How The Pegasus Got Her Wings
“Applejack?”
From out among the orchards, Applejack’s ear twitched. She thought she heard her name.
“Applejack!”
There it was again, and this time more urgent. The voice belonged to Sweetie Belle, and it was coming from in front of the farmhouse.
“Sweetie Belle?” Applejack called, trotting towards the farmhouse. As she drew closer, she saw that Sweetie Belle was accompanied by Applebloom and Scootaloo. “What’s up?”
“It’s Applebloom,” Scootaloo said, gesturing to Applejack’s sister. “She’s not very well.”
“Applebloom? Are you all right?”
Applebloom turned her face up towards her sister. “Ah don’t feel so good, sis’,” she said pathetically.
“Did you eat the berries from the north field?” Applejack said suspiciously. Applebloom nodded. “Ah told you not to eat them! You knew they’d make you sick!”
“I know, sis’, but Ah went ahead an’ Ah ate them, an’ Ah feel like a very silly filly, an’ if it’s all the same with you, could you speak a little quieter, please?”
Applejack’s expression softened. “Come on inside, then. Ah suppose it’s better to learn the hard way than not at all. Thank you for bringing her round to the farm,” she said to Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo.
“Is she going to be all right?” Sweetie Belle asked worriedly, looking as if she meant to follow.
“She’s not going to enjoy herself over the next few hours, but yes, she’ll be fine. All she needs is some rest,” Applejack said pointedly. Applebloom’s friends took the hint.
“Well, see you later I guess,” Scootaloo said. She and Sweetie Belle turned to leave. “Hope you feel better, Applebloom.”
Inside the farmhouse, Applejack led Applebloom to her room.
“Silly Applebloom,” she said. “Ah told you jus’ this morning. Why’d you have to go an’ eat those berries?”
“They looked so nice,” Applebloom said ruefully as she hopped onto her bed. “An’ it was such a hot day an’ all. Ah just ate a few, an’ they were really tasty, too. But now my head feels like it’s going to explode. It really does, sis’.”
“Ah bet it does,” Applejack said briskly, pulling the covers over her sister. “Ah had a few myself, when Ah was about your age. Tastiest berries in the world, they seemed, until a little while later later.”
“How long does it take to wear off?”
“A few hours,” Applejack said, fetching Applebloom a glass of water.
“A few hours!” Applebloom squeaked, stopping suddenly and holding her hooves over her head. “Oww. Ah wish Ah could make it go away.”
“Nope,” Applejack said, sitting on the bed beside her. “’Fraid you’re just gonna have to live through it, sis’. It’ll help if you sleep.”
“All right,” Applebloom said sadly.
“That’s the spirit. Now, Big Mac an’ Granny Smith have gone to the market for the afternoon, so Ah’m the only one around. If you need me, Ah’ll be within shouting distance of the window. All right?”
Applebloom nodded. Applejack was just about to leave when her sister said, “Wait!”
“What is it?”
“Could ... could you read me a story? Like you used to when Ah was a filly?”
“Sorry, Applebloom, all those books are in the barn now. Remember when we cleared out all the toys you’d grown out of? We put the books away with them too.”
“Oh.”
Applejack hesitated as she saw her sister’s face fell. Then, she had an idea.
“Tell you what,” she said, returning to sit on the bed beside Applebloom. “Ah could invent one. Granny Smith always used to invent stories for me when Ah was small, it can’t be too hard.”
Applebloom’s eyes went round with excitement.
“But you have to promise me you’ll go to sleep once the story’s finished.”
“Yes, sis’!”
“Right. This is the story of how the pegasus got her wings.
“Long ago, before Ponyville was founded, before Canterlot, even before the rule of Princess Celestia, an’ even before Equestria was discovered, there were no unicorns or pegasi. There were only earth ponies.”
Applebloom sat up. “Does that mean all the different types of pony are descended from earth ponies?”
“Hush! You’re supposed to be going to sleep!”
“Oh, right. Sorry, sis’.” Applebloom lay back down.
“Anyway, yes. The earth ponies lived in a land called Hippotamia, an’ there were no wings or horns on any of them. They all looked exactly the same. They were even the same colour, which made it very difficult to tell each other apart.
“All the earth ponies lived in villages randomly dotted around the countryside. There was nopony ruling over them, so they all did as they liked, an’ it meant that they never got any real work done. They just spent their days lazing around an’ eating what they found.
“Because they all looked the same, an’ all thought the same, they never argued. They never had anything to talk about. They just carried on going about their business, not getting in each other’s way. Ah think it must have been a very boring place to live, don’t you?
“Well, almost all the ponies were the same, except for one filly. She was called Fleetfoot, an’ she was a very foolish girl, because she fell in love with a cloud.
“’Course, in those days, the weather was wild, since there were no pegasi to tame it. The weather did what it wanted, an’ if it rained, the ponies got wet. If the sun shone for too long the ponies burnt up something awful, an’ if it snowed they froze an’ ran out of food.
“Now Fleetfoot, as Ah said, was a very foolish girl. She adored her cloud, an’ would talk of nothing else. Well, the other ponies weren’t used to being spoken to by anypony, since they had nothing to say to each other. So they ignored her. But she didn’t care, an’ she kept going on about her lovely cloud until she made herself hoarse.
“When she couldn’t speak any more, she sat in the fields, watching her cloud. Just watching. Nopony knows what it was about this cloud that she found so wonderful, but she couldn’t take her eyes off it. She kept watching, even when the sun went down an’ rose the next day.
“When her voice started to get better she tried talking to it, but it didn’t say anything back to her. It just hung there in the sky, like all clouds do.
“After a while, Fleetfoot decided she had to do something. She couldn’t reach the cloud, but she was sure that if she could jump up high enough to make it hers, then she would be the happiest pony who ever lived. So she decided to see how she could catch it.
“Fleetfoot walked back to the village, an’ stood in the street. She said to anypony who would listen, ‘My name is Fleetfoot, and I am utterly in love with a cloud. And if I cannot catch my cloud, I will waste away with misery. Can you help me catch my cloud?’ But the ponies kept ignoring her. She asked everypony she could find, but with no luck.
“Now, in the woods their lived a strange zebra, who was known for making strange concoctions an’ potions with magical powers an' all. The earth ponies didn’t like her because she looked different to them, so she was made to live all by herself. Some of the ponies were afraid of her, but Fleetfoot was determined to catch her cloud, so she swallowed her fear an’ went into the woods to look for her.
“When she found her, she said: ‘My name is Fleetfoot, and I am utterly in love with a cloud. And if I cannot catch my cloud, I will waste away with misery. Can you help me catch my cloud?’
“The zebra nodded slowly. ‘You must catch this cloud to be sure, if you want to make it yours for ever more,” she said.
“Fleetfoot, though, was an impatient pony. ‘I know that,’ she said, ‘Otherwise I wouldn’t have asked for your help. But I can’t catch it. It’s too high.’
“The zebra nodded again, an’ said ‘Too high for you, you think? Then here, have a little drink.’ An’ so saying she produced a little bottle with a strange drink inside.
“Fleetfoot took the bottle an’ left, wondering what it would do. But when she returned to her field, the cloud had moved. The winds had grown stronger, an’ it was starting to blow away.
“Horrified, she drank the potion down as fast as she could, an’ started galloping after the cloud, shouting desperately for it to slow down. But the cloud wouldn’t listen, an’ started to leave her behind.
“Fleetfoot ran as fast as she could – she was a very quick pony – but still she couldn’t quite keep up. So she started trying to leap into the air to catch the cloud, an’ each time she jumped she jumped a little further. She kept jumping like this, making bigger an’ bigger jumps, until it seemed she was going faster through the air than on the ground.
“Finally she caught up with the cloud, an’ grabbing a corner of it in her teeth, she brought it down to the ground. Her heart exploded with joy, an’ when she had finished hugging it, which was a very long time, she towed it back to the village, expecting the other ponies to congratulate her.
“But when she got back, the other ponies recoiled from her in fear. Instead of before, when they all ignored her, they scrambled to get away from her. She couldn’t work out why they hated her so much, until she realised they were all staring at her back. She followed their gaze, an’ found to her surprise a pair of wings had sprouted there.
“She stretched out her new wings with excitement, an’ gave them a flap to test them. When she had got the hang of it, she beat them as fast as she could, an’ lifted up into the air, taking her cloud with her, far away from the boring village below.
“So Fleetfoot spent the rest of her time playing with her beloved cloud in the sky, until it finally rained an’ disappeared. She was very sad when that happened, but with her new wings she could fly around wherever she wanted, so she did just that. She spent the rest of her life flying among the clouds, always searching for one as pretty as the first one that captured her heart.
“An’ that,” Applejack said, “Is how the pegasus got her wings.”
“Wow!” Applebloom said, looking up at her sister with round eyes. “So where did the unicorns come from? An’ how did the ponies get all their different colours? An’ where did Princess Celestia and Princess Luna come from?”
“Those are stories for another time,” Applejack said, standing up to close the curtains against the bright sunlight. “Now come on, Applebloom, you promised me you’d go to sleep after the story was finished.”
Applebloom gave a very quiet aw of disappointment, and turned onto her side. “All right then, sis’.”
“Sleep well,” Applejack said, giving her a nuzzle. “Feel better soon.” She left the room, closing the door quietly behind her.
When she descended the stairs, she was surprised to find Big Mac and Granny Smith waiting in the hall.
“Good gravy, were you listening to all that?”
“Eeyup.”
“Ah always knew mah Applejack would be a good storyteller!” Granny Smith said, beaming with pride. “Runs in the family.”
“Aw, shucks. You’re embarrassing me, Granny. Now come on, tell me about the market. What did you get?”
