Forever, Shorter Than You Think
Prologue: The Summer of Life
Author's Note
I'm not used to writing "crossovers" but I've heard the cure is practice.
Prologue: The Summer of Life
Summer.
A suffocating box of heat. That’s what it was. In the shortest possible way, in the shortest amount of words, that’s how I would describe summer.
Stupid summer.
Summer wasn’t subtle, it wasn’t secretive. It didn’t bother hiding its presence. From the moment it woke you up it was there, leaving you craving something else to wash it away. The only pool I would know over these long months was the pool of sweat that clung to my coat. It gave you no rest.
And neither did my family, the Apples.
Summer was our busiest month and everypony and anypony had to pull their share.
It just wasn’t fair!
I didn’t even have my cutie mark yet and I was out there from dawn past dusk, busting my rump for apples. And what was my reward. Nuthing! Nuthing but stupid apples. Apples, apples, apples! That was what my summer amounted to! Red, yellow, orange, green; they were all there. Never giving me peace.
Summer wasn’t a box of heat, oh no. There was something that represented it even more accurately. Something even worse, you might say. I know I’d say it was worse.
Summer was an apple. It was the rotten core of a tossed apple that not even the pigs would touch.
Bah, apples!
I wanted nothing more than to collapse into bed by the end of that day. It was the fifty-seventh day of summer by this point, at least by my reckoning. Not that I kept much faith in them fancy mathematics. But I did know if this heat rose any more my brain was going to leak right out between my ears. My hooves quake thinking about that mess. Or maybe that was just sheer exhaustion that was causing it.
Each step over the well-worn wood of the living room felt like it was a million. A desert, the grains of sand disguised as the grain of wood. I closed my eyes as I imagined it. My bow was tattered in my imagination and wrapped around my head like some of those foreign ponies do. A truband I think it was called. I don’t remember.
This desert spread on forever. At least as far as my eyes could see. West, sand. East, more sand. South, sand, sand everywhere and not a drop to drink. North, a single boulder blotted out the otherwise unchanged landscape. That was the way I was supposed to head. Just beyond that massive boulder I knew there to be an oasis. That would be the only place in this Celestia forsaken desert that could grant a weary traveler rest.
Would I make it? I wiped a dust covered hoof across my brow, eager cracks drinking up the droplets found there. Of course I would!
My spirit glowed inside of me despite the heat. Were eyes able to glimpse me now I was sure their eyes would be forced to shield themselves-
“Apple Bloom.”
A creature of the harsh desert presented itself before me. What manner of beast it was, I could not tell you but its abrupt appearance made my heart sink with cautionary dread. Did it mean me harm?
“Apple Bloom!”
Its hide was orange, the perfect color to use for camouflage considering the environment, the only features that stuck out where the splotches of red that lined its sides. Some kid of cobra perhaps. It was known that only lizards and their ilk could survive, neigh thrive, in these conditions.
“APPLE BLOOM!”
I blinked and the whole world around me melted away in ripples.
“Apple Bloom, ya don’t have time to sit on ya flank all day.”
“But-!”
“No excuses, sugarcube. You don’t see your brother complaining, do you?”
I gazed helplessly as my closest family members cornered me. Their eyes seemed to entrap me just as the heat sought to do.
“Nnope.”
“Ya see, Apple Bloom-“
I couldn’t take it. No more heat. No more. Please!
“It’s not fair!” It bursts out, exploding out of me with strength that I didn’t know even remained inside of me.
I take off, shoving my siblings aside and darting between wavering hooves.
“It’s not fair!”
There was only one place I could go. Only one. The only place for me.
Why was there no place for me…
It was always work, work, work. Even when I got to go into town, it was for work. I saw other foals there playing. They would throw balls or catch discs. But…
There was no one for me. Even other foals rejected me. Two of them started up this chant and the other’s picked it up shortly after.
Blank flank, blank flank.
I just wanted someplace that none of that matter. Not work, not cutie marks…I hate this feeling of weakness…
“Big Mac, do you think…” I hear behind me.
“Eeyup.”
And with a slam I shut it all away. My bedroom door, its thickness as comforting as a blanket, protects me. Alone…alone. That’s all I am. But I’m away from it all. I slump down, eyes threatening to close even as my vision clouds up with liquid. Always alone.
“Tch, tch. Now that won’t do at all now!”
Something cool, something hard, rests against my cheek as the first tear finds it way of egress and drops.
Plink, the sound of one salty drop landing against something glass
“Chocolate milk,” The voice asks, a sloshing sound punctuating his enquiry, “Can’t find any fresher.”
The voice is melodic to my ears, drawing me in somehow. It’s a force that I don’t understand and a force that compels my tears to dry up.
A glass is what I see first, filled with what is indeed chocolate milk. Ad just over that, the lip of the glass distorting the view is a creature. He’s, if it is indeed a he, is something that shouldn’t exist. I reach a hoof out intent on breaking this day dream. Instead I find myself grabbing the milk, with a greed most unusual.
“That’s my gal! Can’t have a filly like you all mopey! That wouldn’t do at all, no sir!”
His face remains distorted for a second even after the glass is taken away. And then the strangest thing. He raises a claw. A claw! He has the face of an equine but a claw?! I almost drop the glass. That claw, yellow and ridged just like the real thing, readjusts his face to resemble what must stand in as normal for him.
“Who-“ I stop myself, “What are you?”
“A friend, my dear, a friend that wants to see that frown do somersaults ‘til its right side up!” He pulls a dramatic frown to demonstrate, “See what I mean, my sport, my friend, my little flower?”
I grow dizzy as I watch him and the glass falls to the floor for real this time.
“What are you…you doing in my room?”
“Offering you a choice! I know a place for you! A place with no worries like work and plenty of fillies…Just. Like. You.” He prods at my embarrassment of a flank, “ I work to make everypony smile, that’s my name and that’s my game.”
“What?”
“Oh, I guess you’re right. That’s not my name. I knew you were a smart cookie as soon as I laid eyes upon you.”
He closes my gaping jaw, this time with the paw of a cat’s.
“Name’s Discord. I suggest you keep an eye out for me if you want to leave this apple before it rots around you.”
The voice echoed in my mind but he was gone. Nothing but a wisp remained, a vaguely carrot scented wisp. What had just happened?
