I hated Party Spike Anthem. Just so we're all clear. That last chapter was sort of a warm-up, an attempt to clear out the cobwebs and grease the gears. I debated a dozen or more times to just skip it and come back later but I wouldn't let myself. I like trying to work through the bad and it usually helps. But now, it's time, ladies and gents. The moment I've waited months to start working on. Wedding Time. Brace yourselves. An attempt at awesome is incoming.

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It had seemed a great day for a picnic, Twilight had thought. She and the girls had decided to meet up on the weekend, none of them having much in the way of plans. The date was something of Rainbow Dash's idea. The mares usually let the pegasus plot out the best times to meet together as a group with Twilight. With the unicorn's ability to plan out and Rainbow Dash's intimate knowledge of the forecast, the mares often planned great outdoor get-togethers. Pinkie Pie or Applejack would bring snacks and Fluttershy and Rarity would bring furniture. Each of the ponies had their own part to bring to making their picnics the best. Sometimes they would bring their pets, sometimes they'd just talk about their week.
Today was not going to be one of those days, however.

In the Ponyville Library, an incredibly large and magical tree that was hollowed out to have a home and library inside of it, a young purple dragon was hard at work. His size- now able to stand on his back legs and reach a slight height about Twilight Sparkle- had been a boon with helping out in the library. Now he was able to easily reach places where he required the assistance of a ladder just months ago. The places he couldn't reach were easily accessed by a combination of strength, agility and dexterity. Spike would climb and flip and jump around the library like a spring. This took less time and gave him a great workout. The idea had been Rainbow Dash's, actually.

She had been there with Twilight to discuss Daring Do's latest book which Dash had finally managed to finish. Twilight was finally glad to have someone other than him to discuss literature with, even if it was a book for a younger audience like the Daring Do series was. Spike listened to the mares talk while he worked, reaching for books to put back into place. It had actually been kind of fun. They were going on about Daring Do and it's deeper meaning and other things, but Twilight was also trying to hint at other books, trying to get the rainbow pegasus to broaden her literary horizons. Rainbow, to her credit, was playing a very good evasive game, sticking to guns and talking about her written idol. It was surprising to hear just how much she had to say about the series and was a good reminder for the dragon-and for Twilight for that matter- that while Rainbow Dash was not an avid scholar and was most definitely an athlete, she was not dumb.

While the two ponies verbally sparred while gushing over a book, Spike began to reach up for places he had trouble by climbing up bookshelves. As he climbed them, Rainbow Dash's attention shifted toward him as he worked. When he finished, the pegasus had come up with a plan to help him get better at his jobs and help him to get used to his new size.
So, he started to make a workout of his job, like she had for moving clouds, trying to get faster and faster at it while maintaining quality of work. Organizing books was MUCH harder when it became a workout but it was much more fun than it had been when it had only been a chore.

So for the last three weeks, Spike had been waking up a bit earlier in the mornings to workout with Rainbow Dash. He'd jog, sometimes on all fours and sometimes on his back legs. They did other stuff as well, but he wasn't sure exactly what a lot of the exercises were called. Dash usually just performed an exercise routine and helped Spike to make the workouts work for him as best as the two could figure out. Given that she had wings that he didn't while his tail functioned as a limb instead of being mostly just hair, they were doing pretty good. He didn't really enjoy the exercise or the soreness after but he did enjoy the results so far. He wasn't fast enough to keep up with Dash while they were on the ground yet but he was much faster than when he had been in his smaller body.

Finished with his job, Spike dropped to the floor and smiled. He had the rest of the day off and his new bed was screaming his name. With a relaxed grin, the dragon sighed.

"What's that bed? You want me to come lay in you? I'm coming… no worr-URP!"

A burst of green flame erupted from his mouth and a piece of parchment formed from the flames.

"A letter? Huh. Wonder what it says?"

He unrolled the parchment and began to read, and his jaw dropped.

"Princess Celestia cordially invites you to the wedding of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and-"

Spike's eyes widened as he read the name of the groom. Shining Armor was getting… married? This was the first he had heard of it, and that was NOT a good sign. Twilight couldn't possibly know what was going on, or else she'd have told him. While he wasn't as close as Twilight Sparkle was to the Captain of the guard, Spike still looked up to Shining Armor as a big brother figure. It was hard not to. The stallion was kind, caring, and fiercely protective, a textbook case of a perfect big brother. Twilight had even told him that his cutie mark formed when he was scaring off a bully from messing with her. It hurt his feelings that he hadn't known about this, so he knew it would crush Twilight. He looked regretfully towards his bed, his large comfy and inviting bed.

His nap would have to wait. Spike rolled the parchment up, found Twilight's saddlebag, and put the letter in it. Swinging it on his shoulders, the dragon ran out the door.

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Pinkie Pie was pouring tea for the group while Twilight levitated the food out of the baskets in front of the other mares and herself. Rainbow Dash eyed the food, Fluttershy admired the butterflies floating around, and Rarity was simply enjoying the grand weather.

"Rainbow Dash, you have simply just outdone yourself with the weather today!"

The weather pony nodded and smiled as she picked up her sandwich.

"It is simply gorgeous out. Just gorgeous!" the white unicorn said with a warm smile. The rest of the ponies all agreed as they began to dig into their food and drink.

Spike, on the other hand, was sprinting as he headed for the location Twilight had picked out for the picnic. It was a pretty little field next to a little used road surrounded by beautiful trees and gently rolling hills. There was even a small stream flowing near the spot, which, it turned out, happened to be right in front of him. Spike grinned, feeling a bit brave and daring. He had more than enough room before he would get to the stream, so the dragon got down onto all fours. It was still a rush to him how much more speed he could get with four legs and he could understand at these moments why Rainbow Dash loved going fast. Letting his instincts take him, he jumped over the ditched and landed on his front legs, before using the momentum to make him roll. With his tail tucked, he pushed off the ground with it as hard as he could to throw him into another burst of speed as he regained a bipedal stance. The dragon laughed at the exhilarating feeling and at the feeling of accomplishment he felt from the successful stunt. He actually came to a halt to look back and admire the small span of stream and what he had done. With a shake of his head, the purple drake got back into a jog, the ponies that he sought just ahead.

With a large grin, the dragon slowed down to a walk as he greeted his friends with a lazy wave.

"Well, howdy there, Spike. Twilight said you weren't comin'!" Applejack said with a bright smile. Spike, who still had the exhilaration from his stunt pumping through his veins, had a fairly large smile on his face as well.

"Oh, well, I'm not actually here to stay. I actually need to talk to Twilight about something. It's very important and it involves her- URP!" Spike said, before belching out more flames. The second letter left him confused. Maybe it was from Shining Armor telling Twilight about the wedding personally? He wouldn't know until it was read. Before he could grab it, Twilight seized it with her magic, and began to read it. As she read it, the various ponies it addressed had their own positive reactions while Twilight became more and more confused. Spike took the opportunity to catch Rarity during her "fainting spell" but didn't have time for a witty pick up line before Twilight finished it.

"I don't get it, who's getting married?"

Spike sighed and reluctantly dug into his saddlebag, pulling out the parchment. Twilight frowned as she read it out loud for the girls to hear.

"My brother?"

Spike winced slightly; the confusion in her voice was obvious. The dragon could see the hurt starting to form in her eyes. It confirmed Twilight not knowing about the wedding in the worst way. The girls began congratulating her, but Spike could tell that the purple unicorn was quickly replacing her confusion with anger. He got the mental image of Shining Armor cowering in a tiny ball while facing down Twilight in her "flaming unicorn of doom" mode and suppressed the urge to laugh. This was a serious matter and his closest friend in the world was hurting like crazy. Twilight began to explain to the girls what exactly made her so angry about it and exactly what Shining Armor really meant to her. He could tell that she was doing her best not to cry remembering things. Her brother had been there for almost everything in her life. The only major event of her childhood that he'd missed was her entrance exam to the Canterlot School of Magic, and that was because he had been in basic training.

Granted, Spike thought objectively, that had been where their closeness began to dissipate. With the stallion in the military and Twilight enrolled as the Princess's personal student, their time together became less frequent. But no so much that Shining Armor wouldn't have told Twilight about it.

And just who was Mi Amore Cadenza?

Cadenza… Cadenza… Mi Amore Cadenza… The name sounded familiar. But the only other princess he knew with a name even close to that was Cadence. Spike didn't want to even think about that. Before Rarity had come along, Spike had had a crush on the pink princess. Who wouldn't? She was wonderful and very pretty as well. It probably wasn't, though, so there was nothing to worry about.

Besides, his heart belonged to Rarity.

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So after a day of getting things ready for a long term trip, the girls, Spike, and Peewee found themselves on a train heading to Canterlot. Twilight was sitting and moping, staring out a window, Rarity was pouring over a design book, Applejack and Pinkie Pie were talking about food preparations, and Rainbow Dash was sleeping.

This left Fluttershy and Spike alone to talk.

"Do you know much about Shining Armor?" Fluttershy said quietly. Spike looked at her in surprise. He really wasn't used to his opinion on things being craved when he was around the group in a whole. Maybe it was because he was bigger? Or because he had pushed himself so hard to help everypony through their problems? He had no idea. The dragon nodded his head.

"Well, Shining Armor is probably the closest thing to the perfect big brother, ever. He's smart, funny, protective and loyal. He's not as powerful as Twilight, but he's still got pretty powerful magic and he's strong. He's the captain of the Canterlot guard, and the youngest pony to ever reach that rank. Twilight's right to be confused. It isn't like him to not include her in something, especially this big of an event. We didn't know anything."

The shy pegasus nodded. They sat in awkward silence for a few moments, before Fluttershy piped back up.
"So, um… Spike… you said that you wanted to show us all your favorite places when we came here for the Gala, but we never got around to doing that," she said, looking at the ground. Spike tilted his head, not really understanding where she was going with that, and then he shrugged.

"Yeah, I know a lot of places around Canterlot. Princess Celestia raised me and all, and she would take me and Twilight out to different places, and sometimes it was just me and the Princess. Her niece would sit me for her, too, and she'd take me out to see things in Canterlot too. It's really great, but a lot different than Ponyville. I'd love to show you and the girls around, but Rarity has seen a lot of it and I don't think the rest of you would be that interested," the dragon stated, frowning. At the Gala, he'd been excited to show the girls around and to tell them more about him, but they were more focused on the Gala. Now that he was more mature, he knew a little better now.

Fluttershy seemed to shrink for some reason, before squeaking out some words near inaudibly.

Spike raised an eyebrow.

"Come again?"

She squeaked, a little louder but still unrecognizable.

Spike sighed, and Fluttershy seemed to try and calm down.

"I said, I'd like to see them. It sounds… nice."

The dragon's jaw dropped, but he quickly recovered. Spike grinned widely, filled with a lot of excitement. Sure, he was used to ponies expressing a vague interest in what he did, but Fluttershy was actually his friend. He had always wanted to show his friends more about himself.

Looks like he'd finally get the chance.

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Well, as promised, part one of the Canterlot Wedding is a go. As usual, feel free to comment, speculate, and/or critique, as your feedback is what helps me make this story better.