A Gentle Voice Calls Him Father

A mere week after Shining Armor and I saved Canterlot, and possibly all of Equestria, from the   Changeling threat, and our real special day is already planned. Twilight and her friends, along with a lot of other ponies, worked overtime to make sure tomorrow would be one of the best days of my life. I had to keep myself from eating too many of Applejack's little apple tarts to make sure I could still fit into the beautiful dress Rarity made for me.

With her interest and taste in fashion, I offered to set her up with my, uh, appearance-oriented brother, Blueblood, and the face she made took me by surprise, and made me want to giggle. She explained to me she'd already been acquainted with my brother, and had no wish to spend more time than necessary with him. Since he's an usher for tomorrow, I knew she had to work with him during fittings. I gave her a sympathetic pat on her shoulder, and apologized for bringing him up. He may be a little hard to deal with at times, but I love him.

I made a stop to the gardens to visit with Fluttershy and her bird choir. Their melodies and harmonies were nearly perfect, and it was so easy to make the gentle corrections they needed. All the very last minute practicing was doing wonders for the choir. Even the one who had a bad cold only a week before, causing him to be way off key. I gently asked Fluttershy to make sure he would be okay to sing for the wedding, or to ask him nicely not to perform for it. I hoped I wasn't being too critical, since that was how Twilight spotted my fake in the first place. I wanted my day to be perfect, but I didn't want to be so pushy that Twilight might think there was something wrong with me.

My last check in, in making sure everything was perfect for tomorrow, was with Pinkie Pie. I knew she had everything planned out, I was excited to see how the ballroom looked, now that she was nearly done. She showed me the tables where our lovely dinner would be served, and the area where there were a few foal games set up, like pin the tail on the pony. I knew that the younger ones of the many guests we invited would enjoy the games, and even some of the older ones as well. Ever since Aunt Luna visited Ponyville for Nightmare Night, she's been rather obsessed with standard carnival games.

After that, I was lead out to an area of the garden that was clearly set up for dancing. I had a short chat with the mare who would be playing music for us, I think her name is Vinyl Scratch, and spied all the long tables. Pinkie explained those would be set up with the desserts and other after dinner treats.

“It's looks like I've seen all there is to see, then,” I remark to Twilight as I head back for the castle.

“You're not visiting Rainbow Dash?” Twilight asks me. “She's been training really hard for tomorrow. Are you sure you don't want to at least go see her?” she asked, looking up and down from her list.

Just before we go inside, I point up to the sky.

“See that?” I asked.

She squints up to where I'm pointing. Way up in the sky, there are several hard too see points, and a barely easier to see trail of rainbow, flying around.

“Is that...Rainbow Dash?” she asked, turning back to me.

“And several members of the Wonderbolts,” I added. “Aunt Celestia told me Rainbow wants to be accepted into the Wonderbolts one day. I pulled a favor with the captain. He owed me one. There's no need to try to visit her. I think she's happy as can be, right now.”

We went inside, and I invited Twilight back to my room for a talk before bed. Almost immediately, she protested.

“Oh, no,” Twilight protested. “We're going out tonight. Come on, I already made reservations for us.”

Reluctantly, I agreed. After a short freshening up, Twilight and I were on our way out into the streets of Canterlot. Twilight didn't say which restaurant we were going to, so I followed her, until I was fairly sure I didn't know where we were.

“Twilight, where are we going?” I asked hesitantly.

“Here,” she said, as we reached a rather run down, well, run down for Canterlot, old club that used to be popular in the big band days, long before I was born. She opened the door for me, and I hesitated. I trust Twilight Sparkle. She is, after all, the reason I was able to save the day, and the reason I get to marry Shining Armor tomorrow, instead losing him to that Changling queen. She never let any odd detail escape her notice, and if they needed to defend themselves, they could. Finally, I trot after her, and start into the club.

“Why are we-” I started, but was quickly interrupted.

“SURPRISE!”