My Baby Sister

Applejack's consciousness heralded its return with the mother of all headaches. On its own, that might've been terrible enough already, but sadly, the universe wasn't feeling kind today. As she stirred from her slumber, the oncoming pain told her that she could feel her limbs again.

Whether this was the worst she ever felt, Applejack truly couldn't tell anymore and she grumbled to herself as her eyes opened and cast aside the world of dreams on instinct. The world was one huge blur for the first few seconds, one giant dark patch with a brighter one in the distance. Shapes moved in an ineloquent dance. She was left to blink until the came into focus.

The white sheet was in poor condition. Dirt and drops of blood mixed in with dust and spider webs. It must've been out of use for quite some time. The rest of the room didn't fare any better. Though dark, a lantern on the nightstand by her side illuminated it well enough. Her bandana lay by its side.

She could see how blank and empty the walls were, how medical instruments lay scattered on the floor, as if someone had carelessly thrown them about.

Applejack turned her head, looked down on herself spread on the old hospital sheets. Her left leg was patched up, bandaged up better than she could've ever done it herself. Not quite Redheart's level, but still. Otherwise, band-aid covered up the patches of skin and she smelled some sort of ointment, which made her neck feel strange. It could've just been because she was so used to the feeling of the rot, but she felt cooler. Even the fire was gone from inside her, it and the hunger.

She turned around, wondering what lay to the other side. The first thing she spotted was a second bed and her sister on it. Her head was wrapped up with a bandage and otherwise she appeared to have gotten the same treatment and Applejack, with the added bonus of a diaper. Applejack was glad that she didn't need to worry about that. Her sister was but a young filly, after all, and she needed what help she could get.

So she looked at her foal, safe and sound. There was a peacefulness about her that calmed Applejack, not that she was worried to begin with. Why should she worry when she was in a hospital? When everything was fine?

She closed her eyes again, taking a small breath and listened in on Apple Bloom’s little symphony. If the filly only knew how adorable she sounded in her sleep. Yet the sound was overtaken by memories that wanted to be threatening, but Applejack refused to acknowledge their presence in her head.

She remembered ponies hunting them, Blossomforth laughing as she caught them. That’s what it was, they’d lost a game of tag and then everypony went home and celebrated without them. Applejack wasn’t even mad, because Apple Bloom was here and that made everything finde.

Then she heard a noise, a clutter in the hallway beyond Apple Bloom. Applejack’s eyes shot open and looked at the door behind the filly. It was a medium-sized entryway, really, but for that brief moment, Applejack imagined something creeping up from there.

The only light was created by the lantern and from her perspective, the darkness seemed almost alive. She remembered the ghost stories that she had spent so much of her youth fretting over and felt the dire need to make herself smaller again.

Another game, one where she pretended that ghosts were coming for her, or maybe she really believed some to be coming. In truth, Applejack didn’t know, but she was stuck between her raging heartbeat and a flinching grin on her face.

Then, in the dark of the night, a light appeared from the right corner of the door, like something was coming up the hallway. She heard steps, but couldn’t tell whose they were. Maybe Big Macintosh was pranking her again, knowing how afraid the dark made her feel. Maybe Rainbow Dash was finally getting her vengeance for how much Applejack had hurt her today.

She curled up, felt the cold air against her back. How she would have loved a blanket to hide under, or to at least be in the bed before Apple Bloom. Yet she didn’t move. They were in a hospital and she needed to be a role model, needed to be the good girl that didn’t play around.

She needed to be mature about this.

The filly trembled, she could feel her heart crashing against her the inside of her chest, as if to tell her to jump, to run, to fight. It was a mischievous drive brought on by fear, one that she wouldn’t follow.

Be good, be still. Granny Smith needs to hear tomorrow that you were good, otherwise she might not let you watch over Bloom again.

The light became brighter. It dyed the walls with a green tone, a green that sent a chill down her spine. She thought of Tartarus and someone screaming for help, but she knew that those were just stories. Little children were afraid of stories, but not she.

And then the source of the light turned around the corner.

It was a beast of scales, tiny but ferocious and its eyes were as green as envy. A two-tipped tongue licked non-existent lips, for it clearly hungered for a ponies flesh just as much as any other beast. From its sharp claws came a source of light and it looked at them with pure vileness.

At least that’s what Applejack wanted to imagine, but honestly, the baby dragon would never be scary. His pink scales and green spikes, those tiny arms holding a lantern that looked like a pre-schooler had made it for Nightmare Night.

“You awake yet?” asked Spike in a semi-annoyed voice.

Applejack waved at him. “Hey Spike, what’cha doin’ here?”

There was a pause, and she could see how incredulous Spike looked at her.

“I’m happy to see you’re alive, too,” he then answered courtly and moved to Apple Bloom.

As he pulled himself up the bed to check on her, Applejack thought she saw bite marks on his arms and some of his spikes broken or cracked, but chalked it up to her imagination. It didn’t make him look scary, but at least her mind kept trying.

“What I’m doing here? Twilight wanted me to check out some medication. She wanted pills that let her stay awake longer,” he continued and then looked at Applejack. “You know, now that we met and you owe me, how about you tell that drugging herself isn’t the solution to everything?”

Applejack tilted her head, not understanding a word. “Why does she need medicine to stay awake? Is there a test coming up?”

Spike opened his mouth, closed it again, lifted a finger, tried to say something again, but then just shook his head. “Applejack,” he then said carefully. “Do you know why you’re lying in a hospital bed?”

“I guess I hit my head while playing tag with the others.”

“What others?”

“You know, Doc Hooves, Blossomforth, Lyra, the whole gang. We were outside Ponyville and they joined in on the game. Rainbow Dash was there, too, though I think she got hurt because of me,” Applejack told him, the thought making her sad.

“Alright,” he said reluctantly. “And what about Apple Bloom?”

“I guess,” Applejack said, looking at the wounds. Then it dawned to her why there were bandages around the filly’s head. “Oh no, she got hurt because of me! I fell and she hurt her head. Granny Smith is gonna be so mad. She’s gonna ground me.”

Applejack shook her head. “No, no, no. You can’t tell her. She’ll think I’m irresponsible. Promise me you won’t tell her, Spike.”

She was sure that if he’d had any, the expression he made was one with a raised eyebrow. He was clearly weighing his options here, but he was Twilight’s and her friend, he had to be on her side.

After a few more moments, Spike resigned with a sigh. “Okay, sure. don’t want you to get in trouble with your gran in addition to those wounds.”

With that he stood up and marched towards her bed.

As he hopped on and checked on her, she showered him with thanks, going so far as to hug him and rub that little head of his. Strangely enough though, there was no reaction to any of that and he just looked after her, kind of like a big brother, which was nice.

“Your leg’ll take some time to heal, but I’m your friend, so listen to my advice. If you don’t want your granny to be mad, and don’t want her to find out about both you and Apple Bloom over there getting hurt, you need an alibi until you’re better. I suggest that you stay with me and Twilight. We’ll just tell your gran that we’re having a sleepover or something.”

“But I don’t have my–”

“And Twilight has sixteen toothbrushes, half of which she already forgot she bought. There’s not problem,” Spike interrupted.

His green eyes gazed at her and it was like there was a bit of light missing from them, but she didn’t really know why she thought that. Her imagination really was going overboard now.

“Alright,” she said, “but Apple Bloom isn’t potty trained, yet.”

“I ... noticed,” Spike said with a shiver. “And they still got some disposables lying around here. Nobody ever plunders the hospital for diapers, apparently. And if that doesn’t help, I’m sure we’ll be able to whip something up at home.”

Applejack nodded eagerly and Spike just sighed, jumping off the bed again as he was done with her.

“Alright, here’s how it goes,” he then told her. “We need to go through the town. It’s already night, everypony’s asleep, so. …”

“We need to be quiet,” she almost yelled.

“Right,” he answered in the most annoyed way he could.

She laughed sheepishly as she realized what she’d just done and sat up, trying to at least look the way she needed to look, big girl that she was.

“We’re going to sneak to the library, right? I’ve been up at night a lot and sneaked around a lot, so I’m quiet as an apple falling to the ground,” she explained excitedly.

Spike rolled his eyes. “Bad metaphor, but I just assume that you, running around laughing like an idiot isn’t what you usually do?”

“We were playing tag,” Applejack defended herself. “It was fun.”

There was a moment of quiet, then Spike shrugged and turned around. “Alright, I’ll get my bags. Medicine for Twi, a ball of yarn for me and my new socks and one package of diapers. Once I got all of this, you and Apple Bloom need to be ready. We leave the hospital and get to the city.”

“Yeehaw,” Applejack exclaimed.

He rolled his eyes once more. “Train your ninja skills while I’m gone.”

With that, the tiny dragon left again and Applejack remained on the bed.

She noticed a strand of her mane, a fair blonde color, all messy and tangled. She went with her hoof through it and felt how rough it was. She’d never been a pony to put that much effort into her mane, but a few simple tips from Rarity had freshened up her look considerably a while ago.

She wondered for a moment if she needed to be a pretty role model as well as a mature one. Was being pretty part of being an adult? Rarity always seemed to think so, but most ponies weren’t as pretty as her, especially not Rainbow Dash, who always said she was “all natural”.

Applejack shook her head, only to find that on the opposing end of her bed was a broken window, barred up with wood, the shards lying on the ground.

Maybe her reflection was visible in them?

Letting herself to the ground, the filly walked over to the broken glass. It lay there, some pieces stained with dirt, blackened and dry. She picked one up and held it up.

The only thing reflected, however, was the light of the nightstand. There was nothing else there and she was left to wonder once more what she looked like. In truth, she doubted herself to be right.

She’d cared for Apple Bloom a lot, so she couldn’t be just a kid, but on the other hoof, she knew any grown mare would’ve helped on the farm and wouldn’t be so afraid of their granny. It was a strange sensation, and Spike had treated her like an equal, too.

He was a baby dragon, though, and she wasn’t a baby pony. Apple Bloom was. She wore diapers, she had trouble moving around and held her binky close. Not Applejack, she was big, strong and very adult.

Yes. She was a big pony and she would prove it by not being scared of the dark night outside and carrying Apple Bloom.

“Are you ready?” came Spike’s voice from the door and she turned towards him.

Her body hurt, her left leg was without a feel, her head was splitting itself a part and she wanted to curl up and just wait everything out. But she was more mature than this, she would do this.

“Yes.”

In the doorway stood Spike, carrying a rucksack and a bag. His body was wrapped in a sort of jacket, which was lightly padded and he also wore goggles over his eyes. His hands were covered in fingerless gloves, his fingers were glistening in the light, like they were covered in oil or something.

“That’s a weird getup,” Applejack said.

“No it’s not,” he answered immediately. “It’s awesome and makes me look like a total badflank. Now get off my back and get your sister on yours. We’ve got a full moon tonight and I want to get the long run done before we hit midnight?”

Applejack squinted her eyes, not understanding a single word, but decided that she needed to pretend to, because right now she needed to prove to herself how mature he was. Some lessons she learned from Rainbow Dash were really worth it.

Picking up the bandana, she grinned to herself. Then she tied it around her neck and went to pick up Apple Bloom. The filly felt as light as a feather in her arms. The diaper already had a slight tinge to it, but that was to be expected of a foal.

“She’ll need a change when we get there,” Applejack noted.

“And you and I both pretend I never got that information,” Spike said, giving her a thumbs-up. “Good idea, Applejack.”

She rolled her eyes and carefully put Apple Bloom across her back. “She’s a foal. When you were as little as her, you also still used diapers.”

“How old do you think she is?”

Applejack took that moment to look at him. Did he seriously just question her about her sister’s age. The filly harrumphed. She didn’t think Apple Bloom’s age to be any other than the age she was and how could he think any different of her? Honestly, there was no need to justify that with an answer.

So she just trotted past him.

“Alright,” he exclaimed, throwing his arms up and turned around.

They left the lantern behind, but Applejack was too busy being angry at Spike to care. What she did care about, however, was how dark the hallways of the hospital were. As such, she just stood close by the door until he came out and tried to look as nonchalant as possible.

He, however, saw through her immediately. “Don’t worry about the dark, we’ve got a light right here to protect us.”

He held up his own lantern, a big ball of paper with strange symbols carved into it. It really was some pre-schoolers horrible Nightmare Night lantern, but Applejack didn’t want to tell Spike that. He still had some leverage over her, after all.

They went through the dark, past empty rooms and empty beds, with only the wind playing its only tune with the drapes by the windows.

“Why’re there no doctors or patients?” Applejack had to wonder.

Spike didn’t answer at first, instead mumbled something to himself. But after a while, she got her answer. “Everypony’s not gotten sick for quite a while, so everypony took a day off.”

“Oh,” she said, “That explains a lot.”

“Yeah,” he said quietly.

The rest of the way through the hospital was quiet, until they reached the foyer. Applejack instinctively let her eyes remain on Spike, because she wanted to follow the light, because there was nothing to see here. Because nothing had happened here.

He looked over his shoulder. “Do me a favor, keep your eyes like that. You don’t want to look at the sky tonight.”

“Why?” she asked, already aware that looking at the sky could hurt your eyes pretty bad.

“Cause you’ll never fall asleep again once you look at it,” Spike answered in an honest voice.

Applejack still tilted her head. “Really? Is that bad?”

“You said you were up the last few nights? Did you get much sleep?”

“No.”

Spike smiled. “How did it feel?”

“Terrible,” she answered and then it dawned on her. With an “Oooh,” she made it known that she had reached a conclusion.

When you never slept, you would always feel horrible. That sounded like perfect logic.

She locked her eyes on his tail, looked at the ground and up to his shoulders. Applejack saw the rucksack, a blue thing with dragon stickers on it. It clearly belonged to Spike and not Twilight. They were really cool, too, one was red and had two heads, another possessed four wings and another one was big and grey and had a small beard.

They weren’t for babies, though.

The dirt of the road beneath them now, the weight of Apple Bloom against her back, she couldn’t help but ponder the question again.

“Spike,” she asked in but a whisper, “How do I look?”

The wind was easy on her mane, but she felt it nonetheless. It was a mess, she knew, much like everything else. Was her face ugly or beautiful, she didn’t know. A part of her needed to know, because if she knew, she could be certain about something again.

Spike walked, slowly, the lantern up front. He kept his head up, so much in fact that it was obvious that he could see the sky in all of its terrifying, abominable beauty. However, he walked in silence. Step after step he took and he kept on ignoring her throughout.

Apple Bloom’s soft breaths accompanied them. There was the suckling of a paci, the distant roar of a beast Applejack didn’t know and the sky was out of sight. Yet the voice she wanted to answer her the most was the one that kept still.

“Why do you ask? You look like you do,” he finally whispered, uncertain.

“Because I want to know if I’m right. Apple Bloom’s a foal, she needs me. But what does that make me?”

She couldn’t see the face he made, couldn’t pretend to know what he thought. Maybe he was trying not to laugh at her, maybe he was deep in thought, maybe he even just rolled his eyes again. Whatever he did, he did in silence.

This part of the road was well-known to her. Soon, a bridge would come up and beyond that, the town square. They would move past it, then the smells from the Day Spa would hit their noses. The sweet fragrances always had something awfully penetrating about them, but Rarity always seemed to love them for it.

She really needed to go there with her again.

“I don’t know,” he answered, the wind carrying his voice into her ear. “If you want to know whether you’re right by Apple Bloom, just ask her?”

“But she can’t know that I don’t know. She’s not mature enough to worry about this stuff.”

Her voice was raised just a bit, he halted and lifted up his free hand. Clearly he looked into the distance, listened to the noise. The air tasted like ash and smelled like fire. She could hear the other ponies move, could hear some stir in their sleep or maybe take a walk.

Of course, Applejack didn’t know, because the terrible sky was something that she never wanted to look at again.

“Worrying about how you look doesn’t seem very mature to me,” he whispered after a few moments and started to walk again.

Applejack followed.

“It’s more complicated than that,” she answered, but explaining how came hard to her.

“What do you want to look like, then?”

Now she kept her silence as they walked over the bridge and past the well. The filly heard wood creak and water rush, so she closed in on Spike.

“I want to be a good sister,” she answered the moment a horrible fragrance hit her nose.

Had someone’s cooking burned?

“How do you want to be a good sister, then?” Spike asked. Even though his voice was lowered, he was clearly interested in hearing her out.

“I want to play with her, I want to make her smile like I did when I gave her the onesie, I want to be happy with her,” she said. “I want nothing more than us two having all the fun in the world.”

“That so?” Spike said. After that, he sighed. “Then stop worrying about how you look and play with her, have fun with her. Nobody needs to be worried more than necessary anyway, and the times are bleak enough. AJ, just have some fun with your sister. Me and Twi will handle the rest, okay?”

He didn’t look back, because he didn’t expect an answer. She could tell that much, but she still wanted to catch a glimpse and thus lifted her head.

And before them, the library rose up. A tree older than Ponyville, filled with all the knowledge it could hold. Like every night before, runes gleamed brightly in a circle around it, warding off anything that dared to come too close to it. Yet they marched right past them to the door.

She saw that inside, the lights were on.

Spike himself turned around again and pulled the goggles off his eyes. “You should get some more rest. Get to the cellar, I’ll handle everything else. If Twilight’s asleep, which I don’t think: Don’t disturb her. If she’s awake, which is very likely: Do. Not. Disturb. Her. Understood?”

Applejack nodded cautiously.

With that Spike opened the door. Now, Applejack was sure, the worst was over. Now, no more bad things would happen and she could focus on her little sister until everything was sorted out.