Applejack considered herself a pony of action. The fact of the matter was that there was very little in her life that couldn’t be solved by the simple application of effort. There was a kind of beauty to how her troubles seemed to work themselves out as long as she kept at them and trusted her gut, even if she didn't realize how to solve them at first.

Right now, her gut was making a very persuasive argument to stomp into town, find a certain addle-headed colt, and deliver a beating the likes of which Celestia herself had never before witnessed. Of course, that wouldn’t actually do Apple Bloom a lick of good.

All that useless energy twisted up her chest like a great, big, coiled spring in her heart. Trying to ignore it, Applejack knocked softly on her sister’s closed door.

“You wanna open the door, ‘Bloom?”

“Go away!” Apple Bloom’s anguished voice tightened the spring just a bit more. “I wanna be alone!”

“You’ve cooped yourself up in there since yesterday, and it’s noon now. At least you gotta eat, sugarcube.”

“No!”

Applejack jumped as something crashed into the bedroom door from the other side, followed by the clinking of broken glass.

“I’m coming in,” she said, leaving no room for question about it. It helped that the only locks in the house were on the front and back doors.

A shattered picture frame lay on the floor next to the door. The picture it held, yellowed and curled from the passing of years, showed the two of them with Rarity and Sweetie Belle after their first Sisterhooves Social together. The sight of the splintered frame put a lump in Applejack’s throat that she swallowed back down. She knew Apple Bloom didn’t mean it, but it hurt anyway.

Carefully stepping around the glass, Applejack approached the figure curled on the bed. Apple Bloom’s back was turned to the door. Quilts wrapped around her half-covered the three pink-white apple blossoms on each of her flanks. Gingerly taking a seat on the edge of the bed, Applejack placed a hoof on her sister’s back.

“I said, I wanna be alone.” Apple Bloom’s voice threatened to break into sobs. She sniffed and twisted herself away.

“I know, sugar. But this ain’t good for you anymore,” said Applejack. She paused as she tried to put her next words together. “Sometimes you gotta let go and keep goin’.”

Stiffening to Applejack’s touch was Bloom’s only response.

“Mac and I are worried to bits.” Applejack desperately wished for the right words to say. “I know you’ve been hurtin’ something fierce, but I want you to know that you can count on me to be here for you. There ain’t a single little rough patch that you gotta make it through by yourself.”

“This isn’t some little rough patch!” Applebloom sat up and whipped around to face Applejack. Despite the red puffiness around them, her eyes were fiery and sharp as thorns. “This isn’t like the little filly crushes I had on Miss Cheerilee’s schoolyard!”

“That ain’t what I meant at all, Bloom. I just mean that you don’t have to go through this alone, that’s all.”

“You sayin’ there’s some kinda miraculous way you can split the hurt between us so I only feel half as bad?” Apple Bloom sobbed. “‘Cause the way I see things, I’m the one who got my heart broke, not you.”

“I’m no stranger to heartbreaks. I’ve had my fair share. And believe me when I say that it ain’t something that’s bigger than you are, no matter how small you feel right now, sugarcube.” Applejack put both hooves on her sister’s shoulders. “You’re strong, Apple Bloom, and you’d better believe that it’ll take a lot more than this to keep you down.”

“But I just—” Apple bloom stammered. Her eyes fell away from Applejack’s. “I don’t feel strong, AJ. I just feel all hollowed up inside. And tired.”

“There ain’t no Apple alive that wasn’t born strong. Especially you. I’d raise my right hoof to my Element to say so.”

Apple Bloom launched herself forward and took Applejack into a tight hug. It took Applejack a moment to recover—she’d never in a hundred years get used to how Bloom was bigger than her now.

“I loved him, AJ, with my whole heart. And I really, really thought he loved me too.”

Applejack rocked slowly from side to side, patting Bloom’s back.

“There, there, sugarcube. I know you did.”