Dreamstrider

by OkemosBrony

Chapter 44

“Aurora!” Dew Drop yells, jolting me alert from the half-sleep I was drifting off into.

I turn my head to her, then feel her hooves grab it and turn it even more towards her. “What are you doing?”

“Getting your earrings in, duh,” she scoffs as I can feel some cold metal start poking through my ears. “You need coffee or something? You seem exhausted. I know it sucks that Snowy’s wedding is a morning one but hey, she’s our sister. We gotta just deal with her crappy decisions.”

“I’m right here!” she yells from the enormous mirror a few feet away where she’s brushing her mane.

“Why I said it,” Dew Drop coos back. “But hey, if it saves you a few thousand bits on such a great venue, guess you can’t complain. I’m not actually doing it, I’m just doing it cause I love you.”

Snowy just shakes her head in silence. “Sure, let’s go with that.”

Dew Drop stops in the middle of putting my jewelry in, leaving my head in this awkward position with her hooves all over them. “Snowy, real talk. You know I don’t actually mean it when I pester you, right?”

“I know,” she nods. “Dew Drop, you know exactly how to get under my skin, you always have. And you’ve decided to use that power only for evil. Again, always have. But I know you’re trying to be annoying, and that you care deep down.” With great effort, she turns to look at us and smiles. “Face it Dew Drop, you love me. And because I know you, I dare you five bits that you can’t say you love me with a straight face.”

Dew Drop looks down at me and starts silently laughing. At least, I think that’s what’s happening, because I can only barely see her out of the corner of my eye.

“I do love you, Snowy,” she admits as she continues putting sharp pins in my ears. “So many of my friends just bitch about their older siblings, and I can say that you’re not like that. I’m glad we actually get along.”

“Turns out all I had to do is get married to get you to admit you love me,” she giggles as she turns back to her mirror and begins brushing her mane. “I’m glad we don’t hate each other, Dew Drop. And you too, Aurora. Not going to be those sisters who just fight all the time and then bitch about each other behind our backs.”

“You told me about the sisters’ weekends,” I call out to her as Dew Drop turns my head to start putting earrings in my left ear. “I don’t really have free time, but you and Dew Drop can go without me.”

“It’s sisterses’ weekend, not sister’s weekend,” Snowy responds. “All of us or none of us. And we all have big filly jobs, right? So we can take time off, not like we have school or anything.”

“Or foals,” Dew Drop adds in. “At least, that you’re telling us.”

As Snowy just starts scoffing, a smile grows on my face and I have to keep myself from laughing. “She told me to use condoms when she was drunk. I think if Drunk Snowy is that safe, Sober Snowy is probably even more so.”

“Because that’s what I want to talk about on the morning of my wedding. Is that what you two did in Canterlot for four years, teach Aurora how to annoy me?”

Before either of us can respond, the door to our dressing room opens and mom pokes her head in. “Do you mind if dad comes in with me?”

“We’re all dressed,” Snowy replies, putting her brush down. “Just manes and makeup going on in here.”

“Aurora and I are almost done with getting ready, anyways,” Dew Drop says as I can see mom and dad walk on. “Jewelry for both of us, and then we’re all finished. Snowy’s the one that has a lot to still do.”

“I should go see how all the preparations are going,” dad says as he starts backing up towards the door and opening it with his magic. It’s hard to swap glances with Dew Drop given my position, but we do because we both know what dad’s just backing out of manes and makeup and jewelry like he did once it got serious and not us just being cute little fillies.

“You go do that,” mom says absentmindedly while going to Snowy and sitting down. They start talking to each other and dad’s no longer in the room, so Dew Drop and I just sit in silence while she pokes my ears full of earrings before moving onto her own. Snowy isn’t even in her dress by the time we get done, so we can either sit here and do nothing or go and check the venue out.

Upon walking outside of the bride’s dressing room, we’re greeted with a surprisingly dinky and pathetic hallway with a few flickering wall lights. Once we walk to the end of the hallway and go up the stairs, however, we’re greeted with a warm ocean breeze as we walk out onto the deck of the Manehattan Boathouse. The chairs are all set up now and the sun is starting to rise behind us, making this just all start feeling real. It’s just so strange: they’ve been engaged for months and dating for years, but it feels almost too real to be happening.

“Hey!” Jure exclaims from behind us, walking between me and Dew Drop and putting a hoof on each of our shoulders. “You two look really nice today, thank you so much for agreeing to be the bridesmaids. How’s Snowy doing?”

“Still got a lot of stuff to do,” she responds, turning her head to him. “You look pretty handsome, yourself. Gonna make our sister a lucky mare.”

“Keep saying it and maybe it’ll be true,” he laughs while bringing his hooves down. “I’m the lucky one today, and I’m going to be honored to be a part of your family. You’ll finally have a brother, and I’ll finally have some siblings. Always wanted some when I was younger.”

“Be careful what you wish for,” she winks, “cause you might end up with us as your little sisters.”

“Snowy told me the exact same thing. You’re not as bad as you two say you are, Dew Drop. Besides, you’ve now got me as a brother, so who’s really getting the short end of the stick?”

“A small price to pay to make our sister happy,” she says with a wave of her hoof. “She seems to like you, and she’s the important one to win over. I’m glad that you’re the one she found, by the way. Most stallions weren’t able to handle all of her.”

“Yeah, she told me about her earlier boyfriends. She knows she can be a bit of a hoofful sometimes, but I wouldn’t trade her for anypony else. Not like I don’t have my own things she gets frustrated at, anyways.”

“There you are!” a mare exclaims before walking up to us, a single flower in her magic. “You still need your lapel. And you two mares are…?”

“Aurora and Dew Drop,” he replies, pointing at us while the mare puts the flower in his suit jacket. “They’re my future sister-in-laws. Sisters-in-law? Whatever, they’re Snowy’s sisters.”

“A pleasure to meet you,” she smiles, turning to us after the flower gets pinned. “Inter Alia, although you may just call me Alia. I’m Jure’s mother. You two must be very excited for your sister today.”

“He’s a suitable catch. You’ve gotta be excited to have your only foal getting married off.”

“I have to enjoy it while I can, it’s hopefully the only wedding I get to go to as the mother.” She looks back at him, a sly smile growing on her face. “Although I will say, I wouldn’t mind working with the mother of the bride to make another photo board where I get to go through both every cute and every embarrassing photo of you two as foals to display at the reception.”

“I’ve got nothing to hide,” he shrugs. “Snowy’s going to be the one who gets embarrassed. Her mom’s probably showed me the vast majority of those already, though, so not like you’re going to be digging up any dirt I’m not already aware of.”

“He must not have seen the ducky hat photo if he still wants to go through with this,” Dew Drop whispers to me, a smile growing on her face.

“I’ve seen all the ducky hat photos,” he corrects. “I don’t care what she says, they’re adorable. I’m told it’s still probably buried in some closet somewhere, but she hates it when I try and convince her to recreate the photos.”

“Your cousins should be arriving soon,” his mother cuts in before taking a few steps away from us. “I’ll go greet them, so you’ll have a few minutes to do whatever it is you need to do before all the guests start arriving.”

Jure waves a quick goodbye to her, then looks back at both of us and gets a small but very warm smile on his face. “I’d like to thank you two again before all the chaos of today starts. The sisters of my only serious ex-girlfriend were...well, honestly kind of bitches. They talked bad about me behind my back a lot, and kept looking for reasons that I wasn’t deserving of her or some stupid stuff like that. I know Snowy’s probably said it to you today, but we really do appreciate everything you’ve done for us.”

“So you appreciate us not trying to break you two up?” she paraphrases. “Bit of a low bar to clear, isn’t it?”

“It may be, but that doesn’t mean we’re not grateful that you cleared it. A lot of ponies just get really defensive of their family whenever a serious partner comes into the picture, get to thinking that they’re not deserving of their sibling or foal or whatever it may be.”

“We’re glad to have you,” she smiles as her voice actually gets a little soft and caring. “Enjoy me being serious while it lasts, Jure, but thank you for everything you’ve done for her. She wasn’t nearly as happy with any of her exes as she is with you. The fact that you actually care about who she is deep down is unprecedented.”

“What can I say? She lured me in with a beautiful face, but kept me with her beautiful heart. And we just...get each other. I hardly have to explain my feelings to her anymore because she just understands me, and I think that’s why I love her so much.”

“Hey, so long as you can understand her. Frankly, I’m not sure even she understands herself at times, so it’s great that at least one of you can keep up.”

“She’s not so hard to understand. Very particular, but you spend enough time with her you start realizing how she thinks and learn what she needs. More often than not it’s just somepony to calmly walk her back once she starts getting worked up, but the most important thing I’ve found is to just listen to her. With a grain of salt, of course. When she does get really worked up, she doesn’t necessarily have a way with words.”

“Does she just say ‘guh’ a lot?” Dew Drop giggles.

“Nearly every other word,” he laughs. “I think it’s a little charming. She gets cute when she’s flustered.” He cranes his neck up, then back down to look at us again. “Guess my mom couldn’t keep my family out forever. Everpony’s gonna be arriving now, I suppose. Bit surreal to actually be here on my wedding day. Woke up by myself this morning, and when I go to sleep tonight, I’ll be next to my wife.”

“Cold hooves?”

“Nah,” he shakes his head. “Haven’t second-guessed the proposal yet. You two will understand once your time comes. Anyways, my cousins are anything but patient, so I’ll probably only get to talk to you guys at or after the reception. Have fun!” Before either of us can respond, he trots over to the entrance and is surrounded by what looks like a small army of ponies.

Dew Drop just starts walking to the head of the venue where they’re going to actually get married, so I just follow her. She walks to the railing and places her front hooves on it, just looking out over the water.

“Don’t go getting married on me,” she jokes. “I get she’s maybe on the earlier end of ages to get married at, but I can hardly believe she’s only two years older than me and already getting married. Doesn’t seem that long ago we would just sit in the shower and not even clean off, just play with our dolls and pretend they were in the rain. Give it another ten years and maybe her daughters will be doing the same thing.”

“We’d be aunts,” I point out. “The day she tells us she’s pregnant is really going to be a weird one.”

“Her foals are going to make her go insane,” she laughs. “She’s going to love them more than anything else in the world, but they are going to drive her up the wall.”

As she’s speaking, I squint my eyes and throw a hoof over them to shield them from the bright morning sun on the Manehattan Harbor. If this was an evening wedding the sun would be setting over the harbor right as they exchanged vows, but it’s a morning wedding, so the sun is behind us. In some way this might be nicer, because I think everypony would just be blinded if they had to stare right into the sunset while the wedding is going on.

This’ll be nice. Today I can be happy and celebrate one of the biggest days of my sister’s life, and then tomorrow I jump right back into all my responsibilities and all my worry.

Right back to the world of reality.

Comments

[Zergly]

good chapter