“Lord Velvet, I do insist that you come along with me to my wine cellar! We have an excellent selection of pinots and chardonneighs to choose from.” Sir Grape Vine called.
“Sir Vine, I would be honored to sample your bouqet,” Velvet Song replied. It wasn’t solely at Vine’s behest that Velvet descended down with his long-time friend. Now would be the perfect time to confess something that he had been meaning to for a while now. Something that had been simmering in his head, and his heart. As their descent took them further down into the cellar, Velvet took the moment to observe his friend for what might be the last time.
He was broad-shouldered—all the better to carry the berries were a part of his namesake, and all the young mares that he had courted. And his barrel was broad, with each sinewy muscle acting as a pillow for each of his lovers after a night of lust-filled passion. His haunches were lithe, with each stride down the stairs he took flexing them to accentuate the full boons of the earth pony’s hard labor. His coat was a shimmering, silken, silver, with an amaranthine mane flowing over eyes to match his darkest merlot.
Eyes that would either hold pain or acceptance for what he was about to tell him. That is, if he were to tell him. He could just be silent, not telling his friend the truth, and just keeping—
“Velvet,” Vine turned to face his friend at the stair landing, “You have been entirely silent this entire time. And not only that, but you haven’t said a word to me since our game of polo, or even before that, you have done nothing but stare at me like you have something to say.” Vine’s eyes held a pain that made Velvet’s stomach churn. It was the kind of anguish that would make even the most cold-hearted ponies feel wrong, and knowing that it was his own fault made it all the worse.
“I…” The words stuck on his tongue.
“You can tell me, Velvet. You and I have faced down the darkest fiends of all Equestria, I am certain that you can best whatever is vexing your tongue.” It was true, He and Grape Vine had been knights during the Lunar Upheaval, and had seen some of the worst that ponykind could dream up, surely he could overcome this?
“Vine, you and I have been through a lot, haven’t we?”
“Yes,” Vine grinned, recalling some of their more pleasant ventures. “But, you aren’t wanting to talk about our drunken little debacle in the royal pantry, are you?”
“Ah, no,” Velvet forced a chuckle, “I wasn’t wanting to talk about that. I just… I don’t want to lose you over what I’m about say, all right?”
“My friend, you couldn’t say a single thing that would make me turn away from your side.”
“I rutted your wife last night?” Velvet’s panic-stricken mind had decided that was the better option than the truth.
Without skipping a beat, Vine replied with a chuckle, “Who hasn’t?”
Velvet actually managed a real chuckle at that, but Vine’s cocksure grin told him the bluff wasn’t called.
“All of my life, I have stood by your side. We got into trouble together, enlisted together, and I stood tall with you while the batwings battered the walls of the Sister’s Castle.” Velvet winced as he imagined the words that Vine would say next.
“And now, as I stand by your side, I feel myself trembling as a school filly before her teacher. I…”
“Go on,” Vine put his foreleg around Velvet’s shoulders, “I can take it.”
“I love you.”
Vine froze at that, his ever-flowing joy suddenly stopped. Velvet could feel the tears creeping into his eyes, and his heart jump.
“I know that you must think so low of me,” he choked out, “but I needed to get that off of my barrel. So, after tonight, I won’t ever—“
Velvet was silenced by Vine’s hoof upon his muzzle. Velvet felt that were the world to freeze in that spot, he would not be entirely disappointed. He wished that the world would freeze. But as fate would conspire against him, Grape Vine removed his hoof, and stare at the ground, trying to search for a sentence to work itself to his tongue.
The silence between the two was tense, with neither really looking the other in the eye, but only occasionally stealing glances at each other. Velvet’s fears began to charge up to his chest, squeezing it as they went down to make his stomach churn. He felt ready to vomit when Vine finally spoke.
“Velvet,” He finally spoke, trying to beat back a sob of his own, “I can’t believe that you were really that stupid.” He shook his head, letting the tears fall freely now.
“You really thought that I would be angry with you? That I would shun you just for finally admitting what your heart has been telling you for a while now?” Velvet gave a start, surprised that Vine had apparently known for longer.
“You thought that I, of all people, would look lesser upon anypony for who they loved?” A defeated laugh escaped him, as moved close enough to his feather-ruffled friend to put their foreheads together.
“I love you dearly—truly, I do, Velvet. Don’t ever believe otherwise. But—“ He cut himself off with a kiss on Velvet’s lips, a quick, but nonetheless sweet kiss, “I just can’t return your affections. The kiss was just so that you could vent a little.”
Velvet, whose wings were now standing at full attention, began to mutter something incomprehensible, but Grape Vine continued on.
“And, I’ll have you know, that I don’t take this honor lightly. To have you actually say it to me that—out of all the possible stallions of all Equestria—that you chose to give your heart to me, is something that I will never forget. But, I can’t accept it.” He sighed inwardly, the emerald eyes that had mere moments ago professed an undying love to him were now beginning to crumble.
“I wouldn’t be able to love you in the same way that another colt would, and you deserve a pony’s full affection and devotion.” A sob shook Velvet, which drew one from Grape Vine in return.
“There, you got me crying again, too.” Vine nuzzled Velvet’s chin so that his head was held up to see each other in the eye.
“And hey, that wasn’t so bad, was it?” Vine got a half-chuckle, half-sob from Velvet.
“You were always a merlot pony, weren’t you?”
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When Rarity finally looked up from her book, she noticed that Big Macintosh had left the rather large study to go somewhere— to think about something, she thought she had heard him say—which left her alone. Fancy Pants had taken Fleur off to the dining hall where they had been planning on having their dinner, citing that he had to make “the necessary changes for such a turn of events.”
As she lifted herself from the velvet chair to place the book back in her purse, her mind wandered off back to what she had just witnessed.
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“…Daddy?” Fluttershy took a step towards the elder stallion, a glint of a tear near the edge of her eye.
“Fluttershy?” Autumn Leaf took a step in kind, as he stare intently at the mare whom was supposed to be his daughter. His heart knew it was his daughter, but his mind couldn’t recall a single memory of her. Back when he had thought he had lost her—when they had reported her missing at flight camp—he was absolutely distraught. Eventually, it had become so bad for him that he had gone to a unicorn to erase all his memory of her. And yet now, here she was, staring at him, living proof that she was… alive.
As the two seemed stuck in somewhat of a deadlock, each not really confident enough to take another step toward each other, Rarity felt a nudge at her side, prompting her to look over at the source.
“Ah think we should give those two a minute.” He whispered, a smile slowly creeping up on his face.
“Oh Celestia,” Rarity sighed to herself, “It’s just like in Neigh Bristol’s books! Two ponies, each who had given up on seeing the other ever again, reunited by mere chance and the keen eye of a stallion!” While her own taste for the dramatic was sated, her stomach’s taste for food hadn’t yet seen a morsel since she arrived in Canterlot, and promptly reminded her of it.
“Oh hush,” She told her own stomach, affixing it with a glare, “You can certainly wait until they’re ready.”
As if queued by Rarity’s stomach, Fancy Pants entered the room, humming a ballroom tune to himself.
“See?” She whispered to her stomach, as she brought her eyes to his. When Fancy Pants saw he had Rarity’s attention, he announced that dinner was in fact ready, and lead her back to the dining room.
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“Wow,” Autumn laughed to himself, as he brought a spear of steamed asparagus to his mouth, “I missed out on my daughter being a model?”
“And she was quite the popular one, too!” Rarity answered. When Fluttershy had mentioned that Rarity was her friend, Autumn bombarded her with all manner of query.
“And what of you?” Autumn looked to Big Macintosh, seated on the other side of Fluttershy, his curiosity with Rarity sated, “I would certainly to know more about you, considering that you are the one who pointed this all out!”
“Well, Ah met your daughter through my sister.”
“Applejack, I believe?” Autumn asked, wanting to fill in the blanks in his head. “I think Fluttershy mentioned something about her having an older brother.”
“Yep.” Big Macintosh explained how he had first met Fluttershy, and made promptly sure to skip right over the cart accident, and any subsequent events.
“Well, it’s good to hear she has such good friends!” Autumn clapped his hooves together, his excitement from hearing all about his daughter overflowing.
“Daddy?” Fluttershy interrupted, and then promptly returned to twiddling her hooves. She had been so caught up on telling him all about her other friends, that she hadn’t yet gotten to telling her father that Big Macintosh was her coltfriend.
“Yes, Flutters?” Autumn looked back to his daughter, his response resplendent.
“He’s my—“
“Oh, wait, let me guess!” Autumn interrupted, giddy to see how much he knew about his daughter by now. “He’s your gardener!”
Big Macintosh chuckled at the first guess, but could tell that Fluttershy wanted to get the fact that they were dating across, with a shake of her head.
“He’s your bodyguard!”
This received another headshake no.
“Personal chef?”
This time, Big Macintosh responded with a “Nope.”
“Hmm…” Autumn tapped his hoof to his chin, thinking it over for a second, and then a minute. Just as Fluttershy was about to tell him, he came up with another guess.
“Is he from one of those “escort services” Bill Clinthoof used?”
“Daddy! He’s my coltfriend!” Fluttershy raised her voice, and grabbed Big Macintosh’s hoof to punctuate the fact.
“Oh,” Autumn laughed at this, “Well, that’s fine by me!”
A collective facehoof went around the table, save Fluttershy and Autumn Leaf, who hadn’t seen what the big deal was.
“So, how long have you two been dating?” Autumn continued, now fully more interested.
“Well, to be honest,” Big Macintosh began, “We haven’t really been on a legitimate ‘date’ yet, so…”
“What?” Fluttershy jumped at this, “Yes we have, Big Macintosh!”
“Sugarcube,” Big Macintosh began to scratch the back of his head, “Ah’m pretty sure we haven’t.”
“What about all those nice picnics we had,” Fluttershy pointed out, “Or going to the quill store?”
“Those were with my family,” Big Macintosh rebutted, “ or just going to the store. That ain’t a proper date for such a lady like yourself.”
“Quite right,” Autumn Leaf agreed, “Which is why I would like you two to go on a date tomorrow.”
Big Macintosh threw his hooves in the air, glad that somepony else agreed with him, especially when it was someone this important to Fluttershy.
“And I don’t want to hear a word against it. After what I’ve seen and heard of this colt, he seems just fine to me!” Autumn chuckled as he added, “Were he to ask me for my daughter’s hoof in marriage, I would say yes without hesitation!”
And so it was agreed, that the next day, Big Macintosh and Fluttershy would be free to go on an actual date tomorrow—Fluttershy would have all the rest of the night to catch up with her father, and Rarity still had a business deal to discuss with Autumn.