//------------------------------// // Chapter 14: A Guilt Trip for Applejack // Story: Forgotten in Manehattan // by Locomotion //------------------------------// How long had she been sitting there? What was happening with Caramel right now? How much longer did he have to live? Applejack couldn't answer a single one of those – all she knew was that she was currently waiting outside the operating room at Ponyville Hospital with only her brother for company. Apart from the occasional announcement over the intercom and the odd nurse or doctor trotting past, everything was excruciatingly quiet and still as they sat and fretted over their wounded farm-hoof. It hadn't taken very long for Big Macintosh to return with his cart and a team of paramedics, but Caramel had lost a lot of blood along the way, and was barely alive by the time they reached the hospital. Not only that, but it also turned out that his back had been broken when the branch had struck him, necessitating an emergency surgery. Even though it had only been half an hour since they had arrived, Applejack felt as though she had been spending the best part of a millennium waiting for the operation to finish; and all the while, she kept staring down at her front hooves with a look of guilt and fear in her eyes, praying to Celestia for her foalhood friend to be alright. At last, the red light above the door went out, and the door itself slowly swung open. Applejack immediately jumped from her seat; “How is he, Doc?” she asked almost desperately. The surgeon who had just emerged from the operating room removed his mask and gave the orange-coated mare a grave frown. “Well, the good news is that he's survived,” he replied solemnly, “but the bad news is that he's currently paralysed from his lower back down.” Applejack's heart skipped a beat. “What?!” she gasped. “But...but Doctor, ya can't just leave him la'k this! Ya gotta help him, please!” “I'm sorry, Miss Applejack,” said the doctor. “We've done all we can for him, but we need to let him recover in his own time. Sad to say, the chances are that he might never be able to walk again.” Any further protest that Applejack had to make was quickly lost in a despairing whimper as she broke down into tears again. The doctor was about to offer his condolences at this point, but upon seeing her distraught, he decided that he could only do a whole lot worse by saying anything to her. Instead, he tactfully turned and walked away down the corridor. Big Macintosh, on the other hoof, was so dismayed by his sister's heartbreak that he could only gaze upon her in sorrow. “Applejack...” he breathed, at which point the orange-furred mare suddenly flung her arms around his withers and bawled into his shoulder. Such was her hysteria by then that she had begun to convulse repeatedly with every sob, almost to the point of throwing up. The red-coated draft pony gently wrapped his own front hooves around her, shedding a small tear of his own as the two siblings embraced; he didn't quite know what had gotten his sister into such a tizzy, but seeing her in such an inconsolable state made his heart bleed heavily. “It's mah fault,” wept Applejack, her face still buried in her brother's fur. “It's a' mah fault.” “What is?” asked Big Macintosh softly. There was a long silence before Applejack finally managed to confess to her misjudgement; “Ah 'member 'im, Big Mac,” she whimpered. “It was him who Ah met in Manehattan...the one Ah left behind...” Only then did Big Macintosh catch onto what had gotten his sister in such a state of guilt; “Are y'all tryin' ta tell me...you lied to him?!” “Well...not quite,” muttered Applejack meekly. “Ah just...kinda twisted the truth.” Her hard sobbing suddenly resumed; “But that's besides the point! Ah've betrayed mah element! Ah've gone an' hurt mah friend, an' all because Ah was dishonest with him!” The red-furred draft stallion couldn't believe what he had just heard. His own sister, the most honest pony he and anypony else in Ponyville knew of, had tried to hide the truth from somepony – and from a dear family friend too! How could she? And more to the point, how in Tartarus was it that Caramel had actually bought it? “Why?” was all he could say. Applejack looked up at him with an expression of deep remorse. “Ah...Ah din' want him to leave...Ah couldn't......” but for the umpteenth time, her emotions became so overwhelming that she nearly broke down again. In the end, Big Macintosh decided that he had heard enough, and returned to hugging her closely until her tears had almost completely dried up... The days rolled slowly by, and still there was no word about Caramel's recovery. Granny Smith, Big Macintosh and Apple Bloom all tried their best to carry on regardless, but life at Sweet Apple Acres now seemed strangely quiet without the tan-furred young stallion working alongside them, and even Big Macintosh found that he missed having to clear up after his every spill! But even more noticeable was how drastically Applejack seemed to have changed since the accident – and all of it for worse, it seemed, for no longer did she display the strong work ethic that everypony around her had come to accept as part of her nature. In fact, she didn't display anything of herself at all; she never once left the farmhouse, she never invited any of her friends over to see her...she never even came down to breakfast, lunch or dinner. Instead she would lie on her bed with the curtains half drawn, day and night, mourning for her foalhood friend and harshly berating herself for everything bad that had happened to him in his entire life. After a whole week had passed, Big Macintosh finally decided that enough was enough – it was high time somepony sorted things out once and for all. Having finished his day's work, he went straight upstairs to speak with his sister. Applejack was still in an emotionally fragile state by this time, and barely seemed to notice her brother entering her room. Even though she was by no means as fussy about her appearance as certain other ponies he could mention, the red-coated stallion was still rather shocked when he saw how dishevelled she had become. Her mane and tail, normally bound together at the ends, were now messy and riddled with knots and tangles; her eyes looked sore and baggy, and she generally looked as though she had barely eaten anything for days. “What in the hay?!” he exclaimed, recoiling slightly. Applejack looked up at him, startled – and promptly turned the other way. “Leave me alone, Big Mac,” she mumbled miserably. But the tone of her voice served only to dismay Big Macintosh even further. It sounded somewhat strained and gravelly, quite possibly from all that crying he suspected she had been doing – only natural, really, considering her reaction to the notion that Caramel would almost certainly leave the hospital with a permanent disability. If, Celestia forbid, he did walk out on her as he had been told to do, this would only continue, and if they weren't careful, she might make herself horribly ill. Hanged if he was going to allow that to happen, he told himself. “Nope,” he stated resolutely. “We need to talk, A.J., an' we need to talk now.” “Ah ain't got nothin' ta say.” “Well, if y'all don't, then Ah certainly do,” replied her brother bluntly. “Ah know ya feel bad about Caramel, but ya can't keep beatin' yourself up about it; none of us knew 'bout that loose branch until it was too late.” He paused for a moment to allow Applejack to take in his words, then continued in a softer tone, “'Sides, how do ya think he'd feel if y'all 'ad ruined your own health 'cause you wouldn't stop cryin' over 'im?” “Might as well 'ave wished it on me after all Ah'd done,” sobbed Applejack morosely. “He never had a friend in the world other than me, an' Ah just abandoned him. He's got every right to hate me fo' all that!” Big Macintosh rolled his eyes dramatically. “C'mon, Applejack, that's nothin' but a load o' horse-feathers,” he retorted, never once allowing his distressed sister get a pessimistic word in edgeways. “If he hated y'all, would he have continued workin' fo' us after ya got all edgy on Winter Wrap-Up Day? Would he have even bothered to take up the job in the first place?” Applejack remained silent, mulling over what her brother had just told her. The more she thought about it, the more she realised just how valid a point Big Macintosh had just made – throughout the last few months, the tan-furred stallion had been given many excuses not to associate himself with the Apple Family, from her turning her back on him in Manehattan to the various mishaps he had gotten into during his time at Sweet Apple Acres. And yet, even though she might have lost her temper with him a few times, he had never seriously considered walking out of her life just as she had done to him during their foalhood. Could it really be that he cared for her as much as the red-coated draft pony had been implying? But before either pony could say anything else, the silence was promptly broken by a knock at the front door. Knowing full well that Granny Smith would have dozed off by now, Big Macintosh turned and trotted downstairs to see who it was, leaving Applejack alone with her thoughts once again – but not for long. Quite shortly, the red-coated stallion returned with a look of relief on his face. “That was one o' the doctors from Ponyville Hospital,” he explained. “He says Caramel's outta his coma now...” “What?!” Applejack sat bolt upright, startled. “When?” “A few hours ago,” Big Macintosh answered. “An' that ain't all neither – 'is back ain't as bad as they first thought, so it seems that pony's all set fo' a complete recovery.” To this day, Applejack has never been able to find the right words to describe the euphoria she felt upon hearing this news. It was as if Mother Nature had managed to perform a miracle on Caramel that the likes of neither Celestia nor Luna could ever match. Without so much as a nuzzle of gratitude or a gasp of joy, she leaped off her bed and bolted out of her room, straight down the stairs, through the living room and out of the front door. Having recovered from the initial shock, Big Macintosh walked over to the window and watched with a broad smile as his sister darted across the orchard like a professional racehorse. Applejack arrived at the hospital less than twenty minutes later, a deep sense of anxiety digging into the pit of her stomach as she entered the lobby. Even after that heart-to-heart talk with Big Macintosh, she still feared somehow that Caramel might not be all that pleased to see her – for all she knew, he might have decided to forsake the Apple Family and move on to a completely different town, where she would never see or hear from him again. She could only hope it wasn't too late for her to reveal the truth, just as she should have done in the first place. Taking a deep breath in a bid to calm herself down, the orange-coated mare steeled herself for her inevitable fate and trotted over to the reception desk. “Pardon me, miss,” she inquired, “any idea where Ah can find a stallion named Caramel?” “Ah yes, I think I know the one,” replied the receptionist, levitating a red folder off the shelf behind her. “Bear with me just a moment.” She then began to leaf through the folder, murmuring indistinctly to herself as she read through what Applejack could only assume were patients' names. At last, the pink mare looked up from the list. “He's in the Post-Anaesthesia Recovery Unit, Ward B; that's in the east wing of the hospital,” she affirmed. “How's he doin'?” “Still a little disoriented according to the matron, but otherwise he's in pretty good health. All I would advise is that you don't stay in there for longer than half an hour.” “Okay then,” said Applejack with a faint smile of gratitude, and trotted off towards the main corridor. The receptionist merely nodded in reply before returning the folder to its appropriate shelf. As the orange-coated mare made her way past door after door, all the while trying to seek out the ward in which Caramel would be resting, she couldn't help thinking back to how her parents had been struck down by that fallen tree all those years ago, and how her mother had died in this very hospital after just six days in the intensive care unit, even though the doctors had done everything they could to save her. To say it had been a crushing blow to the whole family, Applejack in particular, would have been putting it rather mildly, but what made these grim memories all the more harrowing were the uncanny similarities with Caramel's own accident; not only had trees been involved in one way or another, but her mother had suffered similar injuries to the ones inflicted on the tan-furred young stallion. It was almost as if her past had come back to punish the still emotionally fragile farm pony for being so dishonest with him. But surely his injuries couldn't be fatal, could they? No, of course they weren't, she tried to reassure herself – if Caramel really was mortally wounded, Celestia forbid, then the informant from the hospital would have said so. Besides, the damage that her mother had sustained would probably have made his injuries look as harmless as a paper cut. All the same, Applejack still couldn't stop worrying, though whether because of Caramel's condition or how he might react to seeing her again, she couldn't quite fathom. The corridor that led to the post-anaesthesia ward was only a few hundred yards long, but it seemed to go on for light-years on end, so that by the time Applejack reached the right door, she felt as though she had gone halfway round the globe. But even now that the orange-coated pony had reached her final destination, her conscience seemed to be barraging her with horrifying notions of what might happen if she dared to enter the ward. What if Caramel didn't want to see her again? What if his injuries were far worse than the doctors had made them out to be? What if...what if she came in and found a motionless body completely covered by the sheet under which he had been trying in vain to recover? That last question was too much for her to bear, and for a brief, tense moment, she was tempted to turn and run – away from the hospital, away from Caramel, away from everypony and everything had come to mean so much to her... But no – that was far too selfish! Even if her foalhood friend had died of his injuries, there was no way that abandoning her life, her past, her family, would make things better for herself or for anypony else. Besides, Caramel wouldn't have wanted that, would he now? No, of course he darn well wouldn't. So with a deep breath, Applejack raised a shaky hoof to the door handle, turned it, and gently nudged the door enough to let it slowly swing open of its own accord. What she saw on the other side filled her with such an indescribable feeling of euphoria that, at first, she could only stand and stare in disbelief – for there, lying on the first bed to her left, was a brown-maned, tan-coated stallion of twenty years old. He was securely strapped down to the mattress and couldn't move very much, but it didn't stop him from turning his head towards the doorway with a warm, soft, slightly drowsy smile on his lips. “Hullo, Applejack.”