**10/4/2021: Currently being revised and updated! Chapters will be re-published after revisions are made**
An expansion to "The Perfect Pear"
Grand Pear, after bitterly leaving his daughter in Ponyville to pursue his dream of becoming a successful pear farmer, has finally settled in his new home in Vanhoover. The old stallion, however, receives a letter from his tragic past that soon begins to plague his new found life...
Meanwhile in Ponyville, the Apples face the hardships caused by a longstanding family feud, especially Buttercup. Trying to make sense of it all, a young Big Mac and Applejack are caught in the middle of it. Seeking to finally make amends, Buttercup and Bright Mac make a decision, a decision that will forever change the Apple family...
Years later, Apple Bloom can't help but wonder the fate of her parents. Being the youngest, she feels left out from the rest of her family and seeks to unravel the mystery of her parents...
Special thanks to Phyllismi for allowing me to use her amazing artwork for my story. Check her out on deviantart here
Starting off great. Can't wait for the next chapter!
Is this story inspired by the comic with the same premise? Sounds fun.
8268261
There's a comic? Didn't know that! I have to check it out for myself. This story, like many others, was inspired from the recent MLP episode. After watching it, it brought me to tears and left me wondering what Grand Pear did all those years in Vanhoover.
8268271 Here you go.
derpicdn.net/img/view/2017/6/24/1470498.png
I'm loving the story so far. It's a new perspective compared to the other stories based on the new episode.
8268298
Thanks!
UPDATE: Finishing up Chapter 2! Keep an eye out for it, as I plan on posting it hopefully sometime tonight!
Didn't Grand Pear have family that moved with him to Vanhoover? I don't know if he had any children besides Pear Butter, but he definitely had family members working in his orchard in the episode.
Aside from that, this story is off to a good start so far. I wonder when Grand Pear will decide to read Pear Butter's letters.
8268672
True, but for me, I always thought that those pear ponies we saw in the episode were just relatives who were visiting, much like the Apple family. We also see the entire Apple family in the same episode however, as we all know, they were just visiting. But good observation though! And thanks!
8268703
That's a plausible explanation. Looking forward to the next chapter.
UPDATE: Sorry it took awhile, But Chapter 2 is finally up for "A Quest for Love"! Be sure to check it out when you guys get the chance!
i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/557/213/f7f.jpeg
8269338
lol i have no feels
Ouch, the feels
So in this universe did they reach Vanhoover? Or did they crash on their way to Vanhoover?
8269398
...Well, you've forced me to play this.
8269474
I really don't have a soul though. It's just the way I am.
8269500
That is unfortunate, but it makes sense.
Oh, wow . . . This is really tragic even for one of these types of fanfics. I'm sure it'll break Grand Pear's heart even more when he learns that his daughter died on the way to visit him. And the family never even got real closure from having a burial. I hope they at least decided to hold some sort of memorial service for them at some point.
I guess this must take place after the original Sonic Rainboom incident if Pinkie Pie has already moved to Ponyville. That poses the question of where AJ's parents were at the end of her flashback in “The Cutie Mark Chronicles,” but I suppose they could have been in the marketplace or out working in the fields or something.
The only problem I found with this chapter is that the tense kept changing from past to present tense, which was a bit distracting. Other than that, it's a great story. I loved this line:
And the part with the hat was touching even though I've read similar scenes before. And the reprise of the lullaby at the end really tugs at the heartstrings. The feels are strong with this one.
8271145
You sure they're really dead? **Hint Hint Wink Wink**
But anyways, thanks so much for the feedback! I am fairly new when it comes to writing a story, so I do struggle with tenses. I only managed to proofread it only a few times and indeed found a lot of inconsistent tenses; I only managed to catch a few of them :/
I will probably post this story to a editorial/proofreading group so I can get some more feedback regarding grammar.
8271145
Also, regarding your observation about the Sonic Rainboom incident, I took that under consideration too when I started writing the story. I noticed too that her parents were absent in that episode, but I also noticed Apple Bloom wasn't present either, making me believe that she wasn't born yet resulting in her parents still being present. My guess is that her parents were maybe elsewhere during that time (as you suggested).
On a side note, I'm trying to carefully craft my stories so that they are coherent to the MLP episodes. My intention is to make stories that, "fill in the gaps" where the episodes leave a sort of a grey area :D
8271145
Yes that would be awesome sequel.
8272516
You've forced ME to play this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ca12JSMN9E
Hope you get the reference.
8273410
Lol I got it
UPDATE: Chapter 3 Part 1 is currently being finished and will be posted sometime late tonight! Keep an eye out!
After many moons, the final part of chapter 3 has finally been published. Chapter 4, the final chapter, as well as the epilogue is in the works and will be posted in the not-so-distant-future. Keep an eye out!
Wow, I can't believe no one else has commented on this chapter. I liked the detail of Apple Bloom finding the bag that Applejack made for their mom. It's sweet that Rarity oversaw the making of it, too.
Poor AJ, thinking she could've saved her parents if she had listened to Love's Call sooner. Maybe she could have, but maybe she would've been captured too and suffered the same fate as her parents.
Pretty sure that was Starlight, Thorax, Trixie, and Discord.
Anyway, even though I would've liked for the parents to be alive, at least the Apple sibs got to see them in spirit, and they found the ending to the lullaby. I'm still wondering what happened to the parents' bodies, though. Did they crumble to dust?
For the epilogue, I hope Grand Pear finds out about Pear Butter's fate and Love's Call.
9067808
Thanks for the comment as always!
as much as I wanted to keep them alive, I knew I couldn't in order to maintain continuity. I'm trying to make it lined up with the MLP series and this story fits somehwere between the showdown with Starlight and chrysalis and the perfect pear episode
and I felt as if Apple Bloom seeing their bodies would be a little too dark, so I decided to do what the actual show does when dealing with death, which is just heavy implication and subtle hints. For this story, it is hinted that their bodies merely faded away (sort of like Infinity War if you've seen it already lol)
Well, it's finally here! The final chapter! I hope you enjoy it!
Also, the epilogue is in the works and will be posted soon! Be sure to follow this story so you will be notified when the epilogue is posted!
Epilogue is finally posted, marking an end to this long story! A sincere thank you to those who stuck with this story. I really really appreciate your support!
I have so many ideas for future stories that I am eager to write. Please do be sure to follow me so that you may be notified as to when these stories are published!
Nice little callback to Season 7 Episode 13 here
.
FEEEEEEELS
!!!!!
This was a bittersweet ending. I like how Grand Pear got to read about his daughter's life in her letters. It's understandable that he'd feel guilty that Pear Butter was kidnapped on her way to visit him. Still, at least now he can start to bond with his grandchildren.
The letter from Granny Smith didn't feel like her "voice," but it's possible that she thought that such grave news should be delivered in formal writing.
Anyway, this was very good for your first-ever story! I hope you write more fanfics.
9166039
Haha yeah. I initially began writing her letter in her "normal" voice, but felt as if it was too informal due to the tone I was trying to convey. I ended up reasoning that many individuals are able to express a differing tone much easier when writing than when trying to do so speaking. For instance, I have a southern twang and use a lot of southern terminology when I speak, but you couldn't really guess that by the way I write (or maybe you can, if you have a natural gift like that 😉)
But anyways, I really do appreciate how you always made sure to leave a comment/critique on all the chapters that I wrote. It really helped me with the story tremendously. Thank you!
Magic is shown by the Pepsi controlling the weather and unicorns’s spells and theorized to allow Earth ponies to grow crops better than the other races, increased stamina and strength so that line about magic being exclusive to only a certain group of ponies is false
9725768
Yes. All ponies can produce magic, but as you pointed out, how they can use it differs from group to group. I didn't make it clear in this story, but the "magic" I was referring to was spells (i.e. shooting magic out of horns, teleportation, etc. without the use of charms and amulets)
Update: It has been awhile since I posted this story, and I am pleasantly surprised that this story is still being viewed regularly. After some consideration, I decided to go through the story and make some much-needed revisions/edits to improve the pacing and flow. At the time of writing this story, I was a new writer and had little to no experience as to how to write a story. I'll be polishing up each chapter and will re-publish them as they are finished. As for now, I will re-label the story as "Incomplete". Be sure to follow to get updates on when new chapters are re-published!
Thank you for your continued support!
10991886
What kind of revisions should we expect? Purely technical, or will you be updating it to suit the updated canon of the show?
If the latter, you might want to post an old version somewhere for your old readers to view. It might not be pretty, but some of them fell in with it for a reason. Better to have that as a courtesy if nothing else.
11003120
The plot will remain the same; no major changes to the story. The edits/revisions are being done to "polish up" the story.
I get the feeling that they will eventually have to track down Chrysalis.