As the Crusaders gathered around Applejack, she waved Apple Bloom closer. "Bloom, come here. Ah have to tell ya something."
Apple Bloom approached, putting down the gauze. "What is it, sis?"
Applejack smiled. "Ah just wanted ta say that ah'm mighty proud of you. If... ah don't make it, ya should go on and make yerself happy. That's... That's how ya can do me most proud."
Apple Bloom stiffened. "Don't talk like that! We're gonna save ya." She grabbed up the gauze and resumed her work with a frown.
"Just don't... linger on me. You'll make your sister right sad if she finds out you moped over her. Step over me... Find that light in ya, Apple Bloom, promise me."
Apple Bloom shook her head violently. "Shut up!" She squeezed her eyes shut, tears leaking out of the corners. "Shut up! Yer not d... yer..."
"Ah'm serious. Apple Bloom, listen ta me! Yer a fine filly. Don't live a life of regret." Applejack stared at Apple Bloom intensely a moment before her head collapsed to the ground and consciousness fled her.
Apple Bloom perked up her ears as Applejack went silent. "Sis? AJ?" Those ears went back sharply. "Wake up! Don't... Don't go. Not like... Ya don't deserve ta die so far away from the farm. This ain't right..."
Scootaloo softly nudged Apple Bloom. "Hey, come on. We have to try our best, awake or not."
Sweetie cleared her throat before a new song began to issue from her small throat, a soft song of hope. While it had originally served as a lullaby, Apple Bloom could suddenly hear the subtle references to passing on. She shuddered powerfully before she began to bandage up Applejack as quickly as she could. Blood soaked through the cloth as quickly as she put it down, but she didn't give up, she couldn't. "Scootaloo, press down here!"
Shale watched on passively from the doorway. She offered no help to the dying or dead Applejack, save the protection she may have been serving, blocking the doorway as she was.
Apple Bloom's meager supply of gauze was worked through quickly, going down to ripping apart any cloth they could find. The bleeding eventually came under control, and Apple Bloom sank in place, crying muffledly into her own hooves. "Ah can't even check. Is she?"
Scootaloo moved in carefully and perked an ear over Applejack's snout. The room went silent. The faint breath that Scootaloo heard brought a quick smile to her face. "She'll be OK, Apple Bloom, we did it."
Sweetie Belle let out an explosive sigh. "That was too close!"
Apple Bloom threw herself over the upper barrel of her fallen sister. "Ah'm so sorry we dragged you here! Ah'll be good, promise!"
Scootaloo tilted her head. "We weren't trying to. She'll be OK, we just have to get her out of here."
Apple Bloom gestured at Applejack's limp form. "How? She's as big as all o' us combined!"
Shale approached on almost silent paws. "I will carry her; just get her on my back."
The Crusaders mobilized, soon getting Applejack comfortably sprawled on the wide back of their new feline friend. "Say, where's Sunflower?"
Sunflower peeked from around the corner outside. "Is everything OK?"
Scootaloo nodded. "As OK as it can be." She took a slow breath. "Why were you hiding? Scared of that big thing?"
Sunflower bobbed his head. "And I still feel sore and tired from that dead thing before."
Sweetie tilted her head in the opposing direction. "You were hit by one? Why didn't you ask for healing?"
Sunflower's ears wilted a little. "I didn't want to waste your magic. She needed it more." He pointed at Applejack.
Apple Bloom smiled gently. "Wow... Yer... really not just a purrsian."
Sunflower bristled at the words. "What do you mean by that?"
Apple Bloom walked up to Sunflower and hugged him tight. "Thank you, for thinkin' of others. For savin' some magic for mah sister. For being a good friend..." She had started to weep on Sunflower's shoulder, a fact that made Sunflower look mortified and awkward.
"I... You're welcome... Let's get out of here." Sunflower pointed up the hallway.
They set out, eyes barely leaving the hallway as they passed other rooms, interest in exploring or looting thoroughly dashed against the rocks of reality. They were silent as they pushed on, until they heard a soft hiss and saw familiar red eyes. That dead thing had returned.
Apple Bloom pulled out the dagger she never returned to Sweetie Belle while Scootaloo and Sunflower drew their own weapons. Sunflower pointed at the dead humanoid. "Last chance, back off!"
Those that are already dead are difficult to intimidate, and this proved true. The half-rotted, half-skeleton of a figure lurched forward at them. Scootaloo drove her flaming rapier forward, and it exploded in fire violently, knocking the creature back a step with a soft moan.
Sunflower dashed forward. "Nice hit." He wove under an awkward swing to bash it from behind. Apple Bloom charged in with a frustrated cry, driving her mutagen-enhanced neck forward with her dagger and cutting the beast down. She began stabbing its still form repeatedly.
Scootaloo sheathed her blade and gently pulled Apple Bloom away. "It's OK. It's dead, real dead. We should keep moving."
Apple Bloom shivered as she drew away. She tucked the dagger in a belt and nodded. "Yeah..."
Shale spoke as they resumed their journey. "The life of an adventurer is no easy task."
Scootaloo chuckled softly. "No kidding. But cool things aren't easy, or they wouldn't be cool. We'll get through this, girls, and we'll laugh at this afterwards."
Sweetie offered a forced smile. "If you say so. I just want to see the sun again, and hide under the covers for a week."
Apple Bloom looked back at the still form of her sister. "If she doesn't make it, Ah'm never making another potion ever again."
Sweetie frowned at that and moved beside Apple Bloom. "That isn't what she wanted. She said so!"
Sunflower smiled a little. "Besides, she'll make it, so don't make stupid promises."
"Death approaches." All eyes turned to face Shale, wide with fear. Shale carefully shook Applejack to the floor. "Take her and go. I will delay it. You deserve a chance." She turned to face an offshoot hallway. "I must have been trapped here too long..."
They rushed in unison, hefting Applejack up between all four young forms. Sunflower looked at Shale. "Will you be OK?"
Shale shook her head. "In all likelihood, no. Go, before I change my mind and come to my senses."
They went. Hooves and paws worked to carry them away from their new ally as they struggled somewhat under the bulk of Applejack. They suddenly emerged into a familiar library. Apple Bloom's face brightened like the coming of the new dawn. "We're near tha entrance! Tha stairs should be... there." She pointed and they fled towards it. As they crossed the room, the ground shuddered, as from the shockwave of a distant explosion. It felt like it came from behind them, where they had left Shale.
Sunflower frowned. "I hope she gets out alright."
Sweetie bit her bottom lip. "I want to help her, but we can't do anything. If it's bad enough to scare her, we'd... just be in the way. We have to get out."
Apple Bloom nodded at Sweetie. "We can come back after we get AJ to safety." They ascended the winding stairs with some difficulty, having to start and stop constantly as they worked Applejack around and around. They emerged into the tomb and saw the floating visage of a pony there.
It turned and looked at them with sad eyes. "So close." It rushed at them with outstretched hooves. Sunflower drew his mace and swung at their bodiless foe. True to its ghost-hunting nature, the mace solidly struck the floating pony, making it recoil in surprise. Scootaloo set Applejack down more gently than Sunflower had and pulled free her rapier, willing it to ignite brightly.
Apple Bloom leaped forward at it, but both she and her dagger passed through it as if it wasn't there. The pony lashed out a hoof, leaving a patch of ice where it brushed Apple Bloom's shoulder. She howled in pain and recoiled away from it. Scootaloo jabbed into its side, the fire-enchanted steel cutting into it like wispy jello, causing some harm to it.
The pony sighed a whisper of death. "He is coming for you all. I'm sorry." She lashed out a hoof that barely tapped Scootaloo's snout, ice blooming on contact. Scootaloo scowled and held firm to her rapier despite the piercing chills.
Sunflower bashed into the ghost's exposed flank, battering quite effectively despite its incorporeal body. "We won't be here for 'him'. Go away!"
Sweetie swallowed heavily, not singing. It wasn't for lack of trying, but her voice was spent, and the magic of her song refused to come to her any further. She instead focused on slowly dragging Applejack towards the exit.
Scootaloo tried to stab the thing, but the chills made her blow slow and clumsy, allowing it to dodge around the blade easily. This put it in the right spot for Sunflower's mace. With a solid thump, it discorporated, vanishing with a soft sigh of a death rattle. "We have to go, now!"
All four quickly took hold of Applejack and ferried her into the main room. They could see a shaft of blessed sunlight streaming in from above and realized their next issue. Sweetie tilted her head. "How are we going to get her up there?"
Scootaloo grabbed the rope from Applejack's pack. "Follow me, Sunflower." They both took off, launching up through the hole. Aboveground, they found a stone fence and tied off the rope there quickly with Sunflower's agile fingers. Down below, Apple Bloom and Sweetie tied up Applejack securely. With a combined effort, they slowly hauled her up to the surface, flopping limply to the sand.
A deafening roar issued from the hole as countless shadowy figures poured out from the tomb into the entryway. They didn't seem to want to enter the light of the sun. Apple Bloom pointed into the city. "Let's get outta here!" And that is exactly what they did, ferrying Applejack through the city, away from that cursed hole and the darkness that had almost consumed them.
They arrived at Longtail Manse without difficulty, save the sweat that poured freely from their effort to carry Applejack so far. They moved to the Crusader's room and tucked Applejack in carefully into their bed. Apple Bloom collapsed against the side of the bed, panting with effort and relief. "Ah'm... gonna start brewing up more potions. Applejack's gonna need lots of medicine."
Sunflower nodded at her. "You did good. We all did good." He smiled at them. "I couldn't ask for a better pride."
Scootaloo tilted her head. "That's a funny way of saying that. Don't you mean 'I couldn't be prouder'?"
Sunflower blinked. "No? I..." It seemed to click. "Do you know what a pride is?" All three shook their heads at him. "Oh! Well... Successful alpha cats, like me, make prides." He grinned. "They're like a bunch of wives. It's our job to make sure they're happy, and they make him happy. You all make me very happy."
Sweetie tilted her head, joining Scootaloo. "I don't remember getting married. You're, uh, nice, but you're a cat, and I'm a pony."
Scootaloo shrugged a little. "Spike chases after Rarity all the time, or used to? Now he's with that Soft Mane girl, and she's not a dragon either."
Apple Bloom was setting up her supplies, apparently quite set on getting to potion-making. "Ah don't have time fer romance! Ya can't just say we're yer pride or whateva."
Sunflower looked a little crestfallen. "Well... I'll prove I'm worth it!" He nodded firmly. "Just you wait."
Scootaloo giggled at him. "Oh boy. Are you going to sweep me off my hooves?"
Sweetie Belle joined the giggle. "You sound way too excited about that, Scoots."