• Published 28th Feb 2014
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Tales of the Oppressed - Terran34



Follow the journey of a young cynical man as his world is turned upside down. Without anywhere to turn, can he learn to set aside his preconceptions and learn to accept friendship for what it truly is?

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57. Love is in Bloom

I guess it had to happen sometime. And by that, I mean I wasn't able to wake up on my own for once. Instead, I'm woken up by the sound of whispering voices nearby. Christ, what time is it? If it's before 8, I'm going to kick Vinyl and Rainbow's respective asses.

“Oh shoot, Ah think we woke 'im,” I hear one of them whisper as I sit up. It takes me a few seconds to recognize who I'm hearing, because my mind is still foggy from just waking up. That sounds an awful like Applejack...though what the hell she's doing in this room is beyond me.

I open my eyes, and sure enough, I see Applejack sitting on the floor in front of the bed, gazing at me apologetically. That's not all. They're all here. Like, Twilight, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Spike are sitting in a circle, in addition to Rainbow and Vinyl, who I already knew were going to be here. What the hell are they all doing here?”

“He's awake, he's awake!” Before I have a chance to say anything, Pinkie zooms across the floor like some kind of pony ninja, stopping directly in front of my face. I blink once, but that's all I have time for before Pinkie levers open my jaw with a hoof and stuffs something sweet-tasting in my mouth. “Try this!”

Still sleepy and very much confused, I bite down tentatively at the object weding my mouth open. It's soft and I can feel something creamy on it, so I assume it's a cupcake. Of course it is. It's Pinkie. Why would it be anything else? Still, it tastes good. It's like a strawberry vanilla flavor...which happen to be two of my favorite flavors. Shit, this is delicious.

Pinkie is bouncing in front of me excitedly, eagerly waiting my opinion of her cooking. Since I assume she made it. “What the fuck, Pinkie? Wouldn't a simple 'good morning' have been better than trying to suffocate me with a cupcake?” I demand once I manage to swallow the baked confection.

“This coming from the guy who dropped me into a tub of cold water!” Rainbow retorts before Pinkie can answer, earning laughs from her friends and a mock glare from me. “You've got no room to talk!”

“She's got a point, you know, Mr. Bed Flipper,” Vinyl points out. I groan and get to my feet, my pants still on because I'm sleeping on the floor every night.

“Okay, is it Everypony Hate on Seth Day and no one told me?” I grunt in annoyance. Seriously, so much activity just after waking up.

“No, it's Everypony Bake for Seth Day! And by 'everypony', I mean meeee!” Pinkie exclaims with and over the top grin. “Well, what do you think? Did you like it?”

“It wasn't bad. How did you figure out what flavors I like? I don't remember telling anypony,” I respond haltingly, not wanting to tell her it was actually extremely good. Because it would go straight to her head.

“Lucky guess. But now I know your favorite flavors!” Pinkie answers, bouncing around me in a circle. I try to follow her with my eyes, but I stop when she passes behind me. This fucking pony, I swear to god. “Ohmigosh, I just had the best idea ever! I should totally throw a 'Seth Saved Canterlot' party, with strawberry and vanilla everywhere!”

“That sounds delightful. I happen to enjoy strawberry myself,” Rarity comments, and as she lifts a sandwich to her mouth, I just now I notice that they're eating breakfast on a lavender tablecloth.

“Can we not do that? In case you hadn't noticed, there's still reconstruction to be done. Not to mention it was Celestia who saved the city,” I remind Pinkie before her excitement level gets too high to handle.

“That's not true. If you hadn't saved us back at the wedding, we would have lost,” Twilight interrupts, looking at me sternly.

“That's true. Though I believe credit belongs collectively to all of us,” Rarity suggests. And now she has everyone's attention.

“What does that mean, Rarity?” Spike inquires. The little dragon is munching on gems from a bowl, while sitting in between Rarity and Twilight. Huh, he did say he ate gems, though I've never seen it for myself. That just seems wrong. Any one of those gems could have earned me a ton of money in my time. Now they're food.

“I just think that everyone had their own role to play, and that each role was equally important,” Rarity explains. “Seth is the reason we were able to make the effort to retake Canterlot, but it took all of us to do it.”

“Oh, I know! Let's make it a 'We Saved Canterlot' party, and I'll get everyone's favorite flavors and make one giant cake!” Pinkie inputs.

“Ooh, a giant cake? Sounds delish,” Vinyl comments. I sigh and run a hand through my hair...and promptly notice that it's greasy from overnight build-up. Ugh, gross. I'll wrap this up quickly and then take a shower.

“Still, I don't think we should have a party until we're done rebuilding,” I remind them all once again. Secretly though, I'd love a fucking Pinkie Party right now. It doesn't matter how much that pony annoys me; her parties can relieve stress like nothing else. There are few problems that dancing and sweets can't solve.

“Right. Gotta work before we can play,” Applejack concurs, nodding in approval. “But ah'm on board with this party idea.”

“Me too. Though I also agree with Seth. Why don't we wait until we all get back to Ponyville?” Twilight suggests. “That way we can celebrate our victory as well as our safe return home.”

The other ponies make various sounds of approval at that idea. Well then, it looks like I'll have something to look forward to once all this reconstruction is over.

“All right, that being decided, I'm going to go take a shower. My mane is all greasy,” I tell them, and then immediately notice that they're all looking at me strangely. Then it hits me. I exhale slowly and rest my face in my hands, rubbing at my eyes. “I just said 'mane,' didn't I?”

“You totally did!” Rainbow responds, falling over with laughter. My resulting groan of exasperation gets the other girls giggling and laughing.

“Fucking ponies and your linguistics, taking over my mind, and...” I grumble, trailing off into unintelligible growl and curses as I storm into the bathroom and shut the door behind me.


I emerge from the bathroom a little over half an hour later, my hair as groomed as much as possible, what with all the damaged ends I have. I really need to find a pair of scissors somewhere and fix it myself. I'm also slightly hungry, so that food that the ponies in the room are still eating starts to look really enticing.

“So where'd all this food come from anyway?” I ask, inserting myself into the circle between Rainbow and Vinyl, who shift to give me room.

“It's a complementary meal, darling! The castle staff is providing us with food, as long as we keep trying our hardest to rebuild the city,” Rarity explains. Huh, that seems like a fair deal to me. Free food for hard work without pay. I can accept that. Rarity offers me a bowl of salad. “Would you like some?”

“Damn right I do. I'm starving,” I say, taking the bowl from her and tossing some of the leaves in my mouth. Oh good, I can taste spinach in here. I can get iron from that, since I'm pretty much a vegetarian now. Sometimes I get the craving for a juicy cheeseburger every now and then, but it's no big deal.

“Oh!” Twilight suddenly exclaims, and then she produces a sheaf of papers from somewhere behind her. I quirk an eyebrow as she sends them over to me, along with a inkwell and quill. “I knew there was something I was forgetting. Take these, Seth.”

“What the fuck is this? Paperwork?” I say, perplexed. I set aside my bowl and take the paper and quill from Twilight, glancing at the heading on the first page. It reads “Equestrian Citizenship Application – Form 1A.” Shit, Celestia told me this was coming. Oh god, it looks complicated as all hell. “Oh. Seems important.”

“Yes, sorry. Princess Celestia wanted me to give those to you,” Twilight replies. “You don't have to do them now, but the princess wants them done as soon as possible.”

“Christ, she essentially gave me homework,” I say with an ironic chuckle. “The more things change, the more they stay the same. Well, I'll do these after I eat.”

“Are those the citizenship papers?” Rainbow inquires, peeking over my shoulder. I push her muzzle out of the way gently. That takes her by surprise, so she emits a frankly adorable snuffle. “Hey, what was that for?”

“You were being too nosy. Yes, they're my citizenship papers,” I remark with looking at her. Instead of responding, Rainbow pushes a hoof into my nose gently, so that my head turns aside involuntarily. “Really?”

“Yeah, really. Problem?” Rainbow answers with a cheeky grin. Did...did she just fucking troll me? Now I've seen everything. Ponies that know how to troll.

“Citizenship papers? Does that mean you're going to be an honorary Equestrian!?” Rarity exclaims, appearing a bit too excited.

“It doesn't really change much. All it's for is so that other ponies know I have to follow Celestia's laws,” I say with a shrug.

“It doesn't change much!? Now, dear, citizenship isn't something to be pushed aside like it doesn't matter,” Rarity corrects me, lifting her nose. “This means that Princess Celestia recognizes you as one of her subjects. It's less of an application, and more of an agreement.”

“An agreement? What are you going on about?” I say, not sure that I enjoy being called one of Celestia's subjects. That makes it sound like I have to be subservient to her. And there's no way I'm going to be submitting to a goddamn pony princess, as powerful as she may be.

“Exactly what I said. By becoming a citizen of Equestria, you are agreeing to follow our laws. By accepting you as a citizen, Princess Celestia is agreeing to love and protect you, just as she loves and protects all of her subjects,” Rarity elaborates. As her words sink in, I notice Twilight and some of the others nodding in agreement. “Does that make sense?”

“It's a citizenship application. You just made it sound like an adoption program,” I state flatly. That gets Rainbow and Vinyl to snicker behind their hooves.

“I suppose it is similar, in a way. Princess Celestia has all adopted us, so-to-speak,” Rarity replies, unperturbed by my off-color joke. I shrug. There's not really much I can say to that. I've already agreed to do this. Rarity was just being prissy as always. There's a short silence after that as we munch on our respective breakfasts.

“So what's the deal with the rest of you?” I ask, as this has been bothering me ever since seeing them in the room. “I'm the only one required to stay here and rebuild. What are the rest of you doing?”

The ponies look amongst themselves. Applejack is the first one to speak. “Ah wanna help as much as ah can, but my farm needs me as well. Ah'm thinkin' about headin' home soon, and visitin' every weekend to come help.”

“I'm staying, of course. I brought all of my materials with me, so I can fill out my orders here,” Rarity announces, looking rather pleased with herself. “Though of course, I will use most of my time to help rebuild. I have to make up for my rather poor performance in the fight, after all.”

“You weren't poor, you were amazing, Rarity!” Spike protests suddenly, having been content to sit there and munch on gems until just now. “It was really crazy out there, and you helped keep me safe!”

Rarity looks down at Spike with surprise, which quickly turns into a happy smile. “Aww, you're so sweet, Spike. Thank you,” she responds, and then leans down to plant a kiss on the top of his head. Hilariously enough, Spike proceeds to fall over backwards in shock. Twilight also finds this funny, for some reason.

“Twilight? What about you?” I say, pushing the conversation forward. I'd like to have a general idea as to who I'll be seeing on a daily basis.

“Me? I'm going to help rebuild. I can't go home, not when there are ponies here without homes,” Twilight expresses fervently. I raise an eyebrow. That's a surprisingly noble thing to say. Whether she means it or not still remains to be seen. “I mean, I don't have anything to worry about at home.”

“I'm totally staying,” Rainbow states simply, not saying anything else. Huh, is it just me, or is she a little closer to me than before? I think it's just me. I tend not to pay attention much to how ponies position themselves during social gatherings.

“That's it?” I comment. Rainbow nods, a satisfied smile on her face.

“It's because you want to be with Seth, isn't it?” Vinyl remarks like it's a matter of fact. Rainbow's eyes widen imperceptibly as the other ponies look to her for confirmation, some of which are wearing curious expressions.

“W..what? No it isn't! I'm staying because of...” Rainbow fumbles a moment to try and find the words to properly protest. Eventually, as Applejack and Vinyl snicker at her expense, she points at Twilight. “What Twilight said. Yeah.”

Rainbow yelps in shock as I promptly reach over and pull her over to me roughly in a hug. Holding her to my chest with an arm, I grin evilly and start messing with her mane. “Well, aren't you just the most tsundere little fucker? Come and give your best buddy Seth a hug!” I say in the most phony, troll-like voice that I can muster.

Rainbow understandably starts struggling like crazy. “Agh! Let me go! What are you even...I'm going to beat the hay out of you!” she cries out. Vinyl bursts out laughing at our display, while the others that aren't used to our bullshit stare in shock for a few moments before finding it extremely funny as well.

“I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of how adorable you look right now,” I say, knowing exactly how she'll react to being called adorable. True enough, she starts struggling harder, and before I realize it, she manages to slip her head up and clamp down her teeth on my bare shoulder. “Ow! Fucking...let go!”

“'u firth!” Rainbow grits out over the thin fold of skin that she's biting. At this point, the ponies that have never seen us act like this before (like Twilight, for example), are now laughing to the point where they're practically crying.

“Oh Celestia...I can't breathe...!” Twilight emits. I can't help but chuckle myself, despite Rainbow's teeth biting down on my shoulder.

I loosen my grip on Rainbow so that she has room to get out. “If you don't let go, I'll resort to drastic measures,” I warn her, wiggling my fingers threateningly. Rainbow lets go and extricates herself from my grip, glaring at me. “What? That was funny, and you know it.”

Rainbow tries to stay mad, but ultimately fails, and starts laughing as well. She gives me one last shove before she takes a drink from the cup in front of her.

“Priceless. Absolutely priceless,” Vinyl comments, wiping a tear from her eye. “This is why I hang out with you two.”

There's a silence as the rest of them take a moment to compose themselves. Well, that was fun, but now that that's over with, I should probably figure out what the rest of them are doing. “Fluttershy, what are you going to do?” I ask.

Fluttershy jumps a bit from being suddenly addressed. “Um...well, I should go home. My animals need me, and I don't think I'd be much help here,” she confesses. “I'll be back for the wedding though.”

“We all will. We still gotta prepare for it all over again,” Applejack points out. That's true. All that effort got put into making the wedding and the reception, and then we promptly blew it straight to hell. Funny how demonic bug ponies tend to do that.

“I'm staying! You'll all be working so hard all the time, and somepony's got to make you smile!” Pinkie adds. Okay, so four of the Elements are staying, and the rest are going home.

“I might as well stay myself. All my stuff is here,” Vinyl says. That's all of us then, unless you count Spike. But I think he's probably going to stay with Twilight. He always does, after all.

“All right. I'm guessing we have at least of month of work to get this place looking back to normal,” I estimate. That's taking magic into account. It would take at least half a year for humans to do the same amount of work. Mostly because construction crews tend to take fucking weeks off when building stuff. Because god forbid they do their fucking jobs.

“Sounds about right!” Twilight agrees. With that particular conversation finished, we get back to our meals.


It isn't long before we all finish up our meals. After that, it's just a matter of us cleaning up the mess before it's time to get back out there. For them at least.

“I'm gonna stay here for a while and get all this shit done,” I tell the rest of them, waving the citizenship papers at them. “I'll come join you all outside when I'm done.”

“All right. See you soon then,” Twilight responds, opening the door with her magic. “Let's go girls. He needs to work.”

“Don't take too long!” Rainbow calls back to me as she leaves the room with the rest of the girls.

“See you at the wedding...if you want, that is,” Fluttershy says to me, and then the door shuts behind them, leaving me alone in the room. Well, I guess it's time to take a look at these papers.

I sit down at the desk tucked in the corner of the room and set both the inkwell and the quill on it, next to the paperwork. Man, I'm sure glad I had practice using a quill back when I was learning Equestrian with Cheerilee, or this would be a hell of a lot more difficult.

Once I'm comfortably seated, I look at the page and see what I'm expected to do. Hm, there's some typical shit here, like name, age, gender, and all that jazz. There's also previous and current town of residence and address, as well. It's a good thing I remember Vinyl's address.

This is easy enough. Basically it's just busywork that will officially recognize me as an Equestrian citizen. However, just as I'm about to sign the application, I pause. This is a stupid reason to balk now, but I can't help but feel that if I sign this...I'll have nothing left of my human life. I won't even be a citizen of the United States anymore.

Fuck it. There's no reason to hesitate. I'm never going to be able to go home, no matter how much I want to. This is my life now. Despite that reasoning, I can't help but feel a little empty as I sign my name down on the line.

There's still more paperwork, but it's no longer citizenship papers. Now it looks more like an official article, or...hey, this is talking about me. This must be the statement Celestia is planning to release to the general public about me. And there's a smaller scrap of paper attached to the article.

“Proofread at your leisure. -Princess Celestia,” it read. Well, good to know. Let's see...oh, there's already something I'm going to cut out. And there's another.

Welp, this is going to take me a while.


Finally, once I finish crossing out the last piece I want removed, I bundle up all of the papers and snap my fingers, so that they dissolve into darkness, on their way to Spike. I only know the spell to give letters to Spike, but I figure that once he sees the note I put on it all, he'll send them to Celestia. I mean, he as reliable during the battle, so there's no point in doubting him now.

I lean back in my chair and sigh. That's it then, I guess. I'm a citizen of Equestria, which will be announced to the populace rather soon, I believe.

I stand up and leave the room. I have a lot of work to do, after all. Time to go find Shining Armor.


As I expected, there's a hell of a lot to do in the city. Between the collapsed streets, demolished houses, and decimated wedding halls, there's enough to keep everyone busy for quite a long time. I don't feel like I need to describe all of it. Shining Armor worked me extremely hard, and more often than not I was out there on the scaffoldings, rebuilding the houses or streets with a supervisor behind me making sure I didn't fuck anything up.

Sometimes Rainbow is with me, other times I'm working with Applejack on one of the weekends she visits us. I've only worked with Twilight once, but that's because she's mostly dealing with “records,” whatever that means.

About a week after the battle, Celestia releases the statement she had planned about me, and the news spreads like wildfire, either through word of mouth, letters, or the newspapers in which the article is printed. The article explained what I am, where I come from, and why I'm here now, though it never gets too personal, because I scratched all of that out. It also explains my role in the battle of Canterlot, though it paints me in a positive light, saying that while I was “tempted by Queen Chrysalis, I ultimately chose to fight for Equestria.” It could be worse, I suppose.

Another week later, Octavia comes to find me, having been freed from slime from a building buried in rubble that only recently got excavated. It's good to see that she's all right, I guess. We end up going somewhere to eat so we can catch up, since I haven't seen her since that time in the wedding hall. It also gives me a chance to explain to her what she saw. Fortunately, she doesn't try to kill me. She's disappointed, but I guess that's to be expected.

Soon after that, Celestia announces that the Royal Wedding will be taking place at the end of the month, once all of the repairs are done. Which surprisingly gets the civilians happy. I guess it's because this means that the danger is over, and announcing the wedding means things are returning to normal.

Speaking of which, I will be attending the wedding. Cadance did talk to Shining Armor, and while he's not happy with me at all, his anger has simmered down to the point where he doesn't want to put me behind bars every time he sees me. At least, I hope that's the case. Either way, I'll be going to the wedding.

Finally, by the end of the month, the repairs are completed. It's been an exhausting month with almost every day being spent working in the city, but it's finally over. Now there's nothing to worry about until the wedding. Which as of right now is in a few days.

The next day, Fluttershy and Applejack arrive from Ponyville to help with the wedding. Which means it's almost time. I'm going to this damn wedding. I fought to make sure this goddamn wedding could happen. I want to make sure it goes well.


Celestia, along with Luna, stand on the raised platform at the end of the newly refurbished wedding hall, just in front of a white wooden arch adorned with greenery and bells, to signify the joyous occasion that's about to take place. Shining Armor is next to them on my right, along with Twilight, who because she was right in the first place, is the best mare (that is such a dumb pun) once more.

Next to Celestia and Luna on my left, standing in a line, are the bridesmaids. Despite Lyra and the others' return, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow, and Pinkie are still the bridesmaids for this wedding. Which makes sense, considering how they tried their hardest along with me to make sure these two could get married.

As for me, I'm standing in the audience near the front, with Lyra on my left and Vinyl on my right. I'm wearing clothes now other than my pants, because Rarity insisted that I look nice for this occasion. And guess what, she made another coat for me. She was distraught that the first one was damaged so badly, but she still had its design, so she recreated it for me...which I then paid her for. She protested, but I insisted, so we ended up haggling a good price. It's a nice fucking coat. Damn right I'm paying her for it.

At last, the doors open, and Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo come trotting in, leaving flower petals behind for Cadance to walk through, as she's right behind them. Fluttershy's bird choir (yes, Cadance really wanted that to happen, so there it is. I still think it's stupid) starts to sing what I assume is their wedding theme.

When Cadance reaches the platform, she stands opposite Shining Armor, who smiles at her. Yeah, be happy. I almost died so you could do this. Twilight says something to Shining Armor, who replies with something that gets her to blush.

“Mares and gentlecolts, we are gathered here today to celebrate the union of the real Princess Cadance and Shining Armor,” Celestia begins, and then she continues on to say a bunch of sappy bullshit that I feel like is said at all weddings. You know, the typical “love will surpass all boundaries” and other trite nonsense.

Finally, the vows are exchanged, and the rings are given out...which go over their horns. What the hell? How can they...you know what at this point, I don't care. Fucking ponies and their traditions and...ugh.

Shining Armor and Cadance walk out to the back of the platform and out the door there, standing atop a balcony that overlooks a courtyard where a massive amount of cheering ponies are gathered. The cheering only doubles in intensity when they see the royal duo waving at them from above.

At that, the wedding ceremony is officially over, so I step out of the slowly dispersing crowd and make my way up to the platform as well. Celestia smiles as I climb up there, shifting to make room for me. “Welcome Seth. I was just about to say a few words,” she greets me upon my approach. “I have some to say to you as well.”

“Oh? This should be good,” I remark, coming to a stop next to Rainbow...who looks so weird in that dress she's wearing. And her mane is styled, like...this is the first time it hasn't been messy. She looks almost like another pony. Except not, because no other pony has a rainbow colored mane. Go figure.

“Twilight, I cannot express just how proud I am of you and your friends for making this moment possible,” Celestia begins, causing Twilight to blush and beam happily at the praise. “In the end, learning to trust your instincts is a lesson that we all must learn. This event has served to tell me that despite how long I have lived, even I have much to learn.”

“Seth, I wanted to thank you as well,” Celestia turns to me next. Now that the spotlight is on me, I shift uncomfortably, scratching the back of my neck. “You came through for us when we needed you, and that means a lot. However, in the future, I want you to listen to your heart. Often, it will give you the answers you seek, when all else seems unclear.”

“Oh my god, that's so corny,” I groan. Listen to your heart. How cliché can you get? I mean...is saving Rainbow technically following my heart? Celestia just giggles at my response without taking offense.

I hazard a glance outside, and notice with some disgust that Shining Armor and Cadance are now kissing. I guess that's tradition, but that doesn't make it any less excruciating to see.

“Rainbow, that's your cue,” Celestia says, and Rainbow blinks, suddenly remembering why she was called to the wedding in the first place.

“Oh shoot. Let's do this!” Rainbow exclaims, and then she dashes to the balcony and takes to the air, accelerating as fast as she can until she hits the sound barrier. It soon shatters, the sound of thunder echoing through the courtyard as a result. You know, as well as the rainbow rings of magical bullshit that for some reason accompany a sonic boom. Because magic.

I sigh and look up at the sky as the rainbow spreads. I find the color somewhat soothing. It's hard to describe how I'm feeling right now, but...it's like that rainbow is the culmination of everything I fought for; a visual representation of our victory.

And sheesh, would you listen to me. I'm sounding cheesy as fuck right now. Oh, you damn ponies. What have you done to me?

Still...it's a good feeling.


The sun dips below the horizon, casting shadows over the Canterlot Royal Gardens. I, as well as hundreds of other ponies, are gathered there together, standing in a ring around the center. Standing there in the center is Shining Armor and Cadance.

Set up around us, in between the masses of ponies that have gathered, are several lights and tables. On the tables are many types of extravagant food and drink. For example. I can see a massive salad in the center of one table, and several bowls of fruit on another, set up around an ice sculpture of a heart. On another table I can see the massive cake that Applejack had created, with tiny figures of Cadance and Shining Armor decorating its top.

For drinks, there's bowls of punch, soft drink fountains, and other such things. Heh, the kitchens really spared no expense for this. But then again, they shouldn't have. If there's anything Canterlot needs right now, it's a celebration.

Just as Shining Armor and Cadance hug warmly, there's a flash of pink as a certain hyperactive pony streaks past them. Pinkie screeches to a halt just behind a set of speakers and mixing tables, which in turn are connected to an array of flashing LED lights that outline a sizable dance floor. Standing next to Pinkie is Vinyl, wearing her shades and ready to party. Thanks to Pinkie, Vinyl had been one of the musicians chosen for the party, along with Octavia and a string octet.

“Let's get this party started!” Pinkie announces excitedly, and a cheer rises from the crowd. “Hit it, Vinyl!”

“Don't have to tell me twice!” Vinyl yells enthusiastically, and then she places a hoof to the mixing tables. As rousing beat starts to play from the speakers, Pinkie tosses a microphone at Twilight, who catches it with her magic. With a wide smile, Twilight starts to sing, and the party truly begins.

“Hah, that's pretty good,” I remark to Rainbow, who's standing next to me. Around us, the different ponies are starting to dance, as the manifestation of all of the positive energy filling the garden. I give the statue of Discord an ironic glance. I bet if he could hear this right now, he'd be having a conniption. Well, it sucks to be him, because I'm going to enjoy this.

“Yeah! This party's already awesome, and the night's just getting started!” Rainbow exclaims, already starting to move her body slightly to reflect the beat. “So what do you want to do first?”

“Well, since everypony seems to be breaking in down right about now, I think I should...” I begin, but then I notice Celestia entering the dance floor, without her crown. Is she about to...holy fuck she is. I can't help but laugh out loud at seeing this regal pony princess joining in with the dancing ponies. “Are you seeing that?”

“Yeah, I've never seen the princess dance before! This is great!” Rainbow says with a raucous laugh. “And...is that Princess Luna?”

It's true. Luna's there with her, and oh my god, she's dancing harder than Celestia is. This is just great. I've never seen them act like this...but I've also never seen them in an informal setting like this. Anyhow, seeing even them dance has got me wanting to stretch out my limbs a bit myself.

“I'm getting out there. You can join me if you want,” I tell Rainbow, straightening up and starting to move towards the dance floor. For some reason, Rainbow is grinning at me.

“Did you just ask me to dance?” she asks with a roguish grin. I stop and give her an askance glance.

“No, I didn't,” I deny pointedly, already hating myself for choosing the wrong words. Rainbow's grin only grows wider.

“You totally did!”

“I did not!”

“So you don't want me to join you?”

“Ugh, stay here and rot for all I care.”

“You're not getting rid of me that easily!” Rainbow asserts, and then the two of us join the mass of dancing ponies, both of us chuckling at our dumb bullshit. “Can you even dance? You're so stiff, I bet you'll fall right over.”

“And that sounds suspiciously like a challenge. You're going down, Rainbow,” I shoot right back. This is stupid. Dance competition. Oh well. After all the shit that's happened over this past month, I think I deserve a moment to fuck around.

“Ah'm getting in on this!” Applejack joins us then, having discarded her bridesmaid outfit in favor of just her hat at some point. Oh god, is this going to get worse? Oh boy, it totally is, I can see more ponies coming.

“Did somepony say, dance competition?” Lyra exclaims, joining the circle along with her bitchy friend Bon Bon, who had apparently come up to Canterlot for the Wedding as well. As Lyra starts doing these ridiculous dance moves, Bon Bon just looks 100% done with her shit.

“Not without meee!” Pinkie zooms to join us next, promptly throwing herself to the ground. And then she starts breakdancing. A pony. Breakdancing. Sheesh, I haven't seen her do this in a while. I think it's safe to say that she wins the bullshit dance competition that we'd just come up with.

“I feel the need to join you. A competition seems like fun.” Much to my shock, as well as that of everypony dancing around me, Celestia inserts herself into our dumb dancing circle, her mane all messed up from all the dancing she's already done. She smiles deviously at all of the other ponies. “I've had over a millennium of dancing experience. I don't think you can beat me.”

“Okay, fuck you, challenge accepted,” I say, not even caring what the hell I'm saying at this point. The atmosphere of this party is starting to get to me, I generally get a bit hyper when that happens. Though usually it's only Amaryllis or Adam that sees me doing this. “One thousand years, and you still suck. Let's do this, Celestia!”

Rainbow starts to laugh, joining us once more. Thus encouraged, the dumb dance competition continues with a vengeance. “We shalt not fall to our sister in a competition of dance! Let us show thee how it is done!” Luna even joins our dumb bullshit.

It's not just us having a blast at this party. While Twilight is singing, Vinyl is head banging like crazy, cranking out the beat with one hoof, while the other is raised high in the air.

The other members of the military are here as well. A shy looking Fluttershy is speaking softly to Commander Rose over by the punch bowl, though surprisingly the both of them are smiling. Iron is standing by the ice sculpture, shaking his head firmly at a grinning Blades, who seems intent on dragging the taciturn commander to the dance floor. As for Spitfire and Fleetfoot...

“Rainbow, tell me that's not the best you can do,” Spitfire teases my friend, who promptly freezes upon recognizing the presence of her ultimate idol. “Show me some style!”

“Oh, it's on!” Rainbow declares, facing Spitfire with a competitive gleam in her eye. Christ, this is just getting dumber and dumber.

We end up unanimously declaring Pinkie the winner of the dance competition due to this one fucking dance move that seemingly defies all logic. But, I guess that's Pinkie Pie for you. Anyway, it's what comes after that's really interesting.

On the request of Cadance, Vinyl plays a slow, steady beat, while Octavia and her octet play a slow, uplifting theme. It's then that the ponies start pairing off to start slow dancing...and then I find out what pony slow dancing looks like. They just intertwine one of their front hooves and move with their remaining three, trusting the other to not let them fall. It looks really weird for ponies to slow dance, but whatever. It's less weird than a breakdancing pony, and I've already seen that. Still, I'm gonna stay out of this one.

As ponies are starting to dance, I notice a sky blue mare with ridiculously large shades walking around, taking pictures of each of the respective pairs. She snaps of a picture of Celestia and Luna together, which in turn tells me that this dance is not romantic unless you make it. I guess that's good. Anyway, other pairs are Lyra and Bon Bon, Fluttershy and Rose (though how that happened is beyond me), Sweetie Belle and Spike, Rarity and Fancy Pants (huh, didn't know he was here), the obvious couple, and several others. One particularly hilarious “pairing” is Pinkie and a massive slice of the cake, though instead of dancing, she's chowing down on it like it's going to disappear any second.

Soarin approaches Rainbow and I, looking somewhat sheepish. He taps on Rainbow's shoulder gently to get her attention. “Hey there, Rainbow,” the Wonderbolt greets her nervously. Rainbow turns around and her eyes widen when she realizes who is talking to her. Soarin lifts a hoof to her. “Care to join me for a dance?”

Well, there goes Rainbow. I mean, she idolizes the Wonderbolts. No doubt she's going to leap at this chance.

Rainbow looks like she's thinking hard. Eventually she shakes her head. “Thanks for the offer, but I'm going to have to say no,” she tells Soarin, much to his and my shock. She turned him down!?

“What? But...why not?” Soarin asks, confused. Rainbow looks over at me with an expectant look. I'm confused for a few moments, until it hits me what she's trying to insinuate.

“I already have a partner. Shall we go, Seth?” Rainbow offers, lifting a hoof to me. I blink once. Then twice. I'm sorry what? Did she just turn down a Wonderbolt in favor of me?

“Uh, what? I'm sorry, but I don't do slow dances,” I say uncertainly. Rainbow doesn't seem discouraged, instead reaching up and grabbing my hand with the hoof that she was offering to me. “Wait, what are you...?”

“No excuses! We're going to dance and that's final,” Rainbow declares, and then she starts fucking dragging me back towards the dance floor. I'm too shocked to put up much of a fight.

“That's not how you ask someone to dance, Rainbow!” I snap at her, though all it gets is a laugh from her.

“Who said I was asking?” Rainbow returns. A vein twitches in my forehead, and then I sigh with a slight chuckle. Wow, I just got told that I'm going to be dancing, whether I like it or not. Heh. It sounds like something Amaryllis would do. Except it's not Amaryllis. It's Rainbow Dash, the one goddamn pony that I've gone through hell with, and came back out alive. I guess I'll indulge her this once.

“Might as well, I guess. Try not to step on my feet now,” I tease her. Rainbow sticks out her tongue at me in response. She lifts herself up and lifts a hoof forward towards me. Remembering how the other ponies are dancing, I grasp her front hoof with one hand, and wrap my other around the back of her neck in some strange equivalent of the slow dancing I've seen. Whatever. I'll just roll with it.

As we start dancing, that dumb photographer pony pops up out of nowhere and snaps a picture of the two of us without asking. “Magnificent!” she declares, and then is gone just as quickly as she appeared.

As we dance, Rainbow and I look up, where the moon is shining brightly, and the stars fill the sky. As we watch, a few of the Wonderbolts streak across the sky. Seconds later, fireworks fill the air with sound and color, resulting in cheers and sounds of awe from the partying ponies.

Holding Rainbow's hooves in my hands, I look back at her, only to see that she chose to look at me as well. Rainbow gives me grin, one that I can't help but mirror.

I guess that in the end, I'm satisfied with the choice I made. I'm not happy about it, but I think that given some time...everything will turn out all right after all.

Author's Note:

It's finally over. I've finally finished arc 4 of this story, capping it at a little over 400000 words. Sheesh. Still, it feels good to finally write this scene, and to be done with the Royal Wedding.

Of course, this also means...no more waiting. It's time to start tying together the main plot. Arcs 5 and 6 will answer all of the questions that you've had about Seth/Sombra/Oppressed. I hope you're looking forward to is as much as I am.

Anyway, one last thing before I post this. Somebody brought to my attention that I've omitted the journal entries. He asked, "Is this even a journal anymore?" he has a fair point. Chances are I'm going to remove the journal portions of this story during the rewrite, because it doesn't make sense to keep using them.

All right! That's four arcs out of the way. Please do me a favor and leave your comments and tell me what you think of the arc, or the story as a whole.

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