Tales From the Tailgate

by The Autumn Princess

Rating: teen
Tags: Rarity, Human, Applejack, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Romance
Length: 3276

When Rarity and Applejack endure their final summer together, the last night is what counts the most.

When Rarity and Applejack endure their final summer together, the last night is what counts the most. With a truck bed full of pillows and the whole night ahead of them, there’s a lot of things in between. There are words. There are numbers. There are kisses. But most importantly, there is love. A love that seems silly, and that of a cliche high school set-up… yet deep down, there might be something more.

Published 2015-09-24 03:30:01 UTC
Last updated 2015-09-24 03:30:01 UTC

the night before life goes on

Usually, the small town of Canterlot was quiet, especially at night. Usually. But on this Thursday evening, it wasn’t exactly peaceful. At least, not in the northern section of town, the nicer part, where there was a rather peculiar sight. No cars were typically on the road around midnight…

...especially rusty old pick ups that had to be pushed up a hill.

“We couldn’t- ugh-” Rarity whined, as she nearly lost her footing. “-we couldn’t have taken my car?”

“That Caddy of yours wouldn’t have ev’n made it outta my drive,” Applejack retorted.

With each girl on either side of the truck, the doors open and the both of them shoving the vehicle with all of their might, it was almost not worth sneaking out.

Rarity groaned as the truck finally started rolling again, and she dove in, starting the ignition. “This better be worth it,” she mumbled.

“It will,” Applejack assured, as she ran alongside of the truck, eventually jumping in as well.

The truck grumbled to life, and sputtered it’s way up the hill, took a few lefts with a handful of rights by Applejack’s direction until they finally coasted to a stop at a dead-end street. For a moment, Rarity looked absolutely infuriated.

“This is it,” she said flatly. “Our mysterious middle of the night rendezvous ended up in a dead-end.”

“Ya said you trust me, right?” Applejack replied.

Rarity pursed her glossed-covered lips, and drummed her fingers on the steering wheel. “Yes,” she muttered. “But why, oh, why did you take to us to the edge of town?”

“Because we always go out to dinner, or the movies, or someplace fancy like that,” Rarity was about to interject and point out that none of the places they’d gone in town could really be considered fancy, but Applejack cut her off and kept going. “It’s our last real night together before ya go off to that big school in the city, and I wanted it to be special,”

“And dinner and a movie isn’t special?” Rarity asked, slightly stung. She liked their dinner dates. She’d always coordinated them so they could try something new each time, and still get to see the hottest movie in theaters.

“Not that kinda special. Do ya remember the last movie we saw?”

“Of course! It was… er, it was the one about that girl fighting her government, wasn’t it? And that baker boy? Or maybe it was the one about that girl with the little people in her head?”

“See, ya can’t even remember what we saw. The movies are nice, but they aren’t memorable. They’re just fun nights for us to get out of the house and spend time together. I wanted to do somethin’ you’d remember when you’re in your dorm at school, thinkin’ about home. So I put a little somethin’ together. Wait here,” Applejack exited the truck, leaving Rarity to tap on the dashboard impatiently.

She wished the windows worked. Sometime long before Applejack had bought this truck, the windows had gotten stuck, making them impossible to open. Every smell from over the years was absorbed in the seats, and prolonged exposure couldn’t possibly be healthy. She could hear Applejack outside, working on something or other on the truck. Maybe she was lying, and there was something else planned, but the truck had just broken down again.

“Ya can come out now!” Or maybe not. Either way, Rarity was glad to get outside, and for once, not to push this piece of rust and bolts.

She practically kicked open the driver’s side door, and tried to walk steady through the gravel in her high heels. She really did wish that she had a heads-up for whatever this was - she was going to twist her ankle at this rate…

Rarity paused when she made it to the open tailgate, staring at the cab of the truck, which was full of blankets and pillows. For a moment, she dared to laugh, yet instead, she just arched an eyebrow at her girlfriend.

“Special, hmm?” she trilled.

Applejack nearly went red. “N-not like that!” she retorted. “God, Rares, get yer head outta the gutter.”

Rarity giggled, and gave a slight flip of her hair. “Sorry, darling,” she said. “I couldn’t resist. But to be honest, what is your plan? Camping in the back of your truck?”

“Somethin’ like that,” Applejack admitted, hopping into the back effortlessly.

The same could not be said for Rarity. She placed both palms onto the tailgate and shoved herself onto the tailgate, practically shimmying into the back of the truck. She decided to ignore her girlfriend’s smirk, stifled laughter and rolling eyes. Finally, once they were both settled, Rarity let out a soft “oh” when a blanket was draped over her shoulders and Applejack stole a quick kiss.

“I know it ain’t fancy,” Applejack murmured. “But I just figured, a few hours here, out under the stars, me an’ you, just that, i-it’d be nice. Ya get it?”

“I might,” Rarity said softly. “Though the blankets might be a bit of an over-kill in August,”

“It gets cold out here in August,” Applejack said softly. “I used to come out here all the time. Trust me, you’ll be thankful I brought so many as the night goes on,”

“How long do you expect to be out here?” Rarity asked. Applejack merely shrugged in response and leaned back on one of the many pillows she’d stored.

Rarity snuggled up beside her, looking up at the sky. Applejack pointed up every now and then, talking about some constellation that Rarity was sure didn’t exist. She’d never heard of any ‘Johnny Appleseed’ constellation in her life, but she didn’t correct her girlfriend.

“And that one there, my Pa would call Bloomberg, after the first apple tree we’ve got over on the fields. It was what got us our start, so Pa was real big on honoring it,”

“I’m pretty sure you’re pointing at Leo, darling,” Rarity murmured, as she found herself cuddling even closer to her girlfriend.

Applejack released a soft “huh” and waved a hand. “Eh, we all call ‘em somethin’ different,” she said softly. She waited for a few seconds, then chuckled to herself. “Y’know, outta all the times I’ve gone stargazin’, I don’t think I ev’r saw a shootin’ star. I’m startin’ to think they don’t exist, that they’re just myths.”

“Don’t lose hope just yet,” Rarity spoke up. “Maybe tonight’s the night.”

“Hope,” Applejack said breathlessly. “Heh. Guess so.”

Rarity’s gaze trailed up, and she managed a smile as she gently sat up, wrapping one arm around her girlfriend’s neck as she settled into Applejack’s lap. They shared a gaze and two different grins; one confident, bold and beautiful, the other shaky and perhaps a little bashful. Then, they mutually leaned in for a kiss, sweet and soft, as fragile as the atmosphere of the night.

It was a short kiss, in comparison to their thousands of others, but it was the shorter kisses that meant the most, in Rarity’s opinion anyway. They were more than just the eager kisses that most relationship’s depended on. They were much more… real. Proof that a relationship could be more than having your hands all over someone else all the time. They pulled away from each other at the same time, resting their foreheads together so their noses touched.

It was then that the cold Applejack had warned about started settling in. A gentle breeze, but one that carried hints of the winter that was now rapidly approaching with the dying of August. Rarity again wished she’d been tipped off about what their date would entail - her outfit was far from proper attire for being out in the cold - and she tightened the blanket around her shoulders. Applejack pulled her girlfriend closer, wrapping another blanket around her tiny frame.

“Told ya you’d be glad I had all these blankets,” Applejack teased, not able to help the smile on her face.
She’d figured Rarity wouldn’t dress appropriately. They could go out in the middle of a blizzard and Rarity would still wear a skirt if it was fashionable enough. Rarity rolled her eyes and pointed up at the sky.

“What’s that one called?” she asked, changing the subject from herself. She knew what it was really called, of course, but she was amused by Applejack’s incorrect - and often apple themed - names for the stars.

“Easy,” Applejack smiled. “That one doesn’t have a name yet.”

Rarity looked puzzled for a second, until Applejack suddenly lit up with a grin.

“How’s ‘bout I name it after you?”

“You… oh, you’re such a fool sometimes,” Rarity laughed. “You don’t have to, you know.”

Applejack grinned like she had won the lottery. That was Rarity’s favorite smile to see on her girlfriend. Lit up, maybe a little silly, but undeniably adorable.

“I know,” Applejack said- or rather, drawled. “But I want to. So that one’s gettin’ called Rarity. Somethin’ to remember ya by-” Her words caught in her throat. “I - I mean-”

Rarity went a little rigid in the grasp of her girlfriend. “Yes, of course,” she whispered, resting her head on Applejack’s shoulder. “That’s a nice idea. Something to remember me with. A star.” A breathless laugh escaped her, and she almost snorted. “How frivolous.”

“Now, Rares, I didn’t-”

“No, I’m serious, darling, it’s very sweet.”

Her eyes betrayed her sickly sweet tone of voice. Rarity’s eyes were no longer sparkling, they had lost their spark and shimmer. Applejack felt like her heart was about to be torn.

“I didn’t mean it like that, y’know,” she said shakily. “It’s a tradition, in our family, to name people we love in the stars. Pa’s great-grandparents started it. Look, that cluster over there? That’s Pa, and Ma. The little ones are Jackie and Bloom, and that real big one is Mac. Even Granny’s got a star.” She took Rarity’s hands into her own, placing a kiss on them. “I’m callin’ that one Rarity because you’re important to me, and when you’re at that big school in the city, learnin’ about fashion, I wanna be able to know that wherever ya go, you’re still here. That there’s still some part of you left in this town for me to go to while you’re in the city becomin’ more talented than ya already are.”

“You can’t remember me without naming a flaming ball of gas in the sky?” Rarity scowled, yanking her hands away. “You act like I’m never going to come home and visit. You act like this is it for us. Like I’m abandoning you or something,”

“I just don’t get why ya gotta go,” Applejack regretted it as soon as she’d said it.

They’d had this exact argument time and time again, just not as profound as tonight.

Rarity pulled herself away from Applejack, tightening the blankets around herself to maintain the warmth.

“Because my major isn’t offered at the community college, Jacqueline,” Rarity muttered. “Some of us have dreams outside of farming in the same old town we’ve lived in our whole lives. I respect that the farm is what you want to do, why can’t you accept that I don’t want to live here forever? We’ve talked about this. Just four years. That’s all I want is four years to leave and do my own thing, in a new place. Then I’ll come home and start my own business.”

“I don’t wanna fight over this. I didn’t bring ya here so we could argue over you goin’ to college. I’m sorry. Let’s not ruin this by arguin’ over something stupid-”

“My future is not stupid!”

“I didn’t say that! I just meant there’s no changing what’s gonna happen, so we might as well not ruin the night by arguing over it-” Applejack paused, taking a moment to swallow down the urge to cry. “Rares, we’ve been together three years. That means somethin’. I don’t wanna lose ya just like that.”

Rarity’s expression softened ever-so-slightly. “Lose me?” she replied. “Whatever would you give that silly idea?”

Applejack managed a pathetic shrug. “Because, yer gonna be surrounded by all o’ them fancy, smart college guys and gals,” she said. “But there’s gonna be me, here, plain ‘ole AJ. Your girlfriend. Yer probably gonna get all stressed and wanna move on and-” She hugged her knees to her chest. “I’ve jus’ been thinkin’ more. That’s all.”

“So - what?” Rarity stammered. “You’ve been thinking, fine, you’re entitled to that. Have those thoughts been leading you to believe things?”

They both hated themselves for this.

Their petty arguments. It was kind of amusing in the beginning of their relationship - how all of their friends said that they argued like an old married couple - but now, this far into dating, it hurt when they got into their little spats.

Especially over something like this.

Applejack began fidgeting with the blankets around her, trying to sort out her thoughts. Rarity placed a hand on her girlfriend’s shoulder, hoping to encourage her.

“That Twilight girl - the one from our world, not that pony one - has been talkin’ to me, through social media and all o’ that. And she says high school relationships almost nev’r last after graduation. She says that ‘round sixty percent of people plan on… on endin’ things when they head off to college. And you’ve always been so… so persistent on leavin’ home-”

“Jacqueline Apple. Are you implying that you think my entire reasoning behind going to college is to have an excuse to end our relationship?” Rarity wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting - maybe Applejack to be worried about how much harder things would be with them so far apart - but she hadn’t dreamed that her girlfriend would think she wanted to leave her.

“I haven’t been thinkin’ that - not exactly. I’ve just been thinkin’ bout the possibility. There’s fancy mathematics involved in all these numbers-” Applejack mumbled.

“What do numbers have to do with us?” Rarity said, with an exasperated tone of voice.

“A lotta thangs, Rarity!” Applejack argued, her gaze plastered on her girlfriend. “Three years I’ve been datin’ you. More dates than I can count. Ev’ry damn time I’ve kissed you. All o’ the nights like this, or what tonight was supposed to be like. An’ to know it might all fall apart ‘cause you’re gonna go a few hundred miles away.”

Rarity froze, in both literal ways. The cold was settling in and she felt stuck upon hearing the statement. To think about it, she didn’t see much. But to hear the words, pained and conflicted from her girlfriend, it meant so much more.

The two girls sat in silence, with Rarity now having her back almost turned to Applejack.

“I… I had no idea you were this upset,” Rarity said, her voice barely above a whisper. “I mean, you’ve been a little frustrated before, but-”

She swung her legs on the edge of the tailgate, looking down at the city.

“But I can’t stay. I can’t change that. You had a chance to go to college too, you could have gone for business, we could have been together, but that was your choice,” she continued, not caring if she was going to start rambling. “I love you, Jacqueline. I - I-” She gasped when she felt her girlfriend’s strong arms hug her from behind, notice Applejack bury her face into Rarity’s neck. “-I just don’t know what else to do. It was hard for me to make the decision.”

They stayed that way for a while. Oddly intertwined, bestowing sad smiles, and gently holding each other.

“I’d never leave you, though,” Rarity assured. “Not in the way you’re thinking.”

“I love you too, Rares,” Applejack said, as she began to place kisses on her girlfriend’s neck and cheeks. “I don’t want ya to feel trapped. I just don’t want you to break up with me either. Ya mean too much to me.”

Rarity choked for a moment.

“The feeling is mutual, love,” she said. “You’ll always be dear to my heart.”

She stared up at the star that was now named after her. Now, even after a few fleeting moments, she somehow saw the true beauty and meaning behind it. Tears dared to form in her crystal blue eyes and she turned to the side, capturing Applejack’s lips into her own.

When they pulled away, they were crying, laughing messes.

“Of all the nights I didn’t wear waterproof mascara,” Rarity mumbled.

“Hush you,” Applejack teased. “You’re always beautiful.”

“In your eyes, perhaps,” Rarity laughed, wiping the draining mascara from her cheeks.

“Ain’t that what matters?” Applejack asked, pulling Rarity’s hand away from her face.

She kissed her girlfriend’s hand and pulled her back close, wrapping the blanket around the two of them. Rarity rested her head against Applejack’s chest, and the two tilted their heads up to look at the stars. They stayed that way - just so - for quite some time. Their gazes adoringly ran over one another; Rarity observing and counting Applejack’s freckles for the hundredth time, Applejack fiddling with Rarity’s perfectly done up curls, the two of them occasionally stealing kisses.

They were trying to smudge away what happened.

“I may be biased here, but I do think that Rarity is the brightest star in the sky,” Rarity said after the long silence.

“Nah,” Applejack whispered, placing a kiss on Rarity’s temple. “I got the two brightest stars right in front o’ me.” She smiled, and yes, they both knew what was coming, but Rarity didn’t interrupt. “Yer pretty blue eyes.”

As she tapped her girlfriend on the nose, Rarity giggled.

“What you lack in romance skills, you definitely pick up on regarding terrible lines,” she joked.

Applejack rolled her eyes playfully and shook her head. “Just tell me ya don’t regret comin’ out this late, and I don’t care ‘bout nothin’ else,” she said.

Rarity’s smile was a little lopsided but genuine nonetheless. “I don’t regret it,” she assured. “I don’t regret the talk we had either. I think that was what we needed. Closure, if you will, before next week and all.” Next week. The words were a little unbelievable to both of them.

“I hate admittin’ when you’re right-”

“-oh, believe me, darling, the feeling is mutual.”

They shared a laugh, and became tangled up in each other and the blanket. Their lips locked, in a different sort of kiss than the other previous ones of the night. Sweet, but fiery. Intense, yet with a hint of caution. And just the slightest dash of what could be passion. Applejack had one hand on the back of Rarity’s head and her arm around her waist. Rarity turned around, settling herself halfway into her girlfriend’s lap once more and simply letting it happen.

The kisses. The touches. The barely-heard whispers of “I love you” and other sweet nothings.

All of that, until they tumbled back onto the cab of the truck, embraced.

“Rares?”

“Hmm, yes?”

“Would ya mind stayin’ the night? Here?”

“There’s nowhere else I’d rather be right now, Applejack. No other place.”

And she meant it. They both did. About everything.

Author's Note

Surprise! We're still alive! Sometimes we still write. I know, it's a shocker. But worry not, we're alive and well, and (sometimes) we're still writing. ~Autumn Leaves~

Also, Princess Rarity sends her affections :P She can't grace the AN box herself since her access to the site is restricted by her school computer.