The Cough in Verse

The silent darkness swallowed the fresh sobs,
Most greedily; how it adored fresh sobs.
But stock from this lone pony were soon gone,
All that was left, was rotting wobegone.

Adjusting her hat she roze to her feet,
And used the wall to guide her to the door.
Each step sure; the next would bring her defeat.
Each step wore; tore; accumulated gore.

She seized the handle, twisting; pushing out;
But Pinkie’s shaking voice made her turn ‘bout’.

‘Don’t leave me Applejack... I’ll be alone.’

‘Perhaps it’s better that you are alone.’

She turned to go when Pinkie scrambled out,
‘No Applejack; you’ll die! I have no doubt.’

The light from the celestial messed sky,
Revealed her twisted pink form to the eye.
Her face was clown-like with a mask of flour,
With scarlet globules and a smile most sour.
Her head jerked as the dark hissed in her ear.

‘We’re shadows Applejack, we can’t leave here.’

A.J saw the red dripping rolling pin,
And how tight Pinkie held that false grin.
As she looked to the door, the pin was raised,
She turned back, showing no signs she was fazed.

‘I ne’er bought into fancy poetry,
It seemed dishonest, like a dressed up tree.
So I won’t sugarcoat it; not a lick.
We were all infected; we are all sick.
Coughs were the red sky of our setting sun.
Naught could be done; naught was done; we’re just done,’
She hugged her cousin, ‘I can’t stay in here.’

Through their embrace A.J felt Pinkie’s fear.

‘But we’re just shadows fading into night.’

‘We’re apples Pinkie, we are owned by the light.’

She shuddered as the cough exploded out.

‘Don’t make me die here Pinkie, let me out.
This rotting apple needs to see the sky,
Without it how can this earth pony fly?’

A coughing, shuddering mass they became.
Each different from the other; each the same.

‘We’re apples fore’er Pinkie, you and I.
We stick together; one die, orchard die.’

They coughed together, slumping to the floor.

‘O Applejack, there’s no more. We’re done for.
I’ve done such evil things and then some more!’

‘I know you. You’re an apple, to the core.’

As the pin dropped, the dark let out a roar.

‘Come Applejack, the lights just out this door.’

They helped each other; fam’ly and yet more.
They both collapsed as they passed through the door.
Unable to stand, coughing in the dirt.
They both then started laughing, through the hurt.

‘Guess we’re the apples that don’t fall far.’

‘We’ve fallen far enough, see that there star.’

‘Yeah... pretty... pink, like me." / ’‘Yeah... just like you,
Pink Lady Pinkie, a star just for you.
It is surrounded by dark but it glows.’

‘You need a star to,’ Pinkie coughed in throes.
A.J smiled, ‘You don’t have to -’ / ‘There! See it?’

She followed Pinkie’s hoof to a small slit.

‘It’s simply perfect, you have to admit.’

A.J hid her sigh ‘hind another cough,
‘What was that? I could not hear ‘hind the cough.’

‘It’s just...’ she sighed, mad at herself, ‘a slit?’

‘You mean, a Golden Nugget that won’t quit.’

A.J wept as they shared a coughing smile.
And thus they stayed for what seemed quite a while,
But really was just a few minutes more,
When the waves of the cough took them ashore.

All of Equestria was silent... dark
And thus remained until there was a spark.