The Rustic and The Romantic

by TheLastBrunnenG

Winter by the Pond

Beyond Sweet Apple Acres’ East Orchard lay a clear pond whose still waters reflected both the myriad midnight stars above and the trembling image of an orange mare sitting on her haunches at its bank. One hoof holding a weatherworn hat against her heaving chest, she wept openly, falling tears the only disturbance on the placid pond.

She shivered in the chill night air while winter cold cut her to the bone. Something warm and white and entirely out of place in the rough and uncut shrublands of the Acres’ outlying fields sat down beside her. Rarity lifted a hoof to wrap around the wailing farmer, paused, and withdrew it slowly. Instead she sidled closer to the shaking pony, haunch to haunch, and leaned a little to rest side by side against her fiancée.

Long minutes passed as the sobs and wails died away. Applejack wiped her muzzle with a shivering hoof and took a great sharp breath. “How’d you know I’d be here, Rares?”

Ripples in the water showed a tired smile cross the unicorn’s face. “You always come here to think, dearest.” She paused, her breath shallow and measured. “We missed you after the rehearsal dinner, love. I convinced the families you were just being workaholic and ran off to be sure your trees would be okay without you.” She chuckled lightly in her tinkling way and added, “They’ve seen you talking to Bloomberg enough that they believed me.”

Still clutching her hat for dear life, Applejack choked, “I’m sorry, sugar. I… It’s all happenin’ so fast. Weddin’ day’s here, ain’t it? Moment o’ truth, right? So why’d I run like a scared filly out here to the middle o’ nowhere?

“Because there’s a question you haven’t asked, Applejack. You haven’t asked it because you can’t, and because you know there’s no answer to be had.” The earth pony next to her swallowed hard and started to speak but no words came out. “You wonder what your parents would think of you. What they’d think of me, of us. And they’re not here to ask or answer.”

Applejack nodded, her jaw set and her eyes glazed. “I don't wonder, Rares. I know. You know Granny already loves you like a daughter, sugar. But Grandpa Baldwin - he was a mean cuss, ornery an' set in his ways. He'd have disowned me, run me outta town, an' carved my name right outta the family tree afore he'd admit to havin' a..." She fell silent for a moment and nudged a pebble into the calming pond, starting a new wave of ripples. "...A fillyfooler in his house. Anypony 'cept an Earth Pony'd get the same treatment, I'm 'fraid. These days we're past all that, but just a generation or two ago - you've been as welcome as Root Rot, hon. Great Grandpa and his pappy were the same way too, if'n Granny's stories are true."

"But my parents, my real Ma and Pa - they’d love you, sugarcube. For all their problems, them an' Granny were like shelter in a storm when Mac an' I were growin' up. I know they'd adore you, you’re as hardworkin’ and dedicated and generous as any Apple that’s ever been. Mare or not, unicorn or not, they’d love you like I do, Rare. I just never thought they wouldn’t be around to say it to me. And to you.” She shook her head and lowered her eyes to the rippling waters. “This here’d all be so much easier if we were already hitched, Rarity. I just…”

“Then let me make this easier on you, my dear.” Rarity cleared her throat, held her head high and took a muddy orange hoof in her own. “Rarity Belle, do you take Applejack Apple to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer, for better or worse, so long as love shall last?” She leveled her gaze, azure eyes locking with the emerald green orbs across from her own, and said in a voice ringing clear and strong, “I do.”

A single tear traced a damp path down her alabaster muzzle as she smiled. “Now, AJ, my love, our wedding day is tomorrow and Hearth’s Warming Eve is in two short weeks.” She lit her horn and from a branch high above, snapped off a twig laden with oval leaves and berries whiter than her own elegant coat. Levitating the mistletoe over their heads, she whispered, “Ask yourself, do you want to be a married mare come Hearth’s Warming? Do you want to spend the rest of our lives together, Applejack?”

Applejack’s voice was as strong as applewood and all trace of hesitation evaporated like breaths that mingled together in the winter night. “I do.” She smiled, gratefully, finally, and said, “Can I kiss the bride now?”

“Not yet, Applejack. Tonight, kiss your Rarity,” she grinned. “Tomorrow, you can kiss your bride.”

Author's Note:

TMP Prompt # 209.

Comments

[Mariacheat-Brony]

AWWWWWW so many good feelings

[GrayFox2510]

HNNNGGGGGG.

I think that sums it up just about right.
Oh, will you look at that? I ran out of my cute-type diabetes medication again thanks to you. ;p

[Diamond Sparkle]

How sweet this chapter is. *brushes teeth*

[The Princess Rarity]

HNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNG, Brunnen, you better have some cash to pay for these cavities.

[Majk]

Arrrrgh! Tea! Crackers! Salted chips!
I don't think there is anything help with the overwhelming sweetness and so help me i'm loving it.

[Drifting Heart]

i assume the oranges dont approve of thats an actual realistic approach to how someone might feel about their old fashioned family members finding out they are fillyfoolers. in my headcanon AJ's pa is a bit of homophobe too. i like to see more from this storyline.

[Red Mare]

Great story! I want to read more!

[BenjiCG]

:O UPDATE?! but i was intending on possibly sleeping at some point tonight :C
ahh well i can always go to bed at 5am again

[BenjiCG]

manly tears being shed

here's a big brohug, and a pinkie to all the big and little brothers out there who support their LGBT(-errific) siblings

[tigrean]

Daaaw that was good well done Rarity Now for the next chapter.

[Starlight Shadow]

I now ship these two f*ckers.