Author's Note

It is at once a tragic fate and merciful ignorance
that so rarely anypony knows when their last time
is going to be their last time.

The Passed

Big Macintosh stood at the kitchen window, watching Lil Mac play outside after, what was almost certainly, his last time nursing from Sugar Belle's teats. "I sure wish I didn't know now, what I didn't know then."

"What was that?" Sugar Belle asked as she rubbed the soreness from her tender teats.

"Nothing," Big Mac said. "Just seeing him with you like that... just got me thinking about Ma."

Sugar Belle nodded solemnly and looked over at the framed photo of his parents on the wall. "I wish I could have met them. I know Apple Bloom doesn't remember them either. Such a shame, especially after hearing the way you talk about them. Your mother especially."

Big Mac's lip trembled for a moment, but he got it under control before Sugar Belle could see.

But she saw.

"Should we... go visit the trees?" she asked.

The orchard had many, many trees. But she didn't need to be any more specific for Mac to understand. He nodded. They went outside to get Lil Mac and they took a walk to the edge of the farm, to the pair of fruit trees, apple and pear, entwined together.

"Story time?" Lil Mac asked. His father didn't talk much, unless it was story time. And here, at the twisted trees, he told the best stories.

"Eeyup."

After little Applejack was born, the new foal meant even more work for everypony on the farm, and even less free time. And less energy to even enjoy that free time. It was just as well for Big Mac, he decided. Better to be too tuckered to even want to indulge in his old desires. Not that they ever went away. Not really. But he had made a promise to his mother, and he was a stallion of his word.

And a stallion he was, as he caught his reflection in the window. Gone was the scrawny frame of a little colt from a few years ago. He was very nearly as tall as his father now, and the two could have easily been mistaken for brothers. The memories of confusing passion became more distant to Big Mac and his mother as they felt more and more like a normal family again.

As the months and seasons fell off the calendar, Applejack grew up into a fine filly on the cusp of becoming a strong young mare. But much like her mother was at her age, she was headstrong, stubborn, and defiant.

"Maybe I don't want to be a farm pony!" Applejack said. "I ain't even gotten my cutie mark yet. Who knows what it could be? I could still be anything!"

"I reckon we'll find out this summer," Bright Mac said. "Thought for sure it'd be last year."

"Have you thought about what you want for your Cuteceanera?" Pear Butter asked.

"I wanna go to Manehattan!" Applejack said. "The way Aunt and Uncle Orange talked about the big city when they visited last fall, I want to and see it for myself!"

"I meant more like what kind of snacks you want at the party," Pear said.

"Oh." Applejack's face fell. "I guess some Crisscross Moss Applesauce would be nice."

Big Mac nodded. "Yeah! That was good last year for the Summer Sun Celebration!"

Bright Mac scratched his chin. "It'd be about a week round trip to go get some from the Hayseed Swamp. And we'd have to get it now to be sugared about the same time as last year."

"All the plowing and seeding is done," Pear said. "They can handle the watering while we're gone."

"And the weeding!" Bright reminded Big Mac.

"Eeyup."

"Alright. We can pack a couple bags and set off tomorrow," Bright decided.

~

After seeing their parents off, Applejack packed a bag of her own.

"And where do you think you're going?" Big Mac asked.

"I don't want to spend my life on a muddy old apple farm," Applejack said. "I want to live the sophisticated life. I want to try my luck in the most cosmopolitan city in all of Equestria! Then I'll find out who I'm meant to be."

"No you ain't!" Big Mac said, blocking the doorway.

"Like hay I ain't!" she shouted, trying to shove her way past him.

"What's all this ruckus!?" Granny Smith asked as she walked through the house.

"AJ is trying to run away!" Mac said.

"Nuh uh!" Applejack defended.

Granny Smith looked at Applejack's transient luggage with tired eyes and then at Mac. "And you're gonna stop her?"

"Eeyup!"

Granny hadn't the strength to stop Applejack, nor energy to argue. All she had left was her wisdom from trying to force a pony away from their passion. Try as she had, she could not keep her son from marrying a Pear. Not that she regretted the failure. She loved her family.

"Are you fixing to watch her every hour all night and day?" Granny asked.

"Eeyu-uh, what?" Big Mac asked.

"She seems like she's got her mind made up," Granny said, pointing at the bag. "So unless your gonna guard her from ever leaving, she's gonna go just as soon as you sleep or look away. And I'd rather that she go prepared than not."

Granny grabbed a pen and wrote down some information for Applejack.

"I ain't having you sleeping under a bridge like some kinda troll. This is the address for your Aunt and Uncle Orange. If in you really intend to go, you go straight there. Stay with them for your visit. You get yourself sorted, and you keep in touch. And always remember that you have a home here in Ponyville."

"You just let Auntijack leave?" Lil Mac asked.

Big Mac nodded. "Granny knew that your Auntiejack would find her way home. It just took a few days in the city for her to get that wanderlust outta her system. Granny knew that staying on the farm had to be AJ's choice, or else she'd resent us for being made to stay. Granny Smith and I were there to welcome her home."

"Oh. What about Gramma Buttercup and Grampa Bright?" Lil Mac asked. His eyes followed Big Mac's, looking up at the twisted trees.

Big Mac pursed his lips. "It was just after AJ had come home and gotten her cutie mark. We got a letter from them saying they'd gotten sick and they were gonna be delayed. They said they'd orange spots in their fur and they were coughing bubbles. We didn't find out until years later that it was Swamp Fever, when we found these." He motioned to the trees. "And now it's all we have to remember them by."

"Oh... What about Auntie Bloom?" Lil Mac asked.

"What?"

"Where was Auntie Bloom?" Lil Mac asked. "If Gramma and Grampa died, er, turned into trees, then where was Auntie Bloom?"

Big Mac gave Sugar Belle a nervous look. "Oh... uh... I got it mixed up. It was after Apple Bloom was born that all that other stuff happened!" he stammered. "She was there. Born already."

The simple answer seemed satisfactory to Lil Mac. "Oh. Okay."

"I've got some winners right here!" Big Mac said, pulling the cart up to the farm house from the pumpkin patch. Three of them were perfect to make jack-o-lanterns. The last one was enormous, and was sure to get a ribbon at the Nightmare Night harvest fair.

Applejack and Sugar Belle helped Lil Mac make his jack-o-lantern while Big Mac delivered his prized gourd to the fair. Applejack did most of the messy work with the pumpkin seeds to spare Sugar Belle's witch costume.

~

On his way back to the farm, Big Mac made a detour to visit the twisted trees and parked the cart.

"Hey Ma," he greeted the pear tree. He looked at the apple tree wrapped around it. "And Pa." He focused mostly on the pear tree. "Been thinking about you a lot lately. What with telling Lil Mac all those stories." Mac looked at the pear tree and blushed. "Course, not everything, though." His dick poked out of his sheath at the lurid memories. He could almost feel his father's disapproving glare coming from the apples. "Sorry, Pa. Though I 'spose that don't count for much anymore."

Big Mac hugged the pear tree. "Miss you, Ma," he said. He moved around to the other side of the tree to stand in front of a particularly yonic-shaped hollow in the trunk and he started to clop himself. He could almost feel her warm embrace around him in his memory as he moved his hoof faster to get himself to an expedient climax. The tip of his shaft flared and he arced several ropes of his cum into the opening of the pear tree.

Once he was finished, his shaft wilted and so did he. No matter how many times he had had done this, it never felt as good as he hoped it would. And the shame he felt afterwards never got less intense.

Walking back up to the farmhouse, Big Mac could see the jack-o-lanterns were already glowing on the front doorstep. Lil Mac was probably already in his costume and raring to go trick-or-treating. Sure enough, Lil' Mac was adorned with apple tree branches and leaves.

"You an apple tree?" Big Mac asked.

"Nu uh! I'm a Timberwolf!" Lil Mac said with a roar.

"Ooh, scary!" Big Mac said.

There was a knock at the door. It was Lil Cheese in a duck costume and Pinkie Pie in a goose costume. "Who's ready to go trick or treating!?" she said, bouncing up and down.

"Can I go trick or treating with Cheesy and Auntie Pinkie this year?" Lil Mac asked.

"Okay, but don't be out past midnight," Sugar Belle said. "Or else you'll turn into a pumpkin and Nightmare Moon will eat you!"

"Nuh uh!" Lil Mac said. "That's just a pretend story to scare little foals!"

"Can Mac do a sleepover?" Lil Cheese asked.

"Yeah, can I?" Lil Mac asked.

Big Mac looked at Sugar Belle and shrugged. "Sure."

"Yay!"

After they left, Big Mac sat at the kitchen table and sighed. As much as he usually enjoyed spending Nightmare Night with his son, he was quite relieved to not have to walk all over Ponyville again this year.

"A nice quiet night in," he said to Sugar. Though the lanterns were lit, there was just a small bowl of candy left outside the door in case anypony wanted to make the long journey all the way up to the farmhouse. Everypony usually just stayed in town.

"Is there anything you'd like to do?" Sugar asked. "Maybe we could watch a scary movie."

"Actually, I was thinking..." Applejack said, carrying a small box into the kitchen, and setting it on the table.

Sugar Belle looked at it. "What's... oh you eye jaah?"

"Ouija," Applejack said. "Every Nightmare Night, after Apple Bloom was asleep, Mac and I would try to talk to Mom and Dad's ghosts. Of course, it never really worked. I think it was more of a coping thing for us."

Big Mac nodded, "Eeyup."

"But once Apple Bloom got older, and you and Lil Mac came along," Applejack continued, "Seemed strange to pull you into something so personal. So Nightmare Night became more about the living than the dead." She frowned. "But now what with Granny and Grand Pear gone..." Sugar looked a little nervous. "Sorry, I didn't mean to try to pull you into our weird little tradition,"

"No, it's okay," Sugar said. "I... I actually feel honored to be a part of your family like that."

Mac smiled. "You did say that you wished you could have talked to Ma."

She shrugged. "Okay, sure. How does this even work?" she asked.

Applejack opened the box and explained the board and the scrying planchette. "We ask them questions and the piece moves to the answer... At least, that's how its supposed to work."

"Mostly we would just end up talking to each other about Mom and Dad," Big Mac said.

"Well, that's fine too. Still, we can try." Sugar Belle said, still dressed like a witch. "Do we do, like a spell or something?"

"First we all hold hooves and do the invitation," Mac said.

"Invocation," Applejack corrected as she lit some candles. Applejack and Big Mac extended their hooves to Sugar.

"Yeah. That," Mac said. "And then we all hold the pointer thing and wait for it to move."

"You move it?" Sugar asked.

"N-no it..." Mac tried to say.

"It's supposed to move on it's own," Applejack said as honestly as she could by avoiding the question.

"Ah." Sugar Belle finally understood. "Right." She joined hooves with them.

"It's uh, been a little while since we've done this." Applejack cleared her throat. "Oh, spirits of Nightmare night! We invoke your magic and ask you to send to us the lost souls of Bright Mac and Buttercup!

"I thought your mother's name was Pear Butter," Sugar said.

"I- I mean, yeah, I guess," Applejack said.

"I would just think that using their correct names would be really important with this sort of thing," Sugar Belle said. "Might be why it's never worked before?"

"That... could be true, I suppose," Applejack said, feeling that same faint flutter of hope in the pit of her stomach that Big Mac felt. She started over, "Oh, spirits of Nightmare night! We invoke your magic and ask you to send to us the lost souls of Bright Mac and Pear Butter! Taken too soon from this mortal world! Let them return on this night to speak with their children who miss them dearly!"

They all placed their hooves on the planchette and waited.

"We invoke the spirit of Bright Mac!" Applejack repeated.

"We invoke the spirit of Pear Butter," Big Mac said.

"If you are here in spirit, let your presence be known," Applejack said. They waited for the planchette to move.

Sugar Belle looked back and forth between them, waiting for the right moment. She needed to sell it just a little more. "Is that how you call for them?" She asked. They both looked at her. "I mean, is that how you would have called for them? In life? It just seems a little... I don't know, stilted. I would think that you would call out to their spirit like they were in the next room."

Applejack was starting to have second thoughts about including Sugar Belle. But Big Mac seemed to agree.

"Bright Mac, are you there?" Applejack asked.

"Lil Mac doesn't call me Sugar Belle."

Applejack suddenly felt very vulnerable. "... Daddy? Are you here? I... I'd really like to talk to you."

The planchette started to move. It drifted slowly, but steadily towards the YES circle on the board.

"You're moving it!" Applejack accused Big Mac.

"I ain't!"

"Don't look at me," Sugar said. It stopped moving. "You have to believe in it for it to work."

"Since when are you a séance expert?" Applejack asked.

"I mean magic in general," she said. "You have to want to believe."

Applejack blinked back her frustration and swallowed her cynicism. "I do want this to work," she said honestly.

Sugar Belle made a big flourish of her hooves. "Now let's dispel this negative energy and start over," she said, resetting the board. "Call out to them, and speak honestly from your feelings." They placed their hooves on the planchette.

"I really do wish my Dad was here," Applejack told Sugar Belle. "Especially since Granny passed, what I would give to just be held by him, to feel his love, and to just know that everything was going to be okay." A tear dripped from her cheek onto the board.

"I miss Mom," Big Mac said. "The last time that we..." The thought stayed in his thought bubble. "The last time we hugged," he said, "I wish I knew it was going to be our last time. I would have... I would have never stopped. I would have never let you go. I..." Big Mac choked up as his tears dripped onto the board. "I really wish you were here."

Out in the dark orchard, his seed, spilled in love, was absorbed into the pear tree.

The planchette began to glow under their hooves.

"Mom!?" Big Mac cried. "Is that you!?"

The planchette slid with their hooves across the board to YES.

"You're moving it," Applejack said.

"I'm not," Sugar said.

Big Mac ignored them. "Mom!? I miss you!"

The planchette moved to the letters.

I-C-U

"I C U..? I see you. You see me!?" he asked. The planchette moved.

YES

"Mom! I love you!"

L-U-V-U

Big Mac started sobbing.

"Land's sake, Sugar, you're making him cry!" Applejack said.

"AJ, don't bring negative energy!"

She pulled her hooves back and slapped away theirs. "I can see it glowing plain as day! If it's real then where's my dad!?" She slammed her hoof on the table, making the planchette flip off of the board and hit Big Mac in the forehead before clattering back on the table.

Big Mac grabbed it and placed it back on the board desperately. "Mom!? Mom! Please come back!" he cried. It started to glow again.

"Consarnit Sugar!" Applejack shouted, pulling the witch hat off of Sugar Belle's head, revealing her glowing horn.

Sugar's eyes crossed as she looked up at her own horn. "But I'm not-"

A bright flash filled the room and Sugar Belle froze as still as a statue. Her eyes were pools of bright glowing white and her horn thrummed with power. Another pulse of energy blasted from her horn and all three of them fell backwards out of their chairs.