Raindrops pitter-pattered against Ponyville Hospital as the clouds poured out their tears. Above, the moonlight filtered through the drifting clouds, allowing the hospital to bask in its periwinkle luminescence. Comforted, Solace smiled as it reached into the quiet, gently kissing the night once again with its soft lips.
The silence that kept the masterpiece glued together, however, was soon broken. A squeal echoed through the meadow as the front door to the hospital opened. Slipping out from behind the cracked glass door was a little orange pegasus. A hospital gown two sizes too big was tied loosely around her withers, and she dragged an IV cart beside her. Tears slid down her cheeks as she trudged down the path, weighed down by exhaustion and the darkness inside her.
The filly stopped at the end of the small dirt road, taking ragged breaths and pulling her wet fuschia mane out of her eyes. She spotted a taxi carriage making its way down the street and decided to wait for it to pass, knowing it would take her a while to make it to the other side. Gingerly, she lowered herself to the ground. She knew she would get dirty, but she didn’t care; she was too worn out to keep standing, and she had to make it to her destination, no matter how long it took. She just had to.
She was broken from her thoughts as the carriage rolled through a puddle, splashing her with the mud. Sighing, she used her hospital gown to wipe off her face and slowly got to her hooves. Now able to take her time, she made her way across the street.
Once on the other side, the filly yanked her IV cart across the field. She continued forward in this direction for nearly an hour, dragging the cart alongside her. By the time she reached her destination, she was on the brink of blacking out. Her weak body wasn't able to take much more strain. But she still pushed herself forward, knowing that this may be her last chance to go where she needed to. At last, she fumbled out of the grass and unto the path leading up to a large open gate. The pegasus looked up at the sign attached to the entrance as though it was a predator looming over her, slowly reading the words aloud. “Everfree Cemetery, the resting place of ponies lost, big and small.” Her voice cracked slightly, but she did her best to remain composed.
With another deep breath, she shuffled underneath the black-painted gates and walked past the graves. She soon reached a pair of footstones nearly covered with moss, a sorrowful sight of those who may have looked long-forgotten to the average pony passing through. But they weren’t.
The orange pony gently peeled away the moss and dirt that covered the stones, her eyes misty. Then, she sat in the grass in front of the graves and stared. “So…” she began quietly, trembling as her sadness ate away at her. “I-I just came to…” She bit her lip and finally let the tears flow freely. “I… I’m… gonna s-see you… soon,” she spat out between sobs. Soon, she was lying on the ground, her face buried in her hooves as her woes fully took hold of her heart once more.
Suddenly, though, as she was crying to the skies, she heard a gentle voice from behind her. “Scootaloo?” the mare said in surprise.
The filly’s ears swivelled as she recognised the voice. She swallowed her tears, embarrassed by her meltdown, and slowly raised herself to a sitting position before turning around. Beside her stood a very worried looking Applejack. For a fleeting moment, the green eyes of the element of honesty met hers. Scootaloo quickly lowered her gaze, however, still ashamed the mare had witnessed her outburst.
The blonde pony took a step forward. “You okay, sugarcube?” Applejack questioned hesitantly, though already knowing the answer. She didn’t seem to know what to do to help the filly.
The younger one’s eyes fell to the rocks beside her. She ran her hoof along one, reading the words engraved in it for what might have been the thousandth time. She couldn’t control it; she felt her eyes tearing up again. “N-no, Applejack…” she whispered, barely audible.
But the cowpony heard her. "Well... If'n ya wanna tell me 'bout it, Ah'm all ears, as they say," she replied softly, settling herself into the muddy grass in hopes it might make Scootaloo more comfortable. The filly turned to look at her reluctantly, and Applejack inwardly cringed at the filly's appearance as her face was now fully illuminated by the moon.
Her coat seemed to hang around her thin frame like a loose Wonderbolts suit. Bags hung below bloodshot eyes, and her hooves were covered in scratches and bruises from the long walk from the hospital. She was a sorry excuse for the bubbly little filly the earth pony once knew by the same name. But, even so, she still held some of her wits about her. Weakly, she limped to Applejack's side, teardrops rolling down her already wet cheeks as she leaned up against Applejack's stomach in a way reminiscent of a younger Applebloom. The cowpony let a wave of nostalgia run through her as she lowered herself to the ground, ignoring the mud that matted her fur and bathed her in its grime.
Scootaloo took a long, shaky breath before her body began to heave violently as she cried out in agony. Slowly and gently, the orange earth mare pulled the filly into an embrace, her eyes filling with tears of understanding. "Aw, come now, sugarcube, you let it all out."
The filly sighed before staring at Applejack as if she was looking into her soul. The mare dared to stare back, if for anything just to prove that she cared. Scootaloo seemed to take this as a hint and she opened her mouth. "Applejack, I'm dying."
Applejack looked at the filly's dark expression and knew instantly that this was no joke, no "Cutie Mark Crusaders actresses" scheme. Besides, she had known Scootaloo had been in the hospital, but she hadn't realised the seriousness of the situation. The minute she heard it, she started worrying about how Applebloom would take the news, but then felt guilty when she realised she was comforting somepony in what would likely be one of their last moments and was spending the time thinking about a different pony. She was about to prompt the filly to continue when she spoke again. "I have a genetic condition, the doctors say. It caused me to be born with a heart defect nopony knows how to fix, not even with magic, and it's been slowly kill... k-killing..." she trailed off, biting her lip in discomfort. Then, with a look of determination, she continued: "killing me. Yes, before you ask, it's also related to why I can't fly... I'll never fly, probably never find my cutie mark... Oh, Applejack," she cried out, her tears returning. "Who am I kidding? I... I'll never find my cutie mark! I don't know my destiny because I don't have one!" Her voice had risen to a shout, and she stood in front of the earth pony, wings flared, breathing like an angry bull.
"Shh," Applejack whispered after a few tense seconds of shocked silence. The mare pulled the filly back into her embrace in an almost maternal way. She rocked the little pony back and forth, trying to settle her down, before speaking again in a murmur. "I don't think I've met y'all yet," she addressed the graves beside them with a wave of her hoof. Scootaloo followed the mare's gesture and realised what Applejack wanted.
"Oh, uh, yeah," the bright orange pegasus mumbled uneasily, clambering out of the earth pony's grasp. She sniffed and wiped her eyes before she shot a weak smile at Applejack. "This is Mommy," she pointed to the left rock, "and this is Daddy."
Applejack planted a smile on her face. "Why, I'll be. It's great to finally meet y'all. Lemme tell ya, you have quite the little seedling growin' here!" she chuckled, giving Scootaloo a grin. "What'd they look like, Scoots?"
"Oh..." a beam of sunshine broke into the filly's darkened heart as she described her parents, a "sort-of" smile forming as she spoke. "Well, mommy was an earth pony, a beautiful, pink earth pony, who taught school, like Miss Cheerilee. She had purple mane with blonde streaks. Oh, and Daddy, he was an orange pegasus, like me! He had dark mane though. A very handsome dark red," she finished, swelling with pride. But, as soon as she looked back at the grave, her knees quivered and smile faltered. Then her frown deepened, and the cowpony could tell without a doubt that she was imagining herself in the ground beside them.
Applejack tried to think fast, to say something to make the hurting pony feel better. After a minute or so of debating with herself, she decided Scootaloo deserved to know why she was at the cemetery late on a rainy night such as then. She sighed. "Scootaloo, care t'come sit by me, like b'fore?"
Slowly the filly nodded, her cheeks turning pink. She secretly missed being held; it made her feel loved, more so than what a friend could offer, and Applejack could play big sister in Rainbow Dash's absence. So, she made her way to Applejack's side and settled in.
"Ah've got a li'l story for ya, Scootaloo," the mare began. "It's 'bout mah parents, and the fact that, as ya mighta noticed, they're missin', too." So Applejack told her story. All of it, from beginning till end. She told Scootaloo about the accident they had on their way to delivering apples, how her father had been so desperate to save her mother that he had ultimately sacrificed himself as well. She explained her depression, how she was unable to explain it to Applebloom right away, "since she was only a little thing". She didn't leave anything out. The suffering filly deserved to know she was understood. At least, in one aspect.
After the mare finished she waited for the young pegasus to talk. And waited. And waited. It took her a while, but eventually she spoke up. "Do you love me?"
The voice carried so much desperation, so much anguish that it was hard to Applejack to bear. She winced at hearing those words, unsure of the answer herself. She didn't know the filly that well, but she was dying and deserved as much love as she could get. Especially since she was going out without her parents. So, Applejack made a decision, then. She was going to love and support Scootaloo as if she were her own sister, as if she were her own mother. "Yes, Scootaloo, Ah love you," she replied, and she did now.
"Thanks," the filly said, sounding as relieved as if Twilight Sparkle had just offered to write her essay for Miss Cheerilee's class. "I just hope I won't hurt you... When I go and stuff..."
"You won't, Scoots, Ah'll hurt because Ah cared for ya, but it won't be yer fault."
"Well, that's good to hear," the filly nodded slightly, shifting her weight. Applejack noted the drowsiness in her voice and felt her rest her head against her hoof. Soon, she could hear soft snores coming from the filly. With care, she agilely lifted the filly onto her shoulders and headed back towards the hospital, pulling the IV cart along beside them.
And, for a moment, as Applejack strode through the night, the little filly asleep on her back, things almost seemed truly peaceful. If only for a moment, everything was alright, and the world was not a dark, broken place where fillies get born with fatal heart defects and parents are absent.
Applejack had found a light amidst the darkness of her world, and, even if it was dying fast, it was worth savouring. So, as she snuck through the halls of the hospital and carefully laid the filly down in the room she had visited a few days ago with Applebloom, Applejack smiled. She smiled for life, she smiled for herself.
But, most of all, she smiled for Scootaloo, the tattered blanket that had warmed her heart.
