“What do you think happens after death?” Rainbow Dash asked, staring out the window of her hospital bed. Applejack nuzzled Rainbow’s cheek.

“Don’t talk like that, sugarcube. Things are gonna start lookin’ up before too long, you’ll see.” Applejack tried to ignore the feathers that littered the floor around her marefriend’s bed. She tried to ignore the patches of thinning fur along the mare’s hooves and back. Everypony knew Rainbow Dash was dying, and nothing could bring her back. They’d known since the day her wings wouldn’t get her off the ground. It had taken Fluttershy, and now it was taking Dash. Applejack could still remember the day it had all started, as though it had just happened yesterday.

Applejack scuffed her hoof along the ground, looking around the vibrant orange and yellows of the autumn leaves. Rainbow Dash was beside her, stretching out her wings and wincing.

“Tired already?” Applejack teased. Rainbow put on a smirk and shook her head.

“You wish,” she scoffed. Pinkie announced the beginning of the Running of the Leaves and Applejack was off, barreling down the path along with the others, sending a cascade of brilliant orange across the sky. She glanced behind her to see how far behind her marefriend was, surprised to see that Rainbow was trailing far behind the rest of the crowd. It wasn’t like her to go so slow. She was the fastest pony in Equestria. When Rainbow noticed Applejack looking back at her, however, she put on a burst of speed, pulling up beside the orange mare.

“Gotcha,” Rainbow panted, galloping ahead of Applejack. Applejack shook her head and easily pulled past Rainbow, not giving the pegasus mare a second glance. The thundering of hooves deafened her to anything else, the rushing leaves blinding her to everything, aside from a flaming curtain of leaves. Her focus remained on finishing the run with the others, so long as she finished before Rainbow Dash.

Applejack pulled ahead the front of the running ponies, letting out a whoop as she noticed that she had indeed finished before Rainbow Dash. She stood by the ending line, waiting for the cyan pegasus to cross so she could rub it in. Three years and counting, and Applejack was still undefeated. However, Rainbow Dash never crossed the line. Applejack wasn’t too concerned until the little grey mail-pony crossed the line last with still no sign of Rainbow Dash.

“Pinkie! Where’s Dash?” Applejack called up. Pinkie Pie peered over the edge of her balloon, scanning the path below for any sign of their friend.

“No sign of her from up here! Unless she’s hiding in the trees, which would be silly since this is the Running of the Leaves, not the Hiding of the Leaves!” Pinkie called back. Applejack bit her lip, starting to worry. Rainbow Dash always finished a race, even if she wasn’t going to win.

“Ah’m gonna go look for her,” Applejack said, mostly to herself. She double checked the crowd of ponies to make sure Rainbow wasn’t blending into the crowd, and set off back into the now bare trees.

Without the cover of leaves, it was easier to feel the chill of the autumn wind. Somewhere behind her, the sun was sinking. Time passed and she hadn’t found Dash. The moon was climbing higher into the sky, casting a dim silver lighting along the trees, and Rainbow was still nowhere to be found. Applejack tried calling out to her, but the trees remained silent.

Except for the coughing. Applejack twitched her ears, heading off in the direction of the sound. She found Rainbow Dash curled up beneath a thick covering of bare branches, her body trembling as she coughed.

“I couldn’t run,” she whispered, her eyes staring blankly up towards the faint moonlight streaming from between the branches. “I couldn’t run, so I tried to fly, but I couldn’t fly.”

“We’ll getcha some help, Dash. You’ll be flyin’ again in no time, Dash.” Applejack nuzzled the side of her marefriend’s cheek. “You’ll be flyin’ soon,”

“I guess life goes on, right? After somepony dies? I mean, with Fluttershy, we were all sad. We’re still sad, all the time when we think about how she’s not here anymore, but you still run the farm, Twilight still helps rule Equestria, Rarity still makes dresses, Pinkie Pie still throws parties. Life moves on.” Rainbow Dash hadn’t looked away from the window the entire time Applejack had been there, but now she turned to face her marefriend. The magenta in her eyes had faded as her sight began to falter, and she looked exhausted, but she was still Rainbow Dash.

“Ah suppose so,” Applejack agreed, just glad that Rainbow had stopped staring out the window.

“Seasons still pass. Celestia and Luna aren’t going to stop making day and night just because somepony dies. It doesn’t matter who that pony is, nopony is important enough to make the entire world just stop, right?”

“Dash, Ah think ya need to get some fresh air. All this stuffy hospital room air is gettin’ to your head.” Applejack pushed the window up with her nose, allowing a gentle breeze to flutter the curtains and blow across Rainbow Dash’s face. The pegasus looked pained as the breeze ruffled what was left of her feathers. Applejack slammed the window shut and began stuttering out an apology.

“Ah didn’t think--Ah’m sorry Dashie,”

“Stop apologizing. I hear enough of that. ‘We’re sorry, Ms. Dash, we can’t let you walk outside.’ ‘Our deepest apologies, Ms. Dash, but your stay has to be extended until your feather growth returns to normal.’ ‘Ms. Dash, we’re sorry to say this but it appears the tumor has spread faster than we can shrink it’.”

Rainbow slumped down in her bed, shaking a few more feathers off her nearly bare wings. Applejack couldn’t decide whether she should go closer or keep her distance, so she stood awkwardly by the window.

“Why do you keep coming?”

“Pardon?”

“To see me. Why do you waste so much of your day here? You have a farm to run.”

“Ah’m not one to leave my marefriend in her time of need.” Applejack said with a shrug.

“There’s no point. I’m dying. You know that. I know that. Everypony knows that. I’m dying, and there’s nothing anypony can do about it, so you might as well just get on with your life, so when I am gone, you don’t have all this extra time on your hooves.”

“Don’t talk like that.”

“Why not? It’s true.”

“It might not be.”

“But it is.”

“And what if Ah don’t want it to be?” Applejack snapped. “What if all Ah’ve got to hold on to is the thought that doctors can be wrong? All Ah’ve got to hold on to is the hope that they’re wrong, and you’re gonna recover, so Ah’m gonna keep holding on as long as I can.”

Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to argue, but there was nothing more to be said.

Applejack scuffed her hoof along the dirt path, looking up at the clear sky and smiling.

“Ya ready, Dash?” she whispered. Pinkie announced the beginning of the Running of the Leaves and Applejack took off, galloping ahead of the group. Leaves floated down around her, swirling at her hooves before being carried off by the wind off to Celestia knows where.

It was her first Running since they’d lost Rainbow. It had been quiet, peaceful. Rainbow had simply fallen asleep and never woken up. Applejack took comfort in the fact that Rainbow had died without knowing what was happening.

She’d tried moving on without Dash in her life. Rainbow Dash was adamant about making sure that her friend’s lives didn’t stop just because hers did. It had been small things, at first. Helping Applebloom with chores. Helping Big Mac distribute apples around Equestria. Watching the Crusaders. Anything to keep her out of Ponyville. It had taken almost two years, but she’d found her way back in the end. And she’d had the others to help her through the worst of it.

Dash had been right. The sun still rose in the mornings. The moon still came out at night. Seasons changed. Rarity made new dresses. Twilight ruled Equestria. Pinkie Pie threw parties. Applejack still helped with the farm. Dash was gone, but life hadn’t stopped. She hadn’t been the first pony to go, and she wouldn’t be the last. Applejack looked up at the vibrant branches, watched as the leaves shook and spiraled to the ground. Dash was gone, but the leaves still continued to fall.

Author's Notes:

So yeah. October. Gonna try that one one-shot a day thing this month. I'll probably fail. But here you go. October 1st.