The Rotten Pear

by Catrina37

Pear Butter's Visit

Chapter 8: Pear Butter's Visit

"After the fight, I received a telegram from Pear Spice about what happened with Peary," Grand Pear continued, “I rushed over to Ponyville by train, hoping to get there before Peary caused anymore trouble. When I got there, I saw a horrible sight: carts and booths in rubble, food splattered all over the street, and my youngest son covered in more bandages than a mummy straight from Southern Equestria...”

Grand Pear gasped when he saw how much of a mess the Farmer's Market became. Baked goods were splattered all over the street, booths and carts were knocked over, and his son was getting wrapped in bandages by Pear Blossom and Posy, with the exception of his mouth. Grand Pear showed a stern face and marched toward his injured son.

"Peary Bits! What did you do?!" he yelled.

"I knocked out the competition!" Peary responded, "Just like you always keep saying."

"Not like this! You can’t just go around knocking over cats and hurting ponies And who says you can knock down your mother's booth too?!”

"What happened here?" a voice suddenly says, drawing everyone’s attention.

They look to find that Princess Celestia was here, along with some royal guards. Celestia and the guards were shocked by the damage.

“Unfortunately, the damage Peary caused was so bad, Celestia was called in to settle the dispute,” Grand Pear narrated, “When she saw what I saw, she was horrified...”

As the royal guard spread out among the damaged Market Place, Grand Pear walks over to Celestia, his intent being to explain to her what caused the mess.

"I'm sorry, Princess," Grand Pear said, "My son, Peary Bits, got into a brawl with some of the competitors due to an argument he had with his brother, Big Bosc. I'll help clean the mess up."

"Grand Pear, you have to do more than "Clean-up"," Celestia said with a motioning of her hoof, "You have to talk to Peary.

This sort of thing is why I never gave you custody of the children in the first place. By getting into a feud with the Apple family, you wound up teaching your children to hate anything that isn't a pear."

"B-but pears are my life." Grand Pear said in defense.

"And so is your family,” Celestia lectured, “I will send a clean up crew to fix all of this. But, if your son gets into this kind of trouble again, I will have him face a trial for his actions."

"No need. I will personally talk to him." Grand Pear assures.

After Celestia trots away, Grand Pear trots over toward Peary to talk to him. His trotting came to a stop when he noticed somepony in a red hood. When he stopped to look at her, she stood up and ran away, showing her orange, permed tail. Grand Pear recognized her right away.

"Pear Butter?" he said.

He shrugged it off and trotted back to his son, thinking that if it was her, she probably wouldn’t want to see him.

****

“That day, I thought I saw Pear Butter," Grand Pear said.

"You did, Grand Pear," Posy said, "But she was too frightened to see you."

"I guess I can't blame her.”

"I still remember when we had our last tea party together...” Posy narrated.

****

“...Pear Butter was sipping tea with me at our house while her family was in the middle of Applebuck season. We were sitting down and talking about how it was going with Bright Mac and the kids, who never at the time that we were related...”

"And Big Mac almost got operated on thanks to Applejack's lie," Pear Butter giggled.

Posy giggled as well.

"Guess your daughter spun a web of lies,” Posy said as she stirred sugar in her tea, “How’s your youngest?"

"Apple Bloom said her first word: Apple!"

Both mares giggled when Peary comes into the living room with an angry glare. Pear Butter gently put her tea down and trotted to Peary.

"Hey, Peary," she said softly, "It's been a while."

"Yeah. It has," Peary gruffly said, "How does it feel to be an apple?"

"Peary, don't be like that,” Pear Butter said while trying to console him with her hood, “I missed you."

But Peary shoved himself away.

"Then why did you abandon me? Why did you break up our family? Why did Big Bosc forbid me from my dream to make pear jam?!” he yelled.

"Peary! The divorce is not Pear Butter's fault!" Posy yelled.

"Yes it is! I wouldn't even be this way if not for her and her choice to stay with the apples! As far as I'm concerned, Dad is my only family!"

Peary ran upstairs and slammed the door to his bedroom, leaving Pear Butter to shed tears and cry. Her mom hurries over to comfort her.

"Is it really my fault that you and Daddy broke up?" Pear Butter asked as she sobbed.

"No, Sweetie," Posy hugged her, "Your father and I had problems before your choice to stay. He was more involved with the feud than any of you, and he taught you all to hate. I was against what he was doing, and your disownment was the final straw.”

“But what if he’s right?” Pear Butter asks, “What if I shouldn’t have left.”

“Pear Butter, you have every right to follow your heart like any pony. You showed a lot of courage standing up for yourself against your father. Best of all, you stepped away from a fight rather than get yourself involved. Your father was just too stubborn to see it."

Pear Butter smiled and hugged her mom.

Comments

[Mr-Astounding]

I knew it: Peary Bits is like this because Big Bosc ended up making the same mistake with his son that Grand Pear made with Pear Butter/Buttercup: choosing the feud over the family, albeit in different ways...