That night, Celestia was observing the finishing touches on the Gala decorations and was quite surprised and impressed. She turned to her husband, who was smirking.
"And you say it was you who thought of all this?"
"Well, our daughters gave me the theme, but yes, the rest of it was me."
She shook her head, "I always knew you were an old sentimental fool…"
"Old?! I'm not old!"
"Give or take a hundred…" she muttered and smirked.
"You do realize by insulting me, you're insulting yourself since we are the same age, my dear lady…"
"Touché, my love… Touché… But tell me… what made you think of this décor?"
"Isn't it obvious? It's to represent our first Grand Galloping Gala together… The candles symbolize the candlelit dinner we had before our first dance. The roses stand for the walk we took in the garden and had our first kiss…"
"And… the ribbons?" she questioned, even though she knew exactly what he was going to say.
"The ribbons were from what you had on your dress and had one in your mane. You gave me that one after the Gala was over so I could remember you always…" he smiled and stared into the beautiful violet eyes he loved since their first meeting.
She beamed at him in return and stared into his emerald eyes. She was grateful that at least one of her children inherited those dazzling eyes.
They leaned forward to have a kiss.
The girls were standing still as Rarity took their measurements. They were once again in their old room.
"What do you have planned for our dresses to look like?" Twilight asked.
"It's a surprise. Once I finish up here, I'm going to start on the fabric."
"Are you sure you want to make my dress?" questioned Cadence, who was in her true form. "You already have to make dresses for your sisters including yourself. I don't want your hooves full…"
"Don't be silly! I want to design your gorgeous outfit for when Shining Armor makes his vow of everlasting love to you! Besides, I may be a princess, but making gowns makes me feel useful around here."
"Well… all right. Thank you, Rarity."
"You're quite welcome! Now hold still. I have to get your exact size or else the dress is going to look awful!"
When measurements were over, they retired to their quarters, where their husbands were.
Fluttershy fluttered in seeing Discord at the mirror. Through the reflection, he saw her coming in. He turned to her and beamed.
"Ah, darling. You're just in time!"
"In time for what?"
"Helping me decide on a tux for the Gala, of course!"
"Oh, alright." she sat down, facing him.
"What do you think of this one?" he popped on a white tuxedo.
"That looks nice." she replied.
He turned back to the mirror to look and frowned, "Hmm… It's too simple. It is the 'Grand' Galloping Gala after all, so it must be grand!" He snapped and replaced the white tux with a black one and had a top hat. "How about this one?"
"Oh, that's really nice."
"Sweetheart, how do I make sure I have the right tux if you keep saying it's nice?"
"I can't help it. You look handsome no matter what you wear."
"Aw…" Then he chuckled and floated to her, stroking her mane. "You always did know what to say to me…"
"Well, I am your wife, aren't I? I should be able to know what makes you happy."
"So true, my dear. So true. And I, your loving husband, should know what makes you happy…"
She smirked, "Oh? How so?"
He snatched her up and kissed her full on the lips.
Unbeknownst to them, they were being watched by a centaur, who stated, "How sweet, yet so sickly… It's not like I don't know what you're up to, Discord… The only reason you courted a princess was that so you get closer to power… But clearly, you had to abandon your true nature to stay in their good graces… You play with the pretty princess's heartstrings just to make her think you actually love her when really… you don't."
He turned back to the mist and saw the two of them giggling and getting into a tickle fight.
Fluttershy couldn't take it anymore and laughed, "Okay! Okay! I give up!"
"Ha! I am still the tickle champion!" He had medals around his neck and held out a trophy saying '# 1' on it.
She shook her head, "One of these days…"
"Aw, is my wife a sore loser? Funny, I never took you to be as competitive as your sisters."
"Well, maybe it's time I start. For so long, I always lost at all the games my sisters and I played when we were little. It hurts that I have to lose to my husband too…" she looked up at him with big eyes.
He got rid of the medals and trophy, "Sorry… I didn't mean to…"
"It's okay, you didn't know. It never bothered me up until now, realizing I never won at anything before…"
"Well, that's not true."
"Really? Why do you say that?"
"You won me over, didn't you?" he twitched his brow.
She giggled, "I guess you could say that…"
"Exactly! No other pony would have offered their friendship to me like you did! My dear, you had single-handedly wrangled in the Lord of Chaos to do your bidding!"
A medal came around her neck that said 'Best Chaos Tamer'.
He smiled, "Still think you haven't won anything?"
She beamed at him in return, "No." She wrapped her hooves around his neck. "I love you…"
"I love you, too…" They embraced happily.
Tirek said, "I have to give him credit, he's quite a player." He kept watching.
Discord pointed out, "So… At the Gala, Shining will have to give his speech of everlasting love… Whew, sure am glad I'm not in his horseshoes right now."
"I do feel bad that he has to speak in front of a large crowd, but the Ancient Book of Secrets did say it was the only way…"
"Say, I don't suppose I could look at a few pages in it, could I?" he pleaded at her with puppy eyes.
She firmly answered, "No, honey. It has to remain in the Star Swirl the Bearded wing. You know it's too powerful for anyone to look at…"
He sighed, "All right, then let's back to the business at hoof." He started snapping different tuxedos on.
Tirek was rubbing his hands and chuckling. He turned off the mist and proclaimed, "Thank you so much for that tidbit of information…" He called out, "Minions! Come at once!"
The trio obeyed as they rushed in and bowed before him. Suri declared, "You summoned us, Master?"
"Listen carefully: the royals' Gala starts in a few days. It'll be your job to get in and steal the book that you failed to get the first time… You'll find it in a place of the palace called the Star Swirl the Bearded wing. Once you have the book, I need you to grab this creature's attention…" he summoned an image of Discord. "Have him follow you to the labyrinth. I'll be there waiting… Now go!"
The trio nodded their heads and went back to their cave. Suri addressed Coco.
"Make sure you make my dress sparkle!"
"But wait!" said Silver. "How are we going to get into the Gala without a ticket?"
"Well, you better think of something, cause I'll be too busy making our attire for when we get there!"
He furiously thought, You mean Coco's going to be working on the attire… Then he sighed and set out, since it was going to be up to him to figure out how they were going to get into the palace on the biggest night in Equestria.
The moon shone brightly as Cadence and Shining Armor walked through the gardens.
"This certainly brings back memories…" Cadence said when they stopped at their tree.
"It does…" Shining smiled, and then he frowned.
"Are you nervous?"
"A little…" he admitted, "mainly because I don't know what to say… I've written out what I should say, but it doesn't feel right…"
"Just speak from the heart."
"You really think that'll work?"
"Shiny, this is your vow of everlasting love. What you say cannot be written. Instead, you must use your heart to do the talking…"
"But what if it's not enough?"
She used her wing to touch his cheek, "It will be…"
"I just… don't want to fail you…"
"And you won't. I just want you to try, but I won't care if we'll be ponies or Breezies. The important thing is that we have each other."
They stared into each other's eyes and leaned forward to touch horns and kiss.
The six princesses and their husbands were at Donut Joe's donut shop having their traditional get-together before the Grand Galloping Gala. This tradition started after their first Gala together before their wedding. The girls also reminisced how their first Gala went without their future husbands and how they made a mess of things.
Fluttershy wanted to bring her animal friends to the party, but they were to too shy and Fluttershy nearly lost it. This was, in fact, at this Gala that Prince Blueblood came and Rarity was trying to see if he was the one, since she did have a crush on him when they were little. Of course, that was then he revealed his true colors and Rarity had despised him ever since, especially when he tried to be a suitor for her and her sisters.
Applejack wanted to try to sell some apple creations she and Apple Bloom made in the kitchen, but hardly got any sales and the only one she did have was from Soarin' with an apple pie. Rainbow, in the meanwhile, saved Soarin's pie. Spitfire thought it would be cool if they hung out more, to Rainbow's delight, but that went so well with everyone else wanting the Wonderbolts' attention. Pinkie wanted to have a bigger party for the Gala, but the audience wasn't very pleased.
After a while, things just seemed to get out of control and the Gala ended disastrously. The girls decided to retreat to Donut Joe's shop to eat some donuts to get over what happened. They made sure to stay as long as they could, knowing that their mother would be disappointed in them for ruining the Gala. But when Celestia caught up to them, she surprised them by telling them it was the best Grand Galloping Gala she had been to in so long. She admitted to them that the last few Galas she had attended were dull and sad. When their father was there with her, the Gala was always bright and happy, but when he had gone, it became lonely, so when her daughters took matters into their own hooves, the Gala was just wonderful.
Ever since then, the Grand Galloping Gala had been nothing but pure joy.
Twilight raised her mug of hot chocolate and announced, "To another joyful Grand Galloping Gala and may Shining Armor's vow of everlasting love break Cadence's spell at last!"
"Hear-hear!" exclaimed Rarity and raised her mug with everyone else.
They tapped their glasses together, not realizing that this year's Gala was going to be anything but joyful…