Chapter 11: Slice of Life- The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far from the Tree

June 7, 1948
Apple Family Farm, Equestria

Applejack plopped herself down on the living room couch, exhausted after another long and grueling day out on the farm. Today was the last day of school in Ponyville and starting tomorrow she knew that she would have Applebloom to help out around the farm. She had just completed her first year of high school with her friends, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. The young filly was growing up.

“A little too fast,” thought Applejack to herself.

Ever since the previous autumn, when Granny Smith had become to frail to work around the farm her and Macintosh had been forced to take on extra work. While Applejack didn’t enjoy the exhausting labour, she realized that she had to do her part around the farm in order to keep it afloat. She knew that it was what her parents would have wanted her to do.

Her work had kept her distracted most of the time from lingering thoughts about her now long deceased parents. However, it was moments like this, moments when she had time to sit down and think, that all the heartbreak that came from the void created by her parents death came rushing back.

Every missed Father’s Day and Mother’s Day. Her graduation from high school. Her prom night. All of these monumental moments of her growing up were devoid of the pair of ponies that had brought her into the world.

She thought back to the moment when Granny Smith, crying for the first and only time as far as Applejack could remember, had told her and her older brother that their parents had perished in a freak carriage accident. She had initially refused to believe her grandmother. However, after several days alone in her room she came to accept that her parents weren’t coming back.

“Applebloom is lucky,” thought Applejack to herself. “She was so young at the time, she never had gotten the opportunity to grow emotionally attached to them.”

Immediately Applejack scolded herself for thinking such thoughts. She should consider herself blessed that she had gotten the opportunity to know such amazing people. She remembered fondly how her mother would sing her to sleep with her beautiful voice and how her father would always make her laugh with completely absurd explanations about how the world worked.
She thought back to when she was six years old. Once, while crossing a bridge, she asked how engineers knew what the maximum weight was. His response, whimsical as ever, “Well it's obvious Applejack. They simply take increasingly heavy loads and drive across the bridge. Eventually it will collapse. They then know that the last weight to successfully make it across is the maximum secure load.” This answer had elicited a giggle from the young Applejack and a lighthearted rebuke from her mother.
“Oh, how I miss them,” thought Applejack. “Those were the days.”
Applejack knew that they were never going to come back from the grave. However, she felt that if she remembered their shared memories, then they would stay alive in her heart.