Applejack continues to wait. Hours pass, then days, then seasons. The temperature grows hot then cold, she is covered by the leaves of Twilight's home as fall comes along and white snow during the winter. Cicadas roost upon her and scream defiantly before fucking and dying, and still she Waits.
Twilight Sparkle said something to her, as did all her friends, coming and going and trying to reason with her. Trying to understand what it is she was waiting for. But still she waited, unmoved by their meaningless words.
Appleblum came and showed her mother her cutie mark, but she was unmoved.
Big Macueltosh came and apologized for leaving his tissues all over the house, but she was not swayed.
Scootaloo apologized for being orange, but she waited still.
Fluttershy confided in Applejack about her heart condition. In her final weeks she visited Applejack every day, telling her about the dreams she never got to fulfil, but Applejack ignored her words and merely waited. She eventually stopped showing up at all.
Applejack stood and waited, witnessing Twilight Sparkle's tree home as it grew into a crystal palace, seeing time's inevitable march as the years went by. Her fur began to turn gray and she felt weak in the knees on some days. One day she developed a cough, though she paid it little mind as she continued to wait.
Appleblum visited and showed her mother her newborn daughter. She had named her Applejack 2 in honor of her mother who she loved very much. She pleaded for her mother to return home and help raise her family, but Applejack paid this little heed as she continued to wait.
Big Macueltosh was wheeled to her one day in a chair. He explained that he'd suffered a terrible back injury due to having to work both his and her shift at the family farm to make ends meat. With him injured they would have to sell the farm. He cried for the first time she'd ever seen as he begged her to return home, but her path was already set.
He didn't visit again, and soon it was cold, yet another winter. How many had it been? She'd lost count, or perhaps she never bothered to count in the first place. It all blended together, all this time. Her cough felt wet and she could taste iron in her throat. It was getting darker by the day and she was so, so tired.
She wanted nothing more than to sleep, yet she continued to wait. The world was such a lonesome and dreary place. In the end perhaps she realized that her choices didn't matter much. Nothing really matters.
We live and we die and there is no meaning in it. Once you pass on there is not a single thing left of you. After time even memories cease to exist, and soon there would not be a single memory of Applejack in existence. Then, how is this different from never being born or existing in the first place?
Applejack did not think of such things, and simply waited...
It was so cold now, the world had lost the luster it once kept. Her cough was a constant bitter drone that she'd long since tuned out, though few sounds reached her ears these days. She wondered briefly if she'd be waiting her forever...
A strong gust of wind battened her from the side sweeping up her old hat and blowing it into the air. Her soul companion for all this time, having waited with her for so long. Finally she moved.
"Wah!" she gasped having not spoken in decades, her voice came out in a soft croaking. "N-no, don't leave now!"
Tears welled in her eyes as she watched it flit through the air.
"You were supposed to wait with me forever!" She called as it danced and swirled on the breeze. Its tattered edges looked to Applejack like a snowflake, and she felt dread that her precious friend might melt away with the coming spring.
"You were the only one I ever really loved..." She confessed, unable to look away from her hat. "If you go now then..."
She couldn't finish the words, knowing in her heart that this was the end. Knowing that perhaps its better that her loving companion be set free. He'd dutifully stayed by her side for so long and suffered through it all with her. Without him she couldn't have possibly lasted.
She took one step forward, her legs wobbly and weak. "Hat... I..."
She collapsed forward, only able to watch as her hat somersaulted as though waving goodbye. She reached out towards it with one hand, but it was a futile effort. He was so far away now, having gone somewhere she could never go. Having surpassed her.
Tears streamed down her face as her vision began to darken. Was all this waiting worth it in the end? What was she even waiting for? Why had she wasted her precious, fleeting life, singular as it was, by simply waiting? Perhaps things could have been different...
Her last sight as everything darkened was of her hat turning its back as the breeze took it away, perhaps on a new adventure, or perhaps simply to waste away on its own, but Applejack would never know. She let out her last breath as stillness took hold.
BAD END: Applejack waited too long!
Talk about top 10 saddest anime endings...
Better try again!