"Momma! You're home!" Applejack cried and ran to the white mare and hugged her.
"Yes, sweetie, ah'm home." She cooed and stroked her young daughter's scruffy, blond hair.
"What about me?" Their father, Red Gala, said and he trotted through the door and Big Macintosh galloped over and hugged him.
That's when Applejack noticed that her mom had a light blue carriage behind her and her stomach had shrunk in size quite dramatically. Applejack's light green eyes opened wide and sparkled in the light from the overhead light and she bound over and looked into the carriage with Big Mac right behind her. When they looked in, they both gasped at the sight of the sleeping, yellow and red pony.
"What was her name again Pa?" Macintosh said softly as not to wake.
"Apple Bloom." He said, then turned to his wife, Apple Strudel, and kissed her on the forehead after drawing her close and pushed his hat down to the back of his neck.
"Anyways, ah assume that Granny Smith is already asleep? But where's Winona?" Their mother asked as she tossed her blond braid to the other side of her neck.
"Oh, she's just waiting in my room because we didn't want her to wake the baby." Applejack said to Apple Bundle with a smile and some giggles.
"Alright, well, sleep tight; ah'm gonna put our lil' bundle of joy in 'er crib. Night sweeties," Apple Bundle then hugged Applejack and kissed Big Machintosh. Carefully, she lifted Apple Bloom out of her carriage and walked up the stairs to the nursery they had worked on building since the announcement of her pregnancy.
"Better do what she says or else she come back and bite yer' head off." Red Gala said and gave Big Mac a nudge on mthe flank and the two siblings trotted upstairs.
Currently the two shared a room until Big Mac got his own, so they both raced into their room just in time to see their mom slip through the nursery door. Winona bounded around next to their legs and Applejack rubbed her between the ears and giggled. Big Mac picked her up by the scruff and placed her carefully on his bed. They said goodnight and both hopped in their bed and waited for the sweet bliss of sleep wash over them.
" I can't wait to talk to Apple Bloom tomorrow. I hope she'll be happy to see her two older siblings!" Big Macintosh said to Apple jack as he stroked the brown dog's back as it rose in sync with her breaths.
"Yah, she looked as cute as a button with that little red bow in 'er hair." The orange pony said half asleep, "Well, I'm gonna sleep, 'night!"
"Alright, goodnight little sis." He reached out his neck and blew out the small candle on his nightstand shortly after Applejack had blown her's out and they both fell asleep with smiles covering their faces.
--
After a year passed after Apple Bloom's birth, and their parents decided to visit Apple Strudel's sister, Orange Peel, to celebrate her 8th anniversary with Orange Slice. They stayed for a week and Granny Smith looked after the little ones. They took the Friendship Express to Manehattan, and they were supposed to come back on September 14th. Now, Applejack the the rest of the Apples' are waiting by the tracks to welcome their parents home.
"Hey sis, what did Mom and Pa say when you talked to them on the phone before we left?" Big Mac said as the two siblings were jumping up and down in the excitement of their arrival.
"She said that they would be coming on the two o'clock train and would be here aroun' 4:30 an-" Suddenly, everypony there ran to the right edge of the platform and gapsed and screamed at the sight, On the way to the edge, one pony who was pregnant bumped into Applejack and pushed her down. Ponies were crying everywhere and Big Mac helped his little orange sister up and onto his back.
"What do you see? What's everyone freaking out about?" He cried over the noise. Applejack squinted to see what was in the distance and she finally saw what everyone was looking at. In the distance, just barely, she could see a small puff of smoke; but it wasn't from a normal train, no, she could see the train. It was lying on it's side and the smoke was black as night.
"It... It..." she stuttered.
"What?" He yelled up to her
"It crashed," she looked down at Big Macintosh with tears coming to her eyes, making them slightly red and swollen," They're dead."
Author's Note
Okay, I just started the series so if i get a lot of good ratings on the next chapter, I'll continue.
A Few Apples Short of a Bushel
The large group of ponies all hurried off the platform and towards the train crash, along with some of the Police and Fire Department ponies. Applejack and Big Mac galloped over at the front of the crowd and Granny Smith trotted behind with little Apple Bloom who could not understand what was going on so she giggled while they ran and said, "Faster! Faster Ganny Smit!"
When everypony got there, names where being shout out from every direction, different names and from different mouths everywhere. Apple Jack and Big Macintosh had already started to move sraps of the train to look underneath for any surviors, or more importantly, their parents. Applejack was already begining to sniffle as she pushed the scraps every which way and Big Macintosh's eyes were beginning to have a frightened look to them.
Right when Apple Jack was about to quit looking and cry, the smell of fresh hay and apple juice filled her nostrils and she looked up. In front of her was her mother's hat. She stumbled helplessly over to it and picked it up to find her mom's pale, white face and strands of blonde hair covering it.
"Mom!" she screamed at the top of her lungs and put her hoof on her mother's cool face. Suddenly, her mom started to hack and cough and slowly opened her dim, green eyes and forced a smile. She slowly, and shakily, lifted a hoof and wiped away Applejack's tears as she looked at her mom dying in her arms.
"Apple Jack... Don't 'chu worry none, I know that you can be a great little gal and show Apple Bloom what a great big sister you can be..." she said, her voice cracking as she stroked the orange filly's golden hair.
"No mom... I want you to be there with me. Don't leave us!" Apple Jack sobbed over her mom. She clutched her neck in a hug and smelled in what would be the last she remembered of her mom. In that moment her mom hugged Apple Jack's small orange body close and a tear dripped out of her eye. Her mom didn't move again. Her shallow breaths stopped and her smile slowly faded from her face.
"Mom? Mom, its time to go home; go see Apple Bloom, remember? Mom? MOM!" she cried out and lay on her mom. She could see out of the corner of her eyes, the police ponies where coming to get her mom. Two of them wrenched her off of her mom's dead body while she kicked and screaming for them to give her back to her. Two other police ponies picked her up and placed her hurriedly, yet carefully, into the ambulance and closed the door. The police ponies let go of Apple Jack and she stepped forward, barely able to stand straight. She looked at the blood stains on her coat making it look more burnt orange than a shinning orange like it was this morning.
Apple Jack collapsed on the floor and started to cry silently when she heard more hoof beats trotting over to one of the other ambulances. She looked up to see who else they had found and almost instantly realized who it was. Her father's red coat and mane. Covered blood, he slightly glanced over to Apple Jack's grass, and tear, filled face and forced one of his best smiles and a wink to the daughter he loved so much. Then he closed his eyes and his whole body relaxed. They got him into the ambulance and started to drive away right when Big Macintosh got there. He stopped and stared at the ambulance racing away from him and he looked down. Suddenly, he tensed up and fell to the hard ground. Little AJ didn't know what to do so she slowly started to walk over to his shaking red body. "Mac..." she began but then he raised his head her and he looked worse then him. Apple Jack was now close enough to the see the many tears streaking his red coat. He lowered his head and started to sob silently. She let her tears loose that she had been holding in and nudged her way toward him to sit in the neck of a her big brother.
After a minute or two, Granny Smith walked up to the two little ponies and saw them. "Wha- What happened you two." tears started forming in her eyes and Apple Bloom looked down at her older siblings and frowned. She stumbled over and said," Apple? Mac? Why sad?" Apple Jack looked up and forced a smile, which quivering on her wet face, and stood up. She slowly walked over and smoothed the hair on her little sister's head down and brushed out the dirt.
"Nothing sweetie." Apple Jack's voice began to crack and she hugged Apple Bloom close as her own tears fell on the filly, "Just let your big sister take care of y'all from now on."
Apple Jack sulked over to the gazebo on her Apple Fields as she remembered why she was going there in the first place. When she finally looked up at the small gathering of her family she realized how sad everyone looked,and how sad she felt. When she got to the gazebo she could see Big Mac, Granny Smith, Aunt Orange, Uncle Orange and little Apple Bloom who was sucking on an apple she found. The orange filly walked over to her older brother and looked at his eyes; his usually bright, green eyes were not dull and glazed over. Apple Jack looked down and sigh, then nodded to the priest pony to begin the funeral and he nodded back.
"We are gathered here to day to say goodbye to two beloved friends, and family members." The priest began," Mr. and Mrs. Apple were a pleasure to be around and would great us all with smiles. Would anyone like to say a few things before we put their bodies and souls eternally to rest?"
"I would." Aunt Orange said and stepped forward as the priest nodded and stepped back to let her speak," Apple Strudel, dearie, you were the best little sister I could ever have hoped for. Now we had our different quarrels," she choked up and tried to hold in her tears and managed to gasp out," over silly things.But I could never have asked for someone else to call my little sister." Aunt Orange let the tears roll down her face but didn't make any noises as she nodded to the priest and stepped back to stand with her husband. He placed his head slowly on hers and she leaned into his shoulder to hide her tears.
"Anypony else?" The priest said looking at the small group and Granny Smith slowly walked forward. She looked to the priest with red-ish orange eyes that shinned from her tears and he stepped back again.
"Dear Apple Strudel," she began," you were the sweetest, most kindest mare in all of Equestria and when my young little Red Gala brought you home, I knew you were the one for him. Not too later, you got married, right at this here gazebo. Let me say, that was one of the happiest days of my life." she sniffled a bit and wiped her tears away," Then you had three wonderful little ponies and I became a grandmother. Now your gone, but I will look out for them just as you once do. Now my little boy is gone, but he's with you, so I know hes happy." Granny Smith sobbed out the last part and walked back shakily and her sobs hacked out of her throat quietly. Apple Jack looked at Big Mac as he stared into space and saw tears trickling down his red cheeks. The priest cocked his head slightly as if to ask her if she wanted to say anything and she nodded.
Of the whole group, AJ was the most well kept, meaning she was bursting into tears like everyone else. When she walked up to the coffins contained her parents' ripped up bodies, she opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out and she collapsed onto the ground with one hoof on her father's grave and the other covering her face as she sobbed. "Why did you have to go! You were the greatest parents ever and that stupid train took you both away from me!" She cried out as she looked at the two dark brown coffins laid out before her. Apple Jack lowered her head into the grass and started to sob silently. She could feel the others looking at her with sorrowful eyes, but she didn't care about it. Soon she heard footsteps trotting away and after a minute or two, she heard them coming back and stopping next to her. Then she felt something being placed on her head and looked up; it was their father's hat. Apple Jack looked up with teary eyes at who put it on her head and saw it was none other than her big brother. "But... Big Mac..." he smiled at her but didn't speak. the only tears she could make out were the tear streaks that were there from when Granny Smith was speaking.
He helped her up and looked at the priest with shinning eyes. The priest looked surprised that the once gloomy, sulking colt was smiling and shinning brightly. The priest walked to the coffin and Uncle Orange nodded to him and went back to comforting his wife. "Then without anything further, I rest these pour souls to eternal rest." and with that the two dark coffins slowly lowered into the ground and disappeared. The priest said a prayer and then placed the gravestones into their spots. Apple Jack looked up at her brother and noticed that he was watching Apple Bloom play over by a tree. She sighed and tried to forget why she was there and looked up at the sky. She searched the sky for clouds to identify when she saw two clouds together that looked like her mother and father smiling down on her as she smiled back at them.
