A Good Apple
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Thank you.
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From the starlit Equestrian sky above Applebloom's head, snow fell in big, wet flakes onto the landscape below. The ground was too warm and the snowflakes too wet to collect in an icy blanket across Equestria, and so each flake disappeared into the eaves of the apple orchard and the grass beneath them as silently as they had fallen.
Applebloom sat with her back against the barn much like a certain teal unicorn, her rosy amber eyes hidden behind the lids on which her tears had been collecting for several minutes. A feeling of loss that only a filly could feel rested itself oppressively across her heart, and almost silently, Applebloom began to weep. She wept for the loss of who she felt may have been her closest friend. She wept for a hole in her heart that would be left aching and empty until her hooves walked upon the clouds in pony heaven, and she wept for what she could have done.
Applebloom reached behind her head and undid the knot that bound her pink ribbon in her mane, bringing it around into her lap. Her eyes blinked once, twice, and thrice as her tears fell onto the ribbon and mingled with the melting snow that was already soaking through the fabric, which was always so thick and warm. She thought back to her first day in school and how upset she was to have been given such a gift. Her gaze shifted to the silvery moon that shone down on her from above, a shimmering speck that splayed in three spots across her gleaming pupils.
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"No, Granny, ah' won't wear it, I won't!" Applebloom's eyes squinted and her teeth gritted in defeat as Granny Smith's deceptively quick hooves fastened a rosy pink ribbon into the scarlet curls of her mane. She turned and opened her mouth in protest, but Granny Smith spoke first.
"Now, Applebloom, you might be the only filly at that school with a ribbon in her mane, but-"
"but Granny-!"
"No, buts, Applebloom!" Granny Smith rose to her hooves only to fall back into her rocking chair. "There's a story behind that ribbon. Yer' big sister Applejack wore the ribbon when she was just a filly, and she didn't give any fuss, so don't you-"
"Granny, ah'll wear it, okay?" Applebloom's day at school had not been as unbearable and torment filled as she made it out to be that evening. In fact, Miss Cheerilee thought it was the biggest and loveliest ribbon she had ever seen.
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Applebloom wrapped the ribbon around her neck as she would a scarf. As an unforgiving wind washed through the orchards and over her snow damp coat, soaking her limbs to the bone, she did not shiver; the bitter cold in her heart chilled her so much more as her eyes rested at last on the intricate memorial that sat on the ground before her. Her breath caught in her throat as a deluge of recent memories-all good ones-began to pour into her consciousness once more. Rather than seeing the memorial before her, she now saw herself running, playing, and lying on the grass in the sun with her lost friend.
Applebloom had crafted the memorial herself, demonstrating a level of care and attention to detail that her crafting labor had never seen before. As deep into the snow capped soil as Applebloom was tall, bricks were laid on top of bricks, functioning as a foundation at the base of the memorial. On top of the brick surface was a small headstone carved from a pristine block of oak. Applebloom would not tell Twilight Sparkle what the oak was for, but seeing Applebloom's distraught expression had been more than enough to persuade her to fulfill Applebloom's request. The day before, Twilight had enchanted the wood for applebloom so that the sun, wind, and rain would never be able to deface the oak. Applebloom's chiseled inscription would remain etched into the oak long after the stars above died out and were born again:
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Here lies Hoppy
He will always be missed, and
he will always be loved
He was as good an Apple as anypony
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Applebloom could not remember starting to cry once more, and neither could she remember her brother joining her at her side behind the barn... But there he was. How somepony as big and bulky as he was could move so quietly baffled the little filly.
The presence of somepony familiar to her gave her some small kind of comfort. Her agonized sobs were quieted to a soft murmur as Big Mac's muscled foreleg wrapped itself around her from her right, gently pulling her close to him. Big Mac was always patient with his little sister, and he didn't push her to say anything. He held her and shielded her from the silent snow where the pink ribbon could not. He sat quietly with her for a long time, as he was always rather quiet.
As Applebloom again depleted her reserve of tears and grew quiet, she shifted herself in the shared embrace to look up at Big Mac. He was actually holding back tears, but hid it very will with his stalwart expression and pleasantly colt like smile. He scratched her ear with his other hoof before a big, wet snowflake could melt upon it.
"You made that, Appleblossom?" He spoke softly, a touch of both sympathy and admiration in the depth of his voice.
Applebloom's ear flopped at the sound of her big brother's pet name for her. He had always been protective of her, and although Applebloom loved Every apple in the family, Big Mac and she had always been particularly close. The Apple family was as supportive of their foals as anypony, but it was always Big Mac that she would go to when she had a hard day at school, and it was Big Mac that seemed to always be there to cheer her up when she needed to be.
"Yeah... Twi' used 'er magic to make it last. Ah' really hope it worked."
"Ah'm sure it did..." He paused. "That Hoppy of yours must've been somethin' real special for you to put all that work into his grave, hm?"
Applebloom sniffed. A mat of her curly, scarlet mane fell in front of her eye as she nodded. Granny Smith would push her into getting a haircut sooner or later. "Mm hm."
The two sat against the barn even longer still, Big Macintosh petting her sister like he would Winona. He provided more than enough warmth for both of them.
Applebloom leaned into Big Mac, joining him in audience of Luna's argent moon. At the time, it hung in the sky, shining down on the orchards of Sweet Apple Acres through the only open space in the cloud cover available to her. The grass extending from beyond Hoppy's grave to the Red Gala apple orchards seemed to be hidden from the world outside; the snow now fell silently in an immaculate, frosted veil that draped itself gracefully and neatly around the clearing that brother and sister sat in together. It was as if the elements had granted Applebloom her own domain separate from the rest of the world, hidden from is troubles and scrutiny. Big Mac made himself a brief mental note to write a brief poem about this winter wonder at a later time.
An obscenely large snow flake landed in Big Mac's left eye, and as he wiped it away, Applebloom couldn't hold in her filly giggle. Big Mac laughed, too, and gave her a pat on the shoulder. "Do ya wanna tell me 'bout him, Appleblossom?"
"Yeah," she paused, and gloom touched her voice once more as her gaze rested on Hoppy's grave stone. "He didn't say much to me, ya know, 'cause he couldn't. He was the bestest jumper I ever saw. He was a lot bigger than any of his friends, but he was the only one who didn't run away from me. He was just a cricket, y'know... Ya probably think I'm real silly, now." She blushed.
Big Mac just hugged her. "There's nothing silly about being sad."
Applebloom smiled. Just a bit. "We had a lot of fun! He jumped through hoops and on lily pads, and he was real good at jumping away right before the frogs could git him. He even stayed in my window at night and waited for me to wake up. He made these funny noises."
"He must have been a real friend, then."
"Yeah..." And for the third or fourth time that night, Applebloom could not remember, she buried her face in Big Mac's side and cried. She cried until the tears would no longer come, and she grew as silent as the veil of snow and the silvery moon above.
She asked, "Big Mac...?"
"Yeah, Appleblossom?"
"Why did Hoppy have to go?"
Big Macintosh grew as silent as he usually was. "Ah' don't know, and ah'll bet Hoppy didn't either. But ya can still have fun and smile, Appleblossom."
Applebloom sniffed. "How? Ah' can't make him come back."
Big Mac smiled and lifted Applebloom's chin to meet his gaze. "Hoppy was a good friend, Appleblossom, even though he didn't say goodbye."
"He couldn't..."
"What would he say to you now, Appleblossom?" Big Mac looked at Applebloom, and Applebloom to the moon.
"Ah' don't know..."
"I do." Applebloom looked at her brother with a face that exuded awe and skepticism at the same time. He saw this and smiled, knowing his job was about to be done. "He'd tell you to run, play, and have more fun without him than you did with him."
Applebloom's mouth hung open for a moment, and she looked at her brother again. "But... Wouldn't he be mad?"
Big Macintosh laughed genuinely, and Applebloom blushed and buried her face in his side again. He started petting her mane again. "Ah'm sorry, Appleblossom, I'm not laughin' at you. He was a good friend, though. He wouldn't get mad at you for having fun. He'd want you to be happy."
Applebloom was quiet. Big Mac looked down at his sister as Applebloom looked up at him, and a feeling of victory like no other settled on his heart much like to snow that fell around them; Applebloom was smiling. She was smiling ear to ear, and the gleam in her eyes was unmistakable. His little Appleblossom was happy again. She hugged him. Hard.
"Ouch, Applebloom! Yer hurtin' me!"
She giggled. "You're too big for me to hurt, Big Mac!"
"No ah ain't!"
"Yes ya are!"
Big Mac laughed and gave Applebloom a scratch behind the ear, and she leaned into him again, this time in affection rather than sorrow.
"Thanks, Big Mac."
He wrapped his iron forelegs around his sister and hugged her gently, smiling to himself.
"Appleblossom..."
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I hope you smiled while reading that as much as I did while writing it. It's not much of a story, but it already made one pony smile, so it has done its job.
Actual word count: 1815