Twilight Sparkle sat on a train heading to Ponyville alone. She had just screwed up at her brother's wedding, being so focused on protecting her brother that she failed to consider that the ‘evil’ she had been seeing was just stress from the wedding. Now she had lost not only her brother’s love, but possibly her status as Celestia’s student as well as her friends. As she gazed out the window at the wilderness to keep her mind off of the wedding reception, she slowly but surely started to drift asleep.
‘Weak.’ a voice spoke as Twilight fell onto her butt, ‘You call yourself worthy of the [static] yet you cannot defend yourself against me.’
Twilight looked up to see a blob of white speaking to her as another blob came into view shouting ‘[Static] that is enough!’ the second blob shouted to the first one. ‘You bring harm to a [Static] and claim to be a master?’
‘Hmph. It was merely a test,’ the first blob lied.
‘Was it?’ the second blob said, not buying it, ‘Your hostility is why I’m here.’
‘The war is coming.’ the first blob said as a bright light flashed and the area changed to a barren wasteland where the sounds of blades clashing could be heard all around Twilight.
Then Twilight woke up. “Miss, we have arrived in Ponyville.” A train employee said.
“Mmm thanks...” Twilight said drowsily as she got up from her seat. As she got out of the train with her luggage she took a sorrowful look at Canterlot before realizing that the barrier surrounding the city was gone. “Wha~?” she asked herself before shaking it off. “No, they made it clear It wasn’t my problem.” she muttered as she made her way to the Golden Oak library...to cry.
(Earlier in Canterlot.)
In the Throne Room, the royal wedding was getting ready for the bride to walk down the aisle. As the lights dimmed and the music started up, Cadance started walking down the aisle. But as she was halfway through the room a loud “Hey!” was heard at the entrance. Everyone turned to see two people there, a tall woman in a black cloak, and standing next to her was an armored woman wearing a helmet that covered her face.
Celestia glared at the two of them and demanded “Who are you, and why are you here?”
The armored one looked at the tall one before chuckling, “Oh we were snooping around and found something of yours. We thought you might want it back.” She then threw a beaten up and unconscious Cadance into the middle of the aisle.
“What!?” Celestia asked as she glanced at the Cadance in the wedding dress, confused.
“Have you ever heard of a Changeling?” The armored woman asked as the hall muttered in confusion. “Well the one in the clean dress is the queen of the changelings, Queen Chrysalis.”
The changeling turned around and transformed back into a bug-like humanoid form. “So you’ve found me out.” she chuckled. “Well you’ll never beat me thanks to all the love I’ve sucked out of dear Captain armor. And now, I’ll steal all the love from Canterlot.”
Celestia then stepped in and said “But now that I’ve learned of your plan you’ll never succeed. I protect my subjects.” and fired a beam of solar magic towards Chrysalis, whom retaliated by shooting her own. As the two beams clashed it was clear that Celestia was both holding back and underestimating her opponent.
As Celestia started to lose the struggle, a scythe was thrown at Chrysalis’ back, wounding her and causing her to lose her focus. “Gah!” she muttered before the beam started to weaken and Celestia’s blast knocked her down, critically wounding her left leg and right arm. As she screamed the tall woman in the black cloak who threw the scythe began to walk towards the changeling before picking up her scythe.
“Thanks for your help but I cannot allow you to leave.” Celestia said.
“Oh and why is that?” The helmeted woman asked, snarky.
“You seem to know more than you are letting on, and I would like to ask you some questions.”
“Xulna, you want to give the nice princess our response?” The helmeted woman asked.
Xulna removed her hood and caused a commotion amongst the guests in the room. “Luna?” Celestia asked.
“Yes and no.” Xulna said in a monotone voice, “The one you call Luna is long gone, I am her heartless body, and the one you claim as your sister is merely the tamed monster that she became.” Xulna explained in her monotone voice before looking at the helmeted woman and said. “Come Midnight. The master is waiting for our report.” she said as she picked up Chrysalis.
“Right, right.” Midnight said as she opened a dark corridor. “Later losers,” she said as the two walked through it and disappeared. As they left many questions were raised. Who were they, what master did they serve, what did Luna mean by heartless body and pet monster?
But first Cadance, the real Cadance, needed medical treatment, as well as Shining Armor.
Three hours after Twilight returned to Ponyville
Cadance awoke, confused. “Where am I?”
The nearby doctor quickly came to her side. “Thank Celestia you're awake.” he said.
“How long was I out?” Cadance asked, confused.
“We don’t know, you were found by Luna” he paused before saying “or rather someone that looks like Luna calling herself Xulna.” Cadance looked at him confused. “It's better if Celesta explains it. I’ll go get her,” the doctor said before leaving and a few moments later Celestia walked in.
“Cadance, how are you?” Celestia asked worriedly.
“Fine... but what happened? The last thing I remember was being in an underground cave then I woke up here.”
“You were brought here by an armored woman and-” Celestai paused before saying “-Luna.”
“How did aunty Luna find me?”
“She didn't, this was a different Luna.” Celestia said looking away.
“What?” she said chuckling at the ridiculousness of it all.
“Sorry to ask this, but you mentioned you were in an underground cave, how long were you down there?” Celestia asked.
“Three weeks I- I think.” she said. “Why? What happened?”
Celestia sighed. “Twilight. She tried to warn us about you, or rather the changeling impersonating you, being evil and we bought the lie the changing sold. So now-” she paused. “I made a terrible mistake. Nobody has seen Twilight since the moment we banned her from the wedding.”
“And you’re worried that the Changeling’s captured her or hid her somewhere else?”
“Yes.”
Just then a guard walked in. “Princess, some witnesses say that they saw Twilight boarding a train to Ponyville 5 hours ago.”
“That's reassuring. Have some guards head to Ponyville and bring her back to Canterlot. Make it clear it's for an apology from ME, not the other way around.”
“Yes Princess.”