SUMMARY: Post-ep to season 2x25-26, "A Canterlot Wedding." Spoilers throughout the two seasons. I made an arbitrary decision on the distance between Ponyville and Canterlot and Canterlot and the mines, and another arbitrary decision as to the timing of the real wedding, since I don't think they could have had it on the same day as the fake wedding and the big battle. Also, I took a bit of artistic license with Princess Cadence's cutie mark. We never saw it in the episode, only in the toys.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own My Little Pony nor any of the characters, and I'm not making any money from this story.

WARNING: Angst with a capital "A." You didn't really expect a happy story from me, did you?

A/N: Thank you to Dreamer98 for an awesome beta, and double thank-you for doing this when you don't even watch MLP (yet).

A/N: To Eve. I know you'll never believe me – nor ever even read this – but I miss you more than I'd realized, it seems…

Miles to Go

by Alicia

There are miles between Canterlot and the system of caves below. These can be travelled in a few minutes using unicorn magic, a few hours navigating the mine carts, or a few days walking in the normal mundane earth pony method.

"Still not aerodynamic."

"We've been through this before, Rainbow Dash. If I scale back the trim to a greater extent, you will look as if you are in a different wedding party from the rest of us."

"Let's all wear flying dresses, then."

"Applejack, he's trying so hard. I can't bear to hurt his feelings. But he's throwing all the rest of the songbirds off key. Please give him some of your apple vinegar."

"I hate to do that, Fluttershy. You know it could damage his voice."

"Oh, please, just look how hard he's trying…"

"Pinkie Pie, what are you doing?" Twilight Sparkle said, relieved to at last join the cacophony of voices. Somehow her ears didn't hurt nearly as badly when she was helping to make the racket.

"Sneaking up on Princess Cadence, of course."

"Not me?" For some reason she could not fathom, Twilight was mildly disappointed.

"I can't sneak up on you if you can see me, silly. Waaaaaaaaah!"

Cadence jumped a mile, smacked Pinkie Pie with her tail, and good-naturedly weathered the laughter of all the ponies in the room. Then she caught Twilight Sparkle's eye and winked just at her. Pinkie Pie hadn't truly fooled Princess Cadence, any more than Twilight Sparkle had been able to sneak up on Cadence when Twilight was little. But the two of them were the only ponies who knew that.

"Your majesty," Twilight Sparkle said, "not that I don't love having you here, but shouldn't you be with my brother? Tomorrow is your wedding."

"He's enjoying the magnificent bachelor party hosted by your pet dragon," Cadence said with a smirk.

Even though she knew exactly what she would see, Twilight Sparkle glanced over to the little bed in the corner of her old room in the castle where Spike snored loudly. She chuckled. "No one bothered to tell Spike what a bachelor party was."

"Let's just leave it that way until after the wedding, shall we?"

"Did anyone bother to tell Shining Armor what a bachelor party was?"

Cadence chuckled.

Twilight Sparkle had forgotten the pure music in Cadence's laugh. Had it really been so long?

"I'm not entirely sure. You've seen more of the world than your brother. He's still very innocent." Cadence's eyes drifted away, focusing on something that only she could see.

"Your majesty…"

"Please, Twilight. Cadence is fine. Tomorrow you're going to be my sister. At the moment, Shining Armor is reinforcing the force field around Canterlot. That'll be your job for the next week, you know."

Twilight Sparkle was unable to keep the pride out of her voice, although she thought that by now she ought to have learned from the Great and Powerful Trixie that she didn't need to. "Shining Armor showed me every step," she said. "I got the spell right on the second try. We don't really need the force field anymore with the changelings gone, but Princess Celestia told me we had to keep on being careful."

"And she's absolutely right." Cadence's voice dropped. "I wanted to see if you could help me with my mane. It's not quite grown back yet."

"Sure," Twilight said. She chanted a variation on the spell that had given Spike such a fine mustache, directing tendrils of magic toward the ragged ends of Cadence's mane. It grew, smooth and shining. When she was satisfied with all of the layers, Twilight turned her attention to Cadence's tail, growing it even longer. Finally, just for fun, she chanted her original spell in Spike's direction. A handsome mustache appeared on the sleeping baby dragon's face.

Cadence laughed again. "He didn't even wake up!"

"Oh, nothing wakes Spike," Twilight Sparkle said carelessly. She started to dream of other ways to see if she could get Cadence to laugh. Laughter. Princess Cadence. Shining Armor. Lessons in magic that were as easy as kite flying. Alone in a group where Fluttershy debated animals with Applejack while Pinkie Pie pranced around Twilight Sparkle as if she was not there. "Come on y'all, let's check on the princess." Shining Armor, the pride in his eyes as he had seen that his sister had brought his bride back to him and him back to himself. Cadence, laughing the way Twilight remembered from when she was a little filly, spreading love wherever she went. "I want to stay here," Twilight Sparkle blurted out. "This is my home. I don't know why it took me so long to see it."

Cadence smiled, but sadly this time. She scooted forward a bit so that she was sitting right beside Twilight, rubbing her nose along Twilight's mane. It was a foalsitter to filly gesture, not one grown pony to another. Twilight leaned in anyway. "I wish you could stay," Cadence continued. "But you have to go home."

"But I just said that this is my home."

"You belong with your friends."

"She fooled us all," Twilight Sparkle had said to Applejack. But … "you're being a mite possessive of your brother…" the others had all turned and left her. Friendship was being alone.

"You'll understand in time," Cadence said.

Twilight Sparkle sighed and rested her head on Cadence's mane. "I'm the sixth Element of Harmony," she said. "Magic. Anyone can be magic."

"No. You're extraordinarily gifted. I always knew that. And didn't Princess Celestia tell me that you told her that now that you knew what it was like to have friends, you didn't want to have to turn around and leave them?

"That was before…" Before I knew how much friendship hurts.

Cadence didn't make her finish. "I wanted to talk to you tonight because you were in the mining tunnels with me. You saw it. Shining Armor … well, I love him, but he will just worry…"

Yes, there were certainly things that someponies saw to which otherponies were completely oblivious. Twilight Sparkle well remembered countless shoe-shopping trips where Shining Armor would bound up and down the other shop windows, waving to Twilight Sparkle as he made a fool of himself until she relented and went with him to look at books and quills instead of anything so pointless as fashion accessories. "Shining Armor … doesn't like talking about the mines?"

"I haven't tried," Cadence laughed softly. The music was gone. "I told him that the changeling didn't hurt me and I am completely fine."

The obvious question was, you're not, are you? So Twilight didn't ask. Instead, she asked, "What happened?"

Cadence shifted a little, settling herself more comfortably. "Well, I knew Shining Armor because he was usually hanging around when I picked you up. Your parents used to joke about us."

"Why did you foal sit so much anyway? You're a princess."

For an answer, Cadence pushed Twilight's head to a position where Twilight could see her cutie mark. A sun peeked from under a gray cloud. The pictures had joy and motion all their own, and it was almost possible to hear the laughter of little ponies from under the clouds.

"Sunshine," Twilight Sparkle said softly.

"Yes, you understand. Taking care of little ponies is my special gift. Especially gifted little ponies like you. But you grew up and enrolled in magic school and I went back to my own kingdom," Cadence continued. "We heard of the changelings before Canterlot did. I was sent with my escort to warn Canterlot of the danger. And I was greeted at the door by a blue-and-silver-maned vision of perfection…"

"Um," Twilight Sparkle interrupted. "I know you're marrying him tomorrow and all, but he is my brother, so could we just skip that part?"

Cadence nudged Twilight playfully, but she did as Twilight asked. "The first evening, he invited me to go walking in the fields behind the castle with him. We continued that way for many evenings. By day, he and the castle guard worked at developing the force field; by night he and I walked in the moonlight and talked. One morning he asked me to come to the fields behind the castle with him. I knew that the force field would be up for real in a few hours."

"You knew he was going to ask him to marry you, didn't you?" Twilight Sparkle interrupted again.

"Wouldn't you have? I wandered away for just a few moments. I wanted to decorate my mane with white flowers."

"He's Shining Armor. He wouldn't notice if your mane was braided up with quills and colored purple."

"Well, no, but I wanted to look nice for the cameras as we walked back into the castle." Cadence squirmed away a little and tickled Twilight with her front hooves. "Do you want to hear this story or not?"

"Uncle! Uncle!" Twilight Sparkle gasped, suddenly and painfully aware that she might have been laughing in front of Cadence for the first time this trip. "Yes!"

"I had my guard down because I was looking for perfectly shaped lilies. Foolish, I know. I saw a horrible black pony with holes in her horn. Then green light. And then nothing. When I came to, I was surrounded by mirrors. I saw her – you know, the black pony, only she looked like me – in all the mirrors. I saw Shining Armor propose to her. I saw the flash of the cameras as they walked back into the castle. I saw the shimmer as the force field went up around Canterlot. And then … well, nothing, since I broke all the mirrors."

Twilight Sparkle gasped. She followed Cadence's gaze to her hooves, where thin white scar lines marred the flesh.

"They'll heal," Cadence said softly.

Twilight Sparkle put her head against Cadence's flank. "I'm sorry. How long were you down there?"

"I don't know. There's no night or day in the mines."

"She didn't visit you?"

"Never. She was me. She didn't want the real me showing up."

"But why didn't you break out the way we did? What did you eat? How could you stand it so long?"

Cadence chuckled, nudging Twilight's head with her nose. "There's water in the mines. Food too, edible mushrooms mostly, if you know what to look for. I didn't have enough but I didn't starve. I didn't know the way out, Twilight Sparkle. You were the one who found the mine cart."

"That doesn't answer how you stood it for so long."

"I thought about Shining Armor. And I thought about you. And I thought about the family we'll someday have. Friendship is magic, Twilight. Even friendship among family members."

"And this is why I should stay."

"Maybe someday, you and all the others. Not yet. You and all your friends have other things to do first." Cadence's voice was firm.

Suddenly unsure, Twilight Sparkle changed the subject again. "Did I help you feel better?"

"Very much," Cadence said. Her voice dropped again. She was … Cadence … but more Cadence than Twilight had ever seen as a tiny filly. "You were there too."

"I think Shining Armor should propose to you. The real you. In the fields behind the castle. Early tomorrow morning before the wedding. And I'll come to keep you safe."

"That sounds like a splendid idea."

There are miles between Canterlot and Ponyville. These can be travelled in a few hours in a flying chariot or balloon, a day and a night in a land-bound train, or a couple of days in a land-bound royal procession. A land-bound train with a royal passenger is slightly slower than an ordinary land-bound train since it needs at least one extra car.

After the fifth time that Applejack told Rainbow Dash to relive her sonic rainboom elsewhere above the noise of Pinkie Pie's sound effects – not counting the times when Applejack merely told Rainbow Dash to shut up without any interference from Pinkie Pie – Twilight Sparkle decided that she wasn't sleeping anyway and she might as well not sleep where it was quiet. She slipped out the back of the pony sleeping car. Theirs was the last car in the train. There was a nice space around the back door, with a rail a pony could lean on to feel the wind and watch the track recede behind them. It was a cloudless night. The train was quiet, not rickety or rattly. They would be back in Ponyville by the time the sun was up.

The week had gone by too quickly. Shining Armor had been right about the effort needed to maintain the force field, although not the headaches, thank goodness. Twilight Sparkle had managed with only a little help from Spike and none at all from Princess Celestia.

Suddenly Twilight Sparkle had the absurd urge to write down her latest lesson about friendship and wake up Princess Celestia and give it to her just to get some time together. She had sacrificed a lot by moving to Ponyville – time with Shining Armor, one on one time with Princess Celestia, and, if she'd admit it to herself, the lion's share of her grades. She still studied, just at a far slower rate than before. Twilight Sparkle thought of all the reasons she'd made the move. The wonder she'd felt as the mayor of Ponyville congratulated her on making Winter Wrap-Up a success for the first time ever and the way it felt to be cheered for something that didn't involve magic. The even deeper, incredulous wonder she'd felt when all five of her friends rallied around her, claiming Twilight's crazy spell was their fault and begging the Princess to let them keep her. The Grand Galloping Gala, which had been an utter disaster but had ended with all six ponies plus Spike and Princess Celestia laughing at the way that even horrible parties aren't so bad when shared with friends.

Twilight Sparkle mentally checked off each occasion. Rarity and Applejack guessing horribly at Twenty Questions and Twilight Sparkle letting them win so that they'd win together. Check. Fifth place at the Running of the Leaves. Check. Watching Tank the Turtle win Rainbow Dash's heart. Check. Desperate, Twilight Sparkle magicked a checklist out of thin air and started writing madly. Pinkie Pie's birthday party. Twilight Sparkle's own birthday party. Princess Luna winning the hearts of all the Canterlot children. Check. Check. Check. The quill flew out of Twilight Sparkle's hoof, torn by the wind, and the paper followed moments later.

All Twilight Sparkle could see was five disappointed faces. Ponies glared at her, features distorted from Twilight's tears, then turned and left. Twilight Sparkle was left alone, ashamed, wrong, without either a brother or a sister. The magic of friendship couldn't touch that ache.

"Hi, sugar cube," came a familiar voice behind Twilight Sparkle.

Twilight Sparkle cleared her throat, shook her head in the wind and willed the tears to dry. "Hi, Applejack. Did you get tired of yelling at Rainbow Dash?"

"Fluttershy dared Rainbow Dash to race the train. We think it'll be, oh, another hour or so before Rainbow Dash figures it out."

Twilight Sparkle craned her head around to see the faint traces of rainbow wings off to the right of the train.

"I could do this in my sleeeeeeep," filtered back on the wind.

"See?" Applejack said.

Twilight Sparkle laughed. It wasn't the same as with Cadence. She would not think about Cadence's sad almost-laughs for the whole day before their conversation. Twilight Sparkle's was a real laugh. Applejack would not know there was anything wrong.

Applejack came to the rail beside Twilight Sparkle.

Too close. Twilight edged away to her left. She bumped into another pony.

"Hi," Fluttershy said. "Applejack said we should come keep you company. I hope you don't mind."

Any other night, Twilight Sparkle would encouraged Fluttershy, to let her do the things pony friends did and build the quietly blossoming skills she'd always had. But not tonight. "Maybe when we get home. You two should have a sleepover this time. But right now…" Twilight tried to back up.

Applejack edged around her so Twilight Sparkle couldn't move like she'd wanted to. "We're sorry," Applejack said, low and uncharacteristically serious, even for her.

"Oh, I already told you the changeling queen deceived all of us," Twilight Sparkle said cheerfully. "But maybe if Rainbow Dash is out there it might be quiet in there so time for me to go back to bed, haha."

Fluttershy didn't say anything, but leaned against Twilight Sparkle's flank.

The wind from directly in front of Twilight Sparkle, coming up from the slots in the train porch, was cold. The pony to her left and the pony to her right were solid and warm. Her chest hurt. She had to get out of there. The pressure built … had been building for so long. The way Twilight Sparkle didn't know anything about the way these ponies related to each other, not really. The way it felt to have five concerned and patronizing faces just staring at her when Twilight Sparkle announced the fake Cadence's true intentions and knocked over a glass in helpless anger. Distorted faces shimmering through Twilight's tears, turning to comfort a princess they barely knew. The pressure was unbearable. It was like knives through Twilight Sparkle's sides. "Guys, really, not the best time."

She tried again to run, but Applejack and Fluttershy working together to keep Twilight Sparkle exactly where she was. On a train pinned between two ponies who … loved her? Wanted her? Abandoned her?

A sob threatened to break free, and Twilight Sparkle fought with every last bit of strength she had because it wouldn't be the last, it wouldn't stop, the knives grew and sliced on … and it didn't take long for Twilight to lose the battle. Applejack carefully wiped tears from one side of Twilight's face with her nose, and Fluttershy wiped the other.

Friendship is … magic? Friendship … hurts? Friendship … heals?

"Feeling any better, there?" Applejack said kindly.

"Yeah, I suppose," Twilight Sparkle said. "You didn't need to apologize, you know?"

"Oh, but we did," Fluttershy said. "The wedding was just so exciting, and …"

"I get it," Twilight Sparkle said. She understood, she told herself. She needed to get out the checklist again. Just like there were things in Ponyville that Twilight Sparkle wasn't any good at, there were things in Canterlot that her friends thought were the stuff of dreams. More important than her. That was okay. She understood. The knives threatened to return. She fought.

Fluttershy nudged Twilight Sparkle with her nose. "No. That's not it."

"See, when we have friends, dumpling," Applejack said, "We just plan that they'll always be there. Y'know, Rainbow Dash'll always be showin' off, and that fussbucket Rarity will always be complainin' about gettin' her hooves muddy, and that's just the way things are."

"We didn't realize you might go away," Fluttershy said. "You saved us. If you hadn't gone away, we'd all be down in the mines right now."

"We didn't realize you needed us," Applejack said. "Our fault. Not yours."

Twilight Sparkle was losing the battle against tears again, but this time much more quietly and calmly. "I don't like being the only one doing something," she said, finally and very illogically. "No matter what it is."

"Remember Hearthswarming Eve? Our play?" Fluttershy said. "All of us had to do something by ourselves.

That made all the difference. They'd been actors in a play, all of them. Rainbow Dash had been convinced she was the star. Pinkie Pie had pulled off cutting holes in a map and reading it upside down like only Pinkie Pie could. The play had ended with the three of them together. Talking, laughing, telling stories and thawing the ice that threatened to engulf Equestria. It wasn't Twilight Sparkle on the outside watching the five other ponies interact in ways born of years of practice. It was the three less flamboyant, quieter ponies huddled together, creating the backbone that grounded the louder ponies. And within the two circles of three, six.

Cadence had been right. Twilight Sparkle was going home.