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// A Few Less Apples in the Apple Orchard 
// Story: On the Road to '63 
// by niBBoi 
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Tick, tock. A clock monotonously ticked.

Creak, creak. Old floorboards creaked away.

The old mare would never understand. She would never understand why it still hurt so, so much after so, so long.

Granny Smith sat alone on her apple wood rocking chair staring into space half awake as time passed and the midday sun gave way to a lazy afternoon. Big Macintosh was still days away running errands in Canterlot, Apple Bloom was in the kitchen cleaning up and preparing supper, and Applejack was out in the fields helping her cousins Red Delicious and Golden Delicious.

Oh stars bless those two. The war took everything from them. Their homes were destroyed, and their possessions were mostly gone. They were struggling to get by just to feed their families.

Of course, the moment Granny heard about their plight, she immediately welcomed them into Sweet Apple Acres. The over one hundred year old matriarch of the Apple family clan was determined to not leave a single Apple behind especially during those dark times. Not on her watch.

Unfortunately, the war just kept taking like a ravenous pack of timberwolves. Soon, other Apples needed help, and more and more Apple family farms and households were being packed beyond capacity. Even the Oranges in Manehattan had their hooves full with trying their best to accommodate their relatives who had nowhere else to go by that point.

Then there were the Apples who went away to fight at the front.

At the thought, Granny's heart ached. So many Apples and so many of her cousins, nephews, and nieces wanted to do their part, and Applejack and Big Mac were, to Granny's horror, no exception. Despite the mare's protests, an Apple was honest, hardworking, and above all, selfless. It was in their nature to take action and ask questions later, and none of those who volunteered wanted to just sit around doing what they thought was not enough - least of all Applejack.

Although she was proud of the strong and stubborn Apple family spirit unfailingly flowing through all of them, risking their lives fighting in a war was the last thing Granny wanted them to do, but they still went anyway. Thankfully, AJ and her brother survived with all their limbs attached, and others did too, but some weren't so lucky. Some returned with one less hoof or one less eye, some returned in caskets, and some simply never returned at all.

Darn fools, So brave, so selfless, and so stupid. Why did they have to leave her like that?

Granny hummed. What a coincidence. That was the exact same thing she asked to the air around, the floor below, and the stars above when her son and daughter-in-law left her as well, and of course she remembered what she asked on that day. The loss left her bitter for a long time, and even years after, she was still a little bitter. No parent deserved to bury their own child, but that was exactly what Granny had to do on that day and exactly what other Apples had to do as well during the war, and it wasn't just the children this time too, no. Mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters all had to be laid down six feet under by their own loved ones.

The mare shook her head and stopped herself before she broke into tears. She sighed and started reminiscing instead about a day when she was younger - a favourite of hers to look back into.

After a hard day of harvesting zap apples. Granny carelessly let a couple fall from her grasp and into the ground, turning them into mush. That young and foolish mare immediately turned around to inspect the damage and was a bit mad at herself for it. She may have been the family expert on zap apples having discovered the magical fruits and how to process them in the first place, but she was not immune to accidents. Eventually, despite the mess, Granny dismissed the two lost zap apples as nothing too much.

Seeing all that, her old father came, but he didn't scold his daughter. Instead, he simply picked up a ruined apple and after telling a story about his cousins Granny couldn't remember, said to his daughter, "A few less apples in the apple orchard are a few more apples lost, and every single apple is more precious than a sack of gold bits costs."

Granny supposed it made sense. There was a lot of demand for her family's zap apple products every year, and each apple's worth of jam could've easily cost a whole pouch of bits at the time, but of course, it went deeper than just the price of a magical, rainbow-colored apple in bits. The mare remembered her father being a bit wise like that.

A zap apple or two in an entire orchard of zap apples seemed like a drop in the bucket, but each one's true worth revealed that it wasn't so, and every Apple in the Apple family was much the same way.

The Apples were always known for valuing family practically more than anything in the world and for good reason. They were hardy travelers, pioneers, and settlers back in the olden days, and the Equestrian wilderness taught them to be as close together as a bundle of sticks or a bushel of apples. Whenever hard times hit, it was the oldest Apples' jobs to make sure no one was lost or left behind under their watch.

Granny Smith thought about that. With over a century under her belt, she was unquestioningly the head of the entire Apple family clan. She had watched many of those close to her die, and each time hurt as much as the other. Even after years passed, the pain and the loss didn't get any less painful, and the old mare always looked to herself to see what was wrong.

Was she not doing her job as matriarch well?

She looked back to her son Bright Mac the day he and his wife were ripped away from her. She couldn't save them.

She looked back to the Apples who were buried and returned to the cold, hard earth after sacrificing themselves for their country. She couldn't stop them.

She looked back to Applejack and Big Mac who both came back a little broken. She could see it in their eyes.

Her grandchildren were hurting, and she could see it in how Applejack distracts herself with work, how the stubborn mare drinks herself to shit every damn day, how terribly she lies about her pain, and how her brother Big Mac had been staying more silent than he had ever been before and keeps visiting his friends in the memorial in Canterlot "running errands", but Granny Smith couldn't help them any more than she was already trying each day ever since the war ended.

She couldn't help them, and so she just closed her eyes instead.

Granny Smith would never understand. She would never understand why it still hurt so, so much after so, so long, but she did understand one thing. There were a few less Apples in the apple orchard, and that young and foolish Granny Smith could only wipe away the dirt and tears and pick up the pieces.