# A Delicate Balance

## by JapaneseTeeth

### A Jet Ring Sent, Part 1

Well, my parents seem to like Applejack just fine. That’s one more hurdle out of the way. I don’t even know how I’d have managed if they didn’t get along. Wish my dad wouldn’t have been so hard on her, though. And why does he have to keep talking about getting married? We went over that, and we decided it was too soon for that. Isn’t it?

Marriage rings are not of this stuff;

Oh, why should ought less precious, or less tough

Figure our loves

-- A Jet Ring Sent,

John Donne

“Every single time!” Spike groaned as he plucked a single, solitary cookie out of the pack. “I guess I’ll have to pick up some more.”

Twilight looked up from her studies. “You should’ve known better than to call my dad’s bluff when you only had a pair of threes.”

“I thought he was bluffing.” Spike popped the cookie into his mouth. “And I didn’t think he’d actually take them all with him!”

“Really? I thought it was obvious.”

“I thought your mom would make him leave them behind.” He sighed. “That was my last peanut butter cookie.”

“Well, you can try to win it back from him next time he visits. I’m sure you’ll figure out his tells eventually.” Twilight stood and began to browse the shelves. “I know we have a couple books on game theory and probability that would probably help you out.”

“Yeah, I’ll… uh… read up on that.” He rolled his eyes.

“You’ll have more than enough time,” Twilight said with a chuckle. “He said that next time he’d be in town would be for my wedding, which won’t be--”

“Waitwaitwait!” Spike dropped the empty cookie box. “Wedding? What wedding? Are you and Applejack getting married?! Why didn’t you tell me?!”

“Calm down, Spike!” Twilight got up from her desk and put a reassuring hoof on Spike’s shoulder. “We aren’t planning on getting married any time soon. That’s what I was trying to say. Believe me, if we ever start planning, you’ll be the first to know. Why are you so worked up about it, anyway?”

“I… uh…” Spike stared at the empty box by his feet. “It’s nothing.”

“It’s not nothing. If it was nothing you wouldn’t have reacted like that.” She sat down next to him. “Are you worried about something?”

“Uh… well… it’s just… if you two do eventually get married, what happens to me?”

“Huh?” Twilight blinked. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, you two already spend most of your free, non-study time together. If she ends up moving in or something, what am I going to do? I’d keep getting between the two of you.”

“Spike, if you’re worried that I’m going to forget about you, I won’t. You’re family, and I’m sure Applejack would understand that. I’m not quite sure what we’d do, but I’m not going to abandon you.” She put her foreleg around Spike and squeezed.

“Th-thanks.”

“Besides, Applejack likes you. She’s not going to mind having you around.” She paused. “Even if you did kinda make a mess of the farm that one time.”

“Hey, I’ve come a long way since then!” Spike gestured around the library. “I’ve been running this place for a year now. I mean, it’s sure not a farm, but now I think I can handle cleaning the library without getting the mop stuck to the ceiling.”

“You have been doing a great job minding the place while I’m out.” Twilight winked. “You think you’d be able to handle the place on your own if Applejack and I would get our own place?”

“You’re going to get your own place?

“I’m not moving out, Spike!” She tweaked the spine on the top of his head. “I said I’d tell you if I was planning anything like that. Besides, even if we would get married, it wouldn’t mean that I’d be going anywhere. And like I said, I don’t have anything planned at the moment. If I do, I’ll tell you, okay? I know that this affects you too, you know.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” He picked up the empty box and tossed it into the garbage. “I just want to stay on top of things. And besides, I know I’m not going anywhere. I am your number one assistant, after all.”

“Yes, you are.” Twilight smiled and then glanced at the clock. “Okay, Spike, I’ve got to head out to work now. If I have time afterward maybe I can swing by Sugarcube Corner and pick up some cookies for you.”

Spike’s eyes lit up. “That would be awesome!”

“But only if you sweep up while I’m gone.”

“Eh, that’s no problem at all. Your dad left crumbs everywhere, so I was planning to clean anyway. I’ll see you this afternoon.” He waved as Twilight headed out the door. “Bye!”

“Bye!”

He grinned as the door closed behind her. He went to a nearby cabinet and retrieved his gigantic chef’s hat. Time to see if he could improve on Nightlight’s salsa recipe.

“I told you once, I told you a dozen times, I don’t know when he’s gonna send the telescope!” Applejack chuckled. When Apple Bloom got something stuck in her head, it took a real jolt to get it loose. She could think of a few things that would get her sister onto a different track, but she wasn’t quite sure that she wanted to bring them up. It would be better if she could get Apple Bloom fixated on her applebucking, but at the moment that didn’t seem likely. “He’ll probably bring it with him next time he visits Twilight.”

“When’s that gonna be?” Apple Bloom wound up to buck a tree, but was paying so little attention that she missed the trunk completely.

“I just said, I don’t have any idea!” She gave Apple Bloom a nudge so that she was actually next to the tree. “Don’t worry about the telescope right now. Just focus on your buckin’.”

“I think it might be best to make a platform on the roof of the clubhouse for it,” Apple Bloom continued, “but it would be a lot less work to just point it out the window. But then it might get blocked by a branch or something.”

“Apple Bloom, pay attention!” Applejack poked her sister’s flank. “I know you’re excited about the whole telescope thing, but you’ve got to focus! I thought you wanted to learn how to do applebuckin’ properly.”

“Sorry, it’s just that it’s cool that Twilight’s dad is doin’ something like that for me.”

“It is really nice of him, isn’t it? You be sure to thank him.”

“Of course!” Apple Bloom nodded. “Maybe when you and Twilight get hitched he’ll be around more!”

“Wait just a second! Where’d you get that idea from?”

Apple Bloom gave Applejack a quizzical glance. “What idea?”

“That Twilight and I are thinkin’ about gettin’ married.”

“Well, isn’t that what you do when you’ve been goin’ out a long time?”

Applejack turned away. “Well yeah- no! Sort of. It’s kinda complicated.”

“What’s so complicated about it? Either you do it or you don’t, right?”

“It’s not that easy.” Applejack felt herself beginning to sweat. “I don’t know if we’re gonna get hitched any time soon.”

“Why not?”

“We talked about it a little bit,” Applejack said, trying to think of how to phrase things so as not to give Apple Bloom the wrong idea. “We just both ended up thinkin’ that we’re not gonna jump into that yet.”

“But… why?”

“I just told you,” Applejack said, exasperated.

“No, I mean why’d you decide to put it off? What’s keepin’ you two from doin’ it?”

“I, uh…” Applejack paused for just a bit too long as she tried to think of something.

“If y’all don’t have any reasons, then you should just go and get married already.”

“I told you, it’s not that easy!” Applejack snapped. Apple Bloom stared at her, taken aback by her sudden outburst. “Sorry, it’s just that I’m not quite sure how to explain it to you. I- I got my reasons.”

Apple Bloom narrowed her eyes. “Really?”

“Yeah.” Applejack cleared her throat. “Alright, why don’t you try buckin’ the tree again? And this time make sure you actually hit it. You’re never gonna get your magic aura right if you don’t practice.”

“Right!” Apple Bloom saluted. “I’m gonna see if I can get every apple off the tree!”

Applejack sighed in relief. Leave it to a filly to drill her with questions. Not even Twilight’s dad had pressed the matter so hard.

“Applejack should consider herself lucky,” Lyra said as she watched Twilight dust mop the shop floor. “When I went to go meet Bon Bon’s parents… Eagh!”

Twilight looked up. “What, did they not like you or something?”

“It’s not quite like that…” Lyra mumbled. “It’s more that… well, her dad’s kind of terrifying.”

Twilight ceased her cleaning regimen. “Terrifying? Why? Is he mean?”

“No, just very very intimidating,” Lyra said. “Not on purpose or anything. He was a star polo player in school, and then he was apparently like an engineer on a train or something, and I’m pretty sure he was a member of the Royal Guard for a few years too.”

“I don’t recall any of the royal guards ever being that scary,” Twilight said. “Except when I tried to sneak into the Star Swirl the Bearded Wing.”

“Well, from what I remember he thought it was too boring, so he quit to go work as a lumberjack.”

“Wow.” Twilight blinked. “He certainly lived a varied life.”

“You’re telling me,” Lyra said with a nod. “Apparently he met Bon Bon’s mother while he was working at a cherry farm. It’s a wonder Bon Bon turned out as well as she did.”

“I guess I can see why that would be intimidating,” Twilight said. “I know I’d feel some trepidation at meeting him.”

“Oh, that’s got nothing to do with it.” Lyra took a bite of her donut. “It’s that he’s built like a stump. And you know that weird grindy sound that a cart makes when you drive over a patch of gravel?”

Twilight nodded, mildly confused at what that had to do with anything.

“His voice sounds like that. It’s pretty scary. He asked me to pass the ketchup, and I was afraid he was going to throw me out of the house if I didn’t get it to him fast enough!”

Twilight scratched her head. “That sounds pretty bad. The worst my dad did was making a few cracks about when we were going to get married.”

“That’s a perfectly legitimate question!” Lyra tapped her hoof on the table. “I’m kinda curious about when you two are going to finally take the leap!” She waggled her eyebrow. “You’re kinda dragging your hooves.”

“Why is everypony asking me about that?!” Twilight spun around and began to focus on the head of the dust mop as she dragged it along the floor. “We’re not thinking about that!”

“Yeah, and chances are everypony is curious about why.” Lyra chuckled as she shook her head. “I know you think that you probably aren’t ready, but to most ponies… well, let’s just say they can’t really see anything that would hold you back.”

“W-what do you mean?”

“I mean, that you need to take a step back and look at things from somepony else’s perspective. Looking at the two of you, it’s obvious that you have something good going. Yeah, you might have only been officially going for what, like a year?”

“A year and a few weeks.”

“So yeah, a year and a bit. Which might not seem like much to you, but given that you were pretty close beforehand you’ve sort of been on an accelerated track. I’m sure you’re very much familiar with those. But the point is that the two of you look so comfortable with each other. It’s obvious that you’ve gotten over all the initial hurdles of the relationship, and you’ve gotten used to it. It isn’t exactly a surprise that they’d think you were ready to take the next step.”

“I-I wasn’t aware that we seemed so… ready for that.” Twilight watched the dust fall as she shook out the mop. “I’m just not sure that we actually are. Just… how do we know when we should start to consider it?”

“You want me to be honest?”

“Of course.”

“I think it’s never too early to start considering it. Well, you don’t want to start fantasizing about your dream wedding after two dates or anything, but I think once you’re over that hump and are comfortable in the relationship, well, it’s time to think about where you might be going.”

“But isn’t that still a bit too quick?”

“Considering it isn’t the same thing as deciding to do it. You can consider it and decide that it isn’t time yet. But what you’re doing is more along the lines of… just sort of doing your thing without considering it at all. You’re procrastinating.”

“What?!” An angry glare flashed across Twilight’s face. “I don’t do that!”

“Well, there’s no other way to say it! Have you ever really thought about it?!”

“I, uh, we talked about it a little…”

“I mean seriously considered it. Like really thought about what would happen?”

“Uh…” Twilight froze for a moment before her face fell. “I guess not.”

“Well, maybe you should give it a bit more thought. Don’t get me wrong, you don’t want to rush into it, obviously, but really, the longer you think about it, the more ready you’ll be when… uh… you’re ready?” She tapped her chin with her hoof. “You know what I mean.”

“I do.” Twilight nodded. “At least, I think I do.”

“Great!” Lyra winked. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out just fine.”

“Lyra!” Bon Bon poked her head out of the kitchen. “Get in here! I need your help with this pot of caramel!”

Lyra sighed and stood up. “Coming, Bon Bon!” She turned to Twilight. “Have fun cleaning.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “I’m sure I will.”

Twilight stared at the ceiling as she lay in bed. In theory, it was simple, but when it came to “considering” what it would mean to get married, she didn’t even know where to start. It couldn’t mean that they’d spend all their time together. Her own parents certainly didn’t. But it would mean sharing everything. Everything. The fridge. Twilight had seen the Apple Family fridge. It was horribly disorganized. They even put the fruit and vegetables in the same drawer. Would Applejack understand how important it was to keep them separate? What about when it came to cleaning the house? Applejack wasn’t a slob, by any means, but she didn’t exactly have much attention to detail.

Then again, keeping all of the rugs parallel with the wall wouldn’t be such a big deal. That image faded from her mind in favor of a picture of herself, waiting at the door, welcoming Applejack home after a long day of work. She liked that picture much more.

Lyra was right. She really did need to consider the matter.

Twilight sighed. She could think of dozens of other ponies that she’d rather discuss this matter with, but it wasn’t something that she wanted to get back to Applejack secondhoof. And when you wanted secrecy, you wanted Pinkie Pie. Even if she wasn’t the soundest source of relationship advice.

As always, Pinkie Pie’s room smelled like cake, courtesy of a half-dozen novelty cake-scented air fresheners that Pinkie had probably purchased in bulk from somewhere. It was slightly less of a mess than usual, which meant that it was still messier than just about any other room in Ponyville that the Cutie Mark Crusaders weren’t in.

“Want a cupcake, Twilight?” Pinkie held out a tray. “I made them this morning.”

“Um, no thank you. I… uh…” she sniffed one of them. “Is that mocha?”

“Sure is!”

“I guess one won’t hurt.”

“I thought so.” Pinkie nodded. “So, why did you come over here? Other than the cupcakes, obviously.”

“Well, there’s something I want to talk to you about. But you have to promise not to tell anypony else unless I tell you that it’s okay!”

Pinkie nodded, and went through her entire pantomime, which by this point probably involved pitching the key to her mouth-lock into a volcano or something.

“I know you aren’t going to talk, Pinkie. You don’t have to do all that every time.”

“But when else am I going to get to do it?”

“Um…” Twilight ignored the question and moved on. “Okay, anyway, the thing I wanted to talk about is…” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “I’m starting to really think about asking Applejack to marry me.”

“Okay, there are two things,” Pinkie said, with surprising calmness. “The first thing is that you don’t have to whisper. Mr. and Mrs. Cake had my room soundproofed so my practice parties wouldn’t wake the twins. Second-” She gasped so hard that it forced her into the air. “You’re getting MAAARRRRRRIIIEEEED! That’s so awesome! Can I make your wedding cake? Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease?!”

“Calm down!” Twilight grabbed Pinkie out of the air and put her back on the floor. “I never said that we were getting married now! I’m just starting to think about it! There isn’t even any wedding or anything planned yet.”

“That’s right, I was getting ahead of myself.” Pinkie took a few deep breaths. Twilight was impressed. Pinkie had gathered her composure together quite nicely. “You’re right. It’s too early to be thinking about the wedding.”

“Exactly,” Twilight said, glad that Pinkie recognized the situation for what it was.

“Yeah, before the wedding, you have to have a bachelorette party! And before that you have to have an engagement party! And before you can have an engagement party, you have to get engaged!” Pinkie paused for breath. “At another party! Let’s see. We’ll need cupcakes, your hot air balloon, and a dozen gallons of gasoline! Oh, and the ring. Can’t forget that. You go to the jewelers, and I’ll go get the-”

“No no no!” Twilight grabbed Pinkie as she headed for the door. “I haven’t even decided whether I’m ready to ask her to marry me! And even if I would be ready I wouldn’t need a hot air balloon for it!”

“Well, not if you want to be boring,” Pinkie snorted and plunked her bottom on the floor, crossing her forelegs. “If you don’t want my help, why are you here anyway?”

“I do want your help. Just not quite like that.” Twilight sighed. “I just want to know, what do you think about the idea? I mean, I know you want it to happen, but can you really see us like that?”

“Um, I dunno. I guess I could.” Pinkie shrugged. “I mean, it’s not that different from how you two are right now, is it?”

“I think it kind of is,” Twilight said. “I mean, right now we spend time together during the day, and it’s great. But at the end of the day we both go home to our own houses. We each have our own places that we can go back to. If we would get married, we’d both have the same place to go back to.”

“Yeah, you might get sick of each other,” Pinkie said, nodding.

“You think that would happen?!”

“Well, if you put any two ponies real close together for a long time they’ll probably get on each others nerves. Like when you guys accidentally left me and Rarity out at Dodge Junction, and we had to take that train car back to Ponyville! Normally, Rarity and I get along like pickles and peanut butter, but after a few hours, Rarity was all like ‘Argh, Pinkie why are you singing again?’ and then I said ‘but I only sang this song four times already’ and she said-”

“Okay, okay, I get it!” Twilight rubbed her temples. “That doesn’t answer my question, though. Do you think that it would work out if Applejack and I would get married?”

“You want an honest answer?”

“Yes.”

“Are you suuuure?”

“Yes, Pinkie.”

“Are you really really really really really-”

“YES!”

“Okay.” Pinkie cleared her throat dramatically. “I have no idea!”

“Ugh!” Twilight’s entire face twitched. “That doesn’t help me at all!”

“However!” Pinkie held up a hoof. “Wow, I sound so smart when I talk like that! Anyway, however, I don’t think it really matters much what I think about it. I mean, before you ever told Applejack about how you felt, I wouldn’t have been sure that it would’ve worked out at all, ‘cause you’re an egghead, and she’s… not.”

“Wait a minute.” Twilight thought for a moment, searching her memories. “Back when I told you that I had feelings for Applejack, you told me to go for it!”

“I did?” Pinkie innocently looked away from Twilight. “I, uh, I don’t remember that.”

“I do. I was helping you ice cupcakes for a birthday party and I accidentally drew Applejack’s cutie mark. You encouraged me to ask her out! Why would you do that if you didn’t think it would work?!”

“Well, I just said that I didn’t know that it would work! You can’t know how something is gonna happen until it happens. Besides, it worked out, didn’t it?”

“It did,” Twilight admitted.

“Like I said, it doesn’t really matter what I think.” Pinkie grinned. “I think that getting married is kinda like what happened between you and Applejack. Whether it works or not depends on whether you two make it work. Would you do whatever you could to make it a happy marriage?”

“Of course!”

“What about Applejack?”

Twilight smiled. “Thanks.”

Pinkie shrugged. “I don’t have any idea of what you’d have to actually do though. You’d have to ask Mr. and Mrs. Cake about that.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Twilight said as she stood. “Thanks again. I have a lot to think about.”

“This soup is really good, Spike,” Twilight sipped daintily at her spoon. “You didn’t put any rocks in here, did you?”

“Nah, I tried, but they keep sinking to the bottom. I’d have to grind them up, and I don’t have time for that.”

Twilight peered nervously over the rim of her bowl. “You’re sure you got all the gems out, right?”

“Obviously!” Spike said indignantly, “especially after what happened last time.” He picked up a gem out of the pile next to his plate and dipped it in his bowl before taking a bite. “I found the recipe in that book that Carrot Top checked out a few days ago. She brought it back this afternoon and said that I had to try making this soup. I think she probably said it so I’d buy some carrots from her, though.”

“Well, it is very good.” Twilight held the spoon to her nose and inhaled deeply. “It just smells…” she sniffed again, “...like smoke?”

“Ah!” Spike’s eyes widened. “I forgot about the rolls! They’re burning!” He leaped off the chair and hurried into the kitchen.

Twilight shook her head. Even with all his newfound responsibility, Spike could still be a bit absentminded sometimes. She chuckled to herself as she recalled a story Applejack had told her. She had accidentally burnt a pie, causing Granny Smith to lecture her for an hour and a half. According to Applejack, she had never burned another pie ever again. If Applejack were here now, there’d probably be a pie on the table right now.

She closed her eyes, and she could almost smell it. It was a strange thought. In a year from now, it might very well be Applejack sitting across the table from her. But then where would Spike sit? Maybe they could space themselves evenly or something. It would take some getting used to, and she couldn’t make the table reflectively symmetrical anymore, but she could make it rotationally symmetrical. Applejack would probably end up throwing off the pattern, but Twilight found herself really not caring. There were more important things to worry about. Like whether Applejack would like Spike’s cooking.

The sound of Spike kicking the kitchen door open jolted Twilight out of her thoughts. Spike held up a platter of slightly overly-toasty dinner rolls.

“I managed to catch them before they burst into flame!” He turned over one of the rolls, revealing the bottom to be rather charred. “Mostly. Oh well, the top half is still edible. Just have to put more jelly on it.” He looked up. “Twilight, are you okay?”

Twilight blinked. “Huh? Yeah, I’m fine. I was just thinking about something.” She snatched one of the rolls with her magic and took a large, crunchy bite. “Wow, these are, uh… A little overdone.”

Spike shook his head. “I really need to fix the timer on the stove.”

Twilight was still skipping along as she entered the chocolate shop. She had spent most of yesterday (and a decent amount of the last night) following Lyra’s advice. With each passing moment, things were coming together more and more. Applejack was a reasonable pony. There was absolutely no reason to believe that the two of them wouldn’t be able to come to an agreement regarding any potential issues. As a matter of fact, she had already started to consider how to go about popping the question.

As the door swung shut behind her, she found Bon Bon staring at her.

“Good morning,” Bon Bon said, neither angry nor excited. “You look quite happy this morning.”

Twilight nodded energetically. “Well, I was just thinking about what Lyra said yesterday, and-”

“That’s what I was afraid of,” Bon Bon said with a sigh.

“Huh?” Twilight froze in place. “What do you mean? Was what she said wrong?”

“No, nothing that severe. It’s just that… I don’t want her to give you the wrong impression.”

“What do you mean?” Twilight cocked her head to the side. It had never occurred to her to doubt any of Lyra’s advice. Lyra and Bon Bon were perfectly happy together, after all.

“It’s just that…” Bon Bon sighed. “Why don’t we go back here for a moment?” She began to walk toward the storage room, beckoning Twilight to follow her.

“In here?” Twilight asked as she stepped inside.

“Yes, I’d rather err on the side of privacy.” Bon Bon closed the door. “Now then, as I was saying, Lyra isn’t entirely wrong in what she told you-”

“Wait a minute,” Twilight said, narrowing her eyes. “How do you know about that?”

“The kitchen door was open, and you were talking louder than you thought you were.” Relax, Twilight. I have no intention of telling anypony about anything the two of you said. That is your own personal business and I’m not such a jerk that I would spread it around town.”

“Whew,” Twilight relaxed. “So, uh, what was it that you wanted to tell me?”

“Listen, Twilight, what Lyra said was, for the most part, true. However, she is also a hopeless optimist, and may have given you the idea that marriage is quite a bit easier than it actually is. However, I realize that I may be overstepping my bounds, as I am only your employer. If you would rather-”

“It’s fine,” Twilight blurted. “Er, uh, I don’t mind. I think I’ll need all the help I can get. If you had something to add, I’d love to hear it.”

“Very well.” Bon Bon cleared her throat. “From what I heard of your conversation, Lyra is right. It is certainly not too early to begin considering the implications of marriage. But as usual, she neglected to make it clear exactly how much there is to consider. She makes it sound like just another part of life, like deciding whether to move to a new place, or what type of job to take. But it is… more than that.”

“More? What do you mean?”

“What I mean is that it’s far too easy to think of getting married as simply sharing your things. Your house, your refrigerator, your room, your bed, those sorts of things. But there are some things, not necessarily an actual object or a place, but things that you consider almost a part of yourself.”

“I’m not quite sure what you mean.”

“I suppose I should give you an example.” Bon Bon suddenly glowered at Twilight. “But you cannot breathe a word to anypony else.”

“Of course not!” Twilight raised a hoof. “Cross my heart, and hope to-”

“That won’t be necessary.” Bon Bon grabbed Twilight’s hoof and put it back on the ground. “You’ve worked here long enough that I can trust you to keep your word without the… theatrics.” She cleared her throat. “When I first opened up this shop, things were… rough. Lyra was still finishing up her classes in Canterlot, and I was left to run the shop.

“I thought that I wouldn’t be able to do it on my own, so I hired another pony to help. Needless to say, it didn’t work out. She lacked the self control necessary to not eat my merchandise. I will spare you the details, but I was forced to let her go and try to run the shop on my own. After that, I refused to trust anypony else with it. It was no problem at first. Even after Lyra returned, she understood why I needed to keep that place for myself. That was the one thing that I could never bring myself to share with her.

“I shared everything with her, everything but my chocolate-making. It was transparently obvious that she hated that and wanted to be part of it somehow, but it took me forever to see it. One night we had a fight, and some things were said that we both regretted. But when it was over I realized that I needed to be able to trust her with everything. I couldn’t go on trying to keep such a large part of my life to myself. Once I realized that I was willing to bring her into that, I finally knew there was nothing left keeping us from spending the rest of our lives together.”

Bon Bon took a deep breath. “If you can only remember one thing, and I know you can, remember that when you ask somepony to marry you, you are not merely asking them to share your home or your time or your belongings. You are telling them that you are willing to share yourself, that you belong to them, and asking if they will belong to you, too. When you marry, you belong to each other, and if you aren’t willing to do that, you ought to reconsider whether you want to ask. Do you understand?”

Twilight nodded. “Yes.”

“Good. Now that that’s taken care of, I have several trays of almond bark for you to put behind the counter.” She opened the storage room door and trotted out. “I’ll be in the kitchen if you need me for anything.”

“How do you like that pie, Spike?” Applejack asked. “I just picked those apples this afternoon. It doesn’t get much more fresh than that.”

“It’s awesome!” Spike shoved another bite into his mouth and turned to Twilight. “We should have Applejack over for dinner more often!” He swallowed. “Can I have another piece?”

“You’ve had three already,” Twilight said, sliding the pie to the other side of the table. It threw off the symmetry a bit, but if Spike ate much more his stomach would throw the symmetry off even more. “We’ll save the rest and eat it tomorrow.”

“Awww.” Spike crossed his arms. “It’s not as good the day after, though.” He turned to Applejack. “We need to eat it now, when it’s still fresh, right?”

Applejack rolled her eyes. “Well, it is better right after you bake it…” Spike’s eyes lit up. “But Twilight’s right; if you eat much more pie we’re gonna have to roll you around everywhere. It might not be the best after spendin’ the night in the fridge, but it’ll still be pretty good.”

“See, Applejack agrees with me!” Twilight smiled smugly. “You can have more pie tomorrow.”

“Fine,” Spike snorted. “I guess I’ll go get started washing the dishes, then.” He hopped off his chair, and wobbled back and forth a bit as a result of his newfound girth.

“Actually, you can just leave the dishes by the sink,” Applejack said. “I’ll wash ‘em. You two did most of the cookin’ after all.”

“Great! I’ll be able to catch up on my comics before I go to bed.” He hopped up, and began collecting the empty plates.

“Applejack, you don’t have to do that,” Twilight said. “I can manage the dishes just fine!”

“Nah, it’s no problem at all.” She shook her head. “You two make way less of a mess than Apple Bloom does. You’re way neater about cookin’, too. Granny can’t cook anything without usin’ every pan in the house. Takes forever to clean up. Especially if Apple Bloom helps.”

Twilight scratched her head. “If Apple Bloom helps Granny Smith cook, or helps you clean?”

“Either,” Applejack said. “If she helps with both it takes twice as long.”

“Well, if I help, hopefully it’ll go quicker.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure!” Spike called from the top of the stairs. “Sometimes she makes me wash everything twice! I think she can see food on the dishes that isn’t visible to dragons or something.”

“That’s only when you’re in a rush, Spike!” She shook her head. “You’d think by now he’d be able to see the film on the glasses.”

“Ha, if you think that’s bad, consider yourself lucky. Sometimes when Apple Bloom’s doin’ the dishes, she gets distracted and forgets to wash the inside of the cups. Come on, let’s see how fast we can get this finished up. Oh, and thanks for invitin’ me over for a real dinner. Stoppin’ in for lunch is nice, but something about sittin’ down and havin’ a nice meal. We gotta do this more often.”

Twilight smiled. “Yes, we certainly do.”

Applejack kicked the front door of her house open. “I'm home, everypony!” Then she saw the kitchen, and immediately considered turning around and going back to Twilight's for a bit longer. To say that a tornado had rampaged through the kitchen would have been an insult to tornados; at least they tended to pick up some of the debris and dump it somewhere else. Whatever the hay Apple Bloom had gotten up to, she had at least kept the damage confined to the kitchen.

She examined the large pot that sat on the stove. Her experience told her that the... substance it contained had bubbled over and then been left to bake onto both the sides of the pot as well as the stove top. It wasn't flammable, whatever it was, as the char around the burners hadn't trailed back up to the pot. She carefully lifted the lid and sniffed. Whatever it was that filled the bottom third of the pot, it sure wasn't food.

“Ew.” She immediately replaced the lid. “What on earth did everypony get up to while I was out?”

“Eehh?” The living room door swung open as Granny Smith poked her head into the kitchen. “Oh, Applejack. You're back! Apple Bloom brought 'er friends over for dinner. They wanted to try makin' themselves some soup. They didn't get any cutie marks for it, though.”

“Yeah, I coulda guessed,” Applejack said grimly. “Why didn't you make them clean it up?”

“I did make 'em clean up! And they did.” She scratched her chin. “Mostly.”

Applejack looked again at the mess and tried to imagine what it had looked like before. It wasn't pretty. “Where's Big Macintosh? He'd never let those fillies leave the place lookin' like this.”

“Oh, he's out with Cheerilee. They went to that fancy place in town, I think.”

“What, that was today?” Applejack groaned and pulled her hat over her eyes. “I'm sorry, Granny. If I woulda realized that you were gonna be stuck here with those three fillies I coulda rescheduled or something.”

“No, no. I won't hear of that!” Granny Smith shook her head so hard that Applejack was afraid her head would pop off. “You gotta get out of the house to be with your very special somepony. I can clean this up.”

“Well, I'm helpin',” Applejack said. “You try to clean this up yourself and you'll be here all night. Apple Bloom is gonna hear about this when she gets back from her crusadin'.”

“Eh, don't worry yourself,” Granny said as she hobbled over to the sink. “I already tanned 'er hide good over it. How'd your date with what’s-her-name go?”

“It was fun. Spike can make really good nachos.”

“Spike? He's that... that young lizard, right?”

“He's a dragon, Granny. We didn't do anything particularly interesting, but it was good to just spend a bit of time with her just doin' regular stuff, you know?”

“Hah, you know you got a winner when y'all can do regular stuff and still have a good time!” Granny chuckled. “I remember back your grandpa and I spent near three whole days just peelin' bushels of apples for one of the reunions. It was a ton of fun.”

“I guess I know what you mean. We spent like an hour doin' the dishes. Most fun I've had doin' the dishes in a long time.” She eyed the crusty “soup” that coated the stove. “Wouldn't mind havin' Twilight around while we clean this up. It would go a lot faster and probably be a bit more enjoyable.”

“You oughta bring her around for dinner sometime. I bet Apple Bloom would behave if we had company. And Twilight could get to know the family better.”

“Huh,” Applejack thought for a moment. “That might be a pretty good idea. I think y'all would enjoy havin' her around.”

“We sure would, dearie. It's always nice when she comes around.” She nudged Applejack and winked conspicuously. “I sure wouldn't mind if she spent more time here.”

“Neither would- wait a minute, Granny. What are you implyin'?”

“I ain't implyin' anything,” Granny said with a chortle. “I'm just sayin' it would be nice if Twilight was around more.”

“Alright then,” Applejack reached under the sink and retrieved a sponge and a bottle of dish soap. “Let's get on cleanin' this up.”

It would be nice havin' Twilight around all the time, she thought. If she can turn even the most boring everyday tasks into something not so bad... maybe it's time that we- No. Not time to be thinkin' about that yet. Much as I'd like to…

“Spike! Spiiiike!”

Spike groaned and reluctantly put down his comic book. He recognized the tenor of Twilight’s voice; the volume and slight scratchiness at the back of her throat only manifest in two situations. Either he was in trouble, or Twilight had something urgent to talk to him about. He couldn’t remember having damaged anything, and he had cleaned up really well after his latest attempt at making salsa had gone awry. Even so, he braced himself as he headed downstairs. There was a pretty good chance that he’d end up spending the day doing chores.

“What is it, Twilight?” He tried to sound chipper, but after a long day of scraping dried tomato off of the stove, it didn’t come easily. “I was in the middle of reading the new Daring Do comic! She was playing poker against Cabelleron and was all in, bluffing with a pair of threes!”

“Ooh, that’s a good issue!” Twilight said. “Especially when she-”

“Don’t tell me!” He waved his arms so emphatically he almost fell off of the stairway. “I’ll read it myself! What is it you wanted me for? I already cleaned the kitchen twice!”

“It’s nothing like that, Spike. I just need to talk to you about something. It shouldn’t take long.” She took a seat next to the table and gestured for Spike to join her. Sitting on the table was a plate of cookies. “You know how I told you yesterday that if I was ever considering moving forward with Applejack, I’d tell you?”

Spike nodded dumbly, and went straight for the cookies.

“Well, I’ve been thinking about it, and I’ve decided that I’m going to ask Applejack to marry me!”

“Oh, that’s nice.” Then he stopped, a cookie halfway to his mouth. “Wait, what? You’re getting married already?! Where am I going to go?! Is she going to fill the basement with fertilizer? Is she going to do all the cooking? How am I going to compete with that?!”

“Relax!” Twilight telekinetically grabbed the cookie out of Spike’s claw and shoved it into his mouth. “It’s not like I’ve actually asked her or anything. And I’m not in any hurry to propose either.”

“Okay, okay,” Spike sighed in relief, blowing a shower of crumbs across the table. “So what are you going to do?”

“Well, I’m going to ask her eventually. I’ve decided that much. There’s still a lot to think about, though. And I have to figure out exactly how I’m going to go about this.”

Spike groaned. “Not this again!”

“Not what again?”

“When you were first asking her out, it took you like a month to figure out ‘how’ you wanted to do it,” he grumbled. “You aren’t going to fill the whole house with charts again, are you?”

“No, Spike,” Twilight said with a chuckle. “I learned my lesson last time. All that stuff about trying to figure out how to ensure a good answer? I’m not going to bother with it. I know there’s a risk, but whatever her answer will be, we’ll be able to work something out.” Twilight’s lip quivered. “Even if she says no.”

“You think Applejack might turn you down?” Spike asked through a mouthful of cookie. His comic was all but forgotten. This was way more relevant.

“Well, not exactly. She wouldn’t dump me just for asking her. It would be kinda awkward, but I think we could work through it.” She sighed. “I’m not worried so much about getting the answer I want. I mean, I want her to say ‘yes’, obviously, but I can’t concern myself with that. I need to think of a way to ask her that will show her just how much I want to make her part of my life!” She took a deep breath. “I don’t suppose you have any ideas?”

“I got nothing.” Spike shrugged. “You’re the one who spent hours studying all this stuff.”

“I thought so. Didn’t hurt to ask.” Twilight shrugged. “I don’t know when I’ll finally get around to popping the question for real, but I’m going do it! I just thought you should know. I mean, it affects you quite a bit, after all. If you ever want to talk about it, just let me know, okay?”

“Yeah, of course.” Spike scratched his head. “I… I guess I’d have to think about it a bit. I wasn’t really expecting this to happen so soon.”

“Well, you’ll have more than enough time to think it over. It’ll probably be a while before I build up the nerve to actually do it. You wouldn’t happen to know of any reference books that deal with different ways to propose, would you?”

“They’re in the same section as the relationship help- wait a minute. I thought you weren’t going to do that again!”

Twilight chuckled. “I just want to get some ideas of what to do, okay? If I start going overboard again, you have to set me straight, alright?”

“Oh yeah, I can do that.”

“Great. You can get back to your comic now. You’re going to like it, trust me.”

Spike nodded slowly and started up the stairs. “Yeah, I’m sure I will,” he said absently. He reached his room and opened the comic to the page where he had left off. He stared at the page, but didn’t really read it. There were other things on his mind.