I remember that day...
Knock
Knock
Knock
“Hey… Granny? I wondered if I could ask you ta--”
“Apple Bloom! What’d I tell you ‘bout botherin’ Granny?!”
“But I just wanna ask her--”
“Not today, Sugarcube. Not today. Come on, it’s ‘bout time you get a leg up on them chores.”
“Awww Applejack!”
Heh. Applejack does her best, she does. Tain’t an easy thing to reign in a filly like Apple Bloom, though. Once that whipper snapper gets somethin’ in her mind she’s a force to be reckoned with, no matter the consequences. Sure, any other day of the year, I'm happy to lend a hoof or an ear, but not today.
Ya know, it’s a funny thing being an old grey mare, ya forget silly little things like what kinda apple jam you had fer breakfast, or the name of that strange orange youngin’ that follows whipper snapper around… Chicken... Loo? Somethin’ like that. But ya think about years past and it comes in with crystal clarity.
Everypony knows the story of how me ‘n my family started this here town of Ponyville. We were heralded as heroes back in the day for our Zap Apples and the jam they made. You could say I was something of a celebrity back then. You shoulda seen the way my pah puffed out his chest and told the story of my discovery, ‘That’s MY daughter’ he’d say, probably the proudest moment of my young life. ‘Course, ya can’t live forever on fame, not when there’s work to be done. It did give the Apple family their chance in the spotlight, though. Pretty soon all them high-falootin’ ponies recognized us as a valuable family ‘cuz we had something they wanted. We had every opportunity knockin’ at our door, but the one my pah decided to answer went by the name of Orange.
Now, it’s no secret that the fruit families don’t rightly get along much, too much competition ya see, but back then we Apples knew how to play the game. Ya had to pretend to be nice, civil and the like, since a lot of those families had good farm land and resources up for grabs. It weren’t an uncommon occurrence for families to arrange marriages between their houses for that very reason. T’was more like a transaction than a relationship, but I knew my pah meant business when he paired me up with that Orange colt, and I didn’t dare cross him.
Orange Dream was his name, and I gotta say, he sure lived up to it. Tall, he was, with a cream-colored mane and a coat a softly falling sunset. Once again, I was the talk of the town. How I loved paradin’ my beau up and down town square, watchin’ all those fillies fall over themselves wishin’ they was me.
Hoo-Eee it was a hoot and a holler, I tell ya! I’d come home and laugh ‘bout it with mah sister, Apple Spice. She ‘n I loved gabbin’ ‘bout all them city ponies what moved to our neck of the woods. Not a single one of ‘em knew what it meant to be a hard workin’ country pony, but it sure was fun to watch ‘em try.
What was I talkin’ ‘bout again? Oh yeah. Orange Dream. Well, the ceremony was quite extravagant, a little too much for my taste, but them Oranges were always all about their high-falootin’ status. I often wondered what they got outta the match, Orange Dream and I. In the end it was probably money; something the Apples weren’t used to havin’ and the oranges weren’t used to being without. We were a blue-ribbon couple: the famous Zap Apple Farmer and the handsome city bachelor. Why, with all the buzz about us, the news of our first-born would reach all the way up to the Princess.
Or at least… it would have. I’d never seen something so small. It never even took a breath. I wasn't one to shy away from a good cry but… all I could do was sit ‘n stare. I don’t think I ate or drank anything for a week after. Dream was understandin’, though, and I appreciated him for that. We lost it early enough that not many ponies ever knew I was with child to begin with. After a bit of time passed, we gave it another go. I was so sure this one would stick… I was fit as a fiddle every day until it happened. Maybe that’s why he didn’t take this loss as well as the first. We would start hollerin’ at each other, pointing hooves and placing blame. Truth was, neither of us knew what was wrong, we just knew how much it hurt.
I needed some time after the second one. I couldn’t keep pushin’ my body to do somethin’ it just wasn’t ready to do. Dream would go on and on about how his reputation was hangin’ in the balance and how he needed a colt to prove himself as a stallion or some nonsense. I couldn’t stand him when he’d get like that, so I’d pour myself into my work and ignore ‘im.
Well, after about a year went by, I decided it was time to swallow my pride and give it another go. Truth was, I wanted to be a mah just as badly as he wanted to be a pah. I remember confiding in mah sis, Apple Spice, about how I was feelin’ and how Orange Dream was becoming more like an Orange Nightmare, when she broke down sobbin’. She starts wailing on about this, that, and the other, and how she’s a terrible pony and made a terrible mistake. I didn’t know WHAT that mare was gettin’ on about until I saw her belly protrudin’ out more than usual. ‘I love ‘im! I’m sorry! He came onto me, and I just couldn’t say no!’ No harsher words ever existed that are harder for a sister to swallow than those.
We Apples threw Spice out for that, and Dream threw himself at our mercy. In the end, all was forgiven; to them at least. Seemed like my family didn’t bat an eye to his infidelity. They needed him, you see, he was too important to shirk off like their own kin. I realized that I was still expected to make it work with that spineless bastard, Celestia knows how. Dream used to say that he went ‘round defaming my sister as a harlot to explain away the pregnancy so as to not cast doubt on ‘us’ and how we were such a ‘strong couple.’
But what does any of this useless prattle have to do with today? Well, all that dogshit took its toll, ya see, and when ya keep yer emotions all bottled up like bubbly cider, they’re bound to explode. I was comin’ home from the market one day when I heard Dream ‘n Spice talkin’ in the barn. Now, mind you, I hadn’t seen my sister for weeks and I knew right then it wasn’t going to be a pleasurable reunion. I stormed right up to the barn, every intention of screamin’ t high heaven, when I saw something I wish I hadn’t. There he was, looking up at me like he didn’t have a care in the world, this little new-born colt with a smile that could melt your heart. Dream had a son now, and I knew that I’d lose everything: status, reputation, even my own home. I was scared shitless!
I don’t know what compelled my actions after that. Some part of my brain was screamin’ for me to stop doin’ what I was doin’, but my hooves just kept me goin’ forward. Ya see, I knew that that ole barn was already fallin’ apart. We were set to destroy it soon and raise a new one, so we had left it in disrepair. There were two levels, and the upper one had all our bales of hay jammed together and held aloft. I knew exactly which wood beam was load-bearin’, so, I picked myself up an axe and I just started hackin’. Ya know what? I don’t think I even cared whether or not I lived or died, I just kept hackin’ away. I was a hard-working mare so I made an easy job of it. The beam splintered and the hay bales came tumblin’ down. In that moment, I resolved to stay put and let the chips fall where they may, but I looked up at that sweet ‘lil innocent face and gawl-darn it I had a change of heart. I raced for ‘im and skirted out by the skin of my teeth. The whole damn barn came crashing down, even broke my leg on the way out, but that little one, my Bright Mac, was safe, and that’s all that mattered.
So here I am, all these years later, wrestling with the memory of that day and trying not to let my grandchildren see me smilin’. Usually I lock myself up here in my room so I can muse about it without suspicion. In a couple of minutes, I’ll have to shut that memory back in a drawer somewhere in my mind and wipe this smile off my face. But fer now, I can reminisce in the memory of their screams.