• Published 30th Sep 2012
  • 18,176 Views, 2,114 Comments

The Study of a Winning Pony - Ponibius



Twilight Sparkle gets assigned to study the insanity that is Cloud Kicker's life for a sociology report. It's just a matter of surviving her circle of crazy friends, paramours, and disappointed family members to do so.

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Under Pressure

The Study of a Winning Pony

Chapter 31: Under Pressure

Organizing my brother’s wedding was becoming one of the least pleasant tasks I had done in my entire life. The months usually leading up to such an important event were infamous for the copious amount of mane-tearing stress it caused. So naturally, somepony had the brilliant idea of compressing all of that pain and anguish into a few days of chaotic clusterbuck.

On top of that, this was a royal wedding, so the expectations were much, much higher. That meant certain ponies had to be invited, specific decorations set up, entertainment arranged, festivities set up for the entire city to mark the unique occasion, and so forth. This was the first royal wedding that had taken place in a long time, and ponies were looking forward to it. For all intents and purposes, I might as well have been running a holiday for all of Canterlot.

Then there was the not-so-minor issue of the bride and groom. Shiny was effectively a non-factor in the preparations for his wedding. He was so busy with being Captain of the Guard that he hadn't had time to give me any kind of direction for his wedding. From the way he and the rest of the Royal Guard were acting, it was as though Canterlot was under siege. Not that I had been given anything but the runaround about why the Guard was so edgy; it definitely wasn’t for the wedding. No, instead all I had been given was a pat on the head by my brother as he dumped everything for the wedding on me and his fiancée.

Speaking of whom, let's not forget about Cadance—or Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, as she liked to be called now. While Shiny at least couldn’t help due to his work, Cadance was just plain unhelpful. My friends and I had been working hard to make this wedding happen, but no matter what we did, no matter how hard we tried, the bride-to-be hated everything we did. She didn't like the design of the cake, she didn't approve of the entertainment for the reception, she hated all the food that was going to be served, she wanted her dress to be redesigned—the list just went on and on from there. Worse still, in addition to nothing pleasing Her Royal Pain in the Plot, she never even gave me or anypony else an idea of what would make her happy. Nothing beyond an “It needs to be perfect,” or something along those extremely vague and unhelpful lines.

The final straw for the day came when Cadance told me in the most condescending manner possible that the flower arrangements were unacceptable. Not that she would tell me what was acceptable—only it needed to be perfect, as befitted a royal wedding.

If not for the facts that this was my brother’s wedding and that Princess Celestia had personally asked me to plan everything, then I might very well have told Cadance where she could shove her floral arrangements. I might very well have gone crazy already if my friends hadn’t come along.

By the time I entered the Kicker Compound, I was in a pretty foul mood. I was yanked out of my ruminations when something buzzed less than a foot over me. Instinctively jerking my head down, I craned my neck to see what had nearly hit me.

Rainbow Dash was hovering over me, a mischievous grin creasing her lips. No doubt she was quite proud of herself for having given me a fright by nearly giving me a hair cut with how close she had buzzed me. “Hey. Twi. What's up?” she asked, badly pretending that she hadn't done anything.

I put aside the issues with Princess Stuffiness and gave Rainbow the best smile that I could. No sense biting her head off for a harmless prank she did all the time in Ponyville. “I’m just making sure you're doing alright on your end for the wedding day preparations.”

“Yeah, sure, no prob.” She waved off any worries there might be. “I could do a sonic rainboom in my sleep.”

“Good, because it's really important.” I pulled out my wedding preparations checklist for the day and checked one of the boxes. In truth, I didn't have any worries where Rainbow’s performance was concerned. In a rational and sane world, the only realistic thing that could go wrong is that Rainbow would suffer a last-minute injury. Shame the world was anything but rational and sane where Cadance was concerned. I wouldn't have been the least bit surprised if she had come by and told Rainbow she hated her rainboom, and then demanded that I arrange a last-minute show by the Wonderbolts, or that the rainboom should be done in different colors.

“Yeah, 'course. Any other stuff, or…?” Rainbow pointedly spread out her wings. “Don't wanna stop too long, or I'll lose my rhythm.”

I was about to reply when a Kicker Compound guard stepped up to us. “You didn't crash did you, Rainbow?” The familiar-sounding mare gave Rainbow a friendly smile.

“What? Me, crash?” Rainbow snorted derisively. “That's crazy talk. You're crazy, Kicker.”

“Whatever you say, Thunderbutt.” The mare paused for a brief moment before shifting her grin to me. “Hey, fancy meeting you here, Duchess.”

I blinked as her identity finally dawned on me. “Cloud? Is that you? I almost didn't recognize you in your armor.”

Cloud Kicker raised a leg and spread out her wings, wing blades gleaming as she struck a pose. “Not used to seeing me looking this good, Duchess?”

“It’s something different alright.” It took a moment for me to regain my mental balance. It had been a few weeks since I last saw Cloud, and from Rainbow had told me, they hadn’t been the best weeks for her. “So, is this where you've been? It has been a while since I last saw you.”

“Yeah, been spending some time with the family since...” She trailed off and her gaze fell to the ground. Picking up on her friend’s discomfort, Rainbow wrapped a supportive wing over her back.

I internally grimaced. I had heard that Cloud’s mom had died, though the details surrounding that were a mystery to me. Rainbow had said she had been sworn to secrecy on the matter by Princess Celestia herself—she had even sworn me to secrecy to keep the fact she had told me that much a secret. That had only piqued my curiosity, but there wasn’t really any way for me to find out what had happened unless I wanted to ask the princess directly. While Princess Celestia is wonderful and perfect, getting a straight answer out of her is ... problematic.

Feeling like I needed to say something, I turned back to Cloud. “Um, you doing okay? I’m sorry to hear what happened. I could only imagine what you're going through.”

Cloud grunted and nodded, her demeanor making it clear she didn’t want to talk about it.

Rainbow bit her lip and I could see the struggle in her face. She was probably flailing like I was over what to say to a pony who had lost her mom. This wasn’t something I had much experience with, and I’m not sure experience would really help with something like this anyway. Maybe there was a book that gave good advice for helping a friend who had lost one of their parents, but I hadn’t read it. That was a bit of a grim subject to read about without at least some prompting.

“I'd be willing to help if you need anything ,” I offered. “Um, as long as it doesn't get too much in the way of the wedding preparations I'm doing anyways.” I looked at my to-do list and winced, now feeling pretty foolish. I was talking to a pony that had just lost her mom, and I was putting that behind a wedding I was planning. Shame I did need to prioritize the wedding, otherwise nothing would get done. Not that it felt like anything was getting done, thanks to Cadance.

In any event, I put the list away to concentrate on Cloud. “Sorry, don't mean to be selfish or ... I don't know where I'm going with this now. It's probably time I put my hoof in my mouth now.”

That at least got a chuckle out of Cloud. “Nice to see you're the same as ever. And don't worry, I'm ... well, I wouldn't say I'm fine, but I'm holding up. Thanks for the offer, though.”

“At least that, then. So...” I looked her up and down. “Why are you wearing the armor?”

“I'm helping out with some clan stuff as long as I'm here,” Cloud said with a shrug. “It’s normal to do what you can to help out with the clan when you’re at the compound.”

“It's probably a bit different than cloudpushing,” I remarked. It was probably a good thing that one of her best friends was also her boss on the weather team. Otherwise she might have been putting her job at risk being away from it for so long, even with bereavement leave. Though part of me had to wonder if she would be coming back. The death of a parent could cause a pony to rethink what they were doing with their life.

“A bit, yeah, but I'm managing,” Cloud said. “I did go to college for this kinda thing.”

“So when were you planning on coming back to Ponyville?” I asked, trying to get a feel for what she was thinking.

“Don't really have a firm timeline yet,” Cloud said, her tone lacking her usual energy.

Rainbow stepped in to cover for her friend. “She can take her time. She just has stuff to work out, is all.”

“I'm sure Cloud knows what she's doing.” I gave her the best supportive smile I could. While Cloud and I had a rocky relationship starting out, we had gotten along much better lately. The idea she might not come back to Ponyville was ... disquieting.

Cloud returned her own slight smile. “I'd like to think so.”

“I wish I could say the same.” I let out a huff as I reviewed my checklist. “Life has been a bit hectic for me the last few days.”

“Yeah?” Cloud asked. “Wanna talk about it?”

Rainbow snorted and took off into the air. “If you guys are gonna talk about feelings and emotions and how you feel about your emotions, I think I'll get back to practice.”

I rolled my eyes at the very Rainbow response to our ‘mushy stuff’ conversation. “Go ahead if you want to, Rainbow. Don't let me stop you from your practice. Just keep doing what you're doing and I'm sure we’ll be fine for the wedding.”

“Yeah, gotta ration my ‘being awesome’ time.” Rainbow moved to take off, but she stopped herself short. “Um ... you guys need anything, just lemme know, alright?”

We told her we would, and she took off at top speed. Cloud chuckled as she disappeared from view. “Good old Dash.”

I couldn't help but smile at the prismatic trail Rainbow left in her wake. “She is most definitely her. Figures she didn't want to stick around for a conversation that didn't involve her or something she liked to talk about.”

“Nah.” Cloud shook her head. “It's more that she gets twitchy about emotional stuff. Doesn't want to seem sappy or un-cool.” She settled her attention on me as she switched topics. “Anyway, what's been bothering you?”

I let out a sigh as the events of the last few days pressed down on me. “How about doing all the planning for a wedding with a few days' notice, and all for a mare that I don't approve of marrying my brother?”

That caused Cloud to wince. “Well, that doesn't sound like much fun.”

“I can confidently put it in the anti-fun category,” I grumbled. “You would think my brother would at least have gone through the trouble of telling me he had a fiancée, or at least a fillyfriend. You know, before asking me to plan his wedding.”

To my surprise, she actually chuckled. “Somepony's feeling a bit possessive, I see.”

I quirked an eyebrow. “Possessive? I'm not being possessive.”

“Just saying, you keep stressing that he's ‘my’ brother.”

“He is my brother,” I pointed out. I wasn’t being possessive of my BBBFF. That was ridiculous. Naturally, I only wanted what was best for him. That’s why he should have consulted me before making such a big, massive, life-changing decision like who he was going to marry. If he had, then we probably wouldn’t have been in this situation to start with.

“Doesn't mean you get to tell him who to marry.” After a moment, she amended, “Granted, asking you to plan the wedding on such short notice is a bit of a jerk move.”

“I'm a bit more upset about that, yes,” I said.

“Don't these things usually get planned months in advance?” she asked.

It was an effort for me to not crush my list. “You would think a royal wedding would get that level of preparation, but here I am, arranging what might be the most important social occasion of the year at the last minute, being treated like I'm some sort of organizational automaton.”

Discomfort played behind Cloud’s eyes, and she carefully wrapped a wing around me. “That doesn't sound very fair.”

I sighed as my shoulders slumped. “Yeah, but what am I supposed to do? Say no to helping with something this important? It is my big brother's wedding.”

“They're practically taking advantage of you,” Cloud pointed out.

“I didn't want to complain.” I looked down at the ground as the feeling of being trapped fell over me again. While helping with the wedding was becoming a nightmare, not helping seemed like an even worse idea in the long term. I didn't want to permanently damage the relationship with my brother and the rest of my family, not to mention disappoint the princess. I didn't even want to think about that.

“You can tell me how you feel about it all.” Cloud gave me a reassuring squeeze with her wing. “It's not complaining then. Just ... venting.”

I shook my head. “I wouldn't want to bother you with it. I mean after what you're going through...”

“Wanna know a secret?” Cloud asked. “Sometimes I like helping other ponies with their problems. As long as I'm busy helping you, I'm not thinking about what a mess my life is.”

I couldn't help but smile. “That's one way to look at it.” I took a long breath before going into what was bothering me. “I guess... It's frustrating. I had all of this dumped on me, and at the end of the day, I don't even like the bride. The mare's going to be my sister-in-law, and I barely feel like I know her anymore. Cadance ... she was my foalsitter when I was little, and she used to be great. I used to love spending time with her. But now...” I shook my head. “She's awful. She's mean, cold, condescending, and barely even acknowledges me. And that’s just me—that doesn’t even start with how mean she’s been to my friends. She's completely different from the pony I knew.”

Cloud frowned. “She did seem a bit wound up when she stopped by to check on the wedding preparations. Might just be a bridezilla thing, though.”

“Maybe, but I don't know,” I said. “The Cadance I knew wouldn't have let a wedding turn her into something awful.”

“Just saying, stress brings out the worst in ponies, and a wedding is really stressful.” She shrugged helplessly. “I don't know her, though. But if she was your foalsitter ... well, that was a long time ago. Ponies change.”

“It's looking like she's changed a lot,” I growled.

“Sorry to hear that.” Cloud gave me another supportive squeeze before continuing. “I hope it's just a wedding stress thing, and she settles down and starts being nice again once it all blows over.”

“I hope so.” My ears wilted to my head. “Not much I can do about it now, though. Shiny’s going to marry her and that’s the end of it.”

“Hm.”Cloud tapped her chin ponderingly, and then her ears perked. “You know what I think?” She snatched my list away from me and quickly tucked it into her crupper.

“C-Cloud! That's my list!” I protested. “There's a lot that I still need to get done yet!”

“I think you need to relax for a bit.” Cloud poked me on the nose as she grinned. “No more wedding planning, I'm taking you out on a date.” Before I could raise a proper protest, she placed a hoof over my mouth. “Besides, your work ought to be more efficient if you're not stressing out, right?”

I bit my lips out of annoyance. “That is statistically true...”

“Well then, wouldn't the most efficient course of action be to start relaxing right now instead of stressing and arguing over whether you can relax?”

I considered snatching my list back but held off for the moment. “It would be irresponsible of me to just drop the wedding preparations for something like a date, you know.”

“How long have you been working on it?” Cloud asked.

“Since I got on the train to Canterlot yesterday,” I admitted, despite knowing how that would sound to her and give her more ammunition to argue with.

“Aren't you past due for a break, then?”

I rubbed at my face, knowing where this line of questioning was going to end. “Maybe a little...”

More than a little.” She poked me in the chest. “Now come on, or I'll...” Her face took on a contemplative look. “I'll track you down and flirt with you. In front of your brother. And Princess Celestia.”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “You wouldn't dare.”

“We both know I would.” Cloud's grin lost none of its luster, despite the fact that my scathing glare could have stripped paint.

I sighed and nodded, no longer having the energy to fight her. The last few days had taken most of the fight out of me. “Fine, you win. You'll get your date.”

“Hey.” Cloud tipped my chin up so that we could look each other in the eye. “You know I'm just goofing around with you, right? If you really don't want to...”

“No, no, it's fine, really.” I rubbed my face as I realized how grouchy I must have sounded. “I think it's just that I didn't realize how much I had ground myself down over the last couple of days. It’s a bit hard to be bright and sunny when you’re getting rained on all day.”

“That’s what I figured,” Cloud said. “So let's relax, goof around, have a little fun.” She looked herself up and down. “Maybe I should freshen up and put on some date clothes first? Full armor and wingblades don't exactly say ‘relax and goof around.’”

“Probably not,” I said with a smile. “I better do the same. I could probably use a shower after running around Canterlot all day.” Hopefully my family wouldn't have too much of a problem with me having a date during the lead-up to the wedding.

“Where do you wanna meet up and when?” Cloud asked.

I considered that for a few moments. I had pretty much gotten all I had planned to get done for the day, or at least as much I could hope for. Not like I was going to help anypony by running myself into the ground changing things randomly that Cadance wouldn't approve of anyways. “How about in three hours? We could meet at my place or yours. I’m not picky.”

Cloud stroked at her chin as she thought. “Hm. Yours if you want me to pick you up for the whole date experience, mine if you're nervous about your brother or family finding out.”

“My place should be fine if it's not a problem.” I knew it was a bit awful of me, but part of me wouldn't have minded if Shiny found out that I was dating somepony, even if it was more of an experimental type of thing. It wasn’t as though Cloud and I were together or anything like that. Of course, it would be a little bit funny to see my BBBFF chase off Cloud. Well, I would be mad too for him running off my date, but I’m sure we would be able to laugh it off later.

“Sounds great,” Cloud said. “See you then.”

I smiled and nodded. “See you then.”


I returned to the manor to prepare for my date with Cloud. After a quick shower, I headed back to my room to finish fixing myself up. My mind was going over the possible things we could do for the date. Going out to eat was always a classic, though we’d already done that. Maybe we could go to the theater? The problem with that was I needed to get back home in time to get a full night’s sleep. It was one thing for me to go on a date during the leadup to a wedding, but another if I let the date actually interfere with the preparations.

Speaking of the wedding, I had thought of a few ways I might be able to speed things along, as well as some changes that might actually make Cadance happy. It seemed a remote possibility, but it could happen. Maybe I could have Pinkie escort her around? If anypony could put Cadance in a good mood (assuming she hadn't just turned into a horrible, awful pony who didn't deserve my big brother), it was Pinkie. It would probably be wise to give them time-consuming tasks for the day. That would give Cadance less room to cause me more trouble.

I returned to the planning board I had set up in my room, which by now was covered in notes about everything that needed to get done—timetables, mostly, and other bits of information I considered important. I didn't want to forget any of the ideas I had come up with over the last day, so I began marking off everything that we had gotten done. From there, I began making edits for things that hadn't gotten done and new things that had come up. One thing led to another and soon I was in the Organization Zone, my marker flying across the board.

Just because my brother hadn't bothered to tell me he was getting married and his bride was a stuck-up jerk didn't mean I wouldn't do the best job I could to give Shiny a good wedding.

“Twilight, you doing alright in here?”

I jerked and jumped at the sudden interruption. I spun around to face Mom, my heart feeling like it was trying to beat its way out of my chest. I hadn't noticed that she had walked into the doorway. It made me wonder how long she might have been watching me before she had finally spoken up. “I'm fine. Totally fine. Yup, totally and completely fine. Everything's perfectly okay. Just doing some work on the wedding. You know, the one I was given no warning about by my brother and am now expected to do all the last minute planning for?”

Mom gave me a disapproving frown and spoke in a tone that brought her full maternal authority to bear. “Twilight...”

My ears fell flat against my head. “Yes?”

Mom sat down on my bed and patted the spot next to her. “Maybe you should sit down for a minute, dear.”

I dutifully and automatically did as she instructed. “Yes, Mom.”

“Are you feeling okay?” She ran a hoof through my mane, which to my surprise had become a mess. I must really have been working myself to the bone during the day. “You're looking a bit stressed.”

“It's...” I stalled as I considered what to say. I could have lied or tried to reassure her, but I just didn't have the energy to take those options. Not that they were likely to work anyways. So instead, I went with the truth. “I'm trying to arrange an entire royal wedding in a hoofful of days.”

Mom sighed wearily. “Yes, that's a bit much even for you.” She wrapped a leg around my shoulders to draw close for a nuzzle. “How are you holding up?”

I bit my lip as I considered her question. “Well, I'm still massively annoyed that Shining never even mentioned he was dating Cadance until I got the wedding invitation. And then I was asked to organize the entire thing.” All the anger and frustration that had been building up within me over the last couple of days finally boiled over. “If he didn't need an organizer would he even have invited me to his wedding?! And then there's ‘Princess Mi Amore Cadenza’ acting like a complete stuck-up nag instead of the wonderful foalsitter I remember, but everypony just wants to make excuses for her or say it's not her fault she's acting so terrible! Because a wedding is an excuse to treat everypony so horribly!”

Mom blinked in surprise at my outburst. “Oh, Twilight.” She drew me into a tight embrace. “This has been hard on you, hasn't it?”

“A bit, yeah,” I said as I hugged her back. It felt good to have my mom hold me. It felt a little silly now that I was an adult, but I couldn’t deny it was making me feel better.

“I'm sorry all of this got dumped on you.” She let out a long sigh. “And here I told your brother to get on top of telling you the big news. I thought he at least wrote to let you know he needed to talk to you.”

“I think he mentioned that at some point, but...” I shrugged. In context, one of my previous conversations with my brother made a lot more sense. Though it couldn’t have been that hard to just spit it out and tell me he had been dating Cadance. Not like he didn’t have plenty of time to figure out what he was going to say to me.

“I don't know what's gotten into Shining.” Mom shook her head. “He's usually more on top of things than this. Maybe his job is making him busier than I realized. It’s not an excuse, but it can be easy to let things get away from you while you’re busy with the daily grind.”

“Maybe.” I leaned against Mom, wanting something to make me feel better at the moment. “I just ... why didn't he tell me?!”

“To be fair to him, his wedding was supposed to be much later than this,” Mom said. “Princess Celestia asked them to bump it up as a morale boost, what with there being some sort of crisis everypony is keeping hush-hush about.” She waved vaguely out my bedroom window. Outside, my brother’s shield spell glowed as it protected the city. Her eyes narrowed and she spoke in a grumble. “Though I would have preferred if she asked the rest of us about that first. This is my baby’s wedding we’re talking about.”

“Oh.” My ears drooped at the mention of Princess Celestia. “Well, I'm sure she had good reasons for it. She always does.”

“It's okay to disagree with the princess a little bit.” Mom patted my knee reassuringly. “She has good intentions and a whole hay lot more experience at this than any of us, but that doesn’t mean she’s perfect. She’s made her fair share of mistakes in the past.”

“But I don't disagree with her,” I insisted. “She always has a good reason for what she's doing, even if we don't understand it right away.”

“So she does.” She ran her hoof through my mane to fix it. “Still, dumping something as big as a royal wedding on you is a bit much.”

“Well, she wouldn't give me the job if she didn't believe I could take care of everything.” I shrugged. “Even if it's all so last-minute, and Cadance keeps being rude to all my friends and making everything twice as hard as it should be.” I crossed my forelegs as Mi Amore Cadenza returned to my thoughts. “And why didn't she talk to me?! Shiny being a bit of a doofus I can understand, but did it never even occur to her to write me?” I copied Mi Amore Cadenza’s voice when I next spoke. “Hi, Twilight. I just wanted to know if you would be okay with me marrying Shining Armor. After all, he is your brother, and I would like your blessing. That would seem like the decent thing to do with my future husband’s little sister.”

“Maybe she was waiting for Shining to talk to you about it before she did,” Mom said, not sounding completely sure herself. “She's been acting a bit odd lately. To be honest, she’s been so busy with the EIS over the last couple of months that I've barely had a word with her. If I had to guess, she’s been in such a bad mood as of late because she didn’t like having her wedding rescheduled out from under her. Every mare wants their wedding to be perfect, and … well, as hard as you and everypony else are trying, arranging a royal wedding this quickly doesn’t lend itself towards perfection. Besides, she probably hasn’t been getting much sleep between work and the wedding.”

“Cloud thinks she's just stressing out over it.” At the mention of Cloud, my eyes turned to the clock sitting on the wall and my heart sunk as I saw what time it was. It was only five minutes before Cloud was supposed to show up! Where had all the time gone?!

I let out a scream and bolted from the bed. “Cloud! I'm supposed to go out on a date with her, and I haven't been getting ready like I'm supposed to!”

Mom blinked at my actions. “Wait, you have a date?

I frantically scrambled to get ready for my date, galloping to my makeup cabinet and grabbing all my cosmetics and then dumped them on my dresser. “She said a nice, relaxing couple hours out on the town would be a good way to relieve all the stress I'm under.” Remembering I needed a dress too, I rushed over to the closet and telekinetically pulled out a few choices. Dozen. A few dozen choices. “It's not a big deal or anything, just a chance to relax. Because I was told I need to relax for a bit. But how am I supposed to relax when Cloud is going to be here at any minute and I’m not ready?!”

“Slow down, dear, slow down.” Mom got off the bed and put a hoof on my shoulder. “There’s no need to panic.”

“No no no, no time to slow down!” I snatched up three combs from my dresser to start brushing out my mane and tail. “I have to finish wedding preparations and date preparations and there's not enough time for any of it!” I let out a loud groan and flailed about my forelegs. “This is no time to talk about time! I don't have enough time!”

My mom smiled and spoke in a soothing tone. “Relax, Twilight. There's plenty of time. Now.” She took me and sat me before my dresser. “You concentrate on fixing yourself up.” She turned her attention to the clothing levitating before us and took one of the dresses out from the lineup. It was a nice, flowing blue dress Rarity had made for me, and I had left it here in Canterlot just in case I needed it. “Once you've brushed your mane and put on your makeup, put this on.”

I tried to raise an objection, but Mom placed a hoof only lips to forestall me. “If Cloud shows up before you’re done, I can delay her with some small talk.” A smile with a mischievous edge to it creased her lips. “I think I would like to get to know this mare you're dating, anyways. After all, it is my duty as your mother to make sure this pony is good enough for you.”

I wasn't sure I was wild about the idea of Mom interviewing my date, but I could tell I wasn't going to be able to argue with her. I took a few deep breaths and nodded. “Ev-everything's going to be okay?”

“Everything will be perfectly fine.” Mom pecked me on the forehead. “Everypony understands the type of pressure you're under for the wedding, and looking at you right now, I think you do need a break. You're not going to be able to help anypony if you drive yourself into a neurotic mess, you know.”

“A break does sound nice,” I admitted as Mom picked up a brush to comb out my mane. “I just ... want everything to work the way it's supposed to.”

“I know.” She gave me a quick nuzzle before returning to her brushing. “And it's wonderful that you do. But it's okay if everything isn't absolutely, one hundred percent perfect, especially with the time constraints you're under. Anypony with half a brain understands that those are going to cause a few issues.”

“But ... but if it's not perfect then it means I got something wrong.” I felt the anxiety build up in me again. “And getting things wrong leads to—”

“Twilight.” Mom cut me off with that firm, maternal tone of hers. “It's okay, really. Celestia knows my wedding wasn't absolutely perfect, but it was still one of the most wonderful days of my life.”

“But ... but Princess Celestia is going to be there,” I protested. “And if I mess things up for Shiny... He's my big brother. I want everything to be perfect for him.”

“I know. And even if everything isn't perfect, he'll forgive you.” I saw Mom smile with a slightly savage gleam in her eyes. “And if he doesn't, then your dear mom is going to have a word with him. Though really, you've been doing wonderfully thus far.”

“Really?” I asked, and I could feel my hesitancy in the question.

Mom nodded. “I've been helping here and there as I've been able, and I’ve seen you working your tail off making this wedding work.” She tipped my head up to look me in the eye. “Now, your mom is telling you not to worry about the wedding for the rest of the night. You've been a ball of stress since you got back to Canterlot, and it's past time you did some unwinding.”

“Yes, Mom,” I said, not wanting to argue.

Mom frowned and put the brush down. “Though I suppose I've been a bit at fault for things being hard on you.”

“What do you mean?” The sudden change in tone of the conversation made me wonder what she was talking about. Mom had been doing everything I had asked her to do for the wedding, so I wasn't quite sure what she was getting at.

Mom spoke somberly, a grave look falling over her face. “We didn't exactly part on the best of terms when you last left Canterlot.”

“Oh. Um...” I squirmed in my seat. When I had last been in Canterlot we had parted with a big argument over ... well, a lot of things. “That's true.”

I was a bit surprised this conversation hadn't come sooner. My parents probably hadn't because of the wedding. To be fair, getting into an argument over my sister and everything else I had found out about my family wasn't what I needed right now.

“Not that I blame you.” Mom wrapped her legs around me from behind in a hug. “You had more dumped on you than you ever deserved, and had very good reasons to be angry with me.”

I leaned against my mom as a swarm of emotion rolled through me. “I'm ... tired. I'm so tired of everything being crazy and out of control. I just want everything to be normal and safe and predictable again. Is it so wrong to want one of my monthly schedules to actually predict how I'll spend my month?”

Mom chuckled sadly and gave me a squeeze. “I know how that feeling can be. Sometimes life can really throw you for a loop, and often at the worst times. But we persevere, and we have one another to lean on when the going gets tough. Right?”

“Yeah...” Which was what I was literally doing at the moment. Which for right then, was enough. What I needed at that time was my mom. At least that much had gone right.


It wasn't long before the doorbell rang. My first instinct was to run downstairs to answer it, but Mom insisted I stay right where I was and finish dressing up. As she promised, she would deal with Cloud until I was ready. I wasn't exactly wild about the idea of keeping my date waiting, but Mom was right about me needing more time to prepare. I couldn't believe how much time I had used up doing more wedding planning.

In any event, when I was set to go out, I came downstairs and into the living room where Cloud and Mom were chatting. Cloud was wearing a dress uniform made in the crimson of her clan.

I smiled at my date for the night. “Hey, Cloud, good to see you.”

Cloud returned my smile. “Nice to see you too. I was just chatting with your mom while waiting on you.”

“I hope I didn't keep you waiting too long,” I said.

“Nah. Especially not with your mother keeping me company.” She gave Mom a grin with a mischievous air about it. “So, do I pass the test, or do you chase me out of here with a baseball bat?

Mom gave Cloud a predatory grin. “You get a pass ... for now. Though I'll warn you as a matter of courtesy that if you make my daughter cry, I'll do much worse than chase you with a baseball bat.”

“So noted.” Cloud turned her attention back to me. If my mom’s threat bothered her, she didn't show it as she spoke with a casual ease about her. “Twilight, I'm pretty sure she'll kill me if you cry, so ... please don't cry. I have so much to live for, and being dead would cramp my style.”

“Mom!” I protested. “Don’t threaten my date!”

Taking delight in my unease, that grin never left Mom’s face. “What? I hate seeing you cry. I'm sure Cloud would understand my actions would be perfectly reasonable if she ever saw you cry.”

Cloud sagely nodded. “Threatening the date with death is pretty much standard anyway. No hard feelings.”

“It's a time-honored tradition for parents,” Mom said. “You’ll understand when you have children of your own someday.”

I barked out an awkward laugh as my mom brought up a subject that we really didn’t need to get into. I wrapped my leg around Cloud’s and gave her the best smile I could under the circumstances. “Come on, Cloud, let's go on this nice date before something else comes up.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Cloud nodded to Mom. “Well, I'm gonna steal your daughter now. Oh, and for the record, I see where she got her good looks from.”

Mom tittered, and I fixed Cloud with a glower. “Cloud! That's my mom!”

Cloud waggled her eyebrows. “I know.” She leaned in to whisper to me. “Always flirt with the mom of your date. Makes them like you.”

I spluttered at the idea of hitting on my date’s mom. That was ... no, just no, no no no. All the nos!

Mom smiled with obvious amusement. “Alright, you two better go off. It's not going to do if we make Twilight run away screaming before the date can even get off the ground.”

“Perish the thought,” Cloud agreed.

“Yes! Let's get going already!” I pulled on Cloud’s leg to make my escape before this situation could fall into the abyss.

“Have a nice time, honey,” Mom said as she escorted us to the door. “Just don't be out too late. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow.”

“I know, Mom!” Once our final goodbyes were done, Mom closed the door behind us. When we were a safe distance away, I glowered at Cloud. “Really, you go around hitting on ponies' moms?”

Cloud shrugged. “Sometimes, yes. It's the same sort of harmless flirting as I do with other ponies.”

“I'll just have to take your word on that,” I groused. The idea of Cloud hitting my mom was ... no.

“Don’t worry, you're still my favorite,” Cloud said. “Let's concentrate on making you relax already. So, did you have anything special in mind you wanted to do or am I holding the reins?”

“I ... kinda got distracted by wedding preparations, to be honest.” I gave her a rather strained smile.

“That's fine. I had something nice planned.” Cloud wrapped a wing around me and led me down the street. “I figured since we wanted a nice, low-pressure, relaxing date, I shouldn't go for anything too romantic. Just ... fun.”

“Fun sounds pretty good right now,” I said.

“Great. So, there's this really nice grill I've gone to in the past,” Cloud said. “Casual place, but the food's good. Plus they’ve got a live band tonight, with some singer who’s supposed to be an up-and-coming star.

I nodded. “Sounds good to me.”

“Alright then, let's make it a date.”

Author's Note:

I would like to thank my editors Chengar Qordath, Comma-Kazie, and JakeTheGinger for all their help. And also to my prereaders Swiftest, Infinion, 621Chopsuey, and Web of Hopewho put a ton of effort into reading over this chapter and helping me edit it.