Twilight felt the shockwave of love wash over her, it filled her with positive energy that caused her to smile widely. When she opened her eyes, the changelings, the creatures who had invaded Canterlot, were all blasted away. She’d heard their queen let out a shout of dismay as she was the first to be hit by the wave created by Twilight's older brother Shining Armor and his true love Princess Cadance. Twilight could feel her heart filling with such positive emotion, as though the bad things that had happened over the last few hours were now a distant memory.
Shining Armor and Cadance slowly descended back to the ground which they had been levitating above moments ago. Outside, the ponies of Canterlot began to trot around happily as though the invasion never happened. No doubt being hit by the shockwave caused all the friendly targets to become filled with positive emotion. They were relieved that they were safe again.
Twilight had one concern however, as her mentor, Princess Celestia was freed from the slimy green cocoon she’d been trapped in after being bested by the queen in combat. As the guards freed her Twilight helped the pony she looked up to more than any in Equestria back to her hooves.
“Don’t worry about me. I’m fine.” Celestia said with a smile before adding, “You have a real wedding to put together.”
Twilight’s mouth curled into a loving smile. Her heart was filled with so much love right now. The love the real Cadance felt for her brother.
But behind her she heard a voice that was filled not with love but regret. “I think you’re missing something, Princess.”
Twilight turned and saw her brother walking up to her with a look of guilt and grief on his face.
“And what is that, Shining Armor?” Celestia asked cheerfully.
Her captain gaped at her, his face turning to one of anger as he roared, “Did you forget what happened at the rehearsal? Oh wait, let me guess! That’s because of Cadance’s love spell being mixed with my shield!”
Twilight's brother looked at her, his anger turning back to guilt as he did so.
“Twilie, I’m so sorry!” he said as tears escaped his eyes.
“It’s okay, Big Brother.” Twilight said with a strong smile.
“No… no its not!” He said shaking his head.
"What's wrong, Shining Armor?" Cadance asked in concern.
Shining turned toward her with a fearful expression. "I-I did something terrible to Twilight earlier!"
Cadance widened her eyes. “Terrible?"
Shining Armor sobbed and choked out. “At the wedding rehearsal... she burst in and accused that imposter of being evil! I yelled at her and told her to… to forget about being my Best Mare and not even show up at the wedding!"
Cadance’s mouth fell open in shock. "What? How could you do that?"
"I was trying to protect who I thought was you! That monster pretended to cry and I got angry!"
Cadance now gave him an angry face as she stepped toward him. "I can't believe you'd say those things to your own sister! You... you big jerk!"
She then slapped him across the face.
"Cadance!" Twilight exclaimed in surprise.
"I deserved that!" Shining Armor said, putting his hoof up to stop her from getting closer.
Cadance then approached Twilight. "I'm going to take the love energy out of her and everypony else! You better hope she has enough love for you to forgive you. Because if she doesn't, I don't know if I can marry you."
Her horn glowed and blue light emerged from Twilight, her friends, and Princess Celestia, traveling back to Cadance as she took back in the love she’d spread among them. As soon as it was removed, everypony once again felt the shame, sadness, and pain of their actions from earlier.
Princess Celestia brought her hoof to her mouth. “Oh, oh how foolish of me!”
Celestia’s ears fell as she looked at Twilight and (much to the unicorn's shock) bowed to her. “Twilight. I’m so sorry! You are not the one that has a lot to think about, I am. Because I didn’t listen to you, I endangered my kingdom.”
“No Princess, it wasn’t your fault,” Twilight said. "You didn’t see the way that imposter was acting during the preparations. I may have been right about her, but not the real Cadance. The real one is a kind, caring pony. I should have known it wasn’t her.”
“You had no way of knowing that,” Celestia shook her head.
“But I did!” Twilight objected. “I saw the imposter’s magic was green, but Cadance’s is blue! That should have told me that it wasn’t really her. I was just so angry over the way she treated my friends I overlooked that detail that could have made all the difference!”
“Maybe so,” Celestia said. “But I should have known there was something off about Shining Armor’s story. I taught the old bridesmaids at my school of magic. I should have known they wouldn’t have had such shallow reasons as he claimed.”
“We were the shallow ones,” Applejack said as she approached Twilight with the others. “We became so fixated on this wedding we ignored you, Twi! I know I said sorry already and you said it wasn’t our fault. But that’s not true! Maybe it wasn’t our fault for being fooled, but it was our fault for not taking your worries seriously and turning our backs on you like that.”
“We were just so… so… selfish!” Rarity said for lack of a better word.
“Disloyal!” Rainbow Dash kicked the floor.
“Stupid,” Pinkie Pie said.
“Unkind,” Fluttershy wept.
All of them sat with bowed heads, their tails laying flat on the floor. The same position Twilight had taken when Shining Armor told her not to show her face at the wedding.
“We’re so so sorry, Twilight,” Applejack said as she too began to cry. “We should have listened to you, should have stayed with you when you were sad and comforted you! We were terrible friends. We-
She couldn’t even find the words to describe how bad she felt.
Shining Armor looked at his sister with a tear-stained face.
“Twilie, I’ve never regretted anything more than the things I said to you at the rehearsal. I don’t know if it was because of the queen’s mind control, stress from having to do my forcefield all the time, or seeing that imposter cry… and I don’t care! I’ll never forgive myself for those cruel things that came out of my mouth. I-”
“Well I do!” Twilight said opening her front legs. “Come here!”
Slowly, her guilty brother walked up to her and she wrapped her hooves around his neck as tears began to form in her eyes as well.
“How can you forgive me so easily?” he choked out. “You have every right to hate me right now!”
“I was afraid I’d lost you, Big Brother.” She wept. “I was afraid I’d lost all of you! After you left me I thought you’d never want to speak to me again! That you’d stop being my friends, teacher, or brother!”
“Twilie. I wouldn’t have gone that far!” Shining said, tightening their hug. “I went too far as it is. I was ready to forgive you not long after!”
“You were?” Twilight asked through her tears.
Her brother nodded with a sniffle. “I-I calmed down while looking for Cadance. I thought back to when you were so thrilled at the thought of me marrying her. Then I thought of how I might react if I saw somepony putting a spell on you that made your eyes spin around. I went back to apologize, but you were gone. I asked the guards if they’d seen you but they didn’t see anypony besides “Cadance” come out. That was when I knew something was wrong. I went looking for her. As I peeked through the door to her room, though, I saw her turn into her true form and communicate with her minions outside. I went in to confront her and she brainwashed me!”
Chapter 2: Reconciliations and Regrets
“I was afraid she might have hurt you… or worse! Are you alright?” Shining Armor asked worriedly as he broke the hug and ran his hooves over his sister looking for wounds.
“I’m fine… now that I have you back!” Twilight wept as she pulled him back into the hug. "Cadance probably suffered more than me."
"Not sure about that, from the sound of it you had things just as bad if not worse. I can't imagine the pain you must have felt," Cadance said.
Shining Amor held Twilight's forelegs in one of his while using his other to stroke her mane while still sobbing. “I’m sorry Twilie! I was so stupid! You’re my little sister and I swear I will always be your BBBFF, no matter what. I was angry, but I could never stop loving you.”
“The same goes for us,” Applejack said. “We would have forgiven you if you’d been wrong and apologized.”
“I forgave my sister for what she did. I would have forgiven you as well.” Celestia promised.
Twilight smiled and looked at her brother and other loved ones. “Thanks, you’re all my best friends. I love you all.”
Shining broke the hug but still kept his hooves around her. “I love you too, sis. If it weren’t for you, I’d be married to that monster right now. You saved me, thank you.”
He wiped his sister’s tears off her face with a weak smile.
“Will… will you be my Best Mare again at the real wedding? Please? Nopony else deserves it more than you, Twilight.”
“Nothing would make me happier,” she said with a full smile.
“Good,” he said before wiping his own tears.
Twilight looked around at her mentor, former foal sitter, and friends. All of them were smiling at the sight of the reconciled siblings.
“You’re right back where you belong, Twilight!” Pinkie squealed in happiness.
Rarity smiled but her eyes were still sad. “I’m happy for you, Darling. I’d best get you that dress I meant for you to wear at the initial wedding. But after this I… oh I simply don’t deserve to be a royal bridesmaid! Not after failing as a friend like this.”
All the others nodded, they looked at Princess Cadance.
“We’d like to resign from our position as Bridesmaids. I’m sure you can find ponies that deserve the honor more. In fact, I’d say we don’t deserve to even be in this wedding at all!” Applejack said, her head falling.
Twilight’s mouth fell open at these words which slightly mirrored the ones her brother had spoken to her. Her five friends began to walk toward the door, looking at the floor in shame.
“Girls wait!” Twilight called. “Don’t leave me again!”
They stopped and looked back.
“We’re not leaving you Twilight. We’re leaving this wedding. Well- we’ll still help put it together -” Applejack started.
“Girls! You don’t have to leave!” Twilight said. “I know you feel guilty! I did too after you left me.”
“You got nothing to feel guilty about Twilight! You were right! You were the awesome one today!” Rainbow Dash said.
Twilight shook her head. “The way I delivered it was terrible, and like I said nopony would believe Cadance could ever be like that. I should have known it wasn’t her by the magic… I should have been calmer and not acted the way I did! The way I shoved your hat on your face, Applejack! That was mean! Even though I was trying to protect my brother I acted like a jealous foal! A jerk!”
The orange Earth Pony looked up at her hat. “I might as well have had it over my eyes the entire time to be so blind! It’s okay, Sugarcube. You may have been a bit of a jerk at the rehearsal, but I was by far the worst jerk when I told them all to check on the imposter and leave you.”
“Where did my Pinkie Sense go when I needed it?” Pinkie Pie asked hitting her head and sobbing.
“I said Royal Weddings brought out the strangest of ponies. Well this one certainly brought out the worst in us. This is just like when I tried to impress the Canterlot Upperclass and chose to be at their party instead of yours, Twilight.” Rarity wept.
“Or when we fought over who got to go with you to the Grand Galloping Gala,” Fluttershy said.
“We’ve been terrible friends,” Rainbow Dash said.
“No, you’ve just made a lot of mistakes. I have too,” Twilight said. “Remember that time I went crazy because of a deadline for a paper? Or that time travel incident? None of us are perfect. Besides, if our positions had been reversed… I would have walked out on all of you for accusing Cadance of being evil!”
This caused them to open their mouths in shock. “But… how could you possibly have been fooled, Darling?” Rarity asked. “You’re the smartest pony of all of us, except Princess Celestia, perhaps.”
The monarch shook her head. “Today, Twilight was the smartest. I was focused on a threat I thought to be outside, but all along it was inside. Afraid the Princess of the Sun was not very bright today.”
Twilight thought for a moment, wondering what sort of things could have happened to allow the queen to fool her. “Well, who knows? Maybe if… she’d said loud enough for me to hear what she was doing to my brother was a healing spell I might have believed her. That was the moment when I got concerned for my brother and knew she was evil. But if I’d thought it was healing, I probably would have assumed she was stressed out. Who knows?”
Her friends managed a smile. “Well… we’re glad you forgive us,” Applejack said. “But we really don’t belong in the wedding after our mistake today.”
They turned again as Twilight looked after them sadly.
Cadance then came forward, stomping the floor. “Stop right there!"
The force of the youngest's alicorn princesses voice rang through the room. The five exiting mares stopped and slowly turned around nervously.
"Now listen to me! What you all did was a terrible thing, but I can see how far you are willing to go for a friend in order to make it up to them when you make a mistake. I may not have chosen you as my new bridesmaids, but I’m glad the queen did. You’ve all helped Twilight save Equestria twice before. And Twilight is right, we all make mistakes. Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn’t let ponies settle arguments on their own rather than force them to resolve it. I would be honored to have ponies like you as my bridesmaids. Besides, I’m sure it would hurt Twilight to be in the wedding without all of you there.”
Twilight nodded. The others looked at her, then each other and turned back in her direction.
“Well, we certainly don’t want to hurt our Twilight anymore today. Alright, we’ll stay.” Applejack said. “For her.”
Shining Armor walked up to Cadance and whispered something in her ear. The pink alicorn nodded with a smile.
“I think you guys should still be bridesmaids," he said. "You’ve been around to protect my sister when I wasn’t. We’ll let you be bridesmaids if you can promise me something."
“What’s that?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“That you will never abandon my sister again,” Shining Armor said. “You will stay at her side and protect her. What happened today, it could have been a lot worse. I was afraid Twilight had been badly hurt when I learned the truth. It's always been my responsibility to protect her as the elder sibling. But today I got all her other friends to leave her alone and helpless. When I first found out she’d faced Nightmare Moon and decided to move to Ponyville I nearly went there to bring her back to Canterlot.”
Twilight frowned. “Shining Armor! I’m not a filly anymore! I may have acted like one at the rehearsal, but I don’t need you to protect me all the time!”
“I know, Twilie!” Her brother sighed. “I’ve been treating you like for a while, haven’t I? I look at you and I still see the little foal that followed me everywhere and only had me as a friend.”
He then smiled. “But now look at you! You wield the Element of Magic and have become a Protector of Equestria. Still, you need your friends to do that.”
Twilight shook her head. “It wasn’t the Magic of Friendship that saved Equestria today. It was your and Cadance’s love. I could feel the strength of it. And I know you two are meant for each other.”
“We only defeated the Changelings because of you, sis,” Shining said, ruffling her mane before turning back to her friends. “So… you hear me? Take care of my sister when she needs it.”
They nodded.
“You can count on us. Whenever she’s in danger we’ll be there for her!” Applejack said.
"Good," Cadance said with a smile before turning serious. "But when the wedding is over, you all have some community service. Canterlot will need a good clean up after the attack."
"Yeah. It's because of us not listening to Twilight this invasion happened. We'll be glad to clean up all we can, even if takes a month!" Rainbow Dash said.
Twilight smiled and looked at Celestia.
“Now I have a real wedding to put together!”
The princess nodded.
“Um… Twilight?”
She looked and saw Spike had approached her. The baby dragon looked up at his best friend with a pair of sad eyes.
“I’m sorry too. I was really hurt when I left you… I just didn’t want to miss the wedding.”
“It’s okay Spike. I forgive you too.” Twilight nuzzled his head. “It’s only natural for all of you to want to be part of such a happy and important occasion. I would have been thrilled too if not for the fact my brother hadn’t told me he was getting married before.”
Shining let out a weak chuckle. "Yeah, I should have done that. Stayed up late for a few minutes and written a letter to you once my shift was done."
Twilight looked at her brother and friends. “I guess… I really was jealous at first. It’s no wonder you guys thought that. Maybe some part of that jealousy remained. But it's gone now! I saw Cadance’s determination to save you when we were trapped in the caverns, I felt the strength of her love for you! You two have my full unconditional blessing.”
Shining Armor smiled as Cadance walked up by his side and they both hugged Twilight.
“Thank you, Twilight,” they said together.
The rest of Twilight's friends as well as Celestia joined in the hug. Twilight smiled, letting her loved ones embrace her, when they broke apart, she said, “Now let's get something happy going on! I think I need to have this wedding today after all the heartbreak that’s come.”
Author's Note
Well here it is, my first ever fanfic. Any input my fellow fans and writers have are appreciated.
