Secrets of the Everfree

by PaisleyPerson

Chapter 9: Decisions, Decisions

Chapter 9
Decisions, Decisions

Dad hadn’t taken the news of Wild Flower’s relationship too well, of course, but he handled it better than when he first learned I was getting married. That was to be expected, though, seeing as he didn’t have to give up his other little girl just yet. Our wedding also gave him time to become familiar with this other stallion; Torchwood promptly asked Cedar to be one of his ushers. I soon learned that Mr. Cake had taken on the same role. Nova and Spike were also given those responsibilities. Blaze probably would have joined them, had he not already been assigned to be our ring bearer. That night, we set up a large table in the yard, cluttered it with plenty of food (much of it courtesy of Applejack), tracked Torchwood’s parents down from the temporary camp, and had a big family reunion.

Dad and Torchwood’s father, Meteor Strike, hit it off right away. My mother got along with everypony, but I couldn’t help but feel that she and Rose Petal, his mother, had a special connection. Our parents, upon meeting, almost instantly began planning an engagement party. This was mostly thanks to Torchwood’s folks, who wanted to be as involved in the wedding as possible. They seemed to have everything already planned out, but my parents were motivated to pitch in.

The dragons got along, of course, and Wild Flower’s fears about our pets were nulled when the two spent a whole evening side by side without incident. Cedar really opened up after finding Torchwood, and I now found him to be funny, kind, and overall likable. He served as a lumberjack in Baltimare, but had grown up in the same thestral sector as Torchwood. They not only treated each other like brothers, but even acted a bit alike. Cedar had been one of the five thestrals to join Torchwood in joining Equestria, and the two tried to find their own way in Vanhoover. Torchwood eventually found a job there with Graphite Sketch, but Cedar had returned temporarily to visit family back home. After weeks of waiting, Torchwood finally recieved word that he’d met somepony and wouldn’t be returning to the city. Aparently, that somepony was my sister. They both moved to Baltimare and made a living there.

Wild Flower was almost estatic upon hearing the romantic story of how I met Torchwood at the gala. Cedar, however, pushed for more recent stories, and before I knew it, we were taking turns telling the tale of the thestral uprising and the creation of the seventh element. I tried to tone down the unfavorable parts, like Torchwood becoming evil and the removal of my wings, but my parents were still aghast with shock. Wild Flower, too, looked a little worried. Torch’s parents were a little more comfortable with hearing the story, since they were there when Torchwood turned. In fact, Meteor had been so worried about their son that he became one of Torchwood’s ‘hench ponies’ just to keep an eye on him. He had been the one who helped us when we were being held captive before the invasion. Despite our reassurances that this was all in the past, my father suddenly became untrusting of Torchwood once more. I hoped that their “bonding time” before the wedding would help them become more comfortable with each other again.

Wild Flower resolved to stay over the rest of the week for the wedding planning, which meant that I’d need to haul another armchair into the art studio. However, Fluttershy later learned of the situation, and invited Wild Flower, Nova, and of course Honeysuckle to stay with her. Cedar resolved to simply stay on stand-by for when he was needed. He promised that he didn’t mind the flight between here and his home.

The dragons fell asleep in a dog pile, and I was reluctant to move them. However, I promised Twilight to have Spike back before it got too dark. I gently removed the purple dragon from the stack, settled him between my wings, and carried him back to the library. Twilight tucked him into bed, but didn’t hold me over very long, allowing me to return to the festivities. We stayed up most of the evening, chatting by moonlight. The dragons were content to sleep, but nopony else was tired. Mom, Wild Flower, Rose Petal and I finally called it off at around one in the morning. We had a schedule to adhere to, after all. Even after we went to sleep, the stallions could still be heard having a high old time outside.

---

“Alright, girls. Let’s go through this one more time.” Everypony else groaned. Twilight was a brilliant organizer, which is why she had been nominated to keep track of all our duties, but her double and triple checking to make sure everypony had their assignments was beginning to get under our skin.

“Let’s see... Rarity is designing the wedding attire, right?”

“And it’s coming along splendidly, if I do say so myself.”

“Good. Applejack is catering?”

“Everythin’ but the cake,” she promised.

“Right. Mr. and Mrs. Cake are doing that. Applebloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo are the flower girls, and Blaze will be the ring bearer. Mr. Cake is also going to be one of Torchwood’s groomscolts-”

“What’s a groomscolt?” Pinkie whispered.

“The same thing as an usher,” I whispered back.

“Oh. I thought they might have to groom the groom. But that makes much more sense!”

“And so is Mr. Cake, Cedar, Nova, and Spike.” Twilight paused for a moment, beaming at the role of her own little assistant. She shook herself out of it, returning to the list. “Mayor Ivory Scroll will be performing the ceremony. Fluttershy’s bird choir will play as Acrylic walks down the aisle-”

“And I’ll top it all off with a sonic rainboom!” Rainbow boldly declared.

“What’s a sonic rainboom?” Wild Flower wondered. Rainbow face-hoofed, her daring finale blown by the clueless mare.

“I’ll tell you later.”

“And the rest of us are all gonna be the bridesmaids!” AJ finished with a happy grin.

“Not all of us. Wild Flower is going to be Acrylic’s maid of honor!”

“Congratulations,” Fluttershy quietly smiled.

“Is that everything?”

“I think so.”

“Not quite,” Mom put in. She’d been so quiet in the back we’d almost forgotten she was present. “My husband has requested to escort our daughter down the aisle.”

“I’d like that,” I admitted.

“Got it,” Twilight nodded, adding it to her list. “Okay! That’s it!”

“Finally,” Rainbow muttered under her breath.

“Great! Now that everypony knows what they’re doing, we can get down to business. Let’s start off with Rarity. How are the dresses coming?”

“Acrylic’s already approved of her wedding dress, and I have all of your bridesmaid gowns started as well. I want you all to try them all on before I add the finishing touches.”

“That sounds like a good place to start. Let’s get to it, girls!”

“Excellent. Your gowns are the white and blue ones just over there.” Rarity gestured to the back of the room where they were left to sort through the many manequins. I stayed behind, waiting for the rest of them to try on the gowns. I had plenty of wedding catalogues to sift through in the meantime. Mom joined me to help in the decision making. Wild Flower moved to tag along with the girls, but Rarity stopped her. “Wild Flower, since you just arrived yesterday, your dress isn’t quite ready, but I would like you to see what I have so far. It’s this way.”

“Sounds good,” my sister nodded, following Rarity to another room.

“Now, what was it you wanted with your dress? White avens?”

“That’s right. In fact, Acrylic told me the color scheme, and I have a ton of suggestions. You hear that, Acrylic?”

“Sure did,” I replied, selecting a couple of the flower magazines in preparation. Briefly scanning one, I saw nothing in particular marked or noted, so I decided I’d have to wait for her to point out her favorites. Wild Flower didn’t like standing still for so long, and tried to keep up a conversation with me from the other room.

“I think that the orange cymbidium orchids would go nicely with the other flowers, so long as you keep the other flowers toned down a bit,” she suggested.

“What about this cartagena rose?” I called, noting a pretty flower in the magazine I was currently browsing.

“Absolutely NOT!” came the reply. I was quite amused when Wild Flower rushed in, a half-sewn dress still clinging to her. Flustered Rarity stormed after the pony, trying to remain polite but get her to cooperate at the same time.

“What’s wrong with it?”

“Well, first of all, it’s entirely the wrong shade of orange from what you showed me you wanted. I’d expect you to see that as an artist!”

“Fair enough,” I consented, not really wanting to argue with her. Rarity aggitatedly dragged my sister back, but neither of us would let that hinder our conversation. “What about your cosmos? I don’t see them here, but I’ve seen you grow those beautifully before.”

“Those are too small. They’ll be drowned out by the day lillies. And there’s a reason why they aren’t in your catalogues. Try something bigger and fuller, like golden lillies or cremons.”

“I don’t see the orange cremons here, Wild Flower.”

“I doubt you would. Those aren’t really the meant to be wedding flowers.”

“What about dyed flowers? There aren’t many here that are naturally the right color.”

“Yeah... you could do that.”

“But?”

“Well, you know how I am about dyes. I’m an all natural kind of girl.”

“Sure thing, Wild Flower,” I chuckled, turning back to the selection and flipping the page. “Maybe we should just stick with orange daylillies to compliment the white ones. Three different kinds of flowers will look pretty busy, especially with a surplus of greenery. I don’t want to have to deal with clashing textures, too.”

“Oh, you wanted to blend them all together? I thought we were doing this in seperate bunches. But, you know. However you want to do it.”

“Come again? I think you might’ve been onto something there.”

“That would be a pretty busy mix, so I assumed you wanted to put the white lillies with a nice little blue flower, and the orange ones with a lot of greenery. Because, you know, we’re kind of doing this as your colors being white and blue, and Torchwood’s being green and orange. We could mix them all, but it’d be a lot harder.”

“Wild Flower, that’s actually brilliant.”

“Don’t ever underestimate me,” she laughed. I could practically feel her smirking through the wall.

“I do have a suggestion, girls,” Rarity chimed, returning to her work desk for more fabric. “If you could layer the flowers along the aisle, say, one row of flowers on top, followed by a row of another flower and so on, you could use all of your colors without it looking too cramped. And the clusters of grouped colors as Wild Flower suggested could also be used as compliments elsewhere.

“Ooh, I see where you’re going with this,” Wild Flower chirped.

“That sounds beautiful,” I agreed.

And so a good part of the wedding organization fell into place in such a manner as that. I adored Rarity’s bridesmaid gowns. They were white with a dark blue ribbon tied to a bow around the waist, one around the neckline and a second lighter blue ribbon just above the first. Rarity tweaked each slightly to go with everypony’s personality; a couple of gems dotting the hemline of hers; a shower of apples stitched into Applejack’s; stars for Twilight, an assortment of flowers and butterflies for Fluttershy; candies for Pinkie, and a faint rainbow imprint at the bottom of Rainbow’s skirt, along with a multi-colored hem to match her mane. A lot was left up in the air for later discussion with Torchwood, but we made good progress. I’d have plenty of ideas to bring back to him.

We’d been there for hours, and things were finally drawing to a close. Rarity had perfected the dresses, even Wild Flower’s, which was now a pale, silky blue-green color with the dark blue ribbons as accents, fashioned into a similar style as the bridesmaids. Instead of embroidered flowers in her hemline, though, a fine, white, wispy ribbon captured a thread of real blooms- mostly baby’s breath and a couple of small white avens, as requested. She’d also declared that she was going to make the flower wreath for her mane closer to the wedding day so they wouldn’t wilt. Rarity moved all the dresses to a reserved room until then.

I was helping to clean up with the rest of the girls when the doors to the boutique suddenly flewv open. Three young dragons stampeded through the door, Blaze and Spike panting heavily. Nova, who looked like he’d flown most of the way, wasn’t breaking a sweat.

“Ac- Acryl-” Spike choked.

“Whoa! Are you boys okay?” Twilight stifled a laugh. Still out of breath, Blaze held up a scroll in response. Twilight levitated it, reading the entry line.

“Dear Torchwood and Acrylic,” she began. Puzzled, she put the scroll down. “It’s from Princess Celestia... for you.” The letter was given over, and I resumed where she left off.

“Dear Torchwood and Acrylic,

“Princess Luna and I would personally like to extend our congratulations on your engagement.” I temporarily put it down, disbelief in my eyes. “The Princesses? Our wedding?” Intrigued, I eagerly turned back to it. All eyes were fixated on the letter as I read. “As a sign of our gratitude for returning thestrals to society, and for saving Equestria, we cordially invite you to host your wedding ceremony at... Canterlot Castle?!”

“We’re going to the palace!” Blaze cheered, finally regaining his breath.

“Why, this is almost the equivelent of a royal wedding!” Rarity stuttered. She looked like she was about to faint as she had upon first recieving the assignment to design a royal wedding dress.

“... and I would personally like to oversee the ceremony.” I read on.

“Princess Celestia is going to marry you? What an honor!” Twilight gasped.

“I’m sure that Twilight will be more than willing to arrange the details and coordinate with our staff here in Canterlot. We hope that you will be able to accept our offer, and look forward to seeing you in Canterlot for this momentous occation.

“Your Princess and friend,

“Princess Celestia.”

“THIS. IS SO. EXCITING!” Pinkie screamed, dancing on the spot.

“Wow! What a weddin’ this is gonna be!” Applejack breathed. “I’ll have to get the whole Apple family together to bake enough food for those high-class ponies in Canterlot!”

“Congratulations,” Fluttershy whispered.

“Wait just a minute-”

“I bet even the Wonderbolts will be there to see me do the sonic rainboom!” Rainbow Dash suggested. The others vigorously nodded.

“Can you imagine how much publicity your boutique would get when we show off your dresses in front of all of Canterlot?”

“Oh, my!” Rarity swooned at the notion.

“My sister. Is getting married. In a castle! This is officially a fairy tale wedding!”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Everypony freeze!” The whole room fell silent. “I don’t think we’re going to the castle, you guys.”

“WHAT?!” Pinkie screeched, nose pressed to mine. I gently pushed her away.

“What? Why not?” Twilight interjected, puzzled and worried.

“I don’t know that I want our wedding to be publicized like that. Torchwood keeps saying how nice a quiet countryside ceremony will be. And to be honest, I agree. I don’t want a lot of big wig ponies sticking their noses into our affairs. This is our special day, not theirs. I just... you know... want to keep it private.”

“Acrylic, darling, consider what you’re giving up!” Rarity implored. “This is your chance to be recognized! To be married in the Palace for all of Equestria to see!”

“Exactly! I don’t want them all to see.”

“How could you not want them to see? You’re an artist, aren’t you? You make things for ponies to look at!”

“My weddding isn’t a painting, Rainbow. It’s the biggest day of my life! I just don’t want the whole world watching when I make that huge step. I want my closest friends with me, but no more.”

“I understand that,” Fluttershy nodded. “I don’t like lots of ponies watching me, either.”

“Well, I suppose it’s understandable...” Applejack rubbed her neck.

“But are you absolutely sure you want to give that up? It’s not often that the Princesses personally ask to oversee a wedding!” Twilight exclaimed.

“You’re right, Twilight. And I’ll talk it over with Torchwood, but don’t get your hopes up, okay? I want our wedding to be held where we decide, not where somepony else chooses. It’s our wedding, after all.”

“Okay, but you better make up your mind soon! I don’t like to keep the Princess waiting,” Twilight consented. I began to head out the door, a lot of new questions nagging at my mind. Nova rejoined Wild Flower, and Spike with Twilight to help finish cleaning up, but Blaze followed me. Mom stepped out of the crowd as well. She caught up to me on the cobblestone road.

“You did the right thing,” she assured, falling into step alongside us. “You should choose how your wedding is going to be managed. I don’t care if she is royalty. Princess Celestia can only make suggestions, she can’t organize your big day for you.”

“I know I made the right choice, but I can’t help but feel like I’m letting somepony down. Twilight’s right- how often do the Princesses personally request to conduct a wedding ceremony? And Rarity really wanted us to host it there.”

“But it isn’t their wedding,” she reminded. “If you and Torchwood are happy with a wedding right here in little old Ponyville, then there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. It is a decision for you two to make and yours alone.”

“You’re right,” I sighed. “Thanks, Mom.”

“You’re my daughter, Acrylic. I just want you to be happy.” We paused long enough for a mother-daughter hug. Art Life was just up the road.

“Well, time to see if our wedding plans changed,” I noted, making off for the familiar shop. “See you at dinner!”

---

“Canterlot Palace?” Torchwood repeated after me. He started pacing as soon as I brought out Celestia’s letter. I now offered it to him to confirm the message.

“That’s what it says.”

“Well... I suppose it’s a great honor...”

“But inadvertently insulting?” I finished.

“Exactly! I know the Princesses and I don’t see eye to eye after all that’s happened, but this is our wedding day. I don’t want them planning it for us.”

“Neither do I, Torch. And it’s only a suggestion. Nothing’s been written in stone. We can always decline.”

“But how do we decline something like this without sounding arrogant?” he sighed.

“I’m not entirely sure it’s possible...” I admitted, “but it’s worth a shot.”

“Where do we start?” he groaned, pacing again.

“Blaze? Take a note, please,” I called into the back. He was there in an instant, eager to begin his new assistant duties with quill and paper in claw. I noticed that it was a sheet from one of the many sketchpads in the room instead of a scroll, but he looked so proud I decided not to point out this mistake. He was still getting the hang of this whole secretary business.

“Her Highness, Princess Celestia,” Torchwood began.

“Is that too formal? Twilight always begins her letters with ‘Dear Princess Celestia.’” Blaze looked up, unsure what to write.

“Her Dear Highness, Princess Celestia?” he corrected. I looked to the floor with a nod to conceal the ensuing giggle. The scratching of pen to paper told us that Blaze was keeping up. “We are honored by your invitation, and greatly appreciate your thinking of us.”

“But, I’m afraid we cannot accept such a priveledge” I went on.

“That makes it sound like we’re disappointed in not being able to attend,” Torchwood argued. “I’m tired of lies. Just write, ‘I’m afraid we cannot accept,” he told our scribe. Blaze made a few edits to the message, and nodded when he was ready for us to go on. “We’re afraid this event has evolved from a personal celebration to a public spectacle. We wish to keep it a private event. So thank you, but respectfully, no.”

“Do you think we should invite them?”

“Invite the princesses?”

“They showed enough interest to try and invite themselves,” I pointed out.

“Alright. Your highnesses, of course, are still invited to attend,” Torchwood went on.

“Your... loyal subjects?”

“We don’t exactly have a spotless record in that respect,” Torchwood mused. “Your respectful subjects?”

“Good,” I approved.

“Your respectful subjects, Torchwood and Acrylic.”

“Can I send it now?” Blaze asked.

“Yes, Blaze.”

“I’ve never sent a letter to the Princess before,” he grinned, excitement gleaming in his eyes. “I hope it gets through okay.”

“It’ll be fine, Blaze,” I assured. With that, he whisked the scroll away in a burst of twinkling ruby red flame.

“Now what?” the baby dragon asked.

“Now we wait,” sighed Torchwood.

“In the meantime, the girls had some suggestions for the wedding.”

“And our parents are making plans for the engagement party I want to run by you.”

And so we finalized our flower choices, picked out stationary, chose the perfect archway for the ceremony, decided to hold the wedding itelf in Ponyville Park where we had our first date, and attended to all the last minor details. I’d been with the girls looking over decoration choices, but Torchwood was such close friends with Mr. Cake that he got to preview the food spreads. By the time we were finished, we still hadn’t gotten a reply, so Torchwood told me of the plans for the engagement party. Our parents were in charge of arranging most of that (though I heard they were consulting with the local party planner Pinkie Pie), so we didn’t have much work to do. It was almost another hour before a reply finally got through.

“Dear Torchwood and Acrylic,” Blaze read,

“Sister and I will respect your decision to remain in Ponyville. It is perfectly understandable, and I hope you do not think we were trying to intrude on your special day. However, I must bring to your attention that as the first thestral wedding in centuries, some ponies expect this to be an event to involve royalty. In this respect, might it be alright if I still conducted the ceremony? We both thank you for the invitation; I am happy to announce that Luna and I will both be attending regardless.

“Signed Princess Celestia.”

“She’s just not going to let up, is she?” Torchwood sighed.

“She does have a point, though,” I glumly pointed out. “Ponies are making expectations of our wedding. Those rumors we heard at the Hayburger are only going to spread as the big day gets closer.”

“You’re right,” he realized.

“And ever since the... incident... the princesses feel like they owe me- us- a debt. I already told you that they gave me an open house invitation to the castle anytime. They must think that this is another one of those little things they can do to ease their guilt.”

“You think this is some kind of peace offering?” I nodded.

“So in that case, how are we supposed to respond? Give into what they want or do what we want?” I asked, looking defeated. There was a long pause.

“Well... how bad could it be?”

“Come again?”

“What’s the worst that could happen if we let Celestia conduct the ceremony?” I opened my mouth in protest, but no words came out. I shut it again as I pondered this question.

“Well...”

“And, it would be rather interesting to be able to brag that we were married by royalty,” he weakly chuckled. I let a half-hearted smile show. That would be an interesting story to say the least.

“I guess... but who’s going to break the news to the mayor?”

“I will, if you like. But that pony practically worships the princesses- I’m sure she’ll have no problem stepping down for Celestia to take over.”

“If she’s alright with it... then I guess I am too.” Torchwood was right. After all, we were just going to have her conduct the ceremony, nothing more.

“Good. I’ll have a word with the Mayor Mare.”

“Shouldn’t we write back to the Princess first? They’d probably like to get an answer back right away.”

“Just tell them it’ll be fine,” he told me, pecking my forehead on his way out.

“Me?” He’d been so specific with the last letter that I almost couldn’t believe he was asking me to do this one myself.

“If you don’t mind,” he added, stopping in the doorway.

“No, that’s alright,” I replied, still slightly baffled. He smiled.

“Everything will turn out alright.” With that, he headed back out into town. I turned back to Blaze.

“You ready?”

“Hold on; I need to get another sheet of paper!” he dashed off into the studio for one. I smiled after him.

Comments

[InactiveAccount222346]

Yay! They're getting married in Canterlot!

[damnaion]

5734845 you do know that the chapter state ponyville as were there getting married right?

[Dragon of Shadows]

married in a castle cliche wedding is too cliche. My cliche alarm is going off

(turn volume up to max to get full effect.)

“What’s the worst that could happen

i've said it before and i will say it again THIS IS WHAT COULD HAPPEN!!!scontent-yyz1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xtp1/v/l/t1.0-9/12654379_987335421356658_3818115149288002131_n.jpg?oh=106f5a1b830fabc15a1e704e8ff263f1&oe=572AE0EF