And so began the long, exhausting process of planning the wedding. I had lived through a couple of these planning processes with my family on Earth, and they always seemed very bothersome and time-consuming. I say that it seemed that way, because I never really got involved with it all. Now, I know better. It’s actually so much worse than it appeared to be.

Planning a wedding fucking sucks. So much time and effort for one day in a year (granted, one unforgettable, priceless day). The payoff is certainly worth it, but make no mistake, wedding planning is about as lovely as a bag of used condoms. And it’s not even that the items to prepare are difficult; rather, it’s the quantity of items to prepare. There’s a lot.

You’ve got the dress for the bride, the groom’s suit, flowers, space for the event, and so and so forth. A copious amount of stuff for a not-so-copious day. When it all comes together, and when you melt a wedding down to the core, it’s a nice ceremony, and a fun party afterwards. At least, that’s what I think most people think about when they discuss weddings. If you do otherwise, that’s fine.

Anyway, planning wasn’t so fun. But in truth, the whole thing wasn’t too terrible. In total, it took eight months. The wedding would be on the ninth month. And in that time, I was closer with Fluttershy than ever before. We shared our dreams much more often than usual, which was always a hoot. We generally spent more time together, and who were we to complain about that. We could never get enough of each other. As well, the rest of the gang was together more often than usual. The wedding seemed to be bringing us all closer together.

I think the funniest part of it all was Spike trying to plan the bachelor party. He had grown up quite a bit since I had arrived in Equestria, so he was more knowledgeable than the show ever made him out to be. But, he was still young; a teenager, I suppose. He still had time to grow. So, his insight on how exactly plan the bachelor party was… variable, to say the least. In truth, I probably did more planning for the party than I should have, because Spike was in need of serious help. Very humorous though, I must say. He wanted to include a bounce castle.

The girls were all preoccupied with Fluttershy. Dash was in charge of the bachelorette party, Rarity was in charge of the dress (and my suit, actually), Pinkie and AJ were on food duty, and Twilight was working with Princess Celestia to find a suitable venue. They all spent a decent amount of time together each day, which often led Fluttershy to come home with amusing stories from the days’ events. Always enjoyable to hear how Dash continued to insist on including a strip dancer pole at the bachelorette party. That surprisingly never got old.

And amidst the debacle of wedding planning, we set aside our weekends to do nothing but enjoy each other’s company. The weekdays gave us enough time to plan and figure things out. The weekends were specifically reserved for relaxation and fun. It helped us remain sane in times of true insanity. We didn’t have to be doing fun, exciting things, too. Most days, we just went to the library, Sugarcube Corner, the beach, or my home. And all we would do was hang out, chat, play silly games, etc. Simple things that didn’t require much effort. And it relieved us of all of the stress that would accumulate during the week. Spending time with friends is some of the best medicine I could prescribe to you. No joke.

That, and maybe sex. There was a good deal of that between Fluttershy and me. Extremely relieving, I must say. You guys should try it.

Anyway, allow me to digress. I could go on about boring wedding planning for a while, but I’m sure you don’t want to hear about it. You want to hear about the wedding itself, I’m sure. Boy, was that a stressful day.

Did I say weddings are easy? That the day of the wedding itself is simple? I must have said something like that. In any case, it isn’t. Wedding day is very stressful and tormenting. You’re so focused on wanting everything to go just right; you want everything to be so, so perfect. It feels like the whole thing could come toppling down at any moment.

Rather than having the wedding at the Canterlot Castle, as Princess Celestia and Luna had invited us to do, Fluttershy and I decided that we’d like the wedding to be atop the hill that I arrived to Equestria on. It meant a lot to us. It was sort of a stepping off point for our new lives together, rather than a new beginning, or just a beginning in general.

Anyway, everything was set up simply and beautifully. There was a nice little alter, seats for everypony, and everything else you’d expect from an outdoor wedding spot. While everypony else was ready and dealing with the pre-wedding jargon, I was dealing with the basics of getting ready.

Spike was helping me as best he could. I was just getting into my suit. Were it not for the air conditioning in my room at home, I’d be sweating bullets. Though make no mistake, I was sweating. Just not bullets. My concern and worry must have been very apparent. Hell, looking at myself in the mirror, I could tell. It was painfully obvious. Spike picked up on it immediately. He gave me a firm pat on the back.

“You look tense,” he joked.

“Really? You don’t say?” I retorted.

“You’ve got nothing to worry about, dude. Everything’ll be perfect. All you gotta do is get ready. Wouldn’t want Fluttershy to beat you to the altar. That would be weird.”

“Well, you’re not wrong. It seems I am taking a bit long to simply put on a suit. Oh, boy.” I sat down, wearing nothing but my dress pants, which weren’t even buttoned and zipped up. There was a knock at the door. “Yeah?”

“It’s Twilight. May I come in?” I hopped up and fixed my zipper situation.

“Yeah, door’s open,” I replied. Twilight entered, wearing her bridesmaid dress. She raised an eyebrow at me upon entering.

“Matthew, come on, you should be way more along than this,” she jeered.

“He’s nervous. I’m trying to help him, but he’s spooked,” Spike answered.

“I have every right to be,” I stated. Twilight walked over and gave me a soft smile.

“Matt, do you love Fluttershy?” I nodded. “Then you’ve got nothing to worry about. Just get ready, get to the altar, and get married. Nothing to it!”

“Easy for you to say. You’re not getting married.”

“True, but my friends are getting married. And I’ve been with them every step of the way. I think I’ve got a decent understanding of the proceedings.” I moped a bit, leading to her placing a hoof on my knee. She was still smiling. “Don’t you worry about a thing, Matt. Just get out there and get married to the woman you love.” I nodded with a smile. Twilight headed for the door, smiling once more before exiting.

“Let’s get you ready, pal!” Spike said.

“Agreed.”

I felt motivated after Twilight’s short visit. I got ready as quick as I could, touching up every aspect of myself. But before I was able to make it out, I had another visitor. A knock came at the door, followed by said door bursting open. It was Rainbow Dash. She flew in and wrapped me in a tight hug.

“Good to see you too, Dash. Um, I’m heading out right now. Please let go. I enjoy breathing,” I said, trying to breathe through her tight grasp. She let go a moment later. There were tears in her eyes, I noticed. “Dash, you good?”

“Y-Yeah. I’m just happy, you know. My two best friends are getting married. It’s emotional,” she said, her voice cracking a bit.

“Aw, look at that. Dashie’s getting emotional,” Spike joked.

“Shut up!” she barked. I laughed.

“It’s alright, Dash,” I comforted her, kneeling in front of her. “You’re really that happy, and not afraid to show it, huh?”

“Well, yeah, why wouldn’t I be? I know I can be emotionally shallow sometimes, but when it comes to my friends, especially at a time like this, I think it’s appropriate to let go, you know. Feels good, actually.”

“I’m sure it does. Being emotional isn’t a bad thing. I think you don’t understand that sometimes. It’s okay to be sad and show it. Especially with friends.”

“You said it. Now, you ready to get married?!”

“Hell yeah, I am!” I said, with all the confidence I could muster. “You ready to fulfill your role as best mare?”

“You know it!” she replied.

“Then let’s go, gang!”

And it was off we went to the ceremony. By the time we arrived, all of the guests were there, and the rest of our friends were standing up by the altar. Dash and Spike took their places, and I took mine. Now, all we had to do was wait for the beautiful bride to be. My nerves were acting up again. I felt a nudge from Dash. I turned to her, and she was giving me the most reassuring smile you could get from a friend. It was exactly what I needed.

And not a moment too soon. A minute later, serene music started playing, and Fluttershy was walking down the aisle. If Equestria had the internet, and you could look up beauty on Equestrian Google, you’d see pictures of Fluttershy walking down that very aisle. It knocked the wind right out of me how beautiful she was. Her dress was simple, yet perfect. It was natural, literally. Think of her Gala dress from season one, only with more accents, a bit of a longer train, and defining her body much more perfectly.

Ah, screw the details. She was jaw-droppingly beautiful. You get the idea.

I locked eyes with her when she was halfway up the aisle. We couldn’t help but smile at each other. The moment really was perfect. It wasn’t going anywhere. Nothing could ruin it.

As she stood before me, and I stood before her, nothing else in the world, or even the whole universe mattered. There was just me and her. Fluttershy and me. Just the way we loved it.

Celestia was presiding over the ceremony. Luna and the rest of our friends were beside us the whole way through. And just about everypony in Ponyville was there to view. There was a cool, soft breeze blowing over the hill. The world was resting peacefully around us. It was the textbook definition of a perfect moment.

Celestia began with her lovey dovey, corny speech, as most weddings include. Followed by that, Fluttershy and I exchanged our vows. We exchanged our rings. And then, we got to utter the fateful words.

“Fluttershy, do you take Matthew to be your husband?” Celestia asked. Fluttershy looked at me with tears in her eyes and a smile on her face.

“I do,” she said. My heart jumped over the moon.

“And Matthew, do you take Fluttershy to be your wife?” Celestia asked. I was so close to breaking down from sheer passion and joy. With every fiber of my being, I spoke…

“I do.” I noticed Fluttershy did a short jump. I think her heart had jumped over the moon with mine.

“Then it gives me the greatest pleasure to pronounce you, husband and wife! You may kiss the bride.”

We smiled at each other, took each other’s hands, and joined for our kiss. If I’ve ever mentioned the best kiss or the most passionate kiss we had ever shared in the past, you can throw all of those away. This, without a doubt, was the best, most passionate kiss we could, would, and will ever share. The world around us fell away. I wrapped her in my wings and swung her around and held her as we kissed.

As we parted, I lifted her back up, and the world came back to us. We heard the loud cheering from our friends and everypony else in the crowd. We saw the joyful tears from everypony in attendance. We saw flower petals being thrown through the air. It was a wedding if there ever was one.

We made our way down the aisle, smiling all the way. At the end, I brought her in for one more kiss. Together, we took off for a short fly through the sky. For a moment, we disappeared behind a few soft, white clouds. Behind those clouds, I held Fluttershy close. She rested her head in my chest, and we wrapped each other in our wings. We just wanted to share the moment. Together.

“Matthew,” she spoke softly.

“Yes, Fluttershy?” I replied. We gazed deeply into each other’s eyes.

“I love you. I always have, and I always will.”

“You took the words right out of my mouth. I love you too.”

We shared another kiss, but it was short. All we wanted to do in that moment was feel each other’s embrace. And that’s what we did. It felt like that moment could have lasted for an eternity. It was pure bliss. We never wanted it to end. Unfortunately, there was a large crowd of ponies waiting for us back down on the ground.

“Shall we return to our adoring public?” I said jocularly. Fluttershy giggled.

“Let’s.”

And so we did. As we landed, Dash flew past us, handing Fluttershy a bouquet of flowers. And just as fast, she was soaring through the sky, delivering a gorgeous Sonic Rainboom.

“Seriously, you’re a goddamn show off, Dash!” I shouted. Fluttershy laughed and kissed me again.

“You’ll get over it,” she joked.

“Yeah. You gonna throw that or what?” I asked.

“Oh, right. Everypony ready?!” A couple of mares gathered behind us, preparing for the toss. Fluttershy released the flowers, and to nopony’s surprise, Rarity threw herself into the crowd of mares.

“Mine!” she shouted. I was laughing uncontrollably at that.

“So, now what?” Fluttershy asked. I smiled at her.

“Now, we party.”