Dried Apples
Another day, another snowstorm. I sighed as I watched as Applebloom and her friends finished building their snowpony. It was to be added to the other four snowponies she had built. We had already had four snowstorms this week, and it was only Thursday! This had to be the hardest winter Ponyville has seen in years!
“Applebloom! Lunch!” Granny Smith called from the door.
I heard a muffled, “I’ve got to go,” as Applebloom stuck the hat on the snowpony. She came inside.
“May Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo eat with us? They’re running out of food,” Applebloom said.
“Nope,” Big Mac replied as he sat down.
“Sorry Applebloom, we don’t have enough either,” I told her. She ran out to tell her friends and came back in sadly. I ate a few bites of the dried apple and put it back in the napkin. We had two more apples, and then we were out. No more food. We’d starve. And Hearth’s Warming was only two weeks ago!
“Applebloom, why don’t you go back outside? After all, your friends are still here,” I said. She ran out. I turned to Granny Smith and Big Mac.
“We have to do something! We’re running out of food,” I told them. Granny Smith nodded.
“Eeyup,” Big Mac agreed.
“And I think I know what to do!” I exclaimed. They looked at me, surprised. “We write a letter to Apple Brown Betty!”
“That’s a great idea” and “Eeyup” were said at the same time.
“Good,” I said, taking out a sheet of paper.
Dear Apple Brown Betty,
The residents of Ponyville need your help. There was a shortage of food this year, so we don’t have enough to last us the winter. We plead you will help us and we await your response.
Your cousin,
Applejack
“That will be ten bits,” the cheese pony said. We didn’t have ten bits, as we couldn’t sell our apples! I walked away sadly.
“Ten bits for a hunk of cheese!” I muttered. I felt a few snowflakes land on my head. “Not now!” I ran home. Granny Smith looked up from her knitting. I shook my head and she sighed.
“Applebloom! It’s snowing! Why don’t you go out to play?” I asked.
“I’m tired of playing in the snow! I want to go out and get my cutiemark!” Applebloom whined.
“Not in this weather,” I told her. “It’s too dangerous.”
“Then I’m going back to my room!” she yelled. The weather must have put her in a bad mood. I looked down at the last two apples worriedly. If Apple Brown Betty didn’t come soon, we’d starve.
Big Mac came back in. He’d been outside putting wood over our windows. We couldn’t let the snow seep into the house as we needed to stay warm.
Granny Smith was knitting a blanket. It would also help us stay warm. She had already made one for Applebloom and herself. She was in the middle of mine.
Applebloom was making us a “special lunch” out of who-knows-what. I just hoped it wouldn’t make us sick- we already had enough on our hooves.
I had asked Rarity to sew winter coats for us, and she was still working on them.
There were a few ways to make it through the winter, but if we didn’t have enough apples, we’d starve. And not just apples- we don’t have many other things to eat either.
And we were down to our last apple.
My name’s Apple Brown Betty. I’m from Neigh Orleans. My cousin Applejack sent me a letter because Ponyville was starving. If I didn’t hurry… well, I don’t even want to think about what would happen if I didn’t get there in time. My family was counting on me. Applejack, Big Mac, Granny Smith, Applebloom… I just wouldn’t, couldn’t let them starve. I just couldn’t!
It may not seem so important, but it is. Family starving is terrible, even with a big family like us Apples. We’re so close, Applejack and I, that we’re almost sisters. Well, we are cousins.
It was snowing very hard. I had to stay at a hotel for a night. How long had it been since Applejack had written me? A
month? I hoped I wasn’t too late.
We were down to half an apple, and we had been eating hay for quite a while. It turns out that was Applebloom’s lunch. And we had just finished the hay. All of Ponyville was starving.
“Applejack?” Applebloom asked. She looked a little pale. I went to feel her forehead.
“You’re hot,” I muttered. “Back to bed with you!”
“I don’t wanna…” she replied tiredly, almost out of tune.
“You have to if you want to get better,” I said sternly. “Do you want to get better?”
“Yeah, but I don’t wanna go to…” Applebloom was asleep. I nuzzled her.
“Think she’ll get better?” I whispered.
“Eeyup,” Big Mac answered, carrying Applebloom upstairs.
“Think who’ll get better?” Granny Smith asked.
“Applebloom,” I replied in a little above a whisper.
"Applebloom's sick?" Granny Smith asked, alarmed.
"I'm afraid so."
“Then I’d better get cooking up some soup!” Granny Smith exclaimed.
“But Granny!”
“What?” she asked.
“We don’t have much to eat!” I reminded her.
“Do you want your sister to get better or not?”
“I do,” I lowered my head shamefully.
“Then it’s time I get cooking!” Granny Smith said as she started rummaging in the almost empty pantry.
“Aha! Some salt!” she cried, like she just won 1st prize in a race. She headed towards the stove.
“Applejack! Get me a dried apple!” she called to me.
“But Granny! We only have one left!” I replied.
“Do you want your sister to get better or not?” she asked again, impatiently.
“I do, I do,” I answered. “I just don’t want to go hungry!”
“Just give me the apple!” she told me. I handed it to her.
“Good.” She mixed salt, dried apple skin, pepper, and hay in boiling water. “Take this up to your sister.”
I took it up to Applebloom.
“Hey! Hey, Applebloom!” I called. “Have some soup!” I lifted the bowl to her mouth. She slurped it until it was all gone.
“Applejack! Dinner!” Granny Smith called. She seemed to have forgotten we were down to our last apple. And now our last apple was just about gone.
“Hurry, hurry, hurry!” I muttered to myself as the sleigh rolled down the hill. “I have to make it, even though I know that letter was sent 2 months ago tomorrow!” I was thinking aloud.
I was worried about Applejack, my family, and all the rest of the ponies in Ponyville.
“Just a few more hours until I arrive. I- have- to- HURRY!”
Was it already too late?
Big Mac took a bite of his piece of apple. This was his first bite and probably his last. The. Apple. Was. Gone! I threw it away. No more time. If Apple Brown Betty was going to come, she needed to come now!
The door creaked open. A hooded figure stepped in.
“Is this Sweet Apple Acres?” a voice asked.
“Uh, no,” I muttered. “You get out of my home!”
“Applejack? What’s going on?” I heard a small voice and turned around. There was Applebloom.
“Applebloom! Quick! Behind me! Somepony’s invading our home!” I cried. Scared, Applebloom ran behind me.
“If this isn’t Sweet Apple Acres, why is there a sign clearly stating: ‘Welcome to Sweet Apple Acres’?” the stranger continued. “Tell me that?”
“It’s not!” I called.
“Then will you please direct me towards it? My cousin Applejack needed these apples and I hope it’s not too late. I thought you were Applejack but I haven’t seen her for years, missing out on so many Apple Family Reunions.”
I took a step closer. “Apple Brown Betty, is that you?”
“Why yes, yes it is.”
“I am Applejack!” I exclaimed excitedly.
“Oops! It’s been too long, hasn’t it? I can’t even recognize my own cousin!” Suddenly she grew worried. “Is it too late?”
“No! Although, Applebloom’s sick,” I replied.
“Oh dear, I better distribute these apples quickly!” she told me. “Mind if I stay here for the winter? I’m sure there are other hungry ponies in Ponyville!”
“Of course!” I cried. “Of course.”
Ponies were lined up, all wanting to get their apples quickly. I reopened our family’s apple stand.
“One bit per apple or 3 bits for the family pack, up to 6 family members,” I told a customer. She handed me the money and Applejack gave her the apples. She walked away happily.
“Next!”
