Gone Fishin'
by Present Perfect
Sweetie Belle tromped into the Cutie Mark Crusaders' clubhouse, a piece of paper floating before her in her magic. When she reached the podium, she slumped to the ground, and the paper followed suit.
"My stupid parents took forever to sign this permission slip!" She moaned and bumped her forehead against the floor.
"Applejack signed mine yesterday," declared Apple Bloom, picking up Sweetie's permission slip and adding it to hers atop the lectern.
"And Mrs. Cake signed mine!" Scootaloo grinned from ear to ear. "They're watching me this week. Now we don't have to worry about any of us missing out on the field trip to Rainbow Falls!"
"Yay," said Sweetie to the floor. "I wish I could've gotten Rarity to sign mine. She's here way more often than my dumb parents. They're always on vacation or something... dumb."
"Aw, it's not so bad, Sweetie Belle," said Apple Bloom, lifting her friend up onto her hooves. "My parents have been on vacation since before I was born. I barely even remember what they look like!"
Despite her words, Apple Bloom's cheer never faltered. Her friends shared a worried look.
"Uhh," said Sweetie Belle.
Scootaloo scratched the back of her head. "What do you mean 'on vacation since before you were born'? Don't you, I dunno, kind of need parents to be born in the first place?"
"Nope!" Apple Bloom grinned and took up position behind the lectern. She stood up on her hind legs, put her front hooves on the lectern, and cleared her throat.
"You see, I was born from an apple harvested from the Great Mother Apple Tree, just like every member of the Apple Family before me!"
Sweetie's eyes bugged out. "Whoa! I didn't know you could grow ponies on trees!"
"How does that work, exactly?" said Scootaloo, not quite buying the explanation.
"Well, the way AJ told me, our parents made a wish on the Great Mother Apple Tree for one more foal before they left on vacation, on account of they knew the farm would need more helpin' hooves with them gone and all." She tapped her chin for a few moments. "Then there was somethin' about plantin' a seed I think? I didn't exactly get all the details myself. But some time later, my apple fell, and I came out, and then I was part of the Apple Family forever!"
Sweetie applauded politely, but Scootaloo frowned and continued to scratch at her head.
"I still don't quite feel like that's right. I asked my Aunt Holiday once, and she said it was something to do with birds and bees."
"Hm." It was Apple Bloom's turn to give her own head a scratch. "Can't say I never heard that one before. Maybe it's 'cause you're a pegasus? Pegasi are born with birds and bees and whatever they do, earth ponies come outta trees, and unicorns..."
She looked to Sweetie, who shrugged. "I asked Rarity one time where fillies came from and she just told me to ask our parents. Who then told me to ask Rarity. So I never got a straight answer." She frowned. "Which I have only just now realized."
"I mean, I guess it's possible Apple Family ponies are born differently from other ponies," said Scootaloo. "No way to know, really. I mean, it's not like anypony actually remembers being born."
Her friends nodded.
"Enough about all that," she continued. "What are we going to do at Rainbow Falls?"
Excitement flashed in all three fillies' eyes. It was a long afternoon spent preparing and planning.
Applejack was deep into the day's harvesting of the south fields when a certain pegasus arrived. And surprisingly, not the pegasus who usually arrived to bother her at work, either.
"Hi, Applejack!"
AJ looked up and wiped sweat from beneath her hat. "Well, hey there, Scootaloo! What brings ya all the way out here?"
Rather than answer, the filly hoisted herself up on one side of the apple wagon, eyes boggling at the day's work.
"Wow," she said, genuine appreciation clear in her tone, "you've really bucked a lot of apples today, haven't you, AJ?"
"Heh." AJ couldn't help but smile. Recognition of her hard work always stroked her ego in just the right way to make her feel good. "Reckon I have, at that. Thanks fer noticin', Scoot.
"But I also reckon you ain't come all the way out here to look at apples. Aaand I reckon still that I done such a good job applebuckin', I deserve a break so's maybe I could listen to somepony get somethin' off her mind. That is, if'n she had somethin' she wanted to talk about..."
"Well..."
The filly was clearly conflicted. Applejack just took a moment to rest her legs and let Scootaloo gather herself.
"Grh, I don't know how to start this..." Scootaloo grit her teeth, shook her head, and ran forward to wrap a sudden, tight hug around Applejack's left foreleg.
"I just wanted to say it sucks that your parents have been on vacation so long! I know what that's like because mine are always working! I haven't seen them in years and sometimes I even start forgetting what they look like!" She released her grip and tilted her face up. "We were talking about our parents, and Apple Bloom mentioned yours, and I just, well, I thought I should come say something to you and Big Mac because misery loves company and stuff!"
Scoot finally stopped to take a breath, and then a few more. But Applejack had been struck speechless.
Ponies considered Applejack reliable. Hard-working. And above all, honest. Rainbow Dash had teased her on at least one occasion when she couldn't muster up a real lie even when they both knew she was trying. Element of Honesty, that was her. Couldn't tell a lie if her life depended on it.
Except, there was a reason why.
Applejack couldn't lie to ponies because she had spent her entire life weaving one complex, all-consuming lie for one pony in specific.
Her sister.
On vacation. Always working.
It didn't matter what the exact words were, the lies resounded in AJ's head all the same.
Nopony's parents just up and left like that for years on end. They were dead, end of story.
A lump hitched in Applejack's throat as she grappled once more with the harsh reality she had lived for most of her life. Her parents were dead, and Apple Bloom didn't know the truth. She wouldn't know. She couldn't.
One time, when a younger Apple Bloom had gotten curious about why other ponies had parents and she didn't, Applejack had told her their parents got stuck up a tree. That one hadn't worked for long, not after Apple Bloom checked every tree in the orchard over the course of a week.
Point was, Apple Bloom's friend had just come to Applejack to confess her own secret and commiserate with words only ponies like them could understand. And Applejack was all out of lies.
She sat down, took her hat off, and put a hoof around Scootaloo's shoulders.
"Thank ya for tellin' me all that, Scoots." She kept her tone slow and somber, squeezing the filly gently. "I think ya do know what me 'n mine have been goin' through all these years, and, well, I sure do appreciate knowin' you feel you can open up to me like this."
Gazing off into the earliest brushes of sunset, she continued. "Truth is, it's been hard more often than it ain't. Many's the time I'd wish to get some of Ma's advice or Pa's laughter when I was feeling lost. But if'n ya still got family with ya, you ain't never gonna be alone in this world. Heck, even if ya ain't got family, ya got friends, like Apple Bloom 'n me, and friends can help ya through any old hurt ya got weighin' ya down. All you gotta do is let 'em know you're hurtin'."
They stayed like that for a long, quiet while, until Scootaloo started to squirm a bit.
"Uh," she said, wriggling out from under Applejack's grasp, "thanks for the talk, AJ. Hope your parents get back soon! Tell Big Mac I said hi! Bye now!"
And before AJ could respond, the filly was off.
She went back to her work, though with nightfall impending, she didn't get much further. The good feelings that came with helping somepony from the younger generation carried her through the night, however, and she found that the usual soreness and exhaustion that came after a day of applebucking weren't quite so bad as they usually were.
It wasn't until she was in bed, trying to fall asleep, that something occurred to her.
"What'd she mean by 'hope they get back soon'?"
It wasn't until a week later that Applejack got her answer.
That was when the whole town came out to show Scootaloo, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle just how much they meant to the community. When the Mayor gave a moving speech, talking about just that. And when a brown coated stallion with a funny hat said, "Turns out you're just like us, Scoot. You have an important job that only you can do. You love it, and it helps all of Equestria."
That was when it hit her.
These were Scootaloo's parents.
Her living, breathing, actually went away to work for long periods of time but came back parents!
It took almost the full length of the assembly for her to get the idea through her head. Scootaloo's parents were alive. She had parents, and Applejack didn't.
Once again, Applejack was a little filly, trying to help her granny care for the squalling baby and wrestle with the fact that her parents were gone, forever. They would never come back home. She would never see their faces outside old photographs ever again.
Applejack had wanted to spare her little sister the pain and heartache she had felt every single day of her life. And so she had lied.
Now, here she was once again, feeling like the only pony in the world who didn't have parents.
As the ticker-tape and confetti rained over the gathered crowd, Applejack lowered her hat over her eyes, so nopony could see her face as she cried a single, perfect apple.
The End
Author's Note
Why am I so mean to Applejack? XD I'm a terrible person.
I found this story sitting, a third completed, in my work folder a little while back with no memory of what it was. But the notes I left myself for how to finish it made me laugh so much, I just had to. Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did making it!
Thanks to FOME and OldGreyMane for feedback. :)
