Each of the 6 friends decided to stay in Canterlot to help clean up after Shining and Cadence’s wedding. They thought it was the least they could do. After all, they were the Elements of Harmony, and what was Harmony without at the very least helping your friends, or in Twilight’s case, family. Well, 4 of them thought so anyways. Over breakfast Twilight Sparkle explained that this would be a nice thing to do, Rainbow rolled her eyes, folded her hooves across her chest and complained, “Isn’t that what Celestia has servants for?” AppleJack scrunched her eyes at that comment and was about to respond to it, when Twilight calmly patted her on the shoulder, and shook her head.
Rarity, blinked, gave a few soft tears, and whined, “Moi, clean, no no no, I don’t think so! That would absolutely ruin my hooficure, not to mention what would Canterlot’s elite, like Fancy Pants think if they saw me, ugh, clean. No! I couldn’t possibly. ”She promptly tossed her main and yawning, picked up her tea with her magic and took a small sip.
Twilight smiled, and after taking a sip from her own cup, calmly spoke “I didn’t want to mention this, but you leave me with no choice, right before the changeling invasion, you two thought I was crazy, that I was upset over my brother’s wedding. That I was being silly, and completely wrong. I wound up being transported into the underground mines under Canterlot. Were friends, we help another, because that is what friendship means. But if that’s not enough then…” and here her voice rose, almost to that of Luna’s Canterlot Voice, “YOU OWE ME ONE!” Twilight then levitated her cup and once again took a sip, before setting it down. “And if that doesn’t convince you, Fluttershy?” Rainbow’s and Rarity’s eyes, which had become huge and unblinking, quickly turned to their other friend. For her part, Fluttershy seemed very interested in her leftover toast, but after a quick glance at Twilight, who nodded at her, she sighed and looked directly at Rarity and Rainbow, her eyes grew large and red, seemingly to grow bigger and bigger almost as if they were drawing the two mares into her very soul. With a terrified scream the two friends clutched each other, and quickly agreed to help clean the large mess. Fluttershy, meanwhile was looking down, while she softly combed her mane with her hooves.
With one last sip of tea, Twilight smiled at the other mares, “Well, now that that’s settled, since breakfast is over, let’s get started girls.” With a bounce in her hooves, she jumped off her chair and quickly headed towards the garden. The others quickly followed. Spike, who had been keeping out of the way, had grabbed a last pancake, stuffed it into his mouth and followed.
Glancing at the enormous mess around her, Twilight did what she always did when faced with chaos. Turning to her number one assistant, “Spike, ready a checklist. We need to get this castle organized.” Spike, as usual, had a parchment and quill ready to go. Within moments he had begun writing furiously.
Pinkie meanwhile, was bouncing around picking up discarded plates, glasses and other utensils, while gobbling up any leftover tidbits, she only paused at the leftover wedding cake. Surprisingly, for her, she actually grabbed a large leftover box. Placing the cake in the box, she bounced to the kitchen putting the cake in the refrigerator. The wedding cake was safe, but the rest of the leftover treats were fair game.
Fluttershy, who had finally made friends with the animals in the garden, was directing the birds to pick up the streamers from the trees, and the fourfooted woodland creatures began picking up the confetti and any misplaced items, as well as finding any over indulged pony or two, that had had too much of AppleJack’s finest. A few of the ponies were in very compromising situations. Finding Prince Blueblood with three maids, nearly caused Fluttershy to faint.
Applejack and Rarity were folding chairs and tables, while Rainbow was gathering anything that the others couldn’t reach, as well as sneaking off to goof off for a few moments, when she could get away with it. Twilight, was of course, organizing everything, with the help of Spike.
They had just crossed off the last purple pastry table, when Shining Armor and Princess Cadence stepped out of the castle. The two had originally planned to leave right after the wedding for their honeymoon in Marebadoes, but after the events with the Changelings, and the wedding, both the bride and groom needed an extra night to recuperate. Their train was leaving that afternoon, but till then they were helping out.
Shining used his magic to push a broom around, while Cadence used hers to “hold” a dustpan. As they neared Twilight, she smiled at the couple, but then frowned in concentration, as if trying to remember something. Her eyes grew larger as she realized what she’d forgotten.
“Shining, before I went to sleep last night, I thought of something.”
“What Twi?”
“Well, Alicorns live for thousands of years and now that Cadence is a full grown mare, she won’t age anymore for at least several centuries. But as a unicorn you will. Have you thought about what you’ll do when that happens?” Twilight blinked as she waited for Shining Armor to answer her question.
Shining, lowering the broom from his magic and taped his hoof to his chin, before reching over and holding Cadence close,“Hmmm, so one day I’ll be an old broken down nag, while I’ll have a smoking, hot filly as a wife. Just call me Hugh Heffpony.”
“W…H…A…T” Screamed 7 mares. The last thing Shining remembered for several hours were the same 7 mares turning on him.
XXX
Two weeks later, After Shining, slowly and carefully, had inspected the castle guards for the first time since the wedding, sighed and finished his story.
“And that’s how you got the two black eyes, the cracked ribs, the torn ear, and your tail…umm “Bobbed”?” Asked one of the guards, his face completely blank.
“And that’s how I got two black eyes, the cracked ribs, the torn ear, and my…” Shining visibly winced, “tail Bobbed.”
XXX
Shining was very lucky the guards had been trained not to laugh.