Home Again
There wasn’t anypony in Ponyville that wasn’t excited about the upcoming party. After five days, they finally received news from the 51st.
The news came in the form of a letter from the princesses, giving full detail of the battle, the casualties and the prisoners, as well as the griffons that had acted against the General and his militia, aiding in an internal takedown.
Pinkie Pie had immediately taken to planning a party, Rarity decided that each of the combatants in the 51st deserved a new ensemble, Applejack and Big Mac made an early batch of cider, and everypony else in town decided to help welcome the local heroes back.
Ten days after the 51st had left Ponyville, they returned. They returned tired, bruised and holding their heads up high. Even hawk, who had finally learned how to walk with only three-and-a-half legs, was standing tall.
The party had lasted all day. The townsponies had all gathered together, celebrating, singing, and all-in-all having a good time. Some, such as Spectrum, Rainbow, Applejack, Thunderclaw, and Pinkie were dancing, having the time of their lives, happy to be together and alive. Others, such as Blue Angel and Red Arrow were simply staying to the outskirts of the party, enjoying each other’s company. Still more, like Gilda and Hawk were enjoying a quiet night, talking and walking on the outskirts of town.
In the following week; Hawk’s arm was fixed, he and his brother spent time together, he also spent a lot of time with Gilda. Everyone in town seemed to be having a great time, preparing for the local wedding of the decade.
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Hawk was sitting on a cloud, staring out at a sunrise as he finished up his breakfast. T.C. landed on the cloud, to find his younger brother examining his right arm, right at the point where it had been severed.
"It is truly amazing." Hawk said, not looking up from his wrist. "What they can do with magic and potions, the whole, 'reattaching limbs' thing is just nuts."
"Yeah, I know," T.C. hadn't felt this nervous in a while, his younger brother had been his best friend growing up. "So... I wanted to talk to you..."
"What's up?" he rolled his wrist, feeling the sensation of feeling again.
"You know Rainbow, right?"
"Yeah, your marefriend, nice girl, what about her?"
"What do you think about me getting married?" he decided to just put it out there, seemed like the best option.
For the first time during the conversation, Hawk looked into his eyes, the piercing gaze of his brother's blue eyes searching for weakness in his facade.
"Hmmm... Well, as hard as it is to see you getting married, I think that, out of anyone, she’s the best I could think of for you.” Thunderclaw let out a sigh that he didn’t know he was holding. “There is one thing that I am curious about; however,” T.C. took another deep breath. “Could you two have kids?”
That drew a pause, the question had never been brought up. T.C. had never considered it before. Was that even possible? A griffon and a pony? Would it work? What would the kids even be?
Hawk laughed at his brother’s confusion. “Well, now that I have apparently broken you, I have something to say to you myself, I have started to get more serious with Gilda, and I was wondering if you were ok with it.”
“Well of course I am ok with it, why wouldn’t I be?”
“You used to be really into her, and she is even why you left home, and I just wanted to let you know first.”
“It’s just fine.” He said, “So, how about a race, for old time’s sake.”
“You’re on!” and with that, the two were off, speeding towards the horizon.
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Gilda walked up to Rainbow Dash, who had decided to take a break from her training at the local park; and as she approached Dash she let out a small sigh.
“So, Dash...” Gilda had no idea how to do this. “Um, thanks for helping Hawk and I get together. And thanks for not holding too much of a grudge.”
“Come on, G, we were like best friends in flight school. I can’t stay mad at you.” She said. Then, looking “So, speaking of Hawk, how is it going between you two?”
For the first time in years, Dash saw Gilda start gushing. “Oh. My. Gosh. He is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me. He is handsome, fast, a true gentleman, and don’t even get me started on the way he makes me feel...” Dash was rolling on the cloud laughing her head off. “What? You feel the same way about T.C. don’t you?”
“Yeah, but it’s just funny seeing you be so mushy.” She said, composing herself just long enough to say that.
“Yeah, yeah.” Gilda said, her face becoming more and more red. “Well, you seem to be pretty serious with T.C., so are you two going to get married anytime soon?” She asked, trying to turn the conversation around.
It worked.
“Uh, I, er, um, I-I don’t know?” Rainbow stuttered.
“What to you mean, ‘you don’t know,’ hmm? It seems like you would have talked about it.”
“We have talked about it, just not much, and we never made any real decisions, and we haven’t really looked into it that much, and we’re really busy...” she kept going like that for a little while, talking really fast and breaking out into more of a sweat than she would in flight training back at school.
“Dash, Dash, relax, seriously. I’m sure that it will come up, plus, I don’t think that you could really ever leave him, being the whole ‘element of loyalty,’ and whatever.”
“Thanks, G, I guess you’re right.”
“I’m gonna go get some fish, want any?”
“Nah, I’m good.”
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Two more weeks passed, the ponies getting back to their normal lives, for the most part. Applejack and Spectrum were getting final preparations ready for the wedding. Hawk and Gilda had gone back home, and as they were leaving both gave knowing looks back to a couple that was waving goodbye.
T.C. And Rainbow noticed the looks, and shuffled uncomfortably.
Later that day, after a nice, long, date, just filled with each other’s company and the activities that T.C. had organized; a simple race through Ghastly Gorge, some small stunt competitions, and a nice picnic dinner at sunset on a cloud at the edge of town. After their dinner they merely sat on the cloud watching as the princesses switched posts.
T.C. Felt his marefriend snuggle up into his feathers at his shoulder, and as he wrapped his large wing around her, he could smell her shampoo, her sweat, and burnt ozone in her hair, a mixture of smells that he had grown to love. As he realized that it was actually happening, his heart started pumping faster, adrenaline flooding his veins, and he felt his body get high off of the stimulus.
He felt under his wing, reassuring himself of his goals, and realized that he was going through with it.
He looked at the mare to his left and reached up underneath of his right wing. “Beautifull...” he whispered.
“Yeah, it sure is...” She agreed.
“I was talking about you.”
She turned her face, making eye contact with him. “That was soooo corny.”
“Yeah, I know, but I’m not too good at this.” He shrugged. “So I’m just gonna say it.” He then pulled the little box out from under his wing. “Rainbow Dash, would you marry me?” at that moment he opened it, revealing a ring, suspended from a necklace chain.
Rainbow looked at the sparkly thing in the box, then up at her boyfriend, back at the box, back at T.C. And then she got her voice. “Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh, OhmygoshohmygoshohmygoshOHMYGOSH! YES!” She leapt up on her fiancé and tackled him, wrapping her hooves and her wings around him, and kissing him repeatedly.
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Applejack was standing outside of the barn, making a few checks to her wedding plans. The catering seemed to be ordered correctly, the cake was coming, her dress was ready, the distant guests were beginning to arrive. Everything seemed to be going well. This would be the first time that many of her distant family had met Specs, and she couldn’t wait.
Sure, a few of them might be slightly insulted by the notion of a pegasus joining the family, but once they knew how hard he worked they wouldn’t have a problem with him.
She couldn’t believe that it was happening, she was going to get married in two days.
It was unreal.
The stallion of her dreams couldn’t begin to compare to her future husband.
While she was thinking about him, he walked up to her. “Hey, Sweetie.” He kissed her on the cheek, and tickled her slightly with his wings, drawing a small giggle. “Have you heard any news?” he said with a sneaky smile.
“Whatcha mean?”
Then there was a distant scream and they looked over to where it came from. There was a small cloud highlighted by the setting sun, and they strained to see what was happening. Specs had a sly smile on as they heard a little bit more come from there.
Suddenly a rainbow shot out from the cloud and streaked across the sky, originating at an explosive ring. The dark light from the setting sun making the rainbow appear different. Then they heard the explosion as the sonic boom reached their ears.
Applejack gasped as she realized who it was. “Rainbow! We gotta help her!”
“She wouldn’t be doing that,” Specs said, pointing at the intricate designs the colorful contrails were making. “if she was in trouble.”
Then the rainbow began heading towards them, another figure emerging from the cloud as T.C. joined her. They both alighted in front of Spectrum and Applejack, sporting huge smiles.
“Guess what.” Rainbow exclaimed, trying to get closer to the other ponies without leaving T.C..
“What’s up?” Specs said, his smug grin painfully obvious to everypony, but Rainbow Dash.
“We’re getting MARRIED!!!” she screamed, pulling a necklace with a ring on it away from her chest. Then she jumped Applejack, pulling her into a large hug. As they talked, Spectrum and T.C. Pulled each other into a firm, quick, man-hug, Spectrum welcoming the griffon into his family.
“I’m sorry,” T.C. Said to Specs and Applejack, “I really didn’t think about it being so close to your wedding.” Rainbow looked back at him, confused. “I didn’t mean to steal any of your thunder.” He hung his head and Rainbow started to get slightly sad, just starting to think about her friend in respects to her wedding.
“Aw, Shucks.” Applejack said with a huge smile. “It ain’t a problem at all. In fact, y’all finally got mah mind on somethin’ other than mah weddin’ and it feels good.” She reassured them with a smile.
And with that the two couples went their separate ways, one pair going to go spread the good news, and the other going back to work on final preparations for their wedding.