It's A Magical Life

"Wh—what the—hey! …Hey!”

Applejack nearly knocked over a stallion who had just exited a diner. The stallion shook an angry hoof in her direction and straightened out his business suit. But instead of apologizing, Applejack kept running down the sidewalk, which was considerably busier than last night. She kept glancing up at the sky, taking in the mysterious rainbow and all its truth.

Even the high-strung early commuters, busy with themselves, came to a stop to gaze in wonder up at the rainbow. Applejack bumped into a number of other ponies, but none of them seemed to care. All their attention was on the rainbow, undoubtedly questioning its odd occurrence and what the situation could possibly mean. As Applejack passed a couple of road worker ponies, she heard one of them say something about another misfire in Cloudsdale. Applejack had no idea what that meant, but she didn’t care; she knew the real purpose of the rainbow—to guide her back home. This rainbow was only for her…she just knew it.

The sun was fully over the hills now, flooding the streets of Manehattan. The lights in all the buildings began to steadily shut off as the city became brighter and brighter. A cool morning breeze swept through the awestruck city. As Applejack got closer to the edge of the city, she noticed a faint hint of apples in the refreshing breeze. Suddenly, Applejack galloped even faster, the familiar smell exciting her more. She was running so fast, everything around her was a blur. A cloud of dust kicked up into the air behind her along with her golden mane, the roads now no longer paved.

Applejack was so caught up in her speed that she didn’t even notice the colt that was coming right at her. Looking at the huge cloud of dust behind her, the colt jumped out of the way in surprise. Applejack heard him call out to her, but whether he was angry or not, Applejack didn’t care. All she cared about was returning to her kingdom; the kingdom everypony called Sweet Apple; the kingdom Applejack just called home.

After a minute or so, the cloud of dust settled and the cloth climbed out of the ditch on the side of the road he had jumped into for safety. Watching Applejack quickly disappearing into the distance behind the cloud of dust, the colt shook the debris out of his shaggy mane and smiled.

“’Atta filly.”

☼☼☼☼☼

Granny Smith and Big Macintosh were finishing breakfast in the kitchen when the rainbow had gone off that morning. The booming noise that had gone off at the time of the rainbow was much louder in Ponyville than it was in Manehattan, and it nearly scared Granny Smith senselessly. The blast rattled the entire house and set off all the chickens in their coops. Even the rooster fell off his post in surprise.

They rushed out immediately into their garden to see the wave of colors rocket over the treetops of Sweet Apple. In all her years, Granny had never witnessed anything like what had just happened that morning. Both Granny and Mac had seen many rainbows in their lifetime, but never anything like this. As Mac continued to be mystified at the array of colors above them, Granny simply smiled. In her weathered yet profoundly wise head, she knew something good had to come of this. Exploding rainbows couldn’t be just a coincidence.

Barely twenty minutes later, the rainbow had dissolved into the morning sky and Mac was beginning his day’s chores when he noticed something peculiar: flocks of birds all over the place were taking flight to the sky, like something had frightened them. Granny Smith, who was sitting on the porch, looked up into the sky to see if another exploding rainbow had gone off. But before she could think of a possible reason for the birds’ odd behavior, she heard another noise: the galloping of hooves.

And sure enough, both Granny and Mac saw the ponytailed mane of Applejack in the thick of the trees, coming straight at them. Granny stood up and hurried over to the front gate as fast as her fragile hips would carry her as Mac abandoned his plow and did the same.

“What did ah tell ya, Mac,” muttered Granny humorously to Mac, nudging him.

“Not even two...one,” said Mac with a grin.

“Gramma! Mac!” yelled Applejack gleefully, turning the final corner. “Ah’m home!”

As the three ponies reunited, the birds settled back in their trees.

“Gramma, Mac, did y’all see it?! The rainbow?!” Applejack said, breaking apart from them and bouncing around.

“Oh, my Celestia…yes,” gasped Granny, putting a hoof over her heart.

“Eeyup!” said Mac excitedly.

“Ah thought the Rainbow Factory blew up again—”

Granny paused.

“What?” said Applejack.

“Granny?” said Mac timidly. Granny looked like she was about to cry.

“Is everything ok, Gramma?” said Applejack, who noticed she was looking right at her. “What did I do?”

“That rainbow…it didn’t just lead you home...it lead you back…to where you belong,” sobbed Granny, who pulled them both into a tight hug.

“Mmmf, yesh ah know, I missed you guys too,” said Applejack in a muffled voice, confused about Granny’s sudden emotional breakdown, but happy all the same. For a pony as petite as Granny was, she sure had power in her hugs.

“Applejack, dear, look at your flank,” sniffed Granny finally.

“My flank? What—” Applejack started, flipping her head around towards her tail.

Three little apples had appeared suddenly on Applejack’s flank, like a magical tattoo. Applejack had finally gotten her very own cutie mark.

☼☼☼☼☼

“Now hold on, what just happened?” said Angie.

Angelica was referencing Applejack’s cutie mark, which she had just seen appear on Applejack through the Magic Portal. She, the two princesses and the Overseer were all watching the portal intently.

“That, Miss Angelica, is known as a cutie mark,” said Princess Celestia. “When a pony or pegasus down in Equestria learns of their purpose in life, a sort of image, a representation of their purpose, appears on their flank. Unlike Magic Sanctum alicorns like you, who gain those puporses by epistone letter at nine years of age, earth ponies, unicorns and pegasi can get their cutie mark at any time. It just depends on when they find their true purpose. In this case, Applejack finally realized her true purpose lies within her family and Sweet Apple Acres.”

Angie thought about this for a minute, trying to understand why it had to be different.

"Is there something about the enchantments around the Magic Sanctum that prevent normal cutie mark magic from working?" she asked.

"Bingo," said Celestia. "Sanctum alicorns have a different blood than land ponies. Due to ancient magic I used to build the Sanctum, alicorns that exist in the Sanctum couldn't have the same cutie mark magic as land ponies, or else the enchantment keeping this city hidden from non-alicorn eyes wouldn't have effect. Basically, certain types of magic just don't mix with each other. Just like how certain chemical compounds a chemist might use don't react with each other. Does that make sense?"

Angie nodded, making the connection, signifying she understood. But then another question arose in her mind, “If this is true, then how come you and Luna have cutie marks if you're both alicorns?” she asked.

"Because we existed before the Sanctum was created, so therefore we still retained the same cutie mark magic as any other land pony. Only an alicorn born in the Sanctum can find their purpose in life and not have a cutie mark. An alicorn born outside of the Sanctum, such as a member of the Royal Family, acquires a cutie mark."

"Got it," said Angie. But she had one final question, one that every pony who had ever known Celestia had ever wondered, but had never gotten an answer to.

"I've got one last question, your majesty. Can I say it?"

Celestia smiled. "Of course, my little pony."

"How are you and Luna immortal?" she asked, her heart thumping anxiously.

Celestia closed her eyes and pressed her lips together and let out a very long sigh. Luna's ears shot up at once, her eyes looking expectantly at Celestia, daring her to reveal the secret.

"Unfortunately," said Celestia slowly. "That is one question I cannot and will not answer." Celestia's tone had the utmost finality about it, Angie frowned, gave one sharp nod and let the matter drop, not at all surprised.

“I’m sorry, Miss Angelica,” said Celestia, seeing Angie’s rather hurt expression, “but we have a lot of ground and sky to cover tonight.”

Luna’s horn began to light up, and the image inside the portal turned completely white. The portal then started to fade into another scene, almost instantly.

“Let us fast forward about a couple years to a point in Applejack’s life where relationships become everything,” said Celestia to Angie, as the image showed a cozy town full of ponies. “A very crucial moment in the Apple family’s life, this is. Pay attention carefully.”

☼☼☼☼☼

Life had been good to Applejack for the past two years. Sweet Apple Acres’ business was booming; the farm and apple trees were producing more than ever. Since the day Applejack had discovered the appearance of her cutie mark, Applejack looked forward to waking up every morning, just to be out among the sweet smelling apple trees and hearing the lullaby of all the sounds on the farm: the chirping birds; the wind whispering through the trees; the sounds of the apples hitting the buckets when it was time for harvesting; the sound of Mac’s plow tilling the fields. Even hearing the rumble of the thunder in the clouds, signaling a rainstorm was on the way, was peaceful, even though the occasional lightning strikes scared her a bit.

Thunderstorms weren’t going to be common for too much longer, however. The leaves on all the trees were starting to change colors, everywhere from lemony yellow to deepest purple. This was Applejack’s favorite time of year, simple because the foliage that surrounded Sweet Apple was at its most beautiful this time of year. Applejack would often lose concentration on her work, distracted by all the colors.

The other distractions came from one of Applejack’s new friends. Senior Pie’s daughter, Pinkamena, who used to work at the rock farm with her family, would sometimes come around to visit—at random. Pinkamena Pie, who Applejack and her family just called Pinkie Pie, was one of the liveliest ponies Applejack had ever met. When Applejack had first met Pinkie Pie and her deadbeat family years ago, she never would have guessed she had the party animal she had within her now. Applejack was certainly not surprised when she found out Pinkie Pie’s very cutie mark had to do with every truly great party—balloons. Every event, even the most slightly important event in Applejack’s life that required some amount of celebration, Pinkie Pie made sure there was a party to go along with it.

Today was certainly one of those days, for it was Applejack’s first day in her third year at Ponyville Elementary School. It would also be the first day Pinkie Pie would be attending the school, so she and Applejack were going to be classmates.

“CROCK-A-DOOOODLE-OOOOOO!”

A two year older Applejack jumped almost instantly out of bed as her living, breathing alarm clock, the infamous rooster of Sweet Apple Acres, made its blaring call to wake up every living creature in the area.

A pale, bluish light shone weakly through the windows as Applejack yawned widely and started to get ready for the day. Before she even made her out of her room, however, she heard a bunch of loud raps hit the kitchen door downstairs like gunfire. Granny Smith, who was already in the kitchen, made her way on over to the door, only to be beaten by Applejack, who had just rocketed down the stairs competitively.

“Where’s the fire?” Granny said humorously, stepping out of the way.

“HowDEEE, Applejack!” said a cheerful Pinkie Pie, as Applejack wrenched open the door.

“What in tarnation—” said Granny Smith, wondering why on earth Pinkie Pie was at their farm so early in the morning. Pinkie, who now lived at Sugarcube Corner down in Ponyville, had to have woken up at least an hour ago.

“Howdy! Pinkie, why are you here so cotton pickin’ early?” said an amused Applejack, following her with her eyes as Pinkie bounced up and down.

Pinkie giggled. “Was just making sure you were up and at ‘em for schooool today!”

“Um, ah ‘preciate it Pinkie, but school isn’t for another three hours…” said Applejack.

“Oh I know, silly, but I wanted to come show you something before then!” Pinkie said. “If that’s okay with your grandma of course,” she added, in a whisper.

“Throw somethin’?” asked Granny, from over by the sink. “Not another party? At this hour?” She sounded rather irritated.

Applejack ignored her grandmother’s faulty hearing. “Show me what?” she Applejack curiously, tilting her head.

“Heehee, your grandma is funny,” giggled Pinkie again. “But I’ve got two parties planned this afternoon already, so there won’t be one this morning. And I won’t tell you…I have to show you!”

“Oh…okay!” said Applejack excitedly. “Lemme just ask Grammy—”

“The answer is no, Applejack” said Granny disapprovingly. “If Pinkie wants tah throw one of her silly parties, it’ll have to wait until later—”

“Grammy, Pinkie Pie wants to show me somethin’. Not throw me somethin’,” she explained clearly, rolling her eyes. “Your hearin’ is off again.” Applejack pointed to her ear. This was a regular occurrence. Granny’s hearing was starting to decline because of old age, so Applejack and Mac had to make sure they spoke louder around her. Due to Pinkie’s rapid and high pitched-voice, Granny usually avoided having conversations with her.

“Figures,” Granny said in an undertone. “Don’t go too far, yeh hear? Y’all better be back here for breakfast in an hour.”

“Okay, Grammy.”

Applejack closed the door behind her and followed Pinkie between the gardens and out the front gate.

“I can’t wait to meet our new teacher this year. It’s going to be a blast!” said Pinkie. I wonder who it will be!”

“Beats the hay outta me!” said Applejack, kicking the front gate closed. “Grammy said it’s another lady, but she’s new to the whole teachin’ business.”

“I wonder who will be in our class!” said Pinkie, changing the subject suddenly.

“Yeah…ah dunno,” said Applejack quietly. She looked away from Pinkie. Applejack had never been as outgoing as Pinkie was, since the ponies in her classes always mocked her because of her accent and because the teacher liked her so much. Applejack preferred to sit at the front of the class, so everypony didn’t look back at her with a smirk on their face, whenever she answered a question. Her old teacher, Missus Cake, liked Applejack because she was always honest with her schoolwork. One night, Applejack had forgotten to do her homework, so she thought up a good excuse on her way to school the next day. Halfway through walking up to her teacher at the beginning of class, however, she remembered Granny telling her about always telling the truth. She owned up to Missus Cake to what she did, and ended up receiving full marks for her homework.

Before Applejack could dwell on the matter further, she looked back up just in time to stop herself from running into what first appeared to be a fallen tree. A few seconds later, Applejack realized she was standing in the midst of a very large pile of leaves.

“…Woah,” said Applejack, her mouth hanging open. The pile of leaves was at least seven—no—eight feet high, and nearly twice and long. It was incredible!

“Surprise!” yelled Pinkie, diving headfirst into the pile and disappearing from sight. A soft ‘klunk’ sounded from inside the pile, followed by a muffled “Ow!” Pinkie reemerged from the pile, while Applejack was still taking in the huge pile.

“Wrong…entrance,” said Pinkie, dazed from the hit. She ran around to the other side of the pile and disappeared again into the pile.

“Pinkie…how in the hay… Pinkie! Where did ya go?”

Applejack went around to the other side of the pile to see where she had gone.

“Pinkie!” shouted Applejack. She heard Pinkie respond somewhere in the depths of all the yellow and orange. Laughing at the situation, Applejack dived into the pile like Pinkie to follow the voice. As she searched through the leaves, she heard Pinkie’s voice get louder and quieter. It was too dark to see where she was going.

“Almost…no wait! Stop!...You’re getting warm…warmer…even warmer…you’re hot! You’re sizziling—oh wait no you’re cooling down…burrhrhrh you’re cold, woo! Frozen! Nope—wait—you’re melting now—ooh! Is it hot in here or is it just you? Ooh—there you go—yay!”

Panting, Applejack finally felt herself stumble into an empty area within the pile, where she saw the outline of Pinkie sitting on the other side. The walls were made of large rocks and a few old planks of wood made up the ceiling.

“Welcome, stranger…mhuahaha…,” said Pinkie in a surprisingly creepy voice.

“Pinkie…this is so cool! How did y’all rake up this many leaves? And move all these rocks?”

“Muhahaha I know! But I didn’t do all of this by myself!” said Pinkie, changing her tone back to normal mid-sentence. A couple ponies thought my idea was fun, so they helped me gather them up! It only took us like an hour!”

“What did they look like? Who were they?” asked Applejack, still wowing at Pinkie’s creation.

“One of them was a unicorn, I think—he used his magic to round up all the leaves. The other one was a…pegasus—he said he knew you!”

Applejack figured it was probably one of the pegasi from her class last year. They were real jerks, and seemed to pick on Applejack the most out of her classmates.

“That’s...nice!” lied Applejack, smiling at Pinkie through the leafy darkness. “Did the unicorn know me at all?”

“Nope, sorry. I asked him…heehee,” giggled Pinkie.

“What?” said Applejack, smiling.

“Nothing!” said Pinkie, giggling again.

“Tell me!” demanded Applejack playfully, grabbing hooffulls of leaves from the entrance and throwing them at Pinkie.

“Nooope!” Pinkie said, holding back a fit of giggles, shielding herself from the blizzard of leaves.

“Pinkie, stop piddlin’ around and tell me! Ah—”

A sudden idea came to her head.

“Hey, this could be our secret room! Where we tell each other our secrets! And this’ll be the—”

“Ooh, Pinkie likes! Okay, I’ll tell you! But we gotta swear to each other we don’t repeat our secrets outside this leaf pile! We’ll call it…a Pinkie promise!”

“Okay!”

“Cross your heart?” said Pinkie, seriously.

There was a pause.

“Wha—oh yeah—‘course—cross my heart!” said Applejack.

“Hope to fly?”

“Hope to fly.”

“Stick a cupcake in your eye?”

“Stick a …huh?” said Applejack. She laughed, but Pinkie remained silent. After a long silence, Applejack figured Pinkie wasn’t kidding and said, “Stick a cupcake in my eye.”

“Yay!” said Pinkie, lighthearted again. “Okay…I’ll tell you. The unicorn—” She paused.

“Yes?” said Applejack, grinning, with her head close to Pinkie’s face.

“He said—” Pinkie paused again, going for dramatic effect.

“Oh heeheehee you’re not gonna believe this—”

“Yes?” Applejack said, closer still.

“He said…my hair was CRAZY!” she exclaimed, throwing her hooves in the air like she had just told Applejack she had won the lottery. And she was entirely sincere about it.

Applejack stared towards Pinkie for a few seconds in silence then picked up another fistful of leaves and threw them in her face. They then broke down into laughter. Applejack should have known better than to take Pinkie seriously.

Ten seconds into laughing themselves silly, Applejack heard a strange noise coming from somewhere, still shaking her head and grinning at Pinkie’s humor. Taking notice of the noise, she finally stopped laughing and immediately began to shush Pinkie.

“Pinkie—stop—listen—shhshhshh…” whispered Applejack quickly, as Pinkie was rolling around on the floor because she was laughing so hard. Pinkie quieted down at once, noticing the sharp tone in Applejack’s voice. The two of them put their ears to the rock walls and listened. They could hear a series of heavy thuds hitting the ground in quick succession from outside the vast pile of leaves. It sounded like somepony was galloping towards them, and the sounds were getting louder with each second. Assuming it was probably time to head back for breakfast, Applejack thought of Granny, but Granny’s hooves certainly weren’t that heavy. Unless…

CRASH!

The ground beneath them shook like an earthquake as the heavy body of Big Macintosh sailed through the pile of leaves, over the chamber they were in, and hit the ground on the other side. The boards above them fell through and an avalanche of leaves filled up the chamber instantly. The two of them scrambled frantically and tried to dig out of the pile, searching for sunlight. After about a minute, Applejack found sunlight and emerged from the leaves. Pinkie emerged soon afterward, spitting out leaf stems.

“Aw, shoot, Mac! You messed up our leaf pile!” said Applejack, looking at the now lopsided pile while Mac got back on his hooves.

“Oh…sorry,” said Mac. “Couldn’t resist…” He straightened out a tiny section of the pile with his hoof.

“Heehee, it’s okay, Macky!” said Pinkie, still shaking leaf debris out of her fluffy pink mane. “We can make it again!”

“Except we don’t have magic,” mumbled Applejack so only Pinkie could hear.

“Breakfast is ready,” said Mac, walking away from them back to the house. Applejack took one last appreciative look at the huge pile of leaves and sighed, sad to see such a great work destroyed in an instant.

“C’mon, Pinkie,” said Applejack.

After a delicious breakfast of apple crepes and Pinkie-filled conversation, Granny gave Applejack and Pinkie both hugs and set them on her way. Just before Mac led them out the door, however, Granny pulled Applejack aside.

“Applejack, I just want yeh tah know I love ya, and if any of those rotten Cloudsdale pegasi give yeh any trouble at school again this year, I’ll be on them like a herdin’ dog on a group o’ cows. Just stay true to yerself, dear.” Applejack gave her grandmother a thankful smile and hugged her again tightly.

“Thanks, grammy. Love ya too.”

It was overcast today, the light-grayish skies threatening to rain again. Gusts of wind were now beginning to unsettle the trees, causing them to lose their leaves much faster. Pinkie’s huge leaf pile was undoubtedly going to be destroyed by nightfall if the wind kept. But the real anxiety that Applejack felt at the moment was how school would go over that day. She loved learning about magic, algebra, art and other subjects, but she just wished ponies weren’t so mean to her. She had always tried to be one of their friends, too, but apparently it just wasn’t good enough. Applejack looked over at Pinkie, who was hopping up in down, without a care in the world. Pinkie was Applejack’s only real friend. But even though she was her only real friend, her high spirited and spontaneous nature made her as great as three friends.

As they entered into the town of Ponyville, a few colts who knew Mac waved and called out at him. He smiled, then answered with a silent raise of his hoof and continued to walk behind Pinkie and Applejack, like a bodyguard. Ponyville was certainly not a dangerous town by any means, but after hearing about the way Applejack was hurt by a couple of pegasi throwing rotten apples at her last year, Mac saw to it that nopony ever dared pull something like that again. Mac was absolutely furious when he saw Applejack run through the barn door one afternoon, gushy apple remains all up the side of her head and bruises on her cheek.

Ponies who lived in Ponyville were always kind to Applejack and all of the Apple family, giving them free samples from their shops and always greeting them whenever they saw them visit the town. Most of the classmates in Applejack’s class weren’t really all that bad either, but nopony wanted to stand up to the cool ponies from Cloudsdale. Standing up to Applejack in front of them was the most uncool thing a filly or colt could do at school. And nopony wanted to be uncool around them.

Much sooner than Applejack would have liked, they arrived at the flagpole of the Ponyville Elementary school, a pretty red building that reminded Applejack a lot like the barn at Sweet Apple. The door to the school was wide open as some ponies Applejack knew from last year trotted past them all by themselves, staring at Pinkie Pie, who was waving and greeting literally everypony in sight, even though she knew almost none of them.

“Hey!”

“Hello!”

“Howdy, friend!”

“Hi!”

“Hi—okay, see you later, alligator!” Pinkie said, as a very pretty unicorn with a wavy violet mane ignored her completely. She was wearing an expensive looking coat, like she was preparing for a blizzard. Was that really necessary?

“Ah don’t want to go in there…” mumbled Applejack nervously as she saw a stocky pegasus talking to an earth pony he was walking with. They both eyed Applejack and the pegasus laughed out loud. Applejack scowled at them. Mac looked right at the Pegasus and snorted angrily. The pegasus’ smile vanished instantly, and he went back to talking to the filly he was with. In the two years since Applejack had returned from Manehattan, Big Macintosh had put on at least forty pounds of muscle and was a head and a half taller. He didn’t have many enemies.

“Don’t get mad,” said Mac in his slow voice, putting a protective hoof on Applejack’s shoulder. “That’s my job.”

The school bell rang, signaling the five minute warning bell before class was going to start. Pinkie squealed in excitement as she grabbed Applejack’s hoof and led her up to the door of the schoolhouse. Applejack looked back anxiously at Mac, who smiled warmly at her and kicked up his legs powerfully. Applejack bucked her two back legs at him, answering the notion. This was basically their way of saying “Give ‘em Tartarus”.

The schoolhouse was almost completely full of ponies. Applejack scanned the classroom to find an empty seat for her and Pinkie. There were no seats except for three desks at the very front of the class. Applejack let go of Pinkie’s hoof and hurriedly went and sat in one of the desks, trying not to make eye-contact with anypony. Pinkie sat down right next to her and immediately started talking to the colt directly behind her.

A few minutes later, a quite pretty young mare with deep purple fur and a bubblegum colored mane closed the door, sheltering the classroom from the winds outside to signal the beginning of class. She had very kind eyes and smiled at the class, who were all still chatting busily amongst each other. She was undoubtedly the new teacher, but it was strange how young she was; she couldn’t have been much older than Mac. Applejack, who was the only one not talking to anyone, just pretended to be busy rummaging through her little knapsack Granny had made her over the summer.

“Alright, everypony, settle down now,” said the teacher, sitting on her desk and crossing a leg over the other. She took a piece of paper off her desk and began to scan her eyes down the page, as the ponies’ voices in the room began to falter. But as the room became quiet, a soft rumble of thunder sounded from outside, and raindrops began to hit the roof. A few ponies in the room sighed in excitement of the coming rainstorm

“Ooookay...Applejack?” said the teacher, looking up from the paper, searching for a response. She was taking roll call.

“Um, howd—ah mean, here!” said Applejack, trying to sound as normal as possible. Nobody snickered when she spoke, which boosted her confidence a little.

“Hello, Applejack. Pleased to meet you,” the teacher said, giving Applejack a small smile. Applejack was feeling better already.

“Next…Bon-Bon?”

“I’m here!” said a curly haired filly from the back of the class.

“Caramella?”

“Present,” said a quiet unicorn next to Pinkie Pie.

“Gunpowder?”

“Yup,” said the stocky pegasus who mocked Applejack earlier.

The teacher went down the list, smiling at each pony she listed until she came to Pinkie Pie. Thunder continued to rattle the windows as the rain became louder.

“Pinkamena Diane Pie?” she said, stopping herself from giggling at the strange name.

“Hee-err!” chimed Pinkie. “I love your hair, Miss—um—I mean missus—”

“Just Miss, dear,” she said, still smiling, running a hoof through her long mane. “Miss Cherilee.” She was taken aback by Pinkie’s comment but appreciative all the same. “Thank you, Diane.”

“Oh I go by Pinkie, Miss Cherilee! My real name is weird, heehee!”

“You have a lovely name, dear,” said Miss Cherilee. “But Pinkie works too. Welcome to class, Pinkie Pie.”

“Aaaand…Rainbow Dash?”

CRACK. A sudden flash of lightning and the loudest clap of thunder yet blew up in the sky outside. Everypony in the classroom jumped a little at the noise as the door to the classroom opened and a middle-aged pegasus walked inside. He was wearing a white work suit and had a white goatee.

“Hello, Miss Cherilee. Cosmo Stratus, head weather pony of Cloudsdale. I’m sorry to disturb your class, but I’m stopping by many structures in Ponyville and the surrounding area to issue a storm warning. The pegasi up in ol’ C Town are cooking up a big one for tonight, and I just wanted to warn everypony to stay indoors. I also have a young pegasus here with me, who I assume was coming to your class today—” The pegasus stepped aside as a drenched filly zoomed into the room and landed in front of Pinkie Pie, soaking wet.

“Hiya, teach!” said the filly cockily. “Sorry I’m late!”

Rainbow Dash was, at first glance, the coolest pony Applejack had ever seen. She had not one, not two, but six colors in her mane—the colors of a rainbow. If that didn’t make it cool enough, she even had a pair of wings.

“Arr Dee!” said a pegasus from the back of the class, greeting Rainbow Dash like a good friend. Several of the other ponies waved at her and began whispering amongst one another. Rainbow Dash was obviously the most popular pegasus in the classroom, even though she was water-logged from head to hoof and walked in late to class.

“The one, the only, everypony!” said Miss Cherilee, clapping her hooves sarcastically. She thanked Cosmo Stratus for the warning and closed the door again, then went back to her desk to continue roll call. When she looked back at her class, she noticed that Rainbow Dash was still standing.

“There’s a seat just for you, dear, right next to our friend Applejack here,” said Miss Cherilee, pointing to the only remaining seat right in front of her desk.

“Awh, what? Seriously?” said Rainbow Dash, not impressed with the seating situation.

“Chill out, you can have my seat, Rainbow!” said a unicorn from the back of the classroom, jumping up immediately. I can’t see the board this far back anyway—”

“No—thank you, dear, but I want to keep an eye on Miss Dash here. Sit down, please,” said Miss Cherilee, pointing at the unicorn.

“Whatever,” mumbled Rainbow Dash, sitting down next to Applejack, taking no notice of her presence. She just started gazing out the window at the thunderstorm.

“Waaah!” squealed the unicorn behind Rainbow Dash, who had been crafting something elegant out of paper. Rainbow Dash had flipped her wet mane around and splattered water all over her. “Really,” said the unicorn, wiping off her face with a cloth she had pulled from a jeweled purse.

Rainbow Dash whipped around and saw the annoyed look on the unicorn’s face then turned back around and laughed.

“Rarity, dear, you’ll live,” said Miss Cherilee, almost laughing as well. You’ll most likely be getting ten times wetter walking home anyway.”

Applejack seriously doubted that, however, as she saw an umbrella sticking out of Rarity’s purse.

Miss Cherilee continued on with the roll call, finally ending with Vinyl Scratch, the unicorn who had offered Rainbow Dash her seat.

“Well then,” she began. “I’m very excited to meet all of you, and for those who have been talking the whole time,” she darted her eyes towards a couple of the pegasi at the back of the classroom, “I am Miss Cherilee. Many of you may recognize me, since I have lived here in Ponyville for most of my life.” She then went off on a short story about herself finally giving them their first in-class assignment for the day. They were to draw their favorite thing to do and were forbidden to write their name on the paper.

“Awh, fiddlesticks,” said Applejack, noticing she had forgotten her colored pencils back at home. She searched desperately through her bag, knowing exactly what to draw.

“Here,” said Rarity, sparing Applejack a fresh box of colored pencils from her purse. “I always bring extras, just in case.”

“Oh—why thank you,” said Applejack, surprised at the unicorn’s generosity. She certainly wasn’t as stingy as she looked.

“Mmhm,” said Rarity, busy crafting her picture.

Rainbow Dash hadn’t brought anything but herself to school that morning, so Cherilee paired her with Pinkie Pie, who had brought an extensive collection of markers in her backpack. Applejack and Rainbow Dash switched seats.

“Um, kid, what the heck are you drawing?” Rainbow Dash asked Pinkie Pie, whose drawing appeared to have a vast number of stick figure ponies all crammed into a hot air balloon.

“It’s everypony I’ve ever met, or at least as many as I can remember!” Pinkie said. “See, there’s you way up at the top!” She showed Rainbow Dash her picture. A crudely drawn picture of Rainbow Dash was pulling the hot air balloon.

Rainbow Dash swiped the picture from Pinkie and began drawing lines all over it, giving the picture the look the balloon was traveling at immense speed.

“There,” she said, giving it back to Pinkie. “Now it isn’t boring.”

Pinkie oohed at Rainbow Dash’s touch up and continued to add to her drawing. She then gave it to Rainbow Dash again.

“What is this?” said Rainbow Dash, noticing that Pinkie Pie drew herself with wings next to her, both pulling the speeding balloon.

“I’m helping you silly!” said Pinkie, which seemed to anger Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash didn’t like the thought somepony had to help her pull a balloon. She thought for a second, scribbled yellow marker all over Pinkie, and then connected a bolt of lightning to her body up to a black cloud in the sky.

Pinkie giggled at Rainbow Dash’s humor then began to improvise yet again. Rainbow Dash, who had barely drawn anything yet, gritted her teeth at Pinkie handed her back the paper yet again. Pinkie had drawn boots on both of them.

“What the—stop giving me your paper, kid,” said Rainbow Dash. “Are those rubber boots? Those wouldn’t save you from being struck by lightning. You were just burned to a crisp.”

“Oh you’re right, hold on,” said Pinkie, getting out some more markers. “Let me draw us some rubber suits—”

Rainbow Dash snatched back the paper one last time and tore it in half then blew the pieces of paper on the ground.

“Oops,” she said carelessly, going back to her drawing. Pinkie Pie saw the two pieces of paper hit the ground and her eyes welled up in tears.

“Now what the hay was that for, Rainbow Dash?” said Applejack angrily, who had just finished a drawing of her climbing a giant apple tree. She got out of her seat and picked up the two pieces of paper then went back to her desk.

“Your friend can’t draw,” she said coolly.

“Pinkie’s a darn near art genius,” said Applejack, grabbing some tape off of Miss Cherilee’s desk. Miss Cherilee was turned around in her desk chair and on the phone. Applejack taped the two pieces back together as best as she could and gave it back to Pinkie. Pinkie gave a tiny word of thanks through glistened eyes but then crumpled it up and threw the paper in the trash.

“If we weren’t in a classroom,” Applejack muttered to herself. Rainbow Dash must have heard her, however, because she got right out of her seat and stood in front of Applejack’s desk, taking care to bump it, making Applejack draw a huge green line right down the center of her paper

“If we weren’t in a classroom, you would do what?”

The class fell silent and turned to look at the both of them. Applejack couldn’t believe Miss Cherilee still had her back turned to them.

“…Nothin’,” said Applejack quietly, staring furiously down at her ruined picture.

“That didn’t sound like nothin’,” she said, mocking Applejack’s accent like the other pegasi.

Nopony dared to say anything. The pegasi at the back of the room just grinned devilishly.

“You don’t scare me,” said Applejack, daring Rainbow Dash to touch her with squinted eyes.

Rainbow Dash pushed Applejack to the back of her seat and crumpled up her drawing as well, then threw it effortlessly over her shoulder and into the wastebasket.

“I’m the fastest pegasus in Cloudsdale. You’re a wimpy earth pony with probably the lamest cutie mark I have ever seen. What is your purpose in life—apples? Hah! You better be scared of me, kid. Because I know where you live.”

Rainbow Dash went back to her seat but the room remained silent. With horrible timing, Miss Cherilee finally turned back around in her desk and got off the phone. Pinkie Pie took out a fresh sheet of paper and pretended to draw, but kept looking behind Rainbow Dash’s back at Applejack, who had her face down on her desk and in her forelegs. She didn’t cry, but she didn’t want anypony to see her face.

Miss Cherilee noticed Applejack and walked on over to her. “Applejack, dear, what’s the matter?” she asked.

Applejack hesitated for a few moments and brought head back up, trying not to look like anything was a big deal.

“Ah ripped up my paper and threw it away,” she lied, seeing Rainbow Dash look at her out of the corner of her eye.

“Why, what for?

“My apples just weren’t good enough,” Applejack said with a sniff.

☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼

Later that night, Applejack had gone up early to bed after dinner. Even Granny’s special stuffed French toast wasn’t enough to lift Applejack’s spirits. Ever since her encounter with Rainbow Dash earlier that day, she had been in a bad mood. She tried to disguise it as best as she could with Granny, Mac and even Pinkie, but they still suspected something was wrong.

Applejack had been teased and mocked in school before, but never personally insulted. She was scared to go back to school tomorrow, even if Pinkie was right there with her. Scared she would be humiliated all over again. Scared of Rainbow Dash.

Applejack had loved having her cutie mark and knew for a fact that she was in the right place doing what she loved. But she suddenly felt like she wasn’t good enough, like she was at the very bottom rung of the ladder. Applejack longingly wished Pinkie was here with her, somepony to brighten up her spirits. After the experience at school, her friendship with Pinkie had never seemed as important as it had ever before.

Unable to sleep, Applejack got frustratingly out of bed and looked out her window down at the fields below, which were damp with rain. It had stopped raining, but it was a moonless night, so only the feeble light from the stars, through patches of clouds, illuminated the dark farm that was cradled between the forests. Applejack opened her window a crack, just to feel the cool, perfect breeze of a damp autumn night. The faint smell from all the apple trees soothed her face. She took a long, deep breath and relaxed back onto her bed, curled up on her side. A peaceful sound of softly chirping crickets and fallen leaves being pushed along sneakily by the wind slowly started to push the bad thoughts out of Applejack’s mind. The thoughts began to be whisked away into the oblivion, lost into a great abyss. Applejack’s mind was then given an invitation to sleep, all the way perhaps until morning. But her mind pushed the invitation away, wandering back to search for those unhappy thoughts. Until…

Whether Applejack had dozed off or not, she felt like something had just happened beyond the confines of her room. An intuition struck her chest as she climbed off her bed and shut her window, then opened up her door. She listened carefully, wondering if the noise would come up again. Applejack’s mind was back on the negative thoughts and she thought of Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash had put two and two together and figured out where she lived. Was it possible that Rainbow Dash had broken into their house just to prove something to Applejack?

Her heart pounding, Applejack tiptoed into Mac’s room and nudged him.

“Applejack?” grumbled Mac, opening a sleepy eye. “You ok?”

“Mac ah think there’s somepony in our house,” whispered Applejack, a dash of fear in her voice.

Mac got out of bed at once. He got up so fast he almost fell, which would have certainly woke up Granny. Already concerned about Applejack’s well-being, Applejack didn’t want to make an old mare like Granny worried about intruders, even if it was somepony rather small like Rainbow Dash.

The two of them tiptoed downstairs, Applejack following closely behind Mac. Lighting a candle, the dim glow of the flame illuminated the walls of the kitchen. Applejack’s heart was still beating fast within her chest, her ears and eyes suddenly ten times more sensitive and paranoid. Applejack suddenly felt a horrible shiver crawl down her spine as she saw a hooded figure staring inside through the door.

Whoosh. The figure immediately vanished Somepony had just fled from outside the kitchen door.

“Mac, I just saw somepony!” hissed Applejack, pointing at the door. Mac hurried on over to the door and looked out the window, scanning the grounds suspiciously. Without thinking, Applejack ducked under him and turned the knob on the door, ready to catch Rainbow Dash in the act. But upon opening the door, the very last sight either her or Mac could have expected to see lay before them, on their dusty doorstep.

A baby filly, with lemon-colored fur and a cherry mane, lay fast asleep under a soft hill of blankets, inside a large basket. A flower was tucked behind her ear, as well as a chocolate-colored cowboy hat placed behind her head, much too large. A letter lay plainly in the center of all the blankets. Noticing the letter, Applejack saw the Apple family crest on the front, but saw no address or other form of writing.

As they moved the baby filly into the warm, candlelit kitchen, Applejack absentmindedly took the cowboy hat from off of the baby filly’s head and placed it on her own.

It fit perfectly.