//------------------------------//
// All the Pears 
// Story: A Full Bushel Once Again 
// by Matthais Unidostres 
//------------------------------//

". . .And then, after smashin' the entire obstacle course ta bits, his whole disguise just fell off right after we crossed the finish line!" Applebloom regaled excitedly to the dining room table audience.

Not even Big Mac's red fur could hide the blush on his face as he got various levels of laughter from the ponies gathered around the table. Even Sugar Belle was only trying and failing to stifle her laughter. However, Big Mac bore it all well with a sheepish smile on his face. 

Bright Mac was the least restrained in his laughter, hooting with laughter as he pounded the table with a forehoof. Pear Butter was laughing melodiously, wiping away tears of mirth as she was unable to get the image of her big strong son in a dress out of her head.

Big Mac was suddenly slapped heartily on the back by his father, who said to him, "Now that's what I call being there for yer little sis! Nice work, son!"

His father's words caused the blush on Big Mac's face to fade. Big Mac had understandably been quite nervous when Applebloom had launched into a recap of the "Orchard Blossom Incident". But now, Big Mac was pleased to see how understanding his parents were about the whole situation. The red stallion couldn't help but smile confidentially, as he now felt okay about bringing up a certain case of Cutie Pox.  

At that moment, however, there was another knock at the door.

Still smiling from the story of the "Brotherhooves Social", Applejack nodded and said, "Woo-ee, looks like our special guest has arrived."

Pear Butter looked over at her middle child, and she immediately noticed the excited and kinda secretive look on Applejack's face. "Okay, what are you up to, Applejack?" she asked with a grin and a raised eyebrow.

Applejack stood up from the table and said, "Well, ya'll got to surprise us, so Ah'd say it's about time ya'll got surprised."

Sugar Belle "hmm"ed to herself and said curiously, "Well, you seem to be just full of surprises today, aren't you?"

Applejack winked and said, "Ya'll could say that. Although. . .Ah'd bet a case of Zap Apple Jam that most of us Apples know where this is going."

As Applejack turned to answer the door, Big Mac and Applebloom turned to each other and exchanged excited glances. Applebloom rubbed her hooves together eagerly while Big Mac nodded with excitement. Granny Smith just chuckled knowingly as she got up to fetch another plate for their guest.

Bright Mac turned to his wife and said, "Well, ain't this exciting. Any ideas on what they're planning?"

Pear Butter shrugged and said, "None at all. Although, I suppose we did have many friends in Ponyvile before. . . that unpleasantness, but I don't really see why  we couldn't just meet 'em all at-."

". . .Thank you, and I'm glad to see you're doing well after fighting those slavers in that Klugetown place. Although, I'm a bit baffled as to why you insisted-."

Pear Butter voice was taken away when she spotted the speaker, which Applejack had ushered into the dining room. The old stallion's voice was taken in a similar fashion when his eyes fell upon the mare.

"Wha. . .what. . .what is this?" Grand Pear croaked out, his mouth going dry and his knees shaking as he stared at Pear Butter. 

The mare still couldn't speak, but could only put a hoof over her heart and gaze back at her father with a look of longing in her eyes.

"What is this!?" Grand Pear repeated, this time a bit louder. It was not in anger, but in genuine confusion. The confusion increased when he saw the smiles on Applebloom's and Big Mac's faces. Then Granny Smith came back in a gave him a winking smile. Grand Pear then turned to Applejack, who was smiling a bit more gently and with misty eyes. 

Grand Pear turned back to Pear Butter again, and his eyes widened when he saw Bright Mac sitting right next to her. Grand Pear turned back to Applejack, almost too terrified to look at the couple again, and asked desperately, "What is happening right now!? They're gone! The rock slide. . .and nopony dared go down to recover their. . . recover them 'cause of the Quarry Eels. . . then that flood cleaned it all out. . . they were gone!"

". . .Ask 'em," Applejack said plainly and gently.

Grand Pear inhaled loudly, as if Applejack had just causally asked him to raise the Sun. Yet, the old stallion slowly turned, inch by inch, until her was facing the couple he had thought to be long dead. As a storm of conflicting emotions raged inside of him, all he could manage was one single word.

"How?"

Bright Mac silently showed his support by holding his wife's hoof in his own. Pear Butter let out the breath she had been holding without even realizing it, and she answered, "It wasn't the rock slide. . .it was slavers."

Grand Pear looked utterly horrified as the implications of that statement seeped into his brain. A terrible sickness spread through him as gut wrenching thoughts and images flashed through is mind. 

"Oh, sweet Celestia," he gasped out, that horrified look still plastered over his face, "My precious daughter. . .my poor Pear Butter. . ."

Frightened that his father might actually faint, Pear Butter reached out to him and smiled placatingly. "Nonono, it's okay! I'm fine! See, I'm completely. I'm right here and in good health! See!" she called out with forced eagerness.

As Grand Pear carefully took in the general appearance of his daughter, the look of horror on his face faded, but his eyes still appeared haunted and pained. He shut his eyes and hung his head, and he spoke sorrowfully, "Darling, I'm sorry. I'm so-."

"Hold it right there, Pa!" Pear Butter said as she stood up forcefully, "What happened to us was in no way your fault, so don't you go on apologizing for that! You got nothing to do with slavers jumping out at us on a lonely road. It was all that Storm King and cronies, and they got theirs in the end, so don't you go taking the blame away from them."

Grand Pear raised his head and opened his eyes, still not looking any better after his daughter's words. "Darling, I've still got so much to answer for," he said miserably.

Pear Butter sighed, and she slipped her forehoof out of Bright Mac's forehoof so she could walk around the table and towards her father. "Pa, you were angry and stubborn, and there was just so much bad blood between the Apples and Pears." Pear Butter felt hot tears run down her cheeks as she shook her head furiously and cried out, "Dang it, Pa! I just wanted you back! I never hated you! I just wanted you to give us a chance, that's all! Don't you get it! I never hated you!"

Pear Butter rubbed the tears out of her eyes with a fetlock, and then looked directly at the stunned old stallion and said sincerely, "I never hated you."

Grand Pear was too shocked to even cry at this point, he only stared blankly at her daughter as he fought to make sense of everything that had occurred. But then, he finally gave up and stepped forward to give his daughter a long overdue hug. The father and daughter remained like this, just silently hugging as the rest of the family gathered in the barn house watched in silence.

When Grand Pear finally lifted his old head off of Pear Butter's shoulder, he began to carefully study the mare's body. He ran his forehooves along her forelegs and neck, and then placed them onto her cheeks and said softly, "You. . .look okay. . . I feared the worst. . .the things those monsters could've done to you. . ."

Pear Butter shuddered slightly and remarked almost off-hoofedly, "Well, thank Celestia that Bright Mac was there when-." She stopped in mid sentence and immediately clammed up.

Eyes widened with panic, Grand Pear put his his forehooves onto his daughter's shoulders and said, "What?! What happened? He was there when what happened? Tell me!"

"Oh dear. . ." Pear Butter whispered as her nervous eyes gazed into Grand Pears' frantic ones. She then looked over at her husband and said, "I'm afraid the cat's out of the bag, Bright Mac. Show 'em."

Bright Mac suddenly appeared extremely self-conscious at the moment, and as his eyes darted around, he found that now everypony in the room was staring at him. "Aw shoot, couldn't we just-," he began awkwardly.

Pear Butter just frowned and shook her head. "Sorry, but we gotta. Besides, I think they need to know."

Bright Mac met her gaze for just a second before sighing and nodding in response. This was the one mare he could never say no too, besides his mother, and perhaps maybe Applebloom considering how adorable she was. Nevertheless, he got up and walked up along the side of the dining room table. Then, with great reluctance in his body language, Bright Mac put both his forelegs up on the table and sort of leaned up onto it and on his side, revealing his chest.

There were gasps and cries of horror all around as all those present bore witness to the six inch long scar that ran up the stallion's chest.

Pear Butter closed her eyes and shuddered again as she whispered, "If he hadn't been there. . .that would've been me. . ."

Applejack's head was spinning after seeing the mark of her father's horrible injury, no doubt inflicted by a particularity cruel lash from a slaver's whip. "How the hay did Ah not notice that?" Applejack thought to herself, "Ah was hugging him and real close to him and everythin'!"

Pear Butter opened her eyes and said strongly, "He saved me. It was the single most bravest act I've ever. . ."

As Pear Butter's voice trailed off, Bright Mac got off of the table and said in a slightly grim yet resolute tone, "Aw, shoot, Buttercup. Ah just saw something Ah had to keep from happening, and Ah did what Ah had to do. Ah'd do it again."

Meanwhile, Grand Pear was gazing at Bright Mac as if he had never seen anything like him before. He lifted his forehooves off of his daughter and stumbled towards Bright Mac, saying in a faraway voice, "I finally see how wrong I truly was." Like a blind stallion, Grand Pear shambled up to a pitying Bright Mac and said, "You always were an honest, honorable stallion. But of course I couldn't allow myself to see that. I don't expect to get your forgiveness, but I apologize anyway."

Grand Pear hung his head miserably, but it didn't take more than three seconds for Bright Mac to give his reply.

"The way Ah see it, you were angry and stubborn and let that old feud control you. But now you're here, admitting you were wrong and everythin'." Bright Mac paused at this, and with determined nod to himself, he gathered the nerve he needed to carefully embrace Grand Pear. "What good would it do to not forgive you?"

Grand Pear's only response was to weep openly, releasing any remaining pain and regret he had yet to free himself of. Pear Butter quickly joined in on the embrace, and soon the father, daughter, and son in law enjoyed their tearful, heartfelt reunion.

As everypony looked on at the heartwarming scene, Applebloom just had to crack a smile and say, "Ain't ya all glad Ah brought home that jar of pear jam?"

The complete and utter innocence in which the young filly said this was brought a welcome feeling to all those present to hear it. For in a world where not all things are as easily connected by simple cause an effect, where not all loose ends are neatly tied up, it was a rare and priceless moment in which everypony could take in the fact that all of the Apples and all of the Pears were once again gathered back in their bushel.