Far from the Tree

Chapters

The book of Love
A lonely teenage broncin' buck
A voice that came from you and me
Helter skelter in a summer swelter
Do you recall what was revealed
A long, long time ago

The book of Love

Nineteen years ago, my sister and her friends freed Princess Luna from her thousand-year curse and returned a long-lost sister to us ponies. Three years’ worth of crazy adventures and happenings afterwards, we got another new princess in the form of Twilight Sparkle. The world I grew up in and the world I live in now are two very different ones, so different that I often find myself lost within this strange, new, familiar place.

One year after her coronation, Twilight brought technology that was like something outta science fiction to our world; didn’t take long for that stuff to spread like wildfire. Analog techniques and practices fell by the wayside faster than a puppy chases a toy in the air, and I can’t say I was happy about it. The old world crumbled before my eyes in more ways than one, and I wasn’t ready to give it up just yet.

With a mare I could give up my life for and a son on the way, I abandoned this strange new Ponyville and found a nice secluded place to start a new life. With freedom in hoof, I thought I’d done it. I’d escaped the strange new world with everything I wanted and it looked like things would stay the way they were, the way I knew them, for as long as I could manage it. Unfortunately for me, that just wasn’t the case.

As some things change, other things stay the same. The world might be new, the technology might have changed, but the problems in the hearts of ponies are always the same. After thirty-seven years on this Earth trying to run from it, it seems like change has finally found me.

“Hey, Pa?”

My ears twitched at the sound of my summons. I took my readers off and looked up from my spreadsheets. “What’s up, Ox?”

My oldest stepped into my office. “Well, Ah was wonderin’ if ya had that free time ya said ya would. Ya know. We were supposed ta play a game tonight, remember?”

Damn it! I knew I forgot something. Well, forgot is a strong word. I didn’t forget. I just didn’t want to do this. I resigned myself for what was about to transpire and gave my sheets one last look-over. It’d been dry this July, so there’d be a spike in the water bill next month, but not something that would go too far out of the usual budget. I wrote that little detail down, then stood up from my desk.

“Sure, Ox. Let’s go… play this game or whatever.”

The twelve-year-old bounced in place. “Yes! Ah’ve already got it set up on the TV Pa, you’re gonna like this one, Ah promise!” He bolted for the living room and I could swear he left a mulberry-colored trail in his place.

“Goddess help me.”

“Come on Pa, all ya have ta do is turn the wheel just like ya would on the tractor! Ya only need three buttons this time!”

I clicked my tongue. “Ya say it like it’s that simple. There ain’t no resistance on this thing. It’s like Ah’m tryin’ ta drive some invisible car that handles every surface like ice.” I was at least on the course for most of the game this time, but that didn’t make it any easier than the others. Less buttons, more buttons, simpler instructions, more complicated instructions: I’m just never any good at these things.

A warning symbol popped up above my little guy in the go-kart. All of a sudden, a big blue explosion caught the poor driver. “What in the—” He flew off the rainbow track and fell into space for the eighth time this race, and then got fished up and thrown back on as another racer passed him. A big 12th in the saddest yellow I’ve ever seen popped up in the corner of the screen. They sure do make you feel bad for not being good at these things.

A sigh escaped me. “Can’t we just be done with this, Ox?”

Oxford crossed his forelegs and pouted. “Come on Pa, it ain’t that hard. The finish line is just ahead, at least finish the race.”

Another sigh. I tried again. Don’t go fast enough, you slide off the track. Don’t go slow enough, you can’t turn in time to not slide off the track. Apparently there’s another button that makes turning easier, but I have enough trouble as it is trying to remember what items do what, what to hit, what not to hit, what makes me go faster or slower: just all too much to take in at once. Luckily, he really meant it this time. The finish was at the end of a straightaway, and I was the last racer left.

“Are we good?” I asked. “Is that it? There’s not a whole other track after this one, right?”

Oxford groaned and shook his head. “No, there ain’t.”

Relief exited my breath. “Oh, thank the Goddess.”

He glared at me. “Really?”

I threw a hoof up in defeat. “Ah’m sorry Ox, these just ain’t my thing. Can’t we… can’t we just do somethin’ simple like a board game next time?”

“We always play board games, Pa! Why can’t ya just learn one of my games fer once? This has less rules than Monopoly! We’ve played at least three other versions of it before, and the controller actually fits in yer hooves this time!”

I brought a hoof to my mouth and started to chew on it. “Alright, alright, fine, Ox, run me through it again.”

I leaned back in my recliner and waited for the incoming assault of explanation after explanation on just how easy this game was, and why I shouldn’t have any trouble learning. Oxford loves these things, and no matter how hard I try, they just never stick. But, that doesn’t excuse me from trying either. If I’d had mine around when I was his age, I probably would’ve bugged my Pa about all the new things I like that he didn’t know anything about just to share something with him.

If only things were that simple, maybe I wouldn’t be having these problems.

The boy’s eyes lit up and he got up off the floor and ran over to my chair to show me how everything worked. Again. “Look, it’s real simple, alright? Ya press this one ta go, that one ta stop, this one ta drift, that one ta use an item, and ya turn the wheel ta turn. Four buttons. It ain’t that hard right? All these surfaces are slick, so ya gotta watch out and be careful on them, and if ya drive on this…”

“So… Ah’ve been thinkin’, Pa.”

Pulled out of my trance bucking my apple trees, Liberty had stopped working and had her eyes on the ground. What she’d said finally processed, and I was almost afraid to ask. If it’s not one thing, it’s always another with her. “About what, Sugarcube?”

My youngest turned away from her tree and took a seat on the half-full basket underneath it. “Have ya ever thought about gettin’ some power tools fer this place?”

I blinked. “Power… tools?”

The filly’s face brightened. “Yeah! Ya know, like a drill, or a weed eater, or a tiller, or a lawn mower, or a backhoe! Those big ol’ machines that make all the groundwork easier on ya!”

So it’s power tools this week. Got it. I wouldn’t even begin to know why she was interested in this particular subject on this particular day, but that was Liberty. If I didn’t watch her come out ten years ago, I’d have to wonder if she was Applebloom’s and not mine.

“And… why exactly do we need power tools? Ah know the ax needs ta be replaced, and my chisel’s startin’ ta get dull, but the plow is fine and there ain’t nothin’ wrong with the reel mower. What even is a ‘backhoe?’ Is that some kinda… double-sided hoe or somethin’?”

Up and about now, Liberty waved a hoof at me. “Naw, nothin’ like that. Ya see, it’s a big ol’ tractor kinda thing with the big wheels in the back, and it’s got a huge scoop on the front, and it has a powered arm on the back with a giant shovel attached ta that end. Ah know how ya always complain about that big hill in the back with the rock on it. If ya had one of these things, ya could move it!”

I scratched at my beard. A second tractor would be nice, but it sure as hell ain’t something we can afford right now. I wouldn’t be mad about getting rid of that damn boulder either… But, I have to wonder… “Well, that sounds nice and all, but uh… why bring this up, Liberty?”

Liberty mirrored me and scratched at her chin. “Ah see ya work so hard all the time, and ya complain about yer back hurtin’, and Ah figured it’d be easier on ya if we could do more ‘round here, ya know? Ah’m not strong enough to pull the plow, and neither is Ox, but if we had one of them fancy gas-powered ones, we could do it together and it wouldn’t be so hard on ya, ya know? Ox doesn’t think he wants ta stay on the farm forever, so—”

“Wait, stop. Ox doesn’t want what now?”

Liberty gasped and put a hoof over her mouth. “Ah mean! Ah uh… Ah mean…”

A wave of exhaustion washed over me all at once. I had to sit down. “When did he tell ya that?”

Her little blue eyes fell to the ground. “Well… it was about a week ago, but he uh… he told me not ta say anythin’ about that.”

Great. That’s just perfect. This is karma, ain’t it? I ran away from the Acres, so now the orchard I built from scratch is gonna die with me, ain’t it? Ox’s apple don’t even look like a real one; it looks more like one of those computer graphics he always talks about. What if he ends up doing that with his life? Diving into the world of video games and computers, a world so far removed from me, I won’t be able to hold a conversation with him when he’s older and more into it. Oh Goddess, this is karma, ain’t it?

I rubbed at my temples. “And… what about you? Do ya… would ya wanna keep the orchard fer yer self if it ever ended up that way?” You know, provided she doesn’t get scooped up and whisked away by some stallion and settles down to do whatever like Applebloom did. She never really had any interest in teaching, but at the same time, she never expected to get the Acres, so why wouldn’t she go off with somepony she loved?

Liberty drew a circle in the dirt. “W-well…”

Oh, not you too!

“Pa, Ah have a confession ta make.”

I took a sharp breath. “And… what would that be, Liberty?”

She took a couple steps closer to me and sat down. She looked me in the eyes, clear and blue as the noon day sky, just like her grandmother’s. At that very moment, I knew I wasn’t going to like what I was about to hear.

“Ya know how Ah don’t have my cutiemark yet?”

I nodded. “Eeyup.”

“And… ya know how Ah’ve been hangin’ out with Ace after school?”

That’s uh… Scootaloo’s boy, ain’t it? I nodded. “Eeyup.”

“Well, the truth is…”

Oh, Goddess, this ain’t another Applejack situation, is it!? No, no, calm down Mac, she ain’t old enough for that yet. I don’t think. Unless there’s something Sugarbelle hasn’t told me. Applebloom was… early in that department, and even she didn’t start ovulating till she was eleven. No, can’t be that.

“We go visit the shootin’ range after school once a week.”

I blinked. “You… do what?”

“The uh… the shootin’ range. Ya know. Targets and guns and bullets. Mrs. Loo takes us and uh… that’s what we do. Ace’s cutiemark is a target and all, and he’s really, really good at it, but Ah uh… Ah ain’t half bad either. Ah hit a bull’s eye last week! They say Ah’ve got real good eyes, and Ah can hit targets at a range only adult ponies can get, so Ah thought that… maybe that’s where my talents are.”

Ah swear ta the Goddess here and now, next time Ah see Scootaloo… I struggled for words for a moment. I finally settled on, “Does yer mother know about this?”

“Uh… she knows that Ah hang out with Ace and Mrs. Loo after school. M-maybe not the specifics about what we do, but uh…”

I let out a breath and forced my eyes not to roll back into my head. “Well, don’t tell her. Good Goddess. Ya’d better get yer cutiemark quick. She doesn’t even like the one Ah have fer timberwolves.”

Liberty nodded. “My lips are sealed.” Then she drew a hoof across ‘em. “But, speakin’ of, did ya know that that particular gun is the standard fer skeet shootin’? The twelve-gauge Swift and West 13 has such a great reputation fer accuracy that all the pros use it. Ah was thinkin’ that if we got a backhoe, we could build up a dirt mound somewhere and we could set up a range here! The one that Mrs. Loo takes us ta always has a ton of ponies in it because it’s the only one on this side of Ponyville, and the other one is almost an hour away on the other side of the city! Ah mean, if we had our own range here, then maybe Ah’d consider…”

And so the truth comes out. Where Oxford is usually quiet, Liberty was not. If she got the chance, she could and would talk your ear off about whatever it is she’s interested in that week, but for once, this sounds like something that lasted for more than a week, which is possibly even worse. If she really had a talent for this and she ended up making a career out of shooting, then not only would Sugarbelle have a fit about it, I would end up with a backhoe sooner or later, and there’d be a range on this land just ta make sure it doesn’t die with me.

I suppose Granny was right again, but when wasn’t she? When it rains, it pours.

“Hey, Mac? Can I talk to ya?”

Immediately, alarm bells were going off. First it was ‘hey Pa,’ at the beginning of the week. Then it was ‘I’ve been thinking, Pa,’ in the middle of the week. Now, it’s, ‘can I talk to ya?’ Nothing can be good about this. Let alone the fact that she came to get me while I was smoking, a thing I do that she hates, but she puts up with it because she loves me.

I put out my cigar and clipped off the end. “Sure, Sugar, what’s up?”

It’d been a mostly normal week as far as the farm goes, and Sugarbelle’s bakery is doing well right now too, but it’d been a week full of disappointments, and the week wasn’t over yet. I still haven’t confronted Ox about the farm, I ended up going with Liberty to see her shoot and it really does look like she’s got a future in it, and now I’m wondering just what will become of this place. Twenty years and I’ll be gettin’ close to where Granny was when her mind started to go. What happens when I can’t do it anymore? If nopony takes over, will it really just… all fade away?

To my surprise, Sugarbelle didn’t ask me to come in to get away from the smoke. She came and sat next to me, purse in hooves. I swallowed. “Uh… somethin’ wrong?”

I could see that she was trying her hardest not to sneeze, and after a quick flash of her horn, most of the smoke was blown away. She’s usually not too quick to use magic since neither of the kids are unicorns, but on special occasions, she would. I wasn’t sure what that meant.

“Well, I was gettin’ groceries on my way home today, and… I saw somepony. I about had a heart attack because I thought Ox was with some random mare I’d never seen before who was three-times his age, but very quickly I realized this boy was a bit older than him. Do um… Do you know a mare by the name of ‘Cheerilee?’”

This cannot be happening. There’s no way. There is absolutely no way. Suddenly, my mouth felt very dry, and much more so than what a cigar would cause me. “W-well, Ah did somethin’ like fifteen years ago.” Paused to find the words. “What uh… what did this mare look like?”

That was not the answer Sugarbelle was hoping for. She was trying her best to keep herself from frowning, her wheels turning in that head of hers, thinking things that definitely didn’t happen because I know they didn’t, but things she couldn’t help but think.

Her lips wavered for a moment. “W-well, I… know I probably should’ve asked first, but I took a picture when I saw them because it was just so… uncanny how much that boy looks like Ox, and I just… um, here.”

She passed me her expensive little smart device and when I saw the screen, I had to rub at my eyes. That was most definitely the Cheerilee I dated just before my life felt like it was falling apart. As for the kid, he was… almost the spitting image of Pa and Applejack’s oldest, probably even the same age as Whiskey at that, and his coat and mane colors were nearly identical to Ox, if just a shade or two darker.

That don’t make any damn sense! Cheeri and I never made it that far along! We only… it was just the one time, and we broke up right after that! She never told me about it if she really… This can’t be happening, can it? He’s not… I don’t…

“Mac?”

Slowly, I turned to look at my wife. She was fraught with concern, her brow was furrowed. A number of emotions fought for control of her face; she couldn’t settle on one until she got some kind of reaction out of me.

I swallowed. “Ah’m alright. So, Ah know what ya might be thinkin’, and whatever it is exactly, Ah want ya ta know that Ah haven’t seen Cheerilee in fifteen years, alright? Ah ain’t never been with another mare since Ah met ya, and that’s the truth, alright?”

Relief washed out of Sugarbelle and she sank into the other patio chair. “Oh, thank the Goddess.” She shook her head. “I won’t lie to ya Mac, I thought—”

I slapped the arm of my chair and shook my head. “It ain’t true! Ah don’t know who that kid is. Or why he looks just like…

“Pa.”

“Ox.”

Sugarbelle went to finish my sentence in unison with me, but the words we said weren’t the same. Ears up, alarm on both our faces, she asked, “Like… your father? Not… not your son?”

I swallowed. “Well, he’s clearly older than Ox by at least a year or two, it was just… the first thing that came ta mind.”

Sugrabelle’s throat tightened. “Why would you say that? I…” She let her head fall into her hooves. “Mac, you’re making this harder than it needs to be.”

I got out of my chair and kneeled in front of her. “Look, Ah’m sorry, alright? I swear ta the Goddess, Ah have never nor will ever cheat on ya, alright?”

I tried to take her hoof in mine, but instead she pushed it away. “I’m sorry! I can’t do this right now! I need to think, okay?” She pushed herself out of the patio chair and stood up.

“Sugar, Ah—”

“Don’t! Just, don’t.” She took a deep breath and wiped at her eyes. “I need to breathe. Just… stay out here and finish your death stick and… and wait till I’m asleep to come to bed, okay? Please?”

I chewed into my cheek. When I was young, Pa always said it was easier to deal with the pain on your skin than the pain in your heart. I rubbed at my snout, looked away and nodded. “Sure, Sugar. Ah’ll… Ah’ll see ya in the mornin’.”

She nodded. “Thank you.”

She turned to go back inside, and just before she closed the door, I said, “Ah love you.”

She looked back but didn’t respond.

The door closed.

A lonely teenage broncin' buck

“Hey, Buddy.”

Even seeing his name on the screen was odd, but hearing the voice confirmed it. For once in his life, Fin Sharp had called me instead of the other way around.

“Oh. Howdy, Bud. Somethin’ up? It’s not like ya ta call.”

I’d had a bad week last week. This week had been less so, but Sugarbelle had yet to return an ‘I love you’ since that night on the patio. My son had been wary of me for whatever reason, and Liberty attempted to get me to throw apples for her to shoot out of the air, which could only make what was an unfortunate circumstance with her mother worse. She wasn’t happy about it and wouldn’t let it go, so I spent an extra sixty bits taking her to the range twice this week, putting my already heavy-budgeted month even further over the line than it should’ve been.

“I know it’s a little earlier than usual, but how about we get together tonight at the bar, huh?”

Oh, Goddess, a good glass of whiskey would be nice right about now. Gosh, what do I have to do tomorrow? August is just around the corner, so I need to start getting the fall plot ready to be planted in. Other than that and bucking the next group of apple trees, I should be able to squeeze in some time to see my friend.

“Ah’m a little ahead of schedule right now so Ah suppose it wouldn’t hurt. Any reason for movin’ it up? The thirty-first is just a week away after all.”

“Are ya on the phone with him?” I heard my sister’s voice in the background of the call.

“Well, yeah, who else would I be talking to right now? I just told you—”

“Pass it over here.” The mic picked up sounds of movement. “Mac, ya there?”

“Uh… eeyup?”

“Tell it ta me straight, did ya screw around with Cheerilee?”

Oh. That’s what this is about. And now I’m on the phone with the lie detector. I let out a breath. “Once. In early 2004. Before Ah met Sugarbelle. We broke up a few days after. You were there, Applejack.”

“Mmhmm. And ya never cheated on Sugarbelle?”

“Nope.”

A long silence. A breath. “Alright, Mac, Ah believe ya. Ah’m gonna give it back ta Fin, but don’t forget what Pa used ta say, alright? Ya made this bed, now ya gotta lie in it. Love ya bro.”

I let out a breath. “Love ya too, sis.”

Shuffling sounds over the mic again. “Well, I’d planned on having more tact than that, but you know how she is.”

I sighed. “Eeyup.”

“Anyways, meet me at the bar at seven. I’ll explain everything there.”

“Sure, Fin. See ya then… Ah guess.” I hung up the phone and put it back in my overalls. It was closer to noon, I still needed to get through another quadrant of the orchard before nightfall, and the kids wouldn’t be home till after four. I took a deep breath and blew it out my snout. What a mess this turned out to be.

“Hey, there he is. I ordered you a JD No.7 on the rocks, and I dipped into my humidor to break out a couple Opus’s.”

I have another son. This cheap bastard would never just give me an opus on a Thursday. Not for free, anyways. I didn’t say a word. I sat down on the bar stool he’d pulled out for me and immediately went to light the cigar.

Fin scratched at his little black and white goatee. “Well, I expected at least some kind of verbal appreciation, but going straight for it is fine too. Run into traffic on the way?”

I glared at the orange-eyed stallion for a few seconds, then took a sip of my drink. He’s gotta be… what, fourteen? At least? Why didn’t she tell me? Hell, I got married before he was born if that’s the case. Did she know I’d already found somepony else? If Ponyville never grew like it did, would I have ever known about him?

I let the sweet flavor of tobacco fill and sit in my mouth for a bit, then blew a smoke ring toward the ceiling. “How old is he, Fin?”

Fin sighed and took the lighter to his own cigar. Once the end was a soft glowing orange, he took a couple puffs and set it down on the ashtray.

“Malus was born on January 23rd, 2005, to one Cheerileeat Ponyville General Hospital. Just in case it isn’t obvious by how much he resembles my own son, the Department database already had his bloodwork and he does have a half match to you and a quarter to my wife and your other sister.”

I shook my head. “As if anypony needed ta do anythin’ but look at him ta know that.” Ah cannot believe she never told me. I turned to Fin and said, “So, not only was he born while Ah was half a mile down the road, but she didn’t tell me about him then, either.”

Fin nodded, then reached down into his bag and pulled out a file folder. “Let’s see… after leaving Ponyville in 2004, Cheerilee was living with her parents in what used to be another small town east of here before Ponyville spread out and absorbed everything within a forty-mile radius of the castle. Five years after that, she had a falling out with her parents and moved up to Manehattan with her son and lived there from 2009 to 2017. She quit MISD after getting into an altercation with another teacher that ended with him in the hospital being treated for a stab wound. Yikes. Uh… nopony pressed charges.”

“Good Goddess! Cheeri wouldn’t have stabbed somepony, would she?” It was asked, but it was more thinking out loud than a direct question.

Fin shook his head. “Uh, no, actually, apparently that was Malus. He’s been charged with two misdemeanors for petty theft, one for aggravated assault, and another for possession of an illegal weapon. Those were mostly unrelated events from 2016 to 2017.”

I shot the rest of my whiskey. “Perfect. He’s a delinquent.”

“Correct, sir.” He flipped a page in his folder. “She lived with her parents again for a few months until finding her current residence in District 47 on the eastern side of Ponyville. She teaches for a private school that’s apparently owned by an old friend of hers. Malus is enrolled there as well, but his attendance is spotty at best.”

I scratched at my head. Well, that’s just great. He’s a punk teenager. “And ya know all this… why?”

Fin shrugged and took a puff of his cigar. “Well, your wife called my wife, who then volun-told me to look into it. She didn’t think you were capable of cheating, but if it was around the time she thought it was, it was certainly possible. We both know what she tried to do that year, so if you were in anywhere near as bad a place as she was, I could believe it.”

Exhaustion-filled smoke fell out of my mouth. “Come on now, Ah was never suicidal.”

“Yeah, but you were all depressed, and you thought you were going to have to sell your family legacy to survive. You know how the saying goes. ‘The only thing between a stallion and cheating on his mare is a few drinks and a wink.’ If she’d been at the right place at the right time…”

I put my elbow on the table and rested my head on my hoof. “You certainly were.”

Fin frowned but eventually agreed. “Well, yeah. The idea is far from fiction. But, the timeline here takes place too early for you to have done this after meeting Sugarbelle, so suspicion cleared, right?”

I rubbed at my temple. “Fin, ya know darn well that ain’t the problem anymore.”

Fin shot the rest of his glass and crossed his hind legs. “It’s one less problem for you to deal with, at the very least. And, hey, he didn’t have anything in the Ponyville database about warnings or run-ins with the cops here, so maybe he’s turned a new leaf since he’s been out of the city.”

I lowered my eyes at my brother-in-law. “Really?”

Fin raised his hooves in defeat. “Okay, maybe that’s just wishful thinking, but what else are you supposed to do here? Show up at her door for the first time in a decade and a half and tell the kid, ‘I’m your dad, quit being a punk?’ Are you gonna tell your legitimate kids they have a half-brother? At least you have a detective’s word that you couldn’t have done this when you were dating your wife, but I mean… what else can you do?”

I put my cigar back in my mouth and circled the rim of my glass with my hoof. And that was the question. What should I do now that I know? It’s not as if Cheeri and I ended on bad terms. We just… went all the way and figured if that didn’t feel right then it couldn’t have been love. Nopony was angry. Maybe we were both a little upset, but we just… didn’t think we were right for each other. Provided that was the truth, anyways. Would she have lied to me? Was it just me and I didn’t notice how she felt? I wonder if…

“She, uh… she never got married, did she?”

Fin checked through the file again and shook his head. “No sir. She’s had a few stallions come and go. None stuck around. Now, this is just speculation, but, if Malus was the one who stabbed this male teacher, then I could make an educated guess as to what was going on at the time.”

I clicked my tongue. Come on Cheeri, what happened to ya? “It… wasn’t with like, a knife or somethin’, was it?”

“Nah. It was almost fatal though. Half an inch higher and it would’ve pierced the guy’s jugular. Again, if I had to guess, there was probably something between this teacher and Cheerilee, and maybe he was being a bit more aggressive than she wanted him to. Malus walks in to take his mom home, sees what’s happening, flips his lid thinking the worst, grabs the nearest pointed object and tries to protect her. If nopony pressed charges then maybe he was being a bit too aggressive with her, and would rather let that go than lose his job.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Kinda specific, ain’t it?”

Fin tilted his head. “It’s only happened in four different districts of Ponyville in the last ten years, but at one point, the point when Cheerilee and Malus lived there, Manehattan was bigger than Ponyville. If it’s happened four times here, I can only imagine how many times this exact case has happened in Manehattan. You don’t survive a public scandal in this day and age.”

I huffed. “Only four times, huh? What a graceful society we’ve become.”

Fin chuckled. “Ain’t no rest for the wicked. It’s all too easy to get swept away by the surface-level sensationalism and never think about anything deeper than that.”

I took another draw of my cigar, then snuffed out the end. “Ya would think that, what with all the information we have at the tips of our hooves at any given moment, we’d become smarter as a people, wouldn’t we?”

Fin took a deep draw of his cigar and blew a ring in the air. “You would, but, if ponies ever learned anything, we probably wouldn’t be ponies, now would we?”

If I didn’t know better, I would say this place was never ‘Ponyville.’ No, the massive sprawling city that was new Ponyville was about the opposite of the little village I grew up in. On a good day, with all the tourists we could muster back then, all ponies here to pick up deliveries from the Acres and every other little shop in town, Ponyville probably had, at most, a thousand ponies.

The current population of Ponyville, at least last I looked, was somewhere closer to Eight Million. It’s just a bit bigger than it used to be. I hate driving on these cursed crowded streets more than anything. Where does Cheerilee live but on the opposite side of this sprawling mass of concrete and steel, in what used to be two towns over, but is somehow still a two-hour drive when travel time from one place to another has been significantly reduced? Would’ve taken me half a day on hoof, but at least I’d be moving the whole time. Thank the Goddess for highways; otherwise it would be faster on hoof.

Last week, I met Fin at the bar and confirmed that I did in fact have an even older son that I never knew about. This week, I’m using the time I would’ve set aside to hang out with him to go see my old marefriend and possibly meet my son. Everything about it feels so backwards, I couldn’t tell if my life hadn’t been turned upside down again or not. At least nopony is on the verge of death this time.

Things with Sugarbelle have been patched over thanks to both Fin and Applejack vouching for me, but that was almost a secondary concern at this point. What am I supposed to do after I meet them? Should I… try to take him back home? Clearly he needs to get acquainted with Granny’s belt, but that’s not going to make him respect anypony on its own. If… if I want him to be a better pony, then I need to be in his life and make sure it happens. But how am I supposed to do that if we’re on opposite sides of the city? I can’t make a drive like this all the time, I’m already cutting into my August budget as it is! I let my head fall to the wheel. Why me?

Somepony honked from behind me which made me notice that the light was green. A couple more blocks and I’d be free of the shopping part of District 47 and all its traffic lights at every single intersection,and finally on the residential side. She didn’t live too far away from the shopping section, but she did live in what most would call ‘low income housing.’ If that wasn’t a label for a place filled with broken ponies, bad ponies, and ponies under hard times, then I didn’t know what was.

I arrived at the building, and again, it was something that seemed foreign to me. I’d been to Manehattan once to visit my aunt and uncle years and years ago, and I had no desire to ever go back. I hated the claustrophobia of the city, the often awful smells you get a whiff of as you passed the wrong vent, the… unpleasant demeanor of the hundreds of ponies you’d pass on the street. It looked interesting, but it always made me nervous. The stories Fin told me about what happened in this city were bad enough; Manehattan had always been where the underbelly of Equestria lay.

This apartment complex reminded me of Manehattan. I didn’t want to go into it, but here I was. You made this bed, now you get to lie in it. Of all the things Pa and Granny said to me growing up, I think that was the one I hated the most.

Inside and up a few flights of stairs, I hit the third floor and found my destination, Room 301. Here goes nothing. I raised a hoof and knocked on the door.

“Oh! I’ll be right there! Malus, can you get that?”

That’s Cheeri alright.

“Yeah, sure.”

I swallowed. He’s getting the door? I’m not prepared for this! What do I say? What do I do? Oh Goddess, oh Goddess, somepony tell me what to do!

Whether or not I wanted it to, the door swung open, and there in front of me was the spitting image of my father in a slightly darker mulberry coat than my son. My own eyes are his eyes, and a carrot-orange mane rocked his head. Why is it that every mare I ever seriously dated had this color on them somewhere? The easiest way I could discern him from Ox, save the size, would have to be the freckles which he lacked and Malus had.

“Ma, did ya hire an escort? Again?”

I wasn’t quite expecting to hear the image of my father speak in a city boy accent. It threatened to make me laugh.

Malus took offense to that. “Hey, you think somethin’s funny, ya old fuck?” He took a step into my personal space, puffed up his chest and glared at me.

I had to hold back another laugh. “Ah think you’re funny, kid.” I looked back at this angry colt with something to prove, and though I didn’t mean to say it, I asked, “How did ya end up like this?”

His face wavered for a few seconds before he finally stepped back. “Ma? Who is this freak?”

I leaned my head through the door frame just enough to see the mess inside, and just as she walked out from another room, I locked eyes with Cheerilee.

“Oh. Oh! Oh, Goddess, I was… Um, he’s an old friend, dear.” She paused and moved her mouth like she had several things she wanted to say all at once but stopped and redirected her attention to Malus. “Didn’t you say you wanted to go out tonight?”

Malus raised a brow at his mother, turned and looked me up and down, then back to his mother. “Whatever I guess. Don’t be a retard with this one, alright? I don’t wanna live on instant ramen again because you got fuckin’ stupid with some guy.”

The words struck me like a hammer to the head. I’m certain my mouth fell open. I looked to Cheeri expecting some kind of rebuke for that, but she didn’t say a word: just put her head down in shame. He pushed past me, she wouldn’t look at me. I had to do something.

I pulled on his tail before he could get too far away and yanked him back. “Who the hell do ya think ya are, talkin’ ta yer mother like that?”

He whipped around just as quick and slapped my hoof away. “Who the hell do you think you are touchin’ my tail, you old piece of shit? You’re not my dad, I talk to my mom however the fuck I want! Piss me off and I’ll put you in the hospital too, ya got me?”

I was speechless. He meant every word. Malus had no idea who I was to him or his mother. Cheeri was always a little more passive than I would’ve liked, but she might as well have introduced me to her abusive husband! How did you get like this?

When I never moved to do anything else, Malus huffed and flicked his snout at me. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. You’re lucky Ma’s here.” He turned to his mother and said, “He better be gone by the time I get back, and you’d better still have your damn purse this time!”

Down the hall and around the corner, the maelstrom had passed. I stared at Cheeri in open-mouthed silence for what felt like an eternity. It was only broken by the sound of a kettle whistle going off.

“I, um… I was making tea. Would you… would you like to come in?”

A voice that came from you and me

“What happened?” I asked.

Cheeri squirmed in her seat. It’s the impossible task of getting comfortable while trying to discuss what exactly went wrong. “Well… it would be nice if I knew, Mac.” She shook her head, opened her mouth to say something, closed it again and remained silent.

Realizing this too would be on my shoulders, I took a deep breath and formulated what needed to be said. “Okay. Before we even begin with him, let’s go back ta the beginnin’. What in the world possessed ya ta keep this from me all this time? Why didn’t ya tell me ya were pregnant?”

Keeping her eyes off me and on her hooves, Cheeri circled the tips of her fore hooves around each other. “Well… I, um… I didn’t want to…” She put her hooves over her snout and let a breath out into them. “Y-you know how my father is, if I… if I told him the truth, he would’ve!” She shook her head again. “And you’d just met that other mare, and the way you looked at her, I…” She scratched at her mane, and finally, looked me in the eyes. “I could see what was happening to you. To all of you. I… I wanted to be the pony who could make things better, who could ease the pain, but you… it wasn’t love. At least… not to you, anyways.”

I set my elbow on my knee and let my head fall into my hoof. “Cheeri, if ya’d told me the truth—”

“I couldn’t make you smile!” she shouted. Tears had welled up in her eyes, but she hadn’t let them loose just yet. “That’s what my special talent was supposed to be! I was… supposed to make ponies, or at least kids smile, and the one pony I cared about the most—I couldn’t, no matter what I did, no matter how much I gave, I… I just couldn’t do it. You kept sinking lower and lower as you worked yourself into the ground trying to manage that massive orchard on your own, and Granny was falling apart and… and I was seriously concerned that Applejack was going to… to do something drastic, and I… wasn’t helping.

“I couldn’t help. I’m still no good at baking, my legs were never up to the hard work either of you did, and… and the only thing I was supposed to be good at, I couldn’t do!” She took a deep breath and wiped at her eyes. “The truth is, I did try to tell you.”

I furrowed my brows. “When? Until today, Ah hadn’t seen ya since ya moved back in with yer parents.”

Cheeri bit into her lip and wiped at her eyes again. There was little else that made my heart ache like seeing a mare cry. It took everything within my will to keep myself planted on this couch and not moving to hold her. She’d been holding onto all this for so long, and this is… only the beginning.

“It was a few months down the line. I started getting sick, started getting fat. I thought it was just because I’d been eating all the sweets my parents like to have in the house all the time, but it finally clicked in the fourth month. I went to the hospital to get checked out and make sure, and sure enough, there he was.” She rubbed the snot off her muzzle, her throat taking a break. “You were just half a mile down the road, so I just wandered down to the acres ready to tell you and… that’s when I heard it.”

I frowned. “Heard what?”

“Singing! You singing. To her.”

My teeth found my inner cheek.

She shook her head and rubbed at her forehead. “It’d only been a few months since we broke up, and not only had you already found somepony else, you were singing again. I hadn’t heard you say a word in melody or pick up a guitar since Granny’s alzhimers started getting bad, and she was still alive then. It was clear to me that somepony else had done what I couldn’t do for you, and I didn’t want to…” She let out a breath and covered her eyes. “I just wanted you to be happy.”

I leaned back on Cheeri’s couch and felt the air deflate out of me. Always so passive, always so caring, always so willing to put other ponies first. She strived to never make a nuisance of herself. “Damn it Cheeri, this was a little more important than me bein’ happy! Ya know Ah would’ve—”

“Of course I know!” She let out a breath and found my eyes again. “Of course I know. We were together for two years, Mac. You would’ve dropped everything, apologized to that unicorn, and brought me back with you the next day. I know who you are. And I… I didn’t want to do that to you. I’m sorry.”

She was silent for a moment, then took a sip of her tea. “Do you… do you have any idea how much it… how much it stung to get an invitation to your wedding four months later?”

I passively half-raised a hoof. “Maybe now, but Ah thought we were friends at that point.” At that, my ear itched. “Which explains why ya… never did show up.”

“Mmhmm.” She took another sip and set the cup down on the saucer. “My parents… they still don’t know who his father is. He doesn’t either for that matter, but I’m sure you could’ve guessed that by now.”

I nodded. “Oh, no, picked up on that one.” I hesitated at first, but figured I might as well ask anyways. “Did you… Was that teacher he stabbed somepony ya were gettin’ ta know, or was he really tryin’ ta… ya know.”

Cheeri’s brow furrowed. “How do—”

“Applejack’s husband is a detective for Ponyville PD. Ah, uh… Ah don’t know if ya recognized her, but ya met my wife a few weeks ago.”

She tilted her head. “Was… oh, the mare at the supermarket, wasn’t it?”

“Eeyup. Safe fer the freckles and a couple inches, he looks exactly like my other boy. Same mane, same eyes, maybe a shade or two lighter in the coat and… Ox’s mane and tail are a little curly like his ma, but it ain’t long enough ta tell right now. Ya know what? Ah’ve got a picture.”

I dipped into my overalls to get my device out of my pocket. Flipped around till I found the last family picture we took a few weeks ago.

“Oh my.”

I nodded. “Eeyup.”

She was silent for a while, drinking it in. “I can see why. They really do look almost like twins.”

I slid the screen over to the next picture in the library, the one Sugarbelle took of Cheeri and Malus. “She didn’t exactly ask, but she took a picture of y’all that day fer photo evidence. It didn’t take a blood test ta tell me who he was. Ah got the blood test anyway since my brother-in-law had access to it, but uh…” I chuckled. “Ah had a bad week before he got all the details back ta us.”

Cheeri put a hoof over her mouth. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry, Mac, I—”

“Please, Cheeri.”

Slowly, she put her hoof down and rested it on her chest. “I’m sorry…”

And that was one of the reasons we didn’t stick. It’s never my fault. It’s never anypony else’s fault. It’s always her fault, and she always apologizes for everything.

“Stop! Don’t say it again! It’s not yer fault. That situation has been settled.”

Cheeri looked down and shifted in her seat. “Mmhmm.”

I spilled an irritated breath. This was how it always started. She would apologize. I would tell her it’s not her fault. She would apologize again. I would tell her not to. She would apologize again. We got into this loop so many times while she was teaching for the city that it nearly drove me crazy. Sugarbelle didn’t exactly do it nicely all the time, but she would tell it to my face when I did something wrong. There’s a limit to her patience, and she stepped up when she saw the need to. All things that Cheeri would never do. Which, of course, leads to the parenting that Malus received his whole life, which is exactly why he is the way he is.

“So, back ta the teacher, was Malus in the right?”

Cheeri frowned. “To… to stab him?”

I rolled my eyes. “Ta defend ya from him, Cheeri. Fin can get anythin’ he wants on Malus because he has a record. Ah just want ta know if it was a misunderstandin’ or not.”

She put her forehooves together and looked away. “W-well, it’s not as if I… as if I really told him no…”

I had to cover my mouth. I had to bite my tongue. That teacher probably wasn’t even that bad of a guy. He was probably friendly, she was probably friendly, and I bet she did anything he asked of her, because that’s just the way she is. He thought he could get whatever he wanted from her, so he took a shot. If Malus hadn’t been there… Damn it Cheeri, you’re too nice fer yer own good.

“At least Malus didn’t do it fer fun…” Something he said while he was leaving came back to mind. “Somepony stole yer purse?”

Cheeri let her head fall into her hooves. “Do we really need to talk about this?”

I raised my hooves up in defeat. “Ah understand how ya might be feelin’ about all this, but now that Ah’ve seen him, ya know Ah can’t let this go.”

She let out an irritated breath and looked back at me with what I could only think was true indignation. “And what, exactly, do you plan to do about it? I’m sorry I’m… I’m not somepony else. I’m sorry I haven’t changed in all these years, but I’m doing the best I can, alright? You have your own family, and you all look so… so perfect together, and I… I don’t even know where to begin! My parents like him less with each passing year, they’re still upset with me because they still think I don’t know who his father is, and I’m already thirty-six. I’ve never been married, I’m a single mother, I… I… I’m nothing like they wanted me to be, and I can’t be Malus’s father too, and I can never find anypony who wants to be his father, and I… I don’t know what to do!”

The dam broke. Cheeri fell to tears. Sugarbelle is gonna kill me if she finds out about this. I released a deep, bone-aching breath, fully ready to accept the consequences. I consoled Cheeri as best I could.

About an hour and a pizza later, Cheeri had calmed down. It gave me time to think, and I realized that I’d already made my decision when I decided to come visit today.

“He’s my son.”

“Huh?” She tilted her head, then blew her nose into a tissue.

“He’s my son. Ah am his father.”

Cheeri blinked. “Wh-what do you mean?”

“He needs ta be taught how ta treat mares. He needs ta learn how ta be respectful. Ah heard he’s not been goin’ ta school, why is that?”

Cheeri sniffed and scratched at her cheek. “Well, his attendance has been better since we moved away from Manehattan, but he was suspended last week for getting into a fight.”

I threw a hoof out. “He needs ta be taught where ta draw the line! He needs ta be taught the value of work!” I turned to Cheeri and took her hoof in mine. I looked deep into her eyes and said, “Let me take him back ta my orchard. You’ve been doin’ this on yer own fer fourteen years. Ya need a break from him, and he needs somepony ta show him how a good stallion acts. How long is that suspension fer?”

“Mac, ya don’t have to—” She tried to pull her hoof away, but I didn’t let her.

“Ah do. Ah want ta. Ah should’ve been here his whole life. How long is the suspension?”

Her lip wavered, she swallowed, but finally, she said, “A month. He’s not to come back until September.”

I nodded, let her hoof go, went to plan my attack. He didn’t understand how to react to me when I showed genuine concern. He gets bravado, he’s got the tough guy act down pat, but he doesn’t know how to turn it off. If I can just get him to figure out the limits, make him self-aware, we’ll be off to a good start. I’ll have to practically be on top of him all the time, especially to make sure he gets along with Oxford and Liberty and… to make sure Sugarbelle doesn’t kill him. Another unrelated thought occurred to me. Does… does Sugarbelle act like Granny?

I shook that one away. “Look, Cheeri, Ah’m gonna call Sugarbelle just ta let her know Ah’m bringin’ Malice home.”

“Mal-us, Mac. It, uh… it means Apple.”

I shrugged. “That too. Do ya know when he’s gonna be back?”

She scratched under her chin. “W-well…”

I felt my ears droop. “Does he have a phone?”

“He… usually won’t take that with him when he ‘goes out.’ He doesn’t like it when I call him late at night.”

I smacked a hoof to my forehead. “Do ya have any idea where yer son is?”

“Oh, he’s probably over at the billiard bar two blocks down the road. On the corner of Altitude and Barometer street.”

I paused. “How did a fourteen-year-old get into a bar? Why do ya know exactly—” I shook my head. “Never mind. Find somethin’ ta write yer phone number on fer me, and Ah’ll call ya after Ah’ve picked him up, alright? Ah’ll keep him fer the month, ya can call me whenever ya want ta know how he’s doin’, and Ah’ll bring him home the day before he goes back ta school. Sound good?”

Cheeri let out a dejected sigh. “I suppose, Mac. I just… don’t know how I’ll feel being without him for so long. He’s been in my life every day for fourteen, fifteen years even. I know he’s rough about the edges… but he’s still my baby.”

I put my hooves together. “And that is exactly why this needs ta happen. Rough around the edges doesn’t even begin ta cover it. Ah know he was tryin’ ta protect ya, but he was still aimin’ ta kill that teacher, alright? He was half an inch short of doin’ it too. Ya don’t get suspended fer a whole month just because of a fight. What did he do ta that other kid?”

“Malus may have gone a little too far this time, but—”

“Cheeri.”

Her ears fell. “Two legs. Heavy fracturing. N-no charges…”

“Eeyup. Write yer number down, please.”

She nodded and got up to go find a pen.

Helter skelter in a summer swelter

I’d parked outside the bar Cheerilee said he’d be in. Sure enough, he was playing pool with a group of much, much older ponies and some not ponies. In the grand scheme of things, Ponyville ain’t exactly close ta anything, so alongside the massive expansion plans, District(s) 28, 34, 40, and 46 were all mostly airports. With the way Princess Twilight set it up when she was planning for Ponyville to eventually become what it is, the ‘Cardinals,’ as we called them, were exactly three districts away from the castle in cardinal directions. It’s fairly uncommon to see non-ponies in the majority of Ponyville, but near the Cardinals, it was very common.

I’d called Sugarbelle and explained the story. I then told her what I’d planned to do.

“You’re bringing him home!?”

I had to pull the device away from my ear to keep from losing my hearing. “Well, yes, that’d be the gist of it.”

“Why on the Goddess’s green Earth would you do that?”

“Because Ah’m his father? Ah thought we went over this.”

I could practically see Sugrabelle struggling to formulate a reply to that. “Okay, okay, okay. I get that, I do. I have the deepest respect for Cheerilee for not taking any of the other options she could have that might’ve resulted in the non-existence of any of your kids, I really do. But… but, you…” She sighed. “Mac, he’s been arrested before! I don’t want a pony like that around our kids!”

“Come on, Sugar, that’s exactly why he needs ta be here. He’s never had a father in his life, and it’s not as if Ah don’t know what Ah’m dealin’ with. Nopony knows better than Ah do what it’s like ta be fatherless.”

Sugarbelle groaned. “Mac! You know I trust you, but—”

I chuckled and cut her off. “And that trust was where a few weeks ago?”

I could feel the glare from across town. I was proud of that one.

Sugarbelle sighed. “Alright, fine. I’ll admit, I was being hysterical and assumed the worst. It’s not a hard bridge to make considering what all was going on at the time, but you even anticipated that and I still… ugh, whatever. I’m sorry.”

I pumped a hoof in victory. “An apology? Goodness, is it my birthday already?”

She made a single mouth noise that I knew all too well as restrained laughter. “Better watch your luck, bronco.” A breath. “I give. Bring him home, whip him into shape, whatever you think he needs. I’ll feed him, I’ll play your game… but if he hurts my babies…”

I nodded. “Don’t’cha worry none, Ah have a plan. If there is one thing Ah learned from my Granny, it’s how ta make discipline work. Ah really hate ta just… storm in here and try ta set things straight, but Cheeri needs somepony ta protect her. Malus took up that role, whether or not he intended ta, but he acts like a thug and not a gentleman, and Ah aim ta correct that.” A scenario popped up in my head and I added, “Oh! Speakin’ of, if he talks ta you like that and Ah’m not around ta do it, don’t be afraid ta slap him around fer it.”

Sugarbelle let out a sharp breath. “I’m not his mom, Mac, Ah don’t know that I can do that.”

“What’cha are is my wife, my other half, my better half, my partner in crime, and the love of my life. Ah’m about ta try and turn a colt inta a stallion, and Ah need yer help. Ya don’t have ta be his ma; he’s already got one of the nicest ones ya could ask fer. What Ah need ya ta be is the law ta my order. How’s that sound, Lady Justice?”

Sugarbelle clicked her tongue. “You think your sweet talk can just get’cha anywhere today, don’t’cha?” She let out a long sigh. “Alright, Your Honor, you have my sword.”

I curled my hoof. “Amen. Though, Ah have ta say…”

“Hmm?”

“We’ve been married fer fourteen years and we’ve got two kids. Sweet talk clearly got me somewhere.”

Crickets.

“I’m hangin’ up, Mac.”

“Ah’ll see ya at home. Get the guest room ready please. Ah love ya.”

“I love you too.”

-Click-

“She loves me.”

“Ya know, I have to say sir, you’re pretty good at this game for someone who’s never played before,” Malus said.

Oh, this is gonna go well.

“Yaks best at everything! We play again!” the yak demanded.

If I hadn’t been watching the game from the start, I would’ve thought Malus was actually bad at pool. No: he lost deliberately, in spite of his partner’s ability or understanding of how the game worked. For every shot Malus took, he made sure to miss each shot by that much, and set up a shot for his opponent so they could hit a couple balls in without much effort. It was impressive, really. Kid was very good and subtle about it. He’d hit one in on occasion, he’d scratch on purpose every now and again, and he made it seem as if his opponent just beat him to the draw.

Of course, he was scamming yaks this time, the cow related ungulates from the far north with the fine control of a wrecking ball. I was more amazed that nothing in the bar was broken yet.

“Alright, I can see you enjoyed that one. Would you guys… like to make this interestin’?” the young stallion reached into his pocket and took out a nice hoofful of bits. He stacked them in a neat pile in the center of the pool table and went to chalk up his cue stick.

The Yak pulled the wool off his eyes, clearly dazzled by the thought of not only winning again but taking about a month’s worth of wages away from this pompous, slick-talking teen. He turned to his friend, said something in their language, then met Malus’s bet with a stack twice the size of his.

“Yaks see pony’s game. Yaks win pony’s game.”

Ooh, he’s really good at this.

Malus didn’t so much as smirk at seeing all those bits on the table. He kept a straight face, almost appearing genuinely surprised. Maybe he was surprised by the ease in his con over these yaks and simply nodded in agreement.

“That sure is a hefty coin purse ya got there. Alright sirs, ya have yourselves a bet.” He took a little string bag out of his jacket pocket, prepared for this exact scenario, and loaded up all the bits. He added another stack from his pocket to match the bet, then set it just out of the yak’s reach and just close enough to him that he could grab it and bolt if need be.

“The game is the same as before, and of course, winner takes all. Sound good?”

Huh. That’s uncomfortable.

Malus stuck a hoof out to shake on it and the yak eagerly accepted. “As a show of good faith, y’all can break.”

I chuckled. As if there’s any good faith in this game.

His ear twitched my direction and I quickly turned around, flipped the collar on my jacket up, pulled my hat down and started sipping on the whiskey I ordered. He looked my way, but went right back to his game. I let out a breath.

Sharp ears too.

“Yaks break!”

And they certainly did. Cue ball went flying, all the balls bounced around the table, three going into holes, two being solids, one a stripe, and that was the first and only time they got to shoot. Maybe to show off, maybe to piss off the yaks a little, Malus then proceeded to call every hole his balls would go in, shoot them in numerical order, and then put the eight ball in the far-right corner.

“Y-you! Pony cheats!”

Letting his smile loose, Malus shrugged. “Sorry boys, I’m afraid that ain’t how the game works. Now then, I think I’ll take these and be on my way…”

“No! Pony lies! Pony give yak’s bits back or pony dies!”

Taking that as my cue to step in, I walked up from behind a sweating Malus and put myself between them and him. “Now, why don’t y’all just calm down fer a minute?”

The yak stomped and shook the ground. “Little pony trick yaks! Little pony cheats! Why big pony ask for calm!?”

I caught Malus about to grab the bag and run out of the reflection of my sunglasses and took hold of his tail before he could make a move. “The hell is with you and my tail, ya old fuck!?”

Ignoring him and forcing him to sit next to me, I said to the yaks, “Because, Ah can win yer bits back. Let me play a game for ya, he can’t beat me.”

Malus reared back. “Excuse you?”

The yak stoked his long, braided beard, said something to his friend in his language, then nodded. “Yaks trust big pony, but big pony better win for yaks. Else, big pony die too.”

Malus backed off and held a hoof up. “Woah, woah, woah. First, fuck you. Mind your own damn business. Second, what did ya do with Ma? She’s not here, is she?”

I shook my head. “No, I left her at yer apartment.”

It was slight, but comfort washed over him and his shoulders lowered a little. “Okay. Third, even if I did rise to your stupid jab, what reason would I have to even play ya? Ya gonna bet somethin’, ya country prick?”

Shit. Well, if I have to scam the schemer, might as well go all the way. I rifled in my pocket for my wallet, grabbed one of the cancelled credit cards I still have because I never cleaned the thing out, and threw it on the table.

“Ah’ll give ya a day with it before Ah cancel it. It’s got a 2500 bit limit and all Ah’ve used it fer is the drink Ah bought.”

Malus raised a brow. He went to the table to inspect the card, saw that the date was still good through this year, then threw it in the bag. “Alright old geezer. I’d say that’s worth my while. But, we’re playin’ with house rules. Pick the suit before ya break, nockin’ balls in out of numerical order counts as a scratch, and ya call every hole before ya hit, got it?”

I let out a breath and rolled my eyes. “’Long as ya break, Ah’ll take it.”

Malus huffed. “Deal. I won’t even give ya a chance to shoot. Just you watch.”

He started to chalk up his cue, and I racked up the balls. Once it was all in order and aligned, Malus grabbed the cueball, lined up his stick, and made the break. The ceramic balls bounced and scattered around the table and I almost had a heart attack. He hit 1 through 4 in the corners of the table, but thankfully also knocked 15 in one of the side pockets.

He clicked his tongue. “Fine. Ya get one. Better not screw up a shot, dick head.” He aggressively put the cueball in my hoof and went off to the side to pout. Had the power been a bit more controlled, he probably would’ve knocked 7 in instead of 15, and that would’ve been the end of the road for me.

“Don’t’cha worry, son, one is all I need.”

This time, it was the truth. I took three shots in total. 9, 10, and 11 were aligned in just such a way that I managed to get a clear break on them and scatter them into the far right, far left, and center left pockets, all in that order. It made Malus swallow. 12 and 13 were right across from each other at the near end of the table, so I took a hard-angled shot at the back and had the cue come around and hit 13 into 12; both followed into the near right corner. I could see sweat on Malus’s brow. On the final shot, I decided to do something fun. The cue stopped just in front of the 8, and the 14 was on the opposite side of the cue and the 8. I called top left for 14 and bottom left for 8.

“What!? You’re full of shit! You can’t hit a shot like that! I don’t care who ya are!” Malus protested.

Letting the smirk overtake my face, I turned to Malus and raised a brow. “And this will be the first thing Ah teach ya. Don’t tell me what Ah can’t do.” Aiming at the bottom of the ball, I knocked it into the air and over the 8. It hit the back edge of the table, bounced back in, and smacked hard into the 8. The 8 flew slightly angled after the 14, knocked it into the top left corner. With the last of the power in the shot, the 8 just barely missed the top right hole, then came back around and went directly into the near left hole.

“N-no! There’s no way! That didn’t just happen, this is bullshit!” At first, Malus was awed by the shot I made. Wouldn’t be the first time I made it, and Applebloom still sweeps me in this game. He came a little closer to the table to truly inspect that the balls made it to their target destination, then, all at once, I realized my mistake. The bag was closer to him than it was to me. I was on the opposite side of the table from it, and the yaks were even further away.

Malus grabbed the bag and bolted, and just as quick I leapt over the table and chased after him. The yaks weren’t far behind. Thinking quickly, I ran back to my truck instead of following him and drove a couple blocks down the road. The game showed me that he thinks like I do: if I were him, I’d make sure I lost my pursuers, then head home in the cover of night. That in mind, I drove a couple blocks closer to Cheeri’s place where there was a small park and a little playground. The buildings in this district weren’t very tall, but they clustered together like grapes.

He’d probably not spend long leading the yaks, throw a bit out while he hides behind a dumpster to make them think he went the other way, then come here and wait for a while, just to be safe. Whether or not he’d admit it, there’s little else he cared about more than his mother, and he wouldn’t do anything that might put her in danger.

I turned off the lights and parked under a tree, just in such a position that he wouldn’t be able to see my truck without turning a flashlight on it. I made my way up the jungle gym and then waited under the castle top, half hidden in the slide.

Five minutes.

Ten minutes.

Fifteen minutes.

Malus appeared.

He emerged from the shadows between an unlit alley watching his back, checked both sides before he crossed the street, then ran for the jungle gym. Credit where credit was due, this kid was smart. He’d twisted the bag around so the bits were so tightly together, they didn’t make a sound as he galloped. He kept light on the tips of his hooves, and he’d brought a black beanie with him and tucked his tail in his pants. If I wasn’t looking for him, I probably would’ve missed him.

He climbed up, walked right past me, then sat down, dropped the bag and relaxed. “Good Goddess. First he shows up at my house, then he shows up at my bar, who the hell is that guy?”

Before he could react, I snatched the bag and used my free hoof to trap him against the castle wall. “Howdy.”

“What the— How did you find me, you mother fucker!”

I felt a grin crawl up my face. “Because, Malus, Ah’m not just any mother fucker. Ah’m your mother fucker.”

He stopped struggling for a moment to think about that. “The hell are ya talking about?”

“The name’s Macintosh Apple. Ah’m yer father. Nice ta meet’cha.”

“So… this is for real?” Malus asked.

“I’m sorry I never told you,” Cheeri replied.

“Uh-huh. Now get yer things. We have fourteen years of father-son bondin’ ta make up fer in a month, and we’re startin’ early in the mornin’ tomorrow,” I added.

Malus glared at me, but now that his mother had confirmed what I told him, he didn’t quite know how he should be doing it. Confused, upset, angry, lost: his emotions fought for control, but none of them won. He turned back to his mother. “And ya… ya really want me to go with him?”

Cheeri took his hoof in hers and nodded. “I do. What I’ve kept from both of you wasn’t fair to either of you, and…” Cheeri sighed. She wrapped herself around her boy. “Oh, Malus. I’ve always wanted to give you a father, but I could never find anypony who wanted to be him and now your real father has come to find you! You may not see it right now, but I think this will be for the best for everypony.”

Malus’s eyes flicked from her to me and back again, and the longer the hug lasted, the more twitchy he became. “Alright, alright, I’ll go, Ma! Just… chill out, alright?” He gently removed her from himself, but didn’t let go of her hoof. “And… you’ll promise me you’re not gonna invite anymore creeps over while I’m gone, right?”

Cheeri wiped at her eyes. A rare smile came over. “Of course, dear. I promise.”

Malus sighed. He sent me another unsure glance, then let go of his mother’s hoof. “Good. Good…” Went to say something, but stopped himself midway. “I guess I’ll… go grab some clothes.”

Malus dragged his hooves off to the third room in the apartment and closed the door behind him. I let out a sigh of relief. “Whew. That was easier than Ah thought it was gonna be.”

Cheeri shook her head. “No, no, that was… very hard for him. I’m honestly a little surprised he agreed to this.”

I shrugged. “Nah. Ah’m not.”

She tilted her head at me. “Really? Why is that?”

I brought a hoof to my beard. “Despite not knowin’ him all his life, Ah’m fairly certain Ah know exactly how he works. Which, funnily enough, is the opposite of how Ah feel about the one Ah raised. Where Ox, er, Oxford had everythin’ Ah didn’t growin’ up, Malus is… much more like Ah was at his age. He cares about exactly one thing, and one thing only. So long as ya know what that one thing is, he’s easy ta understand.”

“Is… is that so?”

“Eeyup.”

“And… that one thing is…?”

I looked her over, almost said it, then thought better of it. “Think on it fer a while. If ya don’t figure it out by the time Ah bring him back, then Ah’ll tell ya then.”

She groaned. “Mac! Come on, that isn’t fair!”

I turned away. “Ah’ve made my decision.”

Cheeri quite literally shook me for information until Malus came back with a bag haphazardly stuffed full of things.

I almost felt bad for him. “Hey, cheer up, son. It’s not like you’re never gonna see her again.”

Malus clicked his tongue and growled at me. “Oh, shut up ya country prick! I ain’t sad! … and don’t call me ‘son’ either.”

Cheeri went and hugged her boy again, much to his dismay. “Aww, Malus! It won’t be for too long! I’ll even get one of those carrot cakes for when you get back.”

She kissed him on the cheek and he more forcefully separated himself from her. “Ma, stop it! Geez! Why are ya always like this? Stop bein’ such a dumb ass!”

“Hey!”

Startled, both Cheeri and Malus turned their attention to me.

I took a step forward. “Ah told ya earlier, and Ah’ll tell ya again. Do not talk ta yer mother like that. Say somethin’ like that ta her again, and it’s yer last warnin’. Say somethin’ like that ta my wife, and she’ll make ya regret livin’ before Ah even get a chance at ya.”

For the very first time, probably in his life, Malus didn’t rise to a challenge. Immediately, anyways. His ears folded for just a second, but then he stood up to meet me. “Oh yeah? And what are you gonna do about it, you old piece of shit?”

This time, I smiled. I walked right up to him, took a deep breath, and flexed. “Boy, my dearest, oldest son. Ah’ve spent every day of my life hard at work since Ah was a colt tryin’ ta build up my family ta the place they are now. Ah plowed every field, Ah bucked every tree, Ah built and rebuilt every barn. So, ta answer yer question, there’s a lot Ah could do.”

Malus had backed away just a bit.

I continued, “But, you’re my son, and whether or not ya realize it, Ah love ya. So there’s a lot Ah won’t do. The thing is, son, there’s also a lot Ah don’t have ta do. ‘Cause Ah know what makes ya tick. If the moment ever comes, well…” I leaned down and met the boy eye to eye. Malus swallowed. “You’ll find out.”

Malus fell back on his haunches, and even Cheeri had a look of concern plastered on her face.

And I’d call that a successful performance. I clapped my hooves. “Okay! Now that that’s settled, let’s get ta the truck! You’ve probably never seen a sunrise, and we need ta be up before it! Let’s go, move it!”

I pushed him back up to standing, and slowly, he started to walk. He sent one last fearful look to his mom, and finally, he was out the door.

Before I could leave myself, Cheeri asked, “You… you’re not gonna hurt him, are you?”

I flashed her a smile. “Don’t’cha worry none, Sugarcube. You’ll get him back in one piece. So long as he behaves. See ya in August!”

And with that, I closed the door.

Do you recall what was revealed

It was days like this that I almost felt like a kid again. When I was little and Applejack wasn’t quite old enough to work yet, nopony made her get up in the morning as early as Pa and Granny and I did, and it always made me a little sour. She got to sleep in, but none of us did. It wasn’t fair, even if she was half my age. Maybe I was being petty, maybe I was just a kid, maybe it was really starting to set in that we’d just lost Ma; all the same, I wasn’t happy about it. However, on the day she turned five, it was time to start helping out, and I got to wake her up that morning. This felt a lot like that.

I threw the guest room door open, flipped on the lights and said, “Mornin’, son!” about as loud as I could.

Startled awake, Malus fought the bed sheets until he’d righted himself on top of the bed. “What!? What!? Where am I!?” His eyes settled on me and blinked. Still staring at me like he didn’t know what he was looking at, he rubbed the sand out of his eyes, and everything returned to him. “Oh. Right.” He looked out the window, noting that it was still dark, then turned back to me. “You’re not serious, are ya?”

I tried to smile normally in spite of how excited I was for the day to come. I love Oxford and Liberty, I really do, but neither of them are old enough, or strong enough, really, to use some of my manual tools, specifically the plow. At the same time, neither of them have any desire to learn how to use the manual tools either. Oxford could and would stay inside playing video games all day if we let him, and Liberty earned herself a cutiemark for shooting in the past week. Pretty unique I think, an apple mid explosion as something passes through it. Sugarbelle was less than pleased.

Malus, on the other hoof, has no choice in the matter, and he’s clearly got more of my physique than Cheeri’s family. This boy is an Apple through and through, and he might not know that yet, but he’s gonna love it once he starts. “We rise with the sun in this house. Sugar is already workin’ on breakfast, and both yer siblin’s are in the bathroom brushin’ their teeth. Now get up, we’ve got a full day ahead of us!”

Malus stared at me like you would a crazy pony, then looked at the window again. “It’s still dark out. Are ya senile too?”

My smile dropped. A rebuke came to mind as quick as a whip, but I thought better of it before I said anything. Hold on now, he doesn’t know. Breathe, Mac. I took a deep breath, marched right up to his bed, then leaned down and got in his face.

“Listen, son, Ah’m gonna need ya ta clean up yer vocabulary. Yer Great Granny, the mare that raised me, bless her soul, lost a battle ta a brain disease ’bout fifteen years ago. Because of that, my sisters and Ah, all our spouses and all our kids, don’t really like that word. Ya might’ve learned by now that ya have a temper. Ya might also know that it doesn’t come from yer mother. Don’t say it again.”

Fully alert now, Malus swallowed and backed up against the wall. “Uh… s-sure.”

I raised my snout a little. “The words are: ‘Yes, sir.’”

He swallowed again. “Y-yes sir.”

That brought joy back to my face. “Good! Now go brush yer teeth. Ah know what Cheeri can cook, so you’ve never had a breakfast like the one you’re about ta get.”

Very quickly, Malus skirted around the edge of the bed and bolted for the door, still wearing pants, oddly enough. It wasn’t until cellular was introduced to the world that ponies started to wear clothes all the time, but even so, I didn’t know of many ponies who sleep in clothes. Especially in the summer. Huh. Maybe he just likes them.

When Malus came to sit next to me on the other side of Liberty, she looked between him and Oxford and back and forth until finally asking, “Pa? Does Ox have a twin?” Even the boys couldn’t help but stare at each other in bewilderment.

I shook my head. “Naw, Ox doesn’t have freckles.” I grabbed a napkin and wiped the coffee off my beard, then stood up. “Ox, Liberty, this is your half brother, Malus. Because of… a number of things that have been brought to my attention recently, he’ll be staying with us till the end of August.”

Sugarbelle sighed as she brought a hot stack of sweet-smelling pancakes over. “Oh, I’m so glad ya said that. When they’re sittin’ together like that, I can’t hardly tell ’em apart either. Um, anyways, welcome to the family Malus. There’s a few other syrups and jams in the fridge if ya don’t like what’s out here, and we’ve usually got a bit of whatever’s growin’ on the farm in there too. The coffee is in the white carafe, the mugs are in that cabinet, and… I think that’s about everythin’.”

Malus looked at her like he didn’t know what to do. He didn’t. “I, uh…”

I was about to whisper in his ear, but Liberty beat me to it. “The words are: ‘thanks, Ma.’”

“Thanks, Ma.” Then, he realized what he said and covered his mouth. “Ma’am! I mean, ma’am. Th-thanks.”

I leaned back behind Malus’s chair and gave Liberty a high hoof, then patted Malus’s mane. “Attaboy. You’ll do just fine here, Ah think.”

“Come on now, put yer back inta it! Liberty’s half yer size and two thirds yer age and she can do it!”

Malus bucked another apple tree, but again, managed to fell only half the apples on his side. That showed he had a talent for it since this was his third attempt, but for him to get me ahead of schedule, I needed him to get the hang of it sooner rather than later. The right encouragement, and he’d get it.

He clicked his tongue like a rabid chicken and stared daggers at me. “You’re full of sh—”

I raised my snout and growled, “What’d Ah say about that mouth of yers?”

Malus’s ears flattened against his head. He ground his teeth together. “Fine! Whatever! I’m kicking this stupid tree as hard as I can! There ain’t no way that little filly—”

I motioned for Liberty to do her thing, and sure enough, Malus watched as all the apples fell off the tree and into the buckets around it. The older boy shut up pretty quick.

Pleased to have somepony to teach, Liberty happily trotted up to Malus and explained what he was doing wrong. “Alright, it’s real simple, okay? All ya gotta do is hit the soft spot, and that’ll shake the whole thing just right. Ah think you’re close, but you’re not timin’ it right.”

Malus let out a breath and rolled his eyes. “Perfect, I have bad timing on a thing that doesn’t move. Just how am I supposed to find some random spot on some random tree I’ve never even seen before?”

Liberty frowned. “Ah mean… ya can’t just tell by lookin’ at it?”

Malus screwed up his snout like what she just said smelled bad. “What? No, why would I…? No.”

Confusion took over her face and she moved to inspect the tree he’d been working on. “But… that’s where ya’ve been hittin’ it.” She moved to the other tree he bucked first and pointed where he bucked that one. “Ya hit the soft spot on this one too. Do ya… really not know?” Now Malus tilted his head and went to inspect the tree with her.

I was having the hardest time trying to keep the smile off my face. Applejack bucked her first full tree when she was five. Applebloom did it when she was six. Oxford did it when he was four. Liberty did it when she was five. Watching every single apple fall off an apple tree all at once was almost like a right of passage for us, and though he was a little old, it was still always exciting to watch somepony do it for the first time. I’ve seen cousins do it, I’ve seen nieces and nephews do it, but there was little that made me happier than watching my own kids do it. Maybe things started wrong, maybe thing should’ve been different, but my son was finally here, ready to join the family for real.

He’s usually a little shy, a trait of mine I don’t particularly care for, but Oxford approached his siblings and offered Malus some advice. “Hey, uh… Ah guess, ‘brother’ would be the right word, but um…” He lined up in front of the half-bucked tree and got in position. “If ya line yerself up straight and use yer forelegs ta rock a little when ya kick, ya get more power out of it.” Oxford demonstrated, and sure enough, the rest of the apples on that tree fell neatly into their buckets. “Ah think that’s all you’re really missin’.”

The slightest smirk beat out the resistance on my face. I tugged at my beard. “Ya know… that sounds like good advice, Ox. You two move the buckets fer him ta that one over there.”

I pointed at the oldest, largest apple tree on my orchard, and the kids gave me a look that said, ‘Are ya sure Pa?’

I nodded, then turned to Malus. “Now, this one here is one Ah usually have ta get because they’re just not quite big enough fer it yet.” I raised a brow. “Think ya can handle it?”

He let out a breath, glared at me, then looked up… and further up at the tree. It was unusually tall for its age, and it was unusually thick for its age too. This particular tree was grown from the seeds of the oldest tree on Sweet Apple Acres, the very first tree that was planted there generations and generations ago.

Every time an Apple moves away from the Acres to set down his own roots, he gets exactly one apple’s worth of seeds from that tree, and is expected to plant those seeds first. Though Applebloom doesn’t have a big one, even she has a little orchard in her backyard, and her own tree, just like this. They’re the centerpieces and most fruitful trees on any Apple family apple orchard, and bucking the apples down from it is also a right of passage for us. Can’t buck it yourself, then you don’t deserve its fruit. Only the strongest apples get to plant roots, after all.

The other kids finished setting up and Malus clicked his tongue again. “Whatever. It’s just another stupid tree. I can’t believe ya brought me out here just to be more free labor.”

That was an eye-roller for me. “Ah fed ya, didn’t Ah? Ah’ll feed ya again too. Now go buck that tree like yer life depends on it.” I gave him a swat on the cutiemarks, and after growling at me for it, he trotted up to the tree.

He was daunted by the sheer size of the thing, but right in front of him was the chance to do something he’d wanted to do all his life: prove he can do it. I motioned for Oxford and Liberty to come to my side, and we all waited and watched together.

Malus started by using his fore hoof to feel along the bark until he paused once he’d reached a certain spot on the trunk. He lowered his brows, inspected the spot thoroughly, then figured he had it right. He turned around, lined himself up straight, spread his forelegs while keeping a close eye on his target, rocked forward, raised his hind legs, and bucked.

The trunk shivered, the leaves shook, and the apples all rained down.

Liberty cheered, Ox shouted, and I let the smile overtake my face. The kids went to congratulate him, and when he finally looked to me after seeing what he’d done, I said, “Ya did good, son.”

For the very first time, Malus smiled at me.

At the beginning of the second week, I’d come to the realization that I had no idea what Malus’s special talent was. He still had his attitude, he still had his mouth, but he’d gotten comfortable here. Liberty was his favorite pony, he was polite with Sugarbelle, and though they never said much to each other, he and Oxford had started to bond over his video games.

It came to me the day after Sugarbelle had taught him how to make an apple pie, specifically with the apples that he’d bucked down earlier in the week. He did well. Even added a spice she didn’t tell him to and just seemed to know the pie needed it. The kid was good with his hooves, all the tools I had he had an instinct for, and not a single thing he did on the farm took him more than a couple tries to figure out.

Everything just came naturally to him, but there’s not a chance he would’ve learned any of these skills in all his years with Cheerilee. Neither I nor my sisters really had a talent for billiards; it was just one of the games we could play since Pa built us a table before he died, and we played it all the time.

If he’d had a talent for cue sports, he would’ve beat me the moment he broke that night. He was about as good as I was at the video games at first, but he picked it up after enough tries. His math needs some work before I’ll ever let him touch my spreadsheets again. He also shot wide on every target when he joined me and Liberty to the range. I’d learned that he doesn’t know how to cook much too. To top it off, as insult to injury, he wasn’t adept at any of the academics even with the teacher, his mother. Based on what he did to my spreadsheets, math was his worst subject.

That Monday night, I figured out why.

“Are those the same pants you’ve been workin’ in all week?” I asked.

Malus looked back at his hind quarters. “Well, yeah. What about ‘em?”

“They stink, son. Ah could smell ya from outside. Go put ‘em in the laundry room and take a shower.”

Malus went to sniff them, then reared back. “Okay, yeah, maybe they do—” Then something occurred to him. “I can’t.”

I frowned. “What do ya mean, ‘ya can’t?’ Laundry room is right down the hall. Ah figured ya knew where everything was by now.”

He shook his head. “That’s not the issue, geezer! I don’t have another pair.”

I blinked. “Wha…? What do ya need another pair of pants fer? We’re done fer the day! It’s not like ya can’t put yer phone nearby, and you’re gonna go take a shower. Ya don’t need ‘em.”

“Yes I do! I’m not taking them off. I’m going to bed. I’ll see ya in the morning.”

He attempted to push past me, but I caught him by the tail and dragged him back. “Take. Off. The pants.”

“No! Let go of me!” He struggled to free his tail from my hoof, but I took that opportunity to trap his forelegs to his barrel.

“You’ve been wearin’ these nasty things since Ah brought ya home a week ago! They’re comin’ off whether ya like it or not!”

“Stop it! Don’t touch me, you ass hole! Let me go, damn it!” He fought hard to get away from me, like he was in real danger; I couldn’t fathom why. Regardless, these nasty pants were making me nauseous, and I wasn’t about to let the smell spread any further in my house. I threw him on the ground, kept his forelegs trapped under one of my hind legs and then went to work on his belt.

“Stop it! Don’t do it! Pa, please!”

‘Pa?’ Did he just call me Pa? I’d absentmindedly managed to get them unzipped and unbuttoned. When I finally pulled the pants down, I understood.

“Oh my Goddess… ya don’t have a cutiemark….”

All at once, Malus curled his head in. Like a waterfall, tears flowed.

“Now, just explain ta me why ya happened ta leave out this particular piece of information, Cheeri.”

Malus was still crying, Liberty and Sugarbelle were trying to console him; Oxford was working on some hot cider. Liberty is nine years old and she got her cutiemark two weeks ago. Oxford got his even earlier than she did. How in the world did Malus manage to go fourteen years without figuring out what he’s supposed to be? His work here clearly shows he’s talented in the usual family traits, but surely something would’ve come along and made him figure that out by now. Unless this is even more serious and he’s got a real case of blank flank, Goddess forbid.

“Well, it’s not exactly something you bring up to other ponies, Mac,” she said over the line.

I sighed and scratched at my disheveled mane. “Ah understand that, Cheeri, but it would’ve been great ta know before Ah traumatized him! Ah’m his father fer Goddess’s sake! Of all the ponies in the world that need ta know about this kinda crap, Ah need ta know!”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I… I just didn’t think about it. Or at least… I try not to. When he didn’t have it by the time he turned thirteen, I really thought he might actually just be a blank flank. It’s not as if we didn’t try everything we could just to get him somewhere, but nothing ever… stuck, I suppose. I even took a page out of Applebloom’s book and started exploring every profession I could think of and just getting him to try everything. Nothing ever worked, the teasing only got worse as he got older, the fights started to get more and more violent, and… and then he started to explore… unsavory activities.”

I leaned my head against the wall and put my free hoof against the back of my neck. Quietly sobbing at the table, covering his face with his forelegs, ears folded back, tail tucked in, hind legs crossed. Poor kid. No wonder.

“Is there anything else, and Ah mean anything else, Ah need ta know about him?”

Silence over the line.

“He’s allergic to strawberries and gets tummy aches when he takes in too much dairy. Um… I think he smoked a lot while he was in that gang, so be careful if he starts getting into coughing fits. He has his asthma kit on him, but you should probably find it just in case you need to use it. He doesn’t do well around heavy perfumes. And… that’s all I can think of at the moment.”

Of course he was part of a gang. “Thanks, Cheeri. If you think of anything else at all that I need ta know, please call me right then and there, alright? Ah’ve always got my phone on me.”

“I’m sorry you had to find out this way. I suppose that’s one more thing I should’ve told you sooner…”

For a time, sighing was the only thing I could do. “Yes. Yes it is.”

A long, long time ago

As luck would have it, a week later, Malus finally earned his mark when he managed to clear an entire quadrant of my orchard on his own. The thing that ate away at me inside, however, was the fact that it looked just like mine and Pa’s. A red delicious, split in half with four seeds pointing to the corners of the interior flesh with a brown stem and a green leaf that were exactly the same as mine. I know I haven’t been around him for most of his life, but that was probably the happiest he’d ever been.

It… made me sit down and think. He’s not just mine, he belongs to the Apple family in a way probably even bigger than his siblings. He has my cutiemark, he has Pa’s cutiemark, a cutiemark that stallions in the apple family have had for generations going all the way back to the very beginning. How could he have ever possibly figured out what he’s supposed to do if he never wandered onto an orchard by happenstance?

How badly did we screw up his life, just by not letting him know where he comes from? His heritage is everything, but he didn’t even know that’s where his talents lay. How quickly could he have gotten his mark if I’d just known about him when he was young? Or, if Cheerilee actually told me all those years ago and I’d married her instead?

I never would’ve left the Acres if I never met Sugarbelle, and I never would’ve met her if I didn’t break up with Cheerilee. Would I… have given up on the Acres if I knew I had a son on the way? When we decided to bring Oxford into the world, I made sure to expand this orchard as much as I could, not just hoping but expecting he’d want to be an Apple family stallion.

Over the next week, a dark realization came to me. The idea that drove me to meet him wasn’t some noble minded ideal that he deserved it. It’s that I had another chance. My son didn’t want to be an apple farmer. My daughter didn’t want to be an apple farmer. It drove a stake in my heart. I didn’t know what I was going to do with this place when Sugarbelle and I get too old to work it. I was afraid to see everything I built with my own two hooves crumble.

Was I… a bad pony for doing this? Obviously, this was where he belongs, but I couldn’t just keep him. His mother needs him well more than I do. She’s… bound to get herself in trouble again for being the way she was, and if she hasn’t changed in seventeen years, she wouldn’t change in the future. But what about what he wanted? The Acres are closer to him and Cheerilee, and he could take a train from District 47 to District 2: he wouldn’t even need a car.

Applejack wouldn’t turn him away, and she could afford to pay him on top food and lodging now that she’s got her system in place. What if he… what if he wanted to spend his life there? What if he wanted to do what I’d done and go find somewhere to lay down his own roots? He might want to work an orchard for the rest of his life, but he didn’t have to stick with mine.

I said I brought him here because I wanted to turn him into a gentleman, but the truth is… I brought him here to turn him into an Apple. It was just that simple too. He did everything we’d always done as well as anypony born in this family or even better. Not only was he the spitting image of Pa, but he acted like him too. He’s more of a stallion than Oxford; with the way he came to love his little sister, he’ll be a good father someday too, and when ya clean him up, he… he really did have that sheen to him that I always thought looked so beautiful on his mother.

If he’d just been here, if he’d just been with me, his life could’ve been so different. But if that were the case… he wouldn’t be himself, now would he? If Oxford were in his position, would he turn out like Malus? Would the reverse be true? I guess… I could never really know one way or the other.

On the evening of August 26th, the fourth and final week I’d have him from dusk till dawn, I sat Malus down and tried to figure out what he wanted. Out of me, out of his mother, out of life. I’d been selfish all through this. I wanted to make him into something. That’s not how I treated Liberty, that’s not how I treated Ox, and that’s not how Cheeri treated him. It’s true: she never raised a hoof at him, she never set limits, Cheeri still didn’t know how to be firm to this day. But what she did was her best, and she wanted to do everything she could to give him a life that he wanted. She wanted him to grow up into something he wanted to be, never had any grand plans other than hoping he would be a good stallion some day.

It’s the same thing I’ve been doing with my kids for twelve years, and if they had never told me how they felt about this place, I doubt I would’ve done anything but teach him manners. This has been poorly motivated from the start, and if he’s ever gonna become a good stallion, a better stallion than me, I needed to say all that to his face.

When the sun started to sink into the horizon that night, we were so far ahead of schedule that we didn’t have anything else left to do for the month. We’d only have to tend to the crops for the rest of the week, or we could even get started on cider season early. Having him around and seeing the hard and efficient worker by my side, I couldn’t be more proud of who he’s become. I just wonder if… this is what he wanted.

“Have a seat, son.”

His brows knitted at first, but he shrugged and took the other patio chair anyways. “Alright, Pa. Something up?”

Trying to formulate exactly what I was going to say to him, I absently said, “Yeah…”

“Did I… do something wrong?”

That pulled me out of my own head. “What? No, ya’ve been nothin’ but fantastic these past two weeks. Exceptional, even.”

He still didn’t quite understand how to take praise, but at least I could get him to smile every once and a while. “Well… alright then.” He leaned back in the chair and asked, “So, what’s this about?”

I leaned over my knees and put my chin on my forehooves. “Ah think… Ah did somethin’ wrong, son.”

He reared his head back and knocked it into the house wall. “Oww!” he rubbed the bump. Asked, “What makes ya say that?”

I let out a breath. “Malus, before Ah knew that ya existed, Liberty told me somethin’ that… killed me inside a little.”

He nodded. “Oh, about not wanting the farm, right?”

He talks to her more than anypony; course he knows. “Right. Ah was… more than upset. That was probably the most depressed Ah’d been since Ah broke up with yer Ma.”

“Wait. You broke up with Ma because ya were… depressed? Isn’t that like… the opposite of what gets ponies out of depression?”

I leaned back in my chair. I could feel all the aches in my muscles. “Ah wasn’t in a good place. There was a lot goin’ on.”

Malus turned his forehooves open. “Like what? I don’t know anything about your past, really. Before ya showed up, Ma wouldn’t even talk about how I came to be.” He sneered at me. “Tell me a story, Pa.”

I gave him a half lidded stare, but conceded and rolled my eyes. “Back in ’04, things were… on the verge. Have ya ever seen District 2?”

Malus shook his head. “Nah, too far out of the way, no real reason to go there. I’ve seen the castle from when we came back from Manehattan, but I’ve never been to the central parts of Ponyville.”

“The entirety of District 2 is Sweet Apple Acres. It’s actually gotten a little bigger since the princess had the highways constructed, but it’s been about as big as it is for as long as our family’s been around. Yer ancestors settled that land before even the princesses came ta power, if that tells ya anythin’. We can trace our bloodline all the way back ta the previous era, and some of the oldest documents related ta the city, the country, and the continent were written there.”

Malus blinked. “Wow. I had no idea.”

I nodded. “Course ya don’t. As far as history goes, we weren’t really involved in the foundin’ or the settlin’ much. We’ve had a general or two over the years in the family, includin’ yer great grandpa, who died in the last war we were a part of, and this part of Equestria is actually named after one of yer ancestors, Palomino Apple, but that’s about as far as it goes. The real famous old lineages all live in Canterlot, and Ah’m sure ya know about what the Shimmers and the Pants families have done fer the country over the years.”

Malus sucked air in through his teeth. “Well… I was never the greatest student…”

“When Ah give ya back ta yer mother, take school seriously, would ya? Learn yer history. It’s the only way ta prevent it from happenin’ again.” I paused. “And good Goddess, get somepony ta teach ya math better.”

Malus crossed his forelegs. “Nopony asked ya to comment on my math skills.”

I shook my head. “Whatever. Point is, it’s more important than ya know. So, think about this farm. At this size, Ah can’t manage it all by myself. The Acres is twenty times the size of this farm.”

“Oh, crap.”

I pointed at him. “In ’04, Ah practically had ta start runnin’ it on my own.”

“Geez. Why?”

“Well, we have ta go back fer that.”

“Ah was born in ‘81, thirty-eight years ago. First son of the current head of the family. Happy, healthy, things are good. My oldest sister was born in ‘84. There were complications with her, but nothin’ too serious. My Ma just developed a cough after that. It’d get worse in the winter, but it was rare she coughed more than a few times a day.

“My youngest sister was born in the winter of ‘87. There were several complications. Ma didn’t survive labor. Ah was six years old, and right then and there, Ah had ta start growin’ up. In ‘95, My Pa and his best friend were drinkin’ late one night in the barn. We didn’t have electricity back then, so we used kerosene lamps fer light at night. They had too much, broke one of the lamps in the barn, and it went up in flames. Ah was yer age.”

“Holy crap.”

“Eeyup. Granny took back over, and now it was up ta a fifty-six-year-old mare, a fourteen-year-old colt, an eleven-year-old filly, and an eight-year-old filly ta run this massive farm. We’ve had the occasional help of extended family and the few extra hooves we could afford ta hire, but none lasted long. Ah didn’t have a choice but ta become a stallion right then and there, so that’s what Ah did. Then, in ’04, we might as well have lost Granny too.”

Malus’s ears fell. “Oh…”

I chuckled. “Well, don’t get sad yet, we’re just gettin’ ta the good part! As Granny always said, when it rains, it pours. Ah was datin’ yer mother at the time, and slowly but surely, we both started ta notice that Granny couldn’t keep up anymore. She got forgetful, confused me fer Pa and Applejack fer Ma. At one point, she asked Applebloom who she was.

“Now, Granny was a veteran at runnin’ the orchard, and even as Ah was much more able than she was at that point, she could still work faster and more efficient than Ah could. Granny could tell ya where every tree was, how much it produced last year all the way ta the decade before, and she knew when and how much most of the trees would produce before harvest season even came.”

Malus huffed. “What, was she psychic or something?”

I shook my head. “No, but… well, maybe. Ah’m finally startin’ ta get a feel fer ’em myself, but… the longer ya work the trees, the… better ya get ta know ‘em, Ah guess. Ya feel things, ya start ta just… know what they’ll do, what they’re capable of. Granny called it earth-pony magic, but of all the races, we, the most common one, seem ta be the least understood in that department.”

He nodded. “Psychic, got it.”

I waved that away. “Point is, when she started losin’ her mind, she started losin’ her touch too. The Acres went inta decline at the beginnin’ of 03 and hit a serious downward slide financially late the same year. Granny used ta manage the books too, and she never gave me an in-depth explanation of how she did it. Ah had ta figure that out, figure out how she could set it up so we could cover several acres of apple trees over the course of six months, the sales, the distribution, the payments. The three of us couldn’t do it by ourselves.

“Cheeri tried her best ta help all through this, but she just couldn’t keep up with the work we needed her ta do, on top of managin’ her job at the school. We hardly had time ta see each other. Ah… Ah don’t think Ah was ever truly in love with yer Ma, and eventually she just…”

Stopped myself. “This is awful ta say, but she just felt like another burden Ah didn’t need after a while. By the beginnin’ of ’04, Granny was mostly out the door, and Cheeri and Ah were on the tail end of our relationship. After seein’ her again, Ah don’t think she ever got over me, and what she did ta try and ‘rekindle’ our relationship didn’t work, at least not fer me. That event resulted in yerself, of course, and she never told me about ya.”

Malus sighed and put his elbow on his knee and his chin in his hoof. “I bet she did it because she didn’t want to give ya any more trouble, too.”

I clapped my hooves. “On the money. But she can tell ya that story. In April of that year, at the darkest point in my life, is when Sugarbelle walked inta my life. Her family had passed through Ponyville some time ago and they bought one of our famous apple pies. Of all the things that brought in bits, that was the one that brought the most. She wanted ta learn how ta make it, so she decided ta come back on her own and see if she could.

“It was… love at first sight, really. Heart started beatin’ again when she showed up, Granny’s head cleared if only a bit when she asked ta learn, and we just… took her in fer a while. She went from house guest ta caretaker ta marefriend in the span of a few months. She could bake, she couldn’t buck trees, but she could at least pick several apples at once with her magic, and she was… above and beyond a homemaker. It was… nostalgic. As if Ma’d come back from the other side ta take care of us again, and Ah never wanted ta let her go.

“So, Ah didn’t. Ah got Granny ta give me her old ring, and Ah took her out by my parent’s graves underneath a special tree deep in the Acres and gave it ta her.” I motioned to the house. “Clearly, she said yes.”

Malus scrunched his snout. “Ya… proposed in front of a grave?”

I rolled my eyes. “Ah’ll show it ta ya sometime, ya wouldn’t know if Ah didn’t tell ya. Anyways, while my life had become brighter, my oldest sister’s life had become much, much darker. Ah didn’t see how we could keep this up without more ponies than we could afford ta employ, and even if we did, the return wouldn’t be good enough ta keep us afloat. Ah thought the orchard was truly lost, so Ah started lookin’ fer somewhere else ta go and try and start over with somethin’ managable.

“Applejack was not happy about it. However, Applejack had also seen how Sugar cured my depression, and just like yer mother, she was too considerate ta take her own feelin’s inta account. Instead, what does she do but start drinkin’ all the booze in the house, run out of it, then go visit the local bar? She meets some random stallion who got off on the wrong train movin’ ta a new military base down south, and what does she do but get knocked up?”

Malus gritted his teeth. “That’s not cool.”

“Nah, he’s a great kid, and that stallion is my best friend these days. At the time, however, Applejack didn’t know any of this and she spiraled inta an even deeper depression. When she found out she was pregnant, she finally couldn’t handle the stress of it all and decided she was gonna end it. Had Fin not come back just ta get her name, who knows what would’ve happened?

“The last straw came in the spring of ’05. Applejack and Fin tied the knot just a few months before yer cousin Whiskey was born, and on the mornin’ of March fifteenth, Granny didn’t wake up. Ah wanted ta sell the Acres. Granny knew that, and Ah guess when she had a clear day while she was still around, she had the foresight ta make an edit ta her will. And she… wrote me out of it.”

I took a deep breath. Wiped at my eyes. “Not a day goes by where Ah don’t think about the letter she wrote me. She said, ‘My dearest grandson Macintosh, Sweet Apple Acres has seen worse before, and it will see worse again. Nopony but the Apples will see it end, come heaven or high water. Ah love ya. Go set yer roots down. You’re free.’

“Even as she was losin’ her mind, she saw what this was doin’ ta me, ta all of us, and she tailored everythin’ so we could each go our own ways however we wanted ta. She was stronger than any of us. If it weren’t fer her, so much would be so different. Granny was the best. Ain’t nopony has been a better mare than her ever since.”

Malus reached over and patted my shoulder. “Bold words for a married stallion.”

I snorted and failed to fight a smile. “Oh, shut up. So, Sugar’s parents live about a mile down the road from here, and they helped me buy a quarter of this land just as Princess Twilight started modernizin’ Equestria. In a few years, Ah had all of this. It was small by comparison, but Ah took Granny’s words ta heart. Ah started plantin’ like a mad stallion.

“After two years, Ah had the beginnin’s of an orchard, and my crops were startin’ ta come in full. Ah paid off my loans sellin’ the extra, and Sugar and Ah decided it was time ta start that family we always wanted. Yer brother was born in ’07, yer sister was born in ’09, and finally, Ah had everythin’ Ah’d wanted. An orchard Ah built, a family Ah made, a home Ah could call my own.

“And yet… Ah could never get over the guilt Ah felt for leavin’ Applejack and Applebloom like that. We’d go visit the Acres a few months outta the year, and thanks ta bein’ close friends with Princess Twilight, Applejack managed ta make a deal with the devil and save the Acres all on her own.”

Malus looked around and scratched at his neck. “Should ya be callin’ the Princess a devil?”

I shook my head. “Not the Princess. The government, son. She took a federal loan. Swallowed her pride, froze her heart, bent a knee. Had she not been Twi’s friend and known that she wasn’t gonna get screwed over, she would’ve let the Acres drown before she took a loan like that. The Acres are hers, through and through right now because she learned from the best.”

He nodded. “Ah, that makes more sense. I guess. How does she know the princess?”

I licked my lips. “Now that is a long story. When ya meet yer aunt, ya can ask her, or even the Princess herself if ya happen ta be at the acres when she comes ta visit. Even Ah see her about twice a year these days.”

Malus blinked. “Wow. That’s kinda crazy to think about.”

“Eeyup. 2000 ta ’03 were some crazy years, let me tell ya.” I tapped the arm of my chair with my hoof. “But, this brings us back ta what Ah wanted ta tell ya when we sat down.”

When Malus clicked his tongue this time, none of that rebellious venom showed up. Had been that way for a week. “Oh, right. About Liberty and Ox not wanting the farm.”

I sighed. “That. After Sugar flipped out on me and had yer Uncle look inta ya, Ah may not have thought it directly, but with you, Ah had another chance.”

He raised a brow. “Another chance?”

“Another chance ta keep the farm goin’. Ah didn’t know ya. Ah only had a detective’s approximation of who ya were, but when Ah look at ya, Ah see my Pa. Ah’ll take ya ta visit the Acres one day and show ya what he looked like, but it’s scary, really. In the same way that ya look like Ox. Same shape, same physique, same mane and tail even. Same eyes, same freckles, and now, the same cutiemark too.”

He looked at his hind quarters, then mine. “Really? I thought it was the same as yours…”

I shrugged. “Mine is about the same as his too. It’s in the blood, son.” I waved a hoof. “But the point is, Ah didn’t see ya as yer own pony, Ah saw ya as somepony Ah could mold inta myself. Ya were untapped, raw… an angry colt. A push in the right direction under supervision, and ya’d be exactly who Ah wanted ya ta be. It took seein’ ya get yer cutiemark ta realize what Ah was doin’, and… Ah’m sorry, Malus.”

Malus frowned. “I don’t… Back up, what? Ya wanted me… so ya could turn me into… you?”

“Pretty much. If Ah did it right, ya’d want ta take over by the time Ah get too old ta keep doin’ this. Ya’d be groomed inta the pony who could grow this place beyond what Ah did and expand it inta somethin’ even bigger and better than what Ah’ve built.”

He scratched at his cheek. “And… that’s a bad thing because…?”

I chuckled. “Well, first off, Ah’m glad ya feel that way. Second, it’s a bad thing because that’s not how a good stallion raises a colt. That’s not how Ma, Pa, and Granny raised me. That’s not how Ah’ve been raisin’ Ox and Liberty. Certainly, that’s not how yer Ma raised ya. We have more in common than Ah have with Ox. Because of that, Ah knew it would be easy ta shape ya the way Ah wanted, and that’s not fair.”

I took hold of the foreleg rests on my chair and sat up straight. Malus followed suit. “Son, Ah want ya ta become whoever it is you want ta become. As yer Pa, it’s my job ta see that ya get there, and make sure ya do it right. Once ya do, Ah have ta set ya free. As much as Ah’d love it if ya wanted ta keep this place fer yerself when that day comes, that’s not my decision ta make. And that’s the way it should be.”

Malus went silent for a while after that. I figured I’d let him stew on it.

The dusk sky faded from yellow to gold, gold to orange, orange to red, red to violet. The sun disappeared from the horizon; the moon rose in the opposite sky. The stars dotted the black canvas above; they added shapes and colors to the heavens. For once, I felt at peace.

Finally, Malus spoke up.

“Well, I mean. It’d be kinda stupid to turn down free land, right? And it’s kinda nice out here. It’s not as clausterphobic as Manehattan or most of Ponyville. Doesn’t smell bad. I’d have to get Ma to move, but she’s a teacher; she can do that forever and find a job anywhere. It’s not like I have to even make a decision like that right away anyways. I mean… I-I can come back once this is over, right?”

A soft smile crept up my face. I stood up, got up next to him, and gave him a hug. “’Course ya can, son.”

He looked left, he looked right. Once he saw that nopony was watching, Malus did one more thing for the very first time: he returned a hug.

“Thanks… Pa.”