We Are Each Other

Princess Cadance was reclining on a chaise out on the balcony of her crystal palace. It was a pleasantly cool evening, not too cold, not too warm. Just right, thanks to the Crystal Heart’s protection. The alicorn laid back and looked over the city. Her city. Her empire.

The lights from the thousands of houses lit up as the sky got darker and darker, one by one mirroring the night sky above. A full Flurry Heart was at her belly sleeping. It was a peaceful scene, a beautiful tableau. Still, she was ill at ease. She always was this time of year.

Mi Amore Cadenza hated this time of year. Shining Armour knew his wife hated this time of year. It wasn’t exactly his favourite, either. He walked out onto the balcony and stood beside her, a strong, reassuring hoof resting on her shoulder. “I love you.”

Cadance had heard him say those three words hundreds, thousands, even countless times, but every time they made her heart skip a beat. “I know,” she spared her husband a thankful smile, “It's just a bad day, that’s all.”

“Tomorrow is our fifth wedding anniversary,” Shining Armour squeezed his wife’s shoulder, “We can have Sunburst and Starlight watch Flurry so we can go out to celebrate.”

If it was possible, Cadance’s mood darkened even further, shadows clouded her sculpted features. “Today is an anniversary too.”

“Five years to the day that Twilight believed in you and rescued you.” Shining Armour smiled and nuzzled the alicorn’s cheek, “She can't hurt you or anypony else anymore. Twily told us so.”

“I know it’s been five years, Shiny, and I know she’s long gone, but it still haunts me.” She then made room for her husband, who laid on the chaise with her, with their sleeping foal between them.

“I know.” Shining Armour didn’t have to say anything else, because in truth, what had happened still haunted his nightmares too. Being controlled by Chrysalis wasn’t something he easily got over. The paranoid part of his brain still heard her poisonous whispers in his mind, even though that was impossible. Or so his therapist assured him, anyway.

“Thank you,” Cadance caught the haunted look in her stallion’s eyes and she hugged him tight to her, “Going out tomorrow would be wonderful.”

~ ~ ~

Two days after her anniversary and Cadance was sufficiently recovered from her festivities – her hangover had resided – that she was at last able to resume her duties. On this Sunday, the Princess of Love approached her special room. Lighting her horn, she lowered the protective wards to the well-guarded room.

This was the very upper most level of the crystal palace. There were no guards up this high in the spire. It was engineered so that only she could get through the door now below her. The last thing she wanted was Flurry Heart finding a way into this room.

Once inside the vast circular room, she raised the wards on the entrance to give her privacy. Letting Shining Armour in that one time had been such a mistake. He was such a nerd, just like his sister. It was a good thing she loved him.

Her very presence activated the room. One wall had images of nearly two thousand cutie marks. A large majority were organized on the left side with red lines between two, and a few red triangles for three. Red lines of true love. Then there were the yellow lines of friendship, which could bloom to true love if things worked out well. She really tried to not nudge those couples too much, but she was the Princess of Love. The one triangle with two red lines and one yellow one still worried her a bit. Many green lines were on the board too, but those were just friends and unlikely to progress beyond that.

Then there were the blue lines.

The ones she was personally invested in. Her Aunt Celestia had several of those blue lines attached to her cutie mark. Wisteria came to her mind, but then the red line between that mare and her husband would require a suggestion of palimony on her part.

Not that she wasn’t above such a thing, but even she knew when not to meddle.

Now that Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash were a solid red line, she could bring the full force of her talent to work on her Aunt. She decided that mare deserved love, and that she would find it for her. She cast her spell of looking for love and focused on the alicorn's cutie mark.

Maybe her heart had finally given in to another.

When the red line appeared she was almost shocked enough to drop the spell. Her own joy held the wards intact as she followed the line from Celestia's mark to see where it would lead. Strangely, it led to the dustbin. The spell popped and Cadance was left staring at the round metal waste basket.

She never emptied it.

Only things that went in there were the cutie marks of the ones that passed without ever knowing true love. It was a bin filled with sacredness. Cadance was mystified. “Who in Equestria could she have possibly fallen for? A ghost? The father of her daughter? This makes no sense at all…” The Princess sat down on her haunches and stared at the bin then she upended it.

Not all inside there were cutie marks.

There were names also. Not every creature had a cutie mark. Even on her board were names. Griffons, minotaurs, and even a few dragons and yaks. She scattered the pieces on the floor. She then conjured some fortifying tea for herself so she would have the strength to cast the spell for a second time in one day. There was a reason she only visited her once a week, but this was too important to pass up.

After an hour she cast the spell again, this time focusing solely on Celestia's sun. The red line reappeared and ended on one of the papers on the floor. Cadance levitated the scrap up and she almost died from shock. Chrysalis. The name that haunted her soul. The powerful spell and the wards around the room ended as Cadance fainted away.

When Cadance woke up, she found herself in a place she hadn’t seen in five years and if she never saw them again, it would be too soon. Looking around, she was in no doubt she was trapped in the crystal caverns far below Canterlot palace.

Only now in the many reflections, it was Chrysalis and Celestia taunting her.

“Mi Amore Cadenza,” Princess Luna stepped forth from the shadows, radiating the whole caverns in a luminescent blue light, “It’s not like you to have nightmares.”

Cadance stared all around with wide scared eyes, but under the bright blue light, the mirrors and the taunting reflections in then faded to nothing. “A nightmare, but...was it real?”

Drawing upon her vast power, Luna closed her eyes and she felt the nightmare all around them, created by the younger alicorn’s sub conscious and given form and power by her fears and insecurities. “Do you mean, is your Aunt really dating Chrysalis?”

“Please,” Cadance pleaded, “Please say it’s not so, please?”

“I could lie to you,” Luna began with a sympathetic smile, “But I think you want the truth. The truth is…” the lunar alicorn paused for what felt like an intolerable amount of time before she spoke again, “Yes. My sister is in love with Chrysalis.”

“The line was red, but...” Cadance felt like she had been poleaxed, she refused to believe her ears, but she knew Luna wouldn’t lie, not to her. “If you know, then she is of her own free will?”

Solemnly, Luna nodded her head. “Celestia is under no mind control. Chrysalis is not capable of it any longer.” The older alicorn then smiled and she placed her broad powerful wing over Cadance's shaking shoulder. “If anything, it's my fault they are together.”

Though she was grateful of the comforting wing draped over her, there was one thing she had to know. “Does Twilight know about this?”

“Celestia went to Twilight about this many months ago,” Luna assured her, “I am however unsure if Twilight knows everything that has gone on. I myself was unaware their relationship has developed this much until yesterday.”

Cadance shook her head. She really wanted to disbelieve what she had heard, but try as she might, there was no getting away from it. “I think I need to wake up.”

“Then wake!” Luna lit her horn and cast her magic. As the caverns deep under Canterlot began to fade away to nothing, she said, “I trust I'll be seeing you in Canterlot soon…”

Slowly, Cadance opened her eyes. She lay where she had fallen following her faint, on her side on the floor of her ‘Shipping Room’ as her husband had dubbed it. She had been out well over a couple of hours. Shining would no doubt be worried.

“Cady!” a very worried looking Captain of the Royal Guard greeted her as she opened the magically protected door that only responded to her magical signature, “You’ve been in there a long time! What happened?”

“I need to go to Twilight now!” exclaimed an extremely harassed looking Cadance. She didn’t care that her usually styled mane looked like it had been pulled through three hedgerows, or that her coat looked in similar condition.

“Is something wrong?” asked Shining Armour anxiously as he tried – without success – to smooth out his wife’s mane. “Is she breaking up with Rainbow?”

“What?” Cadance was so thrown by the unexpected question that she had to think what the issue at hoof actually was. “No! It is worse than that. Aunt Tia is with Chrysalis!”

“Hahaha...good one, Cady!” Shining Armour didn’t believe that for a second. “What's really going on? You can tell me if they're getting divorced, I can take it…” he trailed to silence when his wife gave him #1 'husband is in trouble' glare. He knew that look. It was the look he usually got when he forgot a birthday present. “No way...she's really with Chrysalis?” again, he noted the glare and he shuddered. “Let's get Sunburst to sit for Flurry and we can get the train.”

Grimly, Cadance nodded. “Let me get one last nursing in while you pack an overnight bag for the both of us.”

~ ~ ~

After almost two full days travelling on the Friendship Express, the multi coloured steam train at last arrived at Ponyville station in a billow of white steam and a scream of brakes. The three thousand mile journey from the far north had not been the most pleasant one that Shining Armour had ever had. “You've been quiet this whole trip, Cady.”

“Thank you for not pushing,” Cadance gave the powerful stallion an affectionate nuzzle, then she helped him levitate their bags, “Let's see your sister and what she thinks of this. I'm really angry, but I have it bottled up. I need to vent and I don't want to vent on you.”

“I'm with you, you know that, Cady, always.” He nuzzled her cheek and then they disembarked onto the station. It was a measure of how comfortable the residents were with royalty now that they weren’t mobbed for pictures. “Let’s hear what she has to say before blowing up.”

“I don't want to blow up at all,” the pink mare retorted, “But I do need to decompress. I need facts, because my magic only gives me truth.”

“Come on then, love, let's go see Twily,” Shining Armour led the way through the streets towards his sister’s castle. The streets were dark, thanks to it being late in the evening, “Facts are her thing, you know that.”

When they reached the large crystal castle at the centre of the growing town, Cadance and Shining Armour walked through the front door without knocking. Setting hooves inside, they were greeted by Rainbow Dash, who was wearing a cute little maid’s dress and carrying an empty silver tray in her hooves. “Hey, you guys!” the pegasus greeted them as she flew down the stairs.

“Where’s Twilight?” asked Cadance, dispensing with the pleasantries.

“Mistress is up in the public library,” Rainbow Dash replied, taking a beat of her wings backwards defensively on the back hoof, “Why, what's up?”

Without bothering to reply, Cadance set a determined look on her face and trotted on past the blue pegasus on her way up the stairs behind her. “Issues with Celestia,” Shining Armour supplied on behalf of his wife.

“If I hear raised voices, I'm coming up, get me?”

Shining Armour shrugged his large shoulders, “You may as well come along,” he said as he moved towards the stairs, “It involves Chrysalis.”

“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash set the silver tray down on an ornate sideboard and flew after the unicorn, “I'm coming with.”

Up in the public library, Twilight, on her own thanks to the lateness of the hour, had her nose in several books at once held in her magic and she was making notes in three pads with a dozen quills all working independently of each other. Cadance, after coughing twice and getting no response, she raised her voice. “Twilight! We need to talk, now.”

“Gaaaah!” caught by surprise, everything that Twilight Sparkle had held in her magic dropped to the floor. Papers flew in all directions, books clattered and ink spilled in a growing dark puddle. “C-Ca-Cadance!” she exclaimed, “Wow, you're here. Is Flurry with you? I want to play with my favourite niece! Shiny, you're here too! That's great, just great! You didn't even send a letter, yes, great!”

“Chillax, Twi, it’s exactly as bad as you think,” Rainbow Dash snorted and she got comfortable on one of the small clouds she had bought into the library so she could enjoy the show.

As he watched his sister’s eye start to twitch in that tell-tale ‘Twilynanas’ way, Shining Armour whispered to the pegasus, “Not cool, dude.” To that, the mischievous mare started to giggle.

“Aunt Tia,” Cadance cut straight to the chase, “Tell me everything, Twilight.”

“Celestia!” Twilight squawked like she had just sat on cold ice cream, and she giggled, her eye twitching again, making her look more than a little crazy, “Not much to tell! No, definitely not!” the youngest Princess was working herself up into a state, “Except she's dating Chrysalis, 'the' Chrysalis, who's alive, totally alive, when she's not supposed to be!”

“You know what I'm the princess of?” asked Cadance in a deadpan manner.

“Sex?” put in Rainbow Dash, equally as deadpan as the pink alicorn.

As Cadance facehooved, Shining Armour said, “She is very good at it,” which just made Rainbow Dash laugh so hard on the cloud she was sat on that she was about to pass out.

With a loud harumph, Twilight shot Rainbow Dash a particularly nasty look that just made the laughing pegasus laugh all the harder. She gave up on that and turned to her old foal sitter. “Cadance...she ought to have died!” she cried desperately, “I was sure they'd all die, then she went and wrote to Celestia for help!”

“That much Luna already told me,” said Cadance grimly, “She didn't know that Tia had fallen in love with the changeling. I'm really angry right now, and need to do something with that anger.”

“I'm really sorry Cadance,” Twilight flinched reflexively back from the other alicorn. She could sense the sheer amount of magical energy within her, powered by her raging emotions which were roiling like a storm about to break, “I should have told you about this when Celestia first came to me.”

“Is it real!?” Cadance demanded with a stomp of her hoof that fractured the crystal floor of the library.

Twilight didn’t want to admit it, lest Cadance treat her face like the floor of her castle, “It's real. Very real. Celestia took her in disguise to this year’s fifth anniversary memorial of the invasion. She told my friends and I that she loved her.”

Such rage and anger burned in Cadance, such a burning fury she had never felt before, not even when she and Shining Armour had cast out the changelings, “I need to break something, now.”

“Not my Daring Do collection!” Rainbow Dash, thinking of the important things, was prepared to fly to her Daring Do room to protect her things.

“Battle room, now. Noting in there that can't be replaced,” Twilight then lit her horn and she teleported both Cadance and herself out of the public library to a room that Shining Armour had never heard of.

“What?” the confused stallion asked, wondering what had just happened.

“Battle room,” Rainbow Dash explained, “Nothing big. Ever since Tirek, Twilight has been doing some combat mage training, and she is totally awesome at it!”

“Okay,” Shining Armour didn’t sound reassured by that at all, “Cady can get feisty…”

“I don't need to know what you do in your bedroom.”

~ ~ ~

Two hours later, in what was now the very early hours of the morning, Cadance and Twilight reappeared in the public library where Rainbow and Shining Armour were waiting for them. “How was the Danger Room?” asked the pegasus with a wry smile.

Shining Armour was distracted from the visage of his dirty, sweaty wife with her coat all knotted and tangled by what Rainbow had just said. “You call it the Danger Room?”

“Yeah,” Rainbow replied, “Just like…” the two then spoke in unison, sharing a nerdy hoof bump, “X-Mares!”

“I-I…” Twilight panted hard from one of the most intense workouts she had ever had, she was just tired and worn out looking as Cadance, “I didn't know love magic could be so forceful…”

“Shiny is the Captain of the Royal Guard,” Cadance said after she had finally caught her breath, “And thought I should be trained after what happened five years ago.”

“And now?” asked Twilight, who used her considerable magic to make herself and Cadance look somewhat presentable again.

Cadance sighed deeply as Twilight’s magic cleaned and smoothed out her pink coat, before it started to work on her multi coloured mane. “Aunt Tia is in love and it has been a long time,” she said finally when she looked like herself again, “Time for me to move on and confront her, don't you think?”

“I definitely think you should!” Twilight exclaimed in agreement, while Rainbow Dash and Shining Armour were still hoof bumping and nerding out over the X-Mares reference.

“Shiny,” Cadance pulled a very heroic pose, “To the train!”

“Not as cool as the Lovemobile,” lamented Shining Armour, “But okay, my love.”

“We should so get her a Lovemobile for Hearths Warming, Twi,” Rainbow Dash smiled, secretly scheming to do just that as she watched the royal couple depart the castle, “That'd be so cool. Something bright pink, with her mane colours in stripes down the sides.”

“Right…” Twilight wasn’t listening. She summoned some paper and a quill to her and began to write furiously, “Spike!”

“What did you do now?” grumbled the dragon in question as he slouched still half asleep into the library, wondering why he was awake at this appalling time of day.

Twilight didn’t answer him straightaway. Instead, she finished scribbling out the fast note, “Send this to Celestia, now!” she roughly thrust the note to spike, who, after a judgemental roll of his eyes, took the note and sent it off in a puff of dragon breath. When the message was gone, Twilight sank down to her haunches in shock, “Cadance knows about Chrysalis…”

“We should go out onto the balcony so we can watch Canterlot,” Rainbow Dash grinned, “No matter what happens, at the very least, it should be a show to remember.”

~ ~ ~

Over in Canterlot, Princess Celestia was sat in a room adjacent to the throne room, engaged in her morning pre court meeting with Wisteria, completely unaware of the drama that was about to unfold that day. “There’s the usual smattering of complaints, your highness, but the stone mason guild is concerned about the amount of steel being used in construction these days.”

Celestia let out a deep sigh, “Progress in a quagmire…” she could already feel a migraine forming in her head at the thought of having to navigate and mediate this particular minefield, one of many. Just then, the note from Twilight appeared in front of her. She took it in her magic and read it. Then she read it again. On the third reading, she wished that the stone masons were the height of her problems. “Wisteria, when is the next scheduled train from Ponyville?”

“Why do you ask, your highness?”

“Cadance is coming to visit.”

“Um,” Wisteria caught the forced look on her Princess’s face, a look he had learnt over decades to decode. Whatever was coming, it was going to be bad. “You do know she has a private train, right?”

“Oh,” Celestia thought quickly, “Please cancel my court or postpone to tomorrow what can't be cancelled. Tell them it’s an emergency in the Crystal Empire, and I have to consult with Cadance.”

“Of course, your highness,” Wisteria, well-practised at dealing with royal emergencies after all her time working with the family, “Might I enquire as to the nature of the emergency?”

“My marefriend!”

Wisteria blinked once and then twice while she let the enormity of that sink in. “At once, your highness,” the elderly mare bowed respectfully as Celestia promptly left the room.

On her way to her room, Celestia informed her guard captain that Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armour were on their way and that she should have an escort from the train station and should be admitted to her room as soon as she arrived.

With that done, the Princess then trotted off to wake up Luna, or she hoped dearly that she hadn't gone to sleep yet. In her room, Luna was reclining on her chaise by her balcony reading one of her favourite BDSM books for light reading while Octavia was resting on their bed with Dusk at her teats.

Celestia knocked softly on the door, in case anypony – she was thinking of Dusk - should be awake. “Door's open sis,” Luna said softly, knowing immediately who was at her door. When Celestia entered, she looked around to see where Octavia was. Reading her book, Luna didn’t look up. “She's asleep. Being a new mother and a walking milk factory is tiring her out.”

Once she was over by her sister’s balcony, Celestia passed Luna the note she had received from Twilight. Luna scanned the missive telling her that Cadance knew about Chrysalis and that she was on her way. “Ah,” was all she had to say to that, “At least she's taking the train and not portalling over.”

“I'm just glad she can't teleport that far,” Celestia huffed quietly, “There’s no point in hiding this, but I thought you should know if things go badly.”

“What's the phrase these days? Oh yes,” Luna set her book on advanced Neighponese rope and suspension techniques down at her side, “I have your back, Tia.”

“Then just watch where you horn is when you come charging in.”

Luna giggled quietly at that, before she got up and hugged her fretting sister close. “I don't think you have anything to worry about. She went to Twilight first. If she was really that mad, she'd have come here directly and confronted you.”

“There is talking about Chrysalis and then there is seeing her,” pointed out Celestia, as she have her younger sister a hug and a nuzzle, “I figure I have roughly thirty or so minutes. May as well use that time to prep my marefriend.”

“Your good point,” Luna conceded, “Good luck with Cady, and shout if you need help.”

Leaving her sister’s rooms, Celestia stopped by the kitchen to have a large chocolate fountain along with a selection of sweet cut up fruits on sticks sent to her room. Then, with a somewhat heavy heart, she trudged to her own room, where Chrysalis was lazily whiling away her morning. “Solar Flare!” Celestia said loudly as she entered, “I'm so happy to see you!”

Chrysalis, who was in her natural form, looked up from her latest issue of Vanity Mare magazine that she had been reading on Celestia's bed, “Mistress!” she beamed, “It's been literally four hours, I'm pleased to see you too!”

“Yes, Solar Flare,” Celestia danced on her hooves in a futile attempt to get rid of her nervous energy, “I'm happy to see Solar Flare!”

“Alright, I get the hint,” Chrysalis transformed herself into Solar Flare, the tall brick red unicorn. “What's wrong?”

“Everything, or nothing,” Celestia fretted, “Or I hear Tartarus is a nice vacation spot this time of year!”

“Mistress, breathe,” Solar Flare adjusted herself on the bed so she was on her front with her legs tucked up under her, “You're making no sense. Tell me what’s wrong.”

Heavily, Celestia sat at her table and held her head in her hooves, “Maybe you remember my niece?” the disappearance of the smile on the changeling’s face, replaced with great concern, told her she did. “Surprise!” the alicorn declared, “She'll be here in a few minutes to visit us.”

“Is it too late for that villa in Tartarus?” asked Solar Flare without a trace of humour, “Maybe we can get one with a good view, maybe a pool?”

A moment later and there came a knock on the door. Celestia bade whoever it was to enter, and the staff bought in and quickly set up the chocolate fountain on Celestia's table. “Thank you,” the staff then bowed as they exited the room, leaving the Princess to sigh, “Well, that is one item off the list. Cady is a colossal chocoholic.”

Solar Flare giggled nervously, “As if you wouldn't be muzzle first in that too.”

“Be honest,” advised Celestia, “That is the only advice I can give when dealing with my niece. And remember, I love you.”

They were interrupted by another knock on the door. A guard, a new one, judging by his state of unease. “Highness, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza's train has arrived at the station. She is ten minutes out.” Celestia thanked him, and he closed the door behind him.

“Be honest.” Solar Flare took a very deep breath to calm her rampant nerves, “I can be honest. I can do that.”

“We can do that,” Celestia said as she moved over the room to the bed, where she gave the unicorn a loving kiss, “Together.”

Solar Flare held Celestia tight and in the hug, she gave her a kiss of her own, “I love you so much, Mistress.”

The minutes passed by and Celestia used that time to do her calming exercises so that when the inevitable knock on the door came, she was at peace. It was a shame the same couldn’t be said for the unicorn by her side. “Enter.”

A guardspony entered the Princess’s room, “Your highness, may I present...”

Entering behind the guard, Cadance cut him off sharply. “She knows who I am, and she knows I’m coming.” She pointed back out the door with a wing tip, “Go keep Shiny busy.” As the guard scampered quickly out of the room, Cadance looked at the two mares on the bed and she focused solely on the unicorn. “Are you...”

“Cady,” it was Celestia who spoke up, not Solar Flare, “I'd like you to meet my companion and lover outside the castle, Solar Flare, and my companion and lover inside the castle, Chrysalis.”

Solar Flare bowed her head respectfully, though her heart was pounding a tattoo on the inside of her chest, “Princess Mi Amore Cadenza,” the changeling then summoned the green magical flames and she transformed back to her natural form. “Princess Mi Amore Cadenza,” Chrysalis bowed her head low.

Standing at the foot of the bed, Cadance gave Chrysalis such a look that seemed to penetrate her very soul. She held that searing unblinking glare for what felt like an eternity before she looked across at her Aunt. “I'm still very unhappy with what you did to me and Shiny.”

“I know there is no apology I can make that can atone for what I did,” Chrysalis said softly, glad that the younger alicorn was no longer looking at her so intently, “But I am truly sorry.”

When she heard that, Cadance relaxed a little, “I was told changelings could only take love and not give it.”

“That's what I believed as well,” Chrysalis spoke softly but firmly, “However, I've learned a lot these past years.”

Cadance then took note of the white collar that Chrysalis wore around her slender black neck. Of course she knew the significance of the collar. She knew what it meant to wear such a thing. “Are those lessons you wanted to learn?”

Chrysalis wanted to lie, particularly with Celestia at her side. Not to spare her own blushes, but to spare her Mistress. But, she remembered what Celestia had said. Be honest. “Some lessons were forced upon me,” she tried to be diplomatic, “But regardless of their source, I learned them. I...changed.”

Sensing that she was speaking truthfully, Cadance was satisfied. However, there was one thing that remained to be seen to. Her own satisfaction. “I demand restitution.”

“Oh,” Celestia’s eyebrow raised up and there was a faint hint of amusement in her voice, “And what restitution would you demand, niece?”

“I'm happy to submit to any punishment you see fit, Princess Cadenza,” on hind sight, Chrysalis was perhaps a little hasty with that statement. ‘Any punishment you see fit’ could cover a whole load of bases, and that only occurred to her after she said it.

Again, Cadance turned to Celestia. “She's your marefriend, what would you do?”

Celestia stroked a hoof down from Chrysalis’s shoulders all the way over her back to her toned black ass, where it lingered for longer than was necessary. “I find a good spanking works for me.”

“Works for me, too.”

“Her safe word is Lime,” Celestia lovingly nuzzled Chrysalis’s cheek, and whispered, “You have nothing to prove to me.” The solar alicorn then slid off the bed and she walked over to her closet. There, she took out a crop, tawes, Cat o’ nine tails, and a feather, which she set out on her desk. “Your choice, Cadance.”

“Nice selection,” Cadance said as she looked over the implements of correction set out before her. It was with a degree of satisfaction she noted the MiAC logo, her own cutie mark, on them. “I can wield a crop to be sure, just ask Shiny. For now, this chocolate will go stale if we don't enjoy it.”

“May...”

“All of us,” said Cadance, cutting across her Aunt.

On the bed, where she hadn’t moved, Chrysalis dared to have a glimmer of a smile at that, “Thank you, Princess.”

“Chocolate cures many a thing,” Cadance actually smiled, “If there is any left you can try and cure your ass in the fountain.” After munching on a chocolate dipped strawberry, she asked, “How did you manage to survive this long?”

“Well,” started Chrysalis after she had helped herself to a chocolate cover piece of pineapple, “It is because of you.” When she was shot a stunned look, she continued, “You used your love magic to evict us from Canterlot, and it was so abundant. We had extra to store as liquid love, but that was nearing the end when I first wrote to Mistress Celestia.”

To say that Cadance was stunned to know she was the reason that the changelings didn't die as Twilight had thought and predicted they would. But Chrysalis wasn’t finished. “When I say it was nearing its end, I mean, the stores had almost ran out when the maulwurfs started to attack.”

“A magically resistant mole creature,” explained Celestia, who had two pieces of chocolate apple slices in her magic, “Like a Bugbear, only bigger and tougher.”

“Hmhmm…” Chrysalis’s green eyes took on a haunted look for a second, “We had to use the stores of love energy to bolster our defences, but they still broke through into the hive. We couldn't repair the damage before the next one attacked, and so on...” she shuddered, “So many lost…”

“Enough talk,” Cadance declared shortly, cutting across Chrysalis. She wasn’t there to force her to relive what was obviously a very traumatic experience. “Time to move onto the punishment phase of my visit.”

“I usually have her drape herself over the bed,” said Celestia with a smirk as she enjoyed a cherry and a pineapple chunk, “Gives her something to fix when we’re done.”

“Works for me,” Cadance shrugged and, as she stood up, she rolled her shoulders and allowed her muscles to pop while Chrysalis got up and assumed the familiar position over the foot of the bed. “Shiny likes how well I use a crop, let's see if you do.” The former pegasus warmed up with a few practise swings of the crop, allowing it to swish through the air so that Chrysalis could hear what was coming.

Walking behind the prone changeling, Cadance was determined to enjoy her alicorn earth pony strength as she wielded the white crop, aiming first at Chrysalis’s lower thigh, up to her hips and across her back finding a new spot for each strike.

Chrysalis found herself letting out an almost rhythmic stream of squeaks and soft yelps as Cadance brought down a steady pace of firm slaps from the crop. She was intensely aware of a heat growing in her rump as the swats found themselves landing over her entire backside. Every inch of her rounded chitin was fair game to the younger alicorn.

Any spot that could be made to jiggle was swatted into making the involuntary action. Chrysalis’s playful squirms became honest wriggling as the sore heat in her ass became more noticeable with each impact. The yelps got a bit louder but seemed silent compared to the sound of the most recent crack delivered to her rear end.

“Do you regret saying you’d submit to whatever punishment I saw fit, yet?” asked Cadance silkily as she dragged the well swung tip of the crop over Chrysalis’s left ass cheek, “Or are you exactly where you want to be?”

Another swat landed and Chrysalis duly screamed out. Either the pink mare was steadily increasing the strength of the strikes or her behind was fully tenderized. A solid crack landed and Chrysalis buried her face into the bedsheets to muffle her reaction. The changeling squeaked when she felt a hoof firmly grip her mane from behind and Cadance pulled her head up. Eyes wet with tears met the headboard of the bed and her rump received another stroke.

Chrysalis screamed again and Cadance bit her lip when she met Celestia’s gaze. Both dominant mares were getting off on the screams, moans and gasps that the submissive changeling was making for their pleasure. “I want your mouth free at all times,” Cadance said firmly, before giving another strike of the crop. Maybe next time, I’ll gag you, but for now, I want to hear you sing…”

“Yes, Princess!”

Another hard strike landed on Chrysalis’s chitinous ass; an ass already lit up with twenty deep red welts. “Good” Another strike landed and was quickly followed by another. “Besides” Cadance continued as she gave another blow. “I love the sounds you’re making. Shiny makes sounds like these, only girlier.”

Chrysalis merely gave a meek nod of her head as she felt her tight posterior receive another rain of steady swats from Cadance and her crop. The Princess alternated between cheeks, spreading out her love over the entire bottom. Chrysalis openly yelped and groaned as the treatment continued. Every sound smack seemed as audible as a gunshot and all of her reactive cries belted out with what felt like equal force.

When Cadance reached thirty strikes with the crop, she set the instrument back down on Celestia’s desk. She could tell that the changeling was enjoying the pain, a lot, if her a moaning and drooling-from-both-ends was anything to go by, not to mention the growing puddle of her arousal on the floor between her spread open hind legs.

Cadance wiped a foreleg across her brow, “Okay, now I'm warmed up.” She placed a hoof on Chrysalis's ass. “She's warmed up, too. I haven't tried a tawes since I approved their sale in my stores.” Stepping behind the changeling again, she was determined to savour this.

With a resounding smack, the tawes impacted upon Chrysalis’s already tenderized ass, sending a flash of white hot pain coursing up her spine and flooding through her body. “I’m sorry!” she screamed at the top of her lungs, grateful that the rooms were soundproofed.

Smack! The tawes swung again, and again, each smack sounding like a cannon blast against Chrysalis’s bruised chitin. It burned! The leather strips wrapped across her behind in a painful caress. Smack! It fell again and again, “I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”

As she heard Chrysalis scream she was sorry, Cadance came, her orgasm squirting out on her Aunt’s bedroom floor. She committed this scene to her memory to enjoy again later. She lifted up Chrysalis’s tail that had lowered in an attempt to protect her roasted derriere, and used her magic to hold it up. To punish her for that indiscretion, she swung the tawes. Smack! Smack! She targeted the parts of her ass already warmed up by the crop.

“I’m sorry!” she screamed as Cadance began striking from the left and right. Smack! Chrysalis almost flew up the bed with the force of the slap. Only her death grip on the bedsheets kept her in place as that last strike landed squarely between her legs.

Smack! Chrysalis couldn’t hold back the shout of pain as the leather ends snapped against her anus. Smack! “I-I’m sor…” Smack! Cadance didn’t even let her finish before she hit her again. The tawes fell in quick secession and then there was silence. Tears streamed down her face. “I’m sorry!” she cried out.

Cadance was beside her on the bed, nuzzling Chrysalis’s tear stained cheek. Celestia was at her other side, nuzzling and kissing her lover’s face. “Now we both know you are. I think you’ve learned your lesson, now to reinforce the lesson.”

The pink alicorn swung the tawes with all her might, aiming for the meatier bits of the changeling’s upper hind leg and ass. On the twenty fifth stroke of the tawes, Chrysalis came from the sheer amount of pain in her rear end. By the time Cadance landed the thirtieth blow, Chrysalis was a shaking and quivering mess. Her moans and screams of pleasure and pain had all blend into one mewling noise.

Cadance though was not satisfied. Despite her best efforts, the changeling had not used her safe word. That just would not do! “Well,” she said as she laid the tawes down on the desk, “I guess it will have to be the old fashion way.”

“Wh-Whaa...w-what...” Chrysalis was left wondering what could possibly be next. She couldn’t see Cadance behind her facing away from the bed, putting her weight on her font hooves. She couldn’t see Cadance, but she felt it when the Princess kicked out with both rear hooves. They hit Chrysalis square on her tortured ass cheeks. “Ooooooow!” she screeched in utter agony, her hind legs buckled, binging her to her knees in the puddle she had created, “L-Lime!”

As soon as Chrysalis used her safe word, both Cadance and Celestia cast spells designed to check for severe damage. Thankfully, much to both mare’s intense relief, they found none. “I used to hate you, but Shiny said I needed to let that go. Now I find out I saved you. Restitution has been paid in full, and I forgive you,”

Cadance moved up alongside Chrysalis on the bed and she whispered loud enough for Celestia to hear. “Should you ever hurt my Aunt, you'll wish she dropped the sun on you. I know what can kill you, for I'm the Princess of Love, and you are not the only creature that can drain love. I'll leave you a dried up husk, and still alive, at least for a bit. Long enough to suffer.”

With her warning given, Cadance got off the bed. “Shiny and I are going shopping in the city, and we’ll take in some entertainment. See you at dinner!”

“I'm proud of my niece,” Celestia purred into her marefriend’s ear as Cadance trotted out of the room, “And I'm proud of you, Chryssie.”

Utterly spent, Chrysalis was laid half on the floor, half on the bed. She was used up and exhausted, but Celestia calling her ‘Chryssie’ gave her a wide smile, “Sh-She's scarier than I remember...”

“Not all of us relish our darker side,” Celestia said as she helped Chrysalis up onto the bed proper so she could snuggle with her, “Trust me, you don’t want her to let Heartbreaker free.”

“Th-Thank you Mistress,” Chrysalis took the warning to heart as she slumped into the snuggle and her horn started to glow. Under her subconscious magic, her battered hind quarters started to heal the damage dealt out to them.

Seeing that her lover was already starting to heal herself, Celestia hugged her mare closer to her. She was going to help the process along, but she thought better of it. She was happy that the deed had been done, and that what could have been a disaster had been mitigated. “Chrysalis?”

“Mmmmm?” came a tired, exhausted grunt.

“You may call me Celestia, or Tia as you feel led to do,” Celestia said softly, waves and waves of pure love radiating from her very soul, “Mistress is fine during our playtime, and Princess is fine when it seems wise to do so.”

Hearing that, Chrysalis actually opened her eyes and paid attention. “I...I can use...I can call you by your name?”

“Yes my love, you can.”

Chrysalis blushed as the implication of that sunk in. Celestia had said, way back when in the royal baths, that when the time came she could use her name, they would be equals. “Celestia,” she smiled, liking how the word felt on her tongue, and she turned and kissed her lips.

“I do hope Chryssie is okay for me, Chrysalis?”

“Of course it is,” Chrysalis’s smile broadened, “Um, what do you think to Celly?”

Affectionately, lovingly, Celestia kissed the changeling’s lips and let the waves of love she was giving off speak for her. “That would be a very private name. Even Lulu doesn't call me that.”

The sheer amount of love that Celestia was giving off made Chrysalis erupt in a deep, deep blush. Her healing was greatly accelerated by the love energy, and she could feel it in every fibre of her being. “That's why I asked, it would be ours alone.”

Just as lovingly, Celestia ran a hoof around the collar that adorned her pet’s neck. “This is a symbol of our relationship. I've told you I don't need a slave, but I'm happy with you being my pet, or just submissive to me when we play. I told you that you may not remove this symbol. Like Lulu did for Tavi, I give you permission to remove it, or put it on,” she paused to kiss Chrysalis’s lips, “But always know where it is should you give me cause to put it on you.”

“I...I can take it off?” that was a real shock to Chrysalis. In terms of everything that had happened that day, this was the biggest thing. The changeling lit her horn and she unbuckled the collar. She held it in her hooves and looked at Celestia’s loving eyes. “That's the first time in two and a half years I've not had this around my neck.”

Affectionately, Celestia nibbled Chrysalis's bare neck, “Just don't lose it.”

Chrysalis giggled and she placed the collar back where it rightly belonged, buckled around her neck. “In that case, I think it should stay where it belongs.”

The joy that Celestia felt knew no bounds. “I can think of no public outing where it would be inappropriate to wear my symbol around your neck. Just know that you can take it off like in the shower or at the spa.”

“Thank you, Celly,” Chrysalis kissed her lover, “I want you to know, the significance of this has not been lost on me.”

“I can be what you want, Chryssie. I can be what I need. I'm at peace with us. It has been too long since I've had a lover,” Celestia spoke from her heart, “Please talk to me if I should ever go astray, and I will make sure you know if you do, too.”

The smile on Chrysalis’s face was almost impossibly wide, “I can feel your love, Celly, it fills you, all of you…”

“Rest and heal now, my love,” Celestia tightened her hug, “We still have dinner with my niece and her husband will be there too.”

“Mmmm rest...” Chrysalis’s eyes started to get heavy, “I could use some rest...” her green eyes closed and a split second later, she was sound asleep in Celestia's strong, safe, loving embrace.