Chapter 2: Wedding Plans
It was the next day after Twilight, Cadance, Luna and Celestia had made their decision. They were back in Canterlot, sitting at a table in a high tower, across from Paard and Venture, who had been selected by parliament to oversee the marriage.
“So, have you made your decision?” Paard asked, leaning forward slightly and propping his head up on a hoof.
The other princesses remained still, but Twilight gave him a nod; “We have Duke Paard. I will be the bride.” Twilight said simply, smiling slightly.
Paard and Venture turned to one another locking eyes. They stayed silent for a moment before turning back to her and nodding.
“Then it’s done. We shall begin preparing for the wedding immediately,” Paard said with a nod, preparing to stand up.
“Wait! Before you do, I wanted to… to ask something,” Twilight said, standing up a bit too quickly.
Paard and Venture both turned to her. Venture glared slightly, while Paard cocked his head to the side. “Yes?” Paard asked.
Twilight blushed for a moment. Everyone in the room was staring at her now.
“I…” She cleared her throat. “I was wondering if maybe I and my friends could…” She hesitated for a moment. She turned to look at Cadance who smiled at her. She straightened her back and furrowed her brow. “I was wondering if my friends and I could plan the wedding instead.”
Paard’s eyes widened for a moment, while Venture frowned even deeper.
“Absolutely not. This will be done by the Parliament,” Venture growled, leaning forward. Celestia and Luna both turned to each other and frowned. Cadence opened her mouth to speak, but she was cut off by Paard.
“Veto’d,” Paard said, turning to Venture with a frown. Venture gawked at his partner momentarily as Paard turned to Twilight with a slight nod. “I don’t see why the princess shouldn’t be allowed to plan her own wedding.”
Venture stared at his partner for a moment, jaw dropped. After a moment, the senator let out a low growl and grit his teeth.
“You have parliament’s blessing to plan your own wedding,” Paard explained until his smile dropped. “On the condition that you include a bedding ceremony.”
Instantly the room turned to shock.
Twilight’s jaw dropped as her face turned red. Celestia and Luna meanwhile could only stare down at Paard in equal parts shock and horror.
“A bedding ceremony? What is this 600 AC?” Cadance asked shooting up.
“The main point of this wedding is to produce an heir to bring the Changeling Empire under Equestria as a personal union. As such, it only makes sense to get them to work as soon as possible, alongside consummating the marriage immediately to prevent the changelings from requesting annulment later down the line,” Paard explained impassively, an act which made Venture smirk.
Twilight stammered over her words for a moment as Cadance growled, grinding her teeth.
Paard merely stared back at her with stern eyes as his face remained emotionless. “I don’t get all the aggression and hatred towards these decisions. I myself had an arranged marriage and a bedding ceremony and I turned out fine.” He said, turning to stare down at Twilight.
Twilight stared back up at him, unable to move. She paused to think. Bedding ceremonies were an old tradition. Originally from the Kingdom of Gryphonstone, it made it’s way to Equestria several centuries ago, and became a common practice among nobles on their weddings. The basic principle of a bedding ceremony was that the bride and groom would be escorted to a bedroom after their vows - sometimes even immediately afterward - and put to bed together, before being left alone to consummate their marriage.
Consummation was important in those days, and there were even laws in place to say that a marriage unconsummated would be made null and void.
Twilight frowned, thinking. If she accepted, she’d be able to bring her friends in to help her plan the wedding, which was something of a dream of hers, but the bedding ceremony would be… unpleasant to say the least.
On the other hand, if she didn’t accept the wedding planning would go to Venture and other members of the government, who would likely try to sneak a bedding ceremony into the wedding either way. It was a lose-lose scenario.
Twilight straightened her back and looked Paard in the face.
“Very well, I accept the condition,” she said, a frown on her face. Cadance, Celestia and Luna all instantly turned to her with a gasp. Venture’s eyes widened in slight shock, his smug smile disappearing.
Paard merely smiled in response, giving a slight nod. “Wonderful, we have an agreement. The wedding will have to happen in the next few weeks, so please plan expediently.”
Twilight let out a slight sigh as Paard stood up from his chair and turned to leave the room. Venture, for his part, turned his attention between the Duke and the princesses several times, before growling and standing up, following after his partner.
Cadance turned to her sister-in-law, a frown on her face.
“Why did you do that? We could have challenged them on that?” Cadance asked, sitting up slightly.
Twilight merely shook her head in response. “If we had fought back against the idea of a bedding ceremony, they would have gotten parliament involved, and there would’ve been a high chance they would have stripped us of any power or oversight we have over this. At least by accepting their condition, I have control over everything else involving the wedding,” she said, shaking her head.
Cadance blinked twice before shaking her head and slumping in her chair.
“I’m sorry Twilight,” She said, turning to her sister-in-law. Her eyes were downturned as if she couldn’t even look her fellow princess in the eyes. “I’m trying to help but…”
Celestia leaned forwards to join Cadance in staring at Twilight. “We all are, but there is little we can do.”
“It’s impressive that you are managing to stay so cool and collected during this,” Luna said, with a dry smile. “Were I given that choice, my emotions would have led me to make the wrong decision.”
“I know, I know,” Twilight sighed, shaking her head. With a deep breath, Twilight straightened her back. “Now I just have to tell my friends, I probably should’ve let them know before I planned on roping them into this…”
“You have good friends, Twilight Sparkle, I’m sure they would be more than willing to help you,” Luna smiled.
Twilight nodded back at her. “I’m sure they would too.” She looked at her fellow princesses with a smile. Cadance and Luna mirrored her face, but when she looked to Celestia, she saw that she wasn’t smiling…
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She shouldn't be smiling, this is technically forced and she has no control over this.
Seriously, they don't care?
Frick you.
WHAT THE FUCK!? Do they not care about Twilight at all!? She saved everyone's asses countless times!! And this Is how they repay her!? This is madness!
If I was Twilight, next time Equestria is under attack, I would say, "fuck you, you can all save your sorry asses and leave me out of it, consider this payback for CONTROLLING ME!" And I would make sure to rub it in there faces to and I would be sure they begged me to save them.
Also could they really overthrow Celestia and Luna? They control day and night, if they overthrew them there would be serious consequences, Luna could cause eternal night causing everyone around the entire planet to die from starvation, and Twilight could stop saving the world since she is one of the elements, and Cadance could stop ruling causing chaos in the crystal empire, if they overthrew all 4 princesses there would be serious consequences, I am pretty sure there is alternatives everyone isn't seeing! And the changelings hasn't even caused any damage yet! Why is everyone so focused on finding ways to prevent this in the first place? Also what does a wedding do? Surely the changelings could still attack Equestria either way!
Ya this chapter really pissed me off, but that's the point of this story isn't it?
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It's all legality my friend. Legally, the Parliament has power over Celestia and Luna because when Celestia and Luna were creating Equestria, independent nations joined on the condition that they would hold power in Equestria's governance. This lead to the creation of the Equestrian Parliament which expanded over the centuries. And the parliament is not all nobles, many of them are elected officials, meaning they were chosen to have that position by the people of Equestria, such as Venture.
As for why the wedding must happen, it's explained in the story that the nobles and senators want to subjugate the changelings via a personal union. Personal unions are a thing in history where a nation is technically independent, but is dejure ruled by another because the two countries share the same monarch and/or same ruling family. An example of this is the Personal Union between the HRE and the Kingdom of Spain in the 1600s.
I wonder if there are some political consequences heading towards those two politicans for their powerplay.
Paard will probably be fineish for the near future. Ardennais seems to have some older traditions, especially in regards to the nobility, ongoing. So nothing that should have quick effects there.
But Venture is the voted representive of Manehatten, which as a Metropolis likely has very modern values. Thus having their representive essencially force a practise several centuries out of date onto a generally well liked princess might sour things over back there. At the very least I expect his political rivals to have a major field day with that. Possibly some unrest even. He also didnt appear at all happy that the bedding was acceptet, as if a bluff was called if he knew this will cause him trouble.
Also a non zero change one of them might be Chrysalis.
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Well Celestia and Luna might as well have power over the entire planet, Celestia litterly controls the sun, if she wanted to she could burn the entire planet to ashes in just a blink of an eye, and since the princesses are immortal, I doubt heat would really cause any harm to any if the princesses. If I was the parliament I would be watching my tounge when around 1 of the princesses, but apparently they think there above them, I'm guessing? So they think they can control the princesses? I'm really starting to hate how this is going to turn out, I wonder how Thorax will react when he learns he's going to have to do a bedding ceremony. I really hope there is some good to this, maybe it's not all bad, maybe Twilight and Thorax will be in an actual relationship instead of a forced one, either that or I'm gonna be getting my hopes up, but I'll try not to.
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Regarding the political consequences, "some" doesn't begin to describe it. First, since Pharynx is shown alongside Thorax, that means that this takes place after "To Change a Changeling," which takes place after "Triple Threat," where Thorax became friends with Ember. Ember doesn't strike me as the type of dragon to take someone threatening to invade her friend's kingdom well. Now, look at this map:
https://www.equestriadaily.com/2017/08/map-of-equestria-updated-for-movie.html
It's basically a straight shot from the Dragon Lands to Manehattan. It wouldn't be short (about as long as the journey between Ponyville and Klugetown), but it should theoretically be possible. If Ember wanted to, she could scourge Manehattan, potentially winning support among her subjects at the same time; friendship is a lot easier to stomach if it means you get to pillage those who hurt your friends. I'm not saying she would, but I am saying that it's foreseeable, especially if Venture's so willing to ascribe malice to the other races.
Second, cringe though it may be, "Fame and Misfortune" shows that the Mane 6, including Twilight, have fans among the public, fans who might not take well to Venture forcing their favorite Princess, who has been recorded saving them from multiple threats, to participate in something as barbaric as a forced marriage. Venture might have the legal upper hand over the princesses, but the public has the upper hand over him, and they might very well make use of it if word gets out.
Finally, there's the basic problem that the whole marriage scheme isn't guaranteed to work. Yes, in a traditional monarchy it might work, but the Changelings aren't a typical monarchy. We have no record of Chrysalis inheriting the crown from her predecessor, or even if she had a predecessor, and Thorax took the crown by rebellion. We don't know that Changelings follow the rule of primogeniture, or if they have a solidified structure for choosing a ruler at all. Given their adaptation of Hearth's Warming in "The Hearth's Warming Club," it's entirely possible that they're figuring it out alongside us. Weaponizing the rules of lineage to seize control doesn't work if the rules are still up in the air.
And, of course, there's the problem of the Changeling reaction to the scheme. Pharynx is unlikely to be alone in his anger, and even if he's the only martial-minded Changeling, having to deal with an anti-Equestrian political bloc would still be a massive headache. And even if this is what Venture wants, if he's really trying to make a reason for Equestria to invade, there's the problem of who exactly they would be invading. Changelings, as the name implies, can change to look like anyone, making finding any who run to ground after an invasion an unpleasant task. Equestria would be fighting sand, sand which could conveniently turn into iron whenever the chance for a counterattack arose. Of course, Equestria wouldn't fight the sand for long, because the sand would simply sneak into the offices of Equestria's leaders, dispose of them, then take their place and sue for peace. Of course, there's no way Thorax would do this... but Pharynx? The Pharynx who would, even in a normal political situation, have reason to resent the foreigners replacing him as the presumptive heir to the throne? The Pharynx who would, in reality, be furious on behalf of his brother and resentful towards the foreigners forcing him to suffer? The Pharynx who, hard as it may be to see, loves his brother, and tries to show that by protecting him, by removing threats from the picture? Yes, he would be willing to do so, and, depending on the strength of the anti-Equestrian (or, if Twilight manages to win the Changelings over, anti-Parliament) faction, he might very well have the means to do so. All that he would need is an opportunity.
TL:DR; Venture and Co's scheme is going to blow up in their faces, potentially literally depending on Ember.
I am so going to enjoy watching those two unicorns crash and burn.
I had to even look it up just now. It was exactly what I thought it was, but still...I had to look it up first before being sure, so...yeah, just a tad outdated now, that practice.
But of course, it's only suggested so to blackmail Twilight into giving up her request and to kowtow to the senators wishes, just because they just want to show off who really has the power here.
In which case, giving in to the demands would probably be the worst thing the princesses could do, because then it just sets a precedent showing the princesses will allow themselves to be bullied into accepting whatever nonsense these politicians come up with, opening the door for future nonsense such as this and worse. To say nothing of further corrupting the government. Forget the legality of it all--the sooner these two knuckleheads can be put back into their place, the better it'll be for everyone, politically speaking.
...yeah, you really didn't, dude. Also, you just publicly announced that to everybody, so expect THAT little confession to create a media circus for you (because clearly this wasn't common knowledge given the rest of the senate's shocked reaction to the mere suggestion of a bedding ceremony), so...we at least get the upside of knowing you just put yourself in an unfavorable hole doing that, regardless of whether or not you realize it yet.
Not necessarily, because she could've used this point as a bartering chip, saying she'd agree to let the senate plan the wedding as originally proposed IF they agreed to not do the bedding ceremony, as well as any other terms or conditions she could then bring to the table. Sure, she might not get everything she wanted, but it'd be her chance to ensure they didn't either by forcing them to the bargaining table. If you're going to beat this, you gotta play their own game and use it against them.
Even if we argue these politicians would've just tried to overrule the princesses and cut them out of the equation entirely so to avoid having to bargain at all, then that would just publicly demonstrate that something in the political system is broken, allowing a mere two ponies to have that level of power and influence in the government over something so stupidly petty, and spearhead that as an argument for immediate reform, because if they don't, then they just open the country for not only whatever petty nonsense these two wish to further inflict on the country, but also open the door for a bloody war with the changelings for literally no reason other than they just want one--I'd say that'd make for a pretty good case against them in the courts. Sure, it'd drag this out for months, but if the princesses win, and I'd like their odds unless the courts are corrupt themselves (in which case, time for a revolution and to start over government-wise), then they can avoid both the forced marriage AND the proposed war. It'd have the potential to be win-win for the princesses.
And if it doesn't...again, that just shows the government as it currently stands is broken and it's time to replace it, even if it means by force. Honestly, Celestia losing it over this might actually be a good thing in the long run, assuming one could get her to stop once she's had her way with these corrupted politicians.
I love the story, I don't speak English but I read your story with Google Translate I hope I write the comment well
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You wrote it well!