Limestone stirred from her sleep right as the sun began to rise. About a year ago, she would have silently cursed herself for getting up this late. Now, it didn’t bother her so much. Of course, that was primarily because of the person who was spooning her at the moment.
“Looks like someone’s finally awake,” she heard Chris say.
“Yeah,” she responded, turning to face him. “Have you been awake long?”
“Nah, I woke up a few minutes before you did.”
“So, you decided to watch me sleep?”
“Well, it was either that or wake your grumpy butt up. The latter of which is something I don’t exactly have fond memories of.”
“…Give me a good reason why I shouldn’t hit you right now.”
Chris gave her a smirk before planting a kiss on her forehead. “Does that work?” he asked.
“Hmm…nope,” she responded, making an exaggerated swing at Chris’s head.
Chris caught her hoof easily before leaning in. “In that case, then I know what will,” he said before gently placing his lips on hers.
She quickly melted into the kiss, her hoof sliding out of Chris’s hand so that it could wrap around his shoulder. The kiss deepened slightly before the two of them separated. “Yeah, that would do it,” she said, going in for another kiss.
They continued like this for a few minutes before separating again. “So, what do we have going on today?” Chris asked.
“We’re gathering materials from the mines today, so nothing too hard today,” Limestone replied, rolling away to stretch herself out.
“Alright,” Chris said as he got out of bed. As he put a t-shirt on, he turned to Limestone and said, “Well, it’s my turn to make breakfast. What do you want?”
“French toast,” she answered immediately.
Chris let out a chuckle. “Are you ever going to ask me to make anything else?”
“Nope.”
“Guess I should stop asking what you want then,” he teased, getting a growl in return. He raised his hands up in surrender as he walked out of the room saying, “Don’t worry. You want French toast. I’ll make you French toast.”
Limestone started to roll out of the bed as well, looking at the only photograph that stood on her night stand along the way. It was a picture of her and Chris sitting at a table in Surgarcube Corner, her head resting on his shoulder and his head resting on hers. It was a picture that Pinkie Pie practically forced them to take when she learned they were an item. In the end, she was glad that she did.
A sudden knock at the door caught her attention. “Come in,” she said. The door opened as Marble Pie came in. “Hey, Marble, did ya sleep well?”
“Mhmm,” Marble nodded before looking around the room. “Where’s Chris?”
“He gone downstairs already. He’s making breakfast.”
“Oh, okay,” Marble replied as she closed the door behind her. “So, when are you going to ask him?”
“Ask him what?” Limestone asked with a raised brow.
“Limestone, come on,” she replied, sauntering over to the night stand. She opened it and said, “Are you going to tell me that you bought this for no reason?” She then pulled a small, black box from the drawer.
Limestone’s eyes widened as she yelled, “How’d you find out about that?!”
“Limestone, please, you were parading this high up in the air as you were walking in the house. You’re lucky that Chris was working down in the mine that day,” Marble teased.
Limestone blushed in embarrassment. “Yeah, well, so what?! You’d be happy too if you had to go through that much effort to get something.”
“Yeah, but I’d be a lot more subtle about something like this.”
Limestone let out a groan as she looked down at the box. She always knew that getting a ring was going to be difficult since the day she asked how humans usually proposed, which Marble evidently overheard. It took her months just to find a jeweler who could make a custom ring. Once that was done, it was just a matter of convincing him that she needed the ring to be smaller than a normal horn ring and pay for it.
“So,” Marble piped up, passing the box over to Limestone. “When are you going to ask him?”
Limestone just stared at the box for a few seconds. She knew that that Marble was also silently asking why she hadn’t asked him yet. It certainly wasn’t because the didn’t think about it. She thought about asking him to marry her every other day. But whenever she did, crippling anxiety would hit her with a vengeance. How could it not, Chris was her first boyfriend. The first stallion she spent the night with. The first stallion that made her even think about marriage. Besides, she never thought it was a good time to ask. But, now that Marble’s getting her to think about it differently just by asking her one question, it’s gotten her to realize two things. One, she’s been really silly about the whole situation. And two, that she’s been putting it off. A lot.
With a frown, she looked her sister in the eye and said, “Today, I’ll try asking him today.”
“Alright, then you might want this on you,” Marble said with a smile, passing the box to Limestone.
“Hey, everyone!” They heard Chris yell out. “First piece of French toast is going on the pan!”
“Mine!” Limestone yelled before quickly hiding the box and running downstairs, much to Marble’s amusement.
Later on in the day, Limestone and Chris went down into the mine and started gathering limestone. There was a good amount of limestone they needed to collect, but not so much that she needed Chris’s help. The original plan was to have him go deeper to collect some other materials they needed, but having him work with her allowed her to have a more isolated spot for her to propose to him. She just needed to keep her nerves from getting the better of her.
Come on, Limestone, you can do this. She thought as she chipped away at the limestone, her eyes occasionally glancing at the saddle bags she brought with her. You went through the trouble of actually bringing the damn thing with you. Don’t start getting cold hooves now.
“Hey, Limestone!” she heard Chris call out as he dumped more rocks into the minecart. “How much limestone do we need again?”
“We need a couple of blocks to fill out the order, but we might as well fill the cart while we’re down here,” she replied, turning back to face him. “Who knows when we’ll need ‘em again.”
Chris let out a chuckle as he said, “Y’know, that’s something I love about you, babe. You occasionally think ahead of time.”
“Oh, only occasionally?” she asked almost threateningly
“…If I list the other things I love about you, do you promise not to make me sleep in the mine tonight.”
“…I’m listening.”
“Well… I love how assertive you are. I love how you don’t take crap from anyone. And you’ve got a good heart deep down…y’know, once you dig down deep enough.”
While she was giving him a deadpanned stare, she was actually having a hard time not cracking a smile as a small blush formed on her cheeks. “Alright, you’re forgiven, hun. Now, let’s get back to work.
“Awe, but I was about to finish it up by saying that I love that thing you do with your hooves where you-”
“I said get back to work!” Limestone yelled, her face a bright red.
“Heh, and you’re cute when you’re embarrassed,” he concluded as he walked off to continue mining.
She groaned at him before turning around, peering down at her saddlebags. That damn jerk, trying to embarrass me like that. A small smile formed as she began to reach into the saddle bags. And he knows how, because he knows that much about me. Because he stuck around me, through thick and thin. She pulled the box out of the box and just stared at it. Damn, how am I supposed the propose to him after that? I know he said I was assertive, but I can’t just go up to him now and ask…can I? …Maybe I should just wait awhile longer…or… she trailed off as her eyes traveled down to a cracked hole in the wall. It was just large enough to hide the box in.
It’s perfect! I can hide it in there and tell Chris that I found something strange in there. Then, I can propose to him when he pulls it out. He’ll be too surprised for it to be weird. It’s foolproof.
“Hey, Limestone!” she heard Chris call out again.
“What is it?” she called back as she inspected the hole to see how far she should push the box in.
“Why did we need the limestone again? I never got around to reading the order.”
“Apparently, some rich pony wanted to give his daughter a chess set carved out of limestone for her birthday. Ma and pa are currently working on the board right now.”
“…So, he couldn’t just get one from his local toy store?”
“That’s what I said! But, he’s paying us a lot of bits for the set, so we shouldn’t complain too much about it,” she replied, placing the box a few inches away from the hole.
“Hey, uh, Limestone?” she heard Chris again, though not as loud as before.
“What is it now?”
“I know that you love your job and all, but don’t you think that marrying it is a bit much.”
Limestone’s eyes widened slowly, her face heating up as she processed what she just heard. She quickly turned around to find Chris leaning against the minecart with a smirk on his face. “C-Chris!” Limestone stuttered in surprise. “I-uh-you see…I…It’s not what it looks like. I-”
“Calm down, Limestone. I know what you’re trying to do,” he said as he began to walk up to her. “To be honest, I didn’t think it would take you this long to make the move.”
“Y-you do, and…wait, this long? …You knew that I wanted to propose you!? When!?”
“Since the day I saw you bring the ring home. I was actually on my way back from the mine when I saw you carrying it,” he admitted as he stood a couple of feet away from her.
“Then…why didn’t you say anything?”
“Cause I knew that the only reason you’d ever ask me was when you were ready and I didn’t want you to rush into something that you didn’t feel you were ready for,” he explained. After pausing for a few moments, he went down on knee and said, “Besides, it gave me some time to think about whether or not I was ready for that next step too.”
Limestone was pleasantly surprised by his answer. She was a bit miffed at first when he admitted that he knew about the ring, but now that he admitted that he spent the time to think about what she wanted to ask him, it made feel more hopeful. “Does that mean you’ll…” she trailed off.
He smirked before replying, “Why don’t you ask and find out.”
She gave him a smirk of her own before she began to make a couple of confident steps toward him. She then sat on her haunches to present the box to him. “Christopher Ayers,” she opens the box to reveal a gold ring with a small diamond embedded on the top. “Marry me.”
Chris let out a chuckle. “You know I will,” he answered as he took the ring out of the box. Limestone watched with bated breath as he put the ring on his finger, only to be met with disappointment when it couldn’t go on. “Damn, it’s too small,” she groaned.
“Hey, don’t worry about it. I’d be surprised if it actually did fit,” he replied light heartedly before putting the ring in his pocket. “I’ll get a chain for it later. At the very least, we can make sure that the wedding ring fits, right?”
“Heh, yeah,” she confirmed before pushing herself up to wrap her forelegs around his neck. “Guess we’ve got some work to do, huh?”
“That’s one way of putting it,” he replied. He then pulled her in for a passionate kiss, which she happily returned. Once the kiss ended, they continued to hug each other and rest their heads on each other’s shoulder. With him by my side, I feel like I’m ready for anything. Limestone thought happily.
“I’m so not ready for this,” Limestone said nervously as she looked at herself in the mirror in her room. Even on her wedding day, the image of her wearing a dress looked alien to her.
“Thou haft nothing to fear, Limestone,” Cloudy Quartz said, making small adjustments to Limestone’s dress. “Believe me when I tell thee that this is the easy part. Especially after everything we’ve all been through the past couple of months.”
“I know, but I can’t help but think that he’ll stand me up from time to time,” she replied.
“Ah, come on, you worrywart,” Pinkie Pie jovially teased. “He put just as much work into this wedding as you did, if not more. He’d have to be crazy and stupid to stand you up now. Besides, you’d be the last of his problems if he did.”
“Heh, you got a point there, sis,” Limestone chuckled, looking back at the mirror.
Cloudy Quartz began to place the wedding veil on Limestone’s head. “Thou shouldn’t worry about such things. Thou have found thyself a wonderful stallion,” she said while making sure the veil was secure. “Though to be honest, I didn’t know what to make of him when thou brought him into our homestead. But, once I saw how much of a hard worker he was and how happy he made thou, I came to accept him as a part of our family. Even before thou asked for his hoof in marriage.” She then draped the veil over Limestone’s face and gave her a once over. “Thou look beautiful, Limestone.”
“Thanks, mom.”
There was a sudden knock at the door. It opened as Maud Pie took a step in. “Everypony’s ready,” she announced plainly.
“Thanks, Maud!” Pinkie exclaimed. She turned to Limestone before asking, “Are you ready?”
She gave her a small nod. “Yeah, I’m ready.”
“Well, then come on! You’ve got a stallion waiting!” Pinkie cheered before hopping out of the room, with the rest of the family in tow.
Downstairs, Igneous Rock was waiting for them by the front door. Cloudy Quartz, Pinkie Pie, and Maud Pie all went outside, while Limestone walked up to her father. “Art thou ready, Limestone?” he asked, holding his foreleg out to her.
“Mhmm,” she nodded before wrapping her hoof around her father’s. He then led her outside, where several other ponies were gathered. Among them was Chris, dressed in a tuxedo, standing beside Holder’s Boulder.
It was Limestone’s idea to have a small wedding on the rock farm among family and friends, which Chris happily agreed to. As such, the only ponies there, besides her family, were the Apple family and the small number of friends Chris made in Ponyville. Holder’s Boulder served as the stage where Marble Pie, her maid of honor, and Spike, Chris’s best “man,” stood along with Chris. Standing at the center of the stage was Princess Twilight Sparkle, serving as the officiant. According to Chris, she was more than happy to officiate the wedding at no cost to the family. In Limestone’s opinion, it was probably the easiest thing to decide.
When Limestone and Igneous Rock made it to Holder’s Boulder, he planted a kiss on his daughter’s cheek before taking a seat next to his wife. Limestone then turned to face Chris. Through the veil, she could see him smile as he silently told her that she looks beautiful.
It was then that Twilight Sparkle cleared her throat and flared her wing out as she announced, “Fillies and gentlecolts, we are gathered here today to witness a very special union. A union between two po-… beings who ran into each other by chance. That chance meeting turned into a friendship. And finally, that friendship turned into love. A love that the two wish to share with each other for the rest of their lives.”
She then turned to Limestone as she asked, “Limestone Pie. Do you take this man as your lawfully wedded husband? To have and to hold. In sickness and in health. So long as you both shall live.”
“I do,” she replied.
She turned to Chris and asked, “Christopher Ayers. Do you take this mare as you lawfully wedded wife? To have and to hold. In sickness and in health. So long as you both shall live.”
“I do,” he replied.
She gave them both of them a nod before levitating the pillow holding the rings between them. A small ring sat closer to Limestone while a larger ring was closer to Chris. “You may now exchange rings. As a symbol of your union.”
Chris picked up the larger ring first and presented it to Limestone. She raised her right hoof up to allow him to slide the wedding band on. Then, she picked up the other wedding ring and slid it on his right ring finger. “It fits,” he joked silently , to which she rolled her eyes.
As Chris began to hold Limestone’s hooves, Twilight flared her wings again. “By the powers vested in me, I pronounce you husband and wife,” she happily announces. “You may kiss the bride.”
Chris lifts the veil away from Limestone’s face and begins to lean down to kiss her. Limestone, however, sprung up and wrapped her hooves around his neck to kiss him passionately, which he gladly returned.
As everyone began to cheer, the newlywed couple separated and stared lovingly at each other. “So, was this everything you were hoping for?” Chris whispered.
“Everything and more,” Limestone whispered back. “Now, you mind walking me to the house. We’ve got a reception to start.”
“Sure thing, babe,” he replied before he began to escort her through the aisle.
“I can’t believe you sometimes,” Limestone huffed out, plopping down on the train seat.
“Hey, smashing a piece of cake in the bride’s face is tradition,” Chris jovially argued as he sat down in the seat next to her. “Besides, you got me back really good.”
“You know it,” she said proudly as she snuggled up against Chris. As Chris began to wrap an arm around her, she says, “Still, it was a good little party.”
“Yeah, still can’t believe Maud caught the bouquet.”
“What’s so weird about it? There weren’t that many mares trying to catch it.”
“Limestone, that bouquet bounced more than a bouncy ball and Maud was just standing still… in the corner of the room. Seriously, how did you pull that off?”
“Eh, it’s all in the wrist,” she replied with a shrug of her shoulders. “Just don’t think about it too much and just enjoy the honeymoon… Mr. Pie,” she teased.
“Heh, yeah you’re right. I do have a wife that’ll work me to the bone when I get back… and I wouldn’t trade her for the world,” he said before giving her a kiss on the forehead.
“Well, that wife does have a pretty great husband,” she said before kissing him back as the train began to leave the station.