The Heart of An Apple

by Docboy

The Forgiving Earth

Chapter 7

Sunrise.

The horizon flared a beautiful color of orange dabbed across the clouds, which seemed to absorb the brilliant color of the flame of Celestia’s sun. The spread of this marmalade of orange sunshine turning a bright yellow swept to the west across the land and warmed the earth. The bath of this sweet light woke up the rooster, who started his day by waking up everyone on the farm.

Applejack pried her eyes open with quite some difficulty, as her eyes protested having to open after a mere two hours of sleep. Her angst was too busy entertaining her that evening as she tossed and turned in her bed in anticipation and dread. Her head fell back on her pillow as her bloodshot eyes eased shut again. Thank goodness the harvesting was over with a few days ago, now there wasn’t a need to get up at the crack of dawn anymore. Perhaps she could get in a bit more sleep for once for all that life was treating her with as of late.

Suddenly, a high pitched, ear splitting noise rang in Applejack’s eardrum, snapping her up out of bed and rolling her onto the floor as her ears folded against her hooves, covering them in an attempt to barricade them against the onslaught of shrieking. She winced in pain until it stopped as suddenly as it started. She opened her eyes to see a cheery, cherry-red set of legs standing in front of her. She looked up to reveal her smiling brother with a chrome whistle in his mouth and a towel around his neck with a stupid Braeburn-esque grin on his face.

At least somepony around here got a good night’s sleep, thought Applejack, annoyed. Perhaps some more of that sedative would have helped.

“Goooooood mornin’ sis!” He exclaimed excitedly. “Hope you’re ready to hit the track.” Applejack managed to stand up and return the smile.

“Sure! Uh… Be down in a minute!” Big Mac trotted downstairs as Applejack flopped back down on her bed. Her forehead pounded and ached. She thought of her brother when he was a young colt. He hadn’t changed much since then: Quiet, content, and always internally enthusiastic about the task at hand. That sure was the brother she knew, and the one who just split her cochlea. She sighed, put on her hat, and went downstairs where the sweet smell of cooking apples saturated the air.

A gentle breeze rocked the shutters.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Autumn was starting to pass. The leaves lost their hues and shades of red and yellow, corrupted to a dull, dead brown as more and more fell from the branches. The brittle leaves formed piles on the side of the road where they were swept off the dirt path by beating hooves. At the end of the path lay Granny Smith’s tomb, where a wreath was placed recently, apparently, by somepony that knew her but couldn’t make it to the funeral, so he or she decided to pay their respects now without a fuss.

Big Mac stomped his foot at the beginning of the path. He started to run in place to warm up as Applejack trundled behind, still feeling groggy. She still sipped her coffee with her eyes closed.

“Hey! Sillypony!” Big Mac yelled. Applejack, startled, shook herself back awake and dropped her cup.

“You ready or what?”

“Oh! Right.”

“Remember, around the farm once, then the exercises.”

“Yeah, yeah.” said Applejack still half asleep.

“APPLEJACK!” hollered Big Mac. Applejack nearly fell over at the shock. “Are we gonna do this or what? I thought you wanted to train for Applebloom!” At that, AJ shrunk back in shame, realizing her selfishness. She opened her eyes and wore a new expression of conviction and determination, her half-hearted tiredness melting away in one fell swoop. She took her place at the gate with Big Mac, and started off as he blew the whistle with a small burst of air. Luckily, the coffee began to take its effect as Applejack didn’t have to rely only on the motivation of her emotions to keep running.

“Alright. Let’s do it for Applebloom!” cried Applejack as they galloped off. Like any new regimen, the process got off to a hard start. The wet path from all the rain turned the dirt into a quagmire of muddy, loose soil under puddles of water. Running into them at high speed facilitated a loss of balance as a hoof that hit the puddle sunk into the mud and refused to come out. This must have happened at least thrice with each of the athletes as they struggled to make the first lap in a decent time. All the while, Applejack managed to keep her hateful feelings against Big Mac to herself. It wasn’t easy though. Her mind began to think violent, conniving thoughts of trouncing her brother as well as any means necessary in order to achieve that objective. She thought of tripping him, splashing him with water from the ground, and even “accidentally” hitting a branch back causing it to recoil in his face. But as time went on, she could feel the searing guilt that used to eat away at her insides begin to be replaced by something, strangely enough. At first, her face reddened with an angry conviction as she was desperate to stay ahead of her brother. However, as time passed, she grudgingly conceded to run beside him. Perhaps it was the exhaustion of running the circumference of the farm, or perhaps it was the fact that this wasn’t a competition; only training with her brother. Whatever the reason, Applejack found herself to be at a certain peace that she hadn’t felt for a long time as she ran with her brother with a cheerful banter. A painful heat used to burn at her heart and stomach at the sight of Big Mac, but now the only pain she felt was the heat of her exertion and the palpitation of her heart matching her heavy breathing with each meter she ran. After all, he was her brother who smiled at her determination and support. And for once, she smiled.

Suddenly, her left forehoof hit a puddle of sticky mud. Her momentum sent her head over heels into the mud. Her hat flew in a perpendicular direction and landed daintily on an apple branch. Big Mac skidded to a halt and trotted back to where AJ rolled on her back in the wet mud. She opened her eyes again to see the red stallion holding out his hoof to help her up. AJ scowled under the mask of the moist earth clinging and drying in her coat. She held back for a second until she heard a muffled nasal sound come from her brother. It was almost unidentifiable until she saw the mischievous grin on his face as he still lent her a hoof. The snicker turned into a deep giggle. AJ felt the muscles in her mouth wrestle for control from the frown on her face to form a smile as if Pinkie Pie had possessed her. Then she giggled as well. They both laughed uncontrollably for a good five minutes until Applejack finally took Big Mac’s hoof and he pulled her out of the mud. She punched him heartily on the shoulder.

“You think that’s funny, huh?” she said with a scowl and a grin.

“Eeyup.”

“Well, do you think… this is funny?” she said nonchalantly as she shoved him over his legs into the puddle. He rose up covered in mud with the same scowl and playful grin.

“Nnope!” he tackled her as they went tumbling into the mud. They laughed hysterically as they wrestled while trying to keep the mud out of their eyes. They tossed and tackled and turned like the rowdy colt and filly they used to be a long time ago. Finally, with their coats caked with mud, they rose off the ground and decided that maybe they should call it a day. A gentle breeze blew the hat out of the tree that swirled to the ground. Big Mac caught sight of it heading toward the mud as he dove with a grunt to try and catch it. He face planted into the puddle with a loud thump as the hat landed on his face. Such a ridiculous sight made AJ burst out with laughter. Big Mac got up and handed the almost dirt-free hat to AJ who couldn’t stop smiling.

“Uh, thanks Big Mac.” She said through a giggle.

“No problem AJ.” He replied with a smile.

They walked home each with the same dirt-colored coat resting each other’s head on their shoulders, exhausted.

The clouds yielded a benevolent, cool, misty rain that washed them clean.

Comments

it's nice to see that the two of them having a bit of fun. keep on writing i like this story very much

[landis0080]

I can't help but feel that this chapter dramatically changed the tone of your fic, and not for the better. AJ's internal conflict over her feelings about Big Macintosh were the meat of your story up till now, but now it seems that's all been resolved in a jarringly short amount of time. I feel there could be a lot more story told in that direction, I haven't read anything quite like that before and had hoped to read a lot more about AJ's feelings about being second apple to her brother, if only in her own mind. I hope you go back to the one sided conflict in later chapters, its such an interesting take on the brother/sister dynamic they share and I think you've created a real opportunity for drama and character exploration.