//------------------------------// // Big Brother is Watching You // Story: Apple Bloom’s Secret // by YourUncleFuncle //------------------------------// “Big Mac! Big Macintosh! Could you be a dear and help me with this here pot of water?” Granny Smith was busy trying to haul a big pot of water that she had just filled to start making the family lunch. She filled it all the way up with warm water, but underestimated the weight and failed to lift it out of the tub. The red stallion she had called for was taking a small break and was about to go back out into the fields, but was more than happy to help his elderly grandmother with the pot. He walked over and helped lift the silver container up and over the sink, then they moved it to the counter, placing it on the stove next to the sink. “Whew, thanks sonny,” Granny Smith responded, “I’m not as strong of a mare as I used to be.” Big Mac nodded and started to walk the wooden floor to the living room with the screen door when he was called back by the elderly pony. “Oh and Big Mac. Could you do me a favor and get Apple Bloom’s and your sheets for me? Applejack already gave them to me earlier, and Ah want to get them done before small fry gets back here.” “Eeyup,” he replied, turning around and going up the stairs that creaked under his weight slightly. The family had always had plans to renovate the inside of their barn, but they had never gotten around to it because of recent events attributing mostly to Applejack leaving Ponyville to go on adventures with her friends more often. The stairs had been creeking for as long as he could remember, even when he was just a little colt, but in recent memory they seemed to be louder and more annoying, but that was because of the size he had grown over the years. He got to the top of the “musical stairs” and decided to go to his room and get his sheets first. He walked into his room and went over to his bed, stripping it off its comforter, sheets, and blankets to wash, throwing them onto the barren floor of his room. Although there was nothing particularly special about his room, if a pony were to walk into it for the first time, they would be amazed to see how little of everything there was in his room. He had a simple bed in the corner, a dresser with a few scarves and even some hats in it, and a window that gave him a nice view of the west field. Big Mac never really bothered to decorate his room, since he spent so little time there except to sleep, preferring to be working or wandering on long silent walks. The only thing in his room that stood out was a little picture frame on the top of his dresser, which had a picture of him as a colt standing next to two older ponies, a filly and a mare, the filly holding foal Applejack and the mare with a slightly protruding belly. It was this object in his room that made him stop to gaze for a second. Out of all the Apple siblings he had been the closest to his parents, mostly because he had spent the most time with them, and when they left the world forever it took a while to put the family on track. For Big Mac, it just gave him an empty void feeling that left him irritable and even more quiet than usual, while Granny Smith often cried herself to sleep and Applejack and Apple Bloom were both still too young to understand. It took him a while, nut the numbness he felt almost completely faded away and he was able to look back on his memories with his parents without breaking down in sadness, and he quickly grew into the role as stallion of the farm, doing all the heavy lifting while Applejack went to school and Granny Smith cared for Apple Bloom. Big Mac sighed after staring at the picture for a few moments before remembering the reason he was upstairs instead of out in the field in the first place. “Applejack’s gonna have mah hide if she thinks Ah’ve been doing something other than chores,” he thought as he quickly picked up all of the things from his bed and carried them downstairs to be washed. “Just put them on the clothesline for now,” Granny Smith called out, “Ah’ll fetch them to be washed after lunch.” Big Mac nodded and did as the mare said before going back up the stairs again, this time going into Apple Bloom’s room for the same reason as his. Opening the door, he saw how vastly different it was from his. Her bed had a canopy over, and was decorated with pictures of apples, just like the tops of her walls. In the corner there was a chest of her old toys, most of which she never played with anymore, but was too stubborn to give away, although Big Mac heard something about Applejack giving them to the Cake Twins. He ran over to the aforementioned bed and started stripping the mattress clean of everything on it. Comforter, sheets, blanket. “What?” Big Mac heard something thump on the wooden second story floor as he got everything off. He turned to look for the source, his green eyes falling on a little yellow book that had opened to a page. As he looked closer he saw that it was in his sister’s mouth writing. He had to admit it had gotten better since the last time he had to check her homework. Granny was asleep and Applejack was out with Rainbow Dash. He was about to lean down to pick it up and put it back on the bed when he noticed something littering the white pages. Splotch marks. Lots of splotch marks blurring the words and smearing the ink. Big Mac’s eyes widened as he realized what that meant, and his inner big brother sense started to tingle. His sister had been crying while writing in this book. He realized that the only way he could know why without asking her directly was by reading the contents. He normally wouldn’t try to snoop around into other ponies’ businesses, that was more of Applejack’s thing, and he respected that Apple Bloom had her own secrets she didn’t want anypony to know, but his brotherly instincts took over this time as he read what was written on the page. Dear Diary, I know I just got done writing about my day, but something really big happened to me. My friends came to visit, and when Sweetie Belle stayed behind she seemed really concerned. I really hate seeing her sad, and so we talked a little longer before she noticed this diary sticking out of the back of my pillow! Obviously I tried to take it away from her, but she kept asking me silly questions about what could be in it and laughing. Normally I love it when she laughs because her face brightens up in the cutest way that makes me warm all over, but I was terrified, so I had to hide under my covers. She started pestering me about what was wrong, and I really felt like just melting through my bed and never coming out, but eventually I had to tell her the honest truth, or at least part of it. I told her I was a fillyfooler, but I didn’t tell her that I loved her. She seemed scared of me after that, nervously smiling and making her way out of my room as fast as she could, so now she thinks I’m weird and will never talk to me again! I don’t want her to tell Scootaloo! I don’t want her to tell anypony! I just want to like colts, not fillies! Celestia please take this horrible curse off of me! I’m doomed! Lock me in a dungeon until I get over this phase! Anything! —————————————————— “Oh, Big Mac your back,” Granny Smith called from the kitchen as hooves noisily and hastily pounded down. “Listen, Ah need you to take that hay on the side of the barn and-” she was cut off by the sound of the front screen door slamming. “Where’s he off to in such a hurry?” —————————————————— “Where is that brother o’ mine?” Applejack has been working in the field alone for roughly a half an hour now, asking herself the same question on and off again. He said something about needing to take a break, but his definition of a break is usually five minutes, ten if it’s really hard work or raining, but thirty? Applejack has to admit, though, her brother was not at all liberal with his breaks, and wouldn’t take any at all if his grandmother hadn’t insisted on it, so she didn’t mind this prolonged break too much. It still annoyed her, though, that he had failed to mention the length of time he would be out for. She stretched out her back legs and struck the tree that she was standing next to, which yielded all of its fruit to the orange mare. She went over to grab them before he saw a small glint of red in the corner of her eye, and looking closer she saw that it was moving, too. “Big Mac! Hey, Big Mac!” she shouted running over to her big brother as fast as she could, and therefore reaching him in only fifteen seconds. “What in tarnation took y’all so long?” she asked in a voice that wasn’t scolding so much as it was annoyed at his antics. “You barely take so much as a break and here you are going off for so long to do Celestia knows what, and another thing-” She paused when she observed her brother for the first time, taken aback by what she saw. He was staring at the ground and trotting slowly, seeming deep in thought. His eyes were far off and his mouth was a frown of actual sadness instead of a neatest frown or a soft smile. Normally Applejack knew her brother to be somewhat stoic, never showing too much emotion or enthusiasm over anything, so to see him looking this beat down alarmed her. “What’s wrong with you? Did Granny Smith hurt herself?! Ah have to go check on her!” Before she ran off Big Mac shook his head. “No, well then why do you look like Twilight when she finishes a book on a cliffhanger?” Big Mac simply looked up and gazed off into the distance toward the center of Ponyville. “Come along, Macintosh! We don’t have all day.” A young red colt with a yoke around his neck looked up at his yellow coated father who was walking down the central path of Ponyville. They had gone out to get some sweets from Sugarcube Corner that they had ordered earlier. Macintosh’s younger sister had been waiting for it all day, and she was guaranteed to meet them before they even walked through the door to get her hooves on some. As they walked, Big Mac glanced around at the other ponies situated around the town. Some were walking past them, others lounging on benches, and some still going into stores, restaurants, and whatever else Ponyville had to offer. Finally, their destination was in sight before them, a towering sweets shop owned by family friends Mr. and Mrs. Cake. It wasn’t towering in general, but for Ponyville it was one of the tallest, and it caught a lot of attention from out of town ponies looking for something delicious. As they neared their location, Macintosh noticed something on a bench nearby. There were two teenage colts sitting there, both earth ponies, one light green and the other a lighter red. This wouldn’t have been too out of the ordinary, but they were doing something the colt had only seen his parents doing. They were rubbing noses against one another and holding hooves. And Macintosh certainly wasn’t the only one to notice. “Macintosh,” his dad whispered to him, “follow me! We’ll go around the back way!” The colt looked at his father with surprise but nodded and did as he was told, both keeping a rather brisk pace. As he turned around to eye the two colts again he saw that not only had they not noticed the Apples trying to sneak away, but they had switched to kissing instead. Before Macintosh could ask anymore questions, they hid behind a nearby building and stayed there for a minute, his dad mumbling something about daring to be in public. “Pa,” Macintosh interrupted his mumble rant, “what were those two colts there doing?” His father just stared at him for a minute, the silence suffocating as he appeared to be trying to find the right words, before sighing and appearing to give up. “Son,” he started, which Macintosh knew was usually not a good sign, as his father only referred to him as son when he was about to launch into a lecture, “do y’all remember when you asked me about how a mare and a stallion fall in love with each other?” He waited for his son to respond with a nod, “Well, that’s the right way to do it. Fillies are supposed to like colts, and colts are supposed to like fillies. There are some,” he jabbed a hoof in the direction where they had come from, “that believe otherwise. They go through phases where they claim to be in love with a pony of their own gender, the way Ah love your ma, but it’s a load of barnacles!” “But pa, what makes them do things like that?” “Ah don’t rightly know,” his father shook his head, “but Ah do know this, it’s a crime against nature, so just know that nothing like that will ever be tolerated under mah roof. Understand, Big Macintosh?” Wait, Big Macintosh? His father had never called him that ever. “Big Macintosh?” What was going on-” “BIG MAC!” The red stallion was brought back to reality by his orange sister, who had resorted to tapping him on the head to make sure he was fine. “Ah lost you there for a second,” Applejack said worriedly, “now, what in tarnation is going on with you?” Big Mac looked back at the barn, remembering his dad’s words. “Nothing like that will ever be tolerated under mah roof.” His far off look turned into one of a scowl, which had not gone unnoticed by Applejack, who looked at him with a slight fear in her eyes. “Nothing, AJ, nothing at all.”