It was a beautiful day in Ponyville. The dusk shone a soft light over the town as the sun slowly slipped under the horizon. The orange light reflected weakly on the trees of Sweet Apple Acres, bathing the entire orchard in a weak glow.
"Applebloom!" Scootaloo yelled, running towards her cream colored friend. "Aunt Holiday said yes!"
"Rarity, too!" Sweetie Belle spouted, hot on Scoootaloo's trail.
"I can't wait to meet them. What are they like?! I bet they’re awesome! Do they travel the world doing cool stuff like my mom and dad do?!"
"Oh, hey girls," Applebloom greeted quietly, a weak smile on her face. "They're uh... quiet. But I know they'll love you.”
“Applebloom, are you alright?” Sweetie Belle questioned, stopping abruptly.
Applebloom fell silent.
“I will be. Jus'… let’s go. Applejack n' Big Mac already left.”
“Oh no, are they all waiting on us?” Scootaloo gasped. “I’m sorry we made you late to see them!”
Applebloom’s gaze fell to the dirt in front of her. She weakly poked at it with a hoof.
“...Don’t be. They ain't going anywhere anytime soon.”
At the cryptic message, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo shared a look. They had never seen Applebloom look this depressed before.
Without another word the three fillies set off. Applebloom silently led them through downtown Ponyville, eventually veering off onto an unassuming road, all the while staring at the ground, head bowed.
After ten minutes of walking, Applebloom stopped.
“We’re here,” she breathed.
Next to them was a gated area, coated in darkness. There was an engraved arch over the entrance.
Scootaloo’s eyes darted side to side as she read the sign.
-Ponyville Cemetery-
“Uh, Applebloom? Are your parents… meeting us in a graveyard or something?” Scootaloo awkwardly chuckled. “Because this place is kinda… creepy. N-not that I'm scared or anything!”
“No...” came Applebloom’s subdued reply, her head still bowed. “N-not exactly.”
“Applebloom...” Sweetie Belle began. Applebloom sighed and promptly walked into the cemetery, ignoring the unicorn.
Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo shared another look. A moment passed and Scootaloo set her jaw and nodded. The two fillies entered the graveyard in tandem, following their friend.
Applebloom expertly navigated the graves, leading the fillies to an area near the back of the cemetery, all the while her gaze never leaving the ground.
“Applebloom, you came?” a voice called out. The fillies' gazes snapped to the speaker.
Applejack was sitting with Big Macintosh and Granny Smith in front of two graves, a fresh bouquet of roses sat upon each one. The one on the right had a wreath full of some unfamiliar yellow flower placed on the top of the tombstone.
As Applebloom moved over to Big Mac and started leaning against him, the other Crusaders padded towards the tombstones, struggling to read the weathered engravings.
Here lies
Bright Macintosh
Beloved son and father
September 23, 1975 - July 2, 2002
Scootaloo’s blood ran cold as she flitted over to the next grave, the one with the wreath of flowers, and read that too.
Here lies
Pear Butter
Beloved daughter and mother
August 13, 1975 - March 15, 2002
Scootaloo’s hoof flew up to cover up her mouth. March fifteenth was that very day. As her gaze wandered over to Applebloom, who was currently hiding her face in her brother’s side, everything clicked.
The Apple family was together in front of the graves of two ponies unknown to her. A mare and a stallion.
They were Applebloom’s parents.
Scootaloo’s gaze flitted back over to the death date of Pear Butter.
March fifteenth.
Twelve years ago.
“O-oh my Celestia. I… I didn’t know. I’m sorry.”
Applebloom didn’t respond, just shook her head. Sweetie Belle put a comforting hoof around Applebloom’s shoulders, and moments later, Scootaloo joined them. With a muffled sob, Applebloom detached herself from Big Mac and hugged the Crusaders back.
“Well,” Applejack started, moving closer to the graves. “Ma, Pa, it’s been a good year. Remember Twilight? Th' friend I told you about? Well there was some sorta big magical mishap, and all o' Ponyville but her got whammied. Until she fixed the spell I was thinkin' making dresses was my calling. And just lookin' at 'em, it's a real good thing Twi broke me out. I'd have gone outta business in a day. After she fixed us all up she... I ain't sure how, but she became a princess. Wings, horn, the whole shebang."
Applejack paused and chewed on her lower lip.
“I think y'all would have liked her.”
Applejack moved back and Granny Smith took her place.
“Bright Mac, Buttercup, it’s been another year. Another year where I have ta deal with my own child and daughter-in-law dying before me. It doesn’t get much easier. But everytime I start feelin' down, I just look around me and see mah family. You had three good kids.”
Granny Smith sighed and looked at the ground to the side.
“I miss you both.”
And with that Granny Smith got up and Big Mac took her place.
“Ma. Pa. It’s been a busy year. There were a few highlights. We met with the Pie family, who we might be related to. I…” Big Mac chuckled. “One time when Applejack was off on a mission I kinda let Applebloom’s adoration of her get to me. I put on a dress and entered the Sisterhooves Social with her. Da, I know if you saw that you would laugh til' you cried.”
Big Mac stayed silent for a moment, then opened his mouth as if to say something, but closed it and shook his head. He got up and walked away from the grave.
The rest of the Apples turned to look at Applebloom.
“D'ya feel up to talking to them this year, sugarcube?” Applejack asked softly.
Applebloom slowly made her way to the place in front of the graves, shaking like a leaf.
“Hey mom and dad. It’s Applebloom..." Applebloom sank to her haunches and softly placed a hoof upon her mother's grave. Her body gave off an involuntary shudder and she bit down hard on her lip to try and suppress a sob "And I… I..."
"I can’t do this. I can’t!”
Applebloom stood up suddenly, fully intending to run out of the cemetery and all the way home, but she was stopped by a hoof on her shoulder. She slowly turned her head to see the hoof belonging to Sweetie Belle. She eased slightly at the sympathy in her smile.
“If it helps, we can be there with you,” Scootaloo whispered from her other side. As Applebloom whipped her head around to look at her, Scootaloo gently laid a wing over her friend’s back.
As Applebloom sat back down, Sweetie Belle threw her forelegs around her friend’s neck.
“We won’t leave your side.”
Applebloom let out a wet sniffle and cleared her throat.
“A-alright. Mom? Dad? I brought some… I can’t rightly call them jus' my friends anymore. I know y'all never got to meet them, but this here is Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. We may not be kin, but I would still call them sisters any day. And because…” Applebloom's voice cracked and she wiped her eyes with a foreleg. “They wanted to meet you.”
A tense silence filled the air.
“And I know you woulda loved them. Sweetie Belle is the kindest filly you’ll ever meet. She’s a great singer, and like Scoot here, has been through thin and thick with me. And Scootaloo… She's the backbone of the group. She helped me stand up to all the bullies, and is a truly good dancer too. Better than I’ll ever be. The three of us go around, having adventures while tryin' to get our cutie marks... And they… And I…”
Applebloom let out a loud sob and collapsed to the ground.
“I’m sorry, mom!”
“Shhh,” Applejack ran a hoof down Applebloom’s withers. “It’s not your fault. Nopony blames you for what happened.”
“I do!” Applebloom shouted.
"I know you do, but it was an accident nopony could have stopped."
Applebloom shakily rose and backed up, staring at the graves with tear filled eyes.
“...Girls,” she said after a moment. “Did I ever tell you how I got my name?”
Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo both shook their heads.
“From what Granny told me, our parents were fixin' to name me Apple Sprout at first. Me an'…”
Applebloom took a moment to shake her head and collect her thoughts.
“I had a twin, a brother. But while mom was pregnant with us there was… somethin' wrong with her blood pressure and it was damaging her organs. And it got worse, so they brought her to the hospital, fixin’ to just give her some medicine. But it ended up being so we had to be taken out of her stomach, like... surgically. But…”
Applebloom fell silent.
“Applebloom an' her brother were born seven months into the pregnancy.” Applejack resumed the story. “She was four months premature. Ta be honest, the fact that Applebloom made it and is as healthy as she is now ain't nothing short of a miracle. But her twin, Golden Lush, wasn’t as lucky.
“So they do what's called a Caesarean section, or a C-Section for short. Ma is in agony, and then the doctor just turns around and jus' hands her Applebloom, and the Doc is just like ‘I'm sorry. The other one didn't make it’. Ma starts crying, and then says ‘at least I get to see one bloom.’"
Applebloom let out a wail and buried her face in Sweetie Belle’s neck. Sweetie Belle started running a hoof through Applebloom’s mane and shushing her unsurely.
Applejack sighed. “She never made it out the hospital. I’m not sure if she bled out or what, but… considerin' that the last thing Ma ever said was talking about seeing her daughter bloom, Granny chose to name her Applebloom.”
“I killed her!” Applebloom sobbed. “She would still be alive if it weren’t for me!”
Scootaloo patted Applebloom’s back awkwardly. “Hey, don’t be that way. Sometimes accidents happen. There’s no way you could blame yourself for that.”
Applebloom just shook her head and continued to sob into Sweetie Belle, dampening her coat and shuddering.
“Come off it, youngin’,” Granny Smith walked over to the sobbing filly and placing a hoof on her back. “I knew those two for years longer than anypony else, an' I know if she had the choice between you and her, she’d choose you in a second.”
Applebloom’s sobs eventually quieted. She broke out from Sweetie Belle’s embrace and looked between her friends, cheeks tinted pink. “I’m real sorry for… I don’t think I could've talked to them if y'all weren’t here… Ever since Granny told me the story of how mom actually… y’know... I haven’t been able to stand bein' here.”
“It’s just like you said, Applebloom,” Sweetie Belle crooned. “We’re sisters. We’re both here for you.”
“Through thick and thin!” Scootaloo chirped.
Applebloom let out a sniffle and nodded, then after a few moments of hesitation, plodded over to the grave next to Pear Butter’s.
Here lies
Golden Lush
A gift this world never got to know
March 15, 2002 - March 15, 2002
Applebloom sat down, and gently touched the tombstone.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
For several moments nobody said anything, then Sweetie Belle quietly padded over to Applejack.
"Uhm... I don't wanna poke, but the stone says your dad didn't make it much longer after... y'know. What happened?"
Applejack sighed deeply and sank to her haunches. She picked at the dirt for a few moments.
"After Ma passed, Da got into a bad habit of drinking. A lot. He'd lock himself up in his room and we'd barely see hide nor hair of him fer days. One particular day after we hadn't heard nothing from him for days, Big Mac entered his room and found him dead, lying in a puddle of vomit. According to the docs, he choked to death on his own vomit. At that point... he'd already been dead for almost two days."
Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo felt their jaws drop at the same time.
"Celestia, I'm... so sorry, Applebloom." Scootaloo finally managed, pressing herself against the still shaking filly.
"I did it, Scoot. I'm th' reason both our parents are dead." Applebloom said softly, wiping her eyes with a foreleg as she pressed herself back against her friend. "How would you react if you were in my horseshoes?"
"I... Well... I don't know," Scootaloo replied. "But I'm sure they still love you from... wherever they are now."
Applebloom raised a shaky hoof and pointed at the dirt in front of the tombstones.
"They're right there. They ain't watching me from any sort of beyon' or nothing. All because of me."
Sweetie Belle blinked.
"But that's not true, Applebloom."
Applebloom shot a tired look at her.
"It's not!" Sweetie Belle continued. "You aren't blaming your twin for your mother's death because you know it wasn't actually either of your faults. She's the one that decided to get pregnant with you two, and medical... accidents happen all the time, I think. I don't think you directly caused the blood pressure issue, it was a result of her current condition, which you had no choice in."
"But, I..." Applebloom protested weakly.
"And your dad chose to drink a lot. You didn't force him. It's just an outlet he used, but it did... it messed him up."
Applebloom didn't respond.
"Yeah," Scootaloo added. "A long time ago, Auntie Loftie had a drinking problem too after her dad died. Aunt Holiday found her and dragged her to the hospital when she had alcohol poisoning. It's actually what started their relationship. Blaming yourself for that would be like blaming Auntie Loftie's dad for her almost dying."
Applebloom met Scootaloo's gaze.
"But..."
"Sugarcube," Applejack started, sitting next to Applebloom and nuzzling her gently. "If you were older than me, an' Ma died while giving birth to me, would you blame me? Or would you blame me for Da?"
Applebloom blinked hard, her gaze flickering from Applejack to Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle.
"No. I reckon I wouldn't," Applebloom finally managed.
"So why are y'all blaming yourself now?" Applejack responded.
Applebloom's gaze wandered over to the tombstone in front of her. She reached out a hoof and ran it over Golden Lush's name as her eyes misted up.
"I dunno. I... jus' dunno."
"Applebloom, I don't think we can fix your sad with just with words tonight, but we're not gonna just abandon you to feel this stuff. We're gonna be here." Sweetie Belle crooned, settling down next to her.
"Listen sugarcube, this kinda guilt is somethin' we're gonna have to work at for a right long time, I reckon. But jus' know that we're here for you. Not jus' Big Mac, Granny and I..." Applejack's gaze swept over Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. "But your whole family."
"All of us!" Scootaloo confirmed.
"Here until the very end!" Sweetie Belle chirped.
"I... I..." Applebloom shook her head before lunging forward, pulling the other two fillies into a tight hug.
"Thank you."
