Chp 1. Guess who's getting married?
"Great news, everypony!" Applejack shouted as she stormed into the castle, catching the attention of her friends. "I'm getting married!"
Applejack stood proud and held her breath to keep herself from puffing in her moment of glory. It wasn't long until the silence was taken over by voices of excitement and curiosity.
"Applejack, dear! What are you saying?" Rarity giggled in demand for more information.
"Y'all heard me. I'm getting hitched!" Applejack reiterated with a smug grin as a gasp of excitement roared throughout the castle halls. "Big Mac proposed to me yesterday and we're scheduled to marry!"
"No way! That's awesome!" Dash cheered, giving Applejack a hearty pat on the back.
Pinkie made no attempt at subtlety to hide her joy and squeed loudly as she clamped her hooves around Applejack.
"Oh, darling! That's fantastic news!" Rarity giggled. "I'm so happy for you!"
"Thank you, thank you," Applejack bowed to all the cheers. "Now it's obvious that you're all invited to help out with the wedding, if you so desire—"
Twilight watched in silence as Applejack yapped about all the wedding details to her friends. What the fuck was going on? Applejack was getting married to her brother? That couldn't be. Impossible, disgusting. Twilight was so shocked she could do nothing but stare with her mouth hanging open. Her friends didn't even take it into account that Applejack, their friend, was marrying her own brother.
"Welp, I think that covers it. I gotta get going. See y'all at the wedding," Applejack tipped her hat before pronking off, out the castle doors.
"I-I can't believe Applejack's getting married," Fluttershy peeped, looking more than less excited than her friends.
"I know. Isn't it wonderful?" Rarity giggled softly.
"This is great!" Dash said, "It's about time that stallion mare-upped and proposed to her. Applejack's been in love with him for years!"
"I'm just happy I get to help plan another wedding! And for my own family this time!" Pinkie squeed.
"Are you ponies insane?!"
The laughs and giggles seized as all the friends stared at Twilight, who looked shocked, angry and confused.
"Twilight," Rarity was the first to speak after a silence, "w-what's wrong?"
"Yeah, what are you talking about? Who's insane?" Dash raised an eyebrow.
Twilight gritted her teeth, "What's wrong?! Didn't you just hear Applejack's announcement?" Twilight yelled in frustration. "Applejack's getting married to Big Macintosh! BIG MAC! Her own brother!"
The ponies stood silent for a second before looking at each other and then turning back. "Yes... And?"
Twilight lost her tongue for a moment. They did realize it. But how? Why weren't they reacting? "W-What's wrong with you? You can't possibly be okay with this, can you?"
"Twilight, darling. You're not making any sense. What on earth are you trying to say?"
"Yeah," Dash concurred, "Applejack's marrying Big Mac, so what? What's the big deal?"
"Have you ponies lost your minds?! They're siblings! Brother and sister! They came from the same womb! How could you not be bothered by that? You can't marry family members!"
The ponies shared another confused look with one another, then returned to Twilight.
"Twilight, darling. The Apple family have been marrying within the family for generations. Applejack's parents and grandparents have all been siblings or close relatives."
"That's right, Twilight!" Pinkie concurred. "It's earth pony tradition to marry within the family. My parents are relatives as well."
"I-I can't believe this!" Twilight looked upon her friends, horrified. "Y-You guys can't be serious?! This has to be some sort of prank! There's no way any of that is true!"
"Honestly Twilight, I can't believe you're throwing such a hissy-fit over this. Just because your own brother has no feelings towards you doesn't mean you're allowed to—"
"What?!" Twilight gasped in shock at the absurd implication.
"Oooh! Is that why she's making such a scene?" Pinkie gasped. "She's jealous that Applejack gets to cuddle down and marry Big Mac, while she's never ever got a chance to do the same with Shining Armor since the only interest he has ever shown her is platonic family care and ditched her to marry Princess Ca—"
"I am NOT in love with Shining Armor!" Twilight retorted. "You ponies are crazy! I can't believe you approve of this! Family marriage is disgusting!"
A loud gasp were shared by the friends as they stared at Twilight. "Twilight, y-you... bigot!" Rarity shouted, horrified.
"I-I can't believe you would insult a sacred earth pony tradition like that," Pinkie sobbed as her mouth wavered into a sad frown.
"Not...cool," Rainbow Dash glared, arms crossed.
Twilight stood shocked for a moment as she watched her friends shooting angry and disapproving glares towards her. She was the bad guy?! Twilight blinked in disbelief before eventually sinking her own brow into glare. "I think you all should leave," Twilight spoke quietly, gritting her teeth.
"Hmph!" Rarity snorted and turned around. "Gladly."
The rest of the friends said nothing and followed Rarity out the door. Fluttershy stood shocked, looking back and forth between her friends and Twilight before slowly following her friends out. She stopped a moment at the door and looked sadly towards Twilight as if to say something, but Twilight rejected the notion and got off her friendship throne and walked away. She heard the door close behind her and thus Twilight was left alone in silence...
A book closed with a loud clasp as Twilight sighed in defeat and slammed her head against it. This had not gone well. She'd been up for hours sorting through books about laws against family marriage and relations with no success. She'd even sent discreet letters to all princesses about this marriage between a brother and sister and to no avail, the response letters were all that of congratulations.
"Woah," came a voice from behind her, "you still haven't gone to bed yet?"
Twilight turned around to catch Spike standing there, yawning and rubbing one of his eyes.
"Please don't tell me you're still looking through those laws and traditions books," Spike grunted. "If you haven't found anything in the past six hours what makes you think you're gonna find anything now?"
Twilight pouted and opened up a random page from the closed book before her, "Maybe I've missed something..."
"Twilight, come on. You were wrong! There are none and never has there been any law against marriage within a family," Spike groaned. "You need to stop obsessing over this!"
Twilight gritted her teeth as she turned to face Spike. With an irate expression she opened her mouth ready to spit whatever insult would pass through her mind, but found herself silent... She closed her mouth and turned around towards her book and sighed. "You're right, Spike," Twilight admitted. "I'm exhausted... and these books are completely useless..." Twilight slowly wiped the books off her desk, letting them all fall to the floor with a clack.
And deservingly so.
Spike stepped forward and put a claw on Twilight's back comfortingly.
"Just go to sleep, okay?" Spike pleaded. "Applejack's getting married in two days and I'm sure she'd love to have you come help with the preparations tomorrow. Even if you don't approve of her marrying Big Mac, she's still your best friend."
Twilight smiled. Applejack was her best friend...
"You're right, Spike," Twilight yawned. "If she wants to ruin her life, who am I to complain? If it's not bothering her, it's not bothering me."
"...That's the spirit," Spike sighed in dejection.
Twilight stood up and followed Spike out of the castle study. "I guess I still have to apologize to my friends though from earlier..."
"Well, they're your friends. I'm sure they'll forgive you once they hear you out."
"Yeah," Twilight nodded and entered her bedroom, waving goodnight to Spike as she entered. "Good night, Spike."
"Good night, Twilight."
She closed the door and pulled herself towards her bed. She had been worrying too much about this, when in all honesty she didn't care if Applejack was marrying her brother.
Her brother, whom she shared the same womb with. And parents... Her brother who was gonna bone her and bring children to this world. Children whom would likely marry and each other... if they weren't busy boning their parents... or their auntie... or their great grann—
Twilight's eyes snapped open.
Images filled with horror reveled in her head as the sweat ran down her face under her heavy breaths. These traditions, these... evil acts, had to be stopped! Whatever kept such an atrocious circle afloat needed to be eradicated. Twilight gritted her teeth. There's no way she could let Applejack go through with this... Not only for her own sake, but for future Apple generations!
Twilight sat up. She knew what she had to do... Getting out of bed, Twilight snuck out of her room and walked silently as she made her way out of the castle.
She had to stop this wedding!