//------------------------------// // Memorial Crusade // Story: Blanked // by Salnalus //------------------------------// The following day was just like any other. With all the citizens of Ponyville getting back to their lives shortly after the memorial, it was almost as if nothing happened. Of course, the fractured friendship between Applejack and Twilight wasn’t something that could be easily ignored, but nopony felt like they could do anything to further help them. Applejack would only deny her need of help, and Twilight only tried to mask her feelings to anypony outside her closest friends. Tensions were high between them, especially for Applejack. Things felt even more different whenever anypony saw a certain pair of two fillies that always hung out with each other. Whenever they saw the cuteness of the white unicorn, curly pink and lavender hair and all, or the orange and purple pegasus in all her brash glory, they were always reminded of the missing link of their small group, the Cutie Mark Crusaders. To Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, even school seemed so different without Apple Bloom. She was always one of the more enthusiastic fillies there. The teacher, Cheerilee, wasn’t even sure what to do with the now-empty seat in the middle of the classroom, especially since all the students always preferred to sit in the same seats. It didn’t feel like much of a bother to her, so she decided to keep it there in the case that there was ever a new student. Sometimes, whenever the students talked amongst themselves or did any sort of work, Cheerilee looked upon that seat and thought about the circumstances that led up to Apple Bloom’s unfortunate passing. Why? she would ask herself sometimes. She was so young... too young. She deserved to live a rich, fulfilling life. Most of the students felt sympathy toward the two remaining Crusaders, but like most everypony else, they all moved on back to their own daily lives. Even with the tragedy still fresh on their minds-- it had only been a week ago since it happened, after all-- school was still school, so they all passed through the day just as if it was any other. When school was finally done for the day, all the students left the classroom, going off to do whatever fillies and colts like them did these days. Sweetie Belle was even heading off to her own trivial pursuits when Scootaloo caught up to her by the entrance. “So...” the pegasus began to start, “there’s uh, something I wanted to say.” “What is it, Scootaloo?” Sweetie asked as she stopped to turn to her friend, who was just getting on her scooter. “Oh, not here. Meet me at the clubhouse,” she answered as she put on her helmet and flapped her tiny wings rapidly, kicking the ground below her scooter to accelerate herself out of view. Sweetie wanted to ask something else, but it would be a fruitless task now that Scootaloo left her sight. “So, it’s finally happening again,” a voice said from behind her. Sweetie Belle knew that voice anywhere, and she really didn’t like hearing it sometimes. The source of the voice eventually made its way in front of her, belonging to another filly. She was an earth pony with a pink coat, her hair a light purple with a large white streak running down the middle. A cute tiara was perched atop her head, and it matched her cutie mark. “What are you talking about?” Sweetie asked, her brows furled downward out of annoyed anticipation for what was about to come. “What else could I be talking about? I meant you and your fellow blank flank friend going off to try to find your cutie marks,” Diamond Tiara answered with a bit of snark. A grey earth pony filly with silver hair, cyan frame eyeglasses, and a decorative silver spoon for a cutie mark stepped out from Sweetie’s other side, wearing the same smug expression her friend was wearing. “That is what you used to do before Apple Bloom kicked the bucket, so to speak,” Silver Spoon added. The unicorn filly wasn’t looking very surprised by their attitude, especially Diamond Tiara’s. “I actually don’t know if that was Scootaloo’s intention when she told me to meet her at our clubhouse.” Sweetie Belle looked back toward the road. “But we can’t grieve for her forever. She wouldn’t want that. Part of being a Crusader means never giving up, even when facing hard times. And we haven’t given up yet. We’re going to keep going, no matter what, not just for our sake, but for Apple Bloom’s too. She would want us to keep at it, I know it.” “Aww, that’s such a sweet story,” Diamond Tiara interjected, her face basically telling Sweetie that she was unmoved by such deep words. “You know, you could at least pretend to care,” the white unicorn huffed. “Who says I don’t care?” Diamond Tiara scoffed. “With her gone, it means one less blank flank to be better than.” Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes. She really didn’t want to hear any more of Diamond Tiara, especially if she was going to disrespect her dead friend. Sure, this was Diamond Tiara, after all. This sort of behavior was to be expected toward her and her two friends. However, with Apple Bloom’s departure from the land of the living, it felt more personal to her. She just couldn’t stand it. In fact, she didn’t even want to say anything else to the bully. She simply sighed and walked herself out of the schoolyard without a word, her head hung low. To anypony else, this would’ve been a disheartening sight to see. But Diamond Tiara frowned without another word. “I think you touched a nerve,” Silver Spoon commented after being quiet for a little while. The pink filly simply rolled her own eyes. “Oh, please. She’s just being dramatic,” she said as she waved a hoof in the air. “I wouldn’t be so sure. Just think about it; their best friend is gone, and every day this past week, they looked like they’ve been trying to put on brave faces. You may have set her off just a little.” Diamond Tiara turned toward her best friend and pointed an accusatory hoof at her. “Don’t tell me you’re actually pitying her.” “No, not at all!” Silver Spoon replied with a defending hoof held up in front of her. “I’m just saying... maybe we should give them a break, just for a little while. Take it easy on them, you know?” A few seconds passed between Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. The former stared back at the latter intently for a moment before she shrugged her shoulders and sighed. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt. Though I can’t say I like it.” Regardless, the two fillies left the schoolyard, moving on to better things. A few minutes later, after a brief stop in Carousel Boutique, Sweetie Belle made her way toward the Cutie Mark Crusaders clubhouse. It had been a whole week since she last set foot inside. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo both weren’t really in the mood to do any crusading with the tragedy that occurred to one of the trio. In that time, they only went on to do other things. But things were slowly returning to normal, and Sweetie figured that Scootaloo went to prepare yet another meeting. Just in case, she picked up her cape in Carousel Boutique prior to leaving for the clubhouse. Even if there wasn’t going to be a meeting, she figured it would be a bit more convenient to have her cape there anyway. When she finally arrived and entered the wooden one-room building, she found the orange pegasus standing behind the podium in the back of the room, breathing a sigh of relief. “There you are,” Scootaloo said as she gestured her hoof outward. “What took you so long to get here?” “Sorry,” Sweetie apologized as she stepped closer to the podium. “I stopped by Carousel Boutique to pick up my cape. You know, just in case you were planning on holding a meeting here.” “Ah, so you caught on,” Scootaloo suggested, pointing a hoof toward her, then pointing it upward in a proud manner. “Yes, we are having a meeting; the first meeting since... well, you know.” Scootaloo would be lying if she said the matter didn’t bother her somewhat, but she reassured herself in her mind that things would turn out alright. “I have to admit, it’s going to start feeling weird around here without Apple Bloom,” Sweetie Belle said. “Yeah...” Scootaloo sighed as she lowered her hoof, then stepped down from the podium. “I have something to show you. Part of this meeting was for this reason.” This came as a surprise for the unicorn filly. Usually at these meetings, they would discuss their plans for earning their well-deserved cutie marks. This was a well worn routine for them, so that was exactly what she was expecting. What she didn’t expect, however, was the sight of a curtain hung onto the right side of the north wall. “What’s this?” Sweetie asked as she gazed upon it. Scootaloo walked over to it, grabbing onto the bottom with a hoof. “Just something special I did. I got some help from Rainbow Dash. I wanted it to be a surprise. Tada!” she exclaimed as she forcefully pulled down on the curtain, yanking it off the wall. Sweetie Belle could only gasp as she looked upon what looked like a large, framed picture of all three of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. It was at least twice their size Sweetie couldn’t help but shed a few tears. It felt like forever to her since she last saw Apple Bloom. Seeing the joyous smile on the yellow earth pony in the picture caused her to smile back in reminiscence. As memories flooded her thoughts of the three hanging out, getting into ridiculous antics just to get their cutie marks, and overall just being the best of friends, she rubbed the tears out of her eyes with a hoof. “Scootaloo... this is perfect. If she were still around, she would’ve loved this. I couldn’t think of a better addition to our clubhouse than this.” “I knew it would be great!” Scootaloo exclaimed as she stepped away from it to admire it herself for a few seconds. In that time, the two fillies held a moment of silence for their fallen friend, a moment that seemed to last forever. At least, it felt that way. As soon as she was sure enough time had passed, she turned around and trotted to the opposite wall. It held a large sheet of paper with pictures of various things, some of which were crossed out. “Alright, let’s get down to business. It’s just the two of now, but that doesn’t mean we can’t stop trying to get our cutie marks!” she said, causing Sweetie Belle to turn toward her. She looked up at the talent board-- at least, that was what they called it sometimes-- and saw most of the pictures crossed out. They ranged from things like a baker’s hat, most likely something to do with baking, to a plant, no doubt it was botany. The only thing that was left uncrossed was, coincidentally enough, an apple. Or rather, a group of three apples. “Seems the last thing that’s here has to do with apples,” Sweetie noticed while pointing a hoof at said apples. Yet, something felt familiar about it. After staring at it for a few seconds, she figured out what it meant. “Isn’t this Applejack’s cutie mark? What’s it doing on our talent board?” “Obviously it means we should do something in Sweet Apple Acres that’ll lead to us getting our cutie marks!” Scootaloo exclaimed. Sweetie Belle had to admit, with what Applejack had been going through, that the plan sounded pretty good. “You know, that actually sounds like a great idea!” she chirped, hopping up and down twice. “Of course it does. Now come on, let’s head out to Sweet Apple Acres!” Both fillies giddily high-tailed it out of the clubhouse, dashing their way toward Sweet Apple Acres. This was bound to be either the best plan ever, or a total disaster, as things sometimes ended up. It wasn’t fun taking a break on a day like this for Applejack. Not a break per se; she just wanted to refresh herself. It wasn’t going to take too long, she was just having some cider before getting back to work. Thing is, there was so much stuff for her to do. She didn’t want to waste a second doing anything but work, but her body wouldn’t take it. So there she was, leaning back on a chair in the dining room and drinking a tiny glass of cider, while her hooves took their sweet time getting less sore. She glanced at the clock on the wall. One in the afternoon. Just five more minutes and break time was over, back to occupying her mind with work, work, work. It was the perfect antidote to everything going on around her, as she was back in her element. Once those five minutes passed, she sighed blissfully. It didn’t take long for her to get back on her hooves to the next task for the day. She grabbed an empty basket and headed out for the fields for an old fashioned apple bucking. Nothing like kicking a tree right in the middle of its trunk. The farmpony went to the first tree, but something was weird about the image in front of her. The tree already had all its apples taken down, and three baskets full of apples greeted her. Big Mac must have gotten to that one first. No matter, she could handle the next tree along the way. Thing was, she saw the same thing in front of her, baskets full of apples. That was when something felt off: Not all the apples came down from the tree. Some of the apples that did wind up in the basket were rotten and full of worms. She sighed and tossed away all the rotten apples, and she bucked the last good ones down where they belonged. When she finished up and went to the next tree, she narrowed her eyes. “What in tarnation... somepony’s pullin’ a prank on me.” Over half of the apple fields had baskets full of apples, and it was the same story every time; not every apple on a tree was in a basket, and some in the baskets were rotten. She knew Big Macintosh wasn’t behind this. He was never that sloppy on his worst day. Well, it was time to fix this image. Applejack finished the chore after a while and crossed it off her mental list. The next chore to tackle was feeding the chickens in their little pen. She went down that way and hoped Big Mac did this chore right, assuming he was the one leaving the apple trees in such a mess. Her jaw dropped when she saw the state of the chicken pen. There was a hole the size of Rainbow Dash’s ego on the side of the building, and it was “patched” with duct tape. Some of the chickens lost their feathers and looked terrified for their lives. Chicken feed was scattered all over the ground. “Heavens to Betsy, what happened here?” Applejack wondered. “Big Mac, this better not be you doin’ all this funny business.” She rolled up her metaphorical sleeves and got to work with some plywood and a little bit of confidence. Seeing just how much work she found herself having to do filled her with determination. A half hour later, the pen was good as new, and the chickens were grateful to have seed that wasn’t forced down their throats. “This is gettin’ ridiculous. When I get to the barn, I better not be seein’ the cows walkin’ on walls or anythin’ like that. Things are bad enough as it is.” She went over to the barn to do the next thing on her mental list, milking the cows, but she heard something as she approached the structure. It was muffled at first, but she pressed her ear to to the door to hear the commotion as clear as day. “This is stupid! I can’t believe I’m doing this. How do you even do it when you have hooves?” one light, yet raspy voice grumbled. “We’re doing this for Applejack, remember? And who knows? This might be your special talent,” a more feminine tone responded. “I doubt I’m getting my cutie mark in farm stuff at this point, but I’m still going to do this. Anything to make Applejack happier.” Applejack rushed to get the barn door open. Sunlight flooded the room to reveal a floor covered in milk, with cows running and mooing all over the place. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle shielded their eyes from the burst of light hitting them, and they were covered in sweat and mud. “What in the hay is going on around here?” Applejack demanded. “You two left that big hole in the chicken pen, didn’t you?” Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo looked at each other like they were caught committing a crime. “We can explain,” Sweetie Belle started. “Yeah, this isn’t what it looks like at all!” Scootaloo sweated. “I better hear some answers, lickety split. I dunno what you were thinkin’, but you left a pretty good mess out there.” “We heard you were having a really hard time after Apple Bloom’s... you know,” Sweetie Belle trailed off. Right away, Applejack knew where this was going. “And we felt really bad about it, too. She was a really good friend and fellow Crusader,” Scootaloo sighed. “So we got together and thought we could keep looking for our cutie marks and help you out by doing your chores for you,” Sweetie followed. “It would help you out around the barn, and it would make you feel better. Right?” Applejack paused for a good minute. This caught her completely off guard and it took her a minute to process it, though that slight glare she had before never left her face as she listened to their explanation. After a while, she took a breath and calmly rounded up the cows into one corner without a word. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo looked at each other in confusion. They expected one of two reactions: gratitude for the thought, or anger over the mess they left in their wake. Her actual reaction was something they didn’t see coming. The Crusaders came over to Applejack to get a better read on her. “Aren’t you going to say something?” Scootaloo asked. “Look, you might have left a big mess I had to clean up, but I appreciate the thought,” Applejack said as she put the cows back into their respective pens. “Y’all got some big hearts, and I admire that. Apple Bloom would be proud.” “Thank you!” Sweetie Belle gleamed. “I thought for sure you were going to be--” Applejack interrupted her with a snort. “But I’m not gonna let you help me out with my chores after the messes you two left me to fix.” Now Scootaloo was confused. “Wait, I thought you were--” “It’s great when friends like to help each other out. But I can do this all by myself, and it’s my work. Ain’t nopony going to tell me I can’t get it done in when I’m going through this.” Applejack’s face was completely devoid of emotion as she got the last cow where it belonged, then she opened the barn door further. “I want you two to get back to your clubhouse or whatever you were up to before this, and I’ll be fine here. You don’t be needin’ to do anything else around here today.” Tears started to swell in Sweetie Belle’s eyes. “But I thought you would like it...” “I do, don’t get me wrong. But I don’t need it like you think I do. Now, you two best be gettin’ along now.” Sweetie Belle turned back to Scootaloo. Scootaloo wasn’t handling this any better than her, but it was clear they couldn’t do anything else. She kicked the ground and joined her fellow Crusader out of the barn. They glanced at Applejack, down and depressed, before they went on the path leading back to Ponyville. That left Applejack alone with the cows in the building. She adjusted her hat and brought out the broom. The mess they left behind would take some time to clean up, something she wasn’t happy about. Still, it was a nice thought. That don’t make it a good idea, either way, she thought as she sighed, beginning to sweep up the mess. She spent the next hour cleaning up the barn and finishing up the rest of her chores, save for bucking the apples. She figured she could start doing that again tomorrow. It was an hour before dinnertime when she finished up her last chore, but she was going to have to eat later. There was something else she planned on doing today after her chores. Within minutes, Applejack headed out into the streets of Ponyville toward the other side of town, toward the Everfree Forest. There were other ponies around, and though they saw her passing through, they paid no mind to her. That is, except for one pony, who walked over to her side with a smile. “Hi Applejack,” Fluttershy greeted politely as she walked beside the orange mare with a saddle on her back, her bags filled with different vegetables. “Hey there, sugarcube,” Applejack greeted back, her mood lifted up just a little from seeing a friend. “What’re ya doin’ here?” “Oh, I was just heading out to pick up some food for Angel and myself,” she answered as she looked to one of her bags. “He can be a little demanding at times, but I don’t really blame him. I’m happy to get him whatever he wants... within reason, of course. What about you?” “I’m headin’ into the Everfree Forest,” Applejack responded without hesitation, causing Fluttershy to gasp. “T-The Everfree Forest? W-Why are you going there, Applejack...?” she asked with a worried expression. “Don’tcha fret none. I’m just going to talk to Zecora. That’s it. This whole time, I’ve only had all the answers from Twilight. I was wonderin’ if Zecora had anythin’ to say. Perhaps she saw somethin’, or maybe she even has a different story to tell.” “O-Oh... ok,” Fluttershy timidly squeaked, deciding not to question it any further. She was visibly concerned for her friend, but Applejack was a tough pony, and she knew that. “I’ll just head back home, then. Angel’s probably waiting for me and this food. A bunny’s got to eat, you know?” Applejack knew Fluttershy just didn’t want to follow her into the Everfree, but with the forest’s scary and dangerous reputation, it was probably for the best. Besides, she didn’t really need the timid pegasus to tag along anyway, and simply nodded to her response. “I’ll see ya later, Fluttershy,” she said as she kept walking. “Bye, Applejack. Hope you find the answers you’re looking for,” Fluttershy said as she turned in another direction, heading back to her cottage to feed her hungry little bunny. Unbeknownst to either of them, a filly emerged from behind a nearby building, having heard everything from their little conversation. She watched as Applejack resumed her trek to the Everfree Forest. “Ooh, now this is interesting,” the filly, none other than Diamond Tiara, snickered as she followed Applejack, trying to stay out of sight as best as she could. “Maybe I can finally get a few answers about how things really went down with Apple Bloom.” The filly chuckled mischievously, wondering if this plan of hers would really work. In the midst of her thoughts, she noticed that Applejack was getting even further away. She quickly picked up the pace while remaining out of sight. As for the distressed mare, she wasn’t sure if Zecora had the answers she was seeking, but she was surely going to find out.