Sisters

by Dusk Melody

One For Sorrow

“Girls?” Pinkie Pie bounced up to the table, an expression on her face somewhere between happy and concerned, which given it was Pinkie she was able to pull off rather well.

“S’up Aunt Pinkie?” Apple Honey looked up from stowing her various meds back in her saddle bags, trying to read her Aunt’s expression.

"Nothing, I just wondered if you were done. I need the table, you know, for customers.”

“Aunt Pinkie? We’re the only two here, there’s nopony else.” Cloud Blossom began before her Aunt cut her off.

“I don’t mean to interrupt, but have you been back to Sweet Apple Acres yet, either of you?” Pinkie proceeded to wipe down the table top while she spoke.

“No, it was bucketing down with rain when we got off the Express, so we ducked in here out the way.” Cloud Blossom explained, lifting her empty mug out of her Aunt’s way.

“Oh, well, it’s stopped raining, and I really think you should head on over there.” Pinkie’s ears slicked back against her head and her mane lost a good deal of its pouffiness as she spoke, a clear sign something was wrong.

Pinkie’s distress wasn’t lost on Apple Honey, the pegasus picked up on it straight away. “Aunt Pinkie, what’s up?”

Pinkie laughed a little too loud, flashing the sisters a smile just a little too wide. “What? No…nothing’s wrong, nothing at all. I just thought, you know, seeing as you’re here and all, you should maybe head on over, to…catch up?” Pinkie finished lamely, her too-wide smile still firmly in place, which didn’t convince her two customers.

Apple Honey shot her sister a look, which Cloud returned, with a flick of her eyebrows in Pinkie Pie’s direction. Nodding in silent reply Apple Honey turned to answer the troubled party planner. “No offence Aunt Pinkie, but that’s a load o’ horseapples an’ you know it. Now what’s goin’ on?”

“I really shouldn’t say, and it’d be best if you heard it from your parent’s first hoof. I…just, I – I’m so sorry!” With that Pinkie Pie abandoned the table top in a half cleaned state and fled behind the counter to the back of the shop, tears streaming down her face.

“Tartarus was that about?” Cloud Blossom wondered out loud, a look of surprise currently being mirrored by her sister.

“Buck knows, but she’s right though, it has stopped raining and we should get going.” Nodding in agreement Cloud edged her way out of the bench she was sat on and got herself on her hooves as Honey left a hooffull of bits on the counter to cover their hot chocolates. Side by side they made their way to the door, and this time Cloud Blossom accepted when her sister held the door open for her, though she still cast her a look on the way out.

“Cloud, do y’all mind if we call on Aunt Rainbow afore we head to Sweet Apple Acres?”

“No, I don’t mind, why’d you want to go there?

“Unfinished business ah guess. Jus’ somepony ah need t’ apologise to is all.” Apple Honey answered her sister, remembering the fight she had with her Aunt Rainbow and the destroyed kitchen that lead to her arrest. “Ah’d like t’ visit Princess Twilight too, if’n ya don’t mind, ah need t’ set that straight too.”

Cloud stopped walking and looked at her sister, an eyebrow raised, “got some bridge-building to do huh sis?”

Apple Honey blushed a little, admitting her former behaviour never sat very well with her, but amends needed to be made, like Doctor Sureheart kept telling her. ‘Well,’ she thought with a grin, ‘ah’ll have somethin’ interestin’ to tell her this week’. “Yeah, somethin’ like that.”

Cloud Blossom used a wing to shield her eyes from the sun as she scanned the heavens for their Aunt’s house. “Um, Honey?” She asked uncertainly, “where’s Aunt Dash’s house gone?”

Apple Honey snickered loudly, pointing with a hoof in the direction of the rather large and impressive crystal castle in the distance that served its dual purpose of town library and Aunt Twilight’s house. At this moment the castle had an immediate neighbour, namely a cloud house floating next to it. “Sis, ah’m gonna take a guess an’ say it’s over there, near Aunt Twi’s place. Guess they finally got together, Momma Shy said they’d started dating in one of her letters.”

Cloud Blossom grinned and blew a raspberry in reply for her sister’s snark. “Want to fly over? That is if you remember how, if all those rugby games haven’t turned you into an earth pony.” Cloud spread her wings and gave a few brief flaps, getting herself airborne.

“Hey!” Apple shouted, flapping her own wings and quickly catching up to fly beside her sister, “they only strap these up during the game y’know.”

“Oh I know, I just thought you’d forget, taking that many balls to the head and all.” Cloud sniggered at her own joke, completely missing Apple Honey’s eye twitching.

“Ha ha. Very funny, not.”

“So, you and Baritone huh? You two doing okay?” Cloud asked, changing the subject.

“Yeah, we’re doing jus’ fine…wait, how’d ya know about me an’ Bari?”

Cloud Blossom laughed at that, almost falling out the sky. “Please sister, you’re the captain of the most successful rugby team in fifty years, you’ve just won your third cup. Baritone is the singer with Dying Roses. You’re all over the gossip rags in Canterlot. Every other month or so you or your stallion are on the front covers, the press love you two.”

Apple Honey pulled a backflip out of sheer joy. “Yeah, we’re an awesome couple alright.”

“Does he know, you know, about your…?” Cloud Blossom tapped the side of her head, finishing off her question.

Apple Honey flashed her sister a ‘not very amused’ look. “You mean my mental disorder, IED?”

“Yeah…that...”

“O’ course he knows dumbass, and afore ya ask, ah’ve only let mah temper get th’ better o’ me once wi’ Bari, an’ it was entirely his fault.”

Cloud Blossom flashed her sister a surprised look at that. “You did? What caused it?”

“If’n ya don’ mind, ah’d rather not say.” With that she fell silent, flying a few seconds before turning to Cloud with a question of her own. “What about you?”

Looking straight ahead Cloud Blossom asked; “What about me?”

“Y’all got anypony? Ya must have some mare tucked away there in Canterlot.”

“As a matter of fact I don’t have anypony. There hasn’t been anypony for a while, thank you very much.”

Apple Honey sniggered to herself, “Y’all not gettin’ any then?” She asked with a smirk.

Cloud Blossom stopped in mid-flap, hovering in place, an outraged look on her face. “Whether I am or am not ‘getting any’ is none of your business!”

Apple Honey hovered next to her sister, barely containing her glee. “So that’s a no then ah take it, been a while has it sis?”

“I…no, I’m not saying…shut up! Just…shut up!”

“Hit a sore spot have ah? Shame nopony else has.” Apple Honey’s giggles gave way to outright laughter, her hooves wrapped around her sides.

“Oh yeah? And I suppose Baritone is being a good little unicorn around all those groupies while you’re here is he?” Cloud’s own anger blinded her, and she continued to lay on her verbal assault, entirely oblivious to the fact her sister wasn’t laughing anymore. “Bet there are plenty of teenage fillies lining up backstage to hit his sore spots after a performance!”

"Ow! What the hay?” Cloud exclaimed in pain as Apple Honey slammed her back first into a nearby tree trunk, her left forehoof pulled back for a punch and her muzzle twisted into a vicious snarl. “I’m sorry! Sis please, don’t hurt me, I’m sorry!” The pale green pegasus knew she’d gone too far. Cloud braced herself as much as she could for the punch she knew was coming.

Apple Honey smashed her hoof into the bark of the tree, mere inches from her scared sister’s face. A second and third time she punched the bark of the tree, splintering the wood and causing her hoof to bleed a trickle of blood. Finally calming herself the burnt yellow pegasus backed away from Cloud, still breathing heavily. With a deep breath and a tremendous amount of willpower she addressed her quaking sister. “Ah’m sorry…ah promised ah’d never hurt ya again, ah didn’, but ah came mighty close. This ain’t no game for me Cloud, right now ah wanna buck you through that tree so damn bad, but ah won’, but please sis, ah’m beggin’ ya, please don’ push mah buttons again. Ah’m tryin here, ah really am.”

Cloud Blossom laid a hoof on her sister’s shoulder, “no, I’m sorry. I never should have said that about Baritone.” Noticing the saddened look on her sibling’s face she asked, “Want to talk about it?”

Apple Honey dropped to the grass beside the tree, her head resting on her crossed forelegs. “Yes…no…maybe, I don’t know! Leave me the buck alone Cloud…” Her shoulders heaved as she began to sob noisily into her hooves, not really caring if her sister was watching her crumble or not.

Cloud landed next to her sister, draping a wing over her back and nuzzling her gently. “What is it Honey?”

“It’s, it’s nothing…leave it sis.”

“It’s obviously not nothing, come on, you can tell me.” Cloud Blossom tightened the grip of her wing, pulling Apple Honey into a hug while she continued to nuzzle her.

The burnt yellow pegasus continued to cry into her sisters nuzzle for a few moments, before finally bringing her sobbing under control enough to speak. “It – it was…a year ago now…” Apple Honey whispered through her halting sobs, “ah – ah came home after a game an’ found Bari in our bed with three fillies…they were, were…well y’all can guess what they were doin’. Ah don’ need ta spell it out for ya do ah?”

Cloud Blossom kissed her sister’s cheek softly. “I’m sorry Honey, I had no idea…”

“’Course ya didn’, th’ press didn’ get hold of it. As y’all can probably guess, ah lost mah shit when ah caught ‘em. Wasn’ pretty. Ah sent th’ earth pony an’ unicorn to th’ hospital. Would ‘a got th’ pegasus too if she hadn’ flown off. As for Vocal, he was only in intensive care for a month.”

“What happened? I assume you worked it out?”

“Not straight away. Took us a month or three, physio therapy for him, psychiatric for me. But yeah, we worked it out. Almost cost me my place on the Manehatten team, would’ve done too if the shrink hadn’t stepped in for me, said ah was ‘reasonably provoked’.”

“Well, you were, weren’t you? Even without IED I’d be pissed if I came home and saw that going on.” Cloud Blossom gently kissed her sister’s cheek again.

Apple Honey smiled despite herself as she rubbed her cheek with a hoof, “y’all wanna cut that out? Ya know ah’m not into mares, an’ ah’m really not into mah sister.”

“I’m not into my sister either, somepony just looked like she needed cheering up.” Cloud sniggered to herself, “perhaps you’d prefer a wing massage or a back rub, hmm?”

"Shut up you." Apple Honey stuck her tongue out at her sister, but, Cloud noticed, she didn’t attempt to pull away from her nuzzling. “Though ah wouldn’ say no to a preenin’ later if’n y’all are up to it?”

Cloud Blossom pulled away from her sister with a serious look on her face. “Right,” she began solemnly, “ground rules sis.”

“Ground rules?”

“Yes, ground rules. You don’t want me pushing your buttons, I don’t want to push your buttons. So, what’s off limits? What sets you off, as it were?”

Apple Honey raised a hoof to her chin, deep in thought; “That’s just it sis, anythin’ can ‘set me off’ as y’all so eloquently put it, but callin’ me ‘mental’ don’ help, nor does talk of Baritone an’ his groupies. Ah guess them’s th’ only off limits things.”

“Shame, fine flank like his could even change my mind.” Cloud quipped with a smile as she went back to nuzzling her sister.

“Ha!” Honey laughed at her sister’s joke, “you wish, take more’n your smile to take him away from these toned flanks.” She returned Cloud’s nuzzle, and in a quiet voice she said, “thanks sis.”

“Thanks? For what?”

“For listenin’, for understandin’ an’ for givin’ me a chance. Ah don’ deserve it after what ah did to ya.” Honey sniffed, fresh tears forming in her eyes.

Cloud Blossom lifted a hoof to her sister’s eyes, gently wiping away her tears. “Hey, none of that. I might’ve hated you when we were fillies, but you’re my sister Apple Honey, I never stopped loving you.”

Apple Honey lowered her voice to barely above a whisper, but Cloud still heard her. “Ah love ya too sis.”

Cloud spread her wings, using them to get to her hooves then hovering above her sister. “Come on, we still need to get to Aunt Twi’s place, unless you’d like to wallow a bit more?”

Honey grinned and joined her sister in the air. “Ah think ah’m done. Race ya to th’ castle?”

~

“C’mon Twi!” Rainbow Dash reclined on her little cloud, floating in Twilight’s library, blowing a lock of her unruly mane out of her eyes in boredom. Watching her marefriend work only entertained her for so long, and Twilight had been at the books for hours. Worse thing was they weren’t even the radical cool books like Daring Do. No, these were the sort of books Twi really liked, huge, old and dusty. With lots of weird words and diagrams that made Rainbow’s head spin when she looked at them. Egghead books.

Twilight Sparkle held such a book before her in her magical aura, making notes with a quill held in another magic bubble as she casually turned the old dusty pages. “No Rainbow!” The Princess answered, not moving her concentrated gaze from her work.

“But I’m bored!” The cyan pegasus whined, her head a forehoof while the other picked at the cloud she was laid on. “I wanna play. With you. Now.”

“No Rainbow, I’m busy.” Twilight huffed to herself, crossing out the line of notes she had just made and scribbling down a few more.

Rainbow Dash hopped from her cloud perch and fluttered to the ground, tip-hoofing around her marefriend, caressing Twilight’s flank with her wingtips, which caused her to scrub the quill into the parchment. Rainbow snickered, “I’ll let you do that thing you like, with your horn…” she trailed off seductively.

“Ugh!” Twilight sighed an exaggerated sigh and levitated over a new quill from storage and resumed her note-taking. “You can’t be that desperate, we did that earlier when you woke me up.”

“Yeah, but that was hours ago. This is now.” Rainbow continued to rub her marefriend’s flank with her wing, getting a shiver but no other response.

“I said I’m bus-aaaaagh!” Twilight squeaked in surprise as Rainbow trailed several quick kisses up the back of her neck and nipped her ear with a smirk.

“You’re what Egghead? Didn’t catch that last bit” Rainbow continued her assault, blowing gently in Twilight’s ear before kissing down her jawline.

"Don’t you…have…weather duty…to do?” Twilight panted as she fumbled her book in her magical hold, her concentration momentarily broken.

“Nah,” Rainbow flicked her tail over Twilight’s as she used her wingtip to tickle the other side of her neck to where she was now kissing, “sorted the rain earlier. Cloudchaser’s got the afternoon shift. I’m all yours babe.”

“Fine! Fine, you win.” Twilight slammed shut her copy of ‘Advanced Elemental Transfiguration and its Practical Use’ and levitated it to her desk along with the parchment and quill. “But I’m tying you up this time, sweetheart…”

“Yes, yes, yes!” Rainbow danced a four hoofed victory jig before flying off up the stairs of the crystal tree castle. “I’ll get the hoofcuffs!”

Twilight grinned to herself as Rainbow Dash zoomed off to their bedroom. ‘Advanced Elemental Transfiguration’ could afford to wait, compared to her beautiful marefriend, studying didn’t seem all that important. ‘Besides,’ she thought to herself, ‘I can always do it tomorrow…’ Twilight stopped herself with a giggle, she’d told herself that yesterday, and the day before that and…oh well. The Princess trotted out of the library and spread her own wings, preparing to follow Rainbow up the stairs when a loud knock at the main doors caught her attention.

“Rainbow, get back down here, we have company!” Twilight hollered up the stairs as she turned to go answer the door, her marefriend’s muffled reply echoing down the crystal staircase making her giggle.

“Oh, come on!!”

~

“Aaaand…that’s a win!” Cloud Blossom whooped with joy as she touched down on the cloud house a clear fifty feet ahead of her sister who was puffing deep breaths behind her.

Apple Honey landed next to the pale green pegasus, panting heavily. “How…the buck…did you…beat me?” She asked between deep breaths, “Y’all…ain’t no…athlete.”

“No,” Cloud replied, not even short of breath, “but I do use these,” she spread her powerful wings wide, “eight hours every day when I’m sculpting. I just have stronger wings than you.” She finished with a smirk.

“Ah wanna rematch, on th’ ground this time.” The burnt yellow pegasus folded away her sore aching wings, almost sighing with the relief.

“Well, you’d win that for sure, seeing as I only have three legs.” Cloud stuck her tongue out at her sister’s smirk, “tell you what, next time we race, you run and I’ll fly. Fair?”

“Deal.” Apple Honey spat on her hoof and extended it to Cloud, who looked at it like it was a nest full of poisonous vipers, before returning the gesture, spitting on her own hoof and bumping it against her sister’s.

“Must you be so filthy?” Cloud asked with a wince, rubbing her hoof on the cloud beneath her.

“Must ya be so prissy? Canterlot’s ruined ya sis.”

“It has not, a certain level of refinement is expected is all.” Cloud inspected her hoof to see if it was clean, “and spitting on one’s hooves is definitely not how deals are sealed…ruffian.”

“Uh-huh.” Apple Honey walked past her sister and knocked on the door of her Aunt’s house, getting no reply. “So, how come y’all ain’t got a mare then?”

“Why so interested?”

“Aunt Rainbow!” Apple Honey called through the keyhole, knocking again. “Ah jus’ am, humour me.”

“If you must know, when I’m done with eight or nine hours sculpting almost every day, and shaken the stone dust out of my mane and tail all I want to do is get in my bath and relax with some music and a glass of something red. Chasing mares doesn’t enter my equations.” Cloud replied wistfully, thinking of her bubble jet bath and the mail mare.

Apple Honey knocked again before shaking the locked door and giving up. “Ah don’ think she’s home.” She walked back and stood next to her sister. “Take some time off, for yaself ah mean.”

Cloud snickered, “Honey I’d love to, believe me, but when you’ve got thousand bit commissions booked up three months in advance for customers who expect their orders on time or earlier I can’t afford to. I’m pushing it coming here as it is.”

“Why’d ya come back then, if’n ya so busy?”

“Same reason as you I expect. When your mother sends you a letter asking you to come home urgently, you make the time, right? Cloud asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Sure as sunrise ya do. Ah can’ argue wi’ ya there ah guess.”

Cloud Blossom walked to the very edge of the cloud they were stood on and looked down at the crystal tree castle below. “Think she’s in there with Aunt Twilight?” She asked over her shoulder, noticing her sister wasn’t following. “What’s wrong?”

Apple Honey was stood a few feet behind her sister, nervously scuffing a hoof at the surface of the cloud, sending little puffs of it floating away. “It’s just, now ah’m here, ah don’ think ah wanna see ‘em after all.

Cloud looked at her incredulously; “You, you’re nervous?”

Honey scuffed up more bits of cloud, digging herself a hole she wished she could crawl into. Slicking her ears back she admitted, “No, ah’m…ah’m scared sis…”

“Scared, of what?”

“Of them, Aunt Rainbow and Twilight. Last time ah saw ‘em ah’d destroyed her kitchen an’ put Aunt Rainbow through her table, an’ Aunt Twilight arrested me. Yeah…ah’m scared.”

A few days ago Cloud Blossom would’ve given her last bit to hear her sister sound so defeated. Now she walked over to her and gave her a gentle nuzzle, draping a wing over her back in a feathery hug. “You don’t have to be scared, I’m with you this time. Come on, let’s fly down together.”

They did just that, at Cloud’s urging they glided down from Rainbow’s house to the doors of the castle, and Apple Honey, summoning what nerve she had left knocked loudly on the imposing structure. She was about to knock again when they heard Princess Twilight Sparkle’s muffled shout from within, “Rainbow, get back down here, we have company!”

Honey groaned audibly when she heard another, louder but still muffled shout of “Oh come on!” which was the unmistakeable sound of her Aunt Rainbow.

Cloud put her wing over her sister once more, giving her a reassuring nuzzle. “We’ll be fine, don’t worry.”

The option to worry or not was taken out of Honey’s hooves when the door was seized in a bubble of lavender magic and swung open to reveal Ponyville’s Princess. Twilight Sparkle just stood immobile, blinking a couple of times as she looked at the twin pegasi in front of her. Blinking once more she simply said, “Oh…hello girls.”

Finding her voice Apple Honey just managed a weak “Hey Aunt Twilight…can we, d’you mind if we come in?”

Comments

[Wroth]

“Not straight away. Took us a month or three, physio therapy for him, psychiatric for me. But yeah, we worked it out. Almost cost me my place on the Manehatten team, would’ve done too if the shrink hadn’t stepped in for me, said ah was ‘reasonably provoked’.”

Reasonably provoked...Into beating two people into the hospital, and one into Intensive care... Yeah cheating and all, but there's no justification for that there.

She really is mental.

[Dusk Melody]

5694342
Tartarus hath no fury like a mentally ill mare scorned

[Sunset_Shimmer83]

this should be awkward

[Dusk Melody]

5694387 indeed