Apple Bloom Must Die!
By Dustin Koski
"Hi, Apple Bloom!" Nurse Redheart called to the passing filly. She was adorned with sweat bands for her afternoon gallop but still wearing her nurse's cap since she often forgot to take it off. "How's your leg doing?"
"Howdy, Nurse!" Applebloom said. "It's alright."
"Good to hear," the nurse responded. She decided to take a nap under one of the nearby apple trees.
Apple Bloom had just parted ways with the other crusaders, intending to devote the day to just lazing around the house as her family did most of the chores. It was a privilege she received from her newly broken right hind leg. Her leg had been the only part of any of the crusaders that suffered real damage in a crash that had also ruined Scootaloo's scooter and their wagon. All things considered, that had been a pretty lucky result.
It had been kind of neat to be the only student with a cast in class for the school year. It was adorned with signatures from almost everypony else, including Miss Cheerilee. Snips and Snails had even come up with a weird thing where they'd applied lipstick and kissed it for her, which had been kind of funny at the time. It was a sight better than her blank flank, that was for sure.
The weather was stunning. It was a early spring, with the apples blooming on the trees in a way so beautiful it made her feel pleased to be named Apple Bloom. Petals floated down from trees in a manner reminiscent of some ad for perfume or some such product. There might not be a spring in her step, but there definitely was a song in Bloom's heart. For the sake of her own ears, though, she didn't sing it. .
Up at the Sweet Apple Acres farmhouse, Applejack was just stepping out, having just finished a nice afternoon apple snack. She was headed to the barn where she would be portioning hay and other odds and ends with Big Mac. On the way, she ran into the newly returned Granny Smith.
"Howdy, Granny!" Applejack said. "How's yer trip?"
"It was wonderful. Change of scenery over in Appaloosa did these ol' eyes a world of good!" Granny Smith replied.
"Good! Tell me 'bout it when Ah'm done with today's chores," Applejack said as she passed Granny.
"Hi Applejack! Hi Granny Smith!" Apple Bloom called from the road. Both turned to the approaching Crusader with smiles. Granny Smith's faded as she saw something confusing.
"Hi Apple Bloom!" Applejack called. She noticed Granny Smith’s unusual silence.
"Why is Apple Bloom walkin' so strangely?"
"Oh, she broke her leg the other day. Hospital put a cast on her leg. Poor lil' filly. I would have told ya about it, but Ah didn't wanna ruin yer vacation." Granny Smith's heart sank as Applejack's words sunk in. The light seemed to rush out of her world. She felt each and every one of her years and then some as she watched Apple Bloom limp up the road to the house. Her granddaughter's smile, probably the result of a delirium-induced to cope with the pain, was especially cruel.
"No," she said, almost whimpering. Applejack blinked, having not expected the news to make Granny Smith that sad.
"Ahhh, don't worry about Apple Bloom. She's learned her lesson and she's not letting it get 'er down," Granny Smith barely heard that.
"Mmmh," Granny Smith said. "Run along now. Join your brother in the barn." Her voice was an uncharacteristic monotone. Applejack would have stuck around a bit longer, but chores called and she trotted to the barn.
"How was yer trip?" Apple Bloom yelled, thinking possibly Granny Smith hadn't heard her.
"Fine," Granny Smith replied in the same monotone. It had been a long time, but she thought the old frontier days, and the hardest old frontier traditions, had hardened her deep down in a way that left her most capable of all the Apple family to do what needed to be done. "Wait there, Dearie." Apple Bloom stopped and waited. Her grandma was usually good for a pleasant surprise.
Granny Smith went into the kitchen. She felt along the south end of the kitchen floor boards and after a moment found the loose boards along the wall. Lifting them out, she was only half-relieved to see that what she was retrieving looked in perfect working order. There were almost no firelegs left in Equestria from the old days. It would have been a pretty much doomed family back then that would venture out into the wilderness without them. Now it had been most of a generation since anypony had fired a gun. Many wouldn't even know what it was, but would have an innate feeling it was to be feared. She lifted the rifle out, checked the bolt action, and then loaded a clip. She wrapped it in a blanket, choking back tears. There was nopony in Equestria she'd have wished a broken leg and the unavoidable traditional treatment upon, but why did it have to be her precious granddaughter?
Stepping back outside, she saw that Apple Bloom had obliged her, remaining where she'd been in the road.
"What am Ah waitin' for? What's that yer holdin’?"
"T-turn around, Darling," Granny Smith called, her voice breaking a little. "It's a surprise." Apple Bloom dutifully turned around. Smith trembled a little, relieved she didn't have to look at those beautiful eyes as the life went out of them. She'd been a thoughtless filly that day so long ago and had never forgotten her cousin's eyes, no matter how much else of the memory she'd repressed up to day.
Granny Smith unwrapped the gun and took aim at the back of Apple Bloom's head. She hesitated but knew she could not afford to wait for long, lest Apple Bloom become suspicious and turn around. She would not allow her granddaughter to see it coming. It would be kinder than how almost all the ponies were put down for their broken legs back in the day. Why couldn't medicine have come up with some way to that? Her left front hoof went to the trigger button.
Apple Bloom was glancing about impatiently, looking for anything to occupy her mind while she waited. In the bottom right corner of her field of vision she saw the gleam of a nice, shiny green gem buried in the dirt save one sliver. Why, Spike would sure be happy to get that! She started leaning over to brush the dirt away.
BANG!
Bloom felt the wind of the bullet as it went past, putting a hole in her bow. For a moment, she was paralyzed.
"Dagnabbit!" Granny yelled as she pulled back the bolt lever to chamber another round. It broke Apple Bloom out of her paralysis, and she looked back at Smith. She didn't know what Granny was holding as she saw her starting to aim again, but her survival instincts were kicking in and compelling her to get out of there. With a strangled squeak of fear, she began running galloping down the road. She made sure to go easy on her fractured leg because Doctor's Orders were still Doctor's Orders.
"Shoot!" Granny yelled as she looked up from prepping for a second round. Now that Bloom was running, she was bouncing and trying to keep her head down. She couldn't risk a shot now. She might hit her granddaughter in the butt, which was a risk she was unwilling to take. Even with a limp, Apple Bloom would probably be running too fast to for her to run her down. Her eyes went to the heavily-laden apple cart parked near the house. The house and cart were at the top of a relatively steep incline. It would be sadly perfect.
Smith loaded the rifle into the cart as Applejack and Big Mac came galloping up.
"Granny, we heard some loud bang! Y'all got any idea wh-"
"Git back inside the barn!" She told Applejack and Mac in a manner both stern and emotionless. Her brain was shutting down key areas to avoid deterring her from what needed to be done. "You don't want to see this. I'll take care of everything."
"What are you talkin' about?" Applejack insisted. "Where's Apple Bloom?" Granny Smith began pushing the cart, which quickly picked up momentum.
"I need to put Apple Bloom down. A pony with a broken leg needs to be put down," Granny Smith replied as she sprinted as much as she could to the front of the cart and leaped onto the seat, grabbing the gun in her front legs. Applejack and Mac stopped, dumbfounded by Granny Smith's words. The cart had picked up considerable speed by the time Applejack snapped out of it and came running after it. A memory flashed in her mind of Braeburn in Appaloosa telling her one day of how in the ponies in the past with leg fractures needed to be put down.
"Wait, Granny Smith! Ya don't need to! We've got medicine that's treatin' her!" Applejack had almost caught up with the cart when it struck the green gem Apple Bloom had been digging out of the ground and the jostling discharged Granny Smith's rifle almost in Applejack's face. Fortunately it only sent a bullet through Applejack's hat and scared Applejack enough that she jumped away from the cart, every hair standing on end and her ears ringing. Granny Smith looked back and was relieved to see her granddaughter unharmed but no less determined to do what must be done.
"Sorry, but it's the waaaaaaayyyyyyyyy!" Granny yelled back while speeding away. Big Mac caught up with her and stopped, thinking his sister had a better idea what was going on and thus she'd know better what to do even in her frightened state.
"We gotta stop 'er," Applejack said after a moment, beginning to overcome her fear. "But Ah dunno if we can risk a fight if she’s got that!"
"Nope," Mac observed. The pair hesitated further as Granny Smith steered the cart round a turn in the road and became obscured by part of the apple orchard.
***
Apple Bloom heard the cart coming and looked back. It was impossible to believe, but her beloved granny was bearing down on her with something clearly meant to at least hurt her aimed at her face. The realization sinking in, her eyes went the widest they'd ever grown. So large, in fact, that her left eye caught a glint from the sun. The light made Smith blink and twitch a little. Riding on a very fast cart as she was, her aim was thrown off a smidge. The bullet she fired ended up catching Apple Bloom's giant bow on her head instead of her forehead. The second round struck near where the first had and neatly severed the ribbon, so the bow drifted to the ground. As Granny went past, Apple Bloom felt its absence on her head, stopped, and turned around to look down at it.
"Bowie..." she whimpered as she swept together and lifted the ruined accessory. It would be months and months before her family could save up enough to buy her another bow, or days before she would be able to talk Sweetie Belle’s big sister Rarity into letting her have a replacement. Whatever replacement she got still wouldn’t be Bowie.
“Tarnation!” Apple Bloom heard Granny Smith yell. Then she heard a thud from a ways off over the sound of the rattling cart. She looked over to see that Granny Smith had jumped off the cart while letting it continue on its way. She watched Granny Smith chamber another round without knowing what the movement meant exactly but knowing she mustn't linger. Apple Bloom dropped Bowie then and limped as fast as she could into the orchard.
Granny lowered the rifle. She only had two rounds left, and so couldn't risk wasting any firing into trees. She could guess Apple Bloom's next move, though. Her granddaughter was limping to the tree house where she could lock the door, since it was closer than the farm and possibly she'd feel safer there. Unsurprisingly, Granny Smith knew the orchard a bit better than her granddaughter and knew that Apple Bloom would run into an uneven bit of terrain, and that Apple Bloom would surely be considerably be slowed up by that horrible leg. She knew a clearer, much more level path to the house, and even in her old age, she'd be able to beat Apple Bloom to the clubhouse. She shouldered the rifle like back in the old days when she stood guard on the farm and trotted her fastest into the orchard.
As Granny Smith disappeared into the orchard, Applejack and Big Macintosh rounded the bend, having decided that they'd try to think of a way to disarm Smith when they reached her. They saw the wagon still rolling along and took off after it, buckets of apples piled in the back preventing them from seeing that Granny Smith wasn't aboard. .
"Granny! Stop! Don't hurt Apple Bloom!" Applejack yelled.
***
Down in a dip in an uneven, not terribly well-organized part of the orchard, Apple Bloom would have yelled for Applejack if she’d heard her. Unfortunately she had stepped hard onto her broken leg after she slipped on blossom petals, and drowned out the sound with her own noise of squeaking in pain.
Granny Smith did hear Applejack and didn't pause a moment on her trot to the Crusader Clubhouse. She had a terrible job to do, and putting it off would only mean more pain for Apple Bloom and herself.
Apple Bloom's vision was blurred from tears, and her intact legs were unsteady. She stepped into a patch of mud from runoff and slipped again, her face landing hard on the ground. When she raised her head she began to weep, not understanding why she deserved such a nightmare. She continued towards the clubhouse barely able to see.
"P-please... halp me," She called, her voice cracking so much it barely rose above indoor volume. "Somepony, please. Ah promise Ah'll never do what Scootaloo dared me to do with those frogs again."
***
At the Cutie Mark Crusader Clubhouse, the foals Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon had been painting "The Cootie Mark Cresaders can go home!" on the front. It was going to be something much more obscene, but then they realized they didn't have the space for it. When they heard the first loud bang, they'd stiffened, but decided it was just a pegasus crashing or a tree falling over or some other thing harmless to them. When the second one sounded, their ears were pricked a bit already and it was close and clear enough that they knew that was an unfamiliar noise. Even with their need to seem lofty and above it all, their nervousness was clear to each other. They were still contemplating what to do when they heard the the sound of a filly in pain.
"Halp, please," a faintly audible voice begged. They looked over and saw the muddy, hobbling Apple Bloom emerging from the trees.
***
Applejack and Big Mac had caught up with the wagon. It had gone far and fast enough that it had managed to merge onto the main road that led into Ponyville. Applejack was the first to see the unoccupied seat.
"Horseapples! She jumped out!" The pair stopped, leaving the cart to continue rolling away. They snapped their heads around, trying to think of which way Apple Bloom and Granny could have gone.
"I think Apple Bloom's goin’ to the club house," Applejack said.
"Eyup!" They began to run in that direction, oblivious to the fact Nurse Redheart a few dozen hooves away had been shouting at them. When they were about to enter the orchard, Nurse Redheart jumped in front of them to get their attention.
"What is going on? What were all those loud ban- oooooof!" she yelled before being cutoff. Big Mac and Applejack ran into her and carried her along with them
"Sorry, ma'am!" AJ said while they continued sprinting with Nurse Redheart stuck to them, "Granny Smith's gonna kill Apple Bloom 'cause of her leg!"
"What!?" Nurse Redheart asked.
"No time to explain! We don't even know how we're gonna convince her not to kill Bloom with that thang, whatever et is!" Applejack answered.
Big Mac stopped suddenly, sticking a leg out in front of Applejack. Inspiration had struck.
***
As Apple Bloom was reaching the edge of the orchard, nearly in the clearing that surrounded the clubhouse, she whinnied as she stepped badly on her leg again.
"Anypony, please halp!" She yelled, barely able to see through her tears and looking at the ground.
"We're coming, Apple Bloom!" yelled a familiar voice. Apple Bloom paused, then looked up. She saw a purplish and a grey blur coming towards her. She wiped away her tears, and then saw it was Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. She grunted in indignation.
"Ah didn't mean ya'll!" Apple Bloom said. Sure, she wanted help, but death before dishonor and all that. "Go away!" Tiara and Spoon stopped and looked at each other in disbelief.
"She's right. Clear off! Ya'll don't wanna see this!" came Granny Smith's voice. The two befuddled bullies looked over at her, saw the big scary device with ominous looking tubes she was holding, and took off at a gallop. As they did so, they stepped out of the way between Apple Bloom and Granny Smith, and at the sight of her grandmother, Apple Bloom's legs shook and she could barely stand.
"Granny, why?" Apple Bloom begged, unable to think of a better way to stall.
"This is what must be done," Granny Smith pulled the bolt back mournfully, and then took aim. "Ah can see the pain in your eyes. It would be cruel to prolong yer sufferin'." Bloom guessed then what it was about.
"It doesn't hurt that bad! Look!" Apple Bloom tried to jump and click her hooves, but just sort of did a half jump, and sprawled on the ground hard, unsteady as she had been on her legs. She glanced back up at Granny Smith, who simply lowered the barrel of the rifle slightly. She put her hooves in front of her face and began to squeal and sob in fear.
Granny Smith sighed. She didn't know if the penetration power of a rifle bullet was enough to reliably pierce a hoof and skull while having enough momentum remaining to properly tear through to the cerebellum from this angle. She trotted closer to her granddaughter so that she had a clearer line on the top of Apple Bloom's head.
Apple Bloom was too scared and in too much pain to so much as look up at her or even beg. She certainly didn't notice how several apple bloom petals had landed on her, looking like funerary flowers.
Granny Smith noticed them, though. Like she'd noticed an oddly shaped stone near her cousin Golden Delicious when she'd needed to put him down, or the dapple of sunlight off a brook when she'd needed to end her sister Pink Crisp's suffering. She knew that for the rest of her life, the sight of an apple petal would bring back memories of this moment. She took aim for the last time, barely needing to use the sights at this distance.
"NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Applejack yelled as she performed a flying tackle onto Granny Smith. Her front right hoof struck the barrel of the gun, knocking it away from Apple Bloom half a second before the shot discharged, causing the round to be embedded rightfully in a squirrel's heart. Granny Smith and Applejack were sent rolling, coming to a stop a few legs away. The much less familiar sound of a gunshot so close to her ears rattled Applejack, and thus even though the gun landed practically at her hooves, Granny Smith was faster to recover and pick it back up.
"Ah understand it ain't easy, but ya gotta let me do this! Ah only got one shot left, and yer just makin' Apple Bloom's pain worse!" Granny Smith turned back to Apple Bloom, who'd barely had the courage to lift one of her hooves and peek at Granny coming back with the gun. When Granny Smith resumed aiming at her face, Apple Bloom clamped her hoof back over her eye.
"Granny, ya don't have to kill her—" Applejack yelled.
"For the third time, Ah do—" Granny Smith said before being cutoff in turn.
"'Cause her leg ain't broke!"
"Nope!" said Big Mac a few hooves off to Granny Smith’s left. Big Mac had caught and brought over Nurse Redheart, who'd run out of fear of the gunshot. He was still a bit afraid of what the gun might be capable of, but he continued to push the nurse forward.
"What? But ya said—" Granny Smith started to say.
"Turns out that was all wrong!" Applejack said. "And Nurse Redheart here was comin' to let us know!"
"Oh, yes," Redheart said, trembling as she took the fake prognosis the Apples had given her and offered it to Granny, "Here you are." Smith studied the form very closely, then glanced up at the nurse.
"Why is it written on a leaf?" Smith asked. Big Mac and Applejack's eyes darted about as they tried to think of something.
"Well, it's because... the hospital is going green," Redheart said with a sweat and a big forced smile.
"Ah see..." Granny Smith said. After a moment's contemplation, she set the rifle down, and then walked over to her weeping granddaughter, who was still much too afraid to look up at her. After a moment, she gently put a hoof on Apple Bloom's head. "Buck up, dearie, ya don't have to die." Then something else occurred to her, and she began stomping back over to the nurse, berating her for the hospital's incompetent misdiagnosis of Apple Bloom's broken leg. Applejack went over to Apple Bloom, and lifted her up into a hug. Apple Bloom clung to her, her tears continuing to flow and saturating Applejack's chest. Big Mac stood behind them, trying to think of the safest way to destroy a metal tube that deadly explosions happened in.
***
Dear Princess Celestia,
Turns out even this old gal can still learn a lesson or two. Today taught me that sometimes, you just can't trust those fancy-saddles over at hospitals and other institutions. Must be what they teach them in them colleges. Wish my mistaken trust hadn't endangered my granddaughter Apple Bloom, but at least everypony is taking it well. Apple Bloom insisted that there were no hard feelings even as I went onto the wagon to this nice place. Macintosh told me he'd take care of the rifle, and Applejack would be sure to give those ponies over at the hospital a piece of her mind. It feels splendid to have such a lovely family. They say they’ll write to me every day while I stay in this nice place.
Anyway, I had a lovely trip just yesterday to Appaloosa. Change of scenery did these old eyes a world of good. Got to see my cousin Yates, who took me to the town hall, where there was a meeting of the council. They were going over zoning the Appaloosa Orchards, and Yates told me that the mayor was getting us involved in some bad deals, which I of course knew was going to happen sooner or later. Did I tell you of my suspicions about the mayor? Well, about ten years ago, I saw him back when he was an ornery colt making his way from the school house to the town hall. And there's a funny story about the Appaloosa Town Hall not many know! Back about fifteen years ago...
The End
