Sandow awoke. It was still dark outside the window. He could see stars twinkling. He was warm, almost too warm, sleeping in the bed of some unicorn royalty. In a palace owned by farmers. He was very, very confused by everything. He felt the pressing need to go and thought about what Applejack had said the night before.
He needed to go outside.
He slid out from between the blankets, landing on the floor with a quiet thump. He walked as silently as he could along the wooden floor, trying not to wake anyone else. Down the hall, down the stairs, into a large room, and eventually he found the door leading to the outside.
The house was large enough to get lost in. He kept finding small rooms, one of them stuffed with hats and bows.
It was a little overwhelming.
He leapt from the porch, clearing the wooden rail, trotting through the yard, and made his way around another building. He could hear the sounds of animals inside. Animals inside of a wooden house? His mind reeled. Perhaps this was a dream and he was still in stone.
He finally found what he thought was good spot and lifted his hind leg, letting go, standing in the darkness, only the stars and moon witnessing his relief.
There was only the faintest hint of a glow on the horizon.
He was alone. He allowed himself a moment to feel his grief, there in the pre-dawn, as he wandered around in the dark, unfamiliar with his surroundings. There was a painful ache in his heart. He stepped carefully in the dark, trying not to trip over anything, his belly still feeling strangely full from the night before.
Foals must not know hunger in this marvelous age, he thought to himself, the thought piercing through the blacker thoughts of his loss. It was almost comforting. Nopony must ever go hungry, or have to eat bark from the trees during the winter, eating grass from the earth in the summer, and whatever tender shoots could be found in the spring. Fall was a tough time to scavenge, but not as bad as the winter. Even the farmers lived in palaces. This was a marvelous age to be alive Sandow concluded.
He trod carefully upon the porch, sitting down in a wooden chair. He eased himself in, settling back, making himself comfortable, watching and waiting for the glow to blossom into daylight. It would be nice to watch the dawn. A new dawn in a new era. How fitting.
“I think you done woke the rooster.” Applejack said, her voice filling the cool dark with warmth.
Sandow nearly jumped out of his skin, snapped from his reflections, his mixed feelings of awe and grief.
“I done heard you goin’ down the stairs and I thought I’d check on you after giving you a private moment to take care of things.” Applejack explained. “Big Mac is as lazy as all get out. He waits till after the rooster crows a few times before he stumbles out of bed.” The orange mare chuckled, it was almost a musical sound. “Short but hard day today.” Applejack announced. “Spring. No apples to buck. Still lots to do. The barn needs fresh paint. We’ll need some help getting out the ladders.” She paused, thoughtful in the pre dawn ambiance. “Scratch that. We have an airborne Apple. You can help paint the spots we can’t reach. Also, maybe you can help us out and oil that goldurn weathervane. It squeaks somethin’ awful when it turns in the wind. Been needin’ an oilin’ for quite some time. And Pinkie Pie will probably throw some kind of party later this afternoon. Brace yourself.”
Sandow sat, overwhelmed by all of the words.
“Let it out, a little at a time.” Applejack said softly. “You may have noticed a bit of a gap in the family, a bit of a gap between Granny Smith and me, my brother, and my sister. A little something missin’.” Applejack said, her voice softening, going lower. “Sometimes things happen. Things we can’t change. Things we ain’t got no control over. And life goes on, even if we ain’t a wantin’ for it to. And the best that you can do right now is just let it out a little bit at a time and try not to let it overwhelm you. It’s gonna hurt though, when it really settles in. I know it did for me. I think Applebloom took it the worst. She was small, and didn’t understand. And she didn’t want to be comforted. She just wanted things back to the way they were.”
Sandow nodded silently. The glow was getting brighter.
Somewhere, a rooster crowed, celebrating Celestia’s dawn.
“I’ve found that the hard work helps.” Applejack said. “You get kinda lost in it, and the time passes, and yer all busy and the like, and you don’t have the time to feel sorry for yerself, and the pain only comes out a little bit at a time, and you continue on. Finally another day passes and you go to bed too exhausted to think about what yer missin’, allowin’ you to get some restful sleep. After a while it smoothes over.”
Applejack was peering at him intently in the faint light, her green eyes glittering. “Big Mac and I, we made this farm what it is because of grief. We made things work. We made our parents proud and somehow, we managed without them. We love this place because it holds their memory. And everything we do here honours the dead.”
Sandow sat, silently, listening to the animals waking up to face the coming day. Applejack had fallen silent. He hoped that she was not offended by his silence. He just didn’t know what to say. But her words were soothing. And remarkably similar to what his dam might say.
The dawn broke, glorious, golden rays of light piercing what remained of the velvet night, setting the sky on fire with oranges, golds, radiant hues of colour that inspired hope and the promise of a new day. The rooster continued to crow, and the farm began to come to life.
Applejack considered her silent relative, curious if she had discovered the source of quietness in Apple family males. It seemed oddly familiar.
Sandow yawned, feeling the first warmth of the day beginning to creep into the air, his eyes still dazzled by the daybreak, the whirl of colours in the sky remarkably similar to his own burnt orange mane.
“You don’t quite look like an Apple just yet.”
Sandow looked down at the voice. Applebloom was sitting next to him, looking up, still looking quite sleepy. “Every Apple has a gift from somepony else that we treasure. We look after it. It makes us responsible. Like my sister and her hat.” She fell silent and took something in her teeth that had been sitting on the porch rail. She wrapped her forelegs around his neck, taking what was in her mouth into her hoof… Which still confused Sandow utterly. He had no idea how this was happening. He felt her forelegs moving, brushing up against him, as she was doing something. He felt the softness of cloth around his neck. He pulled his head back and looked down sharply. There was a large green bandana around his neck.
“There!” Applebloom said triumphantly. “And I was able to tie a bow in the back so it’ll be easy to remove if you need to.”
She admired her handiwork. “Green is a good colour for you.”
Sandow agreed. It looked good. Green cloth with little bits of white forming some kind of pattern. A bandana, a word he had never heard before. He thought about the room full of hats and bows, and wondered if green bandanas would soon be added.
“School today Applebloom.” Applejack said. “Weekend is over.”
“D’aw…” Applebloom protested.
Sandow felt the radiant warmth creeping into his bones. The edge of the sun was over the horizon now. He cleared his throat, a slow careful process, wanting his words to be perfect.
“Thank you, for everything.” He said, using his best voice, the one he used for saying that he loved somepony, the one he spoke to his own filly in, the voice he used for his dam.
“Don’t mention it.” Applejack said, nodding. She could hear the change in Sandow’s voice, and realised that there was a lot more behind the words, but she had trouble expressing what she had heard. She hoped her own words were enough.
“My ma always loved the sunrise.” Applejack said, changing the subject. “She loved the colour orange. Like her coat. And my coat. Like her family name. She caused a bit of a scuffle fallin’ in love with an Apple. Eventually our two families got over the little tiff and came together. This was her favourite time of day. I can remember her sittin' out here with me when I was real small, waiting for the sun to come up, knowing that her family off in Manehatten was missin’ out on something real special. They aren’t ones for early rising.” Applejack drawled, remembering, her voice full of emotion. “Applebloom was born as the sun rose, a fresh new blossom to greet the sun, my father commented. Ma had held her in somehow through the night. She was stubborn. I’m glad that none of us turned out stubborn like her, would have caused us no end of trouble. We’re all very reasonable.”
You can’t out-stubborn an earth pony, Sandow reflected. He felt the same way about himself. He didn’t always feel like a pegasus and had trouble relating to his father at times. He had always felt closer to his mother. Scratch that, Sandow thought. He could relate to his father at times, like when his blood got riled. Thud had been a soldier before settling down. Thud was a frightful melee combatant when he was angry. And so was Sandow. Sandow had earned coin with violence, just like his father had. But Sandow prefered the gentle silence and walking down new roads. Violence was a means to an end. It was better to watch the seasons change and see new life grow. Sandow hoped that this new age was free of all the trouble and violence he had known.
He felt as though his wings were a fluke, a notion that he stubbornly clung to. He snorted at his own mental reflection.
“I miss my ma.” Applebloom said. “but I’m glad I have my sister.”
“I’m gonna go make breakfast.” Applejack announced, taking to her hooves and disappearing through the door.
Applebloom continued to sit in the porch with Sandow. Birds chirped all around. Chickens had taken to the yard, hunting for bugs. They clucked and gossiped about whatever it was chickens had to say to one another.
In the light of the new day, Sandow pondered the tasks ahead of him and hoped that he was prepared for whatever the day brought.
The day before had lasted several hundred years. He hoped this one would be a bit more reasonable.