Apple Bloom Grows A Pair (Of Wings, That Is)
Apple Bloom Grows A Pair (Of Wings, That Is)
by TheTwelfthDoctor
Cock-a-doodle-doo!
Apple Bloom shifted under her quilt as the first rays of sun began to stream through the windows of Sweet Apple Acres.
“GAH! These wings! This horn! Can’t…get…comfortable!” she exclaimed, fussing with her newly-grown appendages.
Then something clicked in her applesauce-filled noggin.
“Wait, WINGS?! HORN?!”
“What’s wit’ the costume, sugarcube? Nightmare Night’s still a month away!” Applejack inquired of her younger sister as she skulked into the dining room wearing a lime green-and-white checkered cloak and matching hat getup, both of which sported an apple design.
“Jus’ what are you supposed to be, anyways?” the elder Apple added curiously.
“An apple farmer?” Apple Bloom offered unconvincingly.
“Aha. Ah see,” Applejack deadpanned in reply. Her mood quickly brightened, though. “Eat yer pancakes before they get cold, now. Made ‘em with fresh apples an’ all.”
“Thanks?”
“Snips?”
“Here.”
“Diamond Tiara?”
“Present, Miss Cheerilee.”
“Sweetie Belle?”
“Hereherehere!”
“Apple Bloom?”
There was no response.
Silence quickly engulfed the Ponyville schoolhouse. Apple Bloom never missed school.
“Apple Bloom?”
“Bet she’s crying her little blank flank off at home about still not having her cutie mark!” Silver Spoon laughed. Diamond Tiara gave her a hoofbump in return, and the two devolved into a fit of giggles.
“So I take it nopony’s seen Apple Bloom this morning, then?” Cheerilee lamented disappointedly.
“Yep!” Sweetie Belle confirmed.
“Alrighty, then. We can start class without her.”
“Spike? SPIIIKE?! Can you go get that?”
“Of course,” Spike grumbled, pulling himself away from his morning bowl of Gem-Os and plodding towards the entrance of the Treebrary, which was threatening to be broken down any second now by the pounding hooves of whoever was outside.
“Coming, coming, alright!” Spike called, opening the door to see none other than a nervously prancing-in-place Apple Bloom, who was shifting her glance rapidly to the left and right.
“Can ah come in?”
“Uh…sure?”
Taking Spike’s vague answer for a definitive “yes,” Apple Bloom shot inside and careened into a rather oblivious Princess Twilight Sparkle, who was slurping loudly from a rather large coffee mug and perusing a rather large stack of paperwork.
“BWAH!” the startled purple alicorn cried, rolling onto her back with the mug still stuck against her muzzle.
Her violet eyes widened when she saw who her attacker was.
“Affuh Bumm?” came Twilight’s muffled rhetorical question.
Apple Bloom, who was still prancing in place, looked down at Twilight.
“Oh! Sorry! Can we…uh…talk? In private?”
Twilight managed to surgically remove the mug from her face and set it down. Righting herself, she cocked a head at the filly.
“Uh…why? Aren’t you supposed to be in school right now?”
“PLEASE? This is important.”
Twilight sighed, but conceded.
“Fine.”
Twilight found that her old friend eyelid twitch returned faster than Apple Bloom was able to pull off her cloak and hat outfit, which Twilight had been meaning to ask her about previously but now regretted ever thinking about.
“And you just…woke up like this?” Twilight asked incredulously.
“Yeah, Ah guess…” Apple Bloom said quietly, pawing the wood floor with her hoof, deepening the grooves created by years of on-end pacing.
“Does Applejack know?”
“Nope.”
“Hmm…” Twilight mused.
A few fleeting moments passed.
“I have no idea what to do!” the purple princess eventually concluded with uncanny happiness, flashing a wide grin.
Apple Bloom allowed a hoof to connect with her head, shaking it slowly.
Dear Princess Celestia,
It has come to my attention that a dear friend You know Apple Bloom, right? Applejack’s little sister? The spunky little blank flank cutie-mark-less? filly who wears that red bow?
Anyways, the reason I’m begging you to come down here and fix things writing this nice, friendly letter is because Apple Bloom’s now an alicorn.
Yes, you aren’t losing your eyesight heard me correctly. She woke up with a horn and wings just this morning, and doesn’t know what happened.
HELP! Please advise me as to what I should do. I don’t want to trouble you and all, so I think I’ll try to curl up in a ball and try to avoid going crazy sort the situation out myself.
Sincerely, Thanks,
Your Faithful Student
Princess Twilight Sparkle
P.S. Hey, Spike here. Come. Don’t listen to Twilight. Seriously. Just, please. Come. NOW.
Upon teleporting into the main reading room of the Ponyville Treebrary, Princess Celestia knew that she had made the right decision to intervene.
A certain purple alicorn was lying on the floor in a corner, shivering uncontrollably. Her mane was more than a little bit disheveled, and she was mewing softly like a cat – which Celestia saw fitting considered that her faithful student was curled up like she was one of the fluffy felines.
Apple Bloom, in the meantime, sat hunched over a large mug of hot chocolate at Twilight’s kitchen table, drowning her sorrows in whipped cream and marshmallows. Spike sat next to her, with one claw on her back, trying to infuse some words of encouragement into what was already a one-sided conversation.
Celestia cleared her throat meaningfully.
Spike was the first and only of the room’s three occupants to look up.
“Oh. Uh…hi, Princess? I take it you read my note?”
“Yes, and from experience I decided to believe you.”
“Good, good…” Spike mumbled. “Well, there’s not much else I can say. You’re currently seeing everything that there is to see.”
Twilight and Apple Bloom had still yet to budge.
Celestia strode over to the former, placing a hoof on her back and shaking the shocked alicorn out of her reverie.
“Twilight?”
The princess in question rolled over onto her other side, meeting the gaze of Celestia, who had knelt down to get her head closer to the ground.
“Celestia?! I thought I told you not to come! I can still handle this!” Twilight cried, righting herself and attempting to stuff the errant strands of her mane back into their proper place.
“Judging from how you were behaving just a moment ago,” Celestia admonished, “I’m going to say no.”
“BU—”
“No ‘buts,’ young lady,” Celestia said sternly.
Twilight withered under her mentor’s hard gaze. “Yes, Princess,” she managed to emit meekly.
Celestia then strode over to Apple Bloom and wrapped a fluffy white wing around the filly, who looked up slightly. Her eyes were more than a little bloodshot, betraying the fact that moments prior she had been sobbing her tiny little heart out.
“Princess Celestia?”
“Yes?”
“Why do Ah have wings and a horn?”
“Because it’s been your destiny since birth.”
“Say what now?”
“You’ve always been an alicorn—”
“An ali-huh?” Apple Bloom interrupted.
“An alicorn. An earth pony, pegasus, and unicorn all in one.”
“Aha. So…like you or Twilight?”
“Yes.”
“Ponyfeathers! That means Ah’m a princess too, right?”
“You are correct, my dear.”
“Then what am I the princess of, anyways?”
“Apples,” Celestia stated very matter-of-factly.
“APPLES?!”
The special knock sounded at the door of the Cutie Mark Crusaders Secret Operations Headquarters (“The Clubhouse” for short), and both Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle perked their heads up.
“Come on in, AB!” Scootaloo shouted, knowing full well who was outside. After all, only one other pony besides herself and Sweetie knew the correct sequence of light taps, hard raps, and, most importantly, tongue clicks, that would allow somepony entry to The Clubhouse.
The door opened, and Apple Bloom entered, complete with her earlier disguise.
“What’s with the costume?” Sweetie Belle wrinkled her nose at the sight.
“Uh..girls, Ah kinda have something important ta’ talk ‘bout. And yeah, it does have to do with what I’m wearing…” Apple Bloom announced with a hint of sadness in her voice, trailing off completely at the end.
“Lemme guess…you got your cutie mark?” Scootaloo asked as if she already knew what the answer was going to be.
“Nope!”
“Oh. Good, then. I thought for a second there we’d have to disband the club,” the pegasus breathed with relief, wiping sweat she didn’t know she had, well, sweat, off of her brow.
“It’s actually a lot worse than that.”
“Oh.”
“Well, let’s hear it!” Sweetie Belle pressured, her voice cracking.
“Alright, Ah’ll tell y’all, but only if y’all promise not to hate me for the rest of eternity?”
“We won’t!” Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle chorused in unison, bumping their hooves together.
Apple Bloom let the cape and hat fall to the floor and hung her head, closing her eyes.
All the rest of the contingent of the Cutie Mark Crusaders could do was stare with their jaws threatening to crack through the floorboards.
“NO!” Scootaloo managed.
“WAY!” Sweetie Belle finished.
“I take it y’all don’t like it?” Apple Bloom inquired disappointedly.
“No, of course not! That’s so cool, AB!” Scootaloo reassured her.
“Yeah, you’re so lucky!” Sweetie again finished.
“So you don’t want to kill me?”
“Well, maybe just a little bit,” Scootaloo admitted.
“Thanks for the support,” Apple Bloom said, her eyes rolling back in her head.
“Soooooooooo! What would Equestria’s newest princess like at her super-duper-wonderful-fantastical-APPLE-RIFFIC coronation party?” Pinkie Pie exclaimed.
“Uh…apples?” Apple Bloom informed the hyper pink blur of a pony, who was preoccupied painting a large bushel of the fruits in gold paint.
“Oh, come on, silly filly! I’m talking about balloons and streamers and decorations and cake and party favors and pranks and food and snacks and board games and card games and video games and—”
“Vidya games?” Apple Bloom asked curiously.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about! What are those?” Pinkie replied innocently, titling her head.
“Oops! My bad!” Derpy apologized, picking herself up from the ground. She had, while attempting to hand Applejack her mail, tripped on a small pebble, ending up at the farm pony’s hooves.
“Think nothin’ of it, Derpy,” Applejack replied, picking up the stack of mail. “Y'all have a good day now.”
“Yeah, go Applejack! Woohoo!” Derpy cried as she flew off in somewhat of a zig-zag motion.
“A’right,” Applejack said to nopony in particular, settling down with the letters. “Bill, bill, bill, sock catalog, junk, note from Braeburn…something from the palace?” she finished on a note of uncertainty, feeling the signature creamy white envelope that was always used to send royal correspondence.
Using a rusted knife lying in a nearby gutter, Applejack slit the thick cardstock open and slipped out the gold-leaf-edged paper. She skimmed the message’s contents, eyes widening as she did so.
“You are cordially invited to the coronation ceremonies of Her Highness, Princess Apple Bloom of Equestria, on next Friday, the Thirteenth of September, at ten-thirty in the morning sharp, at Canterlot Palace! What in tarnation? APPLE BLOOM! WHAT KIND OF SICK JOKE IS THIS?!”
Apple Bloom wanted to die in shame. It was unfortunate that, as an newly-immortalized alicorn, death was now only an abstract concept that plagued the insignificant common ponies.
The reason?
Now, Apple Bloom was no Rarity, and didn’t really give much of a hooey about namby-pamby fashion frou-frou frilliness (to quote her elder sister on the subject), but even still thought that her coronation dress was the ugliest thing she had ever seen.
The magenta-and-banana-crème monstrosity she had seen Twilight wear at her own ceremony just a few months prior, Apple Bloom decided, would have looked pretty darn good on her. In Apple Bloom’s opinion, it was just too bad she was instead told to don a ridiculous solid-color fire-engine-red gown. Even worse, the stylist had removed. Her. BOW!
Apple Bloom didn’t have any “rules” for other ponies, but the one thing any new acquaintance of hers would learn very quickly was that nopony, and that meant NOPONY, could put their plucking hooves on her bow! She always imagined Applejack felt the same way about her Stetson.
Celestia nudged Apple Bloom, bringing her back into the moment.
“Say something,” she whispered softly.
“Oh! Uh…how d’ya like them apples?”
Facehooves (and soft tittering) quickly spread throughout the audience.
Apple Bloom was sipping on a small cup of apple cider and attempting (but failing miserably) to make small talk with the Canterlot elite when Applejack stormed up to her.
“NOW, YOU LISTEN HERE, YOUNG LADY—” Applejack began to scold at the top of her lungs.
“Don’t’cha mean ‘Yer Hah’ness,’ mah lil’ pony?” Apple Bloom corrected with a smug grin.
“AH DON’T CARE WHAT’CHU WANNA BE CALLED, IT JUS’ T’AIN’T RIGHT A’ Y’ALL TO NOT TELL YER OWN FAMILY THAT YOU’VE BECOME AN ALI-WHATEVER-IT-IS! Y’ALL SHOULD BE MIGHTY ASHAMED OF YERSELVES NOW! YOU HEAR ME! WHY, AH 'OUGHT TA GIVE YER SORRY FLANK SUCH A GOOD BRUISIN' THAT YER CUTIE MARK NEVER APPEARS!” Applejack screamed, raising her voice by the minute and causing most of the ponies in the room to back away slowly.
Defeated, Apple Bloom lowered her head and closed her eyes.
“Ah know. Ah’m sorry about forgettin’ to tell y’all. I was just so, so…I dunno, panicked? Is that the right word?”
Sweetie Belle found the perfect opportunity to pipe up.
“Panicked. Adjective. A state of frantic unease, often brought upon by—”
“What are you, a dictionary?” Scootaloo snapped.
“Hush, both of you,” Rarity hissed, shoving a hoof in her younger sister’s mouth.
“Anyways, like Ah said, Ah wish I had told y’all earlier, but, well…”
“Don’t finish that,” Applejack said, having calmed down. “Really, it’s mah fault fer yellin’ at you, and Ah'm sorry for what Ah said 'bout yer cutie mark an' all. What matters now is that we’ve made up, isn’t it, sugarcube? Ah mean, ‘Yer Hah’ness.’” She giggled slightly.
“Please don’t actually call me that.”
“No can do, Yer Hah’ness!” Applejack grinned, equally smugly.
A fifth regal station had been erected in the Canterlot Palace throne room overnight. Next to Celestia’s, made of white marble and gold, Luna’s, of dark blue and purple obsidian, Cadence’s, of crystal, and Twilight’s, of books, was a seat about three hooves shorter than the others and made of…apples.
Apple Bloom had no idea how such round objects could be held together in such an odd shape, but dismissed the subject mentally upon finding out just how comfortable a large chair made of fruit could be.
“Apple Court,” it was to be called.
“So I’ll announce the petitioner’s name,” Apple Bloom’s new overseer, Orange Snap, said. “Then they’ll come in, and bow, and state their problem. Then you give them an answer.”
“But…what if Ah don’t know?”
“Just make something up.”
“Really?”
“Yes. They’ll always hear what they want to hear regardless of what you actually tell them, anyways.”
“Oh.”
“Presenting!” Orange Snap called, unfurling a scroll, “Miss Carrot Top, of Ponyville!”
The mare in question strode through the throne room doors with a look of disgust on her face.
“Now, listen here, Apple!” she began.
“Now, Carrot Top. Let’s not let no family feuds get in the way of what you came here for,” Apple Bloom soothed.
“But that’s exactly why I came! It is just patently unfair for…for an Apple to sit on that there throne. We Carrots should be princesses, you know! We were around first!”
Apple Bloom stood and raised her voice in response.
“And we founded Ponyville!”
“But carrots are more nutritious!”
“And apples taste better!”
“At least we sell more!”
“Says you!”
Orange Snap cut in.
“Now, now, let’s not get tempered, shall we? Carrot Top, if you have nothing else to say, then I’m afraid you must leave.”
“Yeah, and stay out!” Apple Bloom taunted as the still-fuming Carrot stomped out of the throne room.
“That went…well, for your first time,” Orange Snap encouraged.
“No, it didn’t…” the pint-sized princess mumbled.
“Oooh, this is so exciting! I finally get to teach somepony close to my level advanced magic! Ah, this is great!” Twilight gushed, hopping up and down in the center of the Canterlot Library’s main reading room. Circular in shape, the oak-paneled room’s walls were lined with floor-to-ceiling bookcases, while rows of study desks lined the floor.
“Ah don’t even know teleke-whatever-it-is yet, Twi. Maybe we should start simpler?” Apple Bloom asked doubtfully.
Twilight’s wide grin collapsed inwards and she looked visibly crestfallen.
“Oh.”
“Don’t feel bad,” Apple Bloom said sympathetically. “Maybe another time?”
“Alright. Telekinesis it is. Do you need help with such a big word? I know I sure did when I was your age. Why, I could…”
Twilight began to go off on a tangent, and Apple Bloom drowned her out.
“It really can’t be that hard,” she thought out loud to herself. “Ah mean, can’t Ah just, Ah dunno, think about what I want and make it happen? It’s worth a shot.”
So try Apple Bloom did. She screwed her eyes shut and braced her diminutive figure against the air, thinking hard about levitating the book sitting on the floor next to her.
“…but personally I prefer a Mark Seven Starswirl-Clover circle. The anti-misfire safeguards and self-correction logic are really handy for a klutz like me! What kind do you like?” Twilight finished her rant with another grin, this time an expectant one directed at Apple Bloom.
Instead, she found the filly deep in concentration, her horn lit in a bright crimson aura.
“Uh…what are you doing?” Twilight asked confusedly.
“Concentrating,” came Apple Bloom’s clipped reply.
A few moments of silence later, she finally uncoiled.
“Ah! I think I did it!” Apple Bloom cheered.
“Did what?”
“Levitate that book.”
“I don’t think so…”
“Really? What did I do, then? I know I cast some spell or other.”
Princess Celestia settled down in her reception room with a trade ambassador from the Crystal Empire. A set of tea sat between the two, and Celestia poured two cups of the liquid.
The ambassador inhaled.
“Mmm…wonderful as usual, Your Majesty.”
“You flatter.”
“Well, then, shall we get down to business? I would like to discuss the...”
“PTOOOOOOOO!” Celestia spat, the hot tea flying out of her mouth and coating the ambassador.
“Ow! Hot hot hot hothothot!” she exclaimed, hopping up and bouncing around the room, her skin visibly burning underneath her baby blue coat.
“Oh, I am terribly sorry about that. I was just a little surprised finding that the tea had somehow turned to coffee and whatnot. In any event shall we continue?”
“I think not! I have never been so disgraced in my life! Good day, Your Majesty!” the ambassador said with a huff, collecting her bags and storming out of the room.
“That could have gone better.”
“I still can’t put my hoof on it. I deduced it to some sort of transmutation enchantment, but other than that, well…oh, nevermind. I doubt it’s of any consequence,” Twilight mused.
“Let’s move on then, Twi,” Apple Bloom encouraged.
“Let’s.”
“So, squirt, ready for your first flying lesson?” Rainbow Dash asked Apple Bloom.
“As ready as I’ll ever be.”
The two were standing in an empty field not far from Canterlot, and Scootaloo was with them for her usual training.
“Now, first, you wanna stretch out those wing muscles and get ‘em nice and loose so you don’t sprain ‘em while we’re flying. Just do what I do,” Rainbow instructed as she unfurled her wings and began to open and close them rapidly. Apple Bloom followed along as best she could.
After a short time the pegasus spoke again. “Now curl your wings in, like this,” she said, folding her wingtips over so that they doubled back towards her body. Apple Bloom again mimicked the movement.
“Alright, now that you’re nice and limbered up, we can start with hovering. I think I’ll let Scoots here show you. She’s gotten pretty good lately,” Rainbow said, mussing Scootaloo’s mane.
“Alright!” Scootaloo shouted a bit too loudly, pumping a hoof in the air. “You gotta flap your wings really fast to do this! Don’t move ‘em too much, just a little will do. I guess you could call it vibrating them?”
Apple Bloom followed Scootaloo’s lead, but instead found herself a good ten feet in the air.
“GAH!”
“Woah! AB, you okay up there?” Rainbow Dash asked somewhat concernedly. “You aren’t lookin’ too hot. Your face is like, ugh…green.”
“Ah think Ah’m gon’ be sick….” was all Apple Bloom had to say for herself.
“Scoots, why don’t you be a dear and go get a bucket?”
Apple Bloom approached the door to Celestia’s chambers, giving a timid knock.
“Come in, Apple Bloom.”
The youngest princess did as she was told, finding the eldest standing on her balcony, facing the sunset that she had just created.
“How’d you know it was me, Princess?”
Celestia turned around.
“Just Celestia is fine when we’re in private. We are equals now, may I remind you? And to answer your question, well there’s a lot of things I know, Apple Bloom. I’ve been alive for a couple thousand years, you know. But that’s all unimportant now. What I care about more is the present, and that currently happens to be you. So, let’s talk about you. How was your first day?”
“Let’s just say it could’ve gone better.”
“Oh? Tell me more about it, at least.”
“Well, court turned into a shouting match, and I may have cast some sort of transmutation spell during my magic lesson with Twilight…”
Celestia arched an eyebrow, but she said nothing.
“…and then I threw up when Rainbow Dash was trying to teach me how to fly.”
“Sounds rough,” Celestia commented with a giggle. “But when I have a bad day like that, well, there are certain remedies,” she continued with a sly smile, reaching into a bottom desk drawer and retrieving a large bottle of some golden-colored beverage and two shot glasses.
“Remedies like a nice, stiff glass of cider,” Celestia finished in a sing-song voice, filling the glasses and offering one to Apple Bloom, who looked at it with obvious disgust.
“Ah don’t drink.”
Apple Bloom entered her newly-built tower abode. After all, no filly, not even a princess, could get away with staying up past her bedtime. At least, not with Applejack in charge.
The luxurious red, gold, and light green furnishings did little to impress the room’s sole occupant. In somewhat of a sleepy daze, she awkwardly removed the crown from her head and placed it on a table before diving headfirst into bed.
“Mmm, that is a comfy mattress…” were Apple Bloom’s last words before she drifted into a fitful sleep.
Cock-a-doodle-doo!
Apple Bloom shifted under her quilt as the first rays of sun began to stream through the windows of Sweet Apple Acres.
“Ugh...that dream was rough...but GAH! These wings! This horn! Can’t…get…comfortable!” she exclaimed, fussing with her newly-grown appendages.
Then something clicked in her applesauce-filled noggin.
“Wait, WINGS?! HORN?! AH'M STUCK IN A TIME LOOP?! Oh, ponyfeathers, here we go again!"
