The arrival of Ford Mustang

Chapter 20 - Return of the MatchMaker: RariJack

"Can I ask you for your honest opinion?" Rarity asked with an uneasy smile.

"Of course, sugarcube." Applejack replied cheerfully.

Rarity fidgeted her tarnished dress a bit before she began to ask her question hesitantly with a nervous blush, "Do you... think I'm beautiful?"

Applejack was completely stunned by what she just heard.  She wasn't sure yet on what to say next except this, "...What?"

"Do you think I'm beautiful?" Rarity repeated her question with a continuous blush.

"Ah... Well, ya see, sugarcube... umm..." Applejack stammered nervously with a blush equivalent to Rarity's.

"Please, Applejack!" Rarity pleaded to a great extent.  "I really need your honesty on this one!"

"Well, of course Ah think you're beautiful, Rarity!" Applejack responded snappily.  "Why ya gotta make me say something like that for ya?"

"I'm so sorry for putting you on the spot like that, Applejack." Rarity said remorsefully.  "It's just that... I've have been dreaming for this night for so long!  Where I could finally meet my one true love and live happily ever after in my own little fairy tale!  Sigh... But then that dream is completely shattered when I saw just how horrible that so-called prince really is!  In all of my years, I have never met anypony so uncivilized, so ignorant, so... so... UNCOUTH!  I can only pray that I never I have to cross paths with that cad ever again!"

Rarity nearly blew a flasket after letting her temper get the best of her, but she managed to simmer down before she continued expressing herself dishearteningly.  "And then... I begin thinking to myself... what if... what if I'm not as attractive as I make myself to be?  I mean... goodness knows I can't compare myself with the princesses, but... I know that I don't possess that kind of natural beauty like Fluttershy has or... even you, Applejack."

"M-m-me?!  But Rarity, Ah'm not what ya might considered as... beautiful!"  Applejack hesitated in surprise.

"Well of course you are!" Rarity retorts.  "Just look at yourself!  No matter how hard you work out in the orchards each day or how dirty you get afterwards, you've always managed to outshine through it all with your fetching, emerald green eyes, that smooth, well-furbished, orange coat, and let's not forget that long, silky, golden mane of yours!"  Applejack blushed uncomfortably for each compliment Rarity gave.  "And as for me, I have to spend minutes, maybe even hours, to beautify myself each day, which I can see now that it all amounts to nothing!"  Noticing how watery her eyes were, Rarity hastily turned away from Applejack's concerning gaze.
"Sigh... if there's one thing that accursed Blueblood and I do share in common..." Rarity said with such sadness in her heart.  "...is that we're just facades of our own pitiful self-imaging."

Applejack didn't know what do.  Rarity was in such misery with herself, and all Applejack could do is just stand there and listen.  Applejack had to do something about this.  She's considered to be the most dependable pony in all of Ponyville, and she sure as sugar wasn't going to let Rarity down like that!  Not tonight she won't!  Rarity wanted an honest opinion, and that's what she's going to get!

"Now y'all listen to me, lil' missy..." Applejack firmly grabbed Rarity's attention as she forced the lamenting seamstress to face her.  "...'cause Ah ain't gonna listen to any of that comin' from you!  Ah may not be as smart as Twilight, but if there's one thing Ah do know is that there's more to beauty than what meets the eye!  And by golly, you're not only beautiful on the outside, but you're also very beautiful on the inside!  Why, Ah've never met any other pony who is as generous towards others as you!  Ah mean, was it not you who offered to create these original, stunnin' dresses for all five of us just for this one special night without even asking a single bit from us?!  And not only that, but you're just as passionate to yer work as Ah am when it comes to apples, and Ah truly admire that!  Ah really do!  You're beautiful in every sense of the word, Rarity, and don't ya tell yerself anything different than that!  And if other ponies, like that phony prince, can't see that for what you're really are, well then... they can just go buck themselves for all Ah care!"  The determined Applejack may have blushed mildly from all of the praising she was giving, but it didn't make her shy away from telling Rarity the truth.