-Blu-

I sat in a bench across the hall and behind the door in front of me all I heard was screaming of pure hell and agony. I sat hunched over with my elbows on my knees tapping my fingertips against each other; waiting in agony for Apple to be finished. After another few minutes, I heard one long and loud groan of pure hatred for all of humanity before things went silent. The few seconds of silence were followed by the sound of a crying baby. After another few minutes, a doctor came out and I just shot up, "How is she Doc?"

"Why don't you come in and find out?" he smiled.

I rushed inside and saw a nurse handing Apple a newborn babe covered in blood and guts and whatever the hell else and the baby was swaddled in a blue blanket. The baby was whimpering a little bit as Apple was now looking at me. Tears and snot and sweat just streamed her face. Now, I thought I saw hell before; but in this case, I was wrong. She looked like hell and I just thought, she's still beautiful to me all the same.

I walked over to her and sat in the stool chair that was pulled up for me. I looked at Apple, "Say hello to your son Macintosh, baby," she cried tears of joy now. The baby fidgeted as he quieted down. His puffy eyes stayed shut and he was just adorable. I never knew love until I met Apple, but in this case, I loved this little bundle of human more than I did her.

"Hello Macintosh," I smiled and lightly brushed his head. Macintosh whimpered at the touch, "He's so beautiful," I said.

"And he's all ours. Care to hold him?" I was just stunned at the question and fear began setting in. Here before me was a tiny human, no bigger than three-fourths of my forearm; and then there's me, a seven foot, four hundred pound giant. I didn't think I could handle holding such tiny life in my hands. Apple must've seen it because she said, "its okay, and you won't hurt him."

I slowly and carefully scooped Macintosh into my hands. I placed him my left arm and placed my finger into his tiny hand. His tiny little hand wrapped itself around my finger and I just felt such joy coming from being a father, "So what's his name going to be?" a nurse came up to me to ask.

"His name is going to be McIntosh Apple," I smiled.

"That's a wonderful name," the nurse said and I again became even more careful as I handed McIntosh to her, "Let's go get you all cleaned up little one," she smiled at him before walking off.

After a few hours, we were finally in a room all by ourselves Apple and I. We had finally gotten out of the recovery room which was just pure hell for me because there were a few other recent mothers there and all they wanted to talk about was their babies. I mean, I know that the love of our kids can't be described, which is why we talk so much about them. But at that point, I just wanted to make most of those kids become orphans. The dads were trying to compare their gene pool heritage and compare babies because their all scientists. Personally, I didn't give a damn. My son was going to be a monster of a man because both of his parents are over seven feet tall, with a combined weight of almost eight hundred. So if he does so happen to be at average Equestrian height of five three, I'll soon realize that he wasn't mine.

A few nurses and a doctor came into the room with McIntosh. He was in the arms of one nurse; another nurse brought in a crib; and the third one had a car seat filled with diapers and wipes, "Okay," the doctor looked up from his clip board, "Your son has a wonderful health. One of the healthiest babies I have ever seen."

"I sense as though there's a 'but' in there," Apple said as she took the baby into her arms.

"Since you both are so tall, there might be some skeletal problems down the line."

"We already know doctor. He's going to have bad knees and a bad spinal column."

"Do you have a house that can accommodate him?" the doctor made the bad mistake of asking that question.

"Are you serious right now, Palmer?" I scowled at him, "If he's tall like either one of his parents, then of course. I mean, look at us."

"I'm sorry, I just wanted to make sure."

"Make sure for what exactly?"

"Don't worry about it. It was just a stupid question that I shouldn't have asked. I'm sorry."

"Yeah that's what I thought."

"Anyway, McIntosh is good and healthy and I know that he'll grow up in a loving environment."

When we got home and Charm was sleeping on the couch for it was night. She apparently tried waiting up for us which I found sweet because she's not a night owl like I am, "Why would ya look at that?" I said, "She tried waiting up for us."

"Should we wake her up?" Apple asked as I wheeled her deeper into the house.

"No, let her sleep."

That's when Charm began to stir. She stretched her body like a cat's before she sat up to rub her eyes. She looked at us before she became fully awake, "Oh, the new baby!" she quietly exclaimed, "What's its name?"

"His name is McIntosh," I told her. Charm walked over to Apple to look at him. He slept soundly as she just ogled over him.

"Tomorrow we'll have a big party."

"Or you can wait another couple of weeks until my bachelorette party," Apple laughed, "I'm still tired from giving birth."

"Okay, but still, I want to do something to welcome the newest member of the Apple Family. He's so cute and innocent looking."

"Let's just get mister in the bed so we all can rest okay?" Apple kissed his face.

I took Apple upstairs and sat her down on the bed, "I'll go get the crib," I looked at McIntosh and his eyes were open for the first time. They were green and sparkling. He stretched his arms and let out a few mewls and whimpers. I took him into my arms, "its okay," he just quietly cried, "I think he may be hungry," I handed him back to his mother and left the room to go grab the crib.

When I got to the door, I saw that it was opened. On the other side of the screen door was Charm with her back turned, "...that's not my life any more Mac Micro. I'm trying to do right by him."

"C'mon, don't be like this. Where we used to be, you were accepted. You can't be accepted here."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"You are over six feet tall Charm! You can't live here!"

I decided to reveal myself and walk up to the screen door, "Is everything okay out here?" I walked outside and stood next to my sister.

"Hey, this is none of your concern," this little man pointed his finger up at me.

"This is my sister, so I do have some concern."

"She was the best thing for our community and you took her away."

"Just go away," Charm ran back inside.

"Charm, wait!" this guy tried following her, but I stood in front of the door.

"I may not know what went down between you two, but I know when she's done with a guy. You leave, and never come back."

I grabbed his collar and picked him up. He shouted and fought as I passed him off to one of the Apple family workhands, "Make sure that he gets off the property and stays off."

"Of course," she smiled and dipped her chin, "Can't wait for the wedding in a couple weeks."

"See ya there Apple Brae," I went to the truck that I rented from the train station and opened the door. In the passenger seat sat a small blue cube. I grabbed it and put it into my pocket. When I turned around, Charm was standing there, "You okay?"

"Can we talk?" she held herself.

"Yeah, of course. Just let me get this crib to Apple and I'll be back down," I showed her the cube before walking back up to the room. There was Apple laying on her side with her body in the form of a crescent moon. McIntosh was laying close to her stomach. His blanket was no longer in his blanket. He was just in his baby outfit with small pebbles swirling slowly over his face. His eyes were following them and it was obvious that he was trying to fight sleep.

I leaned against the door frame until Apple looked up and saw me, "Hey, what was going on downstairs?"

"Just Charm's life trying to hold her back is all."

"You're going to talk to her aren't you?" she smiled.

"Yeah, figured I'd give you this. But I'm now figuring that I'll set it up tomorrow."

I handed her the cube, "Go talk to your sister," she said as she placed the cube behind her. Apple then looked back down at the baby who was looking up at her.

"Okay," I smiled and left the room. Downstairs was Charm sitting in the couch flipping through the channels. I went through the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of Spiced Apple Cider and moved into the den room. I sat next to her and popped the top off to take a sip. The spicy acidic liquid ran down my throat, "Aaaah!" I sighed, "Wanna drink?"

"I quit drinking," I shrugged and when I brought it to my lips, I felt the bottle being pulled from my hand. I looked to my left and saw Charm take a sip from the blood red bottle, "Don't judge me Thunder. I need this."

"I never minded your drinking, it was just when you did it too much. This time, I can trust that you won't go overboard."

After a few minutes of watching the Flim Flam trial, Charm blandly asked, "Go ahead and ask, why don't you?"

"Ask what?" I knew what she was talking about, but I didn't say anything as I just continued watching the television.

"You know damn well what," she turned in her seat to face me.

I looked at her, "Fine then, I'll ask. Who was that guy?"

"His name is Mac Micro. He used to be in the Tech Field or something before he thought that the World Leaders were planning something against their people. So he quit his old life, and started up a revolution with other people who believe the same things he does."

"Let me rephrase that question," I turned in my seat and propped my head on my hand that had my elbow rested on the back of the couch, "Who is he to you?"

"I met him when I was eighteen, later we fell in love. That was until he almost destroyed a school for whatever odd reason, I duuno. I didn't stick around long enough to find out. That was a few weeks ago when I heard that you were on the news. It's also when I decide to clean myself up by coming here and try to reconnect with you."

I felt like she wasn't really telling me everything, so I just kept looking at her, "Is that all Charm?"

"Yeah, of course," she lied.

"You're a horrible liar."

"Okay, fine. I'm pregnant. A month along now, which got me off drugs somewhat. After what happened with Mac Micro, I just wanted not to have my baby live like that," she tried not to cry.

"It looks like you now have an official reason to sober up," I smiled at her.

"But I was just so lost then. I didn't know what to do."

"It doesn't sound like it," she looked at me, "Even when you were out and about, you were helping people for what you thought was the greater good."

"Well, I did enjoy helping people. Maybe that's what I'm meant to do, was to help people," she smiled, "I did feel good doing that," just then, a dim light came from underneath her denim capris around her hip area, "OW!" she jumped up and grabbed her hip.

"Wait, let me see something," I knelt down in front of her and pulled down the patch of clothing covering her hip to see a faintly glowing heart with a white cross in the middle of it, "Oh yeah, it's your Cutie Mark!" I smiled.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about Cutie Marks. None of the revolution had them or even wanted them."

"This is such an amazing thing. Good for you."

"Do you have one?" she asked as I stood back up.

"No, I guess I haven't found out what I'm actually called to do yet."

"Maybe it's being a father or something."

"What do you mean by that?" we both sat back down.

"Well, when I went back upstairs to give Apple the crib, McIntosh opened his eyes for the first time. When I looked into those small round eyes, I just felt my heart leap for joy. Who never knew that such a tiny thing would give me so much joy? It's better than sex I think."

"I hope that I'll have the same joy you have."

"I know you will."

"How so?" she looked at me.

"This is the first day of Apple being an actual mother, but I can see that the love she has for our son is far greater than the love she has for me. She has a lot of love to give that boy, I know that for sure. Anyway," I yawned afterwards, "I'm gonna go to bed. You should too."

"I think I'm going to stay up for a little while longer."

"Then I'll see you in the morning sis," I kissed her forehead, "Good talk," I left the room and headed for the stairs. At the top of the stairs, I saw the whole top level of the house covered in a vibrant green. I went up the stairs and the source of the green light came from Apple's room. I quietly walked over and the sight was just stunning. There was Apple laying on her back with McIntosh lying face down on her chest. There was a bubble of some kind of green energy with green wisps coming out of it. She had her hands covering everything except the head of the baby as this was happening. When I walked into the room, I felt a weight on my body. That weight on my shoulders forced me to my knees as I looked on. Soon after, the green light faded and the energy slowly sank into Apple and McIntosh.

I crawled into the bed and realized that Apple and McIntosh were asleep. I smiled and just fell asleep on my side.