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1 - The Other Brother1,849 words
2 - The Offer2,108 words
3 - The Sparkles2,261 words
4 - The Picnic2,764 words
5 - The Flight2,855 words
6 - The Sky Apple3,082 words
7 - The Party2,893 words
8 - The Banner3,505 words
9 - The Meltdown3,069 words
10 - The Reunion2,875 words
11 - The Eclipse4,328 words
12 - The Pride of the Apples3,001 words

12 - The Pride of the Apples

The second week seemed to fly by too fast. Applejack felt a twinge in her heart as she stood at the train station with her friends and family, waiting for the train that would bear Calvados back to Fillydelphia. It’s too soon, she thought. It’s like I was just gettin’ to know him. We could finally be a real brother and sister . . . .

“AJ?” Rainbow Dash’s voice poked through her reflections, and she was shaken back to the present. “Hey, you in there?”

Applejack sighed. “Yeah, yeah. I’m just . . . sad to see him go, is all.”

“I understand,” said Fluttershy, putting a gentle hoof on her shoulder. “I wish we could have him for just a little longer, too. I didn’t get to teach him about all the animals at my cottage, but he was so good at the guessing games we played. He might know almost as much about animals as I do now.”

“I wish he could stay longer, too,” Twilight added, downcast. “And not just because we’ve had so much fun together. Observing him has given me enough insight into the autism spectrum to start giving lectures on the subject. That way, Ponyville could be better prepared to handle autistic foals in the future.”

“Appajak! Appajak!”

The orange mare turned to her excited brother. “What’s up, Cal?”

“Came home?” he said. This was the beginning of a sort of communicative recap of all of Cal’s favorite experiences since coming back to Ponyville. He’d said it all, every part in an exclusive order, repeatedly over the last few days. But Applejack never interrupted him once.

“Yep, you came home for a while,” she replied.

“Pet bunny?”

“Yep, you got to pet Angel Bunny.”

“And Beeg Mac say, ‘Eeyup!’”

Applejack turned to Big Mac, who smiled and replied, “Eeyup.”

“Got apple, and it’s bigger, bigger, bigger?”

“Bigger, bigger, bigger, that’s right,” Applejack kept replying without a hitch.

“Had a party?”

“And Pinkie threw you a party.”

“Had fun!”

“Yeah, it was fun.” After the Eclipse Celebration, Applejack had decided not to suppress memories of the unfortunate way Pinkie’s party had ended. Never again, she’d thought. I’ll never forget again.

“And big and blue? ‘It’s called a banner’?” Cal mimicked his sister’s voice for the second sentence.

“Yep,” Applejack replied, giving him a gentle tap on the back, “and you did a great job on that banner, hon.”

“Good job!”

“Ya sure did.”

“And Fluh-tah-shy got bunny? Awww . . . .”

“Yeah, Fluttershy won you your own bunny.” Cal hugged it close to him even now.

“And big light? And pretty princess?”

“Yep, Princess Celestia came out of the big light. And she loved your banner, too.”

“Here we are!” Cal announced cheerfully, ending his recap.

“Here we are, hon,” Applejack said back to him, feeling a slight pinch of irony.

Cal meandered a few steps away before Pinkie Pie asked for one last moment to play around, just as they had every day for the last week. It’s amazin’ how well she understands him now, Applejack thought as she watched Pinkie and Cal both sitting on the floor, rocking, waving their hooves, and giggling.

“The train should be here any minute,” Rarity said as she stared down the tracks with a glistening gaze. “Oh, such injustice! Why couldn’t Calvados stay just a bit longer?”

“I’m with you, sis,” Sweetie Belle added from her side. “I wanna get to know him better, too.”

Next to her, Apple Bloom stared at the wooden floor, and behind her, Scootaloo sighed and occasionally glanced at Cal as he played around with Pinkie Pie.

“Oh, Sweetie, it’s more than that. In the short time we’ve had him, I feel as though he’s changed us all somehow. In fact, I daresay he could change all of Ponyville if he stayed!” Rarity then began to grow even more misty-eyed as she turned toward Cal. “Oh, I wish you didn’t have to go so soon! You’re an inspiration, darling!”

Cal looked to Rarity with a furrowed brow. “Reh- . . . Ra-ree-tee? You okay?” he asked. Applejack heard him and felt a swell of pride at the effects of her extra teaching.

Rarity sniffed and took a moment to compose herself. “I . . . I’m fine . . . please don’t fret, darling. I simply wish you could stay, that’s all . . . .”

“Back to school?” Cal asked in a low voice.

Rarity nodded, and Applejack added, “Yeah, Cal. Back to school . . . .” She took a shaky, unsteady breath and fought the sting in her eyes. Not yet. Not until he leaves. He’ll be upset seein’ his big sister cry.

“Listen!” Twilight announced, pointing down the track. “The train’s coming!”

Rainbow Dash glanced down the tracks, then took off, hovering several feet in the air before looking again. “She’s right!” she yelled down from her vantage point. “Just a few more seconds!”

Applejack took a deep breath and walked up to Cal, who was still giggling from his games with Pinkie. “Okay, honey, now just remember, Dr. Lyze will be on the train waitin’ for ya. She’ll wanna hear all about your trip, so be sure to tell her everythin’ okay?”

“Everything? Okay, Appajak,” Cal muttered, his eyes wandering.

“That’s a good colt . . . .” Applejack had to take another breath to steady herself before resuming. “N-now say goodbye to all your friends, okay?”

“Friends? Okay . . .” Cal replied, then was promptly snatched up into a hug by Pinkie Pie.

“Oooh, I’m gonna miss you, new bestie!” Pinkie squealed. “We had such a good time together! I don’t want you to leave just yet! I miss you too much already! I can’t wait to see you again already! I already wanna plan your great big ‘Welcome Back to Ponyville’ party—”

“Pinkie,” Applejack said with slight sharpness, “please, don’t squeeze him too hard now.” She took another deep breath, but was otherwise calm.

“Oops! Sorry,” Pinkie replied before releasing Cal.

Cal simply giggled more as he turned to the pink mare. “Silly Pinkie!”

Pinkie Pie proved his point by displaying some of her best “funny faces” for Cal’s amusement. Applejack watched them smile and laugh together, and felt the twinge in her heart come back. Not yet . . . .

“C’mon, Pinkie, save some goodbye for the rest of us!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, stepping up to Cal. When Cal turned to her, she began, “Hey, you take care of yourself, little buddy,” she said, more calmly. “Maybe next time, if you’re up for it, we can really go flying together.”

“Fly?” Cal asked. “With Rainbow Dash?”

“Yep, we sure can. So that when I make you another sky apple, you can be right there with me!”

“It’s apple? And it’s bigger, bigger, bigger?!” Cal hopped up and down at the prospect.

A steam whistle and a mechanical rumble pierced the air (Cal covered his ears with his hooves). “Oh, dear,” Rarity said, eyes misting slightly, “there it is. You be good now, pet. We’ll meet again soon.” She bent down to give him his next hug. “Auntie Rarity will miss you.”

Cal removed his hooves as Rarity held him. “Ra-ree-tee? Miss you . . . .”

At once, Rarity began to break down in gentle sobs. Applejack felt the tears begin to bubble over herself. Not . . . now . . . .

“Oh, I wish you didn’t have to go so soon,” Sweetie Belle whined. “But we’ll be here when you come back, Cal. Okay?”

“Come back? Sweetie Belle?” Cal asked. “Okay. Miss you . . . .” Sweetie Belle giggled and hugged Cal, and he nuzzled her ear and sniffed, making her giggle more.

“Come on, Sweetie Belle, my turn!” Scootaloo spoke up. She approached Cal, rubbing the back of her neck with a hoof. “Hey, so, uh . . . good luck out there, pal. We’re . . . we’re really gonna miss you . . . .”

“Scoo- . . . Scoo-tah-loo?” Cal mumbled. “Crying?”

“Huh? No! I’m not crying! I’m too tough to cry. I won’t cry . . . I won’t . . . cry . . . .” Scootaloo sniffed twice, and betrayed herself immediately, falling into Cal for a tight hug.

“Scoo-tah-loo? I sorry . . . .”

This only made Scootaloo cry more. Applejack observed and shook her head slightly. You may not know it now, kiddo, she thought, but sometimes, the toughest ponies are the ones who can cry.

After Scootaloo stepped back, sniffling and blushing, Fluttershy was next. “I’ll miss you too, Cal,” she said as she gave him a gentle hug. “Now you hold on tight to your Angel Bunny until you come back, okay? Then we can learn more about animals! Oh, you could even get your teacher to help you learn more. That will be oh-so-fun!”

“Oh-so-fun!” Cal replied giddily. “Fluh-tah-shy? Miss you . . . .” Their hug went on for a few more seconds as the train finally rolled up to the station, letting off a whoosh as it slowed to a full stop and opened its doors.

As ponies filed off the train, Twilight was the next to speak to Cal. “We have so much to thank you for. Come back soon, okay?”

“Twilight?” Cal asked. “Is sparkles?”

“I figured you’d want to see them one more time,” Twilight chuckled. “So, I made you something.” With her magic, she lifted up what looked like a golden pendant on a necklace and put it around Cal’s neck (he inhaled sharply and closed his eyes, but settled down quickly). The pendant was emblazoned with Twilight’s cutie mark on one side, and Cal’s cutie mark on the other. “I’ve been working on this for the last few days,” Twilight explained. “Just touch it, and you’ll have sparkles whenever you want them!”

Cal lifted up the pendant with one hoof, and touched the surface with the other. Soon, a small burst of light shot up into the air before him and exploded in a burst of white sparkles. Cal’s face lit up even brighter than the magic sparkles; he quickly sat down and flapped his hooves over his eyes as he watched them descend.

As ponies disembarked, they glanced at Cal in confusion. Applejack merely gave a smile that bordered on smugness. Let ‘em stare. Autistic or not, they’re lookin’ at a true Apple.

Applejack then glanced at a door of the train, and saw a peach-colored Unicorn with a frizzy, pale yellow mane standing and waving in the doorway. “That’s Dr. Lyze,” she alerted Cal, “we’d best be gettin’ you on that train.”

Apple Bloom and Big Mac walked up to Cal first. “Not before he gives his brother and little sister a big hug!” said the younger Apple before squeezing Cal tight in her forelimbs. “Sweet Apple Acres won’t be the same without ya, big bro! Y’all take care o’ that new cutie mark, now! We’ll all be waitin’ for ya to come back!”

Big Mac nodded and pulled both his younger siblings close, ruffling Cal’s mane. “Eeyup.”

“All right, let’s not keep him too long, or we’ll never be able to let him go,” Applejack announced. The Apples parted, and Applejack approached her brother one last time. “Now . . . now, y-you be good now, Cal. Listen to Dr. Lyze, and . . . a-and show her everythin’ you learned, okay?” The tears were getting stronger.

“Appajak?” Cal asked, looking up at her with wide eyes. “You okay?”

“I’m . . . I’m fine, sugarcube . . .” Applejack replied, sniffing. “You . . . you promise you’ll be a good colt for me?”

“Be good colt? Okay . . . .”

“Good.” Applejack pulled him in for one final hug. “We love you, Cal. An’ we want you to come home real soon, okay?”

“Appajak?” Cal muttered. “Is sad?”

“Well . . . yeah. Yeah, I am. I just . . . .” She struggled for the words, almost feeling as though it was a struggle for life itself. “I don’t want ya to go. You’re my baby brother, but we still hardly know each other . . . I don’t . . . want you to go . . . .”

The silence between them seemed to drown out the sounds of trotting hooves and voices around them, as if it were a pocket of silence isolated from the rest of the world. Applejack felt herself wanting it to last forever. A single tear slid down her cheek as she held onto Cal.

Applejack jumped slightly when she felt Cal’s forelimbs wrap around her in turn. His face pressed against her fur, and a tiny voice could be heard in the gaping maw of illusory silence:

“Appajak? Love you . . . .”

The emotional dam broke, and Applejack’s single tear was accompanied by two small rivers down her face. “I . . . I l-love you too, Cal . . .” she replied, sobbing and hiccupping.

Off to the side, Rarity’s and Scootaloo’s tears continued. Even Big Mac saw a fresh warm droplet fall from his face. He sniffed and turned his head away, so that now, no one could see.

After another lengthy pause, the two Apples parted, and Applejack took a deep, uneasy breath before urging Cal toward the train, and his teacher. “C-come on now, hon. W-we gotta get you on that train before it leaves. Can’t . . . can’t keep sayin’ goodbye all day, you know.” Her broken voice and slow, shaky movements told a different story.

Soon, Dr. Lyze took Cal with her on board the train, and Applejack took several steps back as they disappeared into the train car. The tears still poured down her face, and it only fleetingly occurred to her how stupid and juvenile she must have looked.

I miss him already. He’s not even gone yet, and I miss him already . . . .

Applejack took a slight inhale at feeling a hoof on her shoulder. “He’ll be back someday,” Twilight’s voice spoke up from her side. “He’s family. It won’t be forever.”

“I know,” Applejack replied, nodding, “but still . . . I was just . . . I was lookin’ forward to havin’ a baby brother again . . . well, really, for the first time . . . .”

Twilight just pressed her hoof gently into Applejack’s shoulder. On her other side, Rainbow Dash did the same, and from behind, Fluttershy started stroking her back.

“You’re right to be proud of him, darling,” Rarity said as she walked up to Applejack. “He’s a wonderful little colt.”

“Sure is,” Dash added, “and look at it this way. Next time he visits, he’ll remember us, and we’ll be a lot better prepared for him!”

“That’s a good way of looking at it,” Twilight said, smiling. “We know much more than we did. And either way, that’s for the best.”

Applejack only nodded. She kept her eyes facing front, staring at the door that had swallowed up her brother.

It ain’t fair. It just ain’t fair . . . .

In minutes, the conductor called for all passengers to board, and the doors closed before the train started off. Finally, as the large machine began to move, Applejack looked away from the door and to one of the windows, where Calvados was sitting, looking back at her and waving with a blank look in his eyes. A single tear slid down the colt’s cheek.

“Goodbye, baby brother,” Applejack whispered. “I’ll always love you. And I will never be ashamed of you again. That’s a promise.”

Cal merely kept waving and staring as his visage started to move along with the train. The angle made Calvados harder to see over time, until none of the windows could be seen at all. Soon the train itself began to shrink as it picked up speed and raced down the tracks. The caboose grew smaller and smaller in the distance, until finally, it could no longer be seen.

For Applejack, that moment seemed to last the rest of her life. Watching that train run away with her flesh and blood almost made her angry at the train for taking him away. Why . . . just a few more days . . . just a few more . . . it wasn’t enough to make everythin’ up to him . . . a week longer, and we’d be a real family again . . . .

“AJ?” Twilight asked, snapping her out of her thoughts. “You gonna be okay?”

“I just need a minute alone, is all.” Her eyes were closed, and her voice was so low, is was almost inaudible.

“Are you sure?” Fluttershy asked softly. “We could stay with you, if you want.”

“I’ll be fine. I’ll catch up with y’all later.”

With that, the group began to disperse. Rainbow Dash patted Applejack on the back before taking to the skies. Rarity and Sweetie Belle trotted off next, followed by Scootaloo. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie each gave Applejack a quick hug (she did not respond) before leaving with Twilight. Soon, the only ponies remaining on the platform were Apples.

“You gonna be okay, big sis?” Apple Bloom asked. All she got in return was a nod. With a sigh, Apple Bloom added, “See you at home, then.” And she and Big Mac left the station without another word.

Applejack stood there at the platform, staring down the tracks long after the train, her friends and family, and everypony else had left. She stood there for hours, gazing absently until she no longer had the strength to stand.

And so she sat, and continued staring.

After a couple of hours, Applejack reached a trembling hoof up underneath her hat and pulled something out. She sat the small object in the middle of her hoof and shifted her stare to it instead. It was a small blue crayon, a mere nub of its former self, not much longer than half an inch.

She sat there all afternoon, and well into the evening, staring at the tiny crayon with drowning eyes, as if staring at a final memento.

Cal . . . you really are the pride of the apples . . . and don’t you let anypony tell you different . . . .