Apple Seeds

by StageQuill

On Top of the World

"So... Y'all gonna stay in Ponyville?" Red asked. Scarlet stirred her apple spice iced tea, not looking Red in the face.

"My parents want me to settle down in Manehattan. They think you and I are just a rebellious phase..." She looked up from her drink to see his face fall. "We're not, Red. Five years is not a phase." He brightened and Scarlet thought that nothing would ever feel as wonderful as making Red brighten. "I plan on coming to live out here. I could... I don't know, be an assistant teacher or librarian. Or... Could I help out at the farm?"

"Mah parents would love that, Sugarcube. They say Ah take too mud work on mahself. It'd seem like nothing if you were there with me."

"Red, you're the sweetest stallion that ever lived," Scarlet whispered, leaning closer to her coltfriend. They shared a quick kiss. No sense in making the Cake colt, Carrot, grimace at PDA any more than he did already.

"You just bring it out o' me, Scarlet," Red said. Their next kiss was longer and accompanied by a "Ich!" from Carrot.

---

Scarlet and Red didn't usually go up to the top of the sledding hill for anything other than sledding, but Red had suggested they have a picnic.

It was a beautiful spring day. Flowers bloomed, insects buzzed, Red's muscles moves under his sleek red coat as he pulled the wagon up the hill. Scarlet frolicked ahead. She'd offered to pull the wagon but Red had refused, pulling it away from her when she tried.

"Ah don't want to look like a wimp, now," he said to Scarlet. She laughed.

"Like I'd ever call you a wimp."

Wagon or not, she was panting at the top. The sun beat down hard on her back. Her mane didn't help. It locked the heat in like a blanket around her neck. Red didn't look winded at all.

"Let's get the food out, Sugarcube," he suggested nervously. Nervously? No, not around her. He had no need to be nervous.

Scarlet spread the blanket out. "You'd better not have forgotten the black-and-white cookies," she teased. Red looked startled.

"'Course not. Ah made sure Ah brought them-"

"Relax, Red." Scarlet smoothed the picnic blanket and gave her coltfriend a soft kiss. "I knew you did. You always do."

Red nodded, grinning sheepishly. "'Course."

Scarlet and Red set up their blanket the way they usually did, plates at one side, the two ponies sitting beside each other on the other side.

"I love Ponyville," Scarlet sighed, looking at the town. Red made a huffing noise and she looked up at him. "Of course I love you. You're the best part." She leaned her head on his shoulder and licked the cookie crumbs off of her lips in a way that would make her mother faint.

"Scarlet," Red said suddenly. "Scarlet, Ah..." he moved back and she looked at him. His eyes were wide and he was biting his lip.

"Hmm?" Scarlet asked. Her heart started to beat. Was this... Was Red...?

Red got down on one knee. "Scarlet, Ah love ya. Ah cain't imagine life without ya. Scarlet, will ya marry me?" His words tumbled out, heartfelt and honest and making Scarlet's breath catch. Red pulled a box out of the wagon. "Scarlet, yer th' most beautiful mare Ah ever met. Yer th' funniest, kindest, best pony Ah've ever met. What do ya say, Sugarcube?" He snapped it open, displaying a fruit-shaped diamond ring that must have cost Red far too much.

Scarlet felt tears come to her eyes. "I love you, Red," she said, before catapulting herself into his hooves. They just stayed on the grass and Scarlet felt she never wanted to leave.

---

"Ich!" Big Mac shook his head. "That's a filly story."

"Ah think that story's purty," Applejack said, sticking her tongue out at her brother. He stuck his out right back.

"Yer a filly."

Applejack did the only reasonable thing: She threw herself at her brother, instigating a wrestling match terrifying to behold.

"Red, calm them down," Scarlet said, cradling Applebloom.

"Calm down, y'all!" Red dove into the fray, meaning to tear them apart but ending up jointing in. Applejack and Big Mac laughed when their daddy started making faces as he there them in the air and fought them. Scarlet sighed.

"Red, that wasn't what I meant."

Applebloom laughed and clapped her hooves. "Apple!" She cried. It was the only thing she knew how to say. Applejack and Big Mac immediately left the wrestling match, ears alert. Whenever Applebloom said anything, it was cause for celebration. She'd only started talking the previous week.

"Apple!" Applejack repeated.

"Apple!" Aplebloom laughed. Scarlet tickled her under the chin as Red pounced on the other two, tickling them until they laughed and tried to tickle him back.

"Now, let's get some cookies," Red gasped finally. The foals were the only things in the world that could tire him out.

"They don't need more sugar!" Scarlet cried in vain, but to no avail. The two older ones had pounced on the black-and-whites. Big Mac remembered to give Scarlet one.

"Here, Mother. Yer favorite."

Scarlet smiled at his still-foalish voice. She could already hear it growing up; Not deepening, but the edges were getting sharper, his diction less lisping and more solid. Applejack's high, childish laugh brought her back to the now and the fact that they were still babies.

"Thank you, Mac."

"Ah'm BIG Mac."

"You certainly are," Scarlet said, rocking Applebloom and trying to keep the cookie out of the tiny filly's grasp. "You're my Big Mac." Applebloom cooed and drooled after the cookie.

"Cain't Applebloom have a cookie?" Applejack asked, crumbs surrounding her mouth.

"Not just yet," Scarlet said. Red laughed.

"She'll be eatin' soon enough. If she's anything like her mother, she'll be goblin the cookies faster'n y'all can say sugar."

"They're my favorite!" Scarlet laughed. "You can eat Apple Brown Betty fast enough."

As the sun dropped in the sky, Applejack and Big Mac curled up on the blanket between Red and Scarlet. Red held Applebloom as Scarlet stroked her older children's heads.

"They're so sweet," Scarlet said softly.

"Spritely, too," Red said back, smiling. "They're already asking to help around the farm."

"Applejack asked me about cutie marks the other day," Scarlet said. "I got mine late."

"Ah didn't," Red said. "Ah knew Ah was built for apples. Mah parents told me that."

Scarlet smiled. "I barely gardened before Ponyville. I'm glad the foals are growing up here. They'll grow up big and strong, like you."

"Ah'm sure glad you came here, Scarlet," Red said, nuzzling his wife over the softly breathing sleeping foals between them.

"Oh, so am I."

Author's Note:

So! Sorry I haven't been on. I've had school... Other stuff... I just kind of missed FimFiction, and I needed to finish this story. It's almost done.

Comments

[SageBrony07]

Nice job with this story. Nice touch showing their parents telling the story. to be honest though, this chapter felt a bit rush or out of place, with the others. Good luck with the last chapter.

[StageQuill]

5064809 I'll work on that. Thanks!