The crowds throughout Ponyville parted, mixed expressions on their faces, as Applejack marched proudly back into town. All six of her friends walked with her, forming two lines behind her, and Calvados walked closely next to her, scanning the area as if looking for something.
The whole town went silent as they walked past.
“Oh, I know we haven’t the time, but please do your best!” squawked the Mayor as she observed the decoration ponies debating whether to try assembling a new banner. “Yes, I realize it cuts into your time assembling the hanging lanterns, but we’re low on optio—” she cut herself off as she saw Applejack and Cal leading their friends toward her in the middle of the road. Ponies on either side bustling around preparing for the Eclipse festivities froze where they stood, looking unsure of how to react. Even the Mayor herself seemed at a loss for words.
Applejack wore a wide, assured smile the whole while.
“Hello, Applejack, Princess Twilight,” the Mayor greeted them as they met in the road. She shot a nervous glanced at Cal, and resumed diplomatically, “I hear that one among you is responsible for the . . . ahem . . . ‘incident’ earlier today—”
“Appajak?” Cal interrupted, looking up at his sister. “Appajak? I fix?”
“Hold on now, hon, let me talk to the mayor first,” Applejack soothed him before turning to Mayor Mare. “I understand you’re upset, your honor, but Cal here is autistic. He can’t really help himself. And besides, he wants to help out.”
“Well, that’s as may be,” the mayor replied, straightening her collar, “but I can’t take any more risks with this celebration. We are behind schedule enough as it is.”
“Appajak?”
“One sec, Cal,” Applejack calmed him before resuming. “I’m just tryin’ to make things right, Madame Mayor. And Cal here does, too.”
“I’m afraid not, Applejack. Your brother might have good intentions, but I’m afraid he is too volatile to be able to provide any assistance. You’ll have to keep him out of the way for tonight’s festivities.”
Applejack looked back at the mayor, her eyes showing confusion and offense simultaneously. “What’re ya sayin’, your honor? That I should just keep Cal locked up at home like some kinda outcast?”
“I’m saying, you must do what you have to for the Eclipse Celebration to work,” the mayor answered, her own eyes steely. “As it stands, the banner, the centerpiece for tonight’s light show, can’t be replaced soon enough for the arrival of the Princesses, so we must alert them that their appearance will have to be canceled—”
“That’s where you’re wrong, Madame Mayor,” Twilight stepped forward, her face and tone steady. “Calvados here has a solution to your problem, and I’m sure once you’ve seen it, you’ll be more than willing to—”
“Princess, with all due respect, as the Mayor, I cannot condone such actions. As it stands, we simply do not know enough about his . . . condition to know how to handle him in case another incident happens.”
Applejack stepped in, looking affronted. “Well, if y’all would be willin’ to try to learn about Cal’s ‘condition’, you might be prepared, your honor.”
“We haven’t the time for such trivial things, Applejack!”
“This is far from trivial, your honor!” Twilight contested.
As the three mares argued, Cal wandered off the dirt road towards a wooden stall several yards away. “Cal,” Fluttershy gasped as she saw him, and trotted after him, “please, don’t go off by yourself. You could get hurt!”
Cal ignored her words, approached the stall, and muttered, “I fix . . . .” Fluttershy stared at the stall, and saw a large hole in front (one that the gray, cross-eyed Pegasus mare was trying to fix with a roll of tape in her mouth). Cal reached into the hole in front of the stall, pulled out one of the chunks of wood that had been punched out, and attempted to stick it back in its proper place inside the hole. When he let go of the wood chunk, it fell out of the hole, and he made a second attempt, yielding the same result. After a third try ended in failure, Cal huffed and turned toward Fluttershy. “I fix!” he whined, upset that the wood would not stay. “I fix!”
The arguing ponies stopped and turned toward Fluttershy and Cal with furrowed brows. “Oh, no!” the mayor was the first to react. “Not this again!”
“What’s he doing?” Twilight asked. “I know he wanted to fix the banner, but what does he want to fix that stall for?”
“That ain’t just a stall, Twilight,” Applejack responded. Her voice went low, almost breaking, as she continued, “It’s the one Cal broke durin’ his meltdown . . . .”
Cal attached two pieces of wood haphazardly back to the inside of the hole, in such an arrangement that kept both chunks in place. Neatness was compromised, but the hole was definitely smaller. “I fix!” Cal yelled out again, this time in happy triumph. “Good job!”
As the rest of the town realized what Cal was doing, several ponies at once gave a collective sigh of, “Awww . . . .”
Applejack cantered toward her brother and gently pulled him away from his work. “It’s good that you wanna help out,” she cooed to him, “but why don’t you just let the nice mare handle it from here? Okay, Cal?”
“Okay, Cal? I fix?”
“It’s okay, hon, you don’t have to. Just let the big ponies handle it, okay?”
“Okay? I sorry . . . .”
“It’s all right, baby,” Applejack soothed, holding him close and giving him a light kiss on the top of his head, “it’s all right . . . .”
Another wave of “Awww” came from the surrounding ponies, much louder than before. In the crowd, Rumble looked up at Thunderlane and grinned, and the older Pegasus grinned back before the two hugged. Lyra looked on with a mist in her eyes, and Bon-Bon helped dry her joyful tears. Apple Bloom came bustling through the crowd, flanked by Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, and all three saw Applejack and Cal together. Sweetie Belle smiled, Scootaloo waved, and Apple Bloom began growing teary-eyed herself.
Mayor Mare observed for a good few seconds before clearing her throat and clumsily resuming her authoritative tone, “N-now, make no mistake, Princess Twilight. Calvados’ character is not on trial, here. He’s clearly a good colt. I simply must reduce risk of further complications in this festival.”
“I understand, Madame Mayor,” Twilight replied, “but as soon as we show you how Cal has contributed to the Eclipse Celebration, there will no longer be a need to worry.” As she finished speaking, Rarity produced a large sheet of paper—so large, it appeared to be rolled up ten or eleven times. Using their magic, Twilight and Rarity held the paper in a bright glow, lifted it up above the crowd, and began slowly unfurling it. A few seconds later, the whole crowd began to stir in marvel.
The complete length of the paper was almost the exact length of the now-destroyed Eclipse Celebration banner, and colored the exact shade of midnight blue. The large, pale type spelled out “ECLIPSE CELEBRATION”, complete with space in the middle of the “C” in “Celebration” (left blank instead of cut out). At first glance, the citizens of Ponyville could swear that the banner that had been up for two weeks before being burned down had risen again, as good as new.
“Did . . .” the Mayor began, her face full of shock, “did . . . did Cal . . . ?”
“He sure did, your honor,” Applejack nodded, smiling proudly. “Soon as Cal saw that banner, he fell in love. And since he loves to color, he’s been workin’ on makin’ his own banner ever since he came home. I . . .” Applejack stopped to glance at Cal, his face lighting up brighter than the sun at the sight of his art on display. “I just . . . didn’t realize it until today.”
As Applejack and Fluttershy guided Cal back to the road, Twilight’s and Rarity’s magic lifted Cal’s replacement banner into place, exactly where its predecessor had been. It stretched between two posts and hung over the street, a near-perfect representation of the destroyed piece that hung there hours earlier. Sighs of awe and excitement reverberated through the crowd, and ponies everywhere pointed and commented on the craftsmanship.
“It’s amazing!”
“It looks just like the old one!”
“And they said that colt made it, too . . . .”
“You mean that colt from before?”
“I didn’t know he was so talented!”
“If he could make that . . . .”
“Maybe we shouldn’t have . . . .”
“After what I said about him, he . . . .”
“What a sweet kid . . . .”
“We were so wrong . . . .”
Applejack looked all around and heard the praise for the art become praise for its artist. Cries of astonishment melded together with sighs of shame to form a bizarre cacophony of emotion. I can definitely understand that, she said to herself. Fact, I know that feelin’ better than most everypony here . . . .
With the new banner set up, Twilight used her magic to cut out the space inside the “C” in “Celebration”, as a finishing touch. “I think it will do quite nicely,” Rarity said with a confident grin as she looked up at the splendid new banner. “Don’t you think so, Twilight?”
“I do, Rarity,” the princess replied, nodding and returning her grin. She turned her attention to the older mare. “Wouldn’t you agree, Mayor?”
“I . . .” Mayor Mare tried to answer, but her face told more than her tone. She gazed up in silent wonder at the banner, eyes wide, for a good minute before finally addressing Twilight. “Ahem . . . uh, yes. Indeed. This will be a suitable replacement. Thank you very much, Twilight. And thank you, Applejack for the donation.”
“Much obliged, your honor,” Applejack replied, “but it ain’t really me you should be thankin’.” She placed a hoof on Cal’s head, ruffling his mane, and Cal beamed.
The mayor glanced between the two Apple siblings, and Cal looked up at his sister as if waiting for her to speak again. The mayor cleared her throat again as she approached Cal, and the colt sat down and covered his eyes with his hooves. “Um . . . Calvados?” the mayor began, unsteadily at first, but slowly adapting. “On . . . on behalf of all of Ponyville, I wish to congratulate you on a job well done.”
Cal peeked out at the mayor over his hooves. “Good job?” he mumbled.
“Why yes. ‘Good job’. And as the mayor of Ponyville, I thank you for your contribution to the Equestrian Eclipse Celebration, and for your efforts to preserve the integrity and good spirits the Celebration brings—”
“Uhh, Madame Mayor?” Applejack stepped in. “Beggin’ your pardon, but most o’ that’s just goin’ over his head. Best to just tell him he’s done good.”
“Oh,” the mayor reacted absently, “yes, of course . . . well . . . Cal?”
Cal looked up at her again, over his hooves.
“Well . . . ‘good job’.”
At this, Cal responded with a winning grin. “Good job!” he said back, looking up at his sister with bright, shiny eyes. “Good job, Appajak? Good job?”
“That’s right, Cal,” Applejack assured, pulling him in for another hug. “Very good job. Mom and Dad would be so proud of you.”
They’d be proud of all of their little ones. I’m sure of it.
Another collective “aww” from the crowd punctuated the Apple siblings’ embrace, until, just as the two were about to part, somepony in the crowd shouted, “Look! His flank!”
Applejack and Cal both looked down at Cal’s flank as it began to glow faintly, and Applejack felt her heart tremble. “Is that . . . oh, sweet apple pie, it is!”
Applejack’s friends, as well as the Cutie Mark Crusaders, gathered around Cal, and the crowd closed in on them a bit as they watched. When the glow faded, the blank space on Cal’s flank was filled: it was a thin ribbon of rainbow-colored paint, drawn in the shape of a small apple, with the paintbrush that drew it ending the line on top and forming the stem.
“I don’t believe it!” Apple Bloom called out from the crowd, spellbound. “Cal just got his cutie mark!”
“Awesome!” cried Scootaloo.
“It’s so pretty!” Sweetie Belle squealed.
Everypony in the crowd began to applaud—soft, gentle applause—in celebration. Pinkie Pie stood on her hind legs and cheered. Rainbow Dash did multiple somersaults in the air. And Applejack and Apple Bloom pulled their brother in for another tight hug.
“Way to go, big brother!” Apple Bloom yelled out with irrepressible glee. “You got your cutie mark before me! Congratulations!”
“That’s my baby brother,” Applejack said as she pressed him close to her. “Nothin’ less from the pride of the apples!”
Calvados wasn’t showing whether he knew how big an event this was. He simply hugged and nuzzled his two sisters, giggling and looking so alive.
***
The festivities began as soon as the dark circle of the moon began to creep in front of the sun. Pinkie Pie giggled out loud and Rainbow Dash grated her teeth in frustration as the two faced off at the water pistol shooting gallery. Applejack bought a large cake from the Cakes’ stand and split it four ways amongst her siblings. Rarity observed as Fluttershy made several weak attempts at knocking the bottles down at another game stand. Two tries in, she hadn’t even made the stack shake, but after Cal had seen a stuffed bunny prize that looked exactly like Angel, Fluttershy had aimed her last ball perfectly, knocked the stack over, and won the game.
“Most exciting!” Rarity exclaimed. “Well done, Fluttershy!” At this, the Pegasus could only blush and smile.
The pony running the stand gave her the prize she asked for, and Fluttershy turned to Cal with the toy in her hooves. “Here you go, Cal,” she said, holding it out to him, “now you have an Angel Bunny of your very own!”
“It’s bunny!” Cal cheered and snatched up the plushie, hugging it tightly and rocking in place. “It’s cute bunny!”
“Cal,” Applejack said with slight reproach in her tone, “what do you say?”
“You say?” Cal replied before remembering his manners. “Thank you.”
“You’re very welcome, sweetheart,” Fluttershy answered, reaching out to hug Cal. Cal quickly returned the hug, nuzzling Fluttershy’s ear.
“Fah-Shy . . .” he muttered dreamily as he held her and his new toy close to him.
***
Lyra and Bon-Bon sighed as they sat at their own table and watched Calvados playing with his friends and family. “Applejack is a lucky mare to have such a sweetie for a brother,” said Bon-Bon with a smile.
Lyra nodded next to her. “Yeah . . . you know, Bonnie, I was hoping we could talk about this, but . . . you always seem like you don’t want to. I’m not sure how everypony would react, but, maybe we could talk about . . . you know—”
“Having our own?”
Bon-Bon had said the words as if they’d occurred to her long before Lyra.
“You mean you’re open to it?”
“Of course!” Bon-Bon replied, beaming. “I know it’s not all that common, but everypony in town knows us. They’d understand, and if not, they’d get used to it. After all, they didn’t understand Cal until Applejack and her friends talked about him more.”
“I’m not too worried about their reactions. It’s just . . . .” Lyra struggled to speak, rubbing the back of her neck with her hoof. “You always seemed like . . . like you weren’t ready—”
There was a sudden beeping sound, and Bon-Bon glanced at her watch. “Oh, no,” she muttered, “work. Listen, I gotta go. I’m sorry I have to skip the Eclipse, but I promise, we’ll talk more when I get back. Okay?”
Lyra, initially showing a glimmer of disappointment in her eyes, lit up with Bon-Bon’s last words. “You really mean it?”
“Lyra, this isn’t me trying to avoid the issue. I really wanna talk about it. I’ll see you tonight, and we’ll talk as long as you want. Okay?”
As Bon-Bon held up a cream-colored hoof, Lyra smiled at her companion and reached out to hold it with hers. “Okay, Bonnie,” she replied. “Just hurry back, okay?”
“I will.”
With that, Bon-Bon turned and trotted off briskly, leaving Lyra smiling and awaiting her return.
***
At an arts and crafts booth, Spike observed the Cutie Mark Crusaders creating their own projects for Cal. “Not bad, you guys!” Spike announced, smiling. “These are more than good enough for the mantle!”
“Which do you think he’ll like best?” Sweetie Belle asked as she sent her hooves gliding over the recreation of Cal’s cutie mark made out of modeling clay.
“I reckon it don’t matter much,” Apple Bloom answered distantly. She was focused on a statue of Cal made of popsicle sticks (which had prompted a comment from a passing Twilight about the legendary Trot-jan Horse). “Cal will love ‘em all, no matter what!”
“I sure hope he likes mine!” Scootaloo chirped as she dabbed at her hoof-painting project.
“A bit faster, dear.”
Spike and the fillies heard the voice a few feet away, and turned from their projects to see Filthy Rich standing in the middle of the dirt road. When they saw whom he was talking to, they had to suppress a spontaneous fit of laughter.
“Daddy, this is so unfair!” Diamond Tiara whined as she and Silver Spoon pushed piles of litter across the ground with large brooms. “Didn’t they hire ponies for a job like this?”
“One, you know perfectly well the staff is short-hoofed tonight,” Rich replied sternly. “And two, I figured this was the best way for you to continue aiding ponies with disabilities, since you didn’t feel obliged to do so at Pinkie Pie’s party, when I asked you to.”
“But it was his fault!”
“Not another word, young mare,” Filthy Rich responded with a shake of his head. “Either you keep sweeping, or it’s down to ten bits a week.”
Diamond Tiara froze in place and stared at her father with dinner plate eyes, an offended scoff completing the scene. Scowling, she turned away and kept sweeping, a bit more roughly now.
“My parents don’t even give me five bits a week . . . .”
“Oh, shut up, Silver Spoon!”
As the fit of half-giggles subsided amongst the Crusaders, Spike rolled his eyes, and Sweetie Belle felt a sigh escape her throat. “You know, guys? Sometimes, I kinda feel sorry for her.”
“Not me,” Apple Bloom said simply. “At least not right now. After the stuff she said about my brother . . . .”
“Relax,” Scootaloo soothed. “Some ponies don’t understand, and some don’t want to. It’s just something you gotta be ready for, right?”
Apple Bloom shrugged. “Yeah, I guess you’re right . . . hey, that looks really good, Scootaloo!”
Sweetie Belle looked up from her sculpture to see, and she grinned. “Yeah! Great job!” she squeaked.
Scootaloo smiled proudly, with a hint of a blush, as she went back to putting the finishing touches on her painting of her and Cal smiling and playing together.
***
“Fillies and gentlecolts,” Twilight announced from a stage in town square, “the coming of dusk concludes tonight’s festivities! With the alignment of the earth, the moon and the sun, the Equestrian Eclipse is upon us! Ready the banner, and prepare for the Eclipse Reenactment Ceremony!” Her words were met with cheers, and Twilight glanced up at the beautiful hoop of orange light in the late afternoon-early evening sky.
At Twilight’s signal, the banner stretched out over the street was detached and moved, courtesy of Rainbow Dash on one end and Fluttershy on the other, over the crowds and toward the stage. The two Pegasi stopped and hovered six feet above the ground, by which time a group of Unicorns, led by Rarity, marched through the street and up to where the banner now hung.
“Tonight is more than an observation of the convergence of the sun and the moon!” Twilight announced. At the same time, the Unicorn group readied the magical glow of their horns.
“Tonight is an observation of a different, very special kind of unity!”
The Unicorn troupe’s horns glowed brighter as the crowds churned in their excitement.
“A unity not just between two sisters and rulers, but between two differing points of view that, through adversity and strife, can still stand strong together and weather the worst of conflicts!”
The Unicorns took aim at the hole in the banner.
“This special display of togetherness demonstrates that, while we may all be different in many ways, and while we may not understand each other at first, we all share the same heartbeat, the same blood racing through our veins, the same air we breathe, the same ground on which we stand, the same sun that warms us in the day, and the same moon that watches over us at night!”
At last, the crowds cheered as the Unicorns’ magic spiked, and the glow from their horns exploded into a dazzling collective beam of light that shot perfectly through the banner’s hole. The light melded together from a multitude of colors into a solid white pillar of light, like a spotlight aimed at the darkening sky.
“All of us—Unicorn, Pegasus, and Earth pony; mare and stallion; young and old; civilian and royalty; handicapped and non-handicapped—we are all ponies, through and through. And after all is said and done, it is our differences that unite us! Our special traits, beliefs and experiences that bring us all together!”
The Unicorn magic surged, and the pillar of light that shone through the banner began to grow dark, mirroring the great eclipse in the heavens above them. The crowds began to cheer as the pony-made ring of light grew brighter still. In seconds, the ring exploded in a burst of sparkles (Cal had to cover his ears by this time), and from within the cloud of stardust came two beautiful silhouettes.
Those of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.
The two rulers slowly descended from their spectacular entrance point, and the crowds roared louder. Two sets of hooves touched down onto the stage, and Celestia went right to Twilight for a hug. As they parted, Luna took over oration:
“Tonight is a night I cherish more than any other. This night symbolizes the reunion of my sister and myself after 1,000 years, and thousands of miles apart.”
“Indeed,” Celestia added. “As Twilight said, the Eclipse Celebration does more than reunite the Equestrian Diarchy. It reunites family. And though we once did not see eye-to-eye, tonight proves that even the most different of siblings can still love and care deeply for one another, no matter what has transpired between them.”
This last statement prompted a heartfelt embrace between the two heralds of the heavens, and the crowd released a poignant sigh at their bond. In the crowd, Applejack looked down at her younger brother, smiled, and approached him for what must have been their fiftieth hug that night. The orange Earth mare felt a tear slide down her face as she held Cal close to her.
“Now, before the festivities conclude for the evening,” Celestia said after she parted from her sister, “we have one last thing that needs to be addressed.” She turned to Luna and nodded, and when she nodded back, the two princesses descended from the stage and began walking slowly through the crowds, which parted at their approach. The princesses stopped before the gathering of Apple siblings in the crowd, and both aimed their benign gazes directly at Calvados—who, as per usual, hid his eyes behind his hooves.
“I hear we have you to thank for tonight, Cal,” Celestia spoke to him gently. “I must say, it’s very nice to finally meet you in person.”
Cal peeked over his hooves at Celestia, and his eyes showed the slightest trace of a sparkle. “Pretty . . . ?” he muttered curiously.
Celestia gave a light giggle before replying, “Why thank you. And may I add, you’ve been a big help to tonight’s party. We may not have been able to end it properly without you. Thank you, Cal.”
“That goes for me, as well,” Luna added. “You’re quite the amazing young colt, Calvados.”
Cal merely stared back at them for a few seconds, occasionally glancing at the ground. Finally, he replied quietly, “Good job.”
Celestia and Luna both smiled. “Yes,” said the younger princess, “very good job.”
“Very good job,” Cal repeated. He then stared in confusion as Celestia lay down on the ground before him and covered her own eyes with her front hooves. A few seconds later, Celestia pulled her hooves away and whispered, “Boo.”
Cal began giggling and drumming his hooves on the ground. “Is that funny?” Cal asked. “Appajak? Is that funny?”
Applejack nodded and smiled and held Apple Bloom and Big McIntosh close. From that point on, for several minutes, they and the rest of the crowd seemed to want nothing more than to watch Celestia play with Cal. Applejack once again felt tears bubble over, and for the first time in a long time, she felt her heart blossom with glee at the same time.
Daddy always said to cry on the inside, she thought as Luna began to join the fun. But I don’t think he’d mind this one time.