rp A Royal Wedding {and after} -Open-

[HopeGoldy]

Hope smiled slightly as she arrived in canterlot. She wanted to see Cadence getting married. She was so happy for them and she had left manehattan just for them. Sure, her home is in the crystal empire, but she had been helping Rarity with her boutique business and they had agreed on closing it until the wedding was over. She ran into the palace to find Cadance but she wasn't there. 'probably just preparing for the wedding'. she thought, leaving the castle and just proceeding to walk around the city. She turned a corner and bumped into somepony by accident. "Oops! Sorry! I was distracted.." she looked down, ashamed, folding her wings back, since they had sprang up in shock. (She's in her pegasus form)

[Blueblood]

The pony she had run into, a white-coated unicorn stallion with a chiseled figure and blue, spiky mane, laughed good naturedly, rubbing down the spot where she had bumped.  "No problem ma'am, my fault for not being more vigilant while on patrol.  I've just got a lot of things to pay attention to right now."  If his words weren't clue enough, his uniform and barding were obvious signs that he was part of the royal guard.  If Hope was able to recognize his rank insignia, she would see that he was, in fact, the Captain of the Guard.  Yep, Shining Armor, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza's fiancee, in the flesh.

 

Thankfully, he wasn't stand-offish or taking out any pre-wedding stress upon the citizenry of Canterlot.  Truth be told, though, few could have blamed him if he were; having to keep command of the guard, watch over the security of a city under threat, and maintaining a magical barrier around the whole of Canterlot was quite a lot to put on a buck that was about to get married.  But Shining Armor didn't make the rank of Captain for nothing.  "I take it you're in town for our wedding too?  Most new faces I've seen today are.  My little sister's due to come down by train in a couple of hours, so I'm going to oversee her transition through the barrier.  Oh, and I'm Captain Shining Armor, in case you hadn't guessed."  He grinned.  "What's your name?"

[HopeGoldy]

She smiled slightly and did a small bow. "My name is Hope Goldy. Pleasure to meet you." She said, speaking in a soft tone. "congrats with your wedding, future prince" she joked with the prince part. She did hope he'd appreciate the joke, seeing when she last saw the queen of the suckies, that queen got mad when jokes were made. (I love calling Changelings suckies. Idk why)

 

"do you need any help keeping guard? I'm pretty alert when needed." she really wanted to help. It was the least she could do to make up for the mistakes her kind had made.

[Blueblood]

Shining did chuckle at the joke.  "That's going to take a while to get used to.  Though, wouldn't you just love to see the look on Prince Blueblood's face when he hears somepony else called by that title?"  The stallion smiled, but sighed softly.  "I hope he doesn't decide to be too insufferable today; poor Cady's starting to get a little stressed.  You know how most brides can get."  He seemed a little surprised at the offer of guard service from a guest, giving her a sideways look as they continued towards the train station.  "I already have my ponies stationed everywhere a threat could come from, though I suppose I'm a little understaffed to watch over every guest.  I'd hate to shunt you off to watch over a bunch of stuffy nobles, though."

[HopeGoldy]

"it's really no problem though. I'd love to help you. It's the least i could do to make up for the mistakes my kind has made and will make." she said, pretty much hinting towards the changelings. She set up her cutest puppy face. "pleaaaase?" she wouldn't let him keep guard alone.

[Blueblood]

"Your kind?  Uuhhhh...."  Shining Armor now stopped in his progress completely, confusion spread across his face like marmalade.  "I... wasn't aware of anything like a Pegasus insurrection or disloyalty."  He tilted his head, now curious and... not a little suspicious of his new acquaintance.  "Are you from Equestria?"  It was just possible that she was from Maretonia, a land where the tribes had never been unified by Harmony.  That would explain her odd reference.  Unless, there was something else going on.  Something else that he, as Captain of the Guard, should definitely know about-

 

"O-o-o-h-h Honey!"  A breathy, melodic voice, sweet and smooth as grade-a maple syrup, rang over the street, followed quickly by its source, a pink Alicorn with a tricolored mane, slightly frazzled by the day's efforts.  "The wedding planner's being a bit of bore, I need your help to straighten him out- oh."  Her voice flattened and her eyes narrowed upon catching sight of Honey, her sharpened gaze almost seemed tinged with green.  The "pegasus" would have felt herself exposed before the 'princess',  and a much different, less sweet voice would be beamed straight into her thoughts.

 

*How did you get past the barrier already, my child?  No matter, thank you for retrieving my errant 'fiancee.'  Do run along while I recharge the little enchantment I have on him, blend in with the crowds.  You will know when the signal is ready for the invasion.*

 

Chrysalis had found her out!  Fortunately, the Queen seemed to mistake Honey for one of her own loyal hive, which was good, because she had a very nasty reputation when it came to the disloyal.  Betrayal of her disobedience now, with Chrysalis having all the love energy from feeding of the stallion before her, would leave poor Honey as nothing but a smear on the cobbles!

[HopeGoldy]

She narrowed her eyes at 'Cadence'. Her eye twitched. She didn't say anything and ignored her completely. "so how about it? I can help. Pleaaaase???" she smiled at him. All that while her mind was cursing at the queen. Lucky for her, she knew the queen couldn't read minds. 'dirty little....HAYRUNNER'  she once again smiled at Shining armor. "let me know when you're done 'correcting' some mistakes the planner made!" when shining armor was gone, she huffed at Chrysalis. "names Hope Goldy by the way, for if you were wondering." she then flew along, going to check on Celestia and Luna. (you called me honey the whole time, lol)

[Blueblood]

'Cadence' kept a side eye on Hope as she smooched her 'soon-to-be-hubby', a faint green glow enveloping both their horns and causing his eyes to spin a bit as he blinked.  "Uhhh.... yeah, got to get... back to the wedding."  The stallion blinked in the haze, barely focusing on the pegasus as a pink wing draped over his shoulder, turning him around.  "Uh, Blueblood, right!  You can help by keeping watch over him.  Keep him out of trouble, and... away from us.  Or any important guests."

 

"Oh, Excellent idea, Shining!"  The smile on the disguised Chrysalis' face was truly genuine, shining through the alicorn guise.  It seems the pompous Canterlotian had gotten on the Queen's nerves at least once during the wedding prep.  "Do go on, Miss Hope, you should find him on the way to the palace.  Tata!"  Whether or not the Queen could mind read her subjects, she was in no fear of her perfect day being ruined.  It almost made her want to sing!

 

~***~

 

Meanwhile, in Canterlot Palace...

 

"Ugh, I cannot believe the nerve of these upstart servants.  Barring the grounds to me!  Me!  The Prince of this city!  I have as much of a right as anyone to look over the preparations, I'm the bloody Master of Ceremony, among my other high offices.  No respect of bloody authority...."  Another white stallion, this one with a golden mane, was ranting to himself as he paced in the gardens, clearly out of sorts.  The staff were giving him a wide berth; Blueblood had a reputation for when he got into these moods, though truth be told he'd never really been himself since that Gala.  Being covered in cake in front of all his peers had rather put him on tilt ever since.  Hopes were had, faint but real, that some sort of character improvement could result from all of this, but it was baby hoofsteps yet.  He barely noticed the approaching pegasus, who might well be inbound for another collision... 

[HopeGoldy]

'must go to Celestia and Luna.' she thought, not paying attention to her surroundings at all. And once again she bumped into somepony. "oops. Sorry. I need to report something to the princesses. Have you seen them?" she asked, not realising who this was. Maybe he too, was a Changeling. But that wasn't possible. The hive couldn't get through yet. And she was a trusted pony, so they let her inside. 

[HopeGoldy]

(I just joticed that i have to wait haying 7 hours until i get a response. Why's that???????????)

[Blueblood]

( I was asleep?  IRL happens.)

 

"OOF!"  The volume and affront of the stallion's reaction to the bump was far out of proportion to the actual impact.  He jumped in the air slightly, rearing back as if Hope had suddenly sprung up from the ground.  From the look he was giving her, he might have seemed to think that she was some strange mushroom-pony hybrid, too.  Wiping off his coat as if it had touched something nasty, he huffed.

"Don't you know who I am!?  I am Prince Blueblood Platinum LVII, and I have absolutely no idea who you are nor why in Equestria you should be allowed to the see either of Princesses!"

[HopeGoldy]

Now she got grumpy. "hope goldy. And maybe because the changeling hive is gonna attack and the princesses need to know before all of you are gonna die. So at the moment i don't care if you're a prince or not. If you want to live like the rest of us, you're gonna take me to the princesses, Luna and Celestia." she whisper-yelled. She sighed. "man that relieves a lot." she smiled and flew further into the castle, avoiding the ponies who had a green glow in their eyes. Once she got in, she searched fof the two sisters, only to find nopony there. 'they aren't here...' she began panicking. She came back to the prince, depressed and having a panickattack. "THEY'RE GONE!!!"

Edited April 20, 2019 by HopeGoldy
To short (to my opinion)

[Blueblood]

"Changeling Hive.... what?"  Blueblood had hardly any idea what she was talking about, and could only blink as she ranted at him and then rushed off.  He contemplated following her briefly, as he very much doubted his Aunties would appreciate being interrupted by a random crazy pegasus from off the street.  Still... it was weird that the guards which had barred him from going through the hallways weren't sounding any kind of alarm in attempting to detain her.  They... were attempting to detain her, right?

 

The changelings wouldn't have bothered Hope anyway, they recognizing her as one of their own, hence her being given freedom of the castle.  That said, a few might have thought her behavior odd, especially if any saw her return to the Prince in panic.  And truth be told, her panic was infectious.  "Gone?"  A pit of worry began to open in Prince Blueblood's stomach.  "What- what do you mean, gone?"

 

 

[HopeGoldy]

"just gone! Not there! Vanished into thin air!" she whispered in a panic. If the changelings heard her, she'd be a dead mare. She wished her parents were with her, but they weren't. She'd never meet them, ever. "what if they died? Ohhhw i don't wanna even think about it.." she noticed 'Cadence' and shining armor walking towards the entrance and when 'Cadence' looked up, she looked away, trying not to be suspicious for anypony until she knew for sure that what she heard in her mind was 'Cadence' her doing. She did a slight point at her, acting as if proud of the princess, but actually telling him that that was Chrysalis.

[Blueblood]

With all the iron will that Blueblood could muster, which wasn't much to be honest, the Prince tried to tamp down on his own growing panic.  "They... could be just out.  You know, out on the town.  Seeing to things.  Big wedding and all..."  The wavering in his voice betrayed the disbelief he felt in his own words.  This would be, what, the third attack his country came under in the past several years?  The increasing frequency of such things in recent times made the fear all the more plausible.

 

Upon having his cousin pointed out at him, Blueblood looked over at Hope.  "Her...?  Surely not Princess Cadence..."  It was clear that he had no idea about anything like changelings.  He probably didn't even think that they existed, let alone that it was them responsible for these goings-on.  Hope would have to take a little time to explain things to him if she wanted his help.

[HopeGoldy]

She sighed and a horn appeared on her, making her wings disappear. She used magic to stay up. "before Cadence, there was another queen, who had an affaire with a Changeling before they went all sucky. I don't know who they are and where they are, but they had a daughter, who was born a changeling, not an alicorn, but a princess nonetheless. They called her Hope Goldy. She was fillynapped after a year and taken away from her past life, making her forget about everything, including her parents' faces. That daughter, is me. After i learned I'm a Changeling i denied it, never wanting to be seen and treated as one of 'those' creatures. With that, i betrayed my own kind. There's a new queen to the hive now and she knows one of her subjects has betrayed her people for her own selfish reason of wanting her parents back. She's trying to take over equestria so I'll be forced to obey her again, which i don't want." she almost cried as her horn disappeared and her wings came back. "so will you please help me?"

[Blueblood]

A little stunned by the whole revelation, Blueblood could do nothing but stand before her, nodding weakly.  It didn't all make sense yet, but the one thing he did pull out was that Hope was the daughter of a Queen, and therefore technically a princess.  Which he had treated as if she were a commoner.  Apologies were in order.  "I... see.  And I do believe I owe you as much to say I'm sorry for my prior behavior.  It was unbecoming of our respective stations.  I just have one more question."  He held up a hoof in inquiry.  "What's a changeling?"  It would be clear to her by now that she was not dealing with a pony of great intellect.

[HopeGoldy]

She almost facehoofed. She hid him behind her and to her distaste, changed to what she actually was. A Changeling, disguised as a guard, nodded. She changed back. "changelings from now are sucky creatures, literally sucking the love out of everypony to satisfy their neverending hunger. I, however, don't want that. I don't feed. I only take if it is given to me." she sat down, ashamed of her kind. She wanted to save what she could to make up for the mistakes of the hive, but knew if other ponies knew, they'd send her away. "changelings don't change." "they're a disgrace." "They shouldn't exist in the first place." everything bullies had said were spiralling through her head as disgusting depressed thoughts. Tears streamed down her face. "i moved to equestria for that reason...that's all i can remember"

[Blueblood]

Blueblood, now even more bewildered, recoiled at the revelation of Hope's true form.  Canterlot, his beloved city, invaded by a bunch of lovesucking bugs!  It sounded... so gauche, like one of those comic books the commoners read.  But, these were the times they lived in now.  He would just have to face them.  Him and this defector.  "Uh, alright then.  I... what do we do?  Has the guard been replaced?  That would explain why nopony has let me anywhere, but that means we can't get help!  What do we do!?"  He was starting to panic again. 

[HopeGoldy]

"we...we face the new hive queen. She's destroyed too much already." she set aside those horrific thoughts and stood up. She wanted, no needed, to destroy Chrysalis. She didn't deserve to ruin equestria. She began flying into the castle, before realizing blueblood couldn't get in. She put some cuffs around his hooves. "if we want to get you in, you have to act as if you've been captured. Like a prisoner. Don't overdo it. They're more suspicious of anypony than you think." she flew to the gates, getting stopped by guards. She used a slightly more venomous tone of her voice, giving her the looks and sounds of a Changeling of the hive. "i captured this little..rat. tried to get in multiple times and i was done with it." she motioned to blueblood, giving him a slight hint of an apologetic look in her eyes, to not seem suspicious. She carefully waited to be let in.

[Blueblood]

It seemed that Blueblood's new companion had some sort of plan, at least.  "Are you sure you're strong enough to take her on, though?"  He had to ask.  "I mean, you just said she took over the whole of your kind, and you didn't stop her then- hold up, what?"  He was a little shocked when he got cuffed; the disguise made sense, he had to admit, but that didn't mean he had to like it.  "Mph, won't be of much help to you like this."  Not that he'd be much of a help in a fight in any case, being more for ornamentation than practical use.  Still, as Hope led him through the guards, they seemed to buy the act he put on.  To give the Prince credit, he could completely sell the 'utterly peeved' look.

 

"Ugh, finally.  The little brat's been nothing but a hassle all day.  I dunno if the queen will appreciate being bothered, but she could use somepony to vent her frustrations on for sure."  The guard, wearing a most unpleasant expression of schadenfraude, stood aside to let them pass.

[HopeGoldy]

"I'll be sure to put em in the most isolated room i can find so he won't be a bother." she flew through, like changelings of the hive do. "I'll apologize later. Right now, we got a wedding to save." she smiled slightly as she made her way to the throne room, where 'Cadence' was talking with one of the changeling planners. She waited till she was done, then spoke. "i captured the one who tried to get in, your majesty." She used a slight hiss in her voice so she would still be mistaken for one of her own. She knew how her kind spoke so that was a useful benefit. "where should i put the rat?" she didn't feel good for having to call him that, but nothing came without a price.

[Blueblood]

There wasn't much that Blueblood could give in contribution to this plan, other than a sense of noblesse oblige.  And to be perfectly fair to the prissy Prince, deep down he did have a sense of duty to country and family.  It was just that, before today, nopony took him seriously enough to ask him to act upon this sense of responsibility.  It was pretty ironic that it would take a changeling to awaken him, but that was life for you.  Sometimes, it took twists like this, and one day, if he survived, he'd look back upon this day with laughter and with pride.

 

For now, however, pride was far from his countenance.  He was truly acting the part, to the point where even the emotion-reading changelings would have gotten nothing off of him but shame and anger at his situation.  He could have been a decent stage actor, had he been born to the lower class.

That said, his acting was nothing compared the the Queen, still playing her "role" as "Cadence", although definitely in a backstage environment, with nopony around her that wasn't either ensorcelled by her magic, or else her changeling subjects.  She raised her brow at the approaching Hope, but grinned in a most unpleasant way at Blueblood, sending a shiver of genuine fear down the alabaster stallion's spine.  "You have indeed, my daughter.  I had hoped to keep inconspicuous until right up to the wedding, but it seems that suspicion is mounting beyond what I can control.  Once my last units are in place, I'll drain Shining for the last time and bring down the barrier.  But first, hm, what to do with you?"

Still in her Cadence disguise, Chrysalis did not bother changing her voice at all, which was a very unsettling phenomenon from her cousin, who felt the cuffs chafe around his wrists.  "Hm, I'll bet you never thought you'd meet a mare like this, hm?  Or perhaps this was always what you dreamed of having happen to you~  Of course, I'll have to detain you for now, perhaps in the crystal caverns, but after my triumph, I will want a celebratory snack~"  A snaky tongue slipped out from her lips, tickling Blueblood on the nose as he reared back.  

 

"St-stay back you fiend!!"

[HopeGoldy]

She smirked slightly, not at him being almost eaten alive, but at the fact the queen had her guard down. She knew where those dungeons were and perhaps, she'd find the real Cadence there. "but first, your majesty, i should lock em away. Don't want the rat to ruin your plan, do we?" when she finally got permission, she brought him down to the dungeons. (I'll do Cadence a small bit, so that it still is in that ep)

Cadence was there, alerted at her arrival. When she saw blueblood, she tried using a spell on Goldy in order to free him. "please  don't.. I'm trying to help you." she was shocked. "Help me? But you're a Changeling.." "so? Doesn't mean i act like one?" "Go. Leave. Defeat Chrysalis before it's too late." 

She nodded and flew back after telling blueblood to be a lookout but to stay hidden.

[SteelEagle]

There were other ponies in the dungeons, some prisoners, and others acting as guards- the guards were all in Chrysalis' dominant mental thrall. With the majority of the actual guards undergoing routes above-ground to keep up appearances, it left the catacombs and dungeons underneath Canterlot to be guarded by enthralled civilians. One such figure, familiar to Blueblood, stepped forward. Looked very much like a filly, though he wasn't, his face contoured in a passive smile as he obeyed every command that filtered through his conquered psyche. Valen was still there- the rather beautiful crossdressing maid in Blueblood's service- but it was impossible to disobey a command from Chrysalis, even as he internally blanched at the thought. He walked up to Blueblood and mocked his master with a curtsy. "Oh, Master Blueblood, how wonderful of you to visit us. Hopefully your accommodations are as elegant as you deserve!" He tittered with a laugh. Chrysalis' magic coaelesced into a new form, attaching an aether leash to Valen that connected to Blueblood's cuffs. As Valen started to walk, the leash reacted with immense strength- dragging the Prince if he wouldn't come easily with contemptuous ease. He pulled the Prince into a nearby cell, all the while his blue eyes masked by the green of her magic as Chrysalis's eyes and ears extended all the way into the dungeons, requiring finesse in order to evade.