A Purposeful Passing

"How often have your nightmares been occurring as of late," asked the therapist sitting across from me. He's an older stallion with a blue coat, a light orange mane, and a cutie mark in the shape of a therapist couch. He sat on the chair with his hind legs crossed, a clip board on his right hoof and a pen on the other. His mane is pulled back and is glistens with product.

I slouched in the chair across from him. Just something about these therapist chairs that make them extremely comfortable. "About twice a week, maybe three times," I responded to his question.

"That's good, we're making progress," he said as he wrote on his clipboard, "Now, for the past three months we've talked about what goes on in your dreams, now I think we should try to find why you are having these dreams. The sooner we can rid you of this syndrome, the better."

"Ok," I responded. I just want these dreams to go away. It's been three years since the first one and as time went by they became worse and more frequent. It got so bad that I began to walk around in my sleep. I would get out of bed and start hitting stuff in my room, I almost hit Applejack when she came into my room one night during one of my worst dreams. The Apple family took me to the doctor to find out what the heck was wrong with me. Turns out I have some sort of anxiety disorder called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD for short. I don't why I have it but I've got a hunch on why I am suffering from it.

"Now you have been having these dreams for about three years. Has anything happened within that time that may have caused these dreams," the therapist asked.

"No," I responded.

"How about within the past five years?"

"Well...there was one thing that did happen that I really don't like to talk about."

"You don't have to share it if it's too hard for you, but just know that the later you choose to share the longer it's going to take to help."

"No it's ok," I took a deep breath as I recalled the memories of long past, "My sister died almost four years ago."

"I see," he responded as he wrote on his clipboard, "How did she die?"

"She had Grim Reaper disease, something that my parents also died of when I just a little colt."

"Did she die peacefully?"

"No, I can remember what she looked like in her last few minutes," I got choked up as I remembered that fateful day, "Her eyes were lifeless, she was alive but it didn't feel like she was there. She as pale as the snow on the ground, she could barely move at all. Worst of all was the blood; she bleed from her eyes, her nose, and she even coughed up blood." Tears began to form in my eyes, "Her last minutes on this world were the worst of her entire life. No pony should ever have to suffer such a death as she did."

The therapist continued to write on his clipboard, "Did she say anything before she passed away?"

"She told me not to worry, that things will get better, they always get better," I felt two tears leave my eyes as I finished, "And that was it."

"Do you believe what she said? Did things get better for you?"

"Yes, no, I don't know. I thought things were getting better, I finally got a roof over my head and food in my stomach, but I still feel empty and these dreams don't make the situation better."

"What about the Apple's, do you feel like a family that you can belong to?"

"Don't get me wrong doc, I love all that the Apples have done for me but they aren't my family. I'm only staying there because they let me stay there in return for helping out on the farm. I have shelter and food because I work for it, not because I am one of them."

The therapist continued to write down on his clipboard. He took a minute to look over his notes before looking up at me, "I've noticed a pattern in your dreams that your sister would appear and blame you for your death, am I correct?"

I nodded, "Yeah that's right."

"It would seem that you might have some sort of guilt because of her passing, do you feel responsible for her death?"

Ok, now that crossed a line. I have never felt guilty for my sister's death. It's not my fault that she died, I didn't give her the disease. "Can we move on to the next question?"

He was about to ask the next question until a clock sitting on a stand next to him went off. "Looks like that's all the time we have for today," he says as he silences the clock. I got up from my seat and made my to the door on the right side of the room. "I'll see you next week," he said as I opened the door, "And Sharpedge, don't feel like you are alone in this world, you still have family out there." I closed the door as I exited the building.

As I made my way through Ponyville, I began thinking about what we talked about. But of all the things I could've thought about, that last question he asked me kept tugging at my brain. Did I feel like I was the one to blame for my sister's death? No don't be ridiculous, you didn't kill your sister the disease did. I am not the murderer here. But am I to blame? I've always wondered what would've happened if I could've just tried a little bit harder to get help for her. Maybe if I had just reached out a bit more I could've run into someone who was a doctor just getting off work or maybe...

"Hey Sharpedge," I heard a voice coming from behind me, interrupting my train of thought. I turned around and saw Applejack running toward me. She seemed in a bit of a rush and looked a little annoyed as well, "Hey I need you to do me a favor."

"Sure AJ," I responded, "What do you need?"

"I need you to look over the apple cart till I get back," she pointed over the big wooden cart that had a counter sticking out of it. On top of the counter was a medium sized bag full of bits. "I have to rush to help out at the farm, a bunch of beavers dammed up a river near the east orchard and now the water is flooding the entire east side. I need to get a friend of mine to see if she can convince the beavers to un-dam the river."

"Uh, did you just say she can convince the beavers," I asked, since when have beavers been able to communicate on the same level as Equestrians?

"Yeah she can communicate with all animals."

"How does that even work?"

"Look I'll explain later I've got hurry before a quarter of our orchard is drowned," she then ran off towards the farm, "I'll be back as soon as I can," she shouted back as she ran.

I've never gotten the opportunity to run the apple cart all by myself. I've been on a few marketing trips with Big Mac and AJ a couple of times but I've never actually sold an apples all by myself. Well it shouldn't be too hard, I mean how hard can it be to sell a fruit? I've just got to remember what Big Mac and AJ did when they were selling. "Come on folks, come and get some fresh apples straight from the trees of Sweet Apple Acres. I've got red delicious, golden delicious, red gala, macintosh, you name it we've got it." Education through observation does work because within a few minutes ponies were lining up to buy apples. Within a 30 minutes I sold about 200 bits worth in apples. I continued to sell and I was enjoying every moment of it. "Apples, get your bright and juicy apples, 2 bits a piece while they-"

"LOOK OUT," I heard a voice screaming towards me. I looked around to see where the voice was coming from until WHAM, I was slammed across the town square. My body skidded across the ground until I was halted by hitting a nearby cart full of cabbages.

The hit made me dizzier than a colt on an out of control carousel. My ears were ringing something fierce. I shook my head to get rid of the dizziness. My head spiked with pain from the blow. I looked around at the accident, cabbages spilled all over the ground. But right next to me was a cyan colored pegasus filly, she looked about the same age as me, with a rainbow colored mane and tail and a cutie mark that had a primary color light bolt coming out a white cloud. She was shaking her head as she stood back up. She looked down at me, "You ok there buddy," she asked. I nodded, "Yeah sorry about that, new trick. Here let me help you up." She grabbed my right hoof and pulled onto my feet.

"It's ok," I responded, "You training for something?"

"Nah, I was trying out some new tricks I learned. Hope I didn't hurt you too much."

"No I'm fine, a little bump on the head won't kill me."

Suddenly, a voice from behind us shouted as if he saw a murder before his eyes, "NO MY CABBAGES!"

"Uh oh," said the filly, "Run!"

We then proceeded to run away from the angry cabbage sales pony as he shouted at us and for the sake of keeping this story rated T lets just say that his words were exactly friendly. We ran back to my cart and stopped to catch our breath. "So, you got a name," I asked huffing for air.

"Yeah, name's Rainbow Dash," she answered.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Sharpedge."

"Sharpedge huh? That's a cool name."

"So you new to Ponyville? I don't remember seeing you around these parts before."

"Yeah, me and my dad just moved here last week and on my birthday. We live in this big cloud house near the outskirts of town."

"That's cool, so do you fly a lot for fun or do you compete?"

"I used to fly for the National Juniors Flight League but now I just fly for the heck of it. I'm hoping to join the Wonderbolts when I get older."

"Hold up, the NJFL, are you the filly that did the sonic rainboom at the Junior Flight National Championship?"

"Yep that's me! It was really cool too. It was the last lap, me and this colt from Manehattan we're tied neck and neck. I flapped my wings as hard as I could, suddenly I felt this rush of energy come over me. It felt like a fire was roaring from inside of me. I began to inch further in front of him and then, BOOM, I blasted through the barrier, firing off a sonic ring color. I left my competition in the clouds as I tore through the finish line. After the race this baby appeared," she pointed at her rump showing off her cutie mark, "I knew that I was destined to racer."

"That sounds pretty awesome."

"Awesome? Try legendary! I am the first and only filly to ever accomplish a sonic rainboom. I am THE best flier in all of Equestria." Oh great, a pony with a bloated ego. "So what you, what's your cutie mark like?"

"I don't have one," I replied, "I'm just an ole' blank flank." Having a cutie mark used to be exciting for me, I always wondered what it would look like. But after these past few years the dream has sort of died away. It still would be neat to get one but it's just not a big priority right now.

"Wait, you're a blank flank and you're ok with it," Rainbow Dash said perplexed.

"Yeah, nothing wrong with being a blank flank," I said as I started picking up the apples that fell out of my cart when she flew into me.

"Well no but don't you want to know what you are meant to be?"

"Not really, I'm not a big fan of a single mark determining your will in life. I believe a pony should be able to choose his or her own path. A little bit more independence in life than having a butt tattoo pulling the strings for you."

"But your mark is a-"

"RAINBOW DASH! Where are you," shouted a deep voice from above. We both looked up and saw a stallion pegasus with a purple-blue coat and a rainbow mane.

"Down here dad," Rainbow shouted back.

"It's time to come home sweetie, dinner time," said Rainbow's dad.

"Ok dad, I'll be home in a minute," she looked back at me, "I gotta go, I'll catch you later Sharpedge."

"See ya Rainbow." Rainbow turned around and took off into the sky. I watched her trail vanish right behind her.

I continued to clean up the mess around my cart. She seemed like a nice filly, although the whole ego thing may get a little bit annoying. When I finished cleaning I saw AJ walking towards me. "Did you the whole beaver situation fixed," I asked.

"Yeah," she replied when she got closer, "they removed their dam and our trees are saved. Unfortunately the beavers were anything but civil about the whole ordeal. So how have things been here?"

"Pretty good, except for an accident with a new town member that just moved here. Flew right into me, throwing me across the town square and into that poor guy's cabbages," I pointed to the stallion who across the way, weeping over his crop as he cradled them.

"Let me guess, was this new folk a pony with a rainbow mane?"

"Yeah, how did you know that?"

"Rainbow Dash is always practicing her maneuvers in my part of the apple orchard. She flown into so many trees it's a wonder that she doesn't have any brain damage. Her recklessness has caused many of my apples to hit the ground and turn rotten. That pony annoys me more than flea on a bull."

"Doesn't sound like you're a fan."

"No duh Sherbuck." She went over to the money bag on the cart counter to see the profits, "Well it looks like we've made a decent amount of profits for today, let's head back home." I was about a tied myself up to cart before AJ stopped me, "Oh wait I forget to tell you, Granny Smith needs you to go by the market and get some stuff for supper tonight, here's the list and some bits," she handed me a small list of groceries and a small bag of bits.

"Ok, you think you can handle haling the cart back home?"

"Sharp, asking me if I can handle this is like asking Celestia can she handle raising the sun. I'll see you back home later." AJ tied herself to cart and began walking on home.

"Alright catch you later." I turned toward the direction of the market and began making my way there.

Rainbow didn't seem that bad to what AJ said about her. Besides the big ego and the bragging, she seems like a nice filly. Although after meeting her and almost getting my flank chewed out by the cabbage guy, I think I've had my fair share of "interesting" characters for one day. Hopefully I won't have anymore interesting run ins.