The Queen of Canterlot

Chrysalis had no idea what happened next.

The petty spells and beguilements that sufficed to disable or lure away most ponies would not work on an alicorn. She could not subdue Cadence without a fight. In a bitter irony, the power she derived from Cadence’s love might actually enable her to win that fight, but it would still be a loud thing. A knock down, screaming brawl between two mares who could break stones with their bare hooves.

And in any case, the point was moot. Not at her lowest, not on her worst day, could she imagine hitting Cadence.

All Cadence had to do to not be kidnapped was to refuse to go.

“You’re kidnapping me?” Cadence asked, incredulous. “Have you lost your little insect mind?”

“Cadence, I love you.” The words lacked Chrysalis’s refined diction, her cultured and condescending intonations. She blurted them out, blunt and raw and hot, in an accent that was something that had grown up in Canterlot, instead of the mares from Isles of Glass. “I need you. You make me so happy, and I know I make you happy too. Please don’t do this just because everypony tells you you have to.”

“I am not here because I have to be,” Cadence lowered her voice to a hiss. “I love Shining Armor. I love him.”

“I know you love him,” Chrysalis said. “But you asked him to marry you because you were feeling guilty about cheating on him. You asked him to marry you for all the wrong reasons, and when you think about moving in with him it’s like there’s a stone in your stomach. You did something wrong, and now you don’t know how to fix it. But this isn’t it.”

“Fu…” Cadence hissed, trailing off mid-word and looking to the floor. “No. No. Shining is my… you… fuck. I didn’t cheat on him, okay? It was complicated.”

“Yeah, it was complicated,” Chrysalis let out a long, slow breath. “More complicated than you know. You’re not a bad pony. You’re not. But you absolutely cheated on your boyfriend, and marrying him is not going to magically undo that.”

“I could scream and have the guards throw you out,” Cadence snapped, eyes narrowing. “I could punch you through a wall myself.”

“Fine,” Chrysalis replied, not rising to the bait. “You don’t want me here? Look into my eyes and tell me this is healthy.” A sharp gesture at her face accentuated the phrase. “Swear to me that this whole wedding isn’t you running away from something, and I’ll leave.”

“It doesn’t work like that,” Cadence turned away from Chrysalis, squeezing her eyes tight. “I can’t just… you don’t get it. I can’t just go and do things.”

“You threw a brick once.”

“Yeah?” Cadence snapped, still unable to meet Chrysalis’s gaze. “Well this is a pretty big brick.”

Chrysalis reached out, and took Cadence’s hoof, and lifted it then to her chest and rested it there, over where a pony’s heart would be. She didn’t have the knack of faking a heartbeat, but the warmth in her skin was there, and the rise and fall of her breath. And when Cadence turned to look at her, Chrysalis stared into her eyes.

“I know,” Chrysalis said. “I know, you can’t possibly walk away from this. You would be disappointing your groom, Princess Celestia, Luna, your parents, all of Equestria. You are the Princess of Love, you cannot bail on your own wedding. And I’m not asking you to. You’re not going to bail, you’re going to be kidnapped. And we’ll pop up somewhere and you’ll get to see what life is like when nopony knows you’re a princess, and you can just go do whatever you want.”

Cadence said nothing, staring into Chrysalis’s eyes, and when she judged the time to be right, Chrysalis pulled Cadence forward into a hug, and Cadence hugged her back. “You’d give up your life in Canterlot? To what, go with me and be on the run?”

“For you, Princess, I’d do anything. I adore you more than you’ll ever know.”

“You’re so full of shit,” Cadence said, tears welling up in her eyes -- and for a time, she let Chrysalis hold her, saying nothing, drawing strength from that love.

“And you’re right,” she eventually said, “You’re right. That’s what I want. I don’t want to be the Princess of Love, I don’t want to be this thing, I don’t want this life. I think about running away with you, and it’s beautiful.”

But then, she pushed Chrysalis away.

“But I am a princess,” she said, “whether I like it or not. And part of that is that I have to do the right thing, even if it doesn’t make me happy. And I’m sorry, Chrysalis. I am truly sorry. But running away with you is not the right thing.”

And then she said, "And now, you need to leave.”