//------------------------------// // A Proposal // Story: Antecedent // by Anonymous Pegasus //------------------------------// Raindrop stared down at the piece of paper in front of her, blinking slowly. It was titled: The living Will of the soon-to-be-dead Queen Chrysalis Underneath that, were a set of very concise instructions and information on who was to get what. It was her grandmother’s will. Sentinel looked over her shoulder, tilting his head to the side. The envelope had been delivered a few moments previously by one of Luna’s Dark Guards with the message that the Will had been found amongst the papers that Chrysalis had written before her death. “Huh... she actually had time to write a will?” Sentinel asked, blinking once. Raindrop nodded dumbly, feeling slightly numb. “Are you okay?” Sentinel asked, frowning and nudging her with his nose. Raindrop nodded hesitantly. “I just... it’s so surreal... she was alive. She saved us. She saved us from the changelings, reformed Chitin, and now... she’s just some words on a piece of paper.” Sentinel nodded quietly. “When a fellow guard is killed in the line of duty, we drink to their name, and their memory... but most of all, we look at the pony that passed. We meditate upon a single lesson that they have taught us, and we vow to better ourselves based upon that lesson, so that a small part of them lives on through our actions.” Raindrop looked up at him, her ears splaying. “That’s... actually very sweet.” “It is a fitting way to remember the fallen,” Sentinel said, placing a hoof over his heart. “You probably just think she was a bug,” Raindrop said, staring down at the Will, her head dropping. Sentinel frowned at that. “I can’t... I can’t like her. I can’t. She was... she’s the reason I lost my parents, however indirectly... But I can respect her. I can respect who she was and what she did.” Raindrop nodded gently. “And now she’s gone.” “And now she’s gone,” Sentinel repeated, placing a hoof on Raindrop’s shoulder. “It’s how you choose to remember her that matters.” “She left me the cottage,” Raindrop said suddenly. “You mean... that cottage that is currently turned to marble where your still-alive grandmother spent several decades lying next to her deceased soul mate?” Sentinel rattled off. Raindrop nodded. “Creepy.” Sentinel hummed, rubbing a hoof against his chin. “It’d make a nice change for you though, not living out of inns.” Raindrop frowned at Sentinel, her brow furrowing. “Sentinel. We’ve been together long enough that you can talk about ‘us’ without weirding me out.” Sentinel’s ears splayed back, and he lowered his head a little bit, chagrined. “Well, when you put it that way... I’ve never really... thought of living anywhere with somepony.” Raindrop stared at him. “Not even when you have a serious relationship with an abusive mare?” “I thought it’d be more a case of you living in inn’s all the time and leaving me locked up in one of those giant portable circus cages.” A thoughtful hum left Raindrop. “Interesting. I’ll have to ask around.” Sentinel flailed a hoof at her. “I was joking!” Raindrop giggled, leaning sideways to kiss his cheek. “I know. But still...” “Anyhow. Cottage!” Sentinel said, changing the subject. “Do you want to live in the cottage?” Raindrop shook her head. “Not permanently. Hell, I don’t want to live there temporarily. I want to move back to Cloudsdale. I had a nice house there... before Shine. But I sold it so we could move in together, and ugh, I don’t want anything to do with the house he and I shared.” Sentinel nodded once, looking sideways at her, his expression turning sheepish. “I... ah...” Raindrop raised a brow at him. “Spit it out.” Splaying his ears back, Sentinel lowered his head again. “I... well. I don’t smoke, I don’t really drink a lot. I don’t have a home. I work for the Royal Guard and don’t really have any hobbies... Nothing to really spend that much money on.” Raindrop tilted her head. “Trying to woo me?” Sentinel snorted once, nudging her with a hoof. “I’m rich.” Tilting her head to the other side, Raindrop snorted once. “Rich.” “Rich. Not wealthy, but rich,” Sentinel stated. Raindrop frowned. “There’s a difference?” “Wealthy ponies sign rich pony’s paychecks,” Sentinel said with a wry grin. “So... you’re telling me this... why?” Raindrop asked, mildly bewildered. “Well... I’m... vaguely rich. Not excessively. I’m the kind of rich you can lose with a wild weekend in Las Pegasus, but still. I have money... and you want a house in Cloudsdale...” Sentinel trailed off. Raindrop blinked slowly. “You’re... offering to buy a house with me?” “No, actually,” Sentinel said, rubbing a hoof against his neck self-consciously. “Then what?” Raindrop asked, confused. Sentinel pursed his lips. “I have enough money to have a house built. Just for you and I.” Raindrop stared, her ears pinning back. “Quite a step up from moving in together, I know,” Sentinel said, his tone a little bit strained. He shifted nervously, and then looked away. “You know what? Just forget I said anything, it’s a stupid idea.” Raindrop threw her hooves around him, pulling him into a hug and kissing his nose gently, smiling at him. “I’m sorry Sentinel... it’s just a lot to take in. And with everything going on recently...” Sentinel smiled, giving a relieved sigh and leaning forwards to kiss her gently. “You can think on it, if you’d like.” Nodding once, Raindrop leaned against him, laying her cheek on his chest. “I just... I’ve been having some pretty dark relationship thoughts recently.” “Dark?” Sentinel asked, raising a brow. “Just... pondering on the inevitability of it all. Life in general,” Raindrop said with a strained smile. “Best case scenario, when you meet someone new, is that you’re going to marry them and then one of you dies.” “That’s pretty defeatist,” Sentinel said, frowning. “But truthful,” Raindrop replied, giving a sad smile. “Every time you date somepony... you’re either going to live with them happily ever after or break up with them in varying degrees of pain.” “I don’t ever want to break up with you,” Sentinel stated immediately. Raindrop blinked up at him, an ear perking. “I get the feeling it would involve sharp objects and tender parts of my anatomy getting rather more acquainted than I’m comfortable with,” Sentinel said with a sage nod. Raindrop giggled softly, before sobering, staring up at him. “I don’t want to break up with you, either...” Sentinel smiled, leaning in to kiss her cheek, looking thoughtful. “Did we just decide to spend the rest of our lives together?” A short nod was his answer. “Pretty much.” Sentinel went quiet for a few moments, frowning slightly. “Something wrong?” Raindrop asked. “Oh... nothing. Just a stupid little thing.” Raindrop perked an ear. “Well spit it out.” “I just... that was such a perfect opening for a marriage proposal, and I’ll never see one like that ever again,” Sentinel said with a deep sigh. Raindrop splayed her ears back, her cheeks flushing. “A-are you proposing to me, Sentinel?” Sentinel blinked rapidly. “What? No!” Raindrop gave him a stern look at how quick he denied it. “W-what I mean to say is that I wouldn’t be adverse to the idea i-in the proper time. I-I mean, I’d love to get married t-to somepony someday, somepony like you! N-not specifically y-you exactly but somepony really like you and oh sweet Celestia I’m making a fool of myself and please-don’t-hit-me,” Sentinal said, fumbling over the words and cowering, covering his face with a hoof. Raindrop gently pulled his hoof away from his face, a look on her face like somepony watching a kitten playing with a ball of yarn. “You are so cute when you’re flustered!” Sentinel huffed. “And anyhow, ‘somepony else’? You already said you don’t want to break up with me, ever,” Raindrop pointed out. Sentinel’s ears pinned back, and he looked away, not answering. “And you said that you’d like to get married, someday. So you must be talking about me,” Raindrop added calmly. Sentinel splayed his ears backwards. “Okay, okay... I slipped up. Just call me a mare and make fun of me so we can move on.” Raindrop stared at her coltfriend for a long moment, her head tilting to one side, eyes narrowing. “Why don’t you just come out and ask me?” Sentinel spluttered. “W-we’ve barely known eachother all that long! Our foreplay consists of violence, we were under attack by changelings and still have like, fifty of them to go find, you’re still a changeling underneath all that sexy bootay and I just... I don’t want to feel like a complete idiot when you turn me down.” “You’re afraid of rejection?” Raindrop asked with a soft smile. Sentinel nodded mutely. Raindrop was quiet for several moments, before she whispered softly, “I’d say ‘yes’...” Sentinel rolled his eyes. “Obvio-Wait, what?!” The pegasus spluttered, his eyes wide, looking stunned. “I’d say ‘yes’,” Raindrop repeated, louder this time. “I... I...” Sentinel froze, his ears pinning back, and he whined faintly, bouncing in place. “This is so unfair!” “How is it unfair?” Raindrop asked, now sounding bewildered. “I don’t have a ring or anything!” Sentinel exclaimed, waving a hoof wildly. “Two perfect proposal points, for me to get down on my stomach and ask, and I don’t have a bucking ring!” Raindrop giggled softly at that, shaking her head and then stepping close to the guard, kissing his cheek softly. “Just... say that you’ll marry me.” Sentinel pressed back against her, kissing her with a firm eagerness. “I’ll marry you, Raindrop. I’ll marry you so hard that they’ll need to write a new form of magic to divorce us.” Raindrop smiled, kissing him in response, her eyes sparkling and misty. “Til death do us part.” “Til death do us part,” Sentinel repeated, nodding in affirmation and then silencing himself by kissing his fiance eagerly. Raindrop pulled back from the kiss, peering up at him. “I expected a little more resistance, really.” “What can I say? You broke my spirit,” Sentinel said with a wry smile. Raindrop hummed happily, worming a wing against his side and interlocking the feathers of her wing with his own, squeezing them tightly. “I love you, Sentinel.” “I love you too, Raindrop,” Sentinel responded with a giddy smile. “I can’t wait for the wedding day,” Raindrop said with a dreamy sigh. Sentinel nodded once, and then raised a brow. “Imagining it already, huh?” Raindrop nodded, squeezing his feathers with her own. “Just picture it, us on a hill... overlooking the sea. Or a cloud! A cloud sprinkled with rose petals! Walking down the cloud-aisle, organ music playing... a soft, cool breeze kissing against our bodies as we walk side-by-side to the officiator... just me and you...” Sentinel gave a wry grin. “And not to mention your bridemaids and streamers and whatnot.” “Oh it’s going to be so awesome. I can see it now! There’ll be cake, and flowers, and frills. And pink,” Raindrop said, bouncing slightly in place. “And on our honeymoon, I’ll carry you over the threshold of our room, tear off your dress and make you scream my name.” Sentinel blinked slowly at that, snapping back to attention. Raindrop giggled and leaned forwards to kiss his nose. “Seeing as you’re such a mare, we can wear matching dresses!” Sentinel stared at her for a long moment, giving a nervous laugh. “I-if I give you depraved, kinky sex before the honeymoon, can I wear my regal armor?” Raindrop gave a long-suffering sigh. “But they were gonna be matching!” “We’ll even have a safe word,” Sentinel whispered into her ear enticingly. “Deal, then!” Raindrop shivered and kissed him with a fiery eagerness, giggling, “You know me too well!”