Tending Flowers

by Flammenwerfer

3. The Sprouting

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[Several Weeks Later…]


The grass of Ponyville Plains felt as if it was cradling his entire body in its soft embrace… and had the added benefit that it didn’t appear to agitate his environmental allergies one bit. This was one of the things he relished in as he lay back—right arm folded behind his head—as he stared into the mostly-cloudy sky above.

From an activity that he felt existed only in cheesy romance movies, Seth was one who enjoyed such happenings here in Equestria, especially since there were swathes of seemingly untamed land and gorgeous sky without a hint of light pollution to be seen, which made the occasional stargazing a sight to behold. Seeing the fringes of a galaxy that was still questionably the Milky Way or not brought some sense of allure, bundled up with an odd fear as if it were a two-for-one deal that no one asked for.

Nevertheless, it produced the same effect as it always had for him. The smile on Seth’s face right now, and the shimmer in his blue eyes all the while was not the result merely of partaking in one of his now-favorite pastimes.

He pointed up towards a specific cloud formation that the weather pegasi were slowly building up and moving into position:

“That one looks like a clown snorting some good shit.”

“PFFFFT!” came the barely-stifled guffaw of Schneeblume to his left.

She lay next to him in the grass with barely a few inches between them, and both her hooves were suddenly pressed to her face as she squeaked laughter into them.

“What in the… HOW do you even see such things? I can’t unsee it now!” she giggled out.

Seth angled his face towards Schnee’s to get a better look at her and she, in turn, looked towards him. The moment her eyes met his, that familiar, welcome warmth diffused through his chest and core, more than enough to keep him going on this chillier day. This was helped along even more when Schnee smiled wider, contagious enough to get him both blushing and smiling painfully.

He gestured around the cloud formation.

“Well there’s the dude’s weird hair, right? Then there’s his giant ball nose pressed against that flat cloud there, which looks like a table… and obviously the only reason why someone’s nose, especially a clown’s, would be pressed against a table was because he needs some of that Big C due to shit kids!” Seth laid out his succinct reasoning.

He snickered.

“I mean, have you seen kids at parties? Like, holy fuck.”

Schneeblume’s cackling was incessant, to the point where her face was red, her eyes shut tightly, and she looked like she was about to choke… the latter of which seemed even more likely when she started hacking and coughing for a good ten seconds.

Seth rolled over right next to her just to be safe, and though he knew she was fine, a nascent concern welled up within him.

Still, he giggled along with her.

“Oh shit, you okay, hun?” he asked, running his right fingers through the coat of her chest… a gesture he had to get used to as one much more appropriate for a mare than a woman.

The irony and hilarity were not lost upon him, but still, the softness of Schnee’s coat was something else.

As for the mare, her cackling fit died down into only remnant whimpers, though her eyes were tearing even as she calmed down—Seth didn’t think he was that funny, but the confidence boost was always welcome.

Schnee took a deep breath and locked eyes with Seth, smirking softly.

“Never better, Liebling,” she replied.

She then placed her ceramic hoof atop Seth’s hand and held him there. His fingers wove into her chest ‘floof’ and his palm rested at the apex of her sternum. His idly brushing thumb could trace the outline of her ribs, but most importantly, he could feel how steady, yet fast her heart was beating.

It appeared to match his own heart’s pace.

Something about Schnee’s demeanor and face lit a fire within his core that he had longed to feel again since his last serious girlfriend… the way she looked at him and reflected all the light in those lavender eyes right back at him… a reflection that told he was the reason for her look.

It was a wonderful feeling Seth hoped would continue for the foreseeable future, especially since he and Schnee formalized title in the last week… even more so by the fact that this former soldier-mare, a right warrior during the time she served, he was sure, was allowing him to have her in such a submissive position.

This was further amplified by the knowledge that she could probably snap his neck at an instant, again filling him with the thrill of knowing his marefriend could easily reverse the roles and then some.

Though perhaps he was wearing a bit too much of his heart on his sleeve, as through Schneeblume’s eyes that radiated such happiness towards him, he saw a flicker of unease… the subtlest of aversions in her gaze that he could subconsciously recognize.

“Something on your mind?” he dared to ask, still looming over the flower mare.

Schneeblume blinked, and her smile wavered as she listed her gaze off to her left. She sighed forlornly, and her grip on his hand tightened.

“I…” she sighed again, pursing her lips.

Seth silently encouraged her by gently scrunching his fingers through her coat and over her skin. Having felt her heart rate settle down gave him some indication that she heeded his silent advice and calmed herself.

The pleading tone of her collected question nearly wrenched Seth’s heart out of his chest:

“Does it… does it bother you, knowing what you do so far about me?”

It was about her previous soldiering, after all.

It was only during the second and third dates after dinner did Schnee open just a little bit more about her past… likely after Seth had shown her that she could be as comfortable as she wanted with him. Still, she was testing the waters clearly, and let him in on a few vague details of her past that he didn’t feel comfortable asking about on his own. A perfectly rational plan of action, if he saw any.

Still, there wasn’t even a second thought about it in his mind.

He shook his head.

“Nope!”

Schneeblume cocked her head, and a hopeful, tentative smile laid claim to her mug.

“...really?”

Seth shrugged and reiterated:

“Of course not! Why would it bother me?” he asked, but didn’t give Schnee the chance to really answer when he followed up with:

“In a way, I actually respect you so much more!”

However, his brain had a buffering issue and only just realized how those words could’ve been construed… and with a sudden shot of adrenaline welling up the fear in his eyes, he quickly patched that up with what he intended to convey:

“Ehm… n-not to say I didn’t respect you at all! That’s definitely not what I meant… fuckin’ hell that’s really not what I meant…”

But seemingly in his embarrassment, Schneeblume’s adorable complexion returned when she began cracking up once again, further easing Seth’s nerves.

This time, Schnee rolled over and nudged Seth onto his back with her hoof. Effectively, the two switched positions, and Schnee leered down on Seth’s face with soft features that he wished he could stare into as long as he liked. Her mane’s locks draped her around her face and tickled the fringes of Seth’s cheeks and nose.

“You always know what to say, don’t you?” the mare voiced, then flipped her jet-black locks to one side of her neck.

Seth reached his hand up and cupped the now-barren side of Schnee’s face, forming his palm around her cheek and letting his fingers intertwine with the outer edge of her ear. The mare let her eyes fall shut and leaned into the gesture with no small measure of bliss detectable on her face. Her genuine smile that came with it worked wonders for Seth, whose heart melted at the sight.

“On occasion,” he replied with a chuckle.

In a move that drew a cocked eyebrow from him, Schneeblume shrugged off his hand and gently placed both her hooves on either side of Seth’s face, framing his cheeks. The coolness of her ceramic hoof actually felt kinda nice on his recently-shaven stubble remnant. Nevertheless, his eyes were planted squarely on the mare above him, who’s lidded gaze bore directly into his own.

Schnee uttered with great allusion:

“May I?”

Seth reflected her playful complexion right back at her. He was so ready for this.

“Absolutely!”

And with that Seth watched with bated breath as the white-coated mare above him unceremoniously closed the distance between their mouths and pressed her warm lips to his—he eagerly received the gesture and molded his own to hers. Seth’s eyes shuttered by instinct, especially when he felt the softest, dampest part of her lips against his.

His diaphragm felt as if it carried negative weight, and the fluttering in his chest returned… but despite the sudden influx of wonderful lightness as a result of their first kiss, it was over within a second.

And a gentle, yet clearly audible ‘smacking’ of their lips was the harbinger of the end.

Schneeblume separated from Seth and continued to peer down at him, her eyes still perpetually lidded and seemingly examining his reaction. The human hoped his eyes returned back to her how much he was swimming in happiness at fording this important step in their fledgling relationship.

His hands drifted up Schnee’s neck and gingerly cupped both sides of her face, mirroring her own hooves on him. He watched her shutter her eyes and smile widely, which created a continuous feedback loop of stomach butterflies seemingly transferring between the two of them.

Schneeblume kissed him again.

And then again one more time.

In a bout of playfulness that welled up inside him, Seth nipped at Schnee’s lower lip as she pulled away, just barely grasping at the fringes. Still, the gesture and bundled intimacy was not seemingly lost on the mare, and—in combination with everything that had just happened in the span of a few whole seconds, her cheeks colored heavily.

She retreated behind her mane and giggled all girly-like while trying to shake the feeling by way of reflex… the sight was too much, and through sheer hilarity by way of adorableness, Seth was unable to contain his laughter.

He sure as hell was running on a high from their first set of little, chaste pecks. Tack on the layers of scenery, comfortable temperatures just cool enough to warrant snuggling close, and the gentle breeze that would serve to cool off their own blushing heat, Seth really couldn’t have asked for much more than this…

…doubly so when Schneeblume sighed out blissfully and lay her head on his chest.

The mare adjusted herself so that much of her body rested on Seth’s side, and threw her left hoof over his torso to hold on tightly. He could practically feel the wide smirk on her face as she made herself comfortable against him.

As for Seth, it was utterly impossible to not feel like the greatest, happiest man in the world at the moment. He figured part of it was because of the ‘young love’ bias, where the beginning of the relationship is more ‘active involvement’ so to speak… but at the same time, the rest of it was because of Schnee’s rather decorated history that he knew of.

He wasn’t entirely sure what always went through that pretty little head of hers, especially when she’d occasionally space out in the middle of their conversations, but he figured that if she was comfortable enough around him to hold him tight and let herself be vulnerable with him…

Shit, you must be doing something right, man.

He draped his left arm over Schnee’s midsection and went about idly running his fingers through the coat of her accessible front leg, and occasionally weaving his digits through her mane.

Seth was not sure how long passed in calm silence between the two… only hearing the breeze caress them both in its cool, fleeting embrace. Though, it had to have been a decent amount of time, because every time he opened his eyes from periodic resting, the sky progressively got beefier with puffy, more ominous looking clouds than each passing glance.

That, and sharing body heat was becoming less and less viable as the requisite chill began to wreath the entire field.

Seth figured it was in all parties’ best interests to voice this for proper action:

“Shit, how long’ve we been here? Starting to get pretty chilly.”

Schneeblume muttered only some garbled projection of her grogginess into his shirt. She lifted her head to look down on him, and her eyes had told all.

Seth blinked, then snickered.

“Pfff! Were you actually sleeping?” he asked.

“You’re a comfy pillow~,” she warmly stated.

She did, however, let a visible shiver run up her spine before directing her attention to her surroundings and the sky… and Seth had to admit that the wind blowing through her jet-black locks in conjunction with her brief, warrior-like stoicism made her look quite majestic from his point of view below.

Schneeblume only needed to take a single, sweeping scan of her surroundings to formulate her own conclusions on Seth’s assertions.

“Und ja… Looks like it’s going to rain, too. Hard. And soon,” she also noted.

And with that, the mare reluctantly dislodged herself from Seth and got to her four hooves, stretching herself out all the while—it was impossible for Seth to not get a good look at her ‘curvature’.

The mention of rain, however, was music to Seth’s ears.

“Sweet! Though I don’t think either of us wants getting drenched,” he said whilst getting to his own feet.

He did a quick wipe of his pants and then placed both his hands on his waist whilst angled his gaze down toward his marefriend, who met his in kind.

Seth smirked.

“Day’s still young. Hot drinks at your place or mine?”

Schneeblume had an immediate answer to that one and emphasized that with her ceramic hoof to her chest.

“Mine. I actually have serviceable tea there, unlike a certain somehuman I know,~” she teased in a singsong tone and a wink to boot.

She touched off her banter by nudging into his leg with her flank and drawing the length of her tail up his thigh and hip as she strode on by. Her stride quickly morphed into a swift canter on account of the wind picking up, and Seth made haste to fall right into step with her.

He chuckled mischievously.

“Hey, race you to your place!” he challenged.

Schnee, however, giggled and shot him a lopsided, incredulous gaze.

Liebling, you would lose spectacularly—not trying to brag or anything, but I’d outrun you anytime, anywhere,” she so confidently shot him down with a playful purse of her lips.

Seth pulled her tenderly against him and ran his hand up and down her neck, a gesture that she melted into, and leaned up against him in response.

“Oh?” he snickered. “So confident in your earth-pony athleticism?”

Schneeblume halfheartedly scoffed.

“Not even! But…” she held off for dramatic effect, then added with a barely measurable bit of awkwardness:

“…when you’re charging an entrenched enemy with overlapping fields of machine-gun fire aimed right at you… you learn how to run pretty damn fast, heh.”

Seth looked almost impressed at that statement, mainly with the imbued, morbid sarcasm. His reply was every bit of logical concession as it was awkward:

“Ah… right. Very fair point.”

Silence fell upon the duo once more, though the blood continued to flow by virtue of the trek back to Schneeblume’s house. The lapse in conversation—though not awkward feeling on any of their parts—did merit a little bit of thinking for Seth… namely, on how to approach a likely sensitive topic that his marefriend just so happened to remind him of in the spur of the moment.

“Hey babe?”

Schnee—leaning comfortably against Seth’s leg for support—angled her face at a hilariously awkward angle and flashed her pearly whites and lavender pools up at him. She fluttered her eyelashes.

Ja, mein Schatz?”

The German and the requisite accent never got old, and likely would never get old.

“Well… if you’d let me—and in time, if ever. Totally no obligation beyond what you’ve told me—I’d like to know a little bit more about your ummm… your service,” he put it forth, albeit in hindsight, probably not as eloquently as he’d have liked.

Schneeblume held her position and blinked a couple of times, seemingly either judging Seth harshly, or formulating her response—he hoped for the latter. He meant nothing by his question in terms of prying, but he’d love to hear about her experiences, her thoughts, et cetera during the war. Human curiosity, if he could call it anything, as well as wanting to dive deeper into the odd parallels between the two worlds.

“Ahhh… ummm, well…” she paused for a moment, separating from Seth and falling into synchronous step with him by his side.

“What uh… what did you want to know?” she cautiously said, and her voice dropped even lower.

Seth could measure the uncertainty on her face with a goddamn ruler… and again with the loving touch of hindsight, he understood exactly how possibly insensitive his implicit questions about her past were. That, and if she was comfortable with talking about her experiences, she, in her mind, might have been gauging exactly how much she could reveal without scaring him off.

Nevertheless, she requested a follow-up, so there was really no turning back. Honesty was always a virtue, though, so Seth opted to speak his mind:

“Well… shit. Now that I think of it, any question I could really ask would have this like… naivety about it that would almost sound insulting,” he said, and ran his right hand over the back of his neck.

He then became blissfully lost in a circular train of thought that showed through his words continued words:

“But really, I guess I just want to know umm, whatever you would feel comfortable with telling me. In some sense I just wanna say that it’s okay if you ever want to talk to me about anything or if you need to talk at all because I know it’s difficult and I can truly never understand what you went through but—”

“Seth.”

Schneeblume’s sudden interjection was terse, but softly flowed over his ears. Even so, the underlying tone brooked no argument, especially when he realized that she had abruptly stopped the two of them in the middle of the sparsely populated street.

Seth flinched momentarily, figuring he had clearly said something out of line or implied something that was insulting… which suddenly made him sick to his stomach. With pursed lips, he turned to face down at Schnee, and apparently, he couldn’t hide any form of shame and feelings of stupidity from his face, as the mare’s face suddenly morphed to one of concern.

Good going, asshole. Can’t you just accept a good thing and run with it just once in your life?

She beckoned him down with her wounded hoof, and in locking eye-contact, Seth knelt to the floor to be at proper level with her. That same hoof that she used some ethereal force to pull him to face-level, she placed on his shoulder.

She spoke a single word so softly, so lovingly, yet so firmly that Seth nearly recoiled at the underlying tone:

“Stop.”

But alas, this manifested simply as a loss of words:

“Shit… umm… I’m sorry.”

That was apparently the wrong thing to say, as Schnee rattled him with her hoof, and she replied barely above a whisper:

“No. Stop it. Just… don’t talk. Listen to me, Liebling.”

Her eyes were squarely trained on his, and her face was barely a couple inches from his own. Seth could acutely hear her breathing, and as by way of the chillier weather, could feel it all the same break upon his face.

She drew her hoof tenderly down his cheek, and the cool touch of the ceramic on his skin fielded goosebumps on the back of his neck and arms… yet the gesture on a deeper level felt warm an intimate all the same.

“I want you to relax, handsome…” Schnee began anew.

“I don’t want you to ever feel like you’re trotting on eggshells around me… that you can’t say what you feel because of some notion that I’ll take offense. Don’t.”

She then added with an admirable resoluteness:

Please. Put this out of your mind.”

And before Seth could even weigh in on this, Schnee held her hoof up to preemptively silence anything else that would be voiced from his gob.

“And please,” she continued with a more pleading but warmer tone.

“You mean so well… I can’t thank you enough for your kindness—your understanding at my insecurities when they come up, and your gentleness around me. But you don’t have to coddle me.

“We owe it to each other to be honest with one another, and to me, this also means saying what we want to say. And if time comes that you want me to talk about something I’m not comfortable with, I’ll simply say so—we’ll leave it for another time.”

Schnee punctuated with a soft smile, placing both her front hooves on his shoulders.

Sehr gut?”

Seth took a deep breath and exhaled as he took stock of this little discussion—she wasn’t mad at him. She wasn’t scolding him. She was merely reminding him of what he knew all along, but what was limiting him subconsciously, whether he liked it or not:

Schneeblume—as he already was well-aware—was a soldier. An elite at that. She was a big girl and could take care of herself. There was no need for the kid gloves.

Seth averted his gaze for the briefest of moments, a pensiveness shining through his blue-eyed stare as he forced himself to come to terms… terms that he was trying perhaps a little too hard to be ‘understanding’ around her combat history in a desire to satisfy his innate human curiosity.

He smiled back and nodded, a determined happiness welling up within his chest at seeing those soft lavender pools staring back at him.

“You got it, beautiful,” he affirmed, then returned Schneeblume’s previous gesture back to sender by cradling her cheek in his right palm.

Schneeblume again leaned wholeheartedly into the gesture, sighing out and letting Seth scratch just under her jawline. She hummed.

“Hmmm… good. Now…”

She disengaged from Seth’s heavenly treatment of her face and pulled him along, back on track via her tail. They were on the last leg of the journey back to her place.

“I know you’re curious—why don’t you ask me what questions you have, and we can go from there…~” she encouraged with a hint of teasing at the end of her words.

Seth was now on the spot, and though one question rose above the others, it was both the most cliché, and the most insensitive one that could be asked of a combat veteran, ever.

Ayyy gurl, you put anyone in the ground? Lmao.

However, instead of unleashing that beast unto the world and more than likely losing his marefriend and getting his shit reinserted via his mouth by the Crusaders the very next hour… a war question inserted itself that he felt was fairly thought provoking, and decided to field that:

“Umm… so, you fought the entire war from start to finish, right?” he asked firstly for confirmation.

Schnee nodded once.

“Ja…”

“Of all the ehm… memories you carry with you, what’s one that stands out in your head as being positive?”

The air fell silent again as the last of his words left his mouth, and in a bout of a nervous tick, Seth ran his fingers through his less-than-neatly combed hair on account of them lazing in the fields. He managed to pick out a few errant pieces of blades of grass that had buried themselves in by the time Schneeblume’s response came from her stoic, forward-facing muzzle.

“About a year and a half into the war…” she began.

Seth’s attention was instantly garnered, and all of it was lavished on Schneeblume.

“Yeah?” he sounded for her to continue.

“I was regular infantry at the time—we hadn’t been formed into the Stoßtruppe battalions yet. At the tail-end of an offensive in Prance, my unit had gone far beyond our objectives…” she began to tell, seemingly switching into a lecturing mode.

“We had taken no casualties that day, either… so we were stupidly spurred on by dumb luck and adrenaline I suppose. But anyway, we advanced waaaaay too far, and got trapped in recently-created nopony’s land behind some uhh… what was it. Some abandoned homes I think,” Schnee went on.

Seth kept stock of where they were as Schneeblume kinda went on autopilot. They were just about to round the last corner onto her home street. For good measure, he tactically slowed their walking pace to something more comfortably apt for storytelling.

“Okay…”

The porcelain-coated mare continued:

“While we were all in cover, we expected that we wouldn’t be able to hold the ground we took once artillery opened up on us… but, it didn’t.”

Seth queried:

“Any idea why? I’d think a group of empty houses to use as cover would be prime targets.”

Schneeblume nodded and continued.

“Ja… but we received a dispatch from our command that told us our platoon got so far ahead that we had actually broken through an enemy flank on our own, and the Prench did not have the guns to spare to relocate artillery to use on us. But…”

Seth raised an eyebrow.

“But…”

“There were still enemy troops opposite of us. Even worse, it appeared two snipers had their sights on us,” she explained, gesturing while she talked with her right hoof.

“Ahhh,” Seth reacted. “So if any one of you poked your heads out…”

Schnee nodded once.

“Exactly,” she affirmed. “Even more than that, command couldn’t confirm whether the Prench had sealed the breach, so we didn’t even know if we were trapped in a pocket. That would’ve been really bad.

“So, rather than risk a running retreat to friendly lines and likely getting shot to hell from all sides, we decided to hold out behind our cover for as long as possible. We were promised that a relief unit was fighting to link up with us.”

The smallest fringes of a smirk creeped up her face.

“Thing is, no counterattack was coming, front or back. And as we dug in, boredom kinda set in. One of the rather… boisterous members of my own fireteam, Grau, randomly decided that he’d had enough and wanted to mess around with the enemy sniper.”

Seth immediately shot his gaze over to Schnee.

“You’re... you’re joking, right?”

She shook her head resolutely. That smirk never left her.

“Not in the slightest. The moment he announced that, we all had the same reaction that you did just now: ‘Are you out of your goddamn mind? Do you have a death wish?’

“But, that’s when he revealed his oh-so brilliant entertainment plan: he ended up removing his helmet and using a piece of… I think it was chalk? He used it to draw a face on his helmet…”

Seth weighed in:

“He fucking did not…”

“It gets so much better!” Schnee replied with an extra bit of enthusiasm that hitherto was not present in her words.

She cleared her throat as the two of them were just about to turn into her house’s walkway.

“Then he put the helmet face—and he named it after a terrible drill sergeant we had back during basic—onto the end of a tree branch that was laying around and stuck it out of cover to draw the snipers’ fire… just so the enemy could shoot our Scheißvogel of a drill sergeant in effigy,” she said.

Seth bobbed his head in consideration but let out a tiny giggle at her choice of compound swear word—he at the very least understood that.

“Seems reasonable. Fair enough,” he replied.

Schnee slowed her trot and she came to a halt half-way to her door. Seth stopped right next to her to see the mare attempting pitifully to cover the laughter threatening to spill forth from her muzzle. Her cheeks looked like they were going to explode through her pursed lips, and the under-breath chortles and snorts were more than a little audible.

The look was contagious, and Seth caught those same giggles:

“Shit what happened next then?”

Schneeblume lost it completely and threw her head back in uncontrollable cackling that could probably be heard from both ends of the block. Seeing her this unwound was always a treat, and Seth welcomed her weight dearly when Schneeblume decided to lean herself fully against him for support.

“HehehaHAHAH Oh god, Seth!” she called out, then looked straight up at him. “The Prench snipers couldn’t hit the damn helmet! Every single time, Grau tried to make it easy for them… BUT THEY COULDN’T FUCKING HIT IT!”

She launched back into another fit of guffaw.

“He was cursing out the enemy in a way that mocked our former officer, scolding the enemy each time for their lack of marksponyship… and Seth…” she exclaimed with a wide, open-mouthed smile.

“It was the hardest I had ever laughed in my entire life. I was incapacitated on my back… face dirty, uniform in tatters, probably had blood on me… crying my eyes out laughing. My chest and tummy hurt so much!” she reminisced, red in the face from her own current laughter.

She blinked up at Seth, wiping her eyes.

“If the enemy attacked us then, it would’ve been over. This went on for a good five minutes of straight foolery before somepony mentioned that they might respond with artillery next time, not bullets.

“…which made us laugh even harder. The enemy must’ve heard us all.”

Seth was chuckling heartily—he could only imagine Schnee in full getup literally rolling on the floor laughing.

“And did that get y’all to stop?”

“PFFT! No!” Schnee dismissed outright. “We had been fighting for so long… we had seen things that nopony should ever have to see… done things that nopony should ever have to do… this was the first bit of true entertainment that we all had since the war began. We milked it for all it was worth!”

Schneeblume wasn’t even looking up at Seth anymore—he could see that much. However, standing just in front of her front door, she stared beyond it. It was a look that Seth had become accustomed to thus far during their incredibly short relationship thus far, especially when it concerned aspects of the war.

What was distinctly different this time, however, was that Schnee was smiling. Fondly so.

And when she finally turned away from her stupor and addressed her coltfriend behind her, Seth met that soft smile of hers with one of his own… one that he felt conveyed a deep fondness for her, and how much it meant to him to see her smile.

She blinked a couple of times before mustering some words:

“Thank you, Seth… handsome.”

Through the (however mild) rollercoaster of emotions the two of them experienced over the course of the last few minutes, the statement seemed oddly out of place for Seth, who responded firstly with a cocked stare.

“Huh? For what?” he asked.

Schneeblume’s expression did not waver.

“For making me remember one of the best moments of my life,” she softly replied.

And if that didn’t make Seth feel like a million dollars run through the coke-laden ass-crack of the hottest escort in an upscale Los Angeles suburb, then he sure as hell didn’t know what did. The modest, dopey smile that he unconsciously fronted likely confirmed those feelings entirely.

Seth knelt and pulled Schneeblume into a hug, which she accepted with more eagerness than he expected. While their cheeks were pressed together, he turned his head and planted a kiss on her cheek.

“Anything’s worth it if I get to keep seeing that smile of yours,” he said once they separated.

He felt he was getting better at making this mare blush—which meant that his efforts to continue doing so would be incessant.

“That tongue of yours is a weapon, you know that?” Schneeblume added from behind the veil of her mane…

…and then instantly went redder in the face than Seth had ever seen—more than had ever been his doing. Her porcelain coat turned a burning, lava color as she immediately panicked at the innuendo her words carried.

“Th-That’s… THAT’S NOT WHAT I MEANT!” the mare fidgeted harshly on her hooves and fought to dispel any other meaning she might have conveyed.

Seth, however, was on the verge of losing his cool entirely—but laughing at his new girlfriend at a time like this was probably not advised.

“PFFT! Wow babe… I’m actually impressed at that!” he replied with a barely veiled snort under his breath.

What was worse than that was that Schnee looked positively adorable when she was both red in the face and peeved at him.

“Oh you know good and well I didn’t mean it like that!” she scolded with a hoof pointed straight at him, but her words had the same element of teasing behind them—no bite at all, and as such, Seth was not convinced in the slightest.

Seth didn’t even feel the need to respond, only staring back down at his embarrassed mare with an almost pitying smile… and the undying urge to bust out laughing. This had been the first time that Schnee had a slip of the tongue in his presence and he was going to revel in it.

Schneeblume, however, pursed her lips and deadpanned as she took a breath. She then reached for her door, unlocked it, and pushed it open.

She gestured inwardly, her expression having rebounded back to a softer edge.

“Shall we?”

“We shall!”

Seth followed closely behind Schnee and by force of habit, undid his shoes right by the front door. While in the past, the mare had always questioned this practice since there was practically no carpet in her house, Seth had explained to her it was a relic of manners for a particular set of friends who were picky about such things.

In the end, it was just easier for him to abide as such.

Schneeblume’s house was as spartan and well-planned out as he would expect from any German, and apparently the alleged stereotype held true for Alemaneians: the foyer immediately opened into a hallway that led straight down towards the back of the house, while hanging an immediate right from the front door led straight into the living/family room. Hanging a left instead would take one straight to the kitchen…

…which was where Schnee was headed while Seth re-took in the sights

Schneeblume shook her mane out a bit to free up any tangles from laying out in the grass for the last couple of hours, then began her short journey into the kitchen.

She spoke over her shoulder:

“I’ll get some tea started. Wait for me on the couch?”

Seth reached out with a hand after her while still standing in the doorway. He made to follow her.

“Can I help with anything?” he asked.

Schnee turned on her hooves but continued her trek by walking backwards into the kitchen. She smiled and shook her head.

Nein,” she said. “Thank you though! Need to surprise you with some good tea… because I don’t think your mouth knows what decent tea tastes like,” she quipped with a wink.

Seth rolled his eyes exaggeratedly.

“Oh come on!” he protested halfheartedly. “How was I supposed to know that ‘Equestria Black Dry’ was actually shit-tier tea?”

Schnee had rounded the wall toward the kitchen and only had her head sticking out to talk:

“Being cultured needs to be taught, Liebling~,” she playfully jabbed with a giggle.

And Seth was left open-mouthed and ready to quip right back, but Schneeblume never gave him the chance, as she slinked behind the wall with a mischievous smile. All he could then hear was her hooves trotting towards her stove and cabinet—he could hear the extra weight of her right, ceramic hoof against the floor every time she took a step.

Once the sounds of kitchen fumbling and preparation were abundant, as well as a gorgeous singing voice serenading him through the walls fell over his ears, he felt it was time to take his seat in the living room.

Seriously, he could definitely get used to her singing… whatever it was she was singing in German. She could probably sing about how she’d disembowel him and fuck his mom in front of a kindergarten class on field trip… but so long as she did so with that lovely tone in her native language, he’d probably be pretty gung-ho about it.

Seth made his way to the sofa right in the middle of the living room, which could comfortably seat three ponies (or one human and another pony, based on more recent experience). It faced towards one of the windows to the front of the house—a quick gaze outside showed that a light drizzle had begun to fall over Ponyville, as well as the gentle pattering of the rain on the roof.

He smiled.

Perfect day.

He took some extra care in moving the coffee table a couple inches farther away from the front of the couch so he could have enough room for his legs to stretch. That’s when he plopped down lazily and draped his arm over the armrest. A sudden wave of fatigue overcame him which manifested in the form of a deep yawn, which wasn’t helped by Schneeblume’s sonorous chorus in the kitchen.

He could feel his eyelids forcefully closing on themselves, and he figured there was no harm in letting them have his way, at least while Schnee was occupied.

That didn’t get to happen though, as the sudden hoof-falls in the foyer roused him completely. He glanced over and found that gorgeous face he had grown so accustomed to over the last few weeks staring happily back at him.

“Water is boiling, and tea will soon be steeping!” she excitedly announced.

Seth responded with a clear thumbs up, then opened his arms wide as an invitation for her to jump into them. As he had found out through his tenure here—even before he met Schnee—the ponies tended to be suckers for cuddling or snuggling. But now, since he was no longer single, he had an excuse to pursue one of his favorite pastimes.

He could see another smile creeping its way up Schnee’s adorably excited face. However, she stopped in her tracks and suddenly righted her posture as if she just remembered something.

“Oh! Hold on. Stay there, I wanna show you something…” she added almost with an air of mystery, then tore down the hallway.

Seth watched the place where she would’ve been if he could’ve seen through the wall—he could still hear the extra heaviness of her right front hoof striking the floor during her admittedly fast dash towards her room.

Huh… she wasn’t joking. Fuck, she’s fast.

He raised a lone eyebrow, and a bout of curiosity further raised its head when he heard a bunch of rummaging and what sounded like something moving around that was made of heavy metal. Seth recoiled a bit when he heard what sounded like a few grunts of exertion, then a massive metallic slam against the wooden floor.

He cleared his throat and called out to his flower mare:

“Ummm… you okay babe?”

“Mphfnnnhnny! Btsnnn!”

Seth giggled softly and shook his head. Clearly she had her hooves full… and mouth full as well.

Giggity.

More controlled, rhythmic hoof-falls approaching back from down the hall told him that she was carrying something out into the living room… which was then confirmed when she rounded the corner with what looked like a foam handle in her mouth.

Said handle was attached to two supports which helped carry an onyx-black, metal chest that appeared to be twice the size of Schnee’s head. There was also an unknown marking embossed on the front that Seth couldn’t quite place due to the color and the lighting.

Seth watched as Schnee deposited the chest onto the table with a mighty clinking of all the materials, then turned to him while stretching her mouth out.

Then she spoke:

“This,” she said, tapping the top of the chest. “Contains many ‘things’ that came back with me from the war.”

She went silent for a moment, then asked timidly:

“From your curiosity, and our conversations so far… I’d like to share it with you, i-if that’s okay with you?”

Seth, once again, felt his excitement and honor well up within him. He smiled brightly, which again, brought Schneeblume to blush.

“Yeah… yeah of course! I’d love to!”

With that, Seth helped to pull the table back to its original position right in front of the couch so he could see things better, and Schnee got to work plopping down on her haunches right next to him.

She unceremoniously threw open the chest and—with a sly smirk—reached in knowingly and tossed something right in Seth’s lap.

“Here, catch!”

“Wha—huh?”

The heavy object landed right in his hands in his lap, and he immediately recognized it as a stick grenade.

Panic stuck his face.

“JESUS CHRIST!”

Schneeblume chuckled loudly, nudging his shoulder with her own.

“Oh relax, you… it’s hollowed out. The last grenade I never got to throw, actually!” she added with a little extra giddiness—or rather, an eagerness that Seth was more than happy to have her show, especially when it came to what was apparently her war chest.

Seth regarded the Stielhufgranate with a couple of deep nods, impressed, as he examined the hollowed-out explosive from all angles. It was strikingly like German stick grenades he had seen in documentaries and museums, right down to the German language printed around the metal head. He wagered that it was a little smaller in size, likely to accommodate the crook of a pony’s hoof. Even more than that, due to its rather young age as a result of the chronological proximity of the war, it was in excellent condition.

The concept of ponies also being so dexterous without fingers, let alone opposable thumbs (especially those who did not have the luxury of using magic) was an interesting one at that.

Still, Seth was enraptured by the object. He was going into the military, of course, and his family were avid shooters when they had the time… but he had only been able to come into contact with a grenade that his veteran grandfather had hollowed out—not a stick grenade like the one Schnee had been allowing him to fondle.

“This is fucking cool…” he mentioned all without paying Schnee any mind at first.

He heard her giggle to his right, and upon glancing over at her again, he noticed her expression—while she was clearly calm and happy, there was one more emotion that he could read, clear as day, in her eyes.

Relief.

He wasn’t sure why he was getting that vibe… possibly because this was some of her most personal ‘things’ from the war. At least, that’s what made sense to him.

Schneeblume’s right ear suddenly perked up and swiveled towards the kitchen right as the kettle began to shrilly whistle.

“Right!” she announced, then slid off the couch and onto her hooves which were already in step towards the kitchen.

“I’ll return with tea! Feel free to keep looking through my box if you like!” she said right as she disappeared behind the foyer wall.

Giggity.

“Okay!” Seth called back, then wasted no time in taking her up on that invitation.

He held his hand up tentatively over the open war chest.

Don’t mind if I do… let’s see where the Ark of the Covenant lies…

He hesitated an extra split second at that thought… especially when a very similar thought entailed his face melting off if he discovered something that was not meant for his human, mortal eyes.

But upon reaching in and grabbing the first, most obvious thing he could, he was instead greeted by a steel helmet—one that took the exact shape of a familiar German stahlhelm that he was ‘used’ to seeing back on Earth. In fact, being the slight history buff that he was, he noticed that the woodland camouflage was quite reminiscent of stormtrooper units from the first world war. Even the sloping of the rear was on perfect point.

Jesus. The similarities are no joke… down to the conflicts of all things…

Like with the stick grenade before it, Seth examined the helmet that was a little too large for his own head on account of it being made for pony anatomy. He thumbed over the texture of the painted camouflage, noting the sharp difference in texture when it came across a chip due to wear and tear… and time. The straps were still fully functional, but per the design, he knew it would not fit, and nor did he feel like trying it on out of respect for his marefriend.

He would’ve felt weird about it, to say the least.

Seth placed the helmet back on the coffee table with a resounding, metallic scratching sound against wood. He reached in again and felt around to what appeared to be a stack of photo paper. In retrieving it, it was exactly as he had expected:

A stack of color photos from the war. All of them had Schneeblume in them in some way, he figured.

Right off the top was a portrait shot of Schnee in full uniform. Her helmet was shined and probably new at that point. Her face held a sense of great pride, especially in those lavender eyes of hers that never seemed to have aged since then. Her uniform was also probably new, but this was all set to an ominous backdrop of what appeared to be a marred battlefield. Again, it looked strikingly like a first world war battlefield—he was starting to get some clarity on how this Equidae War was fought.

Schneeblume was beautiful—beautiful but deadly looking, and that same warmth at that objective truth (to Seth) spread across his face and chest, manifesting in a soft smile. Even in that uniform, she managed to steal his breath. However, another measure of pity had still risen right behind it—he couldn’t help but wonder how much she had gone through by the time this photo was taken.

Was that expression on her face fake at that point? Were those bright, wide eyes of hers that he already found himself staring into more and more these days… were they hollow?

He pursed his lips, but decided not to dwell on that image, literally and figuratively. He slid that photo to the back of the stack.

The next photo was another portrait of Schneeblume, this time with a much more formal aura about it with the immediate difference being the monochrome color scheme. It certainly had to be an older picture, for two reasons that became apparent to Seth immediately:

One, the uniform appeared much older, and the pickelhaube helmet with the lone spike was adorned proudly on Schnee’s head. Assuming a similar linear transition, this would make sense. Secondly, and perhaps most profoundly, Schnee was smiling brightly… almost, dare Seth say, naively living in the moment and unaware of what was to come.

He slid that picture to the rear of the group and was faced with another one. This time it was a large, color, wide shot of what seemed to be an entire platoon in full combat uniform—Schneeblume was just off to the left. He could pick out those lavender eyes anywhere. The fact that all had some variant of the same stahlhelm sitting on the coffee table right now told him that this was certainly a little bit later into the war.

While there weren’t any bright smiles in the picture, there were a few light-hearted grins to be found, and the mood gave off a smidge of a celebratory attitude. All in all, there must’ve been about thirty ponies present.

This was probably her stormtrooper unit.

He placed that picture in the back and found another photo of the exact same type, though with one three immediately recognizable differences: firstly, the uniforms were no longer neat and well-put together, but rather ragged and worn. Secondly, that celebratory air that was conveyed was not present.

And perhaps thirdly and most importantly, there were several less ponies in this picture. Schneeblume sat on her haunches a little bit closer to center this time.

Out of curiosity, Seth immediately flipped to the next picture in the deck—and he pursed his lips and sighed out forlornly at his suspicions being correct. Another picture much later revealed them to be even worse off… some even looked badly wounded.

Even worse than that, there were only seven ponies remaining.

Seth only found himself staring at this picture… one who’s colors seemed to be duller and much less vibrant than the ones present on the top of the deck. More specifically, he was staring at Schneeblume, who gazed back at him with hollow eyes.

There was zero emotion behind them… so devoid was her dirty and stoic face of any emotion that Seth could feel his bones chill. From what he knew of Schneeblume currently and her personality that she let him see, how terrible were things that they created this mare in the picture?

Seth looked up and out the window at the world outside—the now-darker clouds were dumping their torrential fury on the earth, and that’s when he became aware of the white noise of the incessant rain patter on the roof. Still, his thoughts were hyper-focused…

…and he could only wonder what exactly was going on inside that now-civilian head of hers—the stuff that she wasn’t letting him in on.

“Ah! I see you found my photo stash…”

Seth blinked once and then addressed the source of the voice to his right, being Schneeblume happily trotting in with a tea tray perfectly balanced on her back.

Considering the connotations of the phrase ‘photo stash,’ Seth had to prevent himself from fancying a giggle.

“Yeah, totally found your stash,” he played along, flipping past the last platoon picture and coming upon what looked like more neutral scenery of some sort.

Schnee shimmied up to the coffee table and expertly slid the metal tray off her back and onto the safe, flat surface of the table. The steeping tea within two white, ceramic cups barely sloshed around before settling motionless.

And that’s when the mare hopped back up on the couch and, whilst observing the human’s expedition into her war chest, leaned her head on his shoulder.

“So…” she broke the small silence. “While the tea’s getting ready, what do you think?”

As for Seth, while his first, reactive answer to that question would have been ‘goddamn this stuff is cool! Like, holy shit, man!’, he was more than wise enough to know that this chest of war materials held a lot of deeper—perhaps hidden—meanings for Schneeblume.

‘Cool’ really was not an appropriate word here... even though he used it not even a couple of minutes ago—still it felt weird this time around, and his marefriend merited a response:

“These are nice pieces of history,” he said softly, but capitalized on what he felt was another implicit question in Schnee’s original:

“But from that look on your face, I think there’s something else you seem to wanna ask me…?” he chanced.

There was nothing but silence from Schneeblume, and truth be told, he was actually kinda scared to look back down at her and face her, so he instead decided to busy himself with her helmet and examine how the interior looked.

An unknown amount of time passed, or at least it felt that way with the amount of figurative nail biting he was doing in his head, but Seth finally heard Schnee clear her throat:

“Are… are you sure that you don’t feel any differently about me?” came her incredibly meek question.

That, Detective, is the right question.

And once the last of her words left her mouth, Seth felt her bury her face into his torso and essentially force his arm around her… a gesture he would always accept from her if she wanted to be held, and as such, had few qualms with tightening his hold around her, and letting her get comfortable against him.

His answer to said question, however, was instantaneous and genuine:

“Of course not,” he added with a resolute shake of his head.

Schneeblume revealed her eyes from the veil of his shirt while keeping the rest of her face covered. While she looked positively adorable with those lavender eyes peeking at him and he smiled at her all the same, she still, apparently, wasn’t done:

“Okay… are you sure?” she asked again, and her insecurities were still shining brightly.

Seth had a better approach to this:

“Hey babe, remember when like, half an hour ago you told me that I didn’t have to be super careful and coddling around you?” he asked.

Apparently Schnee could see where this was headed, and she sighed.

“Ja…”

Seth couldn’t believe he was about to turn this back on her, but it was for the best. What was even this universe?

“Well… kinda the same thing with me. Since our first date, you don’t have to tread carefully around or coddle me regarding your war history. I find it interesting and I respect you so much over it, and you’re also doing just fine, babe… with us,” he said, and flashed her his pearly whites again in such a way that got her blushing…

…and hiding said blush by burying her face into his shirt.

Seth, however, had a better idea:

He unslung his arm from around her and used the brim of his index finger to lift her face up just enough to lock eyes with her… and with some poeticism that he didn’t even know a meme-tier shitlord like himself was capable of, he spoke from the heart:

“So, whadd’ya say we figure this out together, eh? A dude barely an adult ready to go into basic training in a few months… and a seasoned, beautiful mare who’s already done her time in hell?”

Seth wasn’t sure if Schnee would ever break up with him just by the sheer volume and intensity that he had been making her blush as of late. To be fair, most of the time it was intentional…

…this time certainly wasn’t.

But unlike the usual instances where she would often giggle it off and be all cutesy about it while attempting to stifle any sort of embarrassment by shying away, this time, she did no such thing.

She stared him directly in the eye, and in Seth’s mind, perhaps she was trying to discern any disingenuity in his words, of which he knew for a fact there was none.

And rather than words, she instead simply scooched as close as she could, flush against him… and his vision was entirely taken up by this gorgeous mare when she brought her lips to his much more aggressively than earlier. And in anticipation, he met her halfway. The familiar wetness of her lips against his sent another rush of emotions straight into his core, so much so that he was only concerned with the idea of being as close to Schneeblume as possible.

Perhaps it was his male instinct with his new girlfriend that he wanted to somehow ‘protect’ her from things… but honestly, this mare was an elite soldier with an unknowable amount of actual combat experience—she very likely killed ponies. He didn’t have to ‘protect’ her from anything.

A gentle ‘smack’ echoed through the living room, barely audible over the pattering of the rain above them… but all that needed to be heard or said was perfectly conveyed when the two locked eyes with each other and smiled brightly.

Schneeblume fluttered her eyelashes at Seth… a gesture that always got him going for some reason. Probably because he watched too many Disney movies when he was a kid.

“You always know what to say, don’t you?” she reiterated.

Seth brought his hand to her cheek and stroked her with his thumb—and he smiled brighter when Schneeblume let her eyes flutter shut and she leaned into his palm.

“Nah,” he said, shaking his head. “I only manage to surprise once in a while with my words—otherwise I usually inject some bad joke, pun, or innuendo at the worst possible times. I just get lucky sometimes…”

Schneeblume cocked her head, then leaned in again with a mischievous smile on her face.

“You sure about that, Liebling?” she asked.

“Because I’m starting to think that I’m the lucky one…”

Seth could not physically come back to that at all because Schneeblume lunged herself at him and forced him on his back on the couch. Her lips were upon him at an instant, kissing her way from his lips, up his cheeks, and then trailing back down excitedly to where she started.

And once the two got comfortable with Seth’s arms around the mare, and her hooves keeping his face right where she wanted it, the make out session began and continued in earnest.

The tea continued to steep, and ultimately went cold.


Author's Note

Y'all need to wait just a little longer for some clop ;)

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