STRANDED Ch. 11-
The night air had a sharp chill to it on the small, uncharted island as the five ponies and two fillies were faced the the most disheartening of circumstances. The stars vanished, the wind stopped, everything went silent as the two fillies crossed the bushes threshold to behold the horrible scene before them.
Apple Bloom looked at her sister Apple Jack with sadness and disbelief in her eyes. "You... let her... die..." Apple Jack looked back with sympathy and a sense of understanding.
"Apple Bloom, you know ah would never-" Her sentence was cut short.
"YOU LET HER DIE!" little Apple Bloom lashed out. "Why did I ever put my faith in you? I should have known seeing as you didn't even give two horse shoes about your own friend." The words cut Apple Jack deeper than the death of Rainbow Dash. Apple Jack was literally heart-broken.
"You... don't mean that... do you..." Apple Jack choked out, her heart skipping a beat.
"I meant every word, sis." Apple Bloom stated as she looked to the ground, holding the tears back as to show no sign of weakness to her older sibling.
"Apple Bloom..." Apple Jack whispered.
"NO! Don't even think about talking to me! I HATE YOU!" Apple Bloom might just as well ripped Apple Jack's heart out and stomped it into the ground. After she finished her sentence, she turned and ran into the jungle, leaving the broken Apple Jack feeling like the worst pony in the world.
"Apple Bloom!" Sweetie Bell called as she started to run after her friend.
"Leave her be Sweetie Bell." Rarity commanded. "She just needs some time alone right now."
"Apple Bloom..." Sweetie Bell said, sulking in her hooves and letting tears roll off her face. "Apple Bloom..."
"Look, Sweetie Bell. Some things... hit some ponies harder than others..." Rarity said, hoping to calm the little filly. Sweetie Bell just hung her head in silence...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fluttershy regained consciousness only to wake up in agony to the scene around her. She saw Apple Jack with her head to the side and a hoof to the heart, crying. She saw the little Sweetie Bell with her head hung low in sorrow. The sight that hit her heart the hardest though was seeing Pinkie Pie, flat maned and crying, holding the broken body of poor Scootaloo in her arms.
Fluttershy didn't speak or move. She sat there, all alone, and watched in shock as she tried fighting her emotions of sadness and frustration...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pinkie pie sat there and did the only thing she could think to do, and that was to cry. She cried harder than she ever had before as the feeling of guilt washed completely over her, thinking back to the very day she invited everypony on this accursed delivery.
*FLASHBACK*-
"Hey there Pinkie Pie, what's up?" Scootaloo asked the pink party pony who was so gracefully hoping her way straight to the energetic little filly and her friends.
"Hiya girls! You wanna go on an adventure?" Pinkie Pie bluntly asked.
"An adventure... with you... I don't know..." skeptical Apple Bloom stated.
"Oh, please! It's going to be a wonderful adventure! We are going to a far off distant place across seas to delivery a very special order of treats!"
"Delivering... treats? How about... no." Scootaloo responded.
"Don't sit there and tell me that you have something better to do." Pinkie Pie argued.
"Well... no, but-" Pinkie cut her off.
"GREAT! See ya next week!" she said as she happily hopped to invite the rest of her friends.
*****
Pinkie clung tightly to the lifeless body and quietly cried her tears into its mane. She cried and cried until tears simply refused to come out anymore. She sat there in sorrow and mourning until she felt the hoof of a friend touch her shoulders. "It's alright Pinkie Pie." Rarity's voice cooed. "There was nothing you could have done."
Those were the wrong words.
Pinkie furiously jumped up and turned to face Rarity eye to eye. "Nothing I could have done!? Rarity, I could have prevented it all!" she lashed, "I could have stayed home, I could have minded my own business, I could have... could have..." Her tone dropped, "I was selfish... don't try and tell me it wasn't my fault... we both know it is..."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fluttershy watched as her pink friend was slowly descending into a deep depression. She couldn't bear it anymore. She ran and threw her arms around the sad Pinkie Pie and spoke an ever so pleasant tone as to soothe her distraught friend.
"Now you listen to me, Pinkie Pie. You had no way of knowing that all this was going to happen and neither did we. We have to stick together and beat the odd. It is not your fault, Pinkie Pie." The words had good intentions, but were to no avail.
"Just... leave me alone, Fluttershy..." The words turned Fluttershy's heart to stone as it sank to the deepest pits of oblivion. Her eyes burned, her throat dried, her lips trembled. She ran off into the jungle, weeping for her friend who just shunned her kindness with no regard.
"FLUTTERSHY!" Rarity called, but with little success. "Fluttershy..."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Apple Jack stood there, mouth open as she started to lose all emotion. 'I hate you.' the words kept playing over and over in her mind. She couldn't think. She couldn't move. She couldn't feel. "Apple Jack, are you alright?" Rarity asked, hoping to at least talk some sense into somepony.
"She... hates... me..." The words were void and empty. "She... doesn't... love me anymore..."
"That's absurd Apple Jack! Of course she loves you. She's just a little angry at the moment." Rarity reassured.
"She...... hates...... me......" She bowed her head and cried.
"No... not you too, Apple Jack. This Celestia forsaken island is taking us all one by one and nopony is doing anything to stop it!" Her words echoed through the silent jungle. "Why am I the only one who can see what's going on?" she said as she sat beside the unconscious Twilight. "If only I would have stood up to A.J. on the beach..."
"If only..."