Artist’s comment:

Older one: >>1325329

My original plan was to upload this drawing on August 5 (day of the premiere of “The Perfect Pear” in US) but it’s soooooooo far away so I’ll upload it now. Also, I started this drawing about a month ago, but I didn’t have enough energy and inspiration to finish it, but I finally did it and here it is!

and as a bonus, an improved version-with better spelling and no technical errors of the old description! :D:D:D

Hope you like it!!!

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Applejack suppressed a yawn. It had been a long, eventful night of partying, and the Apple farm had been shoosen by Pinkie Pie to host this year the Heart’s Warming Eve party. After making sure that all the ponies had retired to their homes, she made her way to her room with heavy eyes of sleep. Granny Smith had fallen asleep as soon as AJ escorted her to her bedroom, and Big Mac had taken charge of taking a tired Applebloom to her bed. She carefully closed the door of her brother’s room, who was snoring heavily next to his old stuffed animal (she was still wondering where in Equestria he taken it).

Arriving at her room, she carefully hung her special hat on the side of the bed and, making sure the windows were closed, covered herself happily with the comforter.

It had only been a minute when she opened her eyes slowly, blinking and fixing her eyes to nowhere. She pulled a hoof to the side, from where she took out a framed photograph that was hidden somewhere on the mattress.

Turning it carefully, she observed the image with melancholy: it was a teenager Big Macintosh, who held a basket full of Zap apples proudly in his hooves, with a young Applejack who looked at him with complicity, holding a jar of rainbow jelly on his back. In the background, a baby Applebloom played with her father’s hat while he was holding her over his head, with her mother Buttercup smiling warmly at her husband. Applejack remembered that day perfectly, it was Applebloom’s first Zap apple season, and also one of the best harvests of their lives. The small smile she held was twisted slightly in a grimace of pain, followed by drowned and short sobs. Tears threatened to run down her cheeks, but with a few breaths later she managed to calm her agitated and sad heart.

Turning her eyes back to the picture, she gently kissed the images of her parents, and murmuring gently, she said:

—Happy Heart’s Warming Eve mom and dad. I wish you were here to see everything we’ve done. Applebloom is growing faster than I would like, and I really dread the thought of knowing that in some day she will no longer need the help of her sister or her older brother for everything she does, or that she decides to go somewhere very far from Ponyville, and although I know it will be one of the most painful days for me, I promised to take care of our family and make sure everyone is happy and support them in the decisions they make. I…..really missed you. I miss….when Big Mac and I stole cookies from the cupboard and Dad attacked us with tickling so we could tell the truth, or when both read me stories and mum played a nice song until we fell asleep, or when dad would raise me to his head to better see the fireworks….I-I….seriously wish…—but her voice broke in the last sentence, and hugging the photo hard, she cried quietly in the stillness of her room.

At some point, she hid again her precious treasure in its place and had fallen asleep. She didn’t notice when two ghostly figures appeared on the side of the bed and watched her sleep for a long time, or when one of them lovingly stroked her hair and planted a soft kiss on her cheek, not even when the second figure settled down next to the other and looked at her with an infinite affection in his ghostly eyes. At some point in the night, the figures embraced the sleeping mare and vanished leaving a trail of specks of light.

The next morning, Applejack thought she had smelled the sweet smell of his mother’s hair, along with the feeling of his father’s soft fur against hers but, giving a vigorous shake, she relaxed the frown that brought and rose from the bed to start with the day’s chores.