Long Division

by Hoofclid

Part 5

Braeburn sat at the sidelines of his farewell party, attempting to write his letter but getting continually distracted by the activities around him. He had specific plans to tell Applejack of course—that was why he was writing the letter—but he had decided he had better tell his cousin about the party too. So much had been happening and he wanted to get it all down on paper before it was driven out by something new.

Fortunately he had no trouble figuring out the “where to start” question. A posse showing up at your house as you finish your packing and running you into town with whoops and cheers makes a pretty strong impression on you. Overnight the town had been transformed. Banners, balloons, a bouncy castle for the foals, and a gigantic pie which was being served to what seemed like the whole town.

Next had been the speeches, and the main reason for his letter: the presentation. The senior ponies of the town had put their heads together and tracked down what they believed to have been the first tree that Braeburn himself had planted in the orchard. It had been gently lifted from the ground, its roots had been wrapped carefully for transport and it had had a big bow tied around it. A tree from Appleloosa for him to take to Ponyville so he always had a piece of the orchard he had done so much to plant. Braeburn had traced the lines on the bark and he had given it a hug, and then he had remembered that everypony was watching him and hid his blushes behind his hat for the rest of the speech-making. Two speeches really shouldn’t have taken long, but the buffalo had shown up and Sheriff Silverstar thought it only courteous to let Chief Thunderhooves make a speech as well, however long-winded.

Braeburn had attempted to make a speech too, of course. He hadn’t got very far. He had thanked everypony for the party and told them that if they ever needed him, he would be there for them. So far so good. But his announcement that he wanted to give everypony in town a hug before he left had called proceedings to a close as a small herd of foals piled on in a group hug, each wanting to make sure they didn’t miss out.

By the time order had been restored and the foals placated with hugs and ice cream, the time for speeches was clearly over. The bands had struck up, and Wild West and Mild West dances were in full swing. More importantly, Braeburn had a whole lot of hugs to give out, so he certainly had no time to give more speeches!

But now Braeburn had retired to one side, his arms tired from hugging and dancing, and with a plate of cupcakes and a jug of cider, to send Applejack some emergency instructions. One of the town's few pegasus ponies had agreed to deliver it, so it should be there in time for AJ to arrange things. That tree had given him an idea…

---

Sunset. Excellent. This would be the perfect time. Braeburn smiled at the romantic colours starting to flow across the sky from his perch on the Ponyville bridge and strummed a few idle chords on his guitar. Everything had been prepared. One of the good parts about dating a mathematician was that Hoofclid had a very rigid routine; it was easy to avoid him if you were trying to plan a surprise.

Braeburn stopped his playing and listened carefully. The unmistakable heavy clomp of Big Mac’s hoofbeats was clearly audible now. The lighter tread beside him would be the unicorn he was bringing to the bridge. In many ways, Big Mac was the perfect chaperone to bring somepony to a surprise. He wouldn’t give anything away, and everypony knew it, so they wouldn’t even try to pry information out of him with questions.

Brae started playing the tune he wanted Hoofclid to hear as he rounded the corner. It wasn’t a song, exactly, for there were no words. But to Braeburn, it spoke of rolling hills, gentle streams, quiet orchards, and… home. The picture of home was completed by the two ponies who now came into view. Family and his coltfriend. Perfect.

The earth pony fixed his eyes on the approaching unicorn and gave him the warmest smile he could manage. He didn't have to wait long; Hoofclid had got over his initial surprise and accelerated towards him.

"Brae? I didn't know you were coming today?" Hoofclid's look of happiness was momentarily tinged with worry. "Did I miss a letter?"

Braeburn stopped playing to run a comforting hoof through the unicorn's mane.

"No, sweetheart, you didn't miss anything. Truth is, I came to Ponyville to find something Appleloosa doesn't have. Something I found I needed."

The blush started to spread on Hoofclid's cheeks. "W-what's that?"

"Bridges."

"Bridges?"

"Bridges! What's finer than a picturesque bridge over a nice lazy stream? Lovely place to watch a sunset." He paused and gave a big wink. "Of course, the best thing about bridges is that they're a great place to serenade a cute stallion."

Braeburn laughed at his boyfriend, who was trying to hide his blushy goofy grin behind his hooves. Brae eased the hooves apart so he could give the flustered unicorn a kiss on the nose. “Come with me, sugarcube. I’ve got something to show you.”

The ponies walked in silence as Braeburn led them towards the “something”. Hoofclid knew better than to ask questions about a surprise, and for his part Braeburn was worried that if he chattered too much then he’d give something away. But that didn’t matter. They were comfortable just being together, walking close beside each other with the occasional nuzzle in passing.

When they were so close that Braeburn couldn’t handle the tension any more, he asked, “Do you know where we’re going, Hoofy?”

“The hill with my favourite tree? Where we first kissed?”

Braeburn was trotting faster now. “Eeyup!” He bounded on ahead, wishing fleetingly that he’d brought a lasso with him. But his enthusiasm was enough to tow Hoofclid along with him at a fast trot up the hill. As they crested the hill, it revealed its secret: not just Hoofclid’s favoured maple tree stood atop it, but also an apple tree which was even now having the soil around it packed down by Applejack.

The earth pony turned and took the hoof of his boyfriend, who was looking from pony to tree as he tried to understand.

“The ponies of Appleloosa gave it to me from the orchard there,” he said quietly, “and now it will be putting its roots down in Ponyville. Just like I will.”

Brae paused to kiss the hoof he was holding, which gave Hoofclid the opportunity for a question. “You’re… moving here?”

“Yep. There was a room clear for me at Sweet Apple Acres. I can be here for you now. I love you.”

Hoofclid barely had time to breathe out, “I love you too.”, before he was swept into Braeburn’s arms for a deep kiss. Beneath the two trees, with the rays of the setting sun playing over them, the two stallions kissed as though they had all the time in the world.

Which now, for the first time, they did.

Comments

[Boltsinger]

How is it this story has so few comments? It has fluff, it has romance, it has feels! Clearly needs more attention.

[musoperatica]

To the author - omg hi! how are ya doing in this crazy time we're living in (ya know with covid-19)
glad there's a sequel and happy ending

p.s: i'm doing alright for myself. only thing is my laptop don't think i've told this but since summer of 2017 it has gotten progressively worse. found a replacement (thanks to an author on this site named midnightwolfGX) but had no money to buy it, then the virus hit & threw my plans out of whack! now that places are starting to reopen up again i can get some ground work on selling stuff(｀ω´)
also dealing with a very horrible new browser

i wrote this about several hours ago/yesterday...sorry it's late

[ChakatRedstripe]

Awesome story I loved it

[KittyrinnAiko]

10356429
The readers are dying from cutnes overload.

[KittyrinnAiko]

10357255
If the new browser you are talking about is M$ Edge, there are ways to make it go away. It was forcefully loaded onto my machine and it attempted to take over. I blocked it, and then removed the whole file. It can't be removed any other way so far as I can tell as there is no uninstall option. Just make sure you have another working browser before removing it.

[musoperatica]

10359614
yes!! thanks but alas i cannot... as i'm getting a new laptop that isn't a 'dell' & planning to get rid this one for cash! just need to finish reading fics while removing other things from my history (going back several months ago) before the change took place.
now i do have a backup laptop but that hasn't been touched yet.

p.s: i hope you can understand my plight now. then if not pm me and i'll go into full details of this situation *whispers* if you're comfortable doing that?
this message was written yesterday although it took awhile to find the right words to say!

[-Brutus]

I love the illustrations you did for this fanfic as well.

[Ice Star]

Very cute, both in pictures and prose. Cute gay romance is so hard to find on here.

[Vik]

This was so cute! I loved it!

[Rikad]

This was an adorable story (and the art was also adorable). These two were great.