It was a sight that Big Macintosh honestly thought he'd never see.
That statement was true for many reasons, actually. The most obvious was the fact that he'd only learned that his family would be spending Hearth's Warming with Pinkie Pie's family a scant few days before they actually left. He couldn't possibly have thought he'd see the sight he was seeing if he didn't know about the event even happening. But he considered it cheating to use that reason.
The real reason he never thought he'd see this sight was because of how the two families had fallen out earlier that morning. He knew his sister Applejack had only the best of intentions when she went about trying to show the Pie family her own family's Hearth's Warming traditions, but she could be a bit foolhardy sometimes. Even though he and Apple Bloom had tried to dissuade her from her mindset the previous night, she was having none of it. Her intentions were good, but the results of said intentions certainly hadn't been. Granted, she couldn't have been expected to know that she'd planted the flagpole on a fault line, and she certainly did not expect to send Holder's Boulder crashing down into the ravine. But the best of intentions weren't enough to prevent disaster, and a lack of knowledge wasn't enough to dispel negative feelings.
Things were fixed now, though. Applejack had learned from her mistakes. The train had been stopped, and the families reunited after Applejack apologized. It took a great amount of work bringing Holder's Boulder back up the hill, but thankfully they were a strong group of ponies. And that all led to the sight before him now, the sight he never thought he'd see: both families happily spending Hearth's Warming together, mingling and indulging each others' traditions as best they could.
That wasn't the only unbelievable sight in front of him, though.
Big Mac was always one to be quiet about his feelings. Every pony he knew and loved already knew that about him and were perfectly accepting of it, but it didn't lend itself well to dealing with ponies he didn't know. He could be amiable around strangers, but when it came to expressing himself and showing how he really felt, he found himself lacking. Opening up about his feelings was even hard with his family, so how could he possibly do so with ponies he barely knew?
Big Mac was happy with who he was, but had to admit that this inability to show his feelings didn't do him much good when it came to romance. There had been a number of mares that he'd had his eye on in the past. When the Cutie Mark Crusaders had forced him and Cheerilee to fall in love with one another, he had considered asking her out once they were fixed, but it all felt too awkward. Carrot Top had caught his fancy for a bit, but he just couldn't get himself to open up and let her know how he felt about her. Although once he caught her sharing a few clandestine kisses with Berry Punch, he figured it was for the best that he hadn't said anything.
When Pinkie had paired Big Mac up with her sister Marble for the obsidian hunt, he hadn't thought much of it. Everypony needed a partner, and it just so happened that she was his. Exactly why Pinkie had paired them, he wasn't sure, and if he could be honest with himself, he hadn't put much thought into it at first. Pinkie was paired with Applejack because they were best friends. Granny Smith was with Igneous Rock and Cloudy Quartz because they were old (no matter what slanted reasoning Pinkie tried to put behind it). That left Bloom, Marble, Maud, and himself. It just so happened that Pinkie chose Marble to be with him, and that was that.
Or was it?
Big Mac might not have known Pinkie quite as well as Applejack did, but he knew her well enough to know that there was pretty much always more than met the eye when she was involved. As he watched Marble hunt for the obsidian, he couldn't help but think it was entirely possible that there was a good reason for Pinkie pairing him with Marble rather than Maud. Not that he didn't like Maud; she had a way of being succinct that he could respect. Marble, on the other hoof...
He had only just met Marble, but something about her just resonated with him. He didn't like to think himself the superficial sort, but he couldn't deny that she held a certain demure beauty about her. Just like with Maud, he couldn't believe that she was related to Pinkie Pie, and his disbelief was doubled when he learned they were twins. Pinkie was a constant ball of exuberance, tackling life with the energy of fifty ponies and the happiness of far more. Marble was timid and barely spoke a word. He compared her to Fluttershy in that aspect, but even Fluttershy was comfortable talking at length with her friends. He hadn't heard Marble utter a single word outside of a simple "mhm" throughout the entirety of their obsidian hunt. Something about the simplicity of her responses to him intrigued him, though. Many ponies might have interpreted her utterances as a lack of interest, a desire to speak to anypony but them. Big Mac knew better. Or at least he hoped he did.
Big Mac watched the quiet gray pony sit just a small distance away from him. He wanted terribly to say something to her, but try as he might, he just couldn't muster up the courage to initiate, and judging from Marble's demeanor, she wasn't engaging any time soon. The poor mare looked shakier than a leaf in a tornado, although he could swear that he noticed her glance in his direction here and there.
It didn't make any sense to him. Here he was, big as a house and twice as tough, and yet the mere concept of speaking to a sweet little mare had every single nerve standing on end, muscles refusing to cooperate. Something needed to give. If they were going to talk, obviously somepony else needed to make it happen.
"And you two!" Pinkie suddenly shouted, putting her forelegs around both Big Mac and Marble. "You wanna wish each other a Happy Hearth's Warming, don't you?"
Big Mac, for what might have been the first time in recent history, thanked his lucky stars for Pinkie Pie's interference. He glanced at Marble, hoping that her reaction was even nearly as positive as his. She looked up at him, peering through her long bangs, and a shy little smile crossed her face.
"Mhm," Marble said. The same thing she'd said earlier, barely a word so much as an utterance. But there was just something about it, something about the sentiment hidden behind that vowel-less mutter, that held a tremendous level of emotion...or at least that was how he interpreted it. Whether or not that was her intent remained to be seen, but his perception of her intent was enough to cause the largest of the Apple Family to blush and chuckle nervously.
"Heh...eeyup," Big Mac replied. Pinkie smiled and turned to zip off, but then stopped in her tracks.
"Ouh!" Pinkie exclaimed. "Marble! Why don't you show Big Macintosh your rock collection?" Big Mac raised a brow. If he could be completely honest, he didn't care much about rocks. He didn't dislike them, but he didn't hold them to the high regards that Pinkie's family clearly did. He couldn't imagine why Pinkie would think that he would want to see—
Then he caught the little wink that Pinkie gave him.
That sly little devil.
"Mhm," Marble said quietly, nodding a tiny bit. She got up and gave Big Mac a look, motioning for him to follow her. Big Mac felt his mouth go dry, and gave Pinkie another look.
"Go on then," Pinkie said, a playful singsongy tone to her voice. "The rest of the festivities will still be here when you're done!" Big Mac took another look in Marble's direction. The two made direct eye contact, and he felt like his heart was going to melt.
"E-eeyup," Big Mac replied, pretty sure his cheeks were about the color of the Pie sister who had been urging him away. He very much wanted to follow that pretty gray mare upstairs, but found himself hesitating. The families had just finally started to get along. If they saw him running away with her...
"I'll cause a distraction so nopony notices," Pinkie whispered. Without a second's hesitation, she burst out into song and dance, attracting the attention of everypony else in the room. For the second time in as many minutes, Big Mac thanked his lucky stars for Pinkie Pie as he slipped, unnoticed, out of the room and up the stairs.
~~~~~~~~~~
"So...uh...these're rocks, huh?"
Big Mac had never found himself at this bad of a loss for words. It might have been true that he didn't speak as much as other ponies, but it was rarely for a lack of anything to say. It was finding the right time to say the things on his mind that was the difficult part. This time, though, he found himself unable to find the words for the situation at hoof. He knew very little about rocks and, to be honest, he wasn't exactly looking to go out of his way to learn about them. As he watched Marble standing in front of her collection, smiling that cute little smile and looking at him with those soft purple eyes, though, he figured that was going to change.
"Mhm," Marble responded, nodding slightly. Big Mac found the way that her bangs gently bounced as she nodded to be more interesting than the rocks he was supposed to be looking at. He didn't dare tell her that, though. The last thing he wanted to do was offend her, and showing an utter lack of interest in her collection was likely to do just that.
"Eeyup," Big Mac said. He leaned forward a little bit, tearing his eyes away from Marble for a moment to look at the rocks in front of him. There were big rocks and small rocks, gray rocks and brown rocks, rocks that were round and rocks that were slightly less so.
"Mhm," Marble said with a smile. She seemed so proud of her collection, and Big Mac truly wished he could see why. To him, they were simply rocks and nothing more. He cleared his throat, determined to look like he was interested in the collection. The more he faked it, he hoped, the more he would learn what she saw in them and be able to appreciate them like she did.
"This one's...uh...pretty round," Big Mac said feebly. He felt like a buffoon, unable to offer up a better observation than that. From the look on Marble's face, though, he had said something right. Her smile had grown a little more, and seeing that made Big Mac's heart beat a bit faster. Her eyes were no longer focused on the rocks in front of her. They were now squarely on him...well, at least one was. The other one was hidden behind her long bangs, although simple logic declared that it was pointing in the same direction as its visible brethren. He'd only ever met one pony whose eyes didn't point in the same direction before.
"Mhm," Marble responded. She kept that gentle, peaceful gaze on Big Mac, and despite the peacefulness of it, it began to make Big Mac panic. He was mad over this mare already, and he could tell that she was waiting for him to show more interest in her collection. He struggled to break eye contact, but finally managed to do so. He smiled awkwardly as his eyes settled on a particularly jagged rock. He picked it up, regarding it as if it was the greatest thing in the world, hoping for Marble to appreciate that reaction.
"Whoa..." Big Mac said. "This is a mighty good one here." From the corner of his eye, he could see Marble's smile fade a tiny bit. He had done something wrong, and to make it worse, he had no idea what that something was.
"Mhm," Marble said, a little less enthusiastically than before.
Big Mac panicked. He was losing her. He quickly put the rock down, eyes darting left and right for the next most interesting one.
"Sorry...probably shouldn't have picked them up," Big Mac said. His gaze settled on a brown rock, and he nodded quickly. "This one...uh...it's the same color as your dad."
If there existed a book of the worst, most awkward things that a pony could say to a mare he was interested in, Big Mac was certain that he'd just stumbled upon a chapter title.
"Mhm," Marble replied. Big Mac could swear he saw the tiniest hint of disappointment in her face. He was blowing it. Absolutely, positively blowing it.
"N-not that I'm thinking about your dad a lot," Big Mac stammered. "Not that I wouldn't want to...he seems like a real nice pony...he must be great if he made you!"
Ponies often asked why Big Mac didn't talk more. He considered presenting this conversation as evidence. He had to save this.
"I mean..." Big Mac said. "N-never mind your dad...n-not in a bad way of course...l-let's talk more about these here rocks!" A sweaty hoof pointed to the rock collection again. "Big rocks, small rocks..."
"Mhm," Marble responded. Her smile was growing a little, and while it was a lovely smile, it only made Big Mac worry more. She had to be laughing at him on the inside. Laughing with him was acceptable. Laughing at him was far less so, at least in this situation. Big Mac knew then and there that he had to bring out the big guns. He had to show her he understood rocks, and the best way was to compare them to something he knew better than anything else.
"Cause you see...rocks're...like apples, in a way," Big Mac said, only half-believing himself. "Cause...sometimes there's big rocks, and sometimes there's big apples. And there are small rocks too, but then there are small apples. But the big apples and the big rocks aren't...I mean just because one's bigger doesn't mean it's better...small's good sometimes too...size doesn't matter...a-although that doesn't mean that..."
Big Macintosh froze in place. He suddenly found himself utterly incapable of speech, and considering the speech that he had been capable of moments ago, that very well might have been a good thing. He opened his mouth again, trying to force something out before he lost his chance with Marble forever. Before he could spew a single word, he found his mouth plugged by a gray hoof.
"You talk too much," Marble said softly. Her smile was as warm and lovely as ever, if not more so. "Shut up and kiss me."
Big Mac didn't need any more convincing. He swept the shy mare up in his forelegs, feeling her forelegs on his shoulders. His lips met hers, and at that moment his entire world fell away. Her lips were the softest, most wonderful things he'd ever felt, a stark contrast from the hard rocks that she was so interested in. Although from what he could tell, rocks were no longer the only things she was interested in. Nothing else mattered to Big Mac as he held the smaller mare. He fought the temptation to let his hooves drift, not wanting to take things faster than she wanted. Suddenly, he felt one of her hooves drift down and take a hold of his hindquarters. He let out a sudden gasp, one which was muffled by the mare's mouth. Marble pulled away for just a moment, giving Big Mac a playful smile. Big Mac was positively stunned, but everything felt right as he stared into those lovely purple eyes.
"Eheh..." Big Mac chuckled. The two stared for a few moments longer, until both decided that the best order of business was to reintroduce their lips once again. Neither rocks nor apples mattered to the two at that moment. All that mattered right now was the other.
~~~~~~~~~~
"Well golly, this has been a real humdinger of a time!" Applejack said as Maud's song finished. She didn't quite understand some of the rock references in the song, but they were having a great time regardless.
"Uh-huh!" Apple Bloom responded, looking about as happy as can be. The rest of he two families murmured in agreement.
"Say, hold on a moment..." Applejack suddenly said, glancing about the room. "Where's Big Mac?"
"And where's Marble!" Limestone asked. Just then, all heads turned to the stairwell as the two ponies in question came trotting down the stairs. The two walked side by side, smiling widely, and the families couldn't help but notice the disheveled state of Marble's mane. Of the group, only Pinkie did not wear a shocked expression, instead smiling from ear to ear.
"You two have fun?" Pinkie asked playfully.
"Eeyup," Marble replied.
"Mhm," Big Mac said.
