An Apple Will Sparkle
Chapter 1
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Twilight nodded to herself as she checked the last room in her castle for anything out of place.
She winced as a very loud clap of thunder followed a flash of lightning, seeing it from the nearby window.
“Talk about a rough storm,” she murmured, turning out the magical lights in the room and heading back into the main foyer so she could go to her room. She hated when the pegasi decided to let Everfree storms roll over the town to save having to schedule a few others later on. Even after the forest had somewhat settled since returning the Elements to the Tree of Harmony, it still held some of the magic that had made it infamous in the thousand years of Luna’s banishment.
Spike was already in bed (though how he could sleep through this storm the Alicorn would never understand, though he had technically slept through worse) so it was just her. She’d been up late reading and lost track of time.
She blushed as she realized the insulting thoughts she’d just had towards Spike about sleeping through the storm could be implied to her with her reading. Then again, after having had the entire library from the Castle of the Two Ponies Sisters moved to her own, she couldn’t help getting lost in her readings. There were just so many books she hadn’t read. Some were outdated, but so much history had been packed into her head since she’d gotten them.
Shaking her head to clear it, Twilight turned to head upstairs and join Spike in sleeping through the storm, when she stopped, frowning.
Over the sounds of the storm outside, she could’ve sworn she’d heard knocking.
She shook her head and was about to return to her prior thoughts of sleep, when she could swear it happened again. The faintest of knocking being heard over the pounding rain and thunder.
Her frown returning, Twilight cast a sound amplifying spell on her ears and stood still, listening. The spell finished just as the third set of knocking finished, before another, quieter sound followed it. Sobbing. Quiet sobbing.
Curiosity and slight worry overriding her desire for sleep, Twilight turned and walked to her doors, opening them. Doing so welcomed a large gust of air, blowing rain into her face and the sounds becoming deafening.
However, after reopening her eyes from the sudden wind against them, they widened further at what, or rather who she saw as the light from inside bathed outward, looking like they’d been leaving.
Apple Bloom was standing in the rain, her back to Twilight, a suitcase clutched in her mouth. The suitcase dropped as she turned around at the sudden light playing over her.
Her mane was flattened against her body due to the rain and her bow was sagging from the water it had absorbed. However, it was the look in the filly’s eyes that caught Twilight’s attention.
Her eyes were dull and filled with a sorrow she’d never seen in the youngest Apple.
They just stood, staring at each other for a few moments, time seeming to freeze in that one moment.
The moment was broken by another flash of lightning, startling both ponies. It was enough though to cause the filly to hurry forward and grab hold of Twilight, holding her tighter than Twilight had ever felt before.
It took Twilight several seconds to catch up with herself enough to think properly. Grabbing the suitcase in her magic, she pulled it inside, closing the doors and locking them, shutting out the storm.
Once this was done, Twilight took notice of a new sound. Sobbing.
Looking down, Twilight saw Apple Bloom was crying into her fur, her body shaking with each sob.
Not sure what had happened or why she wasn’t at Sweet Apple Acres, but not wanting the filly she thought so fondly so distraught; she wrapped her forelegs and wings around the sobbing form, quickly casting a spell to dry and warm the two of them from the water that had poured onto them from outside.
They stayed that way for a long while, Twilight letting Apple Bloom cry whatever her sorrows were out.
When Twilight couldn’t hear Apple Bloom’s sob, or feel her shaking against her body, she pulled a little away so she could look down at the farm pony.
Apple Bloom looked back up at her with bloodshot eyes, still sniffling every few moments.
Twilight gave her a concern, yet caring look. “Apple Bloom, what’s wrong? Why were you out in the storm, especially this late at night?”
The yellow pony gulped several times, clearly trying to get a hold of herself, before she leaned into Twilight’s embrace, sobbing a little. “Th-they kicked me off the farm.”
It took Twilight several moments to process not only those words, but there meanings and implications. She looked back down at the upset filly, a slight frown on her face.
“They... kicked you off the farm? Apple Bloom, maybe you just got into a fight and everypony said something they didn’t mean. It happens, believe me. I can’t count the amount of times when I was little that my parents and I got into huge fights and I told them I wished thet weren't my parents and that Celestia would've loved me more. I never meant it, but, in anger, we say things we don’t mean.”
“AJ wasn’t angry,” Apple Bloom replied, her voice quiet. “Not completely. Just... disappointed.”
Twilight frowned, before pulling back and looking down firmly at the bloodshot eyes. “Okay. Start from the beginning. What happened?”
Apple Bloom nodded, and recited the events that had led her to Twilight’s Castle.
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“And where’s your apple mark?” Applejack asked, her brow raised.
Apple Bloom blinked, before looking back at the red hammer on her flank. “Uh... was Ah meant ta have one?”
Applejack shook her head, then looked behind her at the Everfree as clouds moved from it quickly, moving across the sky. “Storm’s a comin’,” she turned and walked inside, not even looking back to see if the filly was following. “Come on, Bloom.”
Uncertainty crept up Apple Bloom’s spine. Why was Applejack acting like this? She’d gotten her Cutie Mark! Wasn’t that a good thing?
“Maci! Granny!" Applejack called out. "Burnt apple!”
Apple Bloom frowned. Burnt apple? Either somepony was at the farm she hadn’t known, somepony who sounded like a member of their family, though she’d never heard of a Burnt Apple before, or that was some kind of code for something she didn’t know about, though a nagging about her fears from before, the ones Luna had helped put to rest, resurfacing, trying to creep into her mind.
The aforementioned ponies came into the room. They all stopped, standing in front of Apple Bloom, who wilted under their gazes.
She noticed Granny glance at her flank, before closing her eyes. “All Apples that work on the farm have an apple mark. Others who don’t, don’t.”
Apple Bloom blinked. “Huh?”
“Aunt and Uncle Orange,” Granny said simply, not paying attention to the confused looks on her other two grandchildren. “They don’t work on an Apple farm.”
Apple Bloom frowned. “Well... yeah. Ah know that. AJ went ta stay with ’em when she was young. Ya told me this, sis.”
Applejack nodded, glancing to her sister before looking to her grandmother. "Granny, where're ya goin' with this?"
Granny Smith sighed, before looking to the yellow filly. “Ya’ll can’t work on the farm as ya used ta, Bloom.”
Apple Bloom wilted. “Ya... Ya mean...?”
Granny Smith nodded. “Since yer Cutie Mark ain’t got nuthin’ t’ do with apples, ya can’t just live like ya used ta. That ain’t no apple, no how. It’s that simple.”
“But...” Apple Bloom looked sadly between them as the storm started up outside. “It’s red like an apple.”
Applejack's eyes narrowed. "Granny, would ya'll explain yerself. Ya told me after Ah got my mark that any Apple that got a non-apple mark is a burnt apple, but ya never explained it further. What's goin' on?"
“Pack yer things, Bloom,” the elder mare ignored Applejack's questions, turning away, a look of sad disappointment passing over her face in the moment Apple Bloom saw it. “Yer leaving the farm.”
Applejack and Big Mac stared at their grandmother with wide eyes and open mouths.
The orange mare hurried and stood in front of the elder. "Granny, what in tarnation are ya talkin' about? Apple Bloom's a member o' this family. Why're ya sayin' she's gotta go?"
Granny Smith just gave her granddaughter a firm stare, one that caused the younger mare to wilt a bit. "It's tradition, Applejack. An Apple without an apple mark can't live on the apple farm, 'nless they're marryin' inta the family somehow that it won't seem wrong. Apple Bloom ain't got an apple mark. She's gotta leave the farm."
Applejack's eyes narrowed as Big Mac came and joined her, them both glaring down at the mare that had cared for them since their parents had died.
"Are ya'll saying yer kickin' Bloom off the farm, just cos o' her Cutie Mark?" Mac growled, snorting.
Granny Smith just replied with a glare and snort of her own, it being intimidating enough coming from the elderly mare that both wilted. "It's the tradition, Bic Macintosh. Been that way since afore mah great, great, great, great grandpapi. Are ya'll saying ya want me to go against our family traditions?"
That caused the other ponies to cringe. Family traditions were a very touchy subject in their family. It was dangerous to try and reason against them with the older generations of Apples. But... but this...
"Ya'll never told us being a burnt apple meant havin' ta leave the farm!" Mac said, shaking his head. "Ya just told us if'n an Apple ever got a non-apple mark they were a burnt apple and everypony in the family would have ta know. An' now Apple Bloom's one."
"Granny, ya... ya can't really be alright with sending yer youngest granddaughter away, can ya?" Applejack asked, her voice holding a slight bit of desperation.
Granny Smith closed her eyes, a few tears sliding down, before she looked back at Applejack with a resolute expression. "O' course Ah don't. But it ain't mah place t' go against somethin' our family's been doing since long afore Ah was even born."
Apple Bloom sobbed, looking between her three family members, in particular at her big sister. “B-b-but ya said nopony was gonna make me move out.”
Applejack cringed against at the look in her sister's eyes, having to look away. "Ah... Ah didn't think they would. Ah... Ah honestly didn't." She sighed again. “Ah’m sorry.”
Tears were pooling around Apple Bloom’s hooves. “AJ...?”
“Ah’ll bring sum food up to ya fer yer dinner,” she walked into the other room. “Ah’ll take ya out, later. Ah... Ah wanna at least be with ya when...” she trailed off, her head bowed, her Stetson covering her eyes as she moved out of sight.
___________________________________________________________
Apple Bloom sniffled against Twilight’s coat. “Ah never even got that dinner. Granny took me out afore AJ brought it up and then left me standing in front of the Ponyville orphanage.”
Twilight was stock-still, her mind unable to believe what she just been told. Applejack, one of her best friends, had just kicked her sister out of their family, leaving her at an orphanage, all because her Cutie Mark hadn’t been apple related?
She’d accepted many of the quirks of the AJ and her family simply because she knew her friend and had respected that the Apples liked keeping to traditions. But this? Sending a filly out on her own just because she didn’t have an apple Cutie Mark?
Twilight felt a resentment she’d have never expected to feel towards her friend's grandmother building up within her. She was an Element Bearer and yet she’d gone let her grandmother leave her little sister to fend for herself?
However, she pushed those thoughts aside for now. Apple Bloom needed somepony and she was clearly the only one she could count on.
“Come on, Apple Bloom,” she said, pulling from the embrace the two had been in, but keeping a wing over her, ensuring comfort for the fragile filly. “Let’s find a bed for you.”
Apple Bloom pressed herself closer to Twilight as her wing held her. “C-can Ah sleep with you, Twi?” she stuttered, her voice betraying her true feelings despite trying to put on a tough front “Ah... Ah...”
Twilight silenced her with a gentle nuzzle. “I understand.”
She led Apple Bloom back to her own room. Spike was still sound asleep, snuggled up under the covers of his bed.
Twilight guided Apple Bloom to her own bed, got in, then helped the young filly in with her, pulling the covers over them.
Once they’d settled down, Apple Bloom snuggled as close as she could against Twilight, holding her as if she feared she’d disappear.
Twilight returned the gesture by wrapping her forelegs around the Earth Pony. “Goodnight, Apple Bloom.”
The filly sniffled, before whispering, “G’night, Twi.”
They stayed that way for a long while, Twilight remaining awake as she held and silently comforted Apple Bloom.
After a while, Apple Bloom’s breathing quietened, until they were the gentle breaths of a sleeping filly.
Twilight gave a warm, yet sad smile, for she scowled. She’d be talking with Applejack tomorrow morning, with more than a few choice words for the pony so heartless she’d toss her sister out into a stormy night.
I'm gonna hold my vote for this... I wanna see how you do this.
Okay you have my attention. And for a moment it reminded me of this comic.
She should banish them from Equestria
Gonna guess before I read this Applejack is gonna feel very OOC but since it's based off a comic exploring the concept, I'm gonna give this a read anyway!
if she stayed at the orphanage then scootaloo wouldn't be alone anymore
I've read lots of fics involving Momlestia and Fluttermom themes but I love the Twimom ones best
Twi just feels like a great character to become a mother (normally to scoots though)
6238830 Shots fired!
Hmm....charges for child abandonment...please tell me Twilight is going to press charges...
Supposed to be Mac.
Good first chapter, I might like this since I don't like Applejack...I'll upvote it for now.
6238767 like where the element of honesty lied?
6239549 she may be the element of honesty, but that doesn't mean she can't lie. if i recall correctly she did lie in that one episode when the flim flam brothers were selling their cure all tonic which was fake
can't wait so see more
Was actually wondering if someone would make a story related to that nightmare of hers.
Not sure what to think of it as of yet.
What is her cutie mark, anyway? Because they said it was red, and I'm coming up blank.
6240444 It also said 'hammer'. So, hammer.
6240533 It did? Where?
Seems a little OOC on AJ's part, but it could be interesting.
I'm also reserving my vote at this point, as I want to see where this may eventually go. It's difficult for me, because I'd love to see Twimom to a filly Apple Bloom – that just seems like an interesting, and loving, setup. Of course, it might not go in that direction, so... *shrugs*. AJ didn't seem to be too OOC, so much as she was abiding to something that, quite frankly, is very conflicting. The lullaby she sang to her? The promise made? Could that all really have been a lie?
I will be tracking this one. Hang in there, Apple Bloom.
6240444 A red hammer.
ooooh!! Twilight knows the Royal Canterlot Voice? I wanna see that!
And then it turns out it is all part of a changeling plot to separate Applejack from the other element bearers and to get Twilight used to the idea of looking after a child so that she can later adopt Queen Chrysalis's nymphs, who are not receiving the love they need to mature
6240688 Someone already told me that. Also, I knew it was red from the start. You didn't need to say anything.
This is just...so, SO full of out-of-character moments.
Applejack, the element of Honesty, lies to her little sister about her Cutie Mark and NOT kicking her off the farm, because, I kid you not, Apple Bloom was expecting to get kicked out if she didn't get an Apple-related Mark. It's apparently an established tradition of the loyal, devoted-to-family Apples to treat those people like pariahs.
Applejack lies, Granny Smith kicks Apple Bloom out before she could even eat anything into the storm, Applejack LETS THIS HAPPEN, they both send a child to the orphanage, in the cold and rain, without even a meal. This can't be excused as family tradition at this point - it's downright cruelty.
What next? Is Apple Bloom going to start crying in the Rains and Thunders of Sadness? Oh, wait, that actually happened. You took one of the biggest cliches out there and played it straight, which doesn't really bode well for the future.
Is the rest of the Apple family going to retroactively ignore anyone who doesn't have an Apple mark? Like Fiddlesticks? Or the other ponies at the Apple Family Reunion?
On top of that, the narrative is cluttered with run-on sentences like:
Or:
These are physically painful to read.
I don't think this fic has anything of merit. The premise makes no sense, the writing is terrible, the characters are out-of-character, and lastly, the stupid accents are over-exaggerated (It borke mah heart) and I keep hearing a voice in the back of my head telling me to burn everything.
Considering the title of this fic, I doubt there's going to be some clever twist or point that creates some order out of this. This isn't the worst thing I've read, but certainly deserves a downvote that I'm preparing to give once you complete this or write two more chapters.
I'll put it in my favorites for now since it's a heart tugger, but you took a serious risk with this story, I'll be watching
Well, the story really does stretch logic and character continuity quite a lot to get the concept over. However, it's an interesting concept, so I'll continue to watch this.
On the end it will come down to how believable you manage to write the apple family. I just hope it won't end in plain and simple AJ bashing, even though I don't see how you might avoid it.
6240541 Next sentence down from the question "where's your apple mark?". It's not in the dialogue.
Extreme on AJ's part to do this... I wonder what Celestia would say about this?
so hey mister/misses writer, how often do you think this will update? i'm very intrigued by this story.
What they did to Apple Bloom seems illegal... or at least amoral.
I hope they get in trouble.
6241300
They fought like actual brothers and sisters do in the comic ...
I really like TwiMom stories so I hope this one does well.
so far ... Yea it is.
Good Luck <3
my god... the feels... MOAR!!! um, if that's ok with you.
I hope somebody punches Applejack. Hard.
The trouble with family traditions is that they end up being past on for so long that they don't take the new laws of the land into account.
6241986 I'm pretty sure the comics have called themselves out as being only semi-canonical (by Pinkie, I believe).
6242098 I personally hope it isn't Twilight. It's just too obvious, to plain for her to be the one to do it. No, I want Applejack to be in town tomorrow, and I want to hear Twilight rip her a new one in the Royal Canterlot Voice right there where everypony will hear her.
I neither expect nor want her to be jumped by a mob, but Applebloom's got some friends, and all of Applejack's friends will be feeling awful betrayed by this. I anticipate any of the other Mane 6 (or Spike) to be the one to punch her. It seems more satisfying.
Being detail oriented like I am, something specific stuck out to me more than anything else. Apple Bloom was soaked to the bone from standing in the rain, and Twilight followed from hugging her. Getting right into bed without making any effort to dry off is going to lead to a lot of discomfort for the both of them, and poor sleep.
Thus I clothe my naked villainy with odd old ends stol'n forth of holy writ, and seem a saint when most I play the devil
OK, now I'm kind of interested in seeing a plausible version of how Applebloom's manifestation of a non-Apple plotmark would go. This isn't it. It's just taking a rather dark joke and playing it dead straight.
6242345 If all of them or I don't get to her first! This is NOT BEST PONY MATERIAL!!! I EXPECT MORE FROM YOU APPLEJACK! She doesn't deserve AJ-chan anymore! In this story at least.
Is it bad that I want to see Applejack get abandoned by all her friends?
(Also I more expected the Pie family to do this to Pinkie Pie, they seem like the kind of ponies)
Hmm ...interesting. To be honest I could imagin tho this would rather happens to Babs Seed afther she earned her offical cutie mark which has nothing to do with oragnges and I belive that she is an Orange family member.
Interesting concept, you've got my attention. Looking forward to seeing how this plays out.
W-w-what did I just read? It gets: a like, a sad fic fav and a tracking. Not a fav just yet. I wanna se how it's gonna play out but good writting, for once I am not dissapontes I looked at the other stories on the main page (not just featured)
You know, when I was a kid I was absolutely certain that if I disappointed my parents they would literally throw me into the garbage bin. I had some messed-up ideas when I was little, but it looks like the Apples saw my brain and thought, "you know what? He's onto something!".
6243254 I'm sort of expecting it to be Fluttershy, actually. Everypony else would be too stunned to follow through with their own face-punching intentions.
Whatever story drama Applejack has to provide (past what happened here and what happens next chapter) will probably require her to actually be out and about, not confined to a hospital bed where I'm pretty sure not many ponies would come to see her.
I'm still in doubt about this,the idea has some merit but it will depend in how you will develop this, it could be either very good or very bad. Guess I'll just have to wait and see.