The door to Applebloom’s room creaked open. It was dark and quiet inside, and from her pillow Applebloom could see the silhouette of her sister against the dimly lit hallway outside. She stood unnaturally still in the doorway, but then again, this day always made her sister act unnatural. It was hard on her and her brother both.

“Are you asleep?”

Applebloom gauged whether it was wise to answer, but eventually responded with a simple, “Yes.”

With that Applejack entered quietly, her shape disappearing among the shadows of the room.

“Shave my tail it’s hot and stuffy in here,” she said after a moment, “why don’t you open the window? You must be suffocating.”

Without waiting for a response she made her way to the window and opened it, first drawing the curtains aside which let in a dim shaft of moonlight. It made her coat appear paler than normal, like she was more ghost than pony.

Applebloom liked her room stuffy, but didn’t argue. She knew better at this point. She would just close it herself later.

“Are you leaving soon?” she asked as Applejack propped herself up on the side of the bed. Applebloom scooted under the covers until she was pressing against her sister.

“Yes. Just wanted to come say goodnight first though.”

“Are you and the girls going far this time?”

“Yes.”

“Where to?”

“Some pony-forsaken place, probably. Can’t remember the name. Twilight knows.”

“She always knows.”

Applejack shifted about, her hooves fussing with the covers in the way they did when she was “thinking deep”.

“I wish she didn’t,” she said quietly. Applebloom wasn’t sure what she meant; Applejack never did seem to fully like how smart Twilight was. Applebloom marveled at it, though. But then, she wasn’t stuck with her as a friend.

“Do you think you and the girls will stop all those dark clouds at the edge of the sky? They keep growing.” She tried to not sound scared, but simply curious.

Applejack blinked at her, and in the dim light Applebloom saw that warm, confident smile she knew so well spread on her face.

“Of course we will.” And then surprisingly she climbed onto the bed and hugged Applebloom tightly. “You ain’t gotta be scared, honey. We’ll take of whatever it is that’s out there, like always.”

“I’m not worried,” Applebloom said, though she was enjoying the embrace. She always looked forward to hugs from Applejack, though they weren’t quite as nice as the ones Big Mac gave. Those swallowed you up.

“It’s okay to be,” Applejack whispered. “I am sometimes. I am now, actually.”

“But I’m not,” Applebloom said, “you just think I am, don’t you, because today’s the day mah and pah left and didn’t come back.”

Applejack didn’t respond to that right away. “Maybe,” she said eventually.

“Don’t worry sis, you’re not like them. You aren’t them. I’m not worried.”

Applejack hugged her tightly, and Applebloom felt wet tears strike her forehead. This day was always rough on her, the day their parents left and came back in wooden boxes. It would be like any other day for Applebloom, given she had very little memory of her mother and none of her father, were it not for the fact that her sister and brother were deeply affected by it.

Sis always cried on this day. Applebloom felt a touch of anger at the world for making her sis have to go save it when she needed to mourn.

Eventually Applejack got up to leave. She leaned over and gave a deep kiss on her forehead.

"Sleep tight, sugar. I'll see you when I get back."

"Night sis."

Applejack closed the door as she left. Applebloom never got up to close the window, instead falling asleep, leaving the air feeling cool and empty.

---

Applejack approached a group of silhouettes in the darkness.

"How was it?" Twilight's voice rang out

"How do you think it was?"

"Did you tell her?" Rarity asked. She sniffed a bit.

"No, I couldn't make myself. I'll always hate myself for it, but darn it I couldn't do it."

"I don't think any of us could."

"Well girls," Twilight began with a deep breath, "there's nothing for it. The fact is we're not coming back. This is the last we'll ever see of our home. We've said our goodbyes. Best to just leave it at that."

Wordlessly they all began on their way to the dark clouds broiling on the horizon.