Let's Elope
TMP Prompt #393 "Hey Baby..."
She had proposed to me just a week ago and of course I said yes.
It was akin to a spur of the moment; not quite, but similar.
She had put thought into that decision and I’d be lying if I said that the thought had never crossed my mind, but as with most things in our relationship there were complications.
The biggest: How would we get married?
And then there was when and where.
My changelings had officially become signatories of the Celestial Accords and were now allies of Equestria. As one could imagine, that event didn’t go off all that well, but in the couple of months since the signing, things had improved.
Some of my changelings even decided to live in pony cities and had become well received by the masses.
Celestia and I didn’t even have to hide that I was at the castle any longer. Though I still retained my position as Queen of the Changelings, I had left the day by day work to my top advisor and my general. I essentially acted as more of an ambassador after the signing.
We weren’t able to be open about our relationship yet and that is why there was the marriage dilemma.
So there we were, having our weekly candlelit dinner, when we first had the discussion about the wedding details.
And by discussion I mean drunken ramblings. The wine was a very good, very powerful, vintage and when my advisor mentioned the potential troubles with the wedding it may have worried me and may have caused me to down a whole bottle of the stuff.
Celestia wasn’t too far behind me.
We were a bit more conservative with the third bottle; we actually managed to share it.
So we were essentially drunk off of our asses. Well I was. I would far later discover that my dear Celestia loves to pretend to be drunk. Apparently, drinking over millennia would allow someone to develop quite a tolerance for alcohol.
I was drunkenly rambling about the wedding and all the crap surrounding it while she would occasionally join in and we would giggle, rinse and repeat.
I think all that last for about an hour.
And then I suggested that we should just elope.
If I had been more lucid I would have probably noticed her drunk act several months before she told me.
Maybe had I known that she wasn’t really drunk, I would have been far more surprised, and maybe a bit flattered, by how long it took before I received a response.
She actually seemed to consider it, taking several minutes of deep thought to come to a decision.
I guess some backstory would be needed to understand why she would do so.
It wasn’t because she was ashamed of me or anything like that. The number of times we expressed our love in more open places was a testament to that. She didn’t care if she got caught with me, she loved me and that was that.
But that was her subconscious; the heat of the moment. The reality was a bit different.
Despite it being legal for a couple centuries now and how it is no longer stigmatized by the majority, marriage between two of the same gender was still an iffy subject.
Many would use the argument, ‘Celestia meant this’, and yadda yadda yadda. Celestia was concerned that having a public ceremony, with the changeling queen no less, could cause an upheaval.
It was ridiculous, of course, but when it came to her subjects she had her moments of irrationality. I was the same in that regard.
Honestly, I don’t know where that stupid argument came from. Celestia was gay, not bi, not straight with an exception, just gay. She had known this all of her life so how she was roped into things I would never know.
I feel I’m drifting off topic just a bit.
Simply put, Celestia was worried about how her subjects would react to both her sexuality and her choice of mate.
So the idea of elopement was appealing to her in a way.
What she said next will always stick with me.
“No. I can’t elope with you,” I was a bit crestfallen hearing that, “I can’t because I love you too much to do so. If we were to elope it would mean that I’m ashamed of you, of being with you, and ashamed of myself as well. That could not be further from the truth.”
The wine was causing my vision to blur. I absolutely was not tearing up from joy. Even alcohol can’t make me do that.
“I want to shout our love from the tallest spire of the castle. I want to be able to be seen with you in public and not have us hide away or disguise ourselves. I want the world to see how much I love you and how much you love me.”
She reached over and took one of my hooves in both of hers. “I love you with all of my heart and I would never be ashamed of that.”
I can’t be sure what happened next, for my face met the table and things faded to black just seconds after she finished, but she tells me that I said, or rather slurred, one thing before I blacked out.
“Hey baby, I think I wanna marry you.”