//------------------------------//
// Wierd is Relative, part 2 
// Story: My little Short Stories 
// by Paradise Oasis 
//------------------------------//

Weird is Relative, part 2

"Look, Apple Delight... I know we've had our issues in the past." Applejack told him with a sigh. "But for the sake of both of our families, I was hoping-"

"Issues? You call what you've done issues?!" The stallion snapped angrily. "This family had always looked up to you, to your honesty, and honored your memory for a thousand years. And what did you do?" He snorted angrily, stamping his hoof on the ground. "Went into hiding! Buried yourself in false identity after false identity. You buried yourself in lies!"

"I did what I had to do to survive!" AJ snapped back, scowling at the head of the Apple family. "Do you have any idea what they would have done to me if ponies had found out? Besides, I've learned what I did was wrong, and I'm trying to make up for my mistakes!"

"Family is supposed to stick together, Applejack!" Delight seethed, as the ponies at the reunion surrounding them, started to stare at the two arguing equines. "Where were you when this family was endangered over and over again? Where were you when generation after generation of Apples struggled to keep everything together through the dark ages? You abandoned your kin, and walked away as if we were all nothing to you!"

"I'm sorry you feel that way, Apple Delight." The mare snorted angrily, Starting to trot away from the other pony. "I was hoping I had been invited here to try to put the past behind us. But if you're so hurt by what I've done... well then, I'd best not be staying around here!" 

As the mare trotted towards the reunions exit, Candy Apple noticed her leaving. 

"Applejack, wait!" The Pegasus mare yelled, galloping after the ancient earth pony, as she tried to catch up to her. "Please don't tell me you're leaving! The reunion isn't even over yet!"

"I'm sorry, Candy, but I really don't think I'm wanted here." The mare replied with a sigh. "I'd best be moving on, before I cause Apple Delight -or this family- any more grief."

"WAIT!" Candy Apple called out, stopping Applejack in her tracks. "Now just stop it right there! You can't just go galloping ou of here, after coming all this way!"

"Candy Apple, are you bothering her again?" Apple Delight snapped trotting up to his younger cousin. "I though I told you not to-"

"You shut your mouth, you pig-headed stallion!" The young mare snapped angrily, cowing the male in front of her. "I'm going to say my piece, and the two of you are going to listen!"

The two other ponies stopped, and several other members of the family stopped wheat they were doing, and turned to listen.

"I don't know how this stupid fight between you two got started, and I really don't care. Family is more important than stupid little fights like this, and it's even stupider that you two are too busy bickering to see that." She looked back and forth between the two. "Family is the ponies you care about, the ponies who are there for you, even when nobody else is. They can fight and argue not get along sometimes, but they will always forgive each other in the end." She narrowed her eyes at the orange mare. "I'm ashamed enough my own thimble-brained cousin forgot that fact, but I can't believe you, of all ponies, didn't remember what family was all about!"

As the disgusted Pegasus trotted away, the two earth ponies only stared at each other in silence.

"You, know, as much as I don't want to admit it, she does have a point." Delight said with a defeated sigh. "We both may have been just a mite too stubborn for our own good."

"Listen, Apple Delight, I am truly sorry you feel I've wronged and disrespected the family, and I'm sorry I've caused you such pain." Applejack admitted, extending a hoof. "It was wrong of me to lie for all those centuries, I should of realized I always could have come to my family for help."

"I'm sorry Applejack, but it's very hard for me to simply forgive you for suddenly turning up alive, when my family could've used you all those years." The stallion turned away, ignoring the offered hoof. "But I can promise you that you will have no more trouble in trying to be a member of this family."

As the resentful stallion trotted away quietly, the other ponies all crowded around AJ. They were eager to meet a member of the family who had always been there, but they had never been allowed to get to know.

"Wow, you're the Applejack? I've always wanted to meet you!"

"What were the other harmony bearers like? Did you go on many adventures?"

"Will you come to my birthday party next year? I'd love to have you there, cousin AJ!"

And for the first time in centuries, the old orange mare felt like she had a large, caring family once again. 

...

Elsewhere on the old Apple property, two curious ponies had wandered away from the rest of the family reunion, their minds set on their own mission. 

"Wait, where are we going?" The confused Surprise asked, following the other mare down the cavern. "Why would there be any stuff to make pretzels down here?"

Oh, the grundels live down here," Twist explained, lighting a candle with her hoof, as they went deeper into the tunnel. "They hath the most specialiest ingredients to make stuff!"

And as the two ponies descended deeper into the dark, they didn't realize there were several eyes watching them...