Gosling was wearing his military doublet, which was festooned with the symbols of his rank, his laurels, and his accolades. Sumac had no idea what any of it meant, but he knew that it was shiny and it looked pretty. He also knew that if given a chance, Boomer would probably eat most of it as a snack. Just behind Gosling was a ruddy red pegasus stallion, Hotspur, and the towering behemoth known as Hush. Sumac felt excited upon seeing them and he leaned forwards in his chair.
He wanted to know how they had made a tuxedo big enough to fit Hush.
Something peculiar was happening to the pegasus ponies in the great hall. Quite a few of them seemed to be having difficulty with their wings. On the benches, in the rafters, pegasus ponies everywhere fluttered a bit, and then one by one, many of them had their wings spring out from their sides and go ramrod straight. Sumac watched, curious, and didn’t understand what was going on. Mares, stallions, they all had the most curious wing problem and it seemed to be spreading from pegasus pony to pegasus pony like a contagious disease.
“Homina homina… this Lemon needs a little squeezin’—”
“Lemon, hush!” Trixie, blushing a shade of mauve, gave Lemon Hearts a sideways glance. “I swear, you should change your name to Lemon Zest. You just want to be squeezed, don’t you Lemon?”
“Are you offering?” Lemon Hearts asked as she began to titter. With no warning, she wrapped her forelegs around Trixie’s neck, hauled her in, and kissed her on the cheek. As she pulled away, she whispered the words, “I am the juiciest little citrus fruit there is and don’t you forget that.”
Squirming in his seat, Sumac felt too warm and too awkward. His ears felt like they were on fire and when he glanced over at Pebble, he discovered that she was giving him a curious look. After clearing his throat, Sumac worked up enough nerve to say something and he looked over at Trixie. “I think Lemon’s concussion is bothering her.”
“No it ain’t,” Lemon confessed, “I kept saying that so I could get away with acting like a silly pony. I’ve been just fine for days. I just like acting silly and I wanted an excuse. Everypony has been so uptight and serious lately. It’s been a real drag.”
Sumac came to the conclusion that Lemon was both sneaky and treacherous. Eyes narrowing behind his rounded lenses, he resolved that he needed to keep an eye on her, just like he needed to keep an eye on Vinyl. In the back of his mind, young Sumac began to suspect that every mare and filly was treacherous.
“Lemon, you are terrible,” Trixie said as she turned a wary eye upon the mare sitting beside her.
Below, the music swelled as Gosling strutted up the isle. Red faced, ears burning, cheeks on fire, Sumac ignored Lemon and Trixie and focused upon the scene below. With the music and the roar of the crowd, Sumac couldn’t hear much of anything, but he could see that things were being said. Twilight Velvet and Night Light were standing with Prince Blueblood, who stood on the edge of the dais.
In the front row, sitting on the edge of the aisle, a stark white pegasus mare was weeping into her hooves. Sumac felt bad for her and his heart went out to her, even though he didn’t know who she was. Seeing the emotions of others had a powerful effect upon him and he wondered if this had something to do with the introvert thing that Octavia had discussed with him.
The music swelled and Sumac, who was closer to the rafters where the speakers were, thought that perhaps, it was just a little too loud. He couldn’t even see the orchestra from where he was sitting, they were off in an alcove that extended off of the great hall. He was startled when Pebble grabbed his foreleg and squeezed him. He turned to look at her, and then his head dropped down to look at his fetlock, which was held in Pebble’s fetlock.
Raising his head, he realised that Pebble was still upset. It was hard to tell, but he had a feeling that something was wrong. No doubt, she was still upset about marriage. Her grip was strong and Sumac, who liked his own space, wanted to pull his hoof away, but didn’t. He could endure a bit of suffering if he had to.
The old green earth pony with what looked like a stick of dynamite for a cutie mark, the one named ‘Chesty’ now had a foreleg draped over Gosling’s neck and the two appeared to be talking as Princess Luna laughed. Luna was wearing a crown of white roses upon her head that stood out in sharp contrast against her dark blue pelt. Sumac wasn’t sure when the crown of roses had been placed upon her head. Princess Celestia had a crown of roses too, but her roses were a dark navy blue, which was just about the same colour as Princess Luna’s pelt.
“—perhaps I’ll make you the Prince of Ponyville—”
Sumac could not make out who had said it, but Princess Twilight’s response was immediate and Sumac heard her say, “Ponyville is mine, go and get your own demesne!” There was a lot of laughter from down below and he felt Pebble’s grip upon his fetlock grow tighter.
“What if something or somepony crashes the wedding?” Pebble asked.
Turning his head, Sumac looked Pebble in the eye.
“She’s pregnant with my sibling. What if something happens? After all of this buildup and stress and worry involving my sibling, I don’t think I can stomach the idea of something happening. I’m freaking out over here and I think I’m coming undone.”
It took Sumac a moment to piece together everything Pebble had said, as it seemed as though she was speaking her thoughts directly. She was, of course, referring to her mother, and stating what was on her mind without explaining the important bits to him. One had to pay attention with Pebble.
“We shouldn’t be here. Me, you, we shouldn’t be here. Neither should my mother or Octavia. How do I keep my siblings safe? How do I keep you safe?” Pebble jammed her right hoof into her mouth and began chewing on it with such ferocity that she gnawed pieces of it off, all while redoubling her grip on Sumac with her other foreleg.
There seemed to be no helping it, he was going to end up hot, sweaty, and uncomfortable. He pulled Pebble over, gripping her fetlock with his own, and she clambered over the arm of the chair to get close to him. He could see that she was trembling and so he pulled her close to comfort her. All of her stoic calm seemed to have departed from her and Sumac didn’t know what to do.
Pebble pulled away her now gnawed upon and rough edged hoof. “How do I keep you safe? How do I keep you with me? What do I do if you go away or something happens? What if I can’t keep you safe? What if we stop being friends? What if we argue? How do we stay together? How does anypony stay together? What promises or assurances do any of us have? I can’t bear the thought of not having you around. I don’t want Octavia or Vinyl leaving. How can we all stay together—”
“Pebble!” Sumac gave a hard jerk on Pebble’s foreleg, which he still had a grip on, and he felt a stabbing ache go shooting through his shoulder. He bit down upon his lip to keep from crying out, pulled his fetlock free from her grip, and then put his forelegs around her. As he did so, his chair got pulled closer to the balcony rail where Trixie and Lemon Hearts were sitting.
Pebble’s forelegs closed around his body with all of the gentleness of an over-eager bear trap. Now, not only was he too hot and sweaty, he was also having a hard time breathing. But Pebble had quieted down and was no longer chewing on her hoof, so he counted it as a victory. Not knowing what else to do, he gave his best friend a hug and hoped that she would sort herself out.
“I am worried, dear sister, do you need to step away and take some time to compose yourself? Do we need to pause the wedding?”
Ears straining Sumac had trouble making out what was being said.
“Wedding? Haha!” Princess Luna’s laughter overcame the sound suffocating murmur of the assembled crowd. “We do not see this as a wedding, but as a friendship ceremony! We are promising a lifetime of togetherness to Our best friend and this is nothing to be nervous about! Nothing at all! Hahahaha! Huzzah! —Urp!—”
From where he sat, Sumac could see Princess Celestia squinting at her sister. A friendship ceremony? Princess Luna seemed a little off—she looked a bit twitchy and nervous. It seemed that Pebble wasn’t the only one stressing out about the wedding. Pebble was breathing on him, it was hot, it was moist, and he did his best to ignore it so that he wouldn’t be annoyed by it. It was something that he had to bear so that he could be a good friend to Pebble, because right now, she needed a good friend, and good friends didn’t get annoyed by being breathed upon.
“Gosling is Our best friend and most trusted confidant—for a husband, that is more than enough.” Princess Luna shuffled around, looked up at her sister, and then scooted over closer to Gosling. Extending a wing, she placed it over Gosling’s back, and waited.
Sumac was certain that something was up with Princess Luna, just as there was something up with Pebble. Both of them were troubled and it seemed both of them were relying upon their friend to see them through these difficult times. The little colt looked over at Twilight, whose smiling face was framed by her helmet. He still wanted to know why her leg wasn’t broken anymore.
“You know, Celestia, this seems fitting somehow, as it was you that married Cadance and I.”
“One of my most treasured memories, Shining Armor.”
Once more, the floodgates opened and Pebble began crying right into Sumac’s ear. Hungry, hot, and now even more annoyed, Sumac wondered just how much more he could endure. He was feeling cranky, tired, and his hind legs were getting cramped from sitting in one spot for so long. He hated to admit it, but the wedding kind of sucked.
“It’s so beautiful,” Pebble sobbed into Sumac’s ear as she squeezed him hard enough to make his eyes bulge in their sockets and a little whistling wheeze escaped his lips. “They’re two best friends promising to stay together forever.”
Something about how Pebble said ‘forever’ made Sumac nervous.
Shining Armor’s voice drifted up from below. “And do you, Gosling, son of Sleet, take both of these mares into your care and safe keeping?”
Ears perking, Sumac strained to hear a reply over the sound of Pebble’s crying. After a few seconds, he heard Gosling say, “Yeah I do.” Poor Gosling sounded nervous and scared. Sumac could hear his voice cracking and that was embarrassing when it happened.
“Then I, Shining Armor, Emperor of The Crystal Empire, Prince of Equestria, and Lord Protector of the Northern Reaches, do hereby bind you together. Let nothing tear asunder this union that I have blessed, lest they feel the wrath of the Crystal Empire fall upon them. Traditionally, this covenant is sealed with a kiss, which you may do so now.”
As Sumac tried to watch the kisses happen, he felt Pebble’s wet, snotty snoot press into the fuzzy spot just below his ear. He sat there, blinking, slow to register the fact that he had just been kissed. The roar of the crowd was deafening and made his ears hurt. It was impossible to hear anything, but, Sumac was able to sort of see that a crown was being placed upon Gosling’s head.
Overwhelmed, overstimulated, Sumac found himself clinging to Pebble just as much as she was clinging to him. He was seeing a new prince get crowned and for the first time in who knows how long, the Royal Pony Sisters had a husband, which all of the adults said was a sign of healing between the pair. Sumac himself didn’t know what to make of it, but the adults were all making a big deal about it.
Everything about this moment seemed triumphant, the emotion, the music, the roar of the crowd, Sumac now understood why the wedding had taken place. If he was feeling this, if his own spirit was soaring, then so must everypony elses’. The seeds of patriotism sprouted in Sumac’s heart and sent forth tender shoots into his soul. Overcome with feeling, he gripped Pebble in a very take charge sort of way and then pressed his snoot into the corner of her mouth, kissing her, a lingering kiss that lasted for several seconds.
As he pulled away, he saw that Lemon Hearts was doing the same, pulling away after a quick peck upon Trixie. His heart thudded in his barrel as he turned his head and looked Pebble in the eye. He felt tears coming, which was weird, because he was happy. He no longer minded the hot, sweaty, humid and moist feeling of Pebble pressed up against him.
“No matter what happens, I promise, we’ll stay friends,” Sumac said to her in a voice raised so he could be heard over the crowd. “If we fight or argue, we’ll apologise and make things right. Best friends… forever.”
Smiling, tears streaming down her cheeks, Pebble nodded, opened her mouth to say something, and then after a sharp, sudden inhale, Pebble sneezed all over Sumac’s face…