Outside the filly’s dark, unconscious mind was the chaos of shouting and following her blackout. A shocked Twilight teleported into the classroom for tutoring to gather Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo for an emergency, telling the confused students to stay put.
The three ponies rushed back to Twilight’s office to find an unconscious Applebloom. Scootaloo’s eyes widened in shock; Sweetie Belle rushed over and held her friend’s hooves, feeling for a pulse before faintly and weakly stating “she’s alive”.
“But what happened?!” Scootaloo asked, her eyes still widened.
Twilight found her voice: “I’m really sorry for startling you like this, girls. I just… didn’t know what to do. I told her what happened to her parents and… she blacked out.” Twilight’s eyes lowered beneath her bangs, just like Applebloom earlier in the day. She bristled sheepishly. “I think the story… was too much for her to take, but I just had to tell her; she really wanted the truth and I felt like she deserved to know.”
“We understand,” said Sweetie Belle softly, still kneeling by Applebloom. “At least now we know why she’s been so upset… only why do you think she’s only feeling this way now?”
“Applebloom told me the whole story”, Twilight replied. “You see, I don’t think she ever told you this. A few weeks ago…” Twilight repeated the day that the Apple siblings found the backstory of their parents. “... and to this day, Applebloom wondered consistently about the death of her parents. She never knew them, but hearing their backstory struck something within her… and since then, she kept searching for answers she couldn’t obtain.”
“But why didn’t she ask anyone?” Scootaloo said.
“She couldn’t get herself to ask her siblings because she was worried about upsetting them”, Twilight replied. “She knew that losing their parents was hard, and didn’t want to bring anything up. She also knew that you two couldn’t help her; could only provide reassurance and nothing more. So she kept it all inside…” Twilight looked down at Applebloom sadly. “Maybe even she knew the truth would be too much of a shock. Maybe she was too scared to ask, while at the same time wanting answers. And when I finally told her the truth… she got what she wanted, but it was so hard to take in…” Twilight's voice cracked. “I believe that anypony would have trouble taking in something like that.”
Scootaloo slowly walked up to Twilight and spoke softly. “Can you tell us what she heard?”
Sweetie Belle stood up. “Yes. We would like to know. What happened to her parents?”
Twilight recounted the story.
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The two fillies left the friendship school with heavy hearts. Applebloom still hadn’t woken up, so Twilight took her back to Sweet Apple Acres herself and told Applejack of the situation, trusting that Applejack wouldn’t get mad at somepony who told the truth. Maybe Twilight did everypony a favour by telling Applebloom once and for all what she needed to hear, taking all the pressure off the Apple family.
The two other CMCs walked in solemnity. Finally, Scootaloo spoke: “It looks like asking somepony with powerful magic was the right thing to do after all. Look how more quickly we were able to solve the situation than if we tried to deal with it ourselves, like always.”
“Well, Sweetie Belle replied, “I would like to point out that it wasn’t Twilight’s magic that helped; it was her knowledge of the Apple Family’s backstory that did.”
“Pear-Apple family,” Scootaloo corrected. “But anyway, maybe you are right on one account except that we still needed Twilight to fly Applebloom back to Sweet Apple Acres.”
“That is true”, said Sweetie Belle thoughtfully. Her eyes brightened with realization. “Maybe the moral of this story should be to ask older ponies for help, with or without powerful magic. After all, that is a lesson that should have been learned when we were being bullied by Babs Seed.”
Scootaloo shuddered at the memory of Babs Seed’s sadistic expressions when tormenting the CMCs alongside Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, despite the fact that they were all now friends. “You are right about that”, she replied. “I suppose we all had our experiences of experiencing troubled thoughts or experiences that could be fixed by older ponies.” She remembered when Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon bullied her for being unable to fly.
“Well anyway, it’s a lesson learned”, said Sweetie Belle. “Now that we’ve finally learned it, let’s leave the rest to Twilight and Applejack and hope that everything turns out for the best.”
The two fillies headed home.
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Applebloom felt the soft, warm sheets against her fur, and the weight of her body sinking into the mattress. It was a welcoming feel after the cold, sharp wind that blew into her skin while Twilight hastily flew her home, which had followed the sharp words of Twilight retelling the story to her friends when Applebloom as starting to regain consciousness. Applebloom had been conscious for all of it, but had decided not to open her eyes until she was home and it was quiet; until she was alone, safe and secure. But the tension only followed her home; tension mixed with the shock of finally hearing the truth and fearing it like she knew she would. The tension caused butterflies to swarm in her stomach; nausea to creep up her throat; pressure to build behind her eyes. She had known that the truth would scare her, but she needed to hear it, and wished she hadn’t heard.
The noise continued to swarm in her brain; repeated words, conversation downstairs. She couldn’t open her eyes even now for all the noise and chaos going on inside her brain. If she kept them closed she wouldn’t have to face any of it; then maybe it would all go away.
Finally, Applebloom lost consciousness and drifted into a troubled sleep.
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The day continued onward, the sun gradually moving West. The sky above the Sweet Apple Acres turned from bright blue to a purplish hue as evening began to approach. The rest of the Apple Family siblings had spent the entire day doing chores with the episode from earlier at the back of their minds.
Applejack looked over at Big Mac, who was fully absorbed in his work. He hadn’t been talkative since the death of their parents, and spoke only when absolutely necessary. She knew that re-confronting the death of a parent would be too hard for him.
After about an hour, when the sun came closer to the horizon, Applejack looked at her house and sighed deeply; she knew what had to be done.
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The young filly’s hazy mind was jostled from dark, troubled dreams with a soft knock on the door. Her eyes opened slowly to a room darkly shadowed by window shades, softly lit by the waning sun. The door was opening slowly, revealing more light.
“Sugarcube? Can I come in?”
Sugarcube. Applebloom had grown up used to that name, unlike Applejack’s friends who received it only occasionally. Her tired eyes began to water as the door opened more. The light from the hallway caused her to squint, and tears started to fall.
Applejack came over and sat on her sister’s bed. Her hat was off, her eyes tired. She paused for a moment, unsure where to begin. “I know you talked with Twilight”, she began slowly.
Applebloom nodded. “I fainted when ai heard.” Her words were barely audible.
But Applejack heard them. “How did ya get ta asking Twilight about this instead of us?” But she didn’t seem mad. She seemed genuinely concerned, if a little curious.
Finding her words, Applebloom explained the question that had been pondering at her for so long, and her fear of confronting her siblings about a sensitive matter, along with some fear of finding out herself. So she avoided the truth, worried it would hurt her. But when her friends saw how sad she was, they took her to Twilight. From there on there was such a big elephant in the room that Applebloom just had to give up; she had to ask the question that had eaten away at her since that day. Her voice cracked as she told the story, and tears kept falling.
Applejack didn’t cry. She closed her eyes, possibly to hide the pain within her. “It was hard fer all of us, seeing… them both go like that.” Her voice trembled only the slightest. “You were barely a filly when they were both gone; that’s why you don’t remember them. Someday I’ll tell ya more ‘bout what ‘appened at the time, and what it was like fer all of us. But fer now, ai have two things ta say. First off, it was not yer fault.”
Applebloom let the words of comfort sink in, hardly denting the wall of pain in her.
“Second,” Applejack continued, “we never told you; we figured the truth would be too hard… but ai think ai know now that it never does anypony good to hide the truth…” She opened her eyes, and looked at Applebloom. “And I don’t want you ta hide anythin’ from me ever again. If anythin’ is eatin’ at you, you’ve gotta tell at least somepony about yer feelings, or the truth will eat you away. Do ya understand?”
Applebloom nodded, her eyes blurring.
“Now come ‘ere.” The older pony pulled Applebloom into an embrace as her emotions took over.