It was a lovely day for Equestria. A beautiful bright blue sky, puffy white clouds dotted the endless horizon and the golden sun glowed, sending a cascade of warmth down to the earth. The grass was lush and green, the trees swayed in a slight breeze and the merry houses stood tall in the small town of Ponyville. Pegasi flew across the sky, multi-colored pinpricks of light represented the unicorns using their magic and the bright hues of earth ponies trotted on the dirt roads. It was a bright and happy day for all of Ponyville.
Except for one.
The orange mare ran down the hall. It was a completely dark hall, a lightbulb flickering and making a static noise that echoed eerily in the silence, cracking it like a broken mirror. Her powerful body burst through the wooden door, shattering it like paper. Her hooves slammed into the ground and she stopped beside the bed. She was gasping for breath, grass green irises shrinking as she saw the form on the bed.
The motionless body lay there. It was completely still and had its back turned to the now sobbing mare. At the sound of the crying, it turned slowly and looked at the orange mare. The pony was a mare, but blanket covered every part except her head and she was so filthy that the coat color was impossible to identify, even the mane was colored a sickly brown.
The farm pony looked at her friend. "Ah came as soon as ah heard." She said. Her voice had a heavy accent and a western drawl to it. She lifted her brown faded stetson off her head and placed it aside, showing her ruffled straw colored mane. She stepped closer to the bed and sat back her haunches, forelegs on the stained sheets. "How ya feelin'?" She asked.
"Don't act like that Applejack I know I'm dying."
"Shut up no yer not. Ah won't let ya."
The mare felt hooves clasp her and tears soak her matted coat. She returned the hug and felt tears spark into the corners of her own exhausted eyes. "I could use a bath." She said jokingly. The rasp in the mare's voice made it sound like someone had lined her esophagus with coarse sand.
Applejack pulled on the brown hoof and placed the weak mare on her back. "Well yer gettin' one." She said and walked as if she was carrying a feather. She pushed a door open and stepped inside the warm room. She walked over to the towel rack, pulled off a towel, spread it on the floor and gingerly placed the mare on it, wrapping it around her to warm her.
The mare let out a pleasured sigh as the warm and soft fluff enveloped her. She could hear the sound of the bath running before her eyes drooped shut and wouldn't open again from weakness. The plush feeling left her and she was placed onto an slight arc before sinking into warm wetness which she recognized as her bath. Some of her strength returned and she opened her eyes and watched as the steam floated from the surface of the shimmering blue.
Applejack saw a hoof reaching out for the soap and she placed it back in the water which was now running with the filth all over the ill mare's body. "Ah got it sugar." She grabbed the soap and wet her hooves in a clean spot of water, rubbing soap on the blunts of her hooves and making circles on the mare's back.
The dirt and grime washed away, revealing a dull grey coat. The cheerful brightness of it had been washed away from the strange illness that had captured her. It had wiped all color from her, even her irises were the color of an old movie. Her mane fell limply over her, darker than the rest of her body and it touched the tips of the dirty water.
Applejack drained the tub and filled it with even warmer and cleaner water. She dipped the soap in and circled it with her hooves, watching as the cloud of cleanliness spread through the water and towards the mare. It touched her coat and spread around her like fog, wiping off the last of the slime. She squirted some cold shampoo on one hoof and placed them together, smearing the substance around and then placing it in the grey mane, spreading it around and feeling the bubbles foam up like puffy clouds. Tears fell from her eyes and added salt to the misted water, her mouth curving in a deep frown as the tears pattered the warm sheet surrounding her weak friend.
The colorless mare sighed in pleasure. "This feels great Jackie..." She croaked, turning to look at her friend. She coughed and a slimy blob of phlegm, the glossy black of Nightmare Moon's hide hit the side of the tub, sticking there. "If today's my last day, then at least I get to spend it with my best friend." She sighed. Her eyes closed and she slumped slightly as she fell asleep.
Applejack drained the tub and hauled her out. She grabbed a towel and dried the dying mare until she was as dry as a bone. She picked her up again and carried her back to her bed. She placed her on a small chair and took the sheets off the bed, placing a single thick blanket to replace them. She transported her sleeping friend to the bed and tucked her in, a smile on her face. She jumped up beside her, curled up and watched as her best friend slept, making sure nothing would disturb her.
She stayed awake that entire night. She wouldn't let anything take the sick mare from her.
~~~
Applejack noticed that the mare hadn't moved for hours. She tapped her with a hoof and realized her body was ice cold. Panic swept through her and she shot up, grabbing her friend. "Wake up!" She shook her until a soft moan escaped the lips of a certain grey mare.
She opened her rheum crusted eyes and looked at her friend through tear stained vision. "Goodbye AJ." She wheezed, barely enough energy to speak. Her eyes started glazing over, black lined her field of vision as she looked at the sobbing mare.
Applejack hung her head, weeping. "Don't leave me... I need ya." She begged lifting her head and looking into the stone-colored eyes. "Ah love ya, ah have for a long time. Don't die on me, please. Ah need ya, there's nopony else ah'd rather be with than y'all. Please don't go!" She begged. She extended her forelegs, wrapping her front hooves around the mare and pulling her into a hug. She sat on her haunches and held her, willing her to stay with her. "Stay with me... Please!" It ended in a strangled cry as the tears flowed freely.
The dying mare looked into her friend's eyes. "I love you too Applejack Blossom Apple." She whispered. She touched lips with her friend and they kissed, sending a flicker of heat through the cold mare's body.
Applejack felt the tears soak her face, her fur, everything. She form in her hooves went limp and fell back against the bed, held aloft in her front legs. She noticed that the bed was slick with vomit from the long night, the sounds of retching painted in her tortured mind. She stared at the still body before raising her head and howling in agony. Her sobs rang through the air, shattering the mirror of silence. It splintered and crashed around her as she stared at the lifeless remain of her best friend, her one true love. She buried her face in the cold body, begging to hear the beat of a heart but it never came. Her tears ran out as she cried herself dry and the dry wails filled the air as she begged and screamed for the mare to wake up, to come back to her.
She never did.
Applejack rested the lifeless form on the bed and curled up in a tight ball next to it, dry sobs pushing up the lump in her throat. She turned and vomited all over the floor on the side of the bed. She heard the crashing of giant hooves splintering a fallen door, the sensation of being picked up and she felt it carry her away. She swung her hooves but it was useless. She was being taken from the mare she wanted, the mare who had died in her arms. She cried and cried with the dry sobs until she sank into unconsciousness, willing her nightmare to end.
~~~
All the mares and stallions were dressed in black.
Applejack stood in front of the grave, tears pouring down her face as she remembered the body falling in her arms. The mare had passed just a few days ago and now she was at the funeral, crying herself dry.
All her remaining friends gathered around her and she couldn't hold back anymore. She tore away from them and collapsed on top of the freshly stirred dirt. Her hooves struck it and soon cuts bled everywhere as she tried to reach her friend. "She's not dead! Get her out of there!" She screeched, sobbing and wailing.
Hooves closed around her and she struggled, bucking them off. "She wouldn't leave me, she was my friend! Ah loved her! Don't take her away!" Her voice was rasping and she looked up at the sky. "Give me back mah friend!" She howled. Rain pattered around her and she collapsed and allowed herself to be dragged away, caking her coat with mud. She looked at the grave that was slowly being pushed further and she only managed to say two words,
"Ah'm sorry..."
~~~
Years.
Not just a few years, but fifty had passed since the death of that mare.
Now Applejack lay alone in her small house, on her bed. She was wrinkled and thin and her eyes were blank as she looked around waiting. Cold was spreading from the tips of her back hooves and slowly creeped up her legs as the emptiness claimed her. Something flitted in front of her vision and a smile cracked across her face.
"Ah see ya there. Ah'm ready." She coughed weakly. "Ah'm eighty years old now, it's mah time." She whispered as her withered up form turned to the young mare. "Ah always knew it'd be y'all that'd come and get me. Frankly ah don't mind, Ah'll be with y'all and everypony else. Ah'm the last to go." All of Applejack's friends had passed five years ago, same with her brother and Granny Smith. Apple Bloom had died so many years ago, before her mare and the 2 remaining Crusaders were the last of the friends..
"Ah never loved again. Ah couldn't give ya up. Love does that to a pony. Ah always knew ah'd see ya again, ah told everypony that you would come and get me. Ah knew ya wouldn't just leave me." She croaked as the form moved to the side of her bed. "Ah always knew ah could trust ya."
The elderly mare saw the figure take place as it stood beside her. The cold had spread and now she could feel her heart fading. Blue orbs met green and the ghostly form touched noses with the eighty year old mare as her life slipped away from her shrivelled body, her spirit floating out and leaving the empty husk of what she used to be.
~~~
Applejack woke up. She was on a cloud, higher than the one's the Pegasi could hope to touch. It formed a sheet that stretched endlessly across the deep blue sky. She sat up and looked around, feeling her stetson shift slightly on her head. She pushed it back into place and felt something downy soft brush against her hoof. The mare looked back and saw them.
White.
Feathered.
Large.
Great white wings spread on either side of her body, not the size and shape of a pegasus but large and majestic like an eagle. She flapped them lightly, feeling the short wind grace her face. Something shimmered in the corner of her eye and she bounded towards it, using her wings to fly.
It was amazing. She felt herself lift into the sky as she flew, her legs dangling below her. She touched down before a shimmering crystal pool and looked into it. Instead of the withered old mare, she saw what she looked like when she saw young. Beautiful, strong and energetic. She reared up and whinnied in joy.
Something dark closed over her eyes.
Applejack jumped up in shock before light flared in her vision and she turned around to see her best friend, the love she had never forgotten. She flung herself at the mare and started sobbing tears of joy, seeing the saltwater droplets hit the fluffy white sheet under her hooves. She looked into the cerulean eyes of that beautiful mare and pulled back, content with just sitting with her. A pair of white wings brought her in closer and she didn't protest. She placed her head under the mare's chin and sighed contentedly.
"I love you Applejack."
The words were like throwing water to a dehydrated pony, the chiming of music in a silent environment. The words were soft and the scent of the mare beside her wreathed around the farm angel, filling her nostrils and soothing her mind. Her head tilted upwards ever so slightly and she looked into those entrancing eyes that filled her with peace and she smiled.
"Ah love ya too Pinkie Pie."
