"Why does everypony say that?!"

by The SideKick

Applebloom's and Scootaloo's parents (Part 2)

Career day had arrived.

For many fillies and colts it was their chance to show off how cool their parents are, for others it's a day of dread, for they had to bring in their embarrassing parents, and for a scant few they have to sit quietly because their parents weren't coming for one reason or another. The trio that made up the Cutie Mark Crusaders fell into the first and third categories.

"I still can't believe that both you and Applebloom's parents are coming! What about me?"

"Isn't this only the second time your parents have ever missed career day?"

"Yes, but that's not the point! Do you know how awesome it would have been if all of our parents were gonna be here today?"

Sweetie Belle buried her head into her fore hooves, a third hoof not of her own rubbing her back.

"It'll be fine Sweetie, It's not like it's the last career day. We'll have more chances to get all our parents here." Said Applebloom from the desk to Sweetie Belle's left.

"Yeah, we got like another three years before we're done with school." Came from Scootaloo in the desk behind Sweetie Belle.

"I know..."

"Alright my little ponies, it's time to officially start career day!"

This had been Cheerilee at the head of the class. She had been in the other room talking with all the parents that had shown up. She held up a small clipboard.

"If I call your name you will come stand at the head of the class and I will get your parents. After they are done they can either leave OR they can sit with you at your desk for the rest of the day. A lot of your parents were able to make it today so if we can't get to your's today we will extend career day to a small bit of tomorrow."

This was greeted with moderate cheers from her class.

"Calm down now, I'm going to call out the first one to come up."

The students quickly quieted.

"Would Twist please come up?"

"Yesth!"

As Twist cantered up to the front desk Cheerilee walked over the to the one door in the room and opened it.

"Ms. Peppermint, Mr. Rush? You're up first."

Out walked an earth pony with a white mane and tail, matched with a light red coat followed by a unicorn mare with a soft blue mane and tail and a cream coat. They stepped in front of Cheerilee's desk and exchanged nuzzles with Twist before looking over the class.

"Hello, my names Sugar Rush and this is my wife Spiral Peppermint, and we're gonna tell you about making candy!"

And with a small cheer career day started, various parents coming and going, most in pairs, some with just the moms or the dads. After awhile it was Scootaloo's turn.

"And next up is...Scootaloo!"

As Scootaloo trotted up, her little wings buzzing, her parents walked out of the door after Cheerilee called for them. Her mom was a hot pink unicorn with a butter yellow and peppermint green mane plus tail which both swirled in natural curls, a blank business card as her cutie mark telling of her expertise in marketing. She brought her orange filly into a big hug. Despite her normal attitude towards public displays of affection and the pair of snickers that came from certain grey and pink fillies, Scootaloo just went with it and enjoyed being held by her mom. Her mom was infamous in their household for being very touchy-feely and so Scootaloo had been expecting it, and while she knew she would be powerless to stop it any way she felt better about it having seen all the cuddling the kids before her had been through with their parents.

"So I guess I'll just head on back home then, I'll see you two after-" Before the near black brown earth pony with a dark red spiky mane and tail that had come in behind her mom could get away Scootaloo wrestled out of her mom's grasp and jumped onto his neck, hanging off of it while being careful not to knock off the pair of headphones that fought her for space on his neck. If one couldn't figure it out with the headphones then one could put it together that his talent was in radio when they saw that his cutie mark was another pair of headphones with its aux cord wrapping around a radio tower.

"Not after you promised that you'd be here today!"

"Ha~ I wouldn't dream of it."

He nuzzled her cheek before lowering his neck to let her drop to the ground. Scootaloo then walked in between her parents and sat on her flank as they turned to look forward. Her mom was the first to speak.

"Hello children, my names Cloud Hopper. I work as the vice president at a cloud charming company called "Solid Clouds, Comfy Living"."

"And I'm Sound Rift! I work at the "Sound Waves" radio station up in Manehatten as the sound productionist."

"Which job would you all like to hear about first?" Asked Cloud Hopper

Amongst the chorus of "RADIO STATION" a few calls of "Cloud Charmer" could be heard. With an apologetic hug to his wife Sound Rift took a step up.

"Right then, I'll start with a quick explanation on radio stations. I'm sure most of you have heard of them and radios, but a lot of you don't own-Yes, little miss pink filly with the tiara?"

"My dad owns one, and I know that it magically picks up music that radio stations puts out." Said Diamond tiara with a smug smile, having been able to up show her classmates and even Scootaloo even when her parents were up.

("Just 'cus you're not an orphan anymore means I can't still win!")

Sound Wave was a bit puzzled by the pink filly's behavior.

"Well, you're kinda right. Radios actually use no magic at all. I brought the one we have at the house with me so you could see it for yourself actually. Honey, if you could."

Cloud Hopper nodded and from the open door levitated in a big wood box. It was slightly larger than a ponies head and was rounded at the top. It had two knobs on its front with a dial between them. It had two built-in speakers as well. The fact that not only did this radio look newer than the one her dad had but also the fact that she was wrong about how they worked AND that Scootaloo's family had a radio at all left Diamond Tiara speechless. All the other kids just "Ooooh''d and "Awwww"'d at the new device in front of them.

"This is the newest model from "Equestrian Innovations", the Amaze-a-Radio. It can pick up radio waves from up to over twenty miles away!"

And so went the entire time that Scootaloo's parents were up. When her mom talked about her job it was met with decent interest, not anywhere near the level that Sound Rift's radio job had but still good none the less. When she was done Cheerilee walked over to them.

"Thank you so much for that, but it's getting close to the end of the day and I want to try and squeeze one more presentation in."

Scootaloo's parents nodded and walked over to where she had pointed out was her desk. It was a harder task than normal due to how crowded the moderate classroom had become due to the amount of parents that had opted to stay for the rest of class. With some apologies and shoving they reached Scootaloo's desk, placing the radio under it, and sat with one parent to either side of her.

"And for today's last presentation could Applebloom please come up?"

Without a word, Applebloom bounced up to the front desk. This left most of the ponies in the room confused. The only ones in the know were a scant few of the parents, Cheerilee, Applebloom's friends, and of course Applebloom herself. While the efforts of the cutie mark crusaders had let some of the populace of Ponyville know that Scootaloo wasn't an orphan they were still ignorant of the fact that Applebloom wasn't either. At the least Applebloom will be saved from the same earth-shattering revelation that Scootaloo had to go through seeing as her parents were walking in right now to proof her not an orphan.

First was an orange-yellow earth pony with light green coloring her mane and tail, a sprouting apple seed decorating her flank. Her hair was tied up in a short ponytail while her actual tail was left straight and free. Followed behind her was a large stocky dark orange stallion with a close cut mustard yellow mane and a short shaggy tail to match. Upon his flank was a test tube that replaced the trunk of an apple tree.

Together Applebloom's parents embraced her in a big group hug. After a moment they all detangled and faced forward. The stallion was first to talk with his booming voice.

"Hi everypony, it's a pleasure to be here today. Names Strong Root."

"And I'm Sweet Shine, and we're going to talk to you today about our work in the Badlands!" She quickly followed up.

At the mention of the badlands the last few ponies who hadn't been interested already were now listening very carefully. Strong Root spoke first again.

"Now you might think that it's an extremely dangerous thing to work in the Badlands...And you would be right. But to clear this up real quick, no, it ain't because of the creatures that live there."

"Oh sure they might be a little grumpy at first, but if you give them a chance they're just the sweetest things. What really makes it so hard to live there is just how bad the soil is."

"Yup, hardly anythin' more than a tree every couple miles and a bunch of weeds. That's where I and Sweet come in."

Before the pair could go on a bunch of hooves raised in the air.

"Little fella in the front with the brown mane." Strong Root said pointing at Pipsqueak.

"Isn't the Badlands were that big meanie Tirek came from?" This seemed to be the same question on all the other kids minds as their hooves fell back down.

"Oh that big buloka? Yeah, he lived in the Badlands, but his brother Scorpan lives there too. And if ya'll remember it was thanks to him that the princesses were able to lick Tirek before he could do anythin' all that long time ago. He was even friends with Starswirl the Bearded."

"It's a real shame really. We meet Scorpan during our travels. He was so nice, and made the absolutely best tea! When we told him about what happened with his brother he became so downtrodden that it broke my heart! I hope those apple trees will at least give him something nice to look at now..."

Again many a hoof came up.

"Tall colt with the horn and snail cutie mark."

Snails put his hoof down.

"Did you really meet Scorpan? I thought he was like a thousand years old!"

"Well young colt, if Tirek could still walk around all dandy why couldn't Scorpan?"

"Tirek kept himself alive with dark magic...right?"

"Kind of. You see Scorpan explained it all to us durin' a tea break. Both him and Tirek are part of a species that live a long time naturally, but Tirek did use dark magic to keep himself lookin' young. If you could have seen Scorpan you'd think he was a yeti with all that white fur!"

Strong Root laughed at his own little joke, his deep voice being able to vibrate the closest desk. Sweet Shine spoke up after he calmed down.

"But that's not to say that he looked bad. The dear kept himself rather well groomed." Sweet added in last second.

Snails just nodded, stuck somewhere between amazed and confused.

("Does that mean that Celestia looks really old too and just uses magic to cover it up?")

"But enough about that ol' softie. Like I was sayin' the soil down there in the Badlands is the real killer. Can't hardly grow anythin' edible, and if ya can it's too small for anythin' other than a light snack. That's where I and Sweet step in."

"You see, about a few years ago me and Strong decided to go down there and find a way to help the Badlanders grow food easier. We have been making months-long trips there to do research and try find ways to grow plants without needing as much sun and water. Of course we specialize in apple trees, but we know that apples get boring after a while, we learned that from having nothing but apples to eat on our trips out there, so the techniques we've been working on should also work on other plants too."

"And we've had a few breakthroughs too. We bred a new kind of apple seed that only needs half the nutrients that a normal one does, plus it only needs about half a cup of water every two days and only five hours of sun every one!"

"The poor things had to eat grass and the rare coconut before. It makes me glad every time we can help give them something new and tasty to eat, and be able to keep on eating too!"

Before they could go on another hoof came up the air, alone this time.

"Yes, little lady?"

Silver spoon put her hoof down and fidgeted a bit, seemingly nervous.

"Um...it doesn't really have anything to do with your jobs…"

"Oh that's alright missy, we'll be more than happy to answer just about anything you want to know."

"Okay...If the things that live in the Badlands are nice, why does nopany ever go there?"

Sweet Shine's face saddened before she addressed Silver Spoon.

"The Badlands is host to many nice creatures yes, but also to many, many hazards. As we've said it's very hard for plants to grow there, but the ones that have are extremely dangerous, having adapted to the harsh nature. Not only that but a good deal of the terrain is very hard to navigate. With how few ponies have gone to the Badlands and even fewer...coming back, very little is known about there. The lack of know how is the biggest thing that makes the Badlands so scary, not being able to avoid the danger that comes your way."

Strong Root cut in.

"And that reminds me, if you got any ideas of going to there yourself from what we said today then let me tell you to think again. Make no mistake that just because it wasn't the residents making it bad don't mean the Badlands don't deserve its name. Even when you're older don't go unless you've got REAL important work there."

All the kids awkwardly nodded, surprised by the sudden turn to the somewhat dark. The other parents could be heard chattering amongst themselves. Cheerilee, unfazed, stepped up to the three.

"That was very informative! I'll have to look up more on the Badlands for a possible lesson in the future. Sadly for now it's time to start wrapping today up, so if you could please have a seat right quick."

With a quick "Of course" the two followed Applebloom as she quietly led the way to her desk, bumping into ponies on the way, being distracted by something on her mind. Her parents noticed but decided to wait until after class to confront her about it. They got to her desk and mimicked Scootaloo's set up. After they were seated Cheerilee took to the front of the room.

"Alright everypony, I want to thank all the parents that came in today for their presentations. As for those whose parents we couldn't get to like I said earlier, we'll extend career day to a part of tomorrow. For your homework I want you to choose the career you found the most interesting and write about what you thought of it. It won't be due until Friday so you'll have time to to see every career and think about what you want to say.'"

With years of practiced timing, the school bell rang just as Cheerilee finished talking.

"See you all tomorrow, have a good day!"

A small rush of ponies came towards the rooms singular door, trying as politely as possible to squeeze through it, parents picking up their kids to try and speed things up. After they were all out Applebloom's parents pulled her to the side of the front doors.

"Hey sapplin', what's wrong? Me and yer mom noticed something was bothering you after we were done talking to the class."

Applebloom sat on her flank, a frown being her only response. Sweet Shine laid on her belly to get on eye level with her.

"You know you can always talk to us Applebloom. What's eating at you?"

Applebloom looked up at her mom's smiling face for a second before looking back at the ground and pawing at it with a hoof. She sighed.

"It's just...what you said, about how dangerous the Badlands are...and how ponies sometimes don't come back..."

Strong Root and Sweet Shine shared a look of "Doh" before Sweet turned back to Applebloom and brought her into a soft hug as Strong came around to other side, got on his stomach too, and hugged her from the other side.

"Do you wanna know why I call you my little apple seed?"

"...Why?"

"Because just like an apple seed you were planted and are growing up. And of course you've heard the old "The apple never falls far from the tree." That's so the big trees can always watch over the little seeds grow into their own trees. So no matter how far away we may be or where we are we'll be watching out for you."

"You mom's right ya know. Be it in the Badlands or in Cloudsdale we'll always come runnin' every time you need us."

A smile was now trying to get on to the little filly's face, but she needed one last confirmation. The kind every little filly needs to hear from time to time.

"Really?" She said with big round eyes.

"Really." Came the conjoint replies.

With that the group hug became tighter. They held like that for a moment before Applebloom pulled away slightly.

"I've gotta go. I and my friend Scootaloo promised our other friend Sweetie Belle that we would spend the day with her since her parents couldn't make it to career day."

"Okay little apple seed, just remember to be home in time to do your homework." Said Strong Root as he ruffled her mane.

"Have fun sweetie." Sweet Shine said, righting out her mane and giving her a peck on the forehead.

"I will!" Applebloom shouted as she ran off, heading to the school gate where her friends were waiting for her. As the crusaders dashed off Applebloom's parents looked on from the beside the school door.

"You know our little warning back there ain't gonna keep her away. Them letters she keeps sendin' us about her chemistry and potion lessons just tells ya how she loves it. Even if it ain't her special talent you know she'll want to come out there once she's older."

"We'll at least know we tried. As long as she knows what's she's doing I don't think there's anything we could really do if that's what she wants."

"Then let's just hope our little apple seed don't go growin' into a tree no time soon. Least then we'll have more time to see her before she's all grown up."

Author's Note:

Video games are like pain medicine. In small doses their fine, but their very addictive and can spiral out of control fast. Play responsibly kids. But yeah getting g and playing Half-Life for the first time ever as made writing this chapter so much harder than it needed to be. It wasn't until I beat the game that I was able to focus. Even then though I had to force myself because I also had Half-Life: Blue Shift ready and waiting to go. But with sheer will power I was able to get this one done. But unfourntantaly game or not this will be the last chapter for a while. I'm now going to be completely focusing on my newest writing project. Now I will still working on this, but this will be strictly when ever I feel like it. I won't be especially setting time aside in my day for it until I'm done with my other project. But until next time, thanks for reading!

*Edit

I know this is a long one as it is but this needs to be said. I've looked and it seems that I can only have a total of five character tags, so this is what I'm gonna do. The tags will reflect what character are big focused on in the most current chapter. Hope this clears up any confusion you might of had.

Comments

[Sound Wave]

"And I'm Sound Rift! I work at the "Sound Waves" radio station up in Manehatten as the sound productionist."

Oh how nice, I have a Radio Station named after me~

[Drails]

I thought Applebloom and Applejack were both orphans?

[The SideKick]

5564805 It's all a matter of length. Seeing as Jack and Bloom are sisters I decided to just focus on Applebloom, or more specifically their parents. These are short stories and I didn't want to make this into a three parter or the two chapters any longer than I felt they should be. I might come back to write about how Applejack interactions with them, but if I do it will probably be it's on separate one-shot story altogether as it wouldn't really fit into the style of story this is for.

[Drails]

5564830
That does not answer my question.

Canonically, Applebloom and Applejack are orphans. Why do they have parents now? I can understand us finally meeting Scootaloo's parents because nothing is set in stone, but I thought Applebloom and Applejack being orphans was CANON.

[The SideKick]

5564914 When was it ever set as canon? If you're referring to something that happened in the comics then I'm sorry, but I'm specifically talking about stuff that people assume about what they see in the show specifically. It has never been said or implied that the Apple kids are orphans. Plus you keep forgetting to add Big Macintosh. He is their older brother.

[Drails]

5565258 ...huh, I thought it was. I just assumed, since everyone kept talking about Scoots being an orphan being annoying, but never mentioned anything about Applejack and Applebloom being depicted more often as that, I figured that was canon. Guess not.

...also, whose Big Macintosh? [/petty joke]

[Halira]

Drails, canonically nothing has been established about the apple parents. It is assumed by the fandom that they are dead but nothing in the show has ever given a lick of information on the subject. The writers indicate that they are dead but until they actually write it into something it isn't yet cannon.

[Magthere]

5565258
5565534

Late response admittedly but it is heavily implied Applebloom (and thus AJs and Big Macs) parents are dead, in Apple Family Reunion Applebloom remarks that the entire family will be there, and yet her own parents didn't show up, at the same time two stars shot across the sky for Apple Jack to see.

So while it isn't outright said, it is as heavily implied they've bought their last farm as it can possibly without presenting us with their half rotted corpses.