Rotten Apple

I remember the day when the apple orchards were green and healthy. They used to be so pretty, and the apples hanging on the branches looked delicious. The sun rays would pitch through the openings of the tree branches, painting a beautiful golden picture.

Those were the days.

Nowadays, the sky is grey and the sun hardly comes out anymore. The ugly black clouds block the view of the sun and push away its beautiful light. I can't see the light anymore. It almost seems like it's gone away and left for good. I wish every day that the sun would come back, and maybe spread some happiness down on the farm.

It never does.

The farm is lonely these days. Ever since my brother left to find a new life in the big city, I have been left to aid with my grandmother. Granny Smith was a great pony for her time. She used to help around in the house, because she can't go out and work in the farm. It's funny, it almost seems like a few days ago she was ready to go and work like she used to.

It really is funny.

At the end of her days, all she did was lay on the couch. I gave her some of the last of the food that we had in the cupboards. Most of the time she refused to eat the food, because she wanted me to have it. I told her that it was silly and that she should have some. She would get angry sometimes and swipe her hoof at me. I would normally be insulted, but it was my grandmother. I can't complain.

Sometimes she would hack up a real mess on the floor. I would have to clean it up. Then she would start to moan and start coughing up some stuff. I rubbed her wrinkly body and tried to make her feel better, but it seemed like everything I tried didn't work. She just kept coughing, like a cackling old witch. That sound, something that sounded so fierce and forced, it was a scary noise.

Even though she isn't here, I can still hear it, like it's burned into my mind.

I remember the day when she stopped breathing. I was in the other room when it happened. Normally I could hear her loud wheezing from even upstairs. Then I noticed that the wheezing had stopped. I went to the other room, and Granny Smith wasn't moving and her eyes were closed. I shook her body and asked her what was wrong.

It was when she didn't even make a sound that I started to become scared. I shook her body and cried her name, hoping that she would say something to me. Even a little noise would have made me feel better. But I couldn't hear anything. Her body was moving, and I couldn't hear her breathing. I told myself that she was fine, that she was going to be okay, that everything was going back the way it used to be.

It never went back to the way it used to be.

I remember when I was just a little filly and that I would run around in the orchards, and Granny Smith would watch me as I played. I played with my dog and I ran around with her. At that time, I never had a care in the world. It was like all my other problems had melted away, or they didn't even exist at all.

Those were the days.

Now the farm's colours could be better, but I couldn't do it because my back hurt. They have since been turned to a slab pink colour, and the white vibrant colour turned to an ugly grey, almost like it was trying to imitate the clouds. It didn't matter to me anyways, because I was usually in town at the pub drinking away. I spend most of my time there at the pub, and usually the bartender is nice to me.

I almost had spent the rest of my bits on drinks. Sometimes, I would get lucky and a stallion would buy me a drink. I liked the stallions, because they really were nice to me. Usually I wouldn't talk to strangers, especially stallions. But I was too tipsy to realize that I was talking to them. Soon we would keep talking and I would start to get a real giddy feeling. I smiled and he smiled at me.

We would get a room (not the farm, because it was just a mess) and we would start to fool around a little bit. I would tell him that I was a cowgirl, and I was a really rowdy gal. But the stallion usually said that I was a cow, and that he was going to milk me. I liked that kind of talk, and before I knew it, we were in bed and he was smoking a cigarette.

I remember when Big Mac came back. I was inside the farm house and I was just laying in the wheat acting bored. I was just staring off into space when the barn doors suddenly crept open, and I was scared. Then I heard the hoofsteps of my brother, and the thumps sounded familiar to me. The farm was dark (mainly because the clouds were grey, as they usually were), so I couldn't see who it was, until he called out for me.

"Applejack?"

I snapped out of my transfixed state and looked around. I then laid eyes on my brother. But he didn't look like my brother. His blonde hair was combed back and he was wearing a black suit. His voice sounded different too, and it made me wonder if he was my brother at all. He looked around and finally set eyes on me.

He didn't smile, but he didn't react either. He just sort of stared at me, like I was a ravenous creature that threatened to eat him. He didn't say anything at first, but then he spoke.

"Applejack..."

"Hey, Big Mac. How've you been?"

Big Mac stumbled with his words at first, like he usually did before he left. He used to have a speech impediment or whatever it was called. I was patient and waited for him to speak again.

"The farm doesn't look too good."

I looked around and silently agreed. "Yeah, it doesn't, does it? Things kinda fell apart after Granny Smith went away."

Big Mac nodded. He gulped as he studied the farm. I glanced back at him.

"Hey, what's with the suit? You a lawyer or somethin'?"

Big Mac looked back at me and shook his head. "Nope. I'm an accountant. I work at the bank in Manehatten."

I nodded. It seemed like it was a boring job, but I couldn't complain. I was just here in the farm, doing nothing. I wasn't any different, so why would I bash somepony else's proffession?

Big Mac looked at me funny. "Didn't you get my letters?"

"Letters?"

"I wrote to you every month after I left. You never returned them. I almost thought you changed your address, but you'd never leave this place, even after it-"

He stopped and played with the dirt while looking at the ground. Until that moment I didn't know that my brother was sending me letters all this time. How come I never found those letters?

"It appears you gained a little weight," he said. I looked down at my belly and rubbed it. I smiled.

"I didn't gain weight. I got lucky."

"Lucky?"

Then he stared at my belly, and his eyes grew wide. "No..."

"Yep. I don't know what to call her, if it is a her."

Big Mac took a step back. "How long?"

"About seventh months now."

Big Mac gulped again. His red coat fumed and he burrowed his eyebrows.

"This can't be happening..."

"I'm sorry, Mac. I would have wrote, but I never found the time."

"Why couldn't you have wrote? Why didn't you at least talk to me?"

I didn't want to say the wrong thing, and I stumbled on my own words.

"I-I don't know..."

"Listen to me, Applejack. All these years, you stayed here on the farm and now look at it. It's dead. Everything is gone. You could have progressed, you could have left this place behind. But you let it rot. And because you let it rot, you decided to rot yourself."

I was starting to become angry. Since when did he have the right to accuse me of all these things? I wanted to stay by the farm, and that was how it was going to be. I couldn't leave this place. It meant too much to me.

"I didn't let it rot, darn it! It's as healthy as ever!"

"Stop kidding yourself," Mac hissed. "You're only fooling yourself. Had I never come here, that baby would have never had a good life. You were going to bring that foal down with you because you couldn't help yourself!"

"Shut your damn mouth!"

Something happened. I felt something tear. I let out a moan and lowered my head. Big Mac just stood there and looked at me strange. My heart was starting to race, and I could feel something moving around.

"It's coming."

Big Mac just sputtered.

"...What?"

"The baby's coming!"

Big Mac gasped as I started to scream on the top of my lungs. I had never felt that king of pain before in my entire life. It was too much to bear. I shrieked as I fell on my back and cringed. My brother came to my side and squeezed my hoof. I was breathing hard and fast, but my brother quietly and calmly told me to relax.

"Don't scream, it's okay... just breathe. That's good..."

I don't think that Big Mac had ever witnesses an actual child birth up to this point. I squeezed my eyes as hard as I could. It was unimaginable the pain that I was feeling, that I almost felt like I was about to die. Big Mac looked around and told me to stay put. He ran out of the farm and left me inside.

Minutes later, my brother returned. But this time there was another pony here. He was a grey pegasus I think, I couldn't really remember anything after that. I was still in massive pain. The pony looked at me and then down at my privates.

"Miss, you must listen to me. I am a doctor. I will help you through this only if you let me. You just listen to what I say and you will be okay. Do you understand?"

I nodded my head frantically. The doctor glanced at my brother and nodded.

"Okay, let's start..."

It felt like an eternity. Every push felt like a stabbing feeling down in my crotch. I screamed at the top of my lungs and tears started to fall down to my cheeks. But I kept remembering that my baby was in there and that it's going to come out, no matter what. I was going to help my baby, no matter the cost.

Every minute felt like an hour. I kept breathing like the doctor had told me. I could feel my baby coursing through my body and I felt that it was going to come out real soon. Even though it was painful, I reassured myself that it was going to come out and it was going to be bright and healthy.

Is it over?

I looked down and the doctor was frowning. It looked like he was holding something. My brother looked at it and his mouth was wide open.

"How is she?"

The doctor wiped sweat from his forehead. He sighed.

"Miss, I am so sorry..."

"Let me see her."

The doctor glanced at my brother. He didn't do anything. The doctor looked at me and slowly handed me my baby. I looked at its lifeless form, white coated with patches of red. It didn't move at all and it hardly made a noise. I looked at my brother and cried.

"Look, Mac. My baby..."

"Oh my Celestia..."

I looked at it and my tears dropped to it's body.

"I think I'll name her..."

"Applebloom."

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