Well, I can't say I'm not depressed. I was kinda hoping for at least one review. I hate to sound like a review whore, but come on. Seeing those things really does inspire me to write more, ya know? Just saying good job makes me feel better about it. Eh. Whatever. I guess I know people are reading, so I guess I'll keep writing.

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The train pushed on, with the group making small talk. Well, everyone except Twilight Sparkle. The lavender unicorn mare was sitting away from them, angrily staring at the purple force field that encased Canterlot as it came closer and closer. Spike waited for the conversation to drift away from him and went over to his oldest friend.

Without a word, Spike placed his hand on Twilight's back reassuringly.

"Don't worry, Twi. We'll find out why he didn't tell us."

Twilight huffed angrily, and then slumped her shoulders with depression.

"I guess Shining Armor is every bit as much your big brother as he is mine, huh?" She asked, trying to force a smile. Spike went to sit in the seat in front of Twilight's, so he could look at her.

"Not as much. He's more important to you, but you're important to me, Twilight. And if you're upset,

then I'm upset. I'm your number one assistant and you're my oldest friend. I mean, yeah, him not telling us hurts my feelings, but I hate you being hurt more than anything. We'll figure this out together, okay?"

Twilight smiled sweetly and reached over to wrap her assistant into a hug.

"You're the best, Spike."

Spike returned the hug.

"I know!"

Twilight laughed quietly, feeling a little bit better thanks to her assistant. Twilight got up from her seat and went over to her friends, and they all began to chatter amongst themselves about the wedding plans. Spike chuckled at the level of excitement in the cart as even Twilight got into it.

"Well, if you ladies are going to help with the big fancy wedding, I suppose that since I'm the only other guy, I get to plan the bachelor party," the dragon said, a sly grin on his face, "but I've got just one question. What's a bachelor party?"

The girls all laughed at him while Twilight rolled her eyes. Spike laughed along with them, but inside, he was actually a bit nervous.

He knew exactly what a bachelor party was. It was generally portrayed as a night of drunken debauchery. Dragons might age due to magical reasons, but ponies aged by years and technically Spike wasn't old enough to arrange a proper party. He didn't want to have to dummy anything down for Shining Armor- provided he didn't set the Captain of the Guard on fire for hurting Twilight's feelings. That gave him a little time to figure out something. Being who he was, he had a lot of contacts in Canterlot. Being raised by Celestia had its perks, naturally, and he knew a lot of ponies. However, he didn't know how he would go about using those contacts in this situation. He would have to think of something, though. He doubted Twilight would approve of him using their funds for such an event, even for Shining Armor- probably ESPECIALLY not for Shining Armor.

It would have to wait for later. He also had to figure out where he was taking Fluttershy. He didn't think she'd enjoy a lot of places in the city being, well, shy. The upper-class ponies that lived there, especially most of the unicorns, could be very rude to a sweet little wallflower like the pegasus and Spike didn't want her to get upset. Mostly because an upset Fluttershy was either the most heartbreaking thing anyone could see, or else it would bring out the scary side of Fluttershy that could stare down a cockatrice and lay a smack down to a bear.

Deciding that neither situation would be optimal, Spike just decided to stick to the quieter places he knew of and maybe a tour of the Royal Garden. Spike was friends with the animals, and hopefully he could convince them to give the pegasus a second chance. He'd have to decide during the date.

Spike paled at his thoughts. Date? Where had that come fro-

The dragon noticed he was no longer in the train, but the white void in which he hadn't seen in quite some time. Looking around for the companion he knew to expect, he was surprised to see the green dragon in the air, flying around on the leathery wings he had seen on other dragons. The dreamdragon flew down and landed in front of Spike.

It had changed since the last time he had seen it. Where it had been keeping the form of a baby dragon, now it was a teen dragon much like himself and its tail was a bit longer. The biggest change though, was that Spike was one hundred percent sure that the dream dragon was decidedly female, the subtle curves reminiscent of those he had seen in some of the female dragons on the Migration.

Dreamy smiled, confident and strangely powerful.

"It's been a while, Spike. How are you?"

Spike looked into the purple eyes of the dragon and tilted his head.

"Confused? It kinda makes sense when you think about it. I'm the opposite of you in appearance, silly.

Why didn't you think it would extend to gender?" Dreamy said with a giggle.

Spike shrugged. It made about as much sense as anything else that had to do with the green dragon. It wasn't that big of a deal to him. According to Rarity, males were terrible about getting in touch with their feminine side. His feminine side actively introduced herself.

"So what strange power or random cryptic riddle-slash-fact of life have you come to deliver now?" Spike said, getting straight to the point. He had more important things to worry about than whatever weirdness that was his subconscious… or whatever she was.

The dreamdragon pouted.

"Can't a girl just call for a chat? Maybe I just missed my widdle Spikey-wikey! You never come visit me anymore," she said, crocodile tears welling up in her eyes. Spike raised an eyebrow at the other dragon's behavior.

Dreamy laughed, noting Spike's confusion.

"Oh, calm down Spike. I'm just trying to have a little fun with you. You're the one that's taking your boss on a date. Don't you know you shouldn't date coworkers? It can end badly!"

Spike sputtered out a denial, a blush on his cheeks.

"A- a date? I'm taking her out around Canterlot, that's all!"

"Taking her out, huh? How's that not a date? A date, by definition, is an engagement to go out socially with another individual, often out of romantic interest, yes?" The dreamdragon had a playful look in her eyes, enjoying teasing Spike.

The purple dragon glared at the green one, who burst out laughing.

"Lighten up. I'm just teasing. But still, keep in mind; you're going to be hanging out with a mare that was a supermodel at one time. You're moving on up in the world."

Spike groaned, starting to lose patience with his counterpart.

"Look, I've got things to do. Can you please get to the point?"

The dreamdragon shrugged.

"You're no fun, Spikey-wikey. Okie dokie, I feel as if I should let you know that according to your memory, which as the representative of your subconscious I have full access to, you should know that Shining Armor is getting married to Princess Cadence, the mare that babysat you and foal-sat Twilight Sparkle. You might not remember it clearly, but you've heard her full name before."

Spike pouted for a moment. Cadence was his first crush, naturally, so it was a bit hard on the poor dragon to find that out. However, he perked up. Twilight adored Cadence like an older sister as it was, so once she found that out, the unicorn would be much happier about this wedding. The thing was, though, that that made Shining Armor not telling Twilight about the wedding that much more confusing.

There was something fishy going on here.

Dreamy had a small, sagely grin on her face as realization dawned on Spike's face.

"Why do I get the vague feeling there's something really bad about to happen?"

Spike's subconscious shrugged.

"No clue. But you need to be on your guard, Spike. Be careful. And keep the Elements of Harmony out of trouble. You've taken it on yourself to protect them, so do it. Good luck!" The dreamdragon's tone went from serious to "Pinkie-Pie-On-A-Sugar-Rush" by the end of the sentence as she threw out a cutesy wave.

Spike blinked-

The girls were all where they had been when he'd left. It was if time hadn't passed at all.

He'd never get used to that.

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The train had finally made it to the shield around Canterlot. It slowed as it passed through the purple force field. The Elements and Spike all shuddered as the wave of magic passed through them. Twilight and Spike shared a worried look. They had passed through Shining Armor's shield before, but it had almost never been that thick. This bothered Spike, who felt it only confirmed that not all was as it seemed in Canterlot. Maybe it had something to do with wedding security? The dragon had no way of knowing until they got there. The train finally stopped, and the group got off of it.

They expected guards. There were always guards posted at the train stations. The trains brought in the majority of Canterlot's tourism, as well as what brought in the most supplies. They were essential to Canterlot's commerce and were almost as well protected as the castle was itself. What the ponies and dragon didn't expect, however, was the sheer number of them present.

"Woah," Spike said, walking off the train with his jaw dropped. He looked around nervously at the guards who were literally everywhere. Unicorns, earth ponies, and pegasi all were there, and they armed to the teeth and covered in armor, completely battle ready. The dragon's suspicions were almost confirmed. This could just be wedding security. After all, the sheer number of ponies that would be there to watch would require a large amount of protection. Given how high profile the bride and groom were, it made sense to have even more protection for them, though he would have figured a fairly powerful unicorn and an alicorn princess wouldn't need much in the way of protection.

Rainbow Dash and Rarity were right behind him, also struck by the number of soldiers. The pegasus spoke up first.

"What's with all the guards? "

"I'm sure they're just taking the necessary precautions. It is a royal wedding after all, and royal weddings do bring out the strangest ponies, you know," Rarity answered. As if on cue, Pinkie sneezed out a burst of colorful confetti. The rest of the ponies exited the train with similar uneasy looks at the guards. The townsfolk were simply not used to seeing so many armed ponies at once. Rarity recovered first.

"All right, let's get going! We have work to do!"

The mares began walking towards town, but Applejack had stayed behind with Spike and Twilight. As the only other pony with a big brother, she definitely seemed to sympathize with Twilight over this issue.

"And you got a big brother to go congratulate!" Applejack said, her tone caring and somewhat encouraging. Spike could tell that she wanted Twilight to confront her brother, but also to do it without the anger she had in her heart. He thought back to Hearts and Hooves day where Big Mac and Cherilee had been under some love spell and wondered just how much Applejack understood how Twilight felt. Come to think of it, maybe he should spend some time on the Sweet Apple Acres farm and get to know the farm ponies better. Applejack was definitely the wisest and consistently the most mature of her friends and Big Mac he had heard was even more so.

The young dragon nodded, and Twilight sighed is sadness, before a small fire appeared in her eyes.

"Oh yeah, I'm gonna congratulate him alright. And then give him a piece of my mind. Spike, go get our room at the palace ready."

Spike frowned. He wanted to go with Twilight to support her and to find out himself just what was up. Dreamy had planted a fairly large seed of doubt about this whole situation. That and he really would like to see Shining Armor again, but, he was still Twilight's assistant. Her wish was more or less his command, so he nodded again.

"Twilight? Don't teleport him to the moon or anything."

The lavender mare chuckled in spite of herself as she began heading towards the barracks to search for her brother, passing her friends.

The group of girls turned back to look at the dragon, who shrugged.

"Well, gals, we have a wedding ta plan. Twilight can handle 'er brother. She's a grown mare."

Spike walked behind the girls, his mind lost in thought and memories. It had been a while since he'd been to Canterlot. The last time had included him "sneaking" into the palace with Twilight for what turned out to be no reason and they hadn't really stayed long. While he loved Ponyville and the people that lived there dearly, Canterlot was where he was born and raised. As they went down the streets, many of the ponies there were casting looks at him, looking a bit fearful. It kind of hurt, but he understood. He did look a bit more fierce looking than he had those months ago at the Dragon Migration, and since he had been gone for so long, ponies would have a harder time recognizing him as the little dragon that once followed their Princess and her student around everywhere.

The group finally made its way to the palace. One of the guards came up to them and offered to show them all to their rooms, and naturally the girls all agreed. After all, only Rarity had really stayed here long enough to learn her way around the palace. Spike followed them, mostly just so he would know where they were staying. Rarity ended up in the room she had stayed in previously, and Spike noted that it came fully stocked for her dressmaking needs. Rainbow Dash's room was next to it, with a large open balcony that she could fly out of. Dash walked in and hopped onto her bed. Pinkie Pie's room was a bit further down the corridor they were in. It was as simple as Rainbow Dash's room, but Pinkie Pie was excited nonetheless. The party pony shrieked in joy and pulled out a suitcase from… well, Spike wasn't sure. As she opened it, various pieces of furniture spilled out of it in perfect locations while the rest of the group watched with wide eyes and gaping mouths.

After a few seconds, they all shrugged as they quietly left Pinkie to decorate.

Applejack ended up getting a room closer to the kitchens so she could be close to them to organize them. The earth pony barely looked at it before nodding and excusing herself. She was going to go round up the Apple family in Canterlot so she could prepare. Finally, Fluttershy's room was fairly close to Twilight and his own. It had its own balcony and was fairly large in size, likely to accommodate her bird choir. The shy pegasus walked into her room, Spike following to check things out.

"Well, the birds will like it. Plenty of room to stretch their wings and all!" Spike said with a small grin. Fluttershy smiled brightly and nodded as she scoped out her room. It would be a few more hours before her birds got there and her luggage was on its way up. She seemed satisfied with the room, and turned to Spike. The dragon figured now was as good of a time as any, and asked a question.

"So, Fluttershy… where did you want to go tomorrow? And when? I figure we could go grab lunch. I figure we'll all be busy after tomorrow when all of our things get here and get settled, but I could show you some places at lunch!"

Fluttershy looked down at the floor and pawed at it with her left hoof.

"Um. Anywhere's fine. You know Canterlot better…"she said quietly (even by Fluttershy standards), and she looked a bit nervous.

Spike smiled excitedly.

"I know the perfect places! OOOH! We're gonna have lots of fun! Anyway, I'd love to stay and talk, but I need to get Twilight's room ready and see the Princess!" With a skip in his step, Spike ran out the door and up to Twilight's room, excited to finally get to show at least one of his Ponyville friends around.

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