Blitz sat silently on the porch of the Sweet Apple Acres farmhouse. He rolled a ball back and forth between his wings slowly, feeling bored as the setting sun. On his left sat his elder cousin, Crumble, and on his right his twin brother, Blue Stem. The three colts were waiting. They didn't know what for, but they were.
Suddenly, a rainbow blur shot up over a hill. At the same time three muscular, warmly-colored earth ponies cantered out of the array of apple trees. That's what they were waiting for; their family.
The three colts got up and excitedly ran towards the four adult ponies. Blitz practically pounced on his moms, giving them the biggest hugs he could.
"Wow, miss us much?" Rainbow Dash chuckled with a sideways glance to her wife.
Applejack shuffled her son's hair. "How was yer day, Lil' Fizzer?"
"Boring!" Blitz responded. "The half-day at school went by too fast, and then I couldn't do anything else once I got home and did all my chores!"
"Wait, there was a half day today?!" Applebloom asked, letting go of Blue Stem's embrace. "Why didn't anypony tell me?! Heavens to soil, the Sanctuary is always busy on early release school days!"
"Well, you were out in the orchard," Blitz answered.
"And aunt Sugar Belle says we ain't permitted ta' go out there without an adult accompanying us," Stem added.
Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Applebloom all looked accusingly over at Big Macintosh, who was playfully shuffling his son's hair. He quickly stopped once he felt the mares' eyes burning into him.
"I ain't got a thing to do with it!" he proclaimed defensively.
Applebloom and Rainbow Dash both laughed at him while Applejack looked back at her sons. "Well, from now on, y'all can join us in the orchard whenever ya like," she said softly.
Blitz smiled when he heard his ma say this. He loved growing up on a farm. He always felt unique when he and his brother talked about the farm workings in front of the class. He wasn't the brightest kid in class, but he was always happy when the orchard came into conversation.
"Can you teach me some orchard stuff tomorrow, ma?" Blitz asked, looking at Applejack hopefully.
"Don't you have school tomorrow?"
Blitz shook his head no. "It's summer vacation now!"
Applejack tensed suddenly. “Summer vacation already?” she said with a slight chuckle. “Gosh, time sure does fly, don’t it?” She wrapped her hoof around Blitz’s shoulders, pulling him close. “Ya know, with summer always comes one Sweet Apple Acres tradition yer mom never likes to skimp out on.”
Cider Blitz danced excitedly, knowing his ma was talking about the very sales week that contributed to his namesake. “Cider season!” he said happily.
Ahead of them, Rainbow Dash stopped and turned her head almost the full 180 degrees. “Did somepony just mention cider and NOT have it be in reference to my wonderful pegasus son?” she joked, flying up and back to her family. She playfully pushed on Blitz’s head while wrapping her wing affectionately around Applejack. “You and Stem might get to make your first pots of cider all on your own! I may not have been a part of this family when I was your age but I know that when a foal gets trusted with their first big task like that it’s a very important moment in their life!”
Blitz smiled at his mom and then looked excitedly back at his brother, whose head was dropping a little. “Hey, Stem, something wrong?”
Stem lifted his head and looked at his pegasus twin. “Well, actually,” he began, “I kinda had an occupied day tomorrow with Strokes and Ace.”
Strokes and Ace, full names Golden Strokes and Two Pair, were Blue Stem’s best friends from school. After Strokes introduced him to the world of art, Stem would end up spending a lot of time with her and Ace in the park playing games and drawing pictures; without Blitz. This naturally made Blitz very jealous and sad, as he thought he’d be able to spend time with his brother all the time, but no! He had to spend all his time with a couple of city-folk!
Blitz would never admit his jealousy though. He frowned at his brother, but still kept a chipper and affirming tone to his voice. “O-okay then…” he stammered. “Ya don’t have to work in the orchard with me tomorrow in that case.”
Stem lifted his head high, looking at his brother with a surprised expression. “I never said I couldn’t participate in orchard work!” He protested as they stepped onto the porch. The rest of their family had already stepped inside, so it was just the two of them now.
Blitz stepped backwards, opening his wings. Were they really about to fight? “It’s fine, Stem!” he assured him, trying his best to sound sincere. “You can hang out with them all day tomorrow if ya want to!”
“Cut the crap, Blitz!” Stem scolded, squaring up to his brother. “I know how ya feel about my friends!”
Blitz folded his wings and cast his glance sideways. Stem sighed and walked closer to his brother, pulling him into a warm embrace.
“I understand ya enjoy hanging out with me and being my brother,” Stem comforted. “But we don’t have ta do everything together. We gotta have our own lives.” He pulled away from the hug and lightly punched his brother on the shoulder. “I’ll be hanging out with Ace and Strokes tomorrow until lunchtime, so I’ll still be able to work the orchard with ya!” he said.
Blitz grumbled. “But we won’t get the time to make cider together…”
Stem sighed again and put his hoof on the door. “The orchard ain’t everything, Blitz,” he said as he opened the door.
Blitz reluctantly followed him inside, where they found their family all standing nonchalantly in an obvious attempt to hide the fact that they were listening in on the brothers’ conversation. Stem looked them on in mild anger, but Blitz didn’t even care. He just grabbed a fresh apple off the dinner table, tucked it under his wing, and stomped up to his and Stem’s room.
Blitz woke up early in the morning to a rooster's crow, as he always had for the past twelve years. He turned over and looked at Stem's bed. Empty. Good! He told himself. I didn't wanna talk to him anyhow...
He flew down the stairs, not knowing wether he wanted to see Stem at the breakfast table. It didn't matter either way, because he was already gone. The only other ponies in the kitchen were Sugar Belle and Crumble. The two unicorns were working together to make pancakes.
"Good morning, Blitz!" Sugar Belle greeted her nephew. She was clearly refraining from mentioning the fight she'd eavesdropped on the night before with the rest of their family. "Sleep well?"
Blitz nodded and grumbled as he landed on the hard wooden floor. "Where's everypony else?" he asked.
"Big Mac is out preparing the trees for today's harvests, Applebloom is covering the summer camps at the Sanctuary, and Rainbow Dash is still asleep. She's lived here thirteen years and still can't get on farm schedule..."
Blitz noticed that Sugar Belle had neglected to mention Applejack and Blue Stem. She must have known he didn't want to hear about Stem after the previous night, and he guessed that his ma was the one who took him into town to hang out with his friends. Blitz poured a quick glass of apple juice and started towards the door.
"Where are ya going?" Crumble asked.
"I'm just going ta see if Big Mac will give me a few pointers on harvesting. Come get us when breakfast is ready!" He set his empty glass down on the counter and darted out the door, taking off just a few paces from the porch.
Let's see, they covered the southeast section of orchard yesterday, so that means today is... south section. He landed just before reaching the line of apple trees he’d guessed his uncle had been working in. He trotted through the trees, following the line of baskets and once again taking a moment to appreciate orchard life. He found his uncle about halfway through the array, organizing empty wicker baskets and pushing on the trees to check their sturdiness.
“Hey, Uncle Mac!” Blitz called. The soft-spoken stallion nodded kindly to his nephew and gestured him over. All thoughts of his fight with Stem suddenly left Blitz's mind as he trotted closer to his uncle.
The two of them spent most of the morning practicing the family tradition of apple bucking. By the time Crumble came trotting up to invite them to breakfast, Blitz had filled up his first basket of apples.
"Dad! Blitz! Breakfast's ready!" Crumble called. He cast a surprised glance at the wicker basket filled with fresh red apples, and Blitz noticed his eyes quickly flash with jealousy.
They all started trotting back to the farmhouse. Once they got up to the door, Blitz heard Applejack's voice, in a conversation with Rainbow Dash and Sugar Belle. About Stem.
"He's really gonna go somewhere with those drawings of his!" she proclaimed excitedly. "Our sketcher really is talented."
"You don't have to tell me that!" Rainbow Dash responded excitedly. "Both our boys have gotta be the coolest colts in Ponyville."
Blitz started to get fed up with hearing about his twin. He trudged through the door, stopping at the sink to wash his front hooves of the dirt he'd picked up out in the orchard.
"Hey there, Li'l Fizzer!" Applejack called to her son. "How was your first time apple bucking?"
Blitz turned and smiled at her. "It was really fun, ma!" he said as he sat in his usual dining chair, right next to Rainbow Dash.
"Well I'm glad!" Applejack exclaimed happily. "Think you'll be willing to make your first pot of cider in a few hours?" she added, holding her wife close to prevent her from getting excited at the mention of her favorite beverage.
Blitz frowned, remembering what Rainbow Dash had said the night before about it being a significant moment in an Apple Family foal's life, and that he wouldn't be able to do it with Stem.
"Maybe..." he sighed, starting to poke his breakfast absentmindedly. The adults at the table all shared worried glances at Blitz's disgruntled attitude, but reluctantly changed the subject of conversation and continued on with the meal. If only Blitz would make up with Stem and remove all awkwardness from the household.
After breakfast, Blitz had gone back upstairs to his room. He was just sitting on his bed, staring at the ceiling quietly. After a few hours he heard a knock at the door.
"Hey, Blitz?" Rainbow Dash's voice came from the other side of the door. "It's your moms. Can we come in?"
Great. Both his moms were here to give him a lecture. He opened the door and let Applejack and Rainbow Dash in. They both sat down on Stem's bed across the room.
"Is everything alright, Fizzer?" Applejack asked. "I know you had a fight with Stem yesterday."
"Everyone in the house knows!" Blitz snapped.
"Right, and we have tried ta avoid talking 'bout it..." Applejack began.
"But it seems to have really made you mad. We think you need to talk about it," Rainbow Dash added.
Blitz grumbled and turned over in his bed. "I just wish Stem wasn't spending all his time in town with Golden Strokes and Two Pair," he said finally.
"Your brother's gonna have ta have a life outside the family, Blitz." Applejack comforted. "Everyone in the family will. Heck, if I'd not had a life outside the family I never woulda met yer mom."
"But he hardly ever makes time for us! He knows we love him more than a couple of friends could, right?"
"Just because he spends time away from the family doesn't mean he doesn't love us," Rainbow Dash said, wrapping her wing around her son. "Everyone has a life outside of their family. Stem always comes home after hanging out with his friends and he always hangs out with us when he's on the farm. If you love your brother, you'll be happy if he's happy with his life. And you do love your brother, right?"
"Yes..." Blitz sighed. "And he does seem happy when he's with Golden Strokes and Two Pair." He looked over to his brother's side of the room and smiled. "And if he's happy... I'm happy!"
"Awesome!" Rainbow Dash cheered, doing a small roll in the air. "Now let's go downstairs and make some cider."