Amber Starts, Comforting Endings

by David Silver

32 - Put a Ring on It

Sunny flew with her close friends in the Mare Stream, cruising rapidly towards the forest of unicorns. Izzy giggled excitedly. "Always nice to say hello. Haven't been home in a while, and it's getting more cheerful every time we stop by." She bounced from hoof to hoof as she hopped along mid-air, at one with the Mare Stream they rode in on.

Pipp beamed happily at her enthusiasm. "Glad you're with us. Let's find that filly and get her home." She sped up as they approached the forest and was the first to dive into it and begin scouring the ground for the lost filly. The only problem being the Mare Stream was not really made for such tight turns and places, and they thumped into a tree in short order, bringing their travel to a stop.

Hitch rubbed at the side of his head, wobbling and woozy from the sudden stop. "Well, guess we're getting out here. Come on, gang, let's go find this lost filly." He rubbed his hooves together as he strode purposefully through the woods, leading his little group onward to do some good in the world and bring back a lost pony home where she belonged.

They fanned out across the woods, calling to her as they went. "Little filly! Little filly! Where are you?" Hitch looked left and right as he walked through the forest, wondering what sort of unicorn that had ended up here and why.

He eventually found a riverbank with a little purple filly near it who was totally at ease. That wasn't the one they were looking for. for one, they were a unicorn, rather than the earth pony filly they were hunting.

Sunny approached with a smile anyway. "Hello. I don't suppose you've seen other fillies around here?" She tilted her head with curiosity as she came closer on light steps towards the girl.

The filly turned and smiled brightly at the group of new arrivals. "No, but welcome to my home!" She jumped to her hooves and threw open her arms as if greeting friends long unseen. "You're bigger than most of my other guests."

Sunny glanced at her friends and back at the filly. "Are we? We'd love to see your home, and those other guests." She felt like there was a story here to hear. "What's your name?"

"Aloe!" She stood up on two legs, balancing precariously for a moment before returning to all fours. With a giggle, she started at a care-free canter into the forest. "This way!" She soon turned back to them with a flick of her tail as she stopped by a set of colorful flowers that suddenly flared to life in an array of rainbow hues. "Welcome to my home!"

Sunny approached and brushed a hoof across the colorful display of flowers. "It's very, hm, colorful?"

Pipp was taking snapshots with her phone busily. "These are totally gorge! I am loving it." She flew up a little for a different angle, clicking rapidly. "Seriously! Love! Loving this!"

Izzy chuckled at Pipp's delight and bounded over to Aloe. "My name's Izzy. Nice to meet you!" She dropped into a squat in front of Aloe, getting down to her level. "How old are you?"

Aloe sat back on her haunches with a happy smile on her face. "Old enough." She burst into giggles. "Aren't they great?" She hugged one flower close. "Take a nice sniff." She inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly with a sigh. "Magic can do amazing things."

Sunny scanned around the clearing as she leaned in towards a flower of her own and sniffed it carefully.

That would prove to be an interesting decision.

---

Toots took an unsure step back. "O-Oh! I mean." He adjusted his tie nervously. "I'd be, um, honored? But we're not even a thing yet. Aren't you skipping a few steps?"

Comforting put a few fingers to her chin as she went over things. "Mmm, I guess you're right. Most ponies wait until after marriage to start thinking about that." She ruffled the top of Toots' head. "Sorry. Time, as a concept, gets a bit loosey-goosey when you've seen so much of it fly past you. I'm not trying to force you."

Toots leaned in and hugged her gently. "Thank you for understanding." He lifted up on two legs to be more at eye level with Comforting as he was hugging her. "So we just wait?"

Comforting tapped at her cheek. "If you prefer. That, or we speed up. Either way." She suddenly smiled. "Right! Silly me, nothing stopping me from just asking." She dropped to a knee, still above Toots' four legged stance. "Toots, would you marry me?" She offered a velvet box towards him. "I do think we'd make quite the pair."

Toots quivered with disbelief. "Yes!" He lunged at her with a loud squeak of joy as he shoved Comforting to the ground and hugged her tightly with tears in his eyes. She coiled around him and they hugged one another with equal joy, all uncertainty banished away by that question and answer.

She soon let him go and rubbed at her eyes. "It'll take time to set up, but yes, we're going to be parents." She gave him another quick hug and kiss. "If you're okay with that?"

Toots reconsidered the question, its flavor changed with them on the way to being married. "Oh, um. I've never been a father before. Do you think I have it in me?"

Comforting smooched Toots right between the eyes. "I know you do, and you won't do it alone. You have friends, yours, and mine too. We have plenty of ponies ready to help us." She fluffed Toots' mane. "We just need one more thing, but it's a big thing."

Toots laughed at her goofy fluffing, running his hoof over his head to get it back into place as best he could. "Oh? What is it?"

"We need to buy rings." She stroked her chin thoughtfully. "Now that is an interesting prospect."

He bumped into her with a nuzzle of his own. "Do we? We could get anything for free, couldn't we?"

Comforting popped open that velvet box from earlier, revealing a dazzling ring with a comically oversized gemstone in it. "Well, yes. I could make one, but it wouldn't last very long. Easy come. Easy go." She tossed the box over her shoulder. "If we want one that'll last, we have to get it the old-fashioned way." She gripped Toots' hoof gently. "What do you say? Ready to go out on a little shopping trip?"

"Yes!" Toots galloped for the door. "Come on!" He hurried out of the house and trotted up and down the street in excitement as he waited for Comforting to catch up.

Comforting laughed as she zipped through the air after him. "You're suddenly very excited about all this." She plucked him off the ground, twirling him in the air before catching him again. "Tell me about it?"

Toots returned her affectionate nuzzling as he dangled from her grip. "I, uh. Well, I was never sure if I'd be doing this. This is all amazing, and a little overwhelming." He pulled himself in close to Comforting with a faint sniffle of tears. "Thank you for letting me be a part of it."

"Of course!" Comforting wiggled her fingers under Toots' chin with an impish grin on her face. "This sort of thing takes at least two, unless you really want to be boring about it." She set him on his own hooves. "One thing. I don't want to throw cold water on this, but there is a little thing we should be clear about." She dropped her voice for that, hushed tones for such an important topic. "It's important that we be totally honest here. You, are a pony."

"Yes." He stopped his advance at her serious tone. "And you're a chaos spirit. I know that."

"But not what it means, for this." Comforting put a hand to her chest. "You will eventually grow old, ponies do that. I won't, spirits don't do that." She played with her hands nervously. "You'll die eventually. You'll grow older and older and older." She leaned in and kissed him softly on the cheek. "That isn't something I want you to sign up for without knowing."

He sagged with those words. "So we can't just forget that and be happy together?"

Comforting pet Toots gently. "That's exactly my plan, actually. I'm going to enjoy this, and your silly pony butt, for as long as I can, but roping you into this without at least making it super duper clear feels like I'm just taking advantage of you, and that's not what nice wives do, hm?"

"Hm?" Toots fidgeted with his collar as he mulled over those thoughts. "So we both enjoy it, and I still might live for quite a while? What do I do if you're still here when I'm too old to do anything?"

"Then you get a nurse that cares about you." She pet his mane, eyes growing a bit misty with old tears returning. "I've done it before. I'll do it again. I won't go until—" She hitched up, unable to continue as the tears escaped her eyes to fall into Toots' mane. She cursed inwardly as she let out a frustrated growl and tried to shake off those feelings of melancholy.

Toots pulled Comforting into a tight hug of his own, trembling faintly at those words. "It's okay. I'll be fine." He leaned back a little. "You're not making it worse, right? I have exactly as many days as I was already gonna have. Um, so." He fidgeted in place. "It's not your fault. I can't be mad about that." He poked her chest lightly with a scowl. "So don't you dare feel bad about it."

She jerked back with a cough of surprise at that accusatory gesture. "I mean, yes, technically." She felt her smile creeping back. "Technically, I will do my best to keep my rolly-polly plus one happy and healthy." She cupped his cheeks, scratching gently through his fur. "So I may get you a few days." She tapped her forehead to his. "But let's forget that. We have today to worry about." She giggled as she bounced on her toes like a filly herself. "And today we get rings!"

Toots walked with her slowly, his mind wandering over the complexities of it all even as he continued to smile at his now fiancee. "I know the place to go. I've walked past it tons of times, but I never had a reason to go inside. Until now, that is."

"Nope!" Comforting reached for the door handle, pulled it open, and slid in past Toots, gesturing for him to join her inside the fancy jewelry store where all sorts of pretty baubles and trinkets could be seen on display. "Now, you're an earth pony, so I'm thinking—" She darted over to a collection of bands thick enough to go around a pony's entire leg. "One of these!"

Toots laughed at that selection, entirely too much jewelry for him, he'd drown in all that shiny splendor. "I'm going to need a smaller one, something closer to the hoof." He ducked his head to examine the bands more closely, going for the ones made of platinum. "This one has a nice shine to it."

"It does!" Comforting snatched it right off the wall, twirling with it as she held it up. "Lovely. But it's missing a stone. That's classic, a stone."

"Can I help you?" One of the salesmares had wandered over. She eyed the ring in Comforting's hands carefully, noting the lack of price tag on it. "If you need any assistance, just ask." She approached Toots, checking him over with a critical eye. "That's for you, I assume?"

Toots turned towards the newcomer. "Hi! Um, yeah, you see." He waved up at Comforting as she floated past. "We're going to get married, and, um."

"Congratulations." The salesmare glanced over her shoulder at Comforting and lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper to Toots. "We do wedding rings too, if you want me to bring them over." She winked and turned her eyes to the band that Comforting still held. "But that one's for you. It looks about the right size, but." She reached up for it. "If I may?"

Comforting surrendered it without a fight, watching on curiously.

The salesmare took it, just to raise one of Hoot's hooves and slide it onto his leg. "It's a few sizes too large." She let go of his leg and made a quick scribble. "But don't you worry, we can adjust it. We can adjust it after you buy it too, that's included in the price. Now, I think I heard something about a gem?" She clapped her hooves together happily as she started walking deeper into the shop. "We have some amazing options, but here's a few that work well with the style you're looking for." She gestured to a case filled with various gems of different shapes and sizes.

Toots wandered towards the case with seemingly countless glittering gems in it. "I, hum. They're all pretty."

Comforting swooped in to press her cheek to his. "But we need to find the one that reflects you." She jumped as her right hand was touched. It was the salesmare. "Hm?"

"You need one too, don't you?" She brought out another velvet box and placed it in Comforting's free hand. "Like this one? We have plenty more, of course."

Comforting took the box, lifting the lid to reveal an exquisitely crafted ring with a cut and polished green gemstone in it that twinkled in the light like stars at night. "It's gorgeous!" She slid it on and raised her finger to see it sparkle all over again. "I need it."

"We have similar ones with other stones too, like this blue one or this red one." The salesmare flipped open two more boxes for Comforting to look at, each with a unique jewel of a different color.

Comforting waved it away. "If I second-guess myself, I'll be here all day. This one is fantastic, end of the story."

Toots laughed as he turned towards Comforting. "I envy that. No second-guessing, okay. No more." He turned back to the case and leaned over, sweeping until his eyes tripped over a lustrous purple gem. "That one." He pointed towards it with conviction.

"Great choice!" The salesmare pointed the gem out to Comforting who was now dancing around with her new ring with a delighted grin on her face. "Ma'am?"

Comforting blinked and turned in air. "Oh!" She swooped in for a look at it. "Love it, but I don't think we should have one big one."

"No?" Toots inclined his head. "What do you have in mind?"

"Little ones." She darted over to another case and tapped the glass repeatedly, pointing out the way certain jewels were studded through various items like the handles on knives or the bows on dresses. "Going all around."

The salesmare nodded gently. "We can do that. Smaller stones, but more of them." She leaned for a peek at what Toots had selected. "Let me check if we have that in stock in the right size."

Comforting snapped her fingers and pulled out another band in the same style that fit Toots perfectly. "You like?" She ran a finger along his spine as he slipped the band off and onto his hoof properly. "What do you think?"

Toots gazed down at the ring on his hoof with a strange feeling settling over him. "It's enchanting." It was the style he had picked, and the gems he had picked, but the number and size that Comforting had chosen. "It's a little of each of us. Oh! Oh. Let me see yours." He lowered his legs and looked up at her with a bright smile. "I'm sure it's great, but lemme see!"

Comforting slowly stuck out her hand to let Toots see it up close and personal, grinning from ear to ear as she did so. "I love it! We're going to be officially engaged! We're going to be whole family together!"

"Congrats." The salesmare held a receipt up for Comforting to take and fly away with as she prepared their purchases.

Comforting fanned the paper in front of her face dramatically as she left the shop. "Freedom! We're engaged!" She immediately punched the air in celebration with a little happy jig.

Toots laughed at her playful display as he kept up with her energetic stride through the streets. "To the park? You said something about having friends in there?"

Comforting perked. "Great idea, and we get to share the news with every creature that looks interested." She grabbed a hoof of his and they sped away, both looking cheerful about the future.

Author's Note:

They're so cute! They sway from heavy to light topics, and seem to be ready to be together, hm?

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Comments

[Amethyst Dragonfly]

That would prove to be an interesting decision.

Should we be worried? I feel like we should be worried.

Comforting and Toots are engaged! Yea!

[Twinkie Sprinkle]

I kind of wonder if Sunny just sniffed some poison joke.

Interesting that Aloe shares a name with one of the olden spa ponies.

Perhaps it would be good for Comforting to chat with Together before too long, given that the burden of immortality is still difficult for Comforting at times.

But it is also exciting that Comforting and Toots are engaged, and thusly preparing for marriage and a foal.