Fractured

Summary: "She saved my life. And now that she's gone, Ah don't know how Ah'll ever get to repay her." / Rainbow Dash manages to save Applejack from a dangerous rockslide, but later succumbs to her wounds, leaving the other pony coping with crushing guilt.

English Angst/Friendship Rated: T Chapters: 1 Words: Rainbow Dash & Applejack

Disclaimer: I do not own My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic or any of its characters. (isn't that sad?) They belong to their respective owners.

A/N: Before you read this story, I suggest listening to Awake and Alive by Skillet while reading it. It sets the mood to the story. And, spoiler alert. It. Is. Sad. Enjoy.

"Get back here, ya thievin' varmints!"

Applejack shot out of the bushes and barrelled herself down the musty dirt path towards the vexatious group of critters that managed to steal at least a dozen of her juicy, ripening apples from her farm, and she knew there were probably more pillaging Sweet Apple Acres as she galloped to catch up to them. "Y'all go find food someplace else!"

The irritating creatures seemed to chortle boisterously at her through their clicky teeth and twitching lips, mocking her with incommodious chatters because of how seemingly lucky they were to be quicker than that of the workhorse. That began to drive Applejack through the creek.

Applejack kicked herself into overdrive and sped up, her face scrunched up and sharp pebbles licking her hooves, some drawing fresh blood as they pierced through her skin. But she didn't seem to notice the blood, although she felt the vague pain.

She also didn't seem to notice that she was galloping straight into the swelling maw of Ghastly Gorge.

Applejack managed to swerve around the winding, bubbling creek that weaved in between the towering walls of the gorge, her eyes still scrutinizing the varmints that were fixing to escape her line of vision. The crumbling, rugged earth made her hooves sore, and the parched dirt that was being kicked up by the criminals lodged in her eyes and throat.

She cried out when her vision was interrupted, and tried to blink away the dust that was caught there, but to no avail. She couldn't see where she was going. As she continued to stumble blindly through the gorge, she noticed that the natter of the thieves seemed to fade father into the distance. Profanities bubbled in her throat and forced to roll across her tongue.

"Those damned – "

Applejack's sentence was postponed when she felt cool, solid rock connect with that of her body, and she felt her shoulder crack from the impact. She slid down the rock wall and yowled as the icy tendons of pain seethed her bones and paralyzed her for a few moments. When she accomplished in sitting upright – instead, at an awkward angle – she finally succeeded in ridding most of the dust and dirt from her eyes. She shook her head, which threatened to clock out on her, and brushed the remaining fragments of rock that clung to her flank.

Her shoulder throbbed with excruciating pain, and she could barely lift a hoof without pain rocketing through her entire leg and penetrating her bones. Tears sprung the corners of her eyes as she reached to gently caress her aching shoulder.

But, she didn't seem to notice them rolling down her cheeks as her shoulder boiled and pulsed with the most insufferable pain she's ever felt before.

She also didn't seem to notice the large crack webbing itself up the rock wall.

Suddenly, a loud rumble sounded from above the wounded pony, and the ground vibrated beneath her hooves. Her ears pricked. She felt her heart begin to hammer against her chest as the tremors grew louder and shakier. She lifted her chin and saw a flock of squawking ravens hustling to fly away, and soon they disappeared from sight.

"Well, that don't look good," Applejack whispered to herself.

She tried to stand on all fours, but her wounded shoulder sparked with pain again and she collapsed to the ground. The vibrating grew to an extent that it drilled into her hooves and made her innards tremble in sync with the shaking.

That's when the first few rocks plummeted to the ground. They were merely the size of a golf ball, but soon, larger, heavier ones followed. They cascaded towards her and created wide craters as they were lodged in the barren terrain.

Applejack forced herself to stand and began to lurch forwards, dragging her injured leg alongside her and ambling along on all threes. She wasn't going as fast as she would've liked, and the veins in her neck strained and her teeth clenched as she pushed herself to move at a faster pace.

A large boulder bore down upon the injured pony and barely missed catching the tail that flowed out behind her. Her breath hitched in her throat as more rocks careened towards her, almost crushing her beneath their solid weight.

"Oh, no," she breathed, managing for some words to loosen from her tight throat. "Help!"

A looming, abundant shadow engulfed her in its wake, and she told herself to glance up. Her eyes widened and her chest tightened as she saw an enormous boulder – larger than all the rest – plunge towards her, and, right then, she knew it was all over.

When –

Something abruptly slammed into her hindquarters - a pair of hooves, it felt like - and she was pitched forwards, airborne for a few seconds before landing face-first into the gravelly dirt a few feet away. She felt the ground quake as the gigantic boulder collided with the ground.

Applejack shook off the dirt clinging to her face and struggled to sit up. The same pair of hooves hooked themselves under her shoulders and she was suddenly elevated into the air, the wind whistling through her ears and buffeting back her mane.

Applejack blinked and swivelled her head around to get a closer look at who saved her, and, as the sun reflected off the pony's gorgeous spectrum of a mane, she saw the most beautiful face she thought she has never seen in her entire life.

"Rainbow Dash," Applejack murmured softly, the tension gone from her chest. "Rainbow! Thank you, Celestia bless you – "

Just then, she heard Rainbow cry out, and the scream that permeated her ears made her heart drop into the pit of her stomach. Applejack felt the cyan pony's hooves loosen their grip from underneath her shoulders, and felt herself drop like a stone towards the earth. For a tiny second she managed to see Rainbow's rose-coloured eyes shine with determination, but then a thundering cloud of pain shrouded it as she, too, careened towards the solid ground that rushed up to meet her.

The rocks that tumbled from the walls seemed to begin to disintegrate to only tinier stones as the rockslide ceased, and Applejack found herself shrieking Rainbow's name before the earth below shallowly greeted her aching bones, and the world went black.

"Applejack?"

The voice that echoed through her ears sounded distant and wavering, but it wasn't drowned out enough that she couldn't hear the worry and dismay buried in it.

Applejack's eyelids felt heavy, but she half-managed to pry them open just enough to see Twilight Sparkle standing beside her, looking quite concerned. But there was something else, too. Was that – grief?

"T – Twilight?"

"Applejack, I'm so glad you're alright."

Applejack blinked several times before taking the time to glance around the room. She noticed that she was located in a musty, sterile-smelling room with streaked, faded walls, and the floor was checkered linoleum. On the other side of her was a silver tray lined with peculiar tools and sedatives and medicines, and there was a plain green curtain behind Twilight that separated them from the rest of the room.

Am Ah in a hospital?

Her mind was blank, fuzzy, and she struggled to fit the pieces together. She gingerly lifted herself to sit upright, but then a deep, burning sensation ricocheted through her shoulder, and she collapsed back onto her pillow, screwing up her face in pain.

And that's when everything came flooding back to her.

The rockslide. Injuring her shoulder. Rainbow Dash saving her life.

Rainbow Dash.

This time, Applejack shot upright, ignoring the searing pain in her shoulder. Her heart clenched, and her throat tightened. The words could barely escape her mouth. "Rainbow Dash. Is she okay?"

Twilight lowered her gaze, tears scorching the backs of her eyes, bottom lip quivering. She swallowed the tears down, making sure she wouldn't lose herself before staring right back into Applejack's frantic eyes.

And, somehow, Applejack knew what was coming.

"Fluttershy found you two lying motionless in Ghastly Gorge when she was bringing a couple of baby birds she found back to their nest, and came and got us right away. We knew there must've been a terrible rockslide, concerning your wounds. Rainbow Dash's was the worst of all. Her back was broken. We rushed you two to the hospital right away. The doctors confirmed you would be fine, but they couldn't say the same for Rainbow Dash. Her wounds were just so terrible that she died right after asking if you were okay. I – I'm so sorry." By the end of the story, tears were flooding down each pony's cheeks, leaving behind streaks of remorse and grief. Twilight's voice choked on her words as she continued to speak. "Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie are outside planning her funeral. I – I can't believe we lost her. We tried e-everything we c–could."

Anguished sobs racked Applejack's body as she clung to Twilight for support, her tears staining the unicorn's purple flank and causing her to shake as well. Twilight wrapped her legs around the blubbering pony, just holding her there, until Applejack had the ability to speak.

"Wh – where is she?" she asked, her voice swimming from the shed of tears.

Twilight slowly pushed back the curtains that hung neatly behind her. She assisted Applejack in gingerly stepping out of the hospital bed and walking over to the other bed situated against the separate wall. And, when Applejack laid watery eyes on the broken Pegasus in the bed, she couldn't help but lose herself all over again.

Rainbow's usual magnificent, spectrum of a mane was now dull and disheveled, and her sleek, cyan body was a forest of bruises, cuts, and bandages. Her eyes and mouth were closed. Those beautiful magenta eyes that would never see another day. The mouth that would never taste, or breathe, or boast, or cry out in glee when she soared through the clean summer air, ever again. The crumpled wings that would never fly or catch the raging wind again. And, despite all that, she looked so peaceful, so beautiful. So angelic.

Applejack found herself burying her face into Rainbow Dash's now frigid neck, her flooding tears tainting the cyan skin. She hugged the fresh corpse close, so close that her teeth gently brushed against the nape of Rainbow's neck as she cried.

"Applejack…" Twilight timidly placed a comforting hoof on the workhorse's shoulder, feeling her body convulse with each heaving sob.

Applejack sniffled, and swivelled her head around to look at the unicorn who failed to keep herself under control at the same time. Her eyes were bloodshot and puffy and red, but she managed to keep her voice steady as she spoke. "She saved my life. An' now that she's gone, Ah don' know how Ah'll ever get to repay 'er."

"Applejack. You already did repay her," Twilight said, a watery grin forming on her face. When Applejack looked slightly confused, she said, "You repaid her by being the best friend a pony could ever have, and I'm sure she thanks you for that."

The corners of Applejack's lips turned upwards in a small smile, but then fell. She sighed and closed her eyes. "But we had fights – "

"Applejack. That does not matter right now. Those measly fights were in the past. Besides, every friendship can't be perfect. There will always be fights. But there were never fights that harmed either of you badly."

Applejack returned her gaze to the Pegasus in the bed. "It's never gon' be the same without 'er."

Twilight draped a leg across the other mare's shoulders. "No. No, it won't. But death is a fact of life. We'll have to go through it someday."

Applejack shook Twilight off, stared her right in the eyes. "But it wasn' 'er time yet! She was still so young! She didn' even get ter join the Wonderbolts… her dream… This is all my fault…"

"Applejack, listen to me!" Twilight said sternly, placing both hooves on the other pony's chest. "This is not your fault, it was just an accident."

"No, Twilight. It was. I was foolish. And I can't go on living knowing that her death was all my fault."

On her final word, she pushed past Twilight and sprinted into the hall, ignoring the calls of her friend. She burst out the door, fresh tears staining her cheeks, passing the rest of her friends who lingered outside the hospital and watched her go.

Applejack stood at the edge of a cliff, peering into its vast emptiness, its crooked tendons of stalagmite that shoot up from the rocky terrain. It's so high. But the love she felt for Rainbow Dash couldn't compare to the height of the cliff. It was so high. So high. She just couldn't stand it anymore.

It'll probably be painless. She probably wouldn't even know she was falling.

Ah'm so, so sorry, Rainbow Dash. Ah am so sorry.

She could hear the worried, frantic voices of her friends some distance behind her. They were probably looking for her, and once they found her, they would try to thwart her. Would she act just for one pony?

No. She wasn't just anypony. She was somepony.

Applejack closes her eyes, the salty tears continued to cascade down her cheeks, causing her vision to be blurry.

Ah'm sorry, Twilight. Ah'm sorry Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie. Ah'm sorry y'all.

Her heart was fit to burst. She inches closer, closer, until she is down. Constantly falling. Falling into the pit of guilt, grief – and love.

Because she can't go on knowing it was all her fault.

A/N: Ok. What the hell did I just write.

The ending probably seems rushed. I'm sorry, so many words came rushing to me and, yeah.

The reason I wrote this is because I've been in a dark place for the past couple of weeks and I needed to get all of it out in this – sad story. Sorry for the horrible-ness. I probably won't write a MLP fic like this ever again – well, maybe.

Reviews would be nice – but I understand if you hate it.