You wake up in the hospital. There’s a thick cast around your leg. Even though the doctor had yet to come in and explain, you knew it had to be broken. It hurt so bad that you felt like going insane, and it had intense protection. And then there was the collision with the ground. Given how high you went up in the air, you fell down with high velocity. Still though, you had hit nothing but the grass, and you landed on your back. It could have been much worse.
The doctor enters the room.
“Okay, are you ready?", he says. "There’s a lot to talk about here.”
You nod yes.
The doctor told you the leg that had gotten bucked, which was your left leg, was broken, but that no other bone was, nor were there even any sprains or whatever else. The contact with the ground did not cause any damage, but that buck to the leg would leave you unable to walk for at least a month.
What the doctor expressed confusion about, however, is why your leg took such a big hit. He knew Applejack was powerful, but not that powerful. This was the first known case of a broken leg due to a buck, ever. They wanted research.
Later, a nurse comes in.
“You have a visitor.”, she says.
It was Applejack.
Her statement about her being distraught if something like this were to happen, uttered just minutes before the accident, came back to you. Then you recalled an instance where she miscalculated a juice supply once, and tried so hard to make it up to her family, despite them not being mad… at all.
Applejack’s eyes were starting to water. You knew what was coming.
After a brief silence, she surges onto your bed and bursts into tears. On a level neither you, nor likely anybody, had ever seen before. Then she started rambling, very quickly.
“Ah'm sorry! So, very sorry, beyond words! Ah can never forgive myself! Ah gravely injured you! Ah’m a bad pony! Ya can tell me ya don’t want to be friends!”
You accepted her apology quickly. After all, it was an accident; you were never mad at her in the first place. And you even found a way to place blame on yourself. You think “I should not have been walking that close to her.” And those last two sentences she articulated? Preposterous!
You calmly respond, while hugging her, “It’s okay, Applejack. It was a total accident.”
She doesn’t ease up.“No! Ah did a terrible, evil, rotten thing to ya that cannot be forgiven! Ya should stop being my friend, and ah’ll ostracize myself from society! In fact, that was assault and battery! Ah should go to jail!”, she says, sobbing.
“Applejack…”
“Do you want us to leave you two alone for a while?”, your doctor asked.
You nod yes. Both he and the nurse step out of the room and close the door.
You avoid saying anything for a while, instead choosing to pet Applejack. You hope that your display of affection would show that you weren’t mad at her, and that she’d calm down.
In your mind, though, you were starting to worry for her more than yourself. All the anxiety about what you would do while being unable to walk, how this would affect your career, nope, none of that right now. That stuff could wait until later.
The “ostracize from society” and “go to jail” self-charges from Applejack hit you like a lightning bolt. You tried to convince yourself that it was a knee-jerk reaction and that she would back off from those plans eventually, but that didn’t sound right. You knew how hard it was for Applejack to let go of guilt and forgive herself. That was one of her biggest character flaws.
The jail thing couldn’t be done; her statement was just plain incorrect. By Equestrian law, assault and battery, or any crime for that matter, has to be committed with intent. They do not punish accidents.
Even if they did, though, you could bet a thousand bits that Princess Celestia would grant a pardon. She and Applejack were friends, after all. And if that were to happen, you would agree with the pardon. You didn't think Applejack deserved to go to jail. Again, she did not buck you on purpose. She is a good pony, who, like everyone, makes mistakes.
But what about when she said that she’d ostracize herself from society? Because that was something that could be done! Was Applejack really going to do that? Where the heck would she live? For that matter, how would she live? Where would she get food and water?
Despite your swirling mind, you stay silent, trying to calm your friend down. She stays mute for a while, too, but later lets out another confusing sentence.
“Just tell me ya want to end the friendship. It’s okay.”
Apparently, she had been waiting for you to announce a split-up you weren’t going to make. “Is that why she had been quiet for a bit?”, you thought to yourself.
You respond. “I’m not going to end the friendship, Applejack. It was an accident! I promise, you’re a great, kind-hearted pony! You just made a mistake!”
“But, but ah… should have been looking! Ah was way too careless! Ah take the blame!” She starts crying again.
You avoid responding and resume petting her. It had worked the last time, even if just for a little bit.
Later on, you speak again. “I get what you’re saying, but my thing is, I see this as a byproduct of life. These things just… happen sometimes. You can talk all day about what you did wrong or what could have happened, but it’s impossible to prevent these things completely; the world isn’t perfect. In fact, the doctor told me this is the first known case of a buck causing a broken bone, and given how many other tree-buckers there are in Equestria, I’d even say that’s an accomplishment.”
“An accomplishment? But ah did something vile!”
“Oh no, I don’t mean that the accident was an accomplishment. What I mean is, think of how many other situations there have been where this could have happened. Without a doubt, many others have walked in close proximity to a pony with very strong legs performing those exercises. Think of Appleoosa, which is full of tree-buckers. You’d think that they would have seen this before, but they haven’t. This is the very first case, out of many potential ones. The Apple family has done a great job on safety.”
Applejack remains quiet for a while, trying to think about what you had said to her, but it appears it didn’t quite resonate, as she lays her head back down.
“Ah can’t. What ah did was atrocious. It’s causing ya terrible pain. Ah have to be punished.”, she says, with the tears returning.
Helping Applejack was going to be a journey in and of itself. You wanted to make sure she wouldn’t ostracize herself from society, or seek out a different kind of punishment. You started to worry at this point that even if she backed off from her plan to remove herself from society, she would still look for retribution in other ways, like say, dismissing herself from Sweet Apple Acres and taking up an odd job she doesn’t like. She needed help, quickly.
But what exactly should you do?