For some reason though, they arrived at a train station. Cherry looked around as they arrived and they were all ponies, Patch looked like a colt due to him being a puppy, she then saw what kind of stallion Forte turned into and she burst out laughing. He was gloomy ivory with a silver mane and had flashing green musical notes on his flank.
"And just what is so funny?" Forte glanced at her.
"You're a pony!" Cherry laughed, unable to contain herself.
Atticus looked like an alicorn and Mo looked like a Pegasus. Patch just looked like a normal Earth pony colt. A train pulled up, revealing the Mane Six with Spike.
"Whoa!" Rainbow Dash looked out. "What's with all the guards?"
"I'm sure they're just taking out the necessary precautions," Rarity remarked. "Royal weddings do bring out the strangest ponies," she then looked to Cherry, Atticus, Mo, Patch, and Forte. "Such as those folk."
Pinkie Pie looked a little dazed at first and sneezed out confetti.
"Girls!" Atticus, Mo, Cherry, and Patch called out, happily.
"Oh, my goodness..." Fluttershy walked over to them with Boots. "How are you all?"
"We're doing good, sorry I missed our last meeting," Mo smiled, then noticed the draceonquus-Pegasus filly hybrid. "Oh, umm... I didn't know you had a kid..."
"Long story..." Fluttershy smiled. "Can you say 'hi', Boots?"
Boots looked up and looked almost, but not exactly as shy as her adoptive mother. "Hi..." she smiled bashfully.
"Hey, Boots, how are you doing?" Patch asked, bending down to Boots's height.
"Fine..." Boots shuffled her pawed hooves a little nervously, but smiled to him.
"We'll all talk later," Applejack said to the group. "We got work to do and Twilight's got a big brother to congratulate."
"You have a brother?" Mo looked to Twilight.
Twilight looked to her. "Haven't I mentioned that before? I'm sorry... He's been my best friend, well next to Hikari, back in Ponyville... I've missed him so much, but I might see even less of him with his wedding and all..." she looked very glum.
"So Shining Armor is your brother..." Cherry realized.
"Seriously, I haven't told you all about him?" Twilight wasn't sure why they were all shocked, she thought she did it constantly since Shining Armor was the closest thing she had to a friend outside of her various books and studies as a growing filly.
"No, you haven't." Atticus, Cherry, Mo, and Patch said in unison.
Twilight shrugged. "Well... I will next time... But this time, I'm giving him a piece of my mind!" She then was able to pass the Canterlot guards with ease since she was originally from here and all.
The others looked a little worried for her.
"So, where's Hikari?" Cherry asked Twilight.
"She caught up in something else... Real shame too, but hopefully we'll all get together with her next time." Twilight shrugged with a smile.
"Come along, Boots dear..." Fluttershy said to her adoptive daughter as they came in after her. "We have a lot of work to do..."
"Um, Fluttershy, did I miss something?" Mo asked as she walked alongside the Pegasus female. "When did you start having kids?"
"Oh, Boots is adopted," Fluttershy explained. "After Discord and Claudia tried to rid the entire world and universe with magic, Boots had nowhere else to go... So we adopted her."
"Wait... You and Discord got together?" Mo was a little shocked.
"Why yes..." Fluttershy smiled, proudly. "We're still not married yet, but hopefully we will be soon."
Boots smiled to Mo as she kept close to her new mother, never having one before since she didn't remember her own.
"So, what should we do?" Patch asked, not knowing what to do.
"Ah guess we better get to work then..." Applejack suggested. "Ah'm in charge of caterin'."
"I'm hosting the reception!" Pinkie Pie chirped.
"I'm gonna provide a Sonic Rainboom!" Rainbow Dash sounded stoked.
"I'm designing dresses for the bride and the bridesmaids!" Rarity felt so thrilled about her job.
"And my songbird choir will help provide music with Maestro Forte." Fluttershy smiled.
"You guys go ahead, I'm gonna check on Twilight..." Cherry said, going off.
"We're gonna check on Twilight too." Atticus said before going off with Patch and Mo.
Boots looked up to her adoptive mother. "Uh... Mama... What should I do?"
"You can be Rarity's little assistant." Fluttershy said.
Boots smiled, feeling appreciated, she then frowned as Patch went off.
"Come here, darling..." Rarity smiled to the filly. "You'll love making dresses!"
Boots sighed, but followed her. "Coming, Aunt Rarity..."
Forte went with Fluttershy to help her with the music.
Twilight was walking alone, passing some guards and didn't realize she had company, so when she sensed the others behind her, she let out a startled yelp. "Oh, it's you guys..."
"We wanted to come and check on you." Patch said.
"Well, I'm off to see my brother..." Twilight sounded angry. "You're welcome to come meet him with me, but I have very few nice things to say to him right now," she then turned her hooves and stormed down a garden as there was one guard who looked a lot different than most of the guards at the castle. "I've got something to say to you, mister!"
The guards glared at Twilight and her friends, pointing their weapons sharply at them.
"*gulps* Calm down, boys, we're just here to see Twilight's big brother, Shining Armor." Patch said to the guards.
One guard with a white body, a blue shield cutie mark and blazed blue mane looked over and removed his helmet. "Twily!"
This made the other guards remove their weapons. "I've missed you, kid! And I see you've made some new friends," he offered his hoof. "How was the train ride?"
"How dare you not tell me in person that you're getting married!" Twilight was infuriated. "I'm your sister for pony's sake!"
"I don't think that's his fault, Twilight." Cherry said to her.
"It isn't," Shining Armor explained. "Princess Celestia has requested a major increase in security. Didn't you see all the guards at the train station?"
"Yeah, there's a big wedding coming up maybe you've heard about." Twilight said, infuriated, walking off to a puddle.
"It has nothing to do with the wedding," Shining Armor tried to soothe his younger sister. "A threat has been made against Canterlot. We don't know who's responsible for it, but Princess Celestia asked that I help provide additional protection."
Cherry visibly flinched, that must have been the Changelings that Forte had warned her about.
"This you need to see..." Shining Armor raised Twilight's face with his hoof. "Your friends can too," He stepped back and tried to use all the energy he had with magic in his horn and made it shoot up, but the glittering pink shield bounced it off, making him a little dizzy. "The burden of keeping Canterlot safe and secure rests squarely on my shoulders. Staying focused on the task at hand has been my top priority."
"How brave and noble of you." Mo smiled in admiration.
"Okay, okay, I get it," Twilight scoffed. "You've got a really important job protecting all of Canterlot with a force field only you can conjure up. But still... how could you not tell me about something as big as your wedding? Am I not that important to you any more?"
"Hey, you're my sister, of course your important to me, but I guess you wouldn't want to my best mare now." Shinning Armor acted hurt, thinking that his little sister wouldn't want to be his best mare now.
"You want me to be your best mare?" Twilight felt honored now.
"Well... Yeah..." Shining Armor smiled.
Twilight had a cheering frenzy and Cherry, Atticus, Patch, and Mo congratulated her.
"I'd be honored!" she smiled, then looked angry again. "But I'm still pretty ticked you're marrying somepony I don't even know! When did you even meet this 'Princess Mi Amore Cadenza'?"
"Twily, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza is Cadence." Shining Armor said to her.
Twilight looked excited then, but the others were confused. Now who was this Cadence?
"Um, Twilight, who's Cadence?" Patch asked.
"Only the greatest foalsitter in all the history of foalsitters!" Twilight gushed like Cadence was a celebrity.
Shining Armor chuckled at his sister's excitement.
"What was she like, Twilight?" Mo asked, excited to meet this Cadence for herself.
"Ohmygoshohmygosh! Cadance is only the most amazing pony ever! She's beautiful, she's caring, she's kind..." she smiled at her vivid memories of young ponyhood. "How many unicorns can just spread love wherever they go? I only know of one! And you're marrying her!" she then looked to her brother and did teasing singing to him a little.
The others hid giggles at Twilight's little victory dance.
There then came a female pink unicorn with violet colored eyes, nearly rainbow mane with pink, purple, and yellow streaks, even on her tail, and had a golden and purple jeweled crown with a charm around her neck and had a blue crystal heart cutie mark on her flank. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything important."
"Cadance! Sunshine sunshine, ladybugs awake, clap your hooves and do a little shake~" Twilight sang, while doing a strange dance after getting in front of the pink female alicorn.
Cadence looked more weirded out by this than Atticus, Patch, Cherry, and Mo did. "What are you doing?"
Twilight turned to the princess. "Cadence, it's me, Twilight!"
Cadence blinked to her. "Uh-huh..." she then slowly walked away from the younger unicorn and went to her groom.
Twilight looked hurt that Cadence didn't remember her or have fun with her like they used to.
Shining Armor put a hoof around his bride. "I've gotta get back to my station, but Cadence will be checking in with all of you to see how things are going," he smiled reassuringly. "I think I speak for both of us when I say we couldn't be more excited to have you here. Right, dear?"
"Absolutely..." Cadence fully agreed.
"Um it's very nice to meet you, Cadence... I guess. My name is Atticus and these are Cherry, Mo, and Patch, we're friends of Twilight." Atticus introduced himself and the others before extending his hoof towards the pink alicorn.
Cadence merely blinked at them. "Right... Um, pleased to meet you all..."
Cherry felt something off about Cadence, but nopony else seemed to be able to detect it like she could. Probably due to the pressure Forte put her under about his warnings of the changelings. Twilight felt overwhelmed about Cadence as well however, despite knowing the alicorn since her ponyhood.