Dark. Darker. Even darker, yet... I found myself sitting in the void once more. The hopeless black abyss had found me once again.

Most would expect it to be cold, but to my surprise when I noticed there actually isn’t any temperature, it didn’t alarm me. Though, what I didn’t appreciate was how bored I got when nothing happened over the course of what must have been hours. Hours of just sitting there, alone with my thoughts.

Things got interesting when Infinite finally decided to make his appearance. A pool of blood appeared in front of me. It started as a small drop but in a matter of about ten seconds grew large enough to turn my stomach.

Before the blood raised itself into a flood, its motion grew stagnant as Infinite rose from the crimson with a smirk. I imagined he hopped to intimidate me, but noticed I was not so easily shaken, making his smile add nothing to his pompous grand entrance.

He failed to bring the desired effect on me, yet pompously courted me with a sort of smirk nonetheless. Regardless, still pleased with his presentation, he continued with the intention to unnerve me.

“Greetings, Spirit.” He started off. “Welcome back.”

His casual manner almost caught me off guard.

Yes, dreams and nightmares can’t hurt you, but with him being an actual part of me, that’s a whole different set of rules. Just like Discord, though, he seems to like speaking to me in a rather friendly manner. Acting as if we were buddies who graduated school together or something. I decided to do the same, since he hasn’t given me too much of a reason not to. Not yet, anyway.

Not that I counted on that always being the case, however.

“Infinite, it’s been a bit,” I replied lazily annoyed, not allowing the presentation he held any leverage over me.

“It has.” He agreed, conjuring some tea, acting like he was the one in control of this conversation.

I know it’s a dream and I don’t need to drink, but I can’t really pass up some good tea. That would be just plain rude, and so I accepted.

“Hey, Infinite,” I continued in the same calm and civil manner. “I don’t mean to rush or anything, but something’s been bugging me.”

“Oh, so you felt it around that chick too?” He replied with a knowing smirk.

Apparently, he was aware of what I was going to bring up. It was unsettling to ponder what else he may know, or how much he would be willing to tell me. For now, though, he chose to stay on topic.

“I’ll be honest, that wasn’t too pleasant of a feeling for me either. I can tell you this much, though. She isn’t who she claims to be. I’d keep a close eye on her if I were you.”

I could tell by his tone and mannerisms he was being honest, likely as a means of self preservation for himself. It would probably be best not to draw attention to it for feign stupidity and risk him trying to be more involved.

“Yeah, I already planned on it. Shining Armor having me as his best stallion will make that pretty easy.”

“Spirit,” Infinite spoke to me in an oddly stern yet calm and collected voice. “I do have a slight feeling that this mess might not be one for you to clean up. At least, not on your own.”

I was growing steadily more uncomfortable with this conversation. How much was he trying to help me and how much was done to protect himself? Although, if this was strictly self preservation, how much danger could we both be in if he didn’t trust me to handle this on my own? Maybe he knew less than I thought, or perhaps I was overthinking this all together.

“Mmmm. That is quite a wager right there. I guess I’ll see what happens. Though, I am curious. It is pretty well known that darker entities, such as yourself, don’t help out of the kindness of their hearts. At least, not for free.”

I let that statement hang in the air as I blew over my team and then turned my eyes back to him.

“So what are you hoping to gain from me?”

At this, he chuckled a little. It actually made me feel like I was being stupid for just asking that.

A glint in his pure, black, devoid eyes flashed at me and his smirk grew a little.

“Don’t you remember? I’ll take control of you one day. Of course, the more you rely on my power, the easier it’ll be for me to do so. I’m not worried about you not using my power because I know that you’ll need it to save your hide.”

His smug grin grew wider until he flashed his teeth and began to chuckle. He had provided all he desired and got at least one rewarding reaction out of me, and with that his body dematerialized in a red mist. His mocking laugh and snickers was all he left me with, alone in the void again.

It was getting dark again... darker…. darker yet .

I hate this place.

I awoke the next morning to the smell of the cup of tea on the nightstand next to my bed. Cracking my eyes open, I looked over to it and saw a card leaning against it.

Spirit, The wedding will start shortly so I took the liberty of having tea sent to your room
to help you wake up some more.I know you like to keep to yourself, but try to interact a
a little.

With love,
♥Luna♥

“Well, that’s pretty considerate,” I mumbled as I got up, finishing my tea.

Ready to leave this exposed place, I put the cup back on its coaster and proceeded to get ready. There was a foreboding feeling that told me it was going to be hell when I returned, but there was nothing I could do to change that.

It wasn’t much more than half an hour to get dressed and propped up, standing by Shining in the courtyard where the wedding was about to begin. Security was tight, and they didn’t leave much room for preparations. Everything had to run like clockwork.

Celestia was also standing nearby behind the podium as well, which made me nervous since I don’t know how she’d react if she knew I was suspicious of Cadence as well. That, and the room was flooded in the aura that I felt around Cadence the previous day. It felt invasive, corrosive, leaving me with a nausia in my stomach. I tried my best to hide it though.

“Hey Spirit, are you okay?” Shining asked, making it clear I wasn’t hiding it very well.

Of course I couldn’t tell him the truth. He’d just send me away like he did with Twilight.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I confidently lied.

Thankfully Celestia didn’t join in on checking up on me as well, cause I wasn’t too sure if I’d be able to stand the pressure if she did.

At least Shining still seemed concerned, so he wasn’t too far off from the friend I knew, even with the prewedding jitters.

“Really? Cause-” He was interrupted by the sound of the door opening and Cadence walking in.

That’s when he decided to drop his mental monologue and pay attention. I got my act together as well and kept my eyes on her. I wasn’t too sure, but I thought I saw a speck of green in Cadence’s eyes.

Cadence stood across Shining and Celestia started the ceremony. I nearly jumped when the doors burst open and Twilight bursted into the room yelling.

“STOP!” she demanded.

Everypony started to shigh and mumble. Which is understandable since she interrupted a marriage ceremony.

However, what got everypony to get serious was when what I would guess to be another Cadence behind her. True, she was rugged, beat up, and was as dirty as a landfill, but her aura was vibrant and cleansing. With an entrance like that, so many questions were raised. Mainly, was this the real Cadance the alicorn at the altar a fake?

The more of the purifying emissions filled the room, effectively sterilizing it of the dark aura, the more I started to relax. So, I decided that I wasn’t needed and let Twilight have this. The rest of the conversation was like it was straight out of a comic book. Wasn’t too important to me so I decided not to listen in. If I was needed, I’m sure they’d let me know.

After a few minutes of hemming and hawing, the real Cadence caught my attention and made an interesting claim I hadn’t heard before.

“She’s a Changeling. They take the form of someone you love and feed off your love for them.”

Now that's what I call interesting. A new form of magic? True, it sounds a bit limited if it’s just changing shape and feeding off emotion, but the concept itself was somewhat interesting.

My thoughts were rudely interrupted when my eyes were flashed with a green light. Looking over at the source, I saw that the Cadence next to Shining had changed. This…. Changeling? It… She looked to be a black horse with a strange horn, insect wings, green eyes, and had holes in each leg. Then that wretched aura radiating from her, even more nauseating.

As she went off on her rant, I looked around. Everyone’s attention were all looking at her. Taking my chance, I teleported just outside the room. I had to use some dark magic to make sure nopony could sense my use of magic. However, I was still able to keep an eye in the room. Looking inside, I saw Celestia and the stranger go at it.

Well, this wasn’t going to last long if she was going to take care of this new threat.

“Shining!” A guard's call came from down the hall. “Gather the guards! We’re under attack!”

More guards poured in from all directions screaming in terror of the barrier and a swarm. All the cries of panic were drowned out as another flashed from the center of the ceremony. I peered inside and saw Celestia on the floor.

Now things were serious. The logical thing to do was step in and confront this new threat, but Twilight was having none of.

“Spirit! Take care of whatever’s outside. This Bug Bitch has my brother and tried to replace my real sister inlaw. She’s mine.”

That was a clear enough reason not to get involved and backed away further down the corridor. That’s when I felt a flux of magic pulse with a crack from outside. I instinctively turned, looking out the first window that came into view. Looking outside, I saw the magic shield around the city shatter followed by hundreds of black dots.

As the black dots got closer, I saw that they were all smaller versions of changeling that had impersonated Cadance.

Fan-fucking-tastic… another grand mess I found myself in.

“I hate weddings.”

Author's Note

It took a while, but thanks to your continued support and the invaluable help of my editor EmptyPlotFiller, it's finally out.

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