Apples Can Cry

Her orange pelt was slicked with sweat, her green eyes alight with adrenaline. The lactic acids in her powerful haunches was burning and seizing at her limbs, but she didn't let it stop her. She blew strands of her straw colored mane out of her face and adjusted her signature stetson on her head, shielding her blazing eyes from the setting sun. She tensed her muscles, dug her front hooves into the ground, lifted the lower half of her body and unleashed a mighty buck on the tree behind her.

A rattle went up the thick trunk and apple dropped from the foliage. She swerved underneath them and felt the weight of apples hit her saddlebags. She held strong until they stopped falling and then turned around, trotting back to the farm with her load. Red apples, green apples and the biggest apples you'll ever see weighed the bags on her sides, but she shed the sweat from before off and didn't even break a new sweat with the pounds of apples burdening her.

Big McIntosh watched the mare trot to the door. His green eyes watched her go inside the barn and he chewed on the straw in his mouth. His red coat caught the dying rays of the sun as it set and he clopped over to meet Applejack, his beige hooves making clopping noises as he walked over the hardened dirt. He poked his head inside the hay scented barn before trotting in, the muscles in his legs flexing under his pelt.

Applejack was lying on some hay, one behind her back and one underneath her. Her stetson was pulled over her eyes and a single piece of straw poked from her mouth and it twitched slightly when she chewed on it. Her forelegs were crossed behind her head. A soft hum sounded from her and she pulled her hoof back from behind her head, lifting her stetson. "Howdy Big Mac. Ah just finished apple buckin' and ah thought ah'd rest in the barn."

Big Mac chuckled. "Ah reckon ya've bucked more apples than when ya tried to buck every apple in Apple Buck Season. Ya need to slow down their AJ, before ya get yerself hurt." He said, turning to look at her with his emerald eyes. He saw his reflection in the eyes that were so much like his own, the exact same pair of green eyes put into a mare. He smiled to himself, she was so much like him.

Applejack snorted. "Says the stallion who dun went and broke his ribs before Apple Buck Season. I ain't buckin' half as many trees as ya tried to. Yer just lucky that ah found ya pinned under that big ol' tree before it crushed ya completely." She prodded his chest and he chuckled.

The two Apples sat in the hay, watching the moon rise. It cascaded them both in a shimmering ivory light, dying Applejack's fur bleach white. Applejack looked at her foreleg and giggled slightly. "Ah reckon ah look like Rarity. Dye mah mane purple, curl it and then BAM! Ah'm Rarity." She mused.

McIntosh prodded her with his hoof. "Don't ya dare turn into a Fahionista on me." He tried to act stern, but a loud guffaw made him lose it. He noticed her chest was moving up and down in rythm and he turned to look at her and saw that her eyes were closed and the straw was stuck to her lip, her soft snoring brushed his ear fur. He took his hoof off her chest, slid his foreleg under her sleeping form and pulled her to his chest, embracing her in a hug.

"G'night Applejack." He closed his green eyes and started drifting off to sleep.

"Yer gonna have ta tell 'er at some point."

He opened his eyes and turned his head to look at Granny Smith. He glared at her. "Ah'm not tellin' her anything until ah think she's ready." He retorted, turning his attention back to Applejack, who had draped one foreleg over his chest. "It's not important, she doesn't have to find out at all." He snapped, turning blazing green eyes back at the old mare.

Granny Smith hobbled over and looked at the sleeping mare. "It ain't fair ta her Big Mac and ya know it. Ya tell her or ah'll tell her." She grunted. "AJ deserves ta know the truth."

Big Mac let a tear slide down his face. "Nnope. Ah love her too much Granny, ah can't destroy everything ah've worked to keep hidden, if ah tell her it'll destroy our bond." He begged, his eyes glowing with desperation. "Dun make me tell her."

Granny Smith choked back the tears. She rested her hoof on his orange mane and stroked it soothingly. "Ah promise it'll be ok hun, now go on and tell 'er." She soothed, wiping the tears from his eyes with a frail hoof. She took the same hoof and lightly nudged Applejack. "Wake up Jackie." She whispered.

Applejack stirred under the warm touch and opened her bright eyes. "Wassat? Granny Smith?" Her eyes shot wide open as she woke up and she sat up. "What's goin' on?" She asked in confusion. "Why did ya wake me? Is something wrong?"

Big McIntosh gulped. "C'mere AJ, ah have ta tell ya somethin..." He pulled her back and held her with his forelegs, looking up at the barn's roof. The moonlight danced playfully around his vision as he held the mare in his arms. He looked down at her eyes, the copy of his. She was him, but placed in the body of a mare. He fought back the tidal wave of tears that threatened to spill over his face.

Applejack looked at him in concern. "Big brother? What's wrong?" She asked, flipping herself over so that she didn't have to lean her head back to look into his eyes.

Big brother...

The words tore through his body like the worst possible agony. He grit his teeth for a moment before letting out a breath that sighed in the silent barn. He was aware of Granny Smith sitting down in the corner of his eye, the sensation of Applejack's heart racing against his belly, a tear of fear came from her eye and splashed onto his chest. He closed his eyes before opening them, the green irises full of an intense determination, but an unbearable amount of pain, agony and suffering.

"Ah'm not yer big brother Applejack."