Author's Note

Hello everyone! Welcome to the second to last chapter of RIZ!

In the original order of events, there were no Extra Scenes planned, so after Chapter 15, this would've been the last chapter. But here we are!

And I am very tired!

Don't worry, I'm going to finish up the scene everyone wanted, but right now my interests have gone to other things. Like I said before, after Chapter 15 I felt that my quality dropped off, but I still hope that this ends up being a good chapter (even though I have no idea how to write a wedding chapter to be honest, not to mention a polygyny marriage with Zebrican culture).

I tried my best, but again, I feel that those earlier chapters had so much energy that only exists in short quantities post Chapter 15.

But nevertheless, I press on. Hope you enjoy this short chapter, and I'll see you all for one last time in the last Chapter of RIZ.

United

Chapter 20:

*A Few Weeks Later*

Upon their return from the Hot Springs, it didn’t take long for King Sahel and Queen Avana to begin pressuring the girls to marry Midnight. While it was already known to everyone that Midnight had claimed the four zebrican princesses, the leaders of the two nations wanted to at least mitigate some of the effects of this sudden development by hiding the fact that he had knocked the siblings up. Sure, King Sahel wouldn’t have had any issues introducing Midnight as the father to the next line of royalty, however, Celestia recommended that he keep that detail a secret to prevent any of his citizens from becoming upset with him.

At first, the siblings protested the idea of marrying soon. They still had time, they thought, they wanted to maximize the amount of time they spent with Midnight before it became too difficult to. However once the four began to feel a bit queasy as time passed on, with Tisha even throwing up at one point, they soon decided that it would be a good idea to prepare the wedding soon.

Thus the four siblings found themselves standing still as their mothers, along with a multitude of maids, were helping them with braiding their hair and dressing them with the most elegant of clothes. Preparations for the wedding were just about finished and the ceremony was set later that evening.

As she felt another douse of perfume being sprayed at her, Adila looked up at her mother who had been humming to herself while she tended to her daughter. Blushing a bit, the waitress opened her mouth as she nervously spoke with her mom.

“Uhm, you’re not mad about what happened right?” The young mare asked. When the wedding was first announced to Jelani and Mila, brother and sister-in-law to Sahel, Mila became silent and hard to read while the King’s brother seemed rather surprised but happy that Adila was making her own choices. Now with the wedding just a few hours away, the cousin of the three sisters wanted to make sure that all was well with her mother.

The older mare blinked as she looked at Adila before smiling at her as she sprayed another douse of perfume onto her daughter.

“Why would I be mad? You’re old enough to decide, and I would be lying if I said me and your father didn’t do the same thing. We were younger and more impulsive than you were, and our actions kind of threw a wrench into Sahel’s plan to unify the zebra tribes, as we were from opposing tribes and neither one liked the sudden event. But things turned out fine then and things will turn out fine here. Trust me.” Mila answered, causing the waitress to become relieved upon hearing her words.

“Thank you, mom,” Adila said, causing the other mare to nod as she placed the perfume on a nearby desk.

“No problem dear.”

Meanwhile, in another part of the palace, Midnight was finishing putting on his black vest. Walking outside of the room, his eyes widened a bit as he saw Celestia, Luna, Twilight, and Shining all waiting for him.

“Midnight! You look so handsome!” Twilight said as she gave him a friendly hug. Midnight quickly returned the gesture before looking at the white unicorn in front of him.

“Hey Captain. How’s the guard going back home?” The blue pegasus asked, to which Shining shrugged.

“It’s going alright. You surprised me Midnight. I gave you those lessons so that you could claim one mare, but I didn’t expect you to exclaim all the Zebrican Princesses!” The Captain of the Royal Guard replied, shaking his head in amusement. Meanwhile, Luna looked at Midnight with a grin.

“Indeed. Princess Cadence remarked how she could feel how passionate the love between the five of you was from the Crystal Empire. I do think she’d be interested in meeting Adila to see that video of the ‘action’ you and Kali did in the showers~” Luna said mischievously, causing Midnight to heavily blush.

“Luna, please, don’t tease Midnight,” Celestia said as she got in front of the dark blue alicorn. The Princess of the Night simply giggled as she saw how embarrassed the blue pegasus had become.

“Celestia, please! You know how hard it was to prank Midnight, and now I have the chance to do it! Sure, what I’m saying is the definition of inappropriate, but this is a chance of a lifetime that I cannot miss!” Luna stated. Trying to save the pegasus from any more embarrassment, Shining Armor quickly acted as if he was looking at his watch before putting on an alarmed face.

“Oh shoot, would you look at the time! We need to go now!” The white unicorn said, leading Midnight away, who was very much happy to get out of Luna’s range who looked perplexed as she quickly shot a look at Shining’s wrists.

“But you don’t even have a watch!” The blue alicorn protested.

Hours later, Midnight found himself waiting nervously in front of a massive crowd, with Celestia, Luna, King Sahel, and Queen Avana behind him in their royal seats. Twilight and Shining had been placed in the front row seats while Jelani and Mila sat in their royal chairs, outside of the main view of the event.

Normally Midnight would’ve been fine being in front of a huge crowd, however, given how important this ended up becoming since he was marrying four zebrican princesses, the blue pegasus was silently afraid that any wrong move would cause a huge political crisis between the two nations. The duel, the video, and this, everything had made things a bit complicated and had him thrusted into the spotlight.

However, as the music, which was rather energetic compared to what he was used to hearing, began to play, that worry soon dissipated as his eyes fell onto Kali, Zuri, Tisha, and Adila who were walking down the aisle. Each of them wore a beautiful set of vibrant clothing of blue, yellow, green, and white respectively, the four holding a bundle of flowers that matched their clothes` color as well. Midnight’s ears soon detected a soft thumping sound, a sound he realized was coming from his heart as he felt happy to see them here, as well as anxious to finally officially marry them.

“Hey Midnight, you look so good in that suit of yours,” Zuri said as she passed by Midnight to take his left-hand side.

“Yep. Does a real good job at showing who you are.” Kali added on as she took the pegasus’s right-hand side.

“You look like a penguin!” Tisha whispered while silently giggling, causing the Hyper Stallion to slightly blush at this comment.

“Tisha!” Adila said in a hushed cry. The waitress simply smiled as she took Zuri's side, while Adila took Kali’s side. Soon enough they were motioned to turn around as Celestia and Sahel stood up from their seats, the two of them smiling at them.

“As you can see, my daughters and niece have taken a rather high liking to Midnight, one of Equestria’s advisors that were sent here some time ago. Likewise, Midnight has taken an equal liking to them, even going so far as to request permission to stay here and take care of them. Thus as leader of this nation and father to my daughters and uncle to my niece, I now ask if any of you oppose the union of this herd.”

For a moment Midnight looked around the crowd, feeling nervous that somebody somewhere would express their dissatisfaction. However, when it became clear that nobody had any issue with the marriage, the blue pegasus couldn’t help but feel relieved that this event wouldn’t cause any issues for the two nations’ relationship.

Feeling pleased with seeing his citizens approval, the King turned to Celestia, nodding at her and motioning her to bring five colored rings that rested on a small purple pillow. Using her magic, the rings lifted themselves from the pillow, with four of them slowly spinning around the remaining one while Sahel continued the ceremony.

“Do you, Midnight, vow to love, protect, and take care of Zuri, Kali, Tisha, and Adila, for the rest of your life until your final breath?”

“I do.” The blue pegasus replied as he smiled at his mares. Nodding with approval, the King turned to face the four mares who looked excited to complete the ceremony.

“Do you, Kali, Zuri, Tisha, and Adila, vow to love, support, and be on Midnight’s side for the rest of your life until your final breath?”

The four siblings beamed as they all answered “I do” in a chorused voice. With that Sahel motioned Celestia to bring the rings towards the group, their hands being lifted up as it was inserted around their fingers.

As the mares looked at their rings with happiness, the blue pegasus quickly noticed something interesting about his. While the color of his mares` rings matched the color of their clothes, Midnight’s gem was able to change its color depending on what angle he viewed it under. The fact that the colors that it changed to were the color that Zuri, Kali, Tisha, and Adila had made him realize that it was to represent his connection to them all.

As he heard the King speak once more, Midnight felt the zebra siblings hugging him tightly, causing him to smile and hug them back with his huge wings.

“Then as the King of the Zebrican Empire, I now make this polygyny union official!” The King exclaimed, causing the crowd to celebrate as the four mares kissed the Hyper Stallion at the same time, which ended up being a bit more difficult than anticipated as they ended up bumping into each other. Chuckling a bit, the blue pegasus ended up kissing each of his mares, smiling as he realized that they were now officially a herd.

“I love you all.” Midnight stated as he nuzzled his face against theirs.

“I can’t wait for what this new life together will bring.” The blue pegasus thought to himself as he enjoyed his herd’s company.