Applejack put all of her weight onto her front hooves and struck back into the apple tree with a resounding thud. She planted herself back down to the earth and looked up into the branches to watch her work. Dozens of red delicious apples fell from the tree and landed in various buckets encircling it.Sparing herself a moment to enjoy her work coming to fruition, she smiled.
The low crack of distant thunder interrupted her reverie. She knew the rain had been coming in. The weather team had a lot of trouble keeping the larger storms at bay now. Applejack didn’t mind so much. The overcast let a cool wind blow through, making it a comfortable temperature without the sun bearing down on her while she worked. The promise of rain made her happy now.
She adjusted her hat atop her head as she could feel the slight drizzle coming on. It was time to get off the fields, no work would be getting done in the rain.
Applejack walked over to the farmhouse, in no hurry at all. The rain began to pick up, and her coat was filling in with visible marks of water dropping onto it.
With a sigh, she made her way up the steps into the farmhouse. She opened the front door to look around. No one was home at the moment except for maybe Granny, napping the day away. Applejack solemnly made her way to her room.
Opening the door, she found a bit of solace in the dark bedroom. Rain pattered against the roof with increasing intensity. The sound of the rain softly landing on her window and roof brought a gentle rhythm to the otherwise deathly silent room. She contemplated just sleeping through the storm, but she had something else she needed to do.
She walked over to a drawer next to her bed. The gentle knocking of her hooves on the floorboard mixed with the sound of the rain in the room. Applejack leaned in a grabbed the knob with her teeth, pulling the drawer open. All that was in it was a small metal tin, only about 3 inches wide. She looked at her possession with reluctance. It wasn’t every day that she took the tin out of its place. Even through her momentary uncertainty, this was something she wanted do.
Applejack picked the metal tin out of the drawer and set it on her bed. She ran a hoof through her mane, then back up again to her hat. With practiced ease, she tossed the hat onto the rack beside her bed, then focused her attention back to the metal tin.
With a single step, she grabbed the tin in her mouth and turned back towards the door.
She got to the front door of the farmhouse and spared a moment to look at the downpour the storm had turned into. Most ponies would turn away from it and simply go back inside, but that was part of the reason Applejack liked days like this.
She pushed open the door with a squeak muffled by the rain, and stepped into the torrent. Almost immediately her coat and mane were drenched, causing locks of blonde hair to stick to her face and neck. She didn’t care too much as she took her first step towards her destination.
The dirt path turned to mud, and the sky took an increasing turn towards darkness as the rain poured down with greater intensity. Applejack’s journey wasn’t a long one, but the effort of walking through the veritable monsoon had her thinking otherwise.
Mud stuck to the bottom of her hooves, and all she could hear was the sharp pangs of raindrops as they hit the metal tin in her mouth. She kept her eyes forward and focused on the road.
Finally, she reached her destination. a black metal fence and a small gate blocked her path, but it was always open anyway. Applejack backed into the gate and put it back in place when she passed through.
Being in the rain for so long had her feeling a bit sick, but she turned around with a warm feeling in her heart that eased her pain a bit.
This place was a popular spot for many Ponyville residents to rest, but Applejack was just visiting for now.
She knew this place well enough from frequent visits to know exactly where she wanted to go, even in the haze of the rain. Without a single slowed step, she found her favorite spot and sat down into the wet grass. She gently laid the tin out in front of her as she dropped it from her mouth. She hunched over it, careful not to let too much rain over her. With one hoof, she popped open the tin, revealing a small, laminated photograph.
Applejack picked up the picture in her hoof, looking at it with a fond smile. It showed a mare with a rainbow mane and a cocky smile pulling in a surprised cowgirl with a blonde mane and a freckled face that could only belong to her. The picture brought on a plethora of fond memories that made Applejack’s smile widen as she gave a couple of giggles at the situation in which the picture was taken.
Once she was done reveling in the memories, she turned the picture over to read the writing etched into the back of it.
Love you forever
-RD
Her smile quickly faded, and she tried uselessly to choke back an impending sob. Applejack pulled the picture close to her and huddled up in the grass.
Tears flowed down her face, and mixed indiscriminately into the rain pouring down it as well. Applejack leaned over and rested her head against a hard stone slab to her right and closed her eyes. Her whimpers became more prevalent and she let it all out into the grass of that solemn graveyard.
She looked up to the tombstone before her. A large, bold inscription read ‘RAINBOW DASH’.
Author's Note
First attempt at something sad. How'd I do?
