Growth Spurts

Chapter One: Sweet Summer Lovin'

This was officially going to be the worst summer vacation in the history of Ponyville.

Well, okay, that was probably an exaggeration.

But for a young red-headed little teenage farm filly named Apple Bloom, and most of her classmates for that matter, it sure as heck felt like it.

It was the last two weeks of school for the fillies and colts of Equestria before they were released from the confines of homework and pop quizzes and report cards, and until about a month or so ago, summer vacation had looked like it was going to be the same beautiful, shining beacon of hope it had always been in years past. ‘No more pencils, no more books, no more teachers’ dirty looks,’ as the old saying went. Nothing to look forward to but mountains and mountains of free time for a whole ten weeks. There was nothing and nopony in the world that could stop Apple Bloom and her two best friends, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, from spending every day together searching for their cutie marks, or at least just hanging out. There was so much fun to be had, it all seemed like one big, happy dream approaching on the horizon.

And then, well…

Then puberty happened.

Apple Bloom heaved a weary sigh, her head colliding with the surface of her desk in Miss Cheerilee’s schoolhouse, even the bow in her hair drooping as she ignored every word her teacher was saying up at the front of the room, and instead wondered which of the royal sisters had had the sick sense of humor to choose this summer to strike every filly in the class utterly boy-crazy. Not that it really would have made a difference; any point in time would have been a bad one for the fillies of Apple Bloom’s class to suddenly develop an interest in boys. It wasn’t exactly because she didn’t want to like boys, of course; thanks to the magic of adolescence, Apple Bloom found herself pining for a special somepony just as much as the rest of the fillies in her grade, and she would be more than willing to give a decent boy a chance, and see where it might go.

No, the real problem was that ‘decent boys’ were shockingly hard to come by in Ponyville. She hadn’t thought about it much before hitting the beginning of her teen years, but the more her increasingly hormonal mind pondered the subject in the last few weeks, the more painfully obvious it became that there were incredibly few boys around, and the ones that were didn’t give the fillies of Apple Bloom’s class much hope.

First there were Snips and Snails. And really, there was no separating the two in Apple Bloom’s brain, because not only did they go everywhere and do everything together, they were also both utterly unappealing to her in pretty much every way imaginable. Apple Bloom liked to think she wasn’t one to mind dirt and mud and grime, but those two took it to another level entirely, as if it was their life’s mission to find the absolute grossest things in Equestria and show them off to the entire class to see how many ponies they could cause to vomit. Or at least she would think that was their motivation, if she wasn’t completely convinced they were utter morons. Apple Bloom was no mathematical genius, but she was pretty sure that if Snips and Snails each had half a brain, they’d still only have half a brain. No wonder they kept getting duped into being minions for that ‘Great and Powerful Trixie’ character.

Then there was Featherweight, the editor and photographer for the school paper. And if Snips and Snails could be disqualified for being incredibly gross, Featherweight could easily be disqualified for being incredibly creepy. He was a walking stick figure, like those horrifying ‘Slendermane’ movies, so thin and lanky he looked like his body had been artificially stretched, and he had an obnoxious tendency to stick that camera he always carried with him into every nook and cranny he could find and take pictures of everything. Somehow Apple Bloom was convinced that that was going to get him in huge trouble one day.

Button Mash was a newer colt in their class, having joined from another teacher’s class as they climbed the ladder of primary school and classes began to merge together a little more once they reached middle school. He wasn’t horrible, Apple Bloom supposed, and for some reason Sweetie Belle seemed to think he was cute, which probably meant there were at least some redeeming qualities to him under that ridiculous hat he always wore. But nopony really knew for sure, because he never bothered to pull his nose out from behind his Joy Boy video game machine except to stuff junk food in his mouth and mutter something about defeating the armies of the rebel alliance. Apple Bloom admired dedication, but there was a fine line between dedication and obsession, and Button Mash fell frighteningly far into the latter category. She could only hope Sweetie Belle wouldn’t get sucked into that world as well if she ever got up the nerve to say anything to him.

There was Pipsqueak, of course, the transfer student from Trottingham with the cute accent, who’d made a big name for himself by being one of the few ponies Princess Luna called ‘friend.’ Sure, yeah, that could work, if Apple Bloom wanted a boyfriend barely half her age. (Okay, that was probably an exaggeration again, but still, seriously, Apple Bloom didn’t care how popular he was, Pipsqueak was at least three grades below her, and… no. Just… no.)

Spike the dragon was… well… actually Spike wasn’t too bad a prospect, if she looked past the whole ‘is a dragon’ thing. He was kind of cute, in his own draconian sort of way. And smart too – real smart, actually, which was probably a product of growing up living and working with Ponyville’s resident genius, Twilight Sparkle. Plus he was about Apple Bloom’s own age, extremely polite and well-mannered, and also not utterly gross. He was even starting to hang out with her and the other Cutie Mark Crusaders now and then, so she was already getting to be friends with him. He probably might have made a decent boyfriend for somepony who didn’t mind dating a dragon. Unfortunately he seemed to only have eyes for Sweetie Belle’s older sister Rarity, which sadly placed the young drake in the most depressing category of all: ‘The lost causes.’

This category had just one other member, and the last boy even worth mentioning, as far as Apple Bloom was concerned: Rumble, the storm-grey and dark-maned Pegasus colt. He was by far the most desirable boy in Apple Bloom’s class; slim, athletic, polite, clean, not creepy, not obsessed with video games or anypony’s older sister, and easily the cutest colt in school. Even Scootaloo had a huge crush on him, and that was really saying something; anything that could pull her googly eyes away from Rainbow Dash was worth mentioning, and Apple Bloom had literally seen Scootaloo forget she was even talking to Rainbow Dash one time because Rumble happened to walk by and catch her eye.

He was perfect.

And – to every filly’s immense disappointment – he was also gay.

Not that there was anything wrong with that, of course. But it did have the unfortunate side effect of making him apparently uninterested in any filly that tried to ask him out (and a lot of fillies tried to ask him out). For a while most fillies actually thought he was just playing hard to get, or perhaps that he had his eye specifically set on one lucky filly. It wasn’t until one day about four weeks ago that a differenttheory came to light, when a particularly physical disagreement with Diamond Tiara had led to her and Apple Bloom crashing through the door of the supply shed behind the schoolhouse and discovering the dashing young colt in the middle of a deep, heated make-out with Featherweight.

Apparently Rumble didn’t find him as creepy as Apple Bloom did.

In any case, Diamond Tiara being the school’s most notorious gossip, everypony knew of Rumble’s scandalous little tryst by lunch that day, and it had been the talk of the playground for at least a week afterward. Featherweight really didn’t care for the added attention at all, it seemed, and had been quick to dismiss the incident as just a one-time, experimental thing that meant nothing (which probably had something to do with why nopony ever saw them together again after that, Apple Bloom observed). Rumble, on the other hoof, simply… didn’t care, period. It didn’t bother him at all what anypony said about him, least of all Diamond Tiara and her satellite minion, Silver Spoon. He seemed to overflow with calm confidence, and the snarky teasing those two fillies often aimed at him swiftly fell flat against such tough armor and soon died away completely.

It also probably helped that both fillies, and pretty much every filly in class in fact, still thought he was hot.

But despite the new evidence to the hopelessness of courting him, he somehow became more sought after than ever. Before long Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom herself were the only fillies in class that had never asked him out – although she had no idea what kept holding Scootaloo back, she probably liked him more than anypony. Sweetie Belle at least still had her eyes on Button Mash, it made sense that she wouldn’t take a shot, but Rumble was the only boy that even seemed to be on Scootaloo’s radar at all, and yet she never went after him, even before the Featherweight incident.

Maybe she was simply afraid of rejection, Apple Bloom guessed; after all, historically speaking, her odds were slim. Rumble never accepted any of the other fillies’ advances or date requests, although he was just so charming and polite and cute that most fillies simply didn’t seem to get the hint anyway. Maybe there was something extra attractive about the unattainable, Apple Bloom wondered to herself. Or maybe they, like Apple Bloom, saw how few other worthwhile boys were around, and were desperate to change Rumble’s mind. Or maybe they just hoped being close to him would give them a greater chance of seeing two colts make out.

Having seen it herself, Apple Bloom could definitely understand that angle.

The farm-filly blushed and shook her head swiftly to dismiss those thoughts as quickly as they’d come. Rumble would be quite a catch, if by some miracle he decided to date a filly, and in that case she wished Scootaloo the best of luck; but Apple Bloom was a very practical girl, like her older siblings before her, and pining over a colt that in all likelihood was impossible to have was not very practical at all. She was just going to have to find another boy to soothe the burning desire in her heart.

Or at least the one between her legs.

That was the other thing that made the whole ‘shortage of colts’ issue extra problematic, and what really looked to make her summer vacation an especially lousy one. As they’d all learned in one very special series of lessons the previous semester, along with puberty came estrus, and along with summer came mating season, and that all added up to Apple Bloom spending a whole lot of time sitting on an ice pack for the last few days. She wasn’t the only one either; estrus had swept across the entire class, just about, with varying degrees of intensity. Some lucky fillies were able to shrug it off without hardly lifting a hoof. Others had taken to bringing ice packs with them to school as well as at home, and carrying thermoses of Moon Tea, too, just so they could function without becoming a sweating, blushing mess around anypony with a penis. Apple Bloom herself wasn’t quite that bad, for the most part, but she had started bringing ice packs to school anyway recently. Otherwise she spent way too much time thinking about penises instead of paying attention to her lectures, as she’d realized shortly before her end-of-year geography test when her sister Applejack had come by her room to help her study and ended up demanding to know why she’d doodled a bunch of dicks in the margins of her notes.

Her best friends were a bit more fortunate in that department. Scootaloo didn’t seem to need ice packs much, maybe once every few days at most, and even then the worst she ever had to deal with was the occasional case of rigor-mortis in her wings when something really pushed her buttons, so to speak. It was still a bit embarrassing for a Pegasus, sure, but at least it wasn’t a literal erection or tail-flag. And Scootaloo wasn’t exactly shy anyway.

Sweetie Belle was somewhere in between the two of them; but quite the opposite of Scootaloo, she was actually so embarrassed about it that she went out of her way to keep any signs of her estrus hidden, a practice she’d almost certainly picked up from her sister. She was changing out her ice packs almost hourly for fresh and extra-cold ones from a magically-chilled lunch box, and taking a long swig of extra-strength Moon Tea every time she so much as glanced at a boy for longer than a second. Two swigs if it was Button Mash. It was seriously overkill.

She couldn’t really blame Sweetie Belle for her actions, though. No matter how she sliced it, Apple Bloom completely agreed that estrus sucked, and it was bound to make an already crummy-looking summer even crummier.

BRRRRIIIIIIIINNNNGGGG!!!!

“Alright class, that’s the bell! You’re dismissed!” Cheerilee announced from the front of the class, startling Apple Bloom out of her daze with the realization that those were the first words out of Cheerilee’s mouth that she had actually paid attention to all day. This was getting ridiculous, Apple Bloom thought; even with the ice pack under her seat, she still spent most of the day thinking about boys instead of listening to lectures, and that wasn’t a good thing. Last two weeks of school or not, neither Cheerilee nor Applejack would be pleased if she came to school the next day without finishing her homework because she’d missed the lecture on how to do it. She didn’t want to have to start bringing Moon Tea to school with her too – she hated tea in general, and herbal teas like that one in particular always tasted like dirt, even if it did take the edge off the smouldering ache in her lower half – but at this rate it was looking like she might have to if she didn’t want her grades to drop like a rock at the last minute.

Of course, there was always the more direct solution to estrus symptoms, which many fillies probably saw as a more appealing and much less stressful and time consuming alternative, even if it sounded a little gross and their families by and large encouraged them against it. But that particular method would require, well… a boy. Which brought her right back to the issue that there weren’t any suitable boys around, which was square one all over again.

Apple Bloom let out another sigh of frustration as she slipped out of her seat to pack her notes and books and ice pack into her saddlebags, and joined the crowd of her fellow students fleeing the schoolhouse for the day. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were already waiting for her at the door, and so she trotted swiftly over to join them.

“Hey girls,” she announced herself as she approached, and paused as she saw them both looking not at her, but at some fixed point outside the school. “Uh… what’re y’all starin’ at?”

“Oh, hey Apple Bloom,” Scootaloo briefly greeting her, and beckoned for her to join them. “Come here, check it out.”

Apple Bloom stepped up curiously beside them and followed their gaze, and quickly saw what had their attention: Cheerilee had slipped outside ahead of the class and was engaged in excited conversation with a light purple mare whom Apple Bloom immediately recognized as Twilight Sparkle. And just off to one side of the two mares stood Twilight’s live-in assistant, the young dragon Spike, fidgeting in nervous excitement.

“Wonder what they’re doing here?” Scootaloo thought out loud.

“Oooh, I bet I know!” Sweetie Belle chimed in.

“Huh? Ya do?”

Before Apple Bloom could press further, though, Spike’s ears twitched, apparently hearing their chatter, and turned to face them with a wave and a grin before jogging over. “Hey! Hey girls!”

“Howdy there, Spike,” Apple Bloom waved back. “What’re you an’ Twilight doin’ here?”

“Oh, it’s the best thing ever!” Spike exclaimed. “Twilight’s finally gonna let me come and join you guys in real school!”

“Hehehe, I knew it! I was right!” Sweetie Belle claimed.

“Heh, well hey, that’s real nice Spike, congratulations!” Apple Bloom said.

“Wait, you actually want to go to school?” Scootaloo said, raising an eyebrow at him.

“Oh, heck yeah!” Spike insisted with a frantic nod of his head. “I’ve been wanting to go to normal school and hang out with ponies my own age for months! Seriously, I’ve spent my whole life being homeschooled. By Twilight.”

“…Eeeewwww,” Scootaloo declared after a few seconds of imagining that.

“Shyeah, I know, right?” Spike vehemently agreed. “I mean, I love her and all, but man, that mare doesn’t do anything half-flanked. She’s pounded so many useless facts into my head, sometimes I think my brain is leaking out of my ears.”

“Eeeewwww!” Sweetie Belle declared after a few seconds of imagining that.

“Aww, come on, it’s just a figure of speech, jeez,” Spike rolled his eyes, and then gestured over his shoulder with a thumb. “Anyway, Twilight’s talking to Cheerilee right now to get everything set up and to make sure I’m ‘properly challenged’ and stuff. If it all goes according to plan, I should start school with you guys next fall!”

“Aww, that’s great, Spike!” Apple Bloom said. “But, how come ya can’t start now?”

“Oh, well, heh, it’s a little late in the year for that,” Spike pointed out. “But Twilight did say that I could sit in for the rest of the year to see what it’s like, if Cheerilee’s okay with it. Ya know, do homework and stuff with you guys, for practice.”

“You wanna do practice homework?” Scootaloo marveled, and quickly mimed retching.

“Well, it’s only fair,” Sweetie Belle said. “Otherwise he’d be the only one sitting in class getting all the assignments we do and then not having to do them.”

“That sounds awesome,” Scootaloo countered. “I wouldn’t blame him at all for taking advantage of that. Why would anypony volunteer to do homework?”

“Aww, lay off ‘im, Scoots,” Apple Bloom chided her. “Twilight’d probably just make ‘im do it anyway.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” Spike chuckled.

“Besides, if it means Spike can hang out with us more often, then Ah’m all for it!”

“Hehe, yeah, he can be our newest Cutie Mark Crusader!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed.

Scootaloo rolled her eyes at the unicorn filly. “Dragons don’t get cutie marks, dingus.”

“Says who?”

“Uh, says everypony?”

“Have you ever seen a dragon besides Spike?”

“Well, no, but--”

“So you don’t know! He might get a cutie mark!”

“Don’t you have an ice pack to change?”

Sweetie Belle squeaked, going bright pink and instantly silent as she sat back on her haunches with her tail tucked underneath her, seeming to shrink into herself a little.

“Scootaloo, that wasn’t nice!” Apple Bloom snapped. “You know she’s sensitive about that stuff…”

“About… ice packs?” Spike wondered aloud.

“Yeah, y’know, ‘cause of--” Apple Bloom started, but swiftly stopped herself as she saw Sweetie Belle abruptly go wide-eyed and frantically shake her head back and forth. “…Uh… Ah mean… it’s, uh, nothin’ important, really, just a… a girl thing. Yeah.”

“A girl thing?” Spike echoed thoughtfully. “Hmm… a girl thing with ice packs… oh! Oh, I get it. You’re in heat, right?”

Sweetie Belle’s blush tripled in strength, while Scootaloo and Apple Bloom’s jaws fell slack for a moment in surprise. “You know about that stuff?” Scootaloo spoke up as she recovered first.

Spike shrugged. “Hey, I’ve been living in libraries all my life. And I’ve been brewing Moon Tea and chilling ice packs for Twilight for years. It wasn’t that hard to figure out.”

Apple Bloom had to admit, she was impressed. “It doesn’t… bug ya or… weird ya out or anything?”

“Naw, it’s just nature, you know? Twilight always says there’s nothing to be embarrassed about with natural body stuff.”

“Yeah, tell that to Sweetie Belle…” Scootaloo muttered.

“Scootaloo!” Apple Bloom snapped again, and kicked the snarky Pegasus in the shins.

“OWW!!! Okay, okay, I’m sorry, jeez…”

Spike really didn’t seem to mind though, shrugging off their disagreement with a light chuckle. “Heh, don’t worry girls, I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”

“Easy for you to say,” Scootaloo retorted. “You’re a boy, you don’t have to go through all this stuff like we do.”

“Hey, we’ve got our own set of growing pains, trust me,” Spike argued. “Guys are a lot more vulnerable downstairs, if you know what I mean.”

“Ewww, Spike, I don’t wanna hear about how sensitive your junk is.”

“I’m just saying, it’s a thing us guys gotta worry about!”

“That’s so not even close to the same thing as estrus.”

“Aww, can it, Scootaloo, y’all barely even feel it anyway,” Apple Bloom said.

“I do too! I just don’t make a big freakin’ deal out of it!”

“Well, I’m a dragon,” Spike added, “and that makes it even worse. Did you forget what happens when my growth spurts go wrong?” He shuddered from head to toe. “Scary.”

“Okay, okay, fine, we can all agree that puberty sucks,” Apple Bloom threw up her front hooves in exasperation. “Can we drop it now?”

“Yeah, I better go anyway,” Spike admitted, glancing back behind them again. “It looks like Twilight and Cheerilee are finishing up. Heh, Twilight’s probably gonna go into total neurotic mode making sure I have everything I’ll need…”

“Bet ya she makes a checklist,” Apple Bloom snickered.

“Hah, I’d lose that bet!” Spike laughed as he turned to go. “But ya know, that’s one checklist I’ll actually be excited for. Later, girls! Seeya at school tomorrow, I hope!”

“Hehe, Ah hope so too! Seeya Spike!” Apple Bloom called after him, a vague smile on her face as she waved and watched him head home with Twilight a moment later.

“You totally like him,” Scootaloo said the second he was gone.

“S-shut up, Ah do not!”

“You’re blushing.”

“That’s just… it’s just the heat, that’s all!”

“The heat, or the heat?”

“Ah said shut up!”

Scootaloo laughed loudly and glanced over at Sweetie Belle, who was still huddled in an embarrassed little ball of fur, giving her a gentle prod with one hoof. “Hey, Sweetie Belle, you can get up now, he’s gone.”

Sweetie Belle finally poked her head back up from her hiding place behind her hooves. “Huh? Who’s gone?”

“Apple Bloom’s new boyfriend.”

Sweetie Belle’s eyes bulged. “Boyfriend? Really? I didn’t know Apple Bloom had a boyf--”

“He’s not mah boyfriend!” Apple Bloom shouted indignantly.

“Boyfriend?” a new voice drawled over their conversation before it could continue. “The little hayseed has a boyfriend?”

Apple Bloom immediately felt a groan bubble up in her throat as she turned to face the familiar voice. Sure enough, the bright pink figure of Diamond Tiara was strolling toward them, flanked closely, as always, by her best friend Silver Spoon. “Aww, what the heck do you two want?”

“Oh, nothing much,” Diamond said with a shrug and a casual flip of her mane. “We just couldn’t help overhearing you saying you had a boyfriend, so we thought we’d come over and see if he’d rather go out with a real filly like me.”

“Ah don’t got a boyfriend!” Apple Bloom insisted. “An’ even if Ah did, he sure as hay wouldn’t wanna let you lay yer grubby hooves on ‘im!”

“Deny it all you want, hayseed, I know what I heard, and I heard the word ‘boyfriend,’ right Silver?”

“O-oh, yeah… that’s what I heard too…” Silver Spoon swiftly agreed.

“Nopony has a boyfriend, go stick your nose in somepony else’s business,” Scootaloo growled scathingly. “We were just talking about Spike, that’s all.”

Almost instantly Diamond Tiara was sneering, and Silver Spoon followed suit a fraction of a second later. “Eurgh, Spike? That hideous little lizard is your boyfriend?”

“He’s not hideous!” Apple Bloom said, stomping her hooves a little in anger. “And he’s not my boyfriend either!”

“Yeah, he’s just a nice boy we know…” Sweetie Belle timidly backed her up.

“Whatever, I don’t really care anymore, you can have him,” Diamond said, turning her nose up at them. “That walking fire hazard isn’t laying a claw on this perfect coat.”

“He wouldn’t want you anyway, he actually has standards,” Scootaloo shot back.

“Standards? Puh… low standards, maybe, if he’s hanging around you.”

“You take that back!”

“Serves you right for getting us all excited about boys for nothing.” Diamond Tiara lifted her nose into the air. “Come on, Silver, let’s get out of here, we really shouldn’t have expected more out of the blank-flanks anyway. I can’t believe we thought they’d ever get boyfriends.”

“H-heh, yeah,” Silver Spoon added with a quiet laugh.

“Yeah, well, serves you two right fer eavesdropping!” Apple Bloom shouted at their retreating backs. “Ah hope you don’t ever find a boy and yer stuck in heat all summer!”

“Hah! As if we need some nasty boy to deal with estrus! We’re above such primitive things,” Diamond scoffed.

“Yeah, right.” Apple Bloom snorted and rolled her eyes. “What, you got some super special Moon Tea or somethin’?”

A wicked grin suddenly appeared on Diamond Tiara’s lips. “…You mean you don’t know? Why, we’ve been getting rid of the heat completely with just our own hooves… no dumb smelly boys and their gross wiener juice involved.”

“…Whaaaaaat? You liar, you can’t get rid of it by touching yourself,” Scootaloo snapped back. “Estrus doesn’t work like that.”

“Yeah, Miss Cheerilee said so!” Sweetie Belle agreed.

Diamond sneered back at them. “Puh, and you believed her? She’s just like all our parents, telling us not to do anything sexy because they don’t want us to know how great it is.”

“Yer pullin’ our tails!” Apple Bloom accused.

“Yeah, Miss Cheerilee wouldn’t lie to us…” Sweetie Belle insisted.

“Hah! You three are such little foals,” Diamond laughed mockingly. “Don’t tell me you actually believe the only way to get rid of estrus is having some boy’s junk spit a bunch of slimy goo under your tails? I mean really, how stupid does that sound?”

“No stupider than you, if you think we’re actually gonna believe you over Miss Cheerilee,” Scootaloo replied.

Diamond Tiara simply shrugged and smirked. “Fine, try it for yourselves if you don’t believe me. Or not. If you’d rather spend half the summer wallowing in misery instead of having a little fun and then being perfectly fine like us, it’s no fur off my back.” The pink filly laughed again, echoed swiftly by her bespectacled cohort, and then both fillies thankfully strolled off toward their own homes, leaving Apple Bloom and her friends in peace.

“Ugh, finally, I thought they’d never leave,” Scootaloo grumbled.

“They… they were lying, right?” Sweetie Belle asked. “They had to be, Miss Cheerilee taught us all about estrus, and… she wouldn’t….”

“Of course they were lying!” Scootaloo insisted. “It’s friggin’ Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon! Lying and being jerks is pretty much all they do! Why would they even try to steal somepony’s boyfriend in the first place if they didn’t want one?”

“Ya mean besides the part where they’re jerks?” Apple Bloom muttered. “Ah wouldn’t put it past ‘em if it was true.”

“Maybe, but it’s still bogus!”

“But…. they didn’t look like they had any symptoms at all, and they said they just used their hooves…” Sweetie Belle said.

Scootaloo hesitated for the first time at that. “…Well, maybe… maybe they’re just good at hiding it or something…”

“…I’m gonna go and ask my sister, she’ll know for sure…” Sweetie Belle insisted, picking herself up and trotting down the road to the Carousel Boutique. “See you tomorrow…”

“Yeah, I’m gonna double check with my parents too,” Scootaloo said. “Those two’ve gotta be lying, I’m sure of it…”

A moment later Scootaloo took a turn down another street toward her own home, leaving Apple Bloom to walk the rest of the way to Sweet Apple Acres with nothing but her thoughts to keep her company.

She wanted to believe Scootaloo, she really did. It made sense. Diamond Tiara was the worst bully, liar and gossip in the school. Her track record was overwhelmingly against her. And Apple Bloom didn’t think Cheerilee would lie to the class about the mechanics of basic pony biology, she was a teacher. Lying about stuff like that was probably against some kind of teachers’ code of honor or something. And Scootaloo was probably right about Diamond and Silver just being good at hiding their estrus symptoms, rather than being totally cured of it.

Still… what if it was true?

What if a pony could get rid of her estrus by herself?

After all, even if Diamond and Silver were experts at keeping their symptoms under control, they’d still have all the same symptoms every other filly did. But Apple Bloom couldn’t remember ever seeing them bring ice packs or thermoses of Moon Tea to class before. Not that she was ever really looking for that sort of thing in her most hated rivals, but still. And all the adults did seem to spend a lot of time telling Apple Bloom and her classmates that it was best for them to just take their teas and their ice packs and work through it instead of trying to quench the heat for real. Maybe Cheerilee had just… conveniently skipped over certain parts so nopony would think to try it. Yeah. Yeah, that could happen.

Maybe.

Okay, so it didn’t sound nearly as plausible, not by a long-shot. But Apple Bloom couldn’t help but hope it was true. If she could calm her estrus completely, then she could actually focus again for the home stretch of the school year when she needed it the most.

Apple Bloom took a deep breath, blushing brightly, but nodded decisively to herself. It was worth a try. Besides, what could it hurt? Even if it didn’t work, it had always been so relaxing when she spent a little alone-time with herself before…

Scanning her surroundings, Apple Bloom determined she was still at the outer edge of the Apples’ property somewhere in the east field, far enough from the road to not be seen by the public, but also far enough from the house to not be noticed by her family either. A tall, shady tree nearby stood out amongst the rest of the apple trees around her, the shady side overlooking a small stream that ran through the farm with cool, clear mountain water; the perfect spot for her to lay down nice and cozy-like and enjoy herself peacefully.

With a soft, tense sigh Apple Bloom hefted her saddlebags off her body and laid them neatly against the base of the tree, and then laid back on the ground with her head resting against them as a makeshift pillow, her legs lying slightly apart on the grass. She glanced around one more time to ensure she was alone, and when she neither saw nor heard anypony else, she let out a long breath, and let her eyes flutter closed as her front hoof moved to begin its work.

In truth Apple Bloom was sort of still figuring out the whole ‘masturbation’ thing. She had only touched herself a couple of times in the past, and it was only the most recent time that she’d actually been able to bring herself to climax, which had still taken her upwards of half an hour to achieve, maybe more (she hadn’t exactly been in the right state of mind to be keeping time). So when her hoof first found the little nub of flesh at the top of her fillyhood that she had dubbed ‘the magic button,’ she was caught entirely off guard when she felt not a light, pleasant tingle, but a bolt of greased lightning shoot up her spine, making her belt out an obscene moan of surprised pleasure and splay her legs out rather widely to either side. Whatever cooling effects her ice pack had had on her arousal earlier were immediately and completely wiped away with that single stroke of her hoof, and now her entire crotch burned with an intense heat and wetness begging to be fulfilled.

“Oh, wow…” Apple Bloom whispered into nothingness as she caught her breath. Somehow she was suddenly certain it wouldn’t take her half an hour to finish this time.

She moved her hoof a little lower, deciding maybe it would be better to work her way back up to the magic button if it was going to be that sensitive, and instead stroked the outer lips of her fillyhood proper, in slower, more careful circles. Still, though, she shuddered at the touch; it was not just her button, but her whole vagina that was extraordinarily sensitive today. Even those slow circles were sending smaller sparks of electricity through her body, and her hoof was already getting coated in a thin layer of slick, sweet-smelling fluid. Apple Bloom blushed in amazement; usually that didn’t start happening until at least the point where she probed her hoof inside herself, but now she was so hot and wet down there she was making a mess of her hoof with the first few strokes, and her desire for a release was more intense than it had ever been. It was incredible how much of a difference estrus season really made. She needed to hurry up and finish, she wasn’t sure how long she could stand this feeling, it was almost unbearable.

Her hoof angled itself slightly, and Apple Bloom probed the slimmer edge of it gently between her outer folds, again making herself shudder. It was even wetter just that little bit inside, and a powerful heat was radiating from her very core, washing over her hoof like a heat lamp. Her hoof slid slowly up and down, rocking in and out barely an inch either way, her hoof of course being much too large to get any significant distance inside herself. Not for lack of trying though; her inner walls flexed and clenched frantically around what little of her hoof could slip in there, trying desperately to draw it in further like it was the proper colt’s penis her loins probably craved.

Apple Bloom let out another long, deep groan, the thought of boys and their appendages immediately drawing up some very particular mental images. For the most part she’d only seen an unsheathed colt in pictures – mostly educational textbooks that were more like diagrams than actual photos – but there was one time she’d seen the real thing. It was just for a second, and it had been dark, and he’d covered up all too quickly, and she’d never dared mention it to his face afterward… but for a brief moment, crashing through the door of that supply shed and encountering Rumble mid-make-out, she saw it. She saw him. Fully unsheathed, laying out across his lap, the same grey of his coat toward the base and slowly mottling into a fleshy pink up toward the tip. It was truly, perfectly glorious. She’d thought about that penis more than once before while her hooves were between her hind legs, and this was going to be no exception.

Her thoughts took it further than ever this time, though. Her estrus hormones craved fulfillment with an intensity that bordered on physical need, like she’d outright die otherwise, and so as her other front hoof moved to join the first and press gently on that magic button of her clit again, she did not stop at merely thinking about that glorious penis she’d seen, but imagining it being used on her, going inside her, filling her so delightfully full. She was completely soaking wet now, rubbing and stroking and probing herself faster and more harshly than she’d ever done before as she lost herself in fantasy, imagining how wonderful it might feel, what its owner might do with it to make her feel good. Heck, the owner didn’t even have to be Rumble. Maybe it could be Spike at the other end of that amazing penis. Did dragons even have penises? She didn’t actually know or care right then, because for the purposes of this fantasy they absolutely did. Yes, that was settled, it was Spike, Spike and his gentle voice and his pointy little claws that were probably great for brushing and back-scratching and he most definitely had a really good-looking penis and it was going all the way inside her and he was making her feel so incredible and tingly and gooey and--

Apple Bloom let out a loud yelp of shocked pleasure as she tipped over the edge of orgasm, barely five minutes into starting. Her hooves froze so as not to overwhelm herself, but in her orgasmic daze she still felt like she was coming for a solid minute, literally, soaking her tail and the grass underneath her with a few copious spurts of girl-cum. She heaved a loud, pleased sigh, shaking a little even as she came down from the peak of what was easily the best orgasm she’d ever had (not that that was difficult, it was only her second), and waited for the wave of relief to wash over her…

…And waited…

…And waited…

…But it never came.

“Wh…?” she began to whisper and wonder, but as she opened her mouth, her voice came out in a thick, strangled moan, and the fire in her loins actually flared hotter than before, quite the opposite of being quelled.

Apple Bloom lurched upright and doubled over, clenching her hind legs together around her front hooves and suddenly panting and gasping for breath. Mere seconds after an orgasm, a good one, her body was craving more, craving sex, craving a colt, craving a dragon, craving just about bucking anything with a cock she didn’t care who it was she needed a cock right bucking now!

Apple Bloom gasped for another breath, her eyes wide and almost panicked. What in Equestria was wrong with her?! Was this what full-blown heat felt like?! How could any mare on the planet even stand this feeling?! It was unbearable, a crippling, debilitating, burning ache, one she wouldn’t wish on her worst enemy--

Apple Bloom jolted, a chill running through her.

Diamond Tiara.

Apple Bloom’s mouth curled into an angry snarl. She knew. That conniving, deceitful little brat knew this was what would happen! She’d intentionally lied about it just to trick Apple Bloom into doing this to herself! And she’d fallen for it like a sack of potatoes!

“NnnnnggggrraaaaAAAAUUUGHHH!!!!!” Apple Bloom bellowed into the sky. “DIAMOND TIARA YOU PINK-PAINTED PILE OF PIG PUKE, AH’M GONNA TAN YER HIDE FER THIS!!!”

Apple Bloom slammed her front hooves into the grass and panted for breath a few more times, the worst of her anger spent for the moment. Fortunately the anger had bought her a flicker of clarity in the foggy haze of her arousal; she had to get herself under control before it faded. But that was easier said than done. She didn’t have any Moon Tea on her, and the closest place to get any was back at her house; she’d never make it all the way there in this condition. Her ice pack was no good either; she’d been sitting on it since lunch and it had been sitting in her saddlebags out in the summer heat since leaving school, it was surely nothing but a bag of warm water by now--

She gasped again.

Water!

Apple Bloom willed herself to stand on shaking hooves, and set her eyes on the stream in front of her. The cool, clear stream that ran straight down from the mountains of Canterlot. It was her only chance now. She took a few shuddering steps toward the water’s edge, and when she was close enough, she leapt the rest of the way, plunging her body into the water. It was a shallower spot – even at her smaller size she could touch the bottom at the deepest point and still have her head and neck above water – but the important part was that her backside was in the water, and oh dear sweet Celestia, it felt so much better already. She turned her body to face the stream’s natural flow and sat there leaning back against a large rock for a few minutes to let the cool, soothing water run over and past her burning crotch, and to her immense relief, she felt it slowly but surely ebbing away the worst of the heat and the ache. It was a far cry from being gone completely, but at least she could think straight now, and could probably make it home to a fresh ice pack and a tall glass of Moon Tea without reverting to the burning, aching mess she was a few minutes ago.

Instead of getting up, though, she simply continued to sit there in the stream and stew in her own thoughts.

She hated this. Everything about being in heat was just awful. And it was only the first few days of estrus season. She had weeks of this crap ahead of her to deal with, and frankly she didn’t know if she could stand it for another day. She didn’t want to chug nasty herbal teas and sit on frozen plastic bags for half the summer, she wanted her estrus gone. She didn’t even care if she enjoyed getting rid of it anymore, as long as it would just go away and never come back.

But once again it was a self-defeating thought; there simply wasn’t anypony that could do the job. Colts remained in far too short a supply. Any boy she was even remotely interested in wasn’t interested in her, and worse, every filly in her class was probably in the same boat. They were all likely to be just as miserable as she was. With the possible exception of Diamond Tiara, she wouldn’t wish this agony on anypony. And worst of all, unless something changed, that was how things were going to stay. Nopony had a coltfriend. Nopony even had a chance of having a coltfriend.

“Can’t we just have a chance…?” Apple Bloom groaned miserably toward the heavens, her eyes inevitably drawn, squinting, to the sun. It was the sun doing this to them, she recalled, and the summer. Heat and light, Cheerilee had taught them, were what ‘told’ their bodies to go into estrus. And heat, light, the sun, and summer meant…

“Aww, Celestia… Ah know Applejack says ya can’t just hear ponies talkin’ to themselves, but… please give us a chance… just a chance. Ponyville ain’t got no decent colts, an’ Ah just… Ah can’t keep goin’ like this. Ah’m not even askin’ fer a sure shot, just, Ah dunno… a new colt in class or… or somethin’, anything, that’s all Ah’m askin’… please, Celestia…”

“‘Celestia?’ Mmm, so close, my dear, and yet so very far.”

Apple Bloom’s eyes shot fully open again, not just at the sudden voice actually responding to her plea, but also because the sun above her had abruptly stopped shining blindingly bright, and had even turned into a darker, more sickly shade of yellow. With a bright red dot in the center like the pupil of a great big bulbous eye.

An eye that blinked at her.

“AAAHHH!!!” the filly shrieked, rapidly dunking her face in the water as if afraid she was hallucinating. She hastily wiped her eyes dry as soon as she brought her head back up and looked back toward the sun, but it was once again a blinding glare that she couldn’t quite look directly at.

“You should be careful about staring into the sun, young lady. You’ll burn your retinas out and go blind, you know.”

Apple Bloom spun around again, frantically searching for the source of the voice…

And bumped nose to nose with a terrifying monster.