Paper Romance

by CrackedInkWell

Film Reels # 2 & 3: The Birth and the Vacation

Grandpa Applesauce had weaved the film through the projector and replaced the record on the phonograph. “Alright, all set; let’s see what this one is about.” With that, the lights were shut off and the projector spun to life. They saw on the wall the numbers being counted down before the film showed a new setting. Again in black-and-white, it showed Braeburn pacing what looked like a waiting room of a hospital. In a corner of the room near a window was Soarin sitting in a chair.

“There we go,” Rumble’s voice was heard once more. “I think I’ve got it working.” The camera panned over along the wall where in the row of chairs and windows were earth ponies and pegasi that were seated, most of their expressions seemed as anxious as Braeburn and Soarin. The camera stopped moving when Thunderlane came into the frame, “So how much longer now?”

“For the millionth time Rumble, we don’t know.” The charcoal pegasus folded his forehooves. “We don’t know when the baby is coming until the doctors come in.” He sighed as his hooves now shifted to support his muzzle. “Though it’s been a while now, I hope Ms. Calvados is alright.”

“You don’t suppose that some complications?” this time the camera moved to reveal a nervous Braeburn who looked like he hadn’t had much sleep. “I sure hope that nothin’ is wrong with her or the foal. It’s been three hours now,” he looked over to a set of doors behind him. “You’d think that them docs would have somethin’ to tell us by now.”

“Hey,” Thunderlane put a hoof on the nervous stallion’s shoulders. “We’re all nervous about this as you are. But try not to stress yourself over this too much.”

“Well, of course, Ah’m stressed out! I and Soar haven’t any wink of sleep fer the past two days since we got here. And now we don’t have a clue as to what is goin’ on with Calvados.”

“Just give her time,” this time a new voice was heard on the phonograph. The camera turned to show a mare with three raindrops as her cutie mark and a mane that’s pulled back into a bun. The pegasus continued, “Giving birth for the first time is difficult for any mare. Being Sorian’s mom, trust me, I know. This is normal after all Braeburn; you just have to be patient with her.”

“Ah knows Rain,” the Appaloosa sighed, “There have been so many things that have been buggin’ me since Calvados’s pregnancy. Ah mean, Ah’m technically the father here, and Ah don’t know how well Ah’m gonna raise our foal. Heck, Celestia knows that Ah’m terrible with them if it’s just by my lonesome.”

“But you know that you won’t be,” Thunderlane pointed out. “After all, you got Cousin Soarin and Calvados to help you out.”

Before Braeburn could answer, the doors behind him were pushed open and everypony in the waiting room turned towards the doctor that walked in. Immediately, Soarin got up from his seat, “Well?”

The stallion in a white lab coat smiled, “Mr. and Mr. Apple, would you two like to see your daughter?” From there, the film was cut to another room, this time in a hospital room, the camera showed a group of ponies that were crowding around a bed. The sounds of cooing and adoration were heard from the phonograph.

While this was going on, Jonagold turned to her grandparents, “Who’s Calvados?” They shrugged, she turned to the Cloudlines, “You know her?”

“Hey! Let me see!” Rumble cried out, and on the screen, the Apples and the Cloudlines started parting away, letting the camera through until they reached the foot of the bed. On the right was Soarin while Braeburn was on the right, in the center lying on the bed with her back prompt up against a pillow was a mare with a frazzled mane. In her hooves, was a tiny filly in swaddling clothes with its eyes closed that in the film was gray.

“She’s beautiful,” the mare in the center said.

“And she’s ours,” Soarin reached down and gently felt the foal’s mane. “I never thought that we get to start a family.”

“Me neither,” Braeburn smiled. “You know, we’re grateful that you would do this, for us.”

“I did say that I wanted to have a child too,” the mare reminded him. “Besides, I can’t wait to help with you two to raise her.”

“What are you going to name her?” Someone in the film asked. The three of them looked at one another, then back to the newborn.

“That’s a good question,” Soarin began, “What are we going to name her?”

The three of them thought for a minute, “Does it have to be an Apple name?” the mare asked.

“It… it could be Calvados,” Braeburn said. “Only what name? Ah don’t really want to reuse someone’s name. It’s gotta be unique for a filly like her.”

“What’s the name of an apple that’s also named after a mountain in Neighpon?” Soarin ventured.

“You mean Fuji?” Calvados answered.

“Oh! That’s actually-” Braeburn exclaimed but was quickly shushed by everypony in the room. “Sorry,” he said sheepishly. “That’s actually a pretty good name. Fuji. And lookin’ at her now, she’s like a delicious ripe red… Ah’ got it. Fuji Delicious. It’s an Apple name and it hasn’t ever been used as far as Ah know.”

The other parents looked at one another and nodded, “Yeah, I like that.” The Surrogate mother replied.

“It’s a beautiful name,” he ruffled the filly’s mane a bit until it opened its eyes. “Hello there, little Fuji.”

“Welcome to the world little one,” the Appaloosa smiled.

“You’re in such good hooves now,” Calvados said as suddenly the film ran out.

Jonagold put down her pencil, “Well, that both answers and raises some questions at the same time.”

“What do ya mean?” Home Finder inquired.

“For a while now, I’ve been wondering if the children they’ve raised were either adopted or something. But this… I think this just answered the big question. Grandma, are we directly related to Fuji Delicious?”

Grandma Fritters nodded, “That’s right, and if that little movie indicates anything, it just reinforced the fact that we’re related to Braeburn by blood directly.”

“But something’s not right about this picture,” Jonagold put a hoof to her chin. “If that were true, why we haven’t we heard about this Calvados until now?”

Everypony in the room looked at each other, “That’s actually a really good question.” Stargazer said, “Even with the last minute study of our family tree, I don’t think I’ve ever run into a name like that. I mean, since you’re technically part of our family as well, I should have seen that name, unless it was removed.”

His wife looked at him, “Why would it be?”

“Could be a number of reasons, with being a surrogate, it could be possible that she wasn’t granted visiting rights to the child.”

“Now wait a minute,” Rule Book objected, “as a lawyer, I know for a fact that in regarding to custody laws, especially for the time, the mother would have the same rights to visit and look after the child of another couple unless those parents put a restraining order, only requested by a judge on the grounds of abuse or repeated neglect. So perhaps, and I’m not exactly sure mind you all, the reason nopony has heard about her, could be because that the parents, in this case Braeburn and Soarin, had to go to court to have her rights to the child completely be cut.”

“Now hold on,” Johnny spoke up. “Are you suggesting that this surrogate mother might have abused Fuji at some point?”

The lawyer shrugged, “I don’t know for certain, but from the point of view of the law, it might be possible.” He reached into the cardboard box and pulled out the last reel, “Who knows, maybe this would provide a clue.”

Now the living room had a sense of intrigue as the film was woven into the machine and the record being replaced. Soon the familiar numbers came upon the wall, counting down until the last film showed a bright, sandy beach. Unlike the last two, what they saw was in grainy color. It showed in the frame Soarin in the air, passing a striped ball down to a red filly.

“Hey, pass it to me,” the camera panned over to Braeburn, who was without either his iconic hat or vest but was wearing lime green swim shorts. The filly bucked the ball over to him in which he jumped into the air to catch it before rolling onto the sand, “Ah swear Fuji, yer really gettin’ good at this.”

“I’m just glad I can walk around again,” she replied as the ball was passed to her. On the wall, both of her fathers frowned as the glanced at one another before the film was cut to another scene. This time it overlooked a long, low table, although it was clearly nighttime, there were torches that lit up the open air dining room. Sitting around the banquet of colorful fruit, haystacks, coconuts, banana leaves, steamy rice and tiki mugs, were the same ponies that were at the wedding and the birth, this time in color.

As the camera went around the table of a tropical vacation, Grandma Fritters pointed out, “Is it me, or is somepony missing from this picture?” Everypony in the living room turned to her to ask what she meant, “Does it look like that Calvados lady is missing?” She was right, no matter where they looked at the smiling ponies that talked to each other, eating the food or gulping down their drinks, the Fuji’s mother was completely absent from the film.

Suddenly a voice cried out on the phonograph, “Hey Y'all! Hey!” The camera swing over to where Braeburn was, next to him was his daughter and his husband. But still, the table was still chatting away, it would only take a sharp whistle from Soarin to silence them. “Right then, as some of Y'all know, today is Fuji’s birthday, and ever since we’ve made plans to come here, she thought that she would have ta missed it completely. But,” he turned to his daughter with a smile, “Soarin and Ah made some arrangements fer a bit of a surprise fer our apple of our eye.”

Soarin’s torso bend away from the table, calling out, “Okay! Bring it over!” Then out from the darkness, much to the filly’s delight, lights were seen that got closer to the table until it was made clear what it was. On the back of two ponies, was a birthday cake. From the phonograph, that eternal song of “Happy Birthday to You” rose as the cake was being brought to the banquet table. When the singing quiet down, all attention was now towards the Fuji, and her nine lit candles, she looked at the flickering lights, as if she was thinking up of a wish before she blew them out.

The camera went around the table to Fuji, and Rumble’s voice was heard, “Hey cousin, what did you wish for?”

“I’m not telling you,” she said. “It won’t come true if I said it out loud.” She looked over to her cake, frowning, “I really do want it to come true.”

“Is it about your mom?”

At this question, the filly gave him and the camera a sharp look. Soarin waved a hoof in front of the camera, “Hey, let’s not talk about that.” The screen panned backward to a disapproving blue Pegasus. “Rumble, we’re here to have fun. So please, for the rest of this vacation, let’s not talk about her, okay?”

“I’m sorry.”

Soarin’s expression soften as he reached for a knife to cut a piece. “So, do you want som-” The film suddenly cut, this time it was towards a lit stage in which everypony in the living room busted out laughing. There on the stage was Soarin and Braeburn, standing on their hindlegs, they wore green palm leaves skirts and two halves of coconuts on their chests. The both of them improvised their dance on stage as ukulele music played on the phonograph.

“C’mon, admit it,” said Soarin. “You just wanted to know what I looked like in a dress.”

“Not intentionally,” Braeburn bumped his rump against his. “Though Ah has ta say, you’d look good in it.”

“Ha! I knew it!” From the record, more laughter was heard. “Is the coconut bra really necessary?”

“Hey, Ah’ wearin’ it too. It’s all part of the look. Jus’ think of the postcards ta send to yer team with.”

Soarin’s eyes went wide; “You better not!”

“Aw c’mon, where’s the fun in that?”

“I can put up being in a hula competition in drag, but have somepony take pictures of us and send them to the Wonderbolts, you’re dead to me.”

Braeburn overdramatically put a hoof to his forehead and fell into Soarin’s arms, “Oh it ain’t so! You won’t love me no more if anypony else sees us like this.” Here, the yellow stallion looked up at him with puppy-eyes.

Soarin spins his husband around until they were face to face, “You’re lucky you’re so adorable or I wouldn’t take that so seriously.”

“It’s jus’ mah charm that Ah can convince ya inta doin’ this in the first place.”

“…. Touché.”

The film was then cut to another scene, this time the screen showed Fuji and her parents sitting on the gray ground, holding very long sticks over a stream of orange hot lava, they roasted marshmallows, except for Braeburn who was roasting an apple at the end of his stick.

“This beats a campfire any day,” Fuji said as she pulled her toasted marshmallow away.

Braeburn pulled him away to inspect it. “Mine still needs ta go longer.”

“Still?” Soarin asked in surprise after swallowing his treat. “How’s that possible? We’re sitting next to a, what? Couple thousand degree lava river and it’s still not cooked?”

“So when will you eat it Pa?” Fuji inquired.

Braeburn placed the skewered apple over the lava once more, “It’ll be finished, when it’s finished.”

“Yeah, but when?” the filly asked.

The yellow stallion lowered his apple closer to the liquid heat until it burst into flames. “Done!” He immediately pulled away and blew on it until only a somewhat chard fruit remained. “Phew, that was close.” Braeburn took a small bite out of it, “Perfect.”

Abruptly the film was cut to its final scene, this time it showed the family on the railings of a ship. The three of them in tropical shirts with their luggage next to them, watching the islands grew smaller on the horizon. “What a trip,” said Soarin.

“Yeah,” Braeburn nodded. “Ah have ta say, that was really fun.” He looked down at his daughter, the film showed his smile fade. “Fuji? Ya alright?”

The filly looked up at both of them and asked one question that shocked everypony in that living room. “Is mom going to take me away?”

Immediately, Braeburn put a hoof around her while his husband wrapped her with a wing. “We’re not going to allow it,” the pegasus stated. “We promise that we’ll do everything we can so that you will be with the ponies that genuinely care about you. You know that we love you, and we will protect you as long as we’re still alive.”

“I hope so dad,” the filly said. “I really hope so.” So with that, the film ended.

For a long time, nopony in that family room said a word. Neither Apple nor Cloudline had any idea what to say after the revelation of that film. Even Jonagold was stun to which she didn’t touch her notebook. “I… I got nothing.”

Rule Book leaned forward, resting both of his hooves underneath his chin, “I think that this might explain a few things. Obviously, something has happened that has involved with her and the mother. Something serious no doubt, though the question is of course, what?”

“Did she mention that her foreleg was broken at one point?” Granny Fritters asked. “Do any of you think that poor Fuji was abused?”

“I would be surprised if it wasn’t,” the elder Cloudline said, shaking his head. “Then again, we have very little to go off of.”

The lawyer thought for a moment, turning to the young Apple, he suggested, “Perhaps you might want to look up to see if Braeburn had gone to court for some reason. Maybe in civil court most likely,” when the teenager inquired if that was possible. “All you have to do is go down to the courthouse and ask since it’s been over a century, you should be able to see some record of a trial or a hearing of some kind. Of course, you just have to ask by name to see if they have it on the record.”

“Well,” Johnny spoke up, “I find this rather enlightening. Thank you guys for letting us see them.”

“Same to you,” Home Finder said, “Perhaps the next time we have our family reunion, we might include you guys as well.”

“You have our granddaughter to thank,” Grandpa Applesauce pointed out. “I suppose that whatever made us be separated, it is now thanks to her that we are brought back together.”

“It’s all just started as a school assignment,” Jonagold admitted, “Something that I still need to do.” She looked back at the old journal that she was given, “Still, I have to thank you all for helping me putting all the missing pieces together. I guess all I need to do know is to go through this and maybe go down to the courthouse to see if there’s anything there. Maybe something useful will turn up.”

Comments

[TheVClaw]

Man, this is getting deeper and deeper with each chapter. It's like a public pool of gay cuteness.