Original Link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Irt14lzz9G81Zaa0Dhe-UIiBUtwg0Y7yfJpK_jVbOa0/edit

It was about a month after Hearth’s Warming Eve. The rebellion had been going for over a year now and it started showing changes in the Crystal Empire. The number of buildings had doubled at this point and never before had there been such a huge diversity of species inside of it, seeing how the crystal ponies are usually very solitary and stick to themselves. While it was at first a bit difficult for them to cope with the changes in such a static, stable environment as theirs, their horizons slowly became expanded more and more with each new type of creature joining the rebellion and started living with them. Just now, they began to understand the joy and excitement of change and cultural diversity, as many crystal ponies could be seen walking straight up to newcomers of all sorts to welcome them and talk. The only thing that did not change and never would was the weather.

While it was deepest winter outside, which meant it was even colder with even more snow than usual, the empire’s magic kept the climate stable on the inside. It was something that always seemed to fascinate other creatures, since they were not used to the ‘Ever Season’, as the crystal ponies called it. Just as the name suggests, this special season was everlasting and kept the weather and temperature constantly pleasant, as well as the ground fertile all year long. Furthermore, it assured the constant supply of fresh food, which was much to the delight of Applejack.

Normally during this time of the year, she would spend most of her time just checking on stocks, meeting friends and slacking off. But while this was something others might look forward to and would be very annoyed over the existence of the Ever Season, Applejack was known to not like being lazy and doing nothing productive. Now she had something to do even during the usually very boring winter months. So despite the fact that most of her co-workers had been taking leave, she kept on working in the crystal berry fields.

Next to no one was around for over a week now, yet many berry bushes were ripe for the harvest. For the first time in years, Applejack was working to capacity. Having to rapidly wander from one bush to the next, transporting basket after basket in record time was physically exhausting to her. She wasn’t used to such hard labor anymore, especially with her handicap. But it was something she thoroughly relished. In the heart of a heavy labor filled day, she could bloom. Applejack had been working herself into the zone for hours until she reached a section of the farm where she finally saw another fruit picker nearby.

“Howdy, Caramel!” she greeted, panting but happy.

“Hi…” Caramel greeted back with a saddened expression, then continued picking berries.

Slowly, the smile faded out of Applejack’s face. Caramel still seemed to be in the same bad mood as on the first day. They rarely got to talk so far, but now knowing that her colleague was going through something long-term, she needed to slow down a bit and invest some time into him. After all, she still thought of herself as the loyalest of friends and the most dependable of ponies.

“Nice to see Ah still got some company out here! Ah’m used to that life, but almost all the others took some time off,” the orange mare stated to restart the conversation.

“Can’t afford to take some time off,” Caramel replied.

“Why not?” Applejack wanted to know.

Caramel suddenly stopped, his head still half hiding behind a berry bush. He glanced over to the orange mare with a saddened expression, then looked away and sighed audibly.

“I lost my wage from the whole last month. Had to strike a deal with the farm owner. I am working extra shifts but get paid immediately after, so I can afford some food for this and the next month,” he stated in shame.

“Oh… How did that happen?” Applejack wanted to know.

“I was carrying the bits in a small bag in my mouth, then slipped on a puddle and threw them right down a drain…” the light amber stallion explained, now sounding kind of annoyed of himself.

“Now that’s some serious bad luck… Sorry to hear,” Applejack stated.

“It’s fine… I am used to stuff like this,” Caramel responded and resumed with his work.

Applejack did not know what to say. For a moment, she just stood there, thinking and staring. Then she returned to her own work, significantly slower than before, though. While picking berries, storing them in her basket and bringing it to the barn to empty it out, she kept on thinking the whole time. Sure, she never was all that close of a friend with Caramel. But it seemed like he really could use somepony willing to spend some time with him. Each and every day, he seemed so down and depressed. Applejack also did not forget how strangely he reacted when she mentioned his girlfriend. There was something going on. Something she might be able to help with. She just couldn’t take seeing him like this. She just had to do something! So after she picked up her basket, she walked straight back to the stallion.

“Hey, um… So Ah was wonderin’... did ya have anythin’ planned for this evenin’?” she asked.

“I was just going to get back home after work, as every day…” Caramel replied.

“Well, how about we go and spend some time together? Ah reckon ya could use some company,” Applejack offered.

Caramel twitched a little. This seemed to have been really unexpected to him, as he looked at Applejack with wide open eyes, then let them wander around, unsure what to respond.

“Ya don’t have to if ya don’t want to…” Applejack spoke carefully.

“N-no, no. I… I would like hanging out with you,” he spoke quickly.

“Ah, alright then! So is here at four good for ya? Ah still gotta get somethin’ for mah cousin Babs Seed,” the orange mare suggested.

“Yeah. That sounds… alright,” Caramel replied.

After that, the conversation suddenly came to an end, as the light amber stallion just turned around and kept going with his work. Applejack did not exactly know how to react to this, but since he already agreed to the meeting, she just smiled and started filling her basket again.

---

As the sun began to set over the mountains, Applejack went on her way back to the plantation. She was pretty early and expected to be the first to arrive. But to her surprise, Caramel was already waiting. It might very well be that he had been waiting since the moment he finished. This further confirmed to her that he was desperately looking for a friend, even if he wouldn’t really admit it.

The orange mare approached the stallion with a friendly smile, but all he could give in response was waving shortly before looking away again. Applejack already knew that this would be a tough nut to crack.

“Glad to see ya’re here so soon. Where would ya like to go?” she wondered.

“Anywhere is fine…” Caramel responded.

So the decision was up to Applejack. She wanted to get him talking, so a scenario with few distractions would be preferable.

“Well how about we just go wanderin’ around the empire for a bit?” the orange mare suggested.

“Sure, why not,” Caramel agreed.

Smiling again, Applejack led the way. She was aiming to make this walk as long as possible, so she planned the route to go once around the entire empire along the borders. The first couple of minutes passed, but both were still silent. Caramel constantly kept his head low, stared at the ground and let his ears hanging.

“How do ya like the farm life so far?” Applejack asked suddenly.

“It’s okay,” Caramel replied.

“Ah guess that’s not really your profession, is it?” the orange mare wondered.

“Nah, not really,” the stallion answered.

It became silent again. Caramel sure wasn’t very talkative. At least Applejack still had a few ideas how to reignite this conversation. With the blizzard around the Crystal Empire gone, they now could see the endless snowy landscape outside.

“Gotta say, it’s darn pretty here. The empire’s nice to look at and so are the snowy fields. Sometimes, Ah feel like Ah’m living in a reverse snow globe,” the orange mare commented.

“Hm…” was all Caramel gave as a response.

He sure wasn’t making it easy for Applejack. They kept on walking for a while more, the orange mare desperately looking for some topics to talk about. As they were about halfway done circling the empire, she got another idea.

“But Ah am sure ya got some great talents!” she spoke out.

“Yeah… very great…” the light amber stallion responded, then sighed. “The only thing I am really good at is losing things.”

“But what about yer cutie mark? That’s gotta mean something. What’s your special talent?” Applejack wanted to know.

“Well, I am decent at fitting horseshoes. Never managed to keep a job as blacksmith, though. Always got fired for losing things. Maybe the truth behind my cutie mark is that it’s an ironic symbol for my bad luck…” Caramel figured.

At least she got him to speak more than a sentence now. This poor guy was suffering from pretty low self-esteem. No wonder, considering just how unlucky he had been so far.

The walk kept going in silence, Applejack’s head nearly smoking over trying to bring up topics he might respond to. As they nearly finished circling the empire, Applejack decided to buy some more time by aiming to walk towards the center.

As they walked down some barely used roads, making sure there wouldn’t be any bystanders, Applejack decided that she had no choice anymore. She was going to bring up a topic which she knew would hit Caramel, but she didn’t have anything left to talk about. She just wanted to get to the core of this and help somehow.

“Caramel… What happened to Sassaflash?” she asked.

Instantly, the light amber stallion stopped walking. Applejack noticed and stopped, too. Her mouth was slightly opened and she stared at him in worry that she might have gone too far. She closely observed as he stared at the ground with the same sad expression as always. Then suddenly, he pressed his eyes shut, started sniffling and let tears wash over his face.

“They killed her! They just up right killed her!” he suddenly shouted.

Applejack immediately walked over to Caramel and embraced him. This seemed to be just what he needed, as he embraced her right back. They both remained like that for about a minute before Caramel could catch himself again.

“The BloodClaw Cult was after us,” he began to explain with teary eyes. “They said if we didn’t join them, we would be sorry. Sassa was so scared. She didn’t see any other option anymore, so she followed their request. I told her this was a very bad idea! But she only said ‘How bad could it be? At least they will leave us alone!’”

“And then?” Applejack wanted to know.

“They dragged her through the same stuff all cultists need to do. She was completely horrified and disgusted. Told me a lot about the terrible things they do. She wanted to quit again, but that was seen as blasphemy. As a punishment, they nailed her hoofs into a wooden wall, cut her belly open, pulled her organs out and let her be eaten alive by demons… I had to watch it all. They made me watch as these things tore her apart. I could hear her scream and beg me for help. But I… I couldn’t help her… I couldn’t… I just couldn’t…” Caramel continued, tears flowing freely again.

“That’s… That’s so awful. This darn cult… Ah just don’t get how they can think what they do is right,” Applejack commented and stroked him over the head. “But… Sugarcube… Nopony is blaming ya for not bein’ able to help. There was nothin’ ya could’ve done.”

“You don’t understand, Applejack! She screamed my name! She begged me to help her! And I just stood there, not able to move a muscle… I… I didn’t even try to help her…” Caramel continued, still sobbing.

“If ya would have moved as much as a muscle, ya would be dead now as well. Ya wouldn’t have had the smallest chance to even get near her. The cultists and demons would have killed ya, too,” the orange mare tried to reason.

“Perhaps it would have been better like this… Ever since this happened… My life is so meaningless now. I so often think about… killing myself so I can be with her again…” Caramel stated.

“That’s not what she would have wanted for ya. Ah am pretty sure of that,” Applejack stated.

Suddenly, the mood changed. Caramel got angry over her last statement and suddenly pushed the orange mare away from him.

“Oh yeah? What do you know about this anyway? Do you have any idea what it is like to lose somepony so dear to you in such a horrible way?” the light amber stallion shouted with a furious expression.

For a moment, Applejack was deeply shocked he dared to say this. But she caught herself before saying or doing anything wrong and managed to remind herself that he was being irrational right now and could not possibly know about all the things she had gone through. Instead of getting upset, Applejack’s expression became serious with a touch of sadness.

“Yes. Ah know exactly what that’s like,” she spoke calmly.

Caramel puffed two more times in anger, but finally her words sank in and he realized by the tone of her voice and the expression on her face that she knew what she was talking about. Then Applejack sat down on the ground and lifted her front leg.

“Ya see this?” she asked, revealing the long scar on the leg. “And this?” she asked again, pointing at the scar on her neck “And even this?” she asked once more, pointing at the scars on her chest now.

“Wh… what…” Caramel mumbled, unsure if he should ask. But Applejack was going to explain anyway.

“Ah tried to kill mahself, Sugarcube. Nearly mah entire family is dead and Ah lost a whole bunch of close friends, too. The time two years ago was hell for me and aside of me, Babs is the only member of the Apple family still left,” she spoke.

“I… I had no Idea…” Caramel stated in shock.

“It all started with a reaper called Obsidian Shards,” Applejack began to explain. “We became really close friends with him and he revealed the whole demon thing to us. He also was the one who guided mah good old Granny Smith into the afterlife when her time had come. That already was difficult for me to accept, but by far not the worst thing happenin’ to me and mah family. One day, he disappeared and turned up a couple of days later along with the dead bodies of two of mah best friends: Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. Turns out Pinkie was a cannibal and tortured Rainbow. He killed both of them to punish Pinkie and end Rainbow’s suffering, since she couldn’t be saved. As if that wasn’t hard enough to handle for my friends, me and even him, we also had to find out that mah very own sister Applebloom was bein’ trained by Pinkie to eat and torture other ponies, too. So Obsidian had no choice but to kill her as well. He felt so guilty over all of this that he eventually went mad and wanted to go on a killin’ spree. We were able to stop him, but the only way we could do this was by killin’ him. That’s how Ah lost mah leg.”

“Oh my gosh…” Caramel commented.

“Then the cult came and Ah was on the front fightin’ against them. As that came out, they started targetin’ mah family to make me stop. Eventually, Ah found mah brother Big Macintosh dead in his bed, throat sliced open… He was the most important pony to me and the only bit of family Ah had left back home... That was too much for me. Ah tried to end mahself, but mah friends rescued me. Ah got to the hospital, healed up, had to rethink mah life and just as Ah was about to turn things around, we had to flee to the Crystal Empire because Blueblood got to power. Ah’ve been through things Ah wouldn’t wish mah worst enemy to go through. But despite all that, Ah still keep goin’,” Applejack finished.

“I’m… Oh my gosh… I’m so sorry. I feel so ignorant now…” Caramel apologized.

It took until now for the orange mare to realize that a tear was rolling down her cheek. She swiftly wiped it away and began to smile at the stallion in front of her again.

“It’s alright, Sugarcube. Ya couldn’t have known. All I wanna say with this is: Ya’re not alone. We’re livin’ in a time where many have to lose friends, family and lovers. Ah very well understand what’s goin’ on inside ya. The fear, the anger, the depression and desperation, the guilt, the feelin’ of bein’ stuck in a time loop where nothin’ is movin’ forward. It takes time to heal, like every injury. But give yaself a chance to let it heal. If ya wanna talk, Ah’ll be listenin’. If ya need help, Ah’ll be there. Ah swear to ya by the Apple family’s pride!” Applejack spoke, full of confidence but with tears gathering in her eyes the more she spoke, as well as her voice giving in to sadness.

Even when broken herself, Applejack kept on being the strong one who would support others. But Caramel could see that she needed just as much help as he needed, maybe even more. So he came closer and embraced the orange mare again. Resuming all this had her worn down as well, so she began to cry as he held her.

“I… I don’t even know what to say. You are pretty amazing, you know? I guess I could offer the same thing to you, too. If you ever want to talk or need help, just let me know,” Caramel offered.

“That’s nice of ya,” Applejack stated and sniffled a bit.

“Nothing compared to what you just did for me. Thank you, Applejack. Thank you for caring and for telling me all this,” the light amber stallion spoke.

“Thank ya too, Sugarcube,” the orange mare replied.

Minutes passed while they both held each other closer, looking for comfort. But eventually, they could both catch themselves. Sometimes, just crying it out can do wonders. Even though this had been a highly emotional evening, they both felt a lot better now.

“Ah guess we should go home now. We gotta be in good shape for the harvest tomorrow,” Applejack suggested.

“Yeah, I guess… Good night, Applejack. And thank you again,” Caramel agreed.

“Seeya tomorrow, Caramel,” Applejack replied.

Now, they both turned around and went separate ways, back to their homes.