Hope Blooms

Hi, Babs!

Congratulations on becoming our fourth Cutie Mark Crusader! We're super-glad you're with us... but a lot of things still happened, and I'd like to set them square if we can.

See you tonight?

~Apple Bloom

---

Babs Seed tossed the note into a nearby wastebasket, and walked up the steps of the Apple Family's barn-house.

Strange... the trip had never taken this long before. When she'd taken over Apple Bloom's room, she'd taken these steps two at a time and never broken a sweat. Now she felt weak trying to walk half a flight.

Why were her legs shaking? What was with the cold weight in the pit of her stomach? Bad enough she was used to being scared of bullies back home, now she was getting scared of ponies who had already accepted and were trying to help her?

Ponies who were family, even?

Get it together, Babs, she scolded herself. You knew you got off too easy. Shoot, you're lucky she gave you a letter o' warnin' first. Would you have done the same?

She chuckled, with only the stairs around to hear her. Heck, no.

'Course not. So go on an' take your punishment like a real Manehattan girl.

She gulped.

All right, then. Let's do this.

---
"Hope Blooms"
A My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Fanfiction
by Bookish Delight, 2012-2013
All characters and referred properties belong to Hasbro.
---

Babs closed her eyes and held her head high--at least she'd learned one useful thing from Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara--and trotted up the rest of the steps, taking them steadily, one at a time. Finally she reached the door to Apple Bloom's room, which was closed for reasons she couldn't deduce.

She knocked. "'Cuz?"

No answer.

She knocked again. "Apple Bloom? Y'there? It's Babs! I got your letter." She placed her ear to the door and heard a light, muffled sound coming from the other side. "Whazzat?"

"Snot rocked!" came said muffled voice from the door, a little louder this time. It took Babs a few seconds to realize what it meant, but turned the knob when she did: it wasn't locked. She walked inside.

Green-tinted apples and flowers lined the wooden walls--in fact, the only piece of interior design which didn't conform to the theme were her cousin's heart-knobbed drawers. Meanwhile the scent of actual apples, always a constant in the household, was stronger than usual. Swing music emanated softly from an old record player in the corner.

Babs's eyes fell to the bed--the same bed which she had once forced into her possession. It looked the same as always except for one huge difference: drapes had been pulled over each of the posts, giving it the look of a miniature house. She approached it slowly, looking for an opening.

That was when Apple Bloom suddenly poked her head out. "Boo!" she said in a harsh whisper, just before giggling.

The prank, however, left Babs flat on her rear end, and not quite as amused. She got back up, rubbing said rear with several swishes of her tail as she did so. "Whoa! What in the hay're you doin', Bloom?"

"Shhhhhh!" Apple Bloom stuck a hoof out of the makeshift tent as well, beckoning with it. "C'mon in. And be quiet 'bout it!"

"I..." Babs pointed. "...what? In there?"

"Yeah! Come on, already!"

Babs did so, lifting up one of the drapes, scurrying in and joining her cousin on the mattress. "So why we bein' all secret about this?"

"'Cause we don't want Applejack to suspect nothin'."

Babs tilted her head. "Suspect what? That I came up here? I know I'm not up on all o' your country manners, but I thought I at least had free run of the house-"

Apple Bloom waved a hoof. "No, no, it's nothing like that." She smiled and touched one of Babs's hooves. "And you're always welcome here, okay? I don't ever want you to think otherwise."

"I-I..." Immediately Babs's heart did flip-flops, warm happiness and a still-lingering cold fear bumping against one another. She fought through the conflict to form words. "Th-thanks. But okay then, why the huge hush-hush act?"

"'Cause I don't want my sis to find out I snatched this," she said, gesturing with a flourish to a tin to the side of her. She pushed the tin between them, and took off its lid, revealing a still-lightly-steaming pie.

The smell of apples and cinnamon--the same as earlier, Babs now realized--overpowered the makeshift bed-house in seconds. Babs felt her body warming and her mouth watering against her will, and managed to swallow just before any drool escaped. She'd actually heard about Sweet Apple Acres' pies from her own sister, and even in Manehattan they'd gained a bit of a reputation as an importable delicacy.

To think she'd been so busy making enemies as to forget to try one.

Apple Bloom noticed Babs's reaction and smiled again, this time with a satisfied nod. "I was waitin' till you got up here so we could eat it together."

Babs gasped, taken aback. "R-really?"

"Yeah. I figured it was the least I could do, you know? I mean, after everything that happened. It's no olive branch, but I promise it's a whole lot tastier." She took the blunt end of a plastic knife into her mouth, cut out two slices, and put them on paper plates. She then reached to her side again, fetched a small cylinder and opened it.

Babs looked at the creamy substance inside of it and pointed. "Wait, is that-"

Apple Bloom giggled. "Yup! Would ze madame like some whipped cream with her dessert?" she said with a mock accent and several unnecessary flourishes.

This time, a small amount of drool did escape. "You kiddin'? Always!" Taking a spoon, she put a giant dollop on her slice of pie. The dessert now complete, she spooned off a bit and shoved it in her waiting mouth, took a few pensive chews...

...and froze.

"Celestia," she whispered.

Apple Bloom blinked. "Babs?"

Babs swallowed. "This... this ain't no pie," Babs breathed. "It's a whole lotta things--it's the best candy I've ever had, it's a party in my mouth, it might even be my new favorite food--but I can't call this 'pie.' It'd make all the other pies out there feel real bad, even the best ones I've had back home. I can't go back there and try to eat one now without thinkin' o' this. You've just spoiled me," she said with a laugh. "I hope you're happy!"

Apple Bloom laughed in kind. "My sis makes the best pies for miles around, and we make the cream here on the farm, too! But I made sure to help her out on both of these, so I'm real glad to hear you like 'em."

"Glmmmph..." Babs couldn't reply right away, still preoccupied with gobbling up pie and whipped cream like it was going out of style. After two whole cream-covered slices, she smiled and sat back, licking her lips and giving off a happy sigh. "Wow. I... I just... how do you guys eat this stuff all the time and not... you know..."

"Blow up like balloons?" Apple Bloom gave her cousin's tummy a few playful pats. "S'one of the perks o' bein' a farmhoof. Plenty of chances to work it off. Sure you don't want any more?"

"Whoa!" Babs scooted back a bit. "No, no more! Seriously, I'll fall into a sugar coma! Maybe a little later, okay?"

"I get it." Apple Bloom leaned in with a knowing look. "So, you mind if I ask you something now that you've forgotten to be all scared?"

The question stunned Babs speechless, until she relaxed with a sheepish look. "Caught me, huh?" she said with a sigh.

"Well I thought about it, and the letter I wrote probably sounded way more mysterious than I meant it to. Plus I saw you actin' completely the opposite of how you used to since you got here." She giggled. "Y'all never knocked to get into my room, for one."

"Y-yeah, well..." Babs put one hoof behind her head. "I-I guess you haven't had too much of a chance to see the real me, huh?"

"And that's why I called this meetin'." Apple Bloom smiled."Look, I get it. I know I'm always on hay-needles after I've had to apologize for something, like to you with the float. So we're on equal ground here. I just wanted to start over, same as you." She grabbed Babs's hoof from behind her head and held it in her own. "And I promise this is part of it."

Babs took a few moments to think, then replied with, "All right, you got me on board. Ask away, 'cuz."

"Sweet! Thanks!" said Apple Bloom, scooting even closer in front of her cousin. "Okay, I need to know: What's Manehattan like, girl? Y'all from the big city an' yet I ain't heard a peep about it!"

The tiniest of crimson tints shone on the sides of Babs's face. "You really wanna know that badly?"

"Since before you got here! Thing is, Sis lived there once, but whenever I ask her what it was like, all she ever says is 'ain't nothin' y'all would be interested in.' But she's wrong. An' I never got to ask you since we all started off on the wrong hoof, and you're leaving tomorrow!" Her voice took on an air of desperation. "I wanna know what all you're leavin' us to go back to. You gotta tell me! You just gotta!"

Babs held up her hooves. "All right, all right! I guess that's fair. When you put it like that, anyways."

"Yay!" Apple Bloom said with a squeal.

"Sheesh." Babs shook her head, then took a breath. "Okay, so. Imagine... a place where everything's bigger than you are. Like, not just the grown-up ponies, but everythin'. The streets, the coaches, the crowds, the noise. And then you've got the houses. I've walked around this town a couple times now, an' it looks like the biggest buildings ya' got are the got are this place an' the clock tower." She raised a hoof over her and Apple Bloom's heads. "The buildings in Manehattan make those look like us. They're that high."

Apple Bloom's mouth widened. "Whoa."

Babs chuckled. "Yup. Everything's faster than you too. Somepony's always out to get somewhere, so not too many are gonna take the time out to care about anyone but themselves. So you gotta look out for yourself, too. There's all kindsa ponies livin' together in the same city, but there ain't really a sense of everypony bein' together like out here in Ponyville. That's actually one of the things I liked seein' while I've been here. Kinda wish I'd stopped to appreciate that more."

"Wow," said Apple Bloom. "It sounds like the craziest, coolest place! I'd love to visit!"

"S'a great place to visit," Babs replied. "We've got tourists for days. But to live there..." She preened. "...yeah. Takes a certain kinda pony. Bein' raised there really helps."

"I bet. Anyway, Babs, thanks for telling me all that." She paused. "Oh, and I'm, um... sorry."

"Sorry?" Babs blinked. "For what?"

Babs glanced to the side. "For... uh... lyin', technically?"

"What?"

"Well, not tellin' the whole truth. See, there's one other reason I asked you 'bout the big city." Apple Bloom's face turned serious. "I wanted to get a picture in my head about how you might'a felt when you thought you had to go against your family just to make sure you weren't teased here like you were back home."

Babs lowered her head and sighed. So it had been too good to be true. "This was all a setup. Well, I guess I deserve it."

"No, not at all." Apple Bloom placed her hooves on Babs's shoulders. "You're a Cutie Mark Crusader now, and Crusaders look out for each other. Over here, the worst we have to deal with are Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara. But when you got here, you managed to make friends with 'em in [i]seconds[/i]. Even Scootaloo was impressed!" She paused. "Well, as impressed as she could be given... you know..."

"She was?" Babs perked up momentarily, then calmed down and chuckled. "Well, I am pretty impressive."

"Maybe here. But when you get back home... well, I'm a little scared of what you might face there. I mean, aren't you? If what y'all just told me about Manehattan's true, you're gonna have to deal with a whole buncha challenges, which Applejack said you came here to get away from, and-"

"I told you, I can handle myself. I've lived there all my life!" Babs wriggled, but Apple Bloom's grip firmed. When it was clear she wasn't going to be able to get away from her cousin, Babs sighed and closed her eyes. "It's just... school's a little tougher than I thought it'd be, is all. Sometimes you think ponies just can't get no meaner than they already are." She lowered her head. "Then they do."

"Oh, Babs..." Apple Bloom sighed as well. "Look, I ain't really ever told anypony else this. But when we first formed the Cutie Mark Crusaders, it was for a reason. It wasn't something we planned on, but something we just knew. Which wahmmmgh--!"

The last was courtesy of Babs placing her hoof to her cousin's mouth. "Mind if I take a crack at guessin'?"

"You... huh?" Apple Bloom blinked. "Uh, okay."

"Well, in the short time I've watched the Cutie Mark Crusaders doin' their thing, I've seen a lot of crazy stuff. Weird scheme after weird scheme. And I thought, 'maybe it's some kinda cutie mark acceleration program.'"

"Aw, c'mon. The stuff we do isn't that crazy!"

"Skydiving?"

"From a tree!"

"Jelly pig farming?"

"Thinking out the box!"

"Surviving being kidnapped by an evil queen?"

"That one was forced on us!"

"Matchmakin'?"

Apple Bloom's hoof met her forehead with a dull smack. "Has Sis been tellin' you all about the stuff that's happened to us?"

Babs grinned. "Maybe."

Apple Bloom groaned. "Girl never could just let things be," she muttered.

"I still saw some o' that stuff myself, though," Babs said. "Was enough to make me keep watchin'... and then try some things. Do a bunch of stuff on purpose. Get all up in your faces. See how much you could take."

Apple Bloom gaped. "Y'all were testin' us?"

Babs blushed. "Looks like you got me. In the back of my mind, yeah, I guess I was. And you'd keep failing to get your cutie marks, either on your own, or because you got railroaded by me. And I'd keep rolling my eyes... just before always seein' somethin' else."

Apple Bloom raised her eyebrows. "What was that?"

"You pickin' yourselves up and keepin' right on goin'. I'd always see other ponies throw pity parties, but ain't none o' you ever had the time for it. The Cutie Mark Crusaders I know are three fillies who've learned to be proud o' themselves before ever caring about getting some dumb picture on their butts. So don't sell yourselves short. You impressed me probably as much as I impressed you. Which is when I said to myself, 'I wanna be one o' them.'" She put a hoof behind her head again. "'Course, by then, it was a little tough."

Apple Bloom nodded. "Y'all were stuck with the friends you'd chosen."

"Yeah. 'Least I thought I was. But when you saved me from that runaway float-"

"That we rigged?"

Babs chuckled. "Heh, yep. When you saved me from that, I wondered if maybe there was still hope."

"There's always hope." Apple Bloom re-grabbed Babs's hoof. "That's what we're about. What brought me, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle together in the first place was that we weren't just tired of being judged for being blank flanks--we were tired of judging ourselves about it, too. We hoped to get ours every day, but if we didn't, there was always tomorrow."

Babs nodded. "I'm all about that. Which is..." Babs took a deep breath. "...which is why I wanna make a new branch of the Crusaders when I go back to Manehattan. I don't just wanna bring the spirit of the club with me--I wanna make it real."

"You what?" Apple Bloom did a double take. "R-really?"

"Really." Babs clasped her hooves in her cousin's. "Apple Bloom, do you know how many ponies totally obsess over their cutie marks? It's like you said. You try to find yours too, but if you don't get it, you know it's not the end of everything. The world needs more of that, trust me. Manehattan needs more of that."

Apple Bloom nodded. "So you wanna spread the Crusaders because of that?"

Babs shook her head. "No, 'cuz. I gotta spread the Crusaders because of that. There are a lot of fillies and foals out there who just don't have a whole lot of faith in themselves... and who'll either let themselves be bullied, or stoop to bullying others, all because they're scared. Like I was." Babs's head drooped. "I don't ever want anypony else to do what I did. You have no idea how glad I am that you and your friends forgave me. Must be that 'country hospitality' I've heard so much about. That'd be a whole lot harder to see 'round my neighborhood, much less my school."

The record player's song ended, and a silence fell over the room for minutes, until Apple Bloom got tired of it. "Hey, stay here for a sec. I wanna give you something."

"Huh?" asked Babs, only to see Apple Bloom already on the other side of the room in the blink of an eye, digging through one of her drawers.

"No... no... gosh, no... wow, I've been looking for that.... aha!" the yellow filly exclaimed in triumph, just before holding up a solid green scarf with a large red apple embroidered on both ends. She scampered back onto the bed and presented it with outstretched hooves. "Big Sis gave this to me last year for my birthday, but I stopped wearing it because I didn't want to tear it during any of my cutie mark stunts. Something tells me you're not as crazy about doin' those as I am." Apple Bloom winked. "So I want you to have it. For luck. Or whatever."

"Whoa." Babs gingerly took the scarf. "A-are you serious?"

"''Course I am! Plus you're further north than us, aren't you? I've heard it gets cold up there even when it isn't winter."

"Heh. Long as it isn't summer, yeah." Babs gently ran the scarf between her hooves. "Oh, wow. This... this is so soft, a-an' beautiful..." She brought it a little closer to her face, studying the design, and her eyes went wide. "Wait, doesn't it..." She ran to a nearby mirror, and wrapped the scarf around herself. "It does go with my eyes."

Apple Bloom held back a blush. "Y-yeah, that's the last reason why I thought of it. The apples kind of go with your hair, too."

Still in front of the mirror, Babs stood on her hind legs, placed one hoof on the dresser before her, and used the other to hold the scarf to her cheek, staring at her reflection: a face positively overwhelmed with remorse. "A-Apple Bloom, I... I don't deserve... not after what I-"

Apple Bloom simply sighed as she stood behind and to the side of her cousin, and draped a foreleg over her shoulder. "Babs, I told you. Starting over. That's what you asked for, right? So that's what you're gettin'."

"But-"

"No 'but's! Just this. C'mere." She tugged at Babs's shoulder prompting her to turn around, then pulled her cousin into a two-legged standing hug. "Sure glad I finally got to do this before y'all left."

"Me too. Thanks, Apple Bloom." Babs smiled, a sniffle escaping her against her wishes.

"No worries, girl." Apple Bloom wiped below Babs's eyes with a nearby cloth, stopping tears which threatened to escape.

"But, you know..." Babs started.

"Huh? What's up?"

"This... this reminds me of something." Babs's smile went from heartfelt to mischievous. "I got a story to tell. Wanna hear?"

Apple Bloom nodded with energy. "I love stories!"

"You sure? It's about when I was hanging around with those snooty rich girls."

"...oh." Apple Bloom took a few seconds to think, then replied, "Go for it."

"'Kay. Well, back when I was still with them, Diamond Tiara invited me to her house once, and while I was there, I went to get some water. Just as I was to trot into her room, I saw her and Silver Spoon huggin'. Really huggin'. Like... like we are now. Pretty sure they don't know I saw, though."

Apple Bloom gaped. "Seriously?"

"For serious. So you an' your friends might wanna watch 'em, 'cause there might be some hope there, too. Do me a favor though, and don't tell them I said that."

Apple Bloom giggled. "You got it. It's just between the two of us. I don't think Sweetie or Scoots would believe me anyway."

"Good. 'Sides, even if it turns out they are really friends, there's still one thing that gives us a huge leg up."

"Whassat?"

After taking a second to gather up her nerve, Babs leaned in to give Apple Bloom a light kiss on the cheek. This time, the blush between both of them was unavoidable.

"Babs..." Apple Bloom whispered.

"We're family," Babs said. "And I'm really glad we are."

---

"She's gonna get it."

Applejack stormed through the house the next morning, and walked up the steps to her sister's room in full-on warpath mode.

"If I've told her once, I done told her a thousand times: don't pilfer my pies!" she said, throwing open the door to Apple Bloom's room. "Now I'm short for an order and-"

Instead of continuing her planned loud wake-up speech, she stopped short upon getting a full look at the room. To be sure, a pie tin was sitting to one side of the bed, and Winona was soon at its side, chomping away at the scraps. The other thing Applejack saw, however, was sister and cousin, sleeping peacefully in each others' forelegs, with a familiar-looking scarf folded and draped across them both.

"Well I'll be," Applejack whispered, tucking them both a little further under their covers. "That's the one thing I've wanted to see all month. Thank goodness."

After shooing Winona out of the room, Applejack left as well, closing the door gently behind herself.

If that was what was to be gained through the a sacrifice of a single pie, so be it.

Pies could be remade.

The sight she had just witnessed came but once a lifetime if you were lucky.