One dark night

by serenade

Rating: mature
Tags: Big Macintosh, Applejack, Gore, Apple Bloom, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Granny Smith, Sad, Tragedy
Length: 5350

When Bab Seed dies, the Apples go to pay their respects. However, they all get trapped in the graveyard over night and it all goes downhill from there.

When Bab Seed dies, the Apples go to pay their respects. However, they all get trapped in the graveyard over night and it all goes downhill from there.

Published 2015-09-24 13:50:01 UTC
Last updated 2015-09-24 13:50:01 UTC

One dark night

Apple Jack stood on the dock on the coast of Manhattan, gazing out over the water.  It was overcast, thunderclouds gathering thick, and it draped the land and sea in thick shadows.  Big Mac was also there, As well as Apple Bloom and Granny Smith.  Babs had died recently.  According to what the oranges had told them, she had been doing another one of her stunts to try and earn her cutie mark, hang gliding apparently, and had fallen several stories to the ground.  There was an island near Manehattan which served as a graveyard.  That was where Babs was buried and the Apples had come to pay their respects.

“Why we jus standin here?” Apple Bloom complained.  “Cain’t we jus hop on a boat an sail over to it?”

“Ah already told ya this Apple Bloom" Apple Jack chided.  "Ah talked ta one of those there fisherstalions an he said the island moves.  Floatin on top of the water. Parently, it goes in a big circle, caught on a current or somethin like that.  Don’t worry, it’ll be here soon.

They waited there for a while longer but soon enough, the island came into sight.  It drifted towards them, running almost parallel to the Manhattan coastline.  On the island, a small dock had been constructed.  As the docks drifted closer together, they all prepared to take a leap of faith.  Conveniently enough, the gap was only ten feet across.  Apple Jack could easily make the jump.  Big Mac too.  But Apple Bloom and Granny Smith had to ride across on each of their backs.  Apple Jack carried Apple Bloom and the much larger, much stronger, Big Mac carried Granny Smith.

Fortunately, they managed to land safely on the other side.  Granny and Apple Bloom climbed down to the ground.  Once they had all managed to gather their bearings, they started off toward the cemetery.  “What’s the point of a fence if this place is already surrounded by water” Apple Jack wondered as they walked through the front gate.  Surprisingly, the cemetery was huge.  The Apples passed by row after row of tombstones as they went.

Many of the grave stones were weather worn or chipped.  Some had even been reduced to piles of rubble.  After about 15 minutes of walking, they found the grave they were looking for.  Bab’s tombstone was a simple, square slab of stone lying flat of on the ground.  It had her name carved into it, as well as the dates of her birth and death.  Apple Bloom had been somber ever since they had gotten the news.  Her ears were laying back flat against her skull and her tail was between her legs.  Babs had always been her favorite cousin, and now she was gone. Standing there in front of her cousin's tombstone, Apple Bloom broke down sobbing.

Apple Jack couldn't deny it.  She was heartbroken too.  She had always loved the little filly, though not quite in the way her sister had.  But, unlike Apple Bloom, she wasn’t here for Babs.  A few rows over, two matching tombstones jutted out of the ground, standing side by side.  They were the graves of her parents.  AJ’s own ears had gone flat.  She was choking back tears, reliving the tragedy in her mind.  Feeling every ounce of pain and sorrow she had on that day.  She still remembered the day they died.  She remembered it like it was yesterday

Ten years ago, Apple Jack and Macintosh(He hadn't yet gotten the nickname Big Mac), who were still only foals, had hopped into their wagon with their mother who was leaning back against the carriage wall and cradling the then week old Apple Bloom in her forehooves.  Their father was pulling the wagon but Granny Smith had decided to stay back at the farm as she wasn't really the partying type.  They were on their way Apple Bloom’s Foal Shower.

Breaburn was hosting the festivities in his home.  It had only been a small cabin near the area where Appaloosa is today.  But the several acres of land he owned surrounding it made up for small living quarters.  There was more than enough space for the entire Apple family and a few friends.

Once they had arrived, they wasted no time getting the party started.  They laughed and danced and sang late into the night.  It was two hours after midnight when they decided it was time to pack up and head home.

Apple Jack’s dad had said if they took a shortcut through the Everfree forest, they could get home an hour sooner.  Though her mom was against the idea at first, knowing full well the dangers which lay in that thicket, they were all so ready to hit the hay that they decided to risk it anyway.  Big mistake.

Before they were halfway through the forest, they were ambushed by a hungry pack of Timberwolves.  Their eyes aglow with necromantic magic and their sharp teeth ready to tear apart pony flesh.  They surrounded the Apples on all sides with no way around them.  Then, they pounced.

AJ’s father was their first target as he out in the open pulling the cart.  Acting on Instinct, AJ’s mother leaped out of the wagon and sped to her husband’s aid.  The two of them fought against the pack with all their strength.  But the Timberwolves were closing in more and more by the second.

Once this had gone on for about one tantalizing minute, their mother called out. “Mac, Apple Jack, take your sister and get out of here.”

“Ah ain’t leavin without you” Mac insisted.

“Yes you are.”  Their mother demanded.  “I’m doin my best to hold them off but I need you three to get back get back to the farm as fast as you can.”

Begrudgingly, Mac climbed out of the wagon, scooping Apple Bloom onto his back.  With the young Apple Jack following close behind him, they started running.  They ran as fast as their little legs could carry them.  By some miracle, they made it all the way back to Sweet Apple Acres without encountering any other dangers.

As soon as they arrived home, AJ and Mac ran straight to Granny smith who was passed out on the couch.  They explained everything.  The longer they talked, the more concerned Granny appeared to be.  After she was caught up the two foals had insisted she come try to help their parents.  However,  Granny told them it was too dangerous to try and brave that forest at night, especially for two little foals.  All they could do was wait and hope their parents made it back unharmed.  little Apple Jack spent the next few hours staring out the farmhouse window.

Come next morning, they decided it had been long enough with still no word from them.  With Granny by their sides, Mac and Apple Jack returned to the place the incident had happened.  But when they arrived, they found all that was left of their parents were a couple of corpses.  They had nearly been reduced to skeletons as most of their flesh had been chewed off.  It tore Apple Jack up inside.

After that fateful day, Mac had become reclusive, lost inside his own head, never speaking up unless there was something very important to say.  As for Apple Jack, she was traumatized.  That event was the reason she had tried to run away to Manehattan.  After their death, all of the once happy memories Apple Jack had shared with her parents had turned bitter.  The farm itself was too great a reminder of those memories and the pang of heartache was too great for her to bear.  It had left a scar on her young filly mind that likely would never heal.

Apple Jack was huddled over the graves balling her eyes out.  The photographs she and Mac had left on their last visit were still there but the flowers had long since turned to dust leaving only torn up dirty ribbons in their place.  With nothing else to offer, Apple Jack took off her stetson hat and left it lying directly between the tombstones.  It had been a gift from her father.  Ever since she’d gotten her cutie mark and realized just how much her family meant to her, she could rarely ever be seen without the hat on.  Sometimes, she even wore it to bed.  It was a poignant reminder of how caring her father had been to her and how much she had loved him in return.  But leaving it here, with the stallion who had given it to her, just felt right somehow.  The rain had started pouring down, paralleling the somber mood.

“Ma, Pa, ah don know if ya’ll can hear me right now but if somehow yer listenin, I wanna let ya know, I still love y'all.  I’ve always loved y'all an ah always will.”

With that, Apple Jack was at a loss for words.  So she just sat on her haunches and stared, broken down to her very core.  At some point, Big Mac joined her, though she didn’t pay much attention.  She stayed there like that for what must have been at least an hour.

Eventually, when she could find the strength, she climbed to her hooves and slowly started trudging away, back toward the gate.  The others had already gone back at some earlier point.  But when she reached the dock...

“What in tarnation?”  Apple Jack exclaimed.  She hadn’t expected to find the pier they had come off of but she imagined she’d at least see the coast line.  Yet, all that lay before her was an endless ocean.  The rain and cloud cover had both cleared up.  Celestia’s sun glistened brilliantly off the sand and water, a mockery of the heavy atmosphere surrounding the Apples.  Frantically, Apple Jack scanned the horizon.  Then she saw it off to her right. The East coast of Equestria had been reduced to a small point in the distance.

“Well now how we gonna get off this island?”  Apple Jack complained.

“You tell me.”  Apple Bloom snapped back.  “Wait a minute, do you see that?” she pointed a hoof in the opposite direction.

Apple Jack turned to look where she was pointing.  Jutting out of the water was a mammoth bolder.  There was… something… on top of it.

As they drew closer, Apple Jack was somewhat able to make it out.  “Is that a…gazebo?” she wondered.  No, wait the shape was wrong.  It seemed to be more box shaped than anything, with a flat roof.  No, definitely not a gazebo.

eventually, they were close enough to the strange oddity for Apple Jack to truly make out what it was.  From the island, she could tell she was facing what appeared to be intended as the front.  As she had judged, it was box shaped with a roof that was completely flat on top.  It appeared to be made of black marble.  It had no walls.  Only four smooth, reflective, square support beams, which would have acted as corners had any walls existed.  Inside this structure were even more oddities.  There were two bronze torches positioned symmetrically inside with blue flames wafting off of them. On the ground were two perfectly round pools of water, also positioned symmetrically, that were who knows how deep.

There was something inside of them.  What were those?  Were those… electric eels?  What the hay?

Positioned in the center, towards the back, was a stone table, it's sides cut even with it's top.  Lying asleep on that table was a unicorn colt.  He was rather tall and lanky looking.  His coat was a deep purple.  His wild tuft of mane was striped black and blue.

“Hey” Apple Bloom called out.  “Who are you?  What’s goin on here?”

Quickly, Apple Jack shoved a hoof into her sister’s mouth.  “Apple Bloom,” she said in a hushed whisper.  “That ain’t a good idea.  I got a bad feeling bout this.”

But Apple Bloom, ever the stubborn filly, shoved Apple Jack’s hoof away and called out again.  “Wake up.”  She shouted again.

Apple Jack moved to stop her again.  But it was already too late.  The colt was already wide awake.

“Well” Apple Jack admitted to herself, “might as well.”

“Hey, little colt” she called out. “Who are ya?”

“What?” he responded.

“I mean what’s yer name?

“Wait one moment, I be right over.”

Be right over?  What did that have to do with anything?  Did he mean he would…

There was a blinding flash of light, a deafening crack of sound and a sudden heat wave right next to Apple Jack.  Then, out of nowhere, the colt was standing right next to her.  He had teleported.

Apple Jack wouldn’t pretend to understand how magic worked.  But even she knew such a spell should be outside the limits of any normal foal’s range.

“So, what were you asking?” his voice could only be described as deep and gravelly.  This colt was coming across a foal less and less as the minutes passed by.  Strange.  He didn’t even have his cutie mark yet.

“Ah asked what yer name was.”

“What is my name?  you can call me…… Black Velvet.”  Why had he hesitated?

As he had said that, he made eye contact with Apple Jack for the first time.  Those eyes.  They were red, a color AJ had only ever seen as a result of dark magic.  They were sunken in, surrounded by a million wrinkles.  His pupils, rather than being big and round like AJ had expected, were long vertical slits.  “Now, that just ain’t right”  she thought to herself.

“What’re ya doin out here in the middle of nowhere?  Where’re yer parents?”

“I am the guardian of this graveyard.  I watch over it at night, keeping it safe from grave robbers and the likes.”

Apple pondered over this for a moment.  “Ah guess that makes sense” she replied. “But why ya out here all alone?  Where’re yer parents?”

“Whatever do you mean?

Apple Jack was taken aback.  She had not expected that response.  “Ya know, yer parents?  Yer ma an pa?

“What are those?” he replied cryptically.  With that, Apple Jack gave up.  She could tell this line of inquiry was going nowhere.

“Well, ya clearly seem important so maybe ya could help us out.”

“let me guess, the island floated away with you four on it and now you’re stuck here?” he asked.

The Apple family members all gave their different responses at the same time.

“Eeyup” Big Mac bellowed.

“Course” Apple Jack replied.

“Darn tootin” rasped granny smith.

“Duh” Apple Bloom said.

“You would not be the first.” The colt responded.  “Many others have had the same problem. Unfortunately for you, this island takes about twenty six hours to make one round trip.”

“So we’re stuck here all night?” Apple Jack groaned.

“Yes, but you’ll be glad to know there is an inn here for that very reason.”

“There’s a hotel?” Apple Jack asked.

“No, an inn”

“Same thing” she snapped back.  “Either way, that’s great news.  We don have to sleep in the dirt, not that ah mind.  But a bed would be nice.  Where is it?”

“Follow me.” The colt said.  With that statement, he took off running.

“Now wait one gosh darn minute.  Where ya goin?”  The colt didn’t respond.  He just ran.  He had already darted through the front gate of the graveyard before Apple Jack could finish speaking.

“Dag nabbit” Apple Jack swore under her breath, as they all ran after him.  How could a colt be so fast?  She could barely keep up with him.  Big Mac was able to keep pace with them both but she doubted Apple Bloom had the strength or stamina, let alone Granny Smith.

They ran all the way through the graveyard passing rows after rows of graves.  The tombstones were nothing but blurs in Apple Jack’s wake.

The Island was so much larger then Apple Jack had expected, it was almost too incredible to believe.

Eventually, they reached the other end of the cemetery where another gate stood open like a Lion’s maw waiting to swallow them.  The inn stood on the other side.  Apple Jack was panting and out of breath.  Granny was lagging several dozen yards behind.

When Black Velvet had said the inn was small, he wasn’t joking.  It was only one story tall and only one dozen yards on the front with a flat roof and was made of bland, ugly, grey bricks.  AJ knew Rarity would have gagged at the sight of it.

“Here we are” the colt said.  His horn lit up with magic as he held the door open for them.  “Guests first” He said dryly.  The Apples all filed through the door, one by one, though Apple Jack was hesitant to do so.  As soon they were all inside, the door creaked closed behind them.  Apple Jack jumped in surprise.

“Hey ya’ll, ah want to call together a meetin”

“What was that?” Granny Smith asked.  Sometimes, AJ could swear her grandmother was going senile.

“Come on Apples, huddle up.”  She insisted.  Thankfully, they understood this time.

They walked further from the door to the other side of the room.  Then they all huddled together in a tight circle.

“Listen up,” Apple Jack said in a hushed whisper “Ah don trust that colt.”

“Oh why not?” Granny Smith inquired.

“He teleported when we first met him. He was way too fast.  An did anypony else notice he has bags under his eyes?  Not ta mention those snake like pupils.  None of those things make any sense for a foal.  Somethin about him jus rubs me the wrong way”

“Ah, quit bein such a worry wort” Granny Smith chided.  “He’s such a gentlecolt, so polite an holdin the door open for us.”

“Ah didn’t notice anythin weird about him” Apple Bloom said innocently.

“Enope.” Big Mac replied.

“Why do ah even bother?” AJ sighed in defeat.  “Just know this.  Ah swear there’s somethin more ta this.  Even if ya don’t believe me, watch yer backs anyway okay?

They all scoffed in reply.  “Whatever," said Granny Smith "let’s just get some shut eye.”

With that they all went off to bed.  The inn had three bedrooms, a bathroom, and a living room in the front.  AJ, Apple Bloom and Big Mac each entered their respective bedrooms.  Granny Smith slept on a pull out couch in the living room.

When Apple Jack entered the bedroom.  Despite the fact that it was still early evening, she hopped right into bed without a second thought.

But, as she lay there, she couldn’t force her eyes to close.  She couldn’t turn her brain to turn off.  With all the heavy thoughts weighing on her mind, she couldn’t get to sleep.  After several minutes of futile attempts to find rest, she groaned in frustration and sat up.  She might as well get up.  She needed to use the bathroom anyway.

She exited her temporary bedroom, and walked down the hallway to the restroom which was right next to the front door.  However, as she passed by the living room, she couldn’t help but notice Granny Smith was sitting on the couch with her eyes open.  The couch hadn’t been pulled out yet.  Why hadn’t Granny gone to sleep?

“Oh hey Granny Smith.  Whadya still doin up?” Apple Jack said.  Granny didn’t answer.  “Granny Smith?” she asked, concern leaking into her voice.  Still no response.  Apple Jack looked at Granny Smith more closely.  She wasn’t breathing.  Her eyes were glazed over and unfocused.  Apple Jack reached down and felt her grandmother’s wrist.  No pulse.  “Granny?  GRANNY???  Granny Smith was dead and Apple Jack knew it.  Her breath caught in her chest.  Her breathing quickened.  “Big Mac, Apple Bloom, come here” she called out.

She heard shuffling sounds coming from down the hallway.

“Big Mac, Apple Bloom,” she screamed at the top of her lungs “get over here right now.”

Grumpily, Apple Bloom peaked out of her room.  “What is it?” she said annoyed.

“Come look” Apple Jack insisted.

Reluctantly, Apple Bloom walked out into the hallway, Big Mac following close behind her.

“It’s Granny.  She’s dead.  I knew this would happen sooner or later but why here?  Why now?”

“Eeyup” Big Mac said somberly.

“What are we gonna do?”

For once, Big Mac spoke up.  “Well, it would be best if we could bury her.  But we can’t really do much while we’re stuck on this island.  Ah think we should just leave her as she is for now and morn for her properly as soon as we can.”

Apple Jack was at a loss for words.  She stood in stunned silence for a long while.  “Ah guess yer right Mac” she admitted.  “But first…” she reached out a hoof to close Granny’s eyes.  With them closed, it looked like she was sleeping.  Somehow, that made the situation a little easier to deal with.  It wouldn’t have been the first time Granny had fallen asleep sitting up.

With that, Apple Bloom and Big Mac went back to bed.  After relieving herself in the restroom, Apple Jack did the same.

She lay down in bed and closed her eyes.  She had only been lying there for what seemed like five seconds when she heard the screaming.

Apple Jacks eyes snapped open.  Had she even slept?  Looking out her bedroom window, she could see it was pitch black.  When she had lain down, it had been just after sunset.  She must have slept a little.

She heard the screaming again.  That sounded like Apple Bloom. Apple Jack wasted no time.  She leaped out of bed and darted to the doorway.  Fast as a bullet, she raced to her sister’s bedroom.

“Help” Apple Bloom screamed.  There was a cracking sound and then silence.  Too late, Apple Jack threw open the door to her sister’s bedroom.  That same colt was standing next to Apple Bloom’s bed but the filly was nowhere to be seen.

“Where is she?”  Apple Jack screamed at him.

“Whatever do you mean?”

“Don’t play dumb with me” She demanded.  “Ah know yer behind this.  Where’s ma sister????”  Then she noticed the colt was standing over a blanket lying on the ground.  It had a small bulge underneath it just the right size and shape for a small filly.  “What’s under the blanket?” she demanded.

“That is none of your concern.” He said.

“You tell me now or ah ain’t movin.” Apple Jack declared.  She spread out her legs completely blocking the doorway.

“That’s nice” he waved a hoof nonchalantly.

“If ya’ll won’t tell me, move out of my way.”

“Why?”

“If you won’t move, I’ll make you move.”

“You and what army?”

Apple Jack had had enough.  She tore into the bedroom and, true to her word, bucked the colt across the room into the opposite wall.  She grabbed the corner of the blanket in her teeth, pulled it off her sister and… Oh no.

Apple Bloom was lying limp on the floor.  The right side of her skull had been bashed inwards and blood was gushing out of it.  Some of her brain matter had found its way out through the cracks in her skull.  Her right eyeball was dangling out of its socket like a yo-yo.

Apple Jack couldn’t believe her eyes.  Her sister, her own innocent little Apple Bloom was lying dead on the floor in front of her.  Applejack threw herself down over her sister’s body and sobbed into Apple Bloom’s corpse.  Though she had become covered in her sister’s blood, she was too lost in her own woe to care.

“Problem?” said the colt mockingly.

Apple Jack looked up at him.  His forehooves were covered Apple Bloom’s blood.  How had Apple Jack not noticed?  “You” Apple Jack snapped.  “You did this.  WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS???”

Then the colt laughed.  He laughed a maniacal laugh.  It lit an inferno in Apple Jack’s soul.  Her sorrow turned to rage and she directed it straight at the colt.

“You Monster!!!!!!” she yelled in righteous fury “BUCK YOU.  BUCK YOU TO TARTARUS!!!!!!!!

“Hahaha” the colt chuckled mockingly “Why did I kill her you ask?  This isle is a place of the dead.  No breathing creature is permitted entry.”

As he said these this, the colt started to change.  All of his mane fell out.  His fur changed from purple to white.  No, not white.  A light tannish color.  The color of bone.  His muzzle melted off revealing the skull underneath.  White flames erupted out of his jaw and empty eye sockets.  He gained a cutie mark, a pure black unicorn skull and crossed bones framed by skeletal Pegasi wings.  He grew taller and thinner to the point that he was nearly the same size as Princess Celestia.  Though he had skin and fur, he was so thin he looked like a walking corpse.

Apple Jack stood in shock.  She had seen many weird things in the past two years.  She had taken down the queen of shape-shifting parasites.  She had fought a centaur demon from Tartarus.  She had even gone neck and neck with the master of chaos himself.  But, standing there in that bedroom, Apple Jack could say with absolute certainty that this was the most screwed up thing she’d seen in her life.

“What are you?” she gasped.

“What am I?” he parroted.  “A better question is who.”  He started backing toward the wall.  “I go by many names.” He stuck out his forehooves and started climbing up the wall.  “Some call me the Grimm Reaper.  Others, the angel of death.”  He was almost halfway up the wall.  His movements were jerky and sudden, like a spider stalking its prey.  “There are even those who call me the Harbinger of Doom.”   He had nearly reached the top of the wall.  “I am the end of all things and the inevitable outcome of every beginning.”  When he reached the top, he perched, like a cat, in the corner where the wall met the ceiling.

“By the way” death said cruelly “I just thought I’d let you know, I strangled your grandmother.”

The walls started to crumble.  They cracked and broke.  The ceiling started collapsing in.  Wherever the cracks appeared, a blinding white light poured into the room.

“Who else?”  Apple Jack demanded.  “Who else have you killed???”

“You really want to know?” death teased.

“Course ah wanna know.  Why wouldn’t I?”

“If it really means that much to you…” He lifted up is right forehoof and pointed behind Apple Jack.  She looked where he was pointing.  The wall behind her had disappeared and she looked through where the wall used to be.  Lying on a patch of floor in what used to be his bedroom

was Big Mac’s corpse.  His head had been severed from his neck and hung off like a key from a key chain.  Several think tendrils of bloody tissue still connected the two together.  It made Apple Jack feel sicker than a rotten apple.

“Don’t you see Apple Jack?” Death said as his flaming skull flipped upside down turning 180 degrees on his neck. “All will die.  All will reach their bitter end.  Nopony can escape the cold embrace of death.  Why prolong the inevitable?”

All the sorrow was gone.  All the shock and anger.  The only thing Apple Jack felt now was terror.  This bastard had taken her parents.  He’d taken Babs and Granny Smith, Big Mac and Apple Bloom.  Apple Jack feared for her own life because now, he was coming for her.  But, before she could think of a way to respond, the floor beneath her disappeared and she fell into the abyss below.

THUNK

Apple Jack jolted awake in a cold sweat, heart pounding in her chest.  She was lying still in her own bed in her own room in the farmhouse on Sweet Apple Acres.  In her sleep, her blanket had been thrown off the bed and her Stetson hat had fallen off her head.  It was now lying upside down on the floor.

Otherwise, everything was normal.  Except for one thing.  Big Mac was standing in the doorway with a concerned look on his face.  The door was swinging shut, as though it had banged hard against the wall.  That must be what had made the noise.

“Big Mac?” AJ inquired, still catching her breath. “Whadya doin in here?”

“You woke me up with yer wailin and screamin.” he replied. “I thought somethin might be wrong.”

“Well, I…” Suddenly her eyes went wide as a realization dawned on her.  “Big Mac, Is Babs dead?  Please tell me she’s not dead.  Tell me Babs is okay.”

“Eeyup” he said, clearly confused.  “Babs is fine.  Why’d ya ask?”

“Oh mac, ah had a terrible dream last night.”

“Care ta talk about it?  Ya seem pretty shaken up over it.”

“Ya know what?” said Apple Jack, “yer right.  It’ll be good ta this off ma chest.”    Taking a deep breath, Apple Jack began to tell him.  “Let’s see if ah can remember how it started.  Ah was standin on a dock on the coast of Manehattan, lookin out over the water…”  Apple Jack told him everything.  Every single detail.  As much as she could remember.  “And then ah woke up an saw ya standin there.”

Big Mac was speechless, though that wasn’t exactly uncommon for him.  After several moments of just standing there awkwardly, he responded “Well, that’s some dream.”

“Ah know Mac,” AJ responded “but that ain’t all.”  “Back toward the start of the dream, in that graveyard, ah saw two grave stones standin side by side.  It was Ma an Pa”

Big Mac was usually silent, but at Apple Jack’s words, he slipped into a different kind of silence.  One that was absolute, so complete, it was, almost deafening.

“Ah know it’s been years, an some ponies might say ah should be over it by now, but ah miss em Mac.  Ah really do.”  She was struggling to breathe more and more as she choked back tears.  “Ah’ve been doin mah best ta take care of the farm, with yer help o’course, but nothing has ever been the same since they.  They….”

That did it.  As Pinkie had said, AJ normally cried on the inside.  But between the dream and her mostly one sided conversation with Big Mac, It brought all those repressed memories back to the surface.  All at once, ten years worth of pent up sorrow coursed through her.  The floodgates opened and Apple Jack broke down sobbing.

Although he didn’t show many outward signs of it, Apple Jack knew her brother well enough to know he felt the same sadness she did.  He shared her memories of that terrible event and she could see the sorrow in his eyes.  Without saying a word, Big Mac reached his forehooves up over the bed and embraced his sister in a tender hug.  He was so firm and strong yet caring and gentle at the same time. Apple Jack took comfort in that.  It was no replacement for what her mom and dad had offered in her youth but it was enough.  It had always been enough.

Nothing ever calmed her down like her brother’s loving embrace.

Apple Jack didn’t know how long she sat there sobbing.  It could have been a few minutes or it could have been hours.  Time had lost all meaning in her mind.  Eventually, however, the torrent slowed to a trickle.  Still chocking back a few residual sobs, Apple Jack found the will to speak up.  “Hey Mac, ya can go now.  Ah think ah’ll be fine.”

“Ya sure?” he asked

“Ah’m sure” she replied.

With that, Big Mac stepped down from the bed and slowly walked out of AJ’s bedroom and downstairs.

Talking to Big Mac had helped, but it wasn’t enough for Apple Jack.  As much as she hated to admit it, that dream seemed too important to her.  She didn’t want to forget it.  She wanted, no, she needed, to write it down.  Thankfully, the Friendship Journal was sitting on her dresser.  She had borrowed it from Twilight’s castle the night before to see if there was anything she could learn from her friends.  Unfortunately, she didn’t have anything to write with.

With a heavy sigh, Apple Jack got up out of bed and exited her room.  She knew Apple Bloom had a drawer of school supplies in her bedroom.  There had to be at least one pencil or pen she could use.  She walked into her sister’s bedroom and over to her dresser.  Sure enough, inside the drawer, there was a single pen.  It was running out of ink and barely even worked.  It wasn't perfect, but it would have to do.  She picked up the pen in her mouth and walked back over to her bedroom.

She opened up the journal to a blank page on her bed.  Sitting down on her haunches, she oriented the pen correctly in her mouth and began to write.

Dear Diary,

I just had the weirdest dream last night.  In that dream, Babs died.  Granny Smith too.  The same’s true for Apple Bloom and Big Mac.  There was this creepy colt who turned out to be the grim reeper and we found him asleep on a stone table on top of a big bolder.  And the whole thing happened on this weird island that moved around in the water and had a huge cemetery on it.  But that drem dream brout back some painful memories, id rather soon forget.  I guess if theres a lesson to be taken out of this, its that yall dont know what you have til its gone.  If theres anypony you care about, and I hope there is, theyll eventually be gone.  Nothing lasts forever.  Heck, Im sure even the princesses will die eventually even if it takes a while.  All you can do is make the most of your friendships while they last and make every moment count.  And even if there are ponies who have already disapered from your life, yall can still enjoy the freindships you still do have and make some happy memories while you can.

Apple Jack