Sweet Apple Acres. Applejack had always been sure that the farm would never change - that her family would always be bucking apples. No matter where her family had lived, they always kept on with the family business of planting trees and feeding the locals.
Applejack was always a hard-working pony, but she was also a proud pony, and one thing she’d always prided herself on was the Sweet Apple Acres name. A farm that did everything by hoof to provide the best for the ponies around them. Making apple pies and fritters, selling the fruit of their labors at the Ponyville market.
But then the war changed everything. Suddenly food was needed - not just at home, but at places away from home. At first, the Apple family decided to continue as they always had, bringing food to market and feeding those close to them.
It wasn’t long, however, before friends were pulled into the war efforts. The Crystal Empire slowly consumed everything as it ruthlessly cut down anypony that opposed their march, and the Apple family was pulled into the bloody massacre. Cousin Braeburn was the first casualty, in the Battle of Appleoosa.
Big Macintosh had suffered the most with his loss, and it was Big Macintosh that first had the idea: The Apple Family of Sweet Apple Acres was going to join the war effort.
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“Sweet Apple Acres was built on growin’ and nurturin’, not destroyin’ and killin’!”
Big Macintosh took a step back as Applejack advanced on him. “Ah ain’t gonna let you go killin’ nopony,” she continued. “Ah don’t care what they’ve done. Yer an Apple, and yer gonna grow apples!”
“We Apples are strong, AJ!” he countered. “Equestria needs me on the front lines! Growin’ apples ain’t gonna help the war effort none.”
He was backed into a corner now, forced to sit down to retreat further from Applejack’s deathly stare.
“And how’s bein’ a dead pony helpin’ gonna help us here on the farm?”
“It’s not about the farm, AJ! And it’s not about ‘us’, either. Equestria needs us to help. If ya knew what was good for ya, you’d be going too.”
Applejack froze. He had a point: The Apple family wasn’t accomplishing anything by sitting back while others went to the front lines to fight. They couldn’t even help the war effort from here - not even providing food. The apples wouldn’t survive the trip to the front.
She shook her head in defeat. “Ah know, Mac, I just …” she sighed, afraid of what might come next. “I don’t know what we’d do here on the farm without ya. I’m scared.”
Big Macintosh stood up and held Applejack in a tender embrace. “I know you are, little sis. I know. But this is what I gotta do. Cain’t sit here at home doin’ nothin’. Cousin Braeburn died protecting what he loved, and I love my family. I love the farm. I cain’t live with myself knowin’ I’m sittin’ here without doin’ the right thing by you all.”
Applejack just nodded, a tear rolling down her cheek as she gripped Big Mac in a firm embrace. Eventually, Big Macintosh released her and turned away. Tears had streaked down his face.
“Now, I’m hopin’ ya don’t mind,” he said. “But I’ve got an appointment with the recruiter.”
He pushed Applejack away and turned the front door, headed off toward Ponyville. Applejack felt alone and abandoned as she watched her brother trot away out of sight.
Her brother was gone. Sure, he would be back to pack his things and head off to the front, but … She couldn’t stop him. The Crystal Empire would pay. Applejack wasn’t sure exactly how, but she would make them pay.
Determination burned away the tears in her eyes as she turned away from the door. She threw her building rage into a swift buck, slamming the front door closed and shaking the entire house. Something in the pantry rattled, and Applejack heard the telltale sound of food crashing to the floor.
“Horseapples,” she muttered under her breath. While the angry kick had vented her growing frustrations, she wasn’t about to make another pony clean up a mess she’d made herself. Directing that anger inward, Applejack stormed over the pantry to clean up her mistake.
The pantry was a mess. A loaf of bread, a jar of honey, some canned dog food, and several apples were laying scattered across the floor. The jar had shattered, splattering honey across all of the lower shelves, and making a huge, sticky mess out of the floor.
Bark! Bark!
Applejack could hear Winona running, clearly attracted by the crashing sound.
“Winona, no!” Applejack cried as the dog dove past her and into the pantry.
It was too late - the pup was rolling in honey and shattered glass, somehow miraculously managing not to cut herself up.
“At least honey is good for cuts?” Applejack mumbled to herself as she carefully extracted the dog from the pantry.
Winona had done her best to get completely covered in the honey, and Applejack sighed in realization that she’d have to wash the dog before honey was tracked all over the house.
… Or would she? If she could keep the dog in the pantry, there wouldn’t be honey spread all over the house.
Keeping a grip on the wayward animal, Applejack ran to the kitchen to grab Winona’s bowl and a can opener, and then returned to the pantry. Closing the door behind her, she set the bowl down and went to work opening one of the cans of dog food.
Cans.
The idea struck her like lightning. The Apples didn’t have to go fight in a war! They could support the war effort from home! Soldiers needed food, and good fruit was a critical part of their diet!
Applejack took off at a gallop. She had to stop Big Macintosh - to tell him there was another way! She needed to reach the recruitment office before he did.
That proved easier than she expected. When she arrived, Big Macintosh was just sitting outside the office, staring at the door. He cringed and shied away as he noticed her approach.
“Big Macintosh!” she called out. “We need to talk.”
“...Eeyup.”
He stared at the dirt, waiting for Applejack to speak. When she didn’t, he decided to come clean.
“I cain’t do it, AJ. I cain’t kill another pony. It’s not … It’s not for me. Even if it’s for Brae … I just …”
Big Macintosh broke down into tears, and this time it was Applejack who embraced him.
“Ah know, Sugarcube. Ah know.”
“What’re we gonna do?” he asked, between sobs.
“We’re gonna grow apples. An’ we’re gonna send em to war.”
Big Macintosh pushed Applejack away so he could look her in the eye.
“What?” he asked, flatly.
“Ah was feedin’ Winona when the idea hit me. Canned apples. They’ll reach the soldiers, and the soldiers can eat. We can help with the war effort.”
“‘Jack, that’ll ruin perfectly good apples,” Big Macintosh scolded her.
“Ah know, Mac, but it’s better’n ruining a perfectly good Equestria, ain’t it?”
Big Macintosh and Applejack shared a long look.
“I s’pose you’re right,” he conceded.
And so, Sweet Apple Acres rapidly grew into a canning conglomerate fueled by a war-torn Equestria, and funded by a massive military machine of Equestrian might. It had taken them a couple of days to convince the rest of the family, but they all eventually caved, proving one thing: War really does change everything. Even Sweet Apple Acres.
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“That crazy pony,” Applejack muttered as she stepped into the house.
“What crazy pony?” Apple Bloom asked from the kitchen. “The one that showed up earlier today, claiming to know you? Where’d she take you anyway? We haven’t seen you for hours.”
Applejack stepped into the family room, slowly taking off her work clothes. “Yeah, she claimed I’m one of her ‘best friends’ and that we all ‘saved Equestria from King Sombra’ before the war ever started. Says Equestria’s ‘a better place’, and that ‘some pony change the past so it all went wrong’. And then something about how ‘this timeline isn’t supposed to exist’, and now she’s trying to ‘make things right’.”
“I can’t say there’d be anything wrong with that,” Big Macintosh commented, idly looking up over the edge of a newspaper he was reading. ‘VICTORY AT MANEHATTAN’, it declared in big, bold letters.
“Really, Applejack? Don’t ya think that’s a bit strange?” Apple Bloom continued, carrying a fresh apple pie to the dinner table. “I mean, she was an alicorn, right? If she’s so special, why ain’t we heard of her before?”
“Don’t know,” Applejack replied, rolling her eyes. “But if’n she’s right, I cain’t think of many things worse than what we’ve got right now.”
“Supper’s ready!” Apple Bloom called upstairs as she set the pie at the table.
Their father stood up from the sofa and stretched his limbs. “Well, I can’t imagine things are any worse than this, wherever she’s from,” he said as he took his place at the table. “She’s probably just crazy, but I wish her the best of luck.”