The Verse To All Of Her Dreams
"Now, Apple Bloom... what did Ah tell you about burpin' at the table?"
The filly's eyes stared blankly back at her sister's, before swaying slightly to the left and right before she gave her reply,
"To... to not to..."
"Very good, little missy," Applejack complimented with a shut-eyed grin and a nod.
"Now what do we say, Bloom?" came the deep voice from the filly's right.
The filly, looking over at her brother, gave a little grin and commented, "Uh, I can feel another one comin'?"
Applebloom looked to her left, seeing her big sister shaking her head slowly, a smile etched onto her face, "No Apple Bloom. Try again now."
The filly thought for a minute, placing her hoof on her chin and looking toward her outstretched hindlegs by her sides.
"C'mon Bloom. What do we say after we burp at the dinner table?"
"Uh, sure felt better goin' down this tahm?"
Big Macintosh let out a loud chuckle, looking toward the cook for that night with a smirk of approval at her little sister's remark. The orange mare at the other end gave a mean Prodder face to nopony in particular, before her bright green eyes slowly, cautiously, wandered down toward the yellow filly giggling madly.
"Three strikes, yer outta here missy."
Big Macintosh gave a facetious look toward Apple Bloom, his fore hooves on his sides and his face mixed into one of a sly chess player who had just landed a checkmate.
"Uh, excuse me?"
The dinner table erupted into a torrent of hoof claps, the mare and stallion seated on either side of the spruce dinner table clapping their hooves lightly together at the filly's proper response.
"There ya go, Apple Bloom. 'Excuse me', that's what ya say," Applejack stated matter-of-factly, reaching a hoof out to muddle the filly's red mane, succeeding in doing so after a couple of failed swipes from her target.
"Now Applejack, can't forget the most important part of today!" Big Macintosh called, waving a hoof in feigned frustration at the mare's forgetfulness.
Throwing both hooves onto her cheeks, the mare replied, "Oh, that's right! Ah forgot! The most important part of today, Ah can't believe Ah-"
"Applejack?"
Stopping mid-motion and turning her head, her hooves still pushing her cheeks into her face, Applejack gave a suddenly genuine reply, "Yeah Apple Bloom?"
"Can y'all quit the baby voices? Ah'm not a baby anymore."
Trotting over to the seated filly, idly swishing her tail, Applejack pondered aloud, "But Apple Bloom, how else are we gonna introduce ya to....." her hoof suddenly reached for a table cloth the filly had seen earlier that day.
"...the most important part of today..." Big Macintosh's hoof did likewise, grasping the opposite side of the table cloth on the floor.
"...without 'em?"
With a fling of their hooves, the table cloth flew behind the two and into darkness, where it fell over and covered the old couch that Granny had left behind in her passing. In the red and white cloth's place was a.... a......
"...a box?"
"Yup!"
Apple Bloom, her brow raised in confusion, hopped off the stool and trotted from the right side of the table toward the box still laying silently on the floor. Halting directly in front of it, the filly stood unblinking at the large pale green and brown patterned box waiting at her sibling's hooves, her brother and sister floating their forelegs toward and over it as if it were the winning prize in a game show.
Giving it a light kick and a single, shut eye, the filly peered up to her left and found her sister.
"Y'all got me a.... box..?"
"Sure did Sugarcube! Found it just last mornin' in the Corner's garbage disposal, thought it would be a good gift! Yer brother hoisted the thing over his back like a bison, Ah gave it support, and we hauled it all the way back to Sweet Apple Acres! Neat, huh?"
The filly gave another kick.
The box gave no further interest.
Looking back up at her sister, she found tears barely being able to stop themselves from flooding out of her eyes, "Fer real?"
Applejack looked down upon her sister, her lower lip quivering, "Yes, Apple Bloom, do you... do you not like it-"
An uproarious laughter came from the filly's right, the large red stallion barely able to keep his own composure as he burst out laughing. A sudden laughing fit emerged from the filly's left as well, signifying Applejack's own loss of sanity.
"Uh, guys?"
Applejack was the first to stop chortling, bringing a single hoof up to her eye and wiping the tear forming out of its natural duct, "Sorry 'bout that Sugarcube. Yer brother thought it would be funny to pull a teensy prank on ya before we got to the good part."
Looking toward the red stallion now coughing into an outstretched foreleg, she added, "Seems to have worked, 'parently. Ya done yet over there?"
Wiping his own tears of laughter, the red stallion suddenly tensed up, giving a nonchalant expression, looking straight forward, and adjusting his large, worn yoke around his neck, before coughing into his hoof awkwardly.
"Well, anywho Sugarcube, ya wanna see the real surprise?"
The filly began jumping up and down excitedly, "Yes please, yes please, yes please, yes please-"
"Alright, then, close your eyes."
The filly, barely able to contain her happiness, adjusted the pointed yellow and green hat atop her head, before giving a nod and a grin to her siblings, before falling to her haunches and raising her hooves over her eyes, "Ah'm ready y'all!"
She heard the voice of her sister start, "Alright Sugarcube, we're gonna count to three, and on three, Ah want'cha to open your eyes! Can ya do that, Apple Bloom?"
"Of course, of course! Oh, Ah can't wait!"
"Alright. Mac?"
"Eeyup?"
A second of silence followed, before the voice of Applejack began, "One..."
"Two..." was her brother's addition.
Apple Bloom could barely contain her excitement.
"Three-"
"Wait, Applejack!"
"Uh, keep yer eyes shut Sugarcube, sorry 'bout that," Apple Bloom could hear Applejack angrily seethe, "yes, Mac?"
"Shh, listen."
The three sat in silence.
"What is it-"
WEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
"Oh mah Faust... they're comin'.."
"Get Applebloom, take her to the shelter."
"But Mac, what are ya gonna-"
The sound of something metallic shifting loudly sounded out, before the stallion gave a short interruption, "Now."
Silence met the filly's ears for a dozen heartbeats, only being disturbed by hushed words from her siblings, before she found her hooves by her sides, her eyes straining to adjust to the lights illuminating her home. As they cleared, she found herself looking into a pair of green orbs, "Applejack, what's happenin'-"
"Apple Bloom, that ain't important, okay?"
Apple Bloom, her hooves held to her sides by her sister's, peered over her orange shoulder, finding her big brother fumbling with a long, silver and brown stick.
"What's-"
"Not now, Sugarcube. Listen tuh me, okay?"
Applebloom, watching as her brother abandoned the stick to trot to the kitchen in a hurry, gave a half-hearted reply, "Okay.."
"Okay, listen. You, me, and Big Macintosh are gonna go play..." her sister appeared to stumble upon her words, her eyes averting to the floor, placing them more directly in the light hanging on the wall.
There were tears in her green eyes.
"We're gonna play... Hahd 'n' Seek, okay?"
"Ooh, Ah love Hahd 'n' Seek!"
Applejack gave a smile and a reassuring, almost hushed response, "Good, good. Okay, here's the game: Big Macintosh is it."
Apple Bloom spotted the stallion in the corner of her eye, his trot at an unusually rushed pace. In his teeth was a large yellow box, the only word she could make out in the light being gauge, "What's he doin' with that thing.." Apple Bloom asked, pointing a hoof toward the stick currently grasped in his hooves, "..sis?"
Still half-seated on the green oak floor, the mare turned her head, then turned it back toward her sister and reassured her, "It's his Tag Stick. If he finds ya," Applejack paused.
"What?"
"He'll poke ya with it!" she finished, emphasizing her statement with a jab to her sister's stomach.
Apple Bloom, giggling from the poke, reeled back, looking toward her brother again.
The stick in his hooves now appeared to have broken in two, one side longer then the other, but still attached by a thread. The filly saw Mac place two cylindrical objects into it, before he latched them both together with a loud clatter, rushing to the front window and slowly unveiling a part of the curtain.
"Alright, yer brother's countin' now. We better hurry! C'mon, Ah know the best spot!" Applejack waved a hoof onto her back, leaning down and raising her rump like a pampered feline, "Up ya go!" she called, adjusting her own weight as the filly climbed onto her sister's back and adjusted her hat.
"This way, Sugarcube!" Applejack said, turning her head toward her sister. Turning her rotated head to the left and back toward her brother, she called, "Count to a hundred, Mac!"
The stallion, peering over toward his two sisters, gave a nod and a smile, before waving a free hoof, "Ah will."
Apple Bloom, seated on her sister's back, watched with curiosity as she found Applejack turn her head to face forward, only for the appendage to rattle like a snake, accompanied by what the filly made out to be sobbing.
Tilting, the filly asked, "Applejack? Y'allright?"
The rattling stopped, "...of course, Sugarcube. Let's go find that hiding spot."
As her sister sped off deeper into the house, the yellow filly atop her gazed back toward her brother.
He seemed to be in a trance, almost unmoving, sitting directly in front of the same desk where Mama Apple and Papa Apple's old pictures used to be.
She didn't understand.
Why was he standing still, his Tag Stick by his side and with a single hoof to his heart? They were playing Hide and Seek.
She didn't have much longer to stare, as she found a green door slam in her vision. About to ask the burning question within her mind, she found herself lifted by the scruff of her neck and placed in front of her sister, who turned to her left and reached for the brown Stetson hanging idly on the coat rack. Placing it atop her head, she shut her eyes, before opening them again and falling to her haunches in the hay-covered floor of the Acre's barn.
"Hey, Apple Bloom."
"Yeah sis?"
"Remember yer surprise from earlier?"
"Yeah!"
"Well, we were just joking," Applejack gave a loving smile toward her sister, "it's out in the ol' cider cellar."
Apple Bloom cocked an eyebrow.
"Heh heh, just another joke of yer brother's."
Apple Bloom's eyes wandered the barn, before she asked, "Whah are we playin' Hahd 'n' Seek then?"
Her sister gave a short, almost faint laugh, "Well, duuuh. We don't want Big Macintosh to steal it now, do we?"
"Nope!"
"Alright, so what Ah need ya to do is close yer eyes again. Can y'all do that fer me?"
"Of course, sis!" she happily responded, already raising her hooves to her eyes, "are ya gonna count to somethin'?"
Her sister's reply sounded out, as if she were at the barn door, "Yup! Ah'm gonna count to fifty, and when Ah get tuh fifty, what are ya gonna do?"
"Open mah eyes!"
"Exactly!" Applejack called. Apple Bloom heard the sound of the barn door being shut, the creaky, creepy noise being known to the filly by heart.
"And Apple Bloom?"
"Yeah sis?"
"Whatever ya do, whatever ya hear when we're out there..."
Apple Bloom heard her sister choke on something.
"...whatever happens... don't open yer eyes...okay, Sugarcube?"
"Okay Applejack!"
"Don't count just yet, okay Apple Bloom?" Applejack asked.
"Okay! Just tell me when, sis!"
The filly found herself being hoisted up again, falling back down onto her sister's back. Keeping her eyes closed, she felt the motion of her sibling's legs moving, and sure enough, she heard the sound of the barn door opening up soon after.
With the door came an onslaught.
Apple Bloom couldn't quite place them, but whatever the sounds were, they sounded powerful, and caused the ground beneath her sister's hooves to shake wildly, as if she were on loose mud.
"Start countin', Apple Bloom."
"Okay sis! One..."
"Apple Bloom?"
"Yeah?"
"Can y'all do it in yer head, please?"
"Course, sis!"
"Ah just, Ah just gotta hurry to the cellar before Big Macintosh is done, and Ah don't need any distractions is all.."
"Ah got it, sis!" the filly happily responded, her hooves still clamped tightly over her eyes.
The filly heard a sigh emerge from her sister, before she felt her back tense up. Apple Bloom, adjusting her hat once again, threw her hooves to rest around her sister's neck, craning her neck and placing her clenched eyelids against her left leg. This only seemed to further trouble Apple Bloom's sibling, who stopped and hung her head, tiny sounds of what she made out as sobbing reemerging.
"Sis?"
"Ah'm fine, Sugarcube.... are you ready to get yer surprise?"
"Uh huh!"
"Okay... remember, whatever happens, don't open yer eyes, okay?"
"Okay!"
Apple Bloom, the number of twenty in her head, began to hear the faint sound of somepony else counting.
But, instead, counting down.
Looking down, she found the source.
"Three... two... one... c'mon Applejack, let's go."
The barn door flew open, the sound of wood slamming into a wall stabbing into the filly's hearing.
Regaining the sense, she found herself assaulted with more sounds. Ones that sounded distinctly like voices.
But, what was wrong with them?
"Hey sis?"
The mare didn't stop moving, her leg bone and muscle continuing its onslaught of work, but she still made a reply, "Just close yer eyes, Apple Bloom. They're just excited to see ya."
The mare began panting loudly.
"So they're screamin-"
"Just.. shut them out. And keep your eyes closed."
"Okay..."
Apple Bloom hugged her sisters neck. She didn't understand it. If they were all excited to see her, why were they screaming? And why didn't they sound like they were excited at all?
Apple Bloom's hearing suddenly went out.
A loud ringing replaced it, and the mare below her jerked to the left suddenly, as if avoiding something.
She couldn't hear her own voice as she reported to her sister that her ears hurt.
She couldn't hear her sister's voice as she mouthed back a reply, her legs beginning to work faster.
Apple Bloom opened her mouth to ask a question, but found her jaw snap shut violently as she felt herself become weightless, before falling back onto her sister's back a heartbeat later.
Her hearing slowly returning, she heard more.
More sounds.
Violent, loose mud sounds.
They sounded like they were everywhere, as if a thousand ponies were stomping through a mud field just for hear-sake.
One after another after another after another.
Apple Bloom, curious, lifted her nose slightly, wriggling it and scrunching it up, before taking a tiny whiff of the air permeating Sweet Apple Acres.
It smelt of a campfire, only larger, and more smokey.
"Hey Applejack?"
Her sister's reply sounded out of breath.
"Yeh, yes, Apple, Apple Bloom?"
"Is my surprahse a camping trip?"
The sound of loose mud, excited ponies, and her sibling's hooves swift patting on the ground sounded through her head.
"Nuh, no. Apple Bloom."
"Then what is it?'
Applejack sidestepped, avoiding yet another very strong, very loud patch of loose mud.
Apple Bloom began to lift her head to ask the question for a second time.
She was cut off by a simple, "It's a campfire," Applejack stated, seemingly running out of breath. Apple Bloom thought that her sister was strong. Why was she so tired already?
"Campfire for what?" the filly asked, readjusting the grip on her sister's neck.
"S'mores," Applejack replied. She paused, then added, "duh."
"Ooh, Ah love s'mores! Is that why you didn't want Big Mac to get to it first?"
"Of, of course, sis!"
She was tired.
"You okay, sis-"
"It'll be alright, Apple Bloom."
Applejack sped up, her legs working to the max.
"It'll be alright."
Apple Bloom waited, counting.
Forty eight.
Applejack jumped to the right, avoiding some more mud.
Forty nine.
Applejack sped up her pace even more, almost massaging her sister's side as she bobbed up and down with the motion.
Fifty.
"Hold on sis!"
Apple Bloom did as she was told. She always did. And this time, she gripped her sister's neck even harder, almost believing herself to be choking her sibling, only to find her lower body rise in the air with her sister's, weightless.
Applejack landed, the sound of metal reverberating through the filly's ears as the orange mare bounced once, rolling over and throwing her little sister free.
Apple Bloom landed, her back hitting the floor first and causing her to gasp in shock, her hooves reaching up swiftly to cover her eyes.
Without warning, she found the appendages being lowered, before she soon found them again by her side, just as last time. Her sister stood her onto her haunches, before giving a sentence of reassurance.
"You can open yer eyes now, sis."
"Are ya sure?"
Silence.
"No."
Apple Bloom, deciding to comply with the command, threw her eyes open, shouting, "Whaddya mean, 'no-'"
She stopped.
The two sat inside the cider cellar, but it was different.
The floor by their hooves was made of a solid, flat metal that glistened in the bright light hanging above their head. Looking around the room, the filly found dozens of shelves, each lined with cans of food and various appliances.
The filly raised an eyebrow, turning around and looking for anything else.
To her right, she found the sight of her sister, rising to her hooves, one leg in particular causing her to wobble feebly.
Gazing toward her sister still on her haunches on the ground, Applejack gave a loving smile, before turning her attention to a locker to her sister's left. Noticing this, Apple Bloom turned that way as well, watching as her sister shakily trotted over to the locker, opening it with a huff and reaching a hoof inside.
She pulled the appendage back out, and with it came another Tag Stick.
"You're it?!"
Applejack looked over at her, shocked at her sudden outburst, but regained her composure quickly, reassuring her, "No no no. Y'see sis, if a.. if a Hahder tags th' Seeker with a Tag Stick, then the Hahder's win the game!"
"Really? Great! Where's Big Macintosh, can Ah tag 'im?"
Applejack gave a smile, raising a hoof.
She suddenly stopped herself, lowering the hoof, her face changing to one of sorrow.
"No... no, sorry sis. You leave that to me, okay?"
Apple Bloom rolled out her bottom lip, pouting.
"Okay..."
Her sister, her eyes half-lidded, gave a long sigh, before she reached into the locker yet again, pulling out a yellow box identical to Big Macintosh's. In the light of the cellar, she could make out four distinct words, none of which she could understand.
12 gauge shotgun shell.
Applejack pulled out four cylindrical objects, their bodies of a deep red with a golden tip at the end. She placed them body first into the now broken Tag Stick, before flicking her right hoof grasping the wooden handle, latching it back together. Placing the Stick onto the counter next to her, she placed both hooves on either side of it, lowered her head, shut her eyes, and grit her teeth.
Apple Bloom thought she heard her sister sobbing, but she knew her sister would never sob.
Five heartbeats later, Applejack turned her head toward her sister, before she slowly trotted over to her, falling to her haunches.
Apple Bloom, brow raised in curiosity, was about to ask a question.
Her sister suddenly grasped her in a tight hug, her head hanging over her back.
That sobbing noise sounded again, much harder this time around.
Apple Bloom was puzzled. Why was she hugging her so tightly?
Applejack pulled back, her eyes glassy and her lower lip wobbling violently.
She placed a hoof on her sister's shoulder.
"Apple Bloom?"
"Yeah sis?"
"Ah just wanted to say that Ah love you."
Apple Bloom stuttered, "Ah, Ah love ya too, Applejack. What's happenin'?"
Applejack looked down at her, lower lip quivering.
"Applejack? Why are you crying?"
She gave no response, instead reaching up to her head and pulling her Stetson off her head.
Falling back down to her haunches, she placed it gingerly over her heart.
"Apple Bloom. No matter what happens-"
"Don't open my eyes?"
"No.... no matter what sound you hear, no matter what you do...."
Applejack lifted the small hat off of her sister's head, and laid her own Stetson on her sister's red mane.
Looking up from underneath the hat, Apple Bloom found her sister walk toward her again, the Tag Stick slung over her back in an oddly shaped holder that seemed to be strapped to her sister's body. She fell to her haunches for the last time.
She threw her arms around her sister, hugging her tightly.
"...no matter what happens... don't go outside. Okay?"
"Okay sis. Ah gotcha."
The two sisters sat on the floor, hugging in silence.
Applejack started, "And Apple Bloom?"
She withdrew from the hug, her hooves still atop her sister's shoulders.
"Yes?"
"It'll be alright, y'hear?"
Apple Bloom couldn't help but sniffle, "What's happenin', Applejack-"
"It'll be alright, Apple Bloom. You'll be alright."
"Are ya, are ya gonna be back?"
Applejack tensed, breathing in heavily.
"Ah promise. Ah'll be back soon, with Big Mac too, okay?"
"Are ya sure?"
Applejack paused.
"Well, Ah ain't the Element of Honesty for nothin', sis."
Apple Bloom smiled.
Applejack un-slung the Tag Stick from her back, pulling back two levers near the broken part. Trotting back toward the entrance, she turned her head yet again.
"Happy birthday, Apple Bloom. Ah love you."
And with that, she trotted out the door, shutting it tightly as she left, the filly catching a quick glimpse of a swarm of black, winged creatures circling the metal door currently hissing shut.
Apple Bloom fell to her haunches, watching the door.
And there she sat.
And there she cried.
Author's Note
Inspired by this song.
