//------------------------------// // Wedding Jitters (part 1) // Story: Minding the Little Ones // by Karrakaz //------------------------------// There had been many things in Celestia’s life that had been unexpected. The events that led to her current situation for example. Becoming the guardian of a student as powerful as Twilight Sparkle had been unexpected. And although she’d held out hope, she had never expected that the filly would bring her sister back to her. She never expected that Twilight would remember a promise that she herself had all but forgotten, or write her over a thousand love letters. Nor had she expected that she’d fall in love with her former student. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, she had never ever expected to be this nervous during a public function. Which begged the question, what had she expected from her wedding day? “Should the teal warblers carry the train of the wedding dress? Or would you prefer the doves, Princess?” Fluttershy asked from the opposite end of the room. The mare had spent most of the morning talking to the various birds that seemed more than eager to listen to her. “Hmmm... teal would clash with the dress, I think. Though doves are so... mundane. Aren’t there any other animals that would like to help?” Rarity replied after a moment, for which Celestia was extremely grateful, as she didn’t honestly care which bird or animal was used. She had other concerns. Since the inception of their relationship, she had always imagined that Twilight would be the one fretting about everything to do with the wedding. Her love was a worrier, after all. And in a way, Twilight was worrying, but again, not in the way Celestia had expected. She had seen all sorts of weddings. From the small and intimate gatherings in which she was merely the officiator, to the loud and ostentatious parties that sometimes lasted for several days. Rather than taking either option and leaving the event in the capable hooves of an actual wedding planner, Twilight had taken it upon herself to come up with something new. Something... Unexpected. Celestia’s ears flicked when Fluttershy harrumphed from across her bedroom which had been re-purposed as preparation room for the bride. “It’s not like I can just give them orders, Rarity, they’re my friends!” The two of them had been talking since early in the morning when they’d started, and though they occasionally directed a question at Celestia, she found that she had no answers. Fluttershy had, once again, taken the role of musical overseer, and Rarity’s role as dressmaker had been self-explanatory. It was from her shop that Celestia had picked out a dress, and it was she that suggested it was a little too plain for a wedding. Celestia didn’t know enough about the kind of wedding Twilight wanted to hold, but she trusted Rarity’s opinion on the matter. Celestia smiled despite herself. While most ponies considered it good enough to have their friends be present at the actual ceremony, leave it to Twilight to recruit her friends to help her with all other parts of the organisation as well. “I know, darling. I know,” Rarity replied, dropping the needle cushion she’d been holding in her magic while she looked past Celestia at her friend. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to imply anything like that.” To Celestia’s left Fluttershy deflated. “Oh...” “But, darling, this is the most important day of Twilight’s entire life! And Princess Celestia’s as well! Not having the absolute perfect ceremony would be the WORST POSSIBLE THING! Are you sure you can’t ask them if they know somebirdies that would be willing to help? They are your friends, after all. Surely you could at least ask?” Fluttershy shifted her weight from one foreleg to the other and back again before nodding. “Okay, I’ll try and persuade them.” Celestia frowned. Here she was, been made a virtual statue (a great big fat statue) on a pedestal for the better part of six hours, alone with her doubts while Rarity made adjustments to her dress. But not finding the right birds was the worst possible thing? Her mind turned back to the ceremony, which had become a huge public spectacle by necessity. The wedding of not one, but two Alicorns was big news throughout the world and everyone who was anyone wanted to attend. It brought with it an inordinate amount of scrutiny and rules, which scared her more than she cared to admit. Not because she didn’t know what was going to happen (although that certainly played a part) but rather, because she knew more than the average mare about ceremony and not stepping on any political toes. The Gryphons, for example, started any wedding with a banquet, wherein the groom had to win a ‘mock’ fight with the bride’s father; the Yaks considered a marriage to be invalid if the couple didn’t destroy at least three houses; ponies themselves prefered that brides be given away by their fathers, and grooms by their mothers—Celestia never had either; and perhaps most mercurially, any union had to be ‘blessed by the spirits’ before the Zebras would acknowledge it. On top of which the entire world would be following her marriage more closely than any before. Expect more from it than any before. Even that, however, was not what scared her most. Her mind, overtired by the run up to the wedding, not to mention the pregnancy, conjured up ever more gruesome scenarios. Problem with the wedding cake. Guests being late. Twilight getting cold feet at the last possible moment... Twilight having been a changeling all along. The fear in the pit of her stomach transformed into something altogether more sickly. With a dry ‘hurk’ Celestia pulled away from Rarity made a mad dash for the the bathroom. She barely reached the toilet before vomiting. It took a minute? An hour? It felt like forever. “Princess? Are you alright?” Glancing back at the door in between heaves, she made out the blurry faces of two concerned ponies. “No!” She shouted. “I’m not alright! I’m getting married in a few hours and I’m hideous!” “Please, Princess... darling. You look fi—” “No I don’t! I look like a fat cow trying to wear a curtain!” Celestia cried, and then at a lower volume said: “It’s all Twilight’s fault.” She shook her head and drew a foreleg across her face, surprised to find it came away wet with tears. This is what it had come to. ‘Princess’ Celestia, crying in the bathroom for no reason, and all because of that purple witch! She’d had the perfect idea for a nice, quiet, secluded, wedding. They would have gotten married essentially in secret, and nopony would be the wiser. Then, after that was done, they could have had a grand spectacle to satisfy everyone who wanted to see the marriage, but it would all have been for show. But nooooo, Twilight had to go and decide that she didn’t want to sneak around and hide things from anypony. She hated what that twice damned mare did to her. “Pri— Celestia?” For a split second, she believed that Twilight had entered the bathroom, and wondered if she would growl at the mare, or kiss her. Un-fortunately, it was only Fluttershy, looking at her serenely. With a hint of a smile even. Rarity was standing behind her, looking decidedly more nervous and uncertain, but Celestia gaze was drawn back to the pegasus in front of her. “Go away,” was all she managed without choking up on her own words. Fluttershy didn’t budge. “Why do you think you’re hideous?” Celestia looked at her in disbelief. Could she really not see it? “Why would I not?” she asked flatly. “I’m huge, and fat, and unwieldy, and walking around with a belly big enough to flatten ponies with!” Fluttershy simply maintained that infuriatingly serene smile that only made things seem worse than they already were. How could she be so calm while Celestia’s world was burning down around her? “That’s not true,” Fluttershy said, taking a step closer. “I was a model for a brief time, and every mare I met there wished they had a figure like yours. They considered it perfect, and many of them did unhealthy things to look even a little more like you.” “Maybe before,” Celestia groused. “But then Twilight happened, and now I’m fat, and it’s all her fault.” “You don't look fat, Princess,” Fluttershy said softly, having stepped close enough to place a hoof on Celestia’s shoulder. It was a gesture meant to reassure, but while the intention wasn’t lost on Celestia, its effects were. It sounded to her ears like just another empty sentence, meant to placate without actually being true. She had enough experience doling them out in court to know when one was being used on her. “Then what do I look like?” she asked heatedly. “Here.” She turned ninety degrees, showing the other mares her swollen midsection. “What does this look like to you?” The question reinforced her fears in her own mind, and two seconds later she was standing over the toilet again, trying in vain not to puke. Her mane, which became more and more unruly whenever her emotions ran high, seemed determined to get in the way, breaking her down further. Before it could, however, it was caught by a yellow hoof and pulled back out of the way. “You look like a beautiful young mother who is nervous about her unborn foal, and her wedding,” Fluttershy said while she kept Celestia’s hair from making more of a mess. It was preposterous. She was behaving like a heartbroken filly, and Fluttershy who couldn’t have seen more than twenty-five winters —a pittance— was consoling her like a... like a mother would comfort her distraught daughter before a wedding... Don’t forget that you’re getting married to a filly that’s younger than that. a small treasonous part of her mind whispered. She shook her head vigorously, hoping to shake the idea. Age has nothing to do with it. Twilight is a wonderful mare and Fluttershy is right. I’m being hysterical. “Not to seem insensitive, darlings, but there’s a wedding Princess Celestia needs to get ready for.” “Shhh, just give her a few minutes. Sorry, Rarity, but you can’t rush this.” Celestia examined herself. Specifically, the tattered remains of her self-control. Practiced as she was at keeping her emotions in check, it seemed that she had found her breaking point. It did not take as much as she had expected, but then, whenever Twilight was involved all bets were off. Twilight had been capable of putting her off balance long before they had become marefriends. The nervous knots in which her stomach had tied itself did not magically disappear, and the pieces of her dignity did not miraculously piece themselves back together, but she felt a little calmed. Reassured that things perhaps weren’t quite as bad as she feared. “Feel better?” Fluttershy asked after she gathered the last of the bile in her mouth and spit it into the toilet. Taking a deep breath, Celestia righted herself and turned to the mare beside her. Fluttershy looked up at her with that self same smile, and Celestia looked for any evidence of deception. She couldn’t find any. “Mu— a little. Thank you, Fluttershy.” Fluttershy’s eyes formed two crescent moons when her smile went from supportive to pleased. “I’m glad. Do you think you could stand going back to the pedestal and letting Rarity finish working on her ‘curtain’?” Fluttershy giggled after she finished, and looked guilty immediately after that. Celestia found that she really, really didn’t. But neither did she want to leave Twilight standing at the altar. Just imagining how hurt Twilight would be was enough to make her queasy again. “Trust me, Princess, many ponies I know still consider you to be quite beautiful,” Rarity said, stepping into the bathroom. “They’ll definitely want to see you in that marvelous ‘curtain’.” Celestia scoffed. “Maybe if I wasn’t pregnant.” Another unexpected thing Twilight had done to her, one she very much blamed her marefriend for. Nothing ever seemed to follow the rules around that insufferable filly. “I think you’re perhaps being a little hard on yourself, Princess,” Rarity said, gently nudging her from her left side. “You’ll see, all of this will seem very silly when the wedding is safely over.” Celestia shook her head. “I don’t know, I’m not even sure I want to get married looking like this.” She focused her attention on Fluttershy, who at the very least seemed not to judge her for how she was feeling. “I wanted to wait until after the delivery. Had a plan for it too, but Twilight was worried about how it would look. I told her it would look like a wedding... but then I her talk me into this and I am a whale stuffed into a tiny sack.” She hung her head and let out a long suffering sigh. “Why did I let her do this to me?” “Because you love her, and she loves you.” Fluttershy said, subtly nudging her from the other side. Helping her get back onto the pedestal. Once on it, she was once again faced with the trio of unforgiving mirrors that showed her exactly how different she looked. The swelling of her belly was nothing new, she’d been staring at it for the better part of the morning. The dress however... She stared at her reflection in disbelief. It really did look more like a curtain than a dress. Apparently she had ripped several seams in the dress in her haste to get to the toilet. It will take the rest of the day to fix all that, her mind wailed. We’ll never be ready in time. Rarity’s reflection stepped up next to her own in the middle mirror, and smiled. The ruins that were supposed to be Celestia’s dress didn’t seem to phase her. “Do you follow the fashion scene at all, Princess?” She asked conversationally while picking up several needles with her magic and turning to the dress. Celestia shook her head lightly. “No. I generally don’t wear much besides my regalia,” she replied absently. For a moment, Rarity looked like she had her own ideas on that practice, but she continued in the same conversational tone. “Well, there’s been a recent trend. Something they call a ‘plus’ size for both models and dresses.” Rarity leaned forward. “It seems that they were inspired by the healthy baby belly of our beloved Princesses,” she said with a conspiratorial wink. Celestia smiled into the mirror. It wasn’t real, but it was the most she had to offer. Her thoughts were on Twilight Sparkle. A true dichotomy of a mare. A mare that remembered a promise Celestia had made more than a decade earlier, but would often forget to eat if not prompted. A mare that had no qualms about taking on a dragon, but had been worried about telling her parents about their relationship. A mare that, whilst having saved the country a dozen times over, was also the same mare who up till the moment Celestia had sent her to Ponyville, had wanted to sleep next to her for fears either real or imagined. Was she trying to tell me how she felt back then? Her stomach was doing flip-flops again. “Done and... Done!” Rarity exclaimed happily. “That should make it a little sturdier. What do you think, darling?” Celestia hadn’t really been paying attention to the adjustments, too absorbed in her thoughts and worries to really notice anything beyond her own heart rate. She focused on her reflection, whose curtain had been put back into a shape that was worthy of being called a dress, although it seemed Rarity hadn’t stopped at simply repairing it. The dress had already been a beautiful collage of soft morning-yellow colors which gradually faded though sunset-red into deep Twilight-purple near the hemline. It hadn’t been emblazoned in any way —the colors alone were enough as far as Celestia was concerned— but Rarity had apparently found the time to add a few small gems to the bottom and train that sparkled like stars. “It’s beautiful, Rarity.” Fluttershy said from the other side, and Celestia found that she agreed. It was a wonderful dress, and Rarity’s little touches had made it even more impressive. Too bad there was little the fashionista could do for Celestia herself. She spent a few minutes thinking about things that she could possibly do with her mane before deciding that she liked it best the way it was. Another consideration were her wings. Decorations on them weren’t exactly comfortable, but she wanted to look the best she possibly could, if only for Twilight’s sake. And what about her horn? Fluttershy and Rarity would probably know most about decorations for their respective appendages, but just as she got the idea to ask for their opinion her train of thought was derailed by a soft voice. “Uhm... Celestia?” Celestia blinked and looked for the source. It was Fluttershy, looking nowhere near as confident or serene as before. Instead she looked uncomfortable. Maybe even a little embarrassed. “Could I touch your belly?” She grimaced. “I’ve seen it often enough on my animals friends, but I’ve never... on anypony...” She shook her head looking increasingly distressed. “I don’t mean that you’re fat! Far from it! You look great and really beautiful in that dress! It’s just—.” The waterfall of words was finally plugged up by a white hoof belonging to Rarity who had made her way over to her friend. “What she means to say is that she wants to listen to the foal, if that’s alright with you.” Behind her, Fluttershy nodded mutely, still gagged by Rarity’s hoof. "Of course you can, Fluttershy,” Celestia said with a graceful calm that she didn’t feel. While watching Fluttershy approach her, she could only think of how she and Twilight had spent countless hours, heads on each other's bellies while gazing at each other lovingly. Stars... if only Twilight were here right now. Fluttershy stroked her swollen belly, a tender smile on her face. She then leaned very close, and nuzzled up directly against it. “Oh, my...” she said quietly. “It... it kicked!” Celestia tried to maintain the expression of serenity, even as she winced internally. She had felt it as well, and while it might be novel and exciting for Fluttershy, she was less enthused. It had been wonderful the first few times she’d felt it, certainly, and Twilight’s excitement when it had happened still managed to bring a smile to her face, even from underneath all of the cumbersome dread that was making today so difficult. For her, it had been more than a hundreds times now, and once the novelty had worn off, it had become little more than a kick to the stomach from the inside, and only a little less painful. “How far along are you, uhm... If you don’t mind me asking?” “Ten months and three days.” The words tumbled out of Celestia’s mouth without the need for conscious thought or effort. It was imprinted in her mind throughout it all. They were close to giving birth, she and Twilight. About three more weeks in theory. In practice, it could happen at any time, and her mind served her a frightening image of having the contractions start just as they were saying their vows. And even if it didn’t... She was going to become a mother in less than a month. Not a god-mother, watching from the sidelines and offering small nuggets of wisdom to the bedraggled looking mares that carried their foals everywhere. No, a real, bonafide mother, with crying foals of her own, diaper changes and frantic searches for reasons the babies could be crying. It scared her stiff, made her stomach coil into painful knots, and filled her head with such dread that she would have run from the room, and perhaps the castle had she not heard a sound as sweet as the call of the Elysian fields. “Celestia?” Her head snapped up from where she’d been staring at the floor, and she forgot to breathe when she saw a vision of beauty in the doorjamb. Twilight. Her wife-to-be didn’t look like perfection. Perfection, as Celestia well knew from having practiced it centuries, was boring. Twilight wasn’t boring, and while calling her wild wasn’t something she could manage with a straight face, there was something incredibly enticing about her appearance. She looked like she had taken the stars from Luna’s mane, some of the colors from Celestia’s own mane, and mixed them all together with her namesake to create a dress that seemed to be constantly shifting in color, and added the twinkling of stars that one could almost believe were trying to accentuate Twilight’s every movement. While the dress was certainly impressive, the mare herself was moreso. The style her hair normally held had been undone for one thing. Even having known her for as long as she had, Celestia was still surprised to find that Twilight had a longer mane than she had ever thought possible. It shone and framed her face like a curtain, with the bright pink stripe that always drew the attention having been further enhanced by a few strands of silver tread having been woven through it. The fact that it got as low as her knees, and swayed while she walked only added to Celestia’s yearning for her marefriend. The fact that she was as pregnant as Celestia was didn’t seem to matter. She didn’t look bloated, fat, or unwieldy, but rather lovely, the dress following the soft contours of her belly like it was the way she had always been meant to look. Convention dictated that the bride and the groom (or in their case the two brides) didn't see each other before the wedding proper. It was believed to bring bad luck to the couple and a fair number of marriages had ended before they’d started based on that belief. As far as Celestia was concerned, it needn’t happen at all. She wanted to whisk Twilight away and ravage her for an eternity. Rarity was of a different mindset. “Twilight Sparkle! What in the world do you think you’re doing?” Rarity stepped in front of Celestia and glared at the purple alicorn. The effect was a little ridiculous, given that Twilight had grown to be a head taller than her unicorn friend, and looked right over her head, straight at Celestia. She felt she might drown in those pools of liquid purple that stripped away her defenses and worries alike. Then Twilight looked away, and Celestia finally remembered that she did in fact require oxygen. “I’m here to make sure you haven’t strangled my wife with one of your dresses,” Twilight said casually, as though the wedding was already over and done with. “You’re not supposed to be here, much less see her! No looking at the bride...” Rarity looked between Twilight and Celestia. “Either bride before the ceremony. It ruins the magic of it all. Now shoo!” Rarity said, trying her hardest to shove Twilight out of the room. She might as well have been trying to move a mountain for all the good it did. Twilight’s features softened when she looked at Celestia again. She picked up Rarity in her magic without even looking and talked to her while advancing on the pedestal Celestia was on. “I know how you feel about it, Rarity, and I promise I’ll leave right away, but I felt something, and I need to know if she’s okay.” She came to a halt in front of the pedestal, and even though Celestia was still the larger of the two of them, she felt incredibly small for some reason. The genteel look that mixed worry and understanding might have been the reason. That too, felt like it belonged on the mare Celestia loved. She was the most beautiful creature in the entirety of Equestria, and for a moment, Celestia felt like the luckiest mare alive. “Celestia...?” A purple hoof reach up to her cheek and she leaned into it, trying to draw strength from her love’s presence. “You are okay, right? You look a little pale.” Celestia wanted to smile. To laugh. Of course she looked pale! Fresh snowfall was compared to her coat to see if it had the right coloration! But she also knew that wasn’t what Twilight meant. She was talking about the fact that neither of them had slept much in the last couple of weeks, or perhaps the fact that she hadn’t been able to keep any solid food down for more than hour over the last couple of days. She smiled as convincing a smile as she could muster and said; “I’m completely fine, Twilight. Just a little nervous is all.” That’s right. Just nerves. You totally weren’t planning on leaving Equestria to its fate simply so you wouldn’t have to walk down that aisle. Twilight smacked her lips, which Celestia noted had been accentuated by a light pink lipstick. She got the chance to ponder who might have helped Twilight prepare for her wedding for all of a second before those same lips pressed themselves against her own. The kiss Twilight gave her was deep, passionate, and needy, and Celestia lost a moan or two to her lover’s mouth before Twilight finally pulled back. Celestia leaned into the kiss more and more, unwilling to let it end. Twilight kissing her held all she ever wanted and she wanted it to go on forever. Unfortunately, reality got in the way, wielding a pedestal. Her world view tilted forward and she scrambled to right herself with flailing hooves and wings both, but to no avail. The pedestal slid away from her when the weight on it shifted forward, and she fell against Twilight who, surprisingly, didn’t fall with her. The bad news was that she could hear, and feel, several seams on her dress pop once more. She could already picture Rarity’s expression. “You can’t be completely fine,” Twilight said from above her. She quickly realised that Twilight must’ve tasted some very unsavory things; she hadn’t brushed her mouth yet after the vomiting incident. She looked up at her marefriend, silently pleading with her not to be judgemental. She wouldn’t be able to take it. Twilight helped her upright, bringing them face to face. For the most part anyway, she still had to look down a little to see eye to eye. A sigh of relief escaped her when all she saw in Twilight’s eyes was love. “I never thought I’d be the one saying this to you, but... You’re worrying too much, Celestia. You’ve never looked more beautiful...” Twilight petered out and then smirked with one side of her mouth. She leaned in and whispered: “Maybe once before. I’m sure you’ll look even more lovely tonight.” A shiver ran up Celestia’s spine, and a mixture of excitement and embarrassment colored her cheeks red. “It’s a promise,” she whispered back. Only after Twilight helped her back up onto the pedestal, did her focus widen enough to realise that; one, Fluttershy had tried to help, and had fallen in the process; two, Rarity still hung suspended in Twilight’s magic looking very annoyed; and three, the sun was nearing its zenith, meaning that there wasn’t a lot of time left before the ceremony began. “Twilight, dear,” she said, trying to keep her voice from breaking. “I think you can let Rarity down now. I need her.” Twilight looked over to her unicorn friends, and smiled sheepishly while she put her down. “Sorry, Rarity,” she preempted the unicorn. “I promise you can yell at me for all of this later, but right now, we need to get things ready for the ceremony.” Rarity glared at Twilight for a while before snorting daintily and sticking her nose in the air. “Fine. I’ll need to reinforce these seams, or they’ll come apart again the next time she moves. How long do I have?” “How long do you need?” “Ten minutes, at least.” Twilight nodded. “I’ll make sure that the ceremony is delayed a little if needed, but you should have enough time.” She looked a Celestia and blew her a kiss before turning and walking towards the door, quietly asking Fluttershy to join her. “Twilight?” Rarity called out while she again attacked the dress with her sewing implements at such a dizzying speed that Celestia was a little worried she’d end up sown to the dress. “Don’t expect me to take pity on you when we talk about this.” Twilight giggled. “Understood.” Celestia silenced a low whine in the back of her throat. Desperate as she was to keep Twilight close, they’d be standing together soon enough. She had already behaved like a teenage mare today, which would feature prominently on her list of shameful things to have done, and she’d be damned if she added ‘kicked puppy’ to that list as well. For the longest time, Twilight had come to her whenever she was upset. Her presence had been soothing. Now, she found those roles reversed. Having Twilight in the room had been calming. Reassuring. She wasn’t alone, heck, the whole point of this was showing the world that she had a significant other pony in her life. A pony she would spend ‘the rest of her life with, for good or for ill’ as the vows put it, which for an Alicorn was a very long time indeed. She couldn’t wait. Nor could she currently do much more than prolong her exposure. Rarity was mumbling to herself while she worked, but Celestia’s attention remained focused on her love, who turned to Fluttershy the moment they had stepped out of the room proper. Celestia subtly nudged the doors open with her magic after they had closed them, indulging in a need to look at her wife-to-be for as long as possible. “I got the orchestral ponies in position, Applejack and Pinkie are working wonders with the catering, and I’m pretty sure Rainbow Dash finally got the seating arrangements figured out,” Twilight said softly. “How are the animals?” Fluttershy’s answer was lost on Celestia. The cheery, seductive Twilight that had just made her feel like the luckiest mare alive, seemed to have evaporated the moment she stepped out of the room, leaving a tired and wrung out—though no less beautiful—mare in her place. “Alright. With that taken care of...” Twilight fell silent and closed her eyes for a moment. “I’ve double checked the guest list. Made sure that the seating arrangements were at least somewhat consistent, made sure that the bride was as beautiful as ever...” she smiled a little on the last one. “Checked on the catering and the photographer, and made sure the musicians know what to play.” She opened her eyes again, which, somehow, made her exhaustion seem even more prevalent. “Did I miss anything?” For all that she had missed, Celestia didn’t miss the worried expression on Fluttershy’s face. “Uhm... I don’t know?” the mare said, her worry seeping through into her speech. “You look... well you look... nice, so that’s good. Did you check with Luna to make sure she has the right vows?” Twilight nodded. “Um... well, you didn’t really answer my question about the grackles—” Twilight did not immediately respond. Instead, she swayed on her hooves for a few moments before shaking her head and nodding again. “I’m sure you can handle it, Fluttershy. You always know what to do when it comes to animals.” “Well, okay, but I really think you should—” “Horsefeathers!” Twilight suddenly exclaimed, cutting her off. She reached over and pulled Fluttershy in for a quick hug. “Sorry, Fluttershy, but I need to run, I forgot to check some important safety features on Pinkie’s automatic rice dispension system!” Celestia only barely heard the last few words of the sentence as the mare vocalising them had already vanished down the corridor. “Okay.” Fluttershy said to the empty hallway after a moment of stunned silence. “I’ll do my best.” She returned to the room after that, closing the door behind her and moving to help Rarity without so much as a glance at Celestia. Probably for the best, as Celestia hadn’t succeeded in maintaining the calm demeanour that Twilight had brought out in her. From the moment Twilight had stepped into the room, her spirits had been lifted. Twilight had taken care of the thousands of little things that needed taking care of, how could things turn out any other way than perfectly? Her marefriend had everything in hoof, and she would take care of everything in a time where Celestia herself was unable to. But now... Now it seemed that holding everything together had put a strain on Twilight that she was unprepared for, or at the very least, ill-equipped. Her insistence on being the architect of the most wonderful day of Celestia’s life was now threatening to harm Twilight. I never should have let her go through with it, she thought, swallowing to moisturize her throat. Twilight was a pregnant mare, which, Celestia knew from experience, came with a lot of little aches, and not a whole lot of energy, stamina, or sleep. And now, Twilight, and with it, the wedding, were threatening to collapse, and come apart at the seams... just like her dress. And while Rarity could save and fix her dress if she ripped it... Who would save her wedding?