Snapshots

by Shingo

Inheritance

Sitting in the Apple household was a yellow mare. In her hooves was a family portrait. It depicted her and her family when she was younger. Her eyes were focused on an orange mare wearing a stetson. A sad smile was on her face as she looked at the picture. The sound of footsteps shook her out of her reminiscing. She looked up to see a dark yellow colt approaching her.

“Ma?” he asked. “You said you wanted to see me?”

“That I did,” she replied. The colt shuffled his hooves.

“I’m not in trouble am I?” The mare chuckled.

“What made you think that you were in trouble?”

“Nothing,” he said. His face scrunched up and his eyes moved back and forth. “Nothing at all. I definitely didn’t think that you knew about me salting the earth around two of our ariane trees.”

“Remind me to give you a punishment for that,” the colt’s ears flattened against his head. “But that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about.” She reached behind her and pulled out a worn out stetson.

“Do you know what this is?” she asked.

“A really old hat?”

“Well it is that, but it’s something else. Come on Ashmead, you know what this is.” The colt was silent for a while. He looked at the picture that the mare was looking at. His eyes darted back and forth between the picture and the hat.

“Is that…” the mare nodded.

“It is,” she said. “This hat belonged to your Aunt Applejack. I wish you could have met her. You’re a lot like her you know? You’re both strong willed, honest, caring, and stubborn.”

“Hey!”

“This hat means more than that though,” she continued. “This is an Apple family heirloom, much like the harness that your cousin Quinte inherited and like the bow I gave to your sister. This hat belonged to Applejack, and she was given it from our pa. He was given it from his pa, and he was given it from… well you get the picture.” She placed it over the colt’s head. It was two sizes too big for him and slid down over his eyes.

“I’m giving it to you now,” the colt pushed the hat above his eyes. “Take care of that hat. It’s survived thirty generations of Apples, and I want it to survive at least thirty more.”

“I will, ma,” he said. He turned around and began walking away from her.

“Now, what was that about salting the earth around some ariane trees?” the colt froze in his place.

“Aw nuts.”