//------------------------------// // Act III: The Appeal of the Country // Story: The Literary Appeal // by HiddenBrony //------------------------------// “Wait, so, Twilight isn’t a lesbian?” Cheerilee’s head snapped up, staring down hard at Rarity. Shrugging, Rarity shook her head with added luster to drive the point home. “How does that even- Ouch!” Recoiling from Rarity’s hooves, the dressmaker huffed as she pulled at the strings of Cheerilee’s new gown. “How does that work?” Huffing, Rarity rolled her eyes. “Twilight isn’t like most ponies, Cheerilee. Really, I’m surprised you two haven’t ever talked– No,” Rarity stopped herself, closing her eyes tight. “No, of course you haven’t.” Circling Cheerilee, Rarity surveyed her ex with vigor, looking over every last part of the dress. It was, of course, perfect. “Twilight’s more of a… bibliosexual? Goodness, look at me saying such risque words. I mean, I’m sure she prefers mares like you or me…” she trailed, putting her hoof to her chin. “Sometimes me, but honestly I can’t seem to think of any crush between now and when I first met her that didn’t have to do with books or smarts.” Cheerilee kicked around the idea in her head. Somehow news of her marefriend’s actual preferences both surprised her and seemed obvious in retrospect. “And you’re sure about that?” Rarity opened her mouth but stopped short. Tapping her chin a bit more thoroughly, she nodded. “I can’t say with one hundred percent certainty, of course, without getting it straight from the pony’s mouth, but I’m rarely wrong about these kinds of things.” Of that, Cheerilee felt she could be sure. Looking to her side and towards the mirror on the other side of the room, she felt her breath get caught in her throat. “Oh my,” she gasped, her eyes trailing her dress up and down. It looked amazing before, but on her? The dress seemed to treat her natural coat color as just an extension of the twilight sky, and with the constellations playing at the edges of her feet, she felt a hot rush of emotion play with her eyes. “Did you–” “I had no idea about you two until very recently, Cheerilee. The fact I made this dress for you without even–,” she stopped herself, smiling. “Well, I guess it’s one of those things that’s just meant to be. Oh, how romantic!” Rarity swooned, falling gently on to the chaise lounge in the corner of her room. “And to think, I get to be in the middle of it!”  Cheerilee’s hoof traced against the fabric, her eyes never leaving the mirror. “I could get married in this,” she said under her breath. Surely, if Rarity could have heard her, she’d have simultaneously exploded with glee and righteous fury. There would be no way Cheerilee would get married in anything less than her best work. Emphasis on the her. As in Rarity. Because any pony who would dare take that from her would then be mysteriously missing by sundown. Mrs. Cake knew better when her mother tried to pass down her dress for her wedding and suddenly found the dress returned to its most primal state in the bushes by Sugar Cube Corner in the morning. Rarity would neither confirm nor deny any involvement. Interestingly, Mrs. Cake’s mother turns an alabaster shade of white whenever somepony brings it up. Back on her hooves, Rarity brought Cheerilee back around front and towards the counter. “Now Cheerilee, I should think you’d understand that this dress is free of charge, as a way of apology from moi.” There was a certain finality in the way she said /mwä/ that Cheerilee knew she had no way of convincing her otherwise. In fact, she had no idea what Rarity was trying to apologize for, but any attempt at opening her mouth was filled with Rarity’s sing-song voice cutting her off here and there. Truly, there was no edge-wise for her words to go. “Now, the dress’s lining is enchanted, of course, so don’t worry about the fabric getting dirty by brushing against the ground on your way to Sugar Cube Corner. It’s meant to glide across the ground.” Cheerilee looked down and raised a hoof, raising the dress with it. “How does…?” “Magic, darling.” Rarity giggled to herself, but then her horn sparked a brilliant blue, not unlike the color of her cutie mark. “It’s a spell I cast on almost all my dresses,” she coughed, leaving time for Cheerilee to wonder why almost wasn’t all. “One of the very first I learned and the only spell I’ve learned under protest.” At that, Rarity was covered in a slight aura and weightlessly was pulled from one side of the counter to the other by what looked to be by her horn. “When I got my cutie mark, my horn dragged me across Equestria itself to take me to the most beautiful jewels I’d ever seen.”  Cheerilee’s eyes sparked with recognition. “The school play!” Cheerilee remembered the costumes, shining brilliantly as all the little ponies sang. She sniffed loudly, recalling it being the last year she was in Ponyville before moving to Canterlot. “Thank you, Rarity. This means…. So much.” “Pish posh, Cheerilee. It’s about time you’ve received a proper dress from me.” Hugging her close, Rarity gave one little extra squeeze around her shoulders as she let go. “I think you two are going to go far, Cheerilee. I really do.” Cheerilee grinned. “I hope so. Twilight is just… something special.”     ----- “So you’re Cheerilee’s new belle.” Fleur looked the unicorn up and down. Very… purple. “I expected something a little more special.” “Excuse me?” Applejack stepped forward, a scowl plastered on her face. “Y’wanna walk that back a little, stranger?” Twilight put her hoof on Applejack’s haunch, moving to put herself between the Earth pony and the leggy unicorn. “That’s okay Applejack, I’m not exactly a…” she trailed off, mirroring Fleur’s gaze with her own. “A model. You know Cheerilee?” Twilight’s tone didn’t suggest that this was a question, but it was a damn sight more pleasant than whatever had dripped out of the Canterlot Elite’s mouth. “Mm, of course,” Fleur said. “We met briefly at the Garden Party. You were the one wearing that… mn, rustic dress. I can see now what Fancy Pants meant by that.” She smiled. Twilight withered a little. “He’s a very kind pony.” Applejack grunted. “How’d you come to know Twilight here was Cheerilee’s marefriend?” she asked, repositioning herself so Twilight’s hoof was off her.  Fleur’s face stretched in a way that looked like she was choking on something. Kind of like the face you’d make when you were really bad at eating sandwiches when people said risque things and you had delicate Canterlot sensibilities. “News… travels fast of Equestria’s heroes and their significant others,” she said, turning her attention to Applejack. “She may not be a model but she’s got such a unique mark. Hard not to place it among that found on some of Canterlot Castle’s newest stained glass panes.” Twilight’s eye twitched. It was a well-practiced way of not answering a question enough to feign ignorance, but enough of one to avoid being rude. Yet, Twilight perked up, her ears following her demeanor. “You’ve been to the Stained Glass halls at Canterlot?” she asked.  “Yes,” Fleur beamed. “Of course, an elite like I have been invited to many events at the castle. Why, not a week ago I strolled the halls with Princess Celestia herself with my companion.” Fleur had taken to posing against a nearby lantern, regaling all those who would look and listen to her. Her dress, still draped on her loosely, was like a sash around her body. Twilight definitely wasn’t wishing that it would fall and dirty itself on the ground. Applejack was, though. “It’s because of that meeting that I’ve made my way out here to Ponyville.” “Now is that why?” Applejack asked, although her tone didn’t match it. “Princess Celestia asked you to come all the way out here?” Fleur placed a hoof near her mouth in contemplation. Twilight and Applejack traded glances. Yeah, they knew exactly what it is they wanted to say. Something along the lines of fleur not hurting herself by using her brain so much. Something mean. Unfriendly, really. Probably why they didn’t say it. Yep. Such nice ponies. “I wouldn’t go that far. But I know how my beau gets when he’s off on his little excursions.” Releasing herself from the lantern and back on to all four hooves, Fleur approached the two. “The right word here and there and he’s off investing all our hard-earned bits in some latest thing. He does need me to save him from himself, sometimes.” Twilight’s eyebrow furrowed. That sounded like somepony familiar. However, before she had anything else to say, Fleur motioned toward the library. “So, Twilight Sparkle. I was hoping to use the library here to help myself to something to read and perhaps change into my stunning new dress? Do you mind…?” Looking back and forward, Twilight’s heart started to sink. Applejack frowned. “I mean, I-i-I guess not.” Twilight fancied herself a librarian, sure, but to be honest, she was never actually made the local librarian for the Golden Oaks. She wasn’t sure how she managed to make that her home and provide service to the community. “Do you need me to…?” Fleur laughed lightly, dismissing the question, “Oh, of course not! You can run off with your little friend here, I won’t disturb your plans!” Applejack’s frown had turned into a grimace by now. Granny Smith would have likely said it’d be stuck that way. In Applejack’s current mood, she might have snapped back with something like, ‘What, like yours?’ But that would be mean. These are nice ponies. Very nice. And knew when to bite their tongue. Hard, sometimes. “I suppose we’ll be off then, huh Twilight?” “What? Oh, well, yeah. Yes. I guess so.” Twilight looked back at the library one last time, then back to Fleur. She didn’t take her for a reader. With a glow of her horn, Twilight opened the front door for Fleur and smiled. “Don’t let us keep you. There’s a party at Sugar Cube Corner, if you’re interested.” Twilight had considered not telling her, but the more they spoke, the more she came to realize that the likelihood of Pinkie Pie holding a welcoming party for the pony in front of her was likely. “Ah, yes,” Fleur said, looking towards the direction of whence she came. “I suppose anypony who is anypony in this podunk little village would be there, wouldn’t you say?” Applejack huffed through her nose. “Podunk! Why I—” “Yes!” Twilight cut her off, smiling disarmingly. “We have a lot of important ponies come through here. You never know who might show up.” “Mm.” Fleur had already started walking away, which only managed to anger Applejack further. But, with some soft reassurances from Twilight, the pair started to make their way back to Sweet Apple Acres. “Horseapples! I can’t see why anypony would want to be around other ponies like that,” Applejack spat. “I had hard near enough of that with the Oranges in Manehatten, but those Canterlot ponies are just cut differently.”  Twilight smiled, craning her neck and gently rubbing Applejack’s side. “You know, I’m a Canterlot pony, right?” Applejack scoffed, blowing air hard out her nose. “‘Course I knew that, Twi.” She eyed her friend up and down, her face softening. “‘Course, I also don’t have to be your friend to know that. Y’all do grow a bit different out there. Knew from the moment I saw ya.” Twilight’s turn from friendly closeness to a soft jab against Applejack’s shoulder was sudden and swift. With a loud guffaw, Applejack trotted ahead to put some distance from her and her unicorn friend. “Take a joke just like the rest o’ those city ponies, too!” “Get back here AJ!” Twilight called, breaking into a run. “Say that to my face, you country bumpkin!” “City Slicker!”