I hopped out of my truck onto the slush and ice, glad once again that I had worn my winter boots even with these nicer clothes I was wearing, and shut the door. There was less snow and ice in Idaho Falls than there was up in Dillon but there was more of a constant wind here, making it colder. I hugged my jacket to myself as I zipped it up before walking across the mostly empty parking lot and into the livestock trade center. I had told her I would only be a moment and I would, but seeing as how she was from a place where cows were as sentient as she was, I figured it would be better for her mental state if I just took care of this on my own. Long story short not enough of my cows got pregnant and because I had to spend money I wasn't planning on using having Rarity here – not that I blame her – I was going to lose money this season if I didn't offload the heard now, before I had to use more hay to keep the dang things alive.

Pushing the door open I was assailed with the smells of dried dirt and hay. The main office was attached to what could be considered an outbuilding and a barn after all. The secretary who was sitting behind a worn counter that was probably built in the seventies smiled at me in a business sort of way, and asked how she could help me when I walked up to the desk.

"Yeah. Long story." I said intonating that I wasn't about to say any more about the why. She took the hint and drew up some paperwork on the computer.

"Please fill these out, estimates on current prices are telling me that we can buy your heard for about nine hundred dollars per head." She said, and I felt a weight drop out from underneath my chest.

"I'm sorry, sir, but prices have really dropped this year, that's the best I can do right now." She said as apologetically and professionally as she could.

I, meanwhile, rested my forehead on her desk for a moment before grabbing the paperwork from her and began filling it out. At that price I was only come out about $30 richer than when I had started but at least that was still forward progress. I supposed I should count my blessings but once the whole process was finished, I couldn't really help but be in a sour mood as I walked back to the car through the ice and slush, much of which was now melting away under the afternoon sun. It was early March after all, though the remains of winter begged to differ.

"Yeah." I sighed, "Though I'm not really gonna make any money on the endeavor this year."

"Well I'm sure that you'll find a way to make things work, Asher, in the time I've spent with you I've learned you are quite a resourceful stallion – erm – man." She said with an appreciative smile.

Rarity looked at me for a long moment then and I wondered just what it was she was thinking of. I had gotten to know her quite well in the time she had spent with me – though admittedly it is hard not to get to know someone well when you are with them every day – but I was still quite terrible at guessing what she might be thinking at any given moment. For all I knew she was trying to figure out how to get out of my house and stay with someone that had more money than I did so she could have a more comfortable life. But then she smiled at me, and the roiling pit of financial negativity that was in my heart calmed somewhat.

"You're not happy about losing money this year are you?" She asked, her eyes telling me she knew the answer and reasons I was losing money, so I just nodded.

"I just…I can't help but feel responsible for your financial plight." She admitted.

"Don't worry, you're not." I lied, not even convincing myself I was telling the truth.

"Of course I'm not." She said, deadpanned. "And at night I turn into a super powered ninja unicorn that saves the world from evil, one pony at a time."

Sadly, that wasn't the craziest thing I've heard from her in her time with me, but luckily for her she continued to speak so as not to give me a chance to interject with my own thoughts. I had a few that I was sure I'd never tell her for fear of hurting her feelings. Or for fear of being smashed against the ceiling by magic – really the two were interchangeable.

"The point is I know my presence has been a strain on you in more ways than one and I know I've been helping as much as I can but, is there anything else I can do to ease the burden that I know I'm causing?"

I sighed, able to tell that she was earnest in her plea to help. But what could she do? What could I ask her to do? Any answer that popped into my head seemed far more complicated than the effort needed to get there. In all honesty the only thing that would make me feel better was if she could use her magic to conjure up some more money so I wouldn't almost go bankrupt by the end of the spring. But I wasn't about to ask anything of her, that wasn't the gentlemanly thing to do. No, all I had to do was take any hardship that may or may not have come anyways in stride. I would find a way out of it, I always did, I just needed to stand up and take the financial hit like a man. But then there was a small jingle coming from the opposite side of the car, and I glanced over in time to see Rarity pull a small silken pouch from her pocket and I tilted my head at her in an unspoken question.

"When you were sick, there was a time where it looked like I would be left to my own devices for a while and…well I had Twilight and Spike send me some bits. That's equestrian currency. But the coins are made from gold which according to your moving picture television, is also quite valuable in your world. I was planning on just taking it back with me but, perhaps you can find a better use for it than I." She said and handed the pouch to me.

Curiously, I peeked inside the pouch to count at least twenty coins, each of which had a quite feminine looking horse head on one side, and a moon and sun on the other, each one appearing to be made purely of gold. I assumed such anyways because the bag was quite weighty for the amount of coins that was in it, which was a very good problem to have with gold. How was I supposed to respond to something like this? Here I was content to be in a bad mood the rest of the day because of a financial hit I had to take, wishing that the person who cause the financial hit in the first place could just summon up some money and on her own and apparently, she did just that. The problem was that now I felt like a giant, greedy lump. Correction a giant, selfish, greedy lump. Once again her own personality and generosity showed me that sometimes it doesn't take a human to be a good person.

"Umm…I don't…I can't take money from you, Rarity." I stuttered along and of all the reactions I was expecting from her the one I got threw me off.

"Oh you dear, sweet colt, you say that as if you have a choice in the matter." She grinned.

"That is to say I'm going to leave these coins with you whether you want me too or not. If you don't accept them now I will hide them in your sock drawer, or your gun safe, or under your pillow. Or I'll hit you over your head with them and shove the coins into your pocket. I'm doing this because I feel extremely grateful for everything you've given up and done for me since I've been stuck here, and you will say 'thank you' for it." Though her tone was stern, her eyes were playful.

"Yes 'mam." I said with a laugh, and it was then that an idea struck me. An idea that was just fun enough and out of the norm enough for me that I thought there was no way she could say no.

"Hey you want to pawn all this gold for some cash and go out for dinner then?" I asked.

"Yeah, to a restaurant. I think Idaho Falls has some vegetarian places since you don't eat meat, of course."

"That sounds…refreshingly lovely." She said, looking quite shocked that I would be up for something so spur of the moment. She had been with me long enough that she knew it wasn't my nature to be spur of the moment. But then sometimes spur of the moment was called for, sometimes spur of the moment was the only way to really answer a question in your heart that you didn't know how to ask and if you didn't risk it all, you wouldn't get it all in return.

So it was that fifteen minutes later, and $375.33 richer, that we found ourselves driving around Idaho Falls looking for a place to eat. The GPS built into my truck had some recommendations and based on her own tastes, we were able to find a place to get an early dinner before the long drive home. I angled the my full sized diesel into a parking spot, coming to a stop with a Prius on either side of me, and a Nissan Leaf in front. Which made me smile for some odd reason.

In the restaurant I was immediately assailed by the smell of food that was being cooked in ways food was not normally cooked in. Not that it smelled bad, just different. Different could be good. After all I had Rarity in my life now, and she was certainly different than any other woman I've met before. Besides, the restaurant really was a nice little place with a veggie bar (whatever that would be) off on one end, café tables across the middle section of the building and a small stage off in the opposite corner. The lighting was enough to be able to see what you were eating if you were sitting at one of the tables, but otherwise was on the dim side giving a relaxed atmosphere to the place.

"Well thank you, good sir." Rarity said playfully as I pulled the chair out for her once the waitress had shown us to a small table for two.

"Hi, my name is Kenzie and I'll be your waitress today!" A woman with a large, practiced, fake grin and entirely too much flair on her green apron said, "Can I get you two some drinks to get you started?"

"Do you have Coke or Pepsi products?" I asked figuring it quicker than searching the menu.

"Alright, I'll get those right out for you." The waitress said with a still fake smile and hurried off, leaving us to look at the menu.

"Do you normally come to these types of places?" Rarity asked and I glanced up from the laminated list of meals.

"Do I look like the type of guy that comes to a vegetarian place?" I turned the question around at her with a smirk. It only took a glance to confirm there were a few couples who were giving me some odd glances. With my cowboy boots, jeans, and flannel shirt which had grown a little on Rarity since she had been staying with me. I even had my cowboy hat with me – which is a utility item by the way – but I had left it in the truck because thought it best.

"Well, no." She giggled, "So this is sort of an adventure for both of us then."

The waitress returned then and took our orders – Rarity ordered a Tofurger and I a bowl of minestrone – then walked hurriedly off to help other customers once she had refilled the water glass that I had emptied a moment before.

"So how long is it again until that 'door' Twilight made can be sent?" I asked, as I had honestly not kept track.

"Seven days." Rarity said with a weird mix of excitement and something else in her voice.

"Actually, my parents are usually on long vacations anyways so not seeing them since I've been here with you hasn't really been that different than my normal life. But I am very, very excited to see my little sister again." Rarity said with a smile. A smile that once again reminded me that buried somewhere under all the farm man and stupidity was a spark for her. Were feelings. Feelings that somehow, Rarity seemed to be aware of.

"The real question, I think, should be what are you going to do when I return home?" Rarity turned the question back on me.

I didn't have an immediate answer, so I shrugged. But I thought about what she was asking I discovered that there was really a lot more up in the air in my mind than I had anticipated. Or more likely I had been ignoring the problem, as I often did.

"To be honest I hadn't given it a lot of thought. Everything that's been going on, you being here especially, made me think about a lot of things that I normally would've ignored. My late wife and child included."

I paused and glanced over at the stage where a lone musician appeared to be beginning to setup for a performance. Or practice. I really couldn't be sure. But the instruments he was carrying and setting up sort of gave away his intentions.

"I've been thinking about putting the farm up for sale and moving, it's a lot of work for a family but for just me it's almost too much sometimes. I dunno. Maybe it's crazy, maybe I'm running away from the memories that live there."

"I don't think there's anything unreasonable about not wanting to live in a place where there are memories that cause you great pain, Asher." Rarity said. "In fact, I think it is marvelous you would consider such a change. That says that you may just be ready to move on from the emotional place you've been living in these last couple of years."

"Well, Darling, we all have baggage of some kind. Some of it good and some of it bad but in your case, from what I've learned of you that is, it seems like you keep all of your emotional baggage to yourself and for a lot of pon – people – that can be too much to bear alone. Ultimately the choice of whether or not you leave your home behind is up to you but if you do, perhaps you can leave some of the bad baggage behind, and just take the good." She suggested, smiling all the while.

It was something I had thought about extensively, even before Rarity had been dropped rather suddenly into my shower. Though the previous year had been alright financially since I had lost my wife it was hit or miss on whether or not I would go broke in any given year. I couldn't afford to hire any help, and lord knows the neighbors had enough to do. Maybe she was right, maybe I did need a fresh start in a new place, somewhere else enough that I could become someone else. So that I could stop living in the past.

My thoughts were interrupted then when a drum beat began to pulse through the restaurant. This beat played through, repeating a few measures before a guitar strum was added to it, then another riff added on top of that, then a piano part on top of that until the person on the small stage was playing all the parts of a song on their own through the use of a single keyboard and guitar. While I was boarding between annoyed and indifferent about the loud, live music, Rarity seemed enraptured by it. When I thought about it a little more it wasn't hard to understand why. She was a shameless romantic, and what else could help spur along a relationship than some good music? Be it fate or my own timing, I was about to find out as the young man on stage leaned towards the mic, and began to sing.

Stay with me, baby stay with me,
Tonight don't leave me alone.
Walk with me, come and walk with me,
To the edge of all we've ever known.

I can see you there with the city lights,
Fourteenth floor, pale blue eyes.
I can breathe you in.
Two shadows standing by the bedroom door,
No, I could not want you more than I did right then,
As our heads leaned in.

Well, I'm not sure what this is gonna be,
But with my eyes closed all I see
Is the skyline, through the window,
The moon above you and the streets below.
Hold my breath as you're moving in,
Taste your lips and feel your skin.
When the time comes, baby don't run, just kiss me slowly...

The music condinuted and I wasn't sure when it happened, or how it happened, but at some point during the song Rarity's hand slid across the small café table and linked fingers with my own. I'd like to say that there wasn't a cliché tingle of electricity across my hand and arm. I'd like to say my heart didn't beat a little faster. I'd like to say that a stupid grin didn't come to my face that probably wouldn't quit until the following morning but fortunately, I can't say any of those things.

She came into my life like "ZOT!"

by Deleth

The Date (Part 1)