Just Like Balloons We Soar On Our Own
Pear Butter had to leave the room when Applejack and Big Macintosh rushed to hide the jar of pear jam under the floor boards. This was quite easy for her to do, as she didn't require the use of a door or window.
Bright Mac stared at the wall his wife had passed through for a moment, then turned to look sympathetically at a very confused Applebloom. He then let out a sigh and casually walked through the wall after Pear Butter.
He took his time as he followed after his beloved Buttercup. He knew very well where she was headed, as she would always go to the same place whenever certain old wounds were opened up. For there were some wounds that still festered and pained even after all the flesh had been burned away.
Before long, he had made it to the spot. The two intertwined trees cast cool shade over Pear Butter, not that she not Bright Mac could feel it. The mare sat on her haunches staring wistfully at the miracle of nature born of love, and her husband was quick to join her.
They sat in silence for a moment, then the phantom mare remarked, "It sure is fittin', ain't it?"
Bright Mac turned to his wife, who was still staring up at their trees, and asked, "What's fittin'?"
Pear Butter didn't bother to turn to look at him as she explained, "That feud will be around forever...just like us."
As Pear Butter's voice cracked, so did something untangible and formless within Bright Mac's substanseless chest. "But...you don't know," he said, albeit rather weakly.
A brief sense of deja vu passed over them. However, Pear Butter didn't laugh this time around. She merely pursed her lips for a moment, and then she said, "It's high time I stop pretending I have something to lose... and start actually believing I have everything to lose. But that also means accepting what I've already lost...or given up... and will never get back."
Bright Mac was at a loss for words after hearing this, and all he could do was lean up against his wife and embrace her as her eyes shimmered with tears that were not able to truly form or fall from her eyes.
Pear Butter couldn't bring herself to go back to the farm house, so Bright Mac stated with her that night. It was late into the next day when she felt ready to return. However, the couple found that aside from Granny Smith, the farm house was empty of the Apple family. Logically, this meant that the other three family members were out and about in Ponyville or elsewhere. Of course, the idea of going out amidst so many living, breathing ponies was too much for either of them to bear. Therefore, the couple once again returned to the old standby of tying knots around one another. Counting gopher holes, looking out for any new rat's nests, and what not.
"...and I gotta admit, her Crusader friends are lucky that she don't give up easily, just like her Ma," Bright Mac finished saying.
Pear Butter finally smiled, and the pain in Bright Mac's nonexistent gut started to subside. However, an uneasiness spread through his incoporeal form when instead of replying, Pear Butter's eyes widened and her smile gave way to a gaping, breathless gasp.
Although she was looking straight towards him, Bright Mac knew that she was seeing through his translucent form and gazing at something behind him. He turned around, and if he had a breath to breathe, it would've gotten caught in his throat.
Their three children had finally returned to Sweet Apple Acres. However, they brought with them a newcomer. An old stallion, around the same age as Granny Smith. On his face he beared the emotions of shame, guilt, and perhaps even a bit of fear. For this stallion had been here before, and he had left on what might have been the worst of terms imaginable.
After a long moment of stunned silence, Bright Mac said in amazement, "Is that who I think it is?"
Pear Butter shook her head in utter disbelief, eyes wide as she muttered more to herself than to her husband, "No... No, it can't be. He can't be here. He never answered my letters. He hated me. I was dead to him."
Then, all at once, she ran to meet the group. She stood right in their path, face to face with the approaching elderly stallion. She sat up with her forelegs outstretched, her eyes wide with raw emotion as the old pony stepped closer to her. The ponies were speaking, but Pear Butter couldn't hear them, as she was too focused on how the stallion was steadily closing the distance between them.
Grand Pear walked right through her and followed along with the Apple siblings.
Pear Butter wrapped her forelegs around herself and whimpered, "Pa..."
"Whoa."
"It's beautiful."
"It's... impossible."
"If anything's gonna make it through, it's apples and pears."
As Grand Pear let out an honest to goodness, genuine contended chuckle, his late daughter could only look on in both joy and deep relief as Bright Mac held her.
"I can't believe it," she said in a whisper, "After all these years... I was certain...Never answering my letters, never coming to see our children... Not coming to our funeral... I was certain he would never..."
Pear Butter's voice trailed off, as she had run out of words to articulate her shock and elated surprise at what she had witnessed. From Grand Pear and Granny Smith's amicable reunion, to the discovery of intertwined apple and Pear trees, it was an experience that made the two ponies' disembodied spirits all the lighter.
"You know," Bright Mac finally said with a silly grin on his face, "And you can call me crazy if ya want, but I get the feeling that it was Applebloom who helped make all this so."
Pear Butter tore her gaze away from her father and said to Bright Mac with a smile, "Oh, you!"
Bright Mac shrugged and said, "Like I was saying before, that filly doesnt give up...just like her Ma."
The next thing the couple knew, they were in the midst of another phantom kiss. Their muzzles overlapping as they shared and indescribable, otherworldly love that only those of a starcrossed and tragic, yet bittersweet life could possess.
This moment of passion was cut short by a light that shone down upon them. The couple broke apart and looked up to find that their appeared to be a second Sun in the sky. However, they soon saw that this light differed greatly from that of Celestia's Sun. It didn't appear to be round, and it was a pure elegant white, as appossed to the harsher reds, yellows, and oranges of the Sun.
"What is that?" Pear Butter asked, her voice filled with wonder.
Bright Mac didn't say anything at first. He too was awestruck by the light. He turned to see his family's reaction to it, but was surprised to see them still focused on the miracle trees as they conversed with one another.
Confused, Bright Mac remarked, "Why aren't they...? Can't they...?" He looked back and forth from his family to the light, then he looked to Pear Butter and said, "They can't see it."
Pear Butter became just as confused as he was at this revelation. "So... What is it? I mean, what does it mean?"
Bright Mac frowned, and he looked back up at the light. He began to find it more and more appealing the longer he stared at it. He began to feel a strange pull from within him, his very being inexplixably drawn to it. It was almost like-
The empty cave of Bright Mac's suddenly erupted with light as the final realization dawned on him. He tired his gaze away from the light and looked upon his wife's face. He moved in closer to her, standing eye to eye with her as he gasped out, "Butterup! Remember what you said before?!"
Caught off guard by her husband's serious amd impassioned tone, she stammered out nervously, "I...I don't know what-"
"You said the feud would be around forever, just like us," Bright Mac quoted, then he pointed a forehoof to Grand Pear and the Apples and said, "But the feud is over!"
At first, Pear Butter simply nodded her head, but then, as understanding slowly took hold, her eyes went wide and she covered her mouth with her right forehoof.
"Oh, holy mother of pearl," she gasped out, "That...is what's been holding us back? This is what we've been waiting for?"
She put her forehoof back down and shut her eyes tightly, then continued, "Ever since that day, I tried to put it all behind me, to bury the pain and hurt under the joy and love of my new family... But it was always there, wasn't it? Thoughts of my Pa, the feeling that he would always hate me and never get to know his grandchildren. I couldn't just make it all go away. It was always going to hold me here, never letting me go. Even dying in a fire wouldn't get rid of it."
Pear Butter opened her eyes and looked sorrowfully at Bright Mac. "And it trapped you here with me..."
Bright Mac just smiled sadly and shook his head, "No. I had pain and regret of my own, too. Here was the most wonderful mare in the world, giving up her family just to be with me. Whether you believe I was right to feel it or not, I felt guilty about it. Like, if I had tried harder to make Grand Pear like me or something, I don't know... We both had unfinished business around here, Buttercup."
He then looked up at the bright light above them and said, "But now... that business is finally finished." He looked back at his beautiful wife and said with a big smile, "We can finally pass on, Buttercup!"
Pear Butter smiled a smile to match her husband's, but then she let out a chuckle and said, "Well, ain't that a kick in the head!"
"Hm?"
Pear Butter pointed to the laughing party of five nearby and said with ironic laughter in her voice , "We finally get to leave... right when it gets to the good part!"
Bright Mac couldn't help but chuckle at this, and he reached out to gently go through the motions of stroking her cheek. Then he said, "Aw, darling, they're all in good hooves now. They can finally learn everything about us..." Then an impish look crossed his face and he said, "But, I suppose if you want to spend another 15 years wandering aimlessly and just watching them talking about us like we weren't even there, which I suppose is technically true when you think about it, seeing as we're neither her not there. Anyways, I suppose I wouldn't mind keeping you company-"
Pear Butter silenced him with a playful nudge, laughing a bit before offering him her right foreleg and saying with a sly grin on her face, "Well, seeing as you were the one who figured out we could float, would you mind leading the way?"
Bright Mac smiled back, and he held his wife's hoof without hesitation.
The pair began to float as they had done numerous times before. However, this time they had a greater purpose and destination than simply skipping the stairs on their way to their children's bedrooms for another restless night of watching them sleep.
Pear Butter took one last look at her reunited family below as they continued to reconnect, unaware of what was occurring just a few yards away from and slightly above them.
"Love you, Pa," she said softly, "Love you, Ma. Love you...my precious children. 'Till we meet again."
Bright Mac nodded silently as he and Pear Butter looked back up at the beckoning light. It seemed as if the closer they got to it, the faster they went. The final distance was closing rapidly, much to their mutual delight.
Bright Mac glanced at his wife, and let out a delighted gasp and pointed. Pear Butter ended up mirroring her husband's actions, as now both of them had suddenly gained golden halos that hovered above their heads.
The emptiness and pain that had plagued the two restless spirits had finally ended, and the pair nussled each other with a sensation of warmth that had been denied to them for so long. They remained like this as they entered into the white light, and then the way closed as if it had never been there.
There indeed was no ending to their story...
...It was simply time for the next chapter.
Just like balloons, we soar on our own
Finally free from the pain of our home
And just like ballooms that no one will hold
Free from the truth that no one will know
Author's Note
Chapter title, ending verse, and general inspiration for this story came from the song Balloons by Mandopony.