“Come on Albert, don’t stop now, you almost done it!”

“Twilight, I won’t last much longer.” Albert said having problem with catching his breath.

“Don’t stop now! You are close!” She said trying to cheer him on.

Albert greeted his teeth and tried his best to hold on for few more seconds.

“Aaand done! Congratulations, you managed to levitate 14 books for 30 minutes while rotating them around you at the same time.” Twilight said with a proud smile while Albert’s horn stopped glowing and he fell on the floor fairly exhausted.

“T-That w-was so damn tiring!” Albert said while trying to catch his breath.

“Maybe this was, but it’s the most fundamental training every unicorn have to go through, it increases your Magic pool while improving your control over it at the same time.” She said while levitating books back to their shelves.

“These books weren’t too heavy but still, for somepony who’s been training magic for a month those are extremely great results.” She smiled warmly and offered him a hoof, Albert smiled and accepted her help.

He stood on still shaking legs, but finally he managed to catch his breath.

“So, for how much longer are we going to do this training?”

“Don’t worry, with this Magic pool you can start learning some spells already.” She said while walking up to one of her bookshelves, Albert smiled happily.

After few moments of searching Twilight found the book she was looking for and came back to Albert.

“What’s this?”

“This book contains knowledge about magic as well as many spells, there’s everything, from basic spells like levitating to creating huge and powerful barriers.” She smiled with excitement.

Twilight smile faded as she realized that Albert was frowning.

“What’s the matter? I thought that you will be rather excited?”

“I hoped you will teach me spells personally actually?” He said with a sheepish smile.

Twilight sighed.

“I will Albert, I’m just giving you this book so you can practice even if I’m gone, like today.”

“Aw, right today you are having a meeting with this gryphon King.”

“Yeah.” She said frowning a bit.

“Hey it’s going to take only one day right? We will see each other tomorrow.” Albert said while gently putting his hoof on her cheek.

She smiled at him and closed her eyes, Albert did the same and started to lean closer to her muzzle, his lips almost touching hers he could feel her soft and warm breath on them.

“Hey Twily! Glassy! We came here to pick you up!” Pinkie shouted while bouncing into the library happily, Brandy followed her inside trotting happily.

Twilight and Albert jumped away in a flash, they were now both blushing and trying to avoid each other gaze.

“What’s wrong?” Brandy asked

“N-Nothing.” They both answered simultaneously.

“No really, you two are acting weird.” Pinkie stated while examining her friends.

“N-No we are fine, Anna, Spike! You guys coming?” Twilight shouted.

After few moments young purple dragon and small filly with blue coat ran down the stairs.

“We sure do, you girls are not leaving for an important meeting without me at least accompanying you to a train station.” Spike said proudly earning few giggles from Anna.

“So let’s go, everyone else is already there!” Pinkie stated while bouncing in place.

Twilight nodded and they left the Golden Oak Library.

Soon they all met at the train station, their transport was already there and soon everyone was saying goodbye, as if they were leaving for longer than one day.

“Hang in there Rarity, show those barbaric gryphons how noble you are.” Terry said while hugging her, she smiled and nodded.
“Have fun AJ, and show them what does it mean to be a part of the Apple family.”

“Ah will sugar cube, don’t ya fret about it.”

“Hey Pinkie, don’t you think that when you will come back this wall call for a “Welcome back from your 1-day long trip to a Canterlot castle in order to help Princess Celestia” party?”

“I had the exactly same idea!” Party ponies both jumped in excitement earning some nervous chuckles from others.

Fluttershy was shaking slightly, Alex embraced her in a hug.

“Don’t worry, you will be fine, it’s only going to take one day anyway.”

She seemed to calm down as she stopped shivering and returned the hug silently.

“Don’t forget to practice while I’m gone Albert, and take care of Spike and Anna!”

“Hey! I can take care of myself.” Spike returned quite annoyed.

“Sure you do, don’t worry Twily, everything will be fine.”

Twilight smiled and hugged him tightly.

Rainbow looked at Thomas with flat expression.

“You are not going to go all lovey-dovey on me right now?” She asked.

“Nope, I’ll just do this.” He said and quickly leaned in placing his lips on her’s, she quickly closed her eyes and enjoyed her goodbye kiss.

Train whistled and girls walked inside, it started driving away and soon it was too far away for boys to see it anymore.

“Soo, what are we going to do now?” Terry asked.

“Don’t know about you guys, but I’m going back to the farm, there’s still some work to do.”

“I guess I’ll practice some magic spells.” Albert added and motioned for Anna and Spike to follow him.

“How about you guys?” Terry asked turning towards the remaining 3 boys.

“I’ll take a nap I guess.” Alex said.

“I will start working on that party.” Brandy stated happily.

“I think I will practice some flying moves Rainbow showed me, I still have a lot to learn.” Thomas added.

Terry nodded.

“What about you?” Thomas asked.

“I think I will see if Sweetie Bell needs help with anything.”

They all nodded and said their goodbyes leaving the train station.

“Tia would thou listen to us for a second?”

“Not now Lulu, Twilight and her friends are going to arrive soon, and King Vergard will be there in an hour, I have to check if everything is ready.”

Luna trotted behind her sister with annoyed expression.

“We are telling you that something isn’t right, we have a feeling that…”

She was cut short by Celestia who suddenly stopped and turned around with a frown on her muzzle.

“Luna! This is very important, we can’t simply cancel this meeting because of your “feeling”, also haven’t I told you to stop using this old royal dialect?”

Luna wore an angry expression, she turned around with a loud “hmpf” and walked away.

“Aren’t you too harsh on her Princess?”

Celestia turned around and smiled warmly.

“Captain Shining Armor! So good to see you.”

“Of course, I set out as soon as I got your message.”

Celestia nodded and they walked forward.

“And don’t worry, Cadence will take care of everything by herself for time being.” Shining added reassuringly.

“I’m truly thankful to both of you, your presence makes me much less nervous.”

“Oh stop, you’re making me blush.”

“By the way, since you are already here I have one more favor to ask.”

“Everything for you Princess.” Shining said lowering his head humbly.

“I still haven’t decided who should become new Captain of the Royal Guard, so if you wouldn’t mind…”

“You want me to choose my successor?”

Celestia nodded.

“Of course, that won’t be a problem.”

“Great, then after the meeting.”

Shining nodded and they walked into Castle’s main throne room, two stunning thrones were standing on the other end, one of it was golden with a sun symbol on top of it, while the other slightly smaller one had dark blue color and a full moon symbol on it.

“I sometimes miss these times.”

“As a royal guard captain?”

“Yeah, don’t get me wrong I’m more happy than I ever was now that I have Cadence but…”

Celestia put her hoof on his shoulder gently and smiled warmly.

Shining smiled as well, being thankful for her understanding.

“There is also something I have to tell you about Cadence.”

“What is it Shining?”

He scratched his neck and after few moments he answered.

“I would actually prefer to wait for Twilight and her friends with that confession.” He said with a sheepish smile.

Celestia giggled and nodded.

As if on cue, royal guard wearing Celestia’s sun guards armor ran into the room.

“Princess, the elements of Harmony have arrived.” He said in a bow.

“Thank you Dash Light, you may leave now.” Young pegasus nodded humbly and trotted away.

“I don’t remember this guy.”

“He got recruited last month, so it isn’t a surprise.” Celestia chuckled and they both left the throne room to meet with their friends.

6 mares walked into the castle being immediately greeted by Celestia, and to their (especially Twilight) surprise Shining Armor.

“What are you doing here?” Twilight asked happily while hugging her brother.

“Hey Twily, what, you think I would leave meeting of this scale to you?” He answered teasingly, Twilight in return only chuckled and tighten her grip.

“I’m glad to see all of you here.” Celestia said greeting rest of the girls, they all bowed simultaneously in a response.

“And we are glad to be here Princess.” Rarity answered earning quiet grumble from Rainbow, which didn’t go unnoticed by Celestia.

“Rainbow, I know that this meeting won’t be much fun for any for you, I assure you, this isn’t fun for any of us, it’s our duty and my responsibility.”

Rainbow frowned a bit and nodded in defeat, Celestia smiled and put a hoof under her chin making eye contact with her.

“But just between us, Ms. Spitfire will be there as a representative of Equestria’s air forces.”

Celestia could swear that she saw small spark in Rainbow’s eyes upon hearing her idol’s name.

“Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh.” Rainbow jumped in air from excitement, earning small laugh from everyone.

They started walking further into castle until Shining stopped them.

“What is it B.B.B.F.F?” Twilight asked with concern in her eyes.

“There’s something I wished to confess, I originally planned to say it after the ceremony, but I can’t wait.” Shining said, having stoic expression at first which changed into happy smile near the end of the sentence.

They all nodded and waited for him to continue.

Shining took long breath and after few moments he said.

“You know that I have been with Cadence for some time now.” He said smiling sheepishly.

“And… Well I’ll get to the point.”

He sighed and said.

“I’m going to be a father.”