To Wake Up...

"Applejack." Big Mac says clearly around her ear.

"Yea..." AJ replies dreamily.

"Applejack!" He says massaging her shoulders with his hooves.

"Keep doing that Big Mac..." She murmurs leaning into his touch.

"WAKE UP SIS!" Apple Bloom cries out of nowhere, and suddenly AJ snaps awake, then nearly topples over the edge of the West Cliff. Big Macintosh grabs her shoulders and hard and pulls her back, and they land in a heap.

"So I was sleep walking again?" Applejack asks a few minutes later.

"Ehup." Big Macintosh states where they are sitting well back from the cliff.

"Why do you sleep walk so much this time of year?" Apple Bloom asks, and they both look at her.

Apple Bloom is their Sister, not daughter, and though there was that one incident when Applejack and Big Mac were 18 and 20 respectively Apple Bloom was five at the time, so there is no chance in hell she is their daughter. That said, the dreams Applejack has where she IS grow more and more frequent, not even limiting themselves to the 'Breeding Season' any more, and she knows why she was sleepwalking, and where she thought she was going: she was trying to find Big Mac, who sleeps out in the orchards this time of year because they both know that if they stay in the house together they are going to give in to temptation, and as experts on agriculture they also know the massive birth, health, and mental defects which can arise from that degree of consanguinity...

However, something has just changed for Applejack, ~No more running, I aim to misbehave!~ She thinks and looks hard into Apple Bloom's eyes: Apple Bloom can never know the darker side of Applejack's Feelings towards her: their mother is dead because of complications from Apple Bloom's birth, and their father from suicide a month later: but that is not Apple Bloom's fault! 'Maiden's Blush' was too old to have another foal and refused point blank to go to the hospital to have their youngest and last sibling, and their father 'Black Ben Davis' had always been an unstable character, so half-lie though it was Applejack could never admit how hard it was to see Apple Bloom as a sister rather than the instrument of their parent's deaths some times: while at other times she saw herself as the foal's true mother, the woman who raised her and was bringing her up in the family tradition...

Tonight though that first half was going to be put to rest, it was time and past time that she become the representative of the life giving earth in full and put her mothers **** behind her: but first she had to get rid of the golden eyed filly, at least for an hour or two...

"You'll understand when you're older Apple Bloom, now get back ta bed, I'm awake now and you don' need to worry your little head none, after tonight there should be no more sleep walking." Applejack explained in her most motherly voice and the little filly turned to head home.

"Aren't you coming sis?" she called over her shoulder.

"Naw, since we're in the West Orchard anyway and the fruit bats don't seem to be causing trouble tonight I am going to work with Big Mac taking cuttings of some of the old cultivars out here, so we can replant them elsewhere for the family catalog." Applejack half-lies, and feels a deep twinge of regret at the necessity.

"Aright Sis, see you tomorrow..." Apple Bloom says with a yawn and heads out.

As soon as the filly is out of earshot Applejack turns to Big Mac...