Halfway to the kitchen, Apple Bloom skidded to a stop and doubled back. “No! It’s the hall closet!” Running at full tilt, her hooves skittered and slipped as she tried to make the turn on a wooden floor worn slick from generations of use. Leaping up, she grabbed the knob. “Just hold on!” she said, sparing a glance over her shoulder.
Granny Smith still hadn’t moved.
She’d been trying to read her new book when Granny Smith had come in and started jabbering away about some old story Apple Bloom had heard a thousand times before. The filly had tried to ignore it, but Granny Smith had this… thing she could do. No matter how hard you tried to tune her out, you always found yourself listening.
That’s just great, Apple Bloom had thought. The one time both Big Mac and Applejack are off sellin’ apples all day, and Granny decides to not take her nap…
Apple Bloom had tried holding the book closer to her face. She’d tried facing the other way. She’d even cleared her throat really loudly and wiggled the book, but Granny Smith had just gone right on talking. Finally, she’d lost it.
The memory was a winter’s stone in her stomach.
~~~
Apple Bloom slammed her book down on the couch. “I’m tryin’ to read!”
Granny Smith dropped her eyes and folded her hooves in her lap. For a moment, she was silent. “What’s that now?” she finally said.
“I can’t read when you’re always tryin’ to tell me some old story!”
Granny Smith pointed a trembling hoof at Apple Bloom’s book. “Well, it’s just that I saw you readin’ about Equestria’s wild frontier days and I reckoned you might want to know about your Great Great Uncle Winesap. Why, he—”
“I know!” Apple Bloom threw her hooves up. “You told me that story yesterday when I was tryin’ to read, and the day before that!”
Granny Smith looked away, her eyes unfocused. “I… I did? I don’t recall...”
“Yes!”
“Oh, Apple Bloom, I…” Granny Smith sat quietly for a moment, rubbing her left foreleg. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to get the wagon on the fiddlesticks. The apples fieldplow.”
“Huh?” Apple Bloom’s brow furrowed. Something seemed like it was wrong with her granny’s face. “Granny, a-are you okay?”
The elder pony trembled and her right eye darted back and forth. The left one didn’t follow. It stared straight ahead, glassy and lifeless. She reached for Apple Bloom with a palsied hoof. “...No.”
Apple Bloom screamed when her granny fell from the couch and slammed face first into the floor.
~~~
Apple Bloom yanked open the closet door and tore through the clutter. “Where is it? Where is it?” Shoveling through the miscellaneous contents, she nearly cried when she finally spied the battered white container. Apple Bloom bit down on its handle and galloped back into the living room.
Granny Smith still lay where she’d fallen.
“I got it, Granny!” she said from around the handle. “I’m comin’!”
The filly slid to a stop and threw the metal case to the floor. Kneeling, she tried to undo the clasps but her hooves were shaking too badly. “Come on!” she said, slamming her hoof onto the top of the case. Then she burst into tears.
Beside her, Granny Smith coughed.
“Thank Celestia!” Apple Bloom leapt for her granny and pulled on her shoulder until she finally maneuvered the elder Apple onto her back. “I-I’m here, and I got the kit! You just hold on!”
Granny Smith mumbled something.
Taking a deep breath, Apple Bloom turned back to the kit and forced her hooves to stop shaking so badly. Carefully, she worked the metal clasps until they unlocked. She nearly tore the lid off the box in her haste to finally get it open. Apple Bloom dug in, pushing the contents this way and that.
Gauze. Tongue depressors. Aspirin. Alcohol wipes. Two metal splints. Iodine. Safety pins.
Apple Bloom sat, staring, and then flipped the box over. The medical supplies spilled out onto the floor, where she frantically searched through them again.
“There’s nothin’ here,” she growled, her eyes tearing again. She wiped them hard with a hoof. “There ain’t nothin’ here!” The filly jumped to her hooves. “I-I gotta run to town! I gotta—”
“Apple Bloom…”
The filly knelt and slid her hoof under her granny’s head. Raising it off the floor seemed to help her breath a little more easily. “I’m goin’ to town to get some help! I’ll be—”
Granny Smith’s head spasmed and jerked from side to side. One eye seemed to have no life at all. The other was filled with fear. “Don’t… don’t leave…”
“But I gotta go get help!” Granny Smith’s head was suddenly very heavy, and Apple Bloom’s hoof slowly sank back to the floor. “You’re sick or… or hurt or somethin’, and you need a doctor!”
“Ain’t no use,” Granny Smith’s voice sounded strangely thick, like she was talking from around a mouthful of food. “Won’t last.”
Apple Bloom squeezed her eyes tightly closed and shook her head. “No! You just hold on! I’ll go get somepony, and—”
Granny Smith’s hoof crept into Apple Bloom’s own, and the filly’s mouth went dry at her touch. Her granny’s fluttering heartbeat felt like an exhausted bird. One that was struggling to escape a net. Struggling and losing.
“No, Granny,” Apple Bloom bowed her head, nearly coming nose to nose with her beloved grandmother. “Nopony’s here. You can’t… you…”
“Shh.” Granny Smith’s hoof squeezed her own surprisingly hard. “You’re here, and that’s all any Apple can ask for: To be with kin when it’s time.”
“I’m sorry!” Apple Bloom’s tears ran down her muzzle and fell onto her granny’s cheeks. She wanted to wipe them off, but Granny Smith held her hoof in place. “I’m sorry I didn’t want to listen! I love your stories. I didn’t mean—l”
“Shh. Ain’t your fault, Little Seed,” Granny Smith whispered. “It’s just my time, and you can’t help bein’ ornery. It’s just part of bein’ an Apple. ’Sides, I wouldn’t tell you stories if I didn’t think you loved ’em. You tell Big Mac and Applejack—”
Apple Bloom shook her head harder. “No! You tell them!”
“Can’t.” Granny Smith’s pulse surged and then slowed. It was fading away. “You just tell ’em that… tha…” Her good eye bored into Apple Bloom and she squeezed her hoof again.
Then, she was still.
Alone in the farmhouse, Apple Bloom pressed her face into Granny Smith’s chest and wailed.