Cadance poked her head inside. "Pardon."

Rarity looked up, just to jump when she saw what head it was. "Oh, Princess Cadance! Please, do come in, darling." She waved a hoof towards her, urging her inside.

"Thank you." Cadance stepped inside. "How have you been?"

Rarity got off her seat to walk towards Cadance. "I've been simply divine, as I always am." She chuckled softly. "But you are not my usual sort of clientele. To what do I owe this pleasure? A need to dazzle the nobility with something new?" She gestured at Cadance's form. "Or is something else on your mind?"

"Something else," Cadance confirmed with a nod. "A wedding, a royal one. Not mine! You know at least one of the participants quite well." She pointed off. "This is to be Twilight's wedding. She is getting married, and I wish you to provide dresses for her wives, as well as an appropriate suit for her husband."

Rarity rubbed over her face slowly. "Married already? Wait, you named entirely too many spouses in that list." She shook her head at Cadance, who just nodded. "She's not just having a single husband?"

"No, no she is not." Cadance waved Rarity closer. "She's marrying her husband and wives. One husband, two wives, three if she is included. Thankfully, she already has a dress for herself we can make do with. How quickly can you make this happen? I'm willing to pay to push this project to the top of your list."

Rarity let out a slow breath, considering that carefully. "Cadance, darling, this will take some time. You can't just ask a pony to create clothing for royalty on the fly! And how much time exactly do I have? A week? A month?" She sighed heavily. "I have other clients."

Cadance set a hoof on Rarity's shoulder. "This is an emergency. I apologize, truly, but to keep Twilight's dignity as a princess, we must marry her as quickly as possible." She pulled her purse from her side, placing it on the table between them. "As I said, I will pay to make sure you finish these garments in time."

Rarity rubbed over the purse lightly. "If I put off everypony else in the world, and work on this project exclusively, I could probably have three suitable garments in, hm." She frowned faintly. "Who are these spouses to be? I need to measure them, quickly. I can't even start without knowing what I'm working with."

"The other two brides to be are Rainbow Charm, a sky-blue Pegasus with a multi-colored mane, and Bella, an Earth pony of orange fur. You know their husband to be, Brad." She gestured for Rarity to follow. "Though I heard you met him in a different form? I want him married as he is now, a pony. He needs a tuxedo fit for a royal wedding. The others have dresses."

Rarity nodded slowly. "Bring all three by so I can measure them as quickly as possible. I can't start without that, and you're being quite clear on the urgency of it all." She frowned down at her workbench, then looked back at Cadance. "I will have to reschedule with other clients. I can only hope they'll understand when a princess is involved." She tapped her front hooves together lightly, trying to think. "Not the first time something like this has happened. You have this." She was speaking more to herself at that point. "Bring them here, kindly."

Cadance smiled, reaching out and hugging her. "I know you'll do great. I must be off." With that, she left.

Rarity returned to her desk and began working on a new sketch for something worthy of a royal wedding.

Cadance directed Twilight's betrothed towards Rarities before she pointed herself at a particular bakery. The current pony behind the counter, a stallion, started at seeing her. "O-oh! We have a special guest today. How can I help you, ma'am?" Mister Cake put on his best smile.

Cadance nodded to him. "You must be Pinkie's employer." She smiled. "I am here to give her a request, if you could see to that?" She gestured towards the door he had come out of. "I believe she is inside."

He bowed low at that, then gestured to the door in question. "She's probably upstairs. Pinkie!" He hollered out that name. "You have a guest!" Turning back to Cadance with a tense laugh, he gestured at the display of treats. "Can I get you anything?"

Cadance rubbed over her chin lightly. "I'll have one of those green cookies." She waved a hoof towards them. "Thank you." She paid him, taking the cookie.

As Cadance took the first bite, Pinkie flew out the door at full speed. "I have a, OOoo! Cadance! Whatcha doin' here?!" She bounced around Cadance. "Wait, let me guess. Mmm, a princess of love, come to visit me. Are you planning a secret wedding?" She leaned in. "Is it mine? Who am I marrying?! Gosh, I need to know that."

Cadance chuckled softly at that. "No. Actually, Twilight is getting married, and I wanted to ask you to help with the preparations for the wedding." She gave Pinkie a quick summary of events.

Pinkie's eyes grew wide. "Wow! I would not have guessed our little Twilight would get swept up in a whirlwind romance! This is amazing!" She clopped her hooves with building joy. "Well, you came to the right pony. I'll have her shindig ready in no time! Actually, how fast are we talking?"

"As soon as possible, but just far enough away to have time to invite ponies to it." Cadance gestured close to herself and further away. "Can you manage that? Let Twilight and I know the moment you have a date, so we can send invites to everypony."

Pinkie snapped to attention and saluted. "Of course, ma'am! This will be the best day of Twilight's life, until she has children, or something else more important, but it'll still be really special!" In a burst of giggles, she ran off with her quest firmly in hoof.

Cadance took a fresh bite of her cookie as she sank to her haunches. "Twilight has such lovely friends, ready to come to her aid when things call for it." She looked up from her thoughts to the still tense Mister Cake. "Relax. I'm just a pony right now. Pretend I'm just another customer."

"J-just another customer? You're royalty," he pointed out.

"Yes," she acknowledged, "but not here and now. Now I am simply a pony who loves cookies. This is delicious, by the way." She finished the cookie and licked her lips. "Mmm, delectable. In fact, may I have a half-dozen of those to go? Shining should get to try some."

***

Twilight set aside her pen and paper. "There. The last of our invitations. At least Cadance will be there, and my family, as well." She sighed softly, leaning back from the desk to look over at her betrothed. "I'll send an invite to Princess Celestia, of course, but she's a busy pony. I'd understand if she didn't have the time for such a sudden wedding."

RC waved that concern away. "Nah. This is important, and she knows you." She nodded towards Twilight. "There is literally no way she's going to not show up for this." RC flicked her ears lightly. "You're going to have all the ponies around you that matter. Don't worry about it."

Twilight got up to join her friends. "I'm sure it'll be wonderful." She let out a happy sigh as they all hugged her and each other in a moment of solidarity. "How did the sizing go? Rarity didn't look too frazzled, I hope?"

Bella shook her head at that. "We were in and out in moments, no problem. She seemed to be doing very well, considering." She nuzzled against Twilight lightly. "So, who is going to perform our wedding?"

Twilight perked at that. "Didn't I say? Cadance will be officiating the ceremony. Pinkie is the planner. This is extremely kind on Cadance's part, taking her precious time just for me."

Brad put a hoof on Twilight's side. "You need to stop that."

"Stop what?" She turned to him.

"Stop acting like you're not worth the time." Brad stepped in, nose to nose with her. "You are, and you have a lot of friends and family that want you to succeed. Cadance made her own decision, you didn't even ask. She's here because she wants to be, and I'd say you're worth the time, Twilight. You're my mare, and you are worth it."

Twilight blushed softly at Brad. "Oh, okay." She turned towards the others. "You think so too, I assume?"

RC nodded.

Bella replied by going in for a hug and snuggling moment.

Twilight laughed from the embrace. "Alright, alright. Sorry. This is just all so sudden." She took a slow breath. "But it's happening. I'm getting married. Oh!" She slipped free of Bella's grasp. "I haven't been idle. Further research has turned up a little about our mysteries."

Twilight turned and grabbed a scroll. She unrolled it carefully. "I've been combing history as best I can. It turns out, there is such a thing as a human that was able to come to Equestria. It would seem there had been some contact, of a friendly sort. The writing is quite vague, to my annoyance, but it would seem there are some ponies with a dash of human, and some humans with a dash of pony." She rubbed at a cheek slowly. "A pity I don't know how to determine if any given pony or human is that."

Brad leaned in against Twilight. "But we're the ones starting this?"

"Not quite. There have been others, apparently, hiding among the population of Equestria and Earth." Twilight flickered her wings with agitation. "If we had one to start, that may let us get somewhere."

RC rolled her eyes. "Twi." Twilight turned to her with a quizzical look. "Twi, seriously." She pointed at herself, then Bella, Brad, and Twilight. "We literally bridge the gap. I'd be shocked if we weren't one of those crosses."

Bella giggled at that, rubbing along Twilight's back. "That makes sense. I hadn't even thought about it that way."

Brad nickered at that, then nodded. "I guess that makes sense." Brad settled in closer to Twilight, hugging her. "Oh! Is that why we can use the statue, but others can't?"

Twilight blinked blankly a moment. "That makes sense!" She hopped to attention and trotted off. "That makes complete sense. The statue reacts to our hybrid nature, allowing us to become other things we share heredity with. Those without it are stuck with the one they already have, be that pony or human, or horse, technically." She tapped at her chin. "Fascinating... One mystery, solved." She looked quite pleased to have one less of those in her life.

RC rubbed at her own cheek slowly. "What about the rainbow bridge?" She inclined her head towards Twilight. "How does that fit into this?"

Twilight was forced to shrug. "Well, if we assume this hybrid nature is involved." She turned to Bella and Brad. "Those two happened to be hybrids, and working with others—" She pointed at herself and RC. "Seems to make it stronger and more solid. I can't say this is for sure without further research, but it's a start."

Bella looked from one to the next, her gaze finally stopping on Twilight. "So we're special. No surprise there." She laughed softly at her own words, turning to Brad with a grin. "You think?"

Brad chuckled in turn. "I think so, yeah." He kissed Bella's nose lightly, which made her grin. "But it's easy for a person to think they're special. Everyone is the star of their own show, right?"

Author's Note

Cadance has launched the emergency party ponies!

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