Here’s a story about romance.

A lot of ponies consider romance a simple thing. A stallion gets the notion in his head to ask a mare on a date, and either they hit it off or they don’t. It was a simple science, really. There was neither rhyme nor reason to it, so far as most stallions saw. This misconception is, of course, wrong.

It was late spring when Applejack decided on the stallion she wanted. After months of searching and considering potential candidates, she finally settled on a young stallion named Caramel to live the rest of her life with.

Stallions often assumed that it was them that chose who they would mate with and when. They were the ones asking the mares, after all. What they didn’t understand was that this decision of theirs had been decided on long before the idea even entered their heads.

With a quick word to her friends and a deal with Rainbow Dash not to look too long at Thunderlane, Applejack quite suddenly became the only mare in all of Ponyville willing to give Caramel the time of day. Just like that, every other mare in the entire village was either too busy for him or simply had their eyes elsewhere.

Every day, the young stallion would walk through the market, only able to buy groceries from the stallions that worked there, the mares giving him hard bargains and cold shoulders. He’d often feel let down, depressed even. Since when did he upset the mares so much that they wouldn’t look at him? Was he somehow unattractive or was he really just that much of a jerk?

All the mares ignored him, save for one.

“Howdy, Caramel!” Applejack would say, polishing yet another apple on her market stand. She would have that warm glow about her that could make any stallion’s knees buckle.

“H-hello, Applejack,” Caramel would reply, trying not to let the nervousness into his voice. Like any other stallion in his place, he’d have a hard time not sweating. “I’d like a dozen golden delicious, if you don’t mind.”

“Of course, Sugarcube!”

And like that, he’d grow to find the mare more and more interesting. Maybe it was the way she smiled at him, or that unassuming way she’d flick her mane. The scent of apples would mix nicely with the small amounts of perfume she wore, and her hair would be entirely free of stray hairs. Caramel couldn’t help but look at her.

Eventually this would grow. He’d find himself looking harder, spending more time with his eyes on her, thinking about her, judging her. Every time she’d do something, it would be in a new light in his eye. It was probably around the third time her tail ‘accidentally’ flicked aside, giving him a quick glance at the fruits he would one day come to love that he decided to ask her on a date.

She of course accepted.

As the summers drifted by and his foals played with those rainbow maned foals of his friend Thunderlane’s, he’d look happily at his wife, glad that he’d found such a catch all on his own. He’d live through his life thinking that he’d won, that the small victories in the forms of his children and eventual grandchildren were entirely of his making. And there Applejack would watch, smug in the satisfaction of knowing whose victory it really was.

That’s just romance.