RedCedar

Red closed his eyes just before his lips found Applejack's, trying to hide any trace of excitement like the racing of his heartbeat or the tremble in his chest. The slight, pleasant chill of her mouth soon gave way to a gentle warmth shared by them both, to linger on the lips and in the memory after parting with an ever so slight tug of reluctance. Red remained with his eyes closed until he could gather his wits, and a deep breath, and slowly open them to look back into hers.

"Liked it?" he repeated. "That was worth every second I spent in line, and more."

As much as he would have loved to have lingered over the moment a little longer, he knew there were others waiting their turn, and he couldn't deny them forever. Turning back to the sight of his awkwardly-shaped saddlebags, he said, "I think I have it..." and then, with a sharp hoist of his hoof, heaved it onto his back, immediately stumbling to his left in order to counteract the unbalanced load. After a moment of shifting, shuffling and bouncing the saddlebags on his back, he finally cinched them up again, content in knowing he'd be eating them to a more manageable size soon enough. "Thank you again,"  he said to Applejack. "The apples were a bargain, but the kiss was priceless." And with a last longing glance, he turned and made his way down the path towards the Whitetail Woods, barely staggering at all.

Red finally got in the last of the apples and then sighed, looking at his saddlebag. To say it was not pretty was an understatement. The whole thing was now bulging at the seams and likely at least a little unbalanced. Any Colt Scout leader would have been appalled at the way he had packed for this camping trip now, but there was not much that could be done about it. He simply resolved to eat as many apples in the first couple of days as he could stomach in order to even things out.

But however his back might complain about the whole thing by the time he pitched his tent that night, there was yet something that was likely to keep his mind off it for the foreseeable future. Looking back up to Applejack, a little darker red in his copper cheeks now, though he was able to look her in those beautiful green eyes, he smiled and said,  "Uhm, if it's not too forward, on the lips would be wonderful."

Red's eyes opened wider, and then he frowned slightly, as Applejack brought forward a bushel of mixed apples. While he'd accounted for the weight of a bushel on his back while he would be hiking through the woods on his camping trip, it seemed he had seriously underestimated the volume of them. "Oh," he said, then started unhitching his remaining saddlebags. "Uhm, okay, well, let's fill up this empty bag as far as it goes, and then, I'll see if I can shuffle anything else around here. Hang on." With that, he began rummaging through his saddlebags, quickly trying to compress what few pieces of camping gear he had brought with him in the first place into an even smaller space, pausing to place five bits on the stand's counter. "There. That'll make room for one more apple," he said.

As he shifted and repacked and redistributed the weight of his gear in his saddlebags, trying to stuff in ever more apples, he looked up. "That's too bad that it's only going to be the one time. I was already planning next year's vacation around this. Lucky I came when I did!" he said, smiling up to her, then went back to packing in apples.

Red had been watching the pegasus in front of him receive her kiss with something of a perplexed look on his face. That had to be the most hammed-up sale of apples he had ever seen in his life, and he wasn't sure if that was to sell the whole fact that a kiss was bundled with every sale or to get the visibly terrified mare who'd been standing rigid as a board the whole time to accept it.

Nevertheless, that left him at the front of the line, and he took a bit of a breath to calm himself as well as he stepped up to the booth with the lovely orange mare behind, careful of his saddlebags of camping gear. He set down the flier the younger yellow filly had stuck in his tail, and nodded. "Yes, I am, and that's exactly why I'm here," he said, which was honest enough as he had been coming for apples for his trip anyway. The kiss was a definitely bonus. Unhitching one large empty saddlebag from his side, he set it on the counter of the booth. "I'd like one bushel, please." he added, before asking, "So, this is going to be an annual sale?"

"No, no, no, you look fine!" Red Cedar said quickly after Night Glider looked like she was about to have an episode of panicked self-consciousness. That certainly hadn't been the reaction he was expecting, but then, he also had only just met her.

"I mean, you look like you're all right, but you were very quiet there for a moment, I thought you might still have been in pain from the crash," he continued. That Night Glider had then had a brief conversation with a pony she knew certainly seemed to indicate she was all right, but being the kind of pony who mostly kept his four hooves firmly planted on the ground, Red could only imagine the injuries possible if a pegasus should have something go wrong mid-flight.

Red's wide-eyed look of concern gradually softened. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you like that," he continued apologetically. "My name's Red Cedar, by the way."

I will be on vacation for a week starting on August 17, 2015, and won't be spending much time online. See everypony when I get back from WorldCon.

Red Cedar was snapped out of his thoughts by the unfamiliar feeling of a flier being stuck into his tailhairs, as the exuberant young shill of a filly tried to encourage him to buy apples. Red just looked incredulously at her as she passed. Considering he had been standing in line for so long, wasn't it obvious by now? "Uhm, that's why I came here!" he said after her, not really knowing if she heard or not, but not really intending to be, either. With a shake of his head, he reached back and plucked the piece of paper out of his tail with his teeth, stashing it into one of his camping saddlebags.

Afterwards, he happened to glance behind him. The line had grown again by several ponies, not just the pegasus who had made a crash landing. He nodded to a few, but noticed the pegasus was staring intently downwards. "Are you all right?" he asked Night Glider, not certain if the crash had done more harm than was apparent.

Red actually found himself in a bit of a nervous state now, as the line slowly but surely dwindled down, leaving him just two ponies away. Certainly the little filly's description through the bullhorn didn't lie, even if it was pretty loud. And, this was going to be an annual event? Red made a note of the date so he could be back next year.

Luckily for his ears, the filly's advertising blitz to all of town was interrupted, although he looked on with a bit of concern as a pegasus flew straight into her. Still, they both seemed to get up soon enough, so he guessed no harm was really done. That left him still in line, taking a deep breath, gazing over at a particularly lovely pony behind the booth, chiding himself not to stare.

It's been a great deal of speculation since Scootaloo is the only one of the CMC to have no other apparent family. She finally was shown to live in a house and have her own bedroom in season 4, so we can assume she has one, but we've still not seen her. At any rate, they put the lid on the notion that she may have been homeless.

Of course, maybe there's some skeletons in the closet. In Gen 3, Scootaloo was Cheerilee's younger sister.

My first name derives from the ancient Greek word for "manly". My last name is an Anglicization of a Goidelic word meaning "chieftain".

Red shifted from one hoof to the other, watching as ponies of all types, even royalty, took away their treasure of apples and were granted the even bigger treasure of a kiss, however fleeting, from the mare at the stand. That alone made the wait in line worthwhile, it would seem to him, and he was obviously not alone in thinking so, judging from the line and the standing of the ponies who hand been standing in it.

Perhaps it was how the other ponies in line justifiably lingered in receiving their kisses, or perhaps it was his own anticipation of what was to come, but either way, Red could only silently will the time to pass until it was his turn at the front of the line. Just the thought of what was to come made it seem like he had been standing in line for a year already.

I will be on vacation and not spending any considerable amount of time online for one week starting March 17th. See everyone when I get back!

Red Cedar

Red leaned well over from his spot in line to watch all the goings on at the front end. As he watched, things suddenly became clearer, as more than one pony, even Celestia herself, had walked away not just with the apples they paid for but also...

Red looked back up at the banner. Suddenly he knew what the hay an Apple-Kiss was.

He glanced back down the row of ponies at the orange mare behind the stall, who seemed to be in charge of giving out not only the apples, but the other part as well, Princess Celestia notwithstanding. "Oh, wow." he murmured to himself.

Quickly looking about, he found some sprigs of mint growing by the side of the road. Quickly snapping up a couple leaves, he chewed them around in his mouth and then swallowed them down before he got too much further in line.

Red Cedar

Red waited patiently for his chance to get apples. The line was moving, but, not all that quickly. Seemed there was something going on at the front of the line, though, that was for sure. The yellow pegasus in front of him had moved off to talk to someone further on, someone tall and poised and...

Red blinked hard. No, there was no denying it. Not just one, but two Princesses were ahead of him in line. No wonder the line had been huge, if even the Princesses get their apples here.

Red Cedar happily strolled down the path away from the train station and the centre of town. He always felt better in a smaller town, close to the wilderness. It was much prettier and less bustling and hectic than any of the bigger cities. If there was a lot of activity here, something was going on.

He shifted the saddlebags full of gear on his back. Sightseeing through Ponyville could wait until he got back, but a week of camping in the White Tail Woods beckoned for now. There was just one thing left that he needed to add to his provisions before he set off hiking into the woods, and that was some fresh apples, and he knew where to get those.

As he strolled down the path, watching wild trees give way to apple trees at the sides of the road and coming over a slight rise, his mouth nearly dropped. "Wow!" he said to himself. "They're busy today." He trotted up to the end of the line to wait his turn with the other ponies, looking ahead at the banner over the front gate of the farm.

"What in Equestria is an apple-kiss?" he thought to himself.