Broken Stems

by TCC56

Freeze Frame

As it turned out, Rarity was a bit more of a load than she claimed. Every time she stubbornly tried to walk on her own, she'd make a half-dozen steps at most before her knees gave out again. Eventually - and reluctantly - it was agreed to stop for a few minutes to try and help her recover. The clincher had been when Fluttershy pointed out they didn't even know for sure where the others were, and it was far more likely that Rainbow would find them.

They sheltered in a smithy - one that had been fast abandoned. The furnace still burned, and a still-hot iron collar sat half-formed on the anvil. Most of the remaining troupe scattered themselves around - Fluttershy had not, instead remaining outside to take the smoke and steam coming out of the furnace's chimney and shape it into a cloud-signal to help Rainbow Dash find them. Rarity lay against the wall as Pinkie Pie tended to her - providing water from the quenching trough and pulling out an unexpected tool.

Rarity blinked at it. "Pinkie, what is that."

"Emergency cupcake," the party pony perfunctorily stated. "See?" She turned the delicate clear box around, directing Rarity's attention away from the dense chocolate confectionery and to a small label that read IN CASE OF FOOD EMERGENCY BREAK GLASS.

Even having known Pinkie Pie for years, it still took Rarity several seconds to reconcile normal reality with the undeniable fact that Pinkie had kept a cupcake in a glass box inside her saddlebags for several weeks and it was still entirely unblemished. Her mind eventually locked on to the label for stability. "But won't that get glass on the cupcake?"

Pinkie somehow had anticipated that, and instantly was shaking her head. "Nope! It's not really glass, it's sugar glass. Totally edible!" She smashed the glass with her hoof - again, somehow leaving the cupcake inside entirely undamaged - and held out the treat to Rarity. "Come on, you need your strength."

Unable to deny that logic, Rarity took the cupcake - and then a bite. "...Darling, are those cherries? How ever did you manage to keep them fresh for so long?"

Pinkie Pie drew a hoof across her smiling lips, the mimed zipper sealing in the dark secrets of her flour-laiden trade.

Across the room, Applejack watched the world outside through the cracked door. It wasn't the same chaos as the initial riot, but the calm within the storm right after. No direct conflicts but all around were the debris and damage of where the fight had happened - where slaves had suddenly risen up against the guards before fleeing for the docks ahead of reinforcements. (Reinforcements, she mentally noted, that oddly didn't seem to have shown up yet to re-secure the street.)

Turning back, Applejack let herself sigh and release a little of the tension she'd been carrying since they took the first step towards the armory. "We probably got a few before more guards come by. An' they're probably not gonna check every--" She stopped, breath knocked out as Bright Mac grabbed her in a tight hug.

It took a moment for Applejack to adjust - to realize just who was hugging her - before she grabbed hold right back. "'S alright, Pa. We're here. We got ya."

"Ah can't quite believe you're real." Bright Mac snuffled before pulling back slightly to get a better look at her. "When your friends told me everythin', I believed 'em. But seein' you in front of me - holdin' you? This all feels like a dream an' if Ah turn around you ain't gonna be here." His hooves came up, cradling her cheeks. She leaned into his right hoof, rubbing against it. "But you're real, an' you're really here. My darlin' little girl. Ah'm so proud of you."

Applejack let out a shuddering breath, the rest of her tension and stress disappearing when faced by one of the things she wanted most in the world. "Ah've done a lotta big things, Pa. Savin' Equestria an' all that. Always hoped you'd be proud of that."

But Bright Mac shook his head. "Naw. Your friends, they told me 'bout those things you've done. But that ain't why Ah'm proud of ya. When they were tellin' me it all, Ah could hear it in their voices. It ain't that you're a hero. It's that you've become a good enough pony to inspire that in yer friends. That they're willin' to do somethin' crazy like this just because you asked says a heck of a lot about what you mean to 'em."

Uneasily, Applejack shifted. "Uh, actually, Pa? Ah didn't ask. They ambushed me on the way outta town and wouldn't let me go without 'em."

Bright Mac's soft smile grew wider. "Well then, don't that just say all the more 'bout how much they care for you?"

"Yeah," Applejack reluctantly admitted. "The girls - all of 'em - are basically family. Ah forget that sometimes." Her thoughts turned unsurprisingly to the missing two. "Ah just didn't want-- Ah wanted you back, Pa. You and Ma both. But givin' up one of them to save you's a choice Ah didn't want to make."

Gently, he stroked her mane. "You didn't, sugarcube. They made that choice - they decided what it was worth to make ya happy."

"But... Ah ain't happy, Pa. Not without them. Ain't right." Applejack pinched her eyes tight, trying to force them to stay dry.

Bright Mac let out a sigh. "We don't know for sure, Jackie. Your Granny taught me that, when she accepted your Ma into the family - ponies are gonna surprise you, even if you assume the worst of 'em. An' from what Ah hear your friends are pretty tough."

Unable to hold back a little smile, Applejack allowed that much. "Yeah. They are."

All eyes went to the door for a moment as Fluttershy slipped back in - she let the Apples alone and went to Rarity's side, letting them get back to their quiet talk.

"So," Bright Mac segued, "Your friends told me a bit about how the rest of the family's doin', but Ah'd much rather hear it straight from your lips."

It took a moment for Applejack to find the right place to start - and when she did, she took off her hat. From inside, she brought out a little memento: a family photo, taken the day before the fateful Hearth's Warming. "How 'bout Ah show you instead? Kept it in here so Ah'd keep them close to mind."

The two Apples settled against the wall, photo held between them. "As you can tell, Granny's showin' her years but she ain't too bad for a mare of..." Applejack frowned. "Well, she won't rightly tell any of us how old she actually is, but she's wearin' it well." They both laughed. "Ah figure you can guess which one Big Mac is - the pretty mare next to him's his new wife, Sugar Belle."

Bright Mac peered a little closer at the picture. "Your friends did say Li--Big Mac had gotten himself hitched. They kinda forgot to put a name to her, though." He scratched his chin with his free hoof. "Sugar Belle. Hm. Pretty thing, an' Ah hear tell the two of them got a mighty special love."

Applejack nodded again, memories welling up into a broad smile in spite of the situation around them. "She's tougher than she looks, too. She helped us shut down a cult just south of Rainbow Falls - well, she was part of it, an' came to her senses."

That made Bright Mac frown rather sharply.

"She was just a victim!" Applejack had to append that rather quickly. "When we showed up, she reached out to us for help, an' was pretty key in the end. Not long after that, she started buyin' apples from us for her bakery. Then, well..." She chuckled. "Didn't take that long to figure out why Big Mac was makin' so many deliveries."

The news was good enough for Bright Mac - he nodded approvingly. "Good. Bein' a loyal customer says she loves apples just as much as an Apple."

Applejack elbowed him. "Says the stallion who married a Pear?" The two laughed together for a moment before she continued. "After they made if official, she started apprenticing to Missus Cake--"

Cutting in, Bright Mac tilted his head slightly. "You say that name like I should know her."

"Chiffon Swirl," Applejack amended.

That cleared Bright Mac's expression to a brighter one. "Got herself married, Ah take it? Name sounds... wait, to the lanky fella, Carrot Cake?"

Applejack nodded enthusiastically. "That's the one. Pinkie over there works in their bakery, too. They had a pair of twins 'bout four years ago now, an' Ah'm sure they'll be over the moon to see y'all again."

Bright Mac beamed, nodding in happy agreement. Then the smile faded to a frown, and he gave the photo a little nudge. "Better put this back under your hat, sugarcube. Ah'm eager to know more, but at the same time--"

"--It don't feel right without Ma?" Applejack could see where he was going - and the nod confirmed it. "We'll get her soon, then the three of us'll have a good long trip back to discuss it all. Ah figure it'll be my chance to tell all Mac an' Bloom's embarrassing stories before they tell mine."

From across the room, Pinkie piped up unhelpfully. "Unless we tell your embarrassing ones for you!"

Applejack let out a good-natured groan. "Ah thought you were my friends."

They all laughed again.

Then the door exploded inwards.

All five ponies were on their hooves immediately - even Rarity, despite a wobble. There was also a wobble from the pegasus who had just smashed through the door.

Rainbow Dash looked the definition of 'worse for wear': while the lack of burn marks said she had avoided being struck by lightning, Dash was sporting several blooming bruises and panting for breath. "Found you!" The others relaxed down from combat readiness and instead let out a collective sigh of relief - save Fluttershy, who grappled her closest friend in a furious embrace. The speedster simply laughed it off. "Nice work with the sign, 'Shy. Maybe none of these doofuses would notice, but there's no way I was gonna miss smoke clouds in the shape of my cutie mark over this place."

"Mighty glad to have you back, Rainbow." Applejack set a hoof on her shoulder. "You had us all worried."

"Me? Pft, yeah right. I'm fine." Then Dash's bravado gave way to concern. "Tempest's the one in trouble."

Before she could say anything more, Pinkie Pie shoved both Applejack and Fluttershy aside. "Fizzie's okay?!"

Rainbow only recoiled a little. "Last time I saw her. But she was also at the gate of the Citadel trying to hold off the Storm Guard! Like, all of them!"

Most of the others gasped. Bright Mac had a different reaction. "Wait just a gol-darned minute. Tempest? Tempest Shadow? The Storm King's right-hand mare?"

Dash looked at the others in confusion. "You didn't tell him?"

Pinkie Pie shrugged. "It didn't come up."

"Didn't come up?!" Rainbow Dash sputtered ineffectually.

The exchange didn't phase Bright Mac. "She's a monster!" he spat.

"She's reformed," all five of the others stated in unison, with the reflexive practice if being around Starlight Glimmer for years.

Bright Mac blinked owlishly, anger derailed by that entirely unexpected reaction.

Applejack picked up the slack. "Really, Pa. She realized the error of her ways back when the Storm King attacked Equestria, an' she's why we beat him in the end. She's been the one fightin' against his troops and freein' lands for the last two years. And she's the one that told me you and Ma were still alive. We wouldn't be here without her, and she's pushed herself harder than any of us to save ya." She took her father's hooves into hers. "Ah trust her with everything Ah got. She's one of us. She's family, like the girls here are."

The other four mares watched in anticipation as Bright Mac's face shuffled through emotions. Confusion - the Tempest Shadow he'd known for so long was a black-hearted villain, not a hero of liberation. Anger - she was a cruel taskmistress who had enslaved entire nations at her King's command. And trust - because his daughter believed in the most hateful pony he had ever known with all of her heart.

Reluctantly, Bright Mac nodded. "Ah'll give her a chance," he grudgingly allowed. "Leastwise we can't just let her face all that alone, an' we gotta get to Buttercup anyway."

Applejack nodded back in acceptance. "You'll see, Pa. Thank you - for giving her a chance."

"Well if we don't hurry, she's not gonna need that chance because she's gonna be a smear on the ground!" Rainbow Dash lifted off in a flurry of flaps.

Applejack turned to their sole remaining unicorn. "Rarity? You good?"

Shaking her legs out one at a time, Rarity tested her stability - and nodded. "Quite, darling. I'm not one hundred percent but I shan't slow us down, I think. Pinkie's emergency cupcake did me wonders." Which, of course, resulted in the baker beaming happily. "So long as I don't have to put on a show like that again, I'm as good as I can be for now."

"Right," Applejack pronounced. "Let's get goin'. Dash, lead the way and try not to leave us behind this time? Ah know you wanna help her but six ponies is a lot better backup than just one."

Comments

[JustFalcon]

Ah... that reaction was what I was waiting for, now time to see badass Tempest fight the entire storm guard.

[Melody Song]

There's the reaction, finally. Can't wait to see-well, for Bright Mac to see-Temp fighting off all those guards. Looking forward to another chapter!