Prism sat and watched in agony as Princess Celestia made her speech. She shifted uncomfortably in her itchy purple dress.
"Dad," she whispered. "When can I take this stupid dress off?"
"Shush!" Gemstone whispered harshly.
Prism scowled as she glanced over at the Tri-Pies who were standing on the side of the aisle, wearing flowery color-coordinated dressed and carrying baskets. Prism was actually glad she wasn't a flower girl, because she would've looked even more ridiculous in one of those outfits.
She looked up at her mother who was lined up with the other bridesmaids. She did not understand how her mother, Co-Captain of the Wonderbolts, could put up with this torture!
"Dad, how much longer is this going to take?"
This time, her father, the twins, as well as her best friend shushed her.
"But it's going on forever!"
"Hush up!" Gemstone hissed. "She's getting to the good part!"
"Do you," Celestia said, turning to the bride, "Princess Twilight Sparkle, take this stallion to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, until death do you part?"
Twilight was dressed in a long, flowing white gown, hemmed with purple rhinestones, courtesy of Rarity, of course. She smiled at the stallion standing across from her and replied:
"I do."
"And do you," Celestia said to the groom, "Flash Sentry, take this mare to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, until death do you part?"
The orange pegasus with the wild blue mane did not even hesitate. "I do."
"May I have the rings, please?"
Applespike giggled as Spike held him and the pillow with the rings up. Celestia used her magic to place one ring on Twilight's horn and the larger one around Flash's hoof. Ponies without horns had the choice of wearing their wedding rings around their necks or hooves and Flash had chosen the latter.
"By the power vested in me," Celestia announced, "I now pronounce you mare and colt. You may now kiss the bride."
Flash raised his hoof to Twilight's face and gently pulled her in for a soft, but passionate kiss on the lips. The ponies stomped and clapped their hooves in applause, while Prism sighed in relief.
"Finally!"
At the reception, ponies gathered in the garden and watched as the bride and groom had their first dance together, the CMC band playing their song. Soarin put his hoof around Rainbow Dash and smiled.
"It's nice to have a wedding without any disasters," he said.
Rainbow frowned and looked at her husband. "What do you mean by that?"
"Well, there was Princess Cadence's wedding twenty years ago. I think a changeling invasion counts as a disaster. Then there was Discord and Fluttershy's wedding. I mean, wasn't she almost forced to marry him or something? Then there was our wedding…"
His wife crossed her hooves. "How was our wedding a disaster?"
"Well, it almost didn't happen."
The Dash children gasped as they stared at their parents.
"What happened?" Lightning asked.
"It was nothing," Rainbow insisted. "I just…got cold hooves for a moment."
"A moment?" Soarin said, putting his hooves on his hips. "The night before our wedding, you went into hysterics!" He rubbed his temple. "I can still feel that ironing board!"
The twins snickered.
"Mom hit you with an ironing board?" Thunder chuckled.
"Yeah, and threatened to draw up divorce papers if we didn't call off the wedding right then! I refused, and then she picked up the cedar chest…"
"Okay, okay, they get it!" Rainbow shouted. "Look, it doesn't matter how worked up I was about our wedding. I went through with it, didn't I?"
"What made you change your mind?" Prism inquired.
Rainbow chuckled as she nuzzled Soarin's neck. "He did his chopstick nose trick to cheer me up. Only he didn't have chopsticks, so he used pencils but got them too far up his nose."
The Dash siblings looked at each other in confusion. "Huh?"
"Well, he needed some pony to get those pencils out of his nose. Then I remembered all those times I had to save his behind and realized that if I didn't marry him, he would hurt himself." She scoffed. "Besides, it was hilarious."
Meanwhile, on the other side of the garden, the Tri-Pies were watching the romantic scene with their parents. The three of them let out a collected sigh.
"Mom, Dad," Raspberry piped, "what was your wedding like?"
"Oh boy, where do we begin?" Cheese Sandwich (who had dyed his hair back to brunette) replied. "Well, it was the biggest bash of the year!"
"Of the century!" Pinkie Pie corrected.
"Of the millennium!"
"The biggest, greatest, most super-duper awesome epic party Equestria had ever seen!"
Cheese put his hoof around his wife. "And we planned it together!"
Pinkie did the same to her husband. "The Super-Duper Party Ponies!"
"But you were still pretending to be Red Shoes, weren't you?" Blueberry inquired. "So on the marriage contract did you sign that name or your real name? Because wouldn't it be invalid or something if you used a fake name?"
Their father laughed. "Don't worry. We thought about that. When we were signing the thing, we shouted, 'Hey, look! A moose!' I signed my real name while every pony was looking away."
"Well, that's good!" Cherry chimed. "Imagine what would've happened if you weren't legally married! Why, we might not have been born!"
Blueberry nudged her sister in the side. "Don't you remember? Mom was pregnant with us before they got married."
"I still don't know how that happened," Raspberry said, scratching her head.
Their parents looked at each other nervously.
"Um…" they uttered.
"When a mare and stallion fall in love…" Cheese Sandwich began.
"And they get…really, really, really close…" Pinkie continued.
"The stork comes and…"
"Gives them a magic bean…"
"And the girl swallows it and…"
"It turns into a baby!"
"Yeah! And, uh…the stork gave us three beans!"
"And that's how you girls were born!"
The Tri-Pies grinned in satisfaction.
"Oh," Raspberry piped. "Well that makes sense."
The song ended and ponies stomped their hooves. Applebloom then stepped up to the microphone.
"Mares and gentlecolts, the bride will now be dancing with her father. Dads and fillies, you're welcome to join them!"
The Tri-Pies brightened up and each grabbed one of Cheese Sandwich's hooves. "Come on, Dad! Come on, Dad! Come on, Dad!"
"Okay, okay!" their father exclaimed. "Let's just get a little organized. Raspberry, climb on my back. Cherry, get on my head. Blueberry, you take my hooves. When I say the word, you switch."
The triplets cheered at the idea and got into their positions. All around them, fathers were taking their daughters onto the dance floor. Soarin danced in a circle with Prism and Lightning, Discord twirled Screwball around, Spike lifted Cinnamon Roll into the air and Fancy Pants and Gemstone slowly swayed together, as Gemstone wasn't much for dancing.
"I like weddings, Daddy," the unicorn filly said with a smile. "They're so romantic."
"Indeed," Fancy Pants replied, running his hoof through his little girl's mane.
"Was yours and Mum's wedding just as magical?"
He blushed. "Well…let's just say that the minute after I proposed, your mother showed me that she had everything planned from the guest list to the bridesmaids' gowns. We didn't have to hire a wedding planner with your mother in charge. In fact, it only took about two weeks to get it together."
"Did you have it here in Canterlot?"
"Yes, but not inside. We were married right in this garden. We thought it appropriate, since this was where I met her friends and discovered that she was more interesting than I had thought."
"How did you and Mummy meet anyway?"
"We sort of…bumped into each other." He chuckled. "On the streets of Canterlot. She had so many shopping bags, she didn't see me."
"Was it love at first sight?"
"Not exactly. See, I was with another mare then, but I was intrigued by your mother. She's quite the mare, you know. Strong, independent, generous, and, of course, very pretty." He lifted her chin. "Like you."
Gemstone beamed and nuzzled her father's chest.
When the dance ended, it was the groom's turn to dance with his mother and all the mothers and sons were invited to join them. Fluttershy picked up Zany from his carriage and nuzzled him affectionately before flying him out. Rainbow ruffled Thunder's mane as she took his hoof. Applejack carried Applespike in the crook of her foreleg as her adopted son Cinnamon Stick led them both onto the dance floor.
The triplets walked up to Spike and Cinnamon Roll.
"Hey, Uncle Spike!" Raspberry exclaimed. "We were wondering: what was your marriage to Auntie Applejack like?"
The dragon's face turned red. "Um…well…"
"I'd like to hear that story too," his adopted daughter said. "I don't think ya ever told me about yerr wedding."
"Uh…well…we had it at Sweet Apple Acres and…nothing really interesting happened…"
"Aw, he's leavin' out all the good stuff!"
Spike winced as old Granny Smith came up and playfully slapped him on the back. "Lil' Spike here had feet as cold as the first Hearth's Warming, but we gave him a strong talkin'."
"You gave me more than just a 'strong talking,'" Spike murmured.
He could still see it all: Big Macintosh and Applebloom pulling on his legs, his claws gripping to the doorway of Big Mac's bedroom which he had been using as his dressing room.
"Come on, Spike!" Applebloom had cried. "You're not leavin' my sister at the altar!"
"Eeyup!" Big Mac had grunted.
"I can't do it!" Spike had screamed. "I'm too young!"
"You're eighteen! You're old enough!"
"Eeyup!"
"Don't ya love my sister?!"
"I do!" the dragon had argued. "But I can't marry her! Not now! I'm not ready!"
"But the whole family's out there waitin'!"
"I can't do it! And you can't make me!"
"Wanna bet?"
Spike still shivered at the memory of Applejack's beautiful but stunned face, and everyone else's faces, as she stared at him and what Big Mac had pointed at his back.
"Um…" Twilight, who was performing the ceremony, had uttered. "Mares and gentlecolts, we are gathered here…"
"I do, I do, okay?!" Spike had shouted frantically. "I do!"
"Big Mac!" Applejack had exclaimed. "Put that pitchfork away!"
"What they do?"
Spike shook out of his flashback to answer Cinnamon Roll's question.
"Let's just say they gave me a really strong talking."
Half an hour later, ponies had free reign of the dance floor and the young Cutie Mark Crusaders met up to relate the stories they had heard from their parents.
"Your Mom and Dad have a weird relationship," Cherry told Prism.
The pegasus filly shrugged. "Grown-ups do the strangest things."
"Uncle Spike and Auntie Applejack's wedding sounded strange," said Raspberry. "He wouldn't really tell us what happened."
"What do you suppose our weddings will be like when we get married?" Gemstone questioned.
"We've got it all planned out," Cherry said, putting her hooves around her sisters. "The three of us are going to get married together!"
"Triple wedding!" Blueberry exclaimed.
"We are?" Raspberry asked nervously.
"Preferably with boy triplets!"
Cherry frowned. "Who said they had to be boys?"
They all stared at her.
"What? I'm just saying we should keep our options open. Besides, who knows who we'll like in ten years?"
"I'm going to have my wedding out here in the garden," Gemstone declared, "just like my parents did. What do you think, Prism? Prism?"
The pegasus was too lost in a fantasy to hear her. She imagined herself standing on a cloud with Kicks, Princess Twilight standing in front of them.
"Do you, Prism, take Kicks to be your husband?"
"As long as he can keep up."
She strapped on a helmet and hopped onto a rocket-powered skateboard. Kicks leapt into her hooves and they zoomed off into the sunset.
"Prism?" Gemstone called, waving her hoof over her friend's eyes. "Prism!"
"Huh?" the pegasus said, snapping out of her trance.
"What do you think your wedding will be like?" Raspberry repeated.
Prism blushed. "I think…I think we should wait until we're older."