Vying for Her Love

As they headed towards the castle Twinkleshine and Lemon Hearts had nervous smiles on their faces while Colgate had a look of confidence and determination on her face. Yes she knew that the chances of swaying Celestia's views on polygamy were not very high, she knew that she could not go into this situation without any confidence.

The walk seemed to take longer than normal but eventually they got there. When they arrived at the castle they were greeted by a guard who asked, "Halt, who goes there?"

Given that Lemon Hearts works for Celestia she decided that she would be the one to reply, "We need to speak to the princess."

He took a closer look at the three and said, "Oh Lemon Hearts, I'm sorry about the initial gruff question. He opened the door and asked, "I take it you know the way to the throne room?"

Lemon Hearts replied, "Yes, I do."

Lemon Hearts led them to the throne room. As they were headed down the long hallways, they were nervous, Twinkleshine especially so. When they finally arrived, Celestia smiled and said, "Lemon Hearts! What are you doing here today, it is a holiday?"

Lemon Hearts replied, "I know it is a holiday but the three of us have to talk to you. It is about something very important."

Celestia took a look at the three and knew what it was likely going to be about. She said, "Lemon Hearts, I have already told you that I will not change my stance on plural marriages. You know that if I give the three of you an exception, everypony will demand an exception."

Colgate, who often had a better way with words and knew her history better started, "Your Majesty, I understand why you banned polygamy but you have to look at that situation. The situation back then involved stallions controlling the lives of many mares and fathering many, many foals. The situation with us would involve three mares and would not involve any foals."

Celestia replied, "That is true but it still involves a marriage between multiple ponies and there is the chance of one of you beginning to control the others." Celestia knew how the three operate and that Colgate already plays the stallion role in their household. She continued, "And I also have my worries that one of you may begin to dominate the other two, and I do not want one pony to be controlling the others."

Colgate said, "Princess, you know that none of us would try to control the others."

Lemon Hearts added, "Celestia, you know I've told you things about how things are in our household. You know that no one pony would try to control another."

Celestia knew this quite well as Lemon Hearts had often talked about Twinkleshine's more subservient role as the homemaker. She looked at Twinkleshine and asked, "Twinkleshine, from what I understand you are the one who stays at home all day and does the housework. Is that correct?"

Twinkleshine replied, "Yes your Majesty. I keep things at home clean."

Celestia knows that often those in that role are the ones who are controlled. She asked, "Twinkleshine, ponies who are in that role are often the ones who are easily controlled and manipulated. Have either one of these two ever tried to assert any dominance over you?"

Twinkleshine replied, "Well no." She then giggled and continued, "But Lemon Hearts and I have asserted our control and dominated Colgate in the bedroom!"

Celestia put her hoof up to her face and sighed in disgust, "That is more than I want to know. All I care about is how you are treated over all." She raised her voice and asked, "So, none of you have tried to force your ways or order another one around?"

In unison the three replied, "No your Majesty, we haven't."

Celestia sat there with her wing up against her face deep in thought. While she could tell that the three did truly love one another, she also knew that she could not just go bending laws for one set of ponies. She knew that if she did that, she would simply have to do away with the ban and that would lead to the problems of the past returning.

Celestia started, "Look, I know you three love one another very much but I can not simply bend the rules for you three."

Twinkleshine asked, "Why not?"

Celestia replied, "Because if I do, then I would have to let everypony engage in plural marriages."

Colgate asked, "Your Majesty, what happened in the past involved stallions forcing their way on mares." Colgate got a huge smile on her face as she got an idea. She continued, "Princess, what if you altered it so that mares could engage in plural marriages but not everypony else?"

While her marefriends thought this was a spectacular idea, Celestia was not going to budge. She replied, "Colgate, if I did that then I would have ponies all over Equestria claiming that I am sexist against stallions. They would think that I favor mares and likely even accuse me of wanting to engage in a plural marriage myself." She was getting frustrated and snorted, "And I don't need ponies having that perception of me."

Lemon Hearts asked, "What ponies would perceive you like this?"

Celestia replied, "Well I'm sure there are still a few ponies out there that have the old beliefs of that sect. Then you have the ponies who would simply see it as me showing favoritism towards Lemon Hearts since she works for me and like I said, you would see ponies who would label me as sexist."

Colgate asked, "Your Majesty, you are the most powerful pony in Equestria. Why would it matter what they think? If they tried to start some sort of rebellion or protest, couldn't you just go put them in their place and banish them to the moon or throw them in Tartarus?"

Celestia couldn't help but laugh a little, "Oh Colgate, you don't understand much about ruling a country do you?" She then became more serious and continued, "Look, I am a benevolent princess, I am not a dictator that forces her ways upon her subjects. I just think doing that would be wrong."

Colgate asked, "But your Majesty, don't you think it is wrong to prevent me and my marefriends from being married too? Doesn't it feel wrong to keep three ponies who love one another more than life itself from being married?"

Celestia sighed, "Colgate, I know how much you three love each other but like I've said before, I can't make an exception for this without everypony else demanding it."

Lemon Hearts asked, "Who said anypony has to know about this if you were to allow it?"

Celestia was getting frustrated that the three mares would not simply take no for an answer and leave it at that. She replied, "Listen, marriages are a public record that anypony can access and even if it weren't, I'm sure ponies would find out one way or another and either complain about it or demand I allow them to engage in a plural marriage as well."

While Lemon Hearts and Twinkleshine had tears running down their faces, Colgate did something very unexpected. While she is generally the strong silent type that views publicly showing emotion as a sign of weakness, she began to openly cry, "Ok your Majesty, I understand." She looked at her marefriends and continued, "Let's get going. I'm sure the princess has other things on her schedule that needs taking care of." She looked back at Celestia and continued, "Thanks for listening to us your Majesty."

The three headed for the exit with their heads hung low when Celestia yelled, "Wait, come back."

The three headed back towards the throne and Celestia gave them a smile. She said, "I can tell you three truly do love one another and Colgate, I'm going to be honest with you. I never expected you to openly cry in front of anypony, especially given your personality and personal beliefs. To me that proves beyond a shadow of doubt that you do love these two with all your heart." Her smile widened as she continued, "I have decided to grant you three an exception under the condition that you have a simple ceremony here with nopony else present. It would just be you three with me officiating it. Do we have a deal?"

The three rushed up to her, hugged her and said, "You bet we do your Majesty!"

Celestia continued, "Also, you three can't just go advertising to the world that you are married and I would advise you avoid wearing horn rings out in public, especially given that each one of you would be wearing two of them. I advise this because that would give away the fact that you three are engaged in a plural marriage. Do we still have a deal?"

The three began to cry tears of joy and enthusiastically said, "Yes your Majesty, we have a deal!"

Celestia realized that their ceremony would have to be held at a time when Luna would not be present because she knew that Luna would fiercely oppose this and use any means necessary to prevent it. She said, "Also, your ceremony would have to be held when my sister is not around because she would be very opposed to this and would try to stop it."

Colgate asked, "Why would she try to stop it?"

Celestia replied, "Well she is even tighter with the rules than I am. Trust me, she would have become very angry with you three and probably scare you out of here, and that would be if you're lucky."

Twinkleshine asked, "Since we have to have it when Luna is not here, when would we have to hold it?"

Celestia replied, "In the middle of the night, after Luna has left on her patrol of the Everfree Forest. It will have to be a quick ceremony so we can get it done before she returns. Would that be ok?"

In unison they replied, "Yes your Majesty, that would be alright."

Celestia said, "Ok, come here around ten on Friday night. Luna leaves for her patrol early on Fridays and usually doesn't return until four-thirty on Saturday morning. Will that work?"

Lemon Hearts replied, "Yes your Majesty, it will work."

Celestia began to be concerned about ponies wondering why she was talking with them for so long so she sent them on their way and as one last piece of advice, she advised them not to act too happy on the way home. They happily obliged but once they got home, it was a different story.

Once they got into the living room and closed the door, they engaged in an embrace and cried in joy, "We did it! I can't believe we got her to make an exception for us!"

Lemon Hearts said, "Well I guess you were right Colgate, you do have a way with words but I think it was the fact that you actually cried that convinced her."

Colgate replied, "Well the fact it seemed like she wouldn't let us get married at first tore me apart. The thoughts of the three of us not being able to be together saddened me so much."

Twinkleshine interrupted, "Well we have a wedding to get ready for! I know it will be a very simple one but still, we need to be ready for a life change."

Colgate replied, "Yes we do but it will be the most wonderful life change we will ever experience."

The rest of their day was spent doing something that Colgate loathed, watching romantic movies but in her mind it was all worth it because she knew she would be able to marry her beloved marefriends and be with them forever.