Apple Bloom couldn't drag her suitcase out fast enough.

She didn't need much, really. Just the essentials, enough to get started in Canterlot. Thrift was a constant at Sweet Apple Acres, and Apple Bloom didn't see much need to change that.

Maybe she'd have a chance to teach those uppity Canterlot ponies a thing or two about not being wasteful, while she was there. Celestia knew they could use it. Those hotels threw out more in a day than some ponies saw in a year.

She took a moment away from packing to look out the window and at the rolling orchards outside.

Autumn would be here soon. Apple Bloom could smell it in the air, and feel it in the breeze wafting in from outside.

Autumn had always been her favorite time of year - and the busiest. Soon the trees would be laden with fruit, and she would be hard at work, with her siblings, getting the harvest done.

No, she quickly corrected herself. Applejack and Big Macintosh would be out there in the fields. She would be living it up in Canterlot, far away.

She scrunched her nose at the thought. Harvest was always hard work, and she knew her work would be sorely missed. Sugar Belle was in no condition to help - not that she was really built for farming from the start.

It was enough to give her pause, her eyes turning towards the suitcase that lay open atop her bed. She couldn't leave all that behind, could she? Leave her family? Leave everypony she loved and cared about?

No. Scootaloo was right, it was time to leave this life behind. There was a world out there and she had to be a part of it.

Three wooden knocks yanked Apple Bloom from her thoughts. She turned just in time to see a familiar orange earth pony at the door, tired emerald eyes twinkling with a fond smile.

"Hey, Apple Bloom."

It was a smile Apple Bloom returned with alacrity, as she leapt away from the window to draw her sister in for a fond hug. "Hey, Applejack."

Applejack chuckled softly, giving Apple Bloom a gentle squeeze before releasing her. "You're usually the first one down for dinner. Thought I'd come to see what was what." Her eyes turned to the open suitcase. "Shucks. Ain't ever seen ya this excited about a trip before."

Apple Bloom giggled. "Yeah, well. I'd have finished packin' sooner if I hadn't gone to see Sweetie this morning. She's still got her head in a bucket."

Applejack shook her head, clicking her tongue in mock disapproval. "Poor thing. She's got to learn how to hold her cider." She snickered. "That reminds me. Rainbow's joining us for lunch tomorrow. Think Scootaloo might want to come?"

"S'funny," Apple Bloom answered. "Haven't seen Scoots anywhere. She's usually out practicing around this time. She wasn't at her aunts', neither."

"Shame." Applejack shrugged her shoulders. "Rainbow ain't here for long. Thought Scootaloo'd be leapin' all over that like bees on a blossom."

Bees on a blossom. There was nothing out there quite like Applejack's way with words.

"Think ya'll are gonna be OK?" Apple Bloom asked.

Applejack's expression turned quizzical. "Hm?"

Apple Bloom gestured out the window. "Harvest. If I ain't here, well..."

"Oh, don't you worry yourself about it none." Applejack's voice was as reassuring as it was tender. "We'll manage fine, just you see." Abruptly, Apple Bloom found her head locked in Applejack's foreleg, a hoof playfully rubbing into her skull. "So long as you come to visit often, ya hear?"

Apple Bloom could only squirm in place. "I promise, I promise!" She wriggled her way out, all giggles as she beamed at her sister. This was a game they'd played for as long as she could remember, and time hadn't tarnished its joys any.

Still, for all the reassurances in Applejack's words, she couldn't shake off a nagging, biting sense of unease deep in her belly.

"I just don't want to leave you all here," Apple Bloom muttered. "Livin' it up in the city by myself."

"Well, you ain't by yourself. Ya got yer friends, don't ya?" Applejack smiled broadly. "S'just nerves, I'm sure of it. Here, if ya want, I could tell ya a bit about my own time in the big city if you'd like?"

Apple Bloom's ears perked. "Ya mean when you lived with Aunt and Uncle Orange?"

"Mhm." Applejack turned her head off, smiling reminiscently. "I mean, it ain't Canterlot, but I learned a thing or two about the highfalutin' life. Maybe you could use it better than I did."

"Yeah," Apple Bloom said. "I'd like that."

Would she?

"But that didn't turn out great for ya, did it?" Apple Bloom's asked.

"What didn't?"

"Manehattan. I mean, you came back to Sweet Apple Acres, didn't you?"

Applejack nodded. "Yeah, I guess I did. After I got my cutie mark. But hey, what didn't work so well for me shouldn't stop ya now, should it?"

Should it?

Apple Bloom didn't answer, and Applejack didn't press further. The mare merely gave Apple Bloom a fond pat on the back before turning away. "Don't stay too late up, now. Dinner's gettin' cold."

With the clipclop of Applejack's steps echoing in the hallway and down the stairs, Apple Bloom was alone again.

Alone, with cold hooves.

She'd be leaving her family, the ones that mattered most to her, for a place she barely knew. All that uncertainty, for a payoff that might never come. It wasn't like architects weren't a dime a dozen. What chance did a little hayseed like her have against all those university bigwigs?

Apple Bloom wasn't worth much. But Applejack? Applejack was the Element of Honesty.

If it didn't work for Applejack, what chance in Equestria was there that it would work for her?

Manehattan wasn't that far removed from Canterlot. Not where it mattered most.

Maybe this wasn't right for her after all.

It was with reluctant steps that Apple Bloom turned away from the window. She couldn't bear to look at her suitcase, still open on her bedsheets.

Dinner, first. What she could stomach of it, anyway. And then time to figure out what to tell her friends.

Author's Note

Dear darling sister, are you listening?
Will you remember all these feelings that I sing?
I'm having second thoughts, oh what a drag
I'm torn between this place and all I've ever had...