For the Apple Family, there was no more important day than Apple Day.
It was a holiday in March that celebrated the apple and the color green. It also celebrated the leaves and, most importantly, the apple flowers that started to bloom, giving new life to the dead-looking orchard trees. To celebrate the apple, one cannot do it alone. You had to do it with your kin. Sure, getting drunk and wearing green was a fun way to celebrate, but it was also a family holiday. So, the Apple Family Reunion usually coincided with the bloom. As the preparations in the kitchen and the farm grounds were getting underway, the teens of the Apple Family were getting their own party plans into work.
First, it involved raiding the kitchen. They did it in small groups: members of the younger Apples sneaking in while the women were hard at work for the feast. They took batches of snacks while no one was looking and returned to store their loot in the treehouse like ants.
After the drawing of straws, Applejack and Big Macintosh, the most trustful of the Apple young, were to do the hardest and most coveted part of the annual raid: the Apple Family moonshine. Made from apple mash and bottled within a mason jar and a stick of cinnamon for flavor, the homemade whiskey was kept in a huge room in the cellar for this event, allowing the moonshine to get older, solidifying the taste.
They entered the cellar when no one was looking and used two keychain flashlights to look around the cellar. They took an immediate left and snuck into the moonshine room. Unfortunately, Granny Smith was waiting for them.
"Here for the moonshine, I reckon?" Granny asked.
"yY-yes granny," Applejack answered as she lowered her head in shame.
Granny's stern look gave way to a grin.
"Ah remember when my cousins and I did that when we were younglings, drinking the moonshine and reminiscing ‘bout the old days... Even back when we were your age we talked about when we were younger," She answered as she plucked three mason jars filled with the liquid gold off the shelves.
"Here! Now don't spoil your appetite, ya hear!?"
***
When they arrived back at the clubhouse, the twenty teens in the small room cheered for their heroes, including Applejack’s friends. Of course, Big Mac and Fluttershy stuck close, but far enough from each other, less they spill that they were an item. They set the moonshine on top of a small soap box, surrounded by the other snacks, and began to have a small feast of their own, missing the moonshine purposefully for later. Stories were told, vulgar renditions of Apple Family songs were sung, and a general merriment occurred. Waiting for the big feast that was to come hours later further induced their hunger, and when it did, they were ready to pig out over the overabundance of homemade food. The feast happened at two long tables that were made from scratch a week before, and it was a time of good food and family bonding.
It was hours afterward, when the night had arrived and the fest area was lit by hanging lanterns and the flood lights hanging off the backyard porch; when the feast became a drinking hall. The mason jars were carried out in milk crates and distributed to the adult apple family members, while the teens retreated to the treehouse, where their own party began.
Applejack, being the bravest of everyone there, went first and took a sip, and passed it on to Pinkie. She took one and passed it to Braeburn, and so on and so forth. Their first drink was a painful burn down their throat, but as they continued each round of sips, it got easier and easier to take more than just a sip.
Everyone in the room started to feel the effects of the alcohol. Fluttershy's inhibition was gone, which gave her the courage to huddle under Big Mac's arms, a warm blanket draped over them. Rainbow Dash was in a heated sports argument with another member of Applejack’s family. Rarity was being chatted up with a few of Applejack’s cousins from Dodge Junction; they fancied the posh woman with the girl next door aura around her. Applejack and Braeburn were catching up on old times, and Pinkie was chatting it up with another member of the Apple Family. While all that bonding and meeting was going on, the two lovebirds were silent, contempt with their closeness. The entire room went on not knowing that underneath the heavy blanket, their hands were intertwined, a hidden, but strong statement to their love for each other.
A fun Apple Family tradition would also be the clean-up. the Apple Family would stumble around in their drunken stupors cleaning up, putting the leftovers away and throwing the trash in paper bags. It was a demolition derby of people bumping, tripping, and falling. Each time the group would laugh, with the poor soul laughing as well, only to get up and continue their work.
The teens in the treehouse did the same, with a lot less stumbling, in fact, they were ready for bed sooner than the adults, which gave them time to watch the derby of human bodies unfold.
***
Because of the alcohol, no one left. Instead, they crashed for the night, with Applejack, her friends, Apple Bloom, and her friends crashing in her room, while the rest of the family bunked upstairs, leaving Big Macintosh to stay in the living room once again. He volunteered since he had the chance to use the fire.
Big Mac was laying down, watching the ceiling swirl around in his head when he heard the footsteps he was keeping awake for. She stumbled down the stairs slowly, her young, petite body still acting from the alcohol.
"Hey Mic, so... Cake?" Fluttershy slurred.
He carried her when she was at the foot of the stairs to the kitchen, sat her down in a chair and stumbled about getting two slices of the Meringue cake that Pinkie made. they both giggled when they looked at each other.
"We’re gonna wake up with quite a hangover." Fluttershy joked.
"Eeyup."
They stopped and stared deep into each other's eyes. They looked around to see if anyone was watching. When the cost was clear, they leaned towards each other, and shared a whiskey-scented kiss, their only light being from the old lantern on the wooden table.