A/N

Since so many of you wanted me to continue, I literally speed-dashed over to my computer to work on this chapter! There's gonna be a bit of a time-skip here, to the point where Mint Sketcher and Midnight Blaze are a wee bit older. Also, to clear up any confusion on age, Mint Sketchers brother: Jonagold, is about 5th grade age in the last chapter. Mint is 3ard grade age. Midnight (being two years younger than Mint) is 1st grade age. Now, Mint is in the sixth grade range, Jonagold is in eighth and Midnight is in third grade. Confused? So am I. I had to do the math on this, because the real Mint Sketcher is two years older than me. His brother's in high school, but I estimate that they're two years apart, mainly because Mint mentioned one day that he had to deal with his brother when he was in sixth grade. Anyway, on to the story! Sorry for the confusion ^_^'

Chapter Two: Moving

It was a regular day for me. I'd flown down with permission from my parents to go and play with Mint Sketcher, we'd done all sorts of cool tricks, rested on clouds and even pulled a prank on Fluttershy's pet rabbit; Angel. Then we settled down in a nice fluffy cloud for once, instead of laying on our usual hill, and talked about things that we wanted to do when we were older.

"Hey Mint?" I asked out of a moment's pause about cloud formations.

"Hmm?"

"What do you think you'll do when you're older?"

He glanced at his new cutie mark. "Well, I already found my talent…. I'll probably be an artist of sorts."

His cutie mark was a palette with a mint leave dipped in the dark violet. He'd gotten it when doodling a little drawing of me.

"You'll be the best artist there ever was!" I chirped, smiling.

He smiled at me. "As long as you like my art, I'll be content."

Another pause of silence. Finally, he asked "What do you think you'll do?"

I shrugged. "No clue. My mother says I'll have a cutie mark like hers, probably. A lot of the ponies on my mother's side have similar cutie marks."

"Such as…?"

"Well, my grandma; Jade Moon, studies different moon cycles that occasionally appear every so often. My grandfather; Colt Starlight, specializes in star magic. One of my distant cousins; Star Whistle, is an amazing star creator. Another distant relative, Moonshadow Sprint, is the best night racer there ever was."

"Just because your family has this thing going, doesn't mean you need to follow tradition." Mint said, casting his gentle smile again. "My dad's half of the family are apple farmers. So is my brother. But my talent's different from them."

"I've never met the rest of your family, other than your father, mother and brother." I protested.

Mint chucked. "Well come on, Midnight. Aunt Applejack's been dying to meet you anyway."

He rose to his hooves and looked at me expectantly. He was still much bigger than me. I followed his example and he flapped his wings a couple of times to get in the air, hovering for me. Once we were both in the air, we traveled at the speed of normal pegasus.

He led me to a farm, and judging by the thousands and thousands of apple trees, it was Sweet Apple Acres. My parents had mentioned that there was a famous farm in Ponyville, known as Sweet Apple Acres. They grew apples by the hundreds, and even made apple produce. Of course, they didn't know much other than that, just it was an apple farm, mainly because pegasus from Cloudsdale do not often know much about Ponyville. I think that most of the residents can be quite rude to different species, especially earth ponies.

We landed right in front of the sign, Mint walking right through, like he owned the place, although he probably did if half of his family was part of the Apple family. He led me to the farmhouse, where I smelled apple pie cooking.

"Granny Smith, are you making apple pie?" Mint called though, opening the door for me. He closed the door behind him as he entered.

"Is that you, Mint Sketcher?" a frail, but somewhat firm female voice called.

Following Mint into the kitchen, I saw a light green elderly mare, with a white mane and tail. She wore both in a bun, and had orange eyes. She wore an apple patterned scarf, backwards. Her cutie mark was a pie, presumably apple. Along with her, was a light yellow young mare, with a red-pink mane tied back in a pink bow. Her eyes were almost the same color, except for the pink tint. Her cutie mark was a white flower, maybe an apple flower.

"Yes, Granny Smith." Mint hugged the elderly mare tightly, and backed away and watched the yellow mare pulled an apple pie out. She set it out on the counter, and took out of a bag white flowers. She carefully placed the flowers on the pie, making a perfect circle. She finally glanced at Mint and I, smiled warmly.

"You must be that lil' filly I keep hearing about from my nephew, Mint here." her voice was very pleasant, with a twang to it similar to Big Macs.

I blushed. "I guess so."

She stuck out a hoof. "My name's Apple Bloom. Aunt Apple Bloom to this youngster. Welcome to the farm, Midnight Blaze."

I think I may have blushed even harder, but I didn't have time to check, before Mint was pulling me out the door. "Yell when that pie's cooled off. I want Midnight to get a taste of the famous Apple family pie and cider."

"Well it wouldn't be proper to send her off without tasting it. Your daddy's in the northern apple orchard with your brother and other aunt. Take a bucket of water out to them, they've been workin' hard all day." Apple Bloom said.

Once outside of the house, we went to the well, and Mint filled up a bucket of water. He hung it on his back, like you would saddlebags, with another bucket, and trotted out to where the orchard was.

"So you have a big family?" I asked, panting. I had to take two more hoofsteps for every hoofstep he took.

"Yup. My mama says the Apple family breeds like rabbits."

"Huh. Do you consider that cool?"

"I don't know. I guess so. It is pretty nice having a big family, cause there's a lot of fun. We help each other through thick and thin. But it's annoying sometimes, because most of my relatives disapprove of my cutie mark."

"Why's that?" I asked, mentally sighing in relief as he slowed to a fast walk.

"Guess I'm the only Apple descendant with a different cutie mark. I don't have something apple related, so they think I'm not a true member of the Apple family. Course, that's...pardon my swearing, but as my Aunt Applejack likes to say, that's a load of horsecrap."

"That is pretty stupid." I replied, falling silent as I saw three ponies in somewhat of a triangle. Two were easy to identify. Big Mac and Jonagold were (as Mint had explained to me before) bucking apples out of the trees. Another mare was present, this one orange with yellow hair. She wore a hat, like a cowhorses hat, and had freckles similar to Big Mac's and Jonagold's. She has her yellow mane and tail in somewhat of a ponytail (I have no idea why they call it that), and her own cutie mark was three apples. Her eyes were green like Big Macs.

"Water, everypony!" Mint called.

Jonagold gave a whoop, as he trotted over to one of the buckets on Mint's back and scooped up water using the ladle. He drank it quickly, and dipped the ladle in one more time, almost getting a third, but the orange mare cuffed him lightly.

"Save some for us, goof-head." she said, chuckling. Her voice had that twang too.

"Sorry, Aunt Applejack." Jonagold mumbled.

"Aunt Applejack, this is Midnight." Mint said, flicking his tail at me, pointing.

Applejack smiled. "Pleasure to finally meet the filly who befriended my youngest nephew." She stuck her hoof out.

I shook it, and gave my shy smile. Big Mac moved up to the water next, and drank thirstily. "Nice that ya finally get to see the rest o' his family, eh?"

I nodded.

Big Mac chuckled. "We may be a big family, an' not always agree with one another, but we're loyal to the core."

"I believe that."

Mint seemed to redden a bit. "C'mon Midnight, let's go back to the barn."

"Now wait just a minute, you. You need to show her how ya buck apples before I let you anywhere. It's good practice anyway." Applejack gently tugged on Mint's tail affectionately.

Mint groaned, but approached a tree. He backed up a bit, and finally curled up, then as he spread out again, kicked the tree hard with his hind legs. The tree shook furiously, and some of the apples fell out of the tree on the ground.

Mint limped away from the tree, obviously in pain. "Ow…" he squeaked.

"That'd be why you need to hang around the farm more often. You can strengthen your legs if you buck more frequently." Applejack pointed out, trotting over to where the apples laid, scattered.

Mint shook his head. "C'mon we're going back to the barn."

…

The sun was setting, Celestia moving it to make way for Luna's moon. We watched it set while we waited for my parents to pick me up. They didn't quite like me flying around by myself.

"Midnight?" I heard the voice of my mother. Mint had led me to the spot where I'd crash-landed so we could lay and watch the clouds.

"Up here, mother." I called.

She appeared, hovering. "Is this where you crashed?" she asked. I nodded.

"Well, you best say goodby to your friend. You're not going to be able to fly to his house tomorrow."

"Why?" I asked.

"We're moving to Canterlot. Your father has decided it'd be best for work."

My mouth dropped open. "B-but y-you said that we wouldn't move, cause there was no reason for it!"

"Use proper Equestrian, dear. And there was no reason for it at the time, but your father says it'll be easier for him, you'll see him more often. Plus, I see educational opportunities for you. You didn't really think that I'd allow you to simply hang around your friend for the rest of your life now, did you?"

"B-but mother…"

"No buts. Our family is well-known for being highly intelligent, and highly educated. Now say goodbye, you're wasting time."

I turned to Mint, with tears in my eyes. His ears were down, and he looked especially disappointed.

We lunged forward at the same time, and embraced. Time seemed to stand still, as my tears ran down my cheeks, and some onto Mint's neck.

When we finally let go, I could see Mint was crying too. He sniffed, and wiped his nose with his hoof.

"I hope I see you again...someday." he said softly, as my mother began to lead me off.

"Me too." I said sadly.

I didn't see him all throughout the rest of my foalhood….

A/N

Okay, admit it. You all started to cry at the end. I'll admit that I got very sad near the end of this chapter. This actually took longer than it should've. I was working on the cutie marks for certain characters that I couldn't just look up (like Mint's and Midnights). My original idea for Midnight's cutie mark actually didn't fit what her talent was, so I made a few changes. I'm going to start work on the third chapter as soon as this goes up, so don't worry.