Spic politely knocked on the door to the Prince and Princess' living quarters. “Mistress? Lord Shining Armor? I have a letter for you two,” she called out.
“The door is open,” came a response from within.
She pushed it open and saw both laying against one another on their couch. Shining Armor was on his stomach and reading a book. Some fantasy story, no doubt, mused Spic. Cadance was on her back next to him, leaning against his side. Various items from around the room – a quill, a couple books, a snowglobe, and a picture from their wedding – floated over her, being made to dance back and forth. For her part, Cadance didn't seem to pay them any heed; rather, she stared past them at the ceiling.
“Who's it from,” she idly asked.
It looks as though Mistress Cadance is bored again. “From your younger sister, Princess Twilight Sparkle.”
The objects stopped their movement and fell to the floor as she instantly released them. “Oh, give it here!” No sooner had Spic removed the letter from a pocket in her uniform did Cadance's magic pull it away from her. She ripped apart the seal and pulled out the piece of paper.
“Whats it say?” asked Shining Armor, without so much as looking away from his book.
Sometimes it's hard to tell that him and Princess Twilight Sparkle are siblings... but at other times, the connection becomes rather obvious.
“The first part is on her relationship with Big Mac. Everything appears to be going well between them so far. He's been helping her keep calm under stress and she's been trying to get him to socialize more often.” Cadance giggled as she read the next part of the letter. “Seems his family has been teasing him on the prospect of them getting married. They say he'll become the Prince of Apples.”
Shining joined in, giving his own short laugh. “Glad I never got a silly sounding title.”
“Yes, I got off lucky too. The Princess of Love is a fairly nice title.” She nuzzled him. “And it appears that she has taken a couple unicorn students under her wing, becoming a magic teacher. One adult stallion and a young filly, the sister of her friend Rarity.”
“Hope they're ready for a ton of homework and to see more graphs than they ever thought possible.”
“Now, now, you know she grew out of that graphing everything phase.”
“Oh, that's right, she's insane when it comes to scheduling and lists now. Must have slipped my mind.”
Cadance lightly swatted Shining Armor's flank. “You shouldn't tease your little sister so much. She merely has some,” Cadance waved her hoof, trying to think of the right word, “eccentric traits is all. I find them cute.”
Finally looking away from his book, Shining Armor turned his head to face Cadance. “And what's the point of having a little sister if I'm not allowed to tease her?”
“Spic, you have a close sister. Tell him that teasing your sister is bad.”
Spic nodded and dutifully replied, “Teasing your sister is bad.”
“Spic, are you only saying that because Cadance told you to?”
“Yes, milord.”
“Ha!” Shining shot Cadance a cocky grin. “See.”
Cadance rolled her eyes and continued reading the letter, not dignifying that response with another. “This part is most weird. It's a list of apologies for every time she's messed up a spell around us when she was younger, and for the magical tricks she sometimes pulled on you. She, um, even dated each event.”
“Let me see it.” Shining floated it over and flipped it so he could check out that part. He raised his right eyebrow as he read them over. “Wow. I don't even remember ha-Hey! So that's what happened to my old gaming map. I knew I didn't lose it!”
“Well, she did apologize at least.” Tossing the letter aside, Cadance wrapped her hooves around him, hugging her husband. “I'm so happy Twilight has a special somepony. When you meet him, you aren't going to be overprotective, are you?”
“She's an alicorn princess, I doubt I have much to worry about. I'll just have some ciders with him and talk for a bit.”
“Hm...” Cadance looked upward, her eyes losing focus as she was thinking something over. “You know, all of her friends of single and Hearts and Hooves day is this month. Ma-”
“No.” Shining tapped her nose, getting her full attention. “We've talked about this before. Just because a pony is single doesn't mean they need help finding a boyfriend or girlfriend. Some ponies are actually happy being single. Right Spic?”
Spic raised an eyebrow. Great, as if sister doesn't talk to me about dating enough, now they will be. However... She smiled, and innocently spoke up, “If I may, your highnesses, I do have a small suggestion.” They glanced over to her with curious eyes. “Perhaps you two can make a competition of this. If Princess Cadance can get a partner for the majority of them, she wins. If she can't, then Prince Shining Armor wins. You can discuss the stakes with one another of course.”
“You know sweetie, that's not a half bad idea,” Cadance said to Shining, before giving him a small kiss on the side of his muzzle. “What do you say?”
“I don't know, maybe.“ He placed a bookmark in the book and shut it, likely giving up on reading any further. “What is the wager going to be?”
“I should take my leave now. I'm sure Span is slacking off in my absence.” Spic curtsied to the pair and walked out the door, closing it behind her as the two started coming up with things to put on the line. She imagined how it would happen; the wagers would start small, of course, but grow as neither wanted to be out done. With their resources, they could put nearly anything on the line. When this is over, I'll sure to end up with extra work, but it shall be worth it to see Mistress Cadance excited again about something other than imperial business. The final result should be quite amusing as well. Oh, I simply must let Span know about this.
***
“You want me to do what?!” asked a surprised Twilight. The four of them – as Spike was there too – sat around her kitchen table. Twilight had been thrilled with the sudden visit of her brother and sister-in-law, but then the matter of this bet was brought up.
“We need a third party to be the judge and to deal with the loser,” said Shining. “The loser being Cadance, of course.”
Cadance smacked his side with her wing. “And, it has to be someone skilled with transformation magic. Along with that, seeing as you are their friend, I thought you'd be the perfect pony for the job.”
“And, just to make sure I heard you correctly,” and I really hope I didn't, “the loser has to be stuck in a form picked by the winner for one month.” Both Shining and Cadance nodded. “Right, and you've already picked the forms.” Once again they confirmed it. “Ok then. Should Cadance fail to get at least three of my friends partners, then she'll be stuck as an earth pony, with no access to flight or magic. And should she succeed, then Shining Armor will be stuck in the form of... ahem, in the form of a heavily pregnant mare.” Twilight raised her hoof. “I just have one question.”
“Of course, ask away,” said Cadance.
“Are both of you out of your minds?! You're taking bets on my friends' love lives. That's insane.” Twilight glared at them.
“Twilight, just think about this, if I'm successful with even finding one of them a long term mate, wouldn't it be worth it?” Cadance stood and walked around the table to Twilight's size. Her wing extended and fell across Twilight's shoulder. “Just think of how happy you are with Big Macintosh. They could end up with that same happiness. If I end up failing with of them, then fine, everything stays the same. But if I succeed with even just one, I change her life and make her so happy!”
Twilight grunted and wrinkled her nose. “If it's really for them, then why do you need a bet?”
“Well, people do work faster when there's something on the line.”
“Spike!”
Spike shrugged his shoulders. “Hey, I'm just saying, there's a reason the library gets clean faster when you promise me an extra gem.”
“Eeeeeerg...” Twilight facehooved, letting it slowly slide down her muzzle and hit the table with a soft clop. She sat quietly for a moment, with her eyes shut and a scowl etched on her face.
“So?” asked Cadance, wanting a response.
“I still think you're crazy but... fine. I'll be the judge.” Twilight's eyes snapped open and she raised her hoof again. “But, we're going to lay down some ground rules!”
“Like what?” asked Shining.
“First of all, if they say no to the idea, you accept and move on. No pushing them to get them to say yes.” Twilight turned her head, looking straight at Cadance. “Cadance, I don't mean to sound rude but when you get your mind set on something, you can be a little, well... pushy.”
Cadance gasped. “I-I am not pushy! Shining, am I pushy?”
Shining grabbed a book from the nearby counter. “Hm, How to Serve Pony.” Opening it to the first marked page, “Oh, yes, very interesting. Hm?” He looked up over the top of the book. “Sorry honey, I um...” He pointed to it. “I couldn't hear you over the book.”
Cadance crossed her front legs and pouted. “Anyways, I shall not be pushy. I promise.”
“Good,” replied Twilight, before snatching the book away from Shining and floating it back to where he got it. “Rule number two, for it to be considered a success, they have to agree to a second date and say that it too went well.”
“Two successful dates?” asked Cadance, before waving off the question. “That's simple.” She shot Shining Armor a competitive stare, along with a confident smile. “Hope you enjoy waddling everywhere and having to go to bathroom every five minutes.”
“Doesn't matter, because you're going to lose and finally see that trying to set up everypony on dates is a bad idea.”
“She's done this before?” asked Twilight. Some of their time together was told to her, but she couldn't remember any stories about Cadance trying to get dates for everypony.
“Yeah. It only ended when she tried to get our school mascot to date our rival's mascot.”
“Hey!” She stepped forward and pointed at Shining. “You said you'd never tell Twilight about the incident!”
“Wait, incident? What exactly happened?”
“I-it was nothing.” Cadance turned away from them, trying to act nonchalant.
“Nothing huh?”
“The mascots agreed to do it, and they even wore their costumes. However, each one was actually just setting up a trap for the other. Our mascot ended up hanging upside down for the night, while the other one got the zipper to his costume glued shut.”
“It was a one time incident.” Cadance pulled Twilight close and put a wing around her again. “Twilight, I shall find the perfect partners for each of your closest friends.”
“And one last rule, no love magic.”
***
Later that day, Twilight had invited Big Macintosh to come meet her family. Twilight and Cadance got wrapped up in their own conversation about various things – books, Starswirl the Bearded, princess like activities, etc – and wandered off to a different part of the library. Meanwhile, the two stallions were left on their own in the land of the awkward.
Shining Armor sized him up. Never thought Twily liked really big stallions before. He is kinda handsome though, and has nice eyes. Hate to think it, but if I was Aegis, I'd probably find him attractive. “So... Twily says you have two little sisters.”
“Eyep.”
“Then you know the standard big brother to little sister's boyfriend talk?”
“Eyep”
“Good, saves me the time.” With his head, Shining Armor motioned toward Twilight Sparkle and Cadance. “They're going to keep at it for awhile. Want to go grab some ciders and exchange embarrassing stories about our little sisters?”
Big Macintosh smiled. “Eyep.”