Just Around the Corner

by KorenCZ11

Sugarcube, we're going down swingin'

“M-married!?”

Rarity’s voice was a kind of ‘scratchy’ over the wire, but I think that’s just how the payphone works. Twilight said that cellular is actually like a kind of magic in the air that ya can’t really see, which is what Rarity is using. It’s not quite up to the level of what it’s based on, but in a few years, it’ll feel like she’s right next to me.

“When!? Who? What? How? Why? Ap-ple-jack! You… you can’t just call out of the blue and—”

“Ah-ah-ah, Rarity. Five times, five different days. Ya were busy every time. Ah tried ta talk ta ya, but that never happened.” I couldn’t help the shit-eating grin on my face. I’d missed this. Talking to her, hearing her voice. Knowing that she’s going to drop everything for a day or a week, even a month just to come see me given away gnawed at my conscience, but I figure that’s the price of being friends like we are. If I can’t impose on her, who can I? Well… one pony, now at least.

“…I suppose I did see missed calls, but I didn’t realize this was the Ponyville payphone’s number! Has Twilight not given you a cellphone yet? She must! We must! Goddess. I didn’t think being away for a few months would have so much change, but—”

“Oh, don’t’cha know it. Time flies, after all. A life changes with a wrong turn sometimes. In hindsight, this might just be fer the better.”

“Kah! It had better be for the better! Married. Married! Who is this stallion, anyways? Do I know him? When did you meet him? You always said you didn’t have time for stallions, I can’t imagine how…”

She coughed. “Ah-hem. I will be in Ponyville…”

“It’s on the eighteenth.”

“On the eleventh and from that week on while I can be, and you and I are going to have a long discussion about this! Why, the nerve of you, going off and finding a stallion on your own and taking him home already! Without even telling me! I can’t believe I missed such an important call. You must get a phone, Applejack, this simply cannot happen anymore. I will arrange it. Prepare to visit Twilight in the near future.”

I shook my head, taking some twisted pleasure in hearing her ramble like she does. So busy since January that I haven’t hardly seen any of my friends this year, and it’s almost over now. It only took that long to start choking on water.

“Ah’ll count on it. Fin needs a suit, by the way.”

“And what, you don’t need a dress? Surely that’s not what you mean.”

In truth, I’d planned on using Ma’s dress. I was going to have Rarity resize it to accommodate my baby bump, but that isn’t an option now that I’ve gone and opened my mouth. “Ah suppose not.”

“Excellent. Has your size changed? No, with the way you work, you’ve probably—”

“A little, actually. Ah’ve… had some bad days.”

For once in her life, Rarity was silent for a moment. “You mean to tell me that you’ve gained weight?”

“Well, yes.”

Rarity gasped. “Good Goddess, what is the world coming to? Perhaps, I should just leave now… Yes, I could work from home for a month or so. I’ll have to size up this ‘Fin’ character of yours too! Can’t let just anypony marry my best friend!”

“Oh, don’t’cha—”

“Up-pup-pup! None of that! I won’t have it, Applejack or whatever your name will be within the month. I simply will not have it.”

I don’t know why I bothered. Of all the ponies who would drop everything and come running, it would be her, wouldn’t it?

“Alright, alright, Ah get the picture. Ah’ll see ya when ya get here Ah guess.”

“You certainly will. Ta-ta for now, darling, I have preparations to make. I will see you tomorrow! Expect it!”

And with that, the line went dead. Sighing, I put the receiver back in its place. “And that is Rarity. Hope you’re ready. She’s a little much.”

Fin, after telling his superiors what had happened, was discharged early. What was supposed to be a month of waiting for him to come home turned into a week. Whether or not that was due to a talk I had with a certain purple pony princess was up in the air, but I wasn’t all that concerned about it.

He stared at the bar’s payphone receiver, letting the conversation I just had sink in, then turned his eyes on me. “How in the world are you friends with her?”

I shook my head. “If Ah knew, Sugarcube, Ah’d tell ya.”

He brought a hoof to feel at his recently shaved face and shook his head. “Before this, I thought Pinkie was your strangest friend. At least, trying to fit your personalities together, anyways.”

I frowned. “Not Discord?”

Fin was about to speak, but—

“Oh, by the Goddess, she said it! Fluttershy, did you hear that? That’s everypony! Six for six, Discord wins!”

Fin frowned. “I rescind my statement.”

A finger snap later, the draconequus himself and his mistress appeared before us in a flash of confetti, to all the bar’s inhabitants dismay. “Smart boy. I have high hopes for you, you know! I figured most of these ponies would end up spinsters.”

Fluttershy tugged on his tail. “Discord, please.”

“Ah, we are in public, aren’t we? My apologies.”

Discord snapped again, and now we were in Twilight’s chambers. The mare in question was sitting at her desk with some kind of earmuff looking things on her head, drawing up blueprints with the faint sound of music somewhere.

Fin blinked, took note of the new surroundings, then turned to me. “Is this a regular thing?”

In unison, Fluttershy, Twilight and I said, “Ya get used ta it.”

Twi looked up at a clock above her desk then took the ear-thingies off and joined our little intrusion. “You’re early, but I had a few contingency plans drafted for this exact situation. You… must be Fin.”

Fin went to bow, but Twilight stopped him and just grabbed his hoof for a shake. “Oh! Please, don’t do that. I understand that you were a petty officer only a week ago, but we’re friends here. I thought I might have some more time before I ever said this, but…”

Twi brushed her mane aside and made sure to look Fin in the eyes. Resolute and certain, she gripped his hoof tight. “Spouses of my friends are my friends too.”

Fin made a quick nod and shook the hoof properly. “Uh, sure. Ma’am.” Freeing himself of her, he scratched at his mane. “It’s just a little surreal, is all. I thought I understood what I was getting into here, but Applejack didn’t exactly tell me she had more than one family…”

---

Within the month, Fin had met and even become accustomed to all the oddities in my life. I was getting used to him too. Early riser, sweet talker, dependable and strong. If we’d met the normal way, I somehow think we would’ve ended up here regardless, but that’s just not how the story got wrote.

When he referred to all my friends (Discord included since he seems to need the affirmation) as my ‘other family,’ it really did make me think. I’ve always thought of them as like sisters, but that wasn’t quite on the mark. I met them under strange circumstances too. We were brought together because something bigger than all of us was moving in our lives, and I never once considered how… fairytale-like those friendships are.

Sure, it gets hard sometimes. Life ain’t always fair, and more often than not, it’s usually cruel. But, there are those little moments. Those chance encounters, those accidents that leave with a happy ending. To get so self-absorbed to think that suicide is the only way out is a sad, ungrateful way to be, I tell ya what.

If I didn’t know any better, I’d say I wasn’t capable of looking at life like that: giving up, losing hope with the knowledge of all my fairytale encounters. That couldn’t happen to a pony like me. But the truth is far from it. Despair has a tight grip, and if you let it take hold once, you’ll let it take hold again. It takes somepony else to keep you free of that tight grip.

It doesn’t happen like this. It shouldn’t happen like this. I wanted to believe that, but it just ain’t true. What I do believe is that things turned out the way they did, and I too survived for a reason. Perhaps it’s him. Maybe it’s them. Friends, family, or even this little one I’ve yet to meet. Who will he be? How will he live? What should I look forward to in his life? Time will tell, but this time, I’ll make sure to be there, even if the cats in the dark come for me again.

---

It’d been eleven months since I met Fin for the first time. It was a hard year.

We lost Granny.

But as it happens, that too might’ve been for the best.

She must’ve had a few clear days in all that time because my fight with Mac over the Orchard ended without a word from either of us. He didn’t want it; he wanted to be free of this place, to not have the burden of his blood, to start off on his own and take his roots somewhere else, and she let him have it.

Ah don’t know what the letter she wrote him said, but when he cried at her bedside, I knew it wasn’t out of grief. She loved us with all her heart down to her last breath, and she gave us her all. She was there from the day I was born. She took care of us when Ma started gettin’ sick, she took over for her when she finally passed. She practically raised Applebloom by herself after the fire took Pa, and she did it all while running the orchard and keeping us alive. A mare with a talent for everything in her life who did it better than anypony ever could.

My letter said,

“It’s up to y’all now, Applejack. Ah don’t know when he put that baby in ya, but Ah sure am glad he came back fer ya. With new fruit ta come, you’re the one ta carry on the name. With what Ah can recall of Fin, he seems like a good one. Take care of him, take care of your home, and don’t forget ta keep on the road.

“If ya see what looks like a dead end at the end of your road, just remember, ya might be short-sighted. If ya keep going down that road, you never know when there’s a corner ta turn right when it looks like you’re at the edge. I love ya, Applejack. Keep on keepin’ on.”

I’ve read it and read it and read it again since that day. It was… impossible. It couldn’t happen, it didn’t happen like that; my Granny couldn’t have been a mare like this. But, she was, and the letter proved it to me every single time. There was a lot of proof in my life, that year. I pray that she’s being rewarded for everything she’s done where she is now, maybe even back with Ma and Pa, taking the time to recover all those lost years. If I could be half the mare she was one day, I’d say I lived a good life.

---

Finally, the day came. My water broke in the morning, and before I knew what to do with myself, my soldier had picked me up and rushed me off to the hospital on his back. I never thought Fin was as strong as my brother, but that moment made me wonder. Not just anypony can carry a mare and a half across town in ten minutes, but then again, this was a special case.

We arrived, I was checked in, and then, one after the other, all my friends arrived. Only for Dash, Rarity, and Discord to head out the moment they saw what was happening. Not the biggest fans of ‘nature’s miracle,’ I suppose.

Pain, screaming, pushing, and more pain, and it was done. I was told that they didn’t need to cut me since my body was apparently made for this, but that didn’t make it hurt any less. Even through all the drugs and the numbing agents, I still felt myself pulling apart like pieces of cloth being ripped to shreds. Fin had made the mistake of holding my hoof through it all which left him with a poor broken foreleg, even as strong as he was.

Suppose he’ll know better next time.

Because, with how I felt looking at that beautiful little boy, I knew for certain that there would be a next time. When all was said and done, the more squeamish of my ‘other family’ were allowed in to see us.

“Aww!” Pinkie cooed. “Look at how cute he is! The little freckles, his daddy’s white mane, his mommy’s orange coat! Cheese, Cheese, is ours going to look like that?” She tugged on her husband’s shirt.

“With our genes? Maybe. But why ruin the surprise? It’ll only be a few months now.” I hadn’t known Cheese long, but I imagine he’s the only pony in the world who could be her match. You’d think being pregnant would make her crazy like it did me for these last couple months, but the opposite has happened instead, getting a little more mellow than she used to be.

“Yeah, I don’t know about this one, chief.” Dash said. She turned to Fin, taking note of the new angle I’d put his foreleg at. “You should be in the next room over, dude. That’s totally broken.” The poor guy hadn’t moved much since it happened. He did say we were in this together on the way here. Dash turned back to me, “Did… did it really hurt that bad? I mean, I’m not scared of it or anything, but you uh… you don’t really scream like that…”

I had some stuff in my system at that point, but I was still in my head enough to give Dash the look. “Not scared, huh? Y’all could probably take it. Course, ya’d have ta sit still long enough ta let it happen.”

I could see the frown form on Dash’s face, and the sigh of the stallion she’d brought with her. Soarin, if nothing else, was a devoted pony. “Look, I’m in the peak of my career, alright? I don’t need—” Dash motioned between Pinkie and I “—this.” She caught Soarin’s eye then looked anywhere but at a pony. “I-I mean, maybe someday, but not now. You guys are getting into this crap too early.”

I rolled my eyes. “Mmhmm.”

“I’m with Applejack here, Dash,” Twilight commented. For some reason, I’d consented to letting her record and study this ‘event’ as she called it. She’d been taking notes and swapping little green sticks around in her cameras to get the whole thing down. Somewhere, in some university, somepony trying to be a nurse is gonna end up watching this as a recording, and I cannot believe I thought that would be okay.

She continued, “Mares have a time limit for this sort of thing. Sure, ponies are typically good to go once every two cycles or about once every two years, but you don’t have all the time in the world to start a family. If it’s what you want, that’s what you should do. You at least…” she lamented, “are capable of it.”

That put a damper on things.

However, it wasn’t long before it livened up again because my baby opened his eyes. With speed unlike anything I’ve ever seen from her, Fluttershy appeared at the bedside. “Oh my goodness, look at his precious wittle eyes! Oh, Applejack, can I hold him?”

I hadn’t expected this, but something deep in me wanted to take the baby and hide away. I caught it just in time to not act on it. “Uh, sure. Might as well. Fin can’t.”

My husband was standing quietly beside me trying his hardest to be stoic. “Nope,” he said in a high-pitched strain. The doctor and I both warned him, at least.

“Look at you! Welcome to Equesrtia, little guy!” Shy cooed. Discord was hiding in the corner, stroking his little beard; he and Twilight had their curse in common, that immortality and power that truly removes one from the cycle of life. But if I had half a mind to guess, his gears had already started turning on a way to break it. I’m sure seeing Shy with a newborn foal was a picture he’d never imagined.

“Oh, Goddess, what kind of Apple-Mac have you wrought on the world, Applejack?” Rarity began. “Do you see his little facial features? When he gets older, you’ll have to fight the mares off him!” She had squeezed her way next to Fluttershy, and in some strange slight of hoof, managed to steal the baby from her. Shy wasn’t happy about it.

I giggled, but I wasn’t sure at what. Probably the morphine. “Geez, Rares, it’s a little too early ta start robbin’ cradles!”

Rarity was horrified, Dash cackled, the stallions did their best not to break character, and the other girls covered their mouths. It wasn’t my proudest moment.

Rarity held the baby a little closer and covered her mouth with a hoof, a mixture of horror, rage and embarrassment in her eyes. “Goodness! You… you contain yourself, please! Decency, the nerve…”

She used her magic to put her mane back in place, then went back to inspecting my boy. It was a strange sight, to be honest. Rarity ain’t the type to get married. She’s not a motherly character like Shy or even Pinkie when she wants to be. Maybe one day, Dash’ll give into the mare in her and let that side of herself free since I can tell this is having an effect on her, but Rarity? I just couldn’t say. It was an odd picture, her with a newborn.

The moment sank in as she tenderly rocked my new baby, until something occurred to her and she turned back to me. “Well, come on then. You’ve kept us waiting long enough. Who is this that has graced the world today?”

Oh, did I never tell them? Seeing all the expectant eyes, save Fin who really did need to see a doctor right about now, I supposed I didn’t. Taking him back from Rarity and locking with those big-little amber-sunset eyes, I smiled. And he smiled right back.

I nuzzled my little boy and held him tight. I’d been so lost. I should’ve realized all that time that those little moments of joy were just contained glimpses of the life full of joy to come. The life he’ll live, the way he’ll grow, the pony he’ll become. We’ll be there together for as long as we can to see those moments blossom into something new, something treasured, something blessed.

How could I have even thought of giving up before getting the chance to meet you? It’s been a long journey, but now that you’re finally here, we can begin.

And it all started with a little glass of…

“Whiskey. His name is Whiskey Apple.”