"Ah miss ya. It ain't fair." They were simple words, but there were times when the most simple of words carried the heaviest of weights. A weight that, unlike other times in her life, Applejack had not allowed others to help her carry.
Applejack was not, by nature, an extraordinarily emotional pony. Not in the negative sense, at least. She was tough yet fair, sometimes thick headed. She'd all but exhausted herself once trying to harvest the entirety of Sweet Apple Acres by herself, and even then come down with pneumonia shortly after that. A fact that Twilight did hesitate to often remind her of. It composed of a farmhouse sitting on an even larger ranch in an even larger orchard, filled with apple trees of all ages and sizes, and varying degrees of importance. Although that didn't mean much outside of the Apple Family. Heck, her most favorite of them all had been relocated to Appleoosa. But favoritism did not equal importance, and the most important apple tree was not the biggest tree, nor the one which carried the most fruit. In fact, it was no longer even a tree at all.
It was an old stump. Hidden from the rest of the world deep within the maze of orchards and hills that made up the majority of Sweet Apple Acres. Few knew it even existed. To most of the rest of the world, it may even appear to be an eyesore that needed immediate removal. But this stump had remained here through several years, and anypony who tried to remove this particular remnant of days long past wouldn't be able to sit down for a month.
Applejack rested upon it, running her hoof along the crevices in the old bark. It had once been a proud and mighty tree, but that was years and years ago. She cringed at the very memory, trying to hold back the cascade of tears running down the sides of her face. She could still see so vividly the wild, terrible storm that had brought the tree crashing down. There had been a storage barn nearby once, one that the tree had been dangerously close to falling upon. She remembered almost everything as if it had only just happened...
The sun was beginning to set in the sky, and usually would have filled the horizon with wondrous pastel colors, the likes of which were never the same twice. It was a favorite time of day for the growing Apple family, when all, young and old, would gather around and watch the light show created by Celestia's setting sun. But not tonight. Tonight the sky was nearly black with clouds, weather pegasi darting back and forth even still, thickening the ominous mass. Apple Bloom toddled near the orchard gates, barely even aware of the danger in the sky, while young Macintosh watched her protectively. He was a strapping young stallion, and already strong as an ox. He loved his sisters dearly. Mother and Father stood together at the top of the porch with Applejack, who had only recently gotten her own cutie mark. taking mental inventory of everything in sight as a single raindrop splashed down upon the latter's nose.
"Macintosh!" Father yelled. "Gather up Bloom an' git her inside, storms about to break!"
"Coming, father!" Macintosh replied. He nudged his head up under Bloom, bouncing her onto her back. Raindrops were falling more frequently now, and Bloom would have continued clapping her hooves as she was, had thunder not cracked through the sky. She began to cry, and Macintosh carried her inside. Applejack wanted to stay and watch, but Mother nudged her inside as well. "All of you, get some supper, and get to bed." Mother warned. "We'll close up the shutters. The storm will pass soon enough. Macintosh, it's your turn to put Bloom to bed. Make sure to light the lantern, she can't sleep in the dark."
"Don't worry, Mother. I know how to take care of Bloom," Macintosh assured her, and took the youngest sibling into the back. Applejack sighed. Storms were nothing new, they had a massive one every few months or so, alternating otherwise around smaller spurts of rain. Applejack was not feeling particularly hungry at that moment, and so elected to go to bed instead. She didn't remember falling asleep, but did remember waking. The entire room lit up like a spotlight, illuminating every crack. An ear splitting crack of thunder caused her to jump involuntarily. The rest of the house was quiet, and Applejack didn't like it. Apple Bloom was still asleep, a miracle in this weather. The filly usually woke up crying even under calm conditions.
Applejack rose, and ventured throughout the farmhouse. Her parents room was empty. Apple Bloom was sleeping in her crib. Macintosh was charging outside. Everything seemed alright. Wait, what?!
Running to the door, Applejack yelled outside into the howling winds. "Macintosh! Are y'all crazy?!"
The young stallion called back to her, something about the storage shed. He raced into the darkness before she could find out what it was, and she hesitated. She didn't want to follow him into the darkness and leave Bloom here all by herself, what if the foal woke up? But then again, what if something was wrong? She blazed forward, deciding to find out what was going on, and then she'd come right back.
The rain was pouring down from the sky in a violent torrent, visibility was nearly nonexistent. Applejack didn't need much light to tell where she was going, she knew Sweet Apple Acres backwards and forwards. She weaved around trees, soon coming across a flickering in the distance. Was that fire? No, it couldn't be, it was raining too hard. The light was coming from the storage shed, where essential equipment for getting through the seasons was held when not in use. But her attention was not on the shed at this moment, rather on the old tree towering above it. Lightning had struck the tree, and although the rain had nearly put out the blaze that had ensued, the tree threatened to topple over at any moment. Deep cracks ran up the bark, branches hanging precariously. What little flames remained were reduced to quickly scattered embers.
Macintosh stood barely outlined against the darkness, his build already impressive at his then younger age. "This is too much!" He yelled over the wind. "It ain't safe to be out here! Y'all need to get inside!"
Their father had shaken his head. "We gotta make sure the barn stays up! We can't afford a new one, and if it goes down we won't have no place to store our equipment! Equipment can be replaced, but revenue ain't as easy! We got ponies that depend on us!" He shouted in order to be heard over the blowing winds.
Macintosh had protested.
"Ain't safe! We can deal with it!" The two had begun bickering. Their mother was shivering, all of them completely drenched by rain.
"Applejack! Git back inside an' watch Bloom's crib! This terrible noise'll wake'er up!" Always thinking of others. But her point was valid. Applejack didn't like any part of this, but knew better than to argue with her mother. She had turned to head back to the house, and had only gone a few steps when there was a terrible crack.
Her memories went slightly hazy at that point, there was lots of shouting. A stifled scream. Applejack couldn't forget, however, the crack of the broken tree as the trunk finally collapsed in on itself. her father pushing Macintosh out of the way.
Dead silence. Pouring rain. Worse than anything, trying to find an answer for Apple Bloom, who'd been awakened by the noise and wanted her mother. The longest night of their entire lives.
Macintosh blamed himself for that night. He never admitted it, but Applejack could tell. It was a mixture of regret and self doubt, perhaps if he had just moved a little faster, or tried a little harder. He had had barely talked since then, a regrettable consequence of what the rest of them had decided upon as severe emotional trauma. It was rare nowadays to get anything more than a 'Yep' out of him. Apple Bloom was quiet for a long while, as if she was aware that some great tragedy had occurred. But as time slowly dragged on whether they wanted it to or not, she began to perk up again.
Applejack found herself crying over the stump, unaware of how much time had passed since she came out here. It could have been minutes, it could have been hours. She didn't like others to see her cry, it meant weakness. But it didn't matter. She slowly rose, running her hoof across the stump, and gradually began to make her way back towards the farmhouse. Her stars had fallen, and only time would bring them to be able to blaze throughout the sky again. But time moved on, and although the wounds would not heal, they had closed. She passed Apple Bloom, running through the orchard pursued by her two friends, not a care in the world. She wondered if Bloom even remembered that night, but had been too afraid to ask her.
Entering into the farmhouse itself, Applejack caught sight of Big Macintosh, whose name certainly fit him now. He'd grown, and kept growing. He was budgeting the ledger for their supplies, deep in thought. His younger sister surprised him then when she suddenly rushed up to hug him, and although the hug was returned, he looked down at her with a head tilt of confusion. Although she still tried now and again to get him to open up, he always seemed to manage to get his point across regardless.
"Ah love ya, that's all." Applejack said.
"Eeyup." Macintosh replied.
Applejack gave a warm smile. It would have to do.
Author's Note
Inspired by a single chapter from my other fanfic,
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/98803/the-day-the-darkness-died
However I wanted to flesh out this backstory a lot more, took what I'd originated, and tripled it in size.
Mostly this is just an exercise for me to try and practice emotion, I find it very difficult to inflict sadness.
Critique is encouraged.
Apple Bloom had been the only one to sleep that night. She sensed that something wasn't quite right, but being at such a young age, didn't fully understand the ramifications of the tragic details, and had fallen asleep despite trying to stay up with her siblings.. Applejack and Macintosh had stayed up all night long, barely speaking despite the numerous cups of coffee piled on the table between them.
"Do ya wanna talk about it?" Applejack asked, her eyes heavy and worn. She felt like she had aged several years in a matter of hours.
"Nnnope," Macintosh said quietly. Though he did reach under the table, rummaging for something which he'd stashed there after the events of the previous day.
"All that was left," Mac said slowly, and placed their fathers favorite hat on the table. It had been slightly damaged in the fire, and part of the front had been burned away.
Applejack teared up slightly at the sight of it, pulling the old hat close to her chest. "You want me to have this?" She asked. "Are y'sure?"
Macintosh nodded. "Yup," he said.
Applejack placed the hat on her head, and gazed over at her brother. She knew, despite the horrific tragedy the family had endured, that they would endure and persevere. They always had, and always would.
Author's Note
Been messing around with little thoughts about little details, wanted to throw this in. Sort of like a deleted scene that never made it into the original.
