Anguish

by Late_To_The_Party

Chapter 2

Equestria isn’t quite as safe or happy a place as folks like to think. There have been wars and terrible villains who’ve done terrible things. Even in Ponyville we have dragons fly above us and Diamond Dogs livin’ underground right outside town. Then there’s the Everfree Forest, with all the dangers it hides. Most of ‘em we can take care of, but some… Some of ‘em we can’t.

---

Apple Bloom wouldn’t stop crying. It felt like she had been crying for hours. Nothing Applejack tried would make her stop. She had tried giving her a bottle, she tried changing her diaper, rocking her, singing to her, making Big McIntosh carry her around—nothing worked. She wanted to take her to Granny, but Granny was taking a nap and would be too sleepy to be able to help. Granny had started to nap a lot more often lately. Pa said that’s what happens when ponies get older—they get tired and need to sleep more.

Applejack paced in the kitchen, carrying Apple Bloom. Apple Bloom’s cries had just about pushed Applejack to the point of crying herself when she felt a hoof on her back.

“AJ?”

Applejack turned to face her big brother and sniffled.

Big McIntosh held out a hoof. “Give her to me. You can go find Ma and tell her what’s goin’ on.”

“No.” Applejack shook her head and hugged Apple Bloom a little tighter. “Ma asked me ta do this. I can’t just give up when it gets tough.”

“Ya done good, AJ, but it’s time ta get help.”

“I—I—” Applejack slumped. “You’re right.” She gently passed Apple Bloom to Big McIntosh.

Apple Bloom stopped crying long enough to look at Big McIntosh’s face, then she burst into tears again.

Big McIntosh grimaced at Applejack. “Hurry.”

Applejack left them in the house while she went out into the orchard to find their parents. She searched the red delicious trees and found no trace of them. All the apples had been harvested and her parents weren’t there.

The golden delicious trees were next. Many of them had been harvested. Many, but not all. There were baskets filled with apples under empty trees through more than half of the orchard. She was getting close; they hadn’t taken these baskets back yet.

There! An empty basket! An unpicked tree! She must be close. But… Why can’t I hear them bucking the trees? Applejack walked through the orchard calling for her parents. “Ma! Pa!”

She froze. In front of her were half-filled baskets that had been knocked over. The ground was covered with apples. Applejack had never seen her parents spill any apples before. Somethin’s wrong.

Applejack started running, screaming for her parents. She had never run so fast in her life. All around her were empty baskets and full trees. They were ready to pick these apples, so where were they? One kind of apple tree blended smoothly into another as she ran, calling for her parents, unable to shake the feeling that they were in danger. That feeling only got worse when she saw it.

It was in the middle of the Zap Apple orchard. The trees were totally bare. To someone who didn’t know how Zap Apples grew, they looked dead. On the ground next to one of the trees was Pa’s hat. He never took that hat off. Applejack took the hat with her and kept searching. She didn’t notice the specks of blood on it.

She kept looking until it got too dark, then she took the hat inside to show it to Granny.

“You see child,” Granny said to Big Mac when Applejack entered the house, “I told you she was fine. Jus’ takin’ her time out there.”

Applejack bristled at the implication that she wasn’t taking things seriously. Even if they didn’t know she was looking for Ma and Pa for hours, they should know better than to think that she would shirk her responsibility to take care of Apple Bloom. She wanted to tell them as much, but there were more important things to talk about. She interrupted her brother’s reply by showing them the hat.

“I can’t find Ma or Pa anywhere! All I could find was Pa’s hat!”

Granny frowned thoughtfully. “I’m sure they’re okay, Applejack. Probably just had somethin’ come up. Maybe they had to go into town for somethin’ and they’ll be back later.”

“But Pa dropped his hat! He never forgets his hat! He could be hurt somewhere!” She dropped his hat on the floor and stumbled slightly when she turned to head for the door.

Granny stopped her. “Not tonight, child. You’ve been out there for hours and iffin you wanna admit it or not, you’re plum tuckered out. Get some sleep, then tomorrow mornin’, if they aren’t back home, I’ll look after Apple Bloom an’ you an’ your brother can go out lookin’ again.”

Applejack tried to protest, but yawned instead, and she realized it was an argument she couldn’t win. Grudgingly, she went to bed.

The next morning, for the first few minutes after Applejack woke up, she felt like everything was fine. The events of the day before seemed like nothing more than a bad dream. That was, until she came downstairs and saw her father’s hat hanging up above the fireplace. Granny was sitting in her rocking chair near the fire, working on the blanket she was knitting for Apple Bloom. Applejack looked at Granny, hoping the expression on her face would ask the question she couldn’t quite bring herself to vocalize. Granny just shook her head and continued knitting. Applejack felt her mouth tremble, just for a second, before she steeled herself and ran back upstairs.

Applejack didn’t bother to knock before slamming her brother’s door open. “Wake up, Mac! We gotta find Ma an’ Pa!”

McIntosh rubbed his eyes and blinked. “Eeyup,” he said simply, climbing out of bed.

The two began their search in Ponyville, recruiting anyone who would listen to help. No one in town had seen their parents lately. Once a couple ponies asked where in the orchard they’d last been seen. When Applejack told them where she’d found Pa’s hat, the two adults exchanged a frightened, knowing look and immediately agreed to help. With their help, it didn’t take long before half the town was going out to search.

After being led to the spot where Applejack found the hat, the townspeople began to search. Applejack and Big McIntosh were kept to the orchards with some of the ponies, while others searched the edges of the Everfree Forest. By the time the search was called off for the night, no one had found any trace of the missing ponies. In fact, the only thing out of the ordinary was how wet the ground was around the Zap Apple trees, but that was explained away by the strangeness of the trees themselves. Everyone dispersed to their homes for the night, promising to come back bright and early the next morning to keep looking.

The next day was much the same. They searched from sunrise to sunset with no success. A few ponies from town gave up that evening. Each day that followed, a few more gave up the search.

“It’s just us now,” Applejack said to her brother after the last of the townspeople had given up. “See ya back out here first thing tomorrow.”

McIntosh looked at her sadly. He hadn’t said much of anything since the search began, and it was almost as surprising to hear him speak as it was to hear what he had to say. “Nope.”

“Wha—Whaddya mean, ‘nope’?”

McIntosh sighed and shook his head, then trudged toward the house, leaving Applejack alone in the orchard.

Applejack followed him inside sometime later, wiping her eyes.

“...and Little Red Riding Saddle said, ‘Oh, but Grandmother, what large eyes you have!’ and the Wolf said, ‘All the better to see you with, my dear.’ and Little Red—” A snore interrupted Granny’s voice. Granny chuckled softly. “Sleep well, little ones.”

Applejack looked into the room to see Granny laying Apple Bloom next to Big McIntosh on the couch and covering them with the blanket she’d knitted. She saw Applejack and smiled. Applejack gestured for her to come over to the door.

“What are you doin’ tellin’ her a scary story like that now?” Applejack whispered. “Don’t seem right with Ma an’ Pa missin’.”

“Nonsense,” Granny said. “It’s just what the child needs to hear right now. She needs to know that even in the worst of times, things can still turn out alright in the end.”

Applejack snorted softly. She opened her mouth, then thought better and closed it again with a sharp sigh. “Fine,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m goin’ to bed so I can look again tomorrow.”

“Applejack…”

---

That night, Granny convinced me to stop lookin’. Told me if I hadn’t found ‘em by then, another few days wouldn’t help, and they wouldn’t want me to throw away my life. I couldn’t very well argue with that, so I stopped. It hurt too much to stay, so I moved to Manehatten with my Aunt and Uncle for a while, but that didn’t make it hurt any less. When Rainbow did her Sonic Rainboom for the first time I realized I needed to be back at home to look after Apple Bloom, even though it hurt that Ma an’ Pa were gone. I put on Pa’s hat so he’d always be with me, and I took care of the farm from that day on.

Comments

[Late_To_The_Party]

My apologies for taking so long with this. Like I said on my blog, I've got a huge project that's come up, taking a lot of my spare time. Just can't seem to get both free time and motivation to coincide lately.

[marineproductions100]

I liked it.