Twilight Sparkle held Applejack’s hoof, locked at the wrist. She took off her golden horseshoe, she knows how it can tickle and scrape Applejack’s wrist. Twilight was taller than Applejack. She had a growth spurt just after her teenage years, as alicorns tend to do. It didn’t last long, however. She stopped growing seventy-five years prior.
Applejack’s hoof shook in Twilight’s, and she looked up from her hospital bed with a smile.
Twilight grimaced at the smile. She wanted to be happy, but she didn’t know what Applejack was seeing. She wasn’t talking, and she had her good days and bad, and the nurses said it’s normal to become lost in hallucinations when somepony is at this late of a stage.
Twilight didn’t know what to do, which for her, was a big deal. She leaned her face in against Applejack’s cheek, and gave her neck a soft kiss. “Applejack. I’m so sorry.”
“What for, sugarcube?”
With a gasp of disbelief, Twilight drew her head back. Applejack was lucid. “Applejack. The doctors! The doctors say you don’t have much time, and I have to say it one more time before it’s too late. I love you. I love you—” she choked on tears that seemed to well up to a storm in an instant, “—I love you so much.”
Applejack took a deep breath and squirmed for what seemed like forever before weakly responding. “Y’all told me that a thousand times and not one of them ah didn’t already know, shug’” She was smiling serenely, and tried her best to squeeze Twilight’s hoof in return.
Twilight choked out her tears, and leaned closely to wrap Applejack up in her long forelegs. She pressed her face into Applejack’s chest tightly, soaking her fur with tears.
Twilight listened to her beloved’s breath many times. Putting an ear to her chest was something she liked to do. The change in breathing came so gradually, that she didn’t notice it. Perhaps, she thought, if she listened less often, she would have detected the difference. She would have heard it before it was too late. Now, every breath seemed to fight against a terrible, echoing wheeze that made Twilight’s lips curl with pain. “I’m so sorry.”
Applejack took a deep breath and pet her immortal lover softly. She was the steward of the stars now, and Applejack couldn’t be more proud, but she knew the day that they had to part would come, and it wouldn’t be easy for her. She already knew what to say. “Twilight Sparkle. I want you to move on, after me. I want you to find love again.”
Twilight’s sobs got harder. “I can’t!”
Applejack laughed softly. It was a serene and genuine laugh. Working on a farm since she was so young, as she did, she had seen death before. She made her peace long ago. “Of course you will, sugar. You’ll always remember how much I love you. You’ll always remember it, but you’ll move on, and I want you to.”
Applejack heaved sharply, and bucked on the hospital bed.
Twilight drew back and stared with horror as Applejack’s body tensed fitfully. “No, Applejack.”
Applejack’s body calmed down, and she raised a wrinkled foreleg to her chest to hold it tightly, straining from the pain. “It’s okay, Twi-twi. It’s okay.”
Twilight sobbed, and held Applejack’s hoof to her neck. The piece of obsidian and silver gripping her throat clinked softly.
Applejack’s jaw fell slack with shock. “Twilight! Take it off! Take it off now!”
Twilight shook her head rapidly. “It’s the only way.”
Applejack screamed in a raspy, elderly voice, that instantly changed to a youthful drawl with a pulse of purple magic. “Twilight, no! No!” She leapt out of her hospital bed to grab Twilight in a tight hug. “Sugarcube, what have you done?” she shrieked, not looking away from Twilight for an instant, even to behold her new teenage body.
Twilight struggled to keep the red glow from her eyes. The Alicorn Amulet glinted its triumph in the harsh light of the hospital. It was too late.