Every pony's tale always ends with that 'happy ever after', doesn't it? The princess gets saved by the prince in shining armor, they kiss, they marry, then the rest of their lives becomes completely joyous and wondrous filled with love and a cherry on top...
Oh how they lie.
As everypony watched the horse carriage ride off into the distance of Luna's night, everypony at the wedding assumed that they were instantly happy and started to kiss and embrace one another. They saw the flowers thrown and who caught them, the 'I do's, everything that a wedding needs to be solid. And so with that in mind, the pop love music played loudly as everypony celebrated one of the most unforgettable weddings in pony history as they assumed the best out of such a perfect marriage.
---[({x})]---
Shining Armor and Cadence sat in awkward silence in the carriage. Their forced smiles were gone, replaced by looks of exhaustion and dramatization.
It was an unbearable amount of silence, and so Shining Armor found it best to break it.
"So, um..."
"Yeah..."
That failed. It was beyond clear that neither were in the mood to talk. But after another moment of silence, Shining Armor felt it was enough.
"That was... quite the night, wasn't it?"
Cadence groaned.
"O-okay, I'll stop now..."
"No, it's okay Shining, I'm just..."
"I know, Cadence. The invasion was a bit--"
"Invasion?! Shining, you cheated on me!"
"I what?!"
"You and that monstrous changeling. Don't pretend you never bedded with her, Shining Armor!"
"She was disguised as you and I was hypnotised!"
"But she was another mare, wasn't she?"
"But she--"
"Was she?"
"Um... yes, but--"
"And what is cheating?"
Shining hesitated before mumbling something incoherent.
"What's that?"
"I said 'it's going out with another mare'. But I thought she was you!"
"Me? Ha! So that's what you think, hah? That we were basically the same?"
"I didn't mean it like that..."
"You did mean it like that! You just thought that just one mare wasn't enough!"
"She mind controlled me!"
Cadence huffed, then folded her hooves and looked snubly away into the window. Shining Armor sighed, then rolled his head to the window.
"Why did you let yourself get captured?"
"Excuse me?"
"Why did you let the changeling capture you so I could 'cheat' on you?"
"I didn't just let myself get captured!"
"Then what happened, then?"
"Well, I was in my bed one night, and then she just... wrapped me in green fire, I guess. I was too scared to remember anything!"
"Then why didn't you break out right away?"
"W-well, I didn't know how..."
"Then how did you and Twily get out?"
"The mind-controlled bridesmaids were in the way!"
"Oh, is that all? Did the changeling make them stronger or something?"
"..."
"Did she?"
"No..."
"They were just small little unicorns that didn't even have any military training. Couldn't you just push them out of the way or something?"
"Well... um... they were scary."
"Really?"
"Yeah!"
Shining Armor rolled his eyes.
"Hey, how do you even know any of this anyway?"
"Twily briefed me right before the after-wedding party. You and Pinkie Sty were playing Monopony or something."
"Hungry, Hungry, Dragons, Pinkie Pie, and if you were just 'briefed' then that means I know more about this then you do!"
"Alright then, tell me exactly why you just mopped around until Twily found you."
"Well, um... l-like I said, I know more of the details! It's... complicated."
"You are such a damsel in distress..."
"Hey, I saved you, remember?"
"Yeah, right after Twily freed you from the cave, and right after she freed you from the changeling's gooey stuff!"
"How do you know all these details? I thought Twilight just 'briefed' you!"
"This is Twily we're talking about, she told me enough to write a novel when usually I get enough for a trilogy; that's briefer than I've ever seen from her."
"Oh, right..."
Another moment of silence, and not even a bump from the road stopped it. Finally, after a long moment of contemplating the landscape, Shining Armor let out a sigh.
"Cadence, I'm... I'm sorry for the outburst. It's just..."
"I know, Shining Armor, I'm sorry too--"
"It's just that you just had to wait for somepony to find you instead of getting yourself out. I'm not just a knight in shining armor, sometimes you need to carry your own weight."
Cadence gave Shining Armor an unamused look.
"What?"
"I was just apologising before you just had to lecture me like that."
"But I... um..."
"Shining, you're not just some instructor either. You've been lecturing and commanding guards more than you actually talked to ponies. You didn't even tell Twilight yourself about the wedding!"
"W-well I was too busy keeping the shields up!"
Cadence gave him another unamused stare as her own horn lit up.
"Oh..."
"And don't forget Celestia, Luna, and all the other captains and higher ranks in the Royal Guard!"
"Yeah..."
Cadence wanted to continue, but felt that she said enough. And so came more silence in the carriage... until eventually Cadence realised that they hadn't yet reach a destination.
"Wait a second... where are we going?" Cadence suddenly asked.
"I... don't know." Shining Armor turned his attention to the stallions pulling the cart. "Hey, guys! Where are we going?!"
The carriage stopped.
"We... don't know." one of the stallions admitted with a shocked and confused look.
Cadence face hoofed.
"Well... looks like we've been riding around for nothing." Cadence mused half to herself.
"Yeah..." Shining Armor replied with a look similar to Cadence's.
"So... where should we go now?"
"Wanna go to Donut Joe's?"
Cadence opened her mouth to argue, but then stopped to reconsider.
"Sure, why not?"
