Exhume
There was an old earth pony tradition to bury one’s spouse should they pass away. In earlier times, lives were much busier and ponies were much poorer; there was hardly any time for leisure, let alone time to grieve.
This was especially true for ponies who lacked traditional magic or wings, so burying a loved one was seen as a way to spend as much time mourning with their partner as they could before the grueling pace of their lives demanded they return.
For lucky farmers such as the Apple family, they took to burying their loved ones on their own property, so they could at least take whatever free time was scraped together at the end of a week to mourn where other ponies might at the end of a month.
Despite the sense of debt and duty that surged through Applejack to honor this tradition, she could only exchange hollow stares with the grave and the humble mound of dirt meant to fill it in, unable to find the strength to pick up the shovel and bury Rainbow Dash.
Beside the final resting place sat a valiant portrait of the pegasus that Applejack couldn’t stand to look at, and an empty glass containing a wilted dandelion. The only type of flower Dash could stand because of some line out of a Daring Do book that Applejack wished she remembered.
Her bloodshot eyes stung every time she blinked and her body ached with every labored breath she took. Snow fell gently onto her orange coat, melting almost as soon as it connected. The chills that came were buried under days of fatigue. Applejack had barely slept or stopped crying since she heard the news, some accident with some malfunctioning weather machine was all she could bear to hear before everything became muted and muffled.
Oddly, the farmer bottled up her sorrow just long enough to give the eulogy and endure the service, but the glass started to crack as soon as everypony left to give her one final moment with her beloved.
You can’t be dead, we’re supposed to get married this Spring. Rarity even got you in a frou-frou dress. Hell, Granny got me in one too. Climb up outta that hole Dash, you ain’t foolin’...
Applejack’s forehooves buckled and she fell to the very edge of the grave. She sucked in a shaky breath through gritted, chattering teeth, expending every ounce of effort not to scream.
Get a grip, AJ, you’re embarrassing yourself. Apples are tougher than this, damnit.
Applejack let out her breath, feeling how much calmer it was than the inhale, before taking in another cold breath only to release it. She closed her eyes and tried not to think about the time Dash taught her breathing exercises, lest she need to undergo one again.
“…Anything you need, don’t hesitate to ask.” Twilight laid a hoof on Applejack’s side, and instantly the farmer sprang away from the touch.
“JUST!” Applejack burst, scrambling to her hooves before herself with another deep sigh. “Sorry, ‘Twi. I ain’t mean to snap at you like that…”
“You don’t have to apologize AJ,” Twilight tilted her head sympathetically, “I understand how you’re feeling. We all do. But we’re here for you, so if there’s anything you need from any of us, don’t hesitate to ask.”
Applejack let out a short, grim chuckle. “Don’t suppose there’s a way you can bring her back.”
Twilight let a warm smile cross her face, “Trust me, I’ve looked through all my books, even the ones in Canterlot’s restricted library. If there was a way, I couldn’t find it.”
Applejack returned her friend’s smile, and met her understanding eyes with faded ones, “I bet you triple checked your triple check on that one too. Guess there’s no easy way out.”
Twilight took a step forward and took Applejack in a tight embrace. “But there is a way forward, and you don’t have to walk it alone, ok?”
Applejack recoiled at the sudden hug but immediately melted into it, finally letting herself go for the first time in weeks. “You’re right, Twi. I just… I ain’t got the words to describe it, y’know?” She decoupled from her friend and cast a wary glance at the hole in the earth.
“It’s like,” Applejack looked up at the twisted, mangled tree that loomed behind the grave and tried not to focus on the crude engravings Dash and her had etched into the bark, “It’s like she really was a rainbow to me.”
Twilight studied the emotions on Applejack’s face and opened her mouth to say something before closing it and letting her continue.
Applejack’s face soured into a frown as she turned back to Twilight., “Sorry, Twi. I ain’t much for talkin’ about my feelings, ‘specially right now. I just can’t wrangle up the right words in the right order no more. My mind’s all dark without my rainbow to brighten it up. It don’t feel like I can go on without any color.”
“It won’t be easy, but you can Applejack. We can. Together as friends.” Twilight placed a hoof under Applejack’s chin and gently coaxed it upwards, “We’ll find those colors again, I promise.”
Applejack looked up into Twilight’s violet eyes as tears welled up within them. She didn’t fully believe her friend’s words, but she believed Twilight. Somewhere between those sad eyes and genuine words was half the strength she needed to pick up the shovel and finally bury her wife. The weary farmer nudged her head towards Dash, “Y’mind givin’ me a hoof? There’s a spare shovel in the barn.”
“Not at all, Applejack. We’ll take all the time you need.” Twilight creased her mouth to a flat line as she blinked out a stream of tears and made her way down the hill towards the farmhouse, making sure to give Applejack one more hug before the short trip.
The bottle rumbled as Applejack made her way towards the small heap of dirt, past the portrait and the wilted flower.
Applejack stopped. She instinctively reached out a hoof to the withering plant, feeling nature heave beneath her feet like a great body of water surging out into her hooves and into the dry bud. Applejack ground her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut, feeling the strain on her already exhausted body as she cast the closest thing to a spell earth ponies had with whatever hidden wellspring of strength remained within her. Just as soon as the strain came in one instant, it was gone the next. It didn’t feel right to have a dead flower honor Dash.
Applejack opened her eyes to see a bright, blooming yellow flower. The world became glassy as stowed away tears finally formed in her eyes. Two and two added themselves together in her mind. There was a way to bring Rainbow back! Not from some ancient unicorn’s theoretical ramblings, but barely-understood earth pony magic!
Applejack reared up and leaped in the air, suddenly overwhelmed with energy, as though she’d cracked through sheets of sedentary fatigue, and ran after Twilight. “I’ve got it! I’ve got it!” she called out to her friend, who’d hardly begun walking.
“Gah!” Twilight turned just in time to dodge Applejack as she barrelled down the snowy trail. “Got what, AJ? What’s got you so excited?”
Applejack grabbed ahold of Twilight, “It’s so simple! Why didn’t anypony think of this before? I know how we can bring her back!"
Apprehension flashed and vanished on Twilight’s face in an instant. “I’m not one for dark humor, Applejack, that was always you and Dash’s thing.”
Applejack shook her head, an inspired spark returning to her emerald eyes. “I wouldn’t joke about this, no ma’am! We’ll need to start lookin’ in the Everfree, see if we get lucky with any weird plants out there. A lab! We’ll need a lab! And books on earth pony mag-”
“Applejack,” Twilight’s voice wavered with anxiety as she backed out of her friend’s grip, “You can stop now, this isn’t funny at all.”
The blonde farmer was unimpeded by her friend’s lack of comfort and pressed on, “We could make history, you an’ me! Dash could be there with us! We could still get married! C’mon Twi! Whaddya say?”
“No.” Twilight faced away from Applejack and continued her walk to the farmhouse.
“Don’t you wanna help? We’re starin’ at a way to help everypony, not just me an’ you.” Applejack practically pleaded with her companion.
“I do, and I want to help you too, but right now the best thing to do is let Rainbow rest.” The princess looked down and away from her friend, her patience being lost by the second.
Applejack galloped alongside her friend, the glass shuddering to contain its pressure. “But… You said if there was anything I needed -”
Twilight stopped and stamped her hoof into the snow, any signs of sympathy in her demeanor melted away into firm authority. “When I said anything, I meant anything possible, and humane for that matter. I know you’re in a lot of pain, so am I, but this isn’t something that can be fixed with magic. As hard as it is to accept, we all have a time to go Applejack. It’s part of life.”
The cork flew off the bottle just in time for the container to explode. Weeks of frustration, anguish, sorrow, and vitriol exploded into Applejack’s mind and eviscerated any semblance of rationality. “Fine! Then stay out of my way. I’ll figure it out myself.”
Horror washed over Twilight as she spread her wings, frantically calling out to Applejack with failing resolve. “W-what? You can’t! Stop!”
Twilight’s pleas fell on deaf ears as Applejack walked the pile of frozen dirt and reached for her shovel with one hoof and removed her hat with the other. “I-”
Twilight latched onto the shovel and jerked it away from her friend, but Applejack held fast, matching the princess’ grip with one hoof through exhausted muscles.
“I’m warnin’ you. Let go right now.” Applejack callously cautioned her companion as she placed the hat back on her head.
Twilight choked back a sob as she desperately pulled the shovel handle, “I’m not letting you do this, it’s not right. Even if you do find some way to succeed, it won’t be her. This…” Her voice sounded like cracked defeat, “Isn’t what Rainbow would want!”
“I warned you.” Applejack emotionlessly reared her free hoof back and smashed it against Twilight’s muzzle, sending her flying back into the snow in a burst of blood and tears. She looked up with panic and terror in her eyes and hurriedly took to the sky. Wherever she went wasn’t any concern anymore, so long as it wasn’t in Applejack’s way.
The wind petered out just in time for Applejack to remove her hat. No wind blew, and nothing stirred.
“Like I was sayin’, I promise to come back, Zap Apple, just as soon as I beat death for you.” Applejack let go of her hat and watched as it floated down on top of the coffin.
“Just be patient for me, y’hear?”
EXHUME
Applejack paced around her confined attic laboratory in a tight circle, serenaded by the hissing and bubbling of three separate potions on three separate hot plates and the delighted chitterings of her pet mouse, Moira. The leftmost two of them, green and red respectively, were her secret weapon against death. The rightmost was apple cider she was warming up to enjoy once everypony was proved wrong.
The floorboards creaked and bent as Applejack crossed over them, dodging unopened letters scattered across the wood and enduring the overwhelming smell of chemicals and magical compounds within each potion. Incidentally, the cider did nothing to ease the odor.
“Fifty Appleloosa, Fifty-one Appleoosa…” The blonde mare chanted to herself, rounding the bend of her path once more, making sure to take her victory brew off the element as she passed and looped around once more. Sixty seconds was all she needed to bring her potions to the right temperature, and just over two years had passed since she’d begun her research. That is, it took two years for these sixty seconds to pass.
Her experiments had started with bringing dead saplings back, which involved seeping earth pony magic, of which the Apple family had an overabundance of, into the soil, and up through the roots of the plant. Effectively restoring life to all the cells manually through the power of sorcery. This was the focus of the green potion, to amplify an earth pony’s inherent magic.
Magic amplification was nothing too complicated or frowned upon. Necromancy, however, was deeply complicated, and very much frowned upon.
There was no shortage of dead animals or bizarre flora in the nearby Everfree Forest. Applejack made these carcasses her test subjects for the past year, and it was only in the previous half-year that she’d found limited success. It was a month ago that she successfully reanimated a mouse and made it her pet with the help of a much weaker red potion.
“Sixty!” Applejack broke out of her robotic pacing and sprung over to the hot plates, carefully taking each of them off of the heat and placing them gingerly onto the thick washrags she’d set aside for them. Once they were cooled, they’d be corked, and she’d be on her way to fight death again.
“See this time’ll be different Moira.” Applejack couldn’t help but dance on the old, creaking boards of the farmhouse’s attic. “Last time wasn’t potent enough, but sittin’ there in that bottle is enough to bring back an elephant, let alone a pega… Rainbow Dash.” She ground her teeth and corrected herself.
Moira squeaked and made for Applejack’s front hoof before climbing up on her shoulder. “Yeah, you ain’t seen ‘er yet have you? Aside from pictures, huh?”
Another squeak, followed by a pained gurgle and a hoarse cough that sent beads of black bile hurling across the room, but then a happy squeak once more.
“Well, she was the prettiest, toughest mare this side of Equestria, besides me of course.” Applejack plunged the corks sitting beside the cloths into the awaiting bottles. “Then a machine that was supposed to be managin’ lightnin’ bolts exploded, an’ a huge piece of shrapnel flew an’ took part of her side with it.”
Moira tilted her head and chittered.
“You’re right! Took the wing clear off too, but they never did find the sucker.” Applejack stared into the crimson liquid with vacant eyes as she coldly recounted the same story she’d told her reanimated rat a hundred times. “Hell, with any luck, my magic can bring it ba-” Applejack squeezed her eyes shut as her voice suddenly choked.
The farmer turned necromancer sucked in a long breath of air before letting it all out. She plucked the potions from their resting places and tucked them neatly, one after the other, into the enchanted ‘trip-proof’ pockets of the coat Rarity had made for her long ago. “C’mon, ya varmint. Let’s go meet my wife.”
Applejack teetered her way out of the room, dodging piles of Daring Do books and discarded notes that sat close to the entryway, before quietly shutting the door behind her.
The room was called the attic, even though it was just one of three unused guest bedrooms on the top floor of the farmhouse. Below that was where the Apples slept, and below that was all the fixings of a proper country house.
Applejack made her way down the rickety stairs, trying not to make eye contact with the ponies in the photographs that lined the walls. Some were uncles and aunts, some were distant cousins, and some were her late parents. She couldn’t face any of them.
“If only your parents could see you in that graduation gown, girly. They’d be so proud of you.” Applejack swallowed a sob as her hooves made contact with the second floor.
“Y’know Applejack, lookin’ back, I feel kinda silly about houndin’ after my cutie mark now that I got it. But you always encouraged me to seize every day, and I hate gettin’ all mushy but thank you, I’m real lucky to -”
Squeaking on Applejack’s shoulder hoisted her out of the memory just as she made it to the ground floor.
The front door sat to the immediate left to the base of the stairs and across from the living room. To the right of the base sat the entry to the kitchen, so it’d be easy to slip outside without alerting anyone. The instant her hoof met the door, a firmer hoof clasped down on her shoulder.
“Applejack, we gotta talk.” Big Mac’s bassy voice boomed even when he was trying to be quiet.
Applejack ground her teeth, not bothering to meet her brother’s gaze “What about?”
“Granny.” The mountainous stallion furrowed his eyebrows, “And those potions you been makin’, matter of fact.”
“Nothin’.” His voice sounded labored. “Nothin’s changed Applejack. She still watches the same shows over and over again, eats the same food every day, and she still says every day is Wednesday from twenty years ago. Doctor says she’s on borrowed time.” Big Mac stomped a hoof into the wood flooring, sending the old home into a shudder.
“Good! Then I can come back the same as every day and watch the Andy Griffon Show, and help myself to dinner for the thousandth time! There’s pleasure in a routine Mac, you oughtta know that by now.” As skilled an alchemist as Applejack had become, she could never break down how anger and sadness swirled around each other, but never fully mixed.
Fire flashed in Big Mac’s eyes as he opened his mouth to say something he’d likely regret but was interrupted by a small redhead peeking her head around the corner.
“Could… Could you two keep it down or take it outside or somethin’? You’re startin’ t’ make Granny cry.” Apple Bloom couldn’t look at either of her siblings and instead defeatedly addressed the floor they stood on. She didn’t wear her bow anymore, because Granny Smith liked wearing it.
Big Mac looked the way a heartbreak felt. “Of course, Apple Bloom. And you tell ‘er I’ll be right there for ‘er too.”
Apple Bloom only nodded as she slipped back behind the corner like an ashamed dog, her quiet hoofsteps trailing back into the living room. Within the same instant, Big Mac reared his scornful eyes back to his sister. “Outside. Now.” He opened the door and cold, snowy air billowed inside as though it had a grudge on the Apple house. Applejack rushed outside against the wind and heard her brother follow behind, gently shutting the door behind him, despite the strong gust.
Walking out onto the porch was like walking out onto a cemetery. Rickety rocking chairs moved with the icy breeze, snow danced across the frozen fields that were bursting with life just a few months prior, and skeletal, dormant trees dotted the land. The snow crunched beneath Applejack’s hooves as she made her way for the eastern hill where Rainbow Dash was buried, ignoring her brother’s demand for a talk.
“Hey!” Big Mac barked, “Where do you think you’re goin’?”
“I’m goin’,” Applejack stopped and reached a hoof to her shoulder and let Moira scamper onto it before tucking the mouse in the pockets opposite the ones carrying the potions, “t’see my wife.”
“The hell you are! You ain’t the type to walk away when somepony’s talkin’ to you, and I don’t think studyin’s changed that.” Big Mac’s voice pierced through the howling wind.
“I am when it’s the same pony whose been sayin’ the same thing for the past two years.” Applejack turned around, keeping a hoof in front of her face as flurries of snow buffeted her. “What about this talk is gonna be different from the last one? Or the one before that?”
Big Macintosh recoiled as though he’d been hit by his sister’s words, “Don’t make it sound so simple, Applejack. The same problem ain’t been fixed yet! This ain’t me tellin’ you t’ take the eggs from the henhouse, or it’s your turn for supper. This is about Granny. It’s about family, Applejack.”
Applejack bit her tongue and tasted vitriol and regret. On one hoof, she just wanted to scream at her brother for getting in the way of things, but on the other hoof, she still deeply loved her family. She felt the rift grow between them and resented it just as much as they did. “Let’s hear it.”
Mac shook his head, “I swear, sometimes it’s like talkin’ to a wall with you.”
“I’m listenin’ ain’t I?” The blonde mare raised an eyebrow.
“No, I don’t think you are. Just like you ain’t been listenin' to a thing anypony’s said for the past two years!! Half the papers in the attic are unopened letters from your friends for cryin’ out loud!”
“I’m listenin’ now Mac.” Applejack swallowed down the pungent mixture of emotions brewing in her mouth and letting it drop like a steel ball into her stomach. She’d long awaited this conversation, and here it was. “Just give it to me straight. You’re kickin’ me out over them potions ain’tcha?”
Macintosh narrowed his eyes and stared at his sister, darting from one eye to the other, as though he were studying the diseased roots of a tree and assessing how bad the condition was. “I ain’t gonna kick you out Applejack, you’re my little sister. My flesh and blood. What would Pa think of me if he found out?”
The burly stallion let the question hang in the frigid air before he continued in a wavering voice, “It’s just…The doctor says she’s on death’s door, AJ. She could have 10 days or 10 minutes. All I’m askin’ is that you come down and talk to ‘er sometimes.”
“You said that a year ago,” Applejack felt numb as the words fell off her tongue, “Maybe she’ll live another ten years. Even if she don’t, Mac, what I’m doin’ now can bring her back even if she -”
Macintosh grabbed the yoke hanging around his neck and hurled it into the ground, sending up a plume of snow, “Goddamnit Applejack, I knew you wasn’t listenin’!” He jabbed a hoof towards his sister, anger igniting behind his bright green eyes. “If you wanna help, come downstairs and spend some time with her, talk to Twilight or the hospital and work on a potion that can fix her brain! I ain’t gonna have my grandmother be some fuckin’ zombie cause you think you know it all!”
Applejack ground her teeth so hard she expected them to pop, “No you ain’t listenin’! If I can beat death, we can spend as much time as we like with Granny! With Ma,” Big Mac started towards Applejack, stomping a trail in the snow as he closed the distance between them with rage in his eyes, “with Pa!”
Macintosh seized his sister by the chest and shook her, the undead mouse entrenched in her pocket threatened to blow away if it weren’t for Applejack holding her in place. “Dash is dead, Applejack. She’s gone! Ponies die!” Tears clung to the edge of Mac’s eyes, “But Granny ain’t dead yet. I ain’t askin’ you to stop, but for once, just act like you give a shit! Is that so hard!?”
Applejack thrashed in her brother’s grip before pushing him off. “Fuck you! I do care Mac! Why do you think I’m doin’ all this?”
Big Macintosh let the tears flow freely from his eyes, “Cause you ain’t accepted she’s dead!!”
Applejack stomped, “Bullshit! I know she’s dead, I’m tryin’ to bring ‘er back! This potion’s gonna work, and then I’m gonna come back over that hill with Rainbow Dash, and we’re gonna make you eat those words! Matter of fact, if this time don’t work, I’ll quit everythin’ and patch things up with the girls. How’s that for not lettin’ things go?” Pride mixed with fury usually resulted in anguish, with regret as the waste product, but this concoction would be different.
The crimson stallion looked as though all the life was drained from him, bits of snow clung to his coat and he trembled from the cold. “I can’t believe you. What if this is the last time you see Granny?” Big Mac stared into his sister with defeated eyes.
“What if this is the next time you see Dash?” Applejack stared into her brother with flames in her gaze. “Do we have a deal?”
Macintosh turned and made his way for the farmhouse, casting a glance over his shoulder to his sister, “For Granny’s sake, for your sake, if you ain’t lyin’ we have a deal.”
Applejack sneered and swiveled around, heading for the hill where Dash’s grave lied, “That’s all I needed to hear. Get everyone dressed in their Sunday best for when I get back!” She ground her teeth from the cold, but couldn’t help but hold onto her devilish grin. By the end of the night, she’d either be the first necromancer to raise a pony back from beyond or one of many ponies to raise a friendship back from its grave.
Applejack clenched her teeth and cursed under her breath as she marched down the worn path to Rainbow Dash’s grave. Slush clung to her coat like piercing steel barbs as her hooves sunk into the deep snow, making every step painful and slow. The trees provided some cover for the wind, which now seemed to give up its fight.
She’d made this journey hundreds of times, sometimes to reminisce, sometimes to talk to Dash as though she were still around, and sometimes to explain her progress and what she’d learned. It wasn’t lost on her that she’d become somewhat of an egghead, the thing Dash hated the most, but then, being the number one Daring Do fan wasn’t exactly far from being a nerd.
But this march felt different. Applejack’s hooves felt like heavy molten lead being plunged into ice with each step, as though the entire world were resting on her haunches. Applejack struggled to gulp down what little spit gathered in her mouth as her heart thundered in her ears.
Was she really about to succeed? Of course she was! There’s no way she couldn’t. That’s what she’d wanted right? Then why did it feel so… painful?
Moira’s paws scraped against Applejack’s chest making her wince involuntarily. “Ow! Hold still, would ya’? Won’t be much longer ‘til -”
That’s when she saw it. A splintering wooden cross wrapped in tough rope with an old shovel leaning against it marked Dash’s resting place. The mangled, old tree sat just behind it, with faded boasts and accomplishments from throughout both Dash’s and Applejack’s life chiseled into its trunk. But one, right in the center, sitting as though it were just above the cross, felt like a knife had etched its message into Applejack’s heart, ‘Got Hitched. AJ + RD 4EVER.’
“Are you out of your mind? Our Rainbow is going to be buried up here in Cloudsdale!” Applejack’s breath was sucked out of her as she heard the echoes of Dash’s father.
“Bury ‘er up there? Far away from her friends? From me? You gonna turn ‘er coffin into some kinda shrine like everythin’ else of hers? Would you just think of,” Applejack’s own voice boomed in her head, paralyzing her in place, “What Rainbow Dash would want.”
Applejack shook her head and ground her teeth harder as her breath hitched and slung the rope gently around her neck. Tension built in her stomach with each hard thump of her heart, and her vision doubled as she took the rusted shovel in hoof and sunk it into the frozen earth. She shook her head painfully unsuccessfully casting away fragments of conversations as she heaved bits of snow and hardened soil to either side of the grave.
“This is what she’d want.” Applejack muttered to herself, sweat starting to bead above her brow as she lowered deeper and deeper into the ground with each shovelful. “Keep goin’.”
“Y’know, if we get married, my mother’s gonna want to see me in a dress, right?” Applejack stared up, dumbfounded at a phantom of Dash that appeared to fly before the tree, acrobatically looping around each of its mangled branches.
“Ha! Granny’d throw a fit if I didn’t come down the aisle wearing Ma’s old gown.” And there was Applejack, holding her hat in place as the gusts of her girlfriend’s momentum threatened to carry it away.
“Ugh! It’s just so… Lame!”
“What? Scared of lookin’ pretty? Cause I got news for you, you’re prettier than a-”
Searing hot tears streaked their way down Applejack’s face as she turned back to the grave and sunk the shovelhead back into the cool damp soil.
“Ok, ok! Don’t go and get all mushy with me.” Dash hovered just in front of the phantom Applejack, who removed her hat and plucked a small black box from the top of her head.
“So Dash, will you…”
“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!”
“Make me the happiest mare in Equestria?”
Thunk!
Applejack’s shovel struck the worn oak coffin of Rainbow Dash, spearing straight through the old cowpony hat that rested just above it. Applejack laid a hoof on it and winced. It almost burned to the touch. She cast it out over the side of the hole as if she were flinging a piece of litter from the coffin. She hadn’t earned the right to wear it yet.
The work of clearing out the rest of the dirt was tedious but necessary, and before long, Dash’s casket lay untarnished, save for a small indent where the shovel had hit.
Applejack’s lip trembled, her knees wobbled and knocked into each other, and a knot formed in her chest that grew tighter with each thump of her heart.
Love, pride, and terror surged in her pulse, as though she were feeling every triumph and every defeat in her life at the same time. That yearning to succeed more than anything swirling around with regret for everything she burned up to get here. It felt like fire, it felt like venom, but both were warm, like a lover’s embrace.
“G-get a grip Applejack,” The farmer chided herself in a voice smaller than she’d ever remembered, “Just lift ‘er up, and that’s that.”
Lifting up the bottom of the coffin was like lifting up a mountain, but Applejack poured every last ounce of strength she could muster into lifting it just enough for Moira to run the rope around it and jump out of the hole. As strenuous as it was to lift just a few inches off the ground, it was twice as difficult to haul it to the surface.
Applejack buried her teeth into the tough rope and pulled with what might was left in her hooves. It felt as though every muscle in her body was screaming for her to stop as the top of the casket crested over the brim, pushing a small path into the snow despite pain exploding all over her body.
Applejack collapsed into a puddle of sweat and exhaustion just as the bottom of the casket touched the surface, all the apprehension about what she was doing seemingly boiled away, as though she were distilling her emotions with pain. All that was left sitting in the farmer’s stressed, weary mind, was overwhelming pride in coming this far.
“Well Moira,” Applejack almost sounded empty as she pulled the green brew from her pocket and gasped for air, “Here’s to… all our… hard work. Bottom’s up.”
Applejack grimaced as she uncorked the small flask and touched the frigid glass to her lips. “This is what Rainbow Dash wants.” Applejack colorlessly recited as she tipped the potion up, and a thin, sour, bitter river flowed into her mouth, and directly down her throat. The world instantly sharpened, everything became crisper, clearer, and vibrant. Applejack could see each individual snowflake’s design as they floated down to the ground at half-speed, feel the worms turning in the earth below her, and the heartbeats and shallow breaths of every animal hibernating in the trees. Nature flowed into Applejack, and Applejack flowed into nature.
Every crack and groove on Dash’s casket stared back at the necromancer as she retrieved the red vial and put the cork to her teeth, feeling each individual pore against her molar. “No turnin’ back now.” The potion was a deep, cruel crimson, and smelled of rotting meat as though one mixed blood with decay and then pressed it into a narrow tube.
The instant the cork hit the snow, Applejack shakily poured the liquid on Dash’s coffin and jumped back as the deep red started hissing and bubbling along the worn wooden face, before seeping down into the oak and further down into the pegasus’ corpse.
Once Applejack was certain the brew had coated the body, she threw herself on the coffin and channeled that feeling of nature’s symbiosis, of the warmth of her blood and clarity in her mind, and envisioned a great rushing stream flowing up from the earth through her and along the casket as a natural catalyst, then into her beloved.
“Climb up outta that hole Dash, you ain’t foolin’ anypony!” Applejack squeezed her eyes shut as the pain of necromancy finally reared its repulsive head. To give life back, life had to be taken, it was basic science. Earth pony magic lessened this effect, as Applejack drained the bulk of the life needed from the very earth itself, but some of that burden still needed to be hers to bear.
It felt like her being, her very soul, was being uprooted by death’s cold clutches, and pulling back against it drained the vitality of her entire body. Ten seconds was all it took to channel the energy into a mouse, and Applejack had estimated that it would take exactly sixty seconds to bring Rainbow back. Sixty seconds that felt like two years.
Applejack could feel the trees dry and decay and the grass underneath her hooves wither and die, and then she screamed. It felt as though every cell in her body was being violently rended, like death had grabbed hold of every possible nerve in her brain and used them to play a song of anguish.
Just as soon as it began, the miserable, discordant song ended. Applejack stumbled back, struggling to maintain her balance as she scooped up her hat from the ground and watched Dash through blurry vision. The sounds of nature slowly faded away alongside the natural clarity the amplification potion brought.
“Come on now…” Applejack heaved air in, eyeing the unmoving coffin, “Don’t make a fool outta me.”
Thump.
Applejack’s eyes shot wide open. No wind blew and nothing stirred.
Thump. Thump!
The lid burst from its hinges, swinging into the ground in a cloud of snow and dead debris, giving way to a sickening black mass that rose from its resting place like a resurrected god.
Muscle and rancid feathers yet to decompose into bone clung to the bastardization of life that Rainbow Dash became. Steaming black ichor leaked from the once-pegasus’ mouth and poured from the severed side of her body like a mockery of living blood. Her teeth chattered and clicked an incoherent rhythm that flung the fluid into the snow, corroding it instantaneously. Resting in her eye sockets were a pair of piercing, wrathful red orbs that bored into Applejack more than they did look at her.
She couldn’t have looked more beautiful.
Applejack’s face grew warm as she panted and took a cautious step towards her undead wife. The potion had worked, but it hadn’t brought Dash back to life so much as it did zombify her. Just like Big Mac feared would happen to Granny. This wasn’t Rainbow Dash. “H-hey there Zap Apple, I hope you’ve been sleepin’ well. You…” She closed the distance, gulping down pride, and came face to face with her greatest work, her greatest love, and her greatest mistake, “Look as pretty as the day I met’cha, y’know that?”
Applejack felt her lips gravitate towards the blackened, rotting remnants of Dash’s, only to be stopped by a pitiful, pained gurgling coming from her beloved’s mouth. A pathetic black and red tear pooled from Dash’s lifeless eye socket as she attempted to regurgitate words through a thoroughly decomposed tongue and long rotted away vocal cords. This was the language the dead spoke.
Applejack tilted her head and held a hoof to Dash to silence her. “You don’t gotta say a thing, sweet pea. Just gon’ hurt yourself that way.”
Applejack parted her lips and went in for a kiss, and Dash reciprocated, even flapping the lone, fetid wing she had left as she used to when they kissed in her past life. Dark bile flowed into Applejack’s mouth as she swirled her tongue around Dash’s, savoring the acrid and coppery taste of decay. The farmer hooked her hoof around Rainbow’s neck and pulled her tighter into the kiss, and Dash returned the movement with her cold, wet hooves.
Even without a potion, Applejack felt the world turn around her, even without wings, she felt like she was flying. It was like she never died.
Applejack pulled away, dragging a trail of undead bile and fresh saliva with her. She gazed longingly into the blinding red dots as she ran her hooves across the vile clumps of Dash’s mane. “Sorry, sugarcube. I just wanted to tell you I loved you before you went back t’ sleep. I hope you can forgive me for bein’ so selfish.”
Rainbow Dash chattered her teeth and fought to bring forth a single word, but only tortured rasps and bubbling escaped her throat. As much as Applejack wanted to be right, as much as she wanted the world to see how death can be beaten, and as much as she wanted to see Rainbow Dash again, she was wrong. Twilight was right all that time ago, she couldn’t bring her back.
Applejack grimaced as she retrieved the jagged shovel from the ground. Sorrow and anger and affection danced in the flaming cauldron of her stomach. She knew what had to be done, but lacked the tears to cry at the second death of Rainbow Dash.
Applejack turned, taking one last yearning look at her wife, one final remorseful stare at the amalgamation of reanimated flesh and wrath, before raising the shovelhead like an executioner’s axe. “Rest easy for me darlin’." She said in a hollow voice. "I love you.”
Crunch.