Apple Bloom's Family

by HopeFox

Sweetie Belle's Story

Scootaloo was waiting for Apple Bloom when her detention finally finished the next day. "Hey Apple Bloom!" she greeted her, handing her her helmet. "How was detention?"

"I must not kick other students," droned Apple Bloom, then she shook out her mane. "It wasn't so bad. Cheerilee and I talked. I told her what Diamond Tiara said, and she agreed – the Apple family has always been really important in Ponyville." She paused, contemplative. "I know I make a lot of mistakes, like when I tried to help Applejack sell apples in the market. Are my family disappointed in me? I don't work as hard as Applejack, and I'm not as strong as Big Macintosh. If I really am an Apple, how am I going to live up to what they can do?"

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom looked at each other for a few moments, Apple Bloom looking as if she were about to cry. Then they both brightened and grinned. "By finding your cutie mark, of course!" said Scootaloo. Apple Bloom laughed and hugged her friend. "Of course! Silly question."

Scootaloo beat her wings and the scooter took off towards Sweet Apple Acres. "Sweetie Belle is already at the clubhouse. She's found something she thinks is a really big clue! Come on, let's go!"

---

Scootaloo dragged an old apple crate into the middle of the clubhouse and draped a tablecloth over it. "The first meeting of the Cutie Mark Crusaders Investigation into Apple Bloom's Parents is now in session! Sweetie Belle, do you have evidence to present?"

"Yes I do, Madam Chairpony!" pronounced Sweetie Belle, and she drew an envelope from her saddlebags with a great flourish, and deposited it on the makeshift table. "Exhibit A, a letter to Applejack from one Mister Orange Counter, dated five months before Apple Bloom's birth. Also Exhibit A1, a stub from a cheque from the Steeplechase Manehattan Bank, made out to Applejack. Madam Chairpony, shall I read the evidence?"

"Now wait just a minute," interjected Apple Bloom. "You mean we're going through Applejack's mail now? Applejack's private mail? She always said she'd tan my hide for her new boots if I did that."

Sweetie Belle pouted. "Do you want to find out who your parents are or not? I think I know already, just from reading this letter!"

Apple Bloom's doubts evaporated at once. "You do? Well, what are y'all waiting for, let's hear it!"

Sweetie Belle grinned and cleared her throat dramatically. "The reading of Exhibit A!

"Dear Applejack,

I am pleased to report that the final details of the loan from the Steeplechase Manehattan Bank to Sweet Apple Acres have been settled. You and Big Macintosh will be able to draw monies from your loan account at the Ponyville branch office. I am certain that, under your management, this loan will be more than sufficient to recover from this year's blight and restore Sweet Apple Acres to its regular successful business state.

Please also find enclosed the first of my personal cheques, as we discussed. If you should find that this amount is insufficient, please let me know and I can send more. I would hate the thought of not fulfilling my responsibilities to my family.

Yours Sincerely,

Orange Counter"

Sweetie Belle folded the letter back into its envelope. "Don't you see what this means, Apple Bloom?"

Apple Bloom nodded eagerly. "Yes! Yes, I... um... no. What do you think it means, Sweetie Belle?"

Sweetie Belle dragged an old armchair over and settled into it, striking a storyteller's pose. "Alright. Here's what I think happened."

---

Applejack looked over the apple orchards, or what remained of them after the blight had passed through. Four out of five trees bore the horrific black-tainted leaves that showed the passage of the blight, and the apples on the branches were rotten to the core. She and Big Macintosh had just finished bucking down the apples from the trees that had been spared, and half of those were still green from being harvested too early. Some of them would only be good for cooking, but she wasn't sure she'd be able to sell so many baked goods. The only bright side was that the price of apples would go up after this blight, but with so little volume to sell, that was little consolation.

"I don't know what to do, big brother," she sighed, turning to look at the larger pony beside her. "I just don't. Pa would have known what to do."

"Eyup," commented Big Macintosh. "Wish he were still here."

"Well, he ain't," said Granny Smith matter-of-factly as she trotted up slowly behind them. "But my colt didn't raise no lolly-gaggers. Y'all gonna make this work."

"But how, Granny?" Applejack asked, starting to pace around the front yard of the farmhouse. "Half of these trees are gonna have to be pulled down to stop the blight from spreading again. It'll take years for new seedlings to put out enough fruit to recoup our losses. I just don't see how we can recover from this."

Granny Smith shook her front hooves at Applejack. "Don't you give me that, young filly. This family's been through more blights, droughts, wildfires, floods and earthquakes than you've had hot apple pies. We're Apples, we can git through anything. Now I reckon you know just what you gotta do, you just don't wanna do it!"

Applejack sighed and looked from her grandmother to her brother. "Well... we can sow some of the fields with seeds, and buy some saplings for others. That'll cost us a pretty pile of bits in the short term, but it'll get us back turning a profit sooner. After this year's sales, though, I don't see how we can afford to buy saplings at all. Even the labour for clearing the blighted trees is gonna be more'n we can afford."

Granny Smith nodded. "So we got us a plan, but we don't have the money to make it happen. What do we do about that?"

"Well, we go talk to the bank about a loan, I guess... oh, hay no." Applejack shifted her hooves nervously, tossing her head. "I ain't goin' back to Manehattan. I plum hate that place! Ponies won't look one another in the eye, there ain't no trees to see nor birds to hear, they all look at you sideways if'n you don't eat from the right plate at dinner... I done learned my lesson 'bout the big city. Big Macintosh, how about you go?"

"Nope."

Granny Smith shook her head. "It's gotta be you, Applejack. I can't go all that way. Big Macintosh could go, but they'd just talk circles around him in the big city. You've got the business savvy, Applejack. You'll know what you gotta do."

"But I'm too young!" Applejack almost whined, giving Granny Smith a pleading look. "They'll think I'm just a filly playing at being a mare! They won't listen to me!"

"They will, young mare. I've seen the way you've run this orchard this last year, and I know we're in good hooves. And you know Manehattan better than we do. Our cousins liked you last time you were there. They'll make sure the bank listens to you. Now go find your nice city dress and git yer rump to Manehattan!"