The sun was a bright coin as it rose, clear and unblemished; the headache was a nail being driven into his skull, stabbing and sharp, right between his eyes.
The party had continued on long into the night, with free-flowing applewine and more apple-based treats than you could shake a hoof at. Golden Delicious wasn't quite sure when it ended, exactly, since he passed out a couple hours after his run-in with Red Delicious. (Despite Celestia's attempts to convince his brain otherwise, he was still a sailor at heart, complete with a healthy penchant for drink.) But enjoying a few free drinks rarely translated to single-hoofedly finishing off a bottle and a half of moonshine, even on the longest of his shore leaves. But with each gulp, the burning in his hip seemed to lessen, and the persistent memories of an imaginary life loosened their hold on his thoughts. Right then, he didn't much care what happened to him, as long as he didn't have to see his pseudo-mother's face in his thoughts anymore.
He wasn't sure when, but sometime during the night, someone took him to bed. He only had faint awareness of this, dimly wondering who was dragging him bodily up the stairs before darkness closed around him again. When the darkness lifted, he was tucked snugly into a large, old-fashioned bed, with the blankets pulled up to his chin. Feeling more like a baby doll than a stallion, he rebelliously kicked the blankets off of him - and then thought better of it as his head began to swim, his stomach lurching sickeningly.
He only made it about halfway up before he collapsed back into bed, head pounding and vision blurring. Goddess, why did he have to drink so much of that damn moonshine? What did they put in that stuff, anyway?
"More tea?"
Golden Delicious thought she was another false memory for a moment, until he saw the blurry yellow shape swim into view at the edge of the bed. It seemed to him that if she was an implanted memory, she wouldn't be so blurry.
The tiny pony carefully replaced the plastic tea cup on its upturned saucer at the edge of his bed, knocked askew from Golden Delicious' attempts to sit up. "Two lumps of sugar, just like you like it." The small filly said with mock seriousness, pouring him a generous amount of imaginary tea before turning away from him, outlandishly large hair bow bobbing as she poured three more cups of tea for her dolls.
"Whazaradoing." It wasn't exactly a word, but it was all Golden could manage at the minute, with his head like it was.
"Good morning, Goldie! Are you done sleeping now?" The filly replied excitedly, trotting back to the edge of the bed, peering up at him as if he was the most interesting thing she'd ever seen. Living on a farm, he could believe it.
"'S Golden, not Goldie." He protested weakly, frowning at her from where his head sank into the pillow, too tired to lift it up. She was coming into view a little more clearly; he didn't know foal-ages very well, but she was very small, too small to be in school yet, probably. But not by a lot, since she was walking and talking and everything.
"No, I was there, I heard you loud 'n clear, Goldelicious! Like my big brover, Redelicious." She slurred the names a little bit, making it sound more like "reda-licious" and "goldie-licious." He hadn't been around kids this small since, well, since he had been that small; he'd forgotten how missing teeth could make words sound strange in such a little mouth.
"Redel- Red's your brother?" He asked softly, since talking too loud made everything hurt so much worse.
"Course he is!" Apple Bloom giggled, and hefted her little teapot in two tiny yellow hooves. "More tea?"
"No tea." Golden whuffed, his voice low and husky with displeasure, trying to piece everything together. "Your brother - Red, and Applejack -?"
"Applejack's my cousin! Big Mac's my cousin too, we came ta live with them - ummm, like a long long long LONG time ago!" She nodded to herself, as if affirming this fact to herself, before she frowned down into his tea cup. "You didn't drink any tea. Hafta drink tea if you wanna feel better, Granny says so!"
"I don't want - okay, fine." Golden grumbled, reaching out one hoof to edge the cup closer to his mouth. It remained as empty as ever, but Apple Bloom's frown didn't lessen until he mimed sipping from it, wondering what had happened to his life.
"Feel better?" Apple Bloom smiled, bouncing slightly at the edge of his bed as she watched him.
"Mm-hmm." He rumbled as he pushed the cup aside, which she happily re-filled with her empty tea pot. Before she could ask him to drink any more of the imaginary brew, he asked her another question, hoping to distract her. "Why did you move in with your cousins? Does your whole family just live on the one farm, or something?"
Something in Apple Bloom's expression changed, and she looked down at her little tea pot, opening the top to inspect it. "Need more tea." She murmured, and turned back to where she'd placed her dolls, miming the actions of brewing more tea. She was terribly earnest, and something about the pointed way she'd dodged his question made Golden resist asking again, despite his increased curiosity.
"Thanks for the tea, little miss, but I'd best be on my way." He grunted as he pulled himself up, biting back the swell of nausea that accompanied the motion. He would be damned if he had to drink another cup of imaginary tea! The little filly looked upset, but he was sliding out of bed by the time she turned to protest, and there was little she could do to stop a full-grown stallion from leaving.
He somehow managed to find his way down to the kitchen, with the chattering little filly trailing after him. She was of little help to him - instead of suggesting a path to take, she merely described the rooms they were passing, pointing out bedrooms and sitting rooms in turn.
"Where is everypony?" He interrupted as they stepped into the empty kitchen, halting Apple Bloom's monologue.
"Oh! They're out workin'!" She chirped, undeterred by his abrupt interruption. "But I kin make you some breakfast! You like pancakes?" As she spoke, she dragged a chair over to the large pantry, balancing on top of it precariously as she tried to reach for a bag of flour.
"Get down from there, you'll hurt yourself." Golden Delicious softened his tone halfway through the sentence, realizing that his concern sounded a little too close to anger. As he caught her around the middle, he began trotting towards the back door, setting her down to bump the door open with his forehead.
Her excited chatter faded into the background as he took in the full, blazingly bright scene outside. The first thing he noticed were the trees. Miles and miles of them, as far as the eye could see, extending well into the distance. Some of the closest ones shook as the orange mare - Applejack - bucked the apples from their branches, sending them rattling down into the baskets below. The big fellow, aptly named Big McIntosh, hauled another massive cart full of the red beauties, presumably into the barn on the other side of the house. And as for his Celestia-chosen mate -
"Redelicious, Redelicious!" Apple Bloom shot out of the door, galloping around the side of the house. Golden ambled after her at a much more relaxed pace, trying not to look as out of depth as he felt.
Red Delicious labored over a much smaller patch of dirt that was tucked into a protected corner between the house and barn. While Big McIntosh emptied his apple cart into the barn's bins behind the garden, Red dragged a plow over the small rectangle, creating a deep furrow in the soil. Smaller squares ringed the spot he worked in, filled with varieties of other green, growing things. As he got closer, Golden Delicious recognized a few different types of vegetables - tomatoes, some lettuce, and maybe what looked like the tops of some kind of underground plant. Potatoes? Carrots? Either way, none of it looked very appetizing, although he was sure it would have looked a lot better without the bile rising in his throat.
Red Delicious glanced up to smile at his sister as she called to him, but even from a distance, Golden Delicious could tell that his arrival didn't merit the same kind of warmth. He'd gone back to plowing by the time Golden made it over to his little plot, and continued on his path, turning his back to Golden Delicious as he worked his way down the next row.
"Hey. Look, I wanted -"
"Bloomy, can you go inside and get me some water? I'm getting a mite parched out here."
"Sure thing!" Zoom! Off she went like a shot, disappearing around the side of the house.
"Listen, about last night -"
"Save it." Red Delicious hissed suddenly, ducking out of his plow-collar with a speed borne of familiarity as he turned to face Golden, stalking towards him. "I don't owe you anything. Do you understand me? I'm not here to take your abuse, and I'm certainly not here to be the subject of unfounded, offensive -"
"Look, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, okay? I was - I was dealing with a lot of stuff last night." Golden Delicious interrupted as gently as he could, ears flattening as he backed up a little, neck arching in his attempt to shrink.
Red Delicious still glared at him with surprisingly-fiery blue eyes, but Golden continued on, hurrying to explain before Red could speak again. Unfortunately, the mere mention of 'stuff' didn't seem to be enough, and so Golden was forced to try and concoct some kind of cover story that didn't involve the princess brainwashing him and changing his cutie mark.
"Look, I - I'm not completely thrilled with this mate thing either, you know?" He said frankly, head ducking even more when Red Delicious' frown darkened. "I mean - not because of you, just - the whole situation. I miss being home. I miss the things that are familiar to me. This wasn't my idea, I'm still sort of … getting used to it." He said softly, doing his best to avoid saying 'Celestia was wrong' outright. Some ponies took the whole 'goddess as ruler' thing very seriously, and he didn't want to offend his new partner.
Red Delicious was quiet for a moment before he spoke, but when he did, his voice was a great deal less shout-y than it had been previously. "I just don't know what she was thinking, what she was hoping to achieve. I didn't ask her for this, we've been doing just fine out here on our own. She should know that there's more than enough of us to run the farm, we have a large and extended family tree - our clan bloodline isn't at risk of dying out." And here he paused, glancing at Golden Delicious a little oddly, not daring to say it.
But Golden hadn't been raised to be quite so polite, and so he laughed, shooting Red Delicious a slightly-crooked grin. "And if it was, I'd hope she would've had the foresight to send you a mare. 'Fraid to tell you, but I'm not in the business of havin' foals."
And, goddess save him, Red Delicious laughed. Sure, it was short, and a little embarrassed, but it was a laugh. It sounded so much better than his shouting, Golden could have sung for joy.
"Neither am I." Red Delicious admitted with a small smile, and just like that, he turned around again, heading back for the plow.
"You, uh, what're you -"
"Everyone's gotta work on the farm." Red Delicious answered briskly, although Golden was pretty sure it was a lot more friendly-sounding than before. "You should go find Big Mac, see where he needs help today. Unless you're not up to it?"
"Of course I'm up to it!" Golden called, and turned smartly, trotting over to where Big Mac was dumping the next load of apples into their bins. If he was going to be an Apple pony, by the goddess, he would be an Apple pony!