It was a hard decision to make, so in the end, I didn't make it at all. As the next few days passed without incident, Mom assumed the default: I was going to accept the band. Then I started assuming it too. I never sat down with a pencil and paper or anything to weigh all the pros and cons. It just... slowly became obvious.
I didn't want to let Mom down, and I was sure Thunderlane would forgive me right away. I definitely didn't want to grow old and die. I was pretty sure Cinnamon was right about the tradeoffs. At the very least, my life with Mom would be a good life, and then I'd have even more "lives" to live afterwards.
So what if I always need a parent to look out for me? Everypony says being a foal is something to be cherished. It's the best time of your life, right?
In the end, I guess it just came down to the simple fact that I liked being a foal. So things moved forward, and we made our wedding plans for the weekend. Princess Celestia was busy, so Princess Twilight Sparkle would be officiating in her place. To avoid a tremendous crowd, only Ponyville residents would be allowed to attend, unless we had specific ponies to invite (we didn't).
It wasn't like I ever settled completely, though. I knew I could still back out if I got cold hooves. You have to wait at least a week before getting married, but they give you as much time to decide as you need. I don't think anypony ever took longer than a month, though. It's a pretty obvious decision. Being frozen is a really big gift. Weird, but big.
So Friday evening after school (a week from my banding), Mom took me to the Carousel Boutique to get fitted for the wedding.
I stood up straight at attention as Rarity altered my tux, while Mom sat in a chair in the other room, reading a fashion magazine (at least, that's what she was doing when I left her there).
"Rumble, you will look fabulous when I'm done with you," said Rarity, and then she lowered the volume of her voice. "It's too bad your mother opted to wear her old wedding gown. I'd rather have updated it for her, but at least I can make your outfit complement hers..."
"Ugh. It's icky. She married Dad in that thing," I whispered.
Rarity frowned. "Confidentially? I couldn't agree more. I'd rather the fashion traditions for frozen weddings differed significantly from the standard kind," she whispered back. "It must feel unseemly to 'marry' your actual mother. But, the two kinds of marriage do have many similarities. This isn't just a legal arrangement, or an agreement to remain young. Your mother is giving the remainder of her life to you, Rumble. You must realize the gravity of that gift. That's the whole purpose of the ceremony."
"And my gift, too," I huffed. "I won't ever get to make my own decisions, you know? We're both giving up something big! Of course I want to live forever, but it's so weird that this is even a thing in the first place. I mean, I'm pretty sure I'm going through with it now, but I still don't understand it."
Rarity smiled. "Oh, I think I do. Princess Celestia made it a thing, as a special offering just for you."
I jerked my shoulder slightly as she shifted the tux in front. "Me? But why?"
"Well, she can't freeze every foal, or our population would die out. But she can save just a few of us. This is generosity at its finest," said Rarity, pinning the neckpiece carefully in place. "You shall be young, spry, healthy, and handsome forever. What better gift could there possibly be than eternal youth?"
I didn't want to admit it, but I couldn't think of one.
The wedding took place on Sunday. It was held in a large open area at Sweet Apple Acres. The whole town was there. After Sweet Pop, Cinnamon Tea, and I had our pictures taken together (as planned), I approached Princess Twilight Sparkle. She was all by herself, standing by an apple tree as guests took their seats some distance away. She was staring at the barn in the distance for some reason I couldn't guess.
"P-princess?" I called as I walked up to her. I tugged nervously at my tux.
She turned and smiled brightly down at me. She had her crown and a formal gown on, though some mud was getting on the hem. "Hello, Rumble. You can call me Twilight, if you want. I trust you're excited for your big day?"
I looked at the ground, then back up to her face. "Y-yeah. I wanted to ask you something, though," I said.
She nodded solemnly. There was nopony nearby us. "You can ask me anything at all." Her voice sounded strangely authoritative.
I swallowed. "Do you think I should do this? The infinity band, I mean."
Her eyes softened. "I... can't decide that for you, Rumble. But if you're not absolutely certain you want to do this, we need to call off the wedding now. We can postpone it—"
"No, no," I said, waving a hoof. "I do want to do it. I just want to know what you think."
"I'm afraid it isn't up to me. What I think isn't relevant," she whispered.
I narrowed my eyes. "You don't believe that."
Twilight sighed. "Okay, that came out badly. I'm flattered that you respect my opinion, but there honestly isn't a right or wrong answer to this one," she said. "It's a trade-off, like all things in life."
"It's not a trade-off for you," I pointed out. "You get to live forever, and be an adult too."
Twilight visibly stiffened. "Yes, and it isn't fair. However, it is a trade-off for me. I have centuries ahead of me in which I'll be responsible for the prosperity of an entire nation. I'll have to live with some of the consequences that you will, like seeing friends pass me by," she said. "I didn't ask for what I received. Unlike you, I wasn't really given a choice."
I paused. "Would you have made the choice? To become an alicorn, I mean."
"For the good of Equestria, of course—"
"Not Equestria. Just for you," I said.
Her face seemed pained. "I... I don't know, Rumble. Probably... I don't know. Look, it's a hard choice to have to consider, and I've never had to think about it."
I frowned. "Do you still think you have the better deal, not getting a choice?"
The princess said nothing, but she shook her head.
"I had to think about this stuff all week, and I'm nine."
Twilight placed a hoof over her face. "Okay. I'm very sorry. I'm calling off the ceremony now."
"No! Please! I want to do it, I swear," I quickly interjected. "I just... I just want to know why, okay? Why did Princess Celestia start doing this? Everypony has a different stupid theory, and none of them make any sense! Just tell me why I'm doing it. Please?"
Twilight sighed more deeply this time, and her neck slumped so far I thought her crown would topple off. "I'm not allowed to say, as you probably know," she said.
I rolled my eyes and turned around, but I felt her hoof touch my wing and tug me back. I turned my head, and she was wiping one of her eyes with a wingtip.
"Rumble, what do you know about death?" she asked me.
"Um, well, you die, and that's it. I mean, you kind of wake up somewhere else, and that never really stops happening, but you're gone from wherever you were, practically forever," I said. "It's too complicated to explain to foals, so they just tell us you wake up from a dream in another world, and you stop being 'you', and you're something else now."
"That's right. And while death may be a new beginning in an abstract sense, it's also an ending for you, because everything has an ending. Nothing can last forever except forever itself, Rumble," she explained. "That ending we all face is something our brains are actually hard-wired to prevent us from thinking about."
"Pfft, I wish! I've been thinking about death all week," I complained.
"No, you haven't. Not really," said Twilight, her face suddenly serious. "The research is very clear. Sapient creatures could not function if we were able to ponder freely about our own deaths. Our brains shield us from existential fear by categorizing death as an event that only ever happens to other ponies."
"I... I guess I don't understand," I said, shrugging.
"Your brain is constantly analyzing your future, Rumble. How will you feel when you see your mother in a wedding dress in a few minutes? What will you eat for breakfast tomorrow? When will you have your next fight with a friend?" she asked me, and then her voice softened. "These are all questions we consider daily. But we can only ask what will happen when we die by pretending it's purely hypothetical. Your brain literally will not allow you to consider the true possibility of your own death. This is why ponies are so bad at judging dangerous situations, and die from silly things like accidental falls. We can't weigh the likelihood of a simple fate we're all destined for. Overconfidence is literally built into how we think, because it's the only way any of us can function without going insane."
I lifted a hoof to point at her, and I noticed it was shaking. "Are y-you trying to scare me? I already said I wanted to do this!"
She shook her head and leaned down right in front of my face. "I'm sorry. I'm honestly not trying to frighten you. I just don't know how to say..." she whispered, then paused for a moment and looked me right in the eyes. "Rumble, all good ponies try to do things that we believe will provide the most benefit to society. The greatest good is friendship: the willingness to put others before oneself. Without it, civilization would be impossible. Friendship always requires sacrifice. Fortunately, life, especially moments like these, prepares us. It enables us to learn how to give selflessly."
I stood there for a moment, listening to the murmur of the crowd and the dissonant strains of instruments from the band being tested and checked. Princess Twilight Sparkle never took her unblinking eyes off mine, and I was too afraid to peel mine from hers. Finally, something hit me.
"Today... is about more than just me, isn't it?" I asked.
She nodded. "Exactly. And you don't have to do this. However, whichever decision you make, you are growing up today. Do you understand what I mean by that?"
"Yeah." I finally broke eye contact as I closed and rested my eyes. "Thank you, Princess. I'll see you at the podium."
Before she could say anything that would make it more awkward, I turned and cantered back to the crowd. I would have tilted at a full gallop, but I didn't want my tux to get all muddy.
A few minutes later, Mom and I took our places for the ceremony, at the back of the crowd.
Princess Twilight Sparkle stood up at the podium. "Let us begin," she said. The band began to play a tune I didn't recognize. I noticed Cinnamon in the band, playing the ocarina he'd shown me before. It was neat to see a foal—well, a frozen foal, at least—playing an instrument among a dozen adults, just like a real grown-up. It settled my nerves a little.
As tradition had it, my future Owner walked to the podium all by herself, to light applause. Then the music paused, and the band began to play "Here Comes the Foal."
"That's our cue," whispered Thunderlane, in his own tux. He looked very proud of me, even though it wasn't the decision he would have made.
You know, maybe that's why he's proud of me, I realized.
I took his hoof in mine and we began marching to the podium as everypony stared. I was super nervous, so I tried to focus straight ahead. Seeing the welcoming face of Mom in her beautiful gown helped a lot. As I passed the Bearers, I heard Pinkie Pie say something about some sort of 'obvious allegory', but Applejack quickly shushed her.
I finally ended up at the podium, and Thunderlane stepped to the side. I turned to face Mom. She looked proud, happy but tearful, and excited. I hadn't realized how important this was to her until now. We were both giving our lives away, and she had no regrets. I felt an incredible weight pressing down on my withers.
Princess Twilight rambled on about frozen marriage while I stared into my mother's eyes, ignoring the speech. Then she spoke loudly to catch my attention.
"Rumble, I need you to look at me for a moment," said Twilight, once again staring intently into my eyes. "I want you to think very carefully about this question. Are you certain you want to give your life to your mother, as well as all your future Owners to come? If you aren't absolutely certain, we will delay the wedding, and nopony will blame you. This must be your decision alone."
At that moment, I realized this wasn't just the biggest decision of my life. It was the last real decision I'd be able to make for decades.
Then I looked back up at Mom and smiled. She was so happy she was in tears, and her being happy made me feel happy, too. Of course I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her—the rest of her life, at least. She's my mother! What colt to a loving mother could honestly say no?
I knew the truth. Diamond Tiara was right. Miss Cheerilee must be insane.
"I am," I announced, clearly and loudly. With that declaration, all the weight lifted from my saddle.
Twilight paused a moment, then smiled. "Then I declare you Frozen, Rumble, and recognize your union as Colt and Wife." Everypony stomped with raucous applause. Thunderlane held out a pillow on which a sparkling blue sapphire rested. Twilight cast a teleport spell to switch it with the ruby, and I saw a momentary blue glow at the bottom of my vision.
It was done. "You may kiss, if you wish," she said.
I smiled as Mom leaned down, and we quickly kissed. It was just a light peck on the lips from Mother to Son, entirely platonic, exactly as it should be.
Naturally, I was altogether unprepared for the parasprites squirming through my belly.