Fleur was sad to see Big McIntosh go. After all he’d done for her, it seemed…anticlimactic.
“What happened out there?” Fine asked, gesturing for her to come inside. “You look like you’ve been through Tartarus.”
Fleur giggled and flicked her mud-stained mane. “I thought some stallions liked the dirty look.”
He stared as the door closed behind them. Fleur took a moment to bask in the interior’s warmth, but noted his eyes on her. “What?”
His eyebrows rose. “You seem awfully happy for a muck-encrusted city pony who just spent a night freezing in the woods.”
Her stomach rumbled, making her blush and grin. “And famished, too. I hope you have some food for me?”
He nodded and waved for her to follow, though he still had that bemused expression. “Did something happen out there?”
“Difficulties arose,” she replied. “Big Mac and I dealt with them. Well, mostly Big McIntosh, if I’m to be wholly honest.”
“What about the town?” Fine asked. “You didn’t let him find it, did you?”
Fleur blushed, recalling the horror of the previous night. “He couldn’t be stopped, but we got out safely. Food, now.”
He obliged, offering her a large salad he’d kept in the fridge. It barely made it to the kitchen table before she dove into it with unladylike glee, making his eyes go wide. “Fleur, what happened to you?”
“I’m hungry,” she pointed out between bites.
“Noted.” His eyes went to the hall. “Big Mac seems to have taken the ‘elite’ out of you.”
She sat up straight and dabbed her lips with a napkin with exaggerated posh. “Worry not, Mane Archon. I assure you, I will maintain my regality once back in Canterlot.” She promptly returned to her eager eating.
Fine peered at her, lips set in a taught frown. “Seriously, Fleur. What happened out there?”
She sighed, realizing that he wouldn’t be deterred. “I tried to stop him, Fine. I really did. I even tried—” Her cheeks burned, but the anger she once felt didn’t resurface. The fact that she was blushing at the concept at all felt strange, and she could see by Fine’s expression that he thought so, too.
She coughed and went on. “We ended up in the town, but we got away. After that we walked back here. What more do you need to know?”
He raised an eyebrow. “How about how he got that huge wound?”
Her blush came back, and she averted her eyes. “Oh…that. We ran into some timberwolves, and he fought them off.” Why was she avoiding the whole truth?
Fine nodded. “You mean he protected you. That must have felt odd.”
Odd? No, that wasn’t the word for it. She bowed her head, suddenly filled with shame. “I… I wasn’t awake at the time.”
His lips formed an O. “Now that must have really been awkward.”
“You have no idea,” she whispered.
He leaned against the table, observing her critically. “And just how could you sleep right through a timberwolf attack?”
She shifted, unable to meet his eye. It took her several tries to get the words out. “I succumbed to the cold. I just…couldn’t take it.”
“So Big Mac saved you twice over, did he?”
She winced and waited for the criticism to fly.
But Fine only shrugged and shook his head. “Guess I owe him a lot, saving my heir’s rump twice like that. At least now I don’t have to send all those letters I wrote gathering a search party.”
Fleur blinked and gave Fine a questioning look. “I thought you’d be upset.”
He waved a dismissive hoof. “You’re still thinking of when Hoofknife was in charge. I’m Fine Crime, and I know that you’re not made for the conditions you were in. I know a bit about weaknesses, Fleur.”
“Weakness?” She bowed he head once more. “I couldn’t even navigate my way out of a forest. I had to rely on a civilian to take care of me!” She paused, thinking on her words. “A very capable civilian, true. But I’m an Archon! I should have been able to handle myself.”
“There’s a reason I always send you to the big cities,” Fine pointed out. “Why are you beating yourself up over this? Wildlife survival was never your niche. Forget about it.”
“I can’t,” she grumbled, turning away. “I can’t forget about it.”
A long pause passed between them. Fleur had said such things, but in reality her frustrations were aimed at—
“It? Or him?”
She blushed and wouldn’t turn around. Fine let out a long sigh. “You weren’t sampling the local menu out there, were you?”
Fleur turned on him. “How dare you! You know I am not that kind of mare! I might use my looks to lure in the stallions, but it will take a lot more than…than…”
Fine’s lips were curling into a slight smile that had her fumbling for words. “How far did it go?”
“We didn’t,” she snapped, cheeks burning. “It… Nothing like that happened!”
He set a knee to the table and leaned his cheek against his hoof. “Look at this, the Archon’s premier femme fatale. The seducer of stallions, going coy over a farm colt. Don’t tell me nothing happened. Just how did he keep you warm enough to survive the night, hmm?”
Curse his observant nature, and her cheeks for refusing to cool down! “He… He just…stayed close. That’s all!”
Fine grinned. “You know he’s the prized stallion of Ponyville? There’s many a mare in town who’d give her right-hind leg to get that close to him. And—” he shot in before she could speak, “—there are plenty of hot-blooded young stallions who would kill to get that close to you.”
That second part was certainly true, she knew it for a fact. She tossed her head, though the effect wasn’t so good with all the muck in her mane. “I am not the kind of pony to have her heartstrings pulled by a stallion just because he stood by me in my time of need.”
“And that’s a problem,” Fine announced, his expression suddenly going sharp. “You’re not made of ice, so stop pretending to be.”
“Being made of ice has kept me alive, and you know it,” she snapped back. “If I am to protect his way of life, I have no choice but to—"
“Whoa, whoa!” He waved his hooves, eyes wide. “Did you just say what I think you said?”
Fleur blinked, thought on her words. Her mouth abruptly closed, and – to her immense frustration – she was blushing again.
Fine leaned forward, a hopeful smile on his lips. “Fleur? Have you finally figured out what I’ve been trying to teach you all these years?”
She looked away, thinking on everything she’d learned about Big McIntosh. “I’m a little envious of him,” she admitted, ears drooping. “He has such a normal, happy life. I want to preserve that.”
Fine heaved a long sigh. “I know exactly how that feels. You should see him, again.”
She shook her head forcefully. “No. I couldn’t possibly.”
He set a hoof to hers, which made her jump and look directly in his red eyes. “Trust me, Fleur. Go and see him. You can still watch after his way of life as an Archon. Look at me.”
She frowned and pulled her hoof back. “I am looking at you. As I recall, your little angel at the edge of the forest didn’t approve of your attention.”
“Results are not guaranteed,” he replied seriously. “But I tried, and I’m still trying. I don’t regret going after her. You won’t regret going after him.”
Fleur raised an eyebrow. “You make it sound like I have a crush!”
“You do,” he declared. “You might not understand that just yet, but you’re crushing, Fleur.”
She raised her head with a haughty frown. “I think if I were attracted to a stallion, I’d know it.”
“Would you?” He leveled her with a cold stare. “Ignoring other Archons and Fancy Pants, have you ever looked at a stallion as anything more than a tool to be used, or as a target to be removed? Has the concept of emotional, potentially romantic attachment even breezed through that mind of yours?”
She opened her mouth to speak, but paused. She repeated the questions a couple times in her head and wasn’t sure how to answer. She couldn’t understand why she felt so…guilty. “I’ve never had a use for romance, Fine.”
Fine stared at her for several long seconds, lips set in a sad frown. She tried to match his eyes, but it was hard, and after a while she was staring at her half-eaten salad. She didn’t know what she was feeling right at that moment. Part of her wanted to lash out and refuse everything he was suggesting.
Another part wished she could do it. There was an eagerness in her, a strange thrill like she’d never felt before. It was like gazing into the unknown and longing to jump in.
But it was scary, too.
At last Fine stood. “If you don’t want to take advantage of the opportunity laid before you, that’s your business. Your personal life is yours to do with as you please. But I think that, deep down, you know what you really want to do.”
He turned and headed for the door. “Sometimes it’s okay to listen to that little voice in your head, Fleur.”
And he was gone, leaving her to ponder her future.
It took a lot of convincing to keep Applejack from marching into the Everfree Forest and giving Fine Crime a good buck in the teeth. In fact, Big McIntosh had been keeping a close eye on her just to ensure she didn’t try to do it behind his back. In the end he’d resorted to having her perform a Pinkie Promise in front of Pinkie Pie, which he knew would seal the deal. He still wasn’t sure she wouldn’t do it, though.
At least he didn’t have to worry about farm work, given that it was the dead of winter. His side was still in a lot of pain after his little sojourn with Miss de Lis three days ago, and wouldn’t have been much help with the usual chores.
He had told them some of his trip. He’d mentioned getting lost in the woods with a friend of Fine Crime’s, and how they’d been forced to stay out there together. There was no keeping the timberwolves a secret, of course. He didn’t tell most of them about the ghost town, but he brought Apple Bloom aside on the second night and told her. He owed her an apology, for he now knew her stories from months back about running into a zombie infested town in the woods were not nightmare-induced imaginings. They had a little heart-to-heart, and he promised never to doubt her word again.
He’d been very surprised to hear that the two of them weren’t the only ones to run into the place; apparently Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo and Nye Stone had been out there, as well. They had agreed to keep the place a secret, and that seemed like a wise decision to him. He was glad to know that Fine and Fleur were doing what they could to keep ponies safe.
Fleur. She was the real secret, at least Big Mac thought so. He’d never bothered to reveal the identity of Fine’s ‘friend’. After all, they would never have believed him if he said he’d spent the evening with a famous supermodel. He couldn’t blame them, either; it sounded like a silly colt’s fantasy. So he kept that bit of knowledge to himself.
He kept thinking about her, though. It was such a foalish thing, and he knew it. Big Mac had no reason to believe he’d ever see her again. He tried not to think of how he liked her little kiss on the cheek much more than that first kiss. The first one had been deceptive, almost cruel in its manner. But that second one kept him up at night, wondering if he might find some way to earn another.
Which was, again, foalish.
It was the morning of the fourth day, and the entire family was downstairs enjoying pancakes when there came a knock on the door. Apple Bloom darted off to answer it, thinking it would be her fellow Crusaders. When she came back, she had wide eyes.
“Uh, Big Mac?”
“Eeyup.”
She glanced back towards the door for a moment. “You’ve got a visitor.”
“Probably more well-wishers,” Granny Smith noted with a grin.
Applejack patted Big Mac on the shoulder. “Yer a regular celebrity righ’ now, big brother.”
“Yer tellin’ me,” Apple Bloom added anxiously. “Ah think this admirer’s from Canterlot! Ya’ll should see her.”
Big Mac’s heart skipped a beat as he stared at Apple Bloom. The others shared dubious looks as he quickly got up from the table and headed for the door, breath stuck in his chest.
He came to an abrupt stop in the hall, jaw dropping at the sight of Fleur de Lis. She stood just inside the doorway, cleaned up and as beautiful as the first time he’d seen her. No…perhaps she was even more beautiful. She was; she was smiling. That smile melted his heart.
“Well, you certainly seem happy to see me,” she noted with a blush.
Big Mac shook himself to try and get the clouds out of his head. He opened his mouth to speak, but couldn’t think of anything to say other than “Eeyup.”
Fleur’s smile broadened just a touch. “Is that all you have to say?”
He heard hoofsteps, and glanced back to see his sisters and grandmother peering from around the corner. His mind was frantic; why couldn’t he think of anything to say?! Except “Eeyup.”
When he turned about he found Fleur standing just before him, her pretty violet eyes staring right into his. She poked his big chest with a hoof. “You rejected me, Mr. McIntosh. Do you remember?”
He swallowed, eyes locked with hers and heart pounding. His hooves felt like lead. “Eeyup.”
Fleur sat, her smile going wry. “I take that as a challenge.” She set her hooves to his shoulders, and his eyes went wide. “I thought you should know I’m accepting that challenge. Let me try this again.”
Her lips touched his.
It was her best kiss yet.