Big Brother Best Friend. Forever.

Twilight Sparkle rubbed her eyes as she sat up in bed. She welcomed the Autumn sun streaming in through her window with a smile and, not long after, a huge stretch and yawn. Twilight had been up all night helping her brother, Shining Armor, plan the finishing touches to a surprise vacation for himself and his new wife, Princess Cadence. Twilight loved her brother and was more than happy to welcome Cadence into her family, but she couldn’t help but feel a little jealous that Cadence was going to get to spend so much time with her brother in an exciting, exotic place and she was going to be left behind in Ponyville. She had shaken the thought out of her head many times in the past few weeks she had been helping him, as it was a selfish and silly thought, especially for a pony like Twilight. She got out of bed and used her magic to pull Spike’s covers off of him.

“Time to get up, sleepyhead,” she said softly to him and nudged him gently with her hoof, "we have a big day ahead of us!”

“Mmmm, no, I don’t wanna roast the hotdogs this time Pinkie Pie, you do it…” he mumbled, obviously still half-asleep. He rolled over and pulled the covers back over his head.

“Whatever you say, Spike.” Giggling a little, Twilight lifted him up magically and put him in a chair at the table. He squirmed a little and almost fell over before he finally woke up and rubbed his eyes.

“Today I’m going to need you to keep track of my checklist for me, as I‘m actually going to be DOING everything on the checklist. Can you do that?” Twilight asked the little yawning dragon.

“Sure, Twilight. Anything for you,” he slurred to her, still trying to become fully awake. He was blinking hard now, trying to focus his bleary eyes.

“Great! You wake up a little and I’m going to go visit Pinkie. It turns out Shining Armor wants to surprise Cadence with the trip at a surprise party and who knows better about parties than our Pinkie Pie?” Twilight smiled at Spike who merely waved halfheartedly as he grabbed the multi-page checklist and started reading over it.

Twilight walked out the door and was almost immediately knocked down by a gust of wind. She steadied herself with a, “Whoa!” and looked to the culprit. Rainbow Dash was trailing a streak of rainbow, making curly-cues in the air and lots of other patterns.

“Sorry, Twilight!” she hollered as she sped past. Making her way back over to the purple pony, Rainbow Dash made a zig-zag that almost looked like the lightning bolt on her cutie mark. “I learned a new trick today and I’m testing it out! Bet it would impress the Wonderbolts,“ she said with a smile and hovered in the air in front of Twilight Sparkle’s face.

“I bet it sure would, Rainbow. Just be careful, alright?” Twilight smiled and shook her head as all she got in reply was a grin and nod before the blue pony was but a rainbow streak in the distance.

Twilight sighed and looked at her pocket watch. “Not too far off schedule…just gotta make it to Pinkie’s without anymore interruptions.” She set off in a trot, eager to get this party planning out of the way so she could focus on her own work. She hadn’t been studying magic as much as she should have with all the plans falling so heavily on her and, though Princess Celestia was well aware of the planning and very understanding, Twilight could tell the Princess was a little disappointed in her progress. Once again her thoughts turned less-than-positive. She was doing all the planning, so why wasn’t she getting anything in return? She would get to see her brother happy… but it was taking a huge chunk of time out of her studies and social life and she was still trying to make this the best surprise ever. Of course, she didn’t HAVE to do the planning, but this was her big brother! She would do anything for him…anything…