//------------------------------// // Chapter 7: The Surprise // Story: Applebloom Is Pregnant // by Nesfex //------------------------------// Applebloom lulled about in her bed for a while after she woke up. It was the Apple family free day, and she had no desire to rush into it. The Apple family worked hard, and for that they only took one day off a week. Depending on the season or something coming up, they switch that day from week to week. This week they decided to take Sunday as their free day. Finally tired of being still, Applebloom jumped out of her bed, there was no sign of sleepiness or tiredness.  Trotting over to the mirror hanging on the wall, she combed her hair and placed her favorite pink bow in its place. Thanks to what she experienced with Spike and Twilight a couple of days before, she felt like there was nothing to be afraid of; on top of that she had the free day to explain and talk with her family Leaving her room, the sweet aroma of cinnamon and honey hit her nose. There was only one reason for it: Applejack's Special Pancakes. Applebloom jumped down the stairs three at the time; even though Granny told her many times not to do it. Trotting towards the kitchen, she found only her sister alone baking pancakes on the stove "Morning," She greeted. “‘Morning lil sis,” Applejack answered back. “Where are Granny and Big Mac?” Asked Applebloom. “Granny is reorganizing her zap apple jam jars, and Big Mac said he had to see somepony. So, I guess it’s only the two of us for today.” Applebloom looked down and bit her lower lip “Darn it, I wanted to tell them all at the same time. I could still tell my sis, but then I’d have to wait for the reaction of the others… Or I could wait until tonight and-” Suddenly a fast heavy knock on the door broke the filly’s thought. Without a second thought she turned around and walked towards the door with the intention of open it. The front door moved and revealed nopony standing on the other side, instead, there was only a pink puff of smoke. Applebloom snuck her head out of the house and looked around the place in order to identify the pony who knock the door, but try as she could there was nopony around, however there was something lying on the welcome mat, a white envelope. It had no signature or a clue to identify the pony who left it there. “What’s that?” Asked Applejack seeing her sister lifting up the white paper. Applebloom ripped the envelope opened it revealing the note inside it. She took it and began reading it out loud: “You are cordially invited to attend to the the first Apple Convention at Sugar Cube Corner today at three O’clock. You are allowed to invite three family members. We will be eagerly waiting for your attendance at this convention. Signed, a very formal and not fun at all convention staff.” With nothing more to read, Applebloom focused on a watermark on the bottom of the paper “Property of Pinkamena D. Pie,” After reading this Applebloom couldn’t stop herself from facehoofing. Applejack giggled when she heard the entire note “Well, looks like Pinkie has something planned. Wanna come?”. Applebloom looked down for a moment to think “I don’t want to explain the situation more than once, and I think I need a distraction from all of this.” “Sure, why not?” Applebloom answered. - - -        The day went by as a properly lazy day should, tille the three O’clock hour neered. With time to spare for the walk into town, the two sat out to Pinkie’s. It was a peaceful walk, giving Applebloom time to think about the conversation to come. A small sign hanging outside of the Sugarcube Corner, saying “Reserved for Apple Con.” Applejack giggled a little and decided to knock the door.         “Who goes there?” The sound of a pony who’s faking her voice to make it sound older was heard, obviously it was Pinkie Pie.         “It’s Applejack and Applebloom, we are here for… Apple Con,” She responded.         The door opened violently and a very excited Pinkie Pie jumped towards Applejack making her fall on her back to the ground “Surprise! There is no Applecon, it was a trick.”         “Yeah, I can see that,” Said Applejack “So, what’s this all about?”         While Applejack tried to get up, Applebloom looked inside the bakery. Inside a host of ponies waited. Including Sweetie Belle, Spike, and Scootaloo, who both had a very concerned look on their faces. There were water hoses, three small water pool for fillies, and everyone were wearing snorkels and masks.         Pinkie Pie cleared her throat before she explained the situation “So, anyway, welcome to your, and my very first, baby shower!” Applejack staggered  “WHAT?!”         “I tried to tell Pinkie that it isn’t that kind of shower, but still it’s quite nice,” Rarity stepped in the conversation.         “Yeah, I can wait to see that little one, and you can count with me to help you take care of him… Or her,” Fluttershy added.         “Hey! That’s what I was going to say! She’s my cousin anyway” Pinkie replied. “By the way, I’m still mad that you didn’t tell me, AJ.” “But I do-” Before Applejack could say something she was interrupted by Rainbow Dash who flew to her side and used her wing to hug her.         “Yeah yeah, we are all thrill. Now tell us, who is this lucky stallion?”         Applebloom looked to her friends, they all kept to their sits, and tried to be as far away from the group as possible, Their looks showed fear and each of them either but they all had their hooves shaking        “STOP!” Applejack yelled silencing everypony around “Now somepony tell me what the hay is going on?!"        “It’s a party for your baby,” Pinkie explained while she touched AJ’s belly.         “I’m sorry Applejack. I heard you were pregnant and that you didn’t want others to know. I just thought you didn’t mind your friends to know,” Mrs. Cake stepped out of the store.         “BUT I AM NOT PREGNANT! WHO TOLD YOU THAT?!”         “Well, Applebloom. She told me the other day you two came here.”        Applejack turned her head slowly, facing her sister and staring her into her eyes. Her eyes had a mixture between anger, fear, concern, and judgement, a look Applebloom has never seen on any pony. “Applebloom… Why did you tell Mrs. Cake that?”       The eyes of everypony focused on the filly and the look on their faces many emotions, Applebloom couldn’t stand the focused of all those who were mentally judging her, her lower lip shaking, her back hooves stepping back, cold sweat rolling across her back and her face, it was too much for her. Twilight wanted to do something to help her,, however she couldn’t find what to say in something that didn’t really didn’t involve her. Applejack walked towards her sister, she stood right in front of her. “I’ll ask one more time, why did you say that?” Applebloom have never seen her sister so big, she couldn’t stand all of this and she feared if she said the truth now, something bad would come out of it. She did the only thing she could think of, she turned around and ran away. Her legs moved faster than she knew she could trying to get as far as she could from there, one after the other, her hooves stepped on the ground on a rate so fast only compared to the rodeo ponies. The rest of her friends followed her, yelling her name and asking her to stop, but it was in vain, her mind was only focused on escaping.                  Applejack tried to catch her, but failed. For the first time she was not able to outrun her, even Rainbow Dash struggled to catch up to her speed. The pursue changed direction and headed to the apple orchard, with the fast speed and the apple trees around it was hard for some of the ponies to keep up with the filly, except for Applejack who was determined to find out the truth.                    Finally, the filly’s destination was clear when they approached a clearing in the orchard, she was going to the Cutie Mark Crusaders club house. Applebloom jumped the stairs, got inside of the house, and closed the door looking her on. Applejack and the rest of her friends arrived to the house, but the door was locked.             “Applebloom! You open this door in this instant and explain what the heck is going on!” Applejack yelled from the outside of the house.There was no response, the black curtains that remained from the dinner night the other day prevented anypony to see anything from the inside.   “Applebloom! I will take this door down of you don’t!” She insisted, but the scenario didn’t change, no sound could be her from the filly.                  Spike leaned his head to the wall of the clubhouse to hear something, and he did, he identified the small sound of whimpers from his loved one “Applejack, calm down. Maybe we should-“ He tried to suggest to Applejack to approached her sister in another way, but he was interrupted                  “Applebloom! I’m counting ‘til five,” Said Applejack aggressively. “One…. Two… Three… Four… Five!” The countdown came to an end and the door remained closed.                    Applejack turned her back to the door, raised her back hooves, and with a violent blow, hit the door, bringing it down and revealing a scared Applebloom curled on her futon on the floor. Applejack walked slowly to her, there was no room to escape this time, nowhere to hide, it was only them.                  “Now, I’ll only ask one more time… Why?” Applejack breathed heavily.                    Applebloom cleaned the tears on her eyes and looked to the floor “I didn't want you… Any of you, to find out like this,” She took a deep breath and clean the rest of the tears remaining on her face “I… I am the one who is pregnant.”                    Applejack staggered to the floor. The anger and rage on her eyes disappeared as if they’d never been there. In their place was shock, confusion, and shame. She couldn’t say a word. Neither could anypony outside the clubhouse.                “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I was scared. I love you, sis,” Applebloom tried to put her hoof on her sister’s, to show her everything was fine. Applejack retracted her hooves preventing her sister from touching her. “Who?”                    “Spike,” Responded Applebloom.                The farmpony turned around and saw the dragon standin by the door “You… You did this to her! You abused my sister!” She charged to Spike with the intention of doing with him the same thing she did to the door. Twilight’s magic pulled her off the floor, leaving her to dangle in the air. “Lemme go, Twilight!”         “Applejack, I know you are angry, but this won’t do any good.”        Applebloom trotted as fast as she could and grabbed her sister’s leg “Applejack! No, he didn’t abuse from me. I started it as much as he did. I told him I wanted to. I did want to.”         “Why?! You are just a filly!”                “It’s a mistake, I know, and we are taking responsibility of her.” Said Applebloom                Tears rolled from Applejacks eyes through her cheeks, Twilight broke the spell and let her friend fall to the floor on a catatonic state. “It will be fine, we are taking care of her now,” Applebloom explained.            Applejack sobbed and tried to control herself “It… It will be fine alright… Because you are getting rid of… It.”                  The ponies and dragon gasped, they have never heard something like that coming from Applejack “No, she’s my baby!” Said Applebloom.              “I won’t accept that, I won’t be an aunt to that thing,” Applejack stood on her ground and looked fiercely at her sister.               “No, this is my baby. I won’t let you do anything to her,” For the first time on her life, Applebloom stood strong against her sister and confronted her.              Applejack looked at her sister, she couldn’t control all of the anger inside of her, and with a swift motion she raised her right hoof. Spike ran, and stood in front of Applebloom and looked directly to Applejack’s eyes, he knew what she intended to do, and he won’t let her hurting Applebloom.              The country pony looked to her side and noticed the rest of her friends looked at her in fear “Aaaah!” Applejack screamed in frustration and ran out of the house. No one went after her. When her sister left, Applebloom finally broke and let the tears she’d been holding back flow. She collapsed on to Spike and the tears rolled through his shoulder. The rest of the pony gang saw no point of staying there and they left without a word, leaving Spike, Applebloom and Twilight hugging.                  Two hours passed, and Applebloom was able to control herself. The sun was starting to set, and the sky had turned into a purple tone. Even if she was ready to face her sister again or not, she had to go back to her home before the night came. Twilight and Spike accompanied her to her house in case she needed them again.                    They saw the entrance of the house and sitting by the mailbox there was Big Macintosh looking at the sky. Applebloom stepped back when he saw him If Applejack went all mad about, how bad can Big Mac go? She thought. Twilight placed one of her wings behind her, attracting her attention “Don’t worry, we are here with you,” The princess said. Her words her soft and comforting, having them by her side she felt she could face her brother.                They approached Big Mac who lowered her head and looked at them “Hello, Brother,” greeted Applebloom.                For a long moment there was no response from her brother before he finnaly spoke. “So, you are pregnant?”              It was obvious Applejack would have told him “Yeah.”               “And Spike is the father?”                “Yes.”                Big Mac took a moment to think well his words “Have you two consider your options?”                “Options?” Spiked asked.                “Yeah, like adoption,” Explained Big Mac.          “I have, but I don’t want her to grow up alone. I want to keep her and being a mommy and Spike being her daddy,” Said Applebloom.                Big Mac shook his head “Her? ... So, you guys have gone to a doctor?”                “We have, we are not sure about the gender of the baby, Applebloom just thinks is a girl,” Explained Spike.              “I see,” Before he continue Big Mac looked Twilight “I’m sorry to ask you this… Can Applebloom stay with you for a couple of days?”                “What?” The three asked in a unison.                  “Applejack is madder than a bull: she’s gone crazy. I think is better for her, and especially for you, to be apart for some days until she regains her composure.”                    Twilight looked Applebloom who had her head on Spike’s shoulder and little sob noises could be heard, Big Mac was right. “Okay, she can stay with us as much as she needs to. Come on, guys.”                  “Thanks, Twilight” Big Mac said.                  “Wait!” Before they left Applebloom thought she needed to say something “I don’t know if it’s okay… Tomorrow I have doctor’s appointment after school, you are welcome to come if you like… And Applejack too, if she wants.”                  Big Mac smiled to her sis and hugged her “I’ll tell her. Take care, lil sis.” And with that small demonstration of affection, the three left the orchard heading back to the library.                  On their way home Applebloom looked to the sky and saw two early stars that appeared in the evening and said “I’m sorry.”