Guilt of a loss

by ThunderDash

Rating: everyone
Tags: Winona, Applejack, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Sad
Length: 2965

How will you feel when a dear friend of yours is gone, and there is nothing you can do

The day was perfect, Applejack had just finished the last day of applebuking season, and was going to go and enjoy some time with her friends. But when Wynona gets on her nerves, she yells at her. How will she feel when she discovers that her dear friend is gone? There may be nothing she can do but to look for her, and try to fix everything up.

First fic and story I have ever writted, comment, any feedback is appreciated, English is not my native language so if you notice anything please point it out so I can fix it
I wrote this after an accident took away from me one of my dogs,
The first day I came home after 4 months and she was gone.

In memory of “Belly” one of the best companions I ever had

Image by skunkiss http://skunkiss.deviantart.com/art/Applejack-and-Winona-269337197

Published 2012-08-14 22:44:01 UTC
Last updated 2012-08-14 22:44:01 UTC

Chapter 1

“Just another day at the farm” thought Applejack
He had been applebuking all morning nonstop for the past few weeks, it had been one of the biggest applebuking seasons in more than 20 years, or so it had said granny smith.

And it was almost over, just a few more trees, and all what It would be left to do was to store the apples, make some cider, bake some of them, and sell a few more the next day, and everything would be over.

She was going towards the barn when Wynonna came running to meet her “not now, I’m too tired to play” said Applejack tossing Wynonna aside whit a hoof, but Wynonna didn’t stopped her assault on Applejack.

Applejack kept on walking slowly towards the barn to store all the apples she had just recollected, when Wynonna walked towards her jumping with a stick on her mouth “I said not now Wynonna, go and play with Applebloom or something”
Applejack was too tired to be playing, she just wanted to store the apples and go home, take a bath and then get some sleep, she had a very important appointment with her friends late that evening and she didn’t want to be all smelly and sweaty when she meet them.

Applejack started unloading all the apples into the barn, it was not easy, she was too tired, having been applebuking all day and all that , but somepony had to do it and since Big Mac had sprained a leg the last day, Applebloom being too young and granny Smith too old, she had to do it all by herself, of course she could just have asked all her friends to help but she didn’t want to be looked down by Big Mac again, and all of them had just helped her just a few days ago, she just thought she had to, at least try to, finish applebuking season all by herself, and they where only just a few trees left so she could so it all by herself.

She had just finished unloading the last of the apples into the barn when Wynonna came again, jumped into her and almost knocked her of her hooves “Wynonna ah’ told you to stop doing that, I’m to tired to go and play whit you right now, please just go an’ find Big Mac or Applebloom or anypony besides me to play”.
Wynonna just started bouncing all over the place knocking one of the apple barrels off and spilling all of the content into the floor.
That’s when applejack snapped off "GET OUT WYNONNA AH TOLD YOU TO LEAVE, AH’ DON’T WANT TO PLAY WITH YOU" she screamed to the poor dog, and Wynonna just ran off scared with the tail between her legs, but she didn’t care she had to pick up all the apples again and put them all into place again just because Wynonna couldn’t stand back for some time.

Applejack was going into the house, she had just finished all her business at the barn, picked up all the apples from the farm, and was ready to take a bath, eat something and get some sleep when Applebloom came to her and asked for Wynonna “sis have you seen Wynonna around, ah’ have been looking for her all morning but ah’ haven’t seen her at all” she said looking all around the kitchen, even in the trash can and on the fridge when she stopped and stared at applejack with pleading ayes “can you help me find her, the girls and I are going to try and earn our cutie marks on pet training today, but ah can do it if I don have a pet to train”, Applejack just sighed “Wynonna has been harassing me all day since ah’ started applebuking and I sorta yelled at her when she knocked off a barrel of apples, she went running into the orchard after that, ah’ can’t help you find her, am too busy, and I need to prepare to go with ma’ friends, we are going to go and see the new Batmare movie rarity has been talking about, sorry Applebloom but ah can’t help you now”

Applebloom just stared at applejack and yelled at her “HOW COULD YOU YELL AT POOR WYNONNA SHE JUST WANTED TO PLAY, YOU KNOW HOW MUCH SHE LIKES YOU, THAT WAS NOT NICE” applejack just stood there and told Applebloom that she had been all day applebuking and she was to tired to play, but Wynonna wouldn’t stop jumping and running around her, “she deserved that, ah’ told her to go and look fer you or Big Mac couse ah’ was working, but nooo she had to keep on jumping and running, it was good she didn’t dropped more than a barrel, or ah’ would had to start cleaning and storing a lot more of apples than just the few ones she dropped”.
Applebloom just stormed out of the house and went looking for Wynonna, after all she needed a pet to train.

Applejack just sighed and made herself a sandwich, she ate it on the way up and stared trough a window, she tough that maybe she had been a little bit to rough on Wynonna for just dropping a barrel of apples, but she soon cleared the idea of his mind, she could always say sorry when she met her after returning from the movie.

Applejack went into the bathroom and took a shower to clean herself up and to clear the stress of her body, it had been a hard day of work and she wanted to just take her shower and get some sleep before going out with her friends, after all it was not a good idea to go out with Rarity smelling and looking like that, she would just start complaining and whining, and she didn’t had the nerves to stand Rarity after all the work she had been through all the morning.
She finished her shower and went to bed for a quick nap before she had to go and meet with her friend at Twilight’s place

Applejack woke up a little bit startled and stared at the clock on her room, 10 minutes to 1pm, just on time for her to comb her messy mane and get going with her friends.
She did all what se had to do and bid farewell to Big Mac and granny, before she could leave she was stopped by Big Mac “hey sis have you seen Applebloom she has been gone all day and ah’ haven’t seen her since morning”
“She told me she was looking fer Wynonna for some cutie mark thing involving animal training; she should be with Scootalo and Sweetie Bell don’t worry, you know how all the three of em get when trying to earn her cutie marks”
“yer right sis, well ah hope she just doesn’t come back too late or she’s gonna miss her favorite apple pie that granny made fer her, well see you later sis have fun whit yer friends”, she bid farewell again and went going to the library where she was supposed to meet whit her friends.

Applejack was going out of sweet apple acres when she was stopped by Scootalo and Sweetie Bell “hello applejack, have you seen sweetie bell around, we were supposed to meet her at the club house but she never showed up” Sweetie Bell was staring at Applejack with an expecting look on her face, but she was surprised when Applejack told her that she tough Applebloom was with them and that she hadn’t seen her since the morning. Then she ran off to the barn and told Big Mac that Applebloom was missing and that she was going to go and look for her.

But first she ran towards Twilight house, she had to ask for the help of her friends first, she didn’t want to have to look all by herself, she knew that it would take her far too long to look for Applebloom alone.

She arrived at Twilight house and she found her friends waiting for her, Rarity looked a little bit impatient, “where have you been Applejack, we were supposed to meet here 20 minutes ago”

“Calm down Rarity I know she has a very good reason, right Applejack, you are usually the one to arrive first,” Said Twilight, she then looked at the face applejack had “what’s wrong Applejack why do you have that look on your face”

“Its Applebloom she’s missing, I haven’t seen her since tha’ morning, she was supposed to go and meet whit Sweetie Bell and Scootalo but she never arrived whit em” Applejack had a worried look on her face.

“When was the last time you saw her” said Twilight

“It was like at 11 in tha mornin, she came to me and told me if I had seen Wynonna, and ah’ told her that she went running into the orchard after ah’ yelled at her for dropping a barrel of apples while ah’ was working and then she ran off to search for her”

“Then let’s get going we know where to search, Rainbow go and fly around the orchard and see if you can find something, I’ll go with Applejack, Rarity and Pinky can go together and search around the town, she might have come here searching for Wynonna, and Fluttershy, can you go to Applejacks house and stay there whit the fillies, I don’t want them to go and start a search mission, they could get lost too”

“Roger, I’ll go and find her in 10 seconds flat” said Rainbow Dash as she took off towards Sweet Apple Acres

Rarity and Pinky trotted off to the town

Fluttershy went whit twilight and applejack towards Sweet Apple Acres and split whit them at the house where she stayed to watch over Scootalo and Sweetie Bell.

“Ah hope nothing has happened to my lil sister, I think I may have been a little bit to rough when she asked me to go and look fer Wynonna with her ” Applejack looked really sad and worried and her face just showed up how she felt

“Don’t worry Applejack we are going to find her right away, you will see” Twilight was trying to make applejack feel better.

Rainbow dash came flying towards Twilight and Applejack with a really worried expression on her face; she was carrying something on her back

Applejack saw that and ran off to meet with her midway “what’s wrong did ya find mah’ sister is she ok?”

“Calm down Applejack I found your sister, she is ok she just had fallen asleep near the barn, she was snoring really hard” said Rainbow Dash, but the expression of her face didn’t go away “I sent her to the house, she should be there by now”

“Then what’s up whit your expression, why do you have that look on yer face? What do you have on you back” Applejack was glad Applebloom was fine, but couldn’t shake the feeling there was something wrong.

“Its Wynonna” said rainbow dash “I found her lying on the road near the border off the farm, I think she was hit by a cart, and …….” Applejack was frozen in her place, she didn’t know what to think, Wynonna was hit by a cart??... She couldn’t help but feel guilty for everything that happened that morning, she had yelled at her after all, “is...is .. is she ok ?” she knew something was wrong, Rainbow wasn’t saying anything just staring at the ground “please Rainbow say somethin, how’s Wynonna?”

“She… she ..” Rainbow didn’t know how to tell her, Wynonna was her pet after all, and she knew Applejack loved her, she put the dog on the ground “ When I found her it was already too late…. I don’t think we could have done anything”, Applejack couldn’t believe what was happening in front of her, Wynonna was gone??, but she was perfectly fine in the morning, it was just a little time ago when she had yelled at her, and she was going to apologize to her when she got back from the movies “she cant be dead” she steeped closer to the dog and started pushing her with the muzzle” come on Wynonna get up, let’s go home, ah’ll give you some of mah apple pie, ah’ know how much you like it” she was starting to feel the tears forming in her eyes, Twilight was already crying, and Rainbow Dash was looking the other way tying to control the tears from flowing freely.

“Get up…please Wynonna, it’s no fun…. come on” Applejack was already crying.

“Applejack… she is gone” Twilight said, she couldn’t stand to see her friend like that, she knew they needed to take Applejack to her home, but Applejack just stepped up to her, grabbed her and started shaking her really hard “don’t say that, she is not gone” she continued to shake “ ah know, do some of your magic, use it on her , ah know you can wake her up, right, you are princess Celestia student, you must know some short of fancy spell to make her all good again”, when Rainbow pushed her to separate her from twilight

“Calm down you are hurting Twilight, I know it’s hard for you but you need to accept it” rainbows eyes looked sad, and Twilight just stared at her, not believing what she was just asked to do, playing with life and death was some of the worst magic one could ever hope to use, but she knew how Applejack was feeling “Applejack I can’t do that, not even Celestia herself can play with life and death, that is just wrong, at best we could hope to try and heal her, but she is already gone” she was crying “I’m sorry but there is nothing I can do to heal her”

Applejack looked broken, the last thing he did to her best friend was yell at her, and now she was gone forever, and she could never apologize

“Come on Applejack let’s take her to the farm, we need to bury her, that’s the least we can for her” Rainbow Dash was going to pick up Wynonna when Applejack pushed her aside "sorry Rainbow but ah’ think its better for me to carry her right now” she picked her up and placed her on her back, never once in all the trail to her farm she stopped crying.

When they arrived at the house Applejack took a different path, towards the barn “don’t come…… ah need to do this alone” Twilight and rainbow dash just nodded and walked towards the barn, they needed to tell the others what had just happened

Meanwhile Applejack walked towards the barn, she went there picked up a shovel and went towards the orchard,

She walked towards a very young tree, not older than Applejack, and started digging a hole at the base of the tree, she cried out loud while working, this was the last thing she will ever do for one of her best friends, and she knew it.

When she finished she lay down and embraced Wynonna one last time, for her it felt like ours, she remembered when they first meet, she was just a filly, it was Hearth's Warming Eve, and Big Mac had told her to get up early and go to the barn, she did it and was greeted by a small puppy, who jumped towards her, liking her face and swinging the tail around madly,

Applejack giggled a little, a single tear falling from her face, she picked Wynonna up and placed her in the hole “Ahm sorry fer everything I did, ah’ don’t know if you can hear me but you where on of the best friend ah’ ever had, I’m sorry, ah knew you just wanted to play with me, ah should have stopped and played a little with you, but now you are gone, and ah know it was my foult because I yelled at you, ahm really sorry, I hope you can forgive me, I hope you knew that I loved you and I will never forget all the time we spent together” Applejack was crying while filling the hole with sand. “This was the first tree ah ever planted, you where here with me, it was just 1 week since you had came to the house to live with me” Applejack had finished filling the hole up and she just lied down, right there under the tree, remembering everything that she and Wynonna have lived up together, and she just felled asleep right there, under the tree.

She didn’t notice Twilight magic enveloping her, drifting into her dreams, this was the only thing Twilight could do to help Applejack to get over her loss.

She put every ounce if power she had to shape Applejacks dreams, to give her one last chance to play and enjoy some more time with Wynonna, after all she knew Applejack wanted to give her dear friend a last farewell.

Twilight fell to the ground, tired and looked over to where Applejack was lying on the ground, she noticed the big smile and the tears that were filling up Applejack’s face, she smiled and got back to the house, hoping for Applejack to get over Wynonna’s death, she knew it was not going to be easy for her, but all her friend will be there for here, to help her and to remember her, that she was not alone and that her friends will be with her whenever she needed them.