Applejack sighed. Her body ached all over. It wasn’t normal for work around the farm to make her exhausted, much less sore and achy as she felt right now. It was right about the time when she was starting to wonder if Rarity would let her tag along on one of her spa trips for a good massage did she know she was losing both her mind and her sanity from exhaustion. But really, who could blame her?
Getting prepared for the first harvest after winter never felt this exhausting before. Then again, she thought to herself, it was the first time she hadn’t had Big Macintosh to help her.
She rolled over in the grass, her body under a tree which was just now starting to grow back its leaves. It wasn’t shade exactly, many of the streams of light breaking through the cracks in the bare branches, but the days in Ponyville were still too nice to have any need for shade. She stared up at the sky, her hat tipped down just enough to block out the sun. She thought again about her brother, and how it was unlike him to just run off.
Applejack had been thinking about that a lot lately. Working alone on the farm for most of the day, given Apple Bloom was in school and Granny Smith was too old, meant that she had a lot of time to think. It wasn’t as if working with Big Macintosh was much of a two-way conversation, but she could at least talk at her brother and he’d listen during those times. During endless hours of scrubbing old buckets and tuning up old wagons and making sure none of the trees were growing rot, she thought of the absence of her brother.
It hadn’t crossed her mind at the time, at least not in full. Big Macintosh hadn’t given her enough time to let it sink in that he was leaving so early for her to realize how abnormal the whole thing had been.
“He didn’t even say goodbye to me,” Apple Bloom had said once Applejack had told her the news. She sounded disappointed at the time, and a bit confused. Those feelings had a way of rubbing off on her big sister.
Maybe that’s when she started thinking about it. Applejack wasn’t even sure if Big Macintosh had even said goodbye to Granny Smith at the time he seemed to be in such a hurry.
It was just a spur of the moment idea with Caramel. Applejack thought to herself when she closed her eyes, a long sigh escaping her lips. She had been telling herself this every time she began to worry. It wasn’t like there was anything to worry about. She had gotten Big Macintosh’s letters, brief and to the point as he himself was but they were always normal. It was just… the idea of Big Macintosh being a spur of the moment type of pony didn’t fit right with him. Him and Caramel running away together on a mini vacation for romantic reasons Applejack didn’t want to think about might have been normal if it hadn’t been for his eyes.
His eyes looked nervous. As Big Macintosh was gathering his things and talking, speaking faster than he normally did at the time. His eyes didn’t look right at the time. Too dodgy and refusing to look at her. The eyes of somepony running away on a spur of the moment romantic vacation would be excited, and maybe a little nervous. Big Macintosh’s eyes were the latter, but certainly not the former.
“Ugh,” Applejack groaned as she planted both hooves over either side of her head, the action causing her forelegs to ache. She shook her head slowly, ordering herself to stop thinking so much and just trust her brother. Since when did her family lie? She was the element of harmony for honesty, after all. She didn’t know if the Apple Family had a bone in their body that could lie.
Just avoid the truth. She thought. That was when she rolled over and jumped up, smashing her hind leg in the tree near her until all the branches rattled and a few old, dry twigs fell around her.
“It’s fine!” She shouted in a manner that clearly showed it was not fine.
“Excuse me? Is this a bad time?”
Applejack’s head whipped around. She heard a voice, a mare’s voice. She half expected it to be one of her friends, but then she saw a face of somepony she had never seen before. No, that was a lie. She hadn’t seen this pony before but something was familiar. Her eyes were bright blue, her mane tied back and light brown. Her coat was yellow, bright yellow actually. It reminded her of her cousin in Appleloosa.
“Oh, Howdy stranger!” Applejack said, more concerned that somepony she didn’t know had just seen her kick a tree for no reason over the fact that said stranger was on her property. She went up to the mare who was standing at the edge of the dirt path and put on a friendly smile, snatching up her hoof and giving it a shake. She put on her best smile. “Nope! Great time! Any time’s great for company! You lost or just interested in our Apple Family magic?”
“Um… A little of both,” The mare responded. Applejack couldn’t look away from her eyes. They were so… familiar in the strangest of ways. Her voice, though, it was slightly off from her looks. What Applejack mistook for timid was actually raspy, almost like she had a cold. Actually, now that Applejack was closer the mare wasn’t nearly as flawless looking as she might have thought. Her eyes had heavy bags that looked like equal parts age as well as exhaustion. Her mane was frizzled and messy with loose ends sticking out. She was older than Applejack thought at first. Old enough to be her mother, actually.
“My name is Toffee,” The mare said. “I’m actually looking for somepony. My son, actually. I asked around town a little and they told me he usually is around a pony who lives around here.”
She smiled, and Applejack realized what she had been smelling was a strong, over aggressive layering of perfume seemingly excreting from the mare before her. She was curvy, but not in a bad way. She just looked like she had rolled out of bed without bothering to brush her mane or look in the mirror, something Applejack could respect.
Then it clicked. Applejack knew why she recognized this mare’s eyes.
“Oh, you’re Caramel’s mom?” Applejack asked, her smile widening. “Shoot! Thought I saw a bit of family resemblance!”
Toffee’s mouth pursed. This caught Applejack off guard slightly before it returned to a regular smile. She seemed almost annoyed at the mention that she looked anything like Caramel. Applejack thought to herself very briefly when was the last time Caramel had even mentioned his mother, but the thought passed just as soon as the conversation picked up again.
“Are they here?” Toffee questioned. “My son and his…”
“Boyfriend?” Applejack questioned. “You mean Big Mac?”
That slight purse returned, but then was replaced.
“Yes…” Toffee said hesitantly.
“Well… Shoot,” Applejack shrugged. “Didn’t you stop at their house? I know his brother’s still in town. Didn’t he tell you?”
“I tried,” Toffee said. Suddenly her eyes cast away. “But Sage… He wasn’t home.”
There it was again. A slight hesitation as if the mare had to think about what she was saying. She frowned slightly, and Applejack thought to herself that this whole conversation felt off. She tried again to think of the last time Caramel mentioned his mother, or any of his family apart from Sage.
“Well, Caramel and Big Macintosh are gone,” Applejack chuckled, trying to keep the tone light. “Went away on a little trip together. Should be back in a few weeks.”
“Has he been dating this… stallion long?” Toffee questioned, her eyes still cast down to her hooves in which she was dragging one through the dirt in the path. “What was his name?”
“Big Macintosh,” Applejack replied. “And yeah, they’re pretty serious, I think.”
“Figures,” Toffee said. Her tone was stiff, but it was followed up by a chuckle. Applejack blinked at this mare, the stench of her perfume strong. “Caramel’s still in that mindset, huh? He always was a … silly stallion. I told him
“Yeah…” Applejack mumbled, suddenly questioning this mare before her. Something was stirring around in her head that wasn’t quite connecting. She tried to pass whatever barrier was holding her back from figuring out the problem she didn’t even know she was trying to solve, but came up empty hooved. “Big Macintosh is really good to Caramel, though. They’re a good fit, I swear.”
A need to defend the two. Applejack was vaguely aware of the irony that two years ago she was the one who needed to be told those words to understand Big Macintosh and Caramel’s relationship. She didn’t know why she felt the need to speak her mind now, but it came up.
“I’m sure,” Toffee mumbled, her tone unconvinced.
“Do you… want to come in for tea or something?”
Toffee’s eyes glanced up and down the pathway. Applejack knew her home was just in sight, but Toffee was frowning now. It was a disapproving frown, the kind Applejack saw and it just made her stomach twist. She was suddenly self conscious of the fact that she had just got done working and her mane was a mess, her hooves covered in mud, and her body sweaty. She felt judged, but shook her head and called herself silly for even having the thought.
“No thanks,” Toffee said. Applejack didn’t like this mare’s tone. “Where did you say Caramel and his… friend went?”
“I didn’t,” Applejack said.
“Yes,” Toffee chuckled. Her eyes changed suddenly, meeting Applejack’s own. They were harder than her smile, more serious. “But where, exactly?”
Applejack blinked. This was Caramel’s mother. She realized in all the time with him over she never once asked about her, but somehow this isn’t what she pictured. If anything, she pictured a pony a lot like Caramel. Maybe an older Fluttershy, or somepony equally as timid and shy. This mare might have had Caramel’s eyes, but she had a harder stance and tone and authority that Applejack struggled to connect the two in anything but the color of their manes and the shape and look of her eyes. Maybe, she thought, Caramel took more after his father.
“Appleloosa,” Applejack said, her thoughts so wrapped up she didn’t think before she spoke. “Out with my cousin. Why?”
"No reason," Toffee answered with a smile. "Just curious, is all."