"Cousin!"
"Bloom! Babs!"
The train doors shut as the last passengers stepped out onto the platform. Among them were two mares, both of which nearly knocked other ponies down while running to the one they were meeting with. On the edge of the platform stood a yellow-furred stallion, who greeted the two mares with a wide smile and open hooves.
"It's been awhile since the reunion! Gettin' everyone together ain't as easy as it used to be." He smiled and patted both mare's heads. "You two sure have grown up a lot since then. 'Specially you, Bloom."
Apple Bloom could only beam with pride. While she was once the runt of the family--smaller than Applejack when she was a filly--once she got her cutiemark in construction a growth spurt quickly followed. Now she stood several inches taller than her sister, though still shorter than her brother.
"And you too, Babs. I see you got some of Manehatten fashion going on." He playfully swatted at the sole silver hoop earring that hung from the other mare's left ear. "And even your mane and tail have grown a bit, though I see you kept the same style."
Babs let out a snort and playfully elbowed her older cousin's side. Her expression matched Apple Bloom's: A wide grin that was full of pride. Between visiting Ponyville for the first time and the largest family reunion the Apples have ever had, she had grown quite a bit. Not just physically, but mentally and emotionally. Gone was the scared little filly that bullied others, in her place was a confident mare that even earned her cutie mark in leadership.
"We missed you too, Brae." Apple Bloom wrapped her hooves around her cousin once again.
Braeburn smiled and patted her on the head. "Come on. Let's get y'all settled in and y'all can tell me all about the boyfriends you got in school."
Two sets of eyes went wide as the mare's cheeks burned a bright red. Braeburn let out a good-natured laugh as he started to run off towards the center of Appleoosa.
"Brae!"
The rest of the day went by so fast, neither mare realized that it was already so dark until Braeburn told them that he was going to retire for the night. Between taking a rather long nap on the train, and having a great tiny playing board games and catching up with each other, that they weren't as tired as their elder cousin. Though they decided to go to the guest room and just hang out until they were tired.
Apple Bloom bounced slightly on one of the two beds that once occupied the room. Her saddlebags were haphazardly thrown next to her, though she hardly seemed to mind the baggie of candy that was sliding down off the bed.
"I'm so glad that Applejack and Auntie Orange let us stay with Braeburn for the weekend." She said as she kicked her hooves.
"Sucks we can't spend Nightmare Night here. In Manehatten it's all about the costumes and how 'grown-up' you look." Babs stuck out her tongue in disgust. "I just think it's amazin' that both of our schools have Fall Break at the same time."
Apple Bloom simply nodded in agreement. Babs let out a wicked grin and jumped on the same bed her cousin was occupying, causing everything--including Apple Bloom--to go flying off the mattress.
"Babs!" The Manhattenite couldn't help but giggle at her cousin's anger. Apple Bloom's lip curled up into a smile, and soon they were both doubled over in laughter.
Their laughter died down, yet something else replaced the silence. Apple Bloom's ear twitched at the new sound. She looked towards the other mare, who shared her look of puzzlement.
"What is that?"
"I'm not sure... is it coming from outside?"
Two sets of ears perked up to listen the foreign sounds. It was muffled, and indistinct of any specifics, but there was no mistake of what it actually was--music.
The two cousins stared at each other, and an unspoken message was exchanged between them. Making as little sound as possible, Apple Bloom and Babs climbed off the beds and walked into the dark hallway of Braeburn's home. The wood floors creaked under their hooves as they tried to tip-toe around the corner, down the stairs, and out of the house. Once they were outside, they let out a slow exhale. They had gotten out of the house without alerting Braeburn successfully.
While during the daytime Appleoosa was a bustling town of activity and friendly ponies, at night it seemed almost deserted. The cold darkness of the surrounding desert, along with the Western architecture the buildings were styled after, gave it the appearance of a ghost town.
A shiver ran down Apple Bloom's spine, but she tried to put on a brave face. "Let's go find the source."
"Y...Yeah." Babs hesitated slightly. Her legs were shaking, yet she still managed to keep up with her cousin.
It didn't take long to find the source of the music. Appleoosa--though it had grown in recent years--was still smaller in size than Ponyville. They found themselves standing at the gate of the town's cemetery. The music filled their ears; a slow, sad melody.
Apple Bloom and Babs glanced at each other.
"Are you sure you want to do this, Babs? What if we..."
"Find something? You don't believe in those silly Nightmare Night monsters, do you?" Babs couldn't help but smirk.
"N-No! Of course not! But--"
"Well we're already here. Might as well check it out."
Without waiting for Apple Bloom to make a rebuttal, Babs pushed against the chain-link fence gate. To her surprise, it offered no resistance and opened easily. Her confident attitude as she strolled in was betrayed by her shaking legs. Since Apple Bloom was feeling the same way, she decided not to comment and followed her inside.
The cemetery was fitting a small town. It had few graves in a circle, with a statue of Princess Celestia watching over the bodies and souls as they ascended to wherever ponies went to when they passed on.
The two mares found themselves wandering towards the back of the cemetery. And they stopped short.
There, obstructed from the gate by the Princess Celestia statue, was a pony leaning against a gravestone with a hat covering their face and a fiddle between their hooves.
Babs stepped forward. "Hey! What'cha doin' out here?"
The pony hesitated and stopped playing for a moment. They lifted their head, and the two mares could see their face as the clouds moved to shine the moon's glow to the earth. Their stomachs dropped to the floor.
Where two eyes would be normally were missing--simply empty sockets. The pony's limbs were stitched together with the subtle glow of magic, and where magic was not, bandages were. It was a mare, with matted light yellow fur and a blue mane that looked as though she were suffering from a severe case of bed head.
The three stared at each other for a moment, and then the mare against the tombstone continued her song on her instrument.
Apple Bloom and Babs stared at her, then each other with confusion, curiosity, and fear. Apple Bloom opened her mouth to speak.
What came out was not her voice.
It lower, with a stronger accent, and had come from behind her.
"Fiddle...?"
The two mares turned to see Braeburn behind them. He looked past them, to the graveyard mare, who finally set the instrument down and slowly--painfully--climbed to her hooves.
"Fiddlesticks, is that you?"
Apple Bloom let out a gasp while Babs looked between Braeburn and the pony that was slowly approaching them. "Wait, you mean cousin Fiddlesticks? But she's--"
"Dead...I know." The mare spoke softly, yet the three Apples could hear her clear as crystal. "I..."
Braeburn didn't know what to do. He clenched his teeth. "But how? It's been years..."
"You died shortly after the family reunion, when Babs and I were still fillies. I remember...we had a big ceremony at Sweet Apple Acres since most of the family reserved hotels nearby..." Apple Bloom shook her head of the memory. "How are you here?"
Fiddlesticks simply shrugged, then slowly approached the three ponies. They tensed up when she raised her hoof...and then pulled the two mares into a huge similarly to Braeburn when he greeted them at the station.
"Oh...I missed you guys. I missed everyone. I missed living..." She reluctantly released Apple Bloom and Babs and gestured towards Braeburn. "I missed you, Brae."
He couldn't hold it in any longer. Tears streaked down his cheeks as he grabbed Fiddlesticks and pulled her into a tight embrace. As if she would just disappear at any moment and he needed to feel her.
"Oh Celestia, I missed you too, Sis...more than you know."
Apple Bloom and Babs watched the scene with a mixture of happiness, sadness, and a hint of the feeling that they were being intrusive.
A ghost of a tear rolled down from the empty eye socket, and Fiddlesticks smiled against her brother's fur. "I've waited a long time to see you again, Brae. Every year... I guess you were always sleeping whenever the magical force allowed me to 'live' again... but now I can finally pass on happily.
Braeburn pushed her an arm length's from his body. "Wait! You can't go!"
Fiddlesticks shook her head. "I have to. Everyone knows that the dead can't come back to life. I've already broken that rule. I don't know how, all I know is that I have. But after seeing you again, and even little Bloom and Babsy... I think I--"
Tendrils of purple magic flowed from her body. She looked up to her brother and cousins with a sad smile.
"I'm so glad you're happy, Brae. And I'm glad that I got to see Bloom and Babsy as grown mares." Hesitantly she backed towards her grave until she bumped into it. "Please... do me a favor and tell the rest of the family I love them. And tell them I wish them all the happiness."
Fiddlesticks glanced at the ground and picked up the fiddle sh had been buried with and, with one more smile, started to play a happy tune for the last time as the magic was seeping out of her body.
She crumbled to the ground within her grave.
Braeburn, Apple Bloom, and Bab ran up to her grave to see Fiddlesticks laying peacefully, with a smile on a face.
The last of the magic flowed out of her, and she was no more.
The three members of the Apple Clan wrapped their hooves around each other and wept. They cried until the moon slowly set over the horizon for the second loss of their beloved family member.
The weekend came and went in the blink of an eye. All too soon, Apple Bloom and Babs once again found themselves standing in the Appleoosan train station.
"It was a great weekend!" Apple Bloom chirped.
Babs nodded in agreement. "We should hang out more often. Maybe get you out this town or a bit and into the big city." She couldn't help but grin.
"Heh, I'll think about it. But you know I got a lot of responsibilities being the sheriff around here."
The three cousins embraced each other. With a final goodbye from the windows as the train was taking off, Braeburn was standing alone on the platform. Once the train was out of sight, he silently walked towards the cemetery. It was empty, of course--ponies don't normally visit their dearly departed loved ones. But Braeburn thought he had several years of catching up to do with his sister.
He removed hi signature cowpony hat and twisted it in his hooves.
"Hey Sis..."
Author's Note
Happy Halloween!
I'll admit I procrastinated hard with my Halloween-themed stories, so these are going to be self-edited.
If anyone could point out any mistakes, I'll be glad to make them <3
