Quiet, squeaky sobs.
Applejack stared at her face in the granite surface. She tilted her head to the left... then to the right. A hoof reached up and fluffed her mane, exposing the single braid that her mother kept it in, hung over the shoulder. It was black and white, like a photograph. The etched words in the tombstone obscured eyes, smiles, and a melodic voice. Applejack sighed.
The sobs continued, growing more desperate.
Concerned, Applejack lifted her head up from the coffee mug she was staring in. She looked across the hundreds and hundreds of miles that made up the interior to Doughnut Joe's cafe. A familiar wooden door hung off its hinges in the distance.
The crying persisted.
Slowly, Applejack adjusted the folds of her mother's gown and trotted gracefully across the tile. She had to strafe left and right to avoid pairs of Galloping Gala ponies dancing together, twirling. Outside the windows, Ponyville and Canterlot competed for a skyline.
At last, Applejack reached the door, illuminated by Twilight's bedroom nightlight. She pushed it open with a creak, and the sobbing breaths came into full clarity.
"Apple Bloom?" Applejack cooed.
Her little sister laid curled up in her bed, illuminated by a halo of moonlight. She cried into the lengths of the Sweet Apple Acres homestead.
"Oh darlin'..." Applejack trotted the distance between them. She sat on the edge and cradled Apple Bloom in her forelimbs, reaching in to nuzzle her with a freckled smile. "It's okay, sugarcube. Dun you fuss over nothin'..."
"The farm, AJ!" Apple Bloom sobbed, clinging to her. "How are we gonna keep the farm? You didn't get the bits... the bits you promised..."
"And I'm awful sorry about that." Applejack steeled herself up. She hugged Apple Bloom to her chest as she gazed out the window. "Sometimes life just... doesn't work out the way you expect it to." A soft sigh. She ran her hoof through Apple Bloom's mane. "That's why we gotta work hard ourselves... so that we can do more than make dreams come true. We can make a livin'."
"But... but how can you be living, AJ?" Apple Bloom's voice had taken on a scratchier quality.
"...?" Applejack looked down at her little sister.
Rainbow Dash had taken her place, but her ruby eyes were no less full of tears. "All you do is work and help other ponies." Rainbow Dash sniffled. "What do you want for yourself?"
Applejack's lips quivered. She leaned back, shivering suddenly. "I... I want—?"
The bedroom beneath her gave way.
"Guh!" Applejack clung to Rainbow Dash for dear life. The pegasus hovered in place, Applejack's only anchor to the skies. Panicking, Applejack flung a look at the ground below—only to see there was no ground. "Oh gosh... oh Celestia...!"
"When are you going to live, AJ?"
Applejack struggled to keep ahold. Her hooves were slipping through feathers and she felt the void beneath her growing larger. "H-help!" She whimpered, her voice resembling Apple Bloom's with each lilting octave. "Ma! Pa! Please! Help me!"
"Ma and Pa are dead, AJ. When are you going to live?"
The blackness below turned gray as a hundred million granite gravestones flew up at Applejack with the force of a tidal wave. Thunder exploded in her ears, masking the sound of her own shrieks—