Epilogue: Late to the Party
“Howdy, Rarity!”
Rarity squeaked, yanking her head back out of the kitchen door. “Applejack! When did you get here?”
“Just a few minutes ago. You seen my sister?”
“Oh, yes. I believe she was over with Spike and Sweetie Belle.” Rarity gestured vaguely.
Applejack turned her head towards the fluffy purple sofa. A flustered Sweetie Belle and an even more flustered Spike occupied the couch. Even as Applejack watched, the unicorn filly shifted a few inches closer to Spike, only for Spike to scoot a few inches further away towards the other end of the couch.
“Heh, well, will you look at that. Finally told him he don’t have a chance with you?”
“Actually, no; he did this on his own. Or rather, our sisters did.” Rarity smiled fondly at the pair. “It is rather cute, isn’t it?”
“Cutest thing I’ve seen all day.” Applejack smirked as the pair executed another half-synchronized shift along the sofa. “Too bad he’s gonna run out of room.”
Rarity giggled. “Indeed.”
“Though I gotta admit, I always figured it’d be my sister who’d be sweet on him.” Applejack tapped her chin with her hoof for a moment.
“You know, Twilight said the exact same thing.” Rarity’s eyes drifted back towards the kitchen.
“Is that who you were spyin’ on in there?” Applejack grinned.
“I wasn’t spying! I was simply observing, that’s all.”
“That explains why you yanked your head back like a bee stung ya in the nose when I walked in.”
“I did no such thing!” Rarity said, stamping her hoof on the floor.
“So why weren’t ya just in there talkin’ with her? That mystery stallion of hers in there?”
Rarity shook her head. “Oh, no. He isn’t coming.”
“What a shocker.” Applejack glanced from side to side. “So she fess up to him not existin’ yet?”
“She said they broke up,” Rarity said quietly.
“Now ain’t that a shame. And he was comin’ to see us and everything.”
Rarity tilted her head up. “You sound just like Rainbow Dash.”
Applejack chortled. “I bet her five bits that Twilight’ll come clean by New Year’s.”
“Yes, well, I suspect that’s a bet you’ll both lose,” Rarity said, peering back into the kitchen.
“So why are you spyin’ on her anyway?”
“Oh, she’s in there with Rainbow Dash.”
Applejack blinked, then smirked. “Rainbow Dash? Now this I gotta see.” Applejack leaned around the door frame for a moment, peering into the kitchen before frowning. “They’re makin’ pie.”
“I know!” Rarity sat back on her haunches, throwing her hooves up into the air in despair. “After I spent all evening trying to figure out who Twilight liked, she said she doesn’t even like mares!”
“Ya know, Rarity, just cause we ain’t never seen her express interest in any stallions don’t mean she likes mares. She’s always kinda seemed like the private type ’bout that kinda thing anyway.”
“But she had mistletoe set up over the front door and everything!”
Applejack arched an eyebrow. “Really? Huh. I didn’t see any when I came in.” She glanced back towards the now mistletoe-less doorway. “You sure you weren’t just imagining things?”
Rarity looked back towards the door and blinked. “But it was there! I swear! And then… oooh.” She glanced back over towards Sweetie Belle and Spike. “I bet that’s where Apple Bloom found it.”
Applejack snickered. “Sure, sure.” She reached over to pat Rarity on the back. “Look. It’s nice of you to want our friends to find somepony they like, but they gotta do it on their own time, not yours. It ain’t right for us to go interferin’ in other ponies’ love lives and tryin’ to set them up like that. They gotta figure it out on their own.”
“I know. I just… want them to be happy, that’s all.”
“And have somethin’ to gossip about with the girls, I’d wager.” Applejack’s smirk returned.
“Well, we need something to talk about, darling.” Rarity winked.
“Heh. Still, it was sweet of you to try.”
“Thank you darling. Now—” Rarity turned her head to look back through the kitchen door at her friends, only to feel the soft touch of lips on her cheeks. Blinking, she turned back towards Applejack, her cheeks flushed, before her ears fell back against her neck and she sighed.
“Apple Bloom is dangling the mistletoe over my head, isn’t she?”
Applejack's eyes twinkled as she leaned into Rarity's side. “What mistletoe?”
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Wow! It's complete! Congrats!
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY
That a nice cute story. I kind of want more, but It work like that too :)
6541944
Thanks!
6541964
Pretty much how I feel to finally get this finished so everyone can enjoy it in its entirety.
6541976
All good things must come to an end, as they say.
Though this is hardly the end of me writing about ponies kissing. Or ponies kissing dragons for that matter. Not sure if I'll ever follow up on this particular continuity or not, though.
6542008
I was afraid some people might feel that way, but the joke has been planned from the very start of the story as the way it would end - indeed, the final few lines were in the original outline more or less verbatim.
Poor Rarity. Never saw it coming.
Damn, no making out between Spike and Sweetie.
Again, Rarity would use whom here.
Stet. Applejack, meanwhile, doesn't care about 'whom's, nor need mistletoe to kiss someone she wishes to.
Bravo, good story.
Poor Spikey needs a longer couch.
img02.deviantart.net/038a/i/2015/270/5/7/aj_catching_rays_by_hillbe-d9b6ek7.jpg
img05.deviantart.net/fc3e/i/2015/248/d/c/fin_by_hillbe-d98jwoz.jpg
Sorta flat in the end . . .Rarajak? Sploom? Twidoh!? Spikitie? no chicken wings? roasted alicorn? punkin pie?
A compact story! Nice!
6542204 Kinda agree, though as soon as this chapter started, I kinda saw it coming. Ah well. Curse you, TD.
(As for 'poorly executed' Rarilight... it exists, sure, but if you want good RariLight, check out near anything by Monochromatic)
Spike and Sweetie Belle
Sitting on a couch.......
6542225
Me?
Writing a story that ends with a RariJack joke?
What is this nonsense?
I would never do something like that!
6542262 Nooo, never!
6542204
The story was actually originally planned to be only four chapters long; the fact that it ended up as long as it did ended up something of a surprise to me.
Out of curiosity, what ships do you like?
6542225
I've been on a RariLight kick recently. I want to write a RariLight story myself, but I just don't have any good ideas for one. The only RariLight story idea I have is not ultimately a RariLight story at all.
6542324 I didn't understand RariLight myself when I shipped it in the story, but after reading Mono's stuff? Oh hell yes, I'm on board with that.
6542358
There's always Almost Beautiful by Donny's Boy as well.
6542442
Ah, yes, I always forget Immature exists. I seem to recall it being a very uh... kick in the gut story, as The Descendant has very protective feelings towards Spike, and the story centers around Twilight betraying his trust in the hopes of getting something she wants herself.
As far as canonical sexuality goes, I'm of the general opinion that we only know likes, not dislikes; we've never seen anyone in the show articulate turning someone down or not being interested in members of one sex or another in general, which makes it difficult to establish the sexual orientations of any of the cast members definitively. Spike and Shining Armor both obviously like mares, while Rarity, Twilight, and Cadance all obviously like stallions (or, uh, freaky monkey things in Twilight's case
), but we don't really have much real evidence of exclusivity - any of them could potentially be bisexual. So I don't really have a problem with shipping Rarity with girls, because, well, she's never said she's not interested (and let's face it, its not like even that would stop some people 
).
Though I'll note that in this story it doesn't say anything about Rarity liking Applejack.
This story was pretty nice, evenly paced, but there were a few times some things came up that needed to be worked out a bit more.
Now, the plot is simple, but could have a multitude of possibilities.
Spike tries to get a kiss from Rarity, but kisses Sweetie Belle instead. Thus we learn that Sweetie Belle has a crush on Spike and so Apple Bloom makes it her mission to get the two together.
On the other hand Rarity believes Twilight is trying to get a kiss from someone and spends the entire evening trying to figure out who it is in the only way she knows how- by being Rarity.
I think you could've stretched this out a little longer than twenty five thousand words- maybe even double it. If you continued the attempts into the party/dinner and afterwards. Not only would the situation give rise to new possibilities, but it would give you more time to explain the current relationships the cast has currently; if I'm not mistaken the last line is meant to be a ship between Rarity and Apple Jack.
If that is so, then the last line comes so out of left field it hit my right side. If I remember correctly, though my memory can be faulty at times, there was no evidence to those two being in a relationship. Now this isn't to say I do not dislike the idea of those two being in a relationship- but either previous mention of said relationship of proper build up and reveal would have been better than being blindsided by this. (That's a lot of words that begin with b.)
Remove that last sentence, leaving Rarity commenting on the mistletoe, and I personally think it would've been a perfect ending.
Rarity has been using the mistletoe all evening to try and get Twilight to kiss someone, only to have the tables turned on her.
Onto the characters!
Every character was more or less spot on, with Apple Bloom becoming a tad too pushy when it came to getting Spike and Sweetie Belle together. Nothing too major, but considering she's already learned you can't *force* two people together I find it a bit OOC.
All in all, it was a fun read and didn't disappoint in some of the jokes. I'll give it a solid 'B'.
6542834
Oh, I ship Rarijack to the high heavens, but that doesn't mean I ship them in every single story I write. I included the joke here because I thought it was funny (someone spending all night trying to get someone ELSE to kiss someone, and then getting randomly smooched themselves, sets off my irony detectors, and I love irony. Even if iron isn't very tasty). Though I'm sure author appeal played some role in suggesting the joke to me.
Clearly you need to get a stronger prescription of shipping goggles.
RariJack is a popular ship precisely because people interpret her catty behavior towards Applejack, and some of their exchanges, as being potentially flirtatious in nature. People ship RariShy for similar reasons. AppleDash is similarly shipped because people choose to interpret their competitive behavior towards each other as possibly including a hint of flirting as well.
Are they actually flirting canonically? Hah! Even if the writers make jokes about the characters being shipped, there's nothing in canon indicating that any of the mane six have romantic feelings towards any other member of the main cast. But people choose to interpret it differently, just as some people choose to believe that Rarity might return Spike's feelings.
i.imgur.com/xf1UTc8.png
Really, it is an area which is pretty free for reinterpretation. Someone expressing interest in two boys and zero girls doesn't mean they couldn't be bi (or even gay, if you justified it sufficiently - some teenagers and young adults end up deciding that they are gay after dating a few people. This is especially true if they're emulating standard social behavior and don't realize why it isn't "clicking" with them. Heck, some outright adults who have been married for years realize they're gay. And the reverse sometimes happens as well - some people who were previously homosexual decide they're bi or even straight). Do I think it is likely that Rarity is gay? No. Heck, it isn't that likely that she's bi (overall population is like, 2% bi and 2% gay according to some population studies). But that doesn't mean she couldn't be bi in some stories.
In some of my stories, she's straight. In others, she's bi. I might write a story someday where she's gay. Her orientation - like that of any character - is determined by the needs of the story, as it isn't set in stone by the show.
For me, the important thing is more about the emotionality of the situation than anything else. If you want to make a character gay, that's cool with me - but if you want to ship them with someone, you'd better convince me.
I understand that some people don't feel the same way, or have protective feelings towards some characters or ships, but that's just kind of a general hazard of writing any sort of relationship in a story. But me, personally? I don't really mind.
Though I do find situations where adults have romantic feelings towards children to be squicky and generally avoid such stories.
I'll need to give this story a second round from start to finish in order to really grasp how I feel about it. For now, though, rest assured that it's one of the best "funny yet calm" stories I've read, and the way every character bounced off each other was hilarious. I love it.
6543404
Hey, thanks for the feedback!
The story was always intended to end at the point it ended at: the primary arc in the story was always intended to be Spike and Sweetie Belle, ending with Spike finally kissing Sweetie Belle (and then still be comically nervous about Sweetie Belle getting a little more snuggly than he had anticipated). The B-plot was Rarity trying to find out who Twilight had a crush on, eventually resorting to dangling mistletoe over everyone's heads, and was supposed to conclude with Rainbow Dash expressing some interest in Twilight, and Twilight not knowing how she felt about it. The two plots were meant to conclude at the same time, and then the whole thing would be tied up with Applejack coming in and observing the aftermath.
The RariJack thing was a joke, and was always intended to be a joke. I suppose the joke would have still worked without the final line, but it was meant to drive home the irony that after all of the dangling of mistletoe, in the end, the final kiss came without it. They weren't in a relationship; you didn't miss anything there - Applejack just gave Rarity a kiss out of the blue (basically, the confession of feelings that Rarity had been trying to provoke out of Twilight all evening, instead directed at her).
The original version of the final line was Applejack looking up towards the empty space over Rarity's head and asking, "What mistletoe?" (thus driving home the point that she gave Rarity a kiss because she wanted to), but as my prereaders noted, it didn't make sense for her not to know about the mistletoe after the conversation that lead into it, so instead I went with the way it is now. I briefly flirted with a slightly different version of the ending:
But I decided it wasn't as funny, as it was far longer and less punchy.
Glad you liked the characters! I work hard on dialogue.
As far as Apple Bloom goes, while she did learn this lesson:
img04.deviantart.net/c307/i/2012/040/5/d/dear_teacher_cheerilee__today__learned____by_csimadmax-d4p73yo.png
I reasoned that the difference here was that Sweetie Belle actually did like Spike, whereas neither Cheerilee nor Big Mac expressed any actual interest in each other.
Also, I just found it funny.
Thanks! I'm glad you liked it overall.
6543826
Thanks! I'm glad you liked it!
Admittedly I like that sort of comedy a great deal, which is probably one of the things that attracts me to MLP in the first place. I'm glad it worked for you as well.
Very cutely written.
Didn't think it would be over yet, but the ride has fun while it lasted! Great job!
6544083
Thanks! I'm glad you liked it.
6544171
Alas, all good things must come to an end. But never fear; I shall write more stories in the future. Hopefully you'll find them as fun as this one.
Just out of interest, you review a lot of stories, right? What do you think you would honestly say about this story if you didn't write it? I'd like to know.
6544338
It is impossible for me to objectively review my own writing; I love most of the stuff I write, and I suspect that when people talk about their "ideal reader", for me, it is myself. It takes me a long time to get a really objective view on my own work.
So, more or less, ask me again in six months.
6544364 It will be done!
That was quite an unexpected ending, yet a perfect conclusion.
Thanks for this silly-and-lovely-at-the.same-time story
Honestly I didn't expect the Rarijack in the end. I thought this was going to be a RariTwi fic. Still a good fic though
6544744
You're welcome. Thanks for reading!
6545118
Hehe, thanks. Someday I'll write some RariLight...
Daaw! This is adorable! Totally worth the wait.
6545920
Thank you! I'm glad you liked it. I really appreciate the promotion in your blog; it is always tremendously flattering to see people doing stuff like that.
Thanks for saying it was worth the wait. I'm just sorry it took me so long to get the whole thing done. To think, when I started writing this, I was thinking I'd get the whole thing done by New Year's Day.
That was a wonderful pile of fluff. Thank you for it.
6546207
You're welcome! I'm glad you liked it!
6546207 Why do I see you in the comments of every good fic I read? Do you just have as much good judgement as I do?
6547896
Because they're a fan of most everything!
i.imgur.com/nsDXAxQ.gif
Excellent story, mate. Had me laughing the whole way through!
6551999
Thanks! That's always great to hear. Sorry about your pants, though.
I like how this chapter has the longest comments. You dissapointed me with no actual TwiDash but the story kept me laughing so I still liked it a lot.
6554107
Sorry to have disappointed you on that front, but I'm glad you liked the story. I appreciate you commenting on every chapter! It is always really informative to see the bits that people pick out and quote in the comments.
Thanks for reading!
6554107
Incidentally, on the TwiDash front, I do have three stories in the middle of being written which feature that pairing, so stay tuned.
D'ohohohho I spy an OTP with my shipping eye
6542008
you've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?
6554371 I'm looking forward to them. I also just noticed that I've read some of your other stories.
6555791
Thanks! I'm surprised I never have seen it before; once I came up with it, I knew I had to roll with it.
YASSSS RARIJACK
6577446
Yeah. Poor Spike.
Its funny/terrible though.
6578571
6578651
6680371
Thanks! I'm glad you liked it.
So I saw this in a different review list. Good I looking for another Christmas story to review and you just gave to me. Be afraid author be every afraid maw ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha umm.. That's tiring.