With the Ponyville six finally putting weddings plans to fruition gave me time to travel the castle grounds, collecting reports, everypony alert for impostors. I found myself near the throne room when a sobbing Princess Cadence rushed past. Before I knew it she had turned a corner and was gone. I started backtracking her path and soon Shining Armor also thundered past me. I reached the double doors to meet the rest of the forlorn wedding party, minus the best mare. Spike looked particularly sad; he nearly ran into Applejack when she paused to reshape her Stetson. No Twilight. Oh, no.
Celestia stopped to chat while the rest shuffled off. "Hello, Quill. Anything amiss in your security checks?"
"No, can't say the same for the rehearsal it seems." I tilted an ear to the throne room. "What was that noise?"
Celestia's placid voice tried to assuage me. "Don't worry yourself. Everything is going as planned. The wedding will proceed."
"But Twilight."
"Has her own path to tread, she's made that quite clear." I remembered our earlier quarrel and complied. "You have been most helpful these past few weeks, Quill. I appreciate all your hard work."
Noises from the throne room seemed to have died down so I gave her my full attention. "Thank you, princess."
"See you at the ceremony."
A quick trip into the city to get my family and I can get this confounded ceremony behind me! I met up with my husband at our corner tavern, The Malodorous Goat. I needed a drink.
"Darling, you look amazing!" Palatino's eyes lit upon finding me. He was looking most dashing himself. He had a red rose in his lapel to match the one in my hair.
"Thank you, beloved. I don't know how the Element of Generosity found the time but she gave my look some polish. I smiled, suddenly missing all the time we could have spent together these last few weeks. "Do you have a wine glass for me to drain, dear? We really must be off see our daughter."
He brought a glass of my favorite using his telekinesis. "You have an abundance of beauty this afternoon but a taciturn countenance."
I gave him a look. He knows perfectly well his use of vocabulary words puts me in an amorous mood most days but their powers were sorely lost on me now. "Our city is under alert for foreign spies, the royal bride is playing the harridan and now the best mare has thrown a fit and is nowhere to be found. I just want to put this afternoon behind me."
He affixed an infuriatingly placid smile. "It shall be soon, love. Think of the happy couple, think of your excited daughter. Think of the food!"
I sighed and then realized my husband and I seemed to have switched the roles with which we have played since this all started. "You're right," I consigned my wine to the hellish depths of my belly. "Let us collect our excited progeny and try to enjoy the pomp and ceremony... and the food."
He nodded his big handsome infuriatingly-correct-about-the-situation head and we departed.
The wedding did indeed proceed, but not according to plan. It went horribly wrong beyond my imagining.