The Crystal Apple

by Blind Gardener

Granny Smith's Tale

"Now where was I? Oh yes. I made a bevy of blunders early on in my career, not the least of which was my inability to handle your father." Granny said, leaning back into her chair. "They were precious darlings... Wedge and Slice were gregarious, and all one could hope for from an apple.... Kindle a fire for me, would you Mac? It's getting dark."

"Those two shiesters were all one could hope for from an apple?" Applejack asked dryly.

"Don't knock them 'till you've learned about them." Granny said "Both 'o them were hard workers, and they were my best apple salesmen. When they was children they were always loading up their little carts with apples and having races to see who could sell all of the apples from their cart the fastest for the most bits. One time Wedge managed to convince Filthy to leap from the second floor of the mansion into a cart of apples, turning them into applesauce. Then he convinced Filthy's mam to pay for the apples 'ruined' that way," Granny chuckled at the memory "It took Filthy nearly a week to clean the apples out of his mane, and he and my three Apples were all close friends."

"My pa was friends with Diamond Tiara's father?" Applebloom demanded.

"Now see here Applebloom, Filthy Rich has always been a friend of the family. Just because you don't get along with his daughter is no reason to hate him." Applejack said gently "He's helped us out loads of times."

"Slice was the less devious of the two, he helped plant and grow the library tree. He used to charge the old librarian for maintenance, brought a load 'o apples to her place every week, regular as clockwork. He was sweet on her, though she was more than twice his age at the time."

"Ewwwww" Applebloom said.

"I wonder... Applejack, you sweet on the new librarian?" Granny asked hopefully.

"What? No! Twilight and I are jus' friends!" Applejack responded, startled.

"Too bad, she could be useful on the farm" Granny said with a click of her tongue, leaving Applejack speechless. "What about that Rainbow friend of yours? No? Nevermind...." Granny Smith sighed, shaking her head. "Your father though, he was always reading. Books about engineering, about agricultural theory. Kept saying he wanted to learn more about the world. At the time I thought he was lazy. I took the books away from him when I saw him with them. Called them dirty things, burned one once." Granny Smith pulled a deep breath through her nose.

Applejack stared at Granny Smith in shock "Never tell Twilight you burned a book." She said, still limp jawed.

"It was a mistake. All I was doing was driving the poor boy away and further into his obsessions. He was weaker than his brothers, and until they got their cutie marks, Wedge and Slice were always standin' in for him for the chores. They looked so much alike, the other members of the family couldn't tell when they swapped. This just made him weaker. He wasn't really up to a full day's work on the farm. And then the Timberwolves took your grandpa...." Granny wiped her face with her handkerchief.

"And suddenly the three of them had to do what Mac's been doing since they left. Taking care of the farm. I..." She wiped her face again. "Slice and Wedge got their marks fast but your pa was a late bloomer. A really late bloomer." She shook her head "The work was too much for him. He... ran away. To college. The Canterlot School for Gifted Unicorns."

"Now Granny, We weren't born in Canterlot, and I know he died here. He clearly came back." Applejack asked her sniffling Grandma. She was mighty disturbed to see her normally unflappable grandma crying.

"I know it's just... I drove him off. This was my fault. My own son left. I made it up to him later but... It still hurts" Granny choked "Especially with him... gone for good now. Could i have a glass of cider?"

She sipped at the glass Mac had gotten her and drank it while Applebloom and Applejack pondered this new information.

"He left a letter saying he was looking for a way to modernize the farm." Granny smith said, once she had regained control of her voice.

Applejack scoffed "The farm don't need to be modernized. We've been doing it the earth pony way, and that's jus' fine."

"That's what I told him" Granny said with a nod. "But he was never big on listening to me."

Big Mac, however, glared at his sister in silence, until she felt the oppressive weight of his gaze.

"You got something to say there, Mac?" Applejack asked, wide eyed.

"Eeeenope." Big Mac said, with an aura of dead finality.

"Anyway... One day he comes back from school with his cutie mark, and a girl. A pink earth pony named Núcleo Corazón." Granny said, easing her way back into the story.

"That's mom!" Applebloom said with a happy jump.

"Eeeeyup" Big mac agreed with Applebloom.

Granny nodded. "The first thing he says to me when he gets home is 'mom, I'm married.' I dare say I fell right over, and then he clomped over to me and said 'And I'm ready to work on the farm.' I was overjoyed." She nodded. "Though my daughter-in-law was a harder worker than my son, despite her peculiar heart cutie mark." She laughed softly to herself.

"He still wasn't a hard worker, you know, even after all that. Spent his time rigging machines to do the work for him. Trick he learned while in school I suppose." She shook her head "Still, you can take the apple out of the farm, but you can't take the farm out of the apple. Without him we probably wouldn't have kept the farm. His machines saved us from the remaining debts that my accidental fine accrual had racked up."

She turned to Big Mac "And then when you were born, I was fit to explode from joy."

Big mac simply nodded.

"You were such a cute little thing. Big, healthy, and an earth pony. Everything I was hoping for. I sometimes worried I was going to spoil you rotten but you turned out alright despite my pampering."

Big Mac muttered something quietly that neither Applejack nor Granny could make out.

"I was surprised at how good with foals Corazón was. She said that she didn't have any siblings. Though really I never learned much about your mother. She was very... close lipped about her past, and I wasn't inclined to look the mare in her mouth. Applejack was born after, of course, and Apple Bloom was a late surprise, but your father kept working in his 'workshop'. And then the accident happened."

Applebloom raised her hand "Where was the workshop?"

"Don't go looking for it." Granny said firmly. "It's still dangerous."

Applejack shook her head "Granny, I don't need to hear this part, I was there." She said, a note of panic entering her voice.

"Applebloom was just two months old." Granny started. "You were so little Applejack, but you loved your sister so much. You wanted to use your dad's automatic apple squeezer to make her some applesauce, so you went into Core's shed."

"Grandma, please don't" Applejack said, starting to shake.

"And you didn't come out. For hours. Your mom and dad panicked and started looking for you, along with Big Mac, he was such a diligent son. It was your dad who found you, trapped in the machine. You had fallen in and were quite scared."

"Grandma... please..." Applejack said, tears dripping from her eyes "I don't want to think about it. I don't want to remember."

"He got you out of the mashing machine but... something went wrong. The Apple Juicing machine he was working on activated, and you got pulled in. He propped it open with a shovel and fished you out, but..."

"It exploded." Applejack said "It had started making this odd 'ptoing' sound, and shaking really hard, and Dad threw me across the room and leapt over me, and then there was a loud noise and heat and apple smell, and dad wasn't moving, and he was so heavy on me and and..."

"And your mom ran away." Granny smith said with a nod "When she saw what happened to him. Your uncles went to chase after her to bring her back, and didn't return for years.... without her. She probably died in the forest. I took an axe to what was left of your da's machines. They were too dangerous, and I didn't know how to work them anyways. You never could remember very well the time before after that."

Applebloom, shaking and slightly green with fright poked the sobbing, collapsed Applejack worriedly. "Applejack? Big... Big Sister?!"

"I knew how to work them." Big mac suddenly declared defiantly. "But you wouldn't let me. What was the point of this story, Granny." He gently touched the weeping Applejack with a hoof. "All you did was hurt Applejack and scare Applebloom. Ah'm going to bed, and I'm taking the girls with me." He levered Applejack up onto his back, then gestured for Applebloom to come with him. "Ah hope you're happy about what you've done granny." He glared at her, then left the old mare alone.

Granny stayed on the deck and stared into the dwindling flames of the fire, then with a sigh, she threw her bottle of cider into the fire. "To family." She said with a heavy sigh. Then she too turned and ambled her way to bed.

Author's Note:

Thanks to Magnetbolt for prereading!

Comments

[Rune Caster the First]

I bet that the twins know what happened to Applejack's mum, and feel guilty about it. I wonder what Flim and Flam's reaction would be to being called by their old names again?