Dashie and I were pacing the little room next to city hall, waiting for the ceremony to begin. Once again I checked myself in the mirror, Rarity had done incredible work.
Her first suggestion had been a partly transparent dress, but I hadn't been comfortable with this idea. Within the last few months I got used to the black blobs roaming my body and gained even more control over them, but I didn't like the idea to highlight them even more.
So instead my dress was silky white with silver embroidery, pearls, and little diamond shards. My hair was braided in a very complex but beautiful way and little clear crystals had been woven into it, I sparkled with every little movement.
Rainbow’s dress was even more breathtaking. She always had emphasized how cool and unique her dress should be, and Rarity had topped all expectations.
The basic color of her dress was white as well, but she had gone all out with the rainbow theme. There was a strand of every color of her mane connected to the back of her dress, where the hair hit the fabric a trail of the same color continued along the dress, it gave the impression her mane was incredibly long. At the end of these trails, they then transformed into embroidery which looked like colorful explosions. All of this constrained her head movement a bit, but not by much.
We were of course totally clueless how our brides would look like, I was sure Rarity would have killed us if we had tried to peek in any way.
“How long do we have to wait?”, Dashie groaned while she was pacing the little room.
“I'm sure it will start soon, let's try to calm down a bit.”, I tried to soothe her.
“I'm not nervous, you're nervous!”, she shouted back. It was clear she regretted it instantly. “Sorry… I guess this really gets the best of me. I'm a little bit worried I may mess up something during the ceremony, all of our friends are here as well as our families, I wouldn't…” She stopped herself from continuing and gave me an apologetic look.
It took me a few seconds to understand why she acted like this. “It's okay.”, I replied when I finally understood. “Of course it would have been nice if my parents were here to get to know my bride and to attend the ceremony.”
I sat down on one of the chairs and took a few deep breaths. “I guess I never told you I had been married before. I was married to another woman, Viola. It hadn't been common in my world back then to have same-sex marriages, but my parents always had been happy for me and supported us, so I know it would have been the same here.”
“Even though she is a totally different species?”, she asked and I immediately felt her regret for asking it.
I started to laugh… which totally flabbergasted her.
“It seems we still have some time before the ceremony starts, so let me tell you a little story from my past.”, I told her.
She sat down on a chair next to mine, careful not to mess up her dress.
“My parents always wanted me to be happy, they always tried their best support me in any way.”, I started to explain. “Once when I was little, I asked my dad…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Dad, will I be married as well when I'm grown up?”
“That's up to you sweetheart. I'm sure you will find someone who loves you the way you are and we will be happy as long as you are happy.”
I thought about this for a moment.
“What if I want to marry a crocodile?”, I asked.
He laughed for a while before he was able to answer.
“I guess it will be the happiest crocodile the world has ever seen. We just want someone… or something to love you as much as we do. We will always be happy for you if this is the case… even if it is a crocodile.”
“What about an elephant?”
“It could help me to move a few heavy things, and you would look pretty cool while riding in into the chapel…”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“It always had been a funny family anecdote from this day on.”, I explained.”I often brought it up again to asked them about different animals I was fascinated by.”
I took a short moment to sort my feelings and took a few deep breaths.
“Then when he accompanied me on my way to the altar, he whispered to me:
‘I think Viola is much prettier than a crocodile, but you know I would have walked with you this way to become Ms. Crocodile as well.’
I had a hard time to contain my laughter back then…
So long story short, even though they are not around today, I'm sure they would love Twilight because I do.”
Dashie stood up and walked to a box of handkerchiefs, she did her best to hide her face from me.
“I'm just sweating a bit…”, she mumbled.
“From the eyes?”, I asked with a smug grin.
“Oh shut up.”, she replied and playfully tossed the box towards me. I used my magic hand to catch it midair and put it on the chair to my right.
The door opened just enough to let Pinkie’s head through.
“Hey girls, it's time to start. Come on out.”, she told us.
We followed her into the main room which was filled to the brim with our friends and everypony we knew. Under the eyes of all of them, we walked to the front where Celestia was awaiting us, just like we had done in rehearsal. I noticed the families of Dashie, Fluttershy and Twilight in the front row. Despite what I had told Rainbow a few minutes before, I felt some sadness when my eyes swept across them.
But I also saw a few changelings sitting among the ponies, thanks to our work with Chryssi their race had started to live peacefully among the others in Equestria. I noticed Chrysalis was sitting next to Luna, waving to me with one hoof while the other held on tight to Lavender.
As we reached the front we turned around and waited for our brides to appear, we both had decided early on we would give them this moment.
I was breathing hard when the music started to play and we all stared at the main entrance of town hall.
After a few seconds which felt like forever the doors finally swung open to reveal our brides.
Twilight's dress was a mixture of white and a very dark purple, layered on top of each other with golden lines dividing the colors. Her hair was wonderfully braided with golden ribbons and there was a little veil partly covering her eyes.
Green was the dominant color in Fluttershy's dress, complemented by some white and yellow. Dozens of breathtaking flowers were perfectly integrated into her dress and the whole things looked like it flew down her slender body. Her pink hair, while containing flowers as well, was open and provided a beautiful contrast to the dress, a large veil covered her face, shielding her from all the admiring stares.
My vision went blurry as happy tears filled my eyes while we watched them slowly approach us. The only thing I was able to focus on was Twilight and it felt like forever until she finally stood next to me.
Celestia started the ceremony and said… something, her voice sounded like she was a mile away while I focused on Twilight's wonderful appearance; her partly hidden eyes under the veil and her beautiful smile which warmed my heart. I felt incredible happiness while the same feeling beamed back at me through our connection and time lost all meaning. I felt like I was floating in a…
“... ella? Stella?”, slowly Celestia's voice found its way through my clouded mind.
I blinked and focused on her. “Yes?”, I asked confused.
“Do you want to marry Twilight Sparkle?”, she repeated with a warm smile.
“More than anything.”, I replied.
“Very well. And you Twilight, do you want to…”
“Yes! Yes! Yes!”, she shouted.
Celestia giggled. “I think it's clear to see for everypony that you are meant for each other.”, she addressed us together with Rainbow and Fluttershy, only now I remembered them again.
“Shall you be united from now on until the end of time.”, she ended the ceremony.
I used my magic hand to take her ring from a silk pillow next to us and carefully put it over her horn while she used her magic to put mine on the ring finger of my left hand.
I quickly looked over to our two friends checking if they were ready as well. After a nod from Dashie, we both lifted our bridges veils and kissed them.
Thunderous applause roared through city hall accompanied from the cheers of our friends and family.
…
I woke up next to my lovely wife and flashes of yesterday's party appeared in my mind. Pinkie had really outdone herself, the food had been excellent, we had a lot of fun with the games she had prepared and the music was filled with stuff I had never heard before in Equestria.
Celestia and Luna had a dance-off at one time to something I only could describe as the Equestria version of Hip Hop.
Fluttershy who had a bit too much cider decided to sing karaoke to one of her favorite songs and stunned me with her beautiful voice.
Dashie nearly toppled the cake when she cut of the first piece, only thanks to the magic of multiple unicorns it was saved.
Chryssi had fought hard for our bridal bouquet when Twilight threw it, she tackled Rarity to get it.
And I danced… danced so much with my lovely bride.
In an attempt to wake up my beautiful purple wife I softly started to kiss her, as I would do every day of our life from now on. She opened her eyes and looked straight into mine.
I felt at home.