Scootaloo began to move immediately, legs surging forward as her mouth began to open in greeting --
-- and then she stopped. Or rather, the left foreleg stopped first, because the barrier which had just been imposed between it and the rest of the world wasn't going anywhere. The remainder of the filly's body was more or less forced to follow up from there.
The pegasus blinked. Stared down, found nothing, backed up a little more, and then located an angle from which she could glare at Apple Bloom's sideways-extended left foreleg properly.
"Hey!"
The earth pony didn't say anything. Instead, she just shook her head: one shift in each direction, sharp and quick, and did so at the same moment her tail flicked against Scootaloo's flank. Because the Crusade had produced far too many side effects, and one of the few which Apple Bloom didn't have to apologize for was the need for all participants to find a means of communication which the adults wouldn't notice. It didn't have to contain all that much vocabulary: just the basics of the Crusade. Most of that related to making excuses and, when the excuses didn't work, getting out of the area in a hurry. And when you lived in the same settled zone as Pinkie Pie, few ponies paid all that much attention to minor twitches.
A fast, sharp head shake and a tail flick.
'Let me.'
"...oh," Scootaloo softly stated. "Fine..."
(There had been a few false starts when they'd tested out the code in public. The fillies generally knew that they'd crossed the body language line if their attempts to pass the word led to mares and stallions diving under carts, giving the adults a somewhat protected place from which to fearfully watch the sky.)
Apple Bloom lowered her foreleg, noticed Babs watching.
She looks kinda nervous. Worried.
Now she looks like she jus' noticed Ah saw her lookin' worried, an' she's gotta look any other way so nopony has t' see the first one again.
Go forward. Slowly...
The youngest Malus moved towards her cousin.
There had been several requirements for breaking from the Crusade, and one of the biggest had seen Apple Bloom stop living in the now. She'd forced herself to survey the whole of it, finally acknowledging every last failure as she tallied up all the damage done. Because childhood was something which seemed to mostly exist in the present tense, accompanied by an eternal longing towards an unknowable future -- and maybe it took a little bit of growing up to kick any part of that perspective into reverse.
Apple Bloom had reached the point where she could review her own life, doing so from what she generally regarded to be a neutral perspective. She generally didn't like doing so, because a biased observer surely wouldn't be wincing quite that much. And there were some things which she still didn't examine too closely, because she was still mostly a filly and -- a few of them just hurt too much.
The youngest Malus was a little older now. Somewhat wiser. And wisdom could be expensive: just for starters, it had cost Apple Bloom several years of her life. And maybe some of the reputation could be earned back, but she'd traded time for the kind of memories which she mostly didn't want, stories that couldn't be told without all of the humiliation flooding back...
She was reviewing the first time she'd come up to Babs. The first time they'd all done it, and she couldn't use 'approach' as a description when 'full-scale assault' was a qualified candidate who needed the work. To consider exactly what the Crusaders had done upon seeing the new filly was to be grateful that 'came on too strong' wasn't a single word in Equestrian, because she understood how dictionaries worked and nopony was going to put your picture next to a phrase.
Because they'd rushed the Manehattan native. Tried to show her that she was one of their own. Personal space had been generously assigned at a quarter-hoofwidth, and then violated anyway because surely this was going to be a friend and she'd understand. And when Apple Bloom forced herself to look back on the bouncing, too-loud, too-close greeting of a filly who'd been almost immediately overwhelmed, translating what they'd done into how it had actually registered... it came across as this:
'Hi! You know that thing which makes you a target? Where your strongest wish is that it would just go away forever? The trait, or the lack of it, that kind of makes you hate yourself all the time? Because not being like everypony else makes you feel like a failure and all you want from being here is to maybe stop thinking about some of that for a few days? US TOO!'
There probably wasn't a mark for making a good first impression. They never would have managed that one either.
So she approached slowly while holding a slight smile, and managed to maintain the latter as a bulwark against the internal surge of confusion.
Why now? Why here? An' when y'make it here an' now...
Babs watched her, grinning a little. Apple Bloom came to a stop about four hoofwidths away. Face to face. Waiting.
Your move.
Her cousin did.
There was a nuzzle meant for family and, when it came from Babs, it was delivered with a little extra force. The family reunion had found Apple Bloom meeting it while reared up on her hind legs because that way, Babs had to match her and two limbs would be delivering somewhat less power than four: she'd nearly overbalanced anyway.
The nuzzle had some extra force behind it, because that was just Babs. But it was also careful. Gentle. Welcoming...
...this feels kinda -- off...
...oh. Her fur ain't lyin' right. Grain's off. Groomin' looked okay until Ah got up close, but it's rough. And she smells sorta -- dirty?
Which made some sense. Manehattan to Ponyville: that was days on a train. Apple Bloom figured the restrooms weren't exactly ideal, especially with the number of ponies who were using them. And some of those ponies would probably be just like Scootaloo, who had spent enough time living alone to have lost the concept of somepony else having to get in and go.
They nuzzled.
"Still feels like forever, ya know?" Babs asked. "Like there's all sorts of forevers, and some of 'em are longer." She backed away just enough to snort. "Spend enough time on a train, and 'forever' starts to look like the short option."
Her lower lip briefly stuck out, and a quick burst of upwards-aimed air ruffled the short mane.
"Least you're off it now," Apple Bloom pointed out. But why did you --
Her tail swished, and Scootaloo began to approach.
"Yeah, and not soon enough! Thought we weren't gonna clear Canterlot in time, not with all the ponies who got on!" The grin widened. "But I'm here now, right? Way before the next reunion! And here ya are, right on time like it means something -- hey, Scoots! --"
Apple Bloom saw her cousin's gaze start to shift, felt it coming --
-- it's been a few moons, so she's gonna look, everypony always looks --
-- braced --
-- Babs looked at Scootaloo's right hip. Got Apple Bloom's on the way back. And there was no reaction at all.
Of course, since her cousin's attention had shifted...
...nothin'.
None of us with marks yet.
She knew she was on the right track with the repair shop. She'd managed to acknowledge that a mark was something which potentially required more than an afternoon of effort, and tried to tell herself that she was getting closer to manifest every day. But it was the three of them on the platform, the only ones left on the platform with the train pulling away, and none of the fillies had their mark.
Ah jus' have t' keep goin'. Ah know it.
...an' when Ah was in the Crusade, that was jus' what Ah told mahself every day...
It was a line of thought which begged for a change of topic, mostly in the name of making those thoughts stop.
"So we all heading back together?" Babs casually asked. "Since I ain't seen Scoots for a while, and I figure she's got places to be with the hol --"
"-- Babs," Apple Bloom carefully cut in, "what are y'doin' here?"
Her cousin blinked. Ears went straight back, and the short tail sagged.
"Ya kidding?"
Apple Bloom shook her head.
"This ain't a joke," the Manehattanite continued. "I wanna make sure of that, one hundred percent. No jokes, no pranks, no nothing."
Again.
"I'm here for Homecoming," Babs stated, and the note of worry was close enough to the surface to quaver. "Staying through, and then heading back after. Ya didn't know?"
Head shaking, while an essential part of the Crusade's silent vocabulary, didn't seem to be capable of accomplishing much on its own.
"Because the dobbins sent a letter to your sis," her cousin explained. "Ages ago. To say I'd be here. And nopony sent anything back saying 'no', so I got on the train. And I figured ya had to know, because you're here, Appy! Right when the train came in!"
"Ah was jus' pickin' up some stuff for the cookin'!" It wasn't quite a protest: the shock didn't allow for that -- but she did manage to get enough of a jolt into her body to make full saddlebags shake. "Nopony said nothin' --"
"-- oh, I get it!" Babs declared. And grinned again.
Apple Bloom blinked. Scootaloo's wings sagged under the weight of confusion.
"Get what?" the youngest Malus asked.
"She wanted it to be a surprise!" The gamboge ears were now fully aloft again. "So she sent ya out on errands! Run here, gallop there, make sure ya go by the train station at just the right time! And there ya go! Surprise! So let's get moving!"
...would she?
Applejack bore Honesty. Apple Bloom knew that didn't mean her sister had to say everything. There had been too many times when it felt as if Applejack was under no obligation to say anything --
-- she could've.
She's a little too good at figurin' out how long somethin' is supposed t' take. Could have worked out the schedule an' had us around the station at the right time. Figured Babs would have spotted us, an' we'd get our surprise on the spot.
Except... she didn't give us a list of places t' visit. Jus' the stuff we needed, because she knew we couldn't count on any given pony still havin' stock left. An' we wouldn't have wound up on this side of town if some shops hadn't been sold out.
...maybe she jus' forgot?
No. Picking up Babs existed at the intersection of chore, appointment, and family. Applejack never overlooked any of the three.
An' if'fin we hadn't happened t' be goin' by...
Waiting at the train station. Potentially hours of looking for ponies who had no reason to seek her out, and didn't know she was there at all.
Alone.
Scootaloo took a breath.
"I... guess that makes sense," didn't quite emerge as a definitive conclusion, with the side glance towards Apple Bloom adding a number of question marks -- and then, because it was Scootaloo, the pegasus pushed a little too far. "Except that we --"
The next signal, indicated by a shift of ears and tail added to a subtle tap of the hind hooves, was among the oldest. When it came to the Crusade, it was certainly one of the most predictable.
'Stop talkin'. Trouble.'
"-- should probably start heading back," Scootaloo not-so-smoothly switched. "So you've got all your stuff?"
"Yeah," Babs declared. "Didn't leave anything on the train which didn't deserve to be there."
"Didn't deserve --"
"-- lousy as that ride was, the conductors can pack out my trash." She snorted. "Or let it ride all the way to San Dineighgo. Maybe that'll make the ticket price feel like less of a scam. Come on, ya gee-gees! Let's trot!"
Apple Bloom felt that she cared about Babs, and that was true on several levels. You cared about your family, although she'd recently revised that policy so that it only covered the ones who were worth it. She also saw her cousin as somepony who was going through so many of the same things, and it gave them an additional level of bond. Two fillies who had yet to gain their marks: a commonality which had initially won Apple Bloom two friends, and... things had gone to some rather odd places after that.
She cared about Babs. But it was a long trot back to the Acres, and it made Apple Bloom realize that she didn't really know her cousin.
There had been two visits. During the first one, they hadn't really talked. Or rather, up until Applejack had finally said something, the crucial words, that which Apple Bloom should have been told long before setting out for the train because it would have changed absolutely everything --
-- tooth grindin' ain't good for anypony --
-- the topics had been limited. Which was to say that Apple Bloom did her best to avoid speaking at all, and her cousin only brought up the sort of things which made the Ponyville native wish Babs would just shut up forever. Preferably as a prelude to vanishing for the same amount of time, which would definitely give the desired silence some level of assist. And on the second visit, Applejack had essentially made sure that nopony got any real time to talk. There had barely been enough available to gasp for breath, and some of the faints suggested that several ponies hadn't even found that much.
When it came to speaking with Babs, Apple Bloom wasn't entirely sure where to start.
Why Ponyville? Why turn up here for Homecoming?
That didn't feel like a good choice.
The traveler, moving at the center of the three-filly line, was visibly looking around. Examining the settled zone's buildings or rather, the places where buildings weren't.
"Can't get used to how empty this place is," Babs decided. The dense hooves came down a little harder.
"It just looks that way because of the holiday," Scootaloo immediately argued. "We're missing a lot of adults. Most of the ponies who live here aren't from here. I'm not from --"
Apple Bloom blinked.
"-- y'ain't?" They'd known each other for years, and Scootaloo had never said anything about --
The shrug came off as being somewhat too casual. "I wasn't even born in Equestria."
Both earth ponies looked at her.
"Y'weren't? You've never said --"
"So where are ya from?" With the audible equivalent of a wink, "Are ya even here legally? Do we gotta gallop for the cops?"
Defensively, "I'm still a citizen! Because --" stopped, took a breath. "-- because of the usual reason. Anyway, I was born in Akhal-Tekes." With a little too much speed, "And nopony else's ever heard of it, either. Miss Cheerilee just knows the name and Miss Twilight needed about an hour to find it on a map. And then there was a lot of stuff, and I wound up here."
'A lot of stuff,' as with the presumed distance to Akhal-Tekes, seemed to be covering too much ground.
Babs merely shrugged.
"Anyway, it ain't the dobbins not being around," she said. "There's too much space. Everything's just spread out, ya know? Ya get a building, then ya get a lawn, a street, a whole lot of nothing, and then maybe another building. You've got all this room, and nopony's doing anything with it."
"An' Manehattan?" Apple Bloom asked.
Another shrug. "I guess it's kind of spread out, just for how much acreage it's got. But every time it gets a little more land, all the new space gets filled. We're paddock-to-paddock with ponies. And a lot of other species. Manehattan's just like that."
"Oh," Apple Bloom managed, and tried to consider it solved.
We've got some tenants.
Couple of donkeys. One mule.
One zebra -- does she count? She ain't inside the borders.
One dragon.
Don't suppose you've got a dragon.
Actually, now that she was thinking about it, she'd never --
They passed a few more homes. The bridge which led to the old Acres road was coming into view.
"So how's the Crusade been going?" Babs placidly asked.
There was a single moment when Apple Bloom was waiting for a dual blaze of white light to erupt from her cousin's hips.
The worst possible question. Without knowin' it. That's almost got t' be its own talent --
But the thought cost her time. Precious seconds which let Scootaloo speak first, and the words were bitter.
"She quit."
The youngest Malus was silent. Because the Crusade had broken, and not every resulting wound had healed.
Sweetie... didn't talk to them at school. Didn't come out when anypony went to her home. She had always been the shyest, the most prone to curl up within herself if something went wrong, keeping it all inside until one of those forever-shocking bursts of anger emptied the emotional hopper. There were ways in which Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were waiting for that little explosion. Hoping for normalcy on the other side.
Scootaloo had sought Apple Bloom out after something horrible had happened, been there to comfort her for as long as she needed. And then everything had changed again, the pegasus had moved in, and... they'd reconciled, as far as they could. They cared about each other, and there was something sisterly in that. And Scootaloo had accepted that Apple Bloom was working at the device repair shop -- but she mostly saw that labor in two ways. A never-ending font of supplies for which the earth pony refused to grant access -- and the cheap, easy, doomed-to-failure way out.
In so many ways, Scootaloo was still on the Crusade. Determined to complete it all by herself, and show that none of the misadventures, disasters, small claims judgments, and tree sap had been without purpose. A dual flare of light, and she would prove she was right.
Scootaloo cared about Apple Bloom. The youngest Malus knew that. It was why she was sure that, in the event of actual manifest, her friend wasn't planning to spend more than a week in open gloating.
Babs's entire existence seemed to rotate toward Apple Bloom. A certain virtual gravity pulled most of the street with her.
"Ya did?"
Apple Bloom, avoiding all mention of the doomed stable sale and every last consequence which had come from it, explained about the apprenticeship. It got them to the base of the bridge.
Her cousin listened. And then she shrugged.
"Makes sense."
Blinking was also a crucial part of Crusader language. Apple Bloom was almost certain that she'd just ordered a three-way split and race for the horizon, because that made it a little harder for the adults to get all of them.
"...y'think so?"
"Yeah," Babs casually said. "That float was mostly you, right?" And then she winced. "...both floats. And it was a good one. Ya even rigged the steering mechanism."
Ah did.
Ah had t' figure out how t' tie it all in t' the timer. But it was still jus' clockwork. The hardest part was windin' up the springs so it would actually move once the blocks got dislodged. Had t' do that mahself. Trotted on the wind-up treadmill for hours. It's why Ah had so much trouble chasin' the float down when Ah realized...
...after Applejack finally --
-- it never should've gone that far...
"I just figured ya were waiting to build the right things," Babs off-hoofedly added. "Anyway, my end ain't been all that bad." Which was followed by a snort, and another puff of air aimed at her mane. "Maybe not as good as it could be. We've only had two marks so far."
Both Crusaders (current and former) now had their eyelids signaling an imminent apocalypse.
"Two," the potential last of Scootaloo's sanity voiced.
"Two," said the final hope Apple Bloom had in the world.
"Yeah," Babs told them, informally ignoring the pair of soul shutdowns which were taking place. "I would've written ya about them, Appy, but it turns out I've got kind of an anti-mark for letters." Another snort. "Made it easier to wait until I was here. Anyway, we've got kind of a different membership plan, I guess. Ponies sort of come and go. Even after I told 'em not to do the 'go' part."
"They sort of --" wasn't really a chorus. Neither filly had the strength to complete a sentence fragment on her own.
"They're supposed to stick around," Babs irritably said. "We helped ya get your mark? Then don't bail. Because it takes all of us, and getting the next pony to manifest? That's how ya pay it back. But I can't get everypony together every time. Those two say their marks mean they've got stuff to do. And the bigger idiot?" It was the loudest snort yet. "Dates. Or what she thinks is dating and let me tell ya something: she ain't right. So sometimes we're a few ponies short. But yeah... two manifests. Maybe it would be at three or better if the crew just stuck together on more than their own turn."
Scootaloo shook her head, hard and fast. "Turn..."
The apex of the bridge was right in front of them. That meant a downslope. The pegasus flared out her wings, went into a gallop and launched herself towards desperate distraction. Babs didn't seem to notice.
"Yeah. Turn."
"How d'you take turns?" Apple Bloom's morbid curiosity inquired. "Pull names out of a hat, an' that pony suggests --"
"-- we find out what one pony really likes to do. Something where they've already got some aptitude, more than a little skill. Like you with clockwork, Appy. And then we find things for them to try out with that skill until they're happy with themselves. Takes a while. But two times, their hips lit up." Babs laughed. "What were we supposed to do? Just pick a bunch of random cool-sounding stuff and hope somepony would be good at it?"
Somewhere up ahead, the near-random sputtering which substituted for speech was dropping in volume quickly and, given the nature of any glide launched by a pegasus with far too much on her mind, also dropped.
"So two," Babs shrugged. "Should've been three." Her head briefly turned, and green eyes examined her flank. "Not me yet, though. Obvs. That's 'Obviously' for ponies who can't talk right. But I've sort of had a lot going on lately." She took a deep breath. "Yeah. Distractions. Anyway, it don't bother me much. Mark's gonna come when it comes. Once some of the distractions clear out. Okay there, Scoots? Because I'm pretty sure that chin ain't meant to be used as a brake. So how's the Beller been doing?"
How is that not a mark talent?
Apple Bloom changed the subject.
There was a place on the road from which the Rich estate could be seen, and the roommates moved past the crucial spot at the usual speed. It meant they needed a few seconds before realizing that Babs was no longer with them.
The Manehattanite had stopped. Facing the turnoff, staring at the distant building.
"Forgot about this," Babs quietly said. "That they were out this way. I forgot she lived this close. And I didn't see it when I came to the reunion. Train came in a little late, so I got a hansom. If ya don't look out the window in time..."
Say somethin', me.
Anythin'.
But no words came, and Scootaloo was silent.
"Y'see her at all?" the heavyset filly asked, and the left forehoof scraped against the road.
"At school," Apple Bloom's tongue advanced without her. "Not much away from it. Not these days."
"She still going after you?" wasn't casual at all.
"No," Scootaloo said, and it was the truth. You saw Diamond in class, you spotted her on the street, and -- that was just about it. The failed stable sale had seen the most recent true interaction, and Apple Bloom still wasn't fully sure what to make of it.
She's different. Ah don't know how or why. But somethin' shifted. Somethin' big...
"Good," Babs breathed. "Good..."
The hoof scraped again. A significant amount of dirt failed to get out of the way in time.
"Seen her dad?"
Both fillies nodded.
"Her dad's nice," Babs decided. "I saw him a few times, when I was over at her place."
"...you've been t' her place," Apple Bloom's fully-independent larynx checked.
Her cousin was still staring down the road, and did that instead of looking at the filly.
"Well, yeah," came the stark tones. "Didn't exactly hang around the farmhouse much on that first trip, right? Or the clubhouse. Mostly gave that up once we knew you three weren't coming back. So she invited me over. We talked a lot."
"Talked about what?" coming from Scootaloo, was a perfectly natural question.
Babs was silent for a time. Sun shifted overhead. A breeze drove warmth away from their fur.
"Stuff," the third filly said. "We talked about stuff. Some of that was her dad. A better dad than she deserves..."
She stopped. Pulled her left foreleg out of the shallow trench, brought it back to level ground. Turned to face the others.
"Let's get to your place," Babs suggested. "Food on the train ain't good. I'm guessing your sister can still cook."
Apple Bloom tried to get ahead at the last, because the older sibling in question was currently on track to pick up a dinner (and breakfast, and lunch, and dinner again, and...) guest with no warning and the youngest felt even thirty seconds of advance notice offered in privacy might wind up going a long way. So she put her legs into overdrive, said something about needing to get her saddlebags unloaded, aimed herself at the last turn, charged --
-- and because life was entirely unfair, Applejack was outside. Pacing back and forth, and the ground-regarding gaze snapped up at the instant she heard hooves.
"'bout time," the older sister decided. "Ah was starting t' get worried there. Let me guess: Scootaloo decided t' launch a glide off the edge of the dam --"
"-- naw," Apple Bloom quickly said. "AJ, we went by the train station --"
"-- really? Yuca was a problem, then." The hat tilted forward. "Should've seen that comin'. Explains the stall. Mah fault for hopin' the cheaper place would still be stocked --"
"-- Applejack, we've got --"
"-- so that's how you do the race when it isn't seven-leg?" called out the brash voice as its owner rushed around the final bend. "No official starting call: just pound hooves and go? Back in Manehattan, we call that a duck-and --"
There was a final word in what would turn out to be a trio, and Apple Bloom wouldn't get the chance to hear it for a while. The non-sound of her sibling's head snapping up again fully drowned it out.
"-- Babs?" the older sister forced out. "What are y'doin' --"
"-- oh, come on: the surprise is over, she's already fetched me in --"
"-- why under Sun an' Moon are you in Ponyville?"
The true shock echoed off the trees, then bounced backwards into the house: Apple Bloom heard very large hooves starting to move. It also went directly into Babs, who stopped too quickly and found her body vibrating over frozen legs.
"-- ya didn't know?" This was followed by a near-frantic glance at Apple Bloom, one more checked the path and found Scootaloo just starting to come around the turn -- and then the full focus was on Applejack. "How could ya not know? The dobbins --"
"-- the what?" Applejack just barely managed.
"-- my parents! They wrote you to say I was coming, and asked ya to write back if I couldn't! I know they did! It was just about the only thing they did t --"
There were two sounds which cut off that word. The first came from the door, because Mac was a rather large stallion and having that much mass telling something to get out of the way in a hurry tended to produce a certain amount of noise. The resulting slam sent the hinges to their limits, with the rebound nearly taking the door into his neck: an intercepting hoof managed to catch the movement just in time. And then Apple Bloom's big brother was simply staring at Babs, because a future philosophy student probably had a lot of words on tap and at that moment, 'eyup' and 'nope' were exactly none of them.
The second was almost lost in the first. It was coming from well behind Apple Bloom, and somewhere above.
"Ah didn't get no letter!" Applejack declared.
"But you must have! They sent --"
The other sound was now descending.
"-- an' Ah know we ain't talked nearly as much as we should have, Babs, but Ah'd really appreciate it if y'wouldn't question me on that! When Ah say somethin' didn't happen, it didn't! An' this is me, standin' here with Sun an' family as mah witnesses, tellin' you --"
The source touched down. Four hooves tapped against the path, and every set of eyes turned to look at the source.
The grey mare politely nodded towards the elder siblings. One golden eye focused on Applejack: the other... Apple Bloom always had a little trouble with looking at the other, and generally didn't. She just watched the adult pegasus trot forward, overfull saddlebags seemingly threatening to tear from her body with every step.
The postpony stopped in front of the older sister. A rather pretty head turned towards the left saddlebag, and nimble teeth sorted. Eventually, an envelope was silently offered.
Applejack carefully nipped at a reinforced corner, took custody. The grey mare nodded again, then flared her wings. The wind backblast of takeoff sent road dust and the most recent fragments of Scootaloo's feather down everywhere. And by the time everypony else blinked away the last of it, she was gone.
The older Malus sister set the letter down on the ground. The return address was given a long, silent regard. The postmark and Sent date, however, received more of a glare.
"Give me a minute here," Applejack softly said. "Shouldn't take more than the one. This ain't too thick."
She pressed the letter under her right forehoof, crouched forward and got her teeth into the corner which hadn't been reinforced. It took a few seconds to extract the actual paper, followed by three half-muffled mutters before it was unfolded. And then she silently read the words which only she could see, as the Acres made a start on what Homecoming was really about. They waited.
Finally, Applejack refolded the letter. Straightened.
"Ah don't want t' hear anything said against her," the orange mare ordered. "Not one word. She's got a rough job with hard hours, an' it's me sayin' that. She's also the very last link in a chain which started real far off, an' she didn't have anythin' t' do with whatever happened before it got this far. All she did was manage the last furlong. She didn't sideline it a hundred times for every other part of the race an' make sure it didn't see the finish line until two weeks after the rest of the mutuel crossed. Everypony got that? Not her fault. So not one word."
Everypony nodded. This included Babs, and Apple Bloom presumed it was mostly just to keep the count intact.
"But..." Applejack sighed, "when y'think about it... Ah guess we've all gotten a little too used t' Spike."
Everypony except Babs nodded.
"...who?" the Manehattanite finally asked.
Ah was plannin' on it, when Ah heard you were comin'.
But y'don't do the cool things with somepony who's put you out of your bed. An' float. An' clubhouse. An'...
...so Ah didn't introduce you t' a dragon.
Ain't mah fault.
"Ah'll explain that later," Applejack sighed again. "Or... sometime. Right now, make it 'sometime'. Y'saw, Babs. Ah got the letter from your folks jus' now. Ah didn't know."
Everything about the heavyset filly took on extra gravity, and began to descend towards the dirt.
"I... I understand," Babs swallowed. "I've got the return ticket. It's open-date. I can just get on the --"
The older sister slowly shook her head. Glanced back at her brother, who nodded.
"Y'can get yourself into the house an' wash up," Applejack gently said. "Ah know Ah ain't got the best record with big groups. But Ah'm pretty sure Ah can manage a reunion for one."