//------------------------------//
// Promise 
// Story: Stepping Stones 
// by yoshiXII 
//------------------------------//


From my rotting body, flowers shall grow
And I am in them and that is eternity.


-Edvard Munch


Crash.
‘I’m dead. I’m dead, I’m dead, I’m dead,’ Rarity thought. She could feel several things cutting into her before she came to a halt. Maybe they were rocks on the bottom of the valley.
She opened her eyes expecting to see the gates of heaven in front of her. Or hell. Seeing as how she caused all of this, she deserved no less.
The damp mountain wall faced her at an angle through thick branches. The rain was still falling. Rarity looked down to see a blanket of leaves on her. The branches had slowed her descent to a halt in the midst of its interlocking web. She glanced down through the branches to see that she was almost at the valley floor.
Rarity heard the sound of rocks tumbling down. They fell past her. She looked up to see an orange mare sliding down. Applejack slid to a halt at the base of the tree and immediately crouched down on it. She wrapped her legs around the tree to pull herself up the trunk. She eventually reached Rarity in the branches. Heaving herself over, she collapsed next to her with a gasp of relief. They lay there for a fragile moment on their dangerous perch.
“How did you know that this tree would be here?” Rarity asked.
“While you were busy pleading for your life, Ah looked down to see.”
“Oh.”
They sat in silence, listening to the discordant sounds of the storm. Rarity cast a long look on Applejack’s face before abruptly glancing in the other direction. She groaned as she glanced at the various cuts that lathered her body.
“Well, no use stayin’ here,” Applejack said, getting up. “We gotta get to the valley floor.”
Rarity tried to get up, but fell back wincing. “I can’t. I think I sprained my hoof.”
Applejack rolled her eyes. With one quick swoop, she picked up Rarity as the leaves fluttered down to the ground. Rarity squeaked as Applejack draped her on her back. Climbing back down the trunk, Applejack leaped onto the wall again.
Applejack slid down the rough wall until they finally came to a halt at the valley floor. Taking a few steps away, Applejack lowered Rarity onto the ground. Satisfied, she glanced around the narrow valley until she saw her parents lying off to the left.
Rarity glanced up to see Applejack standing over the bodies. Grunting in pain, Rarity managed to pull herself up to stand. She hobbled over to Applejack.
“I’m sorry,” Rarity said, standing next to Applejack.
The bodies were contorted in a strange way. Their faces reflected the pain they must’ve felt mere moments before dying. Fresh tears streamed down Applejack’s face. She crouched down and placed a hoof on each of their foreheads for a moment before closing their eyelids. She took a breath as time seemed to freeze around her.
Applejack leapt onto Rarity. She wrestled Rarity until she pinned Rarity’s legs down with Rarity belly up. With a gasp, Applejack lifted herself up and shook as she looked into Rarity’s eyes.
“They’re dead because of you! Why didja’ have to do such a stupid thing jus’ for inspiration? My whole life is ruined ‘cuz of you!”
Applejack let out a tortured sob. Her eyes softened as she curled up in a ball on Rarity. Rarity hesitated before rubbing Applejack’s back and putting her face in her shoulder. She stroked Applejack’s mane soothingly.
“I must be beneath your contempt. My life is meaningless compared to your parents,” Rarity lamented.
Applejack lifted her head. “Ah didn’t mean that. Ah don’t know what came over me. It’s not your fault. It’s jus’…”
“Shh, I know darling. I know.”
“But you’ve never had this happen.”
Rarity looked up at the bleak, gray clouds. “Maybe I should disclose a secret. Promise never to tell anyone?”
Applejack glanced at the melancholic Rarity. “Ah promise.”
Rarity took a deep breath before saying, “My parents are actually dead.”
Applejack’s eyes widened. “But Ah saw your parents alive before. How are they dead?”
Rarity sighed. “Those are my foster parents. You see, my real parents died long ago right after Sweetie Belle was born.
“I barely knew them. I never even remembered their names because I was only a little filly. I never knew who they were. The only thing I ever remembered was when they left me with a caretaker. Mother pressed her smiling face into mine, telling me they’d be right back. She and Father looked so serene as they stared at me in the caretaker’s grasp.
“Before I knew it, Sweetie Belle and I were taken to a quiet building with fillies just like us: parentless. It was a pleasant place with plenty of ponies to talk to. I was never lonely or afraid but it wasn’t until I got older that I learned what had become of my parents.
“My parents had left for a vacation in Baltimare. They spent the time traveling from landmark to landmark for a week, being enthralled by the locales. It must’ve been a blissful time for them.
“One day, they decided to go canoeing in the Rambling Rock Ridge River. The river was particularly fierce that day. The current swept them off the designated area for canoes to the rapids. Ponies watched in vain as my parents were dashed on the rocks along with the canoe.
“I was sad for a few days before realizing that I hardly knew them. The orphanage managed to distract me from my depression for those days. In no time, my foster parents came to pick me and Sweetie Belle up and we were whisked the Ponyville. Sweetie Belle still doesn’t know about my parents; she assumes that our foster parents are our true ones. Neither I nor my foster parents had the heart to tell her the truth. So here we are, living happily in the boutique.”
Applejack looked away. “Ah’m sorry, Ah didn’t know,” she said.
“It’s fine; I don’t want pity from other ponies.” Rarity wiped a tear away.
“Ah just can’t believe that th-they’re gone.” Rarity noticed Applejack’s bloodshot eyes with small bags forming underneath them. She knew that this experience wasn’t going to be kind on Applejack. They held each other in silence
“Applejack,” Rarity whispered, “don’t you think we should go back to Ponyville? We can mourn them with your family. Plus, we don’t want to catch pneumonia.”
“Yeah,” Applejack said, wiping away her tears. “We best get them back too.”
Applejack unfurled herself and trembled as she got up along with Rarity. Together they trotted back to the bodies. Applejack noticed a familiar brown hat lying before them and picked it up with her teeth.
They reached the bodies to begin picking them up. Applejack grunted as she slung her father across her back while Rarity picked up Applejack’s mother with her magic. Applejack found the right balance for the body on her back and reverently lowered the hat onto his chest. They looked up and down the valley before starting off to the muddy road ahead. They trotted in fanfare of the rain.
“You do know that I’m forever in your debt,” Rarity mentioned after a few minutes, trying to act pleasant through the pain.
Applejack glanced at her before staring at the walls surrounding them. “It’s nothing. Ah wouldn’t want you to worry.”
“But there must be something I can do.”
Applejack sighed. “Jus’ don’t tell anypony else what happened. Ah don’t want ponies to blame you for their deaths. Jus’ say that we were traveling when they fell off. An’ don’t pity me for this. Pretend nothing happened between us.”
Rarity stared at Applejack for a long time before Applejack became uncomfortable. “Ah know it’s a lie but Ah don’t want you to get hated by ponies who blame you for their deaths. You’ll have to say it since Ah’m bad at lyin’.”
“Applejack, wouldn’t sending your parents off with a lie be unceremonious?”
Rarity bit her lip. She knew that had to hurt. Applejack gazed at the ground for a few seconds. “Ah jus’ don’t want you to get hurt. Believe me, it kills me to think of lyin’ again. But Ah don’t want their deaths to change how you live. Forever tainted by their deaths. Now stop talkin’ before Ah start getting second thoughts.”
Rarity pursed her lips. “Sometimes Applejack, I think you’re too virtuous.”
They kept trotting for a few hours. Soon, the mountain’s walls descended until they were out of the valley. They continued on as a forest surrounded them. There the animals’ sounds combined with the rain to complete the symphony. Shadows darted out of the corner of their eyes. Applejack continued looking forward, ignoring the pandemonium in the forest. Tears refused to come to her dry eyes again. Rarity alternated between glancing at her partner for a brief moment before peering off into the dark shadows.
As they reached the end of the forest, they saw Ponyville silhouetted in the night sky across the dancing river. Ponyville was entrenched in darkness. The town was like a ghost town drowning in the storm.
They stumbled their way across the bridge before coming to the outskirts of the town. Applejack lurched in the middle of the road before collapsing. She closed her eyes as she realized what an uncomfortable weight her father was.
Rarity fell to a knee in front of Applejack. “Come on, wake up Applejack. We’re almost there.” She pulled on Applejack’s hoof with a grunt.
Rarity continued dragging Applejack’s and Tremett’s body for a few feet before coming to a stop. Panting, she fell onto the ground. Honeycrisp landed on the ground next to her.
Lights flickered on in the nearby cottage. The door opened to reveal a white mare. She trotted outside and looked around. Her eyes came across the bodies. She yelled, “Everypony wake up! There are four unconscious ponies here!”
Lights flickered on in all of the cottages as ponies came out into the rain to look at the four ponies on the ground. Ponies began talking as eight ponies came up and picked the bodies up. They forged on through the rain toward the hospital. The angry storm continued its merciless onslaught.