“Where are these diamonds yer lookin’ for again?” Applejack asked, following behind Rarity.
“Not too far now darling, they should be just up… there they are!” She pointed at the bulwark of the mountain, locking eyes with a shiny nickel.
“Well I’ll be damned. How much do you reckon is in there?” Said Applejack as she readied her basket and mining tools.
“Ten pieces? Twenty pieces? I don’t know, but there has to be a lot!” Rarity wasted no time and immediately got to work, using her magic to carefully carve an outline around the gems and pull them out with ease.
“Slow down, Sugarcube. Don’t wanna run into a Diamond Dog er somethin’.” Her earth pony friend said, jokingly.
“Please.” She laughed. They quickly gathered what they could see and set it all in the basket.
“Hoowee! Sure is a lot. That it?” She asked, brushing off a sweat.
“No. Do you see that?” Rarity pointed near the top of the bulwark. A pure solid diamond was fixed into the stone. “I must have that.”
“Ah don’t think that’s safe.”
“I’ll be fine,” Rarity assured. Just as before, she used her magic to slowly carve around the diamond above her, trying her best to not get even the slightest bit of dirt on the precious gem.
“Shouldn’t we wait fer Rainbow to get that one for us? She should be on her way.”
With a sigh, Rarity continued. “Don’t worry Applejack, I’ve got it. Besides, she doesn’t know how to handle gems, she’d probably just end up ruining it and I for one cannot risk that.”
Applejack rolled her eyes. It wasn’t the first time Rarity thought she was more careful then all of her friends, even though she has broken more things while rushing than anypony could count, but she kept quiet. She only handled Apples after all.
With a bored sigh, Applejack looked at the progress her friend had made since she began. To her surprise, she was almost done but something else caught her eye.
Applejack watched intently while her friend carved around the stone and noticed that the force from the magic was cracking upward toward what appeared to her as a boulder atop the bulwark, held only by small, weathered arches.
“Oh my! This is beautiful!” Rarity exclaimed as she unveiled a piece of the precious gem from its rocky prison. She forcefully carved into the rock, applying more pressure to get the rest of it out.
Ignoring her, Applejack walked toward her friend, eyes still on the boulder. “Rarity, you might wanna move.”
“What?” She asked.
Almost exactly timed with her words, a loud “Crack” startled the two. Rarity slowly looked up and watched as the arches holding the boulder fell toward her, along with the boulder itself.
Filled with fear, she couldn’t move her legs, let alone scream. She was frozen.
Applejack immediately lunged toward her and pushed her out of the way.
“GYAAAAAAH!” The sound of breaking bones and screams of agony reached Rarity’s ears as the boulder slammed down onto Applejack.
“APPLEJACK!” Rarity screamed. She rushed to the boulder, attempting to use her magic to lift it. Strain made its way onto her face as she lifted the boulder, but she could not hold it and let it seep back down onto Applejack, crushing more bones with its weight.
“AAAAAAAAHH!”
“I’m sorry! I’m going to get you out of this Applejack!” Rarity said, trying to lift the rock once again. She enveloped the rock in her aura and lifted it once again. This time, off of her friend and off to the side where it was sure to do no more harm.
She kneeled down to her friend and tried rolling her over.
“No!” Applejack cringed, gasping for air. “Don’t! Don’t… touch me… mah bones… ther broken…I cain’t move…”
“We need to get you to a hospital!” Rarity exclaimed.
“T-take me home…” The earth pony said faintly before she shut her eyes and fell unconscious.
__________________________________________________________________
Coughing, Applejack lay under the covers of her bed, surrounded by her family and two of her closest friends, Rainbow Dash and Rarity.
“I’m so sorry darling…” Rarity said, tears streaming down her face. “I should have never went for that last diamond, now look what I’ve done…”
“It’s alright, sugarcube,” Applejack said in between coughs. “you didn’t know it was gonna fall, just be glad I was there to save you.”
“I should’ve been there sooner,” Rainbow Dash said in sorrow. “I could’ve prevented this. But no! I decided to take those foals for a ride around Ponyville. Stupid, stupid, stupid!”
“Don’t blame yerselves girls, none of y’all knew this was gonna happen.” Applejack said.
“Why didn’t you just let’er get crushed by that big rock AJ?” Apple Bloom said angrily. “You don’t even like her!” She gave Rarity a mean stare.
With an even more enhanced feeling of self blame, Rarity began to cry even more.
“Apple Bloom!” Applejack scolded. “Now you know whenever I say anythin’ like that I’m usually just tuggin’ her hoof. Apologize!”
Apple Bloom kept quiet and continued to stare Rarity down.
The door burst open. “I came as quick as I heard.” The baby dragon rushed to the bedside. “What happened?” he asked, exchanging glances with everyone around the bed.
Rarity couldn’t take anymore and walked out of the room, crying. After she closed the door, the ponies heard a small thud on the floor followed by more of the unicorns sobs.
On the bedside opposite of Spike, Big Mac hugged Granny Smith tightly. Not a single tear was shed from either of them but one would be blind to not see the sorrow in their eyes. He let her go with a sigh and walked passed Spike.
“Com’on.” He said, walking toward the door. Spike followed.
When Big Mac opened the door, Rarity almost fell back but caught her balance. She was still crying, creating a small puddle of tears on the wooden floor. Without looking, she scooted onto the wall beside the door and continued to cry. Big Mac walked right passed her, not even glancing in her direction. Spike, however, stopped for a second at Rarity’s hooves and hugged her. With a pat on her head, he let go and followed Big Mac downstairs.
As the door shut behind them, Applejack turned to Granny Smith. "You alright, Granny?"
She shook her head. "I could ask you the same question deary.”
"It don't hurt no more." Applejack responded, faking a smile.
“How’d you let a rock fall on you AJ?” Apple Bloom asked.
“It wasn’t just any rock. You remember Rarity’s friend Tom?” Applejack asked.
“Yeah.”
“Well ya see,” Applejack whispered. “we tussled and he sat on me. I’ll get him back though, I’m just restin’ up, so don’t you worry about me ok?”
“And when yer done restin’, maybe you can do yer chores for once instead of letting Big Mac do ‘em.” Granny Smith joked.
“What’re y’all talkin’ about? All you do is yell at carrots and sleep!” Applejack laughed a short while, the pain interrupting her joy. “Sweet Celestia, ahm startin’ to hurt a lot more.”
Rainbow tried comforting her friend with a few pats on the head. “You’re gonna be alright Applejack, I promise.”
She walked away. Opening the door, she leaned out to talk to Rarity. Applejack couldn’t hear the words being exchanged between the two but soon they both entered the room.
“Oh brother.” Apple Bloom said flatly.
Rarity ignored her, makeup smeared down her face. “Thanks, Rainbow.”
She nodded. “No problem.”
“You alright Rarity?” Applejack asked.
“No,” She said. “I feel terrible seeing you like this.”
“Ah know, ah feel terrible too. Tom doesn’t exactly weigh ten pounds.” Applejack winked at Rarity.
“Oh, so it was Tom was it?” She said jokingly. “I guess he doesn’t take breakups easy.”
Rainbow laughed. “You dated a rock? What a loser!”
“At least I’ve dated someone.” Rarity shot back.
Rainbows laughs ceased as everpony in the room laughed.
Applejack stopped once again to cringe from pain and shot into a coughing spasm. She coughed violently, gasping for air in between.
She placed a hoof to her mouth and coughed again, covering her hoof in blood.
“Oh no.” She said.
“You’re gonna be ok darling.” Rarity assured, dabbing Applejacks mouth with a handkerchief.
“Rainbow?” Applejack called.
“Yeah?”
“Go get Spike please.”
Without a moments notice, Rainbow zoomed off through the door.
“What do you need?” Rarity asked.
“Ah ain’t callin’ him for me,” Applejack said. “Ahm callin’ him for you.” She pointed at a quill and paper beside Granny Smith. “Ah can't let you blame yerself all your life fer this. Ah think it's best if you let it all out.”
Rainbow returned to the room as quickly as she went; Big Mac and Spike trailed behind her.
The baby dragon was out of breath when he reached the door. “Spike… the dragon... at your service.” He panted.
“Spike,” Applejack said, shifting her gaze onto him. “Granny Smith has something for ya.”
He walked toward her, twiddling his thumbs nervously. When he reached the bedside, Granny Smith outstretched her hoof with the writing utensils
Taking the writing material, he nodded and prepared to write a letter.
“Dear Applejack,” Rarity began.
The baby dragon was confused for a second and turned to Rarity. He shrugged and began to write.
She took a deep breath and exhaled. “I don’t think you should have pushed me out of the way. It should be me in that bed, not you. You told me not to blame myself but the truth cannot hide itself, it was my fault. My greed for a simple jewel is now causing me to lose one of my best friends and there’s no spell, no Element of Harmony to fix our problems this time. I have to deal with it, and account for my own mistakes. But this isn’t just my loss,”
She turned to the Apples surrounding the bed.
“I’ve taken a granddaughter, and a sister from a loving family.”
“Even still, at a time like this, you’d still have us look back on the moments we all shared. For instance," She began. "Do you remember that one time we had a sleepover at Twilight’s? When I dared you to wear that fancy dress?”
Applejack managed to let out a soft laugh. “Yeah.”
“Or how about that one time when we all helped you beat those nasty Flim Flam brothers? We kicked their flanks with the best Apple Cider ever made!”
A feeling of happiness shrouded the room as Rarity began to recall all of the times they had spent together as friends. Weaving together stories of their triumphs over Discord and Queen Chrysalis, she tried her best to lighten the heavy mood; attempting, in a way, to disregard the current situation until the laughs and tales ceased.
“Reminiscing old times does make this a lot easier," She said. "but what’s easy about goodbyes, Applejack?”
She stepped aside and walked toward the bedside where Applejack lay, scarcely breathing. Rarity could see that her friend was holding on just a little longer.
“Applejack, you’re the most dependable pony in Equestria, I don’t know what we are going to do without you.”
Rarity sat beside Applejack and slowly picked up her head. She cringed in pain again but it soon subsided once she was in Rarity’s arms.
“But I guess this is goodbye.” Rarity said, pressing her friends head tightly against her chest.
With tears strewn across the page, Spike concluded the letter with, “Your generous and loving friend, Rarity.” He wrapped the letter in its usual binding and set it on the bedside table beside Rarity.
“Hey, what’s wrong with her?” Apple Bloom asked, worried. “She’s gonna be ok right?” She shook Applejacks hoof. “AJ, wake up! This ain’t no time to be messin’ around. You still got work to do remember?”
All was silent, save for the few breaths the dying pony still drew. Until finally…
They stopped.
“...I never thought I’d see the day where I had to bury my own granddaughter before me…” Granny Smith cried.
“Bury?” Apple Bloom shouted. “No, she ain’t dead.” She shook Applejacks lifeless legs. “Applejack, they’re lyin’ right? You’re not dead. Com’on! We still got stuff to do. You’re supposed to help me get my cutie mark remember? Please don’t die…” She held onto her sisters leg. Falling to the floor, she began to cry.
The room changed from utter silence to a room filled with cries with the passing of a pony that was not only a friend, but family. Everypony, even Big Mac, began to cry.
With tears in her eyes and her sobs about to break through, Rarity managed to speak two last unforgettable words.
“...Goodbye, Sugarcube…”