Strange and Stranger

by False Door

Wait for it...

Anon cinched his tie nervously in the mirror and exhaled. His suit for today was solid white, a color he’d never worn much and for him was quite risky to keep clean. Rarity told him he needed to make a sharp contrast between his everyday suit and tie and the suit and tie he wore for his own wedding.

His brain was cowering in a closet right now. It felt like he was watching a movie of someone else getting ready in the little bathroom of the park’s event center. Many might have argued that the public space was unbefitting of a once in a generation royal wedding but it was unarguably beautiful and exactly what they both wanted.

He envisioned his bride, Flurry getting prepared in front of a portable vanity with Hollywood lighting in a much larger room with half a dozen attendants fussing over her in total chaos. His utter aloneness gave him too much opportunity for self reflection. His lips tightened. Dad should have been with him at this moment, telling him how he felt on his wedding day.

Anon was overjoyed. He was also a nervous wreck and he couldn’t help but feel a sad sort of emptiness that his family wasn’t here to witness his marriage to a wonderful talking pony who understood him more than anyone else he’d ever met.

Anon checked the telewriter on the counter. It had essentially become one long group text. Each participant used a different color ink to make it less confusing. Anon got to be black by default. He picked up the pen.

Getting married today. I wish you could all be here. Wish me luck and hope I don't faint.

He drew a little smiley face at the end. There came a knock at the door and Big Mac poked his head in.

“Ya ready? Rarity says it's almost time.”

Since none of Anon's friends and family from earth could participate or even attend the biggest event in his life thus far, he'd chosen friends from Ponyville to fill the gaps in the wedding entourage such as Big Mac, Spike and Pinkie Pie.

“Yeah,” sighed Anon, closing the journal.”

Everything was a blur once he stepped out that door. He was on autopilot and nothing penetrated his brain until he saw her come up the grassy aisle to meet him beneath the trees. Her parents flanked her all the way to the podium before breaking to their seats in the front row. He remembered his heart stopping at the sight of her glowing smile and then suddenly they were there at the final words.

Princess Celestia looked between Anon and her blushing niece with a contented sort of finality. “By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you man and mare. You may kiss the groom.”

The two closed their eyes and leaned toward each other. They had a lot more experience under their belts now but it made them no less nervous. Their lips met and Flurry wrapped a foreleg around the small of his back to hold him there while the shutters clicked, the crowd cheered and the string ensemble awakened filling the scene with sweet music.

The two shared a glance of loving triumph before turning back to the celebrating well-wishers with trembling stomachs. They seemed to float down the aisle as the crowd rose from their seats in elation.

Twilight and Pinkie exited side by side, naturally paired behind them. The rest of the participants fell in behind like dominos. Flurry hugged her parents as they exited along with the formal procession.

“You’re so beautiful,” gasped Cadance, hooves on her withers. “And the day is so beautiful and nothing weird happened.”

“You mean besides the whole alien marriage thing that just happened?” chuckled Anon.

“There's still time to fit some weirdness in,” argued Shining dryly. “It won't quite feel like your wedding if there wasn't.”

“I'll be okay this once, I think,” replied Flurry.

“This moment was years in the making. Aren't you glad I made you come out and meet him? He might have just left without ever even seeing you.”

“Took me years just to take that train ride,” added Anon.

“Things probably would have been a lot easier if you'd just appeared where you were supposed to,” laughed Cadance.

“The joke we have is that even though I made the wish, Twilight was more overdue to get married so that's why the heart sent him there.”

Shining snorted.

Flurry squinted at an odd dark blotch on his left pauldon.

“What's that?” she asked, pointing to it.

Shining scrunched his chin to look at his own shoulder. “Oh, that's just where your mother cried on me.”

“You cried too,” blurted Cadance.

“I knew he would,” laughed Flurry. “Overall though you seem uncharacteristically… placid today.”

He shrugged. “Well… I might be wearing stuffy royal guard regalia today but mentally I guess I'm already in the tropics.”

“We're still a little ways from that, Shining.” His wife patted him on the back.

Flurry looked over the scene as the wedding party idled about the tables, slowly grabbing appetizers and taking their seats for the reception lunch. The park was immaculately kemped and decorated especially for their wedding. Through a row of trees was a familiar path that she used to sit by, waiting for Mr. Right to come by. If she stopped and thought about it, it didn't seem that long ago that she was a desperate failure in love with no hope. How nice it was that she could replace those dismal memories of this place with this one and maybe even laugh about them now.

The wedding photographer flagged her down. “Okay, let's get a picture of the whole entourage together before the reception. Mom and dad too.”

Flurry and Anon stood next to each other beneath the trees at the wedding front. Cadance stood next to her daughter. Shining stood next to Anon. They might have been her parents but in this world they were also the closest thing that Anon had to that. Everyone else gathered in around them. Anon held Flurry's hoof and they turned to face the camera as directed.

“Squeeze in a little more on the right side,” commanded the photographer, waving her hoof,

The well dressed stragglers shuffled in closer to fill in the spaces and conjured up their best smiles.

“Perfect. Beautiful. Alright, I'm gonna take a few, here we go.” She lifted the camera to her eye and focused the lens.

Flurry let out a scream just as the shutter clicked, capturing a photo of a wincing entourage and her terror filled expression as an angry, mangy red squirrel with a nicked ear latched onto her head from out of the sky.

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[Mister-H]

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