Parting
For The good times
Parting
“Big” Macintosh Apple was about to die. He knew it, his beloved Fluttershy knew and so did his children that this once-great pillar of Ponyville was about to pass on to Paradise.
“Don’t look so sad y’all.” he wheezed through the mask that was keeping him alive. “I know it’s over for me, but life goes on and Equestria still will be around for centuries to come.”
“Dad, don’t say things like that.” It was Windfall, the family's first and only Pegasus and filly. Her eyes were reddened along with the area around her nostrils. “You’ll be out of here in a few days, you’ll see, right everypony?” The tone of her statement became more frantic as she reached the end of the sentence.
“Windfall, everypony dies. You know that. You remember when Miz Cheerilee got on the train to visit my cousin Braeburn in Appleloosa and she never got to see him again”
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Windfall remembered that day when she was because she and her brothers, Cider, who was ten, and Jack, who was nine, were playing in their Auntie Apple Bloom’s old clubhouse when their mother flew over and told them to go to the farmhouse immediately. The foals did as they were told asking why they had to go inside when there were cutie-marks to be earned and games to play. Fluttershy didn’t immediately answer them, she just had them go into the living room and sit quietly. The three foals complied and began a (somewhat) muted conversation on what had happened that would be so important as to tell them in the house. Cider and Jack were of the age where comic books were of great import, so naturally, they began spouting their fantasies.
“I bet it’s something like out of Power Ponies or Watchmares or...” as he lowered his voice conspiratorially enough so that his two siblings had to lean in closely, “The Trotting Dead.”
“Nuh-uh,” countered Jack. “ ‘Cause if it were Power Ponies we’d be in Maretropolis and I don’t see no skyscrapers or Mane-iac. And if it were the Trotting Dead, dad woulda’ just gone and kicked all their plots”
Further deep philosophical conversation was ended by the arrival of their father. Now, Macintosh had always been a pillar of strength in both the physical sense (nopony in town had beaten his shot kick record of 45 hooves with a fifteen pound shot) and in the community. The Apples of Ponyville traced their roots back to when Celestia had granted their great-grandmother’s family a one hundred and sixty acre parcel of land jutting right against the Everfree Forest back when it was a nasty and dangerous place for little ponies to be. Nowadays, if you didn’t go off the path, you could walk to Princess Twilight’s castle in forty-five minutes.
But at this moment, Big Mac looked devastated. His eyes were bloodshot and he was holding back a flood of tears with a shoddy earthen dike. Fluttershy was faring no better, her long, pink mane was hiding most of her tears, but not all of them.
“Daddy, what’s wrong?” Windfall, who was seven at the time, asked
“It seems that you won’t be having Miz Cheerilee as your teacher no more, Punkin” Mac said, stoically.
“But why would you be sad that I won’t be having her as a teacher, I really like her?” Windfall questioned
“Because before I met your mother, I was a very shy pony. I’d always just say: “Eyup” or “Nope” to ever’thing an everypony just figured that I’d always be like that.” Mac took a deep breath and continued on. “Then one Hearts and Hooves day your aunts Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo decided that Miz Cheerilee needed a special somepony and I was the only one that seemed to meet their standards. I won’t tell you what happened that day, not ‘till you’re older yet, but it ended with me and her going on dates-”
“Ewwwww dates are gross” Cider interjected, thinking of the Saddle Arabian fruits that were becoming more common since the ponies opened up trade several years ago.
“Not those kind of dates but stuff more like dinner and dancing.”
“Oh”
“Anyway, after a while, we both came to a place in our relationship where we had to make a decision and we decided to part as friends. Although something had happened over the course of time during our dating, I was finding myself more and more attracted to your mother and one thing led to another and we married and had you three.”
The three foals sat on the couch for a while in contemplative silence, then Jack spoke up.
“So Ms. Cheerilee is the reason that you’re married?”
“In a roundabout way, yes dear,” his mother said, barely squeaking out the last phrase of the sentence.
“So why are you sad that she can’t be my teacher no more?” Windfall asked again. “I wanna go to school and learn all I can and get my cutie-mark and hang out with my friends.”
“We’ve just been told that she died on her way to see mah cousin Braeburn in Appeloosa. The train she was in jumped the track and crashed. Fortunately, everypony came out alright.”
“Except Miss Cheerilee.”
“Eyup.”
“Dad?”
“Eyup?”
“I’m sorry her going away is making you so sad, I wish there was something I could do to make you feel better”
“There is.”
“What?”
“You just being you, and honey.”
“Yes?”
“I love you”
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The incessant beep and whir of the machines in the hospital brought Windfall back into the real world
“F-f-f-f...” Mac strained
“I’m right here big bunny”
“I think that this is it little wing.”
“Do you want to be with just me?”
“Eyup” Mac managed to gasp out.
“Alright, I’m right here, is there anything you want me to do?”
“Lay your head upon my pillow and hold your warm and tender body close to mine.” Mac sadly grimaced, seeming to gain vitality from his steadfast wife who’d been with him through so much. His eyes sparkled as the last ounces of his strength were being slowly leached from his body. “Hear the whispers of the raindrops blowing slow against the windows” he almost sang as if recalling some long-forgotten Country and Neighstern tune. “And maybe leave you lovely...one more time...for the good times” Mac sighed, and then he smiled and softly said to his wife of thirty-two years: “I love you, don’t ever forget that I love you and every one of our beautiful children and I will love y’all until my dying breath. Always think of me but, instead of the bad times, remember the good times.”
With that, “Big” Macintosh Apple, Brother to the Element of Honesty, who was in the hospital lobby trying to calm her grandniece Apple Seed, and husband to the Element of Kindness who was sitting next to him with her hooves clasping his right forehoof, passed away into Paradise.
With his passing, the rest of Windfall’s family broke into muted sobs, with Fluttershy, Applejack and Apple Bloom actively bawling along with two-year old Apple Seed, who was cranky that Pinkie Pie had inadvertently woken her up from her nap. The other Elements (even Pinkie) were looking downcast, with Twilight staring down at a small plush toy that she held in hooves and brushing her mane with her magic. While walking up to her, Windfall asked the princess why she had the doll.
“Because, one day, back when I was still Princess Celestia’s student, I...cast an enchantment on it to get your aunts to fight over Smarty Pants here” she indicated the doll. “Well, the spell worked too well and soon the whole town was fighting over her and after Princess Celestia reversed the spell, Big Mac took her home with him. I didn’t find out about this until Applejack mentioned seeing her under Apple Bloom’s bed a few months later.”
“Why was Applejack under Apple Bloom’s bed?”
“Well, Apple Bloom had gone into the fire swamp to prove she was a big pony and Applejack was searching everywhere in her room for Apple Bloom and she lifted her bed and Smarty Pants was there.”
“Huh, I never knew my dad was one to play with dolls.”
“He told me that she reminded him of the time before his parents died.” Twilight sighed. “Well, I hate to sound heartless, but I have to get back to the castle and broker another peace between a pack of Diamond Dogs and a dragon, and I’m still cleaning up the mess Tirek made when he destroyed the library. Honestly, I could care less if another page from The Astronomer’s guide to all things Astronomical and Astrological was found in another ponies roof or wall! It’s been thirty-five Celestia-damned years! auuuugh!”
With that inarticulate expression of rage, she walked out the door, spread her wings and winged her way to her castle and the diplomatic crisis that was developing. Windfall pensively stared out the window at the retreating lavender alicorn until she was no longer visible, the raggedy doll held in her aura, wracking sobs escaping from Twilight’s mouth as soon as she figured that nopony could see one of the princesses of Equestria cry.
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The funeral was held four months after Mac’s death. Apples from Manehattan, Las Pegasus, Appleloosa and Vanhoover and all points in between came to the funeral of the proprietor of Sweet Apple Acres. Along with the main branches of Apples, a large contingent of Oranges from Manehattan and Las Pegasus arrived on their private airships. Windfall strolled around the impromptu family reunion, happy to see her Cousin Fuji back from Neighpon spinning tales to other Apples about how things were done there.
Supposedly, the folks in Neighpon slept in hotels in beds in cubes stacked ten high. Even the Manehattan ponies were giving him more than a few interesting looks. Windfall rolled her eyes and wandered along into the farmhouse. After closing the door to the outside, she immediately noticed the sobs coming from, now, her mother’s room. Slowly ascertaining that nopony else was in the house, Windfall went into the room.
“Mom, is everything all right?” Windfall asked, pushing the door open.
“Y-yes, everything is f-fine s-sweetie.”
“It doesn’t sound that way mom why don’t you talk about it with me.”
“Okay,” Fluttershy inhaled and stiffened, “I try to remember the good times but every time that I do, the memory goes back to the time that I almost lost him.”
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Windfall knew exactly what she meant. When she was five, Windfall had walked into the Everfree to pick a flower for Mother’s day. Cider, who had been eight and full of spite for being punished because of her earlier, had convinced her that their mother’s favorite flower had grown in the dark and dangerous forest and she had believed him. After wandering for a few hours, she had gotten lost and began crying. Her crying attracted a Manticore which, after much consideration, leapt at her. Windfall had enough presence of mind to run back the way she had come. That only enticed the beast further and it gave chase. The creature was within striking distance of her again when she ran into her father who’d been looking for her. The creature, immediately noticing the bigger, and therefore tastier, pony struck him instead its tail striking into his barrel. The poison in the creature’s tail was slowly beginning to work its way through his system when he told Windfall to go back to Zecora’s and get help. So she ran to the Zebra’s house, told her what had happened, and raced back to her father laying on the ground, the Manticore lying next to him with its head caved in from her father’s massive hooves. Big Mac was breathing shallowly, gasping for air when Zecora spoke.
“Go to Ponyville to raise the alarm, I will stay and see he comes to no further harm.”
With that, she was off like a shot. She came upon her Aunt Scootaloo shortly afterwards. She then informed Scootaloo who, in turn, told her to go home and get her mother while she went and got medical assistance from the townsponies. Windfall ran as fast as she could, little wings buzzing along aiding her in her mad dash home. When she got home, her mother was livid at her for wandering into the forest, but her anger was quickly doused when Windfall mentioned that her husband was in danger. With that statement Fluttershy took off at speeds usually reserved for Rainbow Dash, who was in her fifteenth season as a Wonderbolt at the time.
When Fluttershy had reached where Mac was, there was a crowd of fifteen ponies trying (and failing) to gently carry him to Ponyville General. They were failing because, as it turns out, Mac was the only pony strong enough to carry Mac. After the group half-carried, half-dragged him to the hospital, a large team of unicorn orderlies lifted him in their auras and brought him through the doors of the building. Fluttershy had been flitting around the group, anxious for her wonderful husband of (then) fourteen years. Once he was in the emergency room she then let out a heavy sigh that she didn’t know she was holding. After that, she rounded on Windfall with all the fury that she could muster in a public area.
“Why did you go into the Everfree?” It was a question that brooked no argument.
“ ‘Cause Cider told me there was a flower that you like that only grew in the deep forest an’ I was gonna go and get one for y...” Windfall mumbled through her pinkish-orange mane. What had caused her to falter was her mother’s infamous Stare. As Fluttershy held Windfall’s gaze, with the aid of her hooves to her cheeks, she spoke thus:
“Windfall Birdsong Apple, there is no flower in that forest that I like, and I only tolerate a few. There are dangerous plants like Poison Joke and plunder vines, that Discord still hasn’t gotten around to clearing out, and dangerous animals out there. You’re lucky you only ran across a manticore. What would we have done if a chimera or a cockatrice or, thank Celestia that it wasn’t, a basilisk! Now, when your father gets out of the hospital, he’s going to be very weak. I want you and Cider to help him out as much as possible until he is better do you understand me?” Windfall nodded without the aid of her mother’s hooves.
“Now, run over to Sugarcube Corner and see if you can get Pinkie Pie to round up the rest of my friends, I want them to be here if he passes on.” This statement was accompanied by one of the heaviest sighs that Windfall had ever heard.
“Okay Mommy, just please don’t be mad at Cider, I was the one that got daddy really hurt.”
“Okay, I will, oh and Windfall?”
“uh-huh?”
“I love you, even though you irritate me sometimes.’’
“I love you too mommy.”
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“Dad sure was lucky that Princess Twilight had been reading up on manticore poison and its effects. I just am glad that the princesses deferred the cost of most of the physical therapy and many of the bills.”
“Yeah.”
“I mean, jeez, I saw some of the bills when I was older, and it looked like we would’ve had to have sold most of the place.”
“Mmm-hmm”
“Wait, you were trying to keep them from us so we wouldn’t worry about Hearth’s Warming and what we got,” Windfall stated, with notes of realization creeping into her voice.
“We wanted to give you foals the best life we could.”
“Well, you succeeded. What do you say we go down, meet with the family and send dad off the right way?”
“Okay” Fluttershy managed to sob out.
“Don’t worry, I’ll be right next to you the entire time.”
“Okay,” she said, steeling herself for the event, “let’s do this.”
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The funeral was, by all accounts, a beautiful one. Rumble, who was head of the weather patrol, had made sure that Sweet Apple Acres had clear skies and a light breeze that ruffled the feathers and manes of the assembled Apples, townsponies and Royals. It seemed as though all of Ponyville had turned out to see Mac off and, as it turned out, official headcount (conducted by none other than the always irrepressible Pinkie Pie) declared that only ten townsponies were absent. Those ten were busy with tasks that were intimately tied to staying at their posts (and two were in the hospital for unrelated and treatable issues). Invitations throughout the town had been hoof-delivered the week before by both Pinkie (calling it a ‘celebrate somepony’s life party’) and the town’s unflinching mailmare, Dinky Canter nee` Doo.
The burial place of Macintosh Apple was right next to his Granny Smith’s and his parent’s graves. Many of the Apples and townsponies were surprised by the appearance of three of the princesses of Equestria. Princess Cadence would have attended but in her stead, she sent her husband, Royal Consort Prince Shining Armor of the Crystal Empire. Two of the three monarchs, Luna and Twilight sat only a few feet from the gravesite. Those nearest to Mac’s coffin were his immediate family, with Fluttershy looking an absolute picture of misery. Next to her were Applejack and Apple Bloom with their husbands, Thunderlane and Rumble respectively and then came Mac’s children. The rest of the townsponies crammed into seating conjured up and organized by Princess Twilight.
A hush fell over the crowd as Mayor Featherweight began to clear his throat.
“Fillies and Gentlecolts,” he intoned, “today we do not just celebrate the passing of a mere stallion. We were all, royal and humble, touched by this stallion’s life.” As what little applause there was died down, he motioned towards the seated Royals. “Princess Luna, you mentioned to me earlier that you wished to speak first, due to various and assorted duties that await back in the Canterlot. So, without further adieu, here she is everypony, the sovereign of the night, Princess Luna”
“Um, j-just Luna’s all right Mayor, thank you for that lovely introduction, though.”
“You’re welcome, Luna”
“ I met Mr. Apple here,” she indicated Mac in his coffin, “one Summer Festival. Though our meeting was brief, it reawakened passions long since lain dormant.” Many ponies in the crowd had reacted to that statement with knowing chuckles. “ As it is, I still am still uncomfortable around large crowds but meeting Mr. Apple helped me very much, and that’s what I have to say about that.” A large portion of the crowd applauded politely.
Many of the eulogies went on in a similar manner until it was Fluttershy’s turn. All that she could do was stand at the podium that had been set up, and cry softly. Windfall rose from her seat, swiftly went to her side and wrapped her in a hug that used both her wings and forelegs. “Sorry everypony, thank you for coming and please stay for the party.” Windfall explained
At the mention of “Party” Pinkie leapt up and yelled: “Okay, everypony into the barn for the best ‘celebrate somepony’s life party’ ever!”
With that, the crowd dispersed so quickly and quietly that they might never have been there. All the crowd, that is, except two earth ponies and two pegasai. Jack was the first of the two sons to reach his mother.
“Mom, he’s been gone for four months now, can’t you just sorta let it go?” he asked. In between heaving sobs, his mother managed to shake her head in a negative fashion.
“Listen mom, why don’t you visit Cloudsdale with me. Downburst would understand and Dusty and Drizzella would love to see their Grandma Fluttershy again since they only ever see Rainbow and Soarin.” Windfall offered
“That sounds...nice. Thanks honey”
“You’re welcome. Oh, and mom.”
“Yes?”
“I love you.”