Far from the Tree

by KorenCZ11

A voice that came from you and me

“What happened?” I asked.

Cheeri squirmed in her seat. It’s the impossible task of getting comfortable while trying to discuss what exactly went wrong. “Well… it would be nice if I knew, Mac.” She shook her head, opened her mouth to say something, closed it again and remained silent.

Realizing this too would be on my shoulders, I took a deep breath and formulated what needed to be said. “Okay. Before we even begin with him, let’s go back ta the beginnin’. What in the world possessed ya ta keep this from me all this time? Why didn’t ya tell me ya were pregnant?”

Keeping her eyes off me and on her hooves, Cheeri circled the tips of her fore hooves around each other. “Well… I, um… I didn’t want to…” She put her hooves over her snout and let a breath out into them. “Y-you know how my father is, if I… if I told him the truth, he would’ve!” She shook her head again. “And you’d just met that other mare, and the way you looked at her, I…” She scratched at her mane, and finally, looked me in the eyes. “I could see what was happening to you. To all of you. I… I wanted to be the pony who could make things better, who could ease the pain, but you… it wasn’t love. At least… not to you, anyways.”

I set my elbow on my knee and let my head fall into my hoof. “Cheeri, if ya’d told me the truth—”

“I couldn’t make you smile!” she shouted. Tears had welled up in her eyes, but she hadn’t let them loose just yet. “That’s what my special talent was supposed to be! I was… supposed to make ponies, or at least kids smile, and the one pony I cared about the most—I couldn’t, no matter what I did, no matter how much I gave, I… I just couldn’t do it. You kept sinking lower and lower as you worked yourself into the ground trying to manage that massive orchard on your own, and Granny was falling apart and… and I was seriously concerned that Applejack was going to… to do something drastic, and I… wasn’t helping.

“I couldn’t help. I’m still no good at baking, my legs were never up to the hard work either of you did, and… and the only thing I was supposed to be good at, I couldn’t do!” She took a deep breath and wiped at her eyes. “The truth is, I did try to tell you.”

I furrowed my brows. “When? Until today, Ah hadn’t seen ya since ya moved back in with yer parents.”

Cheeri bit into her lip and wiped at her eyes again. There was little else that made my heart ache like seeing a mare cry. It took everything within my will to keep myself planted on this couch and not moving to hold her. She’d been holding onto all this for so long, and this is… only the beginning.

“It was a few months down the line. I started getting sick, started getting fat. I thought it was just because I’d been eating all the sweets my parents like to have in the house all the time, but it finally clicked in the fourth month. I went to the hospital to get checked out and make sure, and sure enough, there he was.” She rubbed the snot off her muzzle, her throat taking a break. “You were just half a mile down the road, so I just wandered down to the acres ready to tell you and… that’s when I heard it.”

I frowned. “Heard what?”

“Singing! You singing. To her.”

My teeth found my inner cheek.

She shook her head and rubbed at her forehead. “It’d only been a few months since we broke up, and not only had you already found somepony else, you were singing again. I hadn’t heard you say a word in melody or pick up a guitar since Granny’s alzhimers started getting bad, and she was still alive then. It was clear to me that somepony else had done what I couldn’t do for you, and I didn’t want to…” She let out a breath and covered her eyes. “I just wanted you to be happy.”

I leaned back on Cheeri’s couch and felt the air deflate out of me. Always so passive, always so caring, always so willing to put other ponies first. She strived to never make a nuisance of herself. “Damn it Cheeri, this was a little more important than me bein’ happy! Ya know Ah would’ve—”

“Of course I know!” She let out a breath and found my eyes again. “Of course I know. We were together for two years, Mac. You would’ve dropped everything, apologized to that unicorn, and brought me back with you the next day. I know who you are. And I… I didn’t want to do that to you. I’m sorry.”

She was silent for a moment, then took a sip of her tea. “Do you… do you have any idea how much it… how much it stung to get an invitation to your wedding four months later?”

I passively half-raised a hoof. “Maybe now, but Ah thought we were friends at that point.” At that, my ear itched. “Which explains why ya… never did show up.”

“Mmhmm.” She took another sip and set the cup down on the saucer. “My parents… they still don’t know who his father is. He doesn’t either for that matter, but I’m sure you could’ve guessed that by now.”

I nodded. “Oh, no, picked up on that one.” I hesitated at first, but figured I might as well ask anyways. “Did you… Was that teacher he stabbed somepony ya were gettin’ ta know, or was he really tryin’ ta… ya know.”

Cheeri’s brow furrowed. “How do—”

“Applejack’s husband is a detective for Ponyville PD. Ah, uh… Ah don’t know if ya recognized her, but ya met my wife a few weeks ago.”

She tilted her head. “Was… oh, the mare at the supermarket, wasn’t it?”

“Eeyup. Safe fer the freckles and a couple inches, he looks exactly like my other boy. Same mane, same eyes, maybe a shade or two lighter in the coat and… Ox’s mane and tail are a little curly like his ma, but it ain’t long enough ta tell right now. Ya know what? Ah’ve got a picture.”

I dipped into my overalls to get my device out of my pocket. Flipped around till I found the last family picture we took a few weeks ago.

“Oh my.”

I nodded. “Eeyup.”

She was silent for a while, drinking it in. “I can see why. They really do look almost like twins.”

I slid the screen over to the next picture in the library, the one Sugarbelle took of Cheeri and Malus. “She didn’t exactly ask, but she took a picture of y’all that day fer photo evidence. It didn’t take a blood test ta tell me who he was. Ah got the blood test anyway since my brother-in-law had access to it, but uh…” I chuckled. “Ah had a bad week before he got all the details back ta us.”

Cheeri put a hoof over her mouth. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry, Mac, I—”

“Please, Cheeri.”

Slowly, she put her hoof down and rested it on her chest. “I’m sorry…”

And that was one of the reasons we didn’t stick. It’s never my fault. It’s never anypony else’s fault. It’s always her fault, and she always apologizes for everything.

“Stop! Don’t say it again! It’s not yer fault. That situation has been settled.”

Cheeri looked down and shifted in her seat. “Mmhmm.”

I spilled an irritated breath. This was how it always started. She would apologize. I would tell her it’s not her fault. She would apologize again. I would tell her not to. She would apologize again. We got into this loop so many times while she was teaching for the city that it nearly drove me crazy. Sugarbelle didn’t exactly do it nicely all the time, but she would tell it to my face when I did something wrong. There’s a limit to her patience, and she stepped up when she saw the need to. All things that Cheeri would never do. Which, of course, leads to the parenting that Malus received his whole life, which is exactly why he is the way he is.

“So, back ta the teacher, was Malus in the right?”

Cheeri frowned. “To… to stab him?”

I rolled my eyes. “Ta defend ya from him, Cheeri. Fin can get anythin’ he wants on Malus because he has a record. Ah just want ta know if it was a misunderstandin’ or not.”

She put her forehooves together and looked away. “W-well, it’s not as if I… as if I really told him no…”

I had to cover my mouth. I had to bite my tongue. That teacher probably wasn’t even that bad of a guy. He was probably friendly, she was probably friendly, and I bet she did anything he asked of her, because that’s just the way she is. He thought he could get whatever he wanted from her, so he took a shot. If Malus hadn’t been there… Damn it Cheeri, you’re too nice fer yer own good.

“At least Malus didn’t do it fer fun…” Something he said while he was leaving came back to mind. “Somepony stole yer purse?”

Cheeri let her head fall into her hooves. “Do we really need to talk about this?”

I raised my hooves up in defeat. “Ah understand how ya might be feelin’ about all this, but now that Ah’ve seen him, ya know Ah can’t let this go.”

She let out an irritated breath and looked back at me with what I could only think was true indignation. “And what, exactly, do you plan to do about it? I’m sorry I’m… I’m not somepony else. I’m sorry I haven’t changed in all these years, but I’m doing the best I can, alright? You have your own family, and you all look so… so perfect together, and I… I don’t even know where to begin! My parents like him less with each passing year, they’re still upset with me because they still think I don’t know who his father is, and I’m already thirty-six. I’ve never been married, I’m a single mother, I… I… I’m nothing like they wanted me to be, and I can’t be Malus’s father too, and I can never find anypony who wants to be his father, and I… I don’t know what to do!”

The dam broke. Cheeri fell to tears. Sugarbelle is gonna kill me if she finds out about this. I released a deep, bone-aching breath, fully ready to accept the consequences. I consoled Cheeri as best I could.

---

About an hour and a pizza later, Cheeri had calmed down. It gave me time to think, and I realized that I’d already made my decision when I decided to come visit today.

“He’s my son.”

“Huh?” She tilted her head, then blew her nose into a tissue.

“He’s my son. Ah am his father.”

Cheeri blinked. “Wh-what do you mean?”

“He needs ta be taught how ta treat mares. He needs ta learn how ta be respectful. Ah heard he’s not been goin’ ta school, why is that?”

Cheeri sniffed and scratched at her cheek. “Well, his attendance has been better since we moved away from Manehattan, but he was suspended last week for getting into a fight.”

I threw a hoof out. “He needs ta be taught where ta draw the line! He needs ta be taught the value of work!” I turned to Cheeri and took her hoof in mine. I looked deep into her eyes and said, “Let me take him back ta my orchard. You’ve been doin’ this on yer own fer fourteen years. Ya need a break from him, and he needs somepony ta show him how a good stallion acts. How long is that suspension fer?”

“Mac, ya don’t have to—” She tried to pull her hoof away, but I didn’t let her.

“Ah do. Ah want ta. Ah should’ve been here his whole life. How long is the suspension?”

Her lip wavered, she swallowed, but finally, she said, “A month. He’s not to come back until September.”

I nodded, let her hoof go, went to plan my attack. He didn’t understand how to react to me when I showed genuine concern. He gets bravado, he’s got the tough guy act down pat, but he doesn’t know how to turn it off. If I can just get him to figure out the limits, make him self-aware, we’ll be off to a good start. I’ll have to practically be on top of him all the time, especially to make sure he gets along with Oxford and Liberty and… to make sure Sugarbelle doesn’t kill him. Another unrelated thought occurred to me. Does… does Sugarbelle act like Granny?

I shook that one away. “Look, Cheeri, Ah’m gonna call Sugarbelle just ta let her know Ah’m bringin’ Malice home.”

“Mal-us, Mac. It, uh… it means Apple.”

I shrugged. “That too. Do ya know when he’s gonna be back?”

She scratched under her chin. “W-well…”

I felt my ears droop. “Does he have a phone?”

“He… usually won’t take that with him when he ‘goes out.’ He doesn’t like it when I call him late at night.”

I smacked a hoof to my forehead. “Do ya have any idea where yer son is?”

“Oh, he’s probably over at the billiard bar two blocks down the road. On the corner of Altitude and Barometer street.”

I paused. “How did a fourteen-year-old get into a bar? Why do ya know exactly—” I shook my head. “Never mind. Find somethin’ ta write yer phone number on fer me, and Ah’ll call ya after Ah’ve picked him up, alright? Ah’ll keep him fer the month, ya can call me whenever ya want ta know how he’s doin’, and Ah’ll bring him home the day before he goes back ta school. Sound good?”

Cheeri let out a dejected sigh. “I suppose, Mac. I just… don’t know how I’ll feel being without him for so long. He’s been in my life every day for fourteen, fifteen years even. I know he’s rough about the edges… but he’s still my baby.”

I put my hooves together. “And that is exactly why this needs ta happen. Rough around the edges doesn’t even begin ta cover it. Ah know he was tryin’ ta protect ya, but he was still aimin’ ta kill that teacher, alright? He was half an inch short of doin’ it too. Ya don’t get suspended fer a whole month just because of a fight. What did he do ta that other kid?”

“Malus may have gone a little too far this time, but—”

“Cheeri.”

Her ears fell. “Two legs. Heavy fracturing. N-no charges…”

“Eeyup. Write yer number down, please.”

She nodded and got up to go find a pen.