Chapter 7: Preparations
The four finished their meal, smiles plastered on their faces at the additions coming to their families. They only had a few hours of sunlight left when they left the restaurant. Carrot hugged Briar and Fern goodbye. Briar gave Colton a hoofshake and a slap on the back, wishing him luck with the proposal. Fern insisted on hugging her soon-to-be son-in-law. Then Carrot and Colton set out on the long trip back to Ponyville, talking on the way.
“Sorry about stealing your night with your parents, Carrot,” Colton apologized.
She smiled. “Don’t worry about it. Good news like this is a welcome interruption.”
“Thank you. By the way, I never asked you what you think about this. Do I fit your standards of someone suitable to marry your sister?”
Carrot stopped trotting for a moment. “Hmmm, I’m not sure,” she said, feigning thought. She walked in circles around him a few times, looking him over. “I suppose you’ll do. Just remember one thing,” she said, resuming her trot. “If you hurt her, I live next door to you with a very mischievous filly and her mother who will devoid a refrigerator of anything edible at a moment’s notice. And the two of them will do anything for my carrot muffins.”
“Duly noted,” Colton replied, knowing Ditzy and Dinky Doo would not be his only problems if he crossed Carrot.
“I’m glad we understand each other. So…have you thought about how you’re going to pop the question?”
“Yes I have, and I know exactly how I’m going to do it. The idea came to me when I was eating lunch on the way over here. I’m going to need your help to pull it off, though.”
“Oh? What do you need me to do?”
“I need you to go to Daisy’s house at about lunch time and take her to your house until about four. That should give me enough time to go around town getting what I need. Then, take her shopping or to the spa or something. I’ll repay you for anything you spend on her. Just keep her away from her house until about six o’clock, and then bring her home and have her put on something formal. Make sure you don’t let her see her backyard at any point of the day. If she gets suspicious, which she will, just tell her you’re helping me with a surprise.”
“How are you going to propose?” she asked, deeply curious.
“Don’t worry, I’ll tell you eventually. But right now I need you to be in the dark. You know how intuitive Daisy is and if you know anything, she’ll pick up on it.”
“Alright,” she said, a slight twinge of frustration at not knowing.
The two of them continued on. By the time they reached Ponyville, Luna’s moon had risen. Tomorrow it would be full, the perfect setting for his proposal.
They parted ways and went into their respective houses. Colton walked through the front door.
“Hi, Colton, where were you all day?” Ruby greeted him.
“Why are you still awake? You should have been in bed over an hour ago.”
“Seyval was playing charades with me to get me sleepy, but then he fell asleep.”
Colton looked in the living room. Sure enough, there was his brother splayed out on the floor fast asleep, snoring softly and drooling a little on the carpet.
Colton chuckled, and then turned to Ruby. “Where’s your mom?”
“Caramel came over and they went to Sugarcube Corner. She said she won’t be home till late.”
“Okay, well, it’s time you were in bed.”
“Okay,” Ruby agreed, and walked to her room.
“I’ll be there in a minute to tuck you in.”
Colton went over to his brother and woke him up.
“Hmmf…huh...wuh?” the cream stallion mumbled. “Oh, hi,” he said groggily, noticing Colton. “How was your trip?”
Colton told him about their mother giving him her ring, running into Carrot, and Daisy’s parents’ reactions. Seyval laughed when he told him about the strange, brown stallion. Once his brother regained his composure, Colton began to describe his plan to him for tomorrow, enlisting his help in setting some things up. Seyval agreed to meet him at Daisy’s tomorrow afternoon and went to bed.
Colton went to Ruby’s room to tuck her in. She was already in bed, thinking to herself.
“Colton,” she asked as he came in, “can I ask you a question?”
“What is it, Ruby?” he said, walking over and sitting by her bed.
“How did you get your cutie mark?”
“Did I never tell you that story?” Ruby shook her head. “Alright. It happened shortly after I was old enough to help out in the field. My dad and I were planting a few new vines.
“Can I carry some of the baby vines, dad?” asked Colton, pulling a small wagon behind him to mimic how his father pulled a cart with several small grape vines resting in small buckets of water to keep the roots wet.
“Alright, Colton,” agreed his father and placed a few of them in the wagon. The two walked out to where the new grapes were to be planted and unhitched themselves from their respective cart and wagon.
“Okay, son, I’ve already set up some bamboo sticks that the vines will be able to climb once they start growing. First we need to dig holes to plant the vines in.” His father began digging next to a pole and Colton followed suit near a pole a few feet away.
“Like this, dad?”
“Good job. Try making it a little bit deeper. You want the entire root system to be below the dirt line.”
Colton did as he was told and smiled proudly at his work. ”Now what, dad?”
“Now we plant the vines in the holes. Be careful, they’re little, so they’re very delicate.” His father walked over to his cart and Colton to his wagon and they each retrieved one of the one and a half foot tall vines from their buckets. Colton was very careful not to bite too hard as he carried the vine in his teeth. He placed it carefully in the hole and held it up while he filled the hole with dirt around the vine. When he was done he looked at the vine and frowned a bit. It was cooked.
Noticing his frown, his father smiled. “Don’t worry about it, Colton. You got the right end up and that’s all that matters.”
Colton laughed. “Okay, dad. What now?”
“Now we need to give them a gratuitous amount of water.”
“Gratuey…gratui..what?”
“Gratuitous. It means a lot.”
“Ooooh.” Colton went and grabbed one of the buckets of water from his wagon and poured it on the ground near the plant. The two repeated the entire process until all the other vines were planted.
“Now what?”asked Colton, wiping his forehead and leaving a streak of dirt.
His father wrapped a hoof around him. “Now, son, we wait. We’ve given them good soil to grow in, we’ve made sure they have plenty to drink, and Celestia will give them the sunlight they need. All they need now is time and lots of love and care.
Everyday thereafter, Colton checked on the vines that he had planted. He made sure they always had everything they needed. As the months passed he helped his parents with the other vines in the vineyard, learning how to train the vines to grow up the trellises, how to harvest the grapes when the time came and about all the things they made the grapes into. But he would always spend time with his vines every day.
Eventually, his vines grew big and tall and began growing clusters of green grapes. Finally, the time came to harvest them. His father pulled down the first cluster of grapes and offered him some. He took a few in his mouth and bit down. They were the sweetest, juiciest, most delicious grapes he had ever tasted in his life.
“Wow! Those are amazing!” he said after he swallowed.
“Better then any you’ve ever had before right?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Do you know why they taste like that?” Colton shook his head. “It’s because you worked so hard to help them grow. You just tasted the fruits of your labor, Colton, and believe me, there is no fruit in the world that tastes better than that. I’m very proud of you, son.”He pulled Colton into a hug.
Suddenly there was a small flash and Colton felt a tingling sensation in his flanks. He turned and looked. There, emblazoned on his rump, were two clusters of the very same grapes he had just tasted. The fruits of his labor.
“…and I knew that I wanted to grow grapes for the rest of my life.”
“Wow,” said Ruby. “That’s a good story.” She looked down forlornly at her flank. “When do you think I’ll get my cutie mark?”
“I don’t know, Ruby. You just have to be patient. It’ll come when you’re ready. But I can tell you this; when it does come, you’ll realize that it could never have been anything else.”
“Alright.” She laid back onto her pillow and yawned. “Goodnight, Colton.”
“Goodnight, Ruby. Sweet dreams.” He tucked her in, went to his room and climbed into bed. He lay there for a while, thinking about tomorrow, hoping his plan would go well. Some pieces had been put in place already and he would take care of the rest tomorrow. Slowly, tiredness overtook him and he nodded off.
*****
The next morning, Colton woke up and set to work. He ate his breakfast and got his chores done. Then he started preparing for that night. He went into the kitchen and gathered some supplies for dinner, packing them in his saddlebag. He pulled a suit out of the closet, carefully folded it and packed it in the bag as well. As he was eating lunch, he made a mental checklist of all the things he would need and all the places he should go to get them. He was just finishing his lunch when he heard a knock at the door.
“Hi, Mister Colton,” said the little grey unicorn filly at his doorstep. “Carrot said to come over here and tell you that Daisy is over there so you can go ahead with the plan. Can Ruby come over to play? Canshecanshecanshe? Please?” She began to do a little dance, shuffling her hooves in anticipation.
Colton smiled. Dinky Doo was infamous for her inability to sit, stand or do anything still. He swore if she ran fast enough, she could do a sonic rainboom along the ground.
“Hello, Dinky. Yes, Ruby can come over. I’ll go-“
“Hi, Dinky!” said Ruby, bounding out the door. “Let’s go!”
The two fillies dashed over to Carrot’s house.
“-get her,” Colton finished. The endless energy of those two amazed him sometimes.
Colton grabbed his saddlebags and went to the storage closet. He grabbed the last few things he would need from the house. He went to his room and grabbed enough bits to pay for the rest of the stuff he had to buy and set off toward town; his first stop, Carousel Boutique.
*****
“Welcome to Carousel Boutique. How may I help you today?” said the white unicorn that ran the shop.
“Hello, Miss Rarity. I need to have this suit pressed, please,” said Colton, bringing it out.
“Of course,” she said, taking in her magic. “I’ll have it done in a few minutes if you would care to wait.”
“Thank you.”
She placed the suit on a workbench, went over to the stairs and called up. “Sweetie Belle, could you get me the water sprayer in the closet, please?”
“Sure thing, sis,” said a voice from upstairs.
“Thank you, dear.” Rarity walked over to the workbench and set up the iron, letting it begin to heat up. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I know that we’ve met before, but your name eludes me at the moment.”
“It’s Colton Vines, ma’am.”
“Yes, you’re dating that wonderful florist, Daisy, right.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Rarity smiled. “Wonderful, could you please tell her to come by sometime? I was rather harsh with her the other day when I was placing an order and I want to-“
CRASH
Rarity galloped up the stairs and into the door at the top.
“Sweetie Belle!” she groaned.
“Sorry, sis,” said the other voice.
Rarity came down the stairs moments later with the sprayer bottle in her magic and a small, pink and magenta maned filly behind her, who Colton presumed to be Sweetie Belle. She went over to the bench and began ironing the suit while Sweetie Belle sat in a corner and watched.
“Anyway, as I was saying, Mr. Vines, I was rather harsh with Daisy the other day and I would like to treat her to lunch to apologize. You’re welcome to come if you like.”
“Thank you for the offer. I’ll be sure to ask her.”
A few minutes later she was done. She put the suit on its hanger and then in a suit bag and draped the bag over Colton’s back. He insisted, despite her objections, on giving her a few bits for her trouble. He left the shop and headed for his next errand; Blues’ apartment.
*****
“Sounds really romantic, Colt,” said Blues after Colton had explained his plan.
“Can you two help me?” Colton asked him and Bluenote, who was visiting Blues for the week.
“Of course we can,” said Bluenote. “We wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
“Thanks, you two. This really means a lot to me,” said Colton. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to see a stallion about some hardware.”
*****
“Here you go. Twenty yards of twine, a couple dozen small candles, a couple dozen paper lanterns and one ladder rental,” said the owner of the hardware store as he placed the items in the cart Colton had borrowed from Caramel.
“Thank you, Mr. Breezy,” said Colton to the tan stallion. He pulled enough bits out of his saddlebag and paid him.
“No problem. You sure you don’t want a fan? They’re twenty percent off until the end of the week.”
“Maybe some other time.” Colton hitched himself up and began pulling the cart to Daisy’s house.
*****
“Hey, Colton,” Rose greeted him when he entered the shop.
“Hello Rose. I’m here to set up some stuff in the backyard for a surprise for Daisy tonight. Could you unlock the fence?”
“Sure.”
Colton took the cart around back and a moment later the gate in the fence opened. He began unloading the cart.
“Here, lemme give you a hoof,” said Rose. “What do you want me to do?”
“Let’s see…” thought Colton. “If you could start putting the small candles in the lanterns, that would be great. Just dip the tip of the wick in that little purple bottle over there and the candles will ignite at sunset. I’ll set up a table and chairs on the patio and Seyval should be by a little later to help me hang the lanterns.”
“Why come by a little later when I’m here now?” said Seyval, coming up behind him. “I had an errand to run in town and thought I would drop by a little early.”
“Alright, then,” said Colton, “let’s get started.”
The three got to work setting up. Rose and Seyval began dipping the wicks in the potion and placing the candles in the light pink lanterns. The potion would cause the candles to magically ignite when Celestia used her magic to lower the sun. Colton set up the table with two chairs on the patio a short distance from the door. He covered it with a red tablecloth from home and placed a candle in the middle. Then the three of them attached the lanterns to the twine and strung them up. They stepped back and admired their work.
“Thanks you two,” said Colton. “It looks great. Now I just need to take care of dinner.”
“Awesome. What are we having?” Seyval asked.
Rose scowled at him. “It’s not for you, Seyval. It’s for Colton and Daisy’s date.”
“I know that. I’m just teasing.”
“Don’t worry, Rose, I brought more than enough to go around,” Colton assured her.
The three of them went inside. Colton brought out the supplies he had from home, placed a bottle of wine in the fridge to chill and divvied out the tasks. Seyval couldn’t cook and had been advised by the fire department at a young age to never step within several feet of a stove, so he was charged with making a salad. Colton began making a casserole while Rose made dessert.
Suddenly there was a knock on the door. Colton looked at the clock, panicking for a moment. Carrot wasn’t supposed to bring Daisy over for another forty five minutes. Were they here early? He followed Rose to the door and breathed a sigh of relief when she opened it.
“Hey Colt, are we late?” said Blues.
“Nope, you’re just in time,” said Colton. “Come around to the back yard and we’ll get you all set up.”
Blues entered, carrying his saxophone case and a keyboard piano on his back. He was followed by Bluenote carrying her sousaphone. To Colton’s surprise, two other mares came in after them. The first was the minty green unicorn lyrist, Lyra. When Colton looked at the second mare, he had to do a double take.
“Colton,” Bluenote began introducing the gray earth pony with a pink bowtie that had just walked through the door, carrying a large cello case on her back, “this is…”
“The Great Lady Octavia,” Colton finished, wide eyed and mouth agape, “the greatest and most accomplished cellist in all of Equestria.”
“A pleasure to meet you Mr. Vines,” said Octavia, extending a hoof. “I see I that I am in the presence of an admirer.”
“Yes ma’am,” said Colton as he shook her hoof. “My mother took me to a concert you did in Canterlot when I was young and it was the best thing I’d ever heard. I even convinced her to let me take cello lessons, but I was never very good. All I ever managed to learn were a few scales.”
“Well, from what Miss Brass has told me about you, you have more than enough skill with grapes to make up for it.” Octavia complemented. “Now to business; shall we move to the back yard to begin preparation for this evening’s festivities?”
“Right this way, mademoiselle,” said Colton, ushering the way to the back door.
They went out back and the musicians began setting up in a corner of the yard a short distance away from the table. Octavia and Lyra began setting up and tuning their respective instruments. Colton and Blues began helping Bluenote with the complex process of putting on her sousaphone.
“So,” said Colton, “I see you two have gone above and beyond the call of duty in helping me. How in Equestria did you get Octavia and Lyra to come?”
“Well,” Bluenote grunted as she contorted herself into her instrument, “Lyra owed me a favor because *oof* I got her a ticket to the Grand Galloping Gala. As for Octavia, I convinced her that an *umph* impromptu performance would help us prepare for a concert we have in a few weeks. We just wanted to make tonight all the more special for you two.”
“Thank you so much, guys,” said Colton.
They finished getting Bluenote’s sousaphone on and Colton left the musicians to their tuning and warming up. Everything was coming together. Colton walked over to his saddlebags sitting by the door and pulled out the ring. As he gazed at it, the nervousness he had been trying to stave off all day hit him full force. In a short while Daisy would arrive and the evening would commence and he would propose. His hooves began trembling and he began to sweat. Blues noticed he was getting nervous and walked over to give him a pat on the back.
“Nervous?” he asked.
“Uh-huh,” Colton nodded, trying to quell the lump in his throat.
“Well, don’t be. You’ve got your friends here to back you up. This is going to be the best night ever. I even wrote a little song about it on the way over here. Do you wanna hear it?”
“Okay,” said Colton. He knew Blues wasn’t a very good songwriter, but the lyrics he managed to come up with would make Colton laugh or take his mind off things.
So Blues began singing. Colton thought that he heard the tune before, but couldn’t remember where.
When he asks her (when he asks her)
When he asks her, to be married
She’s going to swoon and fa-all
When he gets down, on his haunches and he asks herrrrrr (when he asks her)
He will tell her, that he loves her
And will be with her through a-all
They will be together forever
Tooonight when he asks heeeeeerrrrrr
He was taking a breath to sing the next verse, when Octavia shrieked, a look of horror on her face.
“GAAAAAA! Blues! Where did you hear that song?! Quick! Barricade the doors before the pony poky starts!” She was cowering behind her cello case, violet pupils the size of pinpricks, breathing in ragged gasps.
Bluenote walked up to her and, with some difficulty around the sousaphone, took her in a comforting hug, stroking her mane and speaking in a soothing voice. “There there now, Tavi, it’s alright. No one’s going to start the pony poky. Come on, let’s go inside and have a nice cup of tea.”
Bluenote and Lyra helped Octavia get inside the house. A look of shocked realization came over Blues as an understanding of what had transpired hit him. Colton stared after them and then at Blues, a confused look on his face.
“What was that about?” he asked.
“I, uh…I didn’t realize it was the same tune. You remember how the Gala got crashed? Well, Octavia was there. Apparently, all the guests burst spontaneously into a song with that tune before it started. Then later, somepony requested the band play the pony poky. A little while later, a screaming banshee chased a bunch of stampeding animals into the ballroom. Octavia’s cello got smashed in the ensuing chaos and I guess she never fully recovered from the trauma. She has a pathological fear of that tune and the pony poky now. It’s almost like sees them as a bad omen or something.”
“Wow,” said Colton, not quite knowing what to say. “Will she be okay?”
“Oh yeah, she’ll be fine. After about three therapists she started to get a little better. We may just have to stall for a few minutes until she calms down. Sorry about that.”
“It’s alright. Thanks for trying to help me with my nerves.”
“You mean it worked?!” said Blues.
“A little,” said Colton. “Come on. Dinner needs to be finished and I still need to get dressed.” He got his suit bag and the two of them headed inside.
A/N: In case you were wondering, yes the song is Fluttershy’s part of ‘At the Gala’ rewritten. Yes it is cheesy and pretty bad. I debated whether I should even put it in or not, but every time I thought of it, it made me laugh. It was fun to write and I regret nothing. I also kind of wanted it to be a little bad because of the way I think of Blues. In my mind he’s a wonderful and very talented musician who can play several instruments fluently, but he’s not a very good songwriter.
Also, I managed to sneak part of a line from season six of Doctor Who in this chapter. Imaginary internet muffins to anyone who can find it. It’s pretty obscure, though.