In the past months since Granny Smith had died, Apple Bloom had learned to stay in her room after the day’s work. Even if it wasn't her bed time, she would quickly scurry from the kitchen to her room after dinner, hasty to turn on the fan in her room.

Things would soon get loud.

She worried more for her big brother.

Somewhere, she'd not seen where, her sister had taken to Hard Cider

She knew her sister didn't mean the things she said when she was drunk, she didn't really mean it when she called them
both useless, or a waste of space on the farm.

"Ah told ya’ not to talk!" she could hear the angered shouting through her walls at night, followed along by the sounds hoof meeting skin, loud enough to make her wince. Every night had the same results, a new cut, an additional bruise, another sore body part; her brother would take everything Applejack could dish out, his code of ethics keeping him from retaliating.
Apple Bloom always knew when her sister was starting to get drunk; there would be a slur in her voice, her tone always sounded frustrated and her temper all but an inch away from causing her to lash out.

Those were always the signs that told her to go, to hide and get to her room; the signs that soon she would feel sad.
Even though she knew it wasn't, she was a child, children can't help but wonder, all children ask, and think 'is any of this my fault?'

The fact that it was her big brother, the oldest of the three of them, that got the abuse from her sister just added to the feeling of helplessness. If her big brother, a stallion that could move a house, couldn't and wouldn't retaliate against her angry drunken sister, if he wouldn't, what could she do?

What could she do anyway; she was just a filly, a filly without a cutie mark at that.

"Yer all, useless!" The shouting interrupted again, breaking the stream of thought "You and your stupid fuckin' face!" Apple Bloom could only wince at the sounds she heard.

Perhaps the worst part of all this though, was the fact that she knew the full reason why Macintosh didn't try to retaliate.
"Why do you let her do that to you Mac?" she remembered crying in frustration, "You're twice her size and ya allowed her do that to you!" she pointed to the bruised black eye he'd had since the night before. Applejack had gone out to town and the pent up frustration just fell from Apple Bloom's mouth "Why do you even let her drink at all?!"

"Ya know you're sister's resourceful," he told her, "even if ah could get rid of all her Cider, we both know she'd easily get more." he frowned.

The next statement made her heart sink.

"And if it ain't me, she'd do it to you," he said with a frown.

Apple Bloom felt the shiver travel up from her tail to her mane. The tears falling now as she realized the personal sacrifice he made for her safety.

The memory was fresh in her mind as she heard the sound of wood snapping and breaking from somewhere in the house. "Stop bleeding and clean this shit up!" the hoarse sound of her sister's voice rang out.

The loud slam of the door made her wince a second time.

She immediately rushed to her window, watching her sister stumble and walk away with a drunken gait in the direction of the storage building where they kept the Apple Cider.

She quickly rushed out of her room, trotting down the stairs as fast as she could in hope that her brother wasn't badly hurt.
"Macintosh?!" she gasped after rounding a corner.

The image of what she found would be forever branded into her mind.

She found her brother lain back over the broken remains of the dining room table, the wood having shattered into several hundreds of pieces. The stallion that had caused such damage sat right in the middle of it all, a bloody mess as he struggled to move.

An immediate panic washed over her, a decision having been made in that split second. She rushed back up to her room and grabbed her saddlebags along with a sack of bits she'd been saving for longer than she could remember. It had more than enough in it for train tickets to anywhere else.

"Can yah hear me?" she asked him, receiving a quiet groan in response. "Oh thank you!" she said aloud to whatever would hear her.

She moved to pull her brother up as best she could to his feet. "Kicked me somthin' fierce," she heard him murmur. She looked over the nasty gash across his back, the blood leaking out just a single shade darker than his own fur.
"We're leavin,'" she said as she kept him leaning against her, the wait making her walk slow enough.
Her brother didn't respond.

She knew she'd regret this. She knew she'd feel sore whenever they woke up where ever it was they'd stay, but if her brother could do something like this for her, she could do this for him.
It was a rough walk, but she managed to get her big brother all the way to the train station, the blood having managed to stop; he was still alive...thankfully.

She'd considered every moment where Applejack hadn't found they'd left a blessing as they boarded the empty train, pushing Macintosh into a seat next to her as she managed to rub her sore shoulder.
It was a good pain, a freeing pain more so.

The train slowly began to rumble out of the station.

"Thanks..." she heard him say as he slowly gained more consciousness.

"We're leavin', Mac," Apple Bloom told him as he looked around them.

"Where're we goin?" he asked, rubbing his head a bit.

"Canterlot." The town was busy enough they could blend right in, inside the less than high-class areas of the town. "She's not gonna hurt either of us anymore."

She felt the need to cry, the need to grab her brother in a hug and cry into him over the pain of knowing she wouldn't see her friends anymore. As far as anyone would know, they'd have just disappeared.

She inhaled deeply, pushing the need down. She wasn't a filly anymore. She had to be strong for both of them as she was another martyr for their own good.

"She'll find us,” he'd mumble every so often. She didn't care. As long as Applejack kept up her habits, she wasn't their sister.
Not anymore.