Ponywatching

by ThunderTempest

Legacy Prompt #6: Family Matters

Big Macintosh prided himself on being a stallion of few words, able to convey what others would take ten minutes to say in a single word or phrase. It was both partly due to the loss of Ma and Pa when he was young, and Applejack was even younger, and partly because that was how Mac dealt with difficult customers whenever he went into town with the family’s apple cart. Also, Mac didn’t like to talk to ponies-he had always suspected that Applejack and Apple Bloom took far more after Ma, who Pa couldn’t stop talking unless he gave her mouth something better to do.

Nonetheless, Macintosh was the stoic, quiet one of the family, preffering to simply get about his work than spend hours with friends-not to say that Mac was friendless, just that he knew that friends were for when work was over. And on some days, when he was feeling overwhelmed, he came out here, to the small clearing in the orchard where the Apples of Ponyville had buried their dead. Sometimes Macintosh came here to talk to his parents’ graves, other days it was just to get a bit of peace and quiet, a relief from whatever plot that Applejack had been pulled into, or the latest scheme of the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

Of course, the universe never seemed to give Mac a break from everything.

“Well, Big Macintosh, guess it’s just you, me and the trees out here,” said Granny Smith.

“Eeyup,” intoned Macintosh.

“Why, I remember when we first planted this feild. Right around the place where us apples first camped when we began to build Sweet Apple Acres.”

“Eeyup,” said Mac, filing that tidbit of information away, and there was blessed silence between the two eldest members of the Apple Family in Ponyville for a while.

“Been meaning to talk to ya, Macintosh. With Applejack goin’ off and adventurin’ with those friends o’ hers, we really need to be thinkin’ about the future of the farm.”

“Eeyup,” said Macintosh. He knew that Applejack’s friends would look after her-they were good friends with all the Apples, and he trusted them. Still, there was the chance that something could go wrong, and they’d come back minus his sister, and Bloom wasn’t ready to help with the feilds, or to face the fact that her sister wasn’t invulnerable.

“More specifically, I want t’ meet my grandkids’ kids! And I’ve seen the way that Applejack looks at those mares. She gone done fallen plum in love with them. Ain’t no foal comin’ outta that ship. And Apple Blooms’ too young to be thinking about this sorta thing, so Mac?”

“Eenope,” said Macintosh, beginning to walk back to the homestead. He was pretty sure that one of the plows needed sharpening.

“Mac, there always has to be an Apple on Apple land! There’s plenty o’ nice young mares in Ponyville, why don’t ya see about courtin’ one? That one, the teacher. She seems nice.”

“Eenope. Nope. Nope,” said Mac, punctuating each step with another ‘nope’. This was not on the list of things that Mac wanted to think about this week. Moreover, he didn’t want Granny, as well meaning as she was, to be needling him about getting married or having children.
For an old mare, Granny Smith could make her voice carry far, though, and she was determined to have the last word.

“Ya don’t even have t’ be married, Mac! Just get some nice mare into the hay barn and...” Big Mac broke into a gallop, the thunder of his hooves drowning out Granny Smith’s words as he dashed back to the barn.

Author's Note:

Written for Legacy Prompt #6, over on the TMP Group forums
The Prompt: I Don’t Want To Talk about it.

For characters with so few lines, Big Mac and Granny Smith are hard to write.

Comments

[Themaskedferret]

I think perhaps because they have so little personality to use. You have to try and either make one whole cloth from what little there is, or try and go off a fanon one, which can be just as difficult. This was still fun though. I think they sort of came across as a fairly generic pair and not too much to really define them as Granny and Mac, but it was still enjoyable.

[Malandy]

#I-Agree-With-The-Ferret!

Embarrassment, is funny... when it's not you... and maybe even when it is...

Typo: feild