//------------------------------// // Wedding Bells // Story: Goodbye, Miss Cheerilee // by Talon and Thorn //------------------------------// “Now you said something about getting married?” asked Ghost. She had found herself a hotel quickly enough and had spent most of the evening rewriting her notes using the small typewriter in her luggage. She was quite surprised how interesting she was finding Cheerilee’s life, it seemed more relatable than the music stars and minor nobles she normally wrote for.   She had returned to the hospital quite early in the morning and had been surprised to not only find Cheerilee already awake but to with another visitor as well, a green coated mare looking almost as old as the bedridden element bearer. The visitor had quickly made her excuses and left leaving Ghost alone with Cheerilee again.   “Well it’s not that much of a secret really, I got married in university, we were both very very drunk at the time,” she smiled. “I almost forgot about it for a while. However, there was another time when I got very close to being married, I must have been in my mid-thirties...”     Cheerilee rushed out of the town hall as quickly as her legs could carry her, the vital sheet of paper gripped in her teeth. She screeched to a halt hooves skidding in the muddy ground left behind by last night’s rain. She glanced up at the clock tower, she was going to be late! Oh well, it wasn’t like the wedding could happen without her, she, and the paper, were rather important parts of the ceremony, still it wouldn’t look good if there was too much of a delay. It had seemed such a good idea to hold it in Whitetail woods, the place looked beautiful on an early autumn evening such as this one, the leaves yellow, brown and red. However, then you got to the practicalities of how far out of town it was and how much mud would be tracked up getting there, and how much of that mud would end up on the dress than Rarity had made for her. She sighed, oh well, nothing for it now, if she got muddy, she got muddy. Putting her best hoof forwards she pressed on through the almost deserted streets of Ponyville.   She wouldn’t have been so late if she hadn’t had to deal with that incident at school earlier today. Pumpkin Cake had been so distraught after Manalock had told her that her magic would never come in because her parents were earth ponies, the young Cake’s best friends Honey Heartstrings and Grape Sunday, Cheerilee’s own niece, had quickly stepped up to defend their friend and a scuffle had broken out in the playground. Cheerilee had quickly stepped in to sort things out, she wasn’t going to have talk, or fighting, like that in her class.   She’d arranged to have words with Manalock’s parents after class, she hoped she’d gotten through to them, they were bigots, to put it bluntly, but she wasn’t going make it easy for them to spread their idea’s to their daughter, she’d managed to keep their older daughter Firelock on the right path and she wouldn’t give up on Manalock either. She still had to talk to Lyra and Berry about the fight though. Still, she was glad she’d dealt with the problem even though it had pushed her schedule back. She’d only just gotten to the town hall before it closed, and she’d had to put all her persuasive skills to use to get Raven to finish the paperwork. Now she was starting to have second thoughts about delivering them. She knew she should, so many ponies were waiting on it, today would certainly go differently if she didn’t, but it seemed such a big thing now, such a huge change all balanced on a few sheets of parchment. She hadn’t thought it would feel like this but maybe she’d just gotten used to the way her life was.   She had to make her decision soon, the site for the wedding was coming up quickly. The weather patrol has made sure it looked perfect and Pinkie and her helpers had arranged the tents containing the tables for the reception into a rough horse shoe. Ponies, hundreds of them were milling around waiting for the ceremony to begin. Panting Cheerilee started to slow her approach, she was sure it didn’t used to be so far out of town, maybe her age was starting to catch up with her. As she got closer to the festivities a few ponies noticed her and nodded or waved a hoof before returning to their conversations. It still got to her seeing the ponies she had once taught now adults, some of them even starting their own families, she guessed she’d be teaching their own foals in just a few years, that did make her feel old.   “Cheerilee!” came a cry and she was shaken from her thoughts by an approaching stallion, his brown mane for once under control thanks to a huge amount of gel. Gosh, she thought, he really did fill out a suit well. “Cheerilee!” cried Heavy Roller again as he came to a stop next to her, “Did you get the paperwork?”   “Um, yeah, just needs a signature and well...” her voice trailed off.   “Second thoughts?” he asked. “We talked about it with you, and the offer is still open. I certainly wouldn’t mind being married to two such beautiful mares.” He grinned but Cheerilee thought she saw a trace of worry in him. At one point she had thought they might have made a good match, but that had been quite a few years ago, and with his daughter in his class it wouldn’t have be right. By the time she’d considered it seriously, he’d already found the soon to be Mrs Roller.   “It was a generous offer but I don’t want to be a third wheel, maybe if you’d asked me before... well before I introduced you to her but, I think that ship’s sailed now.”   “Yeah, I think you’re probably right, but... oh wow!” he gasped looking past her.   Cheerilee turned and gave a similar response to the approaching bride. Although normally anonymous there was no way Notary could be lost in a crowd today she looked absolutely stunning. The white dress clung to her form in just the right places, even though Cheerilee knew from personal experience that the colour was not exactly fitting. Rarity had outdone herself designing the ensemble, although it was just as well the fashionista wasn’t present given that the hem was currently being dragged through the mud, if she had been she would have had a seizure. Her mane had been done in an intricate style that had taken Snips all morning to get right, it was based on a crystal empire fashion and included a number of jewels, provided as a gift by her employer, as well as several flowers he had grown himself.   Notary smiled as she stopped next to Heavy whose mouth was hanging open. “You’ll catch flies dear,” she said. His jaw swung closed with a snap and he quickly leaned forwards to nuzzle his bride to be. “Are those the annulment papers?” she asked Cheerilee.   “Y..yes,” replied the teacher not quite able to get the words out.   “Are you sure you want to do this? As I said I'd be happy for you to stay in the family, we’ve been married for such a long time.”   “No, I wouldn’t want to get between you two.”   With a sultry grin Notary leant forwards and whispered, “I thought between us would be just where you’d want to be.”   Cheerilee’s eyes went wide at the image and Notary gave a laugh. Cheerilee couldn’t believe how much her friend had loosened up over the years. Although she was still calm and collected at work Heavy Roller’s laid back style had certainly rubbed off on her social personal, no longer was the white mare driven for success above everything else, she had realised that she was happy with what she had rather than what she could have. The change went the other way as well, Cheerilee doubted Heavy would be running a chain of wagon repair shops with offices in a dozen cities without Notary to push him on. “Well it is your honeymoon tonight, I might pop by for an hour or two.”   “Um, do I get a say in this?” asked Heavy, not seeming very upset.   “No!” said both of the mares as one.   Cheerilee passed over the paperwork and Notary quickly signed it using her husband to be as a rest. “Right now that’s done and my best mare is here, I think we can get on with things,” remarked Notary leading the other two towards the large tree chosen for the wedding itself. Heavy Rollers seemed to be dragging his hooves a little. “Nervous?” asked Notary a little stress in her voice.   “Well your boss did promise that I’d disappear if I ever hurt you.”   “Oh, he was probably joking.”   “Really?”   “No, but I don’t think you’ll ever hurt me so we won’t have to find out, will we,” said the white mare striding forwards.   “What have I gotten myself into?” muttered Heavy straightening his bow tie before following his bride to be, causing Cheerilee to laugh.   Trixie had been entertaining the crowd and with the party approaching the Countess quickly switched roles preparing to officiate. Taking her position opposite Heavy’s best mare Cheerilee admired the newly minted sergeant Scootaloo of the Royal Guard in her dress uniform, she remembered when the mare had been an awkward filly, not the towering intimidating soldier she was now.   Running her eyes over the crowd Cheerilee noticed Diamond Tiara looking hungrily at the guard, the two of them had dated for a while and their split up hadn’t been acrimonious but it looked like she might still have some feeling for the orange pegasus. Next to Diamond stood her father Filthy Rich who was talking to Big Mac in a hushed whisper, along with her they were the other ponies responsible for getting the bride and groom together after somepony had tried to blackmail Heavy and Cheerilee had gotten a team together to stop them. Next to the large red stallion was his wife, and across from her were the other element bearers, Lyra and Bon Bon sat with their daughter between them, Carrot Top leant against her husband surrounded by their children, she wasn’t showing but Cheerilee knew she had another on the way, that mare really didn’t seem to know when to stop. As always her eyes scanned the crowd for Raindrops, even after so many years since her death she expected her to be there.   Trying to distract herself she glanced over at Notary’s side of the gathering, Greengrass and a number of other nobles were present sitting amongst the large white herd that made up the bride’s family. The ex-baron seemed to be overcome by emotion and was sobbing into a handkerchief held by his wife, one of her pale green legs thrown over this back.   For a moment she felt sad, it seemed like everypony else had somepony except her. She knew she had time, just maybe not as much as she used to have. It had been a while since she’d last dated, as always life tended to get in the way, maybe that was why she had found Heavy and Notary’s offer so tempting? She shook herself, now wasn’t the time for that, today she would be happy for her friends, maybe very happy tonight and that was enough for her.   “You were married to this Notary for years? This wasn’t in any of your other biographies,” said Ghost.   “Well I was drunk at the time, it’s not like it was the worst thing I did after a night’s drinking. Besides I didn’t want to break her trust.”   “So what changed? Why bring this up now?”   “She passed a few years ago, you probably wouldn’t know it but most of the political reform in Equestria over the last few decades had her hoof in them somewhere. It’s all very well being a hero of Equestria but its stallions and mares like Notary who get things done,” she sighed, “Her daughter, my goddaughter, is one of Celestia’s closest advisors you know.”   “So what did you do after the wedding?” asked Ghost deciding to change the subject.   “Well if you really want all the juicy details of the honeymoon we could be here all day,” said Cheerilee struggling to sit up in the bed.   “No not that,” said Ghost blushing a little, “Did you date more, did you find a special somepony.” She stood up and helped the old pony get comfortable.   “Thanks, I looked a bit more, I did that after every wedding, didn’t last long. I was in a nice comfortable rut you see. It wasn’t until I started writing that things changed and I met somepony,” she paused for a moment, “Somepony special.”   “Your travel books were very successful, six best sellers.”   “Seven actually,” said Cheerilee with some pride. “Still you’ll have to wait until tomorrow now.” She pointed up to the clock on the wall. “It’s time for that hunky young nurse to give me my sponge bath, if only I’d met him thirty years ago, still it would have been awkward given he wasn’t born then. After that, Chalk Board is due around to talk to me about the curriculum changes this year.” She closed her eyes for a moment. “I’d be rushed off my hooves if I could still stand on them.”