//------------------------------//
// Chapter 6: Tragedy Strikes 
// Story: The Legend Of Nicholas 
// by DanishDash 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 6: Tragedy Strikes


Throughout our lives, we will all experience hardships, loss, tragedy. There are times where we all feel like we're in the deepest and darkest pits, with no light to guide us back out, into the warmth. It is a fact we all have to live with, pony or human.

Tragedy had struck the Apple family, and it affected all in Ponyville. Bright Mac and Pear Butter had passed away, it was a simple accident, nopony could have seen it coming, especially not the Apple children. Apple Bloom was barely half a year old back then, and it left Granny Smith with the task to take care of three foals.

You cannot say who it affected most, who was most sad and who deserved the most sympathy, it's simply not possible. For Nicholas however, he saw how deeply affected Applejack was, to him, he saw the raw wound and the gaping void left in her. He wanted to see her smile again, run with her in the fields, make jokes, and funny faces at the pigs, but no. The Applejack he knew, was gone, locked away by the heartbreak and sorrow that leaked from her heart.

On the day of the funeral, at the reception back at the farm, Nicholas went to look for her. He did not expect her to laugh, not to play or smile at him, but he wanted to be there for her, just as she had been there for him time and time again.

He walked past all the ponies, many of them dressed in some sort of black. He himself had a black tunic and some sort of black cloak. He hated it, but he knew it was to show respect, but he hated why he had to wear it, and he hated all of this. It was simply not fair! And yet, this was how it was.

Nicholas looked around a little, though, he could not spot her. He decided to take a walk, go to the places he knew she liked to go to. Walking around for a bit, he came across a small hill at the end of the field. Up there, he saw her. Applejack, sitting alone near one of the trees, tears moving down from her eyes, but she did not make a single sound, nor did she move. 

Frowning, Nicholas started to walk up to her. He did not walk too fast, he did not want to make a sound either, but soon enough he could tell by her ears she had heard him.





"Applejack..?" He asked carefully, still slowly moving towards her. She didn't respond, she simply continued to look up at the sky, like if she was expecting to see a sign from her parents. He could not ask if she was okay, of course she wasn't, but what could he say? There was nothing he could say, nothing he could tell her that would lessen the pain.

The only thing he could do, was to be there for her. He took a step towards her, but this time she spoke up. "Go away.." She said quietly, but even so, just hearing that, in that tone, it broke his heart.

"But Appl-"

"I said go away, Nicholas!" She said a little more firmly, and this time he could see the tears build up more so than before. 

What could he do? He could not let fear stop him from reaching out to her, but he also didn't want to push her if she really just wanted to be alone. "Applejack, I'm sorry.. I want to help you, if I can.. If you need anything, just know I'm right here for yo-Oufh!" He felt two hooves slam into him, Nicholas could feel the air being forced out of his lunges and soon enough he was on the grass. 

Confused at first, he looked up and saw Applejack glaring at him, tears now streaming down her cheeks. She gritted her teeth, and yet, he could see for a moment, she was both angry and yet shocked at what she had just done, but it was too late now. She held onto the only emotion she could handle right now, anger.

"Just leave me alone Nicholas! Just go away!" And with that, she turned around and ran off into the orchard. He knew very well he would never find her in there if she didn't want to be found.

Now, he found himself in tears, though he did not sob, he just felt so horrible. He wanted to help her, he wanted to make her smile and get her through this, but he was just a child, and he had no idea how to help. After a few minutes letting the pain fade, he returned back to the farm and ready to go home.


~~N~~


Days passed, and still no sign of Applejack. He didn't see her at school, not in town, not even in the fields when he walked by. Big Mac stopped coming to school too, but that was because he now had to work on the farm, whenever Nicholas saw him work, he saw him give it his all, never ever trying to slack off or take a break.

It was simply the worst time, Nicholas felt so useless during those days. There was nothing he could do, his parents told him he didn't need to do anything, it was not his responsibility. His mom told him the best thing he could do was to simply be there for Applejack, to be there to listen whenever she was ready to talk.

And while that was true, Nicholas didn't like the way they parted. He feared she was angry with him, maybe she feared the same because the push? 

Nicholas didn't feel like working on his figure, he simply sat in his room, by his desk and looked at the little figure of Applejack he had carved that one time. Since then he had refined it a bit, added more detail, made it smoother here and there, by now it was almost a perfect replica.

Letting out a deep sigh, he wished by all his heart he could talk to her, hug her and take all her pain away, but that was a foolish wish, and he knew it. The pain she carried, the pain they all carried was simply deeper than he could ever reach.

Looking to the figurine, he felt a tear go down his cheek. "I'm sorry Applejack.." He sniffled and wiped it away. "I wish I could give you, something, to make you feel better.." And then, for the first time in days, he got an idea for something he could make.

Sure, it might not fix anything, in fact, he didn't expect it to, but at least it was something. He didn't need much, he simply started to work, spending hours to work out the right design, to find the right kind of wood, the measurements, and finally away he carved.

It would be nothing special, but hopefully, it would at least show her that she was not alone. 


~~N~~


He was not sure how much time had passed, though judging by his heavy eyes, his exhausted body, it had probably been hours upon hours. He looked up from his work, probably the first time since he started working, and to his shock he could see light in the east, which meant the sun was coming up! 

He had worked through the night, there was wooden chips, crumbled paper and flawed work everywhere. So his room was quite messy, but, now that he looked down at the final result, he felt a sense of pride, and even a sense of hope. 

Though he wanted to go to bed, he did the finishing touches and then finally let himself fall into a deep sleep. Before he knew it, he had slumped over his desk, snoring as his body refused to go on.

It was not before he heard a loud knocking noise coming from downstairs that he woke up. Slowly he opened his eyes, groaning a bit as his body felt sore all over, but at least he had managed some sleep. According to his clock, he had barely gotten two hours of sleep, but it would have to do.

Getting up, he started to walk downstairs, curious to see what the commotion was about. As he got down there he started to hear the voices of his mom, and to his surprise, Big Mac. 

"No, I'm sorry, she's not here.." His mother said at the door, looking at the soaked red colt. It seemed like it had started to rain, soaking him completely, but he didn't seem to care. When his mother heard him coming down she turned to look at him. "Nicholas, is Applejack up in your room?"

Nicholas shook his head in response. "No? What's going on?"

"Oh dear.. It seems Applejack has gone missing." She looked at Big Mac. "I'm sorry, she's not here, but we will come out and help you look for her."

Nicholas's eyes went wide, and he didn't wait to hear what else was being said. Instead he turned right around, running to his room. Applejack could not be running away, no! He needed to find her and give her this! He sped through his room, grabbing what he had made and ran right back out, passing his mom just as she was going up to check on him.

"Nicholas, where are you, Nicholas?!" 

He didn't answer, he simply ran past her and out into the rain, speeding towards the farm as fast as his legs would allow him. His heart galloped, and his breaths became ragged, but he didn't care, nor did he care that his clothes were getting soaked.

Instead he ran to the place where he last saw her, but to his great disappointment, she wasn't there. He quickly ran through all the locations of where she might be, but there was no obvious answer. Deciding to go on a whim, he decided to try the first place he would go if this was his parents, the place of their graves.

Unlike where so many other ponies laid to rest, Bright and Pear was laid to rest here, on Sweet Apple Acres. He knew the place, and he felt bad running there, but what if Applejack was really running away? That meant he needed to eliminate all the places he could think of.

He moved through the trees, being careful not to hit any low hanging branches, trying not to slip in the mud. He navigated his way through the orchard, towards the final resting place of Applejack's parents.

Suddenly, he picked up a weak sound, quickly stopping, almost sliding as the sudden stop jolted his body forward. When he stopped, trying to listen over the sound of heavy rain, he could finally hear it, sobbing.

"Applejack.." 

He started to walk, still keeping a fast pace, but now that he knew she was near, he let himself slow down a bit. Soon enough he came out of the trees and into a clearing, there, right under the biggest tree on Sweet Apple Acres, sat Applejack. In front of her was the grave, the earth still dark from where the hole had been dug. A single tombstone, looming over it, as a momentum of the importance of this place.

She sat there, sobbing, crying, her tears mixing with the water from the rain. Nicholas frowned, she didn't care about getting a cold, being wet, sitting in the grass mixing with the mud, she simply vented every inch of pain she held within her. 

Not wanting to say anything, he started to walk towards her, again slowly, not wanting to startle her. Fate however had other plans, as suddenly he heard a snap, and when looking down he saw he had stepped on a small stick, breaking it in two.

Her ears shot up, and instantly she looked around. This time however, there was no anger in her eyes, simply sadness, desperation. Before Nicholas could even utter a single word, she turned and ran towards the orchard again.

"Applejack! Wait, please!" 

This time he ran after her, this time refusing to let her go, not until he did what he came here to do. One might look back and think you would have done it like this, or this, but they were kids, running on what they felt was right. To Nicholas, he felt he needed to give Applejack this one gift, he did not expect it to magically cure every pain she had, but he hoped it would show her that he was there for her, as sometimes showing, is better than saying.

She however, did not want him to catch up, running on four legs, knowing every tree on the field, she had a big head start. Nicholas however, was stubborn, and paid less and less attention to his surroundings in order to gain speed, ignoring all that might hurt him so he could simply focus on gaining up on her.

"Applejack! Please, wait!"

"Go away!"

"No, I need you to listen! Please, I hav-SLAM!-Arguh!!"

Before Nicholas knew what hit him, a sharp pain went across his face, and he felt his head instantly come to a stop while the rest of his body still tried to move forward. Everything happened so fast, and yet to him, it seemed everything went slow. Before he knew it, he suddenly felt his body slamming into the mud, everything becoming dark as he slid forward a few meters.

Applejack heard the nasty crack, and she glanced back to see what it had been. Her eyes went wide in horror as she saw her best friend in the mud, not moving, a low hanging branch she had moved under with no problem, but he however could not. Digging her hooves into the mud, she came to a complete stop and started to run back towards him.

"Nicholas!" She screamed, feeling the tears swell up in her eyes again. She made it to him, moving into the mud, she placed her hooves on his chest, shaking him. "Nicholas, please, are you alright!?" To her shock and regret she saw blood come from his nose and some from his mouth.

She found no words, she simply started to cry, weakly shaking him as she tried to wake him back up. Then, as a warm caring light, she felt his hand touch her mane. She looked up, feeling him stroking her, and his eyes slowly opening. Then she noticed the small smile on his face.

"got...you.."

That simply broke her, she leaped forward and hugged him, crying her heart out to him. "I'm sorry, i'm sorry i'm sorry!" She kept repeating, holding him tightly. 

He felt a bit guilty, but now that he had Applejack in his arms, he simply kept stroking her, moving his arms around the filly, hugging her back, though not with the same force she hugged him with. Feeling her this close again, he too started to cry lightly. He didn't care about the pain, he simply cared about his friend.

"It's okay, i'm sorry too, I should probably not have run into the orchard like that..." He gave a weak chuckle, and to his surprise, she chuckled a bit too, though it was mixed in with a little crying.

"You really are stupid.." She said and pulled back, not bothering wiping her eyes as the rain would just ruin the effort. 

"Applejack.." He frowned and sat up. "I don't really know what to say.. I'm sorry.. I want you to know I will be there for you, if you need to talk, or simply want me near.. And I also want to let you know that..." He reached into his bag in his belt and pulled something out. "You're never alone, even if I weren't here.." He held out the object, and as she looked down into the palm of his hand, she could only gasp.

There, in his hand laid a wooden apple, it looked like it had been cut in half, showing the core clearly. Inside the core where six seeds would have normally been, was six names, her own, her brother's, her new little sister's, Granny's and then her mom and dad's.

It was probably the finest thing he had ever made, he had spent hours upon hours getting it just right, the markings, the details, the writing. Each little mistake on the others had been thrown out in the trash, he would only accept pure perfection. He had even put a stem on top, and a leaf. He had painted the whole thing, and it really looked like an apple, bright red, green leaf, brown stem, everything to every little detail you could think of had been put into this.

She just stared at the apple in disbelief. "No matter what, they will always be a part of you, and you, always a part of them.." he said, as she gently lifted the apple up into her hooves like it was a fragile treasure. 

They stayed there in silence for some time, maybe a minute. At some point Nicholas feared she might not like it, but then, she looked up at him, her lip quivering, and then she moved into him, hugging him tightly, crying into his chest. Nicholas said nothing, there was nothing he could say that he had not already shown her, and he knew she understood.

When they walked back to the graves, the rain had stopped, only grey clouds remained. They were dirty, wet, cold, but they didn't care. They came to a stop in front of the grave, Applejack wiped some tears away, taking a deep breath.

"I'll miss you, mom, dad.." 

She had not moved on, that would take some time, but today, she had taken the first step. And as she finally said those words, not out of desperation, but out of acceptance, she felt the gentle sun break through the dark clouds, letting a beam of light hit them, and the grave.

Like a loving kiss or a warm hug, she felt the sun warm her, and she knew, no matter how dark a day could be, there would always be light ahead, always.