As the Crystal Empire came into view, Prism Flash and Shining Armor had just finished telling the others about one of the adventures they had been on back when Prism was still in the Royal Guard.

“…And that’s how we defeated the dandelion ninjas,” Shining said as he brought the Crystallux into the landing zone near the train station. “Good times, eh, Prism?”

“Yeah,” Prism replied, smiling. “Of course, that’s far from the craziest adventure we ever had. There was that one time we faced some ‘disciple of Discord’ or whatever he called himself…”

Shining frowned. “I thought we agreed never to speak of that one again…”

Prism shrugged. “I don’t even remember how that one ended, anyway,” he said.

“Fascinating,” Twilight said, putting her hoof to her chin. “I’ve heard stories about pegasi who could externalize their weather magic and use it like unicorn magic, but I heard that the last pegasus to have such an ability lived 200 years ago…”

“Yeah, Dad came up with a lot of awesome techniques that uses his ability for offensive combat,” Rainbow Dash said. “He calls them ‘Invocations’.”

“Ooh, ooh!” Surprise exclaimed. “Dashie, remember that time you were really sick, and Dad organized a whole cheerleading squad and used his Spark-Quake technique to create a “Get Well Soon” message that you could see from your hospital room window?”

“Heh, how could I forget that?” Rainbow Dash replied, chuckling at the memory. “It was almost worth getting sick just to see both Mom and Dad in cheerleader outfits. We might still have some pictures…”

“Sounds like you guys are pretty close,” Shining said, bringing the chariot to a stop. “Well, we’re here. Now where’s Cadance? I told her to meet us here at 12:00…”

“Well, then it looks like I got here just in time,” a voice came from above as Cadance flew down to meet them. She smiled at Shining. “Good to see you’re all here in one piece. Weird stuff tends to follow Shining Armor like a magnet.”

“Yeah, everything went smoothly,” Shining said. “No gas leaks, no crashes, no need to use the Crystallux’s weapon system to defend against vicious monsters…”

“…Wait, what was that last one?” Twilight asked.

“No crashes,” Shining said immediately.

Twilight shrugged and looked at her old foalsitter. “Hey… I know I’m a princess now, but can we still…”

Cadance smiled. “Of course, Twilight,” she responded, and the two began their old foalhood rhyme and dance:

”Sunshine sunshine,

Ladybugs awake!

Clap your hooves

And do a little shake!

The ponies watching had mixed reactions to this.

“No matter how many times I see it, it’s still very sweet,” Applejack said.

“AAAAAAAAW!” Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Surprise cooed, since they had never seen it before. Scootaloo, on the other hoof, had a different reaction.

“Bleh,” Scootaloo groaned. “That’s got to be the sappiest thing I’ve ever seen.”

“Tell me about it,” Rainbow Dash agreed. “I mean, my sister and I are close and all, but you’d never catch me doing something like that even with her.”

“Now, now Dashie, don’t lie,” Surprise chastised her. “We had our own little rhyme when we were younger. Don’t you remember? ‘Little cloud, little cloud, don’t you cry. Lift yourself up and soar through the sky!’”

“Right… heh,” Dash said. “I… guess I forgot.” As the two sisters reminisced, Twilight and Cadance finished catching up.

“So this… Starlight Glimmer… she’s your student now?” Cadance asked.

“Yeah,” Twilight replied. “I invited her to come to the party so she could meet the two of you, but she won’t be here for another day or two.”

“Now that most of us are here,” Prism said, looking at everypony present, “I have a very important question to ask our esteemed host, Princess Cadance. …Pause for dramatic effect…” He took a deep breath. “What’s for lunch? I’ve been looking forward to see what the food is like in the Crystal Empire.”

“You haven’t changed a bit, Prism,” Cadance said, chuckling. “But I hear you loud and clear.”

“Wait!” Rainbow Dash suddenly exclaimed. “Do you hear him… crystal clear?”

Silence.

Prism suddenly burst out laughing. “Ha! ‘Crystal clear’… good one, Dashie!”

“I’ve been waiting for an excuse to use that one,” Dash replied, giving her dad a hoofbump.

“…Yep, you are definitely related,” Shining deadpanned.

After they had lunch, Shining and Cadance started going over the guest list.

“Let’s see here… Prism’s family, the Lulamoons, the Riches, and the Argents have already arrived, Love Tap and her son should be arriving later today, and Flash Sentry said that he invited his sister and his two brothers but they won’t get here until Thursday,” Cadance listed off a few names.

“Don’t forget Maud Pie, the other Wonderbolts, Cheese Sandwich, Cheerilee, the Oranges, and all those other guests whose names escape me at the moment,” Shining Armor reminded her. “And then there’s the rest of my old unit, but they should be here tomorrow evening at the latest.”

Prism smiled. “It sure has been a while since I’ve seen the rest of the old gang… I wonder how Azure Blade, Minty Wintergreen, and Flare Striker are doing…”

Shining grinned. “You’ll never believe this, but Azure and Minty got married!”

“Really?” Prism asked in mock surprise. “I never would’ve seen that coming. Then again, those two were about as subtle as you and Cadance were back then.”

Shining smiled. “Yeah, even I still can’t believe it sometimes.” He nuzzled his wife. “But then I look at her and remember that everything worked out in the end.”

“Minty Wintergreen… Hmm…” Pinkie mused. Then she shrugged. “Eh, Minty’s a pretty common name. She’s probably not the one I’m thinking of.”

“Now hold on a sec,” Applejack said, frowning. “Today’s April 2nd, right? Your anniversary’s not until the 21st…”

Shining Armor nodded. “Yeah, I figured Twilight would be able to plan things out better if she got here a few weeks early. I just hope she doesn’t try to overdo it…”

Twilight laughed. “Oh, please, Shiny, when have I ever overdone anything?”

Everypony stared at her.

“…Okay, maybe a few times. But I can assure you, this will be the best anniversary party the two of you could hope for, and absolutely nothing will go wrong whatsoever.”

As they headed to the town square, Pinkie shuddered, and her mane became even curlier than usual for about a second before going back to normal. “Uh-oh, that was my ‘tempting fate’ Pinkie Sense…” she mused. “Something tells me that that these next few weeks are going to get really, REALLY crazy, even for me… I just hope that these next few weeks don’t feel like they took several years like these past few hours did…”

“…Pinkie, who are you talking to?” Cadance asked.

“…It’s complicated. You probably wouldn’t understand,” Pinkie said, unusually serious.

“Word of advice, Cadance: don’t try to understand Pinkie Pie,” Twilight told her. “Just… trust me on this one.” Suddenly they heard Rainbow Dash shout, which wasn’t hard since they were all still in close proximity to each other. She pointed to the town square, where a familiar blue unicorn with violet eyes and a distinctive hat and cloak was standing on a stage, clearly just about to make a big presentation.

“What the hay is SHE doing here?”

Author's Note

Oh, hey, look, I finally updated. And I end it on a cliffhanger. Mwahaha.

Yeah, this chapter went heavy rewrites. As you can see, I ultimately decided to incorporate most of season 5 into this story. I don't think I'll have to re-edit the first two chapters to mention things like the CMC's cutie marks, though; there wasn't really a need to bring them up before anyway.

See you in another year and a half. ...Not really. I've finally got some decent inspiration for this story, especially since I cut some of the unnecessary subplots. So I should hopefully have another chapter fairly soon, but no promises this time.

...I wonder if anyone's going to get the specific reference I was making with Prism Flash's abilities...