Love and Loss (WIP Title)

by Darkmale76

Chapter Three - Applejacks' Accident

Twilight awoke and was immediately plunged into the first depressing memory of the day.

--

Twilight woke with a groan. She felt that the world had changed, that something was somehow wrong.

She heard somepony knocking on the front door, so she stuck her head out the window to see who it was.

"Hello?" Twilight called down to the yellow pegasus that was knocking on her door.

"Come quickly", said the almost breathless Fluttershy. "Somethings happened."

Twilight ran down the stairs to follow the sun-coloured pegasus.

When she reached Fluttershy, Twilight tried to coax what had happened out of her, but to no avail.

Fluttershy was leading her to Sweet Apple Acres, but before they arrived they turned off into the Everfree forest.

They had almost reached the old Royal Castle and as Twilight was about to cross the bridge Fluttershy stopped her.

Fluttershy then pointed down into the crevice at an orange form surrounded by a large, red patch of dirt.

There was also a pink pony standing beside a distraught white pony.

Twilight took all this in and within a matter of seconds had jumped off the cliff and landed a small distance away from the red puddle that was slowly growing.

"Oh no! Applejack!" Twilight exclaimed.

"C'mon Applejack. You can still get up, right? All you have to do is move your rump." Pinkie was clearly distressed by what she saw before her. "C'mon, please. Do it for your Aunty Pinkie?"

"Um, Pinkie? I think shes gon..." was all Twilight could say before Pinkie shoved a hoof in her mouth to stop her.

"No Twilight. Can't you see that shes just trying to trick us". Pinkies eye twitched manically as she said this.

Only then did she take a closer look at Pinkie Pie and was astonished to see that her mane had lost all of its previous poofiness.

This surprised her more than seeing one of her friends lying dead in a pool of her own blood.

*The only other time this had happened was when Pinkie went insane... oh*, Twilight thought.

By that time the paramedics had arrived, waved down into the canyon by Fluttershy.

They had run over to Applejacks body and picked it up and carefully placed it on a stretcher.

Upon picking up the stretcher they legged it back to the hospital as fast as they could, but everypony knew that it was too late to save her.

She had lost too much blood too quickly and her spine was most likely broken, so even if she survived it was unlikely that she would ever walk again.

The others decided to start the long trek back to the Hospital, which was located as far away from the Everfree as possible, while still being within reach of Ponyville.

When everyone arrived at the Hospital they were surprised to see most of Ponyville standing outside.

Everyone gave them sad little smiles as they passed by on their way into the Hospital.

Most of the ponies gathered that were gathered around had tears in their eyes, knowing that the towns most liked pony was most likely dead or dying.

At that moment Big Mac and Applebloom ran towards the group of ponies about to enter the front doors.

Applebloom looked at them with big, round, sad eyes and asked "Is mah big sis gonna be alright?"

Twilight tried to comfort her by saying "We don't know, we're just about to find out."

Big mac looked at his little sister and said "Why don't ya go off an' play with yer little filly friends."

Applebloom gave him a questioning glare but did as he asked.

Big Mac turned to the others and said "we need to talk. Preferably somewhere quiet" he said looking around at the townsfolk gathered around.

Twilight lead the way inside and into an unoccupied room.

As the others followed she cast a series of spells to stop people from eavesdropping or entering the room while the conversation was taking place.

Turning around Twilight nodded at Big Mac, signaling him that he could start speaking without any of them being overheard.

"She left a note", Big Mac said in a pained voice.

Being a tad slow today Pinkie asked, "Who left a note?"

"Applejack", Big Mac replied. "She must've written it before she left t' jump off that goddang cliff."

He passed the note to Twilight who read it outloud to the others assembled in the room.

#Dearest friends. You know that I love all of you equally, but I can't stand it no more.

#The one pony that I fell in love with is no longer here.

#I can't wake in the morning and not feel like I'm missing a part of who I am, or was.

"I'm sorry, I just can't read anymore", Twilight said choking on her words slightly as tears started to roll down her cheeks.

"I'll take over reading then." Fluttershy surprised everyone by taking the note and continuing to read from where Twilight had stopped.

#I'm sorry to write what I'm about to, but it has to be said.

#I cannot continue living if Rainbow is not here to share the days with me.

#Goodbye. I will always love you.

#Applejack

By this time everypony was either crying, or just about to start. Even the hardened Big Mac was sniffling slightly.

They all jumped when they heard on knock on the door.

Twilight walked over and opened it to reveal a doctor.

Outside in the corridor the doctor told them the bad news, that Applejack had died on the way to the hospital, even though everyone knew that she had been dead before the medics had been called.

The only thing to do now was to inform the rest of Ponyville about this sad fact.

Big Mac went outside to find Applebloom and bring her to the front doors of the hospital.

Twilight and the others walked slowly out the doors.

She waited for Big Mac to walk back towards them with Applebloom.

"We have just been told that Applejack died on the way to the Hospital. She had fallen off a steep, but not particularly high, cliff while trying to herd some of the cows back to the farm." Twilight said. *A white lie is easier to take than the truth* she thought to herself.

Everypony that was gathered around cried softly at this and those that were couples hugged each other.

"Today is a sad day. We have all lost a friend and a very hard working member of this community. Everyone will need time to grieve her passing, so I will arrange for a one-off public holiday to be made so that all of Ponyville can mourn Applejack, but I will need time and the Princess's blessing so until then we need to continue our lives as normally as possible.

"Big Mac and the other Apples will need to arrange a funeral and I will help in creating any plans to commemorate Applejacks life"

Big Mac nodded at Twilight in acknowledgement, and to say that she should continue.

"We, as a town, are closer to each other than any other town in Equestria. If we can come through this with only a few scrapes and bruises we will be able to overcome anything. We must remain strong," Twilight was saying as tears we streaming down her face. "It's what Applejack would've wanted," Twilight finished, choking out the last few words of her speech.

--

Twilight woke with a start as she heard the one voice that she did NOT want to hear today.

"Wakey wakey, my sleepy little pony! I think its time we re-decorated, don't you? This room is sooo boooring and dull," Discord was saying as he walked around the nearly empty room.

Twilight moaned in disgust and face-planted into the bed.

Comments

[Night slash60]

very, very good, please keep it up

[Joel11]