Maud sat in front of a rock pile, staring at the construct her sister had made just one week ago. Her sister's friends were sitting beside her, shock still evident on their faces. The six of them had stared at the corpse that had been on the ground, having been half-crushed by the rock that had been hurdling towards her mere seconds before. It now lay several yards away, sticking out of the mess of an obstacle course the party pony had created.
The deafening silence was shattered by Fluttershy sobbing into Rarity's shoulder. Rainbow Dash was sitting on the ground, her eyes staring off into space once again. AppleJack had her hat pulled down over her face in mourning. Twilight started as Maud turned suddenly, tears streaming down her emotion-filled face.
"You!" She shouted, grabbing and shaking the purple alicorn with her hooves. "You're a Princess! Can you do something, anything to fix this?!" She shoved her towards her sister's body. Twilight thought long and hard once more, wracking her brain through every spell she knew. Not a single one would help right now. She turned back to the stone grey mare, grief evident on her face.
"I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry. There's nothing I can do."
Maud slapped her in the face with her hoof, knocking Twilight to the ground, not caring who she was hitting. "Come on!" She shouted, tears streaming down her face. "I know there are ponies out there who can raise the dead, why can't you!" She had her hoof raised to strike when a blue glow surrounded it, holding it in place as Twilight got back to her hooves.
"I'm just as upset as you are." Twilight said, anger evident in her eyes. "Pinkie Pie was my best friend. Don't you think I would do anything to bring her back?!" She was shouting now. "No! I'm not crying! Do you know why?!"
Maud shook her head, just noticing the princess's raised voice.
"It's because I'm still trying to think of any possible way we could have saved her!"
"But you didn't!" Maud finally shouted back. "You didn't save her. You could have, but you didn't!" She collapsed on the ground, sobs wracking her body. Twilight calmed down, seeing the grief evident on her new friend's face. "You... You could have, but..." She broke down once more. A bright purple light enveloped her as Twilight carried her away from the scene, the other four looking on with that dull gaze one acquires when a loved one is lost.
Applejack had been bucking her trees nonstop since the accident, and Big Mac was starting to get worried. "She had to run out of juice eventually, right?" He thought as another tree had a hole bucked right through it, sending the last few apples raining into the basket. Applejack had harvested the entire orchard yesterday. She needed to stop. But every time he tried to talk some sense into her, she stubbornly refused. He understood what she was going through. When Ma and Pa Apple died in the Timberwolf attack, he had worked nonstop for two whole months, according to Granny Smith. The only reason he'd stopped was because his body couldn't take anymore of it. Now AJ was going through the exact same thing.
He'd talked to Granny about her, and had only been told: "Oh... She'll come around. You just wait and see. Why, Ah' couldn't get a lick of sense outta you until ya'll had some time to think it all over fer yer self. She'll work fer quite some time. Ain't nothin we can do about that. But when her body finally quits like yours did, she'll have to come to terms with it."
So that's what he would do. He let her work off her grief, insisting she would take every job he had. She had told him he could take the day off. "Maybe go talk with some of your friends in town?" She had suggested. So that is what he did. He walked into town, figuring he could pick up Apple Bloom from school. He was still trying to figure out how to keep her away from home. She was grieving too, but that didn't mean she should see her big sister in this state. Mr. Loo had been happy to let the girls sleep over at his house for the first night. But by the fifth, he was starting to get a little cranky. He would see if Miss Cheerilie would take them tonight, but for now he just needed to concentrate on getting there.
