doing that, it was a heat of the moment thing and—”

“Oh nono, it’s cool, really!”

“I mean I can just bite you again and turn you back—”

“Chrysalis, I. Am. Fine. You know I don’t lose memories, and I’m not altered mentally, if I wanted to turn back I would’ve bitten myself by now or just transformed so hard I became pure pony again.”

“And… the reason you haven’t?”

“Because it’s amazing! The ability to shapeshift is the best thing I ever got! I can get at all the little spaces now! And then there’s the ability to fly, how I can just eat all the junk food I want and never get fat, and How I have so many brothers and sisters? Oh! And that’s not even the best thing you gave me!”

“...it isn’t?”

“... did you know I was barren when you picked me?”

...oh…

“I couldn’t have any foals of my own, so no stallion back at my old town would come near me, and despite the comfort of my friends, it wasn’t exactly what I wanted… I’m getting to be a mother now, so if the price of that is being a bit more buggy than normal ponies, I’m okay with that.”

I sighed softly. “That’s good I guess… I was kinda worried that I sorta raped you or something.”

“Oh believe me, if there was any rape involved… well my rear hooves were quite close to your balls.”

“Point taken!” I say quickly. “On another note, you’re more confident than I remember.”

“Well once the connection opened up, it became a lot easier to open up myself as I found the buzz of the hive-mind to be so warm and welcoming, our hive’s like the best family ever!”

“I mean… yeah it kind of is, see you Segmenta.”

“See you, feel free to call on me for some special service~.”

I managed to fight down my blush with a sudden thought. “I’m fine, but go ahead and see if Cadence wants some fun.”

I don’t know if I should’ve laughed when she made off like a bat out of tartarus, but the sudden alarm from Thorax telling me that Cadence was overloading her caretakers with lust a few minutes later was worth a few giggles.

Now, on to the dresses!

Author's Note

I'm back!

...please don't be mad...?