He was awakened by a clinking sound out in the orchard. His first instinct was to turn to the clock at his bedside, where he saw dimly that an hour and a half still remained before the sun was scheduled to breach the horizon; he looked, curious, down from his window and thought he spied... Yes, indeedy, there it was – the bobbing flame of a lantern in the near distance. An intruder in the orchards? At THIS hour of the mornin'? He immediately jumped out of bed, hardly bothering to wipe the sleep dirt from his eyes, and crept downstairs with a stealth that would surprise anypony who did not know him closely. No need to wake up the rest of the house; he could handle this himself.
He shut the door behind him without even a creak, and paced carefully across the yard and in among the trees, keeping his eyes half-lidded to accustom them to the darkness of predawn. The lantern weaved and flickered ahead of him as he approached, giving away bare glimpses of the pony holding it. In a flash of the unsteady light he was able to make out the color of her coat and a lock of her mane, and the tension slowly began to drain out of him as he realized who it was... "Sis?"
Sis let out a loud gasp that was not much like her, and spun around with the lantern's handle clutched between her teeth. "Who in the – aw, fer Pete's sake! That you, Mac?" She set the lantern down, wincing at the loud clank as the released handle fell to knock against the cap. "You 'bout scared the livin' daylights outta me, boy!"
He looked her up and down. "What's up?"
"Aw, nothin'," she shrugged. "Woke up early an' couldn't get back ta sleep, so Ah thought Ah'd have a stroll through th' orchard, that's all." She smiled. "Just checkin' on the trees, y' understand."
"Never were a good liar, were ya?" Mac said, raising a skeptical eyebrow. "Hair's down, hat's missin'... You ain't precisely a fashion plate, but Ah can't remember th' last time you left th' house lookin' like that."
Applejack darted her eyes sideways; sure enough, her mane was drooping down in an untidy golden cascade on either side of her head. "Yeah, all right," she said shamefacedly, "that ain't the whole story. Ah had this nasty dream... Don't rightly know if Ah should talk about it."
"If it's weighin' on yer withers that bad, mebbe you need to talk about it." Big Macintosh leaned against the nearest tree.
Applejack sank to her haunches behind the lantern. She spoke softly. "Y'know how every once inna while y' get one'a those dreams you can't tell ain't real 'til after y' wake up? That's how this dream was.
"Ah remember... there was a blight in th' orchard. We had trees dyin' every which way. An' our whole crop was goin' rotten, right on the branch; everywhere Ah looked, it was nothin' but bad apples and bare trees. You an' Granny an' Apple Bloom were runnin' through the fields an' between the dead trees like scared cats, or like yer tails was on fire, an' all hollerin' at one another. Ah got this idea in mah head that y'all were tryin' ta save the farm, but Ah didn't see what exactly y'all were doin', and Ah didn't know what there was to be done.
"The whole farm, our whole lives, was jes' dyin' there in front'a me, an' there weren't nothin' Ah could do about it." Remembering, Applejack cringed, shrinking into herself; even more of her hair fell into her face. "Ah jes' stood there an' watched it happen."
As she spoke, Macintosh watched her as well, very carefully. He was quiet, as usual, but this time it was due to his inability to think of anything to say. He was about to say something anyway, just to break the silence that had fallen on them, but Applejack beat him to it. "An' that ain't even the worst part of it. Ah'm standin' there like an idjit, watchin' mah livin' an' livelihood fall away from me, an' Ah get this awful thought in mah head outta nowhere like: Wel'p, that's it fer us. Shouldn't be surprised. Nothin' lasts forever. It was bound ta happen, sooner or later..."
She began to shiver, just a little, and a haunted look came into her eyes. "An' then, right before mah eyes, th' sign right over our front gate breaks clean offa the posts all of a sudden an' it falls right down t' the ground, like some kinda message: Yup, it's really all over. But it didn't make no sound like it ought, like a big old plank'a wood slammin' inta the dirt; it hits the ground with this big loud ker-BOOM!, like a whole house fallin' down. Th' funny thing is, it was that ugly noise that woke me up. Coulda happened right in mah own bedroom, fer all Ah knew... and Ah ain't crazy, but Ah swear t'you, Mac, Ah could hear it ringin' in mah ears even after Ah was awake."
"Well, Ah know you ain't crazy," Mac said. "Ah believe ya."
"Anyhow, now y'know what Ah'm doin' out here," sighed his sister. "It was such a real dream. Ah couldn't stay in bed after that mess – jes' too shook up... Ah had ta come right down here soon as Ah could. Jes' to be sure none of it actually happened."
"Yyyep. Dreams'll do that to ya, sometimes," Mac replied sagely. "Scare ya real bad an' all that. What you got to remember is that's all they can do to ya."
Applejack lifted her head, swept her long blond mane out of her face and looked around at all the perfectly healthy trees surrounding her, practically every branch loaded down with perfectly normal, just-about-ripe fruit; she turned her eyes upward and examined the night sky, which was starting to blush at its easternmost extremity. Except for her being awake two hours too early, there was nothing wrong at Sweet Apple Acres.
"Yer darn right," she said. She made a move to pick up her lantern. "Guess Ah'm all right now, Mac. Let's get back indoors 'fore the sun comes up."
"Right. Ah'll lead."
"Dunno if Ah can get back t'sleep, but Ah can always get a head start on makin' breakfast."
"Right."
Applejack picked up the lantern, then cast her eyes about the orchard one last time. "Gonna be a good apple-buckin' season this year, I betcha."
"Yyyep."