Tick. Tick. Tick.
AppleJack watched the seconds pass by on the clock.
Tick. Tick. Tick
Click.
The cowpony listened as twelve, loud noises emitted from the old clock.
Midnight.
"Happy birthday," she quietly uttered under her breath.
AppleJack didn't sleep that night.
Granny Smith and Big Macintosh wanted to stay with her that day, but deliveries needed to be made. Frankly, AppleJack was glad they were leaving. She needed some time alone.
It was raining, quite heavily, in fact.
The thundering sound of the raindrops was enough for the mare to feel a dribble of sweat slick down the edges of her mane.
There was nothing AppleJack hated more than a rainstorm.
She shook her head. focus on something else! She thought.
Her ears twitched as a bolt of lightning lit up the dark den.
Applebloom was supposed to go on a field trip to...gosh darn it, why can't I ever remember these things!? Museum, prob'ly. Hope the storm doesn't cancel her fun. Somepony deserves to be happy, some pony needs to be happy....
It was no use spending today doing nothing but sitting on her couch.
But drinking and sitting? Hmmm, there may be a good idea there...
AJ fled to the family's personal cellar. After some rummaging, she came up triumphant, with a bottle of very finely aged cider in hoof.
She trudged back into the den, popped the cap off the top, and took a sip of the smooth, but bitter liquid. Liquor this old was the kind of thing that would make ponies fling it into the deepest chasm they could find. However, AJ had developed a heavy tolerance for the substance, and grew accustomed to it in a few sips.
Before even the edges of her mind slipped, however, AJ's ears perked up at the sound of...whimpering?
She snapped out of her thoughts, only to find that she had almost gone without realizing someone was banging at the door.
AJ stood as the noises intensified.
"Hold yer' damn flank!" she cried in annoyance.
Silence followed.
AJ immediately regretted her choice of words. She silently prayed she hadn't scared off the guest, unwelcome they may be.
She opened the door and gasped at the picture in front of her.
It was AppleBloom, soaking wet. Every hair clung to her body like water to sponge. Her bow drooped, practically coming undone in the rain. Her eyes were big & moist, matching a quivering muzzle.
She started sputtering nonsensical sounds in the form of gibberish.
Just as a few real words spilled out, AppleJack pitifully put her hoof around her sister. "Now hold on there, sugar-cube. You'll catch a cold if ah let you stay in this state. Let's get ya' warm."
A few moments later, Applebloom was in front of a fire, a worn blanket draped over her, and a hot mug of virgin cider.
AJ hid away her own bottle of the hard liquid.
She sat next to the filly. "Alright, sweet-pea. Aren't ya' supposed to be in school. On a field trip to the-"
"Museum of history..." AB mumbled, not bothering to make eye contact. Even so, AppleJack could see tears welling up in her eyes again.
"Why don't ya'll tell me what happened?"
She watched Applebloom wither. She took a deep breath.
"Sugar-cube, you came here for some assurance, ah can tell that much. Listen, I can't help ya' if ya' won't open up to me."
AB sighed. "So many. So many foals brought their moms and dads. Ah had no one. Diamond Tiara saw that, and she had her rich, amazing dad."
AppleJack swore she heard Applebloom cussing under her breath. "She...said things. Things low even by her standards. Ah didn't like what she said. Ah...ah hit her hard. They-they all blamed me!" AB bit her muzzle to stop the cries that came with tears that rolled down her cheeks. "Somepony called me a-a monster. So, ah ran. Ah didn't stop, ah didn't look back.
At this point, AppleJack was beginning to feel tears of her own trickle down her cheeks. A mother and father, that was all Applebloom ever wanted.
And all she regretted in her life.
AB finally looked up at her sister, her eyes curious.
No
She took a breath, the kind of breath someone takes before asking a hesitant question.
"AJ?"
No, No!
"What happened to ma and pa?"
There was a hat, blown off somepony's head by a stray gust of wind.
From the tall grass below it, a scrawny, orange figure leaped from its place like a shark, dragging its prize to the murky doom below it.
But this figure was far too small and adorable to be mistaken for a shark. Far too thin, as well.
For someone born an Apple, I didn't carry the bulk we were supposed to have as foals. I was extremely scrawny, any pony could count my ribs and believe I was malnourished. Believe me, I felt that way. I had an incredible appetite. Anything on my plate would be gone in seconds, and its devourer would demand more. I probably ate more than any filly my age, but there was never any meat on my bones. I was never full, I'm still never full. I'm a black-hole where food would just disappear.
The hat was almost big enough for the filly to effectively hide in it. She took the hat in her mouth, before bounding over to a mauve colored mare with flip braids running down her muzzle. Her cutiemark was a honey-wand dribbling with a golden, thick liquid.
"Ah got it, Ma!" she cried enthusiastically.
The mare giggled, her laugh some pony takes for granted, not realizing how beautiful it was until it was gone.
She picked up the tiny filly, gently setting her on her back.
The mare galloped over to a blue stallion. His cutiemark a hammer slamming onto an anvil. and Applejack bounded off her mother's back.
Rocky Forge, that was his name...
"Ah got it, daddy! Ah got it!"
The stallion grinned, taking the hat on setting it back on his head.
He would lose his hat so often. I would always get it back for him, no matter where it went.
"Can we continue our trek?" The mare asked.
Honey Crisp, was hers... I remember... she always smelled like honey for some reason.
"Well..."
"Daddy!" AJ crossed her hooves and pouted.
The stallion took his filly on his back, continuing up the trail.
They continued up until they reached a field by a river.
AJ cheered, got off her dad, and ran around the field with extreme ecstasy.
Forge and Crisp unloaded a basket full of baked sweets, including an orange bunt cake.
"Hear the Cake family adopted a new foal off the street..." Forge mentioned.
"She was the one who baked the cake. Figured it was a nice change of pace from apples..."
AJ stopped running around long enough to notice the rough river.
"Mommy, Daddy, can we swim in the river after dessert?"
forge stared squeamishly at the fast-moving waters. "It's the middle of autumn, sweet-pea..." he told her. "That river isn't safe to play in this time of year."
"And I'm sorry sugar-cube, but I'm still pretty weak from having Applebloom. Maybe after Winter Wrap-up we can swim."
Disappointment flickered flared in her big, green eyes, but AJ smiled. "That's okay!" She dashed to her mother, snuggling up beside her. "Ah'm just glad ah can spend mah birthday with just us together."
"Six years means your becoming a big foal, you know?" Forge said.
AJ lept to her feet. "Does that mean ah can help you with this year's harvest!?"
Both ponies laughed. "She begs to do it now. Wait until you're older, you're going to hate every harvest."
"But it's all worth it for just a drop of your mum's cider, isn't it, Honey?"
The mom took a knife from basket. "It sure is," her mouth dripped as saliva welled into her mouth, "I guess you can help us and your brother with the harvest."
AppleJack clapped.
The cakes and other baked goods were cut, but there was no time to eat.
For just as Honey cut AJ a big piece, she felt a raindrop on her muzzle.
The drizzle quickly transformed into a storm, complete with gusts and thunder.
Forge sighed. "I can't believe I forgot to check with Blitz on the weather..."
The food was swiftly packed back up, and the family prepared themselves to leave.
A gail passed over the area, and though he tried to hang on to it, Rocky Forge lost hold of his hat.
The hat scraped harshly against the ground before it flew over next to the river. Luckily, a stick rutting out from the mud caught it.
AppleJack made a beeline for it, unable to hear her parent's calling for her to come back.
She was too close to the white river! Honey and Forge galloped after her as soon as she start to reach out from the mud.
"AppleJack, Sugar-cube! Come back, you'll fall in!"
No, it was his hat.
I'd always get it back for him
No matter where it went...
Another gail swept in, pulling the hat from the snag. In an act of desperation, AJ jumped from her precarious perch to grab it.
And she fell in....
"No!" Aj cried out, sweat dribbling from her forehead, eyes wide.
She took a few breaths, tossing her hat into a corner, then tearfully gazed at it.
"A-ah can't relive it... N-Not again... not ever again!"
Just as she began to hyperventilate, she heard the sound of glass breaking, and a tiny filly's hooves wrapped around her.
AppleBloom was crying, but not because of the story. "Ah'm sorry! Ah didn't mean to-to make you feel bad. Ah'll j-just ask Granny or Big Mac. Ah-ah don't you to be sad, anything but that..."
AJ swept the tears from her eyes. She glanced at the hat.
"No, ah'm sorry AppleBloom. Ya' don't ever have to worry about making me sad. Ah honestly think Granny and Macintosh would actually prefer if ah tell you. They-they'll never know what ah knew."
She gritted her teeth, forcing herself to continue.
None of us knew how to swim , and it took all my strength to make sure I wouldn't drown. All I could see was the blurred forms of them chasing after me. I eventually clung to a stone in a deeper part in the river. The hold wouldn't last, the stone was slick from the storm, and I was slipping fast... They were my only hope. I called to them and they to me, but between the rain and the wind and the river, I couldn't hear a darned thing.
Then Ma disappeared. She just...vanished
AJ didn't know long she was gone. It could've been seconds or hours, there was no way to tell.
But she wouldn't abandon her filly.
Honey crisp came back with a lasso in her mouth, a panicked but confident emotion displayed on her face.
Honey dug her hooves into the ground, before lassoing a mound of rocks on the other side of the river.
She barked an unintelligible order at Forge, and the next thing she knew, her dad plunged into the river, one hoof gripping the rope as he crawled cooer to the filly. Unfortunately, the filly he aimed to rescue was inching towards death at a faster pace. Neither had long.
It all happened in a foggy haze. The mound of rocks collapsed, the splash forcing AJ to shut her eyes. Above the roaring cries of the river, Honey was...screaming?
Upon opening her eyes, Forge was gone.
"Daddy!?"
No answer...
"DADDY!?"
There was no more noise, just the hazy sight of Honey crisp lassoing a more unmovable object and coming to save her.
She clenched her eyes shut, where was Forge? She lost his hat, she was a bad filly. But she didn't care about any punishment she believed he'd give her, she just wanted to be safe, to see Daddy safe...
"Please be safe..." she whimpered.
AppleJack didn't cry much, but now was an exception.
She let it all out, waves of tears and agonized screams that would plague anyone's mind surrounded the area.
The filly was going to die.
"APPLEJACK!"
AJ's eyes opened, and Mommy was there!
She was hurt, but she was there!
AppleJack loosened her grip in an effort to hug her Mommy close, but Mommy didn't want that.
"NO! HOLD ON!"
Mommy looked around, and turned back to AppleJack. The rain made it look like she was crying, but that was ridiculous. Mommy never cried! And who cries while they smile?
"DO YOU TRUST MOMMY?" she asked.
AppleJack felt funny, of course she trusted her!
The filly looked around, how were they going to get to shore?"
Mommy grabbed ApleJack's head and turned it towards her, she was frowning now.
And she was crying...
"DO YOU TRUST MOMMY?" She asked again, but she sounded scared.
AppleJack nodded.
Mommy threw her rope onto the top of a tree, but she let go of the rock, even though it was safe...
AJ swore she said "I love you". That wasn't news, she loved her too.
The tree was a light tree because the storm made it weak. It fell, and AppleJack let go of the rock to grab it, climbed onto it, and scrambled to shore.
But where were mommy and daddy?
AJ began running along the river, she needed to find them
She ran and ran for a long time, until her legs hurt and her lungs hurt and her throat hurt.
However, there was a tiny bay.
Washed up upon was Daddy's hat!
Mustering all the run in her, AJ bolted to it.
She covered her body under it like an umbrella.
"MOMMY! DADDY!" She screamed.
Where were they.
"MOMMY!?"
"DADDY!?"
They didn't hear her, she just needed to scream louder... She needed to scream louder so they could hear her...
"MOMMY! DADDY!"
"DADDY!"
"MOMMY!"
"MA!"
And she screamed and screamed and screamed, until she could no longer..
Applejack whimpered. hiding her wet eyes with her hat.
"They were gone, a-ah just couldn't accept it. They drowned for their filly...something ah couldn't say I would do."
She took a breath, wiping the abundance of tears from her eyes.
"Granny and Macintosh found me the next morning, soaking wet n' huddled under that hat like it was the only thing that kept me safe. Ah still couldn't accept it, ah kept askin' when they'd come home. But ah knew, ah knew they were dead. Ah hated pegasi fer' so long, ah held them responsible for the storm. Ah hated Rainbow Dash when ah first met her... Ah needed time, but I..." She paused, unsure of what to say next.
AppleBloom squeezed AJ tightly, and if it was possible, AJ cried more. It fell. AB wasn't crying, she needed to be strong. She'd always be the levy her sister needed to lean on.
"Ah found this..." AB ran up to her room, coming back with an old, tattered rope. Obviously scrubbed and bleached in a failed attempt to make it look cleaner.
"Me and the other crusaders were exploring a river, and we found this rope. Sweetie and Scootaloo didn't see much in it, but it smelled so nice. Ah couldn't leave it behind. Ah want you to have it, even though it isn't much."
AJ grabbed the rope and inhaled its scent. Despite the amount of times it must've endured chlorine baths, the scent of honey far overpowered the bleach-y odor.
She took another look at her hat.
The rain had stopped, leaving behind a rainbow.
Author's Note
A Note: I'm basing the parents off the "photo of them" in Apple Family Reunion.
I changed the way I wrote it near the end in an effort to make it feel a bit more hopeless. I'm interested to see how it works!
