The following morning the tension between Luna and Peanut Butter has remained though less intense than yesterday as Peanut Butter eats his cereal while Luna reads the paper. She looks at Peanut Butter and sees the scowl on his face as guilt takes over her mind. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath before opening her eyes to look at him again.
"Look P.B., I'm sorry for losing my temper yesterday, it's just that we have to follow by the books." Luna says.
Peanut Butter looks down and away from Luna and puts down his spoon.
"Do you want to know the one thing that pisses me off the most?, it's when I'm being ignored and no one listens to me when I have something to say or just being brushed aside."
Luna looks away at the realization that she did just that to him yesterday.
"I'm sorry that I did that to you."
"I'm used to it at this point, though I still get angry about it, just don't brush me off when I try to speak okay?"
"I'll keep that in mind, come on we best be going."
"Okay, I'm still mad though."
"I expect you to be for a while."
They both leave the apartment and get in the car and head to the school with Peanut Butter looking out the window. As the radio plays as he looks out the window. He feels his heart beat through the drums as the bass and guitar flow through him as he feels the lyrics speak to him. As his head bobs up and down.
At a stop light Luna looks over to him and sees him gently moving his head up and down to the beat. She turns the music up slightly watching his reaction. Luna sees no real change in his reaction as she continues to drive.
They reach the school and go inside to the main office. But instead of Luna's office they head into Celestia's Office with Celestia at her desk and Sunset Shimmer sitting facing the corner as Luna has Peanut Butter sit at a small table in the corner of her office. He sits on one of the chairs as he places his bag by his left.
"I have stuff to do for the day that came up at the last minute so you'll be under Celestia's supervision until I pick you up tonight, I expect you to obey her within reason." Luna says.
"I will."
"Good."
Luna turns to Celestia with a look of concern before she leaves. When the door shuts, Peanut Butter gets to school work until Celestia speaks up.
"You know you don't have to start your work right now." Celestia says.
Peanut Butter ignores her and goes back to his work. The expression on his face is emotionless as he stares at his schoolwork as he fills out the answers. Celestia sighs and looks over to Sunset Shimmer and takes out her school work and places it on the table opposite of Peanut Butter.
"When the bell rings I want you to get to work, understood?" Celestia asks.
Sunset looks down and responds in a deadpan tone. "Yes mom."
Celestia goes to her desk and sits down. She goes through paperwork with the occasional glance at Peanut Butter as he works. Papers taking up half the table as he works. She smirks and raises an eyebrow as she watches before returning to her work. The bell rings a couple minutes later as Sunset turns to do her work.
Half way through the day Celestia gets up and checks on Peanut Butter and Sunset Shimmer to see Peanut Butter curled up on the chair writing in the notebook that was given to him. She looks at the table and sees that his work is completed. She picks it up and looks it over to see it all completed to her surprise. She remembers Luna giving enough work to keep him busy the whole day. He looks up from his notebook towards Celestia with half open eyes with the same expressionless look on his face as he turns back to his notebook and continues to write. Celestia tries to look, Though he moves it away from her view. She quietly returns to her desk and types on her keyboard.
Meanwhile Luna is sitting in a white walled office in front of a desk with a relatively old computer in the back corner of the desk with files and paperwork in front of her. Behind the desk is an old woman with peppered hair as her face clearly shows her age from her wrinkles to her posture as she sits in her chair. Luna shuffles her feet around as she waits. The older woman turns to her with a sigh.
"Well miss Solstice there is good news and bad news, the good news is that he does have paperwork and things can get into motion, the bad news is that because he's been on the run for so long they didn't to put him on the database when everything was being updated so it will take a couple of months to find it and have them here to be updated before we can start the process that you requested, though with you filling out the forms and having new records it will make updating his information much easier." The woman says.
"Thank you for doing this."
"Its my job, before you go, how has he been so far in your care?"
"He's been distant most of the time, at times we talk though very briefly."
"I see, well thank you for coming, I'll call you when we are ready to continue."
"Okay, thank you again."
Luna gets up and leaves the office. She makes her way to the car and gets in. She smiles before turning on the car and driving off towards a nearby flower shop.
Back at the school Peanut Butter looks out the window of Celestia's office as the leaves blow in the wind while he eats his lunch with Sunset. He looks down at his food slowly eating it. He stops after a couple of bites and places his fork down and goes back to his curled up position hiding his head in between his legs and body. Sunset looks at him with a glimmer in her eyes.
"Are you okay P.B.?" Sunset asks.
"You didn't have to do that to A.J. you know."
"I wasn't going to let her just beat you up like that and have her get away with it."
"Still,"
"There is no 'still' in it, I knew the risks and I did it anyways."
"After I said that I would take responsibility for it Sunset."
"Doesn't matter,"
Just as she was about to finish her sentence Celestia walks in and sees Peanut Butter's food is barely touched. She squints her eyes and sighs slightly as she sees him curled up in a ball again.
"What's wrong P.B.?" Celestia asks.
"Nothing."
Celestia raises an eyebrow at this before Sunset speaks up.
"He still feels guilty about Applejack and I getting in trouble."
"I see, everyone makes choices P.B., they made the wrong ones and are facing the consequences to those choices."
He looks away as he pushes his food away from him. Celestia crosses her arms, closes her eyes and sighs a bit.
"P.B. you need to eat, Luna will have my head and yours if you don't eat something." Celestia says in a slightly annoyed tone.
He shakes his head giving off his usual deadpan expression as he squints his eyes and looks away. His breathing is slow and exaggerated as it sounds more like a sigh than a regular breath. Celestia pushes the food towards him. Peanut Butter ignores it.
"P.B. both of our heads will roll if you don't eat something." Celestia says.
Peanut Butter gets up from his chair and leaves the office without saying a word. Celestia tries to go after him but he's gone before she can find him. She goes back to the office and sits on her chair rubbing her forehead and groans in annoyance.
Meanwhile Luna drives towards an open field just outside of the city, She glances at a bouquet of purple lilacs and red roses on the passenger seat as she enters the gated field and drives on the path to the middle of the field near a tree with leaves that have turned shades of yellow and oranges as the gentle breeze shakes them slightly with some falling off. She stops and takes the bouquet before getting out. She goes to a small headstone in the ground and kneels down to take out the old flowers that are in a small flower pot by the stone and puts the new ones in. She gets up and sighs as she stands in silence for a couple minutes. Her breathing is heavy as she holds back her tears. She decides to walk around the cemetery to gather her thoughts as she crosses through one of the large headstones and glances at it. She freezes in place as she reads it. The swelling feeling from a short moment ago returning twofold. Tears run down her face as she continues to read the headstone with multiple names on it.
Here Lies Home Run, Autumn Spice and Ginger Snap
A family taken before their time and will be missed
Luna feels the tears run down her face as she sees four separate flower pots. One above each name and one in the middle. The flowers in each are old and withered. She looks at the date of their death and takes note of it before taking out the flowers from the pot and returns to the small headstone and takes out four flowers from the pot.
"I hope you don't mind sharing mom." Luna says with her voice cracking slightly.
She returns to the large headstone and places a flower in each of the flower pots. She kneels down in front of it and looks at Home Run's name.
"I hoped we'd see each other in better situations than this," Luna says as her voice keeps breaking.
"He's just like you in so many ways, he's broken, I'm doing what I can though, your son, he's bright, stubborn at times though humble, he gets his cockiness from you I know,"
The raw emotion continues to grow and come to the surface as her eyes well up and her breathing is fast paced as her hands shake.
"I just miss you so damn much."
Luna lets the tears flow down as she puts her hands to her face covering it up and sobbing into them. After a few minutes she gets up as she calms down before turning to her car. As she gets in she looks at her phone to see she has missed calls from Celestia. She touches the screen on her phone and presses it to her ear as it rings. The ringing stops after a few seconds when Celestia picks up.
"What's going on Tia?" Luna asks.
"What do you mean he ran off? I left him in your care, what did you do?"
"Tia, if he's anything like his father you don't push him to do things he doesn't want to do."
"I have one more appointment to go to and then I'll be over there if you haven't found him by then."
"Yes it's the important one."
"Okay, let me know where you found him and leave him alone, I'll talk to him when I get there."
"Love you too sis, your turn to visit tomorrow by the way."
She hangs up and sighs before starting her car and driving to her last appointment of the day. She sighs as she gets on the road leading into the city as leaves dance across the road both on the ground and in the air. As she drives she stays silent looking ahead of the road with the radio softly playing.
At the Apple Family house Applejack is in her room at her desk. She scratches her head as she is hunched over her desk. She groans before she tosses the papers on her desk into the air and leans back on her chair starring at the ceiling. She gets a knock on her bedroom door that snaps her out of her mindset causing her to nearly fall backwards as she grabs the desk to pull her up right before getting up and getting to her door. She opens it to reveal a tall male with orange hair on his head with a build of a construction worker with large muscular arms wearing a red t-shirt, blue jeans and tan boots.
"Hey Big Mac." Applejack says in a deadpan expression.
"It’s time to start work on the field sis, Granny's orders."
"Alright ahm comin'."
Applejack puts on her shoes and walks out her room and shuts the door as she heads outside to the apple orchard behind the house. She climbs up a ladder with a basket and picks the apples off the tree. Big Mac takes one of the full baskets from earlier to the barn near by. After an hour Applejack is half way done with the row of trees she started as Big Mac passes her again. Applejack looks at him from the top of the ladder.
"Hey Mac?" Applejack asks with a bit of strain in her voice.
"What is it little sis?"
"If someone you knew from way yer childhood disappeared for a long time and suddenly pop up outta no where, how would you react?"
"Depends on why they left I guess."
"Fer no reason."
"Ah wouldn't know."
"You know who I'm talkin' about huh?"
"Eeyup."
"He's been back fer about a week ya know."
"He's been here for longer actually, helps me every once in a while here and at the stand when I have to go take care of somethin'."
"Then why didn't ya tell me?"
"He asked me ta not say anythin' so he didn't hurt ya."
Applejack is speechless as she processes what he said as her eyes go wide and her breathing slows down.
"Don't go zonin' out up there A.J., you'll hurt yourself."
Applejack snaps out of it and sighs before going down the ladder with her basket. She sighs and looks away.
"Maybe ah was too harsh on 'im."
"Maybe isn't the right word sis."
"Yer right Mac, I was just.... I don't know."
"Well once your able to come back you should try to make it up ta him."
"I should."
"Now that's out of the way time ta get back to work, ya still got a long way to go."
Applejack gets up and returns to her chore with a small smile on her face though the rest of her face expresses otherwise.
At Canterlot High, Celestia looks around the school trying to find Peanut Butter as she hears shouting coming from the weight room next to the gym as she looks inside to see Peanut Butter with the boxing club and Iron Will as she sees Peanut Butter in the ring with another student. Though Peanut Butter lacks any of the gear aside from gloves. Peanut Butter keeps his arms up and moves around the ring as the other student throws punches at him at a fast pace though Peanut Butter keeps his arms up. Just as the student was about to throw another punch Peanut Butter moves left and ducks down before striking the other student in the chest taking the wind out of him as the student falls down. Peanut Butter helps the student he beat out of the ring and gets out himself. Celestia sighs and moves away from the window before taking out her phone to call Luna.
"I found him Lulu, He's with the boxing club." Celestia says in a relaxed tone.
"Luna don't freak out, He held his own."
"No you don't need to rush back, I'll wait here for him and take him to my place like we planned."
"Yes I'm sure."
"Okay, see you tonight."
Celestia hangs up and returns to her office to see Sunset Shimmer reading a book. She sits on her chair and leans back waiting for Peanut Butter to return.
"I swear he's going to be the death of Luna and I." Celestia says with a small groan in her voice.
"I take it you didn't find him mom?"
"I did, he's with the boxing club."
"Somehow I'm not surprised, though I thought he wasn't fond of large crowds of people."
"Well it seems I gave him the push to come out of his shell."
"Let's just hope he comes back here afterwards."
"Yeah."
An hour passes before the knob to Celestia's office turns and Peanut Butter walks in with a small smile on his face. Celestia glares at him with a displeased look with her eyebrows low.
"Where were you?" Celestia asks in a scolding tone.
"I was with some boxing club, it was fun."
"You don't go running off like that."
"You shouldn't have pushed me."
"I was looking out for you."
"I have been taking care of myself for five years, I don't need someone to look out for me."
"Yes you do."
"No I don't."
"P.B. enough, just sit down and let her finish her work so we can go home!" Sunset shouts.
Peanut Butter rolls his eyes and sits back down. Celestia returns to her work and about a half hour later gets up and gathers her belongings which prompt Sunset and Peanut Butter to do the same before they all leave the school and get into her car to go home. Peanut Butter stays silent as he looks out the window. The car ride is silent with the exception of the radio playing softly. They arrive a half hour later to a good sized white trimmed house with bricks at the bottom and a green lawn with some fallen leaves from a tree next door. Celestia pulls into the garage as they all get out. They enter to a large kitchen with a medium sized table in the middle as Celestia puts her bag down by the door and heads to the kitchen to make dinner. Sunset goes towards the living room and down a hall to the last door on the left and enters is as Peanut Butter is standing in the hallway by the kitchen, unsure of what to do. Celestia glances at him and softly smiles.
"You can make yourself at home, it'll be a long while before Luna gets you," Celestia says.
Peanut Butter looks down shuffling his feet a bit before taking his shoes off and going to the living room to sit down on the couch.
"Since we aren't at the school I guess we can talk and not get into an argument hopefully, about earlier, I'm sorry for pushing you, I shouldn't have done it I should have thought of a better way, as for yesterday Luna and I feel terrible about it, we should have listened but like I said rules are rules and like it or not we live by them and follow them. though you probably did whatever you could to survive."
"Yeah I did, some things I regret doing," Peanut Butter sighs and holds his shoulder with his hand. "but I had to survive."
"Is something wrong with your shoulder?"
"No, just a bit sore is all."
Celestia raises an eyebrow to his response though says nothing and returns to cooking.
"So any interesting stories from your adventures?"
"Not really, sleep under a bridge or an abandoned house if I was lucky during the night, survive in the day."
"Ah so you never joined a gang or anything?"
Peanut Butter starts to get hot under the collar as his palms start to sweat and turns a bright shade of red.
"No I didn't."
"Oh?, your actions and body are saying otherwise."
"I'd rather not talk about it and please say nothing about it to anyone."
"Alright."
The house stays silent as Celestia cooks with Sunset in her room as part of her punishment and Peanut Butter deep in thought on the couch. A half hour passes before the sound of a car pulling into the driveway is heard. Peanut Butter looks to see Luna getting out of the car and heading to the front door as Celestia goes to open it. When Celestia opens the door and Luna enters glaring at Peanut Butter.
"Why did you go against what I told you?" Luna asks in a harsh and angry tone.
Peanut Butter stays silent.
"You had me worried for no reason."
"Why worry about some street rat?"
"Because," Luna breaks her glare from a loss of words. A minute passes before she speaks again "because your father would have had me watch over you to begin with if anything happened to him."
"Then why didn't you when he died?"
"I was in a dark place at the time."
Peanut Butter sighs and looks away from her. "Of course it would be for him, that's all anyone that knew him that I came to did it for and looks like you're no different."
He gets up and goes to the hallway before he puts on his shoes. Luna and Celestia look at him with confusion.
"Where are you going?" Luna asks with a small crack in her voice.
"A walk, if you're that worried about me running off Sunset can come with me, at least she cares about me."
Celestia turns her head to the hallway by the living room.
"Sunset can you come here?" Celestia shouts.
Sunset comes out of her room and towards Celestia.
"What's up?"
"I need you to go with Peanut Butter on his walk."
"Okay, I just need to put my shoes on first."
Sunset goes to her room and puts on her shoes before joining Peanut Butter who is already outside the house. They both walk into the distance as Celestia and Luna stay at the house. Luna falls to her knees crying into her hands that are covering her face as Celestia tries to comfort her.