Wedding of the Millennium Ch.4
Written By: Eddy13
Proof Read By: Frostfairy & Just A Fabulous Cat
Over the next few days, the group of six worked nonstop to ensure everything would be ready for the big event at the end of the week. Fortunately, they weren’t caught up in it to the point it distracted them like the last wedding they oversaw.
After Pinkie Pie decided on the decorations and music for the reception, the party pony had gone around town to gather the needed supplies. When everypony heard the occasion they were for, they gladly helped out, and were also excited to be invited to the wedding.
At the same time, Applejack decided to try new apple recipes for the reception, hoping that they would go over with everypony. Luckily, she had the Cutie Mark Crusaders as taste testers. When the crusaders weren’t trying Applejack’s recipes, they were getting fitted for their flower girl dresses with Rarity, who, aside from Celestia’s wedding gown, was also in charge of making dresses for the rest of the girls in the wedding party. The fashionista didn’t want to repeat herself with the designs she used for Shining Armor and Cadence’s wedding and intended to come up with completely original looks. Fortunately, she had Spike’s ever-present assistance, making the task that much easier.
As for Twilight, so far she was managing to balance keeping track of the progress being made and her studies for performing the wedding, while continuing to work on her mystery wedding gift all at the same time.
Quite a challenging feat indeed, but with her checklists flying about and Spike by her side most of the time, she was doing fairly well.
While all that was going on, Rainbow Dash was still trying to bring up Fluttershy’s confidence so she’d be able to perform her duties as Best Mare. So far, progress seemed to be going fine, though Rainbow Dash was still bothered by the feelings that she was experiencing whenever she was around Fluttershy.
“Ahem, if you would please take a seat, we would like to begin the ceremony,” Fluttershy said with a hint of confidence lingering in her voice after a fifth round of practicing.
“Okay! That was really good, Flutters!” Rainbow Dash said approvingly, “You’re getting really good at directing, pal.”
“Well, you’ve been a great help, Rainbow,” Fluttershy said sincerely. “Without you, I don’t know how far I would’ve gotten.”
Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but blush at the compliment from her foalhood friend, which caused her to groan inwardly. This had to stop, for it just wouldn’t work. She and Fluttershy were polar opposites.
What did they have in common? Okay, so they had a long history together, and maybe they did get along well despite their differences, and there were the past experiences with the Equestria Games and the Traders’ Exchange. Maybe…
“Uh, Rainbow Dash?”
“Huh?” Dash came out of her thoughts at the sound of her freind’s puzzled voice.
“I’m sorry,” Fluttershy said nervously, shifting a little. “But I was wondering what you were thinking about.”
“Oh, that,” Rainbow said nervously, trying to look as normal as possible.“Uh, nothing important.”
But after a few moments of silence and thinking to herself, Dash opened her mouth again.
“Erm, Fluttershy? Can I ask you something?”
“What is it?” the canary yellow Pegasus asked.
“I-It’s Nothing,” Rainbow Dash shook her head, the urge to facehoof at her own dumb actions strong. “L-Let’s just continue practicing.”
“Oh, okay,” Fluttershy replied, shrugging to herself.
Watching her do so, Rainbow Dash sighed inwardly. She couldn’t go through with it. She just didn’t have the courage to.
How ironic. Rainbow Dash thought to herself. Me, Rainbow Dash, of all ponies, not having the courage to say anything.
But then she inwardly sighed again. It was probably for the best anyway. Knowing Fluttershy, it would probably freak her out somehow. It was best just to put it out of her mind. But still, she couldn’t help but feel a slight twinge of guilt for keeping her mouth shut. Shaking her head again, she decided to forget her plight for the moment and focus on the matter at hoof. After all, there was still a wedding that needed planning.
“Alright,” she said out loud, “We’ve seen that you’re good at directing. Now, let’s try standing…”
Two days later, Pinkie Pie was at Sugarcube Corner preparing for Applejack to come over so they could begin work on the wedding cake.
“Welp, everything is set!” Pinkie Pie commented out loud as she looked around. “I hope Applejack gets here soon, we’re gonna have so much fun!”
Sure enough, there was a knock on the door, indicating the cowpony had arrived. Quickly, the party-loving pony answered.
“Glad you made it, Applejack!" she said over enthusiastically. “Are you ready to bake?”
“Eyep,” Applejack replied with a nod as they walked to the kitchen. “Let’s get started.”
After putting on their aprons and chefs’ hats, they were all set.
“Alright,” Applejack declared. “The first question is, how do we make this thang’?”
“Ooh, I know!” Pinkie Pie cried out dramatically. “Since Discord has a thing for chocolate milk, I think we should put chocolate icing on the cake! It’ll taste supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!”
“Well,” Applejack replied while scratching her chin with her hoof. “Ah don’t know. A traditional weddin’ cake is supposed ter be white.”
“Yeah, but we’re talking about Discord here!” Pinkie replied, bouncing. “Traditional would seem boring to him.”
“Hmmph,” Applejack pondered before coming up with a solution. “Well, how ‘bout we split the difference and use both vanilla and chocolate icin’?”
“Yeah!” Pinkie Pie immediately agreed, “It would be the perfect representation of the bride and groom!” She then enthusiastically threw her hooves around the cowpony. “Applejack, you’re a genius!”
“Alright, alright” Applejack replied as she rung free of the excited party pony, “Now that that’s settled, how many layers do ya think we should make?”
“Hmm,” Pinkie Pie pondered. “I’m thinking seven. It’s a nice number and there’ll be plenty of cake for everypony!”
“That’ll take some time tah bake,” Applejack said with uncertainty. “It might even take us the rest of the week! But, if we’re gonna do that, ah guess we better get started.”
“Are you wide awake this time?” Pinkie inquired, not wanting a repeat of when Applejack ran herself ragged to finish her apple harvest.
“Yes, Yes,” Applejack groused. “I’ll be hearing yer directions properly this time.”
“Good,” Pinkie said with a smile before looking through the cookbook “Alright, start off with three cups of flour.”
Measuring out the amount of flour, Applejack poured it into the bowl. “Got it. Next?”
“Okay,” Pinkie Pie said while perusing the cookbook “Next pour in half a cup of milk.”
“Got it,” Applejack said as she added to the mix.
“Followed by two eggs and a pinch of yeast.”
“Gotcha.”
“And finally, a little vanilla extract for flavor.”
“Done,” Applejack said as she added the last ingredient.
“Then, mix the ingredients together thoroughly until it becomes a creamy batter,” Pinkie Pie instructed.
Grabbing an eggbeater, Applejack began mixing together the contents within the bowl. Sure enough, when she was done, they had a bowl full of cake batter.
“Alright,” Pinkie said as she reached into her mane and pulled out a large pan.
“Now pour the batter into this so we can pop it into the oven.” Applejack looked skeptically at the pan and then to where Pinkie produced it from. Able to tell what she was tense about, Pinkie Pie added, “Not to worry, it’s clean.”
Alleviated, Applejack carefully poured the contents from the bowl into the pan, which Pinkie then carried over to the oven and slide in before slamming it shut.
“Okay, so how long do we bake it?” Applejack inquired.
“The book says three hours,” Pinkie Pie replied, a huge grin on her face.
“Three hours?” Applejack asked in surprise. Her pies usually took only one or two.
“Yep,” Pinkie Pie answered, nodding. “And that’s just the first layer. We still got six more to bake!”
“Well, can’t we start work on the next one while the first one is bakin’?”
Pinkie Pie shook her head, tsk tsk tsking. “We can’t just shove another layer in the oven while the first one is baking, you silly filly! We have to do it one at a time.”
Applejack sighed in response, glancing over to the oven. “Well, it’s a good thing we started tah work now, because something tells me this is gonna be a long week.”
The day after that, the group was meeting at Twilight’s castle to make sure everything was on track. Most of the group, anyway.
“Shouldn’t we wait for Fluttershy?” Rainbow Dash asked from the round table in Twilight’s study.
“She said to go ahead without her while she checks up on Discord.”
She then looked around, nodding to herself slightly as she saw that everything was set, then levitating a quill and piece of parchment in front of her.
“Alright, let’s get started! Now, first item,” she said as she ran down her checklist, “How are we on the guests?”
“Ooh, well” Pinkie Pie piped up, “We’ve received replies from over a hundred ponies, and they all agreed to come. There’s no way they’d missing Princess Celestia’s wedding.”
“Good,” Twilight said as she made a note, “Anypony else coming?”
“Well, as the leader of the Wonderbolt Reserves,” Rainbow Dash pointed out, “I should be able to get the Wonderbolts to come, maybe even perform.”
“Excellent,” Twilight replied. “We’ll see where we can work it in. Now, my family is coming. What about all of you?”
“Well, my family is obviously coming.” Applejack pointed out. “After all, they’re helping with the catering.”
“So is mine.” Pinkie Pie said excitedly.
“My parents are coming.” Rarity answered “They’re excitedly to see little Sweetie Belle as a flower girl.”
“Alright,” Twilight said as she made a checkmark. “That should give us a rough estimate of how many chairs to have at the reception. Onto the next item on the agenda, Rarity, how is the princess’s wedding dress coming?”
“Marvelously, Twilight dear,” Rarity said with pride. “I’m confident I should have it finished within the next day or so.”
“Great,” Twilight said as she marked the item off before turning to Applejack and Pinkie Pie. “How are we with the reception feast?”
“It’s comin’ along jus fine, Sugarcube,” Applejack said with a small grin. “I’ve got the best apple turnovers cookin’.”
“And the cake should be ready by the end of the week!” Pinkie Pie imputed as she bounced up and down with glee.
“Very good,” Twilight said, nodding and scribbling away on her paper. “And how are we with decorations, Pinkie?”
“All set, Twilight!” Pinkie Pie said excitedly. “I’ve selected the best quality music and streamers for the reception. I just know Celly and...” Pinkie stopped mid sentence as she tried to come up with a nickname for Discord, the rest of the girls rolling their eyes.
“That’s good,” Twilight said as she looked down her list again, Pinkie still stroking her chin as she got into her ‘thinking position’. “Now, what about the wedding march?”
“Taken care of.” Rainbow Dash said. “Fluttershy’s rabbit has made sure that the song birds will be in top form for the wedding.”
“Bout time he does something useful,” Spike mumbled to himself from a chair.
“Okay, then,” Twilight said as she checked the item with a smile. “Now, how are we at decorating the main hall where the ceremony is taking place?”
“So far, so good, dear.” Rarity said.
“You remember what I told you, right?” Twilight asked with a raised eyebrow, skeptical. Rarity was known to add her own ‘style’ to things. “White streamers around the columns, lily petals being tossed in the air, and an arch of white roses hanging over the altar above the bride and groom?”
“It’s being done as we speak, Twilight,” Applejack answered with a nod, though Twilight was still unsure about Rarity.
“Alright,” Twilight said as she marked the final item on the list, shaking her head to rid the idea of Discord and Celestia being covered in glitter. “That looks like everything. So far so good. As long as nothing unexpected goes wrong, this should work out.”
Suddenly, the door to the room flew open and Fluttershy came bursting in, looking extremely upset.
“Girls, something awful has happened!” she cried frantically.
“What’s the matter, Flutters?” Rainbow Dash asked concerned while the rest of the group looked on with equal concern.
“It’s terrible!” Fluttershy yelled with tears in her eyes.“Discord wants to call off the wedding!”