The next time he woke up, Shining Armor was lying on the couch, and he was met by a fan which was moving on its own, ventilating his face. Another work of Discord, no doubt... Then all the memories went back to his head. Twilight was getting married, he and Cadence, the Princesses and Twilight's friends went to the library, Discord made chocolate rain indoors, and fianlly Twilight had told everyone her groom was...
No! He couldn't believe it! it had to be some kind of nightmare, or perhaps he misunderstood something! Twilight would never marry a... Draconequus, or whatever he was! When his vision cleared, he saw Cadence was sitting next to him, worriedly caressing his mane and was happy when he completely regained consciousnes.
"Oh, Candy..." he muttered, "I had a horrible nightmare, Twilight said she was marrying Discord..."
Cadence looked down in a nervous way, "Uh, Shiny... that wasn't a nightmare, that was twenty minutes ago,"
Just then, Ranbow Dash and Applejack brought ice bags, in case Shining Armor had a headache or something,
"Man, you fainted like Granny Smith when she doesn't take her pill," Applejack commented, passing the iceback to Shining Armor, then heading upstairs.
"What happened after that?"
"Well, Discord wanted to wake you up with a lighting, but Celestia and Twilight convinced him not to," Rainbow Dash explained, "After that, we put you here and waited for you to wake up, but some of the girls went up to discuss the wedding-"
"WHAT?!" Shining Armor almost immediately stood up nefore Rainbow Dash could finish her sentence and was about to rush upstairs when Cadence stopped him.
"What's wrong, Shiny?"
"I have to do something!" he replied, "I can't let Twiley ruin her life!"
"What are you talking about?"
Shining Armor looked down, "Just imagine her married to the Spirit of Chaos! Her life will become a living hell!"
"What are you talking about? Twilight is very happy, and so is Discord!"}
"That's the point! I don't trust him!"
"Why not? He's changed-!"
"how do we know that?! He could be faking!"
"Shiny!" Cadence stated firmly, "You realize it's not only about you? It's about Twilight being happy!"
"Exactly!" Shining Armor replied firmly, "She won't be happy if she marries him!"
"If you tell her you don't want her to marry Discord, you're going to break her heart! She loves him and he loves her! Besides, you would be doing exactly what she did in the reception or our wedding three years ago!"
"that's different! That wasn't you, that was Chrysalis! And she saved our lives! Now I must do the same for her!"
"whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a sec!" Rainbow Dash snapped, "You don't even know Discord at all! How do you know he is that bad?"
"I have heard of what he did in the past! When he ruled Equestria everything was a complete mess!"
Rainbow argued back, "That's in the past! What matters is the present!!"
Before Shining Armor could reply, he heard Twilight and the others coming downstairs, all laughing. He almost immediately ran towards his sister.
"Twiley, we must talk..."
"Can we save it for later, Shining Armor?" Twilight apologized, "The girls insist that we start preparing the wedding and-"
"Come on, sweetie! We have much to do!" Discord flew down from upstairs and gently pushed his marefriend towards the door.
"Besides, I want to start working on your outifts! You'll look so cute!" Rarity was saying as the group walked out of the library
"And I must see what kind of snacks would you both like, no offense, Dissy, but 'm not a especialist in Draconequus tastes," he heard Applejack
"No problem!" Discord simply stated.
"Wait for me!" just then, Spike ran after the group, trying to catch up with them. Soon, Rainbow Dash joined them.
At last, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna walked downstairs; Shining Armor decided to speak with them.
"Princess, I'm not sure the wedding is a good idea!" he spoke, just as Cadence walked next to him.
"I'm sorry, Aunt Celestia, I've tried to explain him that it is Twilight's decision, but..."
"It's alright," Celestia turned to look at her Captain of the Guard, "Shining, I understand yo're worried about your sister, but she is old enough to take her own decisions,"
"Besides, Discord really changed," Luna added, "He stil makes some of his 'jokes' every now and then, but he's different now,"
"But... But we can't be sure of that! What if she-?!" Celestia lifted a hoof, signaling him to stop.
"You can't judge a book for its cover if you don't even see its content," she said, "You should at least get to know Discord a bit before you judge him. If you still don't like him , you may talk to Twilight Sparkle about it, and she will have the final decision. But please, do not make harsh decisions that might hurt her,"
Shining armor sighed in defeat and looked down, "alright, I guess I could at least get to know Discord..."
"Good,"
This said, she and Luna walked out of the library and took off into the sky, which soon would give pass to the light of day.
Cadence put a hoof on her husband's, "It will be for the best, I'm sure that once you know Discord a little, you two will be great friends!"
"Not in a million years..." Shining Armor thought bitterly as he and Cadence decided to join the rest of the Mane six for the preparations of the wedding.
On Rarity's boutique, most ponies that were hanging out could hear painful yelps coming from inside, but most didn't mind what was going on in there; surely Rarity must have asked one of her friends to help her with one ofher dresses.
"OW! Be careful-OW!" Discord was often interrupted by jolts of pain going through his body, Rarity needed to practice her aim with those damn needles, "I swear I'll have my payback for this- OW!"
"If you stopped complaining, I wouldn't be putting the needle in the wrong place! Now stand still!"
Twilight was giggling uncontrollably, watching as her future husband was between pranking Rarity in revenge or not, but apparently the first one was winning,"Calm down, Dissy!"
"Seriously, Twi, why can't I make my own outfit-? OW!"
"the last time you did that, we had giant spiders running running aroud Ponyville,"
Rainbow Dash trembled at the memory, "Don't remind me of that..."
After a few more minutes, Shining Armor and Cadence walked into the boutique, and Cadence giggled at the sight of Discord being used as a manequin.
"Help..." he muttered in an almost unaudible tone.
Twilight walked next to her brother, "What did you want to tell me earlier, Shining Armor?"
"Well... congratulations on your wedding, Twiley. I hope you two are very happy!"
"oh, thank you very much!" Twilight wrapped her hooves around her brother's neck, "I wanted to tell you! Would you and Cadence like to be my Best Mare and Colt?"
Cadence smiled, "or course, Twilight! We'll be there for you!"
"OUCH!"
"I'm done!"
"Thank heaven! I think you would be great at acupulture, my dear!" Discord was trying to rub where Rarity had put the needles.
"What are you doing, anyway?" Shining Armor inquired when he saw Discord had various pieces of cloth joined together by needles. It looked like a tuxedo long like Discord's body, but he was not wearing pants. the cloth was black, but Discord momentarily changed it to a combination of various colors, before changing it back to black when Rarity set his eyes on him again.
"I'm working on his outfit, but he won't stop moving!" Rarity replied while giving Disccord a slight glare
"How can you expect me not to move if you're puncturing me?!" The Draconequus defended himself
"Well, girls, what do you think?"
"It has a nice ring to it..." Rainbow eyed the outfit, "But black is definitively not his style,"
"Where did Spike go by the way?" Cadence noticed the absence of the baby dragon, but before anyone could reply, Spike rushed from upstairs, carrying a heavy load of cloth.
"Here are the cloths you asked for- WHOA!" before anyone could do something, Spike tripped and rolled down the steps, dropping the cloths in the process; he tried to hang onto something, but to no avail, and he ended up crahsing into Discord, puncturing the needles on his rear.
"OOOOOWWWWW!!"
Everypony thought that maybe all of Equestria had heard that scream; Discord took a look at his rear, and was horrified to see Spike had apparently stuck to him.
Spike started to sweat nervouslyl "uh... Oops?"
"Seriously?! What's next? A porcupine?!"
"Dissy, calm down! It's not that bad!" Twilight tried to calm him down, and received a small glare in return.
"I'll remember something similar when you get stuck with somepony!"
"Twilight, why don't you and the others go and see the invitations and the guest list while I find a way to separate these two?" Rarity was trying to find a way to separate Spike and Discord without hurting the latter, "This might take a while,"
"Rarity, I swear, if you dare putting one more needle on me, you'll wake up next to a porcupine!"
Shining Armor narrowed his eyes; although everypony knew Discord was talking metaphorically, he was sure that Discord was capable of actually putting a porcupine in Rarity's bed. He didn't remove his eyes off Discord until he and the rest of the Mane Six were walking out of the boutique.
"DIscord, stop moving!" they heard Rarity snap
"It's not me! It's Spike!" Discord defended himself
"Oh, sure! Blame me for everything!" Spike added in annoyance, "But my back is itching, an I can't reach!"
"Oh, for goodness sake!"
Everyone laughed. Everyone but Shining Armor, who sitll had a serious look on his face.
He couldn't get the idea of Discord hurting his sister out of his head, but on the other hand, he would hurt Twilight if he said something about that to her. He just wished he could figure out what was causing her supposed 'mind control' -he couldn't forget about that, neither- so that he could snap her out of it and she could regain her common sense. Until then, he had to pretend he actually was happy for her and Discord
On the other hand, perhaps Cadence and the Princesses were right and he simply neede to give Discord a chance. But the simply thought of the Draconequus being tied to his sister was unbearable, not only for the difference in species, but the Spirit's past. And he couldn't imagine how their children would look like- NO! it would not happen! He would save his little sister! He would, no matter the cost!