The sun rose over the freshly snow-blanketed land of Equestria. The beams of light danced off of the white grounds, the crisp blue sky punctuated with hardly a cloud. Hardy evergreens were the only trees with their needles still intact—the rest of the trees had become skeletons, draped with icicle bones.
The orchards of Sweet Apple Acres were no different—winter had sent the apple trees into a hibernating state, skeletal branches laden heavy with ice. Applejack watched the trees bounce slightly in the chill wind that cut across the fields, only stopped by the wooden walls of her home.
Walking down from the second floor, Applejack met Apple Bloom on the stair. Her sister was laying on the third step from the bottom, bouncing a ball on her right front hoof down to her left rear hoof. Back and forth, back and forth she bounced it, her tongue stuck out, brow furrowed in concentration.
"Eighty eight, eighty nine..." Apple Bloom's back hoof jerked a bit too hard, and the ball bounced over her head, sailing into the living room behind her. "Drat! Ah was so close! Ah only needed three more to beat Scoots' record!"
"What's your personal record, Bloom?" Applejack asked, having paused before her sister to watch her.
"Seventy eight. Eighty nine is my best, now."
Applejack smiled down at the filly. "Well then! You improved, and that's all that really matters, ain't it?"
Apple Bloom rolled her eyes. "Yeah, Ah guess, but Scoots is still better than me! Ah gotta beat her!"
Applejack sighed, shaking her head with a small smile. "Don't get too caught up in it," she cautioned her sister as she stepped over her, walking down into the living room and bucking the ball back up to Apple Bloom, where she caught it in her hooves.
"Yeah, yeah..." Apple Bloom muttered, balancing the ball on her hoof, and bouncing it back and forth again. "One, two, three..."
Applejack chuckled, walking across the room towards the door to the porch. Big Macintosh sat on the porch, reclining against the wall, watching two white birds sitting on an icy rock about twelve paces away from a frost-covered well.
"That little filly gets too caught up in tryin' to be the best," Applejack said to her brother as she pushed the screen door open. It was cold against her hoof, the thin metal having soaked in the winter chill.
"Rainbow Dash's too big of an influence on 'em," Big Mac said, an eyebrow raising as one of the birds bopped the other on the head. "She shouldn't be hangin' around the orange one too much."
"Rainbow Dash ain't doin' them no harm," Applejack said with a chuckle as she closed the door behind her. "We just gotta let Bloom know that ambition is the enemy of greatness. Make sure she knows how to enjoy herself so she doesn't push herself past her breakin' point."
"Bit much to take away from a bit of ball playin'."
Applejack shivered as the winter breeze blasted its way across the porch. "'s not just that. She does it with tryin' to get her cutie mark, with tryin' to do chores, whenever the school's got her doin' extra course work... she ain't satisfied 'til she's beatin' the others. She gotta learn to take pride when she does somethin' admirable, regardless of if somepony else does better."
"And who do you know that does the same thing?" Big Mac grunted, turning to his side and unearthing a green scarf, which he passed over to Applejack. Applejack took the scarf in her left hoof, and wrapped it loosely around her neck.
"Rainbow ain't an issue. If we just remove a problem, she won't ever learn what's right. We gotta let her build up her own sense of self."
Big Mac shrugged, and scowled as the birds fought for a few moments before both flying off in different directions. "Ain't nothin' easy, that's for sure."
Applejack smirked. "And you're just figurin' this out?"
Big Mac sighed. "Nah. Just the musin's of a tired work stallion, is all."
Applejack snorted, and unwrapped the scarf from around her neck. "Don't act like you're at an end, Big Mac. You're not even thirty years old yet."
Big Mac followed the scarf falling onto the rocking chair next to him with his eyes. "Feels like Ah've been at this forever."
"Yeah, yeah. You know what that is," Applejack said, bowing her head so her hat fell off into her raised hoof. "That's just a life packed with intense heartache separated by long stretched of honest work slammin' into you. Happens to the best of us, Mac."
Big Macintosh grunted in response, and looked over his sister. "You're gonna go out again? Nothin' on?"
Applejack nodded. "Ah do it every year, Big Mac. It wakes me up. Gives me peace."
"At least take a set of boots this year," Big Mac said, nodding his head over to where four snow boots lay, all next to each other.
Applejack shook her head. "You know Ah don't bother with those. Gotta be unburdened."
"You're gonna freeze one year," Big Mac said with a sigh. "You're gonna get frostbite, and when you return, you'll just be a barely moving block of ice, and when Bloom bumps into you, you're gonna shatter everywhere, and then Granny'll have to pick up the pieces." He smiled softly. "How do you think that'll make her feel?"
"Granny's strong," Applejack answered simply.
"Cold as the snow you trot through." Big Mac chuckled, looking back out over the fields.
Applejack stepped down the stairs, stopping right before the snowline. She slowly set her hoof onto the cold snow, a tingle shoot through her as she felt the cold prickle against her exposed hoof.
"Ah myself, Ah'm just waiting for the year you shave your winter coat and run through the orchard buck naked!" Big Mac called down to her. Applejack rolled her eyes and smiled, her back still turned to her brother.
"You'll be singing a different tune when I get to that coat of yours next," Applejack said, turning her head to give her brother a final smirk before breaking into a swift trot. She barely heard Big Mac grunt in response as she bounded towards the apple orchard.
The day's chill sliced through Applejack's coat, and she found herself quaking. "There'll have to be a lot more than Equestria frozen over on the day that Ah shave my coat for this..."
The top layer of the snow formed a thin, crunchy crust that Applejack cut through with relative ease. She had already passed the first apple trees, which stood like tall, barren claws reaching up from the earth. The ever blowing wind shook a small amount of snow from the top of the tree beside Applejack, and the unsuspecting pony got a face full of the cold frost.
Shaking her head, her mane splaying about, Applejack's muzzle scrunched before she gave a determined chuckle. "Heh... oh, that certainly wake a mare up!"
Applejack crouched low to the ground, her tail gently dusting the top layer of the snow. She slid her left back hoof back, cutting a trench in the snow as she did so. Uncoiling her muscles, the farm pony shot up, weaving through the trees of her orchard, dodging cascades of snow shaken loose by the wind and her athletics alike.
Her hooves felt light as they entered the snow, but came up heavy, the snow clinging desperately to them. She felt no cold, though—just a slight tingling.
Her sides heaved as she ascended up a hill, grunting as the winter air felt like tiny needles in her mouth, down her throat, and into her lungs. As she crested towards the mount, she bounded towards the line of trees that had been planted there so many summers ago. Facing the one before her head on, she flung her body against it.
Just before she collided with the trunk, her hooves felt the roots under the snow, and she pressed down upon them. Launching herself upward, Applejack let out a holler of joy as she sailed down the hill, her powerful legs giving her an impressive amount of lift.
The air rushed around her as she sailed downward towards the new bed of trees that marked the beginning of the north-eastern orchard. Applejack swallowed hard, her heart jumping to her throat as she collided into the snow. Her hooves had barely touched the ground before she had tucked herself over, rolling through the snow, sending a silent prayer to Celestia in hopes that she would avoid the trees before her.
Perhaps she had heard her, but regardless, luck was on Applejack's side as she bowled through the snow, leaving an obvious trail behind her. When she finally stopped rolling, she dizzily climbed to her hooves, leaning against a tree which had missed her not by half a foot. Snow falling rom her fur in clumps, some of it stuck, melting against her warm body.
"Haha, now Ah know how Rainbow feels," Applejack said with a chuckle, breathing heavily. "Mnngh... she has lighter landin's than that, though..."
Now that she was no longer running and coursing full of adrenaline, Applejack was beginning to feel the unpleasant mixture of a hot, sweaty body contrasting against the biting cold. Shivering violently, Applejack took a few deep breathes, kicking up the snow around her with her numb, nearly frozen hooves.
"Ah better get trottin' again..." Applejack mused to herself, hazarding to stand independent of the tree. When she did not fall over, she gave herself a little smirk, and set off galloping through the trees again.
The effects of coming down from her adrenaline high so abruptly stuck with Applejack as she made haste through the orchard, that she nearly fell over again when the ground began to rise once more. Her whole body ached—either from exposure to the snow, or from her burning muscles.
"C'mon, Applejack," she grunted to herself, her teeth grinding. With every laborious hoofbeat closer to the top of new hill, she felt her legs grow heavier and heavier. Still, she pushed herself on forward, and with a last gasp, dragged herself to the top of the hill.
Panting, Applejack looked over the hill, and a tired smile slowly but surely crept onto her muzzle. She had been so caught up in the running that she didn't realize just how far she had gone. This was the end of the north-eastern border of the Apple family orchard—and therefore the end of the orchard on this side.
Before Applejack was a large field, blanketed by snow. Completely untouched by the paths of any animal, it looked like a large white sea in a dead calm. The field was backed by a similarly-snow covered mountains, which jutted out of the landscape like large, white teeth.
The wind blew harshly against Applejack's coat, blowing her mane to the side. It was colder than ever—the day had not yet progressed to a point where Celestia would see to it that the sun would begin to sink, and the sky was still a bright, cloudless blue. Yet the wind blew unhindered down from the mountains and across the valley, blasting against Applejack.
She inhaled deeply, and smiled.
It was a good day to be alive.
