//------------------------------//
// Epilogue two  
// Story: Scarlet Foal 
// by Collins4112 
//------------------------------//

What woke Ditzy was her husband's deep rumble of snoring. She opened her eyes and rolled to her side to view the clock: 9:59. Ditzy smiled, she enjoyed sleeping late, not that it could really be called sleeping in, since neither she nor Macintosh had any reason to get up. They had been retired for almost a year now, and it was nice to be able to relax and watch their life legacy grow.

Ditzy really enjoyed when she got to spoil her grandkids. As grandparents Macintosh and Ditzy liked to have the grandkids visit, get them hyped up on sugar, and then send them back to their parents, in fact, Ditzy recalled that Dinky and Carson were visiting with their families today.

With some effort she rolled out of bed, her joints cracking with age. Ditzy walked to the master bathroom and looked in the mirror. She groaned: her roots were showing gray again. Ditzy had resorted to dyeing her hair to keep it from becoming gray, she really didn't want her mane to become gray, and it matched her coat and then she looked weird. Macintosh always told her that she looked beautiful, but she still dyed her hair.

The snoring stopped as Ditsy heard him jolt awake. Ditzy smiled and leaned her head outside the doorway.

"Morning hon." Ditzy greeted her waking husband. Macintosh looked at her with his big green gentle eyes, and smiled.

"Mornin', Taking a shower?" He asked, even though he knew the answer. "Let me join ya."

He pulled himself from the old bed with more trouble than Ditzy. After all the years of apple bucking he had slight arthritis in his joints, but nothing that a few common painkillers couldn't take care of. He trotted to the bathroom and after a kiss with Ditzy, he took a few pills. Then he stepped into the shower, and soon after Ditzy joined him. Just because they were old didn't mean they couldn't be romantic.

After the shower, Ditzy went to the kitchen to bake a batch of cupcakes for her incoming grandchildren. She heard the front door open and looked at the clock. They weren't supposed to arrive for another few hours. She slipped the cupcake pan in the oven then went to see who it was.

"Carrot Top!" Ditzy squealed, something she hadn't done in a very long time. She grasped her oldest friend in a tight hug. Carrot Top had moved away years ago to be with the stallion she loved, Ditzy was sad to see her go, but there was no way she was going to stop her friend from finding happiness. They visited each other from time to time, and wrote letters often, yet it was still a joy to see her.

"Hello, Ditzy!" Carrot Top responded, returning the hug.

"What are you doing here?" Ditzy asked. She hadn't been expecting a visit from her very best friend.

"Well, I just retired, so I decided to come around to visit all my friends here in Ponyville." Carrot Top explained. "The husband couldn't come along; he came down with a nasty cough."

"Oh sorry to hear that." Ditzy said as she retraced from the hug. "It's nice you came today, Carson and Dinky are coming for a visit."

"Oh good! I haven't seen then in years!" Carrot Top had a large grin on her aged face. "How have you and Mac been?"

"Everything is going just great. Admittedly, retirement gets a bit boring, but Mac and I have been able to keep busy." Ditzy went through her nice life, as she led Carrot Top to the dinner table. Big Macintosh was sitting with a newspaper in his hooves and reading glasses sitting on his muzzle. He looked up from his reading and a smiled formed on his face.

"Howdy, Carrot Top. It's good to see ya again." Macintosh's deep voice was quiet, but had an overtone of happiness to it.

They sat at the table and talked for a while, before Ditzy had to remove the cupcakes from the oven. Macintosh reached to eat one but Ditzy slapped his hoof away and said: "It's for the grandchildren."

As if on cue the front door swung open.

"Hello?" Came a deep bellowing voice from the living room.

"We're in the kitchen Sweetie." Ditzy called. Then a pattern of tiny hooves came running into the kitchen. A little filly no more than six slid into the room.

"Grandma!" Shouted the little filly as she jumped into her grandmother's lap and gave Ditzy an energetic and affectionate hug. "Grandpa!"

She ran over to Macintosh and did the same. "Howdy, Velvet."

Carson took a few heavy steps into the kitchen right next to Pumpkin who had a large belly from her second pregnancy. She looked tired, Ditzy knew how that felt.

"Hey mom, hey dad." Carson greeted. He stood a few inches taller than Macintosh now, yet Mac would always blame it on his age. "Have a seat, Pumpkin."

He pulled out seat for his pregnant wife, who took a seat. Then he noticed the orange mare sitting next to his mother.

"Auntie Carrot Top!" He said in surprise.

"Took you long enough, big guy." Carrot Top stood to exchange a quick hug with Carson. Pumpkin sat with a shy smile on her face.

"Come play with me Grandpa!" Velvet begged.

"Oh alright." Macintosh laughed as he pulled himself slowly up from the chair. He was being led by hoof by Velvet to the front room, where they kept all the toys for when the grandkids came.

"Come play with us Daddy!" Velvet suggested playfully. Carson smiled went to follow them.

When they left Ditzy asked: "How are you feeling, dear?"

Pumpkin gave a sigh before she said: "I get awfully tired lugging this foal around. It's easier than the first time, but I think this foal is a lot bigger than Velvet was..."

Ditzy chuckled: "I know what that feels like."

"When is the foal due?" Carrot Top asked. Pumpkin looked shy at the outgoing orange mare. "Oh sorry, I'm Carrot Top, an old friend of Ditzy's."

"Hi, nice to meet you... I'm Pumpkin and I'm married to Carson, but of course you know that." Pumpkin giggled. They had never actually met before; Carrot Top had been unable to attend the wedding. "But anyway, the foal's due in about a week."

"Oooo...I'll be here for that." Carrot Top squealed. Pumpkin put on a more confident smile.

After a long while of talking, Pumpkin became more and more relaxed with the conversation. Ditzy heard the ground door swing open for the third time that day.

"Hi grandpa!" A light masculine and feminine voice called in unison. Ditzy smiled. The twins that made her a grandma had arrived. Ditzy pushed off from the table and went into the living room. Mac was laying on the floor a filly and colt, about 10 years old, had him in a hug. The colt was Quill and the filly was Sunny.

Dinky stood next to her husband Pipsqueak. She was in her suit. Mayor Dinky Apple a name tag read. She had won in a landslide victory over the incumbent. Ditzy had never expected her daughter to get into politics, but she was proud of the integrity that she brought to the mayor's office.

"Hi mom." Dinky gave her mother a little kiss on the cheek. "Hey dad."

"Howdy, Sugar Cube." Macintosh said while he was being swarmed with a fourth grandchild. Dinky's had another little colt that was four years old. The little colt was named Pipsqueak Jr. he looked like a lot like his father.

"Auntie Carrot Top!" Dinky squeaked like a little filly. She almost tackled the old mare in a hug. "I missed you so much!"

"Hey there, silly filly, don't knock me over." Carrot Top laughed. "I've missed you too, and if I've heard right, you're the new mayor."

"Eeyup!" She beamed. "I won last November, and might I say, I think I'm doing a good job."

"More than a good job." Macintosh chimed in. "She's done a great job."

"Thanks dad." Dinky smiled.

"Ahem, a little help?" Big Mac asked, as he held a hoof up in a sign for help. Carson grasped that hoof and pulled Mac to his hooves.

"Awww...Grandpa we wanted to play a more." Quill groaned.

"Well, if you want to play so much, maybe you don't want the cupcakes I made." Ditzy teased.

"Cupcakes!" The four fillies and colts shouted on unison. Ditzy smiled, she would eventually give them a cupcakes, but not until she gave the proper amount of teasing.

"Nope, you said you wanted to play with grandpa more, well go ahead. We grown-ups will eat them." Ditzy prodded her grandchildren some more, but they gave her the eyes; those sad puppy dog eyes that she couldn't for the life of her resist. "Alright, alright, you can have them, just stop with the eyes."

"Yay." The scampered off to the kitchen.

"Giving them sugar, again?" Dinky asked with a chuckle. Dinky didn't care to count how many times her mother had sent her children home hopped up on so much sugar that they could possibly explode.

"It's our job." Big Macintosh grinned. A loud crash told Ditzy that her grandkids already found the cupcakes. They all took seats in the living room, Carson and Pumpkin on the couch with Carrot Top, Dinky and Pipsqueak in the love seat, Big Mac in his favorite recliner, and Ditzy in her personal rocking chair.

"How the harvest coming in this year, Carson?" Mac asked. Carson had inherited one third of the farm after Mac had retired, soon it would be half when Applejack decided to retire, not that Carson cared how much of the farm he owned, but it was good to own something.

"Mighty fine, the rain we ordered for the south orchard helped the granny smiths a lot, and Ah'm ahead of schedule on the bucking." Carson responded. "Aunt Apple Bloom is ready for the zap apple harvest, which Ah feel is going to come in great.

"That's good." Mac had a satisfied smile that meant he was proud of how his son was handling the farm. "How are ya folks doing, Pumpkin?"

"They're holding it together, Dad wants to retire, but mom says she could imagine not baking all day." Pumpkin explained. After a while of talking a second crash came from where the cupcakes used to be. Ditzy stood as fast as she could, which was pretty slow. She trotted through the door to the kitchen to find a smashed cookie jar on the floor.

"Quill did it!" Sunny shouted.

"Did not! Velvet did it!" Quill pointed a hoof towards the filly, whose eye went eyes went wide with surprise.

She gasped and shouted: "Nuh-uh! I didn't do it, Jr. did it!"

Out of all of her grandchildren Pipsqueak Jr. was the least likely to have actually break the jar, but her other grandkids knew he would have taken the blame without a fight. Ditzy wouldn't be standing for that.

"Well, I sure hope none of you are lying, otherwise Nightmare Moon will take you away." Ditzy had to force back a smile; this was the story that she was told when she was a little filly when her parents suspected she was telling a fib.

"N-nightmare Moon? She's just a myth... Right?" Quill stuttered. It had been a long time since Luna was saved from her curse and now it had become a tale to scare children.

"Oh no, she's very real, and she flies around all night looking for fillies and colts who told a lie, she takes them..." She took a dramatic pause for effect, and the grandkids looked up at her with wide eyed interest. "Gobbles the up!"

They screamed, and Quill said: "Okay I did it!"

"No I did!" Sunny squealed.

"We all know I did it." Velvet interrupted. Ditzy smiled in satisfaction, it was almost too easy to fool them. Ditzy opened a tall cabinet to expose a broom and dust pan.

"Alright the three of you, clean it up." They hung their heads and grabbed the broom and cleaned up the mess of cookies and glass. Ditzy stood by to make sure they didn't cut themselves of the sharp glass.

After that was cleaned up, Ditzy returned to the living room. It looked as everypony was getting ready to leave, this was the part of their visits that she didn't like, the part where she realized that they had lives that they had to get back to and families to take care of. She liked that they had lives and families, but was retired and now she didn't have anywhere to go.

"Sorry mom, duty calls." Dinky was at the door. "Come along kids!"

Sunny, Quill, and Jr. ran to the door to catch up with their parents.

"You aren't leaving without giving your grandma a hug, are you?" Ditzy teased. The filly and two colts ran to her and grasped her in an affectionate hug.

"Bye grandma!" They said before leaving.

"Well, mom and dad, we better are heading out too." Carson said in a deep rumble.

"But you just got here." Macintosh mentioned.

"Yeah, but ah still have a few deliveries to make." Carson explained.

"We've got to go sweetie!" Pumpkin called to Velvet, who came running. They stood and gave warm goodbyes to Mac and Ditzy.

"It's always so nice when they visit." Ditzy commented.

"Eeyup." Macintosh said, flipping his newspaper open again. Carrot Top had fallen to sleep on the couch; Ditzy placed a blanket over her.

"Hey Mac?" Ditzy got his attention.

"Yes, dear?" He didn't look away from his newspaper.

"Looking back would you change anything?" Ditzy looked out the window to watch her legacy walk away. Mac set his newspaper aside.

"Ah wouldn't change a thing." He said. "Would you?"

"Eenope."

I don't know why, but I felt compelled to write this. It was just a bit of fluff, and you know what, that's enjoyable sometimes so why not? Thanks for reading. Oh yes I may have missed something so if you find something wrong… like grammar (I'm bad at grammar)please tell me.