"Applejack, dear, I know I said I would accompany you on this little excursion, being a good girlfriend and all, but could you please slow down!"

Applejack groaned, looking back at her girlfriend as Rarity took a moment to pull her skirt off a particularly sharp branch that had snagged it. "I told ya to not dress fancy fer this, Rarity."

Rarity finally managed to pull her skirt free and shot Applejack a flat look. "Applejack, you've seen far more of my wardrobe than anyone who isn't a blood relative of mine; can you honestly stand there and call what I'm wearing 'fancy'?"

Applejack visibly flinched, but shook her head. "No... but I'm just sayin', a simple pair o' jeans or shorts wouldn't kill ya."

"I have a reputation to maintain, Applejack!" Rarity actually looked horrified at the mere thought. "While you and what you do might be immune to any sort of gossip, even the smallest thing can completely ruin any chance I have. I can not afford to be anything less than the most fabulous girl in all of Canterlot if I am to have any chance of success."

"Okay, okay, sorry," Applejack gritted her teeth, trying to keep her cool. She loved Rarity, she really did, but that didn't change the fact they came from two very different worlds and their viewpoints often came into conflict with each other. "Just... let's just keep going. This is important." With that, Applejack turned and continued to march along one of the lesser traveled paths of the farm.

"You still haven't told me what 'this' actually is, dear," Rarity reminded her as the fashionista followed along. "Or why it involved coming so far out into your orchard. I didn't even know your family had this much acreage."

"Had to come out here cause it's somethin' you have to see, not somethin' I can just tell ya about," Applejack replied, pushing a branch up that Rarity couldn't have hoped to have lifted. "Anyway, we're nearly there. Just 'round the next bend."

Rarity almost made another comment, but decided to give her girlfriend the benefit of the doubt; while she wasn't one for the Apple family's various... 'quirks,' to use one of the politer terms she'd heard for the things they occasionally did, part of being in a relationship was learning to accept some aspects about your partner you didn't see eye to eye on and working on a compromise. Thankfully, she had managed to clear her schedule for the night, so she at least wouldn't be too far behind on her work.

Finally, as they pushed their way through one final bush, Applejack came to a stop and Rarity started as she looked at what she had been led to, silently staring for several minutes in dumbfounded confusion.

"Applejack... I don't... how did... this doesn't..." She finally gave an incredulous gesture at what was before her. "Even I know that trees aren't supposed to do this!"

It was true, in a way, the sight of two trees intertwined with each other, both in seemingly perfect health and undamaged, just wasn't something that happened naturally. Honestly, the fact that one of them was a pear tree on Sweet Apple Acres' soil almost didn't even register to Rarity.

"Eenope," Applejack drawled, a smile on her face. "Ah know they ain't, but these two did."

Rarity's jaw hung slack at the, frankly, very lackluster explanation of the sight before her. "Wha—"

"My ma and pa planted them," Applejack said levelly, her words silencing Rarity before she could speak. "When they got married, they didn' have no big or fancy party, just weren't who they were. They just had some friends and the mayor come by to do a quick little ceremony; they had rings, but the trees were the important part." Striding past her stunned girlfriend, Applejack gently placed a hand upon the trunk of the pear tree; she wasn't crying, but Rarity could just barely hear her voice cracking a bit. "Didn' even know my ma was a Pear until recently, none o' us did... found this place not long after that; and, well... ever since Big Macintosh brought Miss Cheerilee here, it just felt right to do the same... since, ya know... can't really introduce ya to 'em."

Applejack was silent as her vision blurred a bit, before she hastily wiped at her eyes. "Sorry 'bout that," she said. "And fer draggin' ya all the way out here fer this. We can head back, I'm sure ya got a lotta stuff ya still need to—"

Applejack was cut off as Rarity's pale white hand rested atop her own against her mother's tree. Looking to her side, she saw the unicorn aspect smiling softly at her, her own eyes a bit misty. "I think we can stay a little longer, dear. I wouldn't think to rush a meeting with my beloved's parents."

Applejack was silent a moment, then reached her free hand up to pull her hat down a bit to hide her eyes. "Thank you, Rarity..."

Rarity continued to smile, pointedly ignoring the lines of liquid she saw running down Applejack's cheeks. "My pleasure, Applejack."