The Equestrian Monomyth - Book 2 - Complexs of Disharmony

Two days had passed, and we were getting ready to get back to Ponyville, as we wanted to have a simple rural wedding, with all our friends and relatives. The morning of the third day came slower as usual, as Twilight couldn't sleep, counting every second, millisecond and microsecond that lasted to our wedding, and thus keeping me awake too, but I couldn't be more agreeing with the sleep lacking.

Still a bit sleepy, I decided to check on Celestia just before leaving, and left Twilight taking care of all the stuff we had adquired to arrive on time to the train station. When I got to the throne room, I was surprised by Celestia inviting me to talk to her in her room, in private. I couldn't refuse, even I was a bit worried to where that could lead.

When I was already inside and the door closed, I quickly asked:

"So, Cellie. How you're taking it?"

She gave me a mild smile: "So so. I'm having some nightmares, but no big deal. I'll live."

She looked so despaired, that I couldn't help myself but to hug her: "You know that you can count with me for anything, Cellie. Anything."

"I know. And I'm so grateful for that." She said with a sobbing voice, hugging me back too.

"Cellie... only one last thing..."

"Yes, rascal?"

"Who was..."

"No, rascal, no. You know that I can't tell you, because I know you'll go straight for his head. Just let it go, like you said the other day to me. Just let it go... Just... hug me..." She interrupted me, almost crying the last phrase, hugging me even tighter.

Suddenly, our hearts started beating as one, and, without even noticing it, our foreheads were touching each other, and our lips were about to merge in a kiss...

"Ow!"

"Whoa!"

We both turned our heads away and broke the hug.

"Oh... sorry." She apologized, smiling and drying a tear from her new right eye. "How improper from a princess, trying to kiss the groom of her protégé!"

"Ah. Don't worry. It was your fault. You're just too cute and you were too close from me." I smirked.

"Stop teasing me, you rascal!" Celestia laughed. Then, the smile dissapeared from her face. "And please... don't tell anypony about what happened. I don't want them to think that I'm a whor..."

"Shhhh, shhh, shhh!" I interrupted her, putting a finger on her muzzle. "You did what you have to, to protect your kingdom and your subjects. And I'm proud of you for that. Not anyone, or anypony, can do what you did."

Now Celestia smiled with a truly smile of joy and relief.

"Thank you, rascal. I was scared that you were thinking ill about me."

"Come on, Cellie. You know that you have a place here already." I put my open hand in my chest. "Well, I'm leaving now, but I'll check on you from time to time. Ok?" I told her turning around, but still looking at her and giving her a thumb up.

"Ok. Bye-bye!" Celestia waved a foreleg in a 'bye-bye' motion. Then, she added with a sweet crooning voice: "Surprise me!"

In the train station, Twilight and me were surprised with Shining Armor mounting into the train too.

"Big brother? Why are you taking the train?" Asked Twilight. Then, she put her forelegs in her head, concerned: "Don't you tell me that Celestia bucked you out ag...!"

"No!" Her brother interrupted her. "It's just a new schedule of service. There are two Royal Guard captains now."

"Two Royal Guard captains?" Twilight was surprised.

"Yes... In case that one of them... fails..." Explained Shining Armor with unhiding grief. "And we'll be doing weekly shifts. Mine starts today."

"But it wasn't a week since you started!"

"Celestia forwarded it, so I could assist to your wedding."

"Ahhh." Twilight sighed, relieved. "And where are you gonna spend the rest of the week?"

"Celestia recommended me to stay in Ponyville too, so I could learn what the meaning of 'I don't favor anypony' is."

"Ahh! Ha ha ha ha ha!" Twilight and me laughed, but quickly apologized when we saw the unicorn's grimace:

"Sorry, brother, it wasn't on purpose."

"Sorry too, brother-in-law." I apologized too. Shining Armor just made a disdainful gesture.

"And Cadance? She's not coming with you?" Asked Twilight, looking around.

"We... had an argument..." Said Shining Armor with a somber face.

"You had an argument?! But if you were so cool only two days ago! What happened?!" Twilight was more curious than concerned.

"I don't want to talk about it..." The stallion concluded, turning his head away, and we weren't able to get anything else from him in all the trip...

When we arrived to Ponyville, and we all had greeted each other, Twilight, who was worried about her brother being so sad all the trip, came closer to Pinkie Pie:

"Hey, Pinkie. You got something to do right now?"

"Well, I was about to held a birth-hay party for one of AJ's relatives! Why?"

"A birth-hay party? I've never heard of that!" Giggled Twilight.

"Of course you won't! I've just invented it!" Proudful and joyful proclaimed Pinkie Pie.

"Well, that's perfect then, because I want you to cheer my brother up."

"Oh!" Pinkie startled, discovering about Shining Armor's bad mood. "Come on, Twilight's brother, don't be sad. I don't like ponies to be sad. In fact, I don't like anything to be sad. In fact..."

"Pinkie! That's enough. He had an argument with his marefriend. That's why he's like that." Twilight interrupted her rambling.

"Just an argument? And why that should be reason to be sad? I have arguments all the time, and that doesn't make me sad! I'm sure that something else happened! Come on, tell me pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease..." Pinkie repeated almost breathlessly.

"Alright! We're...! We're just giving us a time off, and that's all!" Finally decided to talk the unicorn stallion, thing that neither Twilight or me could back in the train. Amazing how Pinkie manages to loose the ponies tongues out.

"Then... that means that you're single?!" Smiling, Pinkie's eyes turned each one into a heart, and multitude of blinking stars appeared around her.

"Don't get any ideas, Pinkie!" Giggled Twilight.

"Why not? Come on, Shinny! I'm gonna make you happy, happy, happy!" Happily bumped Pinkie, practically dragging the stallion against his will.

"No! Wait! Twily! Little sister, help me! Help me out!" Shining Armor waved a foreleg, scared, looking to Twilight and Pinkie over and over again.

Twilight half closed her eyes, smirked and waved a hoof: "Bye-bye, brother! Have fu-uuuuuuun!" Then, she turned to me: "Love, I'm gonna try the wedding dress that Rarity has made for me. It'll surely look gorgeous! Sure you don't wanna watch?"

"Nah. It gives bad luck to see the bride's wedding dress before the wedding itself."

Twilight shrugged an eye and tilted her head a bit: "But that doesn't make any sense, love. Sounds like some sort of superstition."

"It is. But I'll rather not tempt the luck anyway."

"Ow. Well. Then, what are you gonna do?"

"I'll check in the jewellery for our wedding rings. I think that the special one that I ordered for me must be ready by now. Later, I'll ask Pinkie to attend our wedding party."

"But why did you waited to the last minute to ask her that?"

I kneeled to her level and gave her a peck in the forehead and in the muzzle: "Because, I'd like spontaneity in our most special moments, as that'll make them unforgettable and truly special, like this that we have is."

Twilight blushed: "That's why I love you so much..." and gave me a passionate kiss and hug.

Then I added: "And... because you know that Pinkie works better under pressure."

We both laughed.

"You're rightfully right, my love! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!" Twilight concluded, laughing the lungs off.

After picking up the rings and taking care of other wedding-related details, I headed to Sweet Apple Acres, where Pinkie was really cheering everypony, even the depressed Shining Armor. I could see her in the distance, blowing a bugle in her muzzle, and I couldn't help myself but smile. Everything was so perfect. My lifetime dream was gonna become true, and I'll be happy ever after with the mare of my dreams. And nothing will stand on my way.

"Yippeeeeee! The fun has just starteeeeeeed!" Was yelling Pinkie, standing on her hinder legs and with her forelegs raised over her head. Then, she opened the eyes and saw me, and the bugle fell from her muzzle: "What... what he's doing here?" She mumbled, dumbfounded.

Suddenly, I saw Pinkie galloping to me:

"Out! I want you out from my party! I want you out from all my parties! Out!!" She started bucking me, with an angry look, but as she's not really the bodybuilder type, her hits was just tickling me.

"Stop, Pinkie, stop! Ha ha ha ha ha!" I laughed, thinking that it was another of her pranks.

"I told you to get out! GET OUT!" She was becoming progresively more angrier, but I was too amused to notice it.

"Stop tickling me, Pinkie! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" I continued laughing.

'He's laughing of me! He's laughing of me!!' Pinkie thought, and her eyes became red: "Hadou-ken!"

Pinkie's attack took me completely off guard, and with no shield to protect me, the powerful fury-filled energy ball impacted directly on my body, shooking it up to the bone. I fell several meters away and hit the ground with my buttocks. There I stayed, with a slightly bent leg, a hand in the grass and the other arm in front of my face, just in case, scared, sore and surprised.

"Pinkie... are you trying to kill me...? Are you nuts...?" I could barely speak, with almost no air in my lungs.

Pinkie's eyes turned back to normal, and she started to look her still smoking forehooves: "Oh no oh no oh no. What I've done?" She asked herself, concerned. Then, she looked to me again: "Gus, are you alright?! GUS!!" She galloped to the human, who was already lying motionless and unconscious in the floor.

"Wow, Rarity! You really exceeded yourself this time!" Twilight was joyfully turning around to see herself in the mirror, wearing an astounding Rarity-made wedding dress.

"Oh, darling! It's nothing like that at all! I'm sure I could have done it even better!" Giggled Rarity, with a hoof in the air. "But, as soon as you start walking through Ponyville wearing it, I can bet than half of the village's stallions will be wanting to marry you!"

"Come on, Rares, don't let my coltfriend to hear that, or he will get mad with you!" Giggled Twilight.

"Ow! Do you think he'll start chasing me again?" Giggled Rarity as well.

"What? Rarity, did he used to chase you for some reason?" Asked Twilight, suspicious.

Rarity startled: "Oh, no! It was just once! He scared me to death... wait, I think I can improve this splendid dress even more, let me take my tools and..." Rarity quickly changed the subject of the conversation.

"What are you talking about, Rarity? It's perfect! Beyond perfect! It's..." Suddenly, Twilight's happy compliment come to a sudden stop, and she, with a pained face, put a hoof in her chest.

"Darling? What's happening? Your heart is hurting again?" Asked Rarity, concerned.

"Oh sweet Celestia! I felt as if something awful has just happened!" Twilight declared, worried and scared. Then, she looked to the Caroussel Boutique's entrace: "Oh no oh no oh no, this only can be... NO!!" She shrieked the last word and darted out the house-shop, lightening her horn as she was casting a life-force detection spell: "Oh no, oh no! He's badly injured! Hold on, my love! Hold oooooon!!" She screamed while galloping in direction to the human.

By the time she reached him, he was already at the hospital. Twilight ran up to nurse Redheart, who was in the reception:

"Where's he?! Where's he?!!"

"Sorry, miss Sparkle, but he's in surgery right now. You need to wait outside."

"In surgery?!!" Twilight panicked. "Let me thru! I can heal him! I've studied his anatomy better than anypony!!"

Redheart looked to the doctor in charge, and he nodded in approval. Twilight then quickly put on a doctor's gear and darted inside the surgery room. There she helped the medics to stabilize and save the life of her beloved coltfriend. But he didn't regain conciousness. The damage had been massive. Desperate, she decided to go back to her house to send a message via Spike to Canterlot, so a copy from the book with the life-force healing spell were sent to her.

Exiting the surgery room, she came to see something that she had missed when she entered: Three of her friends and her brother.

"AJ! What happened?! Please, tell me, please!" She asked her first, as she knows that the cowpony will tell her the truth.

Applejack started looking nervously to Twilight and Pinkie Pie two or three times. Pinkie, who was sitting at her side, with her mane and tail deflated and closed tearful eyes, slightly nodded.

Then, with the ears down, Applejack looked to Twilight, concerned: "Twilight... Pinkie... shot him..."

"What?... What?!!" Twilight almost couldn't believe it. Then, she, trembling, looked to the party mare: "Pinkie... it's that true? It's that true, Pinkie?!!" She yelled, with tearful eyes.

Pinkie nodded: "Sorry, Twilight... sorry..." She sobbed.

"Pinkieeeee..." Twilight cried, saddened to the deepest core of her heart. "How could you, Pinkieeee? The day of my weddiiiing! The day of my wedding, Pinkieeee! How could you, Pinkieeeeee? HOW COULD YOUUUUUU?!!" She yelled, putting a hoof in her chest.

Pinkie trembled, clenched her tearful eyes and bite her lower lip so hard, that she hurt herself, sharing Twilight's pain.

"I hate you, Pinkie! I hate you!! I don't wanna see you again!! EVER!!" Twilight screamed, deeply in grieve, and using her telekinetic powers, roughly threw Pinkie Pie out from the hospital, making her rolling in the ground for some seconds before stopping.

Quickly, Rainbow Dash flown before Twilight: "No, Twilight! Don't hurt Pinkie, please! She didn't do it on purpose!"

Twilight angrily looked at the cyan pegasi: "And now is when you appear, Rainbow Dash?! Where were you and your super powers when needed most, huh?!
Where?!!" The veins was clearly visible on Twilight's neck and temples.

Rainbow Dash eyes opened wide and she scrambled her mouth: "Sorry, Twilight. Everything happened so fast, I couldn't..."

"'Everything happened so fast'?!!" Twilight scolded her with an angry mocking tone: "Faster than you, the fastest pony in Equestria?! Buck you, Rainbow Dash! What's the point of being so fast if you can't save your friends, you piece of idiot?!"

Dashie landed, sat on her haunches, lowered the head and the ears, closed the eyes and silently cried.

"Twilight, tha's enough, girl." Tried to calm her down Applejack. "Ah saw all tha happened, she hadn't time to react!"

Then, Twilight looked at her, enraged: "You saw all that happened, and you did nothing?! Everything happened before your very eyes, and you didn't figured it out?! Where do you have the brains, in the flank?!"

"What in tarnation?" Applejack turned the head for a moment, shocked, then, she, in a mixture of anger and sadness, replied: "Twilight, it never crossed mah mind tha somethin' like tha could happen! Honestly!"

"Of course, it never crossed your mind! I wonder if anything at all cross your stupid mind!" Twilight angrily scolded Applejack.

"Ah'm not stupid!" Replied Applejack, with sobbing voice and tearful eyes.

"Yes, you are! Stupid, blind and retarded!"

And like RD, AJ sat on her haunches to cry too.

"That's enough, little sister, you're hurting your friends. Stop already, please." Now it was Shining Armor's turn.

"And you... you did it on purpose, didn't you? You just sat there to let him die, because you hate him and you want him dead! Isn't?! Deny it!!" Yelled Twilight to her brother, enraged.

Shining Armor didn't replied. He just stared his sister, sure that any reply will be worse than just stay silent.

Nurse Redheart approached Twilight and put a hoof in her shoulder: "I'm sorry, miss Sparkle, but you're making too much noise and are disturbing the patients. I have to ask you to leave, please."

Twilight shrugged an eye and raised a foreleg, pointing the two mares and the stallion: "I don't want to see anypony of you again, do you hear me? Ever!" And she quickly turned around and galloped outside the facility.

"Little sister, wait!" Shining Armor called her and galloped after her, but Twilight teleported and dissapeared from his sight.

Shining Armor stopped, sighing annoyed, and looked around mindlessly, catching to see Pinkie Pie slowly walking in the distance. Worried, he galloped to her.

"Miss Pie, wait!" He soon reached her. "Are you going home? Let me accompany you!"

"I don't want any company. Just leave me alone..." Meekly said Pinkie, with sobbing voice.

"What are you saying, miss Pie? You cheered me when I was down, so let me return the favor! We can do something together!" Smiled Shining Armor.

"Thank you, Shinny, but I don't need any company where I'm going..."

Shining Armor startled, concerned, and quickly, he put himself in front of Pinkie Pie and stopped her, putting his forelegs in her shoulders: "Miss Pie, please don't tell me that you're going to kill yourself."

"Let me go, please!" Cried Pinkie Pie, and tried to escape, but Shining Armor held her with his magic:

"Miss Pie, wait! Don't do it, please! Don't give up so quickly! I'm sure that my sister will forgive you!"

"She's never gonna forgive me! Didn't you hear her?! She hates me, and she's gonna hate me forever! FOREVER!" Cried Pinkie again.

"Miss Pie, I tried to kill her coltfriend too, and she forgave me! So she will with you!"

"That's different! You're her brother! Her family! She'll always forgive you, but I'm nothing to her! Nothiiiiiing!!" Still insisted Pinkie, with sobbing voice, bucking quickly, trying to escape from the stallion's magical grip.

"That's not true! You're her family too! Ponies don't need to have a blood bond to be family, miss Pie!"

Pinkie stopped crying and her struggling to escape, and looked to Shining Armor, perplexed.

"That's right!" Continued Shining Armor. "And they don't even need to be of the same species! When my sister and the monkey get married, he's going to be my family too, and he's not even a pony! I finally understood it!" Then, he released Pinkie from his magical grip: "And that's why my sister is going to forgive you. Just, give some time to her, and she will." He concluded with a soothing voice.

"But what if he dies?" Still asked Pinkie, doubtful. "Oh no! What I'm gonna do then?" She put both forelegs in her head, despaired.

Shining Armor chuckled: "Don't worry, miss Pie. That bucking piece of idiot it's like as made from steel. He'll live."

"But...? But what if not...?" Pinkie wasn't convinced yet.

Shining Armor smiled and petted the party mare's mane with a foreleg: "He will."

Pinkie, recovering hope thanks to the unicorn's assurance, smiled too at last.

"Thank you, Shinny." She said with quivering and tearful eyes, and tightly hugged him, and, before he could stop her, she kissed him in the muzzle.

"Buckings horns!" Shining Armor stumbled back. "But why did you do that, miss Pie?!"

"Because I like you, like... I like like you!" She answered, with more cheerfulness. "Do you... do you like me, Shinny?"

Shinning Armor hesitated to answer, rubbing the mane in the back of his neck with a foreleg: "I... hummm... well... really..."

"Is that a yes? Is that a yes?!" Happily bumped Pinkie Pie, and her mane and tail poofed again, and she started to jump around with her joyful 'sproing' sound: "He likes me he likes me he likes me he likes me he likes me!"

Suddenly, Shining Armor heared a sobbing behind him, and he turned around... facing to no other but Cadance herself!

"Cadance, love! But... but since when are you there?!" He asked, startled.

Cadance, with a sad grimace and tearful eyes, didn't reply. She just shooked slowly her head, walked a bit backward, and then flown away, crying.

"Cadance, my love, wait!!" Screamed Shining Armor galloping after her. "Noooo! Wait! Come back here, let's talk! Let's talk!" But there was no way he could reach her. He then slowered his gallop, until stopping, and there he stood, staring fixedly to the sky until his former marefriend dissapeared among the clouds.

Pinkie trotted to him, concerned: "'My love'? Weren't you two broken up?"

Shining Armor scowled: "We are now..."