Chapter 116: The Royal Wedding

"Deep Breaths, This is your moment," Princess Mi Amore Cadenza held her breath in her lungs before exhaling it all out slowly, trying to steady her body.

"Don't worry Princess!" A filly told her, fiddling with a basket filled with flower petals, "A wedding is supposed to be an exciting part of any pony's life, just smile,"

A week has passed since the invasion of Chrysalis and her Changelings, and things have finally mostly returned to normal. Or at least, as normal as they could.

Blueblood was still bedridden, sadly, so he wouldn't be able to make it, but at least he was fine, Princess Luna was keeping watch over him as he recovered.

She herself was mostly fine, with simple doctor's orders to keep physical exertion to a minimum if she could, but otherwise, she was as healthy as a horse! Especially now with her magic keeping her... Full of magic? It was a confusing thing to explain, really.

After she copied and reversed Chrysalis's emotion-eating magic, her magic started to closer resemble her Alicorn trait, that is Love.

With love being the purest emotion, her own magic became endless purity.

Luna explained it as if her magical reserve became an endlessly deep ocean, but her own capacity to utilize that same magic was still a shallow river. In other words, she has an infinite amount of magic, but only a finite amount she can use at once. Like a very large bottle with only a regular-sized cap, She won't ever run out of magic to use, but she's still limited by the amount she can use.

At least that means she'll never suffer from magical exhaustion ever again.

"Just... Let's do this~" Princess Mi Amore Cadenza clapped her hooves over her cheeks and shook her head as she got ready, her face relaxing as she tried to enter a state of calm.

It was no use trying to think of the last week, these next few hours will arguably be the most important in her life.

"Shhh! It's starting~" Another flower filly whispered to her two friends as the music finally started sounding from beyond the large doors in front of them.

With one last deep breath, Cadance straightened her back and stared forward, watching the doors in front of her open up to reveal a full wedding hall.

"Here it was, The moment she was waiting for," She started walking down the aisle, following the flower filly's steps, "Her wedding."

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"Ooh Ooh! It's starting! Look, Friend Blueblood! Cadance is finally getting married!" I let out an exhausted sigh as Princess Luna started tapping my shoulders, pointing at a nearby window where we could see a part of the wedding hall.

"I can see that," I told her tiredly as I fiddled with my new suit and tie, a navy blue suit with a black undershirt decorated with golden buttons.

"Are you sure we cannot go there? It is a most special day, you know?" Luna turned and gave me her closest approximation of puppy dog eyes, something I was immune to thanks to a tough resistance to common seduction tactics and the fact that Luna was biologically five years older than me and therefore too old to even attempt such a trick.

"You heard what the doctors said, no stress, that means no hanging around a crowd of ass-kissing dolphins who were only invited thanks to their importance in the internal affairs of Equestria. We'll still make it to the reception, it's only friends and family, so stop complaining already," I told Luna before I started walking away, one of my front legs holding on to a walking cane as I dragged my body away from the windows and deeper into the castle.

"You're not going to even stay here to look from afar?" Luna asked as she followed me, ensuring I didn't suddenly collapse from exerting my body too much.

"Luna, there are still a few hours before the reception begins, And besides, now that I have you, there's something I need to acquire..." I said as I walked deeper into the castle, walking down several flights of stairs as I made my way deep beneath the ground.

"Blueblood..." Luna started speaking as she realized where I was walking, "You do know this area is restricted for a reason..."

It wasn't long before halls of marbled bricks turned into raw stones and dirt, a cave system stretching down from beneath Canterlot Castle, lower than the old dungeons, lower than the sewers of the City of Canterlot, deep into the Mountain itself.

"I know." I stopped in front of what I searched for, "Only a Royal is able to open this door," I stood in front of a large magical door, built into the sides of the cavern, enchanted with potent spells that only the pony who cast them, and the Royals he taught, could open.

"However, The pony who made this rule made it so the only Royals who could open this have to be Alicorns," I turned my back to the large door and stared into Luna's eyes.

"Princess Luna, The library that lies beyond this door, is the only place in the castle I have yet to search for answers, I need a key to get inside," I told her, putting as much emphasis as I could on to the word Need to make it understood how important this was.

"Prince Blueblood, not even We have explored the place you seek entrance to, We know not what there is to find," She stared at the doors, her eyes not leaving the pair of large stars chiseled into the door, "We suggest you ignore it, your search for Tirek's motive has brought you nothing but ruin."

"I know," I said out loud, my eyes looking past the Princess of the Night before I took a deep breath to ready myself for what I was about to do, "However, If I do not do so, nobody will." I scowled as I lowered my walking cane and lowered my head.

"Blueblood..." Luna whispered as she watched me do something I would never have done if I didn't think whatever was beyond those doors was worth it.

"Princess Luna, Her Royal Highness of the Endless Night, Protector of Dreams and Ruler of Equestria, I, Prince Blueblood Platinum, Ask of you- No- I Beg of you," I felt my body shudder at the words leaving my mouth, as if attempting to punish me for even thinking of debasing myself like this, "Please, Grant me Access to Starswirl the Bearded's personal library~"

As those words left my mouth, I gagged, bile already threatening to climb up my throat as I begged for Luna to open a door for me.

I hate this, this feeling of inferiority, knowing that no matter how hard I work or train, the only way to open a fucking door will be to ask someone else to do it.

This reliance on someone other than myself... I hate it, I despise this feeling from the very core of my being, just the simple act of getting on my knees and asking for help is making me wish to throw up, my body instinctively trying to cleanse my body of impurities that do not exist.

Begging, Prostrating, on my hands and knees, asking for someone else's help, I absolutely, from my very core, Despise this.

And so I hope, from the very bottom of my heart, that whatever is behind these doors will bring me answers, because if it doesn't...

"We will make a key, one imbued with our magical signal, so you will be able to open this door," Luna said quietly as she lowered her body and pulled me back onto my legs, grabbing my chin and making me stare into her eyes, "I am ordering you, Prince Blueblood Platinum, don't you ever kneel for us ever again, do not beg us like this ever again, do not bow your head in submission like this ever again! DO NOT DEBASE YOURSELF LIKE THIS! EVER AGAIN!" She raised her voice, yelling at my face as if personally offended by my actions.

And then, faster than I could react, she pulled me into a hug, "Don't you ever, and we mean ever, do something like this ever again. You are our family and friend, we are to be equals, do not lower yourself for us, are we understood?"

I didn't say a word, I simply stood there stupefied at her reaction.

Why was she so angry at me? Because I lowered myself for her? But I am lower than her! Both in line to the throne and in royal influence and authority! She could order me to do anything she wanted and I'd have no choice but to follow her orders! That's how this works! The only pony who could overwrite any orders from Luna would be Celestia! I am, by the very definition of our different positions, lower than her!

"Understood." I nodded to her, lying without missing a beat.

We are to be equals? Don't make me laugh! There's no such thing as Equality in life.

There are only those who are at the top, and those who are not.

Those who are free, and those who are slaves.

Those who struggle, and those who accept.

Family... I lived twenty-eight years without needing a family, turning twenty-nine does not change that in the slightest.

"Good, Now let us get ready for the reception! We wish to partake in the wedding cake!" Acting as if the scene that just took place didn't exist, Luna grabbed us by the leg and started pulling us away, "Help us pick a fancy dress!"

If she noticed anything in how I acted, then she didn't show it.

"Wait! My walking cane!"

"Oops~"

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Time as a concept was weird to her, trapped in a prison with no real way to measure time, nothing more than a head with an arm, sitting on the floor of the universe, surrounded by an endless expanse of stars.

Hoping, Praying, that one day her Prince will come and bring her back her feet, so he could proceed and sweep her off them as they go an live happily ever after.

But she was scared.

She didn't know why she was in this prison to begin with, her memory was jumbled and shattered and barely existent.

All she knew was that she was a Spirit of Space, a living embodiment of an aspect of the universe, and that part of her sealing was conducted by a Deer with a Red Crystal Heart.

And she is scared to find out the truth.

What if the person she was before she was imprisoned was so far removed from her current self, would she be able to comfortably live with that knowledge? And what if the personality of the one she was before he imprisonment starts taking control over her body, will she simply cease to exist, replaced with what was supposed to be her true self? What was her true self really? The one she was with her memory intact before the imprisonment, or the blank slate she became afterwards? Wouldn't the person she is now be her true self? She has no outside influence to change her personality, a nature versus nurture type of situation.

All those questions with answers that simply were unavailable, she could not help but let her mind wander as she waited for those few hours when she and her one true love could be together.

Because of course, he was her one true love. He told her his secrets, she told him hers, they shared everything with each other, he said he would bring her body back, and she said she would love him for the rest of her existence.

As long as her mind remained hers, and not that of some over version of herself, she would love him. She could promise that. And she knew it was true, she loved him more than anyone else, she wouldn't let herself lose to some sunken eyes insect bitch who didn't love him nearly as much as she did, they were fated to be together, that's why he's the one who found her, he's the one who would save her, he was meant to be hers, he WAS hers, she wouldn't let anyone change that.

Not the Insect, not the Nightmare, not the Secretary, not any other living being, none of them would ever change that. They can try, but they'll never succeed, she'll make sure of it.

"Do you want to go out with me?" She asked him, as she lay on his chest, her eyes staring unblinkingly at his appearance, tired and bandaged as he was, he was still the perfect Prince Charming for her.

"No." He said that word, that same word he said every other time she asked that question. He didn't actually mean that, he loved her, he had to, they were meant to be together, they were perfect together, they'll always be together, and she'll make sure of it.

"Haha, shut down yet again~"