“We’ve got a problem,” Twilight said as she slunk over and sank into her seat at Sugarcube Corner.
“Is this the ‘One of our friends is in trouble’ kind of problem, or ‘All of Equestria is in danger from a rampaging monster’ kind of problem?” Rarity asked as she nonchalantly levitated a tea cake up in front of her snout before taking a single delicate bite.
“The first one.”
“Ooh! Does it have something to do with why Applejack was so grouchy this morning?” Pinkie Pie asked as she pronked over to the table from her spot behind the counter.
Twilight nodded mournfully.
Rarity frowned. “Forgive me. She was a little… short when I spoke to her in the marketplace this morning, but I thought it was simply the stress of having all three of the Cutie Mark Crusaders over at Sweet Apple Acres last night.”
“It isn’t that.” Twilight shook her head. “I went down to town hall to look through the records on a hunch, and I found this.” She levitated a yellowed sheet of paper up onto the table.
Rarity’s horn lit up as she picked up the paper in her own magic before she gasped. “Twilight! This is a death certificate! They let you take it?”
“Er… I kind of forgot I had it, to be honest.” Twilight rubbed her leg. “But that’s not important. Look at the date!”
“May 17th... oh dear, that’s today, isn’t it?”
Twilight nodded. “Yeah. It’s been ten years since her father passed away.”
“No wonder she was so upset.” Rarity recoiled as water splashed onto her hoof. “What is that? Is it… Pinkie Pie?”
Pinkie Pie sobbed freely onto the table. “It’s just so sad!”
Twilight rubbed her own mane awkwardly. “Yeah, it kind of is. I just… don’t know what to do about it. I mean, should I say something?”
“I don’t know, dear. I would hate to pry.”
“I know!” Pinkie Pie shouted, slamming her hoof onto the table. “I’ll throw her a party!”
Rarity winced. “Pinkie Pie, I don’t think that is exactly the sort of thing one wishes to celebrate.”
“I know that, silly!” The pink pony smiled, all trace of her tears gone. “It’s just a party to make her feel better that happens to be on the same day! She can’t be sad about that.”
“Pinkie, I’m not sure that’s such a good idea,” Twilight said carefully.
“Actually… I think it might be.”
Twilight blinked. “Really, Rarity?”
Rarity nodded. “Yes. Applejack doesn’t like to let others see her cry. Getting her mind off things with a little party with just the four of us might be exactly what the doctor ordered.”
“Yes! I’ll need ribbons, and balloons, and confetti, and a banner…”
Twilight laughed as Pinkie Pie began to zip around the room. “Well, at least someone’s feeling better.”
“Surprise!”
Applejack blinked at the chorus of voices that greeted her as she stepped into Sugarcube Corner. She paused in the middle of the doorway, glancing back over her shoulder. “I think you got the wrong pony.”
“Nope!” Pinkie Pie said as she bounded over to her friend, putting a hoof over her withers as she dragged her inside. “This party really is for you!”
“What for?” Applejack asked, blinking. “It ain’t my birthday for another three months.”
“Oh, it isn’t that, darling,” Rarity said, smiling. “We simply thought you seemed a bit under the weather this morning, and thought we would do a little something to show we cared.”
“Aw, shucks. You didn’t need to do nothin’.” Applejack stepped over to the nearest table, glancing dubiously at the tray of cookies on top. “Are these… tombstones? They ain’t left over from Nightmare Night, are they?”
“Pinkie!” Rarity hissed.
“Nope! Made ’em fresh for you just this afternoon!” Pinkie Pie smiled brightly.
“Well, they’re uh, real nice,” Applejack said, picking one up and eyeing it for a moment before she bit into it, her face brightening. “But they sure taste good. Bit morbid though, don’t ya think?”
“Nah. What would be really morbid would be dead ponies!”
“Er, right.” Applejack glanced over at Twilight. “Does any of this make a lick of sense to you?”
Twilight smiled gently, stepping up to put a hoof on her friend’s shoulder. “Sorry, Applejack. We were just worried about you after the way you were acting this morning, and thought this might make you feel better.” She paused. “The cookies were Pinkie’s idea.”
“Well, Celestia knows I like a good pastry.” Applejack hesitated before taking another bite. “Was I really that bad this mornin’?”
Twilight and Rarity exchanged a glance.
“Shoot, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize I was so short. I wasn’t upset at y’all.” Applejack shook her head. “I must have been a right terror if you’re all throwin’ me a party.”
Rarity nodded. “It’s quite alright, dear.”
“We just thought you might like some cheering up,” Twilight added.
“And what better way to cheer up a pony than a party?” Pinkie shouted.
“Heh, you got that right.” Applejack reached up to lower her hat over her face. “Still, I feel bad y’all went to so much trouble just for this.”
“It wasn’t any trouble at all, darling. Though I must admit, I’m a bit surprised you didn’t tell us sooner.”
Applejack chuckled. “Well, I figured after all the shoutin’ I did at Apple Bloom and her friends for tracking in tree sap all over the house and makin’ em scrape the floors there weren’t nothin’ more to tell.” She shifted her hat. “Sides, I didn’t want to embarrass ’em by tellin’ everypony that they were slobs.”
Rarity exchanged another glance with Twilight.
“What?” Applejack tilted her head.
“Is that all?” Rarity asked.
“Eyup. I mean, it was a pretty big mess. They snuck in through the window, so it was near glued shut when I got up this mornin’.”
“There… isn’t anything else that is bothering you?”
Applejack stared blankly at Rarity. “Should there be?”
“Nope! Nothing at all!” Rarity backed away, fanning herself with her hoof.
“What Rarity meant to say is that she was worried you were keeping something back that you might want to tell us. Though if you don’t want to talk about it with us, that’s okay too.”
“Yup!” Pinkie Pie grinned. “We’re totally okay if you don’t want to tell us what is bothering you, and we won’t mention it.”
“Alright, now I’m worried,” Applejack said, glancing between her three friends. “What’d I miss?”
“You mean you really don’t know?” Rarity asked, her ears falling.
“Know what?”
Twilight looked away. “I uhm… went through the death records at City Hall and I found your dad’s death certificate.”
Applejack’s jaw fell open. “You mean y’all didn’t realize that my pa was dead? Rarity, you lived here in Ponyville!”
“Of course I knew he was dead, darling! The date had just… slipped my mind, that’s all.”
“The date?” Applejack scrunched her snout. “Okay, now I’m real confused.”
“Today’s the tenth anniversary of his death, isn’t it?” Twilight asked quietly.
“It is?” Applejack looked down at her hooves and counted silently. “Well, I’ll be darned. Sure is.”
Applejack shrugged, then lowered her head to bite into another cookie, her loud chewing the only sound in the room. She swallowed after a few moments, glancing up at her silent friends. “What?”
“You mean you forgot?” Rarity shrieked.
“Er, yeah. I mean, it ain’t like I got it marked on the calendar or nothin’. Bit morbid, ain’t it?”
“But… but… aren’t you… sad?”
Applejack set her half-eaten cookie back down on the tray. “Now why would I be sad? That happened like ten years ago.” She glanced up at the brim of her hat. “Well, ‘xactly ten years ago, apparently. So what?”
Twilight edged forward. “Well, a lot of ponies are sad on days that remind them of deceased loved ones.”
Applejack shrugged. “Way I figure it, ain’t no reason to pick out a day to be sad on. ‘Sides, like my pa always said, no point in feelin’ bad ’bout things you can’t change. ’T’ain’t like feelin’ sad’s gonna bring him back, and it ain’t like he ain’t gone every other day of the year, neither.”
“Really? That sounds like something Granny Pie would have said!” Pinkie Pie said as she bounced over to the far side of the table, reaching down to gobble up a cookie of her own.
“Then she was a wise pony,” Applejack said, bobbing her head. “Pa always used to say, don’t have no regrets, cause there ain’t no point in carryin’ the extra weight when you’re plowin’ the field.” She paused. “Ma used to say the same thing, too. And then give pa a little poke in the ribs.”
Rarity coughed.
“Wow,” Twilight said, smiling. “Your dad sounded like a really great pony.”
“Sure was. Told me he never had a regret in his life,” Applejack said as she retrieved her cookie from the tray.
“Not a single one?” Twilight asked, tilting her head.
Applejack paused with her cookie halfway to her mouth. “Now that you mention it, there was one thing he mentioned when he was lyin’ in bed in the hospital.”
“Oh? What was that?” Rarity asked warily.
Applejack smirked as she put her cookie in her mouth and began to chew. “Havin’ a tree fall on him.”