Rarity stared at the entrance to Applejack’s barn. During the day, it was always a welcoming sight, even though she would rarely take advantage of it. Tonight though… tonight, it yawned into the blackness beyond, lit only by moonlight shining through a window on a pile of hay bales.

The white-furred unicorn swallowed hard, trying to tell herself that she was being silly. This was Applejack’s barn; she’d been in it a hundred times before, for various social events. She knew what it was like inside, or at least what it was supposed to be like.

But it really wasn’t the barn that worried her. She hated to admit it, but she was worried about Applejack, not the silly barn.

Oh, if only I hadn’t been so foalish this morning….

She’d woken up, nestled comfortably under one of Rainbow’s wings, as Applejack had started to stir. Knowing that the farmer had to hurry home, she’d dislodged herself, and gone down to prepare breakfast for her favorite of the evening. Applejack had earned a treat, frankly. She’d been amazing the night before, from her game with Rainbow to the incredible scene afterwards, Applejack posing as a Manehattan client who had given Rarity such grief earlier in the week.

Even if it was her darling orange earth pony, instead of the chartreuse fillystine who had come in demanding the most horrifying shade of puce, it had felt so good to hear that cultured voice protesting with each sharp smack of the wooden paddle. She’d put her tongue to good use afterwards as well, a memory that even now sent a thrill down Rarity’s spine, to pool somewhere rather lower.

As Rarity had gone to prepare breakfast, she’d seen it. Applejack’s hat, hanging next to the door. She’d known she shouldn’t have done it, known that it was terribly rude, but… somehow, she just felt the most overwhelming urge to put it on herself! She hadn’t used her magic to take it down, instead taking the leather brim in her mouth and flipping it into the air, as she’d seen Applejack do. The taste of work and sweat was in the band, a flavor that reminded her of stolen moments in the early evening with Applejack, out in the fields during the first days of their unusual courtship.

She’d posed in front of the mirrors, then gone in to make breakfast, feeling the cleft in the hat’s brim resting against her horn. Giggling at the image she knew she was presenting, she busied herself about the kitchen, listening to the shower upstairs. She’d heard Applejack coming down the steps minutes later, just as she was plating the food, and had hurried to meet her beloved in the kitchen.

“Good morning, darling!” She’d called out cheerfully.

“Mornin’ Mis….” Applejack had stopped dead in her tracks when she’d seen Rarity, leaving her poor Mistress feeling suddenly vulnerable.

“I ah… I made breakfast! I hope you’re in the mood for apple-cinnamon waffles?” She’d asked hopefully.

“Rarity?”

“Yes, darling?”

“Yer wearin’ mah hat,” Applejack had said evenly, her emotions completely unreadable. Rarity had looked down at the floor, rather like Sweetie Belle had when Rarity had caught her modeling one of her finest new gowns.

Rather like the filly, Rarity had felt the hat was about ten sizes too large for how small she suddenly felt.

“I… hadn’t thought you would mind, darling, I’m terribly sorry. It was wrong of me,” she said, starting to lift the hat off with her magic. Applejack interrupted her, pressing it back against Rarity’s mane with her hoof.

“Don’t you mind, sugarcube. Just… keep it, for today. It looks good on you,” she smiled shakily. “Bring it around the barn tonight though? After Granny an’ Apple Bloom will be asleep?”

“But darling!” Rarity had started to protest.

“No buts, sugar,” Applejack countered firmly. “Ah know what Ah’m doin’. Thanks fer makin’ breakfast, but… Ah need t’think a bit, all right?”

“Darling, don’t you dare walk out on me like this!” Rarity had said with all the sternness she could muster. Having been Applejack’s Mistress for some time now, that was quite a bit, even as off-center as the unicorn felt. Applejack had seemed to falter for a moment, but then smiled.

“Ah ain’t mad at you, Mistress,” she promised, leaning forward to claim a tender kiss. “Though… if y’all do come out to the barn tonight, Ah ain’t gonna be yer pet on mah own property. Remember, out there, we’re lovers. An’ maybe somethin’ more?” She’d offered hopefully.

Then, leaving Rarity more confused than worried, she had left. Rarity had still been trying to figure out what had happened when Rainbow Dash had come down. The sky blue pegasus had grinned like a foal at Hearth’s Warming when she’d seen the hat. Before even bothering to give her an explanation, she’d just whooped happily at some unknown secret, and shot out of the Boutique, not even bothering to ask for breakfast!

That, more than anything else, had probably been what terrified Rarity the most about the thought of going out to the barn. Yet here she was, standing outside the barn doors. Somehow, she knew that if she went through them, things wouldn’t be quite the same between she and Applejack. Lovers… they’d been that, and then Mistress and pet. Pets, to be fair, with Rainbow Dash counted in.

An’ maybe somethin’ more? Applejack’s words haunted her, had all day. She couldn’t focus for thinking about it. More? What more? Surely Applejack wouldn’t propose to her over seeing her wearing a hat, of all things!

Ah ain’t mad at you, Mistress. That promise gave Rarity the strength to step inside, sure that whatever happened… it would be for the best, for all of them. Expertly trimmed hooves clopped across the wooden floorboards, echoing in the silent barn as Rarity stepped inside.

Then the doors slammed closed behind her, cutting out most of the moonlight, and suddenly Rarity was very, very worried again.

“It’s about time!” Rainbow Dash rasped in the darkness, a grin in her voice.

“Calm down, Sugarcube,” Applejack had said, though to which of her lovers, Rarity wasn’t sure. A bucket lifted off of a lantern, and light spread out from it, the warm and friendly light of fireflies inside the glass. A glimpse of blue feathers told Rarity that Rainbow was moving around the barn, exposing more of the lanterns. Applejack, on the other hand, stayed still, resting her trunk on a hay bale, her hindlegs behind it as she smiled warmly.

“Ah was worried y’wouldn’t come,” she admitted. “Can Ah have mah hat back?”

Rarity floated the hat over, putting it back where it belonged, and Applejack nodded with satisfaction.

“S’pose yer wonderin’ what this is all about.”

“It… is rather theatrical, darling,” Rarity admitted. “And I should know!” She added with a nervous smile.

“Y’remember when Ah used t’take off for a few weeks every year, after Applebuck Season?” Applejack asked, patting a hoof on the hay bale. Rarity winced at the idea of joining her there, instead just sitting on the much smoother, less prickly floor across from the earth pony.

“You stopped about five years ago… just a year or two before Twilight came to town,” she nodded. “You always said something about visiting family?”

“An’ Ah always told the truth,” Applejack smiled, taking the hat off and running her hooves over it. “Family out west. Not Braeburn, his branch of the family kept goin’, but closer kin t’him than t’me. One year, Ah met a fella named Bill. He was a big softy,” she smiled fondly, looking down at the hat. “Gentle as a lamb, but strong as Big Mac, maybe even more. He an’ me… we sorta hooked up, an’ Ah visited him whenever Ah went out, afore his kin would go travellin’ t’their winterin’ grounds. Loved him dear… then, one year, he weren’t there,” she sighed.

“His ma an’ pa tol’ me what happened,” she explained, as Rainbow settled down next to Applejack with uncharacteristic quietness, hugging her gently. Rarity, sensing the story was about to take a darker turn, leaned over to nuzzle Applejack quietly, offering her support without words.

“He’d been hurt when a pack o’ wolves went after some calves,” Applejack explained after a moment. “All he could leave me was this hat, an’ a lot o’ good memories. We’d wanted to start a family… but Ah guess it just weren’t in the cards.” She sighed softly, but then looked up at Rainbow. “Least that’s what Ah’d thought up until Rainbow here tried gettin’ me in bed.”

“What can I say? I knew you needed cheering up, just not why, and a good big dose of awesome seemed like the cure!” Rainbow grinned cockily, grabbing the hat and flipping it up onto her head. Applejack smirked at her, then pulled it down over Rainbow’s eyes and turned back to Rarity.

“Since then… Ah’m the only one who wears that hat. Me, an’ the mares in mah herd?” She said, trailing off into an unasked question that took a moment to dawn on the fashionista.

She… she is proposing to me over a hat! But… oh, but such a romantic hat!

“I accept, darling!” She grinned, leaning over the hay to kiss Applejack tenderly… but stopping dead still as she noticed what Applejack was wearing behind the hay bale.

Seeing that the gig was up, the earth pony grinned and hopped up on it with her forelegs, letting Rarity get a good close look at the long, slender, gently corkscrewed strap-on that Applejack was wearing. It looked like some sort of delicately cured leather, of all things, but if it was… it was the most delicate, naturalistic material that Rarity had ever seen as leather… or felt, as a gentle nuzzle confirmed. Rarity knew her leather, and as the earthy scent of pony and pseudo-phallus blended in her nostrils, she realized now why she wasn’t the Mistress here, especially not tonight.

Without the male to welcome her into the herd, Applejack was going to take on the duty herself.

“Still wanna accept?” Rainbow asked with a grin. “Please say yes, please say yes!” She clopped her forehooves together enthusiastically. “It feels... so… awesome!”

Rarity blushed deeply up at Applejack, who was looking down at her hopefully… and she answered with one smooth motion, leaning back before swallowing as much of the sweetly scented shaft as would fit into her muzzle.

Author's Note

I have the sneaking suspicion this may not live up to everypony's expectations! And yet, I ran out of time *just* as I had Rarity answering, and when I thought it over... adding more hard-core smut just didn't feel right, with the rest of the segment.

What do all of you think? Write out the smut, or leave it where it is and move on to the next prompt that works for the trio?

And, if you can name the movie reference I've made in here (Corgie o' Horribly Cliche Ideas Suzzy need not apply, as we figured it out together while plotting it!), you might even get to pick the emphasis when I do make up for this!