Variables (written by OtterMatt) (obsolete)

by Spabble

Rating: teen
Tags: Romance, Slice of Life
Length: 20307

Twilight and Caramel seek to find out where the stable ground is in their relationship; how to account for responsibility, honesty, loyalty, respect, and devotion; and what it truly means to love another.

Only a few months into their unusual relationship, Twilight and Caramel seek to find out where the stable ground is in their relationship; how to account for responsibility, honesty, loyalty, respect, and devotion; and what it truly means to love another.

Edited by Spabble.

- - - - -

Hey, everyone. OtterMatt here. Just for the record, I’m not coming back to FimFic. Not ever. I’m sorry to say it, but my life has moved on, as it were, and writing just isn’t a part of it anymore. That being said, I love these stories of mine very much. There’s a lot of myself that I put into them, and at least a couple people have told me that these stories meant a lot to them as well. So, for those people, and for anyone else who enjoys my work in the future, I’m charging my friend Spabble here with curating my completed stories. Thank you all for the love, the faves, and the support as I grew and learned. Keep doing what you love, and the best of luck to you all.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2014-08-12 19:32:31 UTC

1 – Wrong for all the Right Reasons

Caramel had unwittingly been part of a simple social experiment, and somewhere along the line, it had all gone wonderfully, wonderfully right.

Nearly three months had passed since the fateful day when he first got the chance to sit down and talk to Twilight Sparkle, the striking unicorn mare who now occupied his thoughts nearly every day.  Three months had passed since the night that had precipitated such a drastic change in his life.  While she had struggled with the repercussions of their tryst, he had dealt with rejection and misery.  He had been ignored and set aside by the adorable librarian, feeling like he was worthless, only to have all of his doubt and pain countered tenfold when she revealed the news that he was going to be a father, and his life was only made better by their blossoming relationship.

To the farm pony, Twilight was the light in his sky, whether Celestia’s sun was up there or not.  His fellow workers constantly ribbed him about his crush, and even Applejack couldn’t stifle a giggle at his blissful expression seemingly every time she saw him.  His new enthusiasm was infectious, and he worked with a lighthearted energy that made the midwinter days fly by—especially as he looked forward to the precious weekend days that he would spend with his marefriend.

With most of the fields sleeping beneath their blankets of snow, the workload around Sweet Apple Acres was significantly reduced.  Caramel was one of the few hired hooves who stayed on year-round, most of the others taking vacations or other jobs during the non-growing season.  It certainly didn’t take more than him and the Apple family to tend to the small, protected grove of winter squashes and root vegetables, and much of his time was spent in maintenance or repairs on the farm equipment and buildings.  It made for less focused work, but it gave him time to think, something he was never able to do much of while doing harder labor.

Despite his well-deserved reputation for clumsiness, the stallion was very skilled with his hooves.  For example, he could easily take apart the entire snowplow he used to clear the pathways, clean and refinish several pieces of it, and put it back together—though usually on the second try, after leaving out one crucial pin halfway through the first assembly.  That was much more his style of luck.

He finished dusting off the plow he had just worked on as his ears twitched to catch the sound of hooves crunching in the snow.  Just as he locked the wheels in place, Applejack rounded the doorway and looked around the newly reorganized storage barn.

She whistled appreciatively as she trotted to his side.  “Dang, it does look a mite better in here now, Caramel.”

He chuckled.  “Aww, it’s nothin’, boss.”

“Got some plans for this weekend?”

Caramel smiled.  “Actually, yes.  Twilight has to go to Canterlot for some sort of lesson with the princess, and she’s going to show me around the area while we’re there.”

“That’s big.  Gonna meet her folks?”

“I-I—um, ah…  Hoo…” he gasped as Applejack’s comment sank into his head.  “I don’t know; we never talked about it.”

Applejack laughed at his shell-shocked expression, tousling his mane roughly to shake him out of it.  “Don’t worry too much about it, sugarcube.  They’re great ponies.  It’s her brother you gotta watch out for,” she said, winking and nudging him in the side.

“I—her brother?  Why?”

“Oh, he might be a bit protective, bein’ her older sibling and all.  He and Twilight are mighty close.  That, and he’s the Prince of the Crystal Empire and standing Commander of the Equestrian Royal Guard.”

Caramel gulped audibly, his eyes almost pure white and as wide as saucers.

Applejack doubled over laughing.  “Oh, sugarcube, Ah didn’t—ahahaha—Ah didn’t mean to scare you, oh—phew—Celestia have mercy…”  She trailed off, noticing that his expression hadn’t changed.  “Uh, Caramel?  Caramel?”  She waved her hoof in front of his face to no effect.

“GahIdidn’twhatthe—” he blurted out as Applejack bounced her hoof off his nose, breaking him out of his horrified trance.  “AJ, I can’t meet them!” he whined, his voice pitiful.  “She hasn’t told them yet!  They’re going to meet the stallion that got their daughter and sister pregnant, and her parents will kill me and their son will cover it up so nopony ever finds me!”

Her curious stare seemed to burrow right between his eyes, making Caramel unsure if she was regarding him with more amusement or confusion.  “Caramel, relax,” she ordered, encouraging him to breathe.  “Look, if Twilight was worried about their reaction, then Ah’m sure she would have already told her family.”  He danced nervously on his hooves, not really convinced.  “Look,” she sighed, “even if they did take it bad, would you say Twi’s worth it?”

He suddenly went still, mulling over her words as he stuttered through several attempts at a response.  He cocked his head over to the other side, his expression intense and contemplative.  “AJ, do you believe in love at first sight?”

Applejack blinked, her head pulling back in surprise at the question.  “Well, I don’t rightly know.  I suppose it’s possible…”

“Because I don’t—didn’t.  Not before.  But if I’m willing to put up with the worst possible case with her family, what does that make it?”

“Well, do you love her?”

He thought silently, the enormity of the word weighing down on his mind.

“What would you do for her, Caramel?  Maybe that’s the better thing to think about,” she said, patting him on the shoulder and turning to leave.  “Get outta here, colt, you’re finished for the day.  Go have a great time in Canterlot!”

As she disappeared from sight around the barn’s doorway, Caramel simply stood in place next to his mended farm implements, surrounded by the smell of hay and his thoughts.

Twilight sat in the Ponyville Café, idly chewing at her few remaining hayfries and glancing across the table to where Caramel sat, his own sandwich sitting half-eaten in front of him.  Since they had sat down for dinner—no, more like since they had started dating—his eyes had rarely left her.  He simply watched her with an intensity that defied her ability to describe.  She stared at him, wrestling with the Equestrian language.

He watches me like he’s afraid I’ll disappear—no, too desperate.  He looks at me like he’s never seen me before—nah, that’s too cliché.He looks at me like he’s hungry—eh, that’s slightly creepy.

As she worked through her ideas, the focus drew a concentrated frown onto her face.  Caramel’s head cocked to the side.  “Twilight, something wrong?”

Twilight shook herself back into the moment, thinking merely to brush aside the matter, but she stopped.  Well, she thought, I guess it wouldn’t hurt to get an answer from him…  She met his gaze evenly.  “Caramel,” she asked, “why are you always looking at me so intently?”

He wrinkled his nose.  “Huh, that’s sort of an odd question.  Nopony’s ever asked me that before.”

She giggled.  “Do you stare at everypony like that, then?  That must get awkward at the bank.”

Caramel laughed at her humor.  “No, just you.  I never really thought about it.  I just like looking at you more than anything else around me.”  He set his elbows on the table and lowered his head into his hooves.  “I guess it’s because I like what I see.”

Twilight smiled as a warmth spread through her body and up into her cheeks.  His response was just so typical: simple and honest, like the thought that he could embellish his feelings had never actually occurred to him.  It contributed a lot to her attraction to the farming stallion.  Being a bookish pony unaccustomed to romance or dating, Twilight was constantly surprised by the strength of Caramel’s effect on her.

The stallion smiled at her blush for a minute before his face fell slightly.  “Hey, Twi?  I don’t suppose you told your parents about us already and just didn’t mention it to me?”

She reached across the table, taking his hooves in hers.  “Are you a bit nervous?” she asked.

He shook his head.  “Nope, extremely,” he said.  “I’m a bit terrified, actually.”

“Don’t worry.  I wouldn’t try to surprise my family with something if I wasn’t at least pretty sure that they’d take the news well.”

He pulled back one of his hooves and ran it awkwardly through his mane.  “Yeeeaaah…”

“Hey,” she said, pulling his focus back to her, “I like you, remember.  They’ll come around, no matter what.  You can do this, and we’ll all be better off once it’s done.”

His smile returned, calm and easy as he stared into her eyes.  “For you, Twi, I’d do just about anything.”

“Would you finish that sandwich so we can go home?” she teased, her eyes twinkling in the afternoon sunlight.

He laughed into his hoof.  “Nah.  I gotta draw the line somewhere.”

Twilight stood.  “Well then, let’s go.”

Caramel dropped enough bits on the table to cover their meal and trotted eagerly after his marefriend, tugging his cloak over his shoulders with his teeth as Twilight floated hers gracefully across her withers using her magic.

They walked side by side down the snow-covered streets, using the cold as their excuse to keep their flanks against each other.  They passed out of the town square, bantering back and forth lightly.  Caramel quickly switched sides to keep the wind off Twilight, and she walked with her head against his neck, nuzzling him as they approached the library.

The ponies made it in the door, shutting out the cold and shaking the slush from their hooves as Twilight conjured up a roaring fire in the fireplace.  They both trotted over to curl up on the large throw rug on the floor, nestling in against each other as the flames began to dispel the chill of the winter evening.

Caramel started tugging at a nearby blanket, attempting to arrange it over the two of them as Twilight scanned the nearby bookshelves for inspiration.  “Where were we last?” she asked.

“We fuff fimiffd—pah,” he said before spitting out the blanket.  “We just finished the last Daring Do book.”

She nodded, looking back to a shelf loaded with all of her old favorites from her foalhood.  “Well, something new then.  Any ideas?”

“Awww, you know I’m always fine with whatever you pick.”

Twilight giggled and levitated down a thin book, one barely more than a couple dozen pages and looking a bit worn for use.  “Well then.  I’ve always loved this one.”

Caramel laid his head down on his hooves, and settled in eagerly against Twilight, listening attentively as his marefriend shared her favorite passion in the whole world with him.

Her voice flowed out, soft and strong.  “The Wainscott Weasel…”

Caramel sighed happily as the book flipped closed and the pale purple aura faded away, leaving the two in the firelight, listening to the logs quietly crackling.

“Did you like it?” Twilight asked quietly as she settled down against the rug.

“I did,” he responded.  “It was beautiful, but tragic at the same time.  They were from two different worlds, and no matter how much they wanted to be together, they couldn’t, but he still kept coming back…”

Twilight nuzzled under his chin.  “But sometimes things work out okay.”

“Yeah, sometimes.”

Caramel tilted his head down until he could bring his muzzle gently against hers, touching their lips together.  He watched his marefriend’s eyes close as she sank into the kiss, murring happily against his mouth.  He closed his own eyes, letting himself focus only on the feeling of Twilight against him.  In the cold night, the warmth of the fire and her body were pleasantly comforting, and the way her breathing jumped when he nipped at her lips with his teeth made him forget everything else around him.  She pressed harder against him, coaxing his lips apart with her tongue, gently but firmly working its way in to twist against his own in a way that would have left him weak-kneed had he been standing.

He finally pulled back for a breath, watching his mare.  Her ears were back against her head, and her face was flushed as she took a deep breath.  She stared intently at him, her magenta eyes meeting his.  “Um… Caramel?” she whispered.

“Yeah?” he asked, slightly apprehensive of what he suspected was to follow.

“Do—would you want to, maybe, stay here tonight?”

The stallion caught himself just before letting out a sigh of frustration, forcing himself to exhale normally without giving anything away in his expression.  “I dunno, Twi, we’ve got an early start to tomorrow.  I should probably get to bed before too long,” he said instead, trying to keep his tone bright enough to keep from offending her.

Her face fell nonetheless, almost breaking Caramel’s heart.  “Oh.  Well, I suppose you’re right,” she said slowly, turning off to the side to look at the fireplace instead.

Caramel put a hoof gently to her cheek, pulling her head back around to look at her.  “Hey, it’s not like that,” he assured her.  “I’m going to meet your family tomorrow, and I’m already pretty nervous…”

Twilight’s expression softened.  “Of course.  I’m sorry, Caramel.  I didn’t think about that.”

He leaned in and gave her one last, intense kiss.  “I’ll see you here, bright and early in the morning.”

“I’ll be here.  Good night, Caramel.”

“Good night, Twi.”

Even with the slightly sobering farewell, Caramel’s spirits were still very high as he trotted through the plowed streets of Ponyville, heading for his apartment.  He passed by darkened houses and closed businesses, the only useful light coming from streetlamps along the way—and from Ponyville’s one and only nightclub, the Hayloft.  Caramel had passed by the place so many times he had lost count, and every time it seemed to be a pleasant venue.  There was never overly loud music coming from it, and everypony inside seemed to be having a good time, not sullen or drunkardly.

Tonight, the doors were shut against the cold, making the building seem more subdued than normal, and out front he recognized Daisy and Lily, the twins who owned the flower shop downtown.  He gave them a jovial nod as he trotted along, only to stop short at the venom in the voice that followed him.

“Well, would you look at that stallion.  Got what he wanted, and now he’s off home.”

Caramel turned, confused.  “Excuse me?”

The two approached him, scowls on their faces.  “You heard me,” Daisy challenged, the smell  of alcohol apparent on her breath.  “We know you got Twilight knocked up.”

Lily rounded on him from the other side.  “And we know that you aren’t married, or planning to be.  Do you commonly use mares for fun, or is she the first?”

Caramel backpedaled from between the sisters, unsure of how to deflect their anger.  “I don’t—what?  No!  We didn’t even—”

“You make me sick,” Daisy spat.  “A real stallion would at least take responsibility for what he did.”

“But, you know, you just go have your fun,” Lily said as they turned to leave, wobbling slightly.  “Whatever.  But don’t think any other mares in town are going to give you a chance after you lose interest in her.”

Caramel stood dumbfounded, his face a mask of shock as their words cut into him.  He stared at nothing as they disappeared around a corner and left him alone.

What was that about?

His head spinning and his cheer forgotten, he turned to make the rest of his walk home, unaware that across the street a cloaked white mare was frowning and walking the other way, back along the path he had come from.

“Hey, Caram—woah.”  Twilight paused and stared, slightly worried at the sight of her coltfriend.  His eyes were bloodshot and baggy, but his coat and mane looked fine.  It looked as if his body hadn’t even touched a bed during the night.

“Hey, Twi,” he said groggily, “I packed a few things.”  He nodded back to indicate his saddlebags.

“Are…  Are you all right?”

His head cocked to the side.  “Yeah, why?”

Twilight floated her saddlebag into place on her back.  “Because you look like you haven’t slept at all.  Are you really that nervous about meeting my family?”

His mouth closed suddenly as his brain processed what she had said.  “Yes.  I mean, kinda.  Yeah, I didn’t sleep much last night.  Guess I was just pretty excited.”

“Are you sure you still want to go?  We can reschedule…”

“Nono, now is fine.  You’ve got lessons with Celestia, and your family will be together in town.  It’ll be a pain if we have to reschedule.”

“Oookay…” she muttered, keeping a close eye on him as they walked to the train station.

Mere minutes after they had boarded the train and found their seats, Caramel was out cold, his head resting on her shoulder.  Gentle hints of a snore sounded on each exhale, making her smile.  At least he was getting some rest.

The unexpected time to herself gave her a chance to reflect on the tan-coated stallion beside her.  He was somehow more than a coltfriend and less than a husband.  He was her new best friend and also the father of her unborn foal.  She knew he was in for at least some of a rough time from her family.  Even if her father didn’t want to scare him a bit, Shining Armor would, and he’d claim that it was his right as her big brother with the same smug-yet-adorable expression that he’d used after he chased off her bullies in school.

Of course, Twilight would ask Shining to go easy on Caramel, but what reason was she going to give?  Was it because Caramel was her mate?  Just because they were going to have a foal together?  Was it… because she loved him?

Twilight had never gone so far as to say it, not to Caramel.  As much as she had wanted to sometimes, it was a conscious choice on her part, to keep from scaring him.  While she had no idea how the idea of having a mare’s devotion could be scary to a stallion, her friends had assured her that moving to that confession too quickly could have disastrous results.

The thing was, though, she was pretty sure that she did love him.  There was nopony else she would prefer to spend time with, and the longer they were together the more her bed began to feel too large and empty at night after he left.  And now, here he was going with her to meet her family.  While normally, that might not seem such a huge step for most relationships, the commitment it entailed seemed magnified in light of her primary news.  How committed was he?  Was he intent on starting a family with her?

Before her thoughts could really start to weigh down on her mind, Caramel shifted slightly against her side, murmuring in his sleep and wrapping his foreleg around hers.  The sight made Twilight smile, banishing her fears and doubts for the time being.  This was really all there was to him.  There was no guise, no façade.  A calmness came over the unicorn as she settled her head against his and let her eyes drift shut for the remaining hours of the trip.

Twilight shook Caramel back awake, regretting the need to do so even as the train began to slow as it pulled into the station.  He shook out his mane, rubbing the sleepiness out of his eyes with a massive yawn.

Looking and feeling much improved, the stallion practically bounded after Twilight as she trotted down familiar streets.  She glanced around, pointing out the sights as she led her coltfriend on an impromptu tour of the upper business district of Canterlot.  The streets wound around, following ancient paths, leading ever upwards and inwards towards the edifice of the Royal Palace.

Caramel’s gaze swung this way and that as his marefriend pointed out item after item along the way, from shops she frequented to banners proclaiming social events she remembered—even if she hadn’t gone to them herself.  In a dizzying sort of way, he was getting a great snapshot into Twilight’s early life.  The way her voice pitched up nostalgically, the gasp of excitement as she remembered some important event in her life—it made the whole trip worthwhile for him.

He looked up as Twilight came to a halt in front of a shop.  The brightly colored sign overhead read “Joe’s Place.”  Twilight grinned at him.

“Oh, I can’t even tell you how often I’d come in here while I was studying,” she said with a giddy laugh, pulling him in the door by a hoof.

“Hey, welcome ta Joe’s—well now, ain’t this a thing.  Twilight Sparkle…”  Twilight ran to hug the stallion as he came around the counter.

“Caramel, this is Pony Joe, one of my oldest friends.  Pony Joe, this is Caramel,” she said.

“Pleasure,” he said in his thick Manehattan accent, bumping hooves with Caramel.  “Didja manage ta finally get Twilight’s muzzle out of them books, yeah?”

Caramel blushed and chuckled.  “Oh, I dunno about that…”

Twilight nudged Caramel good-naturedly.  “Yes, Joe, he’s my coltfriend.”

Joe nodded.  “Good for ya both.  He treatin’ ya good?”

“Very,” she said with a laugh.

“S’aright then.  He looks like a good ’un.  You two want some lunch?”

Given the later hour for lunch, the diner was mostly empty, and Joe joined them at their table as they enjoyed the sandwiches and pastries he brought out.  Caramel felt a genuine smile growing on his face as Joe told story after story of his diner and the odd unicorn filly who had frequented it—and occasionally tried out a few of her new spells on it.

“… Straight through the wall, it went.  And that was when I had ta get my third new oven,” Joe said with a hearty laugh.

Caramel snorted, his water almost going out his nose.  The other two ponies laughed uproariously at his reaction as the earth pony snorted and sputtered into his napkin, unable to stop laughing.  “Goodness,” Caramel said between coughs, “I had no idea you were so destructive, Twi.”

“Well, I thought that if Joe’s oven could be trained to cook without his help, it would make things easier on him.  I didn’t know how hard come-to-life spells were at the time, and I certainly didn’t know it would run away!”

“The Guard did eventually track the thing down, halfway to Manehattan.  Somepony had even tied a bindle ta it!  A hobo oven!” Joe exclaimed, setting all three of them off again.

Caramel wiped his eyes, clearing away tears of mirth that had started to form.  “Oh, oh, no more, please.  I can’t breathe…”

“Unfortunately, he’s right,” Twilight said, looking at the clock above the counter.  “We need to get to the palace.  I have an appointment with the princess.”

“Ah, I understand.  Thanks for comin’ by ta see ol’ Joe,” the cook said, standing and giving Twilight a fond hug.  “And you,” he said, pointing at Caramel with a wink, “you best take care of this filly, ya hear?”

Caramel’s mind flashed back.  A real stallion would at least take responsibility…  “Yes, sir—and thank you,” Caramel responded, swallowing his suddenly returned nervousness and following Twilight as she led the way out of the shop and back into Canterlot.

Before long, the two stood before the front gates to the Royal Palace.  Despite how large the surrounding grounds were, the castle still loomed well above the rest of the city, dwarfed only by the massive bulk of the mountain itself.  The guard at the front gate recognized her easily and waved her and Caramel through, allowing them to wander the grounds as they approached the main courtyards.

Caramel’s eyes widened as he took in the sheer size and scope of the palace itself.  Not merely a home for the monarchs of Equestria, it also housed the massive support staff and civilian leaders of the land, and included Canterlot University and Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns within its grounds.  It was the center of political power, the most popular tourist attraction, the pinnacle of learning, the grandest of event centers, and the seat of justice.  From within these walls, Celestia and Luna ruled and guided the land, and the grandeur of the building was a fitting tribute to the majesty it contained.

The walls themselves were constructed from the finest white marble in Equestria.  Imperfections and inclusions in the stone caught the afternoon sunlight and scattered it across the grounds, making the building sparkle and shine as though the walls were made out of radiant magic.  The estate went on for a distance that Caramel couldn’t fathom, the level landscape hewn out of the side of the living mountain by team upon team of unicorns centuries ago.  All around them, the grounds were covered with all manner of flora; every bit was maintained to a degree Caramel didn’t even know was possible.  Not a leaf was out of place, not a single blade of grass taller than the rest.  The reflecting pools glistened in the sun, rippling with tiny wavelets as the fish within swam about.

It took several minutes to walk the distance to the doors of the palace, but as Twilight and Caramel approached, the two unicorns standing beside the doors saluted and drew the doors open with a magical gesture.  Caramel felt so small and overwhelmed by it all.  He was just the simplest of earth ponies; he certainly didn’t deserve to be around such magnificence and opulence as this.  He glanced over at Twilight.  She didn’t seem the least bit out of sorts—and why would she?  After all, she had lived in this palace for years and studied at it for even longer still.  Caramel couldn’t help but feel ashamed.  Surely, somepony as accustomed to and deserving of such a life was worthy of a pony better than him.

His thoughts were cut short as he and Twilight stepped through the doors and into the Grand Hall.  Just the entry vestibule to the palace itself was large enough to host social functions for hundreds of ponies, and near the center of the room, the main staircase wove down from the upper floors in a massive double helix.  Just stepping down from the last stair was Celestia, clad in her regalia of office and offering a welcoming smile.  Caramel instinctively hit the floor, kneeling with his head against the marble tiles without a conscious effort.  Twilight trotted forward to embrace her mentor.

Celestia released Twilight from the hug, glancing over at Caramel with an amused smile.  The earth pony gulped as he realized the floor was so highly polished that he could still see everything going on from the reflections alone, and he knew he was being appraised by the alicorn.

“So good to see you again, Twilight; thank you for coming.  And I see you’ve brought company along.”

Twilight gently kicked at Caramel’s shoulder with her rear leg, urging him to stand back up.  “Princess Celestia, this is Caramel.”

The earth pony stood on shaky legs, trying to fight the urge to bow again as he nodded in greeting to the ruler.  “Uh, Princess,” he muttered.

Celestia chuckled.  “Don’t be afraid of me, my little pony,” she said gently.  “Despite my office, I would simply prefer that you think of my sister and me as friends and allies.”  The alicorn spread a wing behind her to bid the ponies follow.  “Shall we get on with our lesson, Twilight?  Of course, Caramel is welcome to attend as well.”  All three ponies walked off together to the Sun Goddess’ chambers, where Caramel gawked at the fact that the antechamber alone was double the size of his entire apartment.

The alicorn laughed at his expression.  “Impressed?”

“Very much,” he gasped.  “This room is huge.”

Celestia looked around.  “It’s okay,” she said with a chuckle.  “In all honesty, I don’t actually care for it much.  My own chambers are much more intimate and cozy, but since I receive guests and petitioners here, they expect certain trappings to be present.  I suppose one must keep up appearances.”

Twilight hopped up onto a padded bench and settled in, obviously accustomed to the spot.  Caramel settled for a spot fairly close but off to the side.  He knew this time wasn’t about him and her; it was all about Twilight and Celestia.

Once they were out of the eye of the public and the castle’s army of retainers and staff, Caramel was amazed to see much of the princess’ proper demeanor fade.  She began to banter with her student, laughing easily and relaxing in a way he almost found hard to comprehend, as it was so far removed from his mental image of the Equestrian rulers.

“So,” Celestia said, suddenly intent.  “I haven’t gotten a report from you in almost a month, which is odd enough.  The last I got was your primary thesis on love, where you tried to test whether or not opposites attract.”  The alicorn began to smile mischievously.  “And now you request a time to meet with me—and with Caramel by your side.  In twenty years, you never once brought another pony to the palace, much less along for your private study sessions with me.  It doesn’t take much to connect the dots, my student.”  Twilight flushed red, laying her ears back, a bit embarrassed to be so easily read by her mentor.  “Am I to assume, then, that this stallion is of some importance to you?”

“You might say that,” Twilight said modestly.

Celestia chuckled.  “We’ll come to that in time, I suppose.  So then, Twilight, what have you been working on in the last month?”

Twilight perked up at the opportunity to talk about one of her favorite things in the world: research.  “Well, Princess, for this last month, I decided to take a more objective look at love.  I began by coming up with a poll to give out amongst the ponies of Ponyville, having them rate attributes of love to determine what facets are most important to various relationships.”

The princess nodded along as Twilight spoke, her expression calm and measured even as Twilight got more excited and spoke faster and faster.  “I see, and have you found anything from this survey?”

“Oh, yes, indeed!  As it turns out—at least amongst Ponyville’s citizens—the most often quoted attributes they say are necessary in a loving relationship are honesty, gentleness, loyalty—basically, everything the Elements of Harmony stand for.  My thesis seems to be supported!”

“And are you satisfied with this result?”

“Well, not entirely,” Twilight said, calming and frowning slightly.  “There’s still too much bias in the results.  As much as I want to believe that this is proof that the powers of love and Harmony are linked—if not the same—the sample size is far too small.  I’ve only polled around two hundred ponies, and having lived together for most of our lives, my friends in Ponyville are generally similar enough that some correlation in their results is to be expected.  To be certain of my conclusion, I need to expand my survey to more of Equestria and include more disparate types of ponies.”

Celestia nodded proudly.  “I see you’re learning, then.  Do you now see the mistakes you made in your previous experiment?”

Twilight flushed, suddenly staring at her hooves with an intensity that suggested that she found them to be very interesting.  “From a scientific standpoint, yes, it was a complete bust.”  Twilight looked over at Caramel, a small smile on her face.  “But I can’t really call it a mistake.”

“Ah, so we come to the heart of the matter.”  Celestia smiled warmly, and Caramel felt himself starting to smile in response.  “I could see it the moment you two walked into the palace.  I dare say, Twilight, you’re learning more about love than you could have hoped for.”

“I am…” the unicorn said distantly.  “It’s harder than I thought, and comes with more hurdles.”

“Is it worth it?”

Twilight stared straight into Caramel’s eyes.  “Yes.”

“So, have you two picked a name yet?”

“Wait, what?” Twilight sputtered, both ponies turning to stare in shock at the princess, who was grinning like a schoolfilly.

“What, did you really think you could hide it from your mentor?  The one pony in all of Equestria who knows you better than your own family?  You’re practically glowing.”

Twilight’s head dropped a bit.  “Oh… I guess not…”

“That, and Luna felt it necessary to inform me that your dreams have gotten much more… risqué of late.”  Twilight blushed clear to her eartips as Caramel’s eyes widened in amused surprise.  “I took all the signs to mean that you had learned quite a bit more about relationships.”

Both ponies held their silence as Celestia stood to come to them, feeling like foals who had been called on the carpet by their mother for breaking a lamp.  The princess touched a wing to both of their chins, gently lifting their heads to look at her.

“Do not misunderstand me:  I’m not upset with either of you—and I’m so glad you brought the father along, Twilight.  I know things won’t always be easy for you from here out, but I’m proud that you’re together.”

“But, Princess, we’re not married yet…” Twilight said, still a bit confused.

“Oh, I know that,” Celestia responded, teasingly.

“How did you know that?”

“Simple.  If you had gotten married without inviting Luna and I to the ceremony, I would banish you and put you in a dungeon in the place where I banished you to.”

“Stop that,” Twilight gently chided Caramel.

“Sorry,” he said, still looking back over his shoulder at the palace for the fifteenth time since they had left the main gates.  “Celestia—she didn’t really mean that, did she?  I mean, she was joking, right?”

“I, uh, I’m not totally sure.  I’ve never thought about what would offend her that much…”

“Wait, didn’t you think that she would do something like that for missing a school assignment?”

Twilight shook her head.  “No, though I did overreact a bit to that.  We thought Celestia might be that mad when Fluttershy thought she had killed Celestia’s pet.”

Caramel blanched.  “Even that wasn’t enough to do it?”

“Well, it wasn’t actually dead.  Phoenixes don’t die like we think of dying, but we didn’t know that at the time.”

The stallion shuddered, only half from the cool evening air, still not sure if the monarch had been toying with them or not.  “Well, can we just not find out for ourselves?”

“Agreed.”  The two got onto a passing cart, taking the public transportation for most of the way to Twilight’s home.  Twilight allowed her mind to drift as Caramel kept panning this way and that, checking out the sights as they rode.

“Hey, Twilight?  I just noticed that the houses aren’t getting any smaller.  Are we still in the rich district?”

The unicorn laughed.  “Rich district?  I don’t know about that, as such, but my family isn’t too badly off.  My mother attended Celestia’s school as a filly, and worked for her in the palace until she quit when Shining was born.”

“Oh, wow,” Caramel mused.  How much more was there to his marefriend than he knew?  It seemed that every time he turned around he found somepony else in her family who was associated with power and prestige.  Hesitantly, he asked, “So, what does your dad do?”

“Oh, he’s a professor at Canterlot University.  He met my mom when he was just a new teacher on campus,” Twilight said lazily, swinging her rear legs off the edge of the cart and grinning like a filly.  “I bet they’re going to love you,” she assured him.

“Yeah…” he agreed halfheartedly.

All too soon for Caramel, Twilight told him to jump off, and he found himself following her down a quiet, beautifully maintained street.  The sun had long since set, letting in the chill of winter, though Caramel was pretty sure that wasn’t why he was shivering.  He had just convinced his legs to not turn and run as Twilight knocked on the front door to a very quaint, understated little house.  Almost instantly, the door flew open and Twilight was pulled into a massive hug by her mother.  Caramel was ushered into the foyer in her wake, and stood awkwardly by the ornately carved staircase as Twilight and her mother embraced each other and conversed animatedly.  From the doorway, which presumably led to the kitchen, came a brightly colored alicorn, who squealed in delight and joined the fray, the three mares chatting in voices that almost made Caramel wince from the pitch.

Soon the lone earth pony found himself standing before a semicircle of family, being introduced by his marefriend.  “Everyone, this is Caramel.  He’s my coltfriend,” she added with a giggle.  Caramel, this is my mom and dad—”

“Twilight Velvet, but you can call me Velvet,” Twilight’s mother interjected.

“Night Light,” her father said simply, bumping his hoof against Caramel’s.

“—and, my big brother Shining Armor and his wife Cadance,” Twilight continued.

Caramel’s hoof shook in midair.  “Oh, wow, I mean, I’ve never met royalty before.  Well, not before today, I mean.”

Shining laughed and bumped Caramel’s hoof easily.  “It’s okay; we’re off duty today, you might say.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Cadance said happily with a wink at Twilight.

“And even better, you’re just in time for dinner!”  Twilight’s mother began shooing all the ponies into the dining room, assigning duties for food carrying and table setting as they went.  Caramel found himself setting out flatware with Twilight, which meant he was mostly doing the carrying, since he assumed nopony in a house full of unicorns would prefer that his mouth be on anything they were about to eat with.

With Caramel’s head still spinning from the whirlwind introduction, the meal began.  From the street, he had assumed that dinner would be in line with his stereotypical view of rich families: quiet, reserved, and maybe a bit dour.  Much to his pleasant surprise, the dinner table was a mass of energy and life.  Despite both ponies being well into their adult years, Twilight and Shining Armor teased each other relentlessly while Cadance merely rolled her eyes and laughed at their antics.  The parents constantly prodded their foals for more information about how their lives were going, even though Twilight skillfully deflected most of the talk away from himself and her, saying she would come to that in time.  Cadance seemed particularly interested in him, making small talk and always seeming to ask innocent questions about his relationship with Twilight that made him blush.  It seemed to Caramel that he was being studied by the alicorn.

By the time the meal ended, Caramel was stuffed.  The food was amazing and plentiful, and the good times had him feeling relaxed and at ease, though this sense evaporated the instant Twilight uttered her introduction:

“Everypony, I’ve got something to tell you.”

Caramel’s body tensed in his chair.  He gritted his teeth and waited for the inevitable storm.

Twilight, oblivious to his distress, had a massive smile on her face as she looked into the faces of her family and announced, “I’m pregnant.”

The silence was absolute.  Four sets of eyes widened in response, gawked at Twilight, and turned in unison to stare at Caramel.  At that moment, given one wish, Caramel would have chosen the ability to sink into the floor.  The sets of eyes belonging to Shining and Night Light narrowed considerably as they stared at him.  He gulped, noticing that both wives had put a hoof to their husband’s shoulder, as though encouraging them to keep their calm.  Shining Armor remained silent, though his gaze was venomous at best as he sat back.

“You’re what?” Twilight’s father asked.

“I’m pregnant,” she repeated calmly.  “And yes, Caramel is the father.”

Night Light stood, staring daggers at the earth pony stallion.  “You mean to tell me that you brought him into—”  He cut off as a telekinetic tug to his tail sat him back down.  His wife shot him a warning glance as she spoke.

“Now, dear, let’s make sure we know all the facts first.  How did this happen, Twilight?”

Twilight blushed slightly, realizing that her family wasn’t taking the news quite as well as she had hoped.  She began to tell the story of her experiment, her voice starting off timid but gaining strength as she went on.  Around the table, everypony’s expressions shifted with the tale’s telling.  Cadance grinned more and more, while Shining’s frown softened but didn’t go away.  Her parents were harder to read, though, moving between shame and pride, gladness and pain in a way that was difficult to understand.  For her part, Twilight was very honest about her story, making it clear that Caramel was not the one who instigated the relationship.

After she finished, the silence returned, but with less of the brooding tension from before.  All four ponies digested what they had learned in their heads, glancing at each other.

Night Light stood again, calmer but still frowning.  “Twilight, thank you for being honest.  I realize that what I’m saying and feeling right now is mostly fueled by my shock, and I may feel sorry for some of it tomorrow.  Caramel,” he said, turning to stare intently at the younger stallion, “I know you didn’t initiate this relationship, and I see that you’re trying to do your best to make it right, but I can’t say I’m not a bit disappointed in your lack of restraint, and I hope you have the decency to make things right.”

A real stallion would at least take responsibility for what he did.  Caramel hung his head, nodding his acceptance of the father’s words.  “I know, sir.  Me too…”

“Twilight,” he continued, “I guess I shouldn’t be quite as surprised as I am.  You’ve always been inquisitive and devoted to your learning to a degree that’s sometimes gotten you into trouble, and I know you tried to be as careful and cautious as I could reasonably expect.”  He sighed unhappily as he sat back down.  “I don’t know how to feel just yet; this is all quite a shock to us.  I’m sure you understand.”

As the silence around the table began to grow uncomfortable, Cadance’s quiet voice asked, “If you were given the chance to do it all over, would you do it differently?”  Twilight and Caramel looked over to her, seeing the slight smile on her face.  “Just think about it for now,” she added, getting up to take her dishes to the kitchen.  At once, the pall of tense silence dissipated, and everypony began to clean up the remains of dinner.  Though a bit more subdued, the energy and life began to return to the home.

Everypony retired to the living room, where the fire offered a cozy respite from the cold night outside.  Caramel felt decidedly awkward, unable to find an acceptable place to lie down until Twilight pulled him down next to her on the carpet, curling up against his side happily.  He nuzzled her mane, suddenly unconcerned by what her parents or brother might be thinking.  Just being beside her was enough for him.

Teas and hot cocoas were finished off, and the married couples drifted off to bed, leaving the young lovers alone in front of the fire, sleepy and content.

Caramel nuzzled into his marefriend’s mane, leaving light little kisses on the backs of her ears.  Twilight shivered in response, and turned to face him, putting her hooves around his neck and kissing him with an intensity he wasn’t prepared for.  He quickly caught up, though, letting his tongue trace the outline of her lips before it was met by hers.  He put a hoof around her back, pulling her in close to him as they kissed.  Twilight finally pulled back, panting slightly from her built-up arousal.  “Ready for bed?” she asked.

“Oh, I’m not terribly sleepy yet.”

“Not quite what I asked,” she replied, a mischievous grin on her muzzle.

Caramel flushed red.  “Twilight, we’re in your parents’ house!”

“It was my house, too,” she countered, blushing herself, “and I’ve always had a bit of a fantasy of bringing my special somepony here.”

“What if they hear?”

“I’ve got a soundproofing spell, and my parents are heavy sleepers.”

“What about your brother?  I’d rather not be killed by him.”

“He and Cadance are down the hall, in his old room, and I’d be surprised if they weren’t playing out the same fantasy for him right now.”

The stallion winced.  “Aaaand, there’s something I’d prefer not to think about.”

Twilight giggled for a second but quickly became serious as she stared into his worried eyes.  “Look, you, I may not be your wife, but I am your marefriend.  What’s got you so nervous?  As I recall, the worst that could happen already has, and we’re doing okay, so why so reluctant?”

Take responsibility for what he did...Caramel traced his hoof across the patterns in the carpet to distract himself.  “I just, oh, there’s really no good way to say it…”

“Try me,” she insisted.

“Well, I wouldn’t say I regret it, but we still made a mistake.  I mean, you’re an amazing mare, Twilight.  You deserve a special somepony who treats you right, who protects you and all those other things—somepony who is able to control their impulses in favor of your honor.  For whatever reason, you got me instead, and I blew it, Twilight.  I just, well, I just want to try to do this relationship thing as right as I can from here out.  I want you to know that I’m not just interested in trying to, well, to rut you.”  Caramel sighed, frustrated at his inability to accurately say what he felt.

Twilight was silent for a moment, mulling over his words.  “Caramel, I know what you’re saying.  And believe me, I appreciate it, I do.”  She ran a hoof tenderly through his mane and over his ear.  “The fact that you feel that way makes me feel good, makes me feel loved—but there’s a few things that you haven’t considered.”

He cocked his head to the side.  “Like what?”

“First off, our relationship is anything but traditional.  I mean, look at us,” she said, waving vaguely at her stomach.  “Our first date was me getting pregnant.  We’re feeling this all out along the way, and there’s no shame in admitting that we aren’t traditional and that we don’t know how this is all going to play out.”

She leaned in, planting a kiss on his nose as she continued.  “Secondly, I don’t doubt how you feel about me, Caramel.  You’ve never once made me feel like you’re just after my body or my bed.  You’re a perfect gentlecolt to me.”

She leaned in still further, this time kissing the base of his ear, drawing a gasp from the stallion.  “And third,” she said, her voice soft and husky, “you got me pregnant, and as it turns out, hormones make a mare rather eager for her stallion during that time.  It’s not polite to keep a mare from what she wants, is it?”

Even as his desire for Twilight grew within him, Caramel felt the conflict of the last two days rising in him—love and duty, desire and responsibility all clashing in his mind and pulling him in opposite directions.  He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly.

“Then, please, let me do this right,” he said softly, staring into her eyes as she pulled her head back, confused.  “Twilight Sparkle, will you marry me?”

Twilight stared deep into his eyes, as though trying to read his soul through them.  She closed her eyes slowly, her mind casting out, thinking over her love for her stallion, his devotion to her, and flickering through all of her fantasies and idle daydreams of what their lives together could be.  She felt the pull of her fears, the eagerness of her desire for Caramel that never truly died down, and the uncertainty of the future.

Her ears lay back as she opened her eyes, meeting his hopeful gaze.

“I’m sorry, Caramel…  No.”

2 – Paper Thin Hymn

Several weeks back, just after he had begun to date Twilight, Caramel had come across a peculiar phrase in a book.  As Twilight read to him, he had been given pause by the book as it mentioned “the feeling of having your heart given back to you.”  He had asked her to reread the passage several times, but with each repetition the meaning escaped him more.

Now he knew—more than that, he felt it.  He had offered his heart up to another, and had it rejected.  Four little words had broken Caramel’s world more than anything else could have.

I’m sorry, Caramel… No.

He sat in front of the roaring fire, staring blankly at the perfect mare who had just rejected his marriage proposal.  His mind was simple white noise, echoes of Twilight’s words bouncing around his head.

“I—uh, you—what?”

Twilight hung her head in shame at his pain.  “Caramel, I’m sorry.  I really am, but it—it’s just not right yet.”

“What’s not right?  I don’t understand,” he pled, his voice cracking in sympathy with his heart.

“Believe me, I do want to be married to you, but not for the wrong reasons.”

“I just, I mean, I only want…”

She met his gaze, both of their eyes slightly watery.  “Caramel, I’ll take it back—I’ll marry you tomorrow—just tell me honestly that this proposal has nothing to do with what Daisy and Lily said to you yesterday.  Please tell me that didn’t motivate you to do this.”

Caramel’s heart sank into his stomach.  “H-h-how,” he stammered quietly, “how could you know about that?”

“After you left last night, I was almost heartbroken.  I couldn’t figure out why you kept turning me down, why you kept leaving every time I invited you to stay.  I was about to go to bed when Rarity stopped by.”  Twilight sighed unhappily.  “She told me that she saw you get yelled at by those two.”

Caramel scowled.  “Oh, so your friends are checking up on me now?”

Twilight narrowed her eyes right back at him but kept her voice soft.  “It’s not like that, Caramel, and you know it isn’t.  I trust you with all my heart.  Rarity was just worried about you, and she thought it was something I should know about.”

He winced.  “Yeah, you’re right.  I’m sorry…”

The unicorn scooted close enough to pull him into a hug, which he didn’t return.  “Hey, I understand how you feel.  Up until last night, I had almost convinced myself that you didn’t want me anymore because I was pregnant.”

“Twilight, no!  Of course not!  If anything, I—”

She put a hoof to his lips, silencing him.  “I know, Caramel.  I knew the whole time, but I still doubted, even though I shouldn’t have.  But after Rarity told me what had happened and how it seemed to trouble you, it all began to make sense.  I had a suspicion that you might do just what you did tonight.”

A look of pained confusion flashed across Caramel's face.  “So, wait, you planned to turn me down?  I really don’t understand!  What is so wrong about wanting to provide for you, wanting to make things right?”

“Nothing, love, nothing!”  Twilight hugged him fiercely, as much to assure him as to give herself time to keep from crying before looking back into his eyes.  “Caramel, I love you so much, but starting a marriage out of obligation is never the right way.  If there’s even the slightest doubt that you had a choice, if you feel like you need to marry me, then there’s a chance—no matter how small—that someday you or I would regret it.  We could regret the marriage—or even the foal who prompted it…” she said softly, rubbing her belly self-consciously.  “I won’t let that happen, Caramel.  I promised Rainbow Dash, if nothing else.”  Twilight nuzzled her coltfriend tenderly along his jawline.  “When you and I commit to each other, I won’t let anything come between us.”

Caramel sat, still in his haze, only sporadic thoughts passing through to meet his brain.  He looked down at the mare who sat holding him, both of them equally on the verge of tears.  He put a tentative hoof around her.  “I love you, too, Twi,” he said quietly.

She looked up at him, a sad smile on her face.  “Someday, the time will be right.”

“When?”

“I don’t know yet, but when it’s right, we’ll know.”  She felt Caramel slump slightly in her hooves, so she backed off, letting him go.  “I’m going to bed,” she murmured.  “I know the mood is totally gone, but if you’re not too upset with me, I’d still like to share my bed with you tonight.  Even if just for the company.”

He nodded, closing his eyes as he received a soft kiss on the cheek.  Caramel listened to her hoofsteps fading out on the padded stairs, instead turning to stare into the now-dying fire.  He looked around for a poker or some implement to stoke the fire with, but his search came up empty.  With a grimace, he poked quickly at the logs with his hoof only to back off quickly, shaking his hoof as he felt his fur start to singe.

“Woah, woah!” Caramel turned as a decidedly masculine voice came from behind him.  The logs in the fireplace glowed blue as they shifted about, and another log floated in to join them on the hearth.

Shining Armor sat down next to the earth pony.  “Thought you were gonna hurt yourself there.  Sorry about not having a poker.  House full of unicorns and all that.”

“Oh,” Caramel said, his eyes shifting uneasily at the nearby stallion, “of course.”

The royal stallion glanced over at him several times.  “Are—are you scared of me?”

“Um… sorta.”

Shining laughed.  “Why?  Because I’m a prince?”

Caramel shook his head.  “No, because you’re Twilight’s big brother and you probably hate me now.”

The unicorn chuckled and backed off, settling easily into one of the large, soft armchairs.  “You know, I actually had a plan for this visit.  I was all set to give you a hard time, do the big brother thing.  And then Twilight announced that she was pregnant and you were the father.  Oh, wow…”

Caramel winced.  “Yeah.  I thought you were gonna jump over the table and kill me…”

“I considered it.”  Caramel gawked at Shining.  “Oh, trust me, I thought about it.  I wanted to drag you into the street and beat you senseless right then and there, but like the wonderful, intelligent mare she is, Cadance made me stop and think first.”  He sighed, leaning back into the chair.  “I still wanted to talk to you, but she said we needed to give you two some space.  While we were upstairs, Cadance told me just one thing.  She said, ‘Go easy on him, Shiny.  They’ve got it.  I can see it all over both of them.’”

“I don’t quite follow…”

Shining chuckled.  “Cadance’s specialty is love.  She can sense when two ponies are truly in love, and in some cases she can actually help those ponies realize it for themselves.  I told her days ago that if she interfered here, though, I’d be rather upset.”  He sighed overdramatically.  “Of course, that news did throw a wrench in my plans—can’t play the angry big brother now that I know my sister’s truly in love.”

Caramel stared into the fire and mulled over Shining’s words.  The two stallions lapsed into silence, less tense and more at ease with each other.

“Shining,” Caramel asked at last, “what is love?”

Shining Armor grinned.  “Filly, don’t hurt me?”

“Oh, why would you bring that up?” Caramel chuckled.  “I swear, if I never hear that song again…”

“Heh, yeah.”

“Seriously, though.  There’s gotta be something I’m missing.”  He looked over at the married stallion.  “Twilight just turned me down.”

“What do you mean, turned you down?”

“I asked her to marry me, and she said no.”

Shining Armor leaned forward.  “What, seriously?  Why?”

Caramel gave Shining the overview of the conversation that took place earlier that night, and the results thereof.  Shining sat amazed, shaking his head slowly.

“I swear sometimes, that filly…” he muttered.

“Am I wrong, Shining?  Did I screw it up?”

“Caramel, there’s a lot of things I could tell you about love and marriage, and most of it really wouldn’t make sense right now.  Frankly, most of it you just have to experience for yourself.  For what it’s worth, I agree with my little sister; it’s not wrong, but it’s just not quite right yet, either.”

The earth pony gritted his teeth in frustration.  “But what does that mean?”

“What would you do if Twilight called it off?”

“Wait, what?” Caramel asked, floundering from the change of topic.

“I know you’ve had the thought, because all stallions think it at some point, especially those like us, who know our mates pretty well outclass us: ‘Someday she’s gonna realize that I’m not that great and leave.  Someday she’ll wake up and see that she could do so much better than me.’  Am I right?”

Caramel nodded his head sadly.  “Yeah, it’s true.  She deserves much better than me…”

Shining Armor got up and walked over, lightly punching a hoof into Caramel’s shoulder.  “Hey, cheer up.  Just the fact that you realize that says there’s hope for you.  But just as a hypothetical, what would you do if that happened?  What if she said she wanted to end your relationship?”

Caramel let his gaze fall back to the floor, staring at nothing as he pondered.  It was the blackest scenario he could imagine.  It had played out in his head many times before, but he had never yet considered what his response might be.  “Well,” he said hesitantly, “I guess I’d want her to be happy, no matter what.  I guess I’d have to let her go.”

“And that’s how I know that it isn’t right yet.”  Shining put up a hoof to forestall Caramel’s question.  “No, I’m not going to explain it.  When you can figure out what I mean for yourself, then you’ll know if the time is right, too.”  He put a brotherly hoof around Caramel’s shoulder and sighed.  “Look, Caramel, I can’t believe I would ever tell anypony this, and it’s only because I love Twilight dearly.  If I’m any judge of my sister, she feels terrible over what she said to you.  Right now I’m sure she’s lying in bed, probably crying over how she hurt you, and I can’t stand that thought.  So what you need to do is go be with her.  I know you’re confused and hurt, but don’t think that she doesn’t love you.  Just go, hold her, and let her know it’s all going to be okay.”

“Wait, did you just tell me to get in bed with—”

“Ah la la la la,” Shining interjected, closing his eyes and shaking his head in a juvenile “can’t hear you” gesture.  “No, do not talk to me about that.  I just know that you can make her feel better, and you should.  I mean, yeah, I know that you two have already been”—his face twisted slightly—“together, obviously, so I can’t really say much.  Just don’t make my little sister hurt any longer than she has to over this.”

Caramel felt his heart warm as he gave Shining a sheepish smile.  “Thanks, Shining.  For everything.”

“Hey, don’t mention it.  Really.  Don’t.  But I’m glad to help.”  He dropped his hoof back down and started walking towards the stairs.  “Besides, I get the feeling that it won’t be that long before we’re brothers anyway, so why not?”

Once again left alone, Caramel thought over the night so far and the emotional ride it had been.  At the start, he had been so sure that he loved Twilight more than anything, and now he felt uncertain as to what that even meant.  Everything that used to be clear was muddied and indistinct now, but one thought remained in the forefront of his mind.

Shining Armor was right about one thing:  Caramel knew Twilight felt terrible, and he couldn’t stand to think about that any longer than necessary.  In the end, that made up his mind for him.

He checked to make sure the fire would die down safely and left the room, walking softly up the stairs and to the door at the near end of the hallway.  The door swung open silently, but the shape under the covers still stirred as he entered.

“Caramel?” came Twilight’s tired, slightly strained voice.

He didn’t answer.  Instead, he simply walked to the bed, pulled back the sheets, and slid into the bed against her back, putting his hoof around his marefriend and pulling her as close as possible.  In the darkness, he heard her sigh happily in his grasp, as though a week’s worth of tension had just been released by his presence.  In Caramel’s head, all the noise and confusion seemed to die down as he nuzzled up against the back of her neck, feeling the loose wisps of her mane against his nose.

This is right, he thought.  This is enough for now.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, sniffling quietly as the remnants of her tears glistened in the darkness.

“I still have you,” he murmured in her ear.  “And I still love you.”

As the train made it out of the mountains and into the plain that led to Ponyville, Twilight couldn’t get the morning’s breakfast out of her head.  Perhaps it was to be expected after the events of the previous night, but the morning had been a flurry of mixed emotions and responses.  Caramel had been very quiet, and, despite his repeated assurances that he wasn’t mad at her, Twilight knew that her rejection was weighing heavily on him.  Conversation at the table had been subdued but without the tension of last night.  Her father had made it a point to give her a hug and apologize for his reaction.  He had taken Caramel aside to speak privately with him as well, and they had ended with a smile and a friendly hoof bump, so things seemed patched over between them at least.

What had truly surprised Twilight were the attitudes of Shining and Cadance.  Shining had been very friendly with Caramel, making her think that they had gotten the chance to talk.  The lack of bruises on Caramel made her wonder, but maybe Cadance had gotten Shining Armor to calm down before they met.  From Cadance herself, Twilight almost felt a sadness directed towards her.  As Twilight had left the house, hugging her family members goodbye, Cadance had held her tightly and said she wished she could fix things.

Twilight glanced over at Caramel.  He wasn’t asleep like he had been on the way to Canterlot, but he was just as silent.  He stared out the window, but she could tell that he wasn’t focusing on much of anything.  The blankness of his face gave away nothing to most ponies, but the simple absence of his usual emotional expressions told Twilight that he had a lot on his mind.

She cleared her throat softly, just enough to break through to Caramel.  “So,” she said hesitantly, “I guess you got a chance to talk to my brother, huh?”

He nodded.  “Yeah, he came down after you went to bed.”

“Did he—I mean, how did it go?”

His chuckle sounded forced.  “He didn’t beat me, if that’s what you’re wondering.”  Twilight rolled her eyes, but inside she heaved a silent sigh of relief.  “We just talked,” Caramel said.

“What about?” she prodded gently.

“Stallion stuff,” he said noncommittally.

Twilight stifled the urge to beg for more details, knowing that Caramel wasn’t in a mood to talk.  His silence was beginning to worry her, though.  She knew that apologizing yet again would only exasperate him, but the need to do so was becoming a bit overwhelming.  Twilight was a scientist and an academic.  She felt an innate need to fix and understand things, but Caramel wasn’t something she could fully understand.  They were so different at times that it scared her, and she continually had to fight the urge to pry into his life.  The more she relaxed and let him be himself around her, the more he opened up, but patience wasn’t one of her strong suits.

The worst part by far was the growing influence of her body, especially the way the hormones in her bloodstream were making her act less and less like herself at times.  She woke up irritable, even though the morning sickness had started to ease lately.  There were mood swings, and her passion and her desire for Caramel could just as easily be matched by bitterness or defensiveness, with little to no warning.  Maybe he’s just being smart by not staying over, she thought wryly.

The train pulled into the station, and ponies of every color moved to retrieve their luggage from the overhead racks and under their seats.  Twilight set her bag on her back, gently cinching the strap around her midsection with her magic, and she and Caramel joined the crowd to walk off the train and onto the platform.

Outside, Caramel hesitated, his gaze shifting indecisively between the paths to Twilight’s home and his own.  She leaned up against him.  “Hey, do you want to get something to drink before we head home?”

He sighed quietly, a slightly pained expression showing through at the corners of his eyes.  “I dunno, Twi.  I think I just need some time alone to think things over.”

“Oh,” Twilight said, her face falling along with her spirits.  “Yeah, I understand that.”

Caramel leaned down to nuzzle her gently.  “I’ll see you soon, though.  I love you,” he said.

“I love you, too,” she responded, smiling in spite of the mood.

Twilight stayed and watched him trot slowly away, his head low and his ears down, before she set off in the opposite direction, knowing her posture was probably a pretty close match for his.  She kept telling herself that Caramel was telling the truth, that he just needed some time to sort through his feelings and he’d be back soon.  Even so, her mind seemed to delight in making her consider all the worst scenarios.

What if I pushed too hard and now he’s too heartbroken to come back?  What if he thinks I’m too high-maintenance now, or that I’m too demanding?  What if I only get that one chance?  She turned onto the final street, making her way towards her home.  Was it really worth breaking his heart for my fears?  Who’s to say that either of us would ever regret being married anyway?  Did I—  Is that Fluttershy?

Her thoughts derailed, Twilight trotted up to the library just as Fluttershy turned away from the door, apparently having just tried to determine if Twilight was home or not.

“Uh, hi, Fluttershy,” Twilight said, trying to keep her voice quiet.

The yellow pegasus still jumped slightly, spinning around with a quiet yelp.  “Oh, goodness, Twilight, there you are.  I was just coming by to return a book, and I wasn’t sure if you had gotten back from Canterlot yet.”

Twilight unlocked the door and welcomed her friend inside, not bothering to flip the sign in the window from “closed.”  Fluttershy pulled the book out of her saddlebag and held it up in her mouth.  “Thanks,” Twilight said as she took the book and reshelved it.

“Um, are you okay?”

Twilight tried to summon up an easy smile.  “Yeah, why?”

Fluttershy frowned.  “Really?”

“Okay, no, not really,” Twilight admitted, her smile falling away.

“What’s wrong, Twilight?” Fluttershy asked, sitting down on a bench and patting the space next to her invitingly.

Twilight found a bench of her own and brought her friend up to speed on how the day in Canterlot had gone.  The pegasus nodded and occasionally hmmmed along with the story, but she kept silent as Twilight spoke.

“…  So now I’m trying to convince myself that I haven’t ruined everything,” Twilight finished with a sigh, looking up to meet her friend’s gaze.  “Have I screwed up?  Am I asking for too much?”

Fluttershy wrung her hooves, biting her lip slightly in concentration.  “Well, I don’t really know Caramel that well, so it’s hard to say, but I don’t think you’re wrong for wanting things to be perfect.”

“But things are never perfect, so isn’t that irrational?”

“Oh, my,” Fluttershy blurted, scrambling to keep up.  “I don’t think we should stop hoping for it, though.”

Twilight slumped, her head on her hooves.  “I hurt him so badly.  I’ve never seen him so withdrawn before.  What do I do about it?”

“Do you trust him?”

Twilight glanced over.  “How do you mean?  I wouldn’t suspect him of doing anything wrong, certainly not just because of this.”

Fluttershy shook her head.  “No, I mean do you trust his heart?  Do you believe that he can follow it even after being hurt?”  Twilight remained silent, frowning as Fluttershy went on.  “I’m probably not the best pony to tell you this—maybe Rainbow Dash would be better—but part of loyalty is trusting your friends to make the right choices.”

“So, by worrying so much about Caramel’s feelings, I’m selling him short?”

“I suppose you could look at it that way, but maybe it’s easier to describe as ‘don’t push him before he’s ready.’  Just be there when he needs you.  Stallions need space when they’re hurt.  It’s the same way with most male animals, actually,” she said, growing more confident as she spoke about her passion for animals.  “When a male animal is hurt, they won’t want to come to me for help as readily, and if I insist that they need it, they just pull away more.  If I allow them to come to me for help when they’re ready for it, they’re more likely to come sooner.”

Twilight nodded.  “I suppose I am thinking more like his mother than his marefriend…”

“You’re worried, and he’s in pain.  It’s perfectly natural.  Just remember to let him find his own way when he needs to.”

“You know something, Fluttershy?” Twilight said with a relaxed laugh.  “You’re a lot more helpful to talk to than my reflection.”

Caramel wasn’t very sure of anything anymore.  He barely slept at all that night, tossing fitfully in the grasp of dreams he couldn’t understand and couldn’t hang on to.  When morning came, he was grateful for the distraction of the workday, and set off for Sweet Apple Acres.

He had discarded his cloak in favor of a tighter-fitting vest for use against the cold.  Even in the brisk winter air, the movement it afforded him was much more suited to his job.  The sun helped as well, and he didn’t feel the bite of cold as he trotted onto the farm’s expansive campus.

On an ordinary day, he probably would have been chuckling, going cross-eyed trying to stare at the plumes of his breath misting in front of his face, but today his gaze was miles distant.  The empty branches of the orchard seemed to clutch at the scattered clouds as he walked down the frozen dirt path towards the farmhouse.

In front of the home was Applejack, fighting the water trough in front of the outdoor pump with a small hatchet, breaking apart the ice so the animals could get to the water inside.  She straightened and set the axe down, shaking the splashed water from her face as she heard the steady crunch of Caramel’s hooves against the snow and dirt.

“Mornin’, Caramel.  How was the trip?”

He stopped short of the trough, stamping his hooves to loosen the snow that had tracked onto them.  “Oh, it was all right,” he grunted.

Applejack cocked her head as she looked up at him.  “That’s it?  How was her family?”

“They were…  caught off balance,” he said diplomatically.  “But they came around after we got to talk.  I think they like me okay—or at least okay enough that her brother isn’t going to have me killed.”

Applejack chuckled even as she watched him intently.  “And Princess Celestia?  Didja get ta meet her?”

“Yeah, she was great.  And different than I would have expected.”

“True, she ain’t really stuck to stereotype much.”  His boss put a hoof to her chin.  “So, to recap:  You got to hang out with royalty, meet your marefriend’s family, none of the above wants to kill you, and the trip was just ‘all right’?  What’s eatin’ ya, sugarcube?”

Caramel blanched slightly.  “Who said anything about something being wrong?”

“Caramel, if you coulda seen yourself before ya left, you’d know there was a significant difference.”

He sighed, letting his false cheer drop.  “Well, Twilight told me she didn’t want to marry me.”

Applejack stared at him like he’d grown a horn and wings.  “Um, what?”

“I proposed to her, and she turned me down.  Said I was proposing because I felt like I was supposed to.”

Applejack leaned against the trough unsteadily, her face flickering between confusion and disbelief as Caramel sat sadly on the ground, unconcerned by the feeling of his haunches on the snowy ground.

“So,” she began hesitantly, before the silence could get too awkward, “was she right?”

He sighed.  “I don’t know, AJ.”

“Ya know why you’re with her, right?”

“Of course I do, I’m with her because I love her.”

Applejack smiled.  “Is that why you want ta marry her?”  Caramel opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off by his boss.  “Remember, you’re talkin’ to the Element of Honesty, here.”  Caramel shut his mouth and thought hard instead.  Applejack patted his shoulder with a hoof as she turned to leave.  “You think it over, sugarcube.  No reason to rush.”

Caramel watched her leave, his head swimming.  He completed his tasks in a daze that day, as if controlled remotely by somepony else.  He felt as if he were watching himself from the outside, not really comprehending what was going on.  His mind kept revisiting the same question, over and over.  Why?

As the sun tipped over its apex and began its downward arc, Caramel gave up.  He hung up the shovels and rakes and wandered off to his own little corner of the work barn.  In the corner was his kingdom.  A workbench, covered in hoof tools and parts in need of mending, sat against the wall, and a small locker stood in the corner.  There was even a bathroom with a tiny shower for his use as well.  He clicked on the desk light and went straight to the locker, reaching in and pulling a notebook out of the saddlebags hanging inside.

He flipped open the cover, leafing through the thick, rough pages as he searched for a pencil with his other hoof.  The small pad was filled with sketches, rough and complex both.  Everything from machine diagrams to still life portraits covered the off-white paper, from sunsets captured in shades of graphite grey to a simple flower shown in almost excruciating detail to a rough sketch of Applejack and Big Mac tending to the fields.

As he neared the back, though, the subjects began to change, becoming increasingly dominated by a single mare’s face and outline.  He stopped, putting the sketchbook down as he stared at the page before him, and the outline of a form he knew so well that lay on it.  Caramel tried to distance himself, to look objectively at the crude drawing, to see what it might be saying to somepony else.  What feelings did these simple lines contain?  Was there love in his pencil strokes?

The page offered up no secrets to him, no advice.  He grunted in irritation and flipped to a clean sheet, snatching up his pencil.  He hovered over the empty page, holding the leaded tip short.  He closed his eyes and took a deep, cleansing breath.  What do I want most?

He released the breath slowly, allowing the pencil to begin scrawling across the surface.  He sketched in short, emphatic bursts, tracing over lines dozens of times, as if forming the image out of marble instead.  He chiseled away at the shapes, slowly bringing the image in his head to life.  He saw Twilight’s head, held low, eyes closed.  He paused, forcing himself to stop before he added details, simply staring at the nearly blank form.  Where am I in this?

He started again, roughing in a second form behind that of his love, allowing his own body to come into the picture.  He had never drawn them together before, now that he thought about it.  Maybe he had been too busy holding her up as an ideal instead?  It seemed in the drawing that Twilight was curled against his neck lovingly, and his head was tucked against her tenderly as well.  He drew his own eyes closed as well, and paused again before details could be added.

I don’t even really know what I’m feeling here, any more than I know what she’s feeling…

Were they holding each other out of joy?  Sadness?  Was it a truly contented feeling or one filled with melancholy?

Caramel let the pencil drop from his hoof, the graphite leaving small, scar-like traces on the edges of the paper as it rolled to a rest.  It seemed that the more he learned about Twilight, the less he knew about himself.  Even his art seemed to attest to this fact, going from lifelike portrayals to abstract sketches over the course of their relationship.  He knew there was something more to this sketch, though, something that eluded him, contained in the utterly simplistic line drawing.  It was as if his drawing held some truth that he just couldn’t put his hoof on, and adding anything beyond what was already there would just obscure it more.

He gave a frustrated snort and shut the sketchbook, stuffing it back into the saddlebag and slinging the whole case over his back.  He walked home the long way, wandering alone through the back fields and along the edge of the Everfree.  He finally arrived at his apartment, walking up the stairs at the rear of Bon Bon’s sweet shop to the rented living quarters above, and stopped with his hoof hovering over the doorknob.

The sketch surfaced in his mind, the first time he had ever drawn himself and Twilight together.  He really, really didn’t want to be alone right now.  He turned and headed back down the stairs, setting his hooves on a path they knew well.

The sun was about halfway set when he arrived, the light warming his back as he rapped gently on Twilight’s door with a hoof.  The door swung gently open, pulled by the telekinetic force of the mare inside.

“Oh, Caramel!  How are you?”

Caramel’s heart jumped slightly at seeing the way her face perked up when she saw him.  “You were right, Twilight,” he said softly.  “My motives weren’t right.  There’s so much about all this I still just don’t understand.  I don’t really even understand myself, really.”  He took a breath, letting it out slowly.  “I’m not really sure why I want to be with you, I just know I do.”

Twilight beamed at him, her smile warming his heart.  “That’s good enough for me,” she said, welcoming him in with a tender nuzzle.

Twilight curled up against her stallion, her head laid on his chest, listening to his breathing slowing as he drifted to sleep.  The steady cadence of his heartbeat was comforting to the mare, making it all seem more real.

Caramel had told her that he didn’t want his staying the night to become a regular thing, that he wanted it to stay special to them both.  She pulled her head back just far enough to look into his face, seeing the utter peace on it as he slept.  There was no doubt it was special.  Even though she wasn’t experienced in love, Twilight had talked to her friends and heard enough stories to know that Caramel was something a mare didn’t find every day.  His touch was tender and loving, never forceful.  He gave his affection, never taking for himself.

Even though she had turned down his proposal of marriage, his motivations had still been focused on her, misplaced though they may have been.  Twilight couldn’t really figure out why the answer she needed to hear seemed to elude him so often.  As outward as his emotions were, surely he could see that she just wanted him to love her for the sake of loving her?  He never expected that all the things he did for her would buy her love, but he resorted so quickly to those way to show his love.

Still, though, she thought, he’s never had a problem showing his affection.  The unicorn snuggled back up against Caramel’s side, the stallion twitching slightly in his sleep and wrapping a hoof around her back unconsciously.  Twilight sighed happily as she let her eyes close.  All those little differences between them never seemed to matter in moments like these.  It made her sure that they could make it as a couple, that eventually, no matter what, they would be happy together.

It was a good thought to fall asleep to.

3 – The Answer in the Question

The sun began to rise, the barest hints of light beginning to make their way over the horizon, threatening to scatter the late winter’s pre-dawn gloom.  As the faint rays made their way into the bruised sky, Applejack stepped outside her front door and took a deep breath of the crisp morning air.  She turned, her eyebrow raising as she noted that the faint glow in the sky was met by another glow from one of the barns.

She trotted over, surprised to see a sign of life this early in the day.  Inside, Caramel sat hunched over his workbench, his head resting in his hooves as he stared intently at the desktop.  Beside his stool, Winona lifted her head, evidently glad for some company that did more than sit in silence.  The collie bounded over to her owner as Applejack walked up to Caramel’s side.  Applejack cleared her throat quietly, and the stallion let out a strangled gasp, nearly jumping clear off the stool.

“Sheesh, AJ,” he panted.

“Sorry, partner,” she said, her grin belying her apology.  “What’re you doin’ here so early?  It’s not even dawn yet; normally it’s just me, Mac, and Winona up by now.”  Before Caramel could offer a response, his boss stepped forward to look over his shoulder.  Her eyes met the worn notebook that rested on the workbench and the simple sketch on the page.  “Shoot, Caramel, I didn’t know you were an artist!”  She smiled appreciatively at the clean lines depicting him and Twilight.

The tan pony blushed through several shades of crimson as his hooves drifted over his art, not doing all that much to cover it.  “Oh, uh…  It’s nothing.  Just a little something I do in my spare time.”

“I wouldn’t call that nothin’.  I’d say it’s pretty good, myself.  Were you thinkin’ of what to add to that one?”

Caramel turned back to his drawing, staring mutely at the simple line art of himself and his marefriend.  He frowned, his jaw working as he searched for the words he felt.  “I’m not sure,” he said hesitantly.  “It’s been forever since I started it and every time I think of working on it more, I feel like I can’t do it.  It’s like there’s something in this picture that I’m missing—like there’s something important hidden there, and if I add anything I’ll ruin it.”

Applejack’s head canted slowly to the side as she tried to follow his reasoning.  The image was simple; just Caramel and Twilight, together.  It was simplistic, perhaps, but it didn’t seem incomplete, not even to the farmer.  She finally gave up, shaking her head and chuckling.  “Shoot, I dunno, Caramel.  I don’t know much about art, so I wouldn’t really know how to help with that.  I just know it looks pretty.”  She patted the stallion on his shoulder.

“It’s like there’s got to be some sort of reason for us to be together, but I’m just not seeing it,” he muttered, completely unresponsive to his boss.

“Sugarcube, are you all right?”

Caramel shook himself back into the present and looked over to Applejack, who was staring at him with a worried expression.  He pulled back slightly.  “Sure, I’m fine.  Why?”

Applejack frowned.  “Caramel, it’s been near two months since Twilight rejected your proposal.  I knew that messed with your head, but I didn’t think it hit you that hard.”  Caramel’s ears fell as he huffed quietly, and Applejack gave him a sympathetic smile in response.  “Do you need a day off to get your head cleared out?”

“No, definitely not,” he replied with an emphatic shake of his head.  “I need to do something, I need to stay busy.  I can think more clearly when I’m doing something.”

“Tell ya what: You were tending to the garden today, right?  How about I get Mac on that instead, and you can go work on the new fences in the south orchard.  That’s nice and repetitive—should be good for ya.”

Caramel nodded appreciatively.  “Thanks, AJ.”

As the farmpony left, Caramel turned back to his page.  The simplicity of the drawing mocked his lack of understanding.  What are we feeling? he thought glumly.  Are we happy?  Sad?  Afraid?

His shoulders slumped as he sighed, slid the sketchbook back into his saddlebag, and shuffled towards the fields under the strengthening daylight.

Why are we together?

As winter waned, the days grew warmer and the snow less oppressive, allowing Caramel and his fellow farmers to attend to chores that the deeper winter made difficult.  The fence around the south orchard was one such item, and it had been in dire need of repair.

Caramel shook out his mane, scattering the slight perspiration that had collected on his brow during the morning.  He dropped his pliers to the ground and nodded, content that the fence rail he had just added would keep its position without being held there.  It might not keep out a hydra, but it was sturdy and rather good looking.

The sound of hooves on the hard path drew his attention, and he looked up to gauge the time.  The sun indicated noon, and he stood and cracked his neck, glad for whoever had distracted him long enough for him to remember to eat lunch.

Twilight came into view, trotting down the path with an easy smile on her face.  She called out to him, “Hey, Caramel, I found you!  Applejack said you’d be down here somewhere.”

Despite his weariness from missed sleep and his earlier doubtful thoughts, Caramel could feel his tensions drain away at the mere presence of his marefriend.  At five months pregnant, her sleek form was now showing the first noticeable signs of her condition.  The doctor had assured her that it was a bit earlier than some but perfectly normal for a first-time mother, especially one as active and trim as Twilight.  “Hey, Twi,” he called back, stifling a yawn with his hoof.  “What’s up?”

The mare trotted up and nuzzled at Caramel’s cheek, her touch invigorating the stallion better than a cup of coffee.  “Oh, nothing much.  I just wondered if you might like a break.  Maybe we could get some lunch?”

He glanced at her midsection.  “Are you sure you want to be in public right now?  I can get something and bring it somewhere where we can relax more.”

“Caramel, we’ve been over this: I’m pregnant, not crippled,” Twilight said.  “Besides, you know as well as I do that there’s no harm to the foal in getting some fresh air and exercise.”

“Right,” he muttered sheepishly.  “Sorry, Twi, you know I can’t help but worry sometimes.”

She relaxed slightly, trading her gritted teeth and terse expression for a gentle smile.  “I know, but as I’ve said before, I am pretty sure of what I can and can’t handle.”

“I know.  And I’d love to join you for some lunch.”

After replacing Caramel’s tools in the barn where they’d be safe from the damp snow, the two ponies trotted off down the road towards Ponyville, drawn to the sounds of the marketplace.

Even during the winter, the town market kept up a brisk trade.  Ponies bundled up more than normal—and the produce business leaned towards root vegetables and winter grains more than it did in the summertime—but hoofmade items, tools, and clothing were always in demand.  Many of the shops and cafés even offered hot tea or coffee for free to encourage ponies to venture from the warmth of their homes and support the vendors.

The Ponyville town square was a mass of ponies, and with the crowds milling in every direction Caramel wasn’t totally surprised when he realized that he had gotten separated from Twilight.  He snorted in irritation as he looked about for her, his mind creating any number of scenarios that could happen with this many ponies out and about.

His nervousness mounting, Caramel redoubled his efforts to find a path through the throng, keeping close to the stalls where the traffic was thinner.  He passed several, not paying particular attention to any of them until a familiar shade of purple caught his eye.  Twisting around, he saw an image of his marefriend across the front of a magazine.  A grin spread across his face.  It was still a bit of a shock to him that Twilight was famous, but Caramel guessed that it should have been obvious considering all the times she'd saved Equestria.

Caramel glanced around again, biting his lip as he considered the situation.  He may worry about Twilight in this crowd, but he knew she would scold him for thinking she couldn’t take care of herself.  Telling his mind to relax, he took a deep breath, approached the newsstand, and pulled out a copy of the magazine.  He glanced over the cover, and his smile fell as he read the title “Pregnancy Scandal” emblazoned in garish letters across the image.  He flipped to the inside, where he stared at quite recent photos of Twilight, obviously taken without her knowledge.

It wasn’t right, and it made Caramel’s stomach turn slightly.  Ponies shouldn’t be out stalking his marefriend, no matter how famous she was.  Besides, if these ponies were watching and taking pictures, who knew who else was watching, and with what motives?  His ire rising, he skimmed over the article itself instead.

This publication has learned that the royal protégé Twilight Sparkle, often held up as an example to all of ponykind, is pregnant…

…no stallion is known to be the father, prompting questions over the mystery stallion’s motives, and some wonder if Twilight has any intention of marrying at all…

…loose morals and a lack of accountability to the public has led to…

…Celestia seems to support her student’s irresponsible actions, potentially weakening the throne’s already strained threads of moral authority…

Caramel stared dumbly at the page, unable to read any more.  The article was a blanket assault, one composed of nothing but pure conjecture and slander that even went so far as to indict him, despite having no idea who he was.  Even if it had been accurate in any way, Caramel’s head still reeled from the idea that anypony could be so insensitive—so judgmental—to somepony they had never met.  It made him unsure of whether he was more incensed or hurt by what he had read, and that was only by what was said about him.  He could feel a righteous anger burning in his chest over the slights against the mare he loved, unable to find an outlet.

As he stood at the stall, the pony hawking the magazines leaned across the counter to see what he was reading.  “Ah, how about that, eh?” the merchant commented breezily.  “Some story.”

“Yeah…” Caramel responded, not paying attention as his emotions rose and fought with each other.

“Wonder who that stallion is.  Lucky little so-and-so.”

Caramel looked up, focusing on the vendor for the first time.  “I, uh, what?”

The newspony leaned in and pointed a hoof unsuspectingly at the picture of Caramel’s lover.  “You know she’s gotta be a freak in bed.  The bookworms always are.”

As she reached the edges of the crowd, Twilight turned to look back, scanning for Caramel’s tan coat among the various colors of pony.  Caramel had known where they were going for lunch before they left, so Twilight had no real reason to be concerned over their separation.  At least, she hadn’t until she heard his voice overpower all the noise and commotion of the market.

“COME HERE, YOU!”

Twilight charged recklessly back into the throng, using her magic to smoothly clear a path as she pushed her way towards where her mate’s voice had come from.  Her jaw dropped as she broke through to see Caramel snorting in fury and being held back from a newsstand by three other ponies.  The vendor inside was cowering behind the counter, his eyes panicked.

Twilight raced over to Caramel’s side, gently pushing the other ponies aside as she restrained her stallion with her magic.  His eyes were wide and angry, and his teeth ground together as he growled and pressed against her magic, trying to get free.

“Caramel, what the hay?”

“Stand back, Twilight; I’m gonna stomp this guy.”

With a bewildered shake of her head, Twilight focused and teleported both of them to the library, where she released Caramel.  The stallion crashed to the ground with the magazine still clenched in his hoof and looked around frantically.  “Wha—where—how did we get here?”

Twilight stood in front of Caramel, her expression carefully rigid and her voice low and controlled.  “Caramel, what in Equestria was that all about?”

The tan pony rubbed a hoof through his chestnut mane, starting to come down from his adrenaline high as he got back up onto his hooves and threw the magazine to the floor.  “That… pony,” he growled, unwilling to use the language in his head in front of Twilight.  “He made some remarks about you.  Ones that I didn’t appreciate at all.”

Twilight glanced at the cover of the offending magazine, and leafed quickly to the article in question with her magic.  She skimmed over the article without expression or comment until she sighed, kicked the magazine away, and turned back to Caramel.  “That?  A gossip rag takes a poke at me, and you lose your head?”

Caramel snorted.  “It’s all lies, Twi, and ponies out there believe it!  Ponies out there, in this town, actually believe that you’re unprincipled, or an easy lay, or that I’m a deadbeat stallion.”  He shook his head furiously.  “That is not okay, not about my mare.”

“Do you think this is the first time it’s ever happened?” Twilight retorted, her voice rising quickly.  “You might remember that my friends and I are celebrities.  We’ve been dealing with the public for years, Caramel.”

The stallion stamped his hoof emphatically, his voice rising.  “Maybe so, but I could have done—could do something about this!”

“Like what?  Punching out anypony who reads it?  Are you going to go to jail because somepony says something crude about me?”

“Twilight, I—”  Caramel huffed, frustrated.  “You don’t deserve that treatment, and frankly, if you hadn’t turned down my marriage proposal, maybe they’d be publishing stories about your new life and future family instead of simply inventing ideas of how you’re… what they’re saying you are.”

Twilight’s ears folded back flat against her head as she met his glare.  “So because it’s still happening, clearly I’m either too weak to do anything or I approve of it, right?  Do I need you to protect me now?  Are you going to get the whole world to stop saying bad things about me?”  Twilight advanced on him, poking him in the chest with a hoof.  “Is this what being married to you would be like?  You constantly hanging over me, fretting over every little detail?  I don’t need that, Caramel!”

Caramel froze, his ears slowly falling back.  “Is it really so wrong that I want to keep bad things from happening to you?  That I want to protect you?  That I want to be your stallion?”

“Do you remember who I am?” Twilight challenged.  “I’m the student of Celestia herself.  I do not need to be saved from anything, least of all somepony’s uneducated opinions!”

The stallion recoiled, unable to come up with an adequate response to Twilight’s anger, simply remaining silent as she fumed.  He eventually met her eyes, his own gaze hard and hurt, and muttered, “I’m sorry.”

Twilight’s expression faltered, turning confused as he turned his back on her and walked to the door.  “Caramel, what—”

He stopped with his hoof on the doorknob.  “You’re right, Twilight.  You don’t need me.”

He could just see her eyes widening as the door shut behind him, closing them off from each other.

Twilight grunted with the effort of magically lifting a massive stack of books, and began to sort them back into the shelves with more force than was strictly necessary.  With Caramel gone—potentially for good, she realized—she had ranted to the empty library for some time, finally deciding that she had to organize something before she exploded.

After cleaning and reorganizing the bathroom, kitchen, refrigerator, and bedroom, she had started in on the nonfiction section, deciding to put the books back by author this time instead of by topic, which really hadn’t been that successful of an idea.  Halfway through the Ts, she was interrupted by a knock.

The door swung open without her help, and Rarity trotted in with her saddlebags on her back and wearing what was doubtlessly a trendy hat and scarf combination.  “Twilight, dear, I’m off to Canterlot for supplies.  Would you like me to pick up any textbooks for you this time?”

Twilight sighed, both thankful for and irritated by the interruption.  “I think I’m fine for books, Rarity.  Thanks.”

“Anything else you might need?” Rarity offered hesitantly.

“No.  I don’t think there is.”

Rarity frowned, staring at the massive pile of books floating around and the librarian’s firmly set expression.  “Twilight, is everything okay?”

Twilight scratched for something to deflect the question, but by the time she could think of an explanation for her terse attitude, Rarity had already floated her saddlebags and hat to the side and drawn over a couch with her magic.  Heaving another massive sigh, Twilight let the stacks of books float back to the floor and walked over to a bench of her own.

“Talk to me, darling,” Rarity prompted, taking a seat and folding her hooves under herself.

Twilight sat heavily on the bench and blew her mane out of her face.  “It—it’s Caramel.  We sorta had a fight.”

“Oh?  Whatever about?”

“He keeps treating me like I’m weak or something.”  Twilight frowned, her ears falling back as she recalled the argument.  “He’s always thinking that I shouldn’t work so hard, or do anything that could possibly have any plausible hint of danger.”

Rarity put a hoof to her chin thoughtfully.  “So, he’s a bit overprotective, then?”

Twilight snorted.  “Put mildly, yes.  It’s just so insulting, though!  I did fight against unimaginable horrors before I met him, after all.”

“Yes, I do recall.  I was present,” her friend interjected mildly.

“And then today he saw a tabloid article about my pregnancy and just lost it.  He acts like he has to face down every threat to my honor himself.  So we had a fight about it.  I told him that I don’t need him to protect me from everything.  I just—”  Twilight huffed, deflating slightly.  “I hate being treated like I’m weak.  Like I can’t take care of myself.”

“And how did he take it?” Rarity asked quietly.

“I—I’m not real sure,” Twilight said quietly, frowning as she pondered over his departure.  “He got quiet, apologized, and left.  I hope I wasn’t too hard on him…”

No response came, and Twilight looked up at Rarity.  The librarian arched her eyebrow inquisitively, searching for some sort of reply from her friend.

Rarity took a deep breath to compose herself and folded her hooves primly in front of her.  “Twilight, I should think you’re not going to like what I have to say, but say it I must.”

Twilight scowled and rolled her eyes.  “What, you think I’m wrong?”

The designer kept her voice calm and soft, though her words were plenty pointed.  “Darling, you did something frustratingly senseless.  You are so wrong and stubborn and prideful that you hurt Caramel, perhaps even so much that he may not recover from it.”

“What in the hay do you mean?” Twilight scoffed.

“There’s something you should realize about stallions, and it’s that they’re quite different from those of our feminine persuasion.  We think differently, we act differently, and there’s a purpose to that.”  Rarity stared intently into Twilight’s eyes.  “Stallions are born with an innate need to protect.  It’s not something they think about or choose.  It’s an integral part of who they are.”

Rarity shifted her weight and looked away.  “I’ll let you in on a little secret, Twilight.  Remember when I was captured by those vulgar diamond dogs?”  Twilight nodded slowly, starting to feel less sure of her indignant position.  “Do you think I really needed anypony to come get me, knowing how it all turned out?  Of course not—I’m perfectly able of taking care of myself in a spot of trouble, as I showed.  Despite that, little Spike’s gallant gesture was honestly one of the most heartwarming things I’ve ever experienced.”  She met Twilight's gaze once more, a slight blush on her cheeks.  “Do you ever wonder why the Royal Guard exists?”

“I, uh,” Twilight stalled, trying to follow the turn of the conversation.  “I suppose not.  Why?”

“Don’t you ever wonder why the most powerful beings in the whole world need to be surrounded by armed ponies?  Don’t you think the princesses are quite capable of taking care of themselves?  And yet, dozens upon dozens of ponies swear themselves to the task of giving up anything to protect their leaders, even willing to die in the course of duty.  Does that make Celestia weak?”

Twilight tried to think quickly but couldn’t respond.  She could feel her argument crumbling away from under her.

Rarity smiled at Twilight in an almost motherly fashion.  “Darling, it’s part of what makes a stallion a stallion.  What he loves, he devotes himself to.  It’s not a sign that you need his protection, it’s how he is best able to serve you.  It truly is a shame about the age difference, because Spike’s charge to my rescue is one of the most genuinely romantic things anypony has ever done for me.”

“So,” Twilight said quietly, her lavender face growing a bit paler, “what did I do?  I told Caramel…”

“You told him you didn’t need him,” Rarity said, keeping her voice gentle.  “Not just that you didn’t need him to protect you, but that you didn’t need him.  Because that part of him isn’t something that can be removed or put aside; it’s part of who he is.”

“And—and you really think he might not recover from that?”

“Let me put it to you this way,” Rarity replied.  “Mares generally want to be wanted, but practically every stallion needs to be needed.”

“Oh…”  Twilight bit her lip and looked towards the door anxiously.

“I won’t lie, Twilight; I should imagine that you hurt him rather badly.  The reason I think this might be fixable is that you didn’t browbeat him like that in public.  With the right words and the right actions, you can probably make it right, but it will take some work.”  Rarity glanced up at the clock and stood up from her couch.  “I have to go, Twilight.  If I don’t make my train, I may not get the supplies to finish this order on time, but I suggest you think about this and talk to Caramel soon.  I’ll also speak to him on your behalf if you need it after I get back, but he needs to hear certain things from you, and most of all, he needs to know that you support and respect him.”

Twilight nodded distantly as Rarity walked over and gave her a warm hug.  “Don’t worry, dear,” she said.  “Caramel has a big heart.  It gets hurt easier, but he’ll be eager to forgive you if he can.”

Caramel walked slowly into the barn as the sun began to set, realizing belatedly that he still hadn’t had anything to eat so far that day.  He grabbed a potato and an apple from the winter storage bins and munched absentmindedly as he tried to banish the fight from his mind.

I just can’t seem to get anything right, he thought as he paced.  I guess she was right not to marry me after all.

No matter how good his intentions, no matter how noble his aims, he always seemed to screw things up.  A year ago if he messed something up it was the farm that was affected, but there were enough other ponies helping out that nothing ever was ruined for long.  Now, though, there was a mare who was going to have his foal.  He had screwed up again, and now somepony’s life would never be the same because of it.

It’s not like I don’t try, he thought.  What more can she ask of me?  What makes Twilight so perfect that she can look down on me for wanting to protect her?

He stopped and stood still, staring at the potato in his hoof.  He couldn’t even make sense of his own feelings as he rocked back and forth between anger and sorrow, self-pity and sarcastic ire.  This was what his mare did to him, it seemed.  He wanted to change for her.  He wanted to be the kind of stallion that she needed him to be, but she seemed to want something completely different from what he was, and he just couldn’t take the pain and frustration of being unable to measure up.

He reared up and threw the remainder of the potato across the room, stalking over to his workbench and grabbing the sketchbook.  Inside, image after idealized image of Twilight stared back at him, accusing him of how little he seemingly understood his own marefriend.

He growled as he tore out the first of the portraits and ripped it down the middle, rending the sketch into tiny scraps with his hooves.  “Why am I not good enough for you?” he yelled at the paper, ripping away another picture and destroying it.  “Why do you deserve so much better than me?”  A third and a fourth joined the first two on the floor in tatters.  “What makes you think you’re so perfect?  You’re not that good, Twilight!”

Another image ripped away with a satisfying noise, leaving Caramel face-to-face with the unfinished drawing, the one that had been on his mind for months.

He reached out, preparing to take out his rage on the drawing, the sketch that had left him so uncertain.  He hesitated, trying to will himself to follow through.

What if she’s right?

Caramel slid onto his stool and curled inwards, not even feeling the urge to cry as the thought hit him.

Twilight is better than I am.  She doesn’t need me.  But I need her…

“Hey, anypony home?”

Caramel vaguely recognized the brash voice, but didn’t bother to answer.

“Hey, Caramel!”  He nodded a bit as Rainbow Dash walked into the barn and greeted him.  “Hey, just checking snow depths for Winter Wrap—whoa.”  He looked up as Rainbow stared at the floor, gawking at the multiple torn and sundered pictures of Twilight.  “Dude, what the hay?” she asked quietly, her eyes reflecting her concern.

“Twilight doesn’t need me,” he muttered.

Rainbow gaped at him, her eyebrow quirked in confusion.  “Okay.  Start from the beginning.  What happened?”

Caramel quickly ran through the events of the day.  Rainbow listened, her eyes narrowing and her wings rising as his story went on.

“Oooh,” Rainbow Dash growled.  “I’m gonna kick Twilight’s flank!”

Caramel’s mouth screwed up wryly.  “Why?  She’s right.”

She rounded on the stallion and pointed her hoof at him.  “No.  You shut up.  Do not talk like that and don’t justify what she said, because she’s wrong.”  The pegasus hopped into the air and began to fly back and forth, pacing in front of Caramel.

“I don’t think I get it,” he said.  “She’s stronger and more capable than I am, so how’s she wrong?”

Rainbow landed with a huff, sweeping her mane out of her face with a hoof and calming herself.  “Because she just is!  Twilight’s always obsessed with doing everything herself, and if she could just stop and—and—”  Rainbow shook her head and grunted in frustration.  “Look, the point is that there’s nothing wrong with you trying to look out for her.  Nothing.  Yeah, okay, you overreacted.  I don’t know if seeing you mad enough to attack another pony is hilarious or scary, but it doesn’t make Twilight saying that stuff to you okay!”  She glanced around, waving a hoof at the scattered papers.  “You tore up your pictures of her, dude.  This whole thing is seriously messed up.”

Caramel grimaced but didn’t disagree.  “Then why—”

He stopped, both Rainbow and Caramel turning towards the small sound of a hoof tapping tentatively on the doorframe.  Standing just outside was Twilight, looking small and cowed.  Rainbow leaped off the ground, zipping across the room and stomping back down just in front of the unicorn.

“What the hay, Twilight?”

Twilight leaned back slightly from Rainbow’s too-close glare.  “Um, Rainbow Dash, can I have a minute with Caramel?  Alone?”

Rainbow’s eyes narrowed.  “Twilight, you’d better be making this right.  If you screw this up worse…”

“I—I’m trying.  I promise.”

The pegasus put a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder, gave her a nod, and walked slowly out the door before closing it behind her.

Twilight hung her head and rubbed a hoof on her other foreleg awkwardly, unwilling or unable to look Caramel in the eyes.  He said nothing, simply watching her as she walked slowly forward, seeing the mess around him and wincing.

“I—Caramel, I’m sorry,” she blurted out, visibly forcing herself to meet his eyes.  “I’m so sorry.  I didn’t realize how hurtful what I was saying was.”

He nodded slightly.  “Doesn’t make it untrue, though.”

Twilight slumped a little.  “Maybe not in itself, but I was wrong.  I behaved like a foal, Caramel.  I was stubborn and selfish and I wanted to do everything myself.”  She took a step forward until she was able to put a hoof on his.  “I thought you were trying to make me something less than I was, which is stupid.  I know you better than that.  It never entered my head that you were trying to honor me by offering yourself in my defense.”  A slight look of confusion came over his features as she grabbed his hoof tenderly.  “I know I probably screwed things up quite a bit between us now, but I’d like a chance to try to fix it.  May I?”

Caramel’s expression softened and he gripped Twilight’s hoof tightly.  “I suppose I’d be a complete idiot to say ‘no,’ wouldn’t I?”

She smiled wanly.  “Dinner, then?  My treat?”

Caramel nodded, and the two walked out of the barn in silence, though the distance between them spoke volumes.

La Mandorla was the priciest restaurant in Ponyville, having opened only a few years ago after the population of Ponyville had swelled a bit.  There were nicer and more costly places in Canterlot, but it was still the sort of place that warranted a rating of “snooty” from Applejack.

Since it wasn’t the weekend, Twilight didn’t need a reservation to get a table, and the wait was short enough.  She and Caramel were quickly led away to a table in the main dining room, where they were left to browse through the menu.

There wasn’t a lot of discussion between the two as they waited for their meals to arrive, and even less once they began eating.  Most of the silence was filled with awkward tension as Caramel fought with his emotions and Twilight searched for things to say that could make things right.

Twilight looked across the table as she chewed pensively, seeing how his eyes seemed to shift across the room without ever settling on her.  Her heart ached slightly as she realized how recently he had been almost unable to keep his eyes off of her.  His gaze seemed hopeful but distant, and she knew he was looking for a reason to trust her again.

She reached for her drink, searching for something to occupy her hooves, when she felt a tap on her shoulder.

“Hey, I know you!”

Twilight turned to see a slate-grey pegasus stallion standing just behind her.  He was young, athletic, and handsome—and, worse, he seemed like the type who knew it, if the loving detail he put into his lime-green mane was any indication.  She narrowed her eyes at him as he grinned at her and shifted his weight from hoof to hoof nervously.

“Yeah, you’re in all the papers.  Magazines.  Whatever.  Twilight Sparkle, right?”

Twilight glanced quickly over the bothersome pegasus.  His eyes were a bit glazed, and his pupils were wider than what was considered normal.  From the general smell of his breath and slightly lopsided grin, she assumed that he had been drinking.  It was probably where he had gotten the courage to approach a celebrity.  “Do you want an autograph or something?” she asked, trying to make it apparent that he wasn’t welcome.

“Oh, no, no, nothing like that,” he said quickly.  His tail whipped back and forth behind him.  “I’ve been reading about you.  All the papers say that you don’t have a stallion around, so I just thought I’d come over and say ‘hi.’  Maybe see if you wanted to get a drink or something?” he said tentatively, his voice pitching up with the oblique request.

Twilight shot a glance at Caramel, who rolled his eyes in a “told you so” gesture and looked away.  “I don’t know where you would have gotten that idea.  If you don’t mind, I’m trying to spend a dinner with my coltfriend,” she said pointedly and turned back to the table.

“What, him?  Seriously?”

Caramel winced visibly but bit his tongue and refused to rise to the challenge.  Twilight spun back around to glare at the pegasus.

“He hasn’t said a word to you in, like, an hour,” the pegasus blurted out, his jaw hanging.  Twilight could almost see the wheels in his head spinning furiously as he tried to find a way to make himself seem desirable.  “I know you can do better than him.  He’s a waste of time!  I mean, come on, he doesn’t even stand up for you.  Wouldn’t you prefer to have a stallion who isn’t so… weak?”

Twilight looked back at Caramel again.  He was almost shaking with what she suspected was rage, but he just drummed his hooves on the table, stubbornly refusing to stand up for himself, much less for her.  I did this, she realized.  I told him to be like this.  I never wanted him to be docile, I just wanted us to re… spect… each other…

In that moment, the answer came to Twilight.  Respect means sometimes I need to give up the lead…

She stood up out of her booth, throwing her napkin back down on the table, and faced down the tipsy stallion.  “Do you have any idea who I am?” she demanded angrily.  By this point more than a few of the other patrons in the building had turned to observe them.  The stallion stammered, unsure of how to proceed now that Twilight was going on the offensive.  Twilight waved to the onlookers.  “Go on,” she called, “help him out.”

“That’s Twilight Sparkle,” a diner offered, “Princess Celestia’s personal student.”

“I heard she’s a plenty powerful unicorn, maybe the strongest in Equestria!” somepony else spoke up.

“She’s saved Equestria three times!” called a colt from the back of the room.

“Four if you count the time with Princess Luna and the pumpkin launcher!” another colt at the same table chimed in.

“Thank you, everypony,” Twilight said as she turned back to stare coolly at the pegasus before her.  “So, knowing all that—that I’m the most powerful unicorn in an age and could scatter your atoms with a thought—ask yourself a question:  Just what kind of stallion would somepony like me ‘waste her time’ with?  Because I assure you, I would not choose a weak stallion.”

Behind her, Caramel looked up, masking his confusion carefully.  He could have sworn he just heard Twilight supporting him in front of the entire restaurant.  He slowly slid out of his booth to stand silently at Twilight’s flank, anxious to hear what came next.

Twilight could feel Caramel’s nearness, and she grinned to herself as she stared down the inebriated pegasus.  “I prefer the company of one who can handle himself fine, one who can protect me from anything—and knows when he does and doesn’t need to.  Just because he’s too polite to put you in your place doesn’t mean he can’t, or won’t—and if you don’t believe me,” she said, her voice dropping down as the pegasus’ eyes widened, “I’ll let him handle you instead.”

Twilight took a small step to the side and allowed Caramel to come forward, putting himself right in front of the other stallion.  The pegasus looked up at him, swallowing hard.  The earth pony loomed over the pegasus, despite the almost negligible height difference between them.  His stance was easy and powerful, and his head was held high, radiating confidence.  Twilight watched the pegasus blanch under the fiery stare.

“You will apologize to my mate,” Caramel growled.

The challenger shrank back, drops of sweat beginning to bead up on his forehead.  “Right, sorry, Twilight—ma’am.  Sir.  Both of you,” he said quickly before turning and galloping out of the room.  A few tables offered some scattered applause for the diversion and slowly drifted back to their meals, and the general hubbub of conversation picked up in volume.

He turned back, staring at Twilight in a way that made the mare shiver slightly.  He seemed so much more powerful, so much more intense, than any time she had known him.  He pulled his saddlebags on and tossed a hooffull of bits onto the table to cover their check.  “Come on, Twilight.  We’re going home,” he said quietly, his voice nevertheless ringing with authority.

Twilight followed Caramel out the door, feeling a mixed sense of awe and glee.  She had managed to pull him out of his shell, but now that she had done so she could feel something new building inside her.  Caramel trotted steadily off towards the library, leading her.  Twilight followed him eagerly.

Once they reached the door, he opened it and held it for her.  She entered, her cheek brushing along the fur of his chin as she did.  He followed her in, and no sooner had the door closed than he grabbed her and held her up on her rear hooves against the door, pressing his lips to hers needfully.  Twilight tensed in surprise but began to melt into the kiss almost instantly, throwing her hooves around Caramel’s neck.  The earth pony’s normally cautious, almost timid nature was seemingly gone, replaced with a forcefulness and passion that left Twilight’s legs weak.  She might have dropped to the floor had he not been holding her so tightly and so possessively.

Caramel pulled back, taking a deep breath.  “Twi…”

She ran a hoof through his mane.  “Yes?”

He stared at her, his eyes slightly misty.  “I love you so much.  I—I can’t really describe—I don’t know how—”

Twilight laid her head in the crook of his shoulder, closing her eyes happily.  “I’m so sorry, Caramel.  I shouldn’t have disrespected you like I did.  I know you’re just looking out for me because you love me—I just let my stubborn pride get the better of me.”

Caramel fought back a tear and kissed the top of Twilight’s head right between her ears.  He drew her face back up to his.  “So, does this mean that you’re okay with letting me stand up for you sometimes?”

The mare couldn’t help but blush and smile.  “If it gets this kind of reaction out of you, I think I’d be okay with following you for the rest of my life.”

He grinned and let her down to all four hooves, ducking underneath and scooping her up onto his back.  Twilight giggled and put her forelegs around his neck as he carried her off towards the stairs.

Twilight smiled, her eyes half-lidded sleepily, body curled up against Caramel’s chest and held tightly in his hooves.  They were both sweaty, tired, and slightly smelly, but at the moment, both ponies would happily trade anything just to stay in the other’s arms like this.  She nestled a little more firmly into his chest as he trailed a hoof over her back, idly tracing patterns through her velvety coat.

She sighed happily, and he chuckled at her reaction.  Tonight had been so different from before.  Normally, Caramel’s touch was gentle and yielding as they made love, but this time he had taken on an aggressiveness that seemed to light a fire in her.  She felt like she had awakened something in him, and in response she had never felt more loved and cherished than she did right now.  And as for what it had done to the sex itself, oh, Celestia, it had—

“Hey, Twi?”

She twitched, shaken out of her pleasant, drowsy reverie by Caramel’s voice.  “Yeah?”

“I, uh…”  She looked up to see his sheepish expression.  “I’m sorry I ripped up your pictures.”

Twilight knew he was serious, but she couldn’t help but giggle slightly at the absurdity of the confession.  “Caramel, it’s okay.  I know you were upset.”  She traced a hoof around his ear, making him grin.  “I just didn’t know you could draw like that.  It was amazing…”

He blushed.  “Aw, it’s just a little hobby.  Nothing much.”

“Are there any left?”

“Yeah, one.”  He rolled away, keeping one hoof in contact with hers as he rummaged into his saddlebag on the floor.  He came back up with a worn sketchbook and flipped it open.  It fell easily to the sketch of the two of them.

Twilight rolled onto her stomach and studied the drawing in silence, tracing her hoof along the outlines.  “It’s beautiful…” she muttered.

Caramel flopped over onto his back.  “I like it, but every time I go to add to it, I freeze up.  I feel like I’d be ruining something, something simple that I don’t really understand.”

She looked over at him.  “Like what?”

“Well, I keep asking myself what the picture is feeling.  I don’t know what emotion to draw, or even what it’s about.  Why are we together there?  Why are we together here?” he asked vaguely, waving at the ceiling with a hoof.

The unicorn caught his hoof in her magic and pulled it down to her own hoof.  “Does it matter?” she asked him.

“Of course—”  Caramel stopped suddenly, his eyes going distant.  Twilight’s simple off-hoof remark resonated in his head, bouncing off of his memories over the last five months.

If there’s even the slightest doubt that you had a choice, if you feel like you need to marry me, then there’s a chance—no matter how small—that someday you or I would regret it.

Why are we together?

But just as a hypothetical, what would you do if that happened?  What if she said she wanted to end your relationship?

“I’d fight…” he muttered under his breath.

Twilight raised her head to look at him.  “What?”

Caramel looked back at her, his eyes wide as understanding came to him.  “It really doesn’t matter, does it?”  She cocked her head to the side in confusion as he rolled over onto his front, staring at the drawing.  “It doesn’t matter why we’re together, only that we are…”

Twilight felt a smile creeping onto her face as he sat up and turned to her.

“I’ve been confused, I’ll admit it,” he said, wringing his hooves with nervous energy.  “You were right before; I wanted to marry you for all the wrong reasons, no matter how good my intentions were.  I’ve been afraid of what might happen to you, afraid of our reputation and even our ability to care for our foal together.  It wasn’t right.

“Twi, I felt like crap today.  I thought for the longest time that I would be able to marry you because we worked well together, because we liked each other, because we were compatible—or heck, just because we were going to bring a life into the world.”

He stared deep into her eyes, and Twilight could feel herself growing closer to the verge of tears as he spoke.  Some still, small voice deep inside her seemed to whisper, This is it…

Caramel shook his head.  “Your brother could see it when I couldn’t.  He asked me what I would do if you said you wanted to break up with me.  I told him at the time that I’d let you go, wanting you to be happy, and he said that’s how he knew we weren’t quite right for each other yet.  That confused the heck out of me, but I know the answer now, Twi.  I’d fight for you.”

Twilight put a hoof to her muzzle, determined to hear him out entirely before she gave vent to her emotions.

“I’d fight like crazy.  I’d do anything to keep you.”  He reached out and took her other hoof in both of his.  “Oh Luna, I’m completely unprepared for this…  I thought I could marry you because I could live with you, Twilight.  But if this day has taught me anything, it’s that I’m not sure that I can live without you.  So, for no other reason than I want you by my side—forever,” he said, his voice faltering as he pulled her hoof in gently and kissed it, “Twilight Sparkle,” he whispered, “will you marry me?”

Twilight stared through her watery vision into his eyes, searching his soul through them.  She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, pawing at the tears building up in the corners with her hoof.  Inside her, the emotional roller coaster of the last five months replayed, times both blessed and painful winding through her mind, and at the end of it all lay the future: terrifying, exhilarating, tenuous, joyous, and above all, unknown.  She opened her eyes and met his gaze, swallowing hard as her ears laid back.

Her voice barely worked, but she managed to squeeze out one single, audible word.

“Yes.”