Till Death Do Us Part

by Brian Jacko

The Freak Accident

Sun Rise was sitting at the table, devouring an apple pie that Applejack had baked for him.

"I gotta do some organizin' in the barn sugar cube," Applejack said. "Maybe after I'm done we can work on that gutter that needs fixin' on the side of the house. It might be a good idea to stay out of the barn for a bit. I might be makin' some chaotic organization in there."

The stallion nodded his head in agreement as he continued to shove pie in his face. Within a few moments, he felt guilty about that gutter that needed fixing on the side of their house. He also had many other chores he wanted to get done. Sun Rise was a pony who couldn't stand sitting still and doing nothing. He was a work pony and he wanted to get a lot of things done on the farm today in his spare time. He left the house and made his way over to the barn.

Applejack swayed back and forth as she tried her best to balance herself on her hind legs while attempting to move the very tall ladder near the entrance of the barn. She aligned the ladder just right to the spot where she wanted to get up to, and began to climb. She got up to the top and climbed onto the platform. "There's just so many boxes up here and we have so many tools and farm equipment that need to be sorted through," she said to herself. Applejack didn't know where to start. She opened up the box that was closest to the ledge. It was kind of teetering on the edge of the platform. There was farm equipment inside, but the equipment was very heavy and she would need Sun Rise in order to get it down because he was much stronger than her. Applejack looked back to the box behind it. There wasn't much distance between this box and the one in front of it. She opened it up and realized there were lots of farm tools that could be put to good use. The box was quite heavy, but it wasn't as heavy as the first box she went through so she decided to take this one down with her. She couldn't get on the other side of the box because there was so many other boxes behind it. She grabbed a hold of the box she wanted to take down with her and began to back up.

Sun Rise walked into the barn looking for Applejack. "Applejack, where are you?" the stallion called out.

Applejack continued to pull at the box and called back, "I'm up here sugar cube." As Applejack continued to pull the box out, she didn't notice that somepony had left a tool unpacked. She tripped over the tool and fell backwards. She landed hard against the box that was closest to the ledge. The box fell off the platform.

Before the stallion even had the chance to look up, the box landed directly on Sun Rise's back, crushing him.

Applejack got up and looked down. She put her hoof to her mouth in shock. She was terrified that he was dead. That box was extremely heavy and fell a long distance down. She quickly hurried down the ladder and with all her strength, she was barely able to get the box off of Sun Rise.

He was still alive, but he looked like he was in bad shape, she was terrified that he might die from internal injuries.

Tears flooded Applejack's eyes as she raced out of the barn calling for help. Thankfully, there were two Pegasus ponies who happened to be flying by and came to her aid. Sun Rise wasn't exactly a pony that was easy to carry. He had a lot of muscle and weighed quite a bit. Thankfully, between the two Pegasus ponies, they were able to carry him, and fly him to the Hospital.

Applejack stayed by his side the entire time. She had the farm temporarily shut down. Many of her most loyal customers were very upset, but she made a vow to never leave her stallion's side.

After some testing, the Doctor came in the room. Applejack had crossed her front legs on top of her husbands chest and was sobbing into her front legs. She was deep in prayer that her mate would be okay and that he would not die. Applejack suddenly picked her head up after sensing that another pony was in the room with them.

The Doctor was now half way in the room and half way in the hall way. The way his body was positioned, it looked as if he wasn't sure if he should enter the room right now after seeing Applejack in prayer.

When her eyes met the Doctor's eyes, the Doctor cautiously stepped into the room.

Applejack picked herself up from the bed and stared at the Doctor with worry written all over her face. She had her two hooves together as if she was begging him to tell her good news.

The Doctor cleared his throat. "I have some good news and bad news. The good news is that Sun Rise should survive his injuries. The bad news is that the X-rays showed us that he has severe damage to his spine and that he will never recover from the damage that has been done. He'll also most likely be suffering from chronic pain for the rest of his life and will be needing to take the most potent pain killers. I cannot imagine him being able to return to the farm and working again. He will probably need to be on disability for the rest of his life."

Applejack bowed her head in shame. "I thank ya fer tellin' me the news, Doctor."

The Doctor nodded his head and left the two ponies alone.

Applejack looked back to her love. He was in so much pain that he couldn't speak and was drugged up with very dangerous pain killers. Applejack took off her hat and burrowed her face in it as she cried. She also felt guilty that all of this was her fault.

Within time, Sun Rise was able to leave the hospital. There wasn't much rehab they could do for him since his injuries were so severe. He basically learned about what he can do and what he shouldn't do at the hospital.

The carriage pulled up to their house and dropped them off. Applejack gave the pony pulling their carriage a nice tip.

Out stepped Sun Rise very slowly. Applejack came over and he put his front leg around her body. Together, they slowly made it up to the house. As Sun Rise began to climb the stairs, he let out a spew of swear words in pain. The stairs killed his back.

Applejack froze in fear that the stairs may have caused more damage to his back. "Easy there sugar cube," she said. "Just take it one step at a time, very slowly. I won't have ya do the stairs for a very long time, but I need to get ya in bed so ya can rest up and I can get ya sometin' to eat.

The stallion puffed his cheeks out in frustration as he mentally prepared himself to climb the rest of the stairs. Each step he took was followed by an onslaught of profanity that he yelled out.

Eventually they made it to the bed. Very slowly, Applejack helped him lay down. She pulled the blankets over him and kissed his forehead.

"Applejack," Sun Rise said. "What are we going to do about our nightly routine?"

"Huh?" Applejack said. Then it suddenly hit her by what he meant by that. "Oh, I don't think we can do any more pony poundin' fer now. I'm not sure if we'll ever be able to do that again, but don't ya worry about it. I'll take care of that desire in other ways that won't hurt yer back. I'm gonna get started on supper. Ya just take it easy there handsome."

The stallion sighed in depression. He was upset not just over the fact that he wouldn't be able to make love to his wife, but also about the farm and not being able to work, being that hard work was very important to him in his life.