Honeycrisp Chapter 6

Hello all. Ready for a new chapter of John Honeycrisp Apple? I know I am! Talking about it after the page break. Naturally, spoilers will be present.

Alrighty...what happens in this chapter to discuss? Applejack seems to be warming up to John somewhat, though she's still unhappy over his lack of memories and his long absence. Two new things related to Rosewood are brought up, specifically the song that AJ was humming that he recognized, and the rose-hay salad that he very much didn't remember, though thoroughly enjoyed. What does it mean? Something? Nothing? Who knows? (Me. I know. As Vates Despero has pointed out in the story's comment section).

What's under Applejack's bed that she would get so flustered about? Could be anything. Naughty magazines, mushy romance novels, a really frilly dress she likes putting on to feel pretty when nobody is watching, a diary, love letters from an admirer, love letters to a crush she has that she's not worked up the nerve to send, an issue of Oranges Monthly...What it is isn't really important, just that it is something that she doesn't want others to know about. I shall neither confirm nor deny any guess or possibility of what is under there unless it is something really out there and definitely not what it is. I will confirm that John kept naughty magazines under his bed, though.

John spends some time with Apple Bloom, who is the most accepting of his return outside of Granny Smith. Each member of the Apple family has a different reaction to his appearance in their lives. Granny treats him as a returning long lost loved one and is incredibly trusting and caring. Applejack resents his disappearance and gives him a bit of the cold shoulder as a result of it. Big Mac avoids him in an effort to avoid the guilt he feels over his past and ends up drinking himself into a stupor to get over his pain. Apple Bloom treats him as a new friend that she wants to get to know, more or less. She feels no lingering resentment as a life without parents is all she knows since she was too young to remember her parents when he disappeared and is simply excited to experience having a father in her life.

We also meet Cheerilee...yes, I'm supporting the Cheerimac ship in this story. I'm not generally for or against the ship, but for the sake of this story I thought I'd give it a try. Anyway, she reveals a certain detail about Honeycrisp's disappearance all those years ago. Turns out Big Mac has been keeping a secret about the events surrounding his father's disappearance, a fact which probably shouldn't surprise anybody reading for two reasons. First, because Mack the horse was somewhat responsible for John's entrance into Equestria and John's life seems to parallel Honeycrisp's life very closely. Secondly because Granny explicitly said that Big Mac never opened up to anybody about what had happened after his month long stay in his locked room. Big Mac saw Cheerilee as somebody he could trust to reveal the truth without being too close to the events (as in she isn't a member of the Apple family).

Also, John is truly starting to suspect this isn't all a hallucination or dream. He's finally decided that he needs to tell them the truth, and will do so by the end of that day. That would mean he's gone with the lie for what....two days if he tells them at the end of the day instead of sometime before then? Not that long from his perspective, even if it does span several chapters of the story.