“Something’s wrong with you today,” a concerned Apple Bloom had told her. “And yer gonna take a nap and we’re gonna get the doctor and maybe Zecora or somethin’ ‘cause somethin’ ain’t right an’ yer goin’ nowhere till we find out what.”
Applejack frowned. She found out how to get to Twi, but … Applejack thought, I’m here now, I could see what the pony versions of the rest of my family look like then slip out the back to talk to Rares.
Wait! That’s right! This is my chance! her mind shouted.
“Ya know what?” Applejack spoke up with a smile. “Maybe ah should take a quick rest. Ya say Granny’s home?”
“Eeyup,” Mac answered.
Applejack took a deep breath. Somewhat difficult when draped over the back of a trotting pony. She took another, and a third to steady herself.
She couldn’t help let that smile grow wider. “Are Ma and Pa home?”
The answer took away that smile.
*** *** ***
07:20 AM.
In a grove beside a little hill set to catch the evening light more than the morning’s, Applejack solemnly walked over a cobblestone pathway between twin rows of trees.
Her pony's siblings had let her go to make the visit. It was getting close to the anniversary after all. It wouldn’t be the first time that the date had brought about some strong emotions in them. They even wanted to go with her, but she needed to do this alone.
She wanted to look up, but kept her eyes on the path, afraid of seeing what she knew she’d find.
Seemed someone kept good care of the place. The path was clear of debris, flowers grew alongside it. She could feel that the plants were healthy and grown more for beauty rather than yield. Many were young.
The path wasn’t that long and she was soon at the end.
She took a breath and looked up.
~–~
In loving memory: Buttercup
In loving memory: Bright Mac
~–~
“What!? P-Pa died too?”
As her eyes began to mist, Applejack reached up and took off her hat to hold against her heart.
“Ah suppose … suppose it shouldn’t be so surprising. It was touch and go for a long time with Pa back home. We might’ve … lost him too.
She looked over the double gravestone. “Ah guess she misses ya both even more than ah do.
“Ah had hoped ah might get to see you two up an’ healthy again. T-talk to ya both. Ah know you two ain’t really my parents an’ yer ponies an’ all, but ah still hoped ah’d ….”
Applejack paused and steadied herself. “Ah should back up. ah’m a different Applejack. Ah’m from another world. Ah know: it’s weird to me too. We all—my friends and me—came here ‘cause one of our other friends is in trouble an’ we have a friend here we think can help."
She looked up and nodded to the twin gravestones. “That’s the honest reason ah came here today. But not the whole of it, not fer me. Ah have to admit, ah’ve been wanting to come here ever since we learned there was another world with other us’es in it. If there was another Applejack, then, well … maybe ah could talk to her parents. Maybe ah could see your faces again when they ain’t just in photographs. Ah could hear you two laugh, call me Jackie again.
“Haven’t been called Jackie since you died, Ma. Well, Pinkie calls me that sometimes, but she’s just playing. Doesn’t mean the same.
“Maybe ah could see Pa walking again.”
She looked down at her hoof holding her hat and chuckled slightly, “Even if it would be with four legs an’ not two. That’s sure taken some gettin’ used to.”
Applejack shook her head and put her hat back on. “Ah ought ta be going. Ah should tell Rares an’ the others where to find our friend. It was nice to talk to you at least.”
With her eyes closed, she could hear the sound of birds twittering among the branches, she could feel the plants and trees planted around the burial site, the lush grass, the trees. Many of them were apple trees, of course, but there were trees of all sorts spread around. It was beautiful. Even with her eyes closed.
But one tree in particular stood out to her.
She opened her eyes and walked up closer, toward Buttercup’s side of the gravestone.
A very young tree. Perhaps two or three years old. Not yet budding, but it would soon begin to bear fruit.
“A pear tree,” Applejack smiled. “So they know too.”
“Applejack?” an old voice asked and Applejack turned around.
It was hard to tell in the shade of the hill who the old stallion with an old fashioned push mower over his back was, but the voice was familiar. It reminded her of someone who died not long after coming into her life
“… Grand Pear?”
“Ah, there you are,” Grand Pear replied. “Your brother and sister said you came to visit.”
Applejack could only stare as he walked into the light.
“Are you alright?” he asked.
“Oh, uh, yeah,” Applejack sputtered. “Guess ah … uh, had a few things to clear out of my head.”
Grand Pear nodded, joining Applejack looking over the graves, “It’s getting close.”
There was a moment of silence before Applejack spoke up. “When was it you found out?”
Grand Pear glanced over a moment with a frown. “A few years after it happened.”
Applejack looked back to him and he continued. “She never stopped sending me letters. But, of course I wouldn't read them. Couldn’t throw them away though. Just kept them in a box in a closet.” He dropped his head slightly. “One day I noticed they had stopped coming. I assumed she had given up, that the last letter was her telling me off and vowing to never write to me again.
“Eventually I noticed I had fallen into a routine, one that included checking the mailbox for her letters, and even sometimes the grounds nearby in case the mail pony dropped them by mistake. One day I checked that last letter she sent. I thought I’d just go ahead and read her venting off at me and be done with it. But in that letter," Grand Pear smiled, "I read about my youngest granddaughter losing her first tooth! I didn’t even know I had any grandfoals."
His smile faded, “I didn’t get it. True, Pear Butter was never the vindictive type, rarely ever got angry, but still, she stopped writing with that letter? It just got me wondering. And grandfoals? It wasn’t for a few weeks though that I read through the other letters. All of them. I couldn’t stop; not to eat or sleep. And she wrote so much.”
Grand Pear dropped his head lower. “She wanted so much for me to reply, to see her family. But I just couldn't. But I did want to know why she stopped, so I wrote a letter to an old friend still in town here, one of the few bridges I didn’t burn that night I left her behind.”
He slowly turned and walked up to the double gravestone, “He told me what happened. And tanned my hide for not being here for her.”
Applejack gave him a moment then an opening to continue. “And the letters are how you knew about us when you came back.”
“She even sent pictures. Drawings and photographs. She loved you. They both did, and Granny Smith. She had so much to say about all of you. So much love for all of you.”
This brought a smile to Applejack’s face, which was short lived when he continued. “Just not for me.”
“Hey now,” she stopped him there, “Ma never would have kept writing those letters to you if she didn’t love you too.”
“Still should have been here for her. For all of you.”
“Well ah can’t argue with that,” Applejack told him straight. “But yer here now ain’t ya? And ah know she’d be happy for that.”
Still looking at her name on the gravestone, Grand Pear nodded. “I sure hope so.”
“Ah know so, Grand Pear Pear,” Applejack replied, using Apple Bloom’s nickname for their surprise grandfather. “You don’t mind that we wrote ‘Buttercup’ do ya?”
“Not at all. It’s how you knew her, and it’s who she was … for the happiest part of her life.”
“But her letters mean she never forgot where she came from.”
Grand Pear looked back at her and smiled. “Thank you, Jackie.”
Applejack blinked and did a half step back, one hoof kept in the air.
“May I call you that?” asked Grand Pear.
She slowly lowered her hoof back down and smiled. “Ah’d like that.”
“It was in the letters. Your parents’ names for you and your siblings.”
“Just the good ones, Ah hope,” she chuckled.
He scratched his chin coyly. “Oh, now. There were a lot of letters.”
That turned Applejack’s chuckles into a full laugh.
Grand Pear joined in.
After a moment, Applejack calmed herself and took notice of the mower over Grand Pear’s withers. “You keep the place nice and tidy.”
“Three times a week if I can.”
“Well how about ah help ya out and trade some stories about family.”
“You mean about your mother?”
“Ah mean family, an’ that includes you too,” Applejack assured him. At his smile she added, “Always good when the family grows.”
“Yes,” he agreed. “Yes it is.”
Grand Pear let the mower slide off his back and down his side so the pole was pointed up and then pushed it so it would angle over to Applejack. “So, while we trade tales, I’ll tend to the gardens while you mow?”
“Sounds good to me,” Applejack agreed, catching the mower against her side.
She looked to the mower. Hooves or teeth?
“Uh ….”
*** *** ***
09:03 AM
“Hey!” Applejack called, trotting into the palace of friendship, “Anybody here?”
There was no reply.
“Ah, sorry ah’m late. Some things, uh, well, some things happened. But ah know where to find Twi now. Hello?”
Still no reply.
“Dagnabbit!”