Bloom Filter

by ferret

Rating: teen
Tags: Sex, Human, Dark, Alternate Universe, Rainbow Dash, Equestria Girls, Rainbow Dash (EqG), Adventure
Length: 476601

When the most unexpected fate befalls Apple Bloom, she thinks her life is over, but what she has found is something far greater than herself, an ancient secret that will shake the world in days to come.

Apple Bloom was growing to hate school. Far from her fond memories of class with miss Cheerilee, high school was proving to be the most wearyingly senseless way to educate a youngster that she could possibly conceive of. But when peculiar dreams and even more peculiar phenomenon put Apple Bloom as far away from high school as she can be, it looks like the end of her life, not the beginning. With no hope for her future, she can only rely on the support of friends and loved ones to keep her spirits up. Then, things start to go ...awry...

Published 2015-01-27 18:20:01 UTC
Last updated 2019-04-01 16:03:57 UTC

Swish and Flick

Through dedicated effort on Apple Bloom’s part, they avoided any more angry confrontations. To be fair though she wasn’t the only one of them fighting to get along. They were all fighting to make peace with each other, each in their own way. Diamond Tiara didn’t have anyone she knew from her old school except them three and Silver, and she wasn’t a girl who was happy about being left alone. Apparantly she’d lost her dad at some point, and just hadn’t been quite the same since.

Apple Bloom didn’t think she should be able empathize, as she had lots of family left over, and she never had to deal with the loss of her own parents. It had happened before her time. But it was odd all four of them even Scootaloo just felt that understanding close to their hearts, of losing someone that you love. It must have just been something common to human nature in general, since there was no real connection between any of their losses, other than pure coincidence, but despite no huge calamity happening to all of them at once, they did share that as common ground, for what that’s worth.

Diamond seemed to be in a good mood around them, even though she and Scootaloo butted heads a lot. Really Scoots and Diamond thrived on that kind of conflict. Bloom wouldn’t have been surprised if Scootaloo hadn’t picked that ballet class, just so she could have something weird about herself to defend, instead of just being yet another unremarkable Rainbow Dash fan girl. Diamond and Scootaloo’s bickering was low key for the rest of the lunch today at least, and Sweetie seemed to really appreciate what Diamond Tiara had been studying about beauty and poise.

It was funny really: Sweetie Belle had the look of a Fashionist, but she was all left feet when it came to fabrics and was even shyer than Apple Bloom about performing or putting herself on the spot, so she couldn’t even think about theater or public speaking. It’d took an act of congress to get Sweetie to help with that video they put up on Poundtube, and that hadn’t even been an audience she could see!

Scootaloo had the look of a Jock, but her participation in professional sports was lackluster at best, and her interests changed so much on a daily basis that even having to take one whole half semester class was overwhelming her attention span. So even though the choice of major for Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo should have been obvious, neither of them could make them.

And Apple Bloom... well, she just wasn’t much good at anything. She couldn’t figure what group you’d stuff her in. Ecology maybe, because of her farm duds? Boy, but, those Eco-kids were crazy weird. She asked Sweetie Belle at one point, “Hey, if you were a Fashionist and Scootaloo was an Athlete, then what would ah be?”

Sweetie gave that a good amount of consideration, before saying, “Techie, probably.”

Apple Bloom tried to imagine herself in a labcoat and horn rimmed glasses and failed. “What, really?” she exclaimed in surprise.

Sweetie nodded, “You like machines and you’re really smart. But you’d have to give up what you do with your family to study, and you like exercising too much so you’d be unhappy I think. But just, superficially, I mean.”

“And...” Sweetie added too quietly for Diamond Tiara to hear, “You’d be too busy to be friends with us like Silver Spoon.”

Apple Bloom didn’t really know what to say to that. “T-thanks, Sweetie,” she said at her friend’s surprising perspicacity, going back to eating with those thoughts on her mind. What would she be doing if she wasn’t living on a cattle farm? Was that really what defined her life?

So of course when they finished eating, Apple Bloom’s pants almost fell off again. When she stood up with her tray she had to just sit down again in a hurry. “Uggh, what is wrong with mah belt today?” she said pulling on it fiercely to get it to stay securely on her boyish hips. She stood up again to find Diamond Tiara looking at her critically saying, “Your belt’s broken?”

“Yeah, ah think it’s stretched out or somethin’” Apple Bloom said uncomfortably, “Ah keep havin’ to tighten it just to keep my britches on.”

“It’s ‘cause you’re so tiny, miss boy hips,” Tiara said teasingly. Worse still Scootaloo actually snickered at that. She was trying to hide it, but man could Apple Bloom really blame her? Even Scootaloo had wider hips than Apple Bloom. It was embarassing!

“Ah’ll get a growth spurt soon,” Apple Bloom declared imperiously to Diamond Tiara, “Just you wait and ah’ll be lookin’ down on y’all!”

Later when they were putting their trays away, Diamond actually smiled at Apple Bloom, and said,

“Thanks for... that. You’re a really great person somewhere under that backwoods redneck look you’ve got there.”

“Gee, what a compliment,” Apple Bloom rolled her eyes, milling towards the hallway to get a head start when the bell went off. “Ah don’t make fun of your silly dresses, so what’s wrong with a pair of waders and a work shirt?”

“Well my style is already perfect, so of course you can’t complain,” she said snidely, only half jokingly too. Then she said something a bit uncharacteristic of the rough cut Diamond. “You do pull off the look well though,” she said, “Your shirt would clash horribly, but it contrasts well with your hair, and most kids can’t make the school spirit head boppers look good, but you make them work. They match your skin tone.”

“Wait, what?” Apple Bloom said impatiently as the bell rang, wanting to get onto her next class before she was tardy again. “I ain’t wearin no head boppers.”

“Sure you are,” Diamond Tiara said, leaning close to Apple Bloom and squinting. “Though I can’t see the... wait...”

The ceramics students dropped something in the other room making the distant sound of glass shattering as Diamond jerked back to arm’s length, her composure lost totally in an instant. She stuttered “I–I–I–um– I mean, no of course you aren’t I was just joking because you totally are just fine I’m just seeingnot seeing anything because everything is fine I gotta go, bye!”

And just like that, she was gone.

Apple Bloom massaged her temples. Something wrong with that Diamond girl, if she thought that was what you call a joke. Still Diamond Tiara had seemed genuinely distraught. Apple Bloom wondered if maybe she’d been too friendly to her, or maybe there really was something wrong with her outfit? She got elbowed aside by a hurried upperclassman though, and was already getting pulled into the hallway throng for the between period rush.

Sighing, she shouldered her book bag more firmly, and started shoving her own way through the crowd in different directions than her three friends, who she would never see again until all the way until next lunch period. And now she had to go to that stupid English class. With troubled thoughts, she went to her locker and hastily grabbed her afternoon textbooks, then jogged all the way over to English class, getting in right when the period bell rang.

Of course the teacher was standing there at the chalkboard, looking at Apple Bloom with a disgusted expression. Did she ever adopt a different expression? Certainly not when Apple Bloom was around to disappoint her.

“Sorry, Ms. Harshvoice,” Apple Bloom said almost out of habit by now, sulking her way to her desk. Apple Bloom had picked a desk in the front because she thought it was going to be a good class, but now it was her curse to sit up there and face the constant scrutiny of terror in a purple sportcoat. Normally the teacher didn’t spare her half a glance, rounding up the students who did arrive late and making them stand outside the class like they did something wrong. Today for some reason though, the others got a get-into-jail free card. Snips and Watermelonsomething whose only vice was chronic tardiness made their way to their seats completely unnoticed. Why?

Because Ms. Harshvoice kept on glaring right at Apple Bloom.

“Um... uhm... somethin’ the matter?” Apple Bloom asked nervously as the teacher’s unflinching gaze judged her so very absolute and totally.

“Aside from that atrocious sentence you just uttered?” the teacher said in her heavy round voice, “As a matter of fact, yes there is something that is the matter. That headgear is not appropriate for class. Please remove it so that I may begin without it distracting the other students.”

“What?!” Apple Bloom exclaimed, tugging at her hair protectively, “But mah bow you ain’t never complained about before at all!”

With every word she uttered, you could see Ms. Harshvoice dying a little more inside, and it just wasn’t fair to Apple Bloom. It ain’t fair to get mad at someone for how they talk. Nothing wrong with a manner of speaking! It weren’t her fault she talked like this!

“Your bow is fine,” Ms. Harshvoice enunciated clearly, as if to a young toddler. “While I support your commitment towards the school spirit, please remove your...” she pinched her forehead, biting out the words as if it pained her to do so, “school spirit head ...boppers.”

Apple Bloom began to protest more, then blinked, looking back at Ms. Harshvoice to try and find some hint of insincerity in the teacher’s burnt orange face. There was as much insincerity in that face as there was water in an Arizona desert.

“Ah ain’t wearin’ head boppers,” Apple Bloom repeated, to the second person today who said that.

“As much as I appreciate you finally using the contraction ‘ain’t’ in its proper place, you are wearing head boppers,” the teacher insisted. “Take them off right now, or I will have to send you to the office to have them removed for you.”

A sudden thought made Apple Bloom’s mouth drop open in shock. “Diamond Tiara!” she exclaimed angrily. reaching up above her forehead and rummaging around in her bountiful red bangs. “She musta slipped them on me while I wasn’t lookin’ ahm sorry teach!” Apple Bloom couldn’t find that blue headband though. There wasn’t anything on her head from front to back.

Apple Bloom lowered her hands and folded them on her desk, smiling nervously and saying, “Um... ah cain’t find the headband. May ah be excused to attend to it in the bathroom?”

“Oh for heaven’s sake,” Ms. Harshwhinney griped, striding the few paces forward to Apple Bloom’s desk and reaching for her head. With the intention of pulling the hairband out by its most prominent features, she grabbed an ear, and both she and Apple Bloom exclaimed at once,

“Eauuhh!”

The teacher flung her arm back as if burned staggering back a step while Apple Bloom put her hands over her head saying, “What did you do?!” to the teacher frantically.

Ms. Harshvoice had grabbed her ear. Her real ear! That wasn’t a headband! And as soon as Ms. Harshvoice’s fingers touched her ear, Apple Bloom felt it flick back and forth.

“What’s wrong with mah ears?!” she continued to exclaim. Apple Bloom couldn’t find them! There wasn’t anything on the side of her head! She kept feeling higher and higher and there were no ears and then– and then she found her ears.

“What’s going on?” came Snip’s voice behind her. Her ear turned to face the sound!

“That is so very entripping,” an unfamiliar girl’s voice came.

“Nurse!” Ms. Harshvoice said dragging Apple Bloom bodily out of her desk, “Get to the nurse!”

Apple Bloom’s ears weren’t her ears they were these giant furry things under her finger’s touch. She grabbed them to stop the flicking but that was even worse.

“Out!” Ms. Harshvoice said, shoving Apple Bloom out the door, “Get to the nurse! Go straight to the nurse before you–before something!” She turned around then and said, “Everyone please remain calm. Please stay in your seats. We are not going anywhere until she has” and then the door to Apple Bloom’s English class swung closed.

“...until she has returned or a school nurse has delivered a conclusion about our next action in the current situation!” the teacher’s voice continued muffled behind the door. Oh lordy Apple Bloom could hear everything. How had she not noticed this before? In the middle of a period, the halls were empty. That gave Apple Bloom the perfect opportunity to run like the fiery demons of Hell were hot on her heels and breathing down her neck.

Like most things in school, Apple Bloom knew where the nurse’s office was, despite not yet having been there before. She charged in the door with the red circle underneath a white plus sign on it, shouting, “MAH EARS ARE BROKE!”

The nurse behind the desk with her blue curls and far too much makeup on was leaning forward with her hands over her ears, shouting, “DO YOU FEEL ANY PAIN? CAN YA HEAR ME?” That made Apple Bloom’s ears immediately turn down and back and she shrank from the nurse in a fright saying,

“W-w-why are you shouting at me? Mah ears are fine!”

The nurse took her hands away from her ears asking in a more even tone in a very familiar accent, “Then why were you shouting?”

“Because mah ears are br–” Apple Bloom stopped. “Because mah–” Apple Bloom shook with frustration, blushing furiously, “Because I was upset!” she yelped, “Mah ears are... ah can hear just fine, but they’re on top of mah head!”

The nurse took a second look at her, then frowned saying, “Honey ya cain’t get out of class with a pair of fake ears.”

“They ain’t fake!” Apple Bloom said stamping her foot angrily.

“Ah wasn’t born yesterday, hun. Them those school spirit things,” the nurse concluded, sitting back in her chair. “Now get along to class. Ain’t nothing wrong with you.”

Apple Bloom responded by jumping onto the desk.

“Hey!” the nurse shouted in outrage, “What are you doing? You can’t get up here!”

“Can you see a headband in mah hair?” Apple Bloom demanded, sticking her face up to the nurse’s. “Go on, take it off!” she challenged, the tears in her eyes robbing her of any effective intimidation. “They ain’t fake, ah can feel them!”

“Calm down, child!” the nurse harried her, pushing her back off the desk along with several very important papers that will never be mentioned again. “Is this some sort of cry for help?” she asked confusedly, “Are you bein’ bullied? Do you need to see the school psychologist? Because she’s busy with another student right now.”

Meanwhile in the school psychologist’s office, the psychologist was beginning to conclude that after enough cases like these, she would not need to continue dying her hair to appear distinguished. Or, undying it, as such the case may be.

“It’s happening again!” the distraught first year student told her with shaking hands and poorly focused eyes, “The horse people! The mascot is real! But it never happened before! I think I’m going crazy you’ve got to help me! I thought I saw the ears, but I couldn’t have! Because it never happened! Except it did!”

“Please, Miss Tiara,” the gray haired woman said to her as gently as possible, “You’re among friends here. Nobody is judging you. Can you remember when you first started seeing things?”

“Last year,” she replied, then her eyes narrowed again and she exclaimed, “But it couldn’t have been last year! It was when we graduated. It was... it hasn’t happened yet! But it did! But it... it was... earlier today.”

“It sounds like you’ve been suffering from this for a long time,” the psych said in a sympathetic tone.

“I can’t remember...” the student said, looking down and pulling at her already disarrayed hair. She lifted her head up suddenly and said, “But at lunch today! I swear I saw it! My f... my friend had h-h-h–”

Meanwhile, back at the Nurse’s office.

“Why won’t you believe me?” Apple Bloom asked with an uncontrollable quaver in her voice. She wiped at her eyes, feeling her ears go back again without even any sort of shouting going on.

The nurse just looked at her quietly. Apple Bloom felt like she was on the spot. Was Apple Bloom crazy? Were these just head boppers and she was just imagining them? Why did her English teacher react like that though? Did Apple Bloom imagine that too?

“How are you doing that?” the nurse asked her curiously. Apple Bloom gave her a puzzled look.

“Doing what?” she asked, suspicious of the sudden change in topic.

“Are they on a pull string or something?” the nurse said squinting at the top of Apple Bloom’s head. “How are they folding back like that?”

Apple Bloom felt her ears unflatten. For once, the sensation gave her a flutter of hope instead of creeping dread. “They’re not fake,” she said as calmly as she could. “They’re mah real ears. Ah don’t know why they keep moving. That’s why I came here. Something is wrong with my ears.”

“Please,” Apple Bloom continued earnestly, “There’s a whole class waitin’ on me. You gotta find out what this is or they’ll be stuck in there forever!”

“Alright, alright,” the nurse conceded, walking around the desk saying, “C’mere, let me take a look at ya.” Apple Bloom did so, and the nurse crouched down to look closely at the top of her head. Where somehow her ears had gone and mutated or something. Was she some kind of elf or something? Secretly swapped as an infant with her identical twin, to take her place until the fey glamour faded and she was exposed for the changeling monster that she was?

Apple Bloom’s ear twitched again when she felt the nurse’s finger touch it. The nurse lurched back then, falling down on her ass and looking at Apple Bloom, exclaiming, “Holy shit they’re real!” with pure wide eyed astonishment.

“Ah told ya!” Apple Bloom said, “Why are mah ears like this? They were fine this morning!”

“J-j-j-ust, uh,” the nurse climbed to her feet, holding a hand out to Apple Bloom and saying, “F-follow me.”

The nurse’s office had one tiny little examination room with mirror above a sink and swabs and cabinets full of mysterious stuff and human anatomy posters on the wall, as well as a “Don’t forget your flu shot!” poster. “Just wait here,” the nurse said giving Apple Bloom a scared yet apologetic look. “The doctor will uh, see you shortly.”

“There’s a doctor at this school?” Apple Bloom asked before she could run off.

The nurse shook her head, “No there ain’t but, there is one at the clinic!” She smiled awkwardly and said, “It’ll be f—it might take a while. Ah’m sorry.”

Apple Bloom sat down in the little chair they had by the examination table. “Just... just leave me alone,” she said miserably, “I don’t know if this is gonna get any worse though, so please hurry.”

Nodding curtly, the nurse shut the door, and you could hear her footsteps as she ran into the front room. You could hear her fumbling with the telephone, and it was pretty easy to pick out exactly which number she dialed from the dual tones emitting from the speaker. And you could also hear her flustered and barely coherent conversation with the receptionist on the other end, who you could also hear.

Apple Bloom was tired of these ears already.

The nurse left for some reason, she didn’t say, and the resulting silence was enough that Apple Bloom could even hear murmurs of the other classes in progress. Thank goodness her super ears couldn’t pick up enough to discern actual words or she’d start going nuts. As if this situation wasn’t nuts enough already.

She shifted uncomfortably in the lumpy chair, then stood up and paced around the examination room restlessly. She looked at the posters and then the sink, and then a light bulb hit her. A mirror! Apple Bloom shot to the sink, sticking her head forward and looking urgently into the mirror there. What she saw in her reflection was the worried visage of a young girl with custard yellow skin and bright red hair that clustered into bouncy round bangs. And nestled in that hair like they always belonged there were a pair of big prominent conical ears, like big old radar dishes sticking out of her head at a slight angle. It made the lack of ears on the sides of her face look less empty somehow.

But they were undeniably, irrefutably, her ears.

She gently pinched one in between her left thumb and index finger. The ears matched her skin color, but the color in them wasn’t skin. It was a dense short fur, softer than she’d expected. It felt weird pinching her earlobe like this, and she had to struggle to resist the urge to flick it, so she let it go again. Apple Bloom cupped her hands in back of them, feeling how their soft furry texture emerged straight from the top of her head. Curiously she poked a finger inside one, and well... it would have been impossible to hear, if her ear canal wasn’t intact, but the thought that she had holes in her head up there made her wince and pull her finger back.

Apple Bloom looked at them, how they framed her head. They made her face look oddly flat from the side and at an angle, even though a human’s face was supposed to be flat. But looking dead on into the mirror, you wouldn’t have been able to tell if she had a muzzle or not. That angle, it kind of made her look like a...

The last thing Apple Bloom saw of her reflection were her eyes widening with horror, before she tore herself away from the mirror and just went back to pacing around the room. She sat down then and stood up, and sat down again, wiggling until she felt comfortable, staring at the door. She wished she’d brought her book bag. Instead she had to spend the time ruminating—thinking not ruminating, on what might have possibly caused this.

It had to be that strange dream, it had to be. It must have been some alien... thingamagig that really happened, and Apple Bloom and her friends only thought it was a dream. That golden apple thing had to be real, and it had somehow done that, then undone it, then made her think she was sleeping the whole time, then started doing it again.

That made absolutely no sense.

What about her friends? They were right there when that golden bomb went off. But they didn’t transform at all in the dream. It was just Apple Bloom. Stupid little Apple Bloom going and grabbing things she had no idea how safe they were, and no right to be toying with. It was probably just her and not them, but she’d have to tell someone about them too when she could. All she could do now is wait.

The chair was uncomfortable again. Something in it kept poking her in the butt. Then when she shifted so it was over the lip of the seat it kept catching on that lip. Apple Bloom pushed just a bit off the chair, trying to see behind her to find what it was that was catching. It was something above her belt. It felt weird it was...

Oh no.

Doctor Stable was not one to make house calls, but Nurse Snowheart from the high school had never out and run physically into his office and demand that he come with her to aid a student in distress. She seemed reluctant to tell him what was wrong, which couldn’t be a good sign. Still, the way she kept framing it like “Her ears got all big and weird” made some part of him suspect that this was just some kind of sick joke at his expense.

So, cancelling his appointments for the afternoon, some very important ones for that matter like a student who needed their stitches removed, and another student who had broken their arm in football and needed to hear his prognosis on their x-rays (it was a good prognosis), he grabbed his hastily assembled medical bag and hurried out to where the nurse was waiting next to her old beat up convertible. He made sure to inform her of just what she was causing should this not be a very serious affair, and that she should call the emergency room should there be an actual life threatening emergency. As they drove he ran the gamut interrogating her about the real need for this unconventional visit. Had she damaged her ears? Gone deaf without explanation? Heavy fever and vomiting? Dizziness? Lack of coordination?

Finally the nurse just turned to face him at a stoplight and said that she simply could not explain it and that he would have to see for himself. Stable was starting to feel very uncomfortable about this situation. It didn’t appear to be a student in any sort of distress, while still appearing to be a student in distress. His apprehension warred with his curiosity, until finally his collosal sense of practicality stepped in and told them both that he was already in the automobile and it would take longer to return to the hospital than it would to check this out, just to see what was spooking Nurse Snowheart.

Though the nurse seemed terrified by the situation, the doctor couldn’t help but feel elated by it. Some sort of unexplained medical phenomenon, and it didn’t have symptoms of debilitation or pain. And something he could discover! It was with a childlike excitement carefully hidden inside him that he strode through that school’s nurse’s office to crack open the door to the examination room. “May I come in?” he asked congenially.

It was a girl’s voice who answered by asking, “Are you the doc?!” in a very well, distressed tone of voice.

“I’m Doctor Stable,” he announced, opening the door and stepping into the examination room where the red and yellow girl was sitting there uncertainly in the open backed chair. “Nurse Snowheart asked me here to help you. Thank you for waiting. Now, what seems to be the problem?”

She stood up then, and ran over, grabbing him by his shirt and saying, “You gotta help me doc!” She pleaded with her ears flat against her head, “Ah think I’m turnin into a cow!”

As Apple Bloom watched, the doctor at first stared at her blankly. Then his expression broke as a snort of laughter started to well up inside him. So she nipped it in the bud by grabbing his hand, and shoving her head against it. The nurse Snowheart was standing behind him, looking down at her fearfully.

“These. Are. Real!” Apple Bloom exclaimed, trying to make them move, though the one was too squished to flick around.

“Please, girl. Let me–” the doc pulled his hand out of her grasp roughly, saying, “Let me look!” So she crossed her arms and stood in front of him, as the undeniable truth on top of her head was a better argument than any she could make.

“Did you...” he said disbelievingly, “Is this some kind of surgery? How did you–”

“Surgery?!” Apple Bloom exclaimed tilting her head to look up at him. “How could it possibly be surgery?”

“How could it possibly be anything else?!” he exclaimed, making her wince and her ears turn down at his outburst. That made him even more shocked. Apple Bloom backed up with trepidation. She was gonna have to show him... that too.

“It’s because ah ate too much cow meat and now I’m turnin into one!” she said frustratedly, “Maybe it’s divine punishment! Ah don’t know!” Steeling her resolve, Apple Bloom spun around and stuck her butt out at him, pulling her shirt up.

“Young lady!” he shouted in alarm, “What are you– you have a tail.”

“Ah have a tail,” she agreed miserably.

“You have a tail,” he repeated numbly.

Her tail, in fact, was pushing her jeans down embarassingly (literally) and dangling over the edge of her belt. She couldn’t even see it, but she knew from feeling earlier that it was this spindley little thing, very responsive to her fingers, and somewhat ticklish. Just like you’d see coming out behind a cow. She didn’t just stand there with her ass in the air, but turned around and stood up straight, looking at him uncertainly.

“How... long have you had this?” he asked her, adjusting his spectacles and leaning against the sink.

“Today,” she replied.

“Today?!” he shot back.

“Ah had this strange dream in which me and mah friends found an apple, and it turned me into a– like a baby cow or something. But I wasn’t when ah woke up, nor the entire next day. But today I got these in English class!” she pointed at her ears, “And this started growin while I was waiting for you!” she pointed behind her as best as she could. She found herself wanting to wave her tail demonstrably, but she didn’t even know how to move it.

“You can’t just grow a tail in an hour,” he asserted frustratedly. “This makes no sense! This has to be some kind of joke! If you have any shred of decency in you as a human being,” he held up a hand before she could protest, “Not a cow, then you’ll tell me how you managed to pull this prank off, and what is really going on here.”

She just shrugged helplessly, “Ah keep sayin’ it ain’t no joke. Ah don’t know what’s goin’ on. You’re the doctor!”

Doc Stable straightened up and stared at her thoughtfully. He turned and looked back at the nurse. “Have you contacted her family yet?” he said in a neutral voice.

“I went straight for you,” she replied. “Nobody besides us knows about this.”

“And mah English class,” Apple Bloom pointed out helpfully. “And also mah friends, because I started gettin’ ears during lunch. I suppose anyone in the cafeteria coulda seen it.”

“That’s not why I was asking,” Doc Stable told the nurse irritatedly. “I need you to contact her family and ask them if they know anything about this.”

“What would mah folks know that you don’t?” Apple Bloom asked curiously, “They ain’t doctors. We’re cattle ranchers!”

“She has a point,” Nurse Snowheart said with a sickly smile, “Still we should get them over right away so they can... so they can be with her.”

“Firstly this has no basis in medical science or reality” the doctor asserted to both of them, “So I don’t know why you would think that being a doctor would give me some special knowledge about this. What I can do is ask questions, and be very careful about the answers that I collect. Her family is the most likely source I can think of for whatever might be causing... this.”

He then took a double take at Apple Bloom saying, “Wait, did you say they were cattle ranchers?”

“Ah’m Apple Bloom,” she introduced herself. “You know, Apple? As in the only cattle wranglers in town?”

“Alright, please just, wait there and we’ll help you as soon as we can. We need to get your family here so they can help,” the doctor said in a nervous half panicked voice. Apple Bloom frowned, but nodded. She waited in the examination room in that chair her new tail could fit through. It was already several inches long, and little red hairs were sprouting all along it, what she could see of it. It kept swishing back and forth now whether she tried to or not, every time she shifted in her seat.

Apple Bloom listened to the doctor call her grandmother in the other room, got Granny on the cell phone it sounded like. He kept things brief and ambiguous, and told Granny how Apple Bloom was in the nurse’s office and she needed her family to come and see her right away and talk with him about some things.

Granny’s “What?!” was probably loud enough for anyone to hear, not some half cow freak.

Once she hung up on the doctor, which gave them about 5 minutes before a Granny shaped torpedo would make its way across the school to the nurse’s office, he went and dialed another number. Just three letters. Wait, did that mean...

“Hello? Canterlot police?” he said quietly, as if he didn’t want to be heard, “I need you to come to the high school right away. There’s been a case of possible abuse and foul play. No. No I mean I may have evidence of a serial murderer in our town.”

Apple Bloom jumped up too hastily this time, the chair clattering as her very real tail caught on it. She ran to the door yanking it open. Running over to the office room which was also closed she pulled that door open, ran up to the doctor and grabbed his arm as if she could pull him away from the phone she shouted, “Serial murder?!”

“Oh, you heard that did you,” he said biting his lip.

“Every freaking word!” she snapped.

He looked at the open door to the office with consternation, but instead of making a break for it he knelt down, looking at her urgently and said, “Listen, if you are not the first girl they have turned into a—”

Granny burst through the door gasping for breath. “Hold on Apple Bloom!” she shouted, “I’m a comin’!” Then she started to rush over to Apple Bloom, giving the doctor just enough time to drop the phone and move aside, before sweeping her up into a crushing hug. “What they done to ya?!” she exclaimed, “You hurt? You sick? No explosions?”

“Ah’m...fine...Gran...ny...” Granny let go and looked Apple Bloom in the eye with her eyes sagging with concern. Apple Bloom took in a deep breath, then explained, “Ah was havin a dream about lookin’ for a golden apple with mah friends but when we found it it changed me into a cow or somethin and ah woke up two days ago and ah was fine, because it was just a dream and nothin really happened and now at lunch today ah started growing cow ears and now ah got a tail and the dream was real and I’m turnin’ into a cow!”

Granny shot the doctor a suspicious look saying, “What have you got her doped up on, morphine?”

“M– morphine?! Look at her ears!”

“What’s wrong with her ears?!” Granny said irately, gesturing at Apple Bloom, “They look just fine to Sam Hill Betsy Murgatroy child what happened to your ears?!”

“Ah told you Granny, ah’m turnin’ into a cow! Look at them! They’re all coney and furry!”

“Ah wasn’t talkin’ about your silly head boppers Apple Bloom,” the portly lady said squinting at her. “Yer real ears are solid gone! Did ye makeup them over or somethin?”

“Head bo– mah ears are up here Granny. These are mah real ears!” Apple Bloom was getting really frustated at having to prove this to everyone. Did her fur—her skin color really make her ears—those weird cow ears look like the school spirit headband?

“I don’t believe it,” Granny said stubbornly, crossing her arms with difficulty. She’d been trying to lose weight she really had, but with that physique and a diet of meat and butter it wasn’t really feasible for her to be skinny even in her old age.

“Just–” Apple Bloom flattened her ears again, not really keen on people touching them. “Just touch them,” she said anyway, “You’ll see that they’re as real as ah am.”

Granny was one of the few people Apple Bloom could really see eye to eye with. Granny must have gotten smaller in her old age, and plus she was wearing those old fashioned boots that barely had any platform to them. She could still pretty easily reach Apple Bloom’s ears though, and grabbed one of them pulling it like she was going to take it off.

“Ow, Granny!” Apple Bloom pushed her shouting, “Leggo, that hurts!”

Granny let Apple Bloom go and backed up, and, in fact she backed up so much that she ended up falling back into the chair against the wall.

“What on earth is goin’ on?” she said, all warbly.

“I was hoping you could tell us that,” Doc Stable said to Granny. “You manage a cattle ranch, if I recall. Has this ever happened before in your experience?”

“Cattle?” Granny said dumbly, looking all sorts of out of sorts, “I ain’t never seen nothing like this in all mah years! People don’t just change into cows. Least of which is my little granddaughter!”

“Any information you could have at all would help,” Doc Stable pleaded with her, “Has her behavior been strange? Something in her diet? Has anything happened recently?” Apple Bloom opened her mouth to shout about the golden apple again when her ear turned again at the sound of hard footsteps pounding up the hall from the distance but coming closer. It wasn’t break period yet.

“You don’t change into a cow by eatin’ cows neither!” Granny protested. Both turned at a shuffling noise from outside, as the police entered the nurse’s office. Well, entered might have been a bit of an understatement.

About three officers broke in slamming the door open shouting, “Police! Nobody move!” brandishing their firearms like they actually knew how to use them. Unsurprisingly, nobody moved. After a few seconds, they lowered their weapons. The officer in the middle, a tall swarthy man white as the driven snow, said, “Ma’am we received an emergency call to this number, a very serious emergency call,” to the vanilla-pudding colored receptionist, who still had her hands piked up in the air as high as they would go.

“Officers,” Doctor Stable interjected, moving slowly to the doorway, which blocked Apple Bloom’s view of the main reception room. “When I said may have evidence I did not imply there was any imminent danger.”

There was a pause, before one of the officers, the lead one apparantly, said “Stand down, officers,” and the three all holstered their weapons. “I’m sorry doctor,” the lead officer said in a cool yet earnest voice, “It was reported that when your call cut off there was a child screaming. We could only assume the worst.”

Apple Bloom turned beet red. She moaned and hid her face in her hands. What was she even thinking? She’d gone and interrupted a police call.

“I’m terribly sorry for that,” the doctor replied honestly if guardedly, saying, “The scream was nothing other than her protesting me calling you, because she had not considered the full implications of this supernatural phenomenon. I am confident it is very important for you to be involved, and I am grateful you arrived as quickly as you did.”

“Supernatural phenomenon?” the lead officer asked in a half joking tone.

The doctor shook his head slowly, saying “Perhaps it’s best if you see for yourself.”

The examination room was quite crowded with Apple Bloom, three officers and the doctor all crowding in there. She was squirming in her seat, trying to adjust for this new tail which kept on slowly growing longer and the hairs on it longer and thicker. Granny was still sitting out in the waiting room with the receptionist who was looking stressed enough that she’d had to be reminded to put her arms down.

“This is beyond medical science,” the doctor explained. “The girl here is growing a– a tail at an accelerated rate beyond which should be possible. Her ears cannot be surgically attached as they are fully motile and integrated with her skull. I would like to get her to my office immediately to perform x-rays, but first I needed to ensure that it wouldn’t end in a terrible injustice.”

“You see,” Stable said pacing regally, despite only having a few feet to do so, “If some heretofore unexplainable phenomenon is transforming this girl into cattle, her family, or ostensible family, are cattle ranchers. If I hadn’t called you I could be well on my way to becoming a cow myself! They may have been changing people into cows for years with no one the wiser, and I’m sure you know what they do to cows on a cattle ranch besides milk them? Thus the urgency of a police call!”

Apple Bloom was growing more and more incensed as the doctor spoke, both incensed and terrified as his words made entirely too much sense. “Yer– you cain’t think mah granny did this! She cain’t! She’d never do that to anyone! You’re wrong! Y-you don’t even know the Apples! Mah family is everything t-that is kind and good!”

“You’re absolutely right,” the doctor said staring down the little girl. “Your family has not done this to you, nor can they do it to others, and I’m proving that because if my hypothesis was correct then with the police involved there is no way such a thing could continue in secret.”

“He’s exonerating them,” the lead officer said distantly, still staring at Apple Bloom in shock, “That means he called us here to prove that they’re innocent.”

“Oh! Uh,” Apple Bloom blushed again and put her hands back in her lap, “Well, that’s right okay then.”

In the silence that followed there was the sound of a cell phone in the other room. One of the rear officers whirled, uttering “Hey! Who are you calling?!” in a ...very similar voice to the lead officer.

“Mah granddaughter,” Granny Smith’s voice came in full on defiance, “An’ I already called mah grandson so don’t make a fuss about it.”

“Please don’t get any other people involved in this ma’am,” the third officer said in a chastising tone. She walked over to Granny saying, “I’m going to have to confiscate that cell phone.”

“Well here you go,” Granny said adding angrily, “Because I ain’t got no more family to call!”

They only had to wait a minute or so, since both Big Macintosh and Applejack attended the high school. The police had moved out to the waiting room, the school nurse retreating to hide in the side office while the doctor remained to examine Apple Bloom as best as he could with limited facilities. The first thing he did was measure her tail, at 6 inches now, so he could get an exact measurement later. The ratty, fleshy part of it was entirely covered from butt to tip in bright red hair now. Before he could test more, the others arrived.

When her brother and sister arrived, Applejack saying, “Granny? What’s this about? Why are there cops here? Is Apple Bloom in trouble?” and Big Mac saying well, not much at all, Doctor Stable walked out to the waiting room to address them and Apple Bloom crept to the door of the examination room, too afraid to show herself to them, just peering out into the waiting room fearfully.

“Apple Bloom’s siblings, I presume?” the doctor said to the strapping young man in a red plaid shirt darker than his pale red skin with a good sturdy pair of jeans like Apple Bloom’s but longer and looser going all the way over his boots. Apple Bloom had her own jeans cinched way up trying to keep this tail in line without losing them entirely, and her shirt was hanging loosely over her shoulders.

Applejack would have worn jeans but well, school dress code for upper division students was a lot stricter, so she had a plain skirt fashioned from... an old pair of jeans, a plain white shirt rolled up above the elbows and a green scarf matching her eyes, not to mention her ubiquitous hat made of the same sturdy cow leather as her apple decorated boots.

“Eyup,” Mac said.

The doctor looked at him expectantly, then adjusted his eyeglasses and continued, “I will make this brief ma’am, because I would like to get Apple Bloom to my office to perform a full examination. Your sister appears to be magically transforming into a cow.”

“Heh heh heh,” Applejack chuckled casually.

The doctor didn’t smile.

“Yer jokin’ right?” she asked him, with a raised eyebrow.

“Only insofar as all of existence appears to be a joke,” he offered snidely. At her uncomprehending look he added, “No. I’m not joking.”

“Apple Bloom!” Granny hollered, “Git over here so we can see you!”

Apple Bloom gulped, and walked around the edge of the door, coming into the waiting room and approaching her sister with trepidation. She felt so insignificant and small with all eyes on her, as if the increasingly shocked gaze of her brother and sister would drive her right into the ground.

“...what?” Big Macintosh asked.

“Ah’m sorry,” Apple Bloom said sadly, “Ah just don’t know.”

“Apple Bloom, your ears!” Applejack said in alarm, “I–is that a tail??”

“Ah don’t kn—” Apple Bloom couldn’t say she didn’t know; it was so obvious. It just... moved. She couldn’t help but curl it around her side fearfully, as ineffectual and inexplicable as that was. How could she even move it at all? The creepy chills she was getting, from strange muscles moving in her entirely-too-long spine, just made it tighten against her.

“...Yeah,” admitted Apple Bloom, just feeling absolutely forlorn.

“How did this happen?” Applejack gasped, going on her knee to look at her sister.

“Ah had a dream,” Apple Bloom explained worriedly, “Ah thought it was a dream ah mean. About a golden apple! And ah turned into... this, but all the way. I thought it was a dream, but then today I started turning into a cow, for real!”

At Apple Bloom’s earnest entreaty, Applejack’s look of horror flashed with surprise, then immediately fell to a deadpan. She squinted at Apple Bloom, leaned over to look behind her, looked at Apple Bloom’s ears, looked her in the face and said

“Apple Bloom, you ain’t changing into a cow.”

“You don’t believe me?” Apple Bloom exclaimed, backing up a step from her sister. “You?? Buh. But, ah got this!” she grabbed her own tail, “And these!” she pointed up at her head, with her other hand. “How can you not believe me?” she said in utter exasperation. “You think they’re fake too?? Ah swear they’re real! Go on and touch—”

“Apple Bloom!” Applejack shouted at her admonishingly, making Apple Bloom clam right up. Applejack sighed, and rubbed her forehead, then said to Apple Bloom, “Now ah didn’t mean it that way. But ain’t you ever looked at a cow’s ear before?”

Apple Bloom just looked at her blankly. “What about a cow’s ear?”

“Cow ears have a corner to ‘em, like big kites,” Applejack explained, “They ain’t all concial and round like that. And you call that a cow tail? It’s got hair all over it!”

“S-so?” Apple Bloom mumbled in utter confusion.

“Cows only have long hair on the tip of their tails,” Applejack said, with a note of irony in her voice. “Ah bet next you’re gonna tell me you got four nipples?”

“Applejack!” Apple Bloom protested blushing embarassedly. “Ah don’t—I never even— then, what am I turning into?”

Applejack shook her head, saying, “Ah’m sorry sis, I just don’t know. It ain’t a cow though. Some kinda cat, maybe?”

Apple Bloom shook her head, “No I didn’t have paws ah mean– in the dream. Ah thought they were cow hooves, but... but you’re right!” Apple Bloom just clenched her fists and stomped a foot, shouting at no one in particular, “You’re right because none of this is making any sense!”

Big Macintosh spoke up thoughtfully, “Wouldn’t a cat mean she had six—” but Applejack waved a hand frantically to shush him before he finished his sentence.

“If I might interject,” the doctor said, “I’m Doctor Stable, and I’m overseeing your sister’s... condition. I need to know if either of you have ever seen anything like this before. If it’s a family secret, there’s no reason to keep it, as it’s certainly secret no more. I can swear confidentiality outside of this room, but Apple Bloom’s English class can’t be expected to do the same.”

“Nope,” Big Mac said confidently, crossing his arms, and frowning with confused frustration looking at Apple Bloom.

“It sure would be a doozy of a family secret, if it was!” Applejack declared, staring at Apple Bloom hand to hip, “But it ain’t. Ah ain’t never in mah life...”

She trailed off to silence then, and frowned. “Ah haven’t seen uh...” she tried again, not finishing her sentence, a distant look in her eyes.

Applejack shook her head, “Ah cain’t say ah ain’t never seen anything like this before, but I sure don’t recall doing so. It uh... it sounds familiar?” she shrugged.

“You couldn’t have forgotten something like this!” the doctor said aghast.

“Yes ah did!” Applejack shot back, pausing again and saying, “Ah mean, ah don’t remember, so ah must have forgot. If it happened before, that is.”

“Any information at all would be most helpful, Miss Apple,” the lead officer said with a notepad in hand. “Has anyone told you to forget about it, or threatened you or your family?”

“What?! No!” Applejack snapped at him, “Nopo–no body ever threatened mah... I mean, ah don’t... ah don’t remember if anybody ever did.” She put her fingers to her temples, saying, “This is so weird.”

“If you’d like to answer from the safety of the station, we can–”

“It ain’t a safety thing, ah just don’t remember!” Applejack fumed, “Whatever danger there was we’re all safe now we’re–” she got that distant look again, and this time it was a look of relief, like an old pain lifted from her eyes, eyes that shone with the sadness of unimaginable loss.

“We’re all safe now,” she repeated softly, like she couldn’t even believe it.

“I can’t promise a full examination would reveal anything more,” the doctor said behind Apple Bloom, “But can we please take this to my office? I would like to learn as much about this as possible, and I fear we’re running out of time!”

“Out of time??” Apple Bloom asked spinning to look up at him fearfully. “What do you mean?”

His eyes softened as he said to her, “My dear girl, haven’t you noticed you’ve been getting smaller?”

Apple Bloom’s heart stopped right in her throat. She looked at Granny standing there looking at her comfortingly. She looked up at Granny standing there looking at her comfortingly. “Oh for Pete’s sake!” she cried her eyes burning with tears of frustration.

“We’re comin’ with,” Applejack said tensely to the doctor while Apple Bloom stomped out her frustrations.

“Applejack?” Apple Bloom asked her warily, “But what about your schooling?”

“School can wait, Apple Bloom,” Applejack said to her, “You need your family with you, right now.”

Apple Bloom looked at her fitfully, then just whimpered and hugged her tight around the waist, because that’s as high as Apple Bloom could reach now.

“My card,” the doctor said handing it to Granny. “Officers?” he asked casually behind him.

“I think we have enough for a s-statement,” the lead officer said uncertainly. “The crisis has passed, and nothing unlawful seems to be happening here. We’ll start an investigation, but you can probably imagine that we won’t uncover much about something like this. Please don’t hesitate to call us if you are ever in danger though.”

He paused before leading his small entourage out of the office, saying, “We’re also going to have to pay you a visit later, just to make sure nothing else went wrong, so be ready for that.”

“You need our address?” Granny piped up.

He laughed at that. “You’re the Apples! Know any other cattle ranches around here? Oh, but that reminds me.” He turned to one of his inferior officers and said, “Officer Heartstrings, her cell phone.”

The blue and pink haired officer got a guilty look and fumbled it out, handing it to Granny with a whispered apology. The police made tracks then, and Doctor Stable was determined that the rest of them would too. The doctor hurried them all out, and as fast as she could Apple Bloom was headed towards his office.

Author's Note

Why Equestria Girls? Why the first movie? Why brain, whyyyyy? :raritydespair:

Making Sense of Things

Apple Bloom rode together in between Granny and Applejack in their big green pickup, with Big Mac lounging in the back, while following the nurse’s car where Doctor Stable rode as a passenger, the peculiar little entourage heading across town to the doctor’s office and clinic.

Granny and Big Mac were silent but Applejack was talking the whole way. “How you doin’ Apple Bloom?” she asked the girl who sat sandwiched in between her and Granny. Applejack was at the wheel but she certainly didn’t have trouble talking out the side of her face while doing so. Granny seemed content to lean heavily on the window, staring out into the distance.

Apple Bloom didn’t really want to think about it much less talk, so she said a little resentfully after a long pause, “...mah tail hurts.” It didn’t exactly hurt persay; she was more hurt that it existed at all and she couldn’t put it out of her mind. It wasn’t comfortable to kink it up against her back, and it grinded into the edge of her belt if she tried to put it between her legs, so she just had it kind of curling sideways along the edge of her pants, just barely sticking out behind her on the right. Pressed up against the plush car seat, it was starting to feel like it was going numb. Which honestly wouldn’t bother her one bit, because she wasn’t supposed to feel anything down there, but she couldn’t imagine it was the healthiest way to sit.

“Must be plum weird havin’ a tail,” Applejack mused in her regard.

“The ears are weirder, t’be honest,” Apple Bloom admitted. “They keep moving when ah hear stuff.”

“Can you hear better now?” Applejack suggested.

“You wouldn’t believe it!” Apple Bloom exclaimed giving her sis a wild eyed look. “Ah’m just glad the cab is insulated, or ah’d be holdin’ the things against my head from the noise!” She demonstrated by grabbing them in her hands and actually holding them against her head.

After another pause, Applejack asked quietly, “How you holdin’ up?”

Apple Bloom sighed and slumped, saying “Ah’m scared sis. This ain’t supposed to happen... what’s gonna happen to me?”

“We’ll always be there for you Apple Bloom,” Applejack said, “Ah just want you to know that. You could change into a potted plant and I’d still water you every day, and ah wouldn’t rest until I found out how to save you.”

Apple Bloom frowned at the implications of that, but she said, “Thanks sis... I guess.”

“We’ll figure this out Apple Bloom,” Applejack said comfortingly, “Bad things just don’t happen without some way to make them right again. If we figure what’s causin’ it then there’ll surely be a way to– to... y’ said you knew somethin’ about what was causin’ it?”

“It’s the golden apple,” Apple Bloom said. “Ah know it sounds stupid, but it’s the only idear ah got. Ah was out in the woods past the farm house, and ah thought it was a dream but... well, then this happened.”

“What was the dream about?” Applejack asked curiously. “Any little bit could help.”

“Ah was lookin’ for the golden apple,” Apple Bloom explained, “Ah don’t know how I knew about it an’ all. It was just obvious, from the dream. Y’know how that is?”

“Heh, yeah, dreams have their own weird set of rules to them,” Applejack admitted.

“So me and Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle we were out in the woods lookin’ for the apple, and Scootaloo was kinda scared, and Sweetie was all scratched up because she’s about as woodsy as a powder puff, but we kept goin’ because it was real important.”

“Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, those are your friends from school, right?” Applejack asked. The truck made an easy left turn, going down a second major street.

“Yeah they’re mah best friends!” Apple Bloom exclaimed. “And they were helpin’ me look. So ah found a silver meadow, ah mean, it looked silver ‘cause of the moonlight, but—”

“Yeah ah ‘m with ya there,” Applejack confirmed.

“It was all round, kinda like we were standin’ on the moon. Ah... don’t know how to describe it. But there was just one little apple sapling there, and it had this one big huge fruit on it an’ nothin’ else.”

“The golden apple?” Applejack guessed.

“Yeah it was!” Apple Bloom responded. “It was all gold and, and like it was metal, but it was like it was bright as day. It was night everywhere except the apple. It was like a piece of sunshine...”

“So you found the apple,” Applejack prompted, “And then...”

“Then ah picked it,” Apple Bloom said mournfully, “Ah didn’t know it would—ah mean ah thought it was like a wish, or somethin’, but it was just an apple. And before we could put it away, it exploded!”

“Like, a bomb?”

“No like, like a camera flash. It just all turned into light. When ah could see again Sweetie and Scootaloo were all big and stuff, or so ah thought. But they looked at me like I was some kinda monster, and when ah looked at mahself ah didn’t have hands anymore! A-and this big old tail between mah legs.”

“Them too?”

“No, just me... ah was the only one touchin’ the apple when it went off.”

“Then what happened?”

Apple Bloom pursed her lips, and said, “Then ah just woke up.”

“So it was a dream?” Applejack pressed.

“Ah woke up in bed but... if it was a dream, then why am I changing into it?”

Applejack just shook her head slowly.

“Ah’m sorry Applejack,” Apple Bloom said hopelessly to her big sis, “Ah wish ah knew more, but that’s the only thing. The rest of mah day was normal, and it was only the next day that it just started happening out of the blue.”

Applejack kept on silently for a while, then said, “You’re more help than you know it, sis. You said you dreamed about your friends, so now we know to call up mah friend Rarity, and whoever Scootaloo’s parents are too.”

“But why would—” Apple Bloom froze, “You don’t think they’re changing too, do you?!”

Applejack hesitated, but said, “It’s just something to think about. They’re probably fine, but if they ain’t then ah could call them and stop a lot of panic, pain and hardship.”

She smiled, glancing at Apple Bloom and said, “And it’d be all thanks to you that they were safe.”

“It’d be all thanks to me that they were cows,” Apple Bloom countered gloomily.

“You ain’t changing into a cow!” Applejack said firmly.

“Well, whatever ah am,” she snapped back grouchily, “Some kind of weird cat with no paws. It’s just weird... too weird.”

“Did you ask them about the dream?” Applejack said switching topics.

Apple Bloom lit up in rememberance. “Oh, yeah! That’s why it cain’t be a dream, because they both said they had the same dream. And that cain’t happen for real.”

“Neither can changin’ into a cow,” Applejack observed.

Apple Bloom’s ears flattened out disgustedly. “Yeah, yeah ah get it. So maybe it was a uh, magic dream or somethin’. So what?”

“So,” Applejack said, “They saw you in the dream. That means they got a— oh look we’re here.”

The pickup pulled into the parking lot behind the nurse’s beat up old convertible, and everyone piled out. Apple Bloom had to cinch her belt tighter again. She was noticeably several inches shorter than she used to be. It was crazy she was almost eye level with the door knobs. Apple Bloom hadn’t been this short since her... uh, last birthday. OK so she was kind of young, big deal! Getting shorter by any degree is medifically impossible. Not to mention that her height didn’t account for the added height of her increasingly loose boot pumps.

“They saw you in the dream, huh? That means they got a good look at you, Apple Bloom,” Applejack said while the doctor was hurrying them past the receptionist straight to the X-ray room. “Maybe they could tell what you’re supposed to be!”

“Oh please ask them!” Apple Bloom said fretfully, “They said they didn’t know but maybe if they think real hard about it... I just gotta know!”

“I’ll be right outside, Apple Bloom,” Applejack assured her, “Don’t you worry ah’ll get right in touch. Uh, that said, do ya know who Scootaloo’s parents are?”

Apple Bloom nodded. “Yeah this real nice lady named Cheerilee. She’s the school librarian too!”

Applejack nodded, “Yeah ah think ah know how to get ahold of her then.”

And with that, Apple Bloom had to stand perfectly still for a barrage of X-rays. It was even more tortuous than taking a school photo, and that says something. She had to grin and bear it though, well she couldn’t even grin because that would involve moving. The doctor’s assistant X-ray specialist, a cool looking lady with blue and white hair, moved the machine around Apple Bloom, making her hold still while she ran off and fired it from behind a lead curtain.

“Are you sure this is safe?” Apple Bloom asked worriedly when the lady ran back there.

“Oh, no no no X-rays are perfectly safe,” the technician assured her. “You would have to be exposed to them all day every day, over and over again for years, before you were in any real danger. Say for instance, if you’re an X-ray technician. That’s why I have to use the lead screen, but it’s safe for you.”

“Ah guess...” Apple Bloom said still nervously.

“Of course they could give you cancer just like that,” the technician went on blithely, even cheerfully, “But you also could have gotten struck by lightning out in the parking lot, and you could have suffered a fatal heart attack in the waiting room, and I don’t see you worrying about that!”

“Well ah wasn’t!” Apple Bloom complained worriedly.

“More X-rays hit you from space every year,” she argued, “So don’t worry about it, and hold still! You need to stay perfectly still or it will come out blurry, and then the doctor won’t be able to see your broken bones!”

“Ah ain’t got any brok—”

“Ah! Still.”

“But–”

“Still~”

So Apple Bloom grinned and bore it, resolving to never walk outside again without a lead umbrella over her head. She may have been feeling a mite more alarmist than usual today, what with the whole changing into an animal thing frazzling her nerves. Just one of those days, you know? At last it was over, and Apple Bloom jogged out of the X-ray room, pausing to look at the technician and say,

“You’re bein’ awfully professional about this.”

“Hmm?” the technician said tapping on an embedded keyboard and not paying a whole lot of attention.

“You know, not referrin’ to the fact that I ain’t all human anymore.”

“Your X-rays should be ready in 20 minutes or so,” she responded distantly, “Don’t put weight on it until the doctor has verified nothing is broken.”

“Weight on what?” Apple Bloom complained irritably. “Mah tail?”

The technician furrowed her brow. “No your—” she said, then turned to squint at Apple Bloom, “Wait, what?”

Apple Bloom looked back at the technician nervously as the lady’s eyes got wider and wider, trying to keep her tail from twitching behind her. Darn thing had a mind of its own. Apple Bloom pulled her pants up again and cleared her throat nervously.

“Back into the machine!” the technician shouted, pushing Apple Bloom into the X-ray room again.

“Nooooo!” Apple Bloom cried... but there was nothing to be done about it.

So, after getting extra special X-rays on her... her tail Apple Bloom was finally free of the evil technician. The Nurse Snowheart was gone, returning to the school to let that poor English class out of their self imposed imprisonment. Applejack, Big Mac and Granny were still there, and so was Doctor Stable, which was sensible as it was his office after all.

Once the doctor got his claws on her, he pushed her through a battery of tests that made her head spin. Some moments stood out in her head.

“Hmm, you’re running a fever...” he pondered looking at the thermometer. “...or maybe not. Most animals have a higher body temperature.”

“Ah see we’re off to a great start here.”

“Don’t get snippy with me young lady!”

...

“May I take a blood sample?” he asked eagerly, “If it becomes isolated from the process it might be the key to getting you back to normal again!”

“Really?” Apple Bloom asked hopefully.

The doctor sort of wilted, “No, not really. But it would be tragic if it became an option in the future and we had not done it. Plus I can run some tests on it.”

“Ah guess...” Apple Bloom said unhappily. She didn’t have any problem with needles, but she just didn’t see how this was going to help anything.

...

“We should go check on the cows,” Big Mac said at one point as the afternoon got on. Apple Bloom gave him a sad look, but he was right.

“You two can handle it,” Granny instructed to Big Mac and Applejack. “Ah’ll stay with Apple Bloom.”

“But—!” Applejack protested.

“No buts!” Granny insisted. “You ain’t doin her any favors stayin’ here and gettin’ in the way. This way you can settle things at the farm and have dinner ready for us when we come home.” She emphasized those last words very clearly. Apple Bloom just wanted to be home now, and away from that stupid school and this scary office that was full of staring people and tests.

Thankfully before she left, Applejack insisted on trying her best to get ahold of her friend Rarity, and, by extension Sweetie Belle. Apple Bloom wished she was old enough for a cell phone because that would have made it so much easier to just contact them directly. As is, Applejack could only stand there trying to convince Rarity not to panic. The conversation was, of course, one sided, but Apple Bloom could pick up some of Rarity’s panicked words on the other side thanks to her “super ears”.

“Hey Rarity,” Applejack had said all friendly-like.

“..., hello Applejack!” came Rarity’s tinny voice over the phone’s speaker.

“Say, Sweetie Belle doesn’t have animal ears does she?” Applejack asked casually.

“...y, what?”

“Big old conical ears on her head, all movin’ around. She doesn’t have those, right?”

“... ... a joke, Applejack?”

“What about a tail? Sweetie Belle got a tail growing in?”

“... do you mean a tail??”

“Just what ah said! And does her tail look just like her head hair?”

“... Belle does not ... ... tail!”

“Well, that’s a relief,” Applejack said, leaning against the wall as she talked. “What about the ears though? Her ears movin’ to the top of her head?”

“... don’t know, Applejack. ... ... this about?”

“Well mah sister got herself cursed to turn into an animal or something, and she was with Sweetie and Scootaloo when it happened, so I was wonderin’ if the curse got them too?”

“... ... curse?! Sweetie ... isn’t ... ... check on ... ... hold on Sweetie ...’s coming! (click) (bzzzzz)”

Applejack called her back a couple times, finally got ahold of her.

“Rarity!” Applejack said urgently, “Ah didn’t mean like a curse ah meant like some kind of enchantment or somethin’”

“...! ...! could you ...! Sweetie is ... the poor dear her ... is ruined ... ... all my fauhauhault!”

“Sorry to hear that Rarity, but ah really gotta know. Is Sweetie Belle changing into some kind of non-human critter?”

“...-human?! ... dare ... Applejack! Sweetie is ... ... ... ... I know and ...”

“I know—ah know, Rarity! Ah didn’t mean it like that! I meant...”

...it went on like that for some time.

Apple Bloom still wasn’t sure if Sweetie was or wasn’t cursed after that. Applejack seemed satisfied though, and didn’t say anything about it, so Apple Bloom had to guess Sweetie was probably fine. And by extension, Scootaloo would be fine too. It’d been even harder to get in touch with Scootaloo, but one of Applejack’s friends had the number to the library memorized, and calling the library and asking for Cheerilee got a swift if unsatisfying answer.

“She’s out?” Applejack asked in aggravation.

“...” came the quiet answer.

“Where would she be this time of day?”

“maybe ... skate ...?”

“Well track her down. And check for animal ears!”

“... ears, ... ... ... joke?”

“Ah ain’t joking Ms. Cheerilee. You gotta check on your daughter right now.”

“... believe ...?”

“Wh– this ain’t a prank!”

“... call ... library before”

“Wh– ah—”

“(click)”

“She hung up!” Applejack uttered, staring at the phone in outrage.

Applejack didn’t call the library back, but she did call her other friend one more time, being tactful enough not to tell her about the three stupid kids who might have accidentally turned themselves into animals. Her friend said she’d get Ms. Cheerilee to call Applejack directly, apparantly, but there weren’t no word from the librarian before Applejack had to get going.

The doctor paused long enough for Apple Bloom to hug her sister and her big brother both tenderly, before they headed off in their truck promising to come back before dinner. Granny was still with her, but Apple Bloom felt sad and lost, just listening to it pull out of the parking lot, while at the mercy of the terrible tongue depressor.

“Open your mouth and say ah,” the doctor squinted over the tongue depressor, then started poking Apple Bloom’s teeth. Apple Bloom wiggled uncomfortably saying, “Ah ahh ah ah?”

“I’m not sure how to ask you this,” said the doctor pulling out the tongue depressor and standing back a pace, “But could you please use your own fingers to wiggle your canines?”

Apple Bloom gave him a confused look as to why. Though what he said was straightforward enough, why would he want her to do that? So, she just fiddled around with her teeth finding the pointy one and wiggling it just like she was told. “Ah fo– I do– thi– it,” she said uncertainly, when the tooth just came out in her hand. “Whaaaaaapt?”

“Oh dear, this isn’t good,” the doctor said with an actual note of concern, looking down at Apple Bloom’s canine tooth sitting there in her hand, the part that came out going all the way to the tooth’s bloody root. And she carefully checked the other one, and it was loose too!

“Why are my teef fallin’ out?” she asked the doctor tearfully.

“My dear child,” he said compassionately, “I am afraid you appear to be becoming an herbivore.”

“H-huhf?”

The doctor gave a short, distant laugh, saying, “This is the most unorthodox phenomenon, I’m sorry it’s just something I never thought I would say to a patient. I happen to have heard that herbivores have no canine teeth, which is why humans are classified as omnivores. You might have to get used to having a gap between your incisors and your molars.”

“Well thath justh greath,” Apple Bloom said irritably, trying not to mess up her other loose teeth. She wasn’t succeeding very well.

“Was there any pain when it came out?” the doctor asked her worriedly. Apple Bloom shook her head. He seemed relieved at that, saying, “It might be a natural part of the process. Whatever phenomenon this is you should count yourself lucky that it’s such a painless process. Not that you aren’t in a bad... place right now, but I can think of many ways it could have been so much worse.”

Later on he had actually checked a dental manual to double check, because the canines weren’t the only teeth she was losing, saying, “I can’t understand why the process would impossibly alter your existing teeth, except for the canines and first bicuspids which are falling out. Are any of your other teeth wiggly at all?”

Apple Bloom shook her head, “Jus thothe four pairth” she said, though there was only two pairs left now, and one tooth in her upper jaw.

“Again I suppose we have to count our blessings,” he said thoughtfully. Apple Bloom was pretty sure she understood what he was getting at. There wasn’t even any blood after they came out, her gums sealing up like a charm. Now if only she could stop lisping.

...

“Can you feel this?”

“Yesh”

“Can you feel this?”

“Yesh!”

“Can you feel–”

“Yesh ah can feel every par’ of mah thail!”

“Well, you can’t be a horse, at least,” the doctor said adjusting his glasses. “Your ehum, tailbone seems to be extending the full length of your tail, as opposed to a short tailbone with a long brush at the end of it. If not for the matter of your teeth, I’d guess a cat’s tail, but...”

Apple Bloom couldn’t stop tonguing the gaps that her pulled teeth had left between the molars and the incisors. There were still no others falling out thank goodness, but it felt so weird in her mouth. “Yeahu,” she said vaguely, crossing her eyes to fiddle with her dentition. Apple Bloom was sitting in Granny’s lap at the moment, with Granny’s arms supportively hugged around her midsection.

Apple Bloom actually hadn’t been able to sit with Granny like this in quite a while.

“I would like to make a call,” the doctor said with a tired look in his eyes, “I’m afraid it might give you the wrong impression though. I can honestly say I mean absolutely no offense in suggesting this, and I respect and recognize you as a person in every meaningful sense of the word, and I only hope that it can help you in some fashion.”

“Well spit it out then!” Granny declared above the distracted Apple Bloom.

“I think it our best bet to identify what Apple Bloom’s er, animal is might be to call a very competent and capable woman I know who is a ehum, veterinarian.”

“Whah?!” Apple Bloom exclaimed, looking at him wide eyed and pulling her tongue out from messing with her teeth. “Ah mean whutsh? Augh, shtupid theeth!”

“Put yer tongue on the roof o’ yer mouth when yer say ‘t’” Granny said to her. Apple Bloom twisted around puzzled but then tried it.

“Deeth. Teeth. Teeth hay it worksh!”

The doctor cleared his throat. Oh right. Veterinarian. Apple Bloom’s ears went flat again, and she couldn’t look him in the eyes, but she said as clearly as she could, “Yesh thatsh fahn,” in a somber voice that matched with her opinion on that sort of thing.

Granny was a huge help getting Apple Bloom to speak raht—ah mean—right again. Once Granny said, “Push yer tongue out more when yer say ‘s’ so’s it don’t whistle so much,” it was so much easier to say it.

“Ssh. Ss. Eth. Ess. Wow, how did you know, Granny?” Apple Bloom exclaimed in surprise.

Granny smiled all crinkly and said, “Ah got a lot of experience with losin’ teeth Apple Bloom!”

“Oh, yeah,” Apple Bloom smiled guiltily, blushed and hunched her shoulders. “Ah forgot abouth that. Th-thanks Granny... ah mean, for everything.”

“That’s might kind o’ yer Apple Bloom,” Granny said with a smile in return, “Ah ‘preciate it.”

The good Doctor Stable exhausted his options eventually. There just wasn’t anything wrong with Apple Bloom aside from her changing into an animal. She was healthy as a—a healthy person. All he really could do for her was tell her what he’s found so far, in the vain hope that it might somehow help her predicament.

He sat Granny and Apple Bloom down to talk with them, and Apple Bloom felt so tiny in that chair next to Granny. The doc had said it’d only been like 8 inches of height lost, mostly from her arms and legs which were supposedly shrinking faster than her torso and head, but it was a huge difference. It wasn’t so much her tail getting longer anymore at all, as her body getting shorter to match it!

What was even worse, Apple Bloom had to give up her clothes for lost. She lost her shoes first, which made her even shorter of course, and took away her heel support. Not that she was having trouble standing on her toes. She was having the very opposite, really! But Apple Bloom was just getting too small for all her clothes to stay on comfortably, if at all. So she lost her pants, lost her shoes, and basically was having to walk around barefoot—bare toed with a muddy green hospital gown. She hardly felt like herself anymore, like she was just a little kid again.

The ironic thing is because the gown fastened together from behind it was easy to get her tail out from underneath it through the gap back there.

“While we’re waiting for the v– for my friend,” the doctor said having seated them down, “I would like to tell you what I’ve managed to observe so far,” He started pacing in front of them waving a hand in the air as he spoke.

“Young Apple Bloom here has a fully functioning tail and motile ears as you’ve no doubt observed,” he said, “Her temperature is above normal, which is probably normal but without knowing the exact nature of her transformation I can’t say for sure. Her blood tests are normal, which doesn’t help much in this situation. I don’t have facilities for blood work, would have to send it to a place in the city for that to be done. But what I could tell was her red cell count is normal. Platelet count, normal. Cholesterol levels, low. You’re a very healthy girl, Apple Bloom.

“The exact process by which your tissues are changing in size proportionally is unknown,” he continued, “But your bone structure seems to be adjusting along with musculature, tendons and, well... it all seems rather magical to me that it’s proceeding so safely. You already know your hearing is exceptional, and I can confirm that your ear canals appear to be both functional and complete, with no damage to the skull apparant in their... movement to the top of your head.

“You have a good deal more vertebrae now, that is segments of your spinal cord. Sensible really, considering your er, tail. Animals with tails have more vertebrae than humans, I would assume. Your dentition is decidedly herbivorous, with your molars and incisors somehow adjusting in place, despite the fact that teeth simply do not grow, while your first bicuspids and canines fell out entirely. I can’t say much about your digestive system, but I would recommend great care in what you eat from now on. I doubt it will be as simple as eating seeds or... whatever you’re adapted for.”

Doctor Stable sighed then, and crouched down to look Apple Bloom in the eye, “I know you weren’t expecting any good news,” he told her, “I’ve done all I can to measure and document the process so that any opportunity we have to fix things won’t be lost. It’s entirely possible that this... process will reverse itself as mysteriously as it came. There’s really no conclusions that can be drawn from what can only be described as, well, magic. So that’s my final advice to you, little girl. Never draw any conclusions about what is happening to you that you cannot deduce through hard evidence, not even that you will transform completely, or that you won’t wake up tomorrow and it’ll all just be a bad dream. This... transformation is beyond that which anyone can draw conclusions from. That means just about anything, and I mean anything, is possible.”

“Hello,” came a new voice in a melodious alto, a goldenrod lady with another set of blue white hair tied up in a ponytail poking her head around the corner. “So I heard you need a vet?”

“Dr. Cureall, it’s good to see you so promptly,” Doctor Stable said ironically, straightening up from where he was addressing Apple Bloom and facing the new entry.

“Oh don’t be so formal,” she said, “You can call me Jane you know that. You said you had an animal you needed looked at?” She waltzed in, looking a bit uncertain at the somber atmosphere of Granny and Apple Bloom sitting there.

Doctor Stable cleared his throat and said, “Yes um, I said that to be discreet, but in reality what I need your help with is a lot... stranger. A lot stranger.” He smiled nervously showing a hesitance he hadn’t until just now.

“You’re startin’ to scare me doc,” Dr. Cureall said, laughing nervously, putting her hands on her hips and looking at him with a wry testing smile. “An animal is hurt? Someone got themselves bit? Spit it out already!”

“I need you to identify the animal my patient is transforming into,” he said hastily. He added a chuckle. She didn’t respond.

“I’m serious,” he said with a frown.

“Ha!” she barked loudly, “That’s a good one! You didn’t call me all the way over here to make a joke did you? I never played you for a prankster, doctor Doc.”

“It ain’t a prank,” Apple Bloom piped up behind her.

“Girl,” Dr. Cureall said, turning to look down at Apple Bloom, “I don’t know what he told you, but that’s just the silliest thing I ever,”

The vet stopped speaking abruptly, and just blinked at Apple Bloom.

Apple Bloom’s ear twitched.

Dr. Cureall’s eyes rolled up in her head, and she would have crumpled to the floor if Doctor Stable wasn’t immediately there holding her up with his arms under her shoulders. He lowered her to the floor with a grunt, then stood up adjusting his glasses, saying with a sigh, “I’ll go fetch the smelling salts.”

He came back in short order. “Here, wave this under her nose,” he said handing Apple Bloom a tiny foul smelling bottle.

“Why me?” she asked nervously.

“I want her to see you when she wakes up,” the doctor said flatly, “All this pussyfooting around is becoming rather tiresome.”

Apple Bloom frowned, but did as she was told, and the lady in question sneezed violently then started to come to. Apple Bloom wasn’t sure if the doctor lady was all the way awake, because she didn’t say anything, just kept staring forward blankly. “Are you OK?” Apple Bloom asked at last.

“Oh jezus it talks!” Dr. Cureall yelped, scrambling back against the counter she was propped up against.

Some pussyfooting later, they managed to calm Dr. Cureall down and get her standing again. She warmed up to what had happened relatively quickly, and was starting to barrage Apple Bloom with questions, so Apple Bloom just decided to answer them all for her at once so she wouldn’t ask her those uncomfortable questions, like ripping off a bandaid.

“Yes it’s real. Yesh ah have a tail. Yes ah can feel it. Yes thoshe are mah ears, and they work fine. No I wasn’t like this thish mornin’. No I don’t know why. It all thstarted with a dream. Ah’m supposed to be taller. An’ no ah don’t know whath I’m changin’ into, so can you pleasetell me what ah am?”

Dr. Cureall gave her an uncertain look and asked, “Are you a fairy?”

“Whu?”

“Are you an alien...?” the vet tried again, looking around for confirmation with an awkward grin.

“No ah’m justh a girl!” Apple Bloom said with her fists balled at her sides. “Ah meant what animal am ah thurnin’ into?”

The vet still looked at Apple Bloom uncomprehendingly. Apple Bloom didn’t know how to deal with this lady, it was frustrating! Doctor Stable thankfully cleared his throat then, and attracted attention to himself, saying to Dr. Cureall,

“Apple Bloom here is, or was an ordinary girl in her Freshman year attending the local high school. As of this afternoon due to some sort of supernatural phenomenon experienced two nights ago, she has been spontaneously adopting the morphological characteristics of an unknown animal. The process is unknown, the cause is unknown, and the most I have been able to accomplish is merely to document the phenomenon. While we aren’t giving up on finding some explanation or cause for this and potentially restoring her normal life, we would nevertheless be grateful if you could use your extensive study of non-human animals, to identify just what little Apple Bloom here has to expect.”

“This girl’s in high school?” Dr. Cureall said in a bewildered tone, kneeling down to Apple Bloom’s ...current height. “She doesn’t look like she should be out of elementary school!”

“Yes, she’s been getting ...progressively smaller,” Doctor Stable said, crossing his arms and hmming, “Actually it’s probably a good time to measure your height and weight a second time, Apple Bloom, to estimate the rate of change.”

The doctor, the vet, and Granny followed Apple Bloom along to the scale. There were other staff at this clinic but they mostly kept their distance, giving Apple Bloom these awful fearful looks whenever she caught their eye. Not that she could catch anyone’s eye much anymore, with how tall the counters and desks were now. She was so short it was terrible! Apple Bloom hadn’t been this short since well, in like forever! It was like some sort of sick joke, after how hard she tried to grow up big and tall and finally getting past Sweetie Belle’s height she’d at least been the tallest of the Cutie Major Crusaders. Now she bet those two could both see the top of her head without even going on tiptoes. The animal-eared top of her head.

“It’s not just the height,” Dr. Cureall insisted, “She’s just so... I mean, adorable! No offense. It’s just... that round face and– and those eyes!”

“It does appear that Apple Bloom is gaining some body fat,” Doctor Stable grudgingly agreed, “I suppose it could be seen as ‘baby’ fat as it were. It certainly would make about as much sense as anything else has today! But regardless, Apple Bloom if you please, I need you to step up onto the scale here.”

Testing her weight was relatively straightforward, and Apple Bloom stood up as straight as she could while he tested her height. Not that Apple Bloom was cheating or anything but she, she just didn’t want to get him inaccurate results or something. Not like she could have cheated anyways. She wondered if maybe they could use the tops of her ears instead of her head, just for another inch or two.

“I know you’re upset, but I need you to not skew the results please,” the doctor told her idly moving the top of the height measurer flatly onto her head. “No standing on your toes.”

“Huh?” Apple Bloom said uncomprehendingly for a moment, then she remembered she was standing on her toes this whole time. “Oh, uh, sorry,” she said. It was weirdly difficult putting her heels down. Not like a huge strain or anything, but it felt weird to sit on her feet, like they were the back of her legs or something.

“And straighten your knees,” the doctor added with a frown. Apple Bloom looked down and, dangit why did her legs feel so weird? She finally got her legs straight, with her heels planted on the bottom of the scale, but it felt so contorted and the angles were all off. “Thank you,” Doc Stable said in an even tone. “I’m glad we did this when we did. Now what I need you to do is sit down on the scale, with your back to the height rod.”

As if her day couldn’t get weirder. Apple Bloom’d never had a doctor’s visit measure her height like that. “Y-you sure?” she said in a rising tone of confusion.

“I’ll explain shortly,” he said, “Please, if you wouldn’t mind.”

Apple Bloom did as she was told, and with her tail pushing the hospital gown backwards there was just no way to do anything but put her naked butt on the scale platform. Then he didn’t measure from the top of her head, but laid it down on her shoulder! It was probably the weirdest height measuring she’d ever gotten, though his reasoning would prove quite sound, for a man whose entire world view has been shattered in a single office visit.

He made some calculations on paper and punched numbers into a calculator before explaining himself. “You’ve stated for the record that you are supposed to be 4 feet, 9 inches. When I measured you initially, you were 3 feet 11 inches tall, and your second measurement... standing was 2 inches shorter. That means you are losing roughly one inch per hour, and assuming that is happening at a steady rate I can estimate when you first started to transform.”

Apple Bloom’s eyes widened at that. “Wow!” she said, “That would be leally–really helpful! Maybe it was that dream the night before lasth!”

The doctor smiled fixedly, and said, “Well, unfortunately it isn’t that simple. By my calculations, your height started to decrease some time around 6 this morning.”

Apple Bloom wilted a little bit. “Oh, that doesn’t really helpf at all.” She brightened again though, and said, “Though ah did wake up around 6, so maybe it started when ah woke up?”

“Did anything unusual happen to you then?” the doctor asked hopefully. Apple Bloom had to shake her head though.

“Only unusual thing was the dream, an’ thath wasn’t lasth night.”

“Delayed effect?” he suggested, with a lopsided grin. “As long as we’re shooting for the moon, might as well assume that.”

“So why did you have me sit down?” Apple Bloom asked humorlessly, “You shaid you were gonna esplain!”

The doctor got a bit nervous at that, and adjusted his glasses, saying, “Eum, well the reason is so that I can continue measuring your height. Your legs are... changing in ways that don’t facilitate you... standing up on them bipedally, so I needed a baseline from your torso to your head, which I hope at least will remain morphologically consistent.”

“Mah legs...” Apple Bloom looked down at the nondescript hospital gown concealing her lower body from herself. It didn’t feel weird to stand on her toes, and it really should feel weird, and in fact it should be hurting to do that for this long. Everyone seemed to be paying attention to her as she pulled up the gown to look at her legs.

As soon as she did she dropped it. “T-that cain’t be good,” she said in a bit of shock. Her toes were holding her up because they– they looked really really weird. She didn’t want to look at them anymore.

With the fiasco of measuring her height over, Apple Bloom was free to be stared at uncomfortably by Dr. Cureall.

“Hmm,” the veterinarian lady said, lifting up Apple Bloom’s arm, looking at her hand. “Hmm,” she repeated looking at her feet. “You mind if I...?” she said with hesitance, hovering over where Apple Bloom’s tail was sticking out through the part in the back of the hospital gown.

“Yeah ah guessh,” Apple Bloom said moodily. It didn’t feel bad when the doctor scrunched her fingers into the thick red locks of that tail, but it was still a source of shame for Apple Bloom. Something she just wanted to get rid of, but at the same time somehow the thought of getting rid of it scared her. She couldn’t just chop it off, it was her— but no, it wasn’t her tail! It was just some tail that started appearing there! But she sort of felt like it was her tail. It was... weird.

“And how about your ears?” Dr. Cureall said in an excited if brash voice. Apple Bloom’s ears immediately went flat at the thought of the doctor messing with them. She forced herself to relax though, and tried to imagine what it was like when they straightened out, and that sort of worked at least to get them straightening up and available.

“Y-yeah,” Apple Bloom said unconfidently, “No problem!”

Light touches made them flick, but then the doctor grabbed one firmly in her thumb and index finger, yet somehow not painfully. “Woah,” Apple Bloom said dizzily as the weird muscle thing up there kept trying to flick while being held still. “That feels weird.”

The vet let her go without addressing that statement, which Apple Bloom was pretty fine with as long as it didn’t mean any more manhandling of her ears. Those things were sensitive!

The vet had to look under her gown, though. Apple Bloom couldn’t bear to look, herself. To Dr. Cureall’s credit, she didn’t so much as flinch at whatever she saw down there. No, she remained real professional about it, and made sure to ask permission before poking Apple Bloom in the tummy with a tentative finger.

The doctor stepped back with her hands on her hips and let Apple Bloom gratefully drop the gown back over her body. Apple Bloom was small enough that it pretty much covered her head to toe by now.

Finally Doctor Stable pointed Dr. Cureall to Apple Bloom’s mouth, where the veterinarian seemed to find the new gaps in between Apple Bloom’s teeth to be absolutely fascinating.

“Well,” Dr. Cureall said at last, “I can confidently say that I have no idea what you’re turning into.”

Apple Bloom’s ears went flat again. “Oh come on!” she protested, “Cain’t ah at leasth know that hwhile ah still can know?”

Dr. Cureall shook her head slowly, saying, “You got the ears of a horse, the tail of a cat, and I don’t even know about the mottling but some kind of holstein cow maybe? Your feet are um... unfinished so I can’t even say even or odd toed but I would assume some kind of ungulate. That and your dentition, but without knowing how it’s going to end up if your face stretches out it, could be anything from a deer to an giraffe! You’re all over the map as far as animals go!”

“Ohhh,” Apple Bloom whined looking down, then something occured to her. She looked back up at the vet again saying, “Wait, hwhat do you mean by mottling?”

“Well, um...” Dr. Cureall ran her tongue across her upper teeth saying, “J-just take a look at your chest. I suppose that’s something... new?”

With dread Apple Bloom pulled back the neck of the hospital gown and looked at the upper portion of her naked body underneath. What was once an even, healthy shade of lemon yellow was now broad and uneven blotches of yellow and a pale pink.

“Wh-uh?” Apple Bloom said dumbly dropping her hospital gown and looking at her arms, and now that she looked they were also covered in that patchy pattern. “A-ah don’t... what’s wrong with me?!” Her arms were shaking and she couldn’t stop them from shaking. “Why is this happening?” she said staring down at her arms. “Why me?” she shouted, stomping furiously on the ground, staring at the vet and shouting “Why me?!” one more time, in a voice that just couldn’t stay steady, just as shaky as her hands.

“G-g-granny...” Apple Bloom said in a quiet whimper. “Ah-ah need you to–”

“Ah’m so sorry Apple Bloom,” Granny Smith said emotionally, her broad pudgy arms wrapping around Apple Bloom. “You shouldn’t have to go through this.” Apple Bloom was so very tiny now. It was just a little bit, the doctor said, but she felt like a doll in her granny’s embrace. Something broke in Apple Bloom and she just choked back a sob. She just, she just stood there quietly, leaning into her grandmother’s tender embrace, feeling like she was going to fall over like a leaf if Granny let up on it one bit.

They stayed there like that for a timeless moment, until the vet who was kneeling down now in front of Apple Bloom said, “Can I see your arm again? I want to double check something.” Numbly Apple Bloom held her weird splotchy probably diseased arm out, and the nurse took Apple Bloom’s entirely too tiny hand to steady her arm, and traced a finger across the colored part—woah.

“Th’ hay?” Apple Bloom exclaimed forgetting her distress, as the vet’s finger rubbed up against the grain. “What are you doin’? That feels all catchy and uh...”

“Well, I know why you’re mottled at least,” the vet said, pointing at a yellow patch, then a pink splotch then another yellow patch. “This first part here is your skin, well, your old skin at least. It’s turning pink as your natural skin color recedes from it. It might not be well known, but every human being is pink without their chromanin pigments, and generally animals don’t have any pigment at all in their skin. Which is this second part here, where you’re pink and your skin is becoming softer and thicker. And this third part is actually turning yellow again because your pigment didn’t actually go away. It just... well, the reason animals don’t need pigment in their skin is because they don’t get sunburned due to a protective coat of... um... fur.”

“Fur,” Apple Bloom said unamusedly.

“I’m sorry,” Dr. Cureall said, “I wish I could put it any other—”

“No, no it’s okay,” Apple Bloom interrupted, sitting down against Granny’s legs. “Fur is better than bein’ all splotchy.” She laughed nervously looking at her arms again, “T-that’s why we called you right?” she said her voice unsteady and rising in pitch, “Nothin’ we didn’t expect. Because you’re a v-vet an’ ah’m just an a-a-animal. A-and... a-annd...” and she couldn’t continue.

“Oh Apple Bloom,” said Granny touseling her hair and probably putting her bow in disarray. Apple Bloom appreciated it. “Ah cain’t even imagine what yer– what yer goin’ through right now, but you’re safe with us ah promise ya. You don’t need to think that we’ll treat ye any less than family, not if you’re a girl or a gopher.”

“Ain’t what I’m worried abouth,” Apple Bloom mumbled under her breath.

“Hur?” Granny asked tilting a round ear downward.

“Ah said it’d be awfully silly if ah was a gopher,” Apple Bloom said in a joking tone, though it always came out sounding like she was annoyed when she did that. “With this big old long thail sticking outta mah gopher butth!”

“Heh heh heh!” Granny laughed, “That’s mah Apple Bloom, alright.”

The veterinarian frowned in consternation and said, “I think I might have a guess as to what you’re turning into, if you feel up to hearing it, my guess that is, not the absolute truth.”

Apple Bloom started to immediately say yes, but then fear flared in her, and she didn’t want to feel like she had felt before. The more she learned it seemed, the scareder she got. But it was just eating her up inside not knowing anything about what was going to happen to her next. “Alright,” she said grudgingly, “Gimme your bes’ shot. Ah can take it.”

“Your ears are the best clue,” the vet started to say, “There aren’t many animals that have ears like a horse. Deer are broad and flat, goats are very round tipped like olive leaves, cows have a kite shape to them, and cats are sparsely furred and thin, and often have a distinctive split along the side. Wolf ears have long tufts on the inside, as do foxes, and we’ve long since ruled out carnivores at any rate. If your toes continue to... to degenerate, then you should end up with a single er, toe, thus odd toed ungulate, which narrows things down to horses, zebras and uh, tapirs. I’m just not going to entertain that last one because they have four toes, despite their relatives. You certainly can’t be a cow, as you have only two nipples still. Not many animals outside of humans and horses have two nipples in fact.”

“H-horse, huh,” Apple Bloom said detachedly. Her eyes widened then and she said, “Wait, you looked at mah nipples?!”

Dr. Cureall rolled her eyes, “Yes I examined you. It’s alright I promise I didn’t do anything embarassing. Why else do you think I was poking your belly earlier?”

Apple Bloom blinked at the unrelated question, “Uh, I don’t... know?”

“I was only confirming the presence, and number,” Cureall huffed irritatedly, “...of your nipples. Sorry if that offended you.”

“You weren’t touchin mah chest at all though!” Apple Bloom protested.

That made Dr. Cureall blush fiercely, suddenly stumbling on her words as she said, “W-well that is to say I’m sorry but you might not uh know this but uh, humans are kind of... unique among other animals. We evolved–we evolved from a separate ancestor than all carnivores, herbivores, ungulates, rodents or, or anything really. Primates are all on their own on the evolutionary tree, with no common ancestor until almost the very earliest mammals.”

She cleared her throat, “Sorry, I’m stalling here. What I mean to say is, if you look at monkeys, apes, gorillas, chimpanzees, and, humans, you’ll see they have two nipples on their chest. And... nothing else does.”

The vet folded her hands a few times before adding, “You don’t.”

It still took Apple Bloom a few seconds of grinding gears in her spinning head, but then her face fell and her eyes widened, and she jerked one of her hands into the sleeve feeling at her chest. It was just a chest. Just a chest. She felt down around her belly and...

“Well... that’h just freaky,” Apple Bloom concluded wide-eyed. “A-ah didn’t even notishe. But they’re... supposhed to be down there?”

The vet nodded.

“Y’sure?”

The vet nodded again uneasily. Apple Bloom just stuck her arm out of the gown’s sleeve again, and crossed them over each other, grumbling petulantly, “Well, it ain’t nearly as freaky as growin’ fur.”

Author's Note

I am entirely too much in love with comparative anatomy.

Coming Home

“So, you haven’t suffered any distress such as gas, soreness, or nausea?”

Apple Bloom shook her head, “No I didn’t have any problem with mah lunch... ah didn’t use any of the roast beef of course ‘cause that dream kinda shook me... guess it was for the best.” Still sitting on the new examination table. Still in that brightly lit pleasant white sterile medical clinic. She was being questioned by the vet still, with some success, but not much.

“I really don’t know how to break it to you,” the vet said in a conflicted tone, looking at her mouth critically, “It’s nothing weirder, just kind of bad news. You might wish you turned into a cow for the kind of trouble horses have with diet and nutrition.”

Apple Bloom winced, holding her stomach, saying “So ah’m gonna get sick from a cheese sandwich?”

“If you were a horse, yes,” Dr. Cureall said frankly, “But you’re clearly not there yet. There’s no biological process that could turn you into a horse so it’s not like any of us can assume what’s even happening in your digestive system. Maybe your cheese sandwich is turning into healthy forage? What I’m most concerned with is what you eat from now on.”

Apple Bloom looked aside but didn’t protest. She was going to bet that bacon was off the menu though. The vet took that as encouragement and went on,

“I’m not even sure how far this is going to go,” the vet said with her hands held behind her back looking up thoughtfully, “And I still say that I’m just guessing at what you are. That tail just doesn’t make sense, and your weight? You’re already down to 45 pounds, which is smaller than even a newborn horse! Maybe a pony... but even then, I mean you’re just about 15 years old, so you couldn’t be a newborn. Unless you’re turning into a baby pony?”

“Can we please stop talkin’ about how shmall ah am?” Apple Bloom said fussily. “Ah don’t want to turn intho a baby pony. I–just... just tell Granny what she should feed me.”

Dr. Cureall frowned at Apple Bloom worriedly, but turned to Granny and said, “It’s not very complicated, just tricky. What horses eat are healthy green grasses and legumes, but not too green and some supplement of grains during the winter, oh and salt. She’ll need about 3% of her body weight in food per day. The ratio should go more toward grains if she um... physically exerts herself more, but not in any other situation, as eating too many calories is often fatal to horses.”

Granny frowned right back at Dr. Cureall and said, “If you recall, we do care for horses down at Sweet Apple Acres. Can’t herd cows without ‘em. And they are quite healthy, thank you very much.”

The vet blushed and said in a flustered tone, “R-r-right I’m sorry I just, I’m so used to working with clients who haven’t been around horses.”

“Haven’t you worked with us before?” Granny asked in a curiously puzzled tone.

Dr. Cureall looked at her blankly, and said, “Y–no I haven’t, and I can’t imagine why. Who is your usual veterinarian?”

Granny scratched her arm, saying, “Well, yer know I– I don’t recall. I think she moved outta town recently? Hadn’t thought of it as we don’t got no sick animals at the moment. Guess we woulda called you?”

“Yeah, that makes sense I suppose,” the vet said without looking entirely satisfied by it. “Still, I would like to take a look at your horses to make sure none are colicky or have any respi’tory problems.”

Granny put a hand on her forehead, saying “While I’ll be happy to talk with ye on mah own time, ah think mah granddaughter takes precedence here.”

Dr. Cureall looked at Apple Bloom for an uncomfortably long time before saying, “Sorry, for all I know about animals I don’t think it’s safe for me to make any conclusions about someone who’s half-way. You seem perfectly healthy. Are ya hungry?”

Apple Bloom shook her head.

“Well then all I can really say is, if you get hungry eat a very little bit of everything and see what sticks, but be really careful because if something disagrees with you, ya might not be able to throw up anymore.”

“Ok,” Apple Bloom said wretchedly.

“Now I mean that,” the vet asserted, “Horses cannot throw up. If you eat too much or something bad, you’re going to have to wait for it to go all the way through ya, so be careful.”

“Is there anything else ye can tell us?” Granny asked Dr. Cureall urgently, but the doc just shrugged and shook her head.

“Nope, that’s about all I can do at this point. If you end up with a little horse on your hands then call me and I’ll come right over, but until then I suppose we just have to wait.”

There were a lot less clinic staff watching Apple Bloom now that the novelty had passed. The clinic was a busy place ferrying the injured and ill around to be treated. As such, the uncomfortable silence between the two doctors, Apple Bloom, and Granny, was punctuated by the buzz of a printer in another room and various quiet voices and footsteps. The doctor’s clinic was as close to a hospital as you could get, and Apple Bloom just felt like it was some alien world she’d been thrown into, except she was the alien and the world was normal. Just didn’t make sense how quiet and calm everything was. She felt... unimportant, insignificant.

“I think it would be best if she spent some time in a familiar place,” Doctor Stable suggested gently, apparantly having noticed the same thing. “We don’t know how far this is going to go, and she really needs to be with her family during her final... until she’s seen this through.”

“I’m sure your granddaughter and grandson are terribly worried,” he said to Granny. “You have a wonderful and healthy granddaughter here, which unfortunately means that there’s just not much more that I can do for her.”

“Ah’ll call ‘em to pick us up,” Granny said reluctantly, looking at Apple Bloom with sad eyes saying, “Ah’m sorry we couldn’t do more for ya,”

“No it’s okay Granny it’h–” Apple Bloom sniffed, “Ah mean it’s not okay but what can you do? Just have to... try to keep it together...”

Granny dialed up Applejack’s number, and it was odd because there was a crashing on the other end of the line as if she was walking through thick brush.

-“Yeah?” came Applejack’s voice.

“Hello Applejack it’s Granny,” Granny said in that pleasant thin voice of hers, “The doctors are all done here, and I was wonderin’ if you could come and pick us up?”

There was a pause before Applejack said, “Any good news?”

“Afraid not dearie,” Granny said to her, “But at least there ain’t no bad news.”

“How is she?” Applejack asked.

“Can ah thalk to her?” Apple Bloom asked, reaching up for the phone in Granny’s hand. Granny gave Apple Bloom her phone, and Apple Bloom fiddled with it a bit before just talking into it like it was a microphone. She certainly didn’t need it next to her ears. “Hi, Applejack!” she said into it.

“Apple Bloom!” came Applejack’s relieved voice. “How are you doing?”

“It’s like Granny shaid,” Apple Bloom confirmed, “Ah’m a hlittle smaller, but otherwise okay so far.”

“You just wait there and ah’ll be right by to pick you up,” said Applejack boisterously. “Ah might be a while ‘cause I gotta get outta the woods here.”

“Why are ya in the woods?” Apple Bloom asked curiously.

“Tryin’ to find that clearing of yours!” Applejack answered, “Ain’t nothing doing though. We’ll have to try again together, see if you can remember.”

Apple Bloom sighed, but said, “Okay Applejack ah’ll try my best. Just... please hurry.”

“Ah’m on my way.”

They may have made a bit of a mistake waiting for AJ’s truck out in the parking lot. Soon as Granny and Apple Bloom left the hospital, the press descended on them. But that sounds a lot worse than it was because Canterlot wasn’t a really big town, and there was only one news station. Because of that, there was only one news crew there, two reporters, neither of whom seemed to be jockeying for position. So it was only a maybe mistake, not a really truly.

“Excuse me, do you have a moment?” The man had the same hair as the vet’s, bi-color blue, but had a shorter messier hairstyle and a big red and white baseball cap, and his skin was an even brighter yellow than Apple Bloom’s had... used to be. The woman’s hair fell in messy orange vines from underneath her fedora and she was more of a cream color. Really if you lined the three of them up from woman to Apple Bloom to man, you’d get an even transition in shades of yellow.

“We don’t want no trouble now,” Granny said threateningly. Apple Bloom just looked at the camera already pointed in her direction.

“We just want to ask a few questions,” the lady asserted.

“We’re with the news,” the man explained.

“Really?” Granny said surprisedly, looking at the semicircle of cameras and microphones around them, “Ah had no idea.”

“When did you first–” the lady started but Granny immediately interrupted saying,

“No I don’t think so! We don’t need no dag reporters cain’t yer see she’s goin through enough?”

“Granny,” Apple Bloom said thoughtfully, “No, let them ask questions ah don’t mind. It might be their only chance!”

“What are ye goin’ on about?” she said worriedly in Apple Bloom’s direction.

“Just, please Granny!” Apple Bloom said tugging on Granny’s dress.

“When did you first notice any changes?” the lady interjected asking Apple Bloom directly this time. Granny just threw up her hands exasperatedly.

“They shtarted at 6 this mornin’ but,” Apple Bloom quickly qualified, “Ah didn’t really notice until after lunch today.”

“How did this happen?” the man asked quickly.

“Uh, ah don’t know, but some kind of magic dream ah think,” Apple Bloom offered. “Just uh, don’t touch any golden applesh if you dream about ‘em.”

“Has this ever happened to you before?” asked the lady in short order. Seems like they were alternating questions.

“No it never happened before in mah life!” Apple Bloom declared, “Or in anyone’s life! Maybe like ancient Greeshe or something ah dunno.”

“What are you changing into exactly?” the man asked with an extra note of curiosity because he honestly couldn’t tell.

“T-the vet saysh a horse,” Apple Bloom said nervously, “But it ain’t exactly clear. Ah ain’t never seen a horse this color, or this uh, small.”

The woman turned to the camera and gave a silent signal then. She paused a moment and a light went on, then said, “This is Channel 7 news reporting at the local hospital where a fantasy scenario seems to have come to life. This girl has reportedly been transforming overnight into some sort of small colorful horse. We bring you this exclusive interview with the subject of this unexplainable phenomenon.”

“What impact do you think this has on the scientific community?” the man said in a more grandstandy tone.

Apple Bloom looked at him oddly and said, “Uh ah don’t know, but if the shientific community could figure out how to change me back that’d be real nice.”

“And you say this has never happened before?” the lady put in equally dramatically.

Apple Bloom frowned, and said, “Well if it did, ah would already be a horse, so, no ith ain’t never happened before.”

“How do you think your life is going to change from this?” asked the reporter man.

“Uh, a lot?” Apple Bloom said dumbly, not sure what she should say. “Ah mean, ah cain’t go back to school and all that.”

“Which school are you attending?” the lady asked.

That made Apple Bloom pause. “There’s only one high school in town?” she suggested hesitantly.

“You’re in high school?!” the lady exclaimed taken completely by surprise there.

“Yeah, ah’m a Frethman!” Apple Bloom said with a little irritation bubbling around in her breast, “Ah just started hlookin’ this way when ah got shmaller!”

The man cleared his throat as the lady reporter looked away embarassed, and the man said, “What are you going to do when your transformation is complete?”

Well that was just a silly question. Apple Bloom put her hands on her hips and said, “What horses usually do? Ah don’t know, run around, eat grass?”

The man looked a little flustered at her answer, clearing his throat again and saying, “I see.”

That gave the woman a chance to recover for him, their double team of Apple Bloom being quite effective here. “Do you think this poses a danger to anyone else, or the community?” she asked.

Apple Bloom shook her head, “No it does pose a danger becausth there was this dream ah had about a golden apple, and this ish all cause I picked it, sho like ah said, watch out for golden applesh in your dreams!”

“Dreams of apples,” the lady said to the camera again, “Mysterious transformations, and one girl who remains an example to us all. This has been eyewitness news Channel 7.”

The lady paused a second, then turned to Apple Bloom and said in a more normal voice, “Thanks so much for your time. I’m sorry to hear this wasn’t better news. You should be able to see yourself on TV if you tune in at 10:00 tonight!” she added that last part a bit eagerly.

“Uh, thanks...” Apple Bloom smiled nervously, and crossed her hands behind her back. Doing that felt more uncomfortable, in her arms, than it should have. But Apple Bloom’s flexibility aside, the reporters left her alone then and it wasn’t long before the old green pickup rattled into the parking lot. Applejack was there but not Big Mac, probably so there’d be enough room for all three of them in the cab. Well, two and a half now. Applejack looked pretty good considering, she was smiling at least, if a bit haggard what with the worry lines and puffy eyes. Apple Bloom hoped she wasn’t going to upset Applejack too bad because of all this.

Being short was getting to be a real pain, because Apple Bloom had to climb to get into the cab of the truck now. No more walking up the step into it for her, it looked like. Applejack’s eyes widened when she saw Apple Bloom eye to eye, but Applejack didn’t say anything untoward, and just said in a friendly voice, “Saddle up Apple Bloom, we’re goin’ home.”

Granny followed along behind, and Apple Bloom couldn’t help but feel an immense relief as the truck pulled in reverse and the clinic diminished away in front of her. She felt a lot safer sandwiched in-between the warm bodies of her grandmother and her dearest sister. The sadness that she was going to lose all this, was tempered by that small comfort she felt right now. She was going home.

It was probably hopeless, but Apple Bloom remembered what the doctor said. She sure wasn’t going to let go without a fight. Unfortunately her book bag was... probably still in English class, so she had to think of stuff to ...think about on her own. She ended up just going over simple random multiplication problems. Like seventy-six times thirty-one, save the 76 times one, then three times six is 8 carry the one, then 3 times 7 plus one is 22 for 228 times 10 plus seventy-six, the six falls in there, eight plus seven is fifteen, carry the one so 22 plus 1 gives you 2356. 82 times 96, six times 2 is twelve carry the one add to 18 to get 192...

She must have been muttering out loud because Applejack asked her in a casual tone over the wheel, “Whatcha doing there, sis?”

“Ah’m multiplyin’” Apple Bloom said, a squeak of fear in her throat when she added, “Ah w-wanna see how hlong before I cain’ do that no more.”

“Whattya mean?” Applejack said uncomfortably, keeping her eyes on the road.

Apple Bloom chewed on her finger... she still had those at least, even if they were looking a little... weird. She looked at Applejack again, then back forward. Apple Bloom wasn’t sure how to say it, so, she just said it. “Applejack, horses cain’t multiply.”

Applejack didn’t answer her, just driving along silently, so Apple Bloom went back to mumbling out her impromptu multiplication problems, but as soon as she did Applejack twisted the wheel pulling the truck onto the side of the road. As they rolled to a halt, Applejack leaned on the wheel burying her face in her arms so all you could see of her was her hat. She was... you could tell she was trying to hide it. Trying to be brave for Apple Bloom. But in that crowded little cab there was no way to hide it, the shaking shoulders, the gasping breaths and the... the... the sounds Apple Bloom never wanted to hear Applejack making.

“Applejack, it’s okay!” Apple Bloom said putting a comforting if uncertain hand on her sister’s side. “Ah’m sorry ah didn’t–”

“No it ain’t!” Applejack shouted, her voice breaking as she did. She lifted her head to look at Apple Bloom with tears running down her cheeks. “It ain’t fair!” she repeated, “You don’t deserve this! It should never have happened to you. Not... not you...”

Granny Smith was just sagging forward, sort of paralyzed with grief, and she couldn’t reach Applejack anyway, so Apple Bloom took her sister into as tender a hug as she could manage. She didn’t even realize how desperately she wanted a hug herself, until Applejack hugged her back, pulling against the seatbelt restraints to do so. Apple Bloom felt emotions welling up in her that she didn’t want to feel but... damnit it wasn’t fair. Her sister was just hissing out, “Consarnit,” over and over again, her voice tense with rage and sorrow. Apple Bloom hated seeing her sister like this, but... but how much longer would Apple Bloom even be able to care? She didn’t want to forget Applejack, or her friends, or even her dumb old school.

“Ah don’t wanna forget mah self,” she mumbled, quivering into Applejack’s breast. Applejack was stroking her now, her hand feeling so much larger on Apple Bloom’s back. Apple Bloom wondered if her sister could feel the fur back there. Apple Bloom didn’t know how much of her own back was covered in fur yet, but the hospital gown she appropriated tied in the back so anyone stroking there would be able to feel it, if she had it. If Applejack felt it though, she gave no sign, not even speaking anymore, just breathing slowly and holding her tight.

“Want me to drive?” asked Granny after a time. That snapped Applejack out of it, and she released Apple Bloom looking over at Granny.

“Ah know ah should be practicin’ mah driving, Granny,” Applejack said with weary eyes, “But ah– yeah, ah don’t really feel up to it, if you don’t mind.”

They were soon driving down the road, with Granny at the wheel this time. The farm house approached, presently. The light in the truck grew alternatingly bright and dim as they passed under the shadows of trees long in the late afternoon sun, pulling up to the flattened dirt of their driveway, really nothing more than a break in the trees that didn’t obstruct the roadway. Applejack and Granny piled out of the cab on either side, and Apple Bloom made to follow Applejack out the passenger side, letting her legs down on the step to the ground. Applejack reached out to help her down, but Apple Bloom shook her head and said, “No, ah got this.”

Apple Bloom jumped down lightly to the earth and then as soon as her feet touched down she fell face forward into the dirt.

“Ah’m okay!” she shouted, getting up on her knees. Then she sat up on her feet, but it just wasn’t working that way. They were so darned long and squat now she felt like she was waddling like a duck. So she just stood up on her toes, wobbled a bit, then gave Applejack the thumbs up. No she didn’t fall into the dirt again after that. She did wince at the gritty dirt against her bare foot though. She was missing shoes already.

Apple Bloom couldn’t get to the farm house fast enough, the smooth wood floors so much nicer to walk on than dirt. Applejack and Granny came up behind as Apple Bloom was kicking the dirt off her uh... toes.

“...’s kinda weird,” she said with an apologetic smile. They gave her a look but didn’t say anything. She followed Applejack and Granny into the house then, though she stopped short in the doorway, looking with worry at the door knob of the open door. It was ...at her eye level. Firming her lip, Apple Bloom strode inside, pretending she didn’t see that just now.

The art portraits on the walls in the living room really gave the place a homey look. There was a old dumpy soft brown chair and a fuzzy couch for relaxing on in front of the television, though Apple Bloom herself preferred just to sit by the fireplace in the evenings. Seemed like Big Macintosh had already got dinner started. There was a pleasant smell drifting from the kitchen, the sounds of sizzling, and clanking of pots and plates. It was clear as she stood before them in the entryway that Granny and Applejack didn’t know what to do with her, what how they were looking at her awkwardly and not saying anything. So Apple Bloom tried to break the tension, smiling hospitably and exclaiming,

“Oh man that suh-mells great! I wonder what’s for dinner?”

She... didn’t really know what to make of their reactions at first. Both Granny and Applejack smiled in relief then frowned in horror, then smiled in relief, then frowned in horror, almost in synch with each other.

“Big Mac!!” Applejack hollered pounding off into the kitchen without even taking her boots off, “What the hell are you cooking?!”

Granny looked after Applejack as she ran off like a whirling dervish, then looked at Apple Bloom and gave a very broad open eyed smile, which was pretty much as fake a smile as Granny had ever pulled off.

“So! Uh...” Granny said uncomfortably, “Smells good, eh?”

Apple Bloom nodded hesitantly, and then her own eyes widened as she realized just what she was smelling. “What?!” she exclaimed in complete abject flabbergast. “T-that don’th make no sense! It cain’t be– ah mean,” she stuck her hands in her mouth, but that big gap between her front and back teeth was still there. “Ah ain’ ot uh eef!” she protested.

“You know,” Granny mused almost to herself, “Winona likes to come around sometimes when we have an outdoor barbecue an’ try to stick her nose into affairs. We don’t give ‘er any o’course, but heh... well ah guess um... good news, then?”

Apple Bloom lay her cheek on her fist moodily. “Ah guess it thechnically ain’t cannibalithm as it’h a cow and all,” she speculated.

“I better go stop Applejack from harming yer brother,” Granny answered, turning and lumbering over to the kitchen, leaving Apple Bloom by herself in the living room. Apple Bloom looked around the room on her own, wondering if she should sit somewhere. Normally she’d be helping set the table or something but... she wasn’t sure if she should do anything like this. The table was just too darn tall. In fact, for all that the room looked familiar to her, it was old memories coming to her not new ones, the kind of memories when you were so young they didn’t even seem real. She remembered that chair as being a lot less threadbare, as it was the last time she had to jump to sit on it. She didn’t sit on Mac’s favorite chair though, just walked around looking at how much bigger everything had gotten.

Her eyes fell on a mirror hanging up on the wall beside the white lace curtained window. You could see through the window that it was getting dark outside already. The days were getting shorter on the ways through Fall after the first year of her new school had started. But the mirror was what caught Apple Bloom’s attention. She hadn’t gotten to see herself before she left the doctor’s office... hadn’t really wanted to see herself. But if there was no escaping this, it wouldn’t do any harm in looking at how... she’d gotten. She sure felt different. The biggest difference, her height, unfortunately made that mirror on the wall entirely out of reach. Apple Bloom knew there was a full length mirror mounted on the inside of the bathroom door though, so maybe she could just take a look there.

Apprehension swelled in her when Apple Bloom walked to the bathroom. That she was balanced on her toes without even any shoes was hard to ignore, now that she was paying attention to her... self. The way the hospital gown played across her skin all fuzzily, literally, fuzzily. She hadn’t even checked to see if any part of her wasn’t covered in fur yet. But it was stupid to be scared of a little looksee. It wouldn’t change anything to hide from it, and then she’d just keep changing without even knowing what was happening. And that really was terrifying. So Apple Bloom determinedly swung the bathroom door open. It opened smoothly, allowing her to see herself in the mirror, and what she saw...

The hospital gown was filthy from where she’d fallen in the dirt on it. It draped limply over a girl with a big pink bow in her bright red hair... who looked like a horse. The resemblance was unmistakable now. The animated ears on top of her head. The way her hair attached down around her neck past her skull. Her neck was thicker and longer too, and more muscular. And her nose had... her face had started to push forward into something resembling the beginnings of a muzzle.

How had she not noticed that? She put a hand on her face, feeling the way it curved just slightly outward, the firmness of her sinus cavity a lot longer and broader than it used to be. She could feel the soft warm fur all over it. Well, almost all. There was still some mottling, but it was more fur than bare skin now. She wondered if this was what men felt like when they had hair on their faces. Her face had changed so much, it was no wonder her voice had gotten thinner and a bit more high pitched. Apple Bloom looked like she thought a little kid would look like, if they were a weird horse with gigantic eyes.

She turned around to look at her tail, which waved up as she did so, making her wobble in place. It was long and bushy, and somehow the bright red hair engulfing it had the same sort of shape as the locks on her head. She fiddled with it and, it felt funny to fiddle with it but still somehow weirdly natural. It was natural for her now, being a horse and all, or something. And looking at her tail gave Apple Bloom a reluctant gander at her own legs again.

She turned around lifting up her gown, and... well, at least it wasn’t any creepier than the last time. Her middle toe had gotten dramatically larger and flatter, to the point it was holding all her weight and the rest of the toes just sat there diminutively. With a hand on the mirror she lifted a foot, and she could only wiggle the middle one. The others just felt numb. She looked at her hands in comparison, and they hadn’t changed as much. The middle finger was a lot longer and wider, but she could still move all her fingers. It looked kind of unsettlingly alien when she did though, so she stopped and looked away from it, looking at herself in the mirror again. Her hair could use a brushing she noted idly. She should probably brush her tail too, while she still can.

“Apple Bloom, I...” Apple Bloom heard her sister say approaching from behind, pausing when she saw Apple Bloom gazing morosely at herself in the mirror. “I’m sorry,” Applejack continued, “Ah thought you’d have a bad reaction to the meat, and you obviously didn’t but ah just sorta panicked you know.”

“It’h okay sis,” Apple Bloom assured her, tearing herself away from the mirror. “Ah wasn’t even thinkin’ abouth it either. Plus ah mean it’h not like ah need to be worried. Ah can always pull thingth around, or you c-can ride on me or something.” She tried to keep her tone reassuring, but Apple Bloom just felt so humiliated. She wanted to be making something of herself, not just being used to herd cows around the fields until her bones gave out. “...so, so ah won’t be served for dinner!” she tried to finish jokingly. Nobody was laughing though, least of all herself.

“Well, you wanna uh, try and eat something?” Applejack said standing above Apple Bloom jauntily. “How’s your appetite?”

“Good,” said Apple Bloom. “Ah mean it smells good, so ah could s’try, just a little bit maybe... maybe ah’m not done so I can shtill eat it?”

“Well come on then, we got a place set for you.”

Apple Bloom couldn’t believe it. They dragged out the booster seat.

“This is so humiliatin’” she said at the polished wood round table in their dining room, grumpily seated in a brightly colored plastic chair on top of the chair. On that table obscuring the apple print tablecloth was a steaming bowl of cheesy mashed potatoes and a big plate full of broccoli, three ears of buttered corn, a bowl of fresh sourdough rolls, and a bowl of chilly vanilla pudding for dessert. Big Mac carried out the main course, grilled sirloin thinly sliced. And it all smelled just amazing.

“Sorry,” he said quietly sitting down at the table. “Thought you was a cat last ah heard.”

“Doc said I had to try a lil’ bit of heverything,” Apple Bloom said failing to conceal her eagerness, “So ah’ll just take just a lil’ bit and see how ith goes.” And boy did it go. The mashed potatoes were like a taste explosion, and the sourdough roll was buttery and crisp, and the corn was sweet as sugar, and the broccoli was ...broccolicious..., and the meat was smoky and savory and... really freaking hard to chew. She found herself cutting tiny slivers off of it, but enjoying in regardless of her stupid teeth.

“Any good?” Big Mac asked.

Apple Bloom nodded with an ecstatic expression on her face, saying around a corn cob, “Everythin’ tastes so rich! This corn is like candy!”

All this food was really rich, in fact. Apple Bloom barely got anything in her stomach, even accounting for all the shrinking, and she was already feeling overwhelmed just by the taste of it all. If this is how horses tasted stuff, then she was all for it. Only problem is it was too rich, and her stomach started feeling like she’d done nothing but eat deep fried butter on a stick. She didn’t even know how to explain it to her family, because the food tasted better so why couldn’t she stand to eat any more of it?

She had to just stop halfway through a roll, saying, “Ah think that’s good...” Even though she didn’t feel satisfied, she just couldn’t imagine taking another bite. Drinking water didn’t seem to help dilute it, and it was just sitting heavy in her stomach. She barely ate enough to touch her plate, half a roll a few bites of corn, a few slivers of meat, a head of broccoli. She wanted more but she needed something to take away the impact of it.

“How’s your stomach feeling?” Applejack asked cautiously, having more than made her share of the food disappear.

“Ah don’t know...” Apple Bloom said looking down at her–she was going to have to ditch this ugly hospital gown sometime. Maybe her old clothes in the attic would fit. But she looked down trying to explain it. “Everythin’ tastes better but it’s too much. It’s too rich. If only there was something ta spread it out, ah dunno.”

“Well,” Applejack speculated, “I usually use bread and veggies when mah stomach’s fulla sloppy rich food.”

Apple Bloom shook her head, “The broccoli’s too strong, and the bread has way too much butter in it.”

“But you didn’t butter your bread!”

“Ah know!” Apple Bloom said, ears going down, “But that’s just what ah tasted. It’s weird...”

“Weaker than broccoli, less buttery than bread, hmm,” Granny mumbled loud enough to be heard.

“Hey,” Big Mac called to Apple Bloom.

“What?” she asked him curiously.

“Hey,” he repeated looking at her expectantly. Her ears went up and she tilted her head.

“What?” she asked again.

“Ah said hey!” he repeated in a frustrated tone.

“Yeah you did,” Apple Bloom said back to him, “So what’s goin’ on?”

Big Mac put his rather large hand palm first over his face and drew it down to his chin. “No, hay,” he emphasized.

Apple Bloom squinted, then blinked, then hurriedly stared with narrowed pupils at something else other than Big Mac, way across the room, that was a very important thing to stare at and not part of this conversation at all and she had to absolutely pay attention to it. “Ohh, hay” she said quietly. That wall clock was a few minutes off, Apple Bloom couldn’t help but notice.

“We could er... we gotta figure out eventually... give it a shot mebbe?” came Granny’s voice sounding as uncomfortable with the idea as Apple Bloom felt.

Couldn’t argue with that reasoning. “A-ah guess,” Apple Bloom said reluctantly, “I-it’s probably that. Ah mean it’s... it’s only natural.”

“Ain’t nothing about any of this that’s natural,” Applejack muttered sourly.

Big Mac stood up and left for a while. You could hear the door opening and closing as he went outside to go to the barn. When he came back–oh dear lord he put it on a plate. Apple Bloom stared in despair as he silently placed the plate down in front of her. At least he had the courtesy not to say anything about it, but Apple Bloom was looking at a plate full of grass. Dead grass, mostly dried out. This wasn’t food it was... it was stuffing for scarecrows and something to make hats out of. She took her fork and looked at the plate, then put her fork down and looked, then reached and almost touched it, then she pulled her hand back, said hastily, “Ah’m gonna go to bed,” and bailed out.

Apple Bloom shoved her chair back from the table, jumping down from it to the floor. Luckily the table was there, so she could hold onto it... while she could hold onto anything at all, so she didn’t fall over. It was so unfair though. Her legs weren’t even good at walking on anymore, at least not on two of them. She stifled a whimper then hurried off as fast as she could, down the hall and up the stairs. She didn’t fall down... much.

In her absence, Applejack finally got around to making an important phone call.

Any hope of her life ever being normal again finally evaporated, as Apple Bloom reached her bedroom. Apple Bloom had been in this room so many times, she knew it like the back of her ...hand, and it just didn’t look right with everything all looming over her. Looming might have been a bit of an exaggeration but she was not comfortable with having to stand on tiptoes to see on top of her dresser. Even if she was standing on tiptoes all the time now.

She looked down at herself in disgust, then went to pull open her closet door, rooting around in it for something she could wear besides this awful hospital gown. She ended up pulling out a simple white nightgown, gratefully sliding out of the hospital gown and slipping the nicer one over her head. Apple Bloom usually just wore underwear for sleeping, but that wouldn’t exactly work the way she was now. Not now and... not later. Even with this nightgown it was puddling around her feet and she had to roll up the sleeves.

Horses don’t care about being naked, it occurred to her. Apple Bloom didn’t really like the idea that she wouldn’t be able to care about how she looked anymore. She’d never been real focused on looks, but... that empty look in Winona’s eyes when she couldn’t give a buck about what she had done and rolled in. She loved Winona, but Apple Bloom never wanted to have that look in her own eyes.

Apple Bloom sighed, pulling open her dresser drawer next. She rifled around past some unopened workbooks, and found her old summer reading assignment. Man that had been one crazy summer. She almost didn’t finish her assignment in time to turn it in. She got a bad grade on it though despite turning it in, for the grammar of course. Stupid English class.

Scootaloo hadn’t even finished hers, but after Apple Bloom heard about the book Scootaloo had picked she couldn’t blame her. The cover said it was about someone playing a fancy computer game to save the world, but the meat of it was some slob dodging assassination attempts so he could screw up everyone’s lives and get the girl. Apple Bloom couldn’t get past the first chapter when it was revealed that the protagonist was literally trailer trash. She hated how people misrepresented down to home folk as if they were some kind of disease.

Apple Bloom wasn’t sure how Sweetie’s report went. She had thought Sweetie Belle picked something about pretty songs and love triangles, but Sweetie refused to say one word about anything after she read it.

Thankfully Apple Bloom hadn’t picked a novel that was that bad, so she had in her hands something she had planned on reading anyway, and had read thanks to that assignment. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was a great movie and it turned out the book was even better! Well, at least it had lots of weirder things in it, and you could imagine Dorothy as whoever you wanted, even some nobody farm girl down in Canterlot. Apple Bloom smiled with familiarity as she opened it, the page falling open to show the Cowardly Lion. She wished Baum’d written more; he had such a talent for character and sass.

She threw the book up on her bed and climbed on the bed herself, laying down on top of the blankets on her belly, and flipping the pages to the beginning. Apple Bloom was pleased to find she wasn’t having any trouble reading it. She sounded out the words carefully to herself at first, but even with her being all like this physically, nothing she could find mentally had been lost. Yet.

She always envied Dorothy for going to that strange fantastical world, though Apple Bloom definitely didn’t envy Dorothy’s home life. If Dorothy had had a family like Apple Bloom’s then Apple Bloom could understand why Dorothy wanted to get back to it so much, but what happened at the end, when Dorothy went back to a sorry situation, only to have it miraculously repaired for plot purposes, that never sat well with Apple Bloom. Great beginning, confusing middle, mediocre ending. The beginning of the book wasn’t just good for its own merit, though.

It reminded Apple Bloom smugly of the time Applejack’s friend Pinkie Pie tried to tell them all about why she was a fashionist...ish major, about how her life on the farm with her aunt and uncle was all dull and grey and nobody ever laughed, and everyone only worked all the time. Apple Bloom was all, “No Pinkie, that’s the Wizard of Oz.” Pinkie Pie had just blushed beet red right on the spot, mumbled something about a correspondence course and stomped off without another word. So now whenever she wanted to get a rise out of her, Apple Bloom just had to ask Pinkie, “So, how’s Auntie Em, lately?”

Just around the time the Wicked Witch of the East got smushed, Big Mac cracked open Apple Bloom’s door and said, “Hey, y’alright?”

“Yeah so far at any rate,” Apple Bloom called out. “Y’can come in ah’m decent.”

Mac walked in with a pleasant if a bit forced smile on his boyish face. “Whatcha up to?” he asked.

“Ah was readin’ this old book from last summer,” Apple Bloom explained, “Ah know it’s silly but maybe if ah keep on readin’ I feel like ah ...won’t forget how.”

“No clue,” he said sitting next to her on the edge of her bed. “Any trouble?”

Apple Bloom shook her head. “Maybe ah’m just not noticin’ but it’s all in there far as I can see. In the book, that is. All the witches and Dorothy and all.”

Mac nodded. She looked at him uncertainly. “Granny’s starting a fire,” he said casually. “You wanna come down?”

“A-ah don’t...” she mumbled insecurely, “Ah don’t wanna make y’all feel unsettled or nothing...”

“If it’s read out loud, we can tell you if you’re doin’ it right,” he responded practically, adding then with some heavy emotion in his voice, “We all wanna spend time with you...”

He didn’t vocalize it, but Apple Bloom could hear the proclamation of “...in your last moments,” hanging over them both like a reaper’s scythe. She faked up a smile and said, “That’d be right nice, Big Mac.”

She stumbled on the way out the hall, leaning onto her brother suddenly for support. Apple Bloom had almost gone... on her hands and knees for a minute there, except she wouldn’t need to use her knees anymore. She didn’t want to fall down like that, because she was afraid that she wouldn’t ever get up if she did. They made it downstairs without incident though, and Granny was there, bent over sticking the poker into a crackling fire in the fireplace.

“Where’s Applejack?” Apple Bloom asked curiously.

“Milking,” Big Mac said.

“She didn’t do that during the day?” Apple Bloom wondered.

“In the woods,” was his explanation.

“She was even putting aside her chores to root around in the woods for me...” Apple Bloom said gratefully but also guiltily, “Just based on some dream clearing that ah don’t even know exists.” He nodded silently.

Applejack burst in the door then, shouting, “Okay! All done!” The events of the past fifteen minutes would have gone down in the annals of cow history, if cows kept history, and cows would have spoken of it in hushed whispers from then on, if cows spoke, or whispered. Suffice to say, she rushed things a bit. “Ap–” Applejack said, then drew up short at the sight of Apple Bloom, standing there in a droopy white nightgown, barely half of Big Mac’s height.

“How you doin’, Apple Bloom?” Applejack asked, in too small and nervous a voice for the farm girl Apple Bloom knew and loved.

“Ah’m sthill me,” Apple Bloom said easily if squeakily. That made Applejack sag with relief. Apple Bloom held up the too large book in front of her saying, “Ah’m gonna practith reading this in front of the fire.”

“Well get on over,” Granny said, wielding a large blanket half draped around herself. So they all did. Apple Bloom ended up wedged in between Granny and Applejack and one of each end of the book rested against each of their knees respectively. She read out loud and didn’t miss a single word, nobody corrected her at least. Though her stupid teeth—or sthupid theeth as she would have put it—kept making her bungle up words, turning her d’s into r’s and such like that. Not just the missing teeth but her mouth felt bigger, like she had to move her tongue more to get to the end of it. Not a whole lot, but just enough to make you miss a ‘t’ every now and again.

The Munchkins and the Field Mice, and the Emerald City passed by, as the fire in front of the four Apples popped and crackled, slowly dying down. Apple Bloom found herself drifting away from the story mentally, too troubled about her own situation. She’d always wanted to be like Dorothy, just a normal farm girl going to a fantastical land, but what was happening to Apple Bloom was like the diametric opposite of that. Everything was completely blessedly boringly normal, except for her. It was like someone took her fantasy and sent her in the exact opposite direction of what she wanted.

Near the end, Apple Bloom found herself fighting to stay awake. The fire was so cozy and she was surrounded by the warm embrace of her loved ones. She would have enjoyed drifting off like this any other time. But here and now, Apple Bloom didn’t want to fall asleep. She wasn’t sure if she would ever wake up again. If she let her bleary eyes close, then something else would open them, and all they’d find in the morning is a dumb animal in her place.

She was fumbling with the pages. Her fingers, well except the middle one, had become weak and unresponsive. It was a bleak reminder of how horses didn’t need fingers, because they didn’t read, or do math, or hold things, or achieve. When the book was over, Apple Bloom didn’t let it close. She looked around the room for something else to read, anything to distract her from what she didn’t want to face. But all she saw is how Big Mac had already drifted off to sleep, and Granny looked like she was nodding on her way. And that made it ten times harder to stay awake.

“Ah don’t want this...” she said, her voice warbling in fright.

“Oh hon, it’s okay,” Applejack cooed to her softly.

“No it ain’t,” Apple Bloom said with a tightness in her throat.

Applejack just curled her arms around Apple Bloom, holding the half-girl to her chest saying, “It’ll be okay, Apple Bloom. We’ll figure something out.”

“I’m scared, Applejack,” Apple Bloom whimpered, clinging to her sister as best as she could. Her emotions felt more unstoppable and tidal than she could ever remember them being. She was actually having to gulp back sobs... it was right to be upset at this. Why did it feel so weird to be upset, then? Was even that changing? Could horses feel grief?

Apple Bloom sighed, struggling with herself as much as with her situation. “Will you promise to take care of me, when it... happens?” she asked tearfully, carefully controlling her voice.

“Ah promise,” Applejack whispered intensely, “Ah promise it’ll be okay, even if you... you lose yourself for a little we will find a way to bring you back.”

Apple Bloom couldn’t answer her, because Apple Bloom didn’t think she could talk without crying anymore, so she just whimpered miserably and pressed herself tight against Applejack’s deceptively soft warmth. Apple Bloom hadn’t cried herself to sleep in... a long, long time, but this night she was crying hot tears one moment, and forgetting herself in the next. Sleep claimed her like a dark vortex, and there were only dreams from then on.

Author's Note

The End.
*gets hogtied strung up and beaten with sticks by the entire Apple family, no the entire Apple family*

Maybe... not the end... medic..

Morning Revelations

They say parallel universes are impossibly distant, but suppose there were a parallel universe nearly identical to our own, except that your own parents, your physical makeup, and your circumstances were switched with that of a friend you know. In this other universe, you grew up in a different environment, with different experiences and values, the same experiences of your friend.

Suppose you built a colossal device capable of bridging the gap between these two universes, and you spoke with your counterpart in that other universe, about your differing experiences, opinions and beliefs. Would that be any different an experience than just picking up a telephone, and calling the friend you already know? Is their own personal experience in any way distinguishable from a parallel universe, in which you are them and they are you? Can you tell the difference between travelling to another universe, to meet your counterpart there, and simply... walking down the block, and across the street?

It might be safe to speculate that parallel universes are closer than we think.

“Hello?”

“Hey. How ya doin’?”

The girl talking into her phone brushed a lock of hair away staring dully at the stupid chalkboard full of stupid facts that she already knew ten times over, saying, “Oh, hey Applejack. Good as I usually do, I suppose.” She didn’t even care that Applejack was interrupting her in the middle of class. Her new friend’s rude interruption was a blessed novelty in this sea of inane repetition and rote.

“Ah was wonderin’ if you know the number of the school’s librarian, you know Ms. Cheerilee,” Applejack asked.

She rolled her eyes at that, saying snarkily into the phone, “Oh, so because I’m the book-worm, means I automatically know the librarian on a personal basis?”

Applejack was unphased. “You do know though, do ya?”

A tired anger flashed across her face before she said, “Sure, hold on I’ll text it to you.”

“So, why are you calling the librarian?” she asked afterwards.

“It’s uh... personal family matter,” Applejack said enigmatically.

A puzzled frown crossed her face as she said, “Well, okay then. Uh, good luck with that I guess?”

“Thanks... call ya later maybe.”

She stared at her phone thoughtfully.

“You know there is a rule about phones in class,” her teacher muttered, inches away from her ear.

The situation took a turn for the downright strange, when after class, Applejack delivered another unexpected phone call.

“Sorry to bother you again, but the librarian thought ah was prankin’ her! Could you maybe ah dunno, do your thing with her and get her to call me, so she knows who she’s talkin’ to?”

The girl gave the phone an odd look before bringing it to the side of her face, saying, “Why did the librarian think you were pranking her?”

“Y’know, this was a bad idea, sorry to bother ya, talk to you later maybe!” Applejack belted out nervously and quickly. Then there was a click as Applejack hung up.

That was definitely what she would call strange, but it wasn’t until later in the afternoon that things started to get really peculiar. Applejack called her again out of nowhere, this time when she was relaxing in a cheap Indian place where she could actually get some halfway decent vegetarian food. It wasn’t that she was squeamish about killing animals, not anymore certainly. But she never could get used to actually eating their flesh. It just wouldn’t settle right in her gut.

“Hey, uh... you know a lot about like, spooky myths and stuff right?” Applejack had said right off the bat. She sounded uncharacteristically weary, worn out and uncertain of herself. It was hard to hear over the phone, and with these little ears, but it was clear something was bothering the farm girl.

“You know I’ve studied folklore,” she answered noncomittally, sipping at a tasty mango smoothie that was supposedly foreign around here. Never did any good to answer that question truthfully when Applejack asked it, because as far as anyone here knew, myths weren’t real, and what she was really an expert on was nothing more than fiction. Never did any good to answer truthfully, because here she didn’t have a horn, and here she was about as magical as a rock. And that’s not even a farmed rock.

“Well have you ever heard of a uh...” Applejack offered hesitantly, “Golden apple?”

Welp. It looked like the girl was going to find out if a mango lassi flavored chickpea masala tasted any good. She put down what was left of her drink, spluttering and grabbing a napkin to wipe her mouth with. Then she brought the phone to her ear again. “It sounds vaguely familiar,” she said in a disinterested tone. “I think it’s a somewhat less well known Greek myth. You should read about it. It’s very fascinating.”

“Yeah, maybe... later...” Applejack’s voice said in a distracted tone. The girl tried to resist rolling her eyes at her stubbornly ignorant friend. Just because you were a farmhand didn’t mean you had to avoid learning anything. At least that Apple Bloom girl seemed to understand this.

There was only one thing Applejack was interested in, and that was cows. Still, the girl also tried to resist rolling her eyes, because she was honestly intrigued at this point. This was starting to seem like something that hadn’t happened before. There was no way that particular myth could be just a coincidence. Had she forgot again, and mentioned the myth to Applejack earlier?

“Why are you asking about a golden apple?” she said curiously over the phone.

“Well it’s ...sort of a... private family... matter,” Applejack said sounding unconvinced of that herself.

“Oh, don’t be so closed shop,” she said with a jesting quality to her voice, “You know you can trust me. What has been bothering you about the idea of a golden apple? It’s not like you’ve been oh say, dreaming about one or anything, right?”

“Actually this ain’t concernin’ me so much as Apple Bloom...” Applejack said trailing off in a fatigued tone.

Her? But that girl wasn’t even... though it would be strangely appropriate, if so. “Those three?” she laughed, “What kind of trouble have they gotten into this time?”

“No, just...” Applejack hissed a sigh of frustration over the phone, “Look you wouldn’t believe me if ah told you, but she went and told the whole town about it practically, so just check out the evening news tonight.”

Wow, they made the news? That sounded more like a disaster than a peculiar dream. The news wouldn’t report if something hadn’t gone wrong, would it? “Alright, Applejack,” she said, “But what—”

“Ah gotta go,” Applejack said shortly, “The cows are makin’ noise again and ah been puttin’ off milkin’ em too long.”

“Fair enough, but—” Applejack had hung up. The girl stared at the phone, confounded.

She got to that cheap motel she was staying at today, in short order. Hurrying in, she didn’t even pause to throw down her coat before flouncing on the bed and turning on the squawk box. The news wasn’t on yet; it was just that show about adopting animals as pets or something, so she just sat there staring past the television waiting for the news to come on. She’d seen that episode already, anyway.

When the news program finally started, worryingly, it was at the hospital. She really hoped those three weren’t in traction, this time. The golden apple shouldn’t have caused that, even if it was finally showing its face around here. There was a reporter there, in front of what looked like a smaller doctor’s clinic, with the larger hospital further in the background. Standing alongside the reporter was a short little...

“This is Channel 7 news reporting at the local hospital where a fantasy scenario seems to have come to life...

The girl stared blankly at at the scene unfolding in the television before her, then violently smacked the book out of the hands of the other girl lying next to her on the bed, the one of them who wasn’t even paying attention to the news, or any external stimulation for that matter.

With her nose out of the book, the other girl said irritably, “What was that for, Sunset?!” but then Sunset Shimmer unceremoniously pulled the purple girl’s chin around to face the television together with her, saying,

“Twilight, we have a problem.”

Applejack woke up a little horse. When the morning dawned, it was revealed that Granny and Big Mac had squirmed away in the night, but Applejack had fallen dead asleep on the floor there, with Apple Bloom passed out on top of her. Applejack carefully lifted the blanket, which the others had kindy laid over both of them proper, and was met with a surreal sight. It was surreal because... it still looked like Apple Bloom. Same colors as her, even the mane was just like her hair, if a bit shorter. She even had forgotten to take out her bow, which looked huge in contrast to her now.

But at the same time, Applejack was looking at a little horse on her chest, sleeping soundly on her side. The tiniest horse you would ever have imagined, outside of a doll maybe. She couldn’t have been much larger than a cat, not counting her head. The nightgown tangled up and draped around Apple Bloom, but her limbs were curled forward like a horse’s and her face was dominated by a rounded muzzle. She still had a large brow, but there was just no trace of humanity left. Even her unconscious breathing was horselike, more of a whinny than a sigh.

Applejack laid the blanket back and gently stroked along Apple Bloom’s barrellike side. It didn’t feel right to do so, but it didn’t feel wrong, and she knew better than to awaken a horse quickly. Applejack shifted underneath uncomfortably, her butt sore from lying on wood all night, with nothing but a pillow to rest her head against. There was nothing to be done about that though. And this was probably the closest a horse had ever allowed Applejack to be to her, so it might be the last chance Applejack had to be this close to Apple Bloom for... a while.

Applejack did have to wake her up though, as she couldn’t just lay around being Apple Bloom’s mattress all day. The old trick of scratching behind a horse’s ear seemed to do it. The little horse gave a noise almost like a murmuring grumble and lifted its head off of Applejack’s chest. Its eyes were possibly even more vivid and full than Apple Bloom’s had been, when it opened them, looking at Applejack with a sleepy expression full of confusion.

“Applejack...?” the little horse said.

Apple Bloom woke up, a little horse. Someone’s hand was scratching pleasantly behind her ear. Apple Bloom noticed with concern that she wasn’t in her bed for some reason. It felt like she was lying against someone, but someone big. She lifted her head, readying to sit up, but then her head just kept lifting from that point, and Apple Bloom knew there was something seriously wrong then. Apple Bloom didn’t even have to twitch her upper body before she could face, and focus on what she was lying against. A warm giant’s chest, a giantess who bore a very familiar face.

“Applejack...?” she said confusedly.

Applejack gave an inarticulate “Wlueuh!” and lunged backwards, her eyes bugging out, dumping Apple Bloom unceremoniously off her chest onto the wooden floor.

“Ow! Ugh...” Apple Bloom’s elbow hit the floorboards when she fell. She could still lift her head, but she couldn’t figure out how to raise herself up. She couldn’t move right! Her legs wouldn’t move right. Her arms felt like, stuck at the elbows. What was goin’ on? Worse still she was all tangled up in a mess of blanket and a white nightgown that she hadn’t worn in...

Apple Bloom stared down at that nightgown, at herself underneath it, stared at something she’d seen once before, but not while she was awake. Her arms were curled in front of her, buried in the folds of fabric. It felt natural the way they were, but it didn’t look that way. Her wrists were turning down she could feel, as if she would be pointing at her own feet.

She extended the upper arm that wasn’t braced under her, dumbfoundedly wiggling it in the air, the fabric that covered it shaking as she did so. Apple Bloom craned her neck around to look at Applejack again, finding herself rolling automatically to her belly as she did so. Applejack had a petrified look on her face, mouth agape, fallen back on her butt, and leaning on one hand, the other outstretched towards Apple Bloom but unmoving.

“Thath washn’t a dhream, wasz it,” Apple Bloom said in a disjointed daze.

“Apple Bloom!” Applejack exclaimed loudly making Apple Bloom’s ears twitch with a wince. “Apple Bloom,” she said more quietly, “You’re talking!”

“Ah gueth I am...?” Apple Bloom said, beyond belief.

“Are you finished yet?” Applejack asked nervously, “How are you talking? Are you still you?”

“Ah sthink sho, yeah,” Apple Bloom said hesitantly, growing more excited as she said, “Ah sthink I am! And ah’m— mah moushth ish awrl lorng, sorry,” she said smacking her lips to familiarize herself with them. Even that felt different though. She crossed her eyes at the blunt muzzle hiding at the edge of her vision. How did Granny say to do it again? Pull your tongue out more? What did you do when your tongue was thicker though? “Shh sth sss,” she said experimentally, sticking her tongue out and blowing a raspberry.

“Quick, read this!” Applejack shouted suddenly, sticking the book she’d retrieved in front of Apple Bloom opened to a random page.

“If hyou eveur neezh– need ush agaiiinuh nuh, shorry ish mah moufth.”

“One more time...” Applejack said hopefully.

“If hyou eveur need us again zh– she said, come outh inth–into the fielrd an’ call—”

“Oh Apple Bloom!” Applejack proclaimed joyfully, “You’re still here!”

“Buh for how hlong?” Apple Bloom countered worriedly.

Applejack’s expression froze. “Ah-ah’m just glad y-you made the night,” she struggled out with difficulty, “Apple Bloom, look at ya!”

Apple Bloom looked back at herself lying prone there, and then her eyes widened as she realized she could look at herself. Just with the act of looking to the side, she could almost turn her neck all the way around! The rest of her body, she wasn’t quite so confidently in control of as her neck though. She looked back at Applejack concerned, saying, “How do ah hlook?”

“Just like a little horse,” Applejack answered honestly, “Littler than a pony, littler even than a dwarf horse.”

“Why ith sthe univerthe conthpiring to make me litthle?!” Apple Bloom exclaimed angrily.

Applejack thought a moment, then commented flatly, “Ah honestly do not know how to answer that.”

“Ith okay ah’m juth comphlaining,” Apple Bloom said, ears drooping glumly.

“How do you feel?” Applejack asked hastily, “Can ah get you anything? You need a pillow? Another book? Some breakfast maybe? Brush your hair? Maybe a bath? Need me to—”

“Ah’m fthine,” Apple Bloom interrupted, still sitting there helplessly on the floor. She wasn’t fine of course, but when Applejack got like this she really got like this, so you had to cut it off at the pass. It was just so annoying when her older sister doted on her just because she’s older.

And in this case it would be because her older sister has a normal body. With hands. And wasn’t crippled. And could talk right. Maybe some doting wouldn’t be so bad after all.

“Um...” Apple Bloom shifted hesitantly, but just couldn’t make heads or tails about which way her limbs were supposed to go. Her left arm was feeling a bit numb from lying on it, but that’s all she could get. “Buh ah don’th hknow how to sthand up... can you herlp me?”

Applejack crouched down, then knelt down. Apple Bloom just couldn’t believe how huge her sister was now. Applejack had her huge hands held out but wasn’t moving, a nervous tension in her expression. “Can ah... touch you?” she asked, bewildered.

Apple Bloom wanted to nod but she was on her side and she wasn’t even sure if ...whatever she was, was capable of nodding at all. So she just said, “Pleashe do,” as clearly as she could. Apple Bloom still closed her eyes in uncomfortable fright when Applejack’s arms stretched out and those hands came down around her, untangling the helpless Apple Bloom from her sheets and nightgown.

“Ah’m gonna have to get you out of this,” Applejack said with a fatalistic determination, undoing the buttons on the neck of Apple Bloom’s nightgown. “Sorry, it’s jus’”

“Ah hknow,” Apple Bloom said pleadingly, peeking down at the strange yellow furred animal inside the top of her nightgown, “Jus’ helrp me up!”

Applejack hesitated on how to do it, but her hands gripped underneath Apple Bloom’s wrists easy enough. Apple Bloom’s own “hands” just plainly hooked over her sister’s grasp. Apple Bloom looked up at Applejack as Applejack slid her out of the nightgown entirely. Her sister had such a worried look on her face! At first Apple Bloom was lifted too far, and her feet started to dangle in the air, but then her sister set her two legs down to the wood floor firmly, and slowly.

Apple Bloom found she had to balance up on her toes, with her arms still hooked over Applejack’s hands. Her feet were just so weird now. Hooves now? How do you stand on these things? Applejack then carefully let go of Apple Bloom’s wrists leaving Apple Bloom to balance there by herself. Apple Bloom continued to look up at Applejack, trying not to move a muscle, as it was crazy awkward to balance like this, but inevitably she wobbled and fell forward, and put her arms out to catch herself.

There was a light clop as Apple Bloom felt her arms firmly take on her weight. But... Apple Bloom was still staring up at her big sister. She didn’t have to hunch over. She didn’t feel contorted or strained, or anything. Her neck just bent back that way easily, situating her head comfortably above her horizontal torso. She wasn’t on her knees. She was... Apple Bloom didn’t want to be standing like this, but there she was, easy as pie.

Apple Bloom turned her head down from Applejack’s stunned gaze, and Apple Bloom could see her arms not in front of her, but underneath her. It felt like she was sticking her finger against the wood, but her fingertip firmed and spread slightly when her weight was down on it. There was no question about what was on the end of her hands. And her feet felt the same way.

“Oh Apple Bloom...” Applejack said in a surprisingly loving tone. That bothered Apple Bloom for some reason. Applejack was upset about this, right?

“Ah’m okay, ah can dtheal with sthis,” Apple Bloom insisted. She turned her head around to look at the fallen nightgown behind her and... once again her head just kept on turning. Her arms and legs were still braced, not even twisted at the shoulders, but Apple Bloom could still crane around all the way to look at her own backside. It was like looking down the back of a horse, a kind of weird colored one but, a horse. The cherry red tail erupting from her spine curled merrily in an arc through the air behind her. She could feel the tension in it as it hung there. Her legs, or rather hindquarters, widened slightly at the rear, and her chest was a chubby looking barrel shape.

“Apple Bloom,” Applejack repeated, prompting Apple Bloom to turn to look up at her sister again. “You are so gosh darn adorable!”

“Ah am n—” Apple Bloom started to shout, then blinking asked up in surprise, “...wai’ rearry?”

It looked like Applejack was trying really hard not to bite her lower lip. “Say,” Applejack said excitedly, “You want me to get you a mirror?”

“Ah hknow ah’m a horth,” Apple Bloom said forlornly.

“Yeah, but you should really see yourself!” Applejack insisted, “You look just like... just like you, but horse.”

“Ah guethh,” Apple Bloom said, giving in with a bit of disgust. In her opinion, Applejack was way too happy about her own sister being some dumb looking horse thing. Applejack squatted, then jumped up standing, striding over to the wall where she pulled off the wall mirror by the window.

She carried it back and brought it down, and Apple Bloom actually found herself cringing back when she saw herself swing into view. She didn’t want to see it! But then she stopped short at what she saw. There was a pony in the mirror cringing away from her, with one hoof slightly raised in the air from doing that.

Apple Bloom looked at her own raised hoof and the mirror pony did the same. She hadn’t even noticed she raised the thing. The generally shocked expression on the mirror pony’s face was adamantly clear. It didn’t look anything like Winona’s disinterested and constant horse frown. Apple Bloom’s face was so expressive, it was even kind of silly looking, like exaggerated or something.

Above that cute little muzzle of hers were these big liquid eyes, opened wide as they can go, dominated by the ebony pupils rimmed in a vibrant orange ring. The mirror pony’s hooves weren’t knobby or boney at all, more like smooth cylinders that gave easily as they bent at the joints. The grain of her fur was so fine that it didn’t even shine in the morning sunlight. This pony’s bright red mane was curling around its head, just like Apple Bloom’s hair was supposed to do, except attached from the neck up instead of just on the head, and her triangular pony ears nestled in those bouncy red bangs in a way that looked like they belonged there.

Framing her whole head was Apple Bloom’s favorite pink bow, disarrayed and askew because she forgot to take it off and slept on it. Except... her bow hadn’t shrunk. So saying it framed her head, it literally framed her head. It was giant in comparison. Apple Bloom stared at herself in the mirror and she couldn’t think of what to say. Applejack was right. She was adorable! She was an adorable little pony trussed up in a big pretty pink bow. She looked kind of like a little kid, but maybe that was just how things... like her were supposed to look? What do you even say to the sight of this in the mirror?

After a long pause, Apple Bloom quietly declared, “Mah bow ish crooked.”

She lifted a hoof up to fiddle with it, or at least push it around. When Apple Bloom spoke, Applejack responded by standing up, leaning over the mirror to look down at her, and pulling the mirror away. She hastily leaned the mirror on the wall, turning to Apple Bloom and holding a hesitant hand out saying, “Oh heh, that it is. You want any help with that?”

Apple Bloom ignored her though. She wasn’t really paying attention to anything right now, other than her own arm. When Apple Bloom reached it up to fiddle with the bow it became... just an arm, like any arm she’d had before, but when she brought it down straight, her shoulder sort of... disappeared. It like, went up into her and against her side and... locked into place or something.

“sThis ith weird...” she whimpered nervously, standing on all fours and not moving again.

“We should probably call the doc,” Applejack suggested wanly.

“Yeah...” Apple Bloom agreed quietly.

“You want me ta go wake up the family first?” Applejack asked hopefully.

“Yeah...” Apple Bloom agreed quietly.

“How are ya doin’ for walkin’?” Applejack asked crouching down again going from towering over her to slightly less towering over her. “Can ya move around?”

“Ah ain’ thried,” Apple Bloom said lifting an arm. It came away from the ground easy enough and she felt her tail swaying naturally as she leaned more on the other arm. Putting the arm down she noticed Applejack watching intently. Well, Winona could walk right when she was a baby, so it can’t be that hard can it? Apple Bloom put her left arm forward, and soon as she did her right leg lifted up and went forward too. She wobbled on two opposite limbs, then pulled her left arm back and planted it back down underneath her with a clop, so she could ease her right leg slowly back to where it was before.

She experimented with that a few times, lifted her arm, put it down. Lifted her leg, put it down. Just vertically a few times.

She lifted them both again, and stuck her left arm forward, having to lean forward to plant it further ahead of herself. Her right leg planted underneath her, leaving her in a bit of a contorted position. Leaning forward but not moving her right arm meant that Apple Bloom’s right arm was going to get tucked underneath her, while similarly leaving her left leg stretched out behind her. Before she toppled forward onto her right shoulder, she had to lift her right arm, and stick it out to catch herself, stumbling a few steps before...

“Ah guess you can!” Applejack said positively while Apple Bloom stood there trembling uncertainly, trying to figure out how she did that. “You work on that while ah get the others, an’ then we’ll rustle up some grub.”

Grub sounded really good right now. It brought a genuine smile to Apple Bloom’s face and she looked up at her sister saying, “Thanksh, Applethack,”

Apple Bloom tried again, moving her right arm forward again as her opposite leg took itself a step. That naturally made her left arm off balance so she lifted it forward as her right leg pulled up and planted down, and she paused then, wobbling in place. Oh, so now her right arm was underneath her and off balance just like her left arm had been. She corrected that, and it returned her to a standing position. Then she took another half step forward, and she was in that arm-leaning stretched-leg position thingy.

It was pretty obvious how to walk now. When you correct one arm, the other ends up off balance needing correction, and as long as you keep putting your arms forward to correct that you’ll keep walking forward, and the legs just sort of push from behind while you’re leaning into that. She practiced just lifting her opposite arms and legs in place, without moving them forward, until she felt like she had a sort of rhythm going, and wasn’t wobbling too much when she was balanced only on one arm and one leg.

Then she took a deliberate step forward just like before, and just like before, her opposite arm needed balance correction, so she corrected it moving it forward with her leg. Then she corrected the opposite pair, and so on, awkwardly sort of stretch stepping forward with a heavy clop every time her toes–hooves on two of her feet came down at once. Apple Bloom only stopped when she got to the fireplace mantle, her nail tapping its stone edge with a click before settling down to bear her weight again.

Now all Apple Bloom had to figure was how to turn around.

After a bit of analysis and swivelling around on her hooves, she came to the conclusion that a combination of sheer and rotation could do the trick. Rotation alone wouldn’t turn her entirely around of course, as her hooves couldn’t rotate around on their axes to face backwards, and that wouldn’t have rotated her torso anyway. But what she did was slide her left arm and leg both back at the same time, ending up splay legged from that, but then she rotated so she was facing the angle of the sheer, and it made her hooves line up right nice again. So she stepped back again on one side, and repeated. She was little over half the way around, when Big Macintosh came down the stairs.

He didn’t seem in a huge hurry, but he was watching her closely. “Ah’m shtill me!” she shouted out behind herself across the room, then went back to her determined scissor legging until she could face him directly. And she was still her! She just... couldn’t talk right, and was standing on four legs like it weren’t no thing. But she could still do math, right? She hadn’t tried but, but she could still talk! ...sorta.

What even was she?!

Big Macintosh’s slippers came up to stand before her. His slippers specifically, because those were his most defining features at her level right now. She turned up from those ridiculously fuzzy pink things to look him in the eye. It made Apple Bloom sit down dizzly from a sense of vertigo. He was so darn tall! She looked up at him and he looked down at her, and she wasn’t sure what he was so happy about with that silly smile growing on his face, because she had real things to worry about now!

“D’aww,” he said tenderly.

That made Apple Bloom’s brows knit in alarm and frustration. “Ah’m not hcute!” she protested up at him futilely with an angry huff. Big Macintosh tried, and failed to hold back a snicker. Apple Bloom really wanted to know what twisted god was responsible for this so she could punch him in the face. Or wait, she couldn’t really do that anymore. Kick him in the butt then.

“Ah’ll be in the kitchen,” Big Mac said, turning on his heels and striding over in that direction. When he was gone, Apple Bloom’s shoulders sank and she let out a whimper. She couldn’t talk right, she didn’t even have hands anymore, and worst of all he was right. Apple Bloom was totally adorable! If she’d seen herself like this, she’d have run up and grabbed her, and hugged her so hard her eyes popped out. Apple Bloom was torn between feeling complimented and feeling slighted for how it was belittling (ugh!) her predicament. This whole past day had been just one emotional roller coaster after another, and Apple Bloom just wanted to get off the ride.

“Apple Bloom?” Granny Smith spoke up from the stairwell leading Apple Bloom to lift her gaze from the floorboards again. “Applejack said you were okay...” she explained to Apple Bloom hesitantly, as if Granny didn’t believe it herself. Apple Bloom honestly didn’t blame her for not believing it, but... seeing that momentary hesitation in her grandmother hurt so much more than it should have.

“Yeah ah’m okay,” she said clearly... one of the few sentences she could say clearly. Even before Granny came over to her, Apple Bloom just wanted to run into her arms and get a big hug. She could barely even walk though much less run. She wanted to tell her how terrible it was, but she couldn’t even say “terrible”, and that was terrible! Even her whimpers didn’t sound normal. She wasn’t used to sounding so high and reedy. She guessed it had to be the nature of what... whatever she was changing into was. She didn’t even want to think about how horselike that huff had sounded.

“Are ye all done changin’?” Granny asked settling heavily to the floor beside Apple Bloom in as close to cross legged as she could manage. Apple Bloom stood up... well, lifted her butt, which made her arms slide forward, and that was about as good as she was going to get, as far as standing up was concerned. She felt stable standing like that, but her legs were still trembling for some reason.

“Ah don’ kn–” her voice broke as she said it. “Ah don’ know,” she repeated, ignoring her watery eyes, “Ah jus’ wanna be hdone with—” Apple Bloom had to stop talking again as her breath caught. She tried to compose herself, but it wasn’t working. “Why am ah crying?” she protested angrily. She wanted to lift a hand...arm to wipe away the tears running down her face but she couldn’t even do that because she felt so unsteady she needed all four of them to stand on now.

“Oh Apple Bloom...” Granny said laying a hesitant hand on her back. Apple Bloom knew what she needed but, but she wasn’t a baby so she couldn’t just ask for a... well, she could ask for something else though.

“C-coul’ you lif’ me up jus’ forl a sec?” Apple Bloom asked looking at the ground.

“Well, okay ah guess so,” Granny said, reaching out with both hands around Apple Bloom’s midsection, and lifting Apple Bloom up with some difficulty. As soon as Granny Smith pulled Apple Bloom close to her, Apple Bloom wrapped her arms as far as they would go around Granny’s broad torso and just hugged her hard as she could. Granny stiffened in surprise then relaxed. She smoothly cradled to her bosom the quietly sobbing horse thing that Apple Bloom had become. Apple Bloom didn’t know why she was crying now after all that had already happened, but she couldn’t do a thing about it, and she just desperately needed the soft soothing warmth of her ma— her grandma against her.

That was how Applejack came upon the two of them. Though Apple Bloom’s need to cry had blessedly ceased, she didn’t let go of Granny, afraid of what she’d do if she didn’t have someone to hold onto. “How’s about some breakfast?” Applejack said quietly, making Apple Bloom’s ear turn around to face the cowgirl.

Apple Bloom lifted her head to look at her sister, feeling sort of dull inside. “Htat’d be greath Applezhack,” she said neutrally, tilting her head up at Granny. “Ah sthink ah can shdand up now,”

Granny carefully lowered her to the floor, making sure all four of Apple Bloom’s feet were planted before letting go. “Yer gotta work on yer pronunciation,” she said guidingly, “Y’remember what ah said about esses and tees?”

“Yeah, ith... iths eashy to forge’p rthough,” Apple Bloom regretfully admitted, “An’ mah thounge ith all thick an’ thuff.” She stuck out her tongue to emphasize what she meant and... it just kept on stuck-outing. How long was...?! She pulled her tongue in hurriedly and blushed saying, “...thee?”

“That is one long tongue,” Applejack stated the obvious in a flustered tone.

Granny scratched her head and muttered dazedly, “Ah can’t really say ah know what ter do bout that.”

Apple Bloom wanted to shrug, but her shoulders were kind of stuck right now. She decided she might as well just silently walk to the dining room, then. So she uh, she lifted a hoof and uh... dangit how do you walk again?!

Okay, one hoof, then the back–no the other back one, and yeah that’s right, except no that goes back to standing so you turn it full ways and that... yeah that’s it! Apple Bloom stumbled in place and came to a halt. Looking back at Granny and Applejack bashfully, she faced forward and resumed her slow walk.

...

Well now she really needed to use the booster seat. Apple Bloom couldn’t even see what was on the dining room table, just the table’s dusty underside. She could probably fit underneath it completely without even a squeeze. She tried to sort of rear up like a horse to get her hand-hooves up on the chair, but it was surprisingly unintuitive how to do so, and Apple Bloom just ended up setting roughly back down on her butt again. But this time she regretted it. There was no giant brother towering above her to distract her now. Just Apple Bloom and her butt. Her very unclothed butt. She bit her lip anxiously, squirming in place but afraid to stand up again.

“Need help up?” came her brother’s voice belatedly. Oh now he shows up of course. She turned to look up at him from half underneath the table, sitting there beside her chair with the booster seat, shaking her head a negatory. She couldn’t be sure how much of it even showed underneath the fur, but when she asked him in trepidation, a full blush rushed to her face. “Can ah geth shome... c-can ah getsh some c-clothes maybe?”

His expression was even more unreadable from way down here, but she could certainly see his eyes widen. “...ah’ll get Granny,” he said noncomittally, turning and walking off a bit more hurriedly than a calm, easygoing, unconcerned brother should be.

Maybe Apple Bloom could just scoot around on her butt for the rest of her life.

“Come on Apple Bloom, we’re all family here,” Granny told her comfortingly. “Ain’t nothin’ ah haven’t seen before, heh heh!” Apple Bloom just blushed more at that.

“Please, Apple Bloom, just... put up with it for now?” Applejack pleaded, “We’ll figure out somethin’ but ya caint sit around under the table forever. None of us’ll laugh ah promise. Anyway your tail it—” she stopped uncomfortably, then just went and said, “Your tail covers most of anything up anyways.”

“Ith keepth going up tho,” Apple Bloom said disagreeably. “Juth wathch.” Blushing heavily again she lifted her butt up going back to a standing position, and sure enough her tail lifted up into a cheery arc over behind her, exposing way more of her underside than she was comfortable with. She didn’t even know what was down there anymore! Did it look like Winona? Apple Bloom’s pupils narrowed at the thought and she really hoped it didn’t look like Winona’s.

“There, see your tail is goin’ down just fine,” Applejack chided her, prompting Apple Bloom to look back at her butt. Her tail had indeed shoved itself up against her legs all by itself, when she felt the cold wave of dread that can only come from realizing your private parts might resemble that of the local livestock now.

She peered at it, wiggling the muscles in her butt trying to find whichever one governed the raising of the tail. If she could get conscious control of that then maybe—woah it was—darn it, it was lifting up again! It felt more like straining her back than her butt, oddly.

“Well, uh,” Applejack vacillated, “But when you sit down in your chair it’ll be fine!”

So Apple Bloom got to sit in the booster seat again, this time having to sit like a little dog in a booster seat, with her bottom embarassingly cold against the hard plastic.

“Ah figure you didn’t wanna try uh, eggs,” Applejack said nervously as she presented Apple Bloom with a steaming bowl of fresh cooked oatmeal. “So uh... here you go.”

Apple Bloom stared at the bowl in front of her disapprovingly, then looked up at her sister exclaiming, “How am ah shupothed to eaht thish?”

Applejack blushed and fiddled with her own hands self consciously, saying, “Well you just, you just stick your uh, you can... how about some... toast?”

“Tothsht..tosht woul’ be gool,” Apple Bloom said, ears drooping.

So Applejack ended up with a nice hot steaming bowl of oatmeal for breakfast, to which she added some honey and butter she was afraid would hurt Apple Bloom’s stomach. And Apple Bloom got plain... toast. Just plain toast.

“Aw ‘ou pthure ish oesthn’t” Apple Bloom asked through a mouthful of toast, then blushed and carefully finished what she was eating before saying, “Are you shure thish doeshn’th have budder inshide?”

“Nope,” Big Mac said, “Just plain toast. Still too rich?”

Apple Bloom nodded, looking at the remaining half piece with trepidation. “An’ ith reawlly shweeth,” she added.

“Guess you’re done?” he asked plainly.

Apple Bloom nodded again, saying “Can ah geth down an’ thry more warlking? ...war... wa-l-king?” However terribly she said it, they somehow seemed to understand, and Applejack hooked under Apple Bloom’s wrists again and lifted her to the ground, thankfully avoiding supporting Apple Bloom by the bottom of her very embarassing posterior right now.

Apple Bloom toddled about in her odd double step, until it fell all on its own into a quadrupal beat. Pausing she noticed that what was happening was her back hoof was pushing the opposite front one down, so instead of them both hanging in the air at the same time she went off balance toward the front hoof, so she always had three on the ground at any given time. She looked up feeling excited about her discovery, and... there was her family over there, sitting at the dining room table and eating themselves a nice hardy breakfast.

Granny was talking about something and Applejack was barely listening, watching Apple Bloom walk around while she twirled the spoon idly in her oatmeal. Big Macintosh just went slicing at his eggs benedict quietly. “Lookin’ good, Apple Bloom!” Applejack shouted out when Apple Bloom looked up at her, and that really did make Apple Bloom feel good, it really did, but... then her stomach growled. Like, really loudly.

Applejack’s smile faltered and she said, “You feel up to eatin’ any more?”

Apple Bloom was just too unsure of herself to say yes. She was hungry, but... she already had toast, and orange juice. She was all juiced out. Just like... last night.... The plate with the hay on it lay discarded on the counter, and Apple Bloom eyed it with unease. It just didn’t seem natural... she didn’t even know if she would like it. And then... a thought occurred to her, a thought that really probably oughtn’t to have occurred to anyone anywhere ever, except maybe to a girl who’s been transformed overnight into a tiny horse.

Apple Bloom was still trying to figure out turning. It was easy if you had some space to move forward, just to angle your hips around. Without moving forward, though? The scissor stepping she supposed, or maybe just walking her back legs around like she had an orbiting butt. At least Apple Bloom didn’t have any trouble navigating her way to the back door in the dining room, pausing at it saying, “Can ah go outhide for a bith? Ah wanna thry something”

Big Macintosh stood up, walking over to her and pulling the door open. Applejack stood up too, but Apple Bloom didn’t wait, walking out before she lost her nerve. The morning sun was bright and cheery but the air was still frigid. Apple Bloom didn’t need to worry about that, since she had a fur coat to keep her warm, but it still unsettled her. You’re supposed to walk out into the cold, and blow into your hands, and feel the chill bite at your cheeks, and the rest of your body is supposed to be bundled up and protected. But, Apple Bloom didn’t get to do that anymore, so she just felt cold all over.

The frost hadn’t yet come this year so everything was still reluctantly green from the bountiful summer before. The noise from the auto traffic drifted through the air even from way out here in the outskirts of town where her farm lay. There were hills around here where you could see the whole town from above, but the farm house was located low and in a big clearing surrounded by trees, so there was no sight of anywhere else in the world, only the distant sounds. Applejack and Big Mac had their heads poked around the doorway, and Granny squeezed in underneath the two of them, all of them looking at her concernedly. Apple Bloom knew this would work though, because why wouldn’t it? It was just what the doctor ordered.

So Apple Bloom stuck her neck out and it was easy to lower her head to the level of the ground without barely even hunching over. She looked at it with apprehension, trying to see how it was gonna work, and opened her mouth uncertainly. Then she closed her eyes and just took a big bite out of a tuft of grass in the untended field just outside her house. Her teeth cut through the blades like a knife and she lifted her head slightly to pull the last strands apart from the ground. Her heart was thudding in her chest as she felt the taste of it hit her tongue, the smell rising through her sinuses.

It just... tasted like grass, so why....

She chewed her little bite carefully and experimentally, then stuck her head down for another bite of grass. There was some water hitting the ground next to it for some reason. By the third bite, the others had come outside too and surrounded her on three sides as Apple Bloom put on her little show for them, using herself as an example. Granny murmured in an apprehensive tone, “Apple Bloom, are you okay?”

“Ith good!” Apple Bloom admitted loudly, and she would have said more, but her voice was going all over the place, and she just couldn’t control it right now. “Ith’s...” she couldn’t think of what to say, or what would you say, so she just took another bite of grass. Her experiment was a success! This had been just the right thing to do, and she was so hungry she needed it bad. It was hitting the spot she hadn’t been able to hit all today and yesterday, and that was great! Problem solved!

Then why couldn’t Apple Bloom stop crying?

Apple Bloom felt more than a little shell shocked, by the time her family finally managed to coax her back inside. Her thoughts were so slow and muddy, like the dumb animal she was supposed to be. She couldn’t even find it in herself to care whether she could do math or read or remember her own name, or anything she used to be able to do. What was even the point anymore? All she could think to do was stare dully forward wishing that she could have maybe made something of herself as something besides some kind of circus freak horse thing.

Applejack managed to coax her out of it by patiently sitting with Apple Bloom and talking with her until she listened, about silly things like dances and cow poop and that funny news crew (they hadn’t even bothered to tune in to see if the story aired), and about Applejack’s silly friends like how Pinkie Pie was trying to coordinate a stage play with the Ecology club and didn’t seem to mind she was failing utterly at it. Pinkie was the kind of person who could get a laugh out of you even if she was halfway across town being talked about by proxy to a girl who had for all intents and purposes been changed into a horse. Laughing helped a lot more than Apple Bloom wanted to admit it did.

What really helped though was when Granny charged up like a raging bull with a tape measure in one hand and a cell phone in the other, and made Apple Bloom stick her neck out to measure how long she was now, from head to ...butt. Not counting tail. Granny recited the measurements rapid fire to ...whoever it was on the other end of that phone.

“Oh thank heavens, doctor!” Granny said, making Apple Bloom at last pay attention to whatever it is that Doctor Stable guy is saying. At least, her ears turned towards the phone. Good grief did that still feel weird.

All the doctor said though was, “May I speak with her right now?” Granny heartily agreed, and squatted down to the level of Apple Bloom and Applejack. Applejack was still sitting there next to Apple Bloom, on the living room floor where after her ill fated grass venture, upon reentering the warm confines of her home, Apple Bloom had collapsed hopelessly on the spot. Granny was all awkward about the phone, trying to hold the earpiece up to Apple Bloom’s ear, but Apple Bloom just turned her head to face it and said into the tiny microphone,

“Dthocg?”

She grimaced, forgetting how weird it was to speak now. “Dth...doc?” she managed to say clearly. “Sh-sorry mah voice ish kindtha weilrd stirll.” Gosh darn it where do you put your tongue to say ell?

“Apple Bloom!” he said in a pleasant tone made tinny over the phone speakers, “You have no idea how glad I am to hear that you’re still defying the laws of physics. Are you well? Granny said your mental faculties were intact!”

“Faculthy?” Apple Bloom said confusedly, “Ah ain’ go’ no teaschers running aroun’ in mah headh.”

After the doctor got over his sudden spontaneous leg cramp explaining the prolonged silence with chortling noises in the background, he explained to Apple Bloom that he’d been measuring her height... which is now her length if that weren’t obvious, and according to his calculations she should be 2 feet 1 inch long. Apparantly she was 2 feet, 4 inches long though! 3 inches didn’t seem a very decisive amount, especially since she could stretch her neck really far forward, but it was a promising sign at least.

As a more reliable measure, he asked her if she could weigh herself, to see if her weight was still changing like it had been, and they had a bathroom scale but it only was accurate to the nearest pound. She couldn’t balance enough to put her entire weight on it either. Her legs were... her arms and legs were just a little bit too far apart to all fit on there.

He grumbled a bit at that, and said, “You need to talk with the vet. I know, you don’t want to be thought of as an animal, but she knows how to weigh animals so she can probably help you there. Just tell her that you should be less than 17 pounds. If you weigh more than that, then the rate at which you are transforming may have slowed down, or stopped entirely!”

“Thath greazhe–” she exclaimed excitedly, stopped, and said very slowly and sounding out, “That...’s... greeea...t... hnews.”

“Hmm,” came his thoughtful response.

“Mah moush ish weirld sorry,” she said. “Ah cang shtill think an’ shtuff.”

“I’m going to make a few more calls,” Doctor Stable said, “You get in touch with the vet and have her check you over. She should be more confident if you are... convincingly animalistic.”

Granny couldn’t hear the other end of the phone like Apple Bloom could, so afterwards Apple Bloom told her what he said (with difficulty), and when she did, Granny Smith brightened right up like a Granny shaped sunrise. Granny called the vet right away, and Dr. Cureall was apparantly happy to drive on over to see Apple Bloom face to face, or, face to knee as such the case would be. It was strange having a doctor be so accomodating, but Apple Bloom must have excited her a whole lot, and it was clear that Apple Bloom was in no mental state to be in any kind of stressful unfamiliar environment right now like a vet’s office. Or at least, stressful to a dog maybe, but the vet wasn’t really used to having patients who understood what a doctor’s office is good for.

Both Apple Bloom and Applejack were upset to hear Granny say on the phone, “Ah caint be here cause ah gotta work, but one o’ my grandkids will show ye around.”

“Ah gotta get to school, Granny!” Applejack protested afterwards. “Caint anyone sub for you today?”

“Nope,” said Granny, “Either ah stay here or the whole school goes without lunch, an’ ye can only pick one! So’s it’s gotta be either you or Big Mac, an’ ah know Apple Bloom likes you best.”

It might have been relevant to say that Applejack and Granny Smith were having this discussion privately behind closed doors. Apple Bloom’s new ears were really easy to press up against those doors though to hear what goes on behind them in quiet tones.

“Don’t be silly, Granny,” Applejack said abashedly, “Apple Bloom likes all her family the same. Ah ain’t anythin’ special.”

“Well who did she wake up on top of this morning then,” Granny countered, “Winona?”

Apple Bloom almost stopped listening at that point. The thought of herself being anywhere near Winona or Gummy right now was chilling. If those horses were huge before, now it’d be like two giant mountains of bestial equine flesh. And that was making Apple Bloom feel very uncomfortable to think about, in ways that were very uncomfortable to think about.

“Point taken, Granny,” Applejack grumbled, “But tomorrow it’ll be Big Mac, and ah’m gonna need a letter excusin’ me for today.”

So it was decided, that Granny and Big Mac would head on over to the high school today, and Applejack would stay behind with Apple Bloom. Apple Bloom scrambled back from the door before they opened it, sitting there trying to look all innocent and not listening in, because she just happened to be sitting on her butt in the hallway, just coincidentally. Neither lady gave her a hard time of it. Mac fired up the truck and he and Granny drove off for Canterlot High. That left Apple Bloom and Applejack with nothing to do but wait for the vet to arrive.

That and practice walking.

She was gonna have to eat more grass, wasn’t she.

That hay was starting to look a lot less unappetizing in comparison.

Author's Note

Assessing the Damage

Apple Bloom wanted to pace back and forth as she waited for the vet to arrive at the Apple Acres, but turning on a dime for Apple Bloom was quite beyond her capabilities. Before the vet could come, Applejack had to lead the cows out to pasture first, yet another chore they’d delayed on account of Apple Bloom, and that left Apple Bloom by herself in the farm house.

The house was so empty Apple Bloom thought, when you were the only one there. It seemed even more empty when you were half as tall as you used to be. Apple Bloom walked outside again, not feeling comfortable about the emptiness. Applejack had left the door ajar for her, so it wasn’t any trouble to go outside. The back door didn’t have stairs, instead leading straight to the lawn, so it continued to not be any trouble to go outside.

Apple Bloom couldn’t believe how good the sun felt on her back. It felt like her skin was waking up. She wondered if it was the transformation that made her feel this way, or if it was just the continual embarassment of her bareassment. She’d never gone out into the sun without clothes on after all, not since she was too little to remember. It was easy to confirm, so she went back in and came out with an experimental dish towel draped over her flank.

“Huh,” Apple Bloom said conclusively, then tossed the dish towel aside so she could enjoy the welcome waking feeling of the sun as any horse would: in the nude. Wasn’t anyone around here she had anything to hide from, after all!

Normally with the three siblings and Granny Smith all at school, the cows were fine by themselves at pasture, but the horses had to be cooped up an awful lot. You couldn’t really risk putting them out to pasture because of the likelihood that they’d hurt themselves or jump a fence and run away. It was certainly not ideal to have the farm run itself on empty during the day. Just staying behind to watch Apple Bloom had shown Applejack a bunch of things that needed doing, things that she could get doing because she was off school for the day watching her little sister horse.

Apple Bloom wanted to help but, well, at least she wasn’t a danger of being a fence jumper. But she couldn’t help much, no matter how easily her sister made herself busy, so Applejack kept herself busy while Apple Bloom kept herself ...occupied. That was all Apple Bloom could do. It left Apple Bloom with a lot of time to think about herself at least, and whether she was feeling any worse changes coming on.

She felt fine actually. More than fine, she felt downright perky. Apple Bloom knew she shouldn’t be feeling good about having to skip school, but it was nice to just relax and run around, and even play. Or more accurately, relax and walk hesitantly around and play. But gosh was it fun just moving around in a way that she thought was too simple to enjoy. There was just something fun about playing hookey, even if you had to be a little horse to do so.

Applejack walked up from the horse barn, where she’d let off Winona for her morning feeding, finding Apple Bloom attempting to master jumping forward. Apple Bloom had it down to where she was crouching down and wiggling her hindquarters to get an idea of what they felt like, then jerking her front side up and kicking her back legs forward at the same time. Apple Bloom ...didn’t really have it down at all. In fact, she was measurably unsuccessful at jumping, this particular time. Right in front of her sister too.

“Hey Apple Bloom,” Applejack said blocking the sunlight and looming over a dizzy Apple Bloom fallen prone, “You okay?”

“Justh trying thoo figure ou’ jumping,” Apple Bloom said up to her sister, rolling over on her belly and carefully standing up again. “Sthee,” she demonstrated, throwing her chest back and making her arms lift up, waving them in the air before they plummeted back down to the ground, “Ah figuredh outh how thoo rear up like a horth, so jumping sthould be eashy.”

“Jumpin’ huh,” Applejack said thoughtfully, “Well it’s great you’re movin’ around okay. Ah’d hate to think you couldn’t. Maybe not as much luck speakin’ better though, huh?”

Apple Bloom blushed and her tail lowered on its own despite herself. She sure had been working on moving so much, that she hadn’t really been working on talking at all. Apple Bloom wasn’t really sure how to work on the latter. Her mouth was the strangest part of her right now, with the huge gap between her incisors and molars, and with that weird tongue of hers, and that big long snout that should have dominated her vision when actually she could barely see it. Having elbows that locked up was pretty mundane in comparison to how sensitive her lips had gotten.

Applejack knelt down to look at Apple Bloom more evenly, saying “The vet’ll be here soon. Anything ah can do for you in the meantime?”

“Juth um,” Apple Bloom hesitated, then nodded decisively, “Ah coul’ use somethin’ ta eath maybe.”

Applejack scratched the side of her nose. “Ah’d say to wait for the vet,” she offered cautiously, “But you been doin’ alright so far with eatin’ stuff, and not just horse food neither. You uh... ain’t gone an’ eaten any more of the lawn have ya?”

Apple Bloom blushed even harder, saying, “Nho... ah sthould eath shome though, ah guethh.” She looked at the grass beneath her hand–hooves reluctantly. Darn it why was it looking kind of tasty now? It was just grass it tasted like grass and the satisfactionary feeling when chewing it was... probably an indicator that she thought it was tasty now.

“How about you try some stuff more formulated for eatin’ than just some wild grass,” Applejack suggested.

Apple Bloom frowned. “Hay?” she asked.

“Hay,” Applejack nodded in agreement.

“Ith tho shtupid to shee grathh on a plate,” Apple Bloom complained bitterly.

Applejack looked down at her thoughtfully, then stood up and walked silently into the farm house. She came back with the hay bundled in her arms and not dumped on a plate. Applejack held out a handful of the dry strands at approximately her waist height, saying, “Alright, ah want you to rear up now and take a bite out of these.”

Apple Bloom snorted a laugh. “Ah’m noth a dhog,” she said rolling her eyes.

“Course you ain’t, that’s why ah’m tellin’ you,” Applejack said stubbornly. “It ain’t like a dog it’s just a lil’ game to make things interestin’. Ah ain’t just gonna spoon feed you even if you ain’t got no hands no more.”

“Maybe ah’ll juth eat thish then,” Apple Bloom said snidely, ignoring the hay and sticking her nose into the teasy tangles of live grass underneath her. Her sneeze knocked her back a step. She looked up at Applejack in abject um... something. Alarm. But the ridiculousness of it was just too much, and Apple Bloom felt her mouth quirking upward in that way where the more you try to stop it, the harder it is not to laugh.

Applejack couldn’t hold it in either and they were both laughing pretty soon. It was really humanizing in a way. Apple Bloom might be some kind of horse thing, but here she was sharing that common bond of laughter with her sister. Apple Bloom still sounded like herself, for the ...most part, and she still was herself so far. Being reminded of how similar the two of them still were made it seem more tolerable to be totally different on the outside.

Apple Bloom reared up impishly and rested her front hooves on Applejack’s thigh, stretching her neck over to take a big bite out of the handful of grass extending from Applejack’s idle grip. She mumbled something unintelligible that was supposed to sound like “Got it!” and pushed away onto her four hooves. Then Apple Bloom realized that she had just gone and ate hay, and she kind of blanked for a moment. She was just messing around still, though! It was a joke! She wasn’t really eating... yet there she was standing there on all fours with a big bunch of dry grass sticking partway out of her mouth.

Even Applejack seemed surprised that her encouragement had worked so well, and watched hopefully as Apple Bloom crossed her eyes, trying to chew the crunchy dry stuff. Her incisors were pretty useless after the first initial bite, but it settled into that weird between-tooth groove naturally, and she could roll the strands from there, bit by bit, onto her rear molars for chewing. Her mouth was watering a lot, turning the dry strands into a gooey chewed up ball. It was making her feel kind of thirsty.

What surprised Apple Bloom the most though was the taste. Because it tasted measurably better than the grass she’d eaten off the ground. It wasn’t as strong or pungent, and it didn’t taste as much like... well... grass. It tasted more like bread. In fact, it had more of an overtone of bread to it than the bread had had! She wondered... she wondered what kind of hay Big Mac had grabbed when he brought it in yesterday evening.

“Is thith wheath?” Apple Bloom asked uneasily, still having trouble saying it even though she made sure her mouth was clear. “Whea...t?” she repeated to clarify.

“Uh... ah reckon?” Applejack looked blankly at the considerably stubbier grass in her hand. “You’d have to ask Big Mac which bale he got it from.”

“Coul’ ah hav shome–ah mean... ah guesh ah could thry shome more...” Apple Bloom said, a little too excitedly.

“Well alright,” said Applejack, pinching the end of the little handful and waving the strands up above Apple Bloom’s head again. “Then let’s see if you can get it!”

That was what Dr. Cureall witnessed when she drove up, down the crumbly dirt road to that quaint farmhouse so far in the outskirts of town. Apple Bloom was rearing up and hopping into the air while Applejack teased her higher around the farm girl in circles, with the tantalizing wheat grass just barely out of reach. Apple Bloom was having way too much fun when the doctor spoke up behind her,

“Well, at least she’s well behaved!”

Apple Bloom startled then and overbalanced, falling nose first into the ground. It didn’t hurt as much as it should have, but it still hurt. “Ouw...” she muttered under her breath, pushing her arm-legs against the ground to lift herself up, rubbing her nose with one. She continued in her circle around behind Applejack, at her slow walk. It was the easiest way Apple Bloom could think of to turn around, so that she could face the doctor. When she came around from behind her sister, Apple Bloom felt really nervous for some reason, but it wasn’t like a stranger or anything. If she wasn’t so giant sized, Dr. Cureall would practically be familiar enough to call a friend by now.

Dr. Cureall was wearing more functional khaki cargo pants now, and a white collared button up shirt with a pocket stuffed full of pens. Her blue white hair was still back in a ponytail, and she had a stethoscope hanging around her neck. She didn’t approach when she saw Apple Bloom’s hesitance, saying to Applejack in a kindly tone, “Is it alright if I get a look at her?”

“C’mon, Apple Bloom,” Applejack said encouragingly. Not that she had to encourage her, because Apple Bloom was totally confident, cool and collected when she crept out from behind Applejack. She certainly wasn’t stifling a whimper looking up at the veterinarian. It wasn’t like this was the first non-family member who ever saw Apple Bloom as a little horse completely naked except for the giant bow in her hair.

The vet knelt down to Apple Bloom with a look of wonder on her face. “Well I’ll be. I’ve never seen anything like this before! Is this as small as she gets?” she asked up at Applejack.

Applejack, who glanced at Apple Bloom uncertainly, answered, “We don’t rightly know, as we caint weigh her on the bathroom scale, and she’s way too light for the livestock scale. Dr. Stable said if she was above 17 pounds, then she wasn’t gettin’ any smaller.”

“That’s just about the lower limit any horse has ever weighed!” the veterinarian said, “I took the liberty into reading up some on miniature horses, but even newborn foals can be up to 25 pounds.” She gave Apple Bloom another critical eye and said, “This one doesn’t look newborn though. I’d say at least 2 years old. This is really ...her?”

Apple Bloom nodded, but Dr. Cureall was looking up at Applejack, who was also nodding. Wait a sec...

The vet approached Apple Bloom crouched-down, with a hand cautiously outstretched in an open palm. She didn’t look Apple Bloom directly in the eye, but was just making soothing chk-chk noises with her tongue. Apple Bloom was starting to feel real uncomfortable about exactly what was going on here. Unsure of what to do, Apple Bloom just stuck her arm out and rested the hoof at the end of it on the vet’s palm, in a vague attempt at a handshake.

“My god that is just precious,” the vet said with a huge smile, closing her hand so very lightly and timidly around Apple Bloom’s little hoof. Apple Bloom looked up at her sister for any idea but Applejack was just looking back at her with an equally confounded expression.

Apple Bloom looked back at the vet, kind of warily turning her nose sideways and greeted Dr. Cureall with, “Uh... hi.”

“Oh jezus it still talks!” the vet exclaimed in utter bewilderment. She let go of Apple Bloom’s hoof as if it burned her, and lurched back violently, half standing up before falling harshly onto her butt.

Apple Bloom stared open mouthed at the vet before exclaiming angrily up at her sister, “Applethack!”

“Oh lordy, ah forgot to tell ya!” Applejack slapped her hand over her forehead. “You thought she was just a horse?!”

The vet looked frantically between Applejack and Apple Bloom with a dumbfounded expression just saying, “But... how... but... what... how...”

“Ah’m shtill me,” Apple Bloom explained to the vet as gently as she could what with Applejack telling the vet she was just a dumb horse. “Even nhow!”

“How is that possible?” Dr. Cureall finally managed to spit out, “You don’t even have room for a brain!”

Apple Bloom shrunk back fear swelling at the vet’s sudden harsh tone. “Ah don’ know!” she worried. “Ah jus’ am! Asthk me anything, ah can sthill do ith!” she added challengingly, reflexively squaring her hooves on the ground.

The vet blinked slowly, then said in a wavering tone, “What’s... 10 minus 7?”

“Hthree,” Apple Bloom said quickly.

“19 plus... 23?”

Apple Bloom had to pause there, tapping her hoof here and there on the ground to remember the places and carrying. “Fourthythoo!” she concluded triumphantly, puffing her chest out.

“You remember everything?” the vet said skeptically.

“Yeth,” Apple Bloom asserted, “Ah’m sthill me an’ ah wanna sthay that hway, sho can you figure a way outh thoo meashure how big ah am? Ah jus’ wanna shtop schanging an’ be g...done with itsh!”

The doctor cast a pleading gaze to Applejack asking weakly, “...what did she say?”

Apple Bloom hated not being able to talk right! She hmphed in frustration. It came out sounding like a horse. Now she felt like crying again.

“We need to measure her weight,” Applejack said carefully, “An’ the people-doc said you might know how.”

The vet blinked again, then she said, “Oh! Oh right!” Picking herself up dazedly, she straightened her disarrayed collar saying to Applejack, “If you can show me your bathroom scale there’s an old trick for measuring cats and dogs that I... think would work on her, if she’s not too heavy.”

At the threshold of the bathroom, Apple Bloom caught herself looking at her reflection in the door mirror again. Nothing had changed that she could see. It was a lot less horrifying when you knew what you were going to see in there, even if you couldn’t see your own butt in it, because your body was so distorted that your butt extended out beyond the boundary of the mirror. A sudden thought occurred to Apple Bloom that maybe at a different angle she could see her butt, like, see see her butt in the mirror, to see how bad it looked... down there.

Her tail went down at the very thought, and the vet was ready for her anyway so Apple Bloom didn’t have to worry about it. “I still got it,” the vet said smugly, as she stood alone on the scale weighing herself. Apple Bloom wasn’t sure at first how weighing yourself helped weigh someone else, but she found out quickly when the vet stepped off the scale and crouched down again in front of her.

Dr. Cureall held out her arms around Apple Bloom then hesitated then said, “Uh... I am going to have to pick you up. Is that alright?” in a rather forced tone.

Apple Bloom turned her head shyly, but nodded saying, “N-no problem.” So the vet braced one arm against Apple Bloom’s chest, wrapping it around the side of her, and that was the easy part. The other hand tucked underneath in front of her legs... her back legs, then wrapped around the underside of her lower torso, a part of Apple Bloom which was a lot more sensitive than her um... chest. The vet stood up then, grunting as she took on Apple Bloom’s weight with some, but very little difficulty. Dr. Cureall’s two arms became like a sling that lifted Apple Bloom along with them, Apple Bloom’s own four ...legs dangling down below her.

“Y’alright?” the vet asked her.

“Ith fahn,” Apple Bloom said shortly, a blush rushing to her face. It sure didn’t feel bad at least. She didn’t want to think about what was being felt though. So the vet walked over and stood on the scale, reading the number once it settled, then stepped off it and squatted down again, placing Apple Bloom’s hooves securely on the ground before releasing her torso.

“Well, you appear to be about 21 pounds,” the vet said. “That’d put you on the small side as far as medium sized dogs are concerned. Uh, n-not that you’re a dog I mean, you know, you know what I mean.”

“Thwenthyone poun’s?” Apple Bloom said thoughtfully, “But that’h way above.... thehventheen poun’s!” Wow, she never realized how much harder numbers were to say than any other words. So many freaking esses and tees. But that meant...!

“So she’s done?!” Applejack asked the vet, who looked at her uncomprehendingly. “She’s done changing?” Applejack clarified.

“I don’t... how much was she supposed to weigh again?” the vet asked vacillating.

“17 pounds,” Applejack answered, “Or lower.”

“She is definitely over 17 pounds,” Dr. Cureall said. “You mean about Doc Doc’s calculations? He could’ve been wro—I mean, yes it does mean she’s done changing. You should call him and check though!”

“If ah’m dhone schangin’ hthen maybe ah won’th ge’ all dumb!” Apple Bloom exclaimed excitedly.

“You caint imagine how grateful we are, doctor!” Applejack said setting her butt down next to where Apple Bloom was standing and laying an arm around her tiny horseness. “Ah was afraid ah’d lose my lil’ baby sister!”

Apple Bloom started to smile but blushed horribly at that last part. “You alwayth hcall me htat!” she said upset at her sister’s dumb way she liked to refer to Apple Bloom. Apple Bloom was more upset with how much more accurate the jibe applied to her now. “Ah’m only hthree yearth younger hthan you!” she asserted to Applejack impotently.

Applejack pulled her arm back and looked gobstopped, herself. “Ah didn’t even think about that Apple Bloom!” she declared in an apologetic tone. “That was right thoughtless of me! Ah only meant it like a joke as always; ah didn’t mean you were literally like that.”

Applejack looked at the doctor and gave her a helpless look asking plainly, “Why’s Apple Bloom all like a baby now?”

The doctor paused, and then said curtly to Applejack, “Listen, I know all there is to know about horses, and Apple Bloom is no ordinary horse. I can check her vitals and maybe even make a suggestion or two about how much she resembles a horse and should therefore act like one, but this is... this is something so beyond anything... I just don’t even know what to tell you. Maybe she’s supposed to look that way? Gypsy curse? I can’t say!”

She leaned closer to Apple Bloom asking her in a whisper, “You didn’t offend any gypsies lately, did ya?”

Apple Bloom tried to hold back a laugh.

“All right, alright,” Applejack conceded. “Just check her over and ah’ll call the doc.”

Applejack stood up, leaving Apple Bloom feeling vulnerable once again. It was a small comfort that her tail went down, but Apple Bloom didn’t feel comfortable just standing like this under the scrutiny of others. She couldn’t fiddle with her hands nervously, or scratch the back of her head or cross her arms or anything. Her arms were holding her weight as much as her feet, so she just had to stand there clumsily, not feeling confident that she was coordinated enough to move with them fluidly if the vet did anything unexpected or sudden.

Didn’t help that the vet kept talking down to her, when she talked to her at all.

“Alright, suppose I’ll take a listen to you,” the doctor started off, putting a hand against Apple Bloom’s shoulder to steady her and pressing the cold stethoscope against Apple Bloom’s belly... side... barrel. She put the stethoscope in two spots on either side of Apple Bloom, one at the top of Apple Bloom’s thigh, the other right down by her... things she didn’t want to think about. The metal disk of the stethoscope was so huge compared to Apple Bloom that there really wasn’t much difference in positioning it, but the doctor seemed to know what she was doing.

“Mmmhmm,” Dr. Cureall said, seeming satisfied by whatever she heard, moving the stethoscope to entirely underneath Apple Bloom, making her wince again from the contact. “Mmmhmm, mmhmm,” the vet continued, lifting the chilly metal disk and placing firmly on the part of Apple Bloom’s chest that was right behind her elbow. Or, no it was underneath her armpit. Or, her... elbow... pit... thing. Apple Bloom didn’t know how her arms worked, or why her armpit was at her elbow. Dr. Cureall seemed to find all the most uncomfortable spots to put that thing!

The vet’s fingers pressed alongside dimpling into Apple Bloom, holding the stethoscope against her. The vet looked at her other hand which had a watch on the wrist. There was a minute long pause. Then she took the stethoscope away, and picked up her little notepad, writing something in it without saying what it was.

“Sho how’m ah dhooing?” Apple Bloom asked, blushing as she did. The vet just stopped, kind of looking at Apple Bloom blankly. “D-ooing?” Apple Bloom repeated, pronouncing it roughly correct, with difficulty.

“Oh!” the vet said in realization, “That’s right you’re a... right, you want to know those things. You’re doin’ just fine, honey.”

She didn’t clarify herself at all, and just started looking into Apple Bloom’s eyes and ears with a light, so Apple Bloom asked, “Were you hlishning... hlistening to mah belly?”

“Mmm, trying to hear your digestion,” the vet said distractedly, “You probably should eat more forage, lots more at least until you have a bowel movement. No way to tell if there’s any irritation or obstruction if there ain’t anything in there being digested!

“Sho like grassh an’ shtuff?”

“Yes, and with few grains as possible,” said the doctor stroking Apple Bloom’s neck gently and sticking her finger into the side of Apple Bloom’s mouth, peeling back her lips without even asking.

“Mlah?” Apple Bloom said a bit startled and the vet cooed at her,

“It’s okay honey, you don’t need to bite. I’m not gonna hurtcha.”

Apple Bloom’s brow knitted in frustration but she settled down and never even once came close to biting anyone. It wasn’t pleasant though. Apple Bloom’s lips were supple and sensitive, and too easily pulled out of the way to access her gums. That wasn’t pleasant because the vet kept depressing a fingertip into them along their length.

She seemed satisfied with Apple Bloom’s gums, but tsked when she was tracing a finger down the almost ninety degree turn of Apple Bloom’s neck. It was more that Apple Bloom’s neck went forward as it curved around down to become her chest, but at the base of her nape it ended up looking like a ninety degree turn. The doc didn’t like it, at any rate. And she poked worryingly at the base of Apple Bloom’s tail, which treacherously sprang up into a merry arc in the air any time Apple Bloom relaxed and stopped trying to cover her privates. Thankfully the vet didn’t go poking around in her privates.

Apple Bloom was a bit surprised when the vet started squeezing around her foot, which is to say the side of her rear leg that was straight up in the air. Apple Bloom looked back at her with confusion. The vet pushed her off balance then, and Apple Bloom had to lift her foot to catch herself, but before she could put it down the vet grabbed it and held her up by it. “Good girl!” Dr. Cureall said happily, setting down Apple bloom’s leg gently, then going and squeezing the foot again.

“Wha’re you hdoing?” Apple Bloom asked her exasperatedly.

“Oh! Um...” the doctor poked Apple Bloom’s foot again hesitantly, “Can ya lift your hooves for me?”

Even after they got that little misunderstanding dealt with, Apple Bloom was puzzled by how fascinated the vet seemed to be with what were pretty much just Apple Bloom’s weirdly shaped fingertips. But the vet got tired of poking at Apple Bloom’s surprisingly responsive hooves eventually. She didn’t say what she found though, which frustated Apple Bloom to no end.

When Applejack returned with a hopeful expression the doctor was busy pulling at Apple Bloom’s shoulder/side and Apple Bloom’s skin came away way too easy, hanging there a while before going back into place. “Whath’s tha’ for?” Apple Bloom prompted the overly uncommunicative doctor lady again.

“Mmm, you’re one dehydrated little horse. Gotta get some water in you,” the vet mumbled. And now that Apple Bloom thought on it, she hadn’t drank hardly anything since waking up today. She swallowed dryly hoping the exam would be over soon so she could get to that.

Applejack announced to Apple Bloom, “Doc says you should be down to 13 pounds by now, if you were still changin’. Ain’t no mistakin’ that! He said to weigh you after an hour to make sure. Ah hope whatever this is, is all done with ya though!”

“Oh, glad you’re here!” the vet said standing up to address Applejack. “I don’t suppose you’ve been hydrating her?” At Applejack’s blank expression the vet added, “...providing her with water?”

“Oh lordy you’re right!” Applejack said nervously, “Apple Bloom, why didn’t you say anything? You ain’t drank anything but part a glass of OJ, and after all that dry hay.”

“Bit dithtractedh,” Apple Bloom said moodily, “Can ah have some, please?”

“No juice!” the vet said earnestly getting in Applejack’s face.

“Uh, okay then,” Applejack said uneasily, “Ah was just gonna get some water anyhow.”

“It is very important she avoid sugary foods or food high in carbohydrates,” the vet pressed, “That includes juice! Too much could throw off her blood sugar and that leads to...” she looked at Apple Bloom with a nervous glance, “...bad things.”

“What kindtha thingsh?” Apple Bloom asked worriedly. “Ah cain’th hdrink dey...dje...jeuce anymore?!”

“I... I’m not saying you are going to get laminitis but it’s a very valid concern!” the vet said. Apple Bloom remembered reading about that word once before, but only vaguely. Applejack recognized it though because she paled immediately and said,

“Right, no juice. Got it.”

“Alright, that’s all set,” the vet said as Applejack jogged off. “Now just relax cutie and I’ll be right back.” She stroked Apple Bloom on the nose, then straightened up and strode off, heading towards her vehicle. Apple Bloom rubbed her nose with a hoof, feeling offended for some reason. Applejack came back first with the water and... well... it was understandable considering what a mess Apple Bloom made when she tried to use a cup but, well, Applejack came back with a nice clean fresh bowl of water.

Apple Bloom’s ears went down when she saw it. “Too much?” Applejack said abashedly, “Ah can go get a—”

“No no ith fine,” Apple Bloom said hastily. Applejack reluctantly set down the bowl, and Apple Bloom looked at it unhappily but... she was too thirsty to be proud. She couldn’t tilt it back to pour it down her throat certainly, so she stood in front of it and tried submerging her nose in the water and pursing her lips to just suck out some. That worked good actually, and Apple Bloom felt her ears turn up as her surprisingly parched tissues welcomed the sweet nourishment, gulping down mouthful after mouthful.

“Terribly sorry, Apple Bloom,” Applejack said as Apple Bloom finished lifting her dripping muzzle out of the water. “Forgot you might have to drink a lot more with the whole horse thing and all.”

“Sokay Happlhthath ah feerlh—feerlh...waithh...” Apple Bloom paused and smacked her lips again, and crossed her eyes at her muzzle, declaring angrily, “Oh no! Ah go’ arhl uuthed thoo thalthking wilth a dthry thoungue!”

“Didn’t catch that,” Applejack replied delicately.

Apple Bloom stared at the bowl in front of her then at her sister and said, “Thst...shs..shtill can’ thalgk... thalk gool... good. Thalk good. Can...tuh.”

Applejack looked like she wanted to reply but her anxiety was warring with her diplomacy. There just wasn’t anything anyone could say that wouldn’t just make Apple Bloom feel worse about herself and her big dumb floppy tongue.

Apple Bloom silently went down for another drink.

Running back with a medical bag, Dr. Cureall said to Applejack, “Sorry about that, I just needed one thing to finish a basic vitals checkup.” She smiled practically and held up a digital thermometer, then turned to Apple Bloom.

“Alright,” the doctor said looking down at Apple Bloom, but still talking to Applejack. “If you’ll keep her settled and calm, I should be able to take her temperature to at least get a baseline.” Apple Bloom sighed inwardly. This doctor just couldn’t accept that she was a person, not a wild animal who needed handling. Apple Bloom wondered how many people would react that way to her.

“You thon’t needth thoo harndle me,” she said to the doctor, who was startled by Apple Bloom talking (again! jeez!). “Thee?” she said, and Apple Bloom opened her mouth obediently, lifting up her tongue for easy insertion. When no thermometer came, Apple Bloom cracked an eye open at the doc who was looking very uncomfortable with her right now.

“Ehhh...” Dr. Cureall said with utmost caution and tact looking at the thermometer and Apple Bloom’s mouth with trepidation, “You really don’t want me to do that.”

So it turns out that Apple Bloom did appreciate being kept settled and calm. Let’s not forget the fact that, while a horse might not even notice a digital thermometer, Apple Bloom was like a tenth of the size of a full grown horse. So yeah. Handling.

She was never ever going to get a checkup from this lady again.

“Well, now that that’s all said and done,” Dr. Cureall said nervously to an equally uncomfortable Applejack, “Let’s go over Apple Bloom’s vital signs. I measured her heart rate at 103 which I’ll assume is average for her, now. It’s probably average for an ...animal of her size, along with her respiratory rate of 27.”

“Though, I bet they were higher during the temperature reading!” the vet said in exaggerated cheer with a sloppy grin.

The vet then coughed in the silence, “Sorry, bad joke. But seriously, that might not be her resting rate, as exams can be stressful and get the heart rate and breathing up, but it’s the best I can do on short notice. Her temperature is 100 which is right on the nose as far as horses are concerned. Her ears are clean, and her eyes are clear. Her eyes are... well, I mean...” She gestured at Apple Bloom broadly, declaring, “This isn’t a horse!”

They both blinked at the vet, and she tried to clarify herself. “Horses have horizontal pupils, first off. Apple Bloom here has round pupils, and they dilate radially. They’re probably the most humanlike part about her right now. In fact it might just be her small stature, I have no way to measure her before, but her eyes seem like they’re even bigger than a human’s! Which is the exact opposite from a horse’s eyes which should be smaller than a human’s.”

“Take a look at this,” Dr. Cureall said grabbing Apple Bloom’s tail unannounced and pulling it around over to Applejack. “Her tail goes all the way to the end here, see the part near the tip that’s still fleshy?”

“She definitely doesn’t have a horse’s tail,” Applejack said thoughtfully, “Otherwise it’d be all hair at the end.”

“Yet she has a tail!” the doctor declared releasing Apple Bloom to yank her tail to herself and curl around it blushing fiercely. “She stands on four legs that end in hooves. Her ears are motile, her muzzle is equine if terribly short for a horse’s muzzle. But even her hooves don’t quite fit the bill! Look at–” Apple Bloom jerked her hoof out of the doctor’s seeking grasp, shooting her a nasty look, and then stretching out the hoof on her own for Applejack to see... whatever she’s supposed to see.

“...right,” the doctor said meekly, “You can see the size of her frog it’s huge! Encompasses the entire hoof cavity. Also it’s strange, if you feel it... I mean, if that’s uh, okay with you that is...”

“Go aheadth,” Apple Bloom muttered rolling her eyes at the doctor. Applejack hesitantly poked Apple Bloom’s fingertip, or... ‘frog’ it would be now. Apple Bloom was finding her perception of her hoof a lot weirder than she thought it would be. It should have felt like Applejack had normal fingers, poking and pulling against Apple Bloom’s one weird big finger, but instead it felt to Apple Bloom like tiny little hooves were kicking hers. She had to look to convince herself that there wasn’t a tiny little horse in place of Applejack’s hand.

“Huh,” said Applejack. “It’s kinda sticky.”

Well, now Apple Bloom’s interest was piqued. She looked at the underside of her hoof but it was just a smooth yellow lump it wasn’t slimy or crusty or anything. What was so sticky about it? She tried touching her own chest with it, but–

“And that!” the vet exclaimed excitedly. “How are you doing that?”

Apple Bloom looked up at Dr. Cureall surprisedly, setting her leg back down as the doctor said, “No wait don’t–”

The doctor groaned then just stated tiredly, “Horses... cannot do what this– what Apple Bloom just did. They cannot look at the underside of their own hoof. It just doesn’t articulate that way. And they cannot make... arm... joints come out of nowhere. Seriously,” she looked up at Applejack gesturing at Apple Bloom, “Did you see that?”

Applejack gave the doctor an exasperated sigh, and said “You could just ask you know.” She then knelt down and said gently to Apple Bloom, “Can ya look at your own hoof again?”

Apple Bloom turned her hoof up obediently, but stayed looking at Applejack instead of looking down at it again. “Good, hold that pose!” Applejack cheered, then said to the doctor, “Now, you were sayin’ somethin’?”

“Fascinating!” the vet declared, running her fingers up and down Apple Bloom’s arm. “Alright, now if you can stand on your hoof again...” she instructed hestitantly.

Apple Bloom did so plant her hoof down, but made sure to ask, “Whath ith thith abou’?”

“Well, it’s almost like your shoulders are...” the vet trailed off, poking Apple Bloom’s side, as if searching for a way to describe it in there.

“Lohcking up?” Apple Bloom suggested. “zthey do thath when ah shtand on zthem.”

“I was going to say unlocking, but yeah,” the vet agreed, “Horses have fixed shoulders for structural support, just like when Apple Bloom is standing, but she seems to be able to ...release that, giving her front legs a greater freedom of motion...”

The doctor sat back on her rear on the floor, crossing her legs and cupping her chin, the gears in her head practically audible from across the room.

“Okay,” Dr. Cureall announced eagerly, “I think I got it! The dream Apple Bloom had was actually astral projection, through which she came to us from a parallel universe to our own where horses evolved sentience instead of humans, and she’s merely returned to her original form, and that’s why she resembles a horse but has so many characteristics we identify as human, because they evolved the same characteristics in stead of us!”

“That’s the most ridiculous thing I ever—” Applejack said conclusively and definitively, before Dr. Cureall interrupted her mid-sentence, by rushing up to Apple Bloom’s face and saying,

“What is it like in your home dimension? Do you live in cities or are you nomadic? Can we visit there? Are you the only sentient beings? Do you come in peace?”

“Apple Bloom is not from a parallel universe!” Applejack snapped at the doctor. “Ah don’t know why she’s this way, but this is mah very own flesh and blood, not some alien visitor from beyond! A parallel universe exists, full of smart horses? Where do you even get that idea? That’s just not”

Applejack paused.

“That’s not...” she said trying again, but couldn’t quite get it out. She turned her chin down fingers over her mouth thoughfully.

“Ith makess shensh,” Apple Bloom said hesitantly, looking at her own hoof... the only thing Apple Bloom had left to call a hand anymore. “Bu’ all ah ever remehmbehr,” she continued, “Isz bein’ nohrmal, an’ humahn. Ah wasn’ a pony zthe dhay before yeshterday, or any dhay before zthat. I was jus’ a nohrmal ngirl!”

Doctor looked at her blankly, saying “...didn’t catch that.”

Apple Bloom’s tail swished irritably. She said as clearly and curtly as she could manage. “dh...don’... Don’t. Remembehr. Nnnot. Being. Human.”

“Look. Ah got a friend,” Applejack said holding her hands up placatingly, “Who knows all sorts of stuff about magic and myths and golden apples an’ stuff. Ah’ll ask her again. But for now we caint worry about something we caint do nothin’ about. So enough of the speculation. Let’s just calm down, relax, and uh... anyone up for some grub?”

Dr. Cureall didn’t want to get paid for this visit. She said that witnessing something as incredible as Apple Bloom was payment enough. But Applejack insisted, though the vet gave her a huge discount, possibly because of the lunch Applejack prepared for her. No, definitely because of the lunch Applejack prepared for the doctor. Two words: stroganoff sandwich. And as lunch progressed, Apple Bloom came to envy that cow.

It was easy enough for Applejack to drag a hay bale of tasty alfalfa into the farm house, and alfalfa it turns out was quite tasty and nutritious for a growing little filly. And better yet, it didn’t have any of those scary grain carbohydrate things that could make your hooves fall off.

Apple Bloom didn’t feel nearly as humiliated as when she had when it was grass on a plate, either. She was fine with just pulling pieces off the block of hay with her mouth to chew on. Something about it being a natural hay bale made it more ...bearable, and Applejack had sort of gotten Apple Bloom over her inhibitions about eating the stuff.

And it wasn’t like Apple Bloom had to choke the stuff down dry. Not that it really was all that dry, but there was a nice big clean metal bucket they had. Apple Bloom even carried it into the house from the spigot all by herself, by holding the lip of the bucket firmly in her teeth. That she could do so, even with it full of water, made her feel a lot more confident about herself.

So Apple Bloom sat there placidly chewing on the mild tasting hay, and she should have been feeling confident and triumphant. But instead, her stomach rumbled treacherously, as she gazed longingly at the sour cream dipped strips of meat sliding in the molten cheese of the sandwich as it entered Dr. Cureall’s mouth again and again. The meat smell was to die for, and all that buttery fatty goodness that made the onions sweet as caramel, and even the bread was fresh baked rolls.

Bread that Apple Bloom could never eat again, or her hooves would fall off. Difficult to digest, impossible to chew, yet so tasty beef. It was sauteed in deliciously spicy mustard that made her nose twitch in delight, and was a deadly poison to her now. Onions that could give her anemia. And a nice side of fried potatoes that would give her colic, which would kill her faster than the laminitis.

Apple Bloom was definitely envying the cow in that sandwich by the end of lunch.

There was one more thing the vet had to do before leaving, which was weigh Apple Bloom. Apple Bloom was almost grateful when the lunch was over and the delicious smells were cleaned up, and evaporated back to the ambient smell of sturdy wood with a slight hint of the sweet clematis climbing the wall outside. At the bathroom door, she settled back on her haunches pretty easily this time, and the vet just wrapped her arms around behind Apple Bloom and lifted her up by her forelegs to weigh her. It was a lot less awkward for Apple Bloom than having an arm groping around down... there.

“...21.5 pounds,” Dr. Cureall announced, having taken the differential between their weights. Apple Bloom’s sadness and stress evaporated at the sound of that. Because... she was still her! She wasn’t some dumb horse after all! Just some... weird alien dimension horse who wasn’t dumb at all.

She even proved it, by doing some long division for Applejack and Dr. Cureall. Apple Bloom had to do it in her head of course, since she couldn’t write, and she got the wrong answer at first because she put the numbers in the wrong imagined columns, but her skill wasn’t any worse than it was before! Let’s see what Mr. Doodle thought about her math skills now!

Right, as soon as she... figured out how to attend school again.

Alright, so maybe not all her problems were over.

The doctor headed out having pushed all her appointments to the afternoon, leaving Apple Bloom alone with Applejack again. Pretty soon after that, the home phone started to ring. Applejack went to pick it up, saying “Yello?” Apple Bloom was busy pushing around some scraps of paper with numbers written on them, and didn’t bother listening to who it was, but then Applejack shouted over to her, “Hey Apple Bloom, it’s your English teacher!”

“Wha?” Apple Bloom said twisting her head around dumbfoundedly. Miss Harshvoice was calling her?

“Wants to know why you’re absent today,” Applejack said with a roll of her eyes.

“Um, uh...” Apple Bloom hesitated, wobbling on her hooves.

Applejack snickered then, and got a sly look on her face. “Why sure she’s here!” she declared to the phone, “Hold on ah’ll go get her.”

“Applethack!” Apple Bloom protested, but Applejack would have none of it, lifting the phone base off its place on the mantle, and lowering it to Apple Bloom’s level. Applejack squatted, holding out the receiver so Apple Bloom could speak, looking at her expectantly.

“Hurro?” Apple Bloom said into it, looking worriedly up at Applejack, who had this crazed grin on her face.

“Miss Apple Bloom!” came Ms. Harshvoice’s harsh...voice clearly out of the earpiece. “When that strange phenomenon occured, you never returned to class. I had assumed the worst had happened, when you did not arrive for class today! If you are so easily available, then why haven’t you come back to class? It was said your condition was not sickening or virulent, so you had better have a good excuse!”

“Ah’m thorry Merz Harshvoithe,” Apple Bloom said frantically, “Buh ah’m uh, sortha tha earsh goth worthe an’ hthen ah wen’ an’ thurned into thom kintha tdiny horthe! You goh’uh unthersthan! Ah cain’ come tho shcool like thith!”

There was an odd sort of interference in the phone signal then. It sort of sounded like one continued long agonisingly aggrivated scream. It was hard to hear though because the phone got knocked away when Applejack fell back on her butt laughing. Apple Bloom gaped at her, then frowned in realization exclaiming again, “Applejhack!” in outraged frustration. That just made Applejack laugh harder.

Applejack regained her composure, saying mirthfully into the phone, “Terribly sorry Ms. Harshvoice, but Apple Bloom has a bit of a mouth and throat condition, so she might be a bit hard to unnerstand right now.”

“You did that on purpose!” came Ms. Harshvoice’s disembodied accusatory shout.

“Ah really am sorry though,” Applejack said to her turning away from Apple Bloom. “Apple Bloom really does have a ...condition, an’ she ain’t gonna be able to come to school, maybe not for a ...while.”

There was a pause, and Ms. Harshvoice said in a strangely melancholy way, “I’m sorry to hear that. If she must miss a significant portion of the year it will set her back considerably.” There was another pause and her teacher said, “At least she has the farm.”

Applejack said something else but Apple Bloom didn’t really hear what they were talking about anymore, because her ears turned away and down on their own. After hanging up the phone, Applejack got down to the ground and looked Apple Bloom in the eye, saying “Ah’m sorry you got a bit of rotten luck here, but I swear we will get through this. As long as you’re true to yourself, things’ll work out alright somehow.”

Apple Bloom looked at Applejack hopefully, but the light of hope sputtered in her eyes as she did. “Ah’rll be in mah room,” she said dimly, turning away to head over there. “Ah’m ghonna gho prahctith shpeakin’”

She was sure Applejack wanted to say something to comfort her, but Applejack let her go. Apple Bloom wasn’t in the mood to be comforted anyway, and she really really needed to figure out how to use this mouth of hers without sounding like she was chewing on a bunch of marbles. It was one step of many that she had to overcome, if she was ever going to get a semblance of a normal life again, but she was determined to try her best no matter what the odds. Her ears went up as she firmed her resolve.

Apple Bloom then stopped at the stairs, looking up them with a blank expression.

“Uhm... Appleshack?”

Author's Note

Laminitis is a medical term for when a horse gets a hangnail. It is fatal.

...meanwhile in her basement fortress, Peppermint Twist chortled madly as her diabolical plan to give everypony a terrible lisp was at last coming to fruition

Settling In

The mornings would come later, as winter approached this time of year. The one thing Apple Bloom liked least about this season was having to look forward to getting up before the sun came up. So it was a small favor that as a pony, her obligation to get up and get ready for school was gone. She didn’t have to look forward to waking up early anymore, at least. Or look forward to anything, for that matter.

Waking up on the second day wasn’t quite as disorienting as when she woke up the previous morning, but it was pretty weird. Apple Bloom was in her bed when she woke up this time, snug under her smooth sheets and warm blankets. She wondered for a groggy moment just how the heck her pillow had gotten so giant. Then, she looked down at her furry little forelegs hooked neatly over the edge of the blankets. Apple Bloom sighed, and the sigh turned into a whimper, but she shook her head fiercely, squaring her jaw or... scrunching it or something, determined she wasn’t going to just up and cry like a baby, not even about this.

She just wanted it all to be a bad dream, to wake up her old self again, even if her old self did have to go back to that stupid high school. At least that would result in cool things eventually as she was told. School would give her all the world of possibility for anything she wanted to do, as long as she put her nose to the grindstone and stuck with it despite it not seeming helpful in the slightest at the time. But like this? How was she going to major in anything now? Grass eating? Hoofy kicks? Awful lisping?

Her mouth problems weren’t quite as bad from her practicing, at least not by the time Apple Bloom had near passed out from how late it was getting. They were still pretty bad, though. Apple Bloom was starting to feel self conscious about talking at all, when someone else was in the room, because she sure did sound funny, and who was going to understand her anyway? She tried so hard to say ‘s’ without whistling and it was just... she wasn’t sure how to do it. All Apple Bloom had really figured out about speaking so far was that she didn’t know how to say ‘s’ in the first place. When she thought about it, why didn’t it sound like whistling to say ‘s’ when you put your tongue like that, and exhaled? There had to be some trick to it. Or maybe Apple Bloom wasn’t supposed to talk in the first place.

Because she was a fucking horse.

Swearing silently to herself, Apple Bloom rolled over in bed, trying to get up. The plush mattress was challenging to stand on with just your toes, but it was huge compared to Apple Bloom now, so she had plenty of room to walk before she had to deal with the edge. It looked like a... long way down. She fidgeted at the edge of her bed nervously, wondering if she should call for help, or just try to work up the will to just jump. It couldn’t be that far down. It just looked like it, on account of how small she was now.

Apple Bloom hadn’t gotten herself into bed last night. She didn’t know who it was at first, because she had dozed off on the floor, falling asleep on her feet practically. It had been a struggle to rouse her attention back then, even when big strong arms wrapped around her body and lifted her up, depositing her gently in a comfy softness that Apple Bloom sluggishly recognized as her bed. It was just so easy to fall asleep; she hadn’t even wanted to open her eyes. The blankets were pulled up to her neck, and with a slight hesitation, the heavy comforter on top removed. Apple Bloom was quite warm though. Having fur did that to you.

She did crack her eyes open at the “G’night sis,” recognizing the sound of her brother’s voice. The window in her room was pitch black with night, until he retreated to the hallway, switching off Apple Bloom’s light. She yawned in the darkness as her eyes started to adjust, the speckles of stars glinting through overhead, as the blackness in her window adjusted to its tiny amount of tiny light, soft and blue.

And... then Apple Bloom awoke. She hadn’t even noticed falling asleep.

Apple Bloom hadn’t had any dreams she could recall last night. She hoped horse... things like herself had dreams. Maybe she could dream about being human again. ...something about that seemed really unsatisfying.

But this morning, on the edge of her bed, Apple Bloom was thorougly awake, and not going to get one more lick of sleep. Her throat was parched, and her stomach was grumbling earnestly. Not that Apple Bloom got to look forward to breakfast, or anything. Just grass, grass and more grass. But first, she had to get to the floor.

Wiggling to the edge of the bed, she managed to stand shakily, but she didn’t know how to turn around to slide down backwards. She finally just tensed up, and shoved off with her hind legs, and they slipped back against the sheets, sending her flying face first into the floor. “Woah! Uff!”

Moaning disconsolately, Apple Bloom lifted her head, then braced her hands—hooves, and her feet—her other hooves. Then, she rose to her ‘standing’ position, if you could even call it standing. What she felt like standing, was as if she were still lying down on her belly, but up on stilts. Apple Bloom wobbled around walking in a broad circle, coming right back to her bed, and strutting up to it with purpose. The light faded in her eyes though, as she looked up at her bedpost.

Apple Bloom reached out... that is to say, she stretched out her neck, and bit down on a very familiar thick pink ribbon. A tug of her head pulled it easily off the bedpost, where it pooled uselessly at her hooves. She looked at her clothing bureau, and back to her fallen ribbon, and both her ears and tail went down. It really was impossible, then. She couldn’t wear clothes anymore. She...

She couldn’t even tie her own bow anymore.

The other members of her family were already up, not having slept nearly as long as she did. Apple Bloom couldn’t quite figure why she’d need more sleep. Maybe it was a horse thing. But that meant more trouble for her, and more embarassment. She bit down on her ribbon again, shaking her head back and forth until she managed to whip it up over her shoulders. She left it dangling there, and started her slow walk to the head of the stairwell, the ribbon trailing on the floor along behind her as she did.

Someone was down in the kitchen below, cooking up what smelled like... Apple Bloom inhaled carefully... pancakes and ... oh lord almighty did Apple Bloom want bacon so bad. That smoked ambrosia that cut the sweetness of syrup like a lumberjack split apart a cord of wood tickled her nose like nobody’s business. She’d make her way down the yawning abyss that was the stairs all on her own if it meant she could get a piece of that.

That was just an impossible fantasy though, on both counts. The bacon, and the stairs. Apple Bloom squeezed her eyes shut self consciously, and called out, “Hey! Coul’ ah ge’ some helpf here?” Her words didn’t come out sounding... too bad. It was Applejack who poked her head around the kitchen doorway and said, “Apple Bloom, you’re up! How’re ya doin’?”

“Hungry,” Apple Bloom said, resentful of her own stomach.

That quenched the brightness in Applejack’s eyes, and she said abashedly, “Oh, yeah. ‘course. Sorry about... ah mean... it was right thoughtless of me–”

“Ah needh help wif mah bow,” Apple Bloom said, before her sister could apologize herself into the floor. “And... shtairs,” Apple Bloom mumbled inaudibly. Her head drooped down along with her ears again.

“Well, sure thing, sis!” Applejack exclaimed enthusiastically, charging up the stairs fast enough to make Apple Bloom’s head (and ears) snap up straight. “Whoops, sorry didn’t mean to spook uh... startle you,” Applejack said pulling back from Apple Bloom.

“Ith fine,” Apple Bloom said resignedly, holding up a hoof with the ribbon dangling over it. “Jus’ please ah... ah wantehd to wear at leasht shomething!”

“We can hook you up with some doll uh some pet uh... clothes...” Applejack shut up inelegantly, and just started tying on Apple Bloom’s bow. Standing back and adjusting it, then critically appraising her work, Applejack assured her sister, “We’ll figure something out.”

Apple Bloom gave her a look, then said “ok, fine.” She sat back on her haunches, and held her front hooves up for Applejack to take ahold of. Applejack looked at her, confused. Apple Bloom glowered at her and prompted, “Pick me up!”

Applejack nodded numbly, and lifted up Apple Bloom by her waist, holding Apple Bloom to her chest from behind, hands hooked around underneath Apple Bloom’s forearms, then stood there uncertainly. “Ok...?” Applejack said uncertainly.

“Go down the shtairs,” Apple Bloom instructed, pointing down the stairwell imperiously. Applejack descended the stairs, with Apple Bloom swinging in her arms. Once she reached the bottom, Apple Bloom said, “OK now put me down.” Applejack did so somewhat robotically.

“Thanks shis!” Apple Bloom finished with a bright smile. Applejack blinked at her, then said in realization,

“Oh right, the stairs! Dang, those must be giant for you!”

“Ah’ll geth the hang of it eventhually,” Apple Bloom said, turning away to hide her blush and walking to the kitchen in as much grace as she could manage.

“Hold on, wait just,” Applejack interjected, hurling herself in-between Apple Bloom and the ~~delicious bacon~~kitchen, “Sorry you don’t wanna go in there ah was just cookin’ up some bacon and oh lordy ah’m sorry you can go outside if it’s too bad a smell.”

“Itsh okay,” Apple Bloom said leaning on Applejack as she sauntered her away around Applejack’s legs. “Ah don’ mindh it one bit,”

“So, it still smells alright to you?” Applejack said confusedly, “Because you’re a... little... horse and all.”

Apple Bloom looked back at Applejack and gave an exasperated sigh. “It shmellsh sho good. Y’have no idear. Ah wish ah coul’ have some.” Her voice was starting to get trembly near the end, so she just shut up and walked over to where the bale of alfalfa, with a little bit chewed out of it, was still sitting against the wall, right next to her water ...bucket.

“Well alright, if you’re okay with it,” Applejack said uneasily, walking back to the sizzling pan, from which she poured off the excess grease just as God intended. Apple Bloom walked outside through the propped open back door, filled up her water bucket and returned. Big Mac met her on the way back in, him returning from taking the cows out to pasture. By then, Applejack was already onto the pancakes, frying them in the leftover bacon grease just as God intended. This was just about as holy a breakfast as you could get, without sacrificing a pig on the altar.

The alfalfa tasted as pleasantly mild to Apple Bloom as ever, but there was a bitterness in her heart that the most pleasant taste couldn’t get rid of. Apple Bloom felt like she was a stranger, watching her family eat breakfast. She hadn’t even bothered with trying to sit at the table, just standing beside the bale of what was now food. Apple Bloom couldn’t even eat the same things as them anymore. Could she even call herself an Apple anymore? She was more closely related to Winona now, than Applejack, or any of the others.

Plus, the smell was driving her absolutely bonkers. Apple Bloom had to hold herself back from shuffling towards the table, when the sweet smell of maple syrup hit her nose. She wondered if she could put maple syrup on hay. That sounded like an awful idea, but, maybe, just a... little bit and... and then her hooves go and fall off. Why did the stupid vet have to have such frightening warnings?! Apple Bloom always knew it was wrong for horses to have sugar, and it could kill them but... she never had to be the horse who can’t have the sugar cubes.

She looked down at her hoof, front left, while in the slow process of chewing through more alfalfa. The hoof itself, her fingernail so to speak, was still the same color as her fur. It hadn’t bled out pink like the rest of her skin. She settled back and tapped it with her other front hoof, the clop noise resounding as they clicked together. It was so weird having these things. Giant thick fingernails, and an oddly pliable fingertip that stiffened up nicely whenever she put weight on it. Her frog really was huge, proportionally at least. Apple Bloom knew from experience that with real horses, they had a big empty cavernous space in there, with a tiny little V of thick skinned, barely pliable flesh, on the inner part of the hoof. These hooves Apple Bloom had just looked... different, from that. Very slightly convex, but pliable, and instead of touching down with only her nail, she could really get a good grip when she braced them on the floor.

But no matter how different her hooves were, the thought of that big thick hoof nail detaching, and filling underneath with painful, infected, nasty... it was rightly terrifying. So Apple Bloom continued to eat her hay like a good little horsie, and tried to ignore the wonderful smells coming from the table, at which her loving family sat. Someone’s loving family, at any rate.

After breakfast, Applejack and Granny Smith headed off to Canterlot High in their beatup old pickup, leaving Apple Bloom and Big Mac stranded on their lonesome, three miles away from the nearest bus stop. Soon as they left, Big Macintosh came up quietly behind Apple Bloom, who was watching the truck drive away. Once it was out of sight, she turned at last to give him her attention, and he knelt down in front of her holding up a piece of.......

“Saved a piece,” he said. “Should be alright. Got salt in it and–”

Apple Bloom snatched the little strip of bacon out of his hands faster than you could blink exclaiming “Thank you! Thank you! Thanhk you!” She brought her other hoof up to cradle it between the two front ones, looking at it like a treasure, the little slice of fatty meat. Then she took the smallest of little nibbles out of the tip of it. Her eyes rolled up and her foot thumped on the ground as she exclaimed, “Oh man ah neededh htat.”

Big Macintosh gave her a confused look in response. “How’d you do that?” he asked.

“Do wha’?” she said taking another teeny nibble of bacon. Her incisors were just perfect to bite off little crunchy pieces you didn’t have to chew apart.

“Holdin’ it, ah mean,” he said, pointing at the bacon.

Apple Bloom tilted her head, “You mean wif mah hooves pinned togezher?” She held up the bacon, clumsily pinned between her hooves. Didn’t seem all that hard to imagine. One hoof, two hooves, bacon in between?

“No ah mean, before ya– ahh, never mind.” Big Mac stood up, turning to walk away. He looked back at Apple Bloom one more time, and gave a little smile saying, “Enjoy.”

Apple Bloom nodded brightly, taking another teeny little bite. Maybe if she ate it slow enough, it would last long enough to satisfy her.

It didn’t.

Big Macintosh actually spent a good portion of the day with his schoolwork, retreating upstairs to read quietly. Most people didn’t even know he was a techie. Though his reserved nature and his nonexistent social life kind of predisposed him for that sort of thing, he just didn’t look the part. Didn’t even really fit in with them at school. Still, it left him with plenty to study, certainly more than Apple Bloom ever wanted to take on. Or at least she hadn’t ever, until now.

Apple Bloom made herself busy with an old football, kicking it around in the backyard. The day was overcast, but not rainy. It was weird kicking a ball with hooves, but it was pretty easily mastered. Your front hooves, you just walked into it, and your back hooves you turned your back to it and pretended it was a snake. But seriously though, back kicks were easy. Part and parcel of being a horse, no doubt.

Problem is, having mastered kicking around a ball, Apple Bloom was getting bored of it. It was so dang quiet around here. The cows were all taken care of, the pigs were all slopped, the horses were too terrifying to contemplate. They’d gotten so used to this new school schedule that the farm practically operated itself, nowadays. So finally, Apple Bloom just ended up in the farm house again, looking up the stairs where Big Macintosh was studying in his room. She wondered if he’d share with her.

Anything would be better than just repetitively kicking a ball around, in mindless circles.

Apple Bloom stared up the stairwell apprehensively. They didn’t look that intimidating at least... at least not from the bottom. The lowest step, she could get up on just by rearing up slightly. At that point, it was just pulling herself up like a mountain climber. She was surprised at how easy it was, in fact, though she doubted it would be nearly as easy going down.

The hall was like she remembered it. Same hall as she always walked down, just bigger and wider, with the undersides of the tables in view instead of the top side. It felt like her home, but it didn’t look like it from down here, and that unnerved her. She hurried to Big Mac’s door and climbed up against it, lifting one of her front hooves to rap several times, then climbing down to stand squarely in front of it.

Big Macintosh opened the door and turned his head down, noticing her immediately down there. She gave him an earnest look and said, “Big Mac, can ah shtudy wif you?”

His eyes softened as he gazed down at her, and she waited for him to say yes, but instead he just said “D’aww.”

Apple Bloom blushed hotly and turned her head away.

“C’mon in,” Big Mac said above her, heedless of her embarassment, turning around and returning to his drafting table. What could she do though? He was totally right, so Apple Bloom just shuffled in behind him.

Big Mac’s room was... well, big, but that’s a given now. He had a bureau dresser like she did, but taller and narrower, and a bed that wasn’t a poster bed, and a broadly surfaced desk, or drafting table is what Apple Bloom liked to call it. As she walked in, Apple Bloom noticed kind of a funny smell in here, that she somehow found familiar. It wasn’t any kind of food smell she could place though.

She walked over to where Big Macintosh was sitting in his chair. There were a couple piles of textbooks on the floor around him to make space for the desk. Apple Bloom placed her hoof on some sort of Electronics reference text, one of the books on top of one of the piles. She figured how to flip it open, but soon found she was worried about tearing the pages with those solid hooves of hers. She tried rubbing her cheek against one, and found she could flip them pretty easily with her nose, if slowly. It wasn’t like she was in a hurry to read it, though. It was way above her level anyway, talking about ohms and integrals and circuitry terminology, as if the reader already knew all that stuff.

“Don’t ya have your own books?” Big Macintosh asked, looking down with concern at the confounded-at-Electronics Apple Bloom.

“Lef’ ‘em at shcool,” she answered unhappily, not even looking up. “Most of ‘em are in mah locker.”

“Ah’ll call AJ,” Big Macintosh said, making to stand up, “She can pick them up on her way back.”

“What’sh the pointh?!” Apple Bloom shouted surprisingly loudly, at the poor, unsuspecting Electronics textbook. She looked up then, and her brother looked down at her wordlessly, his soulful gaze an epic in of itself. Apple Bloom sighed.

“Ah’m goin’ to bed,” she mumbled, turning from the book and walking out of Big Macintosh’s room. She didn’t even really care that her ears were tilted down again.

After having failed to get up on her own bed, Apple Bloom had just collapsed on the floor in disgust. She traced her forehooves around in circles on the floorboards. She really should get her textbooks. This might not be permanent, after all. Or maybe she could be the first horse... something smart. Apple Bloom just didn’t feel like she had the heart for it though. Any ambition she had just seemed dried up and so far away.

Her patience was certainly worn way too thin, to put up with all that bullshit school liked to throw at her, on top of being turned into a horse. With her luck, Apple Bloom probably missed a big surprise pop quiz today, or yesterday, or... the day before. All the days she’d missed. And when she got back, she’d have to catch up on that quiz, and that’d make her fall behind on the current lesson, which she’d have to catch up on, making her fall behind on the next lesson. Forever catching up, with everyone saying that all you have to do is catch up and everything will be fine.

Everything wasn’t going to be fine though. It was about as far from fine as it could possibly be. Apple Bloom’s life was over, whether or not she wanted to admit it. You can’t fall behind in this cutthroat world; the other kids will get ahead, and they won’t stop running. Apple Bloom rested her head on her hooves, surprised at how wet her face was. Angrily she wiped at her tears. What good was crying going to do? Yet, she just couldn’t hold it in.

Big Macintosh had the courtesy not to make his presence known in her bedroom door, until Apple Bloom’s little fit had passed. “Hey,” he said, making her turn wearily and bleary eyed to face her doorway. “Wanna go look for that clearing?”

“Clearing?” Apple Bloom asked uncomprehendingly.

“The one in your dream,” Big Macintosh clarified. “It was somewhere hearabouts,”

Apple Bloom perked up at that, and nodded, adding, “An’ ah coul’ see the farm houshe from it.”

“If we can find it, then...” he hinted to her.

“Then it mighth shtart to clear up thish myshtery!” Apple Bloom concluded. She jumped to her hooves. No, really, that’s literally how you get to your hooves. She had to rear up in the air and then bounce forward when her front hooves came down, to let her hind ones make their way to their proper places underneath her.

“Better than jus’ moping aroun’ here,” she further agreed.

Together, they went downstairs and headed around behind the farm house, to search through the woods at the west edge of their property. Big Macintosh had to carry Apple Bloom down the stairs, but other than that, she was pretty much under her own power of locomotion the whole time. He had to walk along slowly to allow her to keep up, but still it was... something at least she could do on her own. Apple Bloom needed to cling to every little accomplishment she could get, because they were sure to come rarely from now on, if she didn’t figure out how to stop being a little horse... creature.

The woods were thick and brambly. Amusingly, it was Big Macintosh who had the hardest time fighting through them. Most of the stuff, Apple Bloom could just squeeze under, or climb over. It was... really easy to climb over things. Like a fallen log now giant before her, she thought would be an impassable barrier, but Apple Bloom found she could practically just walk up it and jump off the other side without even breaking a sweat.

“We gone far enough,” Big Macintosh said eventually, interrupting her exploration of her environment, and her abilities within it.

Apple Bloom raised her head in protest, saying, “Bu’ ah think it migh’ be right over–”

“Nope,” he interrupted, “Can’t see the farm house no more.”

Apple Bloom stopped on the rock she was in the process of jumping across, and turned her head around to look at Big Mac, who was himself looking back the way they came, at the featureless woods they came from.

“Bu’ bro,” Apple Bloom whined, pointing a hoof in the direction in front of her, “The farmhoushe ish righ’ over there!”

He turned forward to face her, and beyond her, with a surprised look at the farm house. It was just barely visible through the trees in front of them, but it was definitely there.

“Didn’ we already turhn around a while ago?” Apple Bloom said crabbily.

“Nope...” Big Macintosh said, looking nonplused.

“You jus’ got yourshelf all thurned around,” Apple Bloom said, “Ah remember this ish the way we came. Shee where the bushesh are brokenh?”

Big Mac looked at the bushes, then turned around and scratched his head. He turned back to Apple Bloom agreeing her with a, “Sounds right.” He said in a more serious tone though, “These woods are dangerous. Easy to get turned around in ‘em, and you won’t be able to find your way home.”

“I guess thish meansh we h’caint look for it anymore?” Apple Bloom sighed, her tail drooping a bit from its normal bouncy curl.

“Eyup,” he replied. “Maybe later.”

She just looked at him sadly instead of moving, so he added, “With all of us on the weekend, we can cover a lot more.”

“Yeah it’s jus’...” Apple Bloom looked forward at the farm house, wistfully. “Ah though’ we’d fihnd something.”

Big Macintosh shook his head. “Sorry. Let’s go home.”

Apple Bloom stayed outside once they got back, while Big Macintosh returned to his studies. Well, to be specific he insisted on calling up Applejack, and having her and Granny truck home Apple Bloom’s school supplies, then returned to his studies. Apple Bloom didn’t want to play with the ball anymore, but amused herself by climbing up on the picket fence around their house. She was just hanging onto it and swinging at first, but she managed to get on top of it entirely at one point, tilting her hooves inward to form a sort of four point line. It felt like she was riding the fence on her hands and feet, but when she was like this, she could keep her head up and forward without straining. It was kind of cool.

Apple Bloom didn’t really have anything else to climb on, though. So, eventually she was just sitting there on the ground, flat on her belly, bored stiff, staring grumpily at the swaying grass before her. It reminded her she was getting hungry. That’s what Apple Bloom had been reduced to. Grass makes her hungry. If only Ma and Pa could see her now. She stood up and bent forward, no wait. She stood up and craned her neck down, to reach the grass. It was weird how the more she did that, the more it felt like she was bending forward, instead of just moving her neck. Apple Bloom didn’t really... bend at the waist at all, anymore.

So she craned her neck down, and took a half dozen bites of grass, hesitant at first, but then methodically adding it to her mouth. At least it wasn’t as plain as the alfalfa. Had more of a sharp bite to it, and was lots more juicy. She chuckled at the irony of turning into a horse, right when the grass is going dormant, though it sounded more like a giggle to her ears. Apple Bloom really didn’t know what was up with her voice. It was just so high pitched and funny now!

Some time later, Big Macintosh jogged out of the farm house, up to where Apple Bloom was standing around sounding out random words trying, and failing, to make her voice sound less babyish. She flicked an ear at his approach. Woah, even that was becoming second nature. Apple Bloom turned deliberately, instead of flicking any ears, and gave him a small smile.

“Phone call for you,” Mac said hurriedly. “C’mon inside.”

Now who could be calling Apple Bloom at this hour?

“Hello, Apple Bloom?” the sound of Doctor Stable’s businesslike voice came over the phone speaker.

“Hey dohc!” she said amiably. “What’sh up?”

“I just wanted to let you know,” he said, “I’ve taken the liberty of looking into any local speech therapists. You sound like you could use one, no offense.”

“None tak’n,” Apple Bloom grumbled, offended.

The doctor continued, “At any rate, the best one I could find is in a nearby city. I forwarded my credentials, and asked their opinion on a case such as yours, keeping your identity completely confidential of course. I didn’t get a positive reply so much, but I was asked to forward it to you. You don’t happen to have an e-mail address do you?”

“I go’ a Trotmail,” Apple Bloom offered disinterestedly. Before he took that as a good sign she added, “Ah have to use the school computer to get it, sorry. We ain’t got one at home.”

“I see,” he said discouraged. “May I have it anyway, in case you ever get an opportunity to check?”

She gave him her address, and he wrote it down, then said consolingly, “There really was only one sentence that seemed relevant to you. Would you mind if I read it over the phone?”

Apple Bloom shook her head, even though he wouldn’t be able to see that. “No, that’sh fine,” she told him, curious what the consultant might have said.

“The only thing it says is,” the doc says, then sounds like he’s adjusting his glasses. “Pull back your lips for sale, only purse your lips for shoe. I assume it’s articulatory.” He paused and then clarified, “About your mouth shape when speaking.”

“That’sh–wait... that’sh that’s that’sh oh mah gawsh iht ain’ the thongue at all!”

There was a pause and he said, “...what?”

“Mah lipsh,” Apple Bloom said emphatically. Then corrected herself. “Lips. Ah thoughth ah couldn’ pronounce ess ‘cause mah thongue was weird, but it was mah lips all along. Your shpeech... speech guy ish a geniush! Genius. Who is it?”

There was a pause of a keyboard clicking, and Doctor Stable said, “I’m not personally familiar with the man, but his name is Red Sea. Doctor Sea, I presume. He’s helped a few of my patients with brain or mouth injuries.” Dr. Stable coughed and added, “Or other conditions, no offense.”

“None thaken,” Apple Bloom said, then scrunched her face frustratedly. “Now if ah coul’ only stop sayin’ thhuh instead of tee. Thup–stupid tongue.”

“Shall I set you up for an appointment?” Dr. Stable said. “It is quite a drive, unfortunately.”

“If ah can htalk better, then sure!” Apple Bloom said eagerly. She hesitated and added, “If he don’ mind that ah’m a... y’know...”

“Yes, yes I know: a farmer,” Dr. Stable said kindly, “I’m sure he won’t mind.”

“Hey!”

She definitely heard the doctor snickering over the phone this time.

Dr. Stable said he’d call back if he heard anything from Dr. Sea. Apple Bloom said he could go ahead and give the doctor her phone number and... well, he said beyond that, she’d have to fill out a form if she wanted him to send his medical record of her over there. Fill out a form. Fat chance of that happening. But, at least she could look forward to a phone call from Dr. Sea’s office!

It was only after Apple Bloom hung up the phone that it occurred to her that Dr. Stable had forgotten to give Dr. Sea’s phone number to her. Odd, that. Not worth calling him back though. It wasn’t like Apple Bloom was going to be unavailable to take phone calls any time soon.

When Applejack returned, Apple Bloom and Big Macintosh both ran for the front door, Apple Bloom shouting, “Sis! You’re back! Ah learnedh how ta say ess!” ‘S’ in fact, was one of those letters that was a lot easier to say when you were smiling from ear to ear.

Applejack laughed enthusiastically at that, and said, “That’s great! And you’re movin’ around so well!”

Apple Bloom’s smile fell to a confused frown, as she tried to recall how she moved just now. All she had done was “walk but run,” but it happened... different somehow, all on its own. “Thanks...” Apple Bloom said reservedly, “...ah think.”

“And boy have ah got a treat for you,” Applejack said, sticking her long arm into her backpack and rifling around, pulling out a big sheaf of papers. “Three days worth of homework!”

Apple Bloom groaned, her ears going down at the thought. She definitely felt no need to correct their position or conceal her emotions about homework.

“Yer say that now,” Granny Smith said, walking in behind Applejack, “But just you wait until yer ain’t got nothin’ to do! Then you’ll be beggin’ for home schoolin’!”

“Thanks, Granny,” Apple Bloom agreed, walking up with a welcoming smile and rubbing the side of her face on Granny’s leg. Wait, why did she do that? Apple Bloom pulled back, and blinked at herself.

“It ain’t no problem, Apple Bloom,” Granny said bending down to ruffle Apple Bloom’s hair, “Ah’m always happy teh help ya out.”

“Uh... y-yeah,” Apple Bloom said nervously, keeping herself perfectly still. Why did she do that?

“Ah made a casserole,” Big Macintosh said, smiling at the two new arrivals and carefully added, “It’s all vegetarian.”

Apple Bloom snapped out of her worries to look at her brother disconsolately. “Ah still cain’ eath it,” she said morosely.

Applejack started to say, “You could—” but Apple Bloom interrupted irritably saying,

“Ah don’ wanna jus’ eat hay. It’s boring!” She didn’t add that the smell of the cashew cheddar pepper broccoli squash casserole with thyme and oregano had been torturing her for the last hour it had been cooking. Apple Bloom didn’t want to smell something so delicious, that she couldn’t eat, but she just couldn’t force her family to go without good food, just because she hadn’t gotten used to being a horse yet.

Maybe the hay would taste better this time.

“Sorry sis,” Applejack said kneeling down beside Apple Bloom as Granny strode past to poke around in the kitchen. “But you heard about all that terrible stuff. We gotta play it safe and make sure you have a healthy diet, not a... human one.”

“Ah know, it’s jus’... it’s jus’ hardh is all,” Apple Bloom said, her eyes watering. She really wanted to eat that casserole. But why was she crying over a silly thing like that? “Forget this,” she said grumpily, wiping her eyes off on her hoof again. “Ah’m gonna go eat mah hay.” She wandered in that direction then, ignoring Applejack’s half hearted attempts to console her.

Apple Bloom sort of found she could make the hay sort of taste like that casserole, by smelling while she was eating it. She closed her eyes trying to imagine the stiff fibers as a tasty meal, hoping maybe the smell was enough to make her feel like she was eating good.

It wasn’t.

Apple Bloom ate as much as she comfortably could, then retreated outside, where the smells weren’t so tantalizing. Evening was coming on, the sun getting low in the sky. She looked at it, then walked out of the fenced area the farm house was in, making her way into the trees around it. She traveled a path she’d gone a lot of times before, whenever she wanted to find somewhere to think, and to watch the sunset. It went up a hill that Apple Bloom remembered as being a whole lot steeper than it was, but atop this hill, she could see over the tree line, with her back to the city, looking away to the west where the sun was dipping down to touch the horizon.

Apple Bloom settled down on her feet, sitting like a dog again, then just slid down on her legs until her belly was flattening the rough grass atop the hill she looked over. It was funny how the world looked like a bowl from here, like an upside down fishbowl that the sun slid on top of, on its way across the sky.

The sunset was always striking when you found a spot high enough that you could see that atmospheric effect on the horizon, that made the sun’s disk stretch out and lens into almost a flat line, with the uneven stripes of blue and green tilting off the edges. It lit up the uneven puffy clouds in the sky, in a nonuniform spectrum of reds, greens and oranges as it set, looking finally more like a ring around the earth by the time the last edge of light passed beyond the horizon. Apple Bloom loved sunsets. Just something about them. Sunrises just weren’t as dramatic or spectacular.

The light had fallen to a uniform grey, and the air was cooling fast, so Apple Bloom lifted up her butt and walked forward, tilting down the slope of the hill as she went. She was worried about slipping at first, but her hooves had a pretty good grip, and there were plenty of rocky outcroppings she could anticipate to brace against, if she needed something to stop her from sliding down. She got to the farm house before the stars were out, finding her family turning the place upside down looking for her. ...wait, what?

“Apple Bloom!” Granny announced accusingly, striding up to tower over Apple Bloom like a vengeful ogre, “Yer didn’t say you were gonna be runnin’ off! What if somethin’ happened to ye?!”

“Ah was jus’ watching the sunseth,” Apple Bloom said irritably. “I do thath all the thime!”

“Applejack! Big Mac! Found her!” Granny called over her shoulder. She turned to Apple Bloom then, and knelt ponderously down to the ground, looking her in the eye and saying, “Ye know... you’re right. You didn’t do nothin’ wrong. We’re just all on edge from this, an’ we don’t want ye to go disappearin’ on us.”

Applejack tromped up beside them saying, “Oh, thank heavens Apple Bloom. Where were you?”

“Watching the sunthet,” Apple Bloom said less spiritedly than before. “Ah didn’ mean to make y’all worry.”

“On Promise Peak?” Applejack asked in surprise.

“It’s the betht place to watch it,” Apple Bloom pointed out scuffing her hoof on the ground guiltily.

“Well you need to be more careful, sis,” Applejack said vigilantly, “You coulda fallen an’ we wouldn’t know where you were!”

“It’s a lot harder to fall acthually,” Apple Bloom said holding up a hoof and waving it at Applejack demonstratively. “Four legs, remember?”

“Well, what if a dog had gotten loose and was wanderin’ around the farm?” Applejack suggested nervously. “What would you do then?”

“Ah’d kick him if he came a’ me!” Apple Bloom declared, throwing her hind leg out behind her like a bullet.

“An’ when he bites your hoof?” Applejack countered, squatting down next to Granny.

Apple Bloom frowned. “Then ah’d...” she said, finishing excitedly with, “Kick him with the other leg!”

Nobody was laughing. Apple Bloom’s ears went down. “Ah’ll be more careful...” she admitted languidly. “Won’ go anywhere unthil ah tell sho–someone.”

Big Mac’s broad palm came down on Apple Bloom’s head, ruffling the hair in between her ears. “Just glad you’re safe,” he said warmly.

The family then settled down together, to relax in front of the fire. Applejack talked about her school day, and Apple Bloom didn’t give her a hard time just because she was feeling left out of school. It was fun to hear about Applejack’s crazy friends anyway, especially that firebrand who wore leather around Fluttershy. If Applejack’s opinion was accurate, and it always was, that Sunset Shimmer girl was acting even weirder lately than she usually did.

Huh, Apple Bloom couldn’t help but notice that girl had the word Sunset in her very name. Apple Bloom wondered if she liked sunsets too. At the very least, her parents must have liked sunsets. Applejack’s friends were way out of Apple Bloom’s league though, and gosh darn it now Apple Bloom’s own friends were out of her league. She wondered what it would be like to have Sweetie Belle looking down on her. Apple Bloom was so used to being just about the same size as them. The three of them had all grown up together inch by inch, and now Apple Bloom’s childhood development had just gone straight into left field.

Apple Bloom wondered what her friends were doing. That made her miss them though, and she didn’t like feeling so empty inside. They were probably missing her too, but they all had lives and... all Apple Bloom had was alfalfa. Still, maybe she could figure a way for them to visit her once and a while. If she could ever summon enough courage to face them like this, that is.

Big Macintosh actually did talk a little, though mostly he just prompted Apple Bloom, who recollected the greater portion of their day. At least, of what she knew about their day. About searching out in the west woods, getting the call about the voice doctor, trying to study with Big Macintosh. She skipped talking about the crying part.

“Oh hey, that reminds me!” Applejack said, struggling up from where they were all cuddled around the fireplace. She jogged off, and returned with Apple Bloom’s book bag in her hand, looking just about bursting full. “Ah got your books too, all that ah could, not just your homework,” she explained. “You’ll have to let me know if ah missed anything though.”

Applejack set the bag down beside Apple Bloom, where she laid a hoof on her familiar, if much bigger textbooks in there. “Thanks Applejhack,” Apple Bloom said, her eyes brimming with liquid gratefulness. “Ah just hope ah can live up thoo what they need from me. Ah cain’ even write anymore.”

“One of us can write for you,” Big Macintosh suggested.

Apple Bloom looked at him with disapproval, saying, “Ah cain’ ask you ta do that! You got’ your own work to thake care of.”

“Ah ain’t a pony,” he countered gruffly.

“Oh ah’m a pony now?” Apple Bloom shot back, blushing hotly.

“Too small for a horse,” he pointed out.

“Ah’m too small for a pony!” Apple Bloom declared.

“Fair ‘nuff,” he admitted. “Mini-horse?”

Apple Bloom shook her head, “Nao that don’t sound right, either.”

She didn’t tell him that when he said “pony” it did sound right. Unsettlingly so.

Apple Bloom had a strange dream that night, in fact. She’d settled into her bed, a challenging feat as towering as it was above her, and as horse as she was below it. She hoped she didn’t have to give up sleeping in a bed too. Really, she was desperate for just about anything from her old life that she could still cling to. She may have pulled out her old teddy bear to sleep with. It wasn’t exactly the sort of thing she’d brag about to her friends, but there was something comforting about it tonight.

Apple Bloom felt calmer, with the thing cradled in her little hooves. Little, because she didn’t remember having to stretch that much to wrap her single arm around a football sized doll. It wasn’t much of a stretch, but it was noticeable. Her plush bear went from football sized, to uh... larger than football sized. About the size of a watermelon? One of them big watermelons. Honestly, Apple Bloom was going to say bigger than a bucket, but... the bucket had become bigger too. Apple Bloom didn’t like that. With everything bigger all at once, relatively, it was starting to feel like everything was just normal sized, and that made Apple Bloom feel really, really small.

It’d have been nice if her dream had some detail or clarity to it, instead of just the feeling of rushing forward in a murky darkness. Apple Bloom couldn’t even dream of being human anymore, apparantly, as she was running forward heedlessly on all fours, just like she had been all yesterday. There was something after her. Something terrible. Something huge. She saw a faint light in the distance and she had to reach it, had to get help somehow.

The light expanded as she approached it, but it wasn’t like running out of a tunnel. It was like a lens coming into focus, that she passed through like a curtain of water. Apple Bloom stopped short in shock, at a glorious starscape. It was not just above her, but below her, and all around. She was still walking somehow, despite nothing to walk on, and as she did, she started to perceive a geometry to this strange place. It wasn’t as large as it seemed. It was like the stars were a projection on a small and cozy space, a sphere in which Apple Bloom walked, as though an invisible platform were stretching across its expanse. Some sort of planetarium?

What drew her attention was something that wasn’t a star. A little bright lavender blob that resolved itself, as Apple Bloom neared it in the center of the sphere. It was some kind of horse, just like the way she was! Some kind of thing like her, except this one was so much more... magical, somehow. She seemed more like the ocean tides, or a storm front than a physical being. She was sitting perfectly still on her belly, neither breathing nor blinking, her unflinching gaze on something laid before her, cradled gently on her relaxed forehooves.

It was a book.

Apple Bloom had to ask. It was just too weird to not ask about it. Her voice sounded echoey, as she curiously asked this purple horse of nature, “What’cha readin’?”

There was no response. Apple Bloom felt nervousness creep into the edges of her awareness. Was Apple Bloom the only horse whe could talk? Was she just talking to a statue? Some kind of horse shaped doll? Apple Bloom was just about to give up, but she half jumped out of her skin, when the purple horse startled into motion. It was scary because the horse’s hair flared up, somehow, just a little. Her head only tilted down just a fraction of an inch though, looking at the book as if for the first time.

“I’ve forgotten,” the creature said, in a very puzzled tone of voice, as if she didn’t believe it herself. As if a magical horse being sitting there, reading a book full of weird hieroglyphs wasn’t unbelievable enough. It was the voice of a woman that came forth from this equine being, a strangely familiar voice at that. One Apple Bloom couldn’t quite place. The lady mare didn’t say anything more, just staring off into the distance, and Apple Bloom felt rushed, as if she was on a time limit here.

“What are you?” Apple Bloom asked hastily. She qualified with, “Ah mean, what kinda horse are ...ya?” Apple Bloom almost said ‘we’ she almost did. It didn’t look like the horse lady was going to respond again, but this time, Apple Bloom just had to guess that this strange being was something that took a long time to respond. What she didn’t expect was how that strange being was going to respond.

“I’m not a horse, I’m a pony.” the lady mare said abruptly, turning to Apple Bloom with a calm smile beneath her vivid, violet eyes. Her smile froze then, even more than it had before. Apple Bloom felt chilly as the lady mare stared at her disconcertingly, the mare’s irises narrowing expressively, and her body stiffening up as her face dropped into something between wonder and shock.

“You’re a pony!” the lady mare exclaimed, surging to her four legs. They collapsed under her then, and she fell on her side, still staring at Apple Bloom exclaiming, “You’re a pony!” The sphere felt like it was closing in around them. Apple Bloom tried not to recall what had been lurking outside. She backed up in terror as the lady mare stretched a hoof towards her, the very air rippling and going fuzzy and indistinct, as she shouted again, “You’re a pony!”

“Ah’m not a pony!” Apple Bloom cried out miserably, covering her head in her hooves. Because she had hooves. Because she was a pony. Everything seemed to be pressing in around her. The whispering wail of a soundless wind crashed around her as the lady mare continued heedless, her voice coming from all around as she said, “You’re a pony! You’re a pony!”

“Ah’m a girl!” Apple Bloom shouted against the raging storm, desperately. The mare’s increasingly frantic cries fell silent, then. Had Apple Bloom scared her off?

The mare was abruptly looming in her face. “Find me!” she near shrieked only half coherently. There was a crazy look in her eyes as she shouted, “You have to find me! Hurry! Find me!”

Apple Bloom inhaled sharply, as she woke up like a wrecking ball. She heard the voice then, echoing beyond an impossible distance, crying out, “Save me!” Apple Bloom lurched up from her pillow, her little yellow hooves holding the blankets over on top of her in a death grip. Even though she didn’t have anything to grip with. Apple Bloom’s ears turned left and right as she breathed hard in the silence, but there were no more voices, no more craziness or panicked entreaties.

Apple Bloom’s bed was dissheveled. She must have been thrashing about an awful lot. Her bear had gotten kicked off it entirely and was laying forlornly on the floor. Apple Bloom scooted to the edge of her bed, and stuck her back hooves over the edge of it, slipping off of it backwards to join her bear, as a pile of pony on the floor. Apple Bloom knew exactly who to blame for all this. Climbing to her feet, it still felt weird to stand up straight by only standing up halfway, but Apple Bloom didn’t have any trouble walking across her room. She walked across her room in a daze, through the door they left propped open for her, and on down the hallway.

There, she hammered on Big Macintosh’s bedroom door, shouting through it at him, “Ya gave me a bad dhream you hlunkhead! Ah tol’ you ah’m hnot a pony!”

The sounds of movement within resolved themselves as his door swung open, bringing her face-to-face with those ridiculous slippers. She looked up at him, and said a little less angrily and more apologetically, “Ah need you ta write something for me. Ah hadh a dream again, like the one before.” Even Apple Bloom was surprised at how quickly he spun around, and snatched up a writing utensil and some loose paper from his desk. But soon he was ready for her.

She tried to recall it, and–she was already starting to forget it! Stupid dreams! She was... the lady mare was, yeah some purple po–horse thing just like her. How had she found the mare? Something about stars? Something...

“Somethin’ was chasing me,” Apple Bloom said feeling a chill at the memory of that, “And ah foun’ a big ball of stars. Like a room, but it was shpherical an’ had stars all over ith. An’ there was a po–p–a whatever I am in the middle of it. She was real pretty, and all—I dunno—magical and starry and stuff. She was colored like a human not a horse, jus’ like me, ‘cept she was purple, and ah’m yellow and red. She was distracted by something... by a book, right, and ah asked her about it before I would wake up. She kept tellin’ me ah was a...”

...

“A...?” Big Macintosh prompted, causing Apple Bloom to blush again, and turn her head aside. She was sitting in his room on the floor, with him up in his desk chair, and he was writing down her words on some paper pinned to a clipboard.

Apple Bloom turned back to face him and reluctantly admitted, “She said ah was a ...pony.” To his credit, Big Macintosh’s only reaction was a snort, and the scratch of pencil on paper.

“She kept sayin’ it though,” Apple Bloom continued, “Not like she was tellin’ me, but like she was surprised, like she was tellin’ herself! And then ah started to wake up, but she shouted that ah needed to find her. And... save her, ah think. And then ah woke up.”

He finished writing silently, and Apple Bloom started to speculate, a little excitement rising in her as she did. “Ah think it might have been an alien princess!” Apple Bloom uttered admittedly gushing a little, “Maybe from mah home planet! And she needs me ta save it!”

Big Mac started to write that, but stopped then, and looked down at Apple Bloom with a wry stare. “You been readin’ too many comic books, sis,” he teased her amusedly.

Author's Note

This was a long one... went a long time before finishing it too. Hopefully didn't get too far off track.
Spoiler alert
(Not really.)

Unstable Equilibrium

Apple Bloom wished she could have said the day with Applejack went any differently than the day with Big Macintosh. She wished she could say that her sister found the clearing, and they uncovered the secret of the evil wizard or space horse princesses, or whatever was causing this. But in the end, it was just another day of kicking around the ball, and growing increasingly disgusted with eating hay. Especially when it came out the other end. Apple Bloom hated that about being a horse the most, she figured. There were other problems, but that really took the cake, for the first few days at least.

Or the horse pie, as such the case may be.

It was nice at least that Applejack brought her school textbooks back. Apple Bloom needed something to do, even if reading terribly dry textbooks was all she could think of. Though, a lot of them seemed even less relevant to her now, if that were possible.

Algebra for instance, was all about solving and simplifying, and that was all stuff you did on paper, with a pencil, held in your hand. English again, it wasn’t any more fun to learn how to speak correctly when you had a new mouth to deal with, on top of being an uneducated hick stuck on the farm all day, who didn’t even get to be a high school graduate. Apple Bloom never thought she’d miss Ms. Harshvoice’s presence, but it turns out talking to yourself, instead of in class, is a lot less fun. Biology was great, and she read everything that textbook had to say about horses, and about the coloring of human skin. French was just impossible though; 90% of that class was sounding things out to each other in class, and not reading the slim and summarily unhelpful textbook. Though, a bilingual horse, that’d have to be a first.

Her family seemed to get comfortable with her transformation relatively quickly. There was always that uncomfortable smile whenever they were reminded of yet another thing she could no longer do, but they never judged her for it. In particular Applejack, not on the first day but two days afterwards spent a lot of time with Apple Bloom. It was getting embarassing at one point. Apple Bloom had to practically shove her out the door, just so her sister would find something to do with herself. Applejack was used to keeping busy, always doing something, and when she was stuck taking care of Apple Bloom, then that ‘something’ invariably became hovering over her like a mother hen. Applejack was just trying to make sure Apple Bloom didn’t have any problems, but just making more problems in the first place!

There was little interest from the media on Apple Bloom’s transformation. Canterlot had always been a pretty laid back town. The one news station they did have already did its piece on her, and didn’t really seem interested in day-to-day updates on the thrilling taste of hay. Either the world news never got wind of it, or didn’t care. She honestly couldn’t imagine why anyone would be interested in a girl changing into a horse, so long as it wasn’t happening to them or anything. And since Apple Bloom had been thoroughly housebound, that meant nobody ever happened to see her anyway. As far as Apple Bloom was concerned, the fewer people who saw her as a tiny little buck naked horse, the better.

Oh, for that matter, on the fourth day, Apple Bloom was practicing her important “rolling on the grass because I’m so damn bored”, when she heard Applejack approaching from inside the house. Groaning, Apple Bloom addressed her sister upside-down, from belly up there on the ground. “No ah’m no’ hungry,” Apple Bloom lied. “No ah’m not tired,” she lied. “And no ah don’ need any help!” she... lied.

“Aw don’t be like that lil’ sis,” Applejack said in a tone of disappointment. “Stand up so ah can get your measurements.”

“Measuremenths?” Apple Bloom said curiously, tilting her head back to actually look at her sister. Applejack was holding onto a flexible measuring thingy, a long flat tape with numbers and tick marks all along it. It was the sort of thing you’d see in a fashionist’s hands. It looked out of place in an athlete’s.

“Yeah, ah got a ...pattern,” Applejack said, folding her hands holding the tape behind her, insecurely. “Was thinkin’ ah could use some of mah time to make you a little something.”

Apple Bloom was on her feet in an instant, and zipped over, bracing her hooves on Applejack’s thigh looking up at her eagerly. “You mean clothing?!” Apple Bloom exclaimed breathlessly.

Applejack laughed and reached down to rumple Apple Bloom’s hair. “You got it,” she said reassuringly. “Ah’m not real good at makin’ anything fancy, but ah figured it couldn’t hurt to give it a shot. Mah friend even loaned me one of her sewin’ machines.”

“Rarity, righ’?” Apple Bloom prompted, backing up from Applejack to clip down on all fours.

“That’s right,” Applejack agreed. “Ah’d have asked her to do it herself, but well, she don’t exactly... know, y’know. About all this.”

“Y-you can tell her,” Apple Bloom said uncomfortably, turning self consciously and ending up looking at her tail, which curled towards her the other way.

“Ah tried!” Applejack said in an exasperated tone. “She don’t believe me.”

Apple Bloom uncurled to look up at Applejack again, puzzled. “But what about the TV news?” she asked, “She didn’t see ith–see it?”

“Rarity is... something else, sometimes,” Applejack said dispiritedly, “She thinks it’s all a big hoax that ah’m pullin’ on her. Ah tried to, but– ah mean– she’s so sensitive about the littlest thing. Ah didn’t want to send her into a panic.”

“What abou’ your other friends?” Apple Bloom asked seriously.

“Ain’t asked them,” Applejack said quietly, looking away this time, herself. It made Apple Bloom’s heart hurt to see her sister so disconsolate. Apple Bloom understood where Applejack was coming from though, and how she was feeling. Apple Bloom certainly hadn’t asked Applejack to tell her friends about it, either. She didn’t know what Sweetie Belle would think, maybe panic as she’s Rarity’s sister and all. Or more likely not panic, because she knew how to deal with craziness, as she’s Rarity’s sister and all. It was Scootaloo Apple Bloom would be more worried about, honestly. Sweetie was so much better at taking things in stride.

Matter of fact, the one she was really worried seeing about was that new friend of theirs, Diamond Tiara. You wouldn’t think Diamond would be a problem, but something was really shaking that poor girl, last time Apple Bloom saw her, and it was at the start of all this horse nonsense, too.

Tiara was a character for sure. She seemed both unflappable, and yet strangely vulnerable in some aspect. Kind of like her name, diamonds are the hardest substance on earth, but if you held them under a candle flame they’ll eventually burn to smoke. But yeah, so Apple Bloom was glad Diamond Tiara wasn’t around. She’d either make fun of her for being this way, or freak out, or ...something.

Applejack measured Apple Bloom as best as she could, trying, and failing, to reveal that what she had found was a cutout pattern for silly pet clothes. Then Applejack got to work, and well... at least she didn’t burn the house down. It looked like Apple Bloom was going to have to wait a while, to get any sort of decency in her life. Apple Bloom tried to console her sister, and say it was no big deal, and they’d just get new curtains, and it’d have been fine... but Apple Bloom sorely needed some consoling herself.

Apple Bloom tried to look on the bright side. If there was a bright side. It wasn’t that bad, is the thing! She still had her wits. She wasn’t an invalid or anything, just sort of missing her hands, and having a lot harder time with going to the bathroom. Horses suck, in that regard. At least... she wasn’t supposed to be an invalid, but the dreariness just started to ...get to her. No matter how she tried to keep her spirits up, Apple Bloom just stopped being able to find it in her to be happy anymore. Her life was over. Dragging herself around, feeling empty inside all the time, and terribly lonely. Her family loved her, and she loved them but, it wasn’t enough somehow. She was missing something terribly.

It didn’t help that every dish her family cooked was absolute torture. Apple Bloom actually began to dread dinnertime, and took to sitting on the hill outside her property, for the period of time that her family was eating. She loved them and all, but when they were eating, she just couldn’t stand the smell. It was all Apple Bloom could do to keep herself from lunging at the table like a hungry panther.

It helped once she started eating dinner outside, but it still bothered her like crazy. And, truth be told it was hurting her a lot more than she realized. Thankfully, Apple Bloom had guardian angels watching over her. Two to be specific. Two very foolish guardian angels, watching over her from a distant tree at the edge of her property, with the help of some purloined telescopic binoculars, and camera equipment.

“Subject remains on hilltop Promise Peak,” Twilight Sparkle announced to the scratching of a pencil on paper behind her. “Assumes a supine position.” She pulled away from the binoculars to check her watch. “Time is 18:27,” she announced, putting the binoculars to her eyes again. Twilight wore an improvised leaf hat to camoflage her natural colors against the tree foliage. It kept falling down over her eyes, but she easily pushed it up to resume her unflinching vigil.

Twilight looked away again, over to check the timepiece wrapped around the narrowed joint her upper forehoof had become, which humans gave the special name of a ‘wrist.’ Ironic that these human beings would name their own body part after the object that covered it, but nevertheless, with the wristwatch securely on her ‘wrist’ Twilight announced going back to her binoculars again, “Assumes a lupine position, time is 18:34.”

Twilight noticed the pencil scratching had stopped, and once again had the irritating experience of being unable to angle her ears to verify what she heard, without having to turn and face it. But such is the consequence of a vastly altered biology, of a singularly unique species, of whom Twilight really should not have been a member at all. So she tolerated the inconvenience, looking away from her binoculars.

The purple girl was balanced precariously in the tree, adjacent to the mounting for an advanced electronical camera, one that even now was recording the Apple family household (the Apple family of this world) in high definition, several times a second. It was a feat Twilight would have thought impossible, before having seen it in action. From up at that vantage point, Twilight Sparkle looked down at her only friend in the world.

“I said,” Twilight repeated clearly, “Assumes a lupine position, time is 18:34.”

Below her, the indomitable Sunset Shimmer stood with tresses of flame falling on a black leather jacket, next to the tree and next to the collector equipment for this camera’s electronical ‘film’. According to Sunset, an electrical substance vibrated from that camera through metal wires into a boxy looking collector machine. The wires were trailing down from Twilight in the tree, to dangle beside the fiery haired girl Sunset, who was looking up at Twilight with a disgusted expression. Not only had the Sunset stopped writing, but the hand holding the clipboard, and the hand holding the pencil, were both braced on separate hips. It was a gesture that Twilight felt, with her unfamiliar instincts, was very disapproving.

Twilight exclaimed, “Why aren’t you writing—” and Sunset chose that moment to interrupt tetchily,

“This is stupid.”

Sunset Shimmer took her hands from either side of her denim jeans, and crossed them, across her repulsive cow skin jacket. At least this was a gesture of discontent that wasn’t totally alien to Twilight’s experience, albeit not one ponies adopted often.

“What do you mean?” Twilight called down, feeling hurt inside, despite what she knew of her friend’s nature, and her situation. The leaf hat fell over her eyes.

“We are getting nowhere!” Sunset shouted up at her. “Apple Bloom is a pony. She remains a pony. There is no reason she should be a pony. We have learned nothing else, from watching her for the past two days!”

“Well, if we could just talk to her,” Twilight shouted in pleading protest, fighting with her unruly headgear.

“You know we can’t!” Sunset shouted back. “We could ruin the whole thing if our influence determines the outcome!”

“We have to do something,” Twilight called back. “The facture isn’t expanding on its own!”

Sunset looked down at her clipboard, then just threw it aside with a clatter. She faced up again with a surprisingly level look in her eyes, saying tiredly, “Just... come down from there, and let’s try to figure something out again, based on what we know.”

Twilight Sparkle climbed down from the tree. She didn’t fall this time, because she had at least 2 days practice of climbing trees, and of climbing this tree in particular. The rope ladder Sunset set up for her also helped matters. When down, Twilight took a moment to review the footage. When the camera captured the image of Apple Bloom, the distortion around her was obvious, but still no different than the day before. It appeared as an overexposure to the camera film, due to the bipartial velocity superluminal particles that—it appeared as a faint white aura around Apple Bloom, that vaguely conformed to the girl’s shape... her pony shape. It should have been rapidly fractalizing, but... it was just sitting there. Flowing around her like an ill fitting suit.

“Alright,” Twilight said, pausing the superfast slideshow these humans invented, and turning to Sunset Shimmer with a grim look on her face. “What we know is, five days ago a filly known as Apple Bloom found the Golden Apple, and as far as we can tell it’s the real deal, not anything we suggested to her. Subsequent to this discovery, she, for some reason, transformed into a pony, even though ponies do not even exist in this world.”

“There are many myths and legends,” Sunset offered speculatively.

“Yes, myths... unsubstantiated, at that,” Twilight grumbled unsatisfactorily. “Still, it has definitely been a very long time since ponies existed in this world. Yet here Apple Bloom is, as much a pony as she is back home. It has to have something to do with the Golden Apple. I just know it!” Twilight stomped, frustrated, and ineffectively with her weak foreleg, and sideways against the side of the tree. Right, the human word was ‘punched’ not ‘stomped.’

“The Greeks bear a strong parallel to the ancient Sheep empire,” Sunset pointed out, while Twilight shook out her hand hissing in pain. “Perhaps this world’s Tambelon...”

That drew Twilight up short. “Don’t even joke about that,” Twilight said edgily.

Sunset pondered, “So, she dreams up the Golden Apple, turns into a pony, and then what, nothing?” She leaned agaist the tree, hunching her shoulders. “Could the apple have just been a setup? Just an unrelated party trick, and there’s no way to break it after all?”

“There’s no reason to get pessimistic just yet,” Twilight asserted fiercely. “The key is in the lock, and we just have to figure out how to turn the Celestia damned thing.”

Sunset raised an eyebrow. Twilight sniffed unsorrily, and blithely replied, “It’s not vulgarity, when Princess Celestia really does damn it.”

Sunset laughed coarsely. “Whatever you say, princess,” she asserted emphatically.

Despite Twilight’s blush, the purple girl continued to grind her mental gears. “Alright, what do we know about the dream itself?” Twilight prompted.

Sunset cast her eyes down at that, saying, “Not much. I haven’t been able to get much out of Applejack, without... skewing the results.”

Twilight smiled at Sunset somewhat sadly. Twilight couldn’t even comprehend what Sunset has been through all this time. She lay her articulated hoof on Sunset’s shoulder, and just gave it a warm squeeze. Twilight couldn’t help but notice that for such a horrifying product, it was a very comfortable feeling jacket. Sunset smiled, but didn’t otherwise acknowledge Twilight, or even look at her. Instead the flame haired girl said,

“The odd thing isn’t the dream, but how my other friend reacted to it.”

“Rarity,” Twilight agreed in understanding, taking her hand back to herself.

“Rarity knew about the Golden Apple too, through her kid sister,”

“Sweetie Belle,” they said simultaneously. Not in triumph, but just from knowing it previously, as an obvious fact.

“But how did Sweetie Belle learn about it?” Twilight wondered. “Apple Bloom must have told her. Oh, if only we had that conversation!”

Sunset started to nod, then blinked. “Wait, you know,” she said unsurely, “Sweetie also knew Apple Bloom was a pony. Rarity said as much, that her sister must have guessed it from the ‘tabloid’ news, but how could she have known how big Apple Bloom was going to be?”

“Apple Bloom’s other friend might have been involved too,” Twilight suggested. “What do we know about her?”

“Which one, Diamond Tiara or Scootaloo?” Sunset asked curiously.

Twilight visibly flinched at that. “Sorry,” she said with a bashful smile, “I keep forgetting this world’s Apple Bloom is very different from our own.”

“She seems like a decent, bright filly in both worlds,” Sunset said pensively. “I wouldn’t mind meeting her one of these days... ours, I mean.”

Twilight nodded, diverting the topic tactfully, “Now, Diamond Tiara on the other hand, I don’t know what that filly’s problem is on our world. You know, she once made the whole town think Spike thought I was a snob?”

“Spike? Really?” Sunset asked disbelievingly. “He doesn’t even think Rarity is a snob!”

“Hope he’s doing alright back at the er, hideout,” Twilight said nervously.

Meanwhile, back at the house for sale they broke into, with a loud clatter the failure of an omelette went flying in several directions around the room. “Why can’t I have opposable thumbs?” Spike’s voice could be heard in a mournful howl, “Why does this universe hate me?”

“Anyway,” Sunset cut in, meanwhile, back at the ranch, “So we know that Sweetie might maybe know something. It might be safe to mess with her a little bit... but she can’t know we’re doing it, because she’ll tell Rarity, and Rarity will tell Applejack, and then we’re busted.”

“All this secrecy is terrible,” Twilight grouched, “But... you’re right. We have to be subtle about this. Either for her, or for Scootaloo.”

“Or Diamond Tiara,” Sunset added.

Twilight shook her head bemusedly, “It still surprises me how similar, but how different these two worlds are. You know in my world, Scootaloo is an orphan? Yet here, the tables are turned, and she’s Cheerilee’s biological daughter. Makes me wonder if there’s something the Cheerilee from our world isn’t telling us.”

Sunset gave a lively laugh at Twilight’s speculative drawl, but then Sunset stopped, mid-laugh, with a look of realization. Twilight asked hopefully, “Did you figure something out?”

“Applejack called me about this,” Sunset said thoughtfully, “It was a change, so I paid attention, and she wanted Cheerilee’s phone number. And then, she called again saying Cheerilee thought she was pranking her.”

“So, I... really don’t follow,” Twilight said unsurely.

“You know Cheerilee was complaining the other day, about a prank caller telling her that Scootaloo had horse ears?”

“Right, based on the news broadcast...” Twilight said agreeably.

“No that’s just it,” Sunset exclaimed, “I think she was talking about Applejack’s phone call, not a real prankster!”

Twilight hummed, “So, Applejack must have called Cheerilee and warned her that Scootaloo was changing into a pony?”

“Why would she only call her though?” Sunset insisted. “Why only Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo?”

“And not...” Twilight said in realization.

“Diamond Tiara!” they both exclaimed.

“Those three must be special in both worlds!” Twilight exclaimed excitedly.

“But they didn’t change into ponies!” Sunset shot back equally excitedly. “Why would she be saying they did?”

“They have to have something in common!” Twilight declared. “Some reason Applejack would think to contact those two, but not all of Apple Bloom’s friends.”

“And that reason is...” Sunset trailed off, arms spread dramatically.

“...” Twilight answered equally awkwardly.

Sunset let her arms drop. “You know what, I just need to talk to them again. I’ll talk to Rarity, and see if I can pick her brain any more, without ruining it for her. She believes it to be a hoax anyway, so it should be easy to get her to open up.”

“Yes, that’s probably the best idea,” Twilight said agreeably. “You go talk... to Rarity...” she drooped at the thought of that, and sighed fitfully. This time it was Sunset’s hand on her own shoulder providing that human measure of support.

“We’ll get your friends back too,” Sunset said with a sloppy smile, “Come on, you’re here. Princess Twilight Sparkle. You don’t think Celestia sent you here, because she didn’t think you were going to come back, do you? We’re going to figure this out, and we’re going to fix everything.”

“Thanks... Sunset,” Twilight said, clasping her hand in hers softly. “You know, I don’t know what I’d do if at least one of my friends weren’t right here with me, going through all this.”

Sunset Shimmer blushed, and for a rare moment in time, she didn’t have any words to say.

It wouldn’t be exactly right to say that Sunset Shimmer looked forward to meeting with Rarity. Sunset had always been a pony who thrived on conflict and adversity, even when she was not a pony. She stared down the rather dingy looking apartment complex she walked towards with a keen sense of anticipation. It was best to catch Rarity off guard, or she would get you involved in one of her own crazy endeavors. Sunset really wondered how the real Rarity... how the other Rarity could be anywhere near as fashion obsessed as hers was.

One thing Rarity remained ashamed of, was her living arrangements, though Sunset couldn’t fathom why. Sunset had used it to humiliate her in the past, but it was also a good way to get past Rarity’s defenses and get her to open up, instead of letting Rarity float around like the social butterfly she wished she could be.

So, well after school, Sunset Shimmer rang the doorbell to Rarity’s apartment. The hallway leading to the apartments was brown and nondescript, but Rarity’s was easily identifiable by the bedazzling she applied to the just-about-everything. It was unusually restrained for Rarity, in fact, just a pattern of sparkling plastic stickers applied around the peephole, turning it into a feature of the door instead of a veiled threat. It made it really easy to find her apartment, though Sunset had long since memorized the exact number and floor.

There was a familiar shouting match that happened, once the door buzzer sounded inside. It looked like this one was going to be a “prove yourself”, for these two. Sunset calculably smiled, as the lock was undone and a girl with candy curled hair close to Sunset’s human age, but some years younger than Sunset, Sweetie Belle opened the apartment door.

Sweetie Belle was one Sunset wasn’t especially familiar with, except through her connection with Rarity, but there wasn’t a human in school that Sunset didn’t know inside and out. This younger girl was the sort who loved every opportunity to take charge, and Sweetie Belle clearly knew the power she held in having a sister who enjoyed long time consuming soaks in the bathtub, answering the door despite Rarity’s protests, protests which fell embarassingly silent the moment the door opened.

Gusto aside, when Sweetie Belle saw Sunset standing there, like a hawk about to descend upon its prey, the younger girl shrank back and said nothing, not even introducing herself, clearly regretting being the first to make it to the door. Sunset put on as friendly a face as she could manage these days. “Hey there,” she said to Sweetie, leaning on the doorjam, “I’m Rarity’s friend, Sunset Shimmer. She might have told you about me?”

Sweetie relaxed a bit, but still gave Sunset a long look before asking, “Would you like to speak to Rarity?” in that darling voice of hers. The voice that made Sunset want to jump on her and squeeze her cheeks, because you’d have to be a demonic monster to not feel that way when Sweetie Belle spoke to you. Sunset instead nodded calmly and answered,

“Yeah, I’d appreciate it if you could tell her I’m here. If she’s not too busy, that is.”

“One moment,” Sweetie said politely, turning and closing the door behind her. That didn’t stop the sounds of frantic movement from within, when Rarity herself entered the front of her apartment. Rarity pulled open the door, to reveal herself in a long fuzzy white bathrobe, with her dripping hair wrapped up in a personally embroidered towel.

“Sunset!” Rarity said entirely too cheerfully, “What a surprise to see you here! I wasn’t aware that you... knew where I lived.”

“Word gets around,” Sunset said noncommitally, with a casual shrug.

“I... I’m terribly sorry I was not prepared, if you’ll just give me a moment to put my face on,” Rarity said in a fluster. “Sweetie Belle is... visiting you see, and I had just paused for a moment to—”

“No, no don’t worry about it,” Sunset said waving her hand, “I just had a quick question to ask you. It’s about a research project I’ve been working on about Greek mythology. You remember how Sweetie Belle was going on about a Golden Apple?”

Rarity smiled wanly, saying, “I do recall, yes. Among other foolish things.”

Sunset pressed on, saying, “It’s a story you might like, actually. Basically, at a royal wedding, that all the gods attended, a goddess inscribed the name ‘to the most beautiful’ on an apple made of solid gold, then tossed it amid all the other gods. Naturally all of them assumed it was in reference to herself, and the resulting argument over who was the fairest resulted in the uh... Trojan war. A total war that devastated Greek society.”

“Now why on earth would she do that?!” Rarity exclaimed, a hand to her chest aghast. “Beauty is not a thing to be tossed around like a bauble or a trinket!”

“She wasn’t invited to the wedding, I gather,” Sunset shrugged.

“Well that’s no reason to—”

“Yeah, I know!” Sunset cut in. “Most mythology doesn’t make sense that way. Look, think of it this way, there was a big war where a lot of people suffered, and everyone wanted someone to blame for it, but nobody could blame the people who caused it because those people had all the power. So they did what they usually do, make up gods to blame for it.”

“I cannot imagine anyone would fight so bitterly, over something so trivial,” Rarity persisted somewhat mournfully.

“Wouldn’t you want to be the most beautiful?” Sunset asked testily.

Rarity smiled at Sunset, as one does to an uppity child. The ironic thing is, that didn’t even phase Sunset anymore. It was just something Rarity did without even thinking about it. She did it to just about everyone, in fact.

“Sunset, darling,” Rarity said melodically, “Beauty isn’t something you can prove, or claim. If you have to prove you are the most beautiful, then you are not the most beautiful. Simple as that! Why, I would be fighting to make someone else take that apple. Whoever needed an apple before anyone would think they were beautiful, would be most ugly indeed.”

Rarity paused, and added, “If that was your question, then I suppose I will retire to my afternoon soak?”

Sunset found herself a little tongue tied. She wasn’t used to Rarity being so darned... insightful! “Alright, no,” she pinched her brow collecting her wits. “I was researching it because of that news report, you know the one with that local girl, Apple Bloom?”

Rarity rolled her eyes, drawling out, “Please don’t tell me you watch that tripe, either!”

Sunset smiled loosely, saying, “Hey, you know me. Crazy stories are my bread and butter. I was wondering what you thought about it. Apple Bloom is your sister’s friend, isn’t she?”

“What I think,” Rarity said angrily, “Is Applejack is making a huge mistake, pulling Apple Bloom out of school for a, for what amounts to a prank of all things. You think you know someone, and then she does something like this! Where has my good, decent, honest friend gone, wrapped up in all that media hype?! How much do you think they’re paying her to lie to us all!”

Sunset’s eyes went from side to side, because to look forward now was to look at Rarity, who had come nose-to-nose with Sunset. Rarity’s angry, forward facing eyes were focused right on the target of her wrath, an abstract concept. Sunset just happened to be standing in the way of it. That’s what it felt like at least. Then, Rarity realized she was being ...forward, and straightened up, collecting herself and adjusting the towel on her head.

“I haven’t anything to say about that sordid article,” Rarity said snippily. “Except that I would appreciate if you could be so kind as to tell Applejack that she needs to pull her head out of her rear end, and send Apple Bloom back to school where she belongs, and stop ruining the poor girl’s future like this.”

“Yeah, alright I’ll... do what I can,” Sunset said unhappily. Rarity smiled silently, and closed the door to her apartment. Sunset stood there in the hallway, rolling around Rarity’s words in her head, trying to find some hint of what Rarity knew, about how Sweetie Belle might be connected to Apple Bloom, and the Golden Apple. Rarity hadn’t said that Sweetie had any strange dreams, and didn’t seem to even slightly connect the old legend with her sister. Yet she learned about the apple through her sister, so Sweetie had to know about it somehow.

Groaning, Sunset leaned against the wall of the hallway, scrunching her hands up in her hair. She listened to the slosh of bathwater inside, and the pleasant sound of Rarity’s close lipped humming, as she got about her important bathing ritual. Sunset Shimmer knew she was so close to an answer, but her leads were slipping out through the fingers that she still hadn’t gotten used to, even after all this time. Even after all this fighting. Sometimes Sunset Shimmer didn’t even know what she was fighting for. Her family? As if. Her home? Changed beyond recognition. The arrival of that purple princess was evidence enough that Sunset had nopony waiting for her back home. So why did she still fight?

When it all came down to the wire, there was one thing Sunset Shimmer wanted more than anything in the world. An end. She wanted this all to end so much that it drove her insane. And then drove her sane again. She was so tired of this thrice damned bizarre dimension of bizarre creatures and rituals and that Celestia bucking school! She—

Sunset’s heart skipped a beat and she inhaled sharply, when the door to Rarity’s apartment opened again. Standing up straight, Sunset found herself looking at Sweetie Belle again, the pink and lavender curl girl peering out at Sunset worriedly.

“Oh good, you’re still here,” Sweetie Belle said, with a look of relief. Sunset... had nothing she could say to that. What the buck was going on here?

“Listen,” Sweetie said urgently, “I know Apple Bloom is a little baby animal now. You don’t have to lie to me. I already know, so you don’t have to hide her from me.”

“Wh–huh?” Sunset said intelligently.

“The dream,” Sweetie Belle said. “I saw her changed all the way, in that dream we had, when she touched the golden apple. So please, Rarity won’t tell her, but you have to tell Apple Bloom that it’s okay and she doesn’t have to hide from me. I don’t mind at all, and I... really miss her.”

“I can... talk to Applejack... about...” Sunset said in an almost paralytic grip of terrified reticence.

“Please,” Sweetie said with a soulful pout, “Scootaloo was in the dream too, so Apple Bloom doesn’t have to hide from her either.

“Sweetie Belle!” came Rarity’s voice echoing through the walls, “Who are you talking to?”

“Gotta go,” Sweetie Belle said hastily, closing the door in Sunset’s face. Sweetie opened it again and repeated, “Tell Applejack I really mean it.” Then closed the door.

Sunset didn’t waste one more second, but turned around and ran full tilt out of the hallway, down the stairwell and out the front lobby to the street below. She was breathing hard when she got to the bus stop, leaning on her knees with a wheezy exhaustion, but there was a fiery light in her eyes, if not of triumph, a light of desperate hope, of possibility.

Sometime later in that dingy apartment, which was much less dingy on the inside, Rarity was brushing out her luxurious hair, expertly conditioned into stylish squiggles. Sweetie Belle spoke up in a most curious tone, from the homework she was working on, laid out on the apartment floor.

“Rarity,” she asked offhandedly, “Why does your friend Sunset Shimmer keep introducing herself to me? We already met like twice!”

The weekend came for Apple Bloom, and it was the worst weekend ever. She had a whole life of weekends now, and nothing to do in it. She just lay around all day, not moving much, staring listlessly out the window. She wanted to forget what she was, pretend she was just a normal girl again, who could eat normal things, and do normal things and... she really didn’t have the energy to think on it, further than that. It was almost hay time for her. She hated hay time. No, that’s not quite right. She didn’t even feel like taking the effort to hate it. Fortunately, her life was about to improve in more ways than one.

Her first surprise was when Big Macintosh got back from slopping the pigs, those forbidden walking bacon factories that had no right to look as happy as they did, hanging on to all that tasty meat. The time Apple Bloom thought he’d been studying the past days, he was actually busy with something else entirely. So she lifted her head and turned to look, as he walked down the stairs from his room, holding some kind of white cloth in his enviously large, capable hands. He looked at Apple Bloom, and she looked at him dully.

And he said, “Need ya to try this on, see if it fits.”

Apple Bloom couldn’t scramble to her useless hooves fast enough. “You made it?!” she exclaimed incoherently, running up to him in broad jumps, a gait she’d figured out yesterday, that her family observers told her was a gallop. “You–whath is it? Is ith clothing? How am ah gonna geth it on?!”

“Calm down, sis,” Big Macintosh said, pushing her back from rearing up to climb up his legs. “It’s a dress,” he explained, “Supposed to be at any rate. You just put it on like a t-shirt. Should give you some modesty, if ah measured right.”

Apple Bloom eagerly complied with his demands, and ended up sitting back on her haunches and pulling her elbows out to hold her hooves high above her head, so he could slip it down on top of her that way. She actually pulled it on herself, the rest of the way, by sticking her hooves through the sleeves and tugging the edges of the cloth with her teeth to get it all wrapped around her.

It was a dress made out of cheap linen, not died or adorned with lace or anything, but Apple Bloom was ready to say it was the best dress she’d ever worn in her life. It felt so good to have clothing on again. It had basic sleeves, and a skirt that was long enough that it draped down right around her bottom, and there was a special addition to it that she really appreciated, a hole for her tail!

Seriously, Apple Bloom couldn’t imagine what kind of ridiculous design for a dress that would go on top of your tail.

She turned in excited circles to look at her now covered rear end, pausing a little bit disappointed. The cut of the tail hole still kind of gave her some sort of butt cleavage, but it was lots better than just showing it all off to the world.

“Was gonna add buttons,” Big Mac said getting down on a knee, and observing what she was looking at, “But... y’know. Maybe a pull string to tighten it.”

“Thank you so much, Big Macintosh!” Apple Bloom exclaimed, leaping to wrap her arms around him joyfully. Part of the way around him at least. She couldn’t even get her tiny little hooves halfway around his big broad chest. Matter of fact, why wasn’t she just slipping off him and falling, like this? Oh well, it didn’t matter because she had dignity again!

As she tested out her garment, Apple Bloom found herself trodding on the drooping hemline, fussing about it until Big Macintosh just went and got some cloth shears, cutting it so it didn’t catch on her feet anymore. He didn’t bother hemming it, but that was fine. Apple Bloom looked at herself in the bottom of the full length door mirror, like some kind of little pony diva. It didn’t look fancy but, it was a lot better than she even imagined. Apple Bloom hadn’t even realized just how vulnerable being buck naked all the time was making her feel.

Later, she heard Applejack’s truck pulling into the driveway, her sister back from the weekend shopping. Apple Bloom ran to greet her, though stopped and wobbled... a bit dizzy halfway there, and just walked the rest of the way. “Sis, look!” Apple Bloom exclaimed, as Applejack opened up the front door. “Applejack! Look!”

“Well isn’t that just the most darling thing ever!” Applejack declared, coming down to Apple Bloom’s level. “Big Mac outdone himself, ah have to say!”

“You knew he was making this?” Apple Bloom gasped.

Applejack nodded. “He wanted it to be a surprise, after ah tried... y’know, with the messed up stitchin’ and all. It looks great on you!”

“It is great!” Apple Bloom agreed fervently, “Ah feel so much bether. This is the bes’ news ah’ve had since this happen’ to me!”

Applejack gave a self satisfied smile at that, saying, “Well ah may be able to one-up Big Macintosh in that regard.”

“Whahddya mean?” Apple Bloom asked, looking at her sister trying to read her expression.

“Just wait one sec,” Applejack said, standing up and leaving Apple Bloom there on the floor. “Ah’ll go get... ah’ll be right back.”

Applejack walked out the door, leaving it closed but unlatched and just went back to her truck, where the door could be heard opening and closing again. Using her freaky ears, Apple Bloom could hear Applejack, Big Macintosh and Granny Smith, all walking together towards the house. Though she recalled Granny’s footfalls to be heavier than that, and wasn’t Big Mac’s stride a whole lot longer?

When Applejack returned to the house and opened the door, Apple Bloom froze on the spot, just like a deer in headlights, at the second surprise of the day. She she she she she she she wasn’t ready! She wasn’t she... she was looking right at the gaping, open mouthed faces of two very close friends of hers. “S-Sweetie Belle?!” Apple Bloom exclaimed, “Shcootaloo?!”

“I knew it!” Scootaloo cheered, pumping the air.

“You are so ado҉rable!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed, kneeling down and clasping her pale white hands in delight.

“But...” Apple Bloom balked, “Ah don’... ah ain’...”

“Now Apple Bloom,” Applejack spoke down to her chidingly, hands on hips, “These are your friends, you can trust them. Plus they already know about you, so there’s nothin’ to hide.”

“But Applejack!” Apple Bloom protested, shifting on her hooves agitatedly.

“But nothing!” Applejack cut her off. “It took a good friend’a mine to show me this, but you caint just hide away your whole life. Your friends need you, and you need them, and it don’t matter if you’re some kinda pony or not.”

“Ah guess so...” Apple Bloom said when she couldn’t think of any way to argue, around her full face blush, and around her hoof covering her face from everyone’s inquisitive eyes.

“And that is why ah’ve given your friends permission to carry you around like a dolly, until you loosen up a bit,” Applejack concluded smugly.

Apple Bloom smiled guiltily, saying, “Yeah I...” she paused. “Wait, what was that last part again?”

Sweetie Belle’s bright smile seemed so much more predatory all of a sudden, as the adorable little girl wrapped her arms around the even more adorable little pony, and lifted Apple Bloom high up into the air.

Apple Bloom had only a small chance to glare at Applejack, point a hoof and avow to her, “You owe me big for this,” before her giggling friends dragged her bodily outside into the bright sun to play.

On a seemingly unrelated note, while the three kids played together and made friends with each other all over again, at least a mile away at the base of a rather technologically augmented tree, an unlikely pair were engaging in the unlikely act of hugging each other, laughing excitedly, and dancing in a circle.

And, that should have been it. That should have solved everything. With her new dress and her beloved friends, Apple Bloom had never felt better than she had ever felt all the past five long days. Six, if you counted the one where she was half a pony. Seven, by the time this sleepover was done. Apple Bloom wanted so badly for it to be enough, for it to get her out of this god damned funk she was in, but it just wasn’t working, even now.

Apple Bloom had a lot of fun, but kept coming up short. She wanted to show them all the cool physical stuff she learned how to do over the past days, but she got tired so quickly now. She wanted to learn everything about school and about what she’d been missing outside the farm, but she just felt too spacy to put more than two thoughts together. And she wanted to laugh at their jokes and their joyful acceptance of her condition, but she just felt so bitter, and drained. Apple Bloom was in the middle of trying to pantomime Ms. Harshvoice’s reaction to Apple Bloom’s ears being real, and she just got tired all of a sudden and fell painfully on her belly. And then she started crying, and she couldn’t stop!

So that’s how her afternoon ended, crying inconsolably, carried in the arms of her friends, who asked Applejack in a panic what was wrong and what they should do, and Applejack didn’t know, and Apple Bloom didn’t know, and... that was when everybody, including Apple Bloom, started to suspect that there was something seriously wrong with her.

The next day wasn’t any better, and Apple Bloom felt even worse if that were possible. She should have had a sleepover, but she just woke up alone. Apple Bloom couldn’t even bring herself to eat anymore. She was just so very sick of hay. She’d humiliated herself in front of her friends, and she didn’t even know why.

It couldn’t have been a simple answer either. The vet didn’t know what to do. Dr. Cureall was downright paranoid, accusing Apple Bloom of having eaten a million things from onions to chocolate, to pain pills. She said Apple Bloom had to eat or she’d keep getting more anemic, and Apple Bloom said maybe she’d go eat a big old bowl of black forest ice cream with chocolate syrup on top, and it kind of devolved into shouting from there. That lady really knew how to take care of their animals, but she was not a people person.

Dr. Cureall gave Apple Bloom a sickly sweet paste to rub on her gums, and it really did help a little, but the doc said it was a totally different situation than ice cream or candy, and then the doctor said you know what I don’t even know anymore. Go ahead and give yourself metabolic syndrome. And when the vet drove off in a panicked huff, Apple Bloom just...

Apple Bloom just went meekly to her hay bale and, she really did try to eat that hay, and she really did chew it, and swallow it and consume the tasteless stuff. It just wasn’t making her feel better though, so Apple Bloom just went to bed early, again. Didn’t even bother getting on the bed this time, just pulled a blanket down and curled up underneath it. Like a horse.

And that’s why only a day later, with the end of the weekend at hand, Apple Bloom was creeping downstairs in the darkness, in the middle of the night. She had smelled it before she saw it: a triple layer chocolate fudge cake, lovingly crafted on special request for a faculty holiday party. Granny wasn’t the best at baking, but being on school payroll made her the cheapest, and that left it to her to make something special to really wow the administrators involved. Apple Bloom couldn’t get it out of her head all night. She remembered what the vet said about the terrible consequences of chocolate... but she also remembered the taste of chocolate. The taste of thick, rich, creamy chocolate frosting, sealing in the buttery, complex moisture of the dark as night, syrup drizzled cake.

So, she crept down to take a look at it. Apple Bloom had not yet gone down the stairs herself as a pony, but it couldn’t be harder than messing around on the fence. She eased down a step, found her footing (or, hoofing?) firm, and continued the next step. She wobbled and tottered, but somehow made it down in one piece, and more importantly quietly. Because she was just going to take another look at it—she wasn’t going to eat it or anything, and if she woke anyone up, they just wouldn’t understand. They’d think she was going to go try and eat it, when she was just going to look, so there was no need to alarm them over nothing.

The cake was sitting on the kitchen counter, ready to lift out and carry to the truck, and from there to the hungry mouths of school administrators. First Apple Bloom’s bouncy red curls, then her yellow furry pony ears, and then her gleaming orange eyes rose from beneath the level of the counter to peer at the cake. It looked so huge, with how small she was now. It was like a tower of chocolate.

Apple Bloom had long since removed her dress and bow for sleeping, though sleep proved impossible tonight. It left her now as naked as the day she was born, if she had been born a pony, that is. It was too much trouble to put that stuff on, since Apple Bloom couldn’t ask for anyone’s help now, or they wouldn’t let her eat—look at the cake. It’s not like anyone would see her, or ever know about this. She was just considering, you know, considering.

There was just a flimsy layer of cellophane between Apple Bloom and the cake. An effective barrier against moisture, for sure. Apple Bloom wondered if she could maybe pull it aside just a little bit, and just maybe take a little taste of the cake, just a little lick to make sure she really can’t eat food like this. It’d probably taste bad, like poison like the vet said. Then Apple Bloom would know, and she could eat hay forever and never be happy again.

The cellophane crinkled way too noisily as her hoof disturbed it, picking away at the rolled edge and separating the edges into a broad gap. She looked around in paranoid fear at the silent darkness around her, the blue moonlight filtering through the windows seeming entirely too bright for her liking. She didn’t see any signs of movement, so carefully she pulled the cellophane aside just a bit. The heady smell of chocolate immediately assaulted Apple Bloom’s nose, and it was all she could do to stop from drooling all over the floor. No really, she had to wipe at her mouth and everything.

Maybe just a teeny little, she told herself silently, heart thudding as the cake beckoned to her in the moonlit darkness. Just an edge of the frosting, the teeniest little bite. It was frosting, so it couldn’t be bad, right? Frosting wasn’t a bad thing, the bad thing was the chocolate, right? Maybe if it was chocolate, but frosting, then it was okay? Needless to say, Apple Bloom wasn’t very cognizant in her thoughts when she stretched her neck forward, and took just a tiny little nibble from the edge of the third layer of cake.

When the morning came, Apple Bloom woke up nice and easy. She felt funny, but she felt too lazy to even open her eyes. The sunlight was shining across them uncomfortably, and she shifted to take the glare off them, and doing that felt funny too. But it wasn’t until five minutes later, that her doze was abruptly terminated by the sound of Applejack hollering, not three feet away from her, at the top of her lungs, “Apple Bloom, what have you done?!”

“Wuah!” Apple Bloom squealed, half sitting up, and then falling back as she slipped in place. She was on the kitchen counter; why was she on the kitchen counter?! Why did everything feel all sticky and messy? What the blue blazes was she lying in?! It was brown and chocolatey and oh.

Oh right....

“I-I-I can explain!” Apple Bloom stammered drunkenly, struggling up from her belly up position, throughly buried in the remains of a triple layer chocolate fudge cake. What remained of it—and a very large amount of it was mysteriously missing—had been utterly ruined by the pony sitting in the middle, squashing the whole thing to pieces. Apple Bloom slipped again, and fell back into the mess, getting herself thoroughly splattered with gooey chocolate frosting.

She lay there, staring at the ceiling dolefully, then said in a disgruntled tone, “You know what, actually, I cain’t explain.”

Author's Note

Oh no, what a cliffhanger! Will she pony pony pony? Tune in next week! Same bat time! Same bat channel!

Life a la Mode

There on the kitchen counter, Apple Bloom lay, looking like a fox in the hen house. She shrank before her sister’s panicked gaze, still buried hip deep in triple layer, double fudge cake. To say nothing about the triple layer, double fudge cake, with extra fudgey frosting, that was currently inside of Apple Bloom’s pleasantly purring belly.

“It’s all over you!” Applejack yelled, yanking Apple Bloom by her armpits up into the air, with splatters of chocolate cake going everywhere. “Why did you do this?! You didn’t eat any did you?! Did any get in your mouth?!”

“Ah ate...” Apple Bloom said hanging there disorientedly, “Too much.” If it wasn’t obvious, that is. Her belly was outright swollen, from how much cake she frantically scarfed down, before falling into a blissful stupor.

“How could you, Apple Bloom?!” Applejack exclaimed in horror, “You know what that’ll do to you!”

“Ah know!” Apple Bloom shouted back shrilly, “Ah was justh gonna eat a little bit ah jusht– ah couldn’ hold back!”

“What’s all the ruckus down here—oh no Apple Bloom what have ye done?!” Granny Smith exclaimed after trundling downstairs and setting eyes on the chocolate cake and the mostly chocolate pony in Applejack’s arms. Apple Bloom tried to protest or something but Granny just ran over and grabbed Apple Bloom from behind, warring with Applejack for the pony as she shouted, “When did she eat it?!” to Applejack.

“Last night!” Apple Bloom cried out. “Stoppit lemme go you’re hurtin’ me!”

Big Macintosh was just there in her face then, exclaiming with terrified eyes, “What have you—”

“Ah ate the cake!” Apple Bloom shouted pitifully. At least Granny wasn’t trying to haul her out of Applejack’s hands anymore. “Ah’m sorry I– ugh...” a twisting in her belly made her suddenly feel very bloated and ill. Was this it? Was this the end?!

Applejack put her down on the kitchen table, where Apple Bloom clutched her round tummy painfully. “What do we do?!” Applejack shouted as the three crowded around Apple Bloom there on the table, “Are ya hurt? Are you dyin’? Please don’t die on me, Apple Bloom!”

Apple Bloom’s belch resounded through the rafters of the farm house. That did it. She felt awesome again. Nothing could ruin her day now. She knew she should care, and be scared and all, but she couldn’t care about anything anymore. It was great.

“Ah’ll call the vet!” Granny shouted, running for the house phone. Applejack remained by Apple Bloom, the girl squeezing her legs together and fussing over the little pony. Apple Bloom noticed, belatedly, that Applejack hadn’t even had a chance to get her pants on. She was there in her nightgown. Applejack must have sussed something was wrong, and just come running down here without a thought, only to find the worst possible thing!

Apple Bloom should have felt terrified and ashamed. She lowered her ears, trying to look guilty and sympathetic towards her sister. “Ah’m sorry big sis,” she said woefully, “Ah don’t feel bad though. I’m fine!”

“You’re fine now,” Applejack said disconsolately, “But you just wait until it hits you, and then see how fine you are!”

“Already hit me,” Apple Bloom mumbled dazedly, “Big time...”

“Just, just keep it together sis,” Applejack stammered. “Don’t let it get you let us know if you start feeling anything just keep it together you can do this.” Unable to make sense of Applejack’s word salad, Apple Bloom just lay back on the table, with her hooves folded compactly against her chest. Despite the urgency of the situation, Apple Bloom felt so peaceful, like her eyes were just going to close all by themselves.

“No Apple Bloom, you gotta stay with us!” Applejack shouted, drawing Apple Bloom’s glance of irritation. Heedlessly, Applejack continued looming right up to Apple Bloom enunciating loudly right in her face, “Don’t! Go into! The light!”

“Applejack, you’re hurtin’ mah ears!” Apple Bloom protested, reaching up to cover her ears in her hooves. As she stretched, it made the sugary residue of cake filling crack against her stretching hide. “Ah’m fine!” she said unconvincingly.

“No you’re not!” Applejack insisted stubbornly.

“Yes ah am!” Apple Bloom insisted stubbornly.

“No you’re not!” Applejack ins... it continued on something like, this for a while.

When the vet’s car screeched up, Apple Bloom and Applejack were arguing over every little thing. Big Macintosh was just sitting on the couch, with his head in his hands. Granny was charging out at top grannyspeed to greet the doctor. So, that’s what the blue haired vet ran into, is Apple Bloom licking the chocolate off her forehoof, and Applejack shouting,

“Stop doing that! You’ll get yourself sick!” and Apple Bloom shouting back,

“I already ate plenty! It caint get any worse!”

“Leave it alone!”

“But ah’m all sticky!”

“Is...” the vet paused and leaned over to Granny Smith, asking as if she didn’t believe her eyes. “Is that pony covered in chocolate?”

“Ah told you, she ate somethin’ she shouldn’t have!” Granny said angrily back.

“She ate... chocolate cake??” Dr. Cureall exclaimed, utterly baffled.

“Last night,” Applejack said, hopping in front of the doctor, “She’s been sittin’ there with it in her tummy all night! It was the faculty meeting it was supposed to... we should never have made it!”

The vet turned just slightly to face Applejack asking her, “How much cake?”

Applejack only whimpered in response, so Apple Bloom herself just shouted “A lot!” vindictively, over to the doctor standing at the door. Apple Bloom wasn’t going to walk over to the doctor though, because she was feeling so very relaxed. She just figured she as going to lie here on the kitchen table forever.

“Chocolate.” the vet repeated faintly. Applejack nodded. “And frosting?” Cureall asked weakly.

“So much frosting!” Apple Bloom exclaimed dreamily on her back.

The vet looked from Applejack, to Apple Bloom lying there on the kitchen table, to the ruined cake still left otherwise untouched on the counter. Then she turned around, and walked out the door.

“Hey—come back!!” Applejack shrieked, charging after Dr. Cureall.

“No!” the vet shouted back, still stomping off, “I’m done! I give up!” When the door slammed shut, the doctor’s voice grew too faint to hear after that, which of course meant Apple Bloom kept on hearing it. “I can’t do this!” the doctor’s voice drifted back quietly. “I’m a veterinarian, not a psychic type!”

“You gotta do something!” Applejack’s voice drifted back while Apple Bloom sat up craning her ears toward the door. “Mah sister is in trouble! She could be dyin’!”

“She should be dead!” the vet’s voice shouted back with an angry stomp. “She should have exploded! This is not an exaggeration! Her intestinal flora should have produced so much carbon dioxide from all that sugar that her organs ruptured! It doesn’t make any sense, and if it doesn’t make any sense, then there’s nothing I can do!”

“Please, ah’m beggin’ you!” Applejack said. From the thump of knees on grass it sounded like she was literally begging her. “Just check her out, please? You gotta at least try! Ah don’t want my baby sister to die!” Apple Bloom turned her head away then, deliberately facing her ears in the other direction, so as not to hear her sister begin bawling like a five year old.

Some time later, the front door swung open to reveal a solemn tear streaked Applejack. Behind her came the vet, the two of them walking in as per some silent agreement, that Apple Bloom had managed to prevent herself from hearing, thank goodness. Apple Bloom looked up at Dr. Cureall silently, and guiltily. The doctor walked up to her equally silently, looking her up and down. “Missus doctor,” Apple Bloom said in a tiny voice, cringing away. “Ah’m sor–”

She didn’t expect the doctor to slump down into a chair at the table, bury her face in her own hands, and say in a very troubled tone, “This is all my fault...”

Apple Bloom paused uncertainly. There wasn’t a word for how uncertain she felt. “It’s okay doctor Cureall,” she said bewilderedly, trying to appease the doctor’s... whatever this was. “I forgive you? Ah feel fine. Ah was tryin’ to eat just grass, but ah just couldn’t!” Apple Bloom had since managed to stand up on the table, and jumped off of it, wincing as the sticky cake filling tugged at her fur. She landed on all fours, and underneath, her belly... mostly didn’t touch the floor. She then walked to the foot of the doctor’s ...feet, putting a concerned hoof on Dr. Cureall’s shin, and looking up at her.

Dr. Cureall’s face left her hands, and she shuddered a sigh. “I should never have told you what to eat, Apple Bloom,” she said penitently. “I should have realized what was going on. I didn’t even think... I thought I knew what was going on, but I knew nothing. I-I’m sorry.”

The vet lifted her head, and addressed everyone else, saying, “I’m sorry, everyone!” It was kind of awkward the way she said it though, because of the bright tone she used, and she didn’t say anything after that, just looked at them expectantly.

“So...” Apple Bloom said uncertainly, “I cain eat chocolate?”

“Apple Bloom, you’re not an animal,” the doctor asserted, then thought better of it and said, “I mean, you’re not a horse. I don’t know what you are, and I’ve never studied anything like it before. Why are you asking me what you can eat then? You’re more of an expert than I am!”

“Ah don’t know though!” Apple Bloom protested sharply.

“That’s the thing Apple Bloom,” the doctor said to her. “If you don’t know, then nobody knows. I told you what to eat, and all I did was make you sick!”

“You didn’t make me sick!” Apple Bloom protested. “Ah didn’t eat mah grass just like you told me to! This weren’t your fault!”

The doctor looked down at Apple Bloom incredulously. “Did you not understand me?” she asked accusingly. “Eating nothing but grass was making you hypoglycemic, and it never even occurred to me! You clearly have to eat more than just grass, and I couldn’t see that because all I saw was a horse!”

“Ah have to eat more than just grass?” Apple Bloom asked hopefully. The vet nodded. “Ah have to eat more than just grass!” Apple Bloom exclaimed in sudden clarity. She hugged the vet around her legs saying, “Oh, thank you thank you!”

She turned and stomped on all fours, facing her family then, and declared to them defiantly, “Ah have to eat more than just grassh!” Apple Bloom’s fierce crouch made her belly touch the floor again though, so she stood up more, and said a little more lucidly to them,

“Ah have to eat more than just grass! Ah been eating hay all this time, and feeling like eating other stuff, because I can! You caint make me just eat hay, because it ain’t good for me! Ya heard the doctor! Ah ate the cake an’ ah’m fine! Ah’m not gonna die, ah’m not gonna get sick, an’ ah’m not sorry!”

“C-can she eat meat now?” Applejack asked the vet, all flabbergasted.

The vet glared at her and responded, “Why is everyone asking me? Apple Bloom can eat rocks, for all I know! Just... just eat a little bit and see if it bothers you. That’s my answer for every food, because I Just Don’t Know.”

Apple Bloom would have consoled the agitated doctor some more, but she was unavailable right now, due to slipping into a drooling hypnotic trance at the thought that maybe she could once again eat bacon.

In an undisclosed location far across town, Twilight Sparkle sat there in the seedy motel they hid out at after the realtors came back to that house, the cot underneath her aching in its springs. She continued to pet the green and purple dog in her lap, her best assistant now considerably reduced in his capabilities, along with all the rest of them. Thankfully, being a book rest was still within his capabilities, so she continued to read what she could about this fascinating but terribly frustrating world.

At least Spike didn’t mind comforting her, and she certainly understood his appreciation for what these miraculous hands could accomplish against someone’s hide. But now, she wasn’t concerned with her faithful friend’s ability, or dignity. It was another thing entirely that darkened her brow, shaded beneath her clean cut bangs.

“We’re doing the right thing, aren’t we?” Twilight asked.

Leaning precariously back in a chair, by their little kitchenette, Sunset Shimmer tossed a ball up into the air again, and again. She didn’t respond for a while, but then said in partial acquiescence, “It worked, didn’t it? The facture is expanding quickly, and it won’t be long before we can put all this behind us.”

“She was crying,” Twilight said somberly. “Is there something about it that hurts her? Why was she so distressed? What could we be doing wrong? And why is she a pon–”

“I don’t know!” Sunset snapped, the ball hitting the ceiling as she threw it a little bit too hard. “There’s no reason she should be a pony, and there’s no reason her health should continue to deteriorate like this!”

“If only Applejack could tell us what’s wrong,” Twilight fretted. Spike had gone to sleep on her lap it seemed, so he didn’t bear the brunt of her terrible wrath just now. She made sure to give him extra scratches, around behind his ears, just in case. “Your Applejack, I mean,” she quietly qualified.

Sunset stopped throwing the ball, just looking up at the ceiling. Then she started to laugh, and it wasn’t the healthiest laugh. Her chair legs thumped into the floor, as she gasped in harshly manic, uncontrolled laughter, more full of released pain than of joy. Twilight let her do that, if feeling very uncomfortable about it. Sunset managed to collect her wits eventually. “I can’t believe it’s really happening,” Sunset said, staring at her hands as though they were alien to her. Which they were, once, long ago. “After all these times, and thanks to you, we finally really did it!”

“Thanks to both of us,” Twilight Sparkle said, giving Sunset a meaningful look. “And let’s not forget about Apple Bloom. Whatever she’s done, we owe everything to her.”

“She could have done it before!” Sunset shouted in sudden anger. She caught herself, and said in a more level tone, “I just don’t get why it’s happening now and not... before...”

“Our last run may have had something to do with it,” Twilight drawled wryly. Sunset laughed at that, a much healthier laugh of genuine appreciation.

“I thought it was a done deal back then,” she said. “Sort of glad you managed to stop me before I went and screwed up again.”

“I think of all ponies, you have the least to apologize for,” Twilight said authoritatively to Sunset. “You made a mistake once, when you were young and impetuous, and it’s been how many years since then?”

“87,” Sunset said dully. “I’m practically an old mare by now, or at least I should be!” Her words were harsh, but her demeanor was relatively relaxed about it. Twilight had to assume that Sunset was being humorous in this, not so much serious about it. Twilight had to count on her fingers a little bit to make sure of that number, but she smiled when she did saying,

“You’re a good way from that, and you know it. You might be old enough to be my mother, but my mother’s not an old mare by anypony’s judgement!”

“I’d really appreciate those years better,” Sunset said, “If I wasn’t stuck like this the whole time.”

Twilight shook her head sadly. “Imagine how it’s been for–”

“Yeah, I know,” Sunset cut in. “These poor saps. I don’t even think they know how to live beyond this high school of theirs.”

“Our world can ostensibly provide aid, when the portal opens again,” Twilight pointed out. Sunset just nodded silently. Then Sunset Shimmer lay her hands on her knees, staring downward as if deep in thought.

She clapped her knees then, standing up and saying, “I’m going to talk to Applejack.”

Twilight blinked in wide eyed surprise. Then her eyes softened and she said, “That’s very brave of you, Sunset.”

“You have no idea,” Sunset exclaimed with a tense grin. “I’m not used to this. Anything I do could screw everything up and I’d have no way to make up for it. If it’s not perfect, I feel like... I just can’t make mistakes anymore.”

“You can always make up for your mistakes,” Twilight said sympathetically. “You just can’t... y’know...” She waved a hand unexpressively.

“Yeah...” Sunset trailed off dully. She shook her head though, and said, “But we did it. They did it. That door is blown wide open and there’s no way to shut it, not accidentally, not even if I tried. I’m going to talk with Applejack. Try to find out what’s wrong with Apple Bloom. I hope they’re treating her alright.”

“Well, they have horses,” Twilight pointed out. “Those are fairly similar to ponies.”

“The horses of this world are a lot different than the horses of our world,” Sunset said warily. “I think it might be past time to offer her my advice. We might be the only ones in the world who know something about ponies, and Apple Bloom might need that knowledge someday, possibly sooner than later!”

“Well, you know what you’re doing...” Twilight said trying not to sound disappointed.

“Hey if the facture continues to realize,” Sunset said lifting the ball in her hands. She tossed it at Twilight who, thanks to a lot of telegraphed movements from Sunset, managed to put her book down long enough to catch it. “Then there’s no reason you can’t come see all my friends again. I bet they’ll even be friends with you, right off the bat. I understand why you’d want to avoid them but... hey, we did it. So there’s no more reason to do so!”

Twilight’s smile grew at that. “You know, you’re right,” she said wistfully. “And if not them, then perhaps even the Principals, or officials from the city. I’m pretty sure your version of Mayor Mare is down running town hall. We could start diplomatic relations, even trade agreements!” She squeed in excitement.

Sunset raised an eyebrow at her.

“Ohh, hush!” Twilight huffed embarassedly, falling on her back on the cottage bed, and pulling Spike with her to her chest. It woke him up, but he just yawned, and went back to sleep without another word. Typical Spike.

Meanwhile, it was after curfew, after the lights had gone out in the orphanage, and everything was still. Every evening for the past four days, a plucky lass known as Diamond Tiara would crouch under her blanket, peering at the laptop she’d taken without permission, and not yet gotten caught for it. She had to take it, because she had to know. She had to prove to herself each and every night that what she knew was real.

So, after the lights went out, she would uncover the laptop from its hiding place, and cover herself in a blanket to hide the light. Her roommates could hear what she was listening to, but she turned the volume down as much as she could, while still being able to hear it, and they hadn’t ratted on her just yet. She’d pay for that eventually, but they were still trying to figure how to use their new leverage against her.

There by a dimly glowing light, illuminating the silouette of the pink and white haired fashionista-in-training, a mere monochrome shadow underneath her blanket, there in the darkness the sights and sounds would once again relieve the tension in her head, and make it so she could sleep again, Apple Bloom’s bright tones came over the speaker, from the recorded conversation.

“They shtarted at 6 this mornin’ but, ah didn’t really notice until after lunch today...”

Apple Bloom never repeated her incident with the cake, but that cake was it, thoroughly and totally. Her friends couldn’t help her, her clothes couldn’t help her, but that cake golly it darn near saved her little pony life! She was running around outside all morning and dancing and laughing and feeling great! Her dress had grass stains when she was done with it, and Big Macintosh suggested that until they had her more clothing she should probably only wear it for guests. And Apple Bloom was ...surprisingly okay with that. Because she was okay, and she wasn’t going to let anything else get her down.

She probably would have made herself sick, devouring every unhealthy and godforsaken food item in the larder, but thankfully Applejack still had a healthy sense of paranoia, and she made sure to impress on Apple Bloom, with force if necessary, that the vet had only said try a little bit, not a lot. So Apple Bloom got to have energy, and play around like the cute little pony she felt like again. And if she never touched another blade of grass it would be too soon!

...that afternoon, Apple Bloom was sitting there munching on hay again, trying not to draw attention to it. She thought she couldn’t stand hay anymore, but she got so hungry for it then, and well, she had to eat some, to make everything else go down easy. It was as if Apple Bloom was a pony, but only half a pony, and half a girl. Which made sense, since she still had her colors, and she still had her voice, albeit a lot higher and more prone to squeaking. It didn’t really make sense, but Apple Bloom wasn’t going to question it. If she had to eat a little bit of hay every now and again, in order to enjoy herself a nice sizzling strip of bacon, then that was just fine.

Another weekend came, and sure enough Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were available again, and they were all too happy to make amends.

“Y’all don’t have to make amends, Sweetie!” Apple Bloom protested from her position on the living room rug. “Ah’m the one who was doing things wrong, an’ I fixed it, an’ ah’m fine!”

“Yeah, well,” Scootaloo said, clasping a dismissive hand behind her head, “Well, Applejack really wanted us to come over, so you’re just gonna have to deal with it.”

“Oh, so Applejack sent you here, did she?” Apple Bloom said disapprovingly, looking at the silouette of her sister through the curtains, clearly doing Very Important things by her truck.

“No!” Scootaloo said waving her hands, “I mean, we wanted to come. I mean, she just suggested it and we really—”

“It’s fine,” Apple Bloom told her, turning with a smile. “Ah cain’t thank you enough for comin’. It’s so boring just sitting around the farm all the time! I dunno how the other critters do it. It’s so bad, ah almost miss goin’ to school.”

“Well, why can’t you?” Sweetie Belle asked innocently.

“Y’ever seen a horse goin’ to school?” Apple Bloom asked her grumpily.

“No,” Sweetie answered, “But I’ve never seen a pony who could talk, either!”

Apple Bloom blushed, saying “You’re really dead set on that whole ‘pony’ thing, huh?”

Sweetie shrugged. “It sounds better, doesn’t it?”

Apple Bloom opened her mouth to answer, then thought better of herself, then she stood up with her rather messy ‘visitor dress’ draping around her legs making her look more like a little dirty grey caterpillar with a pony’s head, than a pony.

“So what are we doin’?” Apple Bloom asked excitedly, feeling the energy coursing through her veins. “Y’wanna see what I can eat? Wanna go play on the fence? I got a ball we could kick around! I can kick it way far. You wanna see the pasture? We got all sorts of cows out there!”

“Let’s go see the horses!” Scootaloo said eagerly.

“The horses?!” Apple Bloom suddenly exclaimed in dread.

She even backed up a step. She’d been avoiding the horses like the plague, ever since she turned into one. She hadn’t even been thinking about them anymore. Big Macintosh and Applejack just went out, and magically brought the cows in all on their own, and Winona and Gummy were not even a factor of consideration.

“I want to see if you can talk to them!” Scootaloo cheered, nodding with a wide grin.

“Ah g-guess we could ah mean,” Apple Bloom stammered, “But ah don’t think ah can talk to them. I ain’t a regular horse, after all!”

It was Sweetie Belle who gave a disappointed pout at that, but Scootaloo said challengingly to Apple Bloom, “Hey, you never know if you don’t try. I bet you haven’t even seen the horses yet yourself!”

Apple Bloom said in an outraged tone, “Yes I—okay, yeah ya got me.”

Defeated, she walked between her towering friends, through the front door they came, saying “C’mon, they should be out in the corral this time of day.”

“You want us to carry you?” Sweetie Belle suggested hopefully.

Apple Bloom shook her head, “Now why would you do that?!”

“Well it’s just our legs are longer...” Sweetie said, with a disappointed pout.

“That right?” Apple Bloom grinned at her, “I’d like ta see you keep up!” She trotted off, which was kind of a two beat scissor step, and that alone was fast enough to keep up with them walking. So she trotted faster until it switched on its own into a gallop, making good distance from them before Scootaloo realized, and started to charge after Apple Bloom. The little pony laughed her head off, running for the love of it. She may have had little stubby legs, but she had four of them, and that left even her athletic friend hard pressed to keep up.

Scootaloo was still trying to keep pace with her, when they got to the corral. She and Apple Bloom both stood there panting, while Scootaloo leaned on the fence holding the horses in. Sweetie Belle came running up herself, shouting “Wait up!” from a distance, as the delicate little girl approached. And that shout brought, well, one of the horses to come over, looking at what’s going on. Apple Bloom found herself backing up, despite trying to put on a face of bravado. She knew they were going to be big, but she didn’t think Winona was going to be this big.

As a mountain of horse thundered up to the fence of the corral, stuck her fat neck over the fence and immediately began whuffling around for treats, Apple Bloom just found herself staring at Winona’s big long nose, and her beady little eyes that twinkled in the sunlight. You couldn’t tell if she was looking at you, but she was looking at you. Which is to say she was looking down at Apple Bloom with the most confused expression a horse could ever adopt. Which is to say, a look of complete indifference.

Apple Bloom’s tail bowed as she inadvertently backed right up into Scootaloo’s legs. She looked back, and up, and Scootaloo was looking at her expectantly with a big excited smile. Now Apple Bloom was confused. Did Scootaloo want something?

“Go on,” Scootaloo said eagerly, “Try to talk to her!”

Apple Bloom blinked, and then her ears went flat. “Now hold on,” she said turning to Scootaloo irritably, “Ah ain’ got no supernatural powers to speak with horses. Ah may look like one, but she’s way bigger, and... and ah can talk, not whinny!”

“Couldn’t you at least try?” Scootaloo said pouting disappointedly. Apple Bloom took a look behind her, shaking her head.

“No way,” she said assertively. “Ah might get bit! Just look at how nervous she is. Cain’t you see something’s got her spooked? She’s just gonna run off anyway.”

“She looks fine to me,” Sweetie Belle said uncertainly, staring at Winona and keeping her distance.

“We never spooked her before,” Scootaloo said insistently. “She knows us already, and she’s super brave for a horse.”

Apple Bloom stuck a hoof toward what she could see through the fence, saying quickly, “Yeah, but her legs are all stiff like she’s liable to bolt and her lip’s just a bit curled like when you’re real nervous. Just look at the angle of her tail, and she’s got that look in her eyes like she don’t know what the fuck she’s looking at—” Winona bolted, dashing off to the other side of the corral.

“Y’see?” Apple Bloom said plainly, almost relieved to say, “Ah cain’t communicate with horses. They just look the same to me! Just bigger, and lots bigger. And weirder, if that’s possible.”

There was a significant reluctant pause in her friends, which made Apple Bloom think they weren’t exactly taking her seriously, when Sweetie Belle said, “Why don’t we try Gummy?”

Apple Bloom sighed disgustedly, dragging a hoof down her own comparatively long face.

Gummy was an older horse. He was Big Mac’s big baby, despite being beyond the prime of his life. Apple Bloom did not look forward to when they were going to have to get a new Gummy. She was no dummy; she knew a thing or two about mortality, and hamsters that die on you, just because you forgot to feed them ...for a week. And Gummy was looking his years. Glassy eyes out of focus, old teeth worn smooth, yellowed and ringy. If it bothered him, nobody would ever be able to tell, because this was a horse who had seen it all. Absolutely nothing phased him.

So really, it made him ideal for the CMC to experiment with, using Apple Bloom as the guinea pig. Except for the fact that nothing phased him, so he didn’t react to anything they tried. Scootaloo climbed in and actually led him over to the fence, which he did amiably. He just stood there though, looking enigmatically down at Apple Bloom standing there at the foot of the fence.

“Hey there... Gummy,” Apple Bloom said in a less than impressed tone. He didn’t react. “Mah friends think I got some magic ability to talk to horses now, just because I’m a pony,” she informed him. He blinked at her... slowly. “You wanna just tell them how they’re all wasting their time?” she requested politely. “You’ll want to phrase it in plain English and not magic secret horse speak.”

“Okay, okay, I get it!” Scootaloo said, blushing with frustration, letting Gummy’s lead loose so he could wander off, as amiably as he had approached. He didn’t wander off though, just stayed standing there, blinking every now and again. “Sorry I even brought it up,” Scootaloo grumbled embarassedly.

“No, it’s okay Scootaloo,” Apple Bloom admitted, hopping up onto the fence and balancing on its edge on three legs. Her plan worked, and she could reach a hoof up to scratch the groove under Gummy’s chin, just the way he loved it. “You got me over here, didn’t you?” she said wobbling as Gummy leaned his head against her hoof. “Ah been avoidin’ the horses and you showed me that ah was scared over–woAH!” a squeal belted out of her, as Gummy’s tongue managed to lick her entire body. Now her dress was even more ruined!

She hopped down from the fence, shaking off as best she could without disarraying herself further, shouting, “Gummy! Ewww!”

Scootaloo vaulted the fence, to land beside Sweetie Belle, and Gummy finally meandered away.

“I really thought we were onto something,” Sweetie grumbled cutely, leaning her butt against the fence and cupping her hand under her chin.

“Well y’ain’t,” Apple Bloom said prancing in front of them a bit smugly, “Because ah’m as normal as ever, and that’s fine with me!”

Scootaloo and Sweetie were looking at her a bit critically, but Scoots had a great idea. “You wanna go toss the ball around or something?” she suggested offhandedly. Apple Bloom hadn’t had anyone to do that with before, except the wall!

“Do ah ever!” Apple Bloom exclaimed, rearing up to kick in the air and whinnying happily, before charging off toward the farm house again. “Come on!” she shouted back to the slowpokes by the fence. “Y’comin’ or not?”

Before they came jogging after her, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle shared a meaningful look, and Scootaloo said, “Do you want to tell her, or should I?”

They didn’t actually bring it up until much later, when a quiet whinny snuck out of Apple Bloom again as they settled down after their games later in the afternoon.

“You know it’s alright if you’re different,” Sweetie blurted out. To Apple Bloom’s regret, Sweetie added, “Really really different.”

Apple Bloom settled on her haunches saying tiredly, “What’s this about, Sweetie?”

“I’m just saying you still have what’s important,” she said, “And there’s nothing to be ashamed about, if those differences aren’t bad. In fact, I think they’re really neat!”

“What... differences, essactly?” Apple Bloom said, her mood dipping gloomily as she really did not like where this was going.

And Scootaloo went right there, saying, “So...... you can whinny now?”

Apple Bloom actually looked at her blankly at that, saying, “Um... no? When did I ever whinny?”

“Just now!” Scootaloo said, “And back at the horse corral. Can you do it again?”

Apple Bloom blushed, saying, “T-that wasn’t whinnying tha’ was–um... that was just a little giggle!” It wasn’t whinnying, right? She sounded different, but not that much like a horse, right?

“Try giggling again,” Sweetie said encouragingly, with full attention on Apple Bloom.

“Y-y’cain’t giggle on command, Sweetie,” Apple Bloom said nervously, her tail curling around the base of her thighs, trapping the dress against her. “Ah just don’t feel like it now,” she said a bit sullenly.

Her friends nodded at her understandingly. Then Scootaloo asked, “Hey Sweetie, do you think Apple Bloom is still ticklish on her belly?”

“Don’t you dare!” Apple Bloom exclaimed horrified, scrambling to her hooves even as the other two lunged for her. She put up a good fight but they totally had a size advantage, and also, she was ticklish on her belly. So it wasn’t long before even she couldn’t ignore the horselike noises she kept laughing out around her normal laughs, with those capable little white and pumpkin orange fingers sliding all up and down her belly, leaving her with no possible action other than wiggling helplessly on the ground.

She tried to laugh normally, she really did, but... they didn’t even care when she couldn’t, and some weird noise came out of her sometimes. They couldn’t possibly understand what it was like to have your own voice sounding different than you’ve always lived with, but at the same time they didn’t judge her, and it really did seem like they thought it was cool. They even managed to convince her to try it on her own, though it was hard to tell if Apple Bloom’s best effort was a horse noise, or just sort of clearing her throat, sort of. They said it sounded great though, so she’d have to take their word for it.

After they got done with that, and started sharing stories about school, school, and unending monotony respectively, Apple Bloom noticed her sister had gotten back from school, and was standing there talking with that new friend of hers, that flame haired girl who was a Dramatist if Apple Bloom recalled, some sort of mythological expert. Apple Bloom wondered if that Sunset lady was going to come over and gawk at her, or maybe be staying for dinner, but Applejack just gave her a ride back to the bus stop, and she left on her own. Applejack had the strangest taste in friends sometimes.

It got Apple Bloom thinking, though. There was one friend that Apple Bloom hadn’t seen, who didn’t have parents or sisters to drive her around places. When coming to pick up Sweetie Belle, Sweetie’s sister just kept her distance, kind of stared at Apple Bloom, like she had some kind of disease. But Rarity was still Sweetie’s family, and that meant something. Scootaloo was even better off, since Cheerilee didn’t seem to mind Apple Bloom being a horse. People like Ms. Cheerilee could just take the strangest things in stride, though Apple Bloom wasn’t entirely sure Cheerilee thought she was a person still. Some people were just... hard to convince of that fact.

But every one of her friends had someone to watch over them, someone to support them when they needed it, and drive them way out to Sweet Apple Acres, except for one. There was a third friend of Apple Bloom’s, who didn’t have any family, who couldn’t drive out to Sweet Apple Acres, and whom Apple Bloom hadn’t seen at all since she changed.

Dinner that night was delicious, one might needlessly add. Green beans, butter rolls and glazed ham, with Apple Bloom leaning heavily (but not totally) toward the green beans, and less toward the ham. It was funny how vegetables tasted so much better now, yet she still ended up eating a bunch of hay.

Apple Bloom didn’t understand how, or why her diet worked, or how she always had room for dessert, but she hadn’t gotten sick since she gave up trying to understand it, and just eating what tasted good seemed to work best. She was eating the same food she ever did, but just in a lot different amounts and proportions than she did before. That wasn’t really the subject of her concern tonight though.

“Can Diamond Tiara come over sometime, too?” Apple Bloom asked over a mouthful of green beans. “Like Sthweetie an’ hold on,” she swallowed, “Like Sweetie and Scootaloo?”

Applejack looked up from cutting the roast with her knife and fork (they pre-cut the bit of meat on Apple Bloom’s plate), and responded, “That new friend o’ yours? Ah don’t see why not. Do y’have the phone number of her parents by any chance?”

“Oh! Uh...” Apple Bloom bit her lip, her tail fidgeting conspicuously as she tried to figure how to say this diplomatically. “She don’t exactly have a phone, y’know because she’s all livin’ at the uh... you know she lives at the orphanage, right?”

“Aw, meadow muffins Apple Bloom, why didn’t you say so?” Applejack groaned in a disappointed tone. “That’s a mite bit more complicated.”

“Ah know, ah just–” Apple Bloom frowned, not sure why she was so dead set on getting Tiara over here to laugh at her. “Ah don’t know how well she’s gettin’ on with Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, without me around,” Apple Bloom pondered carefully. “Her old friend’s always busy, and Scoots don’t like her much at all. So ah dunno how she’s been lately, and all. Diamond Tiara, ah mean.”

“Orphanage should have a director,” Granny Smith said instructionally. “Yer gotta call him, set up an appointment. They’ll have to schedule an inspection, make sure your house is a safe place to be in. Ah remember your great aunt Ethel took to an orphan as a friend when she was a little girl, an’ she had ‘em over all the time.

“That could take weeks, though!” Apple Bloom protested.

“It’s jus’ the first time,” Granny said with a sad smile. “Orphanages got a lot more rigamarole than straight out families do.”

“Y’got the whole rest of the school year,” Applejack said consolingly, “We’ll take care of that orphanage business, an’ you’ll be seein’ your friend before you know it.”

“Ah guess so,” Apple Bloom said uneasily, “I just feel like it’ll be a problem tom—sooner, than later, if I don’t do something about it.”

“Why’s that?” Applejack asked innocently enough. Trouble is, Apple Bloom could only stare at her remaining beans and say,

“Ah don’t know, just a feeling ah guess. She’s a lot more sensitive than she looks, ah guess, an’ I’m jus’ worried about... her.”

“Ain’t nothing we can do until tomorrow,” Granny said firmly. “So don’t worry yourself over it.”

“Okay Granny,” Apple Bloom said, “An’ thanks... an’ ah’m just gonna go watch the sunset, okay?”

Applejack leaned back saying, “Reckon ah might join you,” in a undecided tone.

“Any time you want,” Apple Bloom said, “But don’ take too long or you’ll miss the green flash.”

“Ah’ll be putterin’ around in the kitchen,” Granny said, standing up from the table. Apple Bloom left next, pausing to grab another mouthful of hay she could chew on her way, and trotted out to Promise Peak. It was safe for her to go without a word because everyone knew this is where she went to go stargazing and sunset watching. She’d done it more regularly since becoming a pony, mostly because she didn’t have homework to do, but also because she just needed a way to feel special, like something she could call her own will.

Apple Bloom enjoyed the sunset, watching it with her sister and brother, who climbed up the steep incline more clumsily than her light easy bouncing gait ascended it. Granny didn’t make the trip, but that was okay. The poor gal was hard set enough to move around normally, with all that extra weight on her. Still, Apple Bloom didn’t dawdle up here much longer past sunset. She charged down all the way to the farm house, and accosted Granny who was in the kitchen baking cookies. Not just to get free cookie batter, but also to remind Granny of how important she was to Apple Bloom. But also free cookie batter.

And Apple Bloom could get free cookie batter, because it wasn’t hurting her! Not as long as she didn’t eat too much, at least. But Apple Bloom was already in high school, even if she didn’t look it, and she was a mature and capable individual who could restrain herself from pigging out on cookie dough. No, really.

It was kind of silly in fact, because everyone had started treating her like a little kid again these days. They couldn’t help it, with how cute and little she was! She didn’t blame them, but she found it kind of annoying. Did Applejack really have to safety proof the corners on all the tables in the house? It was one time!

Soon, Apple Bloom nestled all snug in her bed, feeling full of vitality (and cookie dough) now that she figured what was wrong with her diet. She wondered about why she was a pony, and how she’d made it this far without something going horribly wrong. She felt inadequate from not having schooling or education, but her life was still worth a whole lot of something, if only it would just make a lick of sense. At least she slept well, and for the first time in many nights, she had a visitor in her dreams.

It was just an ordinary dream at first—well, not a nice one though. Apple Bloom had her Algebra and English books, except not only was she a tiny little pony, but they were even more huge, like the size of a whole wall of a whole room. She tried to lift them to read them, so she wouldn’t fail all her classes, but everyone just laughed at her because she couldn’t even open them. They started to topple over, and she had to brace on the ground to push them up, but she couldn’t push them up all the way, they were just too heavy. So she had to stand there, propping up her useless books that just kept weighing her down, while everyone just laughed at that stupid little pony over there.

She stumbled abruptly as the books tilted off her back. What? Who was saving her from her books? She watched in puzzlement, as the books glowed a sparkling magenta and flew through the air like they were possessed by a poltergeist. Apple Bloom looked on in amazement, as they went and flew up onto their proper place, on the shelves of a... library. Apple Bloom hadn’t even realized she had gone into a library, yet here she was. Surrounded by bookshelves, tall, sunlit windows, and the cozy smell of paper and wood.

“A little filly like you could probably use a picture book, instead,” came a warm, if somewhat snarky voice behind Apple Bloom. Apple Bloom turned and suddenly purple. She looked up, and... and it was that pony from before! The beautiful space princess!

“You’re here!” Apple Bloom exclaimed in amazement. Only then, did she notice beside the princess was a large, but not monstrous book, open to a page full of illustrations. It was floating in the air, somewhat intermeshed with the princess’s ethereal mane, the book wrapped in the same sparkling magenta light as the other books.

The princess tensed up at Apple Bloom’s gaze, saying, “I was... I... um... here.” , She deposited the book down before Apple Bloom with a thump. It was a little kid’s book, the sort that you’d find covered in crayon drawings, when you went to send it back to the library. Just a bunch of object lessons, drawn in full color illustrations. What made the book peculiar was, all the people in it were ponies! Apple Bloom flipped through it, seeing construction ponies, and delivery ponies, and teacher ponies, and... hey, did that delivery pony have wings?

Apple Bloom looked up at the space princess questioningly. She had wings too! Apple Bloom hadn’t realized it from looking at her. Something about the princess’s form was just impossible to comprehend, if you didn’t know what to look for first. She was like a majesty of ideas, that only resolved itself by convenience into a pony. A truly regal figure, with a power that bled in whispers of knowledge from every inch of her being, and she was... trembling?

“I was scared,” the space princess said shortly. “You got so scared the last time. Do you want to be with me?”

“Do I want to...” Apple Bloom stared uncomprehendingly.

“I said it wrong, sorry,” the princess said curtly, chewing anxiously at a wisp of her mane. “I just didn’t want to ruin it,” she explained. “You’re the first pony I have been able to find in a long time.”

“How long?” Apple Bloom asked eyes wide in curiosity.

The princess’s mane was quite a sight in its own right; the stars from the princess’s planetarium were in it, like not just projected on, but like her mane and tail were a gateway into that realm. They didn’t enter that realm just yet though, the firm foundations of this ancient looking library under their hooves for the time being. It looked like the princess needed this library around her... a reminder of some kind of stability in her life.

“I can’t remember,” the princess said in frustration. “I’m not used to this. I’m sorry. Can we be friends?”

Wha? “Ya wanna be friends with... me?” Apple Bloom said, trying to comprehend what she could possibly offer to such an incredible fantasy who stood before and all around her.

“Please, I’m so lonely,” the princess uttered in abrupt, torrid emotion, prostrating herself before Apple Bloom. The little filly had no words for how inappropriate this felt, as the princess of space ponies groveled at the feet of a little kid, saying, “I can bring you more books. I remember books! Were you studying? I remember studying! Do you need quills? We can do anything here! Just please, please, will you...” and she actually had tears in her eyes, as she laid an ebony shod hoof on Apple Bloom’s little pony chest. “Will you be friends with me?”

“I... uh...” Apple Bloom backed up, fighting to regain her wits about her. “Yeah...” she said in deliberation, “Ah mean, if you want to, that is. You really cain’t find any other uh, ponies?”

The princess didn’t seem to notice, but she was floating on a cloud now, the familiar starscape spreading around them like an opening door. “I...” she whispered, her brow twisted and she said, “I don’t think so... I haven’t tried in so long, but then you just came, and you’re here now! Are you the only one?”

Apple Bloom frowned, not entirely sure what she was standing on at this point. “I reckon ah am,” she said, “There ain’t any other girls turnin’ into ponies at any rate.”

“What about my friends?” the princess asked hopefully. “Are they alright?”

Oh so now she has friends? “Ah don’t know many people at school,” Apple Bloom said uncertainly, “Who are your friends?”

“I...” the princess trailed off again. “I don’t remember,” she said quietly. And that was all she said. It was an aching sadness that Apple Bloom could scarcely understand that she felt in that princess’s meaningful silence. Apple Bloom and she swam silently in a sea of stars.

“But I remember you!” the princess said, abruptly cheerfully, turning to look at Apple Bloom eagerly. “I remember you from just days ago! When you found me, and you were here!”

“I... uh... reckon...” Apple Bloom said smiling weakly, at a loss for words for this situation. She was beginning to suspect this princess was loonier than a cracked coconut.

“Please don’t hide from me,” the princess said urgently to Apple Bloom. “Everypony was hiding and I couldn’t find them, and now you’re here, so please, please don’t hide again.”

“I’ll do mah best,” Apple Bloom said reluctantly, “You’re real confusin’ though, ya know?”

“Confusing, right!” the princess crowed, “I can teach you! I can– no I can teach me not to be... I can remember I... yes I am confusing.”

She wilted with a miserable, “I’m sorry.”

And she really did look miserable, with her horsey shoulders hunched and hind legs splayed, and ears turned down and low. That’s why Apple Bloom, against her better judgement, walked, or... floated up to the princess, and wrapped her hooves around the princess’s neck, in as warm a hug as she could manage. Somehow, the glorious power that rolled through Apple Bloom’s bones like a thunderclap, at the mere touch of a space princess, still paled in comparison to what the space princess felt tonight from Apple Bloom’s simple gesture of consolation. She didn’t stop crying until Apple Bloom woke up.

Author's Note

Almost done with exposition, something should actually start happening pretty soon.

Laundry List

“Ah’m just sayin’ maybe you shouldn’t be jumpin’ to conclusions!” Applejack said with the four of them, sans Diamond Tiara, seated around the dinner table, which was now a round table discussion. “Ah know this whole pony thing has got your imagination riled up, but maybe this Diamond of yours just ain’t right in the head.”

“If she ain’t so right in the head,” Apple Bloom countered, “Then why is it all about horses? She knew, sis. When she saw mah horse ears she recognized them. And even if she is, it don’t hurt to be you know, careful about it right?”

“Careful about what?” Granny put in. “All she told yer was that Applejack was gonna change into a horse come the Fall Formal.”

“Pony,” Big Macintosh offered.

“Look now, if it was contagious it woulda gotten me already,” Applejack said resolutely. “If ah have any weird dream about some golden apple, ah’ll let you know, but otherwise it just ain’t gonna...uh...”

“...I don’t see how as it could happen,” Applejack concluded awkwardly.

“There was somethin’ else,” Apple Bloom said, “She said y’all were fighting a demon! Maybe you have to change into ponies or like, half ponies, to fight it or something.”

“Like a...” Big Macintosh glanced aside with a little blush, “Magical girl or somethin’?”

The silence ended with Applejack’s slow but hearty chuckle. “Tell you what sis,” she said amusedly, “Soon as ah find a magical locket that changes me into a horse girl you’ll be the first to know that our school is safe from the demons.”

“Ah’m serious, Applejack!” Apple Bloom said hurtly, “What if she ain’t crazy? What if she really is seein’ visions of the future?”

“She ain’t seeing visions of the future,” Applejack said flatly, “That’s just nonsense.”

“So is changing into a pony,” Apple Bloom mumbled, sulkily. Granny Smith lay a hand on her back, as Apple Bloom hunched there in her booster seat. The gesture did make her feel a little better, at least. But not much.

“Well,” Apple Bloom asked peevishly, “What is she seein’ visions of then? Visions of the past?”

“Well ah sure don’t remember turnin’ into a pony, the last Fall Formal,” Applejack said with a wry grin, “Diamond Tiara hasn’t even... she’s in her first year y’see, so she hain’t yet... uh...

“She hasn’t...”

“Yeah, I know she hasn’t attended one before,” Apple Bloom said with droopy ears to a puzzled Applejack. “Ah just don’t think that it’s safe to say it’s all in her head.”

“Not much evidence,” Big Macintosh pointed out, warningly.

“We can just ask her,” Applejack said reluctantly, “She’ll either give us somethin’ falsifiable, or she won’t be able to put up, and we can all go home without catchin’ the crazy, or the horse.”

“She has a hard time talkin’ about it,” Apple Bloom said, “Ah don’t wanna make her feel worse. She’s our guest after all!”

“Hmm,” said Granny meaningfully. All heads turned towards her. “Okay so here’s what we do,” Granny said, pulling them into a huddle, even if Apple Bloom had to stand on top of the table to participate.

Diamond Tiara woke groggily to the smell of horse. The pitch black night glowed dimly, from in through an unfamiliar window to her left. A moment of panic hit her, when she thought that maybe her roommates had done her even worse and snuck her into someone else’s bed so she’d get in more trouble for it, but... then she remembered whose bed she was laying in, and how she got to be there.Diamond lay her head back, and scrunched her hands against a forehead most generously endowed with messy purple tresses with white highlights.

Now she felt horribly guilty, again. Diamond Tiara had come all this way just to yell at Apple Bloom, and to get her back for ruining her life, and all Apple Bloom gave her in return was kindness. It was a kindness she didn’t deserve. She deserved friends like her roommates who never gave her anything without expecting something in return. She deserved friends who were too busy studying to spend time with you. And yet here she was, just lying in someone’s bed as if she owned the place.

She sat up all the way, and it got even worse. Something slipped down her chest and she grabbed it on impulse, pulling it up to look at it apprehensively in the darkness. It was a ribbon, no doubt a pink ribbon. Apple Bloom had even given her, her bow. It was the silliest, stupidest, most un-called-for, nicest thing. It made Diamond’s face scrunch up, and her eyes water. With a practiced ease, she crushed her urges as if with a cold steel boot heel, wiping off her eyes and standing up from the bed.

They even gave her snacks. That was just, like, that was something else. Diamond wondered how long it had been, because she was already fiercely hungry again. To make matters worse, the whole house was permeated with the smell of something delicious. Diamond fumbled across the unfamiliar room, seeking the light switch. Her legs were so sore from all that walking, but she didn’t let it stop her. They would feel better if she worked them out a little anyway.

It wasn’t too hard to find the switch, since there was a glimmer of light from the hall outside. She turned on the light only long enough to find the door knob, but didn’t stay in Apple Bloom’s room any longer. She just shoved the uncooperative door open, went out the hall and headed down the stairs. Diamond wondered if it was appropriate to weasel food out of someone, if you happened to be there during their dinner time. It was either that or be hungry though, an easy decision for a practical minded sort.

It was such a surreally idyllic scene that Diamond Tiara saw from halfway up the stairwell, staring over the bannister railing. Apple Bloom’s family were seated at their dining room table, the portly Granny Smith who worked the cafeteria, Apple Bloom’s lanky athletic sister, and her uncomfortably handsome brother. It wasn’t just that a real family was just ...sitting there in the warm orange light, chatting in quiet tones, but there on the floor beside them was a little pony Apple Bloom, fast asleep, with her head resting against some drawing paper ...and crayons.

It made Diamond Tiara wish—no, she was no dummy. Diamond Tiara had long since given up on the hope of being adopted, not this late in life. But the scene before her, while she didn’t allow herself to wish for it, it still reminded her wistfully of something she had a long time ago, so long ago that she couldn’t even remember it anymore.

She continued down the stairs, attracting the attention of the Apple Family. The elder Ms. Smith gave her an apologetic look, glancing down to Apple Bloom, saying in her quavering voice, “She tried ter stay up for you, but the poor thing was jus’ too tuckered out.”

“It’s... okay,” Diamond said uncomfortably, adding hastily, “Something smells like, really good?” Shoot. Was it appropriate to just ask for it, or was she supposed to wait for them to offer?

“There’s still some in the pot,” the elderly matron stated for Diamond, “It’s a mite cold, but yer welcome to have yourself a bowl.”

“Thanks,” Diamond said in a relieved tone, but stopped herself before moving into the kitchen, saying a bit more carefully to all three of them, “Thank you very much,” with as graceful a curtsey as Diamond Tiara could manage, while her everything was sore.

She headed into the kitchen. It was a lot smaller than she was used to but, then again she wasn’t working in it, like she was used to. Just a pot there on the range top, of some sort of a tasty stew, and on the counter a... plate left out for her, with a big hunk of torn off bread on it. Yeah this was really ...sappy. A girl’s gotta eat though. She got that, and a glass of water, filled from the sink. Armed with those, she turned resolutely to face the Apple family again.

Diamond Tiara ate in subdued silence, standing with her plate on the counter, because it just didn’t feel right to just sit down at a table full of that whole family. Their conversation earlier had died down, and they were all looking her way, like maybe they were expecting her to say something. “So, I guess you like, called the orphanage,” Diamond concluded reservedly.

“Now hold on there missy,” Applejack said, quieter than she’d have liked with Apple Bloom sleeping right over there. “You’re in a huge amount of trouble, but that don’t mean we gotta be in trouble too.”

“What do you mean?” Diamond Tiara asked confusedly. She didn’t let her confusion stop her from filling her rumbling belly any slower though.

“Those folks back at the orphanage, they really do care for you,” Granny Smith said worriedly.

That just made heat flare in Diamond’s chest, and she muttered, “No they don’t,” the moment those words hit her ears.

“They’re gonna be worried sick about you,” Granny Smith pressed, “Didn’t you think they wouldn’t notice you wanderin’ off?”

“Of course they’re going to be worried,” Diamond said snippily, “Only because I’m in trouble.”

“There’s good people workin’ there,” Applejack put in. “They really do care about you, and every one of the kids there.”

Diamond finished off her bread looking down thoughtfully. “Sorry, um... Applejack,” Diamond admitted reluctantly, “You’re right they do care about me. I just don’t think they like, care for me.”

An uncomfortable silence followed. Diamond tried not to interrupt it by slurping from her spoon, but Granny interrupted it anyway, saying,

“So we’re gonna drop yer off at the orphanage tomorrow mornin’, and ye can tell ‘em whatever you wanter tell ‘em. We ain’t callin’ them though, and we ain’t coverin’ for you. The thing is...” she paused in thought. Or sleepiness it was hard to tell. “If we tell ‘em you came all the way out here, then there’s no way they’d ever trust us enough to let you visit again.”

Diamond paused. “Visit?” she asked skeptically.

“Yeah, they’d think we’re a bad influence or somethin’, and we ain’t,” Applejack clarified assertively.

“No, I mean like–” Diamond carefully put her bowl down asking bemusedly, “You want me to visit?”

“Eeyup.” Three guesses as to who said that.

Applejack looked at Diamond a bit worriedly. “Apple Bloom does at any rate,” she said uneasily, “You’re her friend, and that’s good enough for me. Why wouldn’t she want you to come over?”

“She wouldn’t!” Diamond said erratically, “I mean, she would! I mean... there’s no reason she wouldn’t but... I could like, ask if... I like–I don’t know how it works, to be honest.”

“Well,” Granny mused, “What’d ye do the last time someone asked you to visit?”

Diamond paused, and answered bluntly, “I didn’t.”

At their uncomprehending looks, she swallowed the lump in her throat that wasn’t stew and said, “Like, I mean, nobody asked me to visit yet.”

“As of when?” Granny said uncomfortably.

“Um... ever?” Diamond offered a bit derisively. It was clear Apple Bloom’s blockheadedness was inherited. What did Diamond Tiara have to say? Nobody likes me? My friends don’t care about me? This is my first time in somebody’s house in my entire life since before I can remember?

“What about that Silver girl?” Applejack spoke up brightly, and too loudly, “Ah seem to remember you two were thick as thieves at one point.” That outburst was what woke Apple Bloom up it turns out, but it took awhile for them to notice, and for the pony to rouse herself. So Diamond continued,

“She like...”

Diamond didn’t continue.

Diamond wasn’t sure what to make of Applejack knowing about her and Silver’s increasingly tenuous relationship. “...we’re just friends at school,” Diamond finally decided to admit, “She never asked... I mean, it never, like, came up.” Not that Diamond Tiara was jealous or anything of Silver, with her own big house, and her own real father and mother, and her own fancy computer equipment to give her all the company she needs. No way, if Silver thought she was annoying and clingy it was Silver’s fault, and Diamond was perfectly fine with—what on earth is that noise?

Apple Bloom didn’t sound precisely like a goat when she was waking up, but she didn’t sound precisely like a human either. She murmured restlessly, and yawned, and her eyes cracked open. It was a quiet sound, but still enough of a sound to catch Diamond’s, and everyone in the room’s attention though. Diamond Tiara watched with barely repressed amusement as Apple Bloom looked around confusedly, and on spotting Diamond, her little baby horse eyes got as big as plates.

“Oh mah gosh ah fell asleep!” Apple Bloom squealed surprisedly, struggling woozily to her feet. She did it by jumping up on her front feet and bouncing forward to set her back feet down, and it would have been more impressive if her legs weren’t so tiny. Apple Bloom barely had any height to travel, between sitting down and standing up. Apple Bloom started to eke out, apologetically, “Ah’m sorry Di—”

“It’s fine, Apple Bloom,” Applejack cut her off saying, “You looked like you needed your sleep anyway.”

“But I’m no’...” Apple Bloom yawned despite herself, a big gaping yawn that you would never see a horse do. “I dunno why ah keep getting so sleepy!” she grumbled crankily, looking dimly at the ground. Diamond could not believe how terribly adorable that was. Horses weren’t supposed to look that cute! Apple Bloom wasn’t supposed to be that cute!

“We were just talkin’ about your friend here come visitin’ again,” Granny Smith said, leaving Apple Bloom’s little complaint to stand by itself.

“Oh goo...ood,” Apple Bloom said with another tired yawn. “When’s she (yawn) coming over...?” The poor little pony still looked asleep on her feet, practically.

“We’re workin’ that out now,” Applejack said, “You wanna uh, get on to bed now?”

“Ah’m fine,” Apple Bloom insisted, shaking her bowless head, trying to clear it and standing up straighter. Fat chance of that. Her tail started drooping right away, shortly followed by her head again. Diamond wouldn’t have been able to hold back a laugh if Granny hadn’t immediately started addressing the situation, attracting their immediate attention.

“Mah good sister Ethel had it all figured out,” Granny Smith pointed out in a practical tone, attracting Diamond’s attention, “We’ll just call the director and ask if you can come over. It might take a while, but it’ll happen, an’ it’ll be lots easier than what you did today!”

“Yeah, um...” Diamond squirmed uncomfortably at the mention of... what she did today.

Applejack meantime leaned forward on the table facing Diamond, saying, “We’re gonna let you off at the orphanage, and we ain’t gonna make no trouble. You can tell them what you want, but this ain’t somethin’ you can just brush aside. Somethin’ serious is goin’ on with you, and you have to address it. So ah want you to promise me you’re gonna tell someone about this. You talk to a shrink, right?”

Diamond felt like she wanted to wither away into ash, as she admitted bitterly, “Well, yeah?” trying to make Applejack sound like the dumb one for saying something obvious.

“They cain’t get you in trouble if you tell the doc about what happened today,” Applejack continued gently. “They gotta ‘confidentiality’ agreement and all. So ah need you to promise me you’ll tell them the whole truth, so they know that everythin’s not okay with ya.”

“Why should I?” Diamond whined, crossing her arms.

“Cuz then we won’t,” Big Macintosh said ominously.

Applejack shot him a nasty look, and then said to Diamond, “Because they can help you too, and there’s nothin’ wrong with that. You don’t wanna leave your problems all on the shoulders of poor little Apple Bloom here, do ya?”

Diamond looked at Apple Bloom, with a spear of guilt twinging inside her. “I guess not,” she said defeatedly. “Okay, I... Apple Bloom?” Diamond Tiara paused, looking at her pony friend perplexedly.

“Do you promise?” Applejack reiterated emphatically, not looking away from Diamond.

Diamond shot a glance at Applejack whispering harshly, “Yes, I—I promise. But look at Apple Bloom!”

All four pairs of eyes turned to Apple Bloom, who was standing there like she was listening to them, but her eyes were closed and her head was nodding slightly, and if you paid attention you could hear a quiet snore coming from her mouth.

Failing to suppress a chuckle, Applejack said “Well ain’t that just plum gravy,” in a tender sort of voice. “Ah think you two better get to bed. You got a long day ahead of you, and Apple Bloom is just plum tuckered out.”

“Ah think we should all git to bed,” Granny said, the chair protesting her weight as she stood up ponderously. “Ain’t much this gal got left in her tonight.”

“Sorry I like, kept you up or something,” Diamond said with a glance down at her plate and cup. “I’ll go wash these off,” she said, turning for the sink.

“Just leave ‘em in the sink,” Granny called after her. Diamond’s face scrunched up anxiously. She really didn’t know how to do this sort of thing. Carefully placing the plates in the sink and not doing any dishes in there like she was usually supposed to, Diamond returned to the dining area in seconds instead of minutes. There Granny was already heading (slowly) up the stairs to where the bedrooms were. Apple Bloom’s gorgeous brother, Big Macintosh was standing off toward the middle of the room, right before the little pony Apple Bloom, looking down at her standing there asleep with a pensive expression.

He bent over and wrapped his arm around Apple Bloom’s barrel, and then just lifted her bodily up into the air. The edges of her dress and her bright red tail waved limply back and forth in the air below her. The incredible thing is, she didn’t even wake up. She almost did, but her tail went limp again, and she just leaned insensately against his broad chest. Another murmur might have escaped her, but that was it. Somehow Apple Bloom’s brother managed to pick her up without waking her at all. It was like she was a little kid or something!

Diamond Tiara walked over shyly, before whispering to him, “You’re really good at that.”

“She’s good at stayin up too late,” Big Macintosh said simply, turning and walking up the stairs with deliberation. After looking at his back uncertainly, waiting for an invitation that didn’t come, Diamond Tiara crept up the stairs after him. She watched that brother of Apple Bloom’s lay Apple Bloom in her own bed, like she was a figure of the most delicate porcelain, pulling back the covers with one arm to lay her down on the soft sheets, and then pulling the covers right up to Apple Bloom’s tiny little horse muzzle.

He started to tiptoe away from the bed and stopped at the sight of Diamond standing there as if he forgot she was there. He straightened up again and looked her down uncertainly. Diamond Tiara found herself a bit lost for words, looking up at him with an increasingly racing heart.

“Guest room’s full of crates,” Big Mac said as if in explanation, or more likely apology. Diamond blushed at his even gaze, trying not to think about how handsome he was, or how sad it was he so rarely used his beautiful voice, or how kind he was or how good with kids he turned out to be.

All these things, she decidedly did not think about, instead saying, “That’s okay I don’t, like—” she cursed her stupid twisty tongue and repeated, “I don’t ...mind.” What did that even mean?!

He walked silently past the stiffly standing Diamond Tiara. The younger girl was still new to these sorts of feelings beginning to awaken in her, and the older boy’s feelings were as enigmatic to her as his thoughts and actions. She would never think of—with an upperclassman! He’d never... it would be inappropriate, and totally wrong. Still it didn’t hurt to appreciate, his um. Things she was not going to think about. He returned with an armload of blankets. Whu?

Big Macintosh returned to Apple Bloom’s room, with his arms full of thick blankets and a couple of pillows. He held them out to her, and Diamond took them, almost buried by them before she set them hastily on the floor. “That’ll be great like, um, Big... Macintosh,” Diamond Tiara said, not sure if she was supposed to call him by his name or not. But it’d be stupid to call him Mr. Macintosh.

He didn’t answer, just walking for the door again. It wasn’t like he was upset or anything. If anything, he was busy yawning. But he was so very infuriatingly quiet!

Then he paused halfway out of the room, turned his shoulders a bit and said, “Thanks.”

“Me?” Diamond asked uncomprehendingly. He nodded, and she said, “What for?”

“Bein’ there for Apple Bloom,” Big Mac answered, looking over at the poster bed in which a tiny horse was sleeping. “Not many care ‘bout what happened to her.”

She waited for him to explain himself, but he just turned to leave again, and Diamond blurted tensely, “Big Macintosh—!”

He paused to look over his shoulder. “You’re welcome,” Diamond , as gracefully as she could say with her brains apparantly leaking out her ears or something. He walked into the darkness then, and pushed the door almost shut behind him. The hall light turned on with a quiet flick.

Diamond only stood there a moment, then shook her head and went over to the light switch on her side of the wall. She flicked off the bedroom light, and in the darkness dragged the mass of blankets and pillows over to the side of Apple Bloom’s bed. It certainly wasn’t a sleeping bag, or a bed, but it would have to do. First, Diamond removed her precious tiara, and set it carefully on the dresser against the wall. Backing up a step from there to the blankets, Diamond Tiara removed her boots, and draped her socks over them. She unbuckled her jeans, sliding them off and folding them neatly. The air felt chilly on her bare thighs, but she wasn’t going to wear those things to bed. They were filthy!

Her jacket joined the pile of clothing beside her boots, leaving her with only an undershirt and panties. She hoped her outfit wouldn’t be too dirty to be salvaged. Those jeans were hand wash only. But, on second thought, they did match too closely with a color of her hair, and she was thinking of trying out some bolder colors. It was impossible to see any colors in the darkness of the room anyway, so she was limited to mere speculation at the moment. Shivering in the cool evening air, Diamond Tiara quickly crawled under the blankets, wrapping them around her like a cocoon.

Laying her head against the pillow, and already missing her evening shower, and already missing brushing her teeth, Diamond Tiara wondered how on earth she got into a mess like this. It wasn’t her fault that demons were attacking, and people were turning into horses! But maybe she could have handled it a bit better. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but it just wasn’t something she could imagine a real girl, with a real family would ever do. Apple Bloom had shown her that much was true, at least.

And now Diamond Tiara couldn’t even sleep! Her back was awkwardly arched and her bottom was getting sore, so she turned on her side, but that just pushed the bony part of her hip into the floorboards. She laid on her back again, then sat up dissatisfiedly. She looked at the bed. Before you knew it, Diamond was right over by the bed, just barely peering over its edge. With her eyes adjusting to the darkness, she could see the sleeping form of Apple Bloom laying there dimly in the cool moonlight, a tiny lump under the sheets. Apple Bloom looked so small on that great big bed. It was way too big of a bed for just one little pony. Diamond pondered deeply whether she might have a solution for this terrible tragedy.

“I’m going to regret this,” she muttered under her breath. Inhaling, she quickly ducked under the covers, and then with a silly, self indulgent smile, Diamond Tiara carefully crept up onto the bed. Whether it was Apple Bloom’s somnolence, or Diamond’s carefully honed skill of getting into the bed without disturbing the covers, Diamond sank into that nice bed again, with nothing more than a slight creak of bedsprings, and nobody or... nopony awoke.

Diamond Tiara was shocked to discover the amazing fact that a bed was softer to lay on than the floor. After all, it’s not like she hadn’t already known how wonderfully soft Apple Bloom’s bed was, from laying on it just a half hour ago, so it came as a total surprise of course. Totally. And her hypothesis was entirely correct. There was plenty of room for both of them to sleep on it. In fact, it wasn’t even a twin bed. It was a queen or a... whatever those big beds are called with space for two pillows, and two whole girls, and certainly space for one girl and one little pony girl.

So Diamond Tiara settled off to sleep again, with a pleasantly full belly, and the luxurious feeling of resting one’s aching limbs in a soft bed. It was probably the best bed she’d ever laid in. It sure was softer than the stiff mattress back at the orphanage. It didn’t smell smoky either, like her bed did from the one time her roommates tried to set it on fire to prank her. They acted like it was her fault they were so mean to her, but really she was just getting them back for what they were doing. It’s not like they didn’t deserve to be torn down emotionally, since they did it to her. At least, Diamond Tiara was pretty sure that’s how that worked.

She dreamed that night, as usual, of her parents. Diamond couldn’t blame them for whatever ended her up in the orphanage. Something must have happened to them; she knew they wouldn’t just abandon her. What little she could remember was in the dream, of running and fear, and her father with such a worried look on his face. And then he was gone, like all the rest of them. She dreamed of her mother too, well, at least what her mother had felt like. Diamond couldn’t even remember what her mother’s face looked like anymore.

It wasn’t a sad dream she had. It ended with them both hugging her and sitting on either side of her, and... fireworks or something. It was all very indistinct, but it was a very tender and loving experience. So Diamond was always puzzled why she woke up from these dreams with tears on her face. She did wake up though, very early in the morning after not sleeping long, probably because of her earlier nap.

When Diamond Tiara slid her eyes open, the world outside the open curtains to Apple Bloom’s window was still pitch black. There were some birds chirping outside despite the darkness, making quite a racket for such little things, but beyond that not a sound to be heard. Diamond found herself puzzled by the feel of a soft warm weight on her belly, and of her hand resting on something even more terribly soft. Diamond then remembered was not alone in this bed. She lifted the covers with her free hand, blushing hotly at what she saw.

Diamond Tiara wasn’t really a touchy feely sort of person. She didn’t mean to grab Apple Bloom that one time when she was crying. It just sort of happened. Apple Bloom just looked too much like a teddy bear to not go for it, when one was desperate for some comfort. Diamond had been surprised then, though probably shouldn’t have been, that instead of lemon yellow skin, Apple Bloom had a short and very dense coat of lemon yellow fur all over her body. But once she got over her surprise, Diamond just couldn’t help but enjoy the feel of it, stroking the part of Apple Bloom not wrapped up in that dress, until she’d passed out from exhaustion.

And, she didn’t mean to do this either.

Either her or the little pony girl had unconsciously made their way over to each other, some time along the course of this past night, and Apple Bloom was now half lying across Diamond Tiara’s bare midriff in the crook of Diamond’s arm, with Diamond’s own hand laying agaisnt Apple Bloom’s dress, to cradle around her friend’s furry horse body. That’s what Diamond Tiara woke up to.

Her first thought was how velvety soft Apple Bloom felt. It did remind Diamond of a teddy bear, of her old teddy bear, that she couldn’t sleep with anymore because her roommates were watching. Her second thought was how unlike a teddy bear Apple Bloom was. Apple Bloom was much firmer, yet with more give to her skin, and her body just radiated heat. The tips of her hooves were rough where they lay against Diamond’s belly, but everything else was so soft and warm. Her midsection regularly rose and fell with the rhythm of her slow breathing.

Diamond’s third thought was how much trouble she would get in, if Apple Bloom woke up while they were together like this. In the end, the sheer humiliation of ruining her image was what made Diamond squirm out of bed like an earthworm. She was too hasty though, and if Apple Bloom wasn’t well rested before, she sure was now, so as soon as Diamond Tiara landed on her butt on the floor with a very dignified squeak, she heard Apple Bloom coming awake in response.

“Diamond Tiara whassa...” Apple Bloom slurred sleepily, peering over the edge of the mattress. “Were you in mah bed?” she asked confusedly.

“There was– crates I mean, there were the guest room um,” Diamond stood up, fishmouthing intelligently. She must have looked totally ridiculous. She didn’t even have her clothes on. They were all folded by her shoes, and all she had to her name right now was a white undershirt and a plain looking pair of white underwear.

As a fashionist, Diamond Tiara was rather new to the trade, so she had enough trouble getting decent looking outerwear to even think about the unthinkable situation of needing an attractive pair of panties to show off to anyone. Well, at least it was dark, so neither of them could see anything. Diamond’s reputation was preserved! Meh, whatever.

“You know, it’s okay if you were,” Apple Bloom said, with a soft tender overtone to her voice that surprised and flustered Diamond.

“Oh please, gag me with a spoon,” she said, blushing and cringing away, feeling a bit shameful about being so exposed like this, despite the darkness of the room.

“Ah’m just saying,” Apple Bloom insisted, “This ain’t gonna be between any other than just the two of us.”

That actually made a sigh of relief escape Diamond’s tense form. “That would like, um...” She didn’t know what to say, so she just started picking up her outerwear. They felt as dusty and filthy as when she took it off last night, obviously. She shook out her pants experimentally, wincing at the dust. She shouldn’t do that inside.

“Ugh,” Apple Bloom said groggily, landing on the floor with a clop, and trodding out from behind the other side of the bed. “Ah slept in mah dress,” she croaked, “Now it’s even worse.” Her silouette travelled smoothly toward the wall, where she reared up on it like a cat on a scratching post, stretching upward until Diamond could tell what Apple Bloom was doing. The overhead light flicked on. Diamond immediately blushed and held her pants close against her, blocking the view of her almost bare hips.

She didn’t think it would ever be a problem not having any fancy panties, yet now that she had her underclothes in plain sight, Diamond was surprised by how humiliating it was to have nothing to reveal, besides just plain white blah. It was super obvious too, because of how it clashed glaringly with her bright pink skin. Apple Bloom didn’t even seem to notice though, if she cared.

The little oddly colored pony was looking positively wilted, with her hair lying loose, and her untied bow dangling loosely from one hoof. Her other three hooves hobbled along away from the wall in a limping gait. That filthy dress of hers was plastered against her sweaty hindquarters. Diamond looked down at her own very dirty pants and jacket, and then back at Apple Bloom, and then looked at the dark night outside Apple Bloom’s window.

This was a terrible idea. A terrible awful naughty idea. She’d be a laughing stock if she was ever found out. Diamond Tiara wanted to giggle like a grade schooler. She pulled her pants away from covering her groin, deliberately holding her clothing from covering her. She balled up her fists on her hips and said chidingly to the pony, “Apple Bloom, you need to wash that smelly old dress right away.”

“I cain’t,” Apple Bloom whined, somewhere between puzzlement and irritation. She hadn’t even noticed yet! “Ah told you it’s the only clothes ah got.”

“So?” Diamond said snidely, “Just take it off to wash it! You don’t need it anyway.”

“Well I just,” Apple Bloom kicked her hoof along the ground with an adorable pout, “Ah don’t wanna be indecent or nothin’”

“I need to wash my clothes,” Diamond pointed out, casually holding up the dirty pants in her fist, “And they’re the only clothes I have, so... what’s the problem?” She smiled cheekily as Apple Bloom’s puzzlement turned to realization, and then a full on blush right beneath that fur on her face, when Apple Bloom realized she was looking at Diamond Tiara in her underwear.

“C’mon,” Diamond said crossing her arms boldly. “If I can do it, then you can. It’ll be fine! Your fur pretty much covers everything anyway.”

“It really don’t,” Apple Bloom muttered quietly, her tail going down. She looked aside discomfitedly. Wait, did she just imply... no, no Diamond was not going to entertain that thought. They were both girls, so it was okay. She was pretty sure that’s how it worked at least.

“Look,” Diamond said a bit angrily, fingering her waistband. “Do I have to take off my underwear too? Because I totally will!”

“No! No, you just– hold on one—!” Apple Bloom stammered, and frantically got out of her dress... somehow. It was an odd way to do it, that Diamond doubted a real horse would be able to accomplish. Apple Bloom slipped her stubby little front hooves into the body of her dress far too easily for a horse, and used them to push it up alongside her face, until her head popped in through the neck of the dress. Bloom tried to walk out of it backwards then, and tripped as it followed her. Finally she twisted about lithely to reach the base of her own tail, where Apple Bloom undid the cinch with her... teeth, allowing the dress to slip free from where it was fastened on her tail.

Yeah, it was very odd.

“There, see? That wasn’t so hard,” Diamond encouraged, as Apple Bloom stood there completely naked, gazing up at Diamond nervously. Diamond’s friend was down on all fours with ease, without a dress or a bow, looking just like a cute little pony, but also looking like her friend Apple Bloom. It was surreal, to say the least.

“Ah guess it’s... kinda fun...” Apple Bloom said, unable to stop a shy smile from flitting across her so very expressive face.

Diamond smiled back saying quietly, “Hey I won’t tell if you don’t.” Apple Bloom smiled genuinely at that, clearly picking up on Diamond’s enthusiasm. “Now let’s get these washed,” Diamond continued, picking up Apple Bloom’s ...dress. Good grief this thing had seen better days when it was drapery! It held a stronger smell of horse than the rest of the room, what was no doubt what Apple Bloom really smelled like now. The smell wasn’t so bad actually, but Diamond still said “Pyew! Where’s your laundry room already?”

“Laundry room?” Apple Bloom asked confusedly.

That made Diamond a bit uneasy. “You know, where like... your washing machine is?” she ventured.

Apple Bloom laughed at that, “Oh we just get a wash basin outside and scrub it out a bit,” she said easily. Diamond Tiara had... never even seen a wash basin before outside of a children’s book. She had the feeling that this was indeed a terrible idea.

“Okay,” Diamond said crouching down excitedly, ignoring that nagging little voice in her head, “Let’s do it!”

The quiet of the early morning, before even the sky began to grey, was broken by a pair of giggles as two very different girls rolled a large wooden tub out from the back of the farm house. The pony one proceeded to gallop off, returning with a length of hose in her mouth. The human one put some amount of soap flakes in the tub and took the hose, while the pony ran back and turned it on. One of the girls was in nothing but her underwear, carrying her clothes out from the house in a bundle, and the other was in nothing at all, her only clothing a slip of dirty white fabric that she carried by pinching it in her teeth, and draping it over her backside.

Once the tub was full, the two of them both started scrubbing on old fashioned, but made to last washboards. It wasn’t the mechanized way to do things, but they were a ways from the city, far from any laundromat, and electricity was unreliable this far out. And washing machines used a hell of a lot of electricity. So, by the light of an electric porch light, they scrubbed their clothes by hand and hoof, in a soapy wash basin that wouldn’t have looked out of place a hundred years ago.

Diamond found it surprisingly enjoyable though. The act of scrubbing the clothes this way was a lot more satisfying than just staring at a machine in a laundromat, in a way that she didn’t really understand. Apple Bloom had no problems, certainly. Apple Bloom’s pony hooves were quite good at pushing cloth up and down on a ridged board, scrubbing it clean, even if Apple Bloom did have to climb onto the washboard entirely to reach properly. It was fun to watch her, what you could see of the pony in the porch light.

They kept at it until Diamond Tiara’s teeth were chattering, and she was shaking from shivers. The coldest hour of an early fall morning was probably not the best time to be outside in your skivvies. It was Apple Bloom who stopped things, looking at Diamond with concern and speaking up, saying in her little pony voice, “Diamond, you’re shivering!”

“I-I’m ok-kay,” Diamond insisted unconvincingly. “M-my arms a-are all w-w-wet an-nd i-it’s like f-f-ive s-so”

“Why don’t you come inside, and ah’ll get you a blanket!” Apple Bloom said starting to run for the house.

“W-wait!” Diamond shouted, making Apple Bloom pause on three hooves, looking back. “A-aren’t y-y-you c-cold?!” she stuttered out exasperatedly.

“Ah got fur!” Apple Bloom declared with a quiet stomp, “Now come on, before y’catch your death!”

Diamond meekly followed the little pony inside, whereupon Apple Bloom pulled one of the blankets off the chair. An odd twist of Apple Bloom’s neck made it flare out dramatically and drap right over Diamond Tiara’s shoulders. She didn’t want to admit it, but she was really grateful for that blanket right now. It was thick and scratchy, like wool. It was probably wool. While Diamond slowly chattered herself to warmth again, Apple Bloom ran back outside, to do something to finalize their clothes washing experiment,

Diamond Tiara hobbled back outside once she’d warmed up, wrapped head to toe in that wool blanket. , The grass was still cold and wet on her unprotected feet. She found Apple Bloom trying to wring out her own dress, a feat difficult for one pony alone. So they did it together. Diamond held it, while Apple Bloom twisted, until a ton of water had wrung out of it. Then Apple Bloom threw it over what looked to be a clothesline hanging between the house, and a pole attached to their fence. The daylight was slowly increasing outside, but it was still really hard to see things.

They repeated the process with Diamond’s clothes, though she winced at the state of her jeans and suspected that they might not be usable after this, despite being about as hand washed as they come. Then they both went inside, and Apple Bloom went and started stacking logs in the fireplace from a cradle full of chopped wood they had next to it, with her mouth! She showed Diamond where to stick the crumpled up newspaper so that it would feed the flames, and she checked the flue herself by biting on the handle and cranking it until she was sure it was open.

Diamond got to use the electric starter, but she got the impression Apple Bloom could have done that part too. It was honestly really impressive. It didn’t even look like Apple Bloom realized just how good she was at doing stuff as a pony. She didn’t even have opposable thumbs! Or fingers! But here she was teaching Diamond Tiara how to light a fire in a fireplace. It would have been a lie to say Diamond was so naive that she had never even seen a fireplace before, but she certainly had never been allowed to light one, or use fire of any sort for that matter. It was... an exhilirating experience, for such a simple act of lighting it.

Soon they were both sitting in front of the fire, Diamond more grateful for it than Apple Bloom, warming her numb hands in its cheery radiance. Apple Bloom just yawned cutely, and curled onto her side on the floor sort of like a cat, putting her back to be warmed by the fire and laying her head down on her hooves. Diamond just... couldn’t stand it. She reached down and stroked along that lemon yellow pony’s back. Apple Bloom was so soft.

“What’re ya doing?” Apple Bloom grumped irritably, sticking her head up when Diamond’s hand came down upon her flank.

Diamond startled and pulled back, but then she just explained, “Your fur is way too short to keep you warm, see?” And Apple Bloom totally bought it, pushing a hoof along the fur on her own hindquarters experimentally. She never even suspected Diamond actually enjoyed this. The perfect crime.

“Guess you’re right,” Apple Bloom said uncertainly. The two didn’t sit by the fire long before Apple Bloom pushed her head insistently underneath Diamond Tiara’s palm, and Diamond found herself stroking her friend again without even thinking about it. Diamond blushed heavily but... well, Apple Bloom wasn’t exactly asking her to stop. So that’s what she did for a while.

“Ah should get cold like this,” Apple Bloom said regarding her naked body, staring forward in contemplation. “Ah ain’t even got enough fur to fluff up much, except maybe on mah chest. It feels like a fur coat on the inside?”

“Your skin’s thicker,” came Applejack’s voice from beyond the firelight. Both girls looked back to see Applejack walk over to the two of them, still in her nightgown, holding a portable lamp for walking in the dark. Diamond pulled her hand away from Apple Bloom guiltily, but Applejack didn’t seem paying attention to her at all, saying evenly to Apple Bloom, “Fur’s only good for insulation so much, and when it gets wet, well...” She sat down by the fire beside the two of them, saying, “You’ll be glad for a nice layer of blubber when that happens.”

“So ah’m fat?” Apple Bloom whined in outrage, once again totally misinterpreting everything Applejack said, in a way that made being a pony look bad. She was such a blockhead sometimes.

“What about the ponies in the corral?” Diamond said to Apple Bloom teasingly, “They don’t mind the cold. Are they fat?”

“Those are horses!” Apple Bloom protested hotly. That actually made Diamond Tiara pause.

“...what’s the difference?” she asked uncertainly.

Apple Bloom hmphed, crossing her front hooves as if they were arms... sort of. “Ah’m not the same as them,” she insisted, “So ah gotta call it something.”

“Weren’t you more friendly toward the term space pony?” Applejack said sitting down on Apple Bloom’s other side, nudging with an elbow her sister, in her sister’s teeny little shoulder.

Apple Bloom nodded, then her eyes widened and she jumped to her hooves between them, in startlement. “Oh right, the space ponies! Crayons!” she shouted, then trotted off without another word, leaving Diamond Tiara looking at Applejack questioningly. Apple Bloom was only gone a few seconds though, so before Applejack could explain, Bloom came trotting back, looking pleased as punch, with that box of crayons securely held in her mouth. Diamond couldn’t even laugh with how completely appropriate that looked. And adorable. So unbearably, cheerfully adorable.

Dropping the crayons in Diamond Tiara’s blanket shrouded lap, Apple Bloom also pulled out a sheet of paper from ...somewhere... laid it in front of Diamond, and said smiling brightly, “Alright! So you’re real confused-like, so here’s the idea. Instead of tryin’ to tell us about what’s real or what’s not, and gettin’ all confused, why don’t you just draw what you saw? Dreamed? Whatever it is.”

Diamond would have answered, but she was busy trying to control her dark impulses.

Apple Bloom’s bright smile of triumph dimmed a little. Her ears went down, and she backed up a bit, kicking a hoof on the ground saying, “Ah was gonna ask ya to do it last night, but ah sorta ...fell asleep.”

“Apple Bloom, please,” Diamond Tiara begged tensely, “You’re killing me.”

“What?!” Apple Bloom said in a hurt and worried tone, looking up at Diamond with big scared eyes.

“I am trying so hard to not just hug you right now,” Diamond accused frustratedly. “Stop being so adorable!”

“...”

Applejack defused the tension by grabbing Apple Bloom around the midsection from behind, hauling her up in the air, and squeezing the struggling little pony so tightly Diamond could swear she made a sound like a squeak toy. “Aw, it’s alright,” Applejack said in a friendly tone, still pulling Apple Bloom into her lap, and mussing with her hair, “Apple Bloom knows full well the effect she has on us, an’ don’t let her fool you.”

“Ah wasn’t—tryin– ta–” Apple Bloom said, wiggling frustratedly.

“Now listen here Apple Bloom,” Applejack said in a serious tone causing the pony to immediately still. “You gotta treat your friends right, and there is nothing wrong with wanting a hug. She put Apple Bloom, down and gave her hindquarters a little boost in Diamond’s direction.

Apple Bloom grumbled behind herself to Applejack with a defiant pout, “Ah wasn’t gonna say she couldn’t hug me. Ah’m just not used to all this.”

“Well I don’t have to,” Diamond offered, downcast. “You don’t make it like, easy though.”

“It’s fine,” Apple Bloom groaned resignedly. “Ah would hug me too if ah was still human. Ah ain’t an animal, but ah ain’t the same as ah was. So there’s nothing wrong with... y’know...” She seemed uncertain of herself, and then just leaned forward and nuzzled Diamond Tiara’s right thigh with the side of her face, just a teeny little bit.

The fire alarm that woke the rest of the Apple Family was actually the squealing of a young girl downstairs, glomming passionately onto the cutest most adorable little pony creature friend of hers to ever have existed ever who currently appeared to be having problems breathing.

Every high school student has to wake up long before the sun rises. Between the time it takes to get ready, and school starting at a half hour after 7am if you’re lucky plus commute times... well, the Apple family had one of the longest commutes. So they had to be out of the house by 6:30. It was a tired routine they’d gotten lost in. A routine Apple Bloom had started to look at with more and more disdain, the longer she spent time away from school. Because with one of her siblings taking care of her, Apple Bloom and (well it was Applejack today) they had enough time and freedom to actually make a decent breakfast.

Pancakes, french toast, bacon, sausage, fresh sliced apples (go figure), there were so many delicious breakfast items that just couldn’t be prepared because of the rigors of high school. As Apple Bloom drizzled tons of syrup on her lonely pancake, whose batter she stirred, she recalled the early mornings before this started, her desperation to eat whatever you could cold and quick so she could hurry to the place that filled her with dread, because you could sleep just a little bit longer if you rushed breakfast that way. There was something terrible about treating breakfast like that, and it was a huge relief to be able to take some time and care, to make something fancy.

Apple Bloom couldn’t help but giggle at the sight of a, now a bit rumpled, but dressed Diamond Tiara, who didn’t even seem to know what to do with the food in front of her. She probably had like, a packaged breakfast or something at that orphanage. Or worse, was it like a cafeteria at the orphanage? Was every one of Diamond’s meals cafeteria food? At any rate, she clearly wasn’t used to fancy down home cooking, but once she got started she took to it with a passion. Diamond Tiara did a lot of things with a passion. Drawing, for instance.

As Apple Bloom headed toward the hay bale to top off her breakfast, she paced past the crayon drawing Diamond Tiara had made. It was exactly what Diamond talked about, with a weird demon girl all floating up there, and facing her off was Applejack and five others, also floating in the air. Well, probably floating. Diamond hadn’t drawn any ground or anything. Just those characters, and oddly that horse statue out in the front expanse you passed on your way to school. And like, little baby demons with shit eating grins on their faces.

Applejack had so many best friends: Apple Bloom really admired her for it. Apple Bloom herself had Sweetie, Scootaloo and Diamond, but she admired Applejack’s friends too, all of whom were participating here in this magic horse defense thingy. There was Rarity, who Apple Bloom knew really well through Sweetie Belle, and there was Rainbow Dash, whom Apple Bloom knew really well through the daily reports on her awesome feats by Scootaloo, and also that one time she helped at their bake sale. There was that ecologist, the animal shelter girl that Applejack said was so shy, and that rocker who also helped bake at the bake sale and...

Apple Bloom squinted at the drawing, then picked it up in her mouth and turned around, trotting over to the breakfast table. Relatively unnoticed by the others down on the floor here, Apple Bloom wiggled her hindquarters and jumped right over the back of her chair, landing neatly on the strapped down (that had been an entertaining lesson to learn last week) booster seat. That caught everyone’s interest. Spitting the paper out on the table, arranging so that it slid right up to Applejack, Apple Bloom said, “These are all your friends, right?”

Applejack put down her fork and nodded. “That’s right. Just like I said before.”

“Well ah recognize Rainbow Dash,” Apple Bloom listed off, “And Rarity, and uh, Pinkie Pie and uh... the animal shelter girl...”

“Fluttershy,” Applejack prompted.

“Fluttershy, right,” Apple Bloom said gratefully. “And here you are, and... you all got like, horse ears and tails and you’re fightin’ the demons.”

“You make it sound so ridiculous!” Diamond protested shrilly, throwing down her fork. “I’m telling you I just drew what I saw! I didn’t believe it either!”

“That’s not what ah’m concerned about,” Apple Bloom said, shooting Diamond an irritable glare.

“Well, what’s the big deal then?” Applejack asked, picking up her fork and taking another big bite. “Ah thold you, ah don’t remember anythin’ like that happenin’ before,” she said around a mouthful.

Apple Bloom frowned at Applejack, then tapped the center of the drawing, saying, “Who’s the purple girl here? Right in the middle there. Is she one of your friends too?”

“Yeah she—” Applejack ...halted. She’d been doing that a lot, lately. Applejack finished her mouthful, and put down the fork, leaning to look closer at the drawing again. “She’s uh...” Applejack said uncertainly, “I don’t rightly know, but she looks familiar for some reason.” She looked over at Diamond, asking “Who is she, Diamond Tiara?”

“Uh, me?” Diamond said abrasively, not wanting to be put on the spot by far. “I don’t know her. I’m just drawing what I saw. You don’t know a purple girl?”

“Ah suppose it could be... Ms. Cheerilee?” Applejack puzzled at the drawing. She glanced at Diamond, saying “You know there’s a shade of magenta in the crayon box, right?”

“It wasn’t Ms. Cheerilee,” Diamond said uncomfortably. “It was just a girl, in your class I think, I mean, I don’t know. It just happened.”

“She really is this shade of purple,” Diamond said, pointing at the purpled one, “Not magenta. She also had straight hair, but... oh! Magenta!”

While the others watched confusedly, Diamond scooted away from the breakfast table and jogged over to grab the box of crayons, running back with two colors, that she then drew, one line after another in the middle of the girl’s hair. “She had like these really cool highlights,” Diamond explained, “Like a violet and a magenta stripe in her hair.”

Author's Note

In which, shocking everyone, absolutely nothing useful is revealed!

Chasing the Apple

“I wish I could help more, really I do,” the dream princess said sincerely to Apple Bloom. The two of them were sitting on a grassy hill overlooking the sunset. The princess loved this scene the most. She was so skillful at pulling imagery out of Apple Bloom’s head just by talking with her about her life and what she was dreaming. It was really sad though she’d even forgotten what grass feels like! Or something to that regard. Apple Bloom wasn’t entirely sure what went on in that pony princess’s head, only that her trip through space had left her alone for a very, very long time.

About the only thing the princess had memories of were that library she liked to dream about with Apple Bloom. It was a beautiful memory, to her credit, but most of the books were all blank now. All those books. She really had been lost and lonely for longer than Apple Bloom could even comprehend.

Now they dreamed not of the musty smell of ancient books though, but instead they dreamed of Apple Bloom’s memories. They rested there on a hill in somewhere, out in the crisp clean open air, atop a field of verdant grass. The princess loved being outside if for no other reason than the novelty of it, spreading her angelic wings to bask in the warmth of the sun, or what Apple Bloom knew as the sun felt like.

“It’s okay,” Apple Bloom told the space princess, with regard to the picture they were looking at. It was hovering right there in front of them, held there in the princess’s space powers, which she said she really had in real life not just dreams, maybe, she thinks, probably. “I don’t expect you’d know much of earthly affairs,” Apple Bloom consoled her with a hoof pat on her seated hindquarters. “Ah still think this has somethin’ to do with your comin’ though.”

Apple Bloom never had any trouble speaking here, or walking for that matter. Not that it was a huge problem anymore, back in the waking world, but dreaming always made things nice and simple. Apple Bloom found she dreamt a lot differently now that she was a pony. It was more like she was really there, and less like a sort of chaotic mishmash of unfocused thoughts. It was more like having a little story in her head, and it didn’t fall apart as easily as when she dreamed before. When the princess was around, it didn’t fall apart at all.

This portrait wasn’t all blurry and indistinct like the other night, because Apple Bloom made sure to take a good long careful look at it before going to bed this night. No, this time it was a picture perfect copy of the drawing Diamond Tiara made. If anyone could prepare them for that demon attack, Apple Bloom knew the space princess would have something to do with it. Or so she thought, until she brought it before the princess who had no recall of it whatsoever.

“Who is the um, ‘human’ in the center here?” the princess asked, pointing a hoof at the floating sheet of paper in front of them.

“Nobody knows,” Apple Bloom said with an air of mystery, “Applejack and her friends are searching for someone like that, but they ain’t found nobody yet. And I cain’t exactly go lookin’ through the school mahself.”

“I wish you would,” the princess said in a sympathetic tone. “You sound awfully lonely too, stuck on this farm of yours.”

“More bored than lonely,” Apple Bloom admitted, “Mah friends still come around once and a while, and ah told you all about the one who drew that.”

“Hmm, still,” said the princess, with a twitch in her wings that Apple Bloom had come to understand was an expression of dissatisfaction.

“Ah know,” Apple Bloom said glumly, “But I just cain’t go back to school or into town or nothin’. Humans are an awfully skittish bunch, and it wouldn’t take much to rile them up into a panic. It just wouldn’t be safe. They’re all fine with me stayin’ at the farm, and ah’m also fine with...”

“With...” said Apple Bloom, unable to say what she wanted to say without feeling all choked up about it.

The princess blew over Apple Bloom’s head, dissipating the dark cloud that had formed above it. “Ah guess it is kinda botherin’ me,” Apple Bloom admitted softly.

“I wish there was something I could do,” the princess said, laying a tentative hoof across the teeny little pony’s lemon yellow flank.

“Don’t you worry, princess,” Apple Bloom told her, confidently. “It ain’t no problem to deal with for me, and ah’m happy ah got the chance to keep you company, wherever you are way up there in space.”

“I still don’t know if I’m a um...” the princess tapped her chin with a hoof in thought, “’Space’ princess,” she emphasized a little disparagingly, with hoofy air quotes.

“But just look at your mane,” Apple Bloom said insistently, poking at the oddly rubbery thing. “It’s fulla stars!”

“Well, maybe I’m a princess of space,” the princess said, “But I’m not sure if I’m in space. How would I even stay up there?”

“Your space magic!” Apple Bloom said confidently.

“To lift myself?” the princess countered. “And why would I even be in space in the first place?”

“On your way here, I guess,” Apple Bloom said uncertainly. “From your home planet?” The princess groaned and rolled her eyes.

Changing the subject the princess drawled out in an unconvinced tone, “You know, speaking of my mane,” hoofing at the ethereal thing casually, even carelessly. “What about these colors,” she asked Apple Bloom, “Right at the bottom here?”

Apple Bloom took a look, as little as she could understand what she was looking at. “It looks kinda like a sunset ah guess,” she said after a pause, “You know, like how on clear days the light stays on the horizon, when the stars start to come out?”

The princess nodded, but pointed her hoof at the drawing again, saying, “They’re the same color as this, though. The stripes in this human’s hair. And her hide is the same–”

“Skin,” Apple Bloom prompted.

“Her skin is the same color as my fur,” the princess corrected herself. “I wonder if we’re somehow connected?”

Apple Bloom peered at the drawing, and then the princess and said, “You know... I think you might be right!” She squinted again, trying to figure out what the princess’s fur color would be called. Purple? Was that it, or was Apple Bloom just thinking that was it?

“It’s still kinda hard ta see you,” Apple Bloom conceded unhappily.

“Yeah, I sort of forgot what I look like, sorry,” the princess herself conceded sheepishly. “I think I look like that, right? Maybe... no, you’re right.” With a whoosh the princess turned like, pink polka dots or something. “I’m just making it up on the spot,” she sighed frustratedly, idly chewing on a loose bit of her ethereal mane, “Because I really really wish I could be that human girl.”

“Because you could wake up?” Apple Bloom prompted.

The princess nodded and grinned, “Got it in one.”

“I thought ah couldn’t see you because you were all... mystically and stuff,” Apple Bloom confessed, a bit embarassed. “Didn’t think you might not be able ta see yourself.”

The princess lifted her head at a sound Apple Bloom could not hear. Apple Bloom knew what that meant though.

“Ah’ll keep my eye out for her!” Apple Bloom exclaimed, jumping to her hooves as everything shifted around her unsteadily, like a movie projection. “If ah see a meteor landin’,” she shouted, “Ah’ll know what to look”

“For,” Apple Bloom said out loud into the quiet morning, opening her eyes to the dim light of dawn.

Apple Bloom was really starting to look forward to these dreams, with the space princess. Even if they just sat around and talked about stuff, it was a break in the monotony. They were unreliably infrequent, which didn’t make much sense since the princess wanted the company, but she just explained it was too easy to get distracted for a few... weeks or the like. Her meteor had been travelling through space an awful long time for her to forget all that stuff, so Apple Bloom figured she just had sort of skewed perception of time. Or something. Apple Bloom didn’t pretend to understand the mind of a space dream princess.

Apple Bloom’s days had been otherwise worryingly simple, and the scary thing is, Apple Bloom was sort of starting to feel okay about that. She didn’t want to get used to this. She had things to do, and careers to plan for. For getting stuck on the farm all day to affect her so much, it was worrying to say the least. As the days went by, Apple Bloom was starting to lose sight of why she ever went to that high school in the first place.

Apple Bloom had thought the reason was her ambitions, and her goals in life, but when she reflected on it, she just didn’t see how school was going to help her there. It wasn’t going to help her explore, and it was teaching her new things but, half of them just didn’t make any sense to learn. She wished she could get away from the farm, but what she was missing the most wasn’t school, it was people. Her friends. Her friends!

Today was a weekend, and a day that they all had to spend time with her! She rose up onto her hooves, and bounced like a spring right out of bed. There on the floor, Bloom hurried to the dresser where not one, but three dresses were laid out now. Dresses might have been a generous term, as everything Apple Bloom could possibly wear would count as a dress. At least Apple Bloom couldn’t fathom how an article of clothing with legs could fit around her butt, the way her legs pointed down, now. But it turns out, as admirable as Big Macintosh’s sewing efforts were, they just didn’t compare to the work of a real Fashionist. Or, at least her apprentice, with a lot of help from her.

Apple Bloom hadn’t realized what a godsend Diamond was, until Granny finally got permission and Diamond Tiara got to come over again. Diamond spent the whole time wrapping Apple Bloom in a bizarre complex of measuring ribbons and fabric, trying to figure out how to adapt clothing to Apple Bloom’s strangely shaped form. Diamond made a veritable bible of notes on Apple Bloom’s measurements, and Apple Bloom really didn’t understand why you needed that many measurements, but it worked out pretty well in the end.

To a degree, Diamond’s enthusiasm was a sad consequence of the relief she felt at the very sight of Apple Bloom’s odd transformation. She was so relieved that something about her weird craziness—which wasn’t weird craziness mind you—was out there where she could see and touch it. But Apple Bloom liked to think it was also because she was Diamond’s friend, and sort of understood her irascible ways. One way or another, it meant that Apple Bloom had some actual clothes now.

It was going to be an interesting day for sure, with the four of them together. It would be for the very first time since that fateful day in the cafeteria, when Apple Bloom showed up with horse ears. But first she had to pick out what to wear.

She uh, had more than three pairs of panties of course. Trip to the ...baby store took care of that. Or wherever they got these tiny pink things, because Apple Bloom couldn’t exactly follow along with them to the shop.

Apple Bloom’s white, er, formerly white dress was now deliberately dyed a fetching shade of green, which did a lot better job of covering up the grass stains than white. But Diamond and her “mysterious tutor” in the fashion industry had put together two other ensembles, that Apple Bloom could wear when her current clothes were dirty or otherwise overused.

One was a bright pink dress, with little white polka dots all over the backside of it. A bold coloring, but Diamond said it reduced the contrast between Apple Bloom’s hair and her ...fur, so Apple Bloom was okay with that. It was the same color as her bow! Really, she figured Rarity had gone all out on this one.

It had a slot for her tail instead of a cinch, and draped just down to her barrel, where it could be tightened snug with a little belt down there. There was some sort of frilly curvy thing sewn into it, that ended up atop her back when she wore it, like a flower or something. Diamond would only say that it looked very appropriate, whatever that means.

It was real fancy, but Apple Bloom only had to wear it for special occasions, not that there were any special occasions. She had a sneaky suspicion that Diamond and she who must not be named just wanted to make something pretty. But that was okay too. Apple Bloom just wished it extended to treating her like a person. Nevertheless Apple Bloom was not going to wear this pretty thing, if it meant running around in the dirt with her friends, and getting all filthy.

The third, final article of clothing was what Apple Bloom put on. They solved the pants problem by taking out the legs entirely, and it was an otherwise scarcely modified design on a pair of overalls. They were a durable blue denim, and fit snugly around her rear end like a teardrop, the suspenders on the front were easy to pull snug against her shoulder... er...

...against her whithers, so that the whole thing wrapped around her like a glove. It was easy to get into too: you just had to walk backwards, and step through the leg holes, then pull it up along your body by the suspenders with your teeth.

Apple Bloom was using her lips and teeth for lots of crazy things these days.

So, securely snug in her denim suspender overalls, Apple Bloom pulled open the door with her... yeah her teeth, and charged down the hallway skipping steps on the way down. “Is it time? Are they here yet? Are ya up? Are you—”

Then she remembered, and Apple Bloom stuttered to a halt. She walked sort of cautiously diagonal then, into the dining room, all quiet-like. Big Macintosh was down there at the table, but Applejack was still upstairs asleep. Apple Bloom’s sister had been up late all night last night, for the big quarterly exam this Friday, as well as the state qualifiers for track and field. Plus that big project due earlier in the week, that had gotten her way behind in everything else. Apple Bloom sort of felt like all that was her fault, on account of Applejack missing so much school. It did seem kind of low down for Applejack’s teachers to assign so much stuff at once though.

But regardless of the debate of the fairness of it all, Applejack really needed her sleep this morning, so even when Apple Bloom tip-toed into the dining room as quietly as she could, she sorta came hollering downstairs, so Big Mac still looked down at her irritatedly and said, “You’re gonna wake her up!”

“Sorry I was yelling,” Apple Bloom whispered apologetically, “Ah was just so excited. Haven’t seen Diamond Tiara since last week, and haven’t seen the rest of them since two!”

He smiled a little, reaching down to ruffle at Apple Bloom’s hair. He didn’t have to reach too far though, not like she was a doll or anything. It was still scary how accustomed to being below the table she had become. Apple Bloom couldn’t even remember what it was like seeing the top of it when she stood beside it. She hopped up on her booster, not to eat this time, so much as just to talk with her brother at a relatively equal eye level.

“You don’t think she woke up, did you?” Apple Bloom whispered, looking at the ceiling with concern.

“Nope,” Big Macintosh answered easily, leaning back in his chair as he eyed the ceiling, “Ah don’t hear no swearin’”

Apple Bloom was up way early of course. Nobody was going to get up at daybreak, on the weekend after all! She fixed herself some breakfast though, and by that she meant she drank some water and ate some hay. It wasn’t long before Granny Smith came down, followed a good deal after the sun was in the sky... by a groaning Applejack.

“Ah don’t know what’s more sore,” Applejack half joked, over their official breakfast, “Mah hamstrings or mah brain.”

Their breakfast done, the sun in the sky, the day warming up, there was little left for Apple Bloom to do but wait. Wait and worry out front for her motley crew of friends to arrive.

Apple Bloom stood aside warily, as the automobiles bearing her friends began to show up. Diamond Tiara came last, because she got a ride from the Apple family truck. Applejack did good job of picking her up at the orphanage and carting her over here, but that did mean she was arriving last. First, it was Cheerilee’s beat up old beamer that crunched down the road to the farm. Scootaloo jumped out as soon as it came to a stop, running up to Apple Bloom excitedly exclaiming her name.

“Hey, Scootaloo!” Apple Bloom answered all casually up to her eager friend. She stuck her head around behind Scootaloo’s legs and said, “Hey uh, Ms. Cheerilee...” regarding her nervously.

The lady Cheerilee stood from her position at the driver’s side door, and gave a nervous little wave. “Hello there, ...Apple Bloom,” she said awkwardly, “You’re looking um, well.”

“Where’s Sweetie Belle?” Scootaloo asked from behind Apple Bloom, crossing her lanky arms and looking around.

“She ain’t here yet,” Apple Bloom said, “Ah gotta wait to greet her, but you’re free to go inside if’n you want. There’s some snacks in the kitchen.” She added in an exaggerated whisper, leaning up towards Scootaloo, “An’ ah don’t mean the bale of hay.”

Scootaloo laughed and blushed at the same time somehow. “That was one time,” she said jokingly.

“Come on, you two!” Granny Smith called to Cheerilee and Scootaloo from the front porch, “There’s biscuits and cider and a warm fire a waitin’!”

Scootaloo started to follow her mom in, but turned at the last second, saying to Apple Bloom nervously, “Are you sure you want to...?”

“Yeah,” Apple Bloom nodded a bit morosely. “She’s gotta get over it some time. An’ ah wanted to greet Sweetie too, and Diamond.”

“I could stay, um...” Scootaloo fidgeted glancing at the aroma filled farm house.

“No it’s better if ah’m alone, ah think,” Apple Bloom said, “You just get yourself some vittles. Ah’ll be right along in just a sec.”

Scootaloo’s attitude had Apple Bloom a little more worried than when she started out. This was the part of her transformation she really hated more than anything. But hate it or not, standing there in her new denim overalls with her favorite bow now clipped neatly into her mane, as human as humanly possible, Apple Bloom waited calmly for Sweetie Belle’s ride to pull up.

Rarity drove a bit of a tuna boat. A long and sleek if slightly beat up sedan it was. She got it for a steal, thanks to some quick thinking on her friend Sunset’s part. For Sweetie Belle and Rarity’s ...situation it was real important to have steals like that, too.

The sedan came to a halt beside Cheerilee’s vehicle, and in it Apple Bloom could see both Rarity and Sweetie Belle’s heads peering over the dash. Rarity left the engine idling. Sweetie said something to Rarity, but Rarity just kept looking forward, right directly at Apple Bloom standing there.

Finally Sweetie Belle got out of the car on her own, and she had barely closed the door when Rarity pulled the car back, and executed a narrow turn. She didn’t quite peel out of the front yard but, well Apple Bloom sort of felt like Rarity had done so in spirit.

“That went... well,” Sweetie said critically, looking after Rarity’s diminishing auto with a grumpy pout.

“It’s alright Sweetie, she just ain’t ready, ah guess,” Apple Bloom responded sadly.

“Oh,” Sweetie said gesturing with her hands exaggeratedly at the car, “No Sweetie, it’s far too dirty here for the car. It’s the air filter, you see. Oh, I’ll not be a bother Sweetie, I’ll just drop you off so you can go play. Be out front by three o’clock please, Sweetie I don’t want to have to wait long in all this dirt,”

“She ain’t even saying it’s me she’s scared about?” Apple Bloom gaped astonishedly.

“Truthfully,” Sweetie admitted sheepishly, brushing the dust off her purple petticoat, “I think she might not have been kidding about the dirt.”

That was around when Applejack arrived, bringing along Diamond from the orphanage. Applejack got this serious look on her face, when she heard Rarity just drove off like that. “Ah’ll have another talk with her,” Applejack said, “But for now you three go find your friend Scootaloo.”

“We better hurry,” Diamond said urgently, “Before Scootaloo goes and eats all the biscuits!”

The three scampered inside where Scootaloo had done her most valiant effort to eat all the biscuits, but alas none could withstand the power of Granny Smith’s cooking. Scoots waved to them lazily when they ran and trotted in, already relaxing by the fire. Her mother was still off by the table, sipping at a cup of hot tea.

Cheerilee didn’t stay long either, but Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and Diamond Tiara, Apple Bloom would have for the entire day. Or at least until the afternoon, when Sweetie had to go. Mostly because Rarity was being Rarity about this. Apple Bloom figured she could wheedle another few hours with Sweetie Belle, if she got Rarity and her sister arguing again. Yes, that’s how desperate for company Apple Bloom had become.

Thus it was, that outside the ranch, three girls and a filly were just informally playing around with a ball, but mostly sharing in conversation. “You know, it’s funny,” Scootaloo said critically, kicking the ball against the fence, “We never visited much before, but now we get to come over like every other week. I didn’t even know a farm could be this fun!”

“Well thank goodness for small favors,” Apple Bloom said sarcastically, running over to bump the ball back at Scootaloo, “Ah still miss mah hands.”

“Pff, yeah right,” Diamond countered, “Anything you can do, you can do better without hands. Name one thing you can’t do anymore without hands.”

“Write.”

Diamond winced. “Touché,” she replied at a flat faced Apple Bloom.

“I wonder if you could,” Sweetie Belle mused. “Maybe if you strap something to your h–your arm?”

Apple Bloom waved her entire hoof at Sweetie Belle emphatically, saying, “Remember, this whole big thing is mah hand now. It’s like a... a big fat clumsy finger. And it’s just too big and clumsy. Ah can wrap it around a broom handle maybe, but a pencil? It just don’t work.” She stomped her hoof down, declaring, “These things were made for walking on, an’ you can’t do that without sacrificing a lotta fine motor control.”

“That makes sense, I guess,” Sweetie said in a defeated tone.

“How do you know?” Scootaloo asserted less defeatedly. “What do your hooves even have to do with a motor?”

“Fine motor control,” Apple Bloom emphasized, “It means how much you can make little fine movements. Instead of just motorin’ around.” She demonstrated by trotting in a circle, her tail swishing in a flourish as she stopped and gave Scootaloo her level gaze. “Humans have about ten times as many nerves in one finger than a horse does in their hooves.”

“So, you noticed you’re feeling a lot less sensitive?” Diamond Tiara asked uncertainly.

Apple Bloom shook her head, “No, uh...” she said uncertainly, “But that’s all subjective an’ stuff. Ah only think ah got mah original senses, proprioception an’ all.”

“Pro-prio-what?” Scootaloo asked with a laugh, “What even is that?”

“Oh, ah read about it,” Apple Bloom admitted, too embarassed to really explain just how much time she’d had recently to do nothing but read about stuff. “It means how you feel about your own body. Like uh, look watch ah’ll show ya.”

Apple Bloom backed up from the fence and closed her eyes, then stuck a front hoof out sideways. “Alright,” she declared, “Mah hoof is riiiight...” she trailed off, moving the tip of her tail to rest squarely on it. “Here!” she shouted, once she felt her tail hit her hoof.

Then she pulled her tail back, and put her hoof out at a different angle. “Here!” Apple Bloom repeated, touching it with her tail again. Because of proprioception, she never even had to hesitate.

“I don’t... get it” Sweetie said uncertainly.

“It’s like how you can touch your hands together with your eyes closed,” Apple Bloom explained, “But you can’t touch someone else’s hands, with your eyes closed. So you always know where your own hands are, even though there’s nothing to tell you about it. It’s sometimes called the sixth sense, though it said it ain’t really a sense. But it means ah got different perceptions now, the fact ah can do that with mah tail. If mah hooves had different sensitivity, it wouldn’t feel any different either.”

“That all makes sense,” Diamond said smartly, “But you can tell the difference between your hooves and your tail, so you can tell the difference between your old hands and your new ones.”

“Of course ah cain!” Apple Bloom declared, stomping her hoof frustratedly. “They’re hooves! How could ah not tell the difference? When did ah ever say I couldn’t?”

“A few minutes ago,” Sweetie Belle prompted helpfully. “You said you didn’t feel like you had less feeling in your hooves.”

“Ah... ah guess ah— but—” Apple Bloom’s face scrunched up and she exclaimed in frustration, “Oh, fingle fangle!”

There was a pause.

“Fingle, what?” Scootaloo asked.

“Y’don’t wanna know,” Apple Bloom said, looking down with her bangs shading her eyes. She didn’t have to inform Scootaloo, anyway. Scoots could just ask Diamond Tiara, who clearly knew what it meant from the way she was blushing from head to toe. Apple Bloom made another solemn oath never to repeat anything Granny swore, one she could hopefully keep for more than a month this time.

Bloom managed to distract them from the subject eventually, and soon they were running around like crazy with a spinning disc shooting between them, Apple Bloom scampering around underneath its path. When Apple Bloom jumped in the air and caught it in her mouth, Scootaloo had to stop, laughing uncontrollably. “You look just like a dog!” she crowed.

“Ohyr?” Apple Bloom mumbled, turning her head to the side, “C’nna dg do... ths?!” she snapped her neck around as she shouted, releasing the frisbee to travel in a beeline for Scootaloo who caught it between her hands. She looked at it, and looked at Apple Bloom in surprise, before smiling and throwing it right back to her.

Sweetie Belle was quick to sit out from the game, resting in the shade of a tree rather serenely in her sunflower yellow dress embroidered with hearts and bells. Custom made by her sister, of course, not that that was why Sweetie was sitting out. She simply wasn’t very a athletic person, Scootaloo was utterly tireless, Apple Bloom matched her hoof for foot, and Diamond Tiara was just too stubborn to give in before anyone else did.

So when Sweetie Belle looked up from her book with a small smile, to see how her friends were doing, it was—wait, where did they all go?

“Ah got it! Ah got it!” Apple Bloom shouted out to Diamond, just a bit earlier.

“Me! To me!” Scootaloo counter-shouted, both of them at a great distance from a huffing, grinning Diamond Tiara, who was the one who had the precious frisbee clasped in her hands.

“Between you!” Diamond shouted mischeviously, swinging her arm to eject the disc powerfully into the air, directly between the two of them. She was too excited though, and way miscalculated the distance. “Ah got it! Ah got—!” Apple Bloom’s increasingly distant chant cut off, as the frisbee cleared the tops of the dense trees that marked the far edge of Sweet Apple Acres. She and Scootaloo both jerked to a halt, as the frisbee descended into the foliage with a spray of leaves.

Diamond jogged up guiltily as the two looked into the forest, saying, “Sorry, I... I just got, like... too... can you see it?” She was having a harder time talking while breathing hard. Scootaloo wasn’t nearly as exerted, and Apple Bloom looked practically untouched for all she’d been moving more than both of them combined.

“Yeah, I...” Apple Bloom’s muzzle scrunched up a bit as she said, “I think ah see it. Let’s go,” Before she could run into the forest though, Scootaloo said,

“Wait. A-are we supposed to go in there?”

Both Apple Bloom and Diamond Tiara gave Scootaloo an odd look. “Since when did you care about like, doing what you’re told?” Diamond asked Scootaloo.

“Hey, I care!” Scootaloo retorted hotly, “It’s just... it’s usually stupid things they tell you, not actually dangerous things.”

“What’s so dangerous about the forest?” Apple Bloom asked Scootaloo. “Not like there’s any wolves in there! Trust me, ah checked!”

“Yeah, but what if,” Scootaloo bit her lip, shifting on her sneakers, “What if we find that apple or something?”

Diamond Tiara turned at that. “You don’t think we could get turned into ponies too?” she more stated than asked. “That would be like, so ironic!” she added enthusiastically.

“You want to get turned into a pony?” Scootaloo asked her in disbelief.

Diamond shook her head, holding up her hands defensively. “No, no, I didn’t say that! I don’t want to be a pony. I mean, it would be like, totally terrible! No offense, Apple Bloom,” she remarked down to the grumpy little pony standing beside her.

“None takin,” Apple Bloom grumbled neutrally. “But y’know, me an’ mah brother tore apart these woods looking for that grove. Sure as ah’m standing on four hooves, it obviously ain’t just a dream, but if you’re not dreamin’ ah don’t think there’s one possible inch of land that could have that apple thing.”

“Yeah,” Scootaloo said in a quarrelous voice, “But maybe it’s because it has to be you and me, and Sweetie.” Diamond Tiara huffed a bit at that, and crossed her arms, but her frown softened when Scootaloo added in an edge of fear, “It might be after us next!”

“W-well, Sweetie ain’t here,” Apple Bloom asserted, waving over at the tree that was somewhere over there down the hill a bit. “So it ain’t gonna be any different. What are you scared of? Come on!”

Apple Bloom charged into the woods without another word, the little pony slipping under a bush and over a log, just like she’d already extensively explored the place or something.

“I just—” Scootaloo stomped a foot in frustration as Apple Bloom left her behind, “Oh fine, hold on!” and she too ran into the forest, making her way a bit more carefully as she had to navigate the unfamiliar and crowded forest floor.

Diamond Tiara actually hesitated a few more seconds, before shouting, “Hey wait for me!” and stepping into the forest before she lost sight of Scootaloo.

It was easy for Diamond to keep sight of the brightly dressed, brightly colored girl though, and soon she and Scootaloo were together with Apple Bloom, hunting around underneath the dim light of the sun filtering through the dense foliage above.

“Do you see it?” Scootaloo said, looking left and right, both in search and nervous as all getout.

“Ah didn’t see uh... it...” Apple Bloom blushed, her little tomato tail swishing like an irritated cat as she explained, “It’s mah big old ears again. I heard it land like right around here somewhere.”

“Haha, you’re like a bat,” Scootaloo snickered.

“Go ahead an’ laugh it up,” Apple Bloom responded, rolling her eyes.

“Just get looking, lovebirds,” Diamond Tiara jibed at them, starting to root around through the bushes herself for a particular molded plastic red disc. Scootaloo looked above, moving from tree to massive tree, shoving her whole weight against them to try and make their leaves shake. Apple Bloom was better at rooting around than Diamond Tiara, but it was actually Scootaloo who had the right idea, and the frisbee came plummetting down out of a tree’s branches to hit the bushes with a crunch of leaves.

“Scootaloo, you found it!” Apple Bloom crowed cheerfully. Diamond reached down and picked it up, unsurprised to find that the sturdy simple toy hadn’t even been scratched from the experience. Not that it was free of scratches. They’d been using it a lot lately, when they had a whole farm to run around instead of the cramped lots in the crowded city.

They were all surrounding the frisbee, when they turned at once to the sound of alarmed cries from none other than Sweetie Belle.

“Apple Bloom?! Scootaloo? Where are you?? Diamond Tiara! Apple Bloom?!”

What worried them was that Sweetie Belle’s cries were coming from much deeper in the forest, and not back at the ranch at all!

“Sweetie?!” Apple Bloom shouted, running towards her voice. “Why are you back there?? Hello?”

“Apple Bloom is that you?!” came Sweetie’s faint voice. They couldn’t make themselves heard, so the three of them hurried further into the forest, until they were close enough that Sweetie could hear them more clearly.

“Just follow my voice!” Scootaloo shouted.

“No, you follow my voice!” Sweetie’s voice shouted back.

“We don’t want to go deeper into the forest!” Diamond Tiara shouted.

“Then follow me!” Sweetie shouted back.

“Why should we follow you deeper into the forest?” Apple Bloom called out, a little less loudly since she was the one farthest ahead.

There was a pause at that. Then Sweetie’s voice rang out again, shouting,

“I’m not in the forest!”

Bit by bit, they made their way to Sweetie, and absolutely everyone besides Sweetie was completely shocked to find Sweetie Belle waiting on the edge of the forest, at Apple Bloom’s very own Sweet Apple Acres.

“Consarnit, we got turned around again!” Apple Bloom exclaimed in frustration, shaking the twigs and leaves off of her furry coat, and overalls. Her mane and tail remained something of a mess though.

“No we didn’t,” Diamond Tiara protested. “We went deeper into the forest! How are we outside the forest again?”

“It’s real easy to get turned around in those woods,” Apple Bloom explained to her. “Seems like no matter how deep you get, you always end up back at the ranch. It’s like, some sorta geography thing ah think.”

Diamond Tiara frowned at that, but didn’t protest.

“You all just ran into the forest without even telling me!” Sweetie Belle said in impotent outrage. “I was so worried!”

Scootaloo held up the frisbee, saying, “We were just going to get this. What did you think, that we were going to disappear if we went in there?”

“You might have run into the apple!” Sweetie protested, pointing at Scootaloo so insistently to be poking her in the chest.

Scootaloo flinched at her words, saying, “Oh, well uh, it’s like... a dream thing, so you can’t really find it right?”

“Well if you turn into ponies too,” Sweetie Belle said with the fury of a thousand puppies and kittens, “Then don’t say I didn’t tell you so!”

“We’ll be careful, Sweetie,” Scootaloo said, with a roll of her eyes. Diamond didn’t add anything in support of Scootaloo though, and just took the frisbee, running off back into the grassy lawn, on which the main farm house was built.

They were all laying together later, with even Apple Bloom sprawled out on her belly, in a position that looked terribly uncomfortable but she insisted was fine, when Scootaloo said cheerfully, “That was some adventure, huh?”

“Huh?” Apple Bloom said, lifting her head curiously.

“We got lost in the forest,” Scootaloo said, “And Sweetie Belle led us back to safety with her voice!”

Diamond Tiara gave a disapproving pfff. “That wasn’t an adventure,” she said derisively. “We just ran off for a few minutes, and we didn’t disappear mysteriously, never to be seen again.”

“You want to never be seen again?” Scootaloo asked her incredulously.

Diamond groaned, “Ugh, no. I didn’t say that. It just wasn’t anything special.”

“What would be special,” Sweetie Belle asked, “To you?”

“I dunno,” Diamond Tiara said, leaning back and looking up at the leaves above beyond her hands. “Like, exploring some strange old ruin, or falling into a portal to a new land, or like, discovering something that changes everything. You know, stuff that never happens for real.”

“Teen Girl Squad and the Case of the Missing Frisbee,” Diamond declared demonstratively.

Scootaloo winced at that. “Yeah I see what you mean,” she said. “It does sound kind of lame.”

“Hey!” Apple Bloom piped up in a somewhat hurt voice, “Ah discovered something that changes everything, what about that?”

“Everything for you yeah,” Diamond Tiara said glowering, “But nothing for me. It’s just the same old thing, every day. Nothing ever changes...”

“What do ya mean?” Apple Bloom responded, leaning up on a elbowish thing to look at Diamond disapprovingly. “You went an’ walked all th’ way to the ranch! How is that not changing anything?”

“Yeah and then I went back.” Diamond sat up, seeming surprised at the venom in her own voice. “It didn’t change anything,” she continued more evenly, “It just went right back to how it was before. Not like you, Apple Bloom.”

“So what,” Scootaloo asked again, sitting up herself too and eyeballing Diamond Tiara. “You don’t want to be a pony, so what?”

Diamond looked like she was going to deny it again, but she firmed her lip and stated, “And what if I do?

“You do not want to be a pony, trust me,” Apple Bloom said definitively.

“What’s so bad about it?” Diamond asked snippily, hands on her hips.

“Hands, for one,” Apple Bloom said, waving a hoof in her face. “You have no idea how much ah miss havin’ five things to grab with insteada just one.”

“You seem to be doing alright though,” Diamond protested, “You can catch a frisbee just as easy as any one of us.”

“But ah cain’t talk with a big ol’ frisbee in mah mouth,” Apple Bloom retorted.

“Say, that reminds me,” Scootaloo poked in, “How did you keep the frisbee from getting all slobbery? You had it in your mouth and I thought it would be, but it wasn’t.”

Apple Bloom blinked and offered unsurely, “Ah dunno, ah was just using mah lips an’ teeth an’ ah guess ah’m just... not very slobbery?”

Scootaloo leaned forward curiously, “W—”

“We’re not gonna stick our fingers in Apple Bloom’s mouth,” Diamond cut in, giving Scootaloo a look. Scootaloo looked mad, as if she was caught with her hand in the cookie jar. But she folded her arms, said “Fine,” and backed off.

“You’re like, the chosen one of a princess or something,” Diamond Tiara gushed to Apple Bloom with a bit of girlish excitement. “She visits you in your dreams. And now you get to go on an adventure to save her, just like a story book!”

“Ah never wanted this to happen!” Apple Bloom protested. “Ah never asked for any of this!”

“I know you didn’t,” Diamond Tiara said with a half smile. “I’m just saying, it isn’t all that terrible, being all like, pony now.”

After a sullen silence, Apple Bloom replied snidely, “Ah’m not sure she even actually chose me. An’ ah don’t know where she is, so how am ah going to go on this adventure? You think your life doesn’t have any adventure, but what about the Fall Formal? That’s this week, and you know something crazy is gonna happen. Ah bet you are just as ‘chosen’ as I am, and it’ll all be revealed that night.”

Apple Bloom stood up then, saying with hurt in her voice, “And you know who won’t be able to be there? Me! Ah’ll just be stuck here on this stupid farm just like ah have been all these months, an’ maybe even for the rest of my life! How is that an—” she would have said “an adventure” but Apple Bloom just started choking up right there in the middle of her sentence.

“N-never mind,” Apple Bloom whimpered, sniffling and wiping the tears from her eyes. “Ah hate this so much,” she said sorrowfully.

“Apple Bloom,” Scootaloo said sympathetically, “I—”

“No,” Diamond Tiara declared. Both Scootaloo and Apple Bloom turned to look at her, while Sweetie remained laying on her back looking thoughtfully upward. “You think you have it so bad?” Diamond said angrily to Apple Bloom, “You have a brother and a sister and a grandmother, who could have just left you here, but instead they helped you! I’m stuck in a stupid building all day, and then another stupid building all night. You can go anywhere you want, and I have to be ‘inside at all times after curfew’. You think that’s freedom?”

“Ah don’t want freedom!” Apple Bloom cried in tearful frustration, “Ah just want something to do!”

Diamond Tiara’s words halted in her throat, as it really did seem like Apple Bloom was going to lose it and start crying. Diamond said more carefully, in a more controlled voice, “The only thing you’re missing is the Fall Formal, right? Well, let’s sneak you into the Fall Formal then!”

Apple Bloom blinked, the craziness of the idea driving the sorrow right out of her head. “No,” she stated simply.

“Come on,” Diamond Tiara whined, “It’s a good idea—”

“No,” repeated Apple Bloom more emphatically. “If ah go to the formal everyone will just see this stupid little pony walking aroun’. Ah don’t want people to see me like this!”

Sweetie Belle had sat up in the meantime, looking at Apple Bloom owlishly.

“Well we saw you like this, and it wasn’t so bad,” Scootaloo ventured cautiously.

“Yeah, but you put up with it, cause you’re mah friends!” Apple Bloom stated, scraping a hoof, then startling and looking at it guiltily before setting it down carefully. “Ah don’t mean to be just some dumb animal,” she said apologetically, “But ah cain’t thank you enough for bein’ able to tolerate it.”

“It’s not as bad as you think, Apple Bloom,” Diamond Tiara said unflinchingly. “You really think I’d be able to sleep in your bed, if you were that intolerable?”

Scootaloo gaped, saying, “When did this happen?”

“When I was...” Diamond blushed, turning away from Scootaloo back to Apple Bloom. “Never mind. My point is that you are only a little dirtier than you used to be, but that’s just because you totally let yourself go, and there’s nothing dumb, or animal like about you.”

“Ah smell like a horse,” Apple Bloom whimpered quietly.

“No you–” Diamond pursed her lips. “Well, I mean, maybe a little but I mean like, horses don’t actually smell that bad, Apple Bloom.”

“You ever even been near a horse’s backside before?” Apple Bloom countered with a skeptical eyebrow.

“That’s it!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed. “That’s why you don’t smell like an animal. You wipe when you poop!”

Everybody looked at her and Sweetie blushed horribly, saying, “Oh, um, I didn’t mean I mean...”

“No, you have a point there,” Scootaloo remarked. “Isn’t that the difference between animals and people really? It all comes down to wiping.”

Diamond Tiara paused, and asked Apple Bloom, “You do, right?”

“Of course ah do!” Apple Bloom shouted exasperatedly. Then she blushed too, in the strange manner that a pony’s flush managed to show beneath their fur and crouched lower looking all flustered and stuff.

“How do you um... do it?” Scootaloo asked halfway between curious and not wanting to know the answer.

“Ah just use my hoof,” Apple Bloom mumbled. “It’s not hard...”

“But, see?” Diamond exclaimed triumphantly. “You don’t even need hands anymore, because you can still do things without them!”

“And you are still just as fun to be around as you always have been,” Sweetie Belle put in. “It’s just you’re a cute little pony now, and I’m not just saying it to humor you. It actually looks really good on you.”

Apple Bloom tilted her head. “Wait, what looks good on me?”

“Pony!” Sweetie Belle answered with a smile.

“It... it’s not a suit!” Apple Bloom protested aghast.

“No, it’s better than a suit!” Sweetie responded lithely.

“You should just admit it, Apple Bloom,” Diamond Tiara said in only a half joking manner. “When you talk about yourself as if you have it bad, then you make people who have it even worse feel... like... awful.”

Apple Bloom waited for her to continue, but Diamond seemed lost in her thoughts all of a sudden, staring forward over the knees she was hunched over.

“I’ve been growing my hair longer,” Sweetie said abruptly. She waited until everyone had turned to look at her before explaining, “It’s because I’m getting older. My hair was cute when it was shorter, but now I have to make it beautiful. Just like Rarity. That’s why I would want to be a pony.”

“Uh, wait why was that, again...?” Apple Bloom asked feeling a little lost by Sweetie’s train of thought. Sweetie Belle sat up and looked at the pony girl. And then lunged for her, and dragged Apple Bloom up into her arms, hugging the struggling pony fiercely with a beaming smile and exclaiming,

“Because you’re so cute!”

Scootaloo still seemed puzzled, but Diamond gave Sweetie a wan if knowing look, and asked, “You want to be a pony just so you can be cute?”

Sweetie Belle relaxed the hug, and Apple Bloom looked behind herself with concern, over her shoulder up at the pensive girl.

“Octave asked me out,” Sweetie hurriedly announced.

“Who??” Scootaloo blurted out, beside herself with... something.

“Octave Melody,” Sweetie continued uneasily, “He’s the lead cellist in the Canterlot orchestra. You know, the p-prodigy?” She clenched her fists anxiously, saying, “He said he loves my singing and enjoys my company and he wants to know if I would accompany him to the Fall Formal.”

“Wow, Sweetie!” Scootaloo exclaimed in— “That’s great!!” yeah, in clueless excitement.

“Sc–” Diamond Tiara managed to berate a single syllable before Scootaloo announced,

“Oh hey I forgot to tell you, Apple Bloom!” Scootaloo gave a smug self-satisfied grin at the pony girl haplessly ensnared in Sweetie’s arms, saying, “Guess who asked me to the Fall Formal.”

Apple Bloom just looked at Scootaloo like a deer caught in headlights.

“This cute boy in Technology 101 named Dinky,” Scootaloo answered herself closing her eyes and smiling all genteel. “I think we’re really gonna hit it off!”

“Just like you’ve been saying every day in school for the past week,” Diamond grumbled under her breath. Apple Bloom heard her, but didn’t chew her out, since it was too quiet for Scootaloo to hear. Instead Apple Bloom said to Scootaloo,

“Ah’m happy for you, Scootaloo! But... don’t you want to hear about Sweetie Belle, a bit?”

Sweetie Belle was the one to speak, not Scootaloo, saying “I don’t know how you do it, Scootaloo,” in a mournful tone. “I didn’t...” She bit her lip. “I mean, I got nervous and I– I said I had to think and I didn’t know what to think and—”

“You turned him down?” Diamond gaped at Sweetie. “Even I know about Octave! He’s a rising star!”

“I didn’t turn him down,” Sweetie huffed, “I just... he told me how beautiful I was, and I felt like I would hurt him if I said no, so I just said I needed time to think.”

She paused, then added, “This never would have been a problem if I had taken the Golden Apple instead.”

Nobody really knew what to say at first, but Apple Bloom slipped out of Sweetie’s arms, and faced her seriously. Putting a forehoof on her knee. Apple Bloom said, “Sweetie, y’ really think that bein’ like this would be any better? Maybe you wouldn’t be hurting some fancy boy’s feelings, but if you noticed, Rarity hasn’t exactly taken kindly to what happened to me. Imagine how she’d feel, if something happened to you!”

Sweetie started to answer, then she paused. Her expression darkened, then lightened again with mixed feelings. A giggle escaped her then, and she suggested, “She’d probably be beating your door down, Apple Bloom, demanding to know what you’ve done to me.”

Sweetie Belle stood up with a hand to her chest, exclaiming in a dramatic accent, “Oh, who dares turn my dearest sister into a pony? I will surely destroy them, the vile curs!”

Apple Bloom tried not to laugh, really she did, but when Diamond gave a critical hmmm and said, “That’s pretty accurate, but it needs more screaming and wailing,” it was just impossible not to. It was wrong of them to find amusement in Rarity’s self inflicted misery, but she was just being so silly about all this!

Apple Bloom wondered how many other students would react like Rarity. Too many, that’s for sure. No, one thing was absolutely certain is Apple Bloom was not going to go to the Fall Formal, no how and no way.

Later at the Fall Formal, Apple Bloom exclaimed in a tight reedy whisper from underneath the tablecloth torn from the remains of the refreshment table, “Ah cain’t believe y’all talked me into this!”

Next to her, totally covered in soot, Diamond Tiara exclaimed as well, “I can’t believe that just happened!”

“This enough adventure for you, Diamond?” Scootaloo said to her irascibly.

“Uggh,” Diamond exclaimed, dropping her assault rifle and folding her arms sourly. She didn’t deny it though.

“Do you think the fire is still spreading?” Sweetie Belle whimpered alongside the two of them, curiously untouched.

Scootaloo, who was also peeking out from under the tablecloth, not a very inconspicuous lump said, “After all those fire extinguishers exploded? Everything is absolutely soaked in nasty foam!”

A blonde boy next to Scootaloo just shook his head and said, “I’m so confused.”

“Maybe ah’m just a dumb pony,” Apple Bloom mused, “But ah’m pretty sure challenging someone to a duel because you lost to them is against the rules or somethin’.”

“At least both the princesses are unconscious,” Tiara sighed, “I didn’t even see who won.”

“Ah can hear the sirens already,” Apple Bloom said. “Maybe we better skedaddle before the paramedics get here, an’ who knows who else.”

And so the four, now five friends skedaddled like they never skedaddled before, the lead being Apple Bloom, eager to get her little pony body out of sight before it made things even worse.

The two girls left up on stage lay there serenely silent as the sprinkler alarms continued to rain down from above, the ruined gymnasium around them bedecked with unfittingly gay streamers of the brightest pink. Everyone who hadn’t fled remained standing around the two in solemn reflection, until the paramedics pushed their way through the crowd. Somehow, the partygoers all knew in their hearts that it would be quite a while before anyone was willing to allow another contest for anyone to become the princess of the Fall Formal.

“Best Fall Formal Ever,” Princess Trixie Lulamoon would say later, after she awoke in the hospital.

Author's Note

Actually, they can...

Apple Bloom Attends The Fall Formal

Apple Bloom somehow against all reason and sense, found herself, herself at her very first school dance. She was at Canterlot High for the first time in more weeks than she wanted to remember, walking along all quiet-like under the generous bustle of Diamond Tiara’s elaborately crafted gown. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were there too, at least at first.

But then a boy named Octave came and broke up their shaky little circle of friendship. “Sweetie, you came!” the dark grey boy said in a cheerful voice heading towards a baritone, bowing graciously before her and, not noticing everyone else with her, it seemed.

“H-hi Octave,” Sweetie said with a nervous wave. “These are my friends,” she said uncertainly. “Diamond Tiara, Ap—Scootaloo, and Scootaloo.”

“Charmed, I’m sure,” he said politely, still not looking at anyone else. Taking Sweetie’s hand, he led her to the steps to the auditorium saying, “Come, let us enter the formal, together! Our first formal, and to do it with such a beautiful girl as you. I can truly say this is going to be a magical night!”

Sweetie didn’t have the heart to curb his very well mannered, but overeager enthusiasm, and let herself be dragged inside, trying not to catch her dress on the way in, with but a little pleading look to the others before vanishing through the doors to face the ticket masters.

Apple Bloom peeked out from under Diamond’s dress, saying, “Reckon we should help her out.”

“Shoosh!” Diamond said, pushing her dress down over Apple Bloom. “You’ve gotta stay hidden like until we get inside!”

“Ah still think this is a terrible idea,” came Apple Bloom’s muffled voice from underneath the bustle.

“You think what’s a terrible idea?” another boy asked Diamond, who stiffened and said,

“Me? I was just like, the hem on my dress, just it’s like a little bulky you know how it goes ha ha ha ha ha!”

Apple Bloom couldn’t see a blooming thing outside this dress thingamajig. What’s worse is, it had the curiously acrid yet marshmallowy smell of Diamond Tiara herself. Apple Bloom never felt glad to smell like a horse more than this evening right here under this smelly thing. At least the beautiful girl wearing this gown was meticulously cleanly, and hadn’t had beans for dinner or anything.

Stuck under Diamond Tiara’s butt extension, Apple Bloom just had to peek her nose out again at the sound of someone being dragged around, and the sound of Scootaloo’s subsequent exclamation,

“Come on Diamond, don’t be teasing my date now!”

What Apple Bloom saw were some shiny black dress shoes, some boy dolled up all formally, and she barely caught a glimpse of wavy blonde hair before losing her nerve and ducking back underneath. This was a terrible idea. That was Dinky, huh? This was the worst idea. Scootaloo sure had her arm hooked in his at least, so it must be him.

After an awkward pause, Scootaloo’s voice said in a dissatisfied slump, “I guess we should go then.”

“Yeah like.. don’t mind us– me. Don’t mind me, Scootaloo,” Diamond said smoothly. “You two like, enjoy your uh, like, stuff.”

“Are you waiting for anyone?” came the boy’s light tenor, calm yet with a searching edge to it. It made Diamond stiffen right up against Apple Bloom, so Bloom figured he must have been addressing Diamond directly.

After a pause, Diamond Tiara said, “Yes!” in a challenging tone. “I mean, no,” in a less challenging tone, and then “Like, none of your business!” in a challenging tone again. Apple Bloom resisted the urge to face... put her hoof against her face, whatever you call that now.

“Look,” Scootaloo said, “I don’t want to make this awkward or anything...” That made Apple Bloom’s ears flatten even more. Couldn’t Scootaloo tell Diamond Tiara was lonely as all getout and she needed someone to reassure her that she was still the awesome girl she always was? Yeah, Scootaloo probably couldn’t tell. She was sort of clueless about stuff like that.

Then Dinky spoke up again, saying lightly, “You uh, want to come with us?”

“Why should I?” Diamond said with as much restraint as she ever did. “You didn’t ask like, me to the Fall Formal!”

Dinky stuttered at that, saying, “W-well I didn’t I mean I couldn’t ask everyone I mean Scootaloo and I are uh, we know each other and—”

“It’s fine,” Diamond said resignedly, turning her dress in a way Apple Bloom had to scramble around.

“You really couldn’t get a date?” Dinky asked incredulously. Apple Bloom couldn’t even imagine how awkward this was making Scootaloo feel. That girl really knew how to pick her dates.

“Why’s that so surprising?” Diamond responded haughtily, which was odd since it was a self deprecatory statement.

“Well I’d think it would be easy,” Dinky said in a somewhat irritated tone. “Lots of boys would want to go out with someone as beautiful as uh—” Dinky cut off like the head of a sad crab. Oh wow, Casanova, Apple Bloom wanted to shout sarcastically.

“Oh wow, Casanova,” Scootaloo drawled sarcastically. Apple Bloom could practically feel Dinky’s blush from ten feet away. “Telling other girls they’re beautiful when your date’s right here,” she teased with a touch of insecurity in her voice. Apple Bloom really hoped this wasn’t going to end in Diamond and Scootaloo brawling, because there was no way she was going to be able to hide under Tiara’s dress in that case. And also as a side note, they might hurt each other again.

“You’re beautiful too, Scootaloo,” Dinky said solemnly. Apple Bloom would have buried her head in her hooves, if she wasn’t so busy manuvering to stay underneath this bustle. Now he really stepped in it! That was not what you said to Scootaloo. You called her cool, or awesome, or even rough and tough, but not beautiful! That was Sweetie Belle’s thing! Sweetie was the one who got all blushy at being called beautiful, but Scootaloo hated stuff like that. Scootaloo didn’t even answer at first, and when she did, both her and Dinky spoke at once, Dinky saying,

“When I said it before, I meant—”

and Scootaloo cutting over him with,

“No, I’m not.”

Diamond broke the uneasy stalement brutally, saying in a teasing if sincere sneer, “Come on, lovebirds, let’s go dance!” Then, Tiara’s dress really began to move, and Apple Bloom had to scramble along, missing their conversation due to focusing all her attention on her footing. She winced every time her stiff hoof struck concrete, trying to put as much of the impact on the rough, thick pads at the bottom of her hooves as possible. Then they were going up stairs! This was a terrible idea. Apple Bloom managed it, somehow.

“Ready to dance the night away?” Scootaloo said excitedly. She didn’t have to inflate her excitement either, neither to cover for Apple Bloom, nor for why they were really here. If there’s anything Scootaloo loved, it was dancing.

“I’m ready to try!” Dinky said brightly. He really seemed a cheerful sort, when he wasn’t stuffing his foot in his mouth. Apple Bloom would’ve liked him, if she could have come out from underneath this dress to actually meet him. Yeah that would go over well. Hi there, Scootaloo’s date. I’m a talking pony space alien. Want to shake my hoof like it was a hand?

“Tickets,” a neutral, older male voice came. It was mostly a formality, the ticket proceedings, but pretty much only students and faculty were supposed to be in the dance, so that kept some strange hobo or worse some student’s overprotective parents from coming in and making a scene. It was one of those real grown up things, where you were trusted to act on your own and behave responsibly. Something Apple Bloom would have appreciated if she wasn’t....

Well, it was starting to sound like a broken record at this point. Apple Bloom was tiny. Apple Bloom was a pony. Apple Bloom just didn’t feel safe anymore without someone to check with or keep tabs on her. She just felt too... all... woobly and stuff.

She had figured it must’ve just been her getting all paranoid over her family’s speculation about dogs out in the woods, why she felt so funny away from them. But right now, quivering under a teenager’s dress, in what was probably the worst plan ever conceived since the noodle incident, Apple Bloom wasn’t so sure about that. Right now, Apple Bloom just wanted to run into Applejack’s arms and whimper into her chest and maybe even cry a little until she felt safe again. It wasn’t the sort of silly sissy way she’d felt for a long time, not since she was...

Not since she was real little.

“That was easy!” Scootaloo said as the ~~four~~three of them shuffled along at the pace Diamond had to go to manage her ridiculous dress.

“Well we’re in now,” Diamond responded conspiratorially, “And now we can—” she cut off, then said in an exaggerated declaration, “Dance. We can like, dance, and have refreshments and things!”

Someone was going to lift Diamond’s dress and see a pony all buried in its folds. That’s just what was going to happen. Apple Bloom’s ears were down and her tail was low, because she just wanted to get out of sight before anything bad happened. And maybe a little cuddling, and soft rocking. Then Dinky said,

“Diamond Tiara, your dress has a... um...” Apple Bloom was sure the jig was up. She looked around frantically and she seemed like she was totally covered except for her—!

Apple Bloom jerked her tail back under Diamond’s dress.

“Oh, I guess it’s... fixed,” Dinky said in a puzzled tone. But despite Apple Bloom’s fears that he would flip up Diamond’s dress and expose her, nothing happened. She just kept shuffling along, trying to quiet her hoofsteps and any whimpers that threatened to escape her tight chest.

“Just like a... loose ribbon,” Diamond explained, “That I pulled like, tight yeah.”

Apple Bloom felt herself cantered sideways in a semicircle, thanking herself for doing so much running around at the farm, because she would have tripped a thousand times by now if she had just transformed today. Then, the frame of the dress smacked against something solid, and Apple Bloom’s heart skipped. Were they there?

“Boy these refreshments sure look good,” Diamond Tiara announced loudly. That was the cue. Hunching down, Apple Bloom peered under the dress only to see a dim, indirect, filtered light. Perfect. She scootched forward, and thanked her lucky stars she was a pony, who didn’t have to stand up to move forward easily. Apple Bloom snuck out from underneath Diamond Tiara’s bustle...

...to right underneath a refreshment table. Sweetie had made sure her sister made sure her friend made sure to get a nice long tablecloth or two on the thing while decorating, making it a big long rectangular corridor under which Apple Bloom was unseen and completely alone. Yep, Apple Bloom had to conclude that hiding under a refreshment table was definitely one of her better ideas.

Apple Bloom swiveled her head around to look behind her and lifted her tail out of the way of the edge of the tablecloth, just in time to see under it. Diamond’s bustle was moving away from the edge of the refreshment table. That bustle would be Apple Bloom’s ticket in and out of here. No other way for her to leave. She sure as hell wasn’t gonna go run out on the dance floor and try to cut a rug, much less leave this dance walking out in the open all exposed.

But she just had to be here for the big event. This was where Diamond Tiara’s dream was gonna be. With the demon attacking and the rainbow zappy thing. Apple Bloom figured since she was already a pony, she was halfway to being one of the demon defeaters, yay! If nothing else, she absolutely, certainly, totally had to see the look on her sister’s face, when Applejack did turn into a horse woman before beating that evil thing.

And Apple Bloom kind of really, truly wanted to see her sister be a big hero like that.

So there she was under the refreshment table. The smell of cheese and crackers wafted through her snout, and more prominently lettuce and carrots, and crisp cucumbers and celery, and parsley, and those white flowers with the yellow cups in them which probably was just a centerpiece. Apple Bloom kind of regretted not eating before she left. Diamond didn’t check on her before walking off (too risky) so Apple Bloom couldn’t ask for anything. The plan for Apple Bloom was just to wait under here, until shit started going down. Then she could help, or just watch, or something.

Yep this was pretty much the worst plan ever.

Apple Bloom hunkered down, her hooves folding easily under her to press her smooth belly to the cool gymnasium floor. That really did make her blush, because she remembered she didn’t have Diamond’s dress protecting her anymore. She was all naked under this table. All those naked hours on the farm didn’t stop her from feeling fiercely self conscious about not having any clothing on, here at this very important formal dance, with all these people and boys around to see her buck naked. Apple Bloom had heard of those wild parties where you find a girl naked under a table, but this was ridiculous!

She was okay though. Apple Bloom was nice and hidden. They picked the furthest off table with the least fun eatables on it to hide under, and nobody would find her. One side of this table was flush against the wall, and a second side flush against the corner. No way for anybody to sneak up on her.

Yet for a second, just one second, Apple Bloom did spare a guilty blush at the thought of just running out there and cutting a rug out in the middle of the dance floor, without a single scrap of clothing on her behind. And she covered her face embarassedly at the thought of Diamond Tiara doing that too, just to show her up.

The minutes ticked by, and one could only fantasize about one’s wild friend dancing in the nude so long without... doing something about it. And Apple Bloom did not even slightly entertain the possibility of doing that. Not here, not nowhere, not never! She wasn’t into animals, and therefore she wasn’t into herself. Besides, she didn’t even have fingers anymore, so how would she even do it? Squirming a bit and swishing her tail aside, Apple Bloom just ignored any thoughts like that, distracting herself with the food smells and the sounds of partygoers around the tables and on the dance floor.

Those thoughts were actually pretty easy to ignore. Her attention instead drifted to curiosity again, and Apple Bloom stood up, almost able to stand up straight under this table, hunching her head forward just a titch to sneak along to the edge of a tablecloth. There was a tiny crack that she could see through, between where the tablecloths met.

She couldn’t make out much, mostly just moving bodies gesticulating back and forth, but it was a view of the dance floor, and she did occasionally catch glimpses of Scootaloo going nuts, and even saw Diamond Tiara, who had ditched the hoop skirt in the locker room in order to rejoin the ball in her athletic yellow dance pants and fancy boots and that black jacket of hers with the white liner. Diamond had said something to Apple Bloom about how yellow was the new black or something fashionisty like that, but Apple Bloom kind of wondered if Diamond was trying to match Apple Bloom’s colors for some reason. Not that you needed a reason to admire a smoking hot yellow furry flank like this!

Yeah Apple Bloom didn’t know who she was kidding.

She didn’t know how many hours the dance was, but soon her stomach was rumbling something fierce. Apple Bloom could almost taste those celery sticks. She wondered if they had peanut butter on them. She really hoped they had peanut butter on them. No wait, no she didn’t, because she was stuck under the table and couldn’t get any! If they had peanut butter, that made it even worse! They smelled like it. She really wanted some peanut butter.

Apple Bloom’s guardian angel flew in, the sound of Scootaloo coming up to rest with a thump on the refreshment table, dragging along behind, her (much out of breath) date. She and Dinky were laughing and talking, about some fancy electronic thing called a dance pad. An arcade game, maybe? Anyway whatever it was, Apple Bloom snaked a hoof out and tugged on Scootaloo’s sock urgently. Scootaloo kind of paused then, and physically pushed Dinky a few feet across the floor, then dropped down on her knees saying quickly,

“Dropped a contact lens.”

Scootaloo lifted the tablecloth just enough for Apple Bloom to look out at her urgently and whisper, “Scoots ah’m dying here! Cain you get me one of them celery sticks maybe?”

Scootaloo nodded silently, and flexed her legs to stand, right at the moment that a purple boy with short blonde hair, dressed in a dissheveled but conservative suit and tie bumped into Scootaloo, searching the ground with his dextrous slim fingers for a ...

Well gosh did he have some pretty eyes.

Scootaloo released the edge of the tablecloth, letting it fall gently down.

“Was that a—” Dinky managed to say before Scootaloo whispered desperately,

“No, don’t look!” scrabbling at his hand, no doubt reaching again for the tablecloth that was the only thing keeping Apple Bloom hidden.

“Is there an animal under there?” he whispered back to Scootaloo. The only reason Apple Bloom’s ears weren’t going flat down was she felt paralyzed with fear. Her ears perked straight like she had to hear every single little thing to get some hint of how to get out of this without a disaster.

The two of them stood up with Scootaloo clumsily whispering, “No it, yes it’s, it’s not what you... it’s nothing!”

“Scootaloo, there is an animal in the gymnasium,” Dinky whispered back, and every time he used that word it cut right through Apple Bloom’s heart. Why did she even come here? She should be on the farm. The stupid boring same old everyday safe farm with her warm bed and her teddy b— she refused to finish that thought. She had to do something! This Dinky fellow was going to ruin her! The table flying away from her like it was in a tornado, and all the students standing in a circle around her, spotlights pouring on her at all sides, all them glowy eyed kids in the shadows, whispering to each other and pointing and jeering and—

“I’m going to get the principal,” Dinky said quickly, his feet stepping away from the table.

“No wait!” Scootaloo exclaimed, grabbing his arm. “You can’t!”

“Is this a prank?” Dinky said angrily, “You could get people hurt! Why do you have an animal tied under there? Is that a dog? What if she gets spooked and bites someone? This is cruelty to animals!”

“No it’s not!” Scootaloo said back, equally angry for different reasons, enough that she was starting to raise her voice most disconcertingly. Apple Bloom’s whole future now depended on Scootaloo’s sense of tact and restraint. She couldn’t imagine herself being any more doomed.

“Then what’s going on?!” Dinky retorted. Apple Bloom panicked.

She desperately stuck her head out from under the tablecloth, looking around frenetically. Nobody by this refreshment table but the tense figures facing each other off, of Scootaloo and that Dinky fellow.

“Ah’m a magical animal!” Apple Bloom called out, up at Dinky from under the table. Apple Bloom put on her most convincing smile, and looked up at the golden eyed boy, who had turned to stare at her with the widest eyes. Apple Bloom tried to explain, “Ah’m here on a... mission to uh... it’s top secret.” She thought she could stand the look he gave her, but she was wrong. Because it wasn’t a look of fear, or wonderment exactly, or bewilderment... exactly.

“...Apple Bloom?” Dinky asked in too small a voice for his lanky frame, with a look of recognition. Apple Bloom yanked her head under the table. She was hyperventilating under there. She curled up in a ball. She had to calm down. Everything was fine. How did he recognize her?!

“How did you recognize her?” Scootaloo hissed at him.

“Leave me alone,” Apple Bloom whimpered desperately, but she wasn’t sure she said that loud enough for anybody without weird freak radar dish ears to hear it.

“She... she had her bow on,” Dinky said distantly. “That’s Apple Bloom?!” he exclaimed. “Why is she a... is that why she’s been absent the whole year? What happened to her?” Despite her fears, Apple Bloom couldn’t help but perk an ear at his tone of voice for some reason.

“You know her?” Scootaloo asked incredulously. “Where do you have classes—”

“No I—” Dinky cut in, “No, I mean, she’s your friend, and I know you. And you showed me your music video. ...a lot.”

“Yeah, okay...” Scootaloo said skeptically, “But—”

“Plus she disappeared. She’s been absent for months! There’s lots of rumors going on about what happened.” Apple Bloom unfolded a bit, laying her dumb pony body out flat again. Kids at school missed her? No, of course there were rumors. They all just wanted to know what weird thing happened to some random girl.

“Okay fine, you know her,” Scootaloo said in a disgruntled pout. “You know all about what happened then, I guess.”

There was a pause, and Dinky stated uneasily, “So, the one about the horse is true?”

“Well she did go on the ten o’clock news,” Scootaloo said, with an eye roll Apple Bloom could feel from way down here. Bloom was... finding it really difficult to remain panicked, by their almost casual tones of conversation. It was nice and dark under here and... and this Dinky fellow wasn’t going and swinging her out in public. He was Scootaloo’s date, so of course he would be cool like that, right?

Scootaloo leaned down on the table and whispered to Apple Bloom, as if Apple Bloom needed Scootaloo to lean close to hear her whisper, “Why’d you go on the news if you’re so worried about being seen?”

“Ah thought ah was gonna get dumb like a horse, and not care any more!” Apple Bloom whispered back up, as loudly as she dared.

“You’re a horse then?” Dinky asked, from right down at the level of the table. Apple Bloom’s pupils narrowed as he lifted up the tablecloth again, to peer at her curiously. “You’re so little though!” he exclaimed with honest intrigue, “And you still have your human col–”

“Back off!” Apple Bloom snapped, smacking his hand with her hoof so that he jerked back, the table cloth dropping flat again. Blushing head to... toe, yeah head to toe, that’s what she was going to admit. Blushing head to toe, Apple Bloom said, “Ah ain’t got any clothes with me. Ah’m naked under here!”

“Uuh,” Dinky said articulately, falling on his smooth, pantsed, tail-lacking ass. “B-but you just look like an anim—”

“Ah don’t feel like an animal,” Bloom said back to him, in a chastising tone. “It may not look like it, but that’s mah rear end you were oglin’!”

“Uhk,” Dinky responded in the most sophisticated of manners. Once he’d regained his ability to produce vocabulary. “B-b-but the f-fur covers...” he said in a desperate, seeking tone. Apple Bloom didn’t want to answer. She shouldn’t even give him the time of day. But he didn’t mean to. There was nothing wrong with him it was her.

“It really don’t,” she answered, in far too tiny a voice for her liking.

With audible difficulty, the boy collected himself to his feet, still leaning heavily on the refreshment table, muttering in a strained tone almost to himself, “Okay, 1) Apple Bloom: horse rumor is true. Horse, but little, size of a dog. 2) Therefore absent from school, explains need for secrecy. Conspiracy? 3) Fully sentient. Rethink my assumptions. May be alien. 4)...”

He stopped at four, and just kind of slowly turned towards Scootaloo, finally asking in a bewildered tone, “Why is she under the refreshment table, completely naked?!”

“Uhh...” Scootaloo droned in the reluctance of someone who knows the answer but doesn’t want to be seen giving it. “Our other friend is psychic,” she finally admitted, “And she had a vision, that a demon is going to attack the dance tonight, so Apple Bloom wanted to come along because it might be related to her being a pony and all and uh, it was too hard to smuggle her clothes in. It’s not like anyone was gonna see her!”

Apple Bloom was really lucky to have a friend like Scootaloo, because she did not want to have to explain something like that to a boy, pretty much ever. It kind of hit her that Dinky was even Scootaloo’s date. Had Apple Bloom really gone and flashed her rear end at her best friend’s new boyfriend? Well, more like flashed her side, because it’s not like her rear was directly pointed that way, but still.

Not like he could ever be attracted to some inhuman creature like her. He didn’t even think it was embarassing to stare at her naked. Of course she couldn’t ever threaten Scootaloo’s romantic prospects. Apple Bloom was limited to... really weird sickos, and ... she wasn’t even going to contemplate the possibility of normal horses. There had to be some of her kind out there somewhere. But could she ever be attracted to them? She tried to imagine a little pony like her, except maybe a bit squarer jaw and with a swank hairdo and a big fat Apple Bloom ceased imagining immediately and totally.

“I need to sit down,” Dinky said wearily.

“W-well c’mon then,” Scootaloo said nervously, adding, “You won’t tell anyone though? She’s just hiding there until the big thing happens, and then we’ll all go straight home.”

“Shouldn’t you tell someone about this... vision?” Dinky said warily. “I mean, demon attack? That’s pretty er, important.”

“Apple Bloom’s sister knows,” Scootaloo assured him. “She and her... friends, plus someone are going to stop her, according to the vision. A-and it might just be a mistake and nothing’s going to happen. I think they told the principal, maybe. Apple Bloom’s sister doesn’t really uh... think that it’s real. It’s just sort of... not the thing you want to miss, right?”

Dinky grumbled uncertainly, and Apple Bloom hoped Scootaloo could find it in herself to do the unthinkable. The puppy eyes. Apple Bloom shuddered at the sheer power behind those eyes. Sweetie Belle was the picture of adorable, so you expect it from her, but Scootaloo you’re looking at rough and tumble one minute, and the next suddenly you’re face to face with

“Okay, okay I won’t say anything!” Dinky said desperately. Apple Bloom scrunched her muzzle grimly. Yep, the puppy eyes.

“C’mon, let’s go dance some more!” Scootaloo said cheerfully, picking him up from the table. Hopefully not picking him up over her shoulder.

“C-can we not?” Dinky said quickly. “I really need to sit down. This dancing is just too... I mean, we can if you want but I mean...”

“Yeah, okay,” Scootaloo said with diminished enthusiasm. “Let’s just go find a bench to sit on. We can talk about... stuff, not just that I mean, but... yeah.”

Apple Bloom was almost disappointed when they walked away without even saying bye, or otherwise acknowledging her presence, but it occurred to her that she was very incognito right now, so the less acknowledging the better. She just had to hold out until the demon attacked, then she could... well, hopefully the dream princess would be there, imprisoned in a pod or something. Then they could all go home, and everything would be fine.

Oh for the love of—she forgot about the vegetable platter!

Some time later, a considerably more miserable Apple Bloom was trying to ignore her hunger pangs and just doze off or something despite the loud thumping music. Not many people came to this table, since humans didn’t have weird flat pony teeth, that needed lots of delicious vegetables that were just inches away and she couldn’t get it without everyone in the gymnasium seeing her. People came and went, and Apple Bloom certainly couldn’t ask for help from any of them. She waited for Scootaloo to come around again, for Scootaloo to remember about the starving little pony wasting away under the refreshment table. But Bloom couldn’t kid herself; Scootaloo had the attention span of a gerbil sometimes. Actually didn’t gerbils like run around on their wheel all day? That’s lots of attention! Just wheel, wheel, wheel.

Apple Bloom was so damn bored.

Her other guardian angel approached the table then, walking up furtively, then resting her slim butt against it lightly. “Uggh,” came the precious voice of Sweetie Belle, making Apple Bloom’s ears perk right up at the sound of the white pink girl. Before she could get her attention though, Sweetie started talking to herself.

“What a lovely night this is, Sweetie,” she said derisively to no one in particular, “Not so lovely as you. You’re so beautiful Sweetie, no other comes close to your beauty. What style and grace you have, Sweetie. I’m so happy to be graced with your presence!”

Apple Bloom felt like she probably shouldn’t be hearing this. Sweetie Belle never had spite like this in her tone. What was she complaining about even? But before Sweetie could storm off to wherever she came from, Apple Bloom reached out from under the table and poked the heel of one of Sweetie’s soft purple shoes. Sweetie Belle jittered to a halt, but didn’t say anything. Apple Bloom really hoped she could somehow communicate with her friend, because she needed something to snack on!

Sweetie walked back and forth a pace quickly out there, then ducked down as fast as she could, scooting her butt right under the table and pulling the tablecloth around behind the generous hair on her head. Now this really gave Apple Bloom a good idea of just how small she had become. Sweetie Belle was hunched forward all hugging her knees to fit under here, and still butting her head up against the top of the table, but as far as Apple Bloom was concerned it was a rather roomy cave.

Apple Bloom’s inferiority complex aside, her friend gangled herself right under the table, and looked at Apple Bloom with wide eyes, before whispering, “I’m so sorry! I forgot you were under here. Oh Apple Bloom, it’s so good to see you!”

“Yeah, you seem to be having...” Apple Bloom trailed off, lifting a hoof from where it was curled underneath her to wave it around vaguely, “Not a good time,” she finally settled on saying.

Sweetie frowned, and looked away guiltily. “I am having a great time!” she lied. “Octave has been nothing but good to me the entire night!”

“What’s wrong with being beautiful?” Apple Bloom asked hesitantly. “B’cause you are, y’know.”

“Yeah,” Sweetie said resentfully. “Even you see it.”

Apple Bloom stood and walked over to Sweetie, another thing she could do that the cramped girl could not. “Something’s bothering ya Sweetie,” she said concernedly, laying a hoof on the girl’s knee. “You can talk to me about it, if’n you want?”

“Everybody says I’m beautiful,” Sweetie exclaimed quickly enough to make Apple Bloom rear back just a tad. “And I am,” Sweetie said. “And there’s nothing wrong with being beautiful, and everybody loves how beautiful I am, and Octave just won’t stop telling me about it, and trying to make me feel even more beautiful.”

“He’s perfect!” she said agitatedly to the little pony. “He’s everything any girl would want. He’s polite, and nice, and confident, and really smart, and he really cares about me, and he wants me to know that I’m beautiful!”

Apple Bloom stood there, blinking. “...ah still don’t see the problem, Sweetie,” she said feeling a bit dull for not picking up on it. Actually she felt guilty for not picking up on this before. Seemed like something that didn’t start just today. Apple Bloom wished she could’ve been with her friend to support her more, this school year.

“I’m not used to being beautiful,” Sweetie said quietly. “It’s so strange the way... I mean, people like to look at me, and that’s good, and I like being beautiful for them, helping them, but it just doesn’t feel so... good. For me.”

“I used to be cute, you know?” Sweetie asked. Apple Bloom was still trying to process Sweetie’s train of thought and certainly didn’t know what to say. Thankfully the question was rhetorical. “I used to be just cute,” she repeated, “And not... beautiful. And that was fine! I just wish I could... I just...”

“Growing up is a good thing,” Sweetie asserted rotely, like she was trying to convince herself. “It means I can do more. I’m bigger and stronger, and I can do things on my own. I can learn more, and I’m not so helpless. I can help people now, and that’s a good thing!”

“But I don’t—” a sniffle cut off Sweetie Belle’s voice, as she wiped at her beautiful nose, croaking out beautifully, “I don’t want to be beautiful...”

Apple Bloom was starting to consider that maybe she wasn’t the best judge of who liked to be called beautiful. She wasn’t even a boy though, so she was supposed to understand young, teenage girls! But even as a young, teenage girl, she ain’t never felt like this. Nobody had ever called her beautiful, so uh... aw shucks, was she ugly or something?

Sweetie Belle was practically on the edge of tears under here, for no good reason. Apple Bloom hated it to death, and she hated Octave for doing this to Sweetie. But she also didn’t hate him, because here was Sweetie telling Apple Bloom something she probably never told anyone. Like tearing off a band-aid or something. So Apple Bloom just got up real close to Sweetie, and leaned her head against the girl, rubbing her little pony cheek against Sweetie Belle’s side.

Sweetie in turn wrapped her arms around an unresisting Apple Bloom and pulled her to her chest, hugging the pony tightly, and just... crying quietly. Apple Bloom knew that kind of crying, and she knew Sweetie just had to... she knew that there wasn’t anything you could say that would help. So Apple Bloom just did her best to be that teddy bear Sweetie Belle needed, and waited for Sweetie to get done with her ...thing.

Come to think on it, didn’t Diamond Tiara have this very same sort of crying? She was always butting heads with Scootaloo, but now Apple Bloom had to wonder if maybe, somewhere deep inside, Diamond Tiara wasn’t more like Sweetie Belle, on some level.

...

Nah.

After Sweetie Belle had calmed down, and placed Apple Bloom neatly on the floor in their impromptu hiding spot, saints be praised nobody had noticed them hiding under there. Or if they did notice, they were polite enough not to disturb a crying girl they heard hiding under the table. Sweetie rubbed at her face again, and pulled out a delicate handkerchief to blow her nose on. Even her nose blowing was dainty. Apple Bloom was kind of starting to see what Sweetie was on about. The question is, did Sweetie, herself?

“Ah’m gonna have to repeat mahself,” Apple Bloom said carefully, making sure she had Sweetie Belle’s full attention, “Because it sounds like you ain’t even answered the question for yourself. I’m not saying beautiful is good; ah’m asking you for an answer. What is wrong with being beautiful?”

“N-noth—” Sweetie still said habitually, but Apple Bloom urged her,

“No, really. Think about it.”

Sweetie paused, and looked between her bent legs. Without looking up she said, “It’s scary, for one thing.”

If Apple Bloom said “how so?” she’d sound like she was denying Sweetie, so she just looked at her quietly, tilting her little fuzzy pony head and holding her ears attentively, and thankfully Sweetie continued on her own at the silence.

“It’s scary because people look at me differently, like I’m a different person when I’m not. I’m afraid I can’t... be who they want me to be. It’s scary because boys... boys want to do things with me now, and I don’t know if they really like me, or if they just like how I... look. I–I’m gonna have to get pregnant some day, and have a child, and be a mother and I’m just not ready to be that!”

“And because I’m ‘beautiful’” Sweetie drawled with air quotes, “That means people are gonna try to make that happen to me sooner, and faster. As soon as they can make me want it. I can’t do anything I want, just ...be beautiful for them. And the more beautiful I am, the less bad they’ll feel about making me stop doing anything I want to do. You feel bad for a girl who’s normal, but you feel good if a beautiful girl has to spend her whole life just raising their children and being their special someone, and I just...”

“I mean I like children,” Sweetie Belle admitted. “Who could not like children? But I just wish sometimes... that I had like a... like a scar.”

“A... scar?” Apple Bloom said very hesitantly.

“Y-yeah just like a big scary scar, all across my face.” What was scary was how enthusiastic Sweetie was about this. What was even scarier was how much sense she subsequently made:

“How on earth is having a horrible scar on your face something you’d ever want?!” Apple Bloom exclaimed in horror.

“Well, I wouldn’t be beautiful,” Sweetie said pensively, and Apple Bloom had to admit, but still!

“And people would wonder how I got it,” Sweetie continued, “Like maybe I was fighting a pirate with a big wicked knife, or maybe I was in a battle with a whole army, or maybe I got it being interrogated because I wouldn’t talk. Maybe I tripped a trap in some ancient temple. They’d look at me and they’d think wow, there’s someone who used to be beautiful. I wonder what happened to them? I wonder what they did?”

She paused and added, “And they wouldn’t care what I am anymore, only what I did.”

“But uh,” Apple Bloom said worriedly, “You’re not just gonna go an’ just all go and cut yourself are ya? Because that ain’t exactly fighting pirates, it’s just kinda like lying.”

“Pff, no,” Sweetie said rolling her eyes. “I would feel so stupid, and Rarity would just die when she found out! It’d be like if you went skiing, and broke your leg after just to make people think you were um... dangerous.”

“Well, good,” Apple Bloom frumped, “Ah would just die if you did that to yourself too. Ah don’t care much if you’re all beautiful or nothing, but ah do want you to care for yourself.”

“Really I just want to go on adventures,” Sweetie sighed distantly, with a dreamy glimmer in her eye. “My life is just a big blah of doing boring things like school and dances, boys and dresses. I never get to do anything dangerous, like exploring or finding new places or you know, just jumping into it and making big things happen. I want to go to the mountains and just... jump into whatever’s over there. And if I get a scar, then too bad, because I’m not just some girl at a dance, I’m Sweetie Belle the um... Daring!”

Apple Bloom tried not to snort at that, she really did. Sweetie pouted immediately, and Apple Bloom said, “No, no I totally feel you there. Ah don’t know about all that danger, but finding places no one has seen? Going an’ uncovering mysteries an’ learning stuff for real, instead of just from in a book? Wouldn’t that be the life.”

“Yeah, well, um...” Sweetie fiddled with her fingers. “I know I can’t even um... I get hurt easily, and can’t really do any of that stuff. But it’s a fun fantasy... like I could be something special, like you.”

“Like me?” Apple Bloom asked in puzzlement.

“Yeah the whole um, pony thing,” Sweetie said, “You’re just... you can do things you couldn’t do before. Climb places, and get under things, and run just forever. I bet you could do adventures! And um, yes I know it’s different, but if I could be...” she trailed off, then giggled.

At Apple Bloom’s puzzled look, Sweetie clarified amusedly, “I sure wouldn’t be a ‘beautiful flower’ if I was a cute little pony like you.” Apple Bloom rolled her eyes, but then stopped rolling them on account of a realization on her part.

“Sweetie Belle, ah want you to promise me something,” Apple Bloom said looking her in the eyes seriously. Sweetie frowned at her concern, but Apple Bloom pressed on. “Promise me that if’n you ever get t’ choose b’tween a big ugly scar and being a cute little pony, you’ll go with the pony.”

Sweetie’s bright laugh was interrupted when her arm bumped into the leg of someone standing at the refreshment table.

“Is someone under there?” an unfamiliar boy’s voice came down

Apple Bloom’s spine went stiff, goosebumps prickling all along her back. Sweetie Belle called out more boldly than usual, “Oh, sorry. I was just um, resting one second. It’s so hard to find a moment’s peace in these dances!” She crawled out, putting herself in between the table and the boy’s feet Apple Bloom could see.

“Just, getting some refreshments, don’t mind me,” Sweetie said shakily, with a plink of food on her—dang it she was gonna leave now, and Apple Bloom still hadn’t gotten anything to eat!

“Um... okay...” the boy said uneasily, backing away from a Sweetie Belle who was probably smiling entirely too widely for his liking. Apple Bloom stuck out a hoof and poked Sweetie’s boot again, trying to get Sweetie to check on her just one more time. Sweetie didn’t bend down though, not until a while after the boy had walked off, resigned to his inability to reach around the crazy girl to get at the snack tray.

Sweetie bent over slightly then and whispered, “What? I don’t want to attract attention!”

“Celery!” Apple Bloom whispered up to her.

Apple Bloom blinked, and then said a little less enigmatically, “Gimme some celery! Ah’m hungry down here!”

There was a pause and Sweetie whispered, “It has peanut butter is that oka–”

“Ah will love you forever if you give me that celery right now,” Apple whispered out to her enthusiastically. There was more plinking sounds as Sweetie took some... things. “An’ a piece of cheese!” Apple Bloom whispered out, “Just a lil’ one!”

Sweetie looked around to see if anyone was still watching their table, then bent over and slid a plate of peanut butter celery, cheese, and carrots right up to Apple Bloom’s hungry hooves. And Sweetie also demonstrated psychic powers, or at least half a brain cell more than Apple Bloom had, because when Apple Bloom’s mouth was too full of peanut butter to ask for help, Sweetie was already in the process of sneakily lowering the punch bowl for this table all the way to the ground, standing straight, and pushing it underneath the table with the back of her foot.

“Than’ you so mush Sweethie,” Apple Bloom managed to say, after abusing that punch bowl in a way that polite little girls who had drinking cups and opposable thumbs would never do.

All Sweetie said was in a tight whisper, “I’ll watch for a while make sure nobody saw anything.” Then Apple Bloom froze at the sound of Sweetie jolting up straight. Sweetie didn’t sound alarmed though, when she just said in hot disappointment, in her normal tone of voice, “Oh, shoot. He saw me already!”

Apple Bloom got her clarification, when that smooth voiced Octave strode up saying, “Sweetie Belle, there you are! Come, the night is young. Don’t waste away your precious beauty there by the wall like a flower. To the dance floor, where your beauty can shine!”

Apple Bloom wasn’t as hungry anymore, for two reasons now. If Apple Bloom had any doubts about her understanding of Sweetie Belle’s unique predicament, as Octave dragged Sweetie back into the fray, Apple Bloom now pretty much understood exactly what was going on. Octave was laying it on thicker than butter, and if Sweetie weren’t nearly as much of a pearl as she was then he’d... probably still lay it on thick as butter but not mean it nearly as sincerely. Hm.

Honestly Bloom didn’t know how much of Octave was pomp, and how much was circumstance. Maybe he really did mean it, even if he loved being all flowery and poetic about it. But it definitely wasn’t very considerate towards Sweetie Belle. So Apple Bloom got a twisted sense of satisfaction later, when she learned that later that evening, Sweetie had finally just latched onto Diamond Tiara, killing two birds with one stone, and the two of them pretended to be kissy faced the whole evening, just so he’d know he went and pushed his girl all the way to the other side.

Yeah, Octave had a lot to think about after the Fall Formal. A lot to think about even after that, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. For now, Apple Bloom was finally reaching some measure of content. The peanut butter celery ratio was too much, but the carrots offset that, and she could swear the cheese seemed to help with it too somehow. She had enough to eat, and a sugary drink to quench her thirst, yet another oddity of her pony metabolism. Apple Bloom could subsist on coarse hay and oats, could only manage to eat a teeny bit of fat and protein, except peanut butter for some reason, but suffered absolutely no ill effects no matter how much sugar she managed to consume.

So she was fat and happy, and the dance was winding down. Things were looking pretty good. Apple Bloom even dozed off down there, curled around the half empty tray of food. She’d sort of forgotten to look out for the demons at all at that point, and probably should have stayed a lot more alert. Yes, she definitely should have stayed a lot more alert.

Fortunately Apple Bloom was easily awoken by the concussive blast that punched a hole in the gymnasium wall, kicking her table up into the air like a dollhouse to smash upside down on the floor further down the wall with a cacophany of shattering glass and ceramic. Apple Bloom was momentarily just a little pony sitting all by herself, totally exposed there at the corner of the gymnasium, going frantic from lack of cover or concealment. However, she quickly perceived that she didn’t have to worry, because everyone was too busy running around screaming to even see her.

That blue girl with the white hair, was she riding around on some sort of cannon? BOOM Holy shit, she was!!

Author's Note

Sunset Shimmer left behind a pretty severe power vacuum.

Friendship Fails

Some three nights earlier, unconcerned with such trivial things as fall dances or popularity contests, a pair of former ponies were standing out in the night, outside in front of the school courtyard that leads to the main entrance to Canterlot High. They were both standing beside a well known but rarely noticed statue of a rearing horse right in front of the street. Though it was long past school hours, and perhaps because it was long past school hours, not many would see the two girls standing there, in the black night illuminated by the orange glow of streetlights. Not many passed by this part of town at this hour. If they did, they perhaps would think it odd to see a pair of girls just standing there with their parcels and packages, an odd dog on his haunches at their feet, as if they were waiting for a bus to arrive. Thy would probably assume a bus was about to arrive. One of these two girls had a look of barely restrained eagerness on her face, the other a look of pensive dread.

“I’m so excited!” Twilight said, beside herself with glee. Beside her was her faithful assistant Spike, who was no doubt as excited as she was, along with what one would consider a heavy sack full of books, but of course the tomes of this world were far too dangerous and disruptive to risk taking home with her. These books were, in fact, copious amounts of meticulously gathered notes by the human hand of Twilight Sparkle herself. “30 moons,” Twilight Sparkle whispered, “I can’t believe it’s finally here!”

“I am looking forward to having hands again so much,” the dog spoke up clearly but quietly, in a way dogs probably shouldn’t be speaking up. He reared up, waving his front paws as if for emphasis. Nothing accompanied him for the journey, well except for a certain ground breaking discovery in comic literature that he sort of snuck underneath Twilight’s notes, but she’d thank him once he showed the world what the human Marevalous’s secret origin story is.

“They are pretty convenient,” Twilight agreed, shouldering her bag and running those odd sensitive digits down the strap.

“You’ll be able to see all your old friends again,” Sunset Shimmer said uncomfortably. She didn’t have as much stuff as Twilight, just some items she thought she could pawn off in that world, for something useful in this world again, the next time around. The flame haired girl checked her wristwatch, saying, “Getting close to time,” in an apprehensive tone.

Twilight turned and looked at Sunset worriedly. “You don’t have to, you know,” Twilight offered. Sunset shook her head though.

“No, you were right,” Sunset said to Twilight seriously. “The secret I’ve been searching for is in the magic of friendship, and I may not have many friends left over there who haven’t gotten on with their lives, even if they remember me, but... well, there’s at least one who I really need to apologize to.”

Twilight smiled and nodded understandingly, turning to face the portal with a thought on her face. “It’s been so long,” she said in a hollow voice, then blinked, and turned back to Sunset stammering apologetically, “I–I mean no I know it hasn’t really been a long time, but for me just I mean we’re just still new at this you know?”

“Smooth,” Spike said, rolling his eyes.

Sunset chuckled mirthlessly. “It’s fine,” she said, “You enjoy yourself as much as you can. Remember your time is precious, and you have to hold onto every minute of it. They’ve been waiting all year too.”

“It’s so unfair to them,” Twilight murmured mournfully. “I just wish I could–”

“Hold that thought, Princess,” Sunset said, staring at her watch. “Annnd... midnight. The portal is open!”

“Alright!” Spike shouted cheerily. He covered his mouth with his paws and looked around nervously if anyone had heard, saying, “I mean, uh, woof woof.” As they were alone in the middle of the night, he was probably worried about nothing, but it didn’t hurt to be paranoid.

“Yess!” Twilight simultaneously squeed, bunching her hands together. “I’ll see you two on the flip side!” she cheered, striding to the portal. She hesitated though, turning back to regard Sunset worriedly repeating, “I will see you, right?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Sunset drawled, rolling her eyes. “It’s so weird getting used to being a pony again. You remember when we met. I had to keep teleporting, because I could hardly walk!”

“Yes I do,” Twilight said unapprovingly, “Too bad you weren’t clumsier, or this might never have been a problem.”

“Yeah and– and I’d still be stuck, and,” Sunset shuddered a sigh, “And wouldn’t know about what friendship could be. I know it’s selfish but–I’m really glad I fucked up, even if... I mean, stop waiting. Go and enjoy your friends! I promise I’ll follow you.”

“Do you Pinkie Promise?” Twilight asked teasingly.

“Not on your life!” Sunset declared confidently. “That girl scares the bajeebus out of me.”

Spike snickered at that.

“Very well then,” Twilight said, turning her round face toward the horse statue. “I’ll just have to trust you will go through with it, this time.”

“Don’t worry I’ll make sure she—” Spike said before getting interrupted by Twilight saying in a guiding tone,

“Don’t force her. She has to do this on her own.”

Sunset pffted, “As if that mutt could force me to do anything.”

“I am a thoroughbred dragonhound, thank you very much,” Spike pronounced teasingly, a paw raised regally.

Twilight wanted to talk to Sunset more about this, to boost her confidence, even maybe drag her through, but this was something Sunset had to do on her own. So she smiled at those two and, with visions of her friends, her real friends in her mind, Twilight turned and leaped through the portal to Equestria.

Or, she would have, if she didn’t smack face first into unyielding stone.

“Ow! Cornfeathers! Ow!” Twilight hissed, putting her hands over her nose.

“Cornfeathers was old when I was in Equestria,” Sunset said derisively. She looked at her watch again, sneering at the thing. “Stupid human technology,” she grumbled. “Must be broken again.”

“We can’t have missed it,” Twilight said with a little panic in her voice. Spike just whimpered in a doggy way, walking forward a few hesitant steps, but afraid to try the portal himself in case it really was broken, and not just a fluke.

“Don’t worry, Princess,” Sunset assured the pained girl. “I’m pretty sure I’d notice if we were three whole days late. Look, the moon is full, see? It’s just not midnight yet. My watch is off, or something.”

Twilight touched the stone statue again, finding its surface unyielding still. “Oh, I hope it becomes midnight soon,” she fretted fussily.

“We’ll just wait around,” Sunset said agreeably, sitting down and putting an arm around the other girl. “It’s already the middle of the night, so it can’t be long now.”

When dawn broke over Canterlot High, the janitor was drawn by the sound of hysterical sobs, to the strange crazy girl who did not even go to their school, who wouldn’t leave the school statue, no matter how her friend tried to console her or calm her down, until she was dragged away kicking and screaming for causing a public nuisance.

Two nights later, it was the Fall Formal, yay!

The city was quiet this time of night. The residents who worked, were done working, and the night life was pretty much absent, all those energetic students off partying at the school on the edge of town. The sounds of distant cannonfire nonwithstanding, it was a rather unremarkably peaceful quiet time of day. There was one student, well not really a student, who probably should have been having a blast, but instead she was standing in a third dingy apartment, with a paid deposit in it, but no plans for another month of rent. Sunset Shimmer was standing out on the small balcony they had on the third floor. Her hair cascaded from her head like fire, in bold bright stripes of yellow and red. They were hot colors, for a hot pony, who had grown up in the sun, but had since come to spend a lot of time in the shadows.

She picked this apartment when she wanted to watch the Formal from afar, without attending it and going through all that heartache and rigamarole. Above the everpresent glow of the electric street lights you could see the high school, all lit up and cheerful with a white light that almost looked like a crystal from here, or a star on the earth.

In her hands, the girl held a pack of cigarettes, idly at first because she was just looking out over the distance at the dance party. But she looked down at the box, and stuck a cigarette out, then slid it back in again. She stared at it dully, then tossed it aside, clattering on the cement of the balcony surface. This was supposed to be the last one, and she couldn’t spend it getting hooked on the soothing smoke from those leaves again. Not while she still had hope.

At least she still had hope.

Cement. There was another thing humans had figured out sometime during their absolutely impossible situation. It wasn’t exactly shaped pearlith, the material of choice for stone structures back home, but it was still made out of limestone for the most part, with some creative use of chemicals and fire to make sure that it didn’t harden until it had been shaped as desired. It was ugly, and rough, and dangerous to work with, but it worked. That seemed to characterise a lot of this human ingenuity, not that she could blame them.

Sunset turned and padded over the cement on her soft, sensitive feet. Feet that didn’t make any sense, since it’s not like humans could have evolved with shoes on. But feet nonetheless. She tried to remember what hooves felt like. It’d been her first time back in decades, and she hadn’t even paused to feel her old hooves. And now she might never... well, it’s nothing she couldn’t deal with. Sunset was far too used to dealing with her day to day life. She could deal with it. But she wasn’t the only one anymore. And her only real friend here was not dealing with it. At all.

The bowl of mushy oatmeal mash was untouched. Sunset didn’t know why she thought it would be. It was supposed to remind her friend of home, of her old self, but it only reminded Twilight Sparkle of home, and her old self. Something she did, and did not, want to be reminded of. Sunset stared over at the fallen girl, lying face up in the bed, next to the bed table on which the bowl had been placed wordlessly. At her feet was curled a weird colored mutt, sleeping fitfully, who would have stood out if dogs didn’t have almost as much genetic variation as human beings. Twilight was just staring up at the ceiling. She didn’t even have any notes around her. All her notes and research were in a violent disarray, thrown all around the living room. Sunset hadn’t even bothered to clean in up yet, not sure if she even should.

“Hey uh,” Sunset said to Twilight uncomfortably.

“We’ve got to check the statue again,” Twilight said emptily.

“It’s the third day, Twilight,” Sunset told her desperately. “If it was going to happen–”

“We have to try!” Twilight shouted, sitting up from where she lay. “There has to be a way back home! It can’t just... not be there!”

It was more life than the former princess had shown all day. “We can check it one more time,” Sunset said, “But there’s no reason to think maybe all this threw it off or something. There’s more magic in this world than there has ever been, and we might not be able to predict what affect it has on the portal.”

“What if we–” Twilight paused as Spike shifted restlessly against her feet. “What if it never opens?” Twilight asked quietly, clearly less quietly than she’d like. With her hair in disarray and the saddest look on her face and as big of eyes as she could make, she looked...

Sunset turned away, unable to hide a blush as she said frankly, “It will open. We just... it’s something about the apple. There’s no reason when this settles that the portal will suddenly just stop being magical.”

“Is this why Apple Bloom turned into a pony?” Twilight said at her in an angry whisper. “Could our world have ...leaked into hers somehow, and corrupted the apple sequence?”

“That doesn’t make sense, but none of this makes sense anyway, so what do I know?” Sunset looked at Twilight and shrugged casually. “She can’t be the Apple Bloom from your world, since she’s part of the time loop, and I think I’d notice if there were two Apple Blooms running around.”

Sunset winced as she realized the words ‘your world’ escaped her lips.

“It would be so much easier with our horns,” Twilight muttered grumpily. “If we could just figure out why Apple Bloom turned into a pony... that, then maybe we could replicate the process on ourselves, but we need our horns to figure out why she turned into a pony!”

“Well, we have a lot of data at least?” Sunset offered. “Those theoretical correlations between mana and spatial flux. At least we have electrothaumatic interference to measure.”

“No magically sensitive instrument is going to come close to a good old horn in your head,” Twilight stated flatly. “The best we’ve been able to measure is that Apple Bloom did, in fact, turn into a pony. And you and I both have eyes.”

Sunset frowned thoughtfully. “Well if she had a luminate—”

“Could we just go to the portal already, and see if it’s open?” Spike asked, speaking up in a more jaded tone than usual. “If you two get into talking theories again, none of us are going to get any sleep!”

“Sorry, Spike,” Twilight said with a half smile. “We’ll just check it really quick, to make sure its period has translated rather than merely truncated.”

“It’s... period translated?” Spike said tilting his head with a doggy whine in his throat.

“If it hasn’t opened for a shorter time, rather than opening at a different time entirely,” Sunset translated.

“Well don’t just sit there,” Spike said sitting on the bed to the two girls standing beside him, “Let’s go check it out!”

Meanwhile, after dark, at a certain high school you may have heard of, in the gymnasium auditorium, in the middle of an auspicious high school dance, a little pony known as Apple Bloom was pretty sure the pink girl with the blue hair was winning, for what counts as winning. She had a whole pile of minions she called “followers” who were driving the competition to the floor by peppering them with what appeared to be canned sardines.

But one rose before the assault, the one with the cannon, and she shoryukened the other girl right off the stage. The pink one countered, sacrificing her followers to the graveyard to untap her island giving her one extra mana to— okay somehow they were playing cards now, and Apple Bloom was too busy looking frantically for her friends to pay much more mind to their proceedings.

The gas grill at the more popular refreshment station had tipped over in the chaos, and was belching columns of fire into the air, illuminating screaming students, and for some reason the sprinkler system wouldn’t come on. A janitor was basically hurling fire extinguisher tanks at it whole, screaming “YEAHHHH” every time they burst on impact in a volumnuous shower of fire retardant foam. Apple Bloom dodged ...that, then thought she spotted a lick of purple hair, so she ran for the overturned table, ignoring the princesstrial candidates on stage, who continued to shout.

“You may have Trixie in a headlock,” exclaimed the blue girl as the two grunted in a tight tense wrestling embrace, the crowds around them cheering on their favorite, “But you cannot imprison Trixie’s greatness!”

One scuffle later and the pink girl with the blue hair shouted back, “You can piledrive me all you want!” Maybe if she’d just use third person, someone would remember her name, but alas she did not. “But everyone will still love m—” she got cut off by the impact, her hard head breaking the stage, and sending a spotlight swinging down, its broken cable sparking with electricity.

“Scootaloo, there you are!” Apple Bloom shouted, gallopping up to the girl who had taken refuge behind a fallen table, against the flying debris, the paintballs, the copious amounts of streamers flying everywhere. Together with Scootaloo was that dark suited blonde boy, who was looking really out of his element crouched there like that. He took one look at Apple Bloom, and deliberately turned to look over the edge of the bench, as if scanning for hostiles.

Oh, right. The whole naked thing.

“Oh, skip it!” Apple Bloom shouted at him. “Just don’t look at mah butt and it’s fine!” She was too excited to be ashamed at this point. Besides she’d already been running all over the place now, and anyone who spotted her had just rubbed their eyes, then poured their glass back into the punch bowl. This definitely was too much of a disaster to worry about some little pony, although Apple Bloom didn’t see any demons yet.

“Scoots, what happened?” Apple Bloom asked in utter confusion, “Ah was under the table, an’ it all—boom!”

“There was a dispute over Fall Formal Princess,” Scootaloo snarled, “The blue one won by a single vote, and the the pink one challenged her to a duel, and they just had all this stuff ready for it, like they were planning on it all along!”

Another explosion shook the building, sending plaster raining down on the three of them.

“We have to get out of here!” Scootaloo exclaimed, pulling Dinky’s head down, right before a folding chair hurtled over the table, barely missing clipping him in the head. “But I don’t know where Sweetie Belle is, or Diamond Tiara!”

“We gotta make sure they’re safe!” Apple Bloom shouted. “Ah cain’t get a ride with Rarity, without Diamond’s dress to hide me! An’ also they’re our friends!”

“My mom will give you a ride!” Scootaloo shouted over the din, “But they won’t leave without us, so we gotta find them! Just, if you spot the other girls, we can all make a break for it!”

Apple Bloom nodded curtly, and turned her ears to listen around. It wasn’t long before she heard the familiar sound through the smokey dusty partial visibility in the gym, of Sweetie Belle shouting, “Apple Bloom!” and “Scoota—” then she got cut off briefly, then belted out, “Scootaloo! Where are you!”

“She’s over there!” Apple Bloom shouted to the two of them. When they just looked at her blankly, she shouted, “Where mah ear is pointing!” Apple Bloom ran off in that direction, the two kids running along behind, just as some huge impact came down, obliterating their table behind them, shaking the ground with its intensity.

“That was close!” Scootaloo shouted.

“What was that?” Dinky shouted too, his curly locks all sweaty from keeping up with the two of them.

“Water balloon, I think,” Scootaloo said speculatively.

“It was the size of a bus!” Dinky answered in agitation.

“A bus?” Scootaloo said disbelievingly, “That was barely the size of a coupe!”

“Sweetie, can ya hear me!” Apple Bloom shouted, searching around until Sweetie burst out of the crowd to envelop Apple Bloom in her arms and hair, in a big hug shouting,

“You’re okay!”

While Apple Bloom tried to breathe, Diamond ran up behind Sweetie, with some sort of weapons assembly in her arms that looked kind of like an automatic giant rubber band launcher. Diamond had a rough look to her like she got a faceful of explosion, that covered her face and the whole front of her dress in black soot. “C’mon, let’s get out of here!” she shouted.

Sweetie dropped Apple Bloom to her hooves, and they waited while Diamond covered for them with suppressing fire. Dinky and Scootaloo ventured ahead cautiously to check the exit. The two came back through the smoke, and Dinky shouted,

“It’s no good! The doors are blocked by pie! There’s no way out!”

“No way out?” Diamond said with a dangerous look in her eyes, “Then we’ll have to like, make a way out.”

One well intentioned escapade with a cannonball later (not the cannon) and the heavily damaged wall broke open in a shower of plaster. That was about when the fire sprinklers came on, blasting all the flame retardant foam in a redundant layer of cold water. Everyone was instantly soaked, and spluttered as they staggered out into the hallway. Apple Bloom shook herself off and looked at her companions...... oh right, that Dinky boy was still with them. He kind of, had that moonstruck look to him, like he just saw a naked girl shake herself off like a dog or something.

“It’s fine!” Apple Bloom exclaimed self consciously, dashing off on her hooves to drag a discarded tablecloth back with her in her...mouth. “Y’all dry off with this!” she said throwing it at the four of them. There was a thundering explosion then, the gas main or something, that sent Apple Bloom and Scootaloo both scrambling for cover.

Apple Bloom gave Scootaloo a wan look from underneath the tablecloth and said, “Ah’m a little pony. What’s your excuse?”

“Fast reflexes,” Scootaloo answered smoothly.

“I think it’s winding down anyway,” Sweetie Belle said to them consolingly, leaning over the tablecloth and watching the diminishing violence within.

Apple Bloom exclaimed in a tight reedy whisper from underneath the tablecloth torn from the remains of the refreshment table, “Ah cain’t believe y’all talked me into this!”

Next to her, totally covered in soot, Diamond Tiara exclaimed as well, “I can’t believe that just happened!”

“This enough adventure for you, Diamond?” Scootaloo said to her irascibly.

“Uggh,” Diamond exclaimed, dropping her assault rifle and folding her arms sourly. She didn’t deny it though.

“Do you think the fire is still spreading?” Sweetie Belle whimpered alongside the two of them, curiously untouched.

Scootaloo, who was also peeking out from under the tablecloth, not a very inconspicuous lump said, “After all those fire extinguishers exploded? Everything is absolutely soaked in nasty foam!”

A blonde boy next to Scootaloo just shook his head and said, “I’m so confused.”

“Maybe ah’m just a dumb pony,” Apple Bloom mused, “But ah’m pretty sure challenging someone to a duel because you lost to them is against the rules or somethin’.”

“At least both the princesses are unconscious,” Tiara sighed, “I didn’t even see who won.”

“Ah can hear the sirens already,” Apple Bloom said. “Maybe we better skedaddle before the paramedics get here, an’ who knows who else.”

And so the four, now five friends skedaddled like they never skedaddled before, the lead being Apple Bloom, eager to get her little pony body out of sight before it made things even worse.

A short distance away, and time ago, Twilight Sparkle was poring over statue, her stethescope trailing along its smooth flat surface, a look of total concentration on her face.

“Uh, Twilight?” Spike said worriedly, pawing at her side and staring at the flashing, smoking gymnasium. “I think it’s starting to get pretty rough in there.”

“Not now Spike, trying to measure the mumblepacitymumbles,” Twilight said continuing to stare forward. Sunset Shimmer wasn’t being much help, certainly. She was just leaning against the corner of the statue, with an amused smirk on her face, watching the Fall Formal slowly go up in smoke and flames.

“Looks like both Trixie and Sea Swirl tried for my spot this time,” Sunset remarked. “It’s always pretty spectacular when those two go at it. I wonder if they both prepared independently this time, or if it’s one of the ones where they stage the whole thing together, just for the attention?”

“I am not getting a peep here,” Twilight grumbled, tapping on the unrelenting stone with a piece of inert quartz.

“You know the auditory homologue effect is largely theoretical,” Sunset said down to Twilight. “Besides, I think it’s getting on time when you blasted me. Wanna see what happens this year?”

“I did not blast you,” Twilight said, “I helped your friends fill you with the magic of harmony.” She sighed, and took the stethescope from around her ears dangling in her hand as she stood up straight. “You’re right though, I’m just not getting anywhere. I wonder what—euw... did a table just go through the window?”

Twilight stood and joined Sunset in watching the chaos unfold. Spike started pretending he was a sports announcer or a disaster news reporter or... something. The dance definitely was what could be expected if you put a bunch of hormonal teenagers in an enclosed area and told them to decide on who’s the best. Apparantly it got bad enough for partygoers to give up the ghost, because they started streaming out of the smoking building, running every which way to get to their motorized vehicle thingies. The few who could drive at least. The rest had to just mingle in the parking lot. It was the strangest practice, marooning your foal at places like this, but then not letting them operate motor vehicles out of concern for their safety.

Twilight Sparkle really did not understand these humans one bit. She had a sneaking suspicion that she never would, if Sunset was any indication. With Spike barking out play-by-plays, Twilight shifted and lay an arm against the smooth stone that should have been a gateway, still wishing that maybe she would just go through it this time. A thundering explosion shook the whole area, shattering the remaining windows, and sending the mint green Lyra analogue soaring through the air like a pegasus. Twilight reflexively caught her in her... she had no magic.

Twilight winced as Lyra hit the asphalt in a way that looked really painful. She just couldn’t stand how terribly fragile these humans were. Lyra started screaming right away and clutching her leg, which had a big red stripe on it where she was already bleeding just from scraping it on the concrete.

Twilight started forward, but she saw Sunset hadn’t even flinched, still just leaning there staring forward, with a bored expression on her face. “Can’t we at least help out?” Twilight said in frustration to her fiery friend, who sometimes seemed nothing more than the dull glow of dying embers.

Sunset blinked and shook her head as if realizing that she was in a situation here. “Oh, right. Yeah, Lyra needs first aid, and her wrist is sprained but she doesn’t realize it yet.” She started jogging forward and this time it was Twilight who remained frozen staring at her friend.

“How many times has...” she asked Sunset, when she turned back to see why Twilight wasn’t following.

Sunset just shrugged in answer. “Every time she blows the gas main. Now come on, you’re right; we should do what we can.”

The two of them and Spike ran forward. Sunset kept running into the only slightly burning building, to where she knew there was a prepared kit full of gauze and antiseptics, while Twilight ran up to the aquamarine girl, saying, “Oh my gosh, don’t worry! My friend’s getting some bandages.” She thought to tear strips off her dress, but then she remembered about bandages, and sterility. “You’ll be okay,” she told the human girl earnestly. “Just hold on a sec.”

Lyra was looking at her with a hesitant gaze, saying in her straight alto, “Thank you, do I... know you?”

“No, I just saw you fell and my friend and...” Twilight blushed holding out her hand in a greeting. “I-I’m Twilight Sparkle.”

Lyra reached out her hand but winced. She stared at it and whimpered, saying, “My wrist hurts...”

“You may have sprained it,” Twilight said sitting next to her. “Just hold it very carefully in your lap.”

Lyra did so wincing again. It wasn’t half a minute before Sunset was charging back with the whole kit in her hands. She dumped it open on the parking lot and got to work right away, taking out the cotton and saline and wetting down Lyra’s leg and carefully wiping away the worst of the dirt and grit. Lyra stiffened at the pain, and Sunset stiffened too in realization, lifting her head from her work to say, “Uh, hi I’m Sunset Shimmer. Don’t mind me I just saw you hit the turf and is it okay if I wrap up your leg?”

“Y-yeah,” Lyra said uncertainly. “You a nurse’s assistant or something?”

Indeed those coming out with injuries were getting approached by said assistants and nurses who were standing by for patching up any wounds acquired in such a disaster. As Lyra hadn’t exited via any door it didn’t look like anybody had noticed her yet.

“The blast wave took care of most of the glass,” Sunset just said without explaining. “Twilight, you pick the stuff out of the back of her dress.” She had already swiped on a yellow medicinal cleanser, and was wrapping Lyra’s cut leg tightly in white gauze. Twilight did as instructed, wishing desperately for the finer and more comprehensive touch her horn could have employed. She used her thin fingers to seek out glass fragments, trying to avoid cutting herself on them, wincing when a large one had even drawn a cut down the girl’s thin skin. It didn’t look like anything... serious back there though.

“Should’ve thought twice before trying to undermine the floor boards,” Lyra muttered, hissing again as she cradled her wrist. “Who even runs a gas pipeline underneath a gymnasium?”

“Someone who doesn’t expect students to ride a jackhammer in there,” Sunset mumbled distractedly.

Lyra chuckled, “Yeah I...” she squinted at Sunset saying, “How did you know it was me on the jackhammer?”

“Saw you go through the window,” Sunset said smoothly, “Can’t imagine it was anyone else.”

“Yeah bu–” Lyra started to say and Sunset stood up saying,

“Well you’re all set. Just wait for a nurse to take care of your wrist. There should be one in about 30 seconds or so.” She blinked, and added, “I mean, I’ll go get one.” Then jogged off. Soon the nurse was wrapping up Lyra’s hand much more gently than either of them could have managed, saying in that Cownadian accent, or human analogue which seemed to be a province called Manitoba, which was odd since Manitoba was supposed to be very, very far away from here. Right. The nurse said,

“Thank you so much for your quick thinking girls. If only more students were as kind as you! I think Lyra and me can take it from here now.”

Lyra blushed, saying, “Y-yeah, thanks um, Sunset and... Twilight hey your names are themed, cool.”

“Let’s see if any other students need help,” Sunset said quickly, pulling Twilight along until they were around the corner. Sunset sighed then and sank against the wall, putting her fingers to her temples and rubbing.

“Sorry,” Twilight said to her walking with her forward as Spike loped at their heels. “It’s really tricky not revealing stuff.”

“Eh, it’s... fine I’m used to it,” Sunset said. “If this really is the last time around, then it’s good that we helped her. Hate for something bad to happen to someone just when they were about to escape. Even if they weren’t my friend, it’d still be my f—”

“No,” Twilight said putting a finger on Sunset’s lips. Sunset was too surprised to make a snarky retort and just stood there. “No blaming every little thing on yourself. If you can help that’s great, but if you can’t?”

Sunset smiled at Twilight. “Don’t worry about it,” she said in as gentle a tone as she ever did. Whether she was reassuring Twilight, or merely finishing Twilight’s sentence didn’t need to be said between the two girls.

The three of them milled through the spooked crowd of stranded students outside the gym in the cool night air, some shivering and wet from where they didn’t get out before the sprinklers kicked on. There were actual paramedics pulled up, who seemed to be carting off a few unconscious humans, while the rest were just... low priority. So few experienced nurses in the human world, another tragedy of their species. Such a short time to learn anything, it’s no wonder most of the people trying to help had barely dressed a wound, before becoming medical assistants.

It made Twilight’s heart swell with... not with pity, but with a compassion that came with understanding. She too had to live like this, and she really sympathized with the situation humans found themselves in every day. Normal mundane tasks made into dangerous adventures, merely by the lack of a sensible magic hyperstructure. With her own trouble fraught life, she felt a connection with that, something that swelled in her that... wait, no. She was actually starting to feel funny now.

“Sunset, something’s...” Twilight said uncertaintly, touching her human chest beneath those soft fleshy mounds where something... familiar was happening. “Sunset, the elements!” Twilight exclaimed in sudden excitement.

Sunset turned to look at her, saying “What? What about the elements? Harmony, you mean?”

“I feel something!” Twilight said excitedly, “And it’s friendly! I think something is happening!”

“This is just... the same hour as last time,” Sunset said with wonder, and a quick check at her watch. “This is probably the exact same time the Elements awakened the year before!” Fear tinged her voice as she backed up from Twilight saying, “Y-you’re not gonna zap me though. I’m better now, I swear! No more loopy loops, I promised!”

“No, I’m not,” Twilight said in a puzzled tone, looking down at herself. “I don’t know exactly what they’re... it feels like... something’s not quite—”

And then her head snapped up, Twilight’s eyes glowed eerie and white, and a halo spread out from her body: a magenta sphere you could only see the edges of. It was just a sudden faint pulse, that swept over Sunset and everyone around before she could react. The leather clad girl looked at her hands, then looked around frantically, and in the crowd there were answering pulses, one for each of the six, seemingly random and unevenly distributed.

“...right,” Twilight said shakily, stumbling in place making Sunset look back at her. Twilight’s eyes were normal again, which is to say a vivid violet, that was an entirely different color than her magic. Sunset still wondered if your magic changes color when you became a princess, or if Twilight was just always weird that way. But Sunset said anxiously,

“Twilight, look!” drawing Twilight’s attention to the spheres drifting gently over a very uneasy crowd, nobody outside of those two having any idea what this strange new phenomenon is, other than it felt... friendly, kind, giving, you know the drill.

“I–I don’t... understand,” Twilight said, looking at what was happening. It was both subtle and short lived, the visible light fading as it spread out. Maybe if they had their equipment... or their horns obviously, but soon it was just an ordinary parking lot full of confused students again.

“That did... something?” Spike said uncertainly. Then his pupils narrowed and he gave two short barks before anyone could look the way they heard his voice. Smiling and wagging his tail all innocently. Twilight absent mindedly patted him on the head, still thinking.

“The element bearers are going to be here,” Sunset said speculatively. “I suppose that was each of their current locations?”

“What happened though?” Twilight asked unhappily. “It was some sort of resonance effect. Maybe something to do with the–” she looked around at the students crowded around them, some giving her and Sunset odd looks, before leaning over and whispering something into Sunset’s ear.

“Maybe it was,” Sunset mused. “Maybe it is. Maybe that means...”

“Check the portal!” the two girls said together looking each other in the eye excitedly. They blinked, blushed and pulled away. “You know, the... new computer game that everyone’s been... talking...” Twilight declared in a furious display of verbal backpedalling.

“That was like seven years ago!” a boy’s voice called out in the crowd.

“Right, okay,” Sunset pushed her way out of the crowd, headed straight for the statue no doubt. “Let’s hurry, just in case it... we only have a few minutes but we can at least get a message out.”

Twilight hurried after her, calling behind herself hastily, “Yes, the game that has messaging faculties. Boy is it ever retro!”

And the dog said nothing, because he is a dog.

Diamond Tiara, on the other hand...

“I’m jealous of my roommates!” Diamond Tiara yelped.

“Whu?” Apple Bloom asked her, in a muffled voice from where she was hanging, “Where’d thayt come from?”

“I dunno, just felt like saying it, I guess,” Diamond said, looking puzzled herself.

“Look at the pretty lights!” Dinky said, at what was sweeping through the crowd.

“Watch out!” said Scootaloo jumping in front of him as it... passed through both of them harmlessly. Dinky was the newest of the five friends, a blonde haired boy who’d gotten dragged into the fray by the excitable Scootaloo, Scootaloo the action girl who was fast friends with Sweetie Belle, the pretty girl, Apple Bloom the animal mascot, and Diamond Tiara the bad girl.

“What was that?” Sweetie Belle said in a nervous tone. “Fireworks or... something?”

“C’mon,” Apple Bloom said, “Ah know ah heard Applejack around here somewhere. She can get us t’safety and out of sight and stuff.”

“You are out of sight,” Diamond said, shouldering the laundry bag in which Apple Bloom had hid, to avoid being a pony around all these confused students.

“Yeah an’ I can bairly see,” Apple Bloom said fussily, pulling the hole down so she could peer out of it and trying not to rotate around in place.

“Cry me a river; at least you don’t have to carry anyone,” Diamond said grumpily. “Now like, use your little pony ears to find A—oh my god!!”

“What?! What is it?” Apple Bloom exclaimed, along with most of her friends, sticking her head out of the bag to look in Diamond’s direction.

“It’s her!” Diamond almost shouted. “Look, she’s right there!”

“Who?” Scootaloo asked in an exasperated whine. “You can’t just say ‘she’ that’s like half the student body!”

“The purple girl, in my dream,” Diamond clarified. “You can see her, right? She’s right over there!”

“Yeah, that...” Sweetie peered over at her. “Does look like the girl you drew. You think it’s her?”

“If I could take a photo, it would look exactly like her,” Diamond answered emphatically.

“Well don’t just stand there,” Apple Bloom said. “Let’s get closer to her!”

The motley gaggle of freshmen snuck closer, Scootaloo saying in a questioning tone, “Is that... that’s your sister’s friend, right? Talking to the purple girl?”

Apple Bloom stretched her neck around Diamond’s back, saying, “Y-yeah! It’s um... Sunset Shiner or somethin’. She gives real good advice to all her friends. Who are... all in Diamond’s drawing!”

“I don’t know what’s going on,” Dinky said solemnly, “...but this is so exciting!!” less solemnly. He was as easily pulled into the intrigue as even the ones who had been in the fray for months now. “What’s she doing?” he asked, getting up on his tiptoes to see around shoulders and hats.

“She’s walking away!” Sweetie said in alarm, doing the same thing.

“C’mon Diamond, giddyup!” Apple Bloom called curtly, “We gotta catch her!”

“I can’t... ugh— move! you stupid–” Diamond grumbled as their subtle sneaking turned into not subtle pushing. Well, a gaggle of motley freshmen don’t really have the muscle power to move a bunch of really tall upperclassmen. “I am not your horse!” Diamond shouted in realization, trying to glare at Apple Bloom but just spinning around in the process as the bag swung around held over her shoulder.

“I’ll get to her!” Scootaloo said, weaving her way ahead of them through the forest of legs and tall boots.

“We’ll all get to her!” Diamond said, continuing to determinedly push her way through. Any who wouldn’t move for her got the Glare of Death (tm) and disintegrated on the spot into a small pile of ash that could be easily passed, or at least she wished they would. Dinky couldn’t follow Scootaloo so he stuck behind Diamond, whose brute force methods despite her smaller size were actually about as effective as Scootaloo’s saber dance. The two emerged from the crowd at the same time, to stumble up to Sweetie Belle standing there waiting for them.

“You know, people will move out of the way if you ask them to,” Sweetie said in a less than impressed tone.

“Just... let’s go!” Scootaloo grumped, jogging after the mysterious girl, who along with Sunset had run away, vanishing around the edge of the gymnasium. The four of them sans a pony peeked around the edge of the building to see the front courtyard where the main school entrance was, empty except for the two older students jogging right up to the horse statue, accompanied by an odd looking mutt of a dog.

Apple Bloom had fallen on her back in the bag, and couldn’t see when Diamond ran forward, so she shouted, “Hey, lemme out!”

“What?” Diamond drew up short.

“The purple girl’s gotta take us seriously if she sees a pony!” Apple Bloom said confidently. Without a word, Diamond dumped the sack on the ground. Apple Bloom scrambled out its opening to see her three friends plus one running ahead of her. “Wait up!” Apple Bloom shouted, gallopping forward and... catching up in less than a second. Yeah she was pretty dang quick now, alright.

The five freshmen all drew up short when they reached the statue. Because there was no one there anymore, except for Sunset Shimmer and the mysterious purple girl, who was pressing her hands on the flat face of the statue’s base and squinting at it in concentration. And that weird dog, who got an alarmed look at the sight of them, and instead of barking, went up on his hind legs and tugged on Sunset’s jacket. Maybe that dog used to be a human too??

Plodding up to them nervously, Apple Bloom, all things considered, found herself the lead of whatever you called the group they were in. It made sense and all. She was the magic pony. They were the moral support. Still, Apple Bloom felt her tail and ears dropping like weights on ‘em, as she ignored the alarmed hiss of breath that Sunset gave at the sight of her, and hurried right up to the purple girl. Steeling her nerve, Apple Bloom said, “Uh... ‘scuze me?”

The purple girl turned towards Apple Bloom and her eyes widened. She... didn’t look so good. She scrambled up straight away from the statue, her hair all sproingy and her face the picture of disarray and alarm. She didn’t say anything, in the same sense that one does not make any sudden moves around a hungry bear, or one does not just start yanking wires out of a ticking bomb.

Apple Bloom gulped. “Ah–ah’m a pony,” she explained, and instantly felt stupid for doing so. “But I used to be a girl!” she clarified. “Ah dunno if you’re the magic pony um... rainbow girl, but if y’are, could you maybe ...change me ...back?”

And the girl’s face went... worryingly blank at that. This was a terrible idea. Apple Bloom tried to stand there defiantly, refusing to let her chance at regaining her true self pass by, but she was just so scared and then the girl said, very quietly, “Change... back?”

“Y-yeah,” Apple Bloom whimpered. “An’ ah’m sorry bout the demons but... ah really wanna just be a regular girl again.”

“Change back?” the girl repeated almost uncomprehendingly. Apple Bloom started to answer, but the girl looked at the Sunsit girl and said, “Change back. She wants to change back.” The purple girl turned forward again, and though all Apple Bloom’s friends were behind her, the girl only had eyes for Apple Bloom. Hurt eyes, angry eyes. “She wants to live her normal life as a normal little girl,” the purple girl spat out bitterly, “Forget about anything else that might be important, the first thing she wants is not to be a pony! I’ll just wave my amazing human powers and save her from such a terrible fate!

Apple Bloom was backing up and cowering at the girl who was shouting out loud and staring down at her so coldly and angrily. Apple Bloom couldn’t stop staring at those sharp looking, clenching teeth. Why was she getting up so close? “She’s clearly the only one who lost her entire life,” the girl shouted at Apple Bloom, her eyes shaking with anger, “And look, her little friends are here. How nice she actually has friends. And she wants to be human. She wants to be human!”

Apple Bloom was butting up against the very friends that evoked such a hatred in this complete stranger, and couldn’t get away! This was the worst idea ever! Bloom was half turned away from the girl, and just wanted to kick her legs out and make the bad things go away; it was that bad.

And then the girl said, “I’m done.”

She straightened up, gave the statue the most vicious look and announced, “I’m done. I am done. I am not doing this. I’m done!” and as she did so, she walked away stiffly. Apple Bloom sure as hell wasn’t going to chase after her after that, or even twitch one single muscle. She and her friends stayed there in varying amounts of terror, confusion and indecision, all the way until the upperclassman girl had gotten in one of the parked motor vehicles. The purple girl turned the ignition, setting it idling and staring fixedly forward. Sort of like...

Sort of like Rarity.

Many people helped Apple Bloom more than the purple girl that night. It wasn’t a difficult accomplishment really. It was actually Applejack, but first Sunset, who helped Apple Bloom more than the purple girl that night. First, the fire haired girl gave Apple Bloom nothing more than a sad, calming, and apologetic smile. It didn’t help Apple Bloom much, outside of breaking the fog of panic from her head, but it still was helping as she watched Sunset smoothly walk away, followed by that weird looking dog.

The miss Sunsetter didn’t say a single word. She and her purple dog just walked over to the vehicle and climbed in while Apple Bloom watched. Sunset said something then, about driving, to the furious purple girl, who just broke down right on the spot, collapsing on the wheel, her shoulders shaking. The two of them didn’t come back. The purple girl just crawled into the back, and the less clearly underage Sunshim went and sat in the driver’s seat, pulled out the clutch and skillfully piloted the car right out of the parking lot, down the road.

The five friends had a lot to think about in those moments after. Dinky had his hands pressed up on where the purple girl had been inspecting the statue, murmuring, “I wonder what they were doing with this statue. A secret switch, maybe?”

“Not exactly secret if you’re doing it in full view of the entire school,” Scootaloo remarked snarkily. “I think there are even classroom windows facing this side of the statue. Not to mention the street is like, right there.

“Kind of odd how nobody out of the dance is around here though,” Sweetie said, “Or on the street really. I mean it is night time, but it’s still strange.”

“Who left a stethoscope here?” Diamond announced, picking up the curiosity and looking at it with suspicion.

And Apple Bloom said nothing.

Scootaloo crouched down beside Apple Bloom, who still couldn’t move, because she knew just what would happen if she did. “You okay, Apple Bloom?” Scootaloo asked. And Apple Bloom was pretty sure both of them knew the answer to that question.

“Ah wanna go home,” Apple Bloom said. She started shaking she did, just saying it filled her with an anxious grief. “Ah wanna go home!” she said out in her stupid little baby voice. “Ah want Applejack ah wanna go home. This’s a bad idea I don’ wanna be here, I wan’ Applejack. I wanna go home!” and she was just screaming and crying her head off at that point. “I wanna go ho-ome!” she screamed. Her friends were all around her and she didn’t care. She hated this dance, and she hated the purple girl, and she hated her friends for making her do this, and she hated herself because she got upset at every god damn little thing now and she was scared out of her wits with nothing there to be scared of. She couldn’t think straight anymore. Her life was over, and the only reason for that, was it was dark, and scary out, and Apple Bloom wanted Applejack, and hugs and she wanted home.

And... and she got Applejack, at least. Her friends didn’t know what to do with her, but one of them went and did get Applejack. Apple Bloom didn’t even know who. All she knew is Applejack was there, and just ignored her bawling and scooped the collapsed pony right up into her arms. Applejack held Apple Bloom tight to her breast whispering to her that it’s okay, she’s here now. Apple Bloom was actually hiccupping. She sounded so stupid! It shouldn’t have felt so good, being cradled by her sister like a little baby. She should have been able to settle down on her own, and taken care of herself.

But as the tension drained out of her, and Apple Bloom remained only dimly aware of Applejack talking to the other freshmen in sharp tones, Apple Bloom just couldn’t help but feel like everything was alright again. She was so very worn out from tonight, but... but Applejack was here, and Apple Bloom was going to okay now. She didn’t know about the rest of the world, but, maybe she was just herself gonna ....be all okay and...

stuff...

Apple Bloom snorted awake in the little back seat of the Apple family’s pickup. Big Macintosh was up front there in the passenger seat, his dark silouette in the rumbling vehicle matched with Applejack’s. Applejack was at the wheel, driving quietly down the road at night. Scootaloo, Sweetie, and Diamond Tiara were nowhere to be seen.

And... oh man, she’d gone, and gotten exposed in front of a boy, and he was nowhere to be seen either. Apple Bloom had humiliated herself, and her sister, over just some stupid angry purple girl, who reacted perfectly normally to a weird creature who might be trying to eat your brains. Apple Bloom had gone and put herself in danger, and done something stupid just over some stupid dance. What was she thinking, fighting demons and saving princesses? Apple Bloom done screwed up bad.

“A-ah’m sorry, Applejack,” Apple Bloom said quietly from the back seat, her high reedy voice cutting easily over the truck’s deep sonorous rumbles.

“Ah should hope so,” Applejack said in a guarded tone. “Considerin’ what you been through tonight.”

“I should never h-have gone to the dance,” Apple Bloom said. She had to sniffle then all cutely and stuff. “It was jus’ a silly idear all along.”

“Diamond told me she forced you to come,” Applejack said in a... somber tone more than an angry one. “Said she was all crazy about that demon battle, and figured you had to be there to see it.”

Apple Bloom stared forward lost a moment, then shook her head saying, “S–she”

“She was lyin’ the whole time of course,” Applejack continued. “Said that it was all her fault, and I had to get her in trouble, and not you or anyone else involved.”

Apple Bloom sat up on her belly, from where she’d been laying on her side. She didn’t really even know what to think about that. Applejack didn’t seem mad that Diamond tried to lie to cover for her, so that was... bad, right?

“Rest of your friends were the same way,” Applejack added. She fell to silence again, and Apple Bloom was just... strangely aching for how her friends stood up for her like that, when she didn’t even deserve it.

“You got some good friends, Apple Bloom,” Applejack concluded at last. Neither she, nor Big Macintosh, nor Apple Bloom said a single word after that, not until they got all the way back to the Sweet Apple Acres and down the long driveway, surrounded by the blessed silence and solitude, and the dim unreliable flickery fickle wonderful light, that enwreathed the farm house.

Apple Bloom ain’t never felt better to have such a nice, warm, soft bed to sleep in, before that day.

Author's Note

Twilight clearly has things completely under control.
I’m sure she’ll have everything all wrapped up by the next chapter or so.

The Worst Possible Thing

The days after the Fall Formal were ...peaceful ones for Apple Bloom. It was a few days leeway before it all started to happen, and during those days she woke up still hurting, but felt more like herself again before the first day was even over. Her kin were... well they weren’t punishing her none, so Apple Bloom just tried to be extra good for them. She followed Big Macintosh out on Wednesday to help bring the cows home, but she made sure she was back at the house in time, when Applejack and Granny Smith, those of her family at school came trundling down that dirt road in that beatup old pickup, to return to her.

She didn’t get up to much, but she just sort of didn’t feel like getting up to much. Not with walking on eggshells about her encounter last Tuesday. She even helped make breakfast once. Well, sort of. She stirred the waffle batter. With her uh, mouth. Spoon handle in mouth, so it wasn’t gross or nothing.

She didn’t get to talk to her friends, but that was nothing new, and she certainly wasn’t going to make an issue of it. She wasn’t sure she even wanted to face them again. They didn’t even know how different she was now, and they wouldn’t understand why she was having such a hard time. Apple Bloom just didn’t want to see that look in their eyes, uncomfortable from just being around her. She’d have to address it at some point, if she ever wanted to see them again, but the weekend was still a ways off, and Apple Bloom felt she could coast for a little.

So, coast, she did. Didn’t make it to the weekend though.

It was a lazy Thursday afternoon right around lunchtime. Apple Bloom was quietly sketching at the floor by the kitchen table waiting for Applejack to finish with the cows so they could eat, when her ears pricked at the sound of a car coming down the road. It was a big long growly old tuna boat that she knew by heart, by now. But why was Rarity bringing Sweetie Belle? Rarity sure never came here to the farm for any other reason, other than to bring Sweetie Belle. It wasn’t even the weekend, though! It was the middle of the school day!

There was an unsettling screech of tires, and the pounding of footsteps, and then Rarity was all out hammering at their door, shrieking, “Applejack, you get out here right this instant!”

No, that wasn’t quite right. It needed more vigor. More urgency! It was more like “APPLEJACK! YOU GET OUT HERE RIGHT THIS INSTANT!”

No, still not quite there...

APPLEJAGYOUGEDOUDHERENOWWWWWW

There we go.

Apple Bloom crept up to the door hammering on its hinges. She didn’t want to upset Rarity by talking to her again, but that lady wasn’t going to stop freaking until she found Applejack, and Apple Bloom sort of really, really wanted her to stop freaking right now.

“Applejack’s not here!” Apple Bloom shouted tremulously at the door. “She’s out with the cows!”

The terrifying hammering blessedly stopped. Apple Bloom let out a breath. Then the latch turned and the door swung open, and Apple Bloom found herself staring up into the face of death itself. Rarity stood there... it was probably Rarity, but her hair wasn’t just rumpled anymore. It was curling back on itself in swinging strands going every which way that almost seemed to move independently, as the imposing girl twice, no three times Apple Bloom’s height, bore down on her hissing out lividly,

“You...”

Apple Bloom couldn’t even.

“This is your fault!” Rarity shouted stomping into Apple Bloom’s house while Apple Bloom scooted back desperately, hooves catching on her dress as she frantically turned her rear at Rarity. Why had she worn her dress today? She just didn’t want to be naked for a while!

“You did this!” Rarity shrieked while Apple Bloom untangled her dress from her hooves, “YOU did this to her!” The girl reached for Apple Bloom, with hands twisted into horrible claws of hatred and malice. Apple Bloom found her hooves were beating on the carpet, even before she even realized she was running for her life.

Up the stairs, down the stairs, it didn’t matter. Rarity just wouldn’t leave her alone! This was a nightmare. This had to be a nightmare! Where are you princess, oh where are you? The dream princess didn’t come, and an inhuman squeal of terror escaped Apple Bloom when Rarity found her hiding under the table, and came clutching for her, eyes full of anger, fear, vengeance and madness. Bloom had to find somewhere Rarity couldn’t go. She couldn’t think. She leapt crying up the stairs again, and dove right underneath her bed.

It was no hiding place. From her refuge, her last stand, Apple Bloom screamed as Rarity’s clawlike fingers came after her under the bed, knocking them away with her hooves before they could touch her.

“Leave me alone!” she shouted through her tears.

“You did this!” Rarity shrieked like it was a mantra, still grabbing for her.

“Ah’m sorry!” Apple Bloom begged, shoving Rarity back from crawling under there and getting her.

“You’ll be sorry!” Rarity shouted back, fighting against the panicked filly.

“What the fuck are you doin’ in mah house?” Applejack shouted from the doorway into Apple Bloom’s room. Rarity made one more desperate grab for Apple Bloom, before she was dragged by her waist out from under the bed by a furious Applejack.

“No!” Rarity shouted, “She must pay, she must pay!!” and then she was gone. Then there was the sound of two struggling girls. Then there was the sound of someone getting punched in the face. Then the sound of a body crumpling to the floor. Then silence. Terrifying, terrifying silence.

“Apple Bloom!” came Applejack’s voice, dropping to the level of the bed as a a battering ram of relief smacked Apple Bloom right across the head making her dizzy from the emotional inversion. But she still kept crying! She couldn’t stop feeling like she was going to die!

“You okay, sugarcube?” Applejack asked tentatively, picking up the bedspread to see under there.

“Why is this happening to me?” Apple Bloom shrieked at her sister, just completely losing it there under the bed and she didn’t even know why. “It don’t—”

“It don’t make sense!” Applejack shouted back at her forcefully, “Don’t ask why! Just let it not make sense! We’ll figure it out later, you need to just calm down!”

“Okay sis, ah will, thank ya kindly,” Apple Bloom wanted to say, but the most she could say is a sort of “Huuuuu” because she just felt so torn up inside, and scared and guilty because why did Rarity just hate her for... don’t ask why. She just curled up in a ball and tried to calm down. There wasn’t any Rarity out there to get here. There wasn’t nothing wrong. Everything was fine. Everything was terrible, but it could get better. She wasn’t really an animal, it was all their fault! It was...

Yeah, somehow by just trying to stop figuring out what was going on, Apple Bloom did find herself strangely calming down. The sobs stopped wracking her, and she just gulped in deep breaths, now that she could. The quiet of the farm, when she stopped vocalizing, was only broken by her sister’s purposeful movements, stomping around and something about a scooting chair, and a limp thumping. There was no why to worry about, Apple Bloom was just there, and nobody was trying to kill her anymore. Apple Bloom finally peeked her head out from under the bed, to see Applejack working there purposefully, right there in Bloom’s own room tying Rarity to a chair.

It... it looked kinda funny.

Apple Bloom shouldn’t have been laughing but, but it made her feel better somehow. She couldn’t be scared at some skinny high school girl, who was all wrapped up in sturdy rope and tied to a chair like in a movie, even if she was like three times the pony’s height. And when Applejack tamed Rarity’s hair by dumping a bucket of water over her head, Apple Bloom had to fight to keep from snickering. She was... she was kind of dizzy from the last five, ten minutes.

Rarity spluttered, coming to consciousness suddenly, and Apple Bloom even now found herself tensing up. But her sister was here, and the ropes held, no matter how Rarity tried them. The white girl was already sporting a shiner as her eye began to bruise.

Before Rarity could say a word, Applejack got right in her face and accused her angrily, “Mind tellin’ me why you broke into mah house right now, and attacked mah Apple Bloom?”

Rarity stared back at her unrepentantly, which was itself an impressive feat considering the girl was more rope than human at this point. She was clearly not in the position to bargain. And she didn’t even answer the question, just saying, “Your Apple Bloom? Is it not just ‘Apple Bloom’?”

Applejack said haltingly, “Well, she, uh—” Dangit, Rarity was already getting under Applejack’s skin! Apple Bloom was about ready to start shouting at Rarity herself, while Applejack defended herself all goofily, saying, “You’re always on about your dear lil’ Sweetie Belle, so why cain’t I?”

“Because my dear sweet sister has no one else to care for her,” Rarity countered acidly. “We have no loving family, no kind grandmother to cook us meals, no idyllic countryside farm house to call our own. If I must take a parental role, then so I shall gladly, because she has no one but me. And she,” Rarity hissed with an accusing glare at Apple Bloom, “Ruined my own dear sister’s life!”

Apple Bloom stared in shock for more reasons than one. Apple Bloom ruined Sweetie Belle’s life? Was this about the Formal? Apple Bloom was ashamed, but not guilty! Had she done something to Sweetie after she passed out? Was Sweetie Belle hurt? She didn’t hurt herself?! Oh no, she did! And Sweetie was showing all the signs and Apple Bloom just didn’t say anything. And... Sweetie Belle didn’t have a family? Since when? Well maybe she didn’t talk about them much, but Apple Bloom always just assumed she... did. It occurred to Apple Bloom that it was always her sister who came to pick Sweetie Belle up from school, never her pa or ma or anything. And...

“A-ah told her not to do it,” Apple Bloom said desperately. “She said she wouldn’t!”

“What on earth are you babbling about?” Rarity responded contemptuously, “What do you think Sweetie Belle did?” And if Rarity knew, then she would understand why Apple Bloom didn’t want to tell her. Why Apple Bloom didn’t even want to say that sort of thing out loud. Why she didn’t even want to think about her best friend’s darling little face being so horribly ...cut up.

Applejack looked from Rarity to Apple Bloom and back, and said, “Okay hold on, wait. Start over again, from the beginning.”

Rarity raised an eyebrow saying, “Applejack, you get out here right this instant? I think we rather covered that already.”

At Applejack’s unimpressed glare, Rarity dropped her gaze and said, “See for yourself then, what your foolish sister has done. Sweetie is waiting in the car.” Applejack squinted at Rarity, then gave Apple Bloom a look and asked the little filly,

“You do anything to hurt Sweetie Belle?”

“Ah swear ah didn’t!” Apple Bloom exclaimed. “Ah didn’t even know she was hurt!”

“Well, now you do,” Rarity said snippishly. “You know very well what you did.”

“No ah don’t!” Apple Bloom said back. Rarity still wouldn’t answer though, just looked aside with a sniff.

“Why you gotta be so dramatic, Rarity?” Applejack sighed exasperatedly. “Sweetie ain’t hurt or you’d be at the hospital yellin’ at me over the phone.”

“Some hurt goes further than mere wounds, Applejack,” Rarity said ambiguously. Applejack facepalmed.

“Look, ah’ll just go get Sweetie Belle—” Applejack started.

“Well I would volunteer,” Rarity cut in, “But I seem to be...” eyeing the thick rope encasing her and securing her to the chair.

“...otherwise engaged at the moment,” she concluded , with a no doubt deliberate pause for everyone to prepare to groan in disgust, only to deny them that small pleasure in life.

“Ah’ll go get Sweetie Belle,” Applejack declared in grouchy resolution, “An’ the four of us can work this out like calm, rational adu—” she glanced at Apple Bloom, “...people.”

“Ah’m normal size for mah people!” Apple Bloom protested hotly to Applejack. “Just because ah’m smaller than a human, don’t mean ah’m not an adult!”

“Just... wait here,” Applejack said wearily to Apple Bloom, “If she tries anythin’ you come runnin’ for me.” Apple Bloom nodded and Applejack left, clomping down the stairs in her outside boots that she never bothered to take off.

Apple Bloom stayed in her room and stared at Rarity suspiciously. The white girl was even elegant in her state of disarray and imprisonment, despite being soaking wet from the neck up. She didn’t move or struggle, or say anything, or even acknowledge Apple Bloom’s presence.

“Listen,” Apple Bloom said to Rarity resolutely. “Ah know you don’ like me, an’ you don’t like what happened to me. But could you at least be civil?”

“We are not on speaking terms,” was Rarity’s short answer, and then she looked away again. Somehow she made it seem like it was Apple Bloom who should feel insecure for having been looked away from, instead of the other way around, like it was supposed to be.

“Ah didn’t cut her face!” Apple Bloom spat at Rarity angrily, and surprisingly she felt angry at Sweetie Belle. Not only was Sweetie doing things to herself, she was turning around and saying Apple Bloom did it? That wasn’t what friends did! And Rarity just kept staring at her, making those fishmouthing faces!

There was a careless clomping of boots on the stairs again, along with a... second pair of softer feet. Applejack returned to the room again, walking through the doorway looking considerably more haunted than she had been when she left. She didn’t spare either of them a look, before announcing bleakly,

“We got a problem. A big problem.”

Apple Bloom felt her ears go down.

Behind Applejack walked in Sweetie Belle, who... looked kind of short. There was nothing... wrong with her face. Apple Bloom’s eyes widened in shock, as she realized exactly what was going on. Sweetie was in her school clothes still, but she’d taken off her shoes, probably the biggest reason why she looked shorter than usual. But that wasn’t the only reason. It was subtle but very apparant. The girl’s bountiful generous locks seemed... less bountiful somehow, with how they were being pushed back from her guilty looking, smoothly unblemished expression, by a pair of triangular, conical ears.

Her face wasn’t cut, or wounded, but it wasn’t normal either! Her nose wasn’t thin and pointy anymore, now more of a round flat bump all over. The beginnings of a muzzle, clearly. It was impossible to see what might have been growing out of her butt, because it would just be under the dress at this point. Sweetie Belle’s jacket was hanging kind of loosely around her shoulders. This had clearly been going on for some time now.

“I... um...” Sweetie Belle broke the silence, saying with a bit of a lisp, in a nervously pleading tone, “I’m sh-sorry Apple Bloom. I didn’t mean it. I don’t supposhe you could take it back?”

“...take what back now?” Apple Bloom asked distantly, thumping down on her hindquarters.

“W-well if you ashked the dream prinsh...princess, I mean I don’t know if you did but I didn’th mean it, sho you could just pleashaskhertoshtop,” Sweetie’s voice faded off into a desperate mumble.

Apple Bloom’s gears ground around in her head, and she shook that head slowly. “Ah told the princess all about this Tuesday night,” she said as frankly and clearly as she could, “About how there weren’t no demon or magic horses or anything, but it was still a disaster, and about that purple girl who got so mad at me and um, didn’t answer anything.”

She stood up her little pony butt, and said earnestly, “But ah didn’t tell her about—” and she halted, glancing aside at the other two girls in the room, “About that,” Apple Bloom said to Sweetie enigmatically. “That was private, Sweetie. Ah wasn’t just gonna... oh Sweetie, please don’t cry!”

“I thought it was... I thought maybe she could...” Sweetie said with big tears in her eyes. She sank to her knees right on the floor there, and the back of her dress shifted when she did, in a clear indication that she probably did have something growing down under there. Sweetie sat there, squeaking out whimpers and rubbing at her eyes. Apple Bloom ran up to her and just like, climbed up her knees, and Sweetie wrapped her arms around and hung onto Apple Bloom, staining the pony’s shoulder with her tears.

Without pulling away, Apple Bloom looked behind her at the others pleadingly, but Applejack had just set down heavily on the edge of Apple Bloom’s bed. And Rarity was a little tied up at the moment. Sweetie was just beside herself with dismay. And Apple Bloom was... curiously empty of emotion. She just didn’t have it in her to react any more. The situation had just gotten too weird for her to wrap her head around. She didn’t have to, thankfully. She just had to play teddy for Sweetie, like Apple Bloom’s own teddy did for her.

“Ah’m sorry, Rarity,” Applejack said, defeated. “You were right to be mad.”

Rarity was looking long at Sweetie, who was still hanging onto the wide eyed Apple Bloom, and Rarity shook her head slightly. “No, Applejack you... did the right thing,” she admitted reluctantly. “I... shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions. Thank you, for stopping me from doing something I would come to regret.”

“What are we gonna do?” Applejack moaned, head in her hands. “Are they all gonna change into ponies now? Is everybody? Oh, why did I let you even bring poor Sweetie over to play? This is all mah—”

Rarity stiffened at that, saying, “No... no I was wrong, and I will not allow you to be wrong either. I will not even entertain the possibility that this could have been quarantined. We may come... of an undesirable fate, but this has gone on for months on end, without any developments like this whatsoever. If any is at fault, it is certainly not a po—not Apple Bloom, who wouldn’t have done this to Sweetie Belle even if she could, nor could it be a loving sister, who did nothing other than save her... pony... sister, from a terrible life of loneliness.”

Sweetie was just cradling Apple Bloom now, looking over at the older girls with a lost expression on her face. “It’s gonna be okay, Sweetie,” Apple Bloom spoke up from her lap. “You can come live with me, now. And ah can teach you all about how to get around, and talk an’ all. You’ll be okay, I promise!” It wasn’t clear whether Sweetie coughed or laughed, but a little smile did tease on her altered face.

“Now, hold on now,” Applejack said with a worried look at the two of them.

“Applejack,” Rarity interrupted curtly, “She is not going to stay at the apartment. She would be a prisoner in her own home!”

“But we’re outta town,” Applejack protested. “We ain’t got all the fancy uh, things, like sometimes the hot water coughs out, and it’s all dirtylike round here and stuff.”

“If Sweetie is going to be an animal,” Rarity said resentfully, “I hardly think she’ll mind a little dirt and inconvenience. Am I to understand you expect me to fill my apartment with bales of hay? Oh, maybe I could add a few mud pits too, for the pigs! That would just lend such a rustic atmosphere, don’t you think?!”

“Ah get it, Rarity,” Applejack said. “Cain’t you see you’re upsettin’ Sweetie Belle?”

“N-no i-it’s okay,” Sweetie said unconvincingly, clutching Apple Bloom closer. “If I have to eat hay and um, and walk on my handsh I won’t mind I just d-don’ wan’ to... to... can I p-ple-ease shtay with you, Applejack?”

“I’m sh-sh-sorry Rarity,” she added woefully, with more tears brimming in her eyes.

“If Rarity’s okay with it,” Applejack said uncomfortably, “We can put you up for a... while. She’s right, it wouldn’t do to freak out your whole apartment complex, unless they’re all turnin’ to ponies too or somethin’.”

“I will allow it on one condition,” Rarity said, turning her nose up haughtily.

“What is it, Rarity,” Applejack sighed, turning to Rarity and rolling her eyes.

“Could you be a dear and untie me, please?” Rarity said, with an eye flutter and a teasing smile.

While Applejack untied the hopefully less berserk Rarity, Apple Bloom was still resting her rumpled green dress against Sweetie Belle’s soft skirt and blouse. Something about the strong division that cloth defined between them was making her feel uneasy, but she ignored it. More weird pony thoughts, no doubt. She hesitantly asked Sweetie Belle, “You didn’t maybe dream of another golden apple, did ya?”

“No,” Sweetie said drawing her knees up and settling them down again, unable to get comfortable, from holding Apple Bloom in her lap, and... from other things. “I didn’t dream about anything. It just shtharted happening. I d-didn’t even notithe until fourth period and zhen—”

“That’s before lunch?” Apple Bloom asked with a sudden feeling of concern welling up in her.

“Yeah...” Sweetie Belle said and added with a hiccup, “I’m h-hungry...”

“We can get you something to eat, but what I mean is,” Apple Bloom said in honest worry at this point. “You didn’t see Diamond Tiara, did ya?”

Sweetie’s eyes widened.

“Applejack!” Apple Bloom shouted out. Sweetie put her on her fours and she ran up to her sister right away, uttering urgently, “We gotta find Diamond Tiara. She also kinda told me she wanted to–ah mean—that she wouldn’t mind being a pony, so it might be happening to her too!”

Applejack’s face twisted up in consternation, and she groaned. “You know Diamond doesn’t have a phone,” Applejack said, “She’s an or—a freshman! And she could be anywhere. She’s surely hidin’ up if’n she noticed anything happenin’. But how could we even tell if there was?”

“She doesn’t have a phone,” Sweetie said speculatively, “But maybe her teacher does. Does anyone know what her next class is?”

Apple Bloom snickered. People looked at her strangely, so she said reassuringly, “That’s a good idea, Sweetie Belle. Ah was just rememberin’ how Diamond was all whining about her geography class in one of our sleepovers. Her professor is all cranky and doesn’t really wanna be there.” When no realization dawned in anyone’s eyes, she added, “Her geography class is right after lunch.”

“Ah’ll call the—” Applejack said standing up, only to be pushed down by a hand from Rarity, who said delicately,

“No dear, I will call the school. I can manage as much as a telephone I think, but I scarcely know the kitchen, and we have two ...”

She looked at Apple Bloom, then Sweetie Belle.

“...children who need someone to fix them lunch.”

Applejack went downstairs to the kitchen after some grumbling about being a serving maid, and she led Rarity to the telephone, where Rarity had a fit about it being rotary dial, then resolutely started calling the school and trying to get connected to the number of a certain cranky geography teacher, whose name Apple Bloom was quite happy to provide.

Apple Bloom stayed up with Sweetie Belle, and helped her with her... clothing. It was pretty obvious where all of Sweetie Belle’s hair was going, and why she looked like she had bloomers on under that dress. Her tail was already big, and fluffy, and curly in bright pink and purple. And it was just started going! She looked kinda like a bunny girl like that, especially how she was all bunny white already.

Sweetie whimpered when her tail came out into the open. She said it hadn’t nearly been that big when they left the school. Sweetie couldn’t reach back there, so Apple Bloom got a needle and thread, and pinching it in her lips she pulled out the hem of Sweetie’s dress to sew a little strip of cloth to it. It’s about then that Apple Bloom discovered that Sweetie Belle wore sky blue panties, with lace on the leg holes, and a little white kitty of some style in a prominent logo right over her bottom.

That was not the sort of knowledge that your best friend in the whole world was supposed to be privvy to.

“Thank you, Apple Bloom,” Sweetie said behind her gratefully, as Apple Bloom snapped out of her trance and started sewing again. “I dh-don’ know how I’ld keep my dzress on, otherwishe, with my... um... I can’t move my thail. I’that normal?”

“Shure’z,” Apple Bloom slurred around the needle, flipping the cloth strip over the hardy base of Sweetie Belle’s tail, as it pushed down the edge of Sweetie Belle’s stop thinking bad thoughts about your best friend you ninny. She sewed that strip to the hem on the other side of the dress. Apple Bloom had gotten pretty good at doing this actually, once she figured how to keep the needle from slipping through her teeth or poking her when she grabbed it again. Couldn’t always have a brother, or a Fashionist in training to take care of your clothes after all, plus it made Apple Bloom feel more accomplished, and less of a helpless little baby. She couldn’t stitch worth a darn with a mouth of course, but she could get the basic stitching in, enough to hold it in place.

Once Sweetie’s tail was secure, Apple Bloom pushed away from her and let the dress snap back to her waist, except where the tail pushed it down, but now that was helping hold it up too. Rearing up to her dresser to stick the needle in a pincushion she had ready up there, Apple Bloom got back down and with a clear mouth said, “Ah couldn’t move mah tail at first either. Took a while to figure it out, but it came. Trick is to think of it like part of your back, and not part of your butt.”

Sweetie shifted on her feet uncomfortably, her knees already looking a little squat compared to what they should be. It occurred to Apple Bloom that the two of them were on the second floor. “C’mon Sweetie, let’s go downstairs,” she said, walking to her open door. “It took me forever to figure out stairs, an’ you’re gonna wanna stay where you can just walk around easy at first.

“I, um,” Sweetie repeated with a note of dread, slurring out fretfully, “Thish ish sh-sh-so shtupid–”

Apple Bloom lay a hoof on her shin, looking up at Sweetie saying, “It’s gonna be okay, Sweetie. Just keep doin’ whatever you can.” Some part of Apple Bloom felt terribly guilty about this, but as a little pony who had to walk around on all fours and barely came up to waist height of even her friends, Apple Bloom was sort of starting to feel terribly, eagerly excited about what was happening to Sweetie Belle. She had no right to feel that way though. Just because she’d have a friend to share in her misery, was no excuse to wish that misery on a friend.

But Sweetie had no distrust in her eyes as she smiled and said, “Yeah, you’re rhight,” with that peculiar looking half pushed out mouth and nose of hers.

Apple Bloom led the way down the stairs, as if by example, though she knew she’d be teaching Sweetie a lot more after she was all the way to becoming a pony. Sweetie followed along behind, leaning on the bannister railing more from anxiety than actual balance problems. One way or another, it was definitely not a good idea for that girl to be up stairs right now. In fact, wasn’t Rarity’s apartment on like the fifth floor or something?

A vision of a pony Sweetie Belle just trotting blithely out of the elevators of some fancy apartment made Apple Bloom snicker. She actually hadn’t seen Rarity’s apartment before. Rarity was kind of insecure about that sort of thing, and didn’t entertain guests. Apple Bloom had figured it was pretty fancy, with how Rarity was and all. But she also figured Rarity had rich parents or something, and Sweetie lived a life of luxury. She didn’t even think that Rarity was all the family that Sweetie had.

On the ground floor, Applejack had sandwich makings on the counter. Looked like pastrami and swiss was in Sweetie Belle’s future. Rarity was busy arguing with someone on the phone, something about still trying to get in touch with her. Apple Bloom really hoped Diamond was okay, but she was trying to focus on Sweetie Belle right now.

“Now hold on Sweetie, ah gotta do uh... well, y’know,” Apple Bloom said hurrying over to her hay station. It always helped to get a good belly full of this stuff before eating for real, but it took so long to eat it! Apple Bloom was already chewing the crackly alfalfa grass fast as she could, breaking it up to deliver to the back of her mouth, when she noticed Sweetie had stuck with her this time instead of heading to the table.

Sweetie was watching Apple Bloom with a more intense fascination, that before this time she had never—oh, of course. Apple Bloom finished getting her mouthful to the chewing point, saying to Sweetie, “Yeah this part still ain’t so fun, but um...”

Sweetie blushed and pulled back saying, “Yeah I was um, jush fhinking how I um, I guessh I’ll have to eash...ea... conshume it now too, huh?”

“At least until we get changed back,” Apple Bloom said with confidence. “Though ah cain’t say for you really, just comparing with what happened to me. It’s not so bad though. Y’can even figure how t’ chew an’ talk, at leas’ once it’s in the back.”

“What doesh it thaste like?” Sweetie asked curiously.

“Grass,” Apple Bloom answered flatly.

“Yeah buth...” Sweetie said, and Apple Bloom interrupted her saying,

“Hold on ah gotta take another bite.” Apple Bloom said. She washed down a gulp of water from the bucket, and took a big bite of hay, so she could get through it faster.

Sweetie Belle wrung her hands together nervously, while Apple Bloom tried to clear her mouth again. Hand wringing. Apple Bloom remembered when she used to do that. She never felt like fiddling her hooves together though; it was kinda weird to think about it. She felt like raising one of them, sometimes. When she thought about it, doing that wringing with your hands just didn’t look natural, looked more like a raccoon than a real uh... human.

Apple Bloom tried to focus on the taste of this bland stuff she was eating, to distract her with how alien a simple human gesture was seeming to her. It wasn’t an unpleasant taste, but not very prominent. More of a feel than a taste, really.

“s’ more of a feel thayn a taste, really,” Apple Bloom confessed to Sweetie Belle. “Tastes like grass but it’s nothin’ more than what it smells like. But it makes me think about how it’ll feel in mah belly all warm and cozy and stuff.”

“You think I could ea–conshuhme i... could do it with the hay now?” Sweetie struggled to enunciate, pulling out a few strands with her hand.

“Ah dunno, y’r teeth changed yet?” Apple Bloom asked uneasily.

Sweetie gaped at her. “Your teeth change?”

Apple Bloom sighed inwardly, and finished off her mouthful completely, saying, “Okay Sweetie, just this once take a look.” She opened her mouth and... closed it and said, “With your fingers, like the Vet did. Mah teeth got like a gap or something, go ahead.” Then she opened her mouth and Sweetie cautiously stuck her slim fingers inside. They tasted like sour sweat and pencil erasers, kind of salty actually. Sweetie stuck her fingers through that gap thing on the bottom and the top, and didn’t really jam her fingers down deep in there thankfully.

Sweetie pulled them out and said worriedly, “No, my teeth haven’t changed. Yours are really different.”

“It ain’t so bad...” Apple Bloom assured her. “Hardly felt it, at the time. Mostly jus’ lost mah canines. Incisors are a lil bigger and sharper, and molars are a bit flatter. Just be sure not t’swallow, if you start spittin’ teeth out. Scuze me,” she took another big hay bite, the strands dangling out of her muzzle as she munched on them placidly. It always calmed her down to do this. She’d have felt way more anxious just standing there doing nothing, while Sweetie waited on her.

“Only happened towards the evening for me,” Apple Bloom sounded out around her chewy hay thing once she cleared the way enough. “You might be diff. though I dunno.”

“Well don’t lose your teeth just yet, ‘cause it’s ready,” Applejack said with a strained cheer in her voice, picking Sweetie up by her hand and leading her over to the table. Apple Bloom took just one more mouthful of hay before hurrying over there herself, where Sweetie was busy looking uncertainly at a pastrami swiss on rye sandwich.

She sat with Sweetie at the table, Apple Bloom in her booster seat, and Sweetie normally. Sweetie was again looking with new eyes at that booster seat, probably seeing something like that in her near future. And at her very well stuffed sandwich. “Wow, this is...” Sweetie trailed off at the thick sandwich in her dainty hands. “Thank you this is really nice!”

Applejack wordlessly put a plate down for Apple Bloom that had a bunch of rough cut carrots and beets along with a slim piece of toast just dripping with blackberry jelly, before saying to Sweetie, “Well yer diet’s gonna be changin’ and all, and ah thought you might appreciate one last y’know, normal uh, meal?”

“I’ ain’ stho bad Sweethie,” Apple Bloom said quickly before the girl could start crying again, around a mouthful of stick sugary goodness, swallowing and biting on the glass of water that was already there to pour it down her throat. “Y’can eat all the sugar you want, and every veggie tastes real good. And you can eat a little meat an’ stuff.” She eyed Sweetie’s sandwich. “So uh,” she said self consciously, “Can ah have a piece?”

Applejack snickered and strode off. She went in the meat freezer and pulled out the latest pack of pastrami they sliced, taking a single piece out and carrying it back over. Sweetie was still in the process of deconstructing her sandwich, so Applejack just unceremoniously dumped it on Apple Bloom’s plate saying, “There ya go. Enjoy!”

“Thanks, sis!” Apple Bloom said with a bright smile up to her, then guiltily to Sweetie Belle, saying, “Guess you get yer sandwich in peace then.”

Sweetie smiled gratefully, then lifted her sloppy sandwich and took a big indulgent bite out of it.

Rarity walked up then, looking with severe disapproval at Sweetie’s activity without saying anything. Then she turned and noticed what Apple Bloom was up to. As Apple Bloom tore into the thin strip of beef with gusto, Rarity positively turned green. Which didn’t make sense, as Apple Bloom had like a tenth of the meat Sweetie did, and she was a big enough pony for that, so what was the problem?

“Hello Miss Rarity,” Apple Bloom said uneasily, stopping from shearing off bits of meat to pick up a carrot slice in her teeth delicately, chewing it with care. “Y’don’t look so good. Is Diamond okay?”

“Y-yes she’s fine I just... hadn’t anticipated that you... as a pony as it were, would still eat... meat...”

“Well ah’m a lot smaller, and ah still cain’t eat much,” Apple Bloom said, going back to nibbling at her strip of tasty cow death. “It’s still awful good though.”

“Awful is right,” Rarity muttered discomfitedly to herself. Apple Bloom heard it of course. Actually, so probably did Sweetie Belle.

“Sh-sorry,” Sweetie said guiltily, pushing the plate away from her. Rarity waved her hands at that saying,

“Oh, no no no! You are a guest here, and you are in no way obliged to observe my personal dietary habits, even if ... just enjoy, Sweetie.” Rarity sounded downright gentle by the end there. She still turned away and shuddered when Sweetie eagerly went back to ruining her pastrami and swiss on rye.

Apple Bloom watched Rarity walk away warily, until Sweetie whispered to Apple Bloom, “We’re kind of vegetarians for her meals.” Apple Bloom had to snort at that, looking down at what was left of her meat and going after the beets this time.

“That’s a sight,” Apple Bloom remarked sending tasty and sweet morsels of beet root down to her happy stomach. “A vegetarian human, seeing a pony eating meat.”

She raised her hoof to whisper back to Sweetie Belle, not even trying to lean forward to be heard, “Between you and me, Winona has been known to sneak a piece of a hot dog when we’re out having a campfire meal.”

“You’re gkidding!” Sweetie whispered back.

“Ah swear on mah... something, it’s true,” Apple Bloom whispered back. She didn’t ever swear on her mother’s grave because, well, it just seemed disrespectful. Just didn’t seem right somehow. She didn’t even know how she died really; nobody liked to talk about it, and Apple Bloom was sure too young to remember. And she didn’t swear on her left hand, because, yeah.

Sweetie nodded to Apple Bloom, right about the same time that, across the room, Applejack could be heard exclaiming, “Scootaloo?!”

Apple Bloom’s ear swiveled around behind her.

“...told Ms. Cheerilee to find her at all costs!” Rarity could be heard saying quietly. “When I heard she didn’t show up for her classes, it just made me think of the worst!”

“Ah cain think of a lotta worse possible things than changin’ into a pony overnight,” Applejack said quietly to her with a serious expression.

“Fair enough,” Rarity admitted. “It made me think of the most likely unfavorable outcome, is that sufficient?”

“Works fer me,” Applejack said with a belly chuckle.

“You can’t find Shcootaloo?!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed in alarm. Applejack and Rarity startled up from their little impromptu huddle.

“Oh, y’all heard that, did you?” Applejack said with a weak smile.

“Of courshe I—”

Sweetie paused, and wiped her hand on her napkin, then lifted it up to touch her left ear. The big furry thing twitched the moment she touched it. “I guess I did,” Sweetie said in a somewhat stunned tone, letting her hand drop. “I didn’th mean to eaveshdrop shorry I jus’,”

“It’s fine,” Applejack said walking over to her. “We were just gettin’ it straight anyway. You girls are plenty old enough to uh... well, you look like you...”

“We can take care of ourselves?” Apple Bloom prompted.

“Yeah! That.” Applejack said with a nod. “You don’t really look like it, but we all know the truth, right?”

“Righth,” said Sweetie a bit uncertainly.

“I managed to speak with Diamond’s teacher,” Rarity explained striding up behind Applejack, “On the emergency line, via the school phone forwarding service, and from there to Diamond directly. Diamond Tiara is is doing perfectly fine, with no unusual symptoms whatsoever,”

Apple Bloom spared a pitying glance at Sweetie, saying to Rarity, “Aw, that’s—”

But before she could say anything, Rarity continued her story. “But Diamond had not seen either Sweetie Belle or Scootaloo at lunch today. For Sweetie, the reason is obvious. But I then got ahold of Ms. Cheerilee, and she had thought her child was in her classes as normal!”

“I told her to find Scootaloo as soon as she could, and she promised me she would try, but...” Rarity trailed off dissatisfied.

“Do either of ya know where Scootaloo might have gone and hid, if something strange happened to her?” Applejack asked, pushing her head up beside Rarity’s.

Apple Bloom had to roll her eyes at the thought. “She’d probably try to walk all the way to the farm from the school like Diamond did.”

Sweetie Belle gasped, saying, “Dthiamond did that?”

Apple Bloom blushed and hoofed at the tablecloth saying, “It was supposed to be a secret, sorry. She kinda really wanted to see me. Ah mean, because of the visions and all. For that matter, how has she been holding up?”

“What do hyou mean?” Sweetie asked cluelessly.

“Ah mean after the dance,” Apple Bloom clarified.

Sweetie dropped her gaze and said, “Oh. She’s been... fine.”

Applejack was grabbing her boots by the door, and Rarity was at her shoulder saying, “Oh, no. I shall be the one to search for her.”

Applejack steeled Rarity in the eye, saying a little angrily, “Your sister needs you. And you need to stay with her, while this’s happenin’ because ah don’t know if you’ll be able to tell if she’s still the same person if’n you don’t!”

Rarity was looking a bit red faced angry as Applejack insisted to her more pleadingly, “You have to see this through. It will help you so much if you do.”

“But you can’t leave me with...” Rarity looked the way of the two littler girls, with a look of fearful apology. “I mean, of course she’s my... I would never just because she... something terrible happened for which she was not to blame.”

“Just wait here,” Applejack said flatly.

“No!” Rarity gasped, grabbing onto Applejack like as a lifeline. “Please, I can’t bear to do this alone! I need your support, in my and Sweetie’s time of most terrible need!”

“Ugh, fine,” Applejack said disgustedly shaking Rarity limply off of her. “Ah guess ah could call... ah guess maybe you could ask Cheerilee if she could take a look around. But she could be halfway through the city by now. You know how that girl moves!”

Apple Bloom considered that. Scootaloo had one of them fancy scooters that she could ride around on. Get lots farther faster than even a determined Diamond Tiara. But she’d just come here then, right? So what’s the problem? Unless she got stuck halfway, but... but if she’s as bad as Sweetie, she’s got a half day left at least before she starts to lose serious ambulation.

So Rarity talked with Cheerilee hurriedly on the phone, telling her what to do and wishing her good luck, then hung up, and leaned against the wall with one hand on her forehead. And Apple Bloom was pretty much expecting Scootaloo to come bursting through the door at any minute. When she didn’t though, Apple Bloom got to thinking, and something occurred to her that might not have been the wisest thing to withhold.

Apple Bloom hopped out of her seat at the dining table. She didn’t even bother to push it back, just jumped over the back right down to the floor. Then she ran over to the two older girls who were still searching each other out for weak points over in the hallway, and quickly barked out, “Miss Rarity! Applejack!”

That got both their attentions.

“...did you know you sound rather like a horse, when you—” Rarity said bemusedly, and Apple Bloom cut her off with,

“That ain’t important. Ah just wanna say that if Scootaloo is comin’ here, then she’s gonna make it, and the best is to wait for her right here. And if she ain’t, then...”

Apple Bloom looked aside, finding it harder to say than she’d anticipated. “Ah might know where she might have hid.”

Big Macintosh put down the phone. He had a troubled expression on his face, which is to say not much of an expression. He went back to his station, and lay the mask and apron there, then walked up to the shop instructor and said, “Family emergency.”

The instructor took a look at him, and sighed, and shook his head, saying to Mac, “I worry that you may not have time to finish the project at this rate. But a family emergency is a family emergency. You may go.”

“Just,” the instructor called out before Mac was out the doors. Mac looked back, and the older bluer man with the white streak in his short cut blue hair said, “If it isn’t an emergency, don’t just skip out on this. It’s your grade on the line, remember.”

With a heavy heart, Mac nodded, turned and walked out the door. The halls were empty this time of day, between classes and all. Made it easy for him to move through the school. He honestly did not know what to feel about this potential development in the whole fandangle of Apple Bloom turning into a pony. Was everyone going to turn into ponies now? He sure didn’t feel like a pony.

He probably should have said something to Mister Minuette, the man was rightly worried about Big Macintosh’s grade. He wasn’t sure he could pass his classes at all, with having to watch over Apple Bloom every other day. He’d never admit it to her of course, poor thing was having enough troubles to be saddled with his own. But no amount of studying in your room can make up for labs and shops that you missed, and Mac didn’t exactly have a high tech soldering station at his run down old farm, and certainly not an arc welder. He kinda wished he did, but those things are expensive, and you gotta put them somewhere you can share them with everyone else. Which is about the opposite of where you’d want your shy little sister to be hiding out, on account of turning into a cute little pony.

He exited the building into the blustery day. The clouds were scudding across the sky, providing infrequent partial sun, something Mac wasn’t really in a place to appreciate, as cows only cared if the grass grew enough, and grass wasn’t picky about sun. When the winter came, and everything stopped being all sunny, well, that was when you could start eating the cows. By the time the grass came back again, everyone would have overwintered well fed, with plenty of grass for the cows to eat the next year. Maybe minus a cow, and plus a calf or two. They had a pretty good meat larder already built up, anyway, would be a while before he had to go give some Bessie the last goodbye again.

Still, with how Apple Bloom was being so finicky about meat, Mac wondered if they might have a problem after all. She was an honest to gosh pony. She was small and human colored, and smart, but he didn’t think she could make it on a preserved meat diet, if their hay started to run out. They could shrink the herd to make for extra hay easily; heavens knows that tiny pony didn’t eat much of anything, but if they all were gonna be eating hay come winter... that wasn’t looking like the most stellar situation.

He crossed the basketball courts, meandering through some air conditioned portable buildings. They had been constructed recently, to take on the extra student growth this year. It honestly terrified Mac that he might wake up a pony one day. It did Apple Bloom well, but him? He needed his hands, for his studies and his work. A pony and a welder just didn’t add up. And forget about typing. Apple Bloom hadn’t even asked for access to a computer since she lost her thumbs. Though maybe you could work out something with your mouth somehow, at least for typing. Mac certainly wasn’t going to understate the abilities of these pony alien things, not after he saw Apple Bloom tie a hitch with only her lips and tongue. She didn’t even think it was no big deal.

He really wanted to tell her how proud he was, of how well she was dealing with all this. Of how she was growing into such a beautiful person, no matter what happened to her body. It almost seemed like she was coming to even more life and liveliness than before she was a pony. Apple Bloom just had such joy on her strangely expressive face, just from simple running around. It was enough to stop a lesser man’s heart. He wanted to tell her, but he could never find the courage, or the words to express what he felt.

Mac got to his destination, which is to say a supply shed for assembling the portable buildings. Of course it wasn’t used anymore, since the portables were all set up. The city’s maintenance and construction department would get around to removing it one of these days, but for now it was just taking up some space in an out-of-the-way corner of school. That’s why the doors were securely padlocked and chained shut 24/7.

Or at least they should have been.

It was mighty clever actually, the way they were tied up to look like the chains were still in place, but when you looked close you could see that the padlock wasn’t holding anything shut, and the chains weren’t actually blocking off the doors. Someone must have jimmied the padlock, and set it up to look like it was locked. He stood quietly in front of those doors thinking about what he might find within, and what to do about it.

Then he looked to the left, and looked to the right. Nobody was around to see him. He reached a large, dark red hand out, and gripped the chain, pulling the door open with a groan of cheap hinges. Pulling the door carefully closed behind him, Big Macintosh entered the unofficial secret headquarters of the Cutie Major Crusaders.

It was actually pretty nice in here. The wind made a noise on the cheap aluminum, but someone had brought in a carpet and table, and there was a big bright fluorescent light hanging up on the wall. The wiring didn’t look too good from what he could see, but getting working electricity in an out of the way shack like this was an accomplishment in of itself. There wasn’t much space in here, just enough for a bookshelf with various articles of relevance to learning about one’s future, travel brochures, a good number of adventure stories. Besides that, just four chairs, stools really, around the small round table that currently had a street map of Canterlot city spread out on it, a red circle around where Sweet Apple Acres was, and a discarded red marker lying on it, left uncapped.

This was all rather subsidiary to the cowering orange girl in the corner. Just a little, skinny, quivering wreck, in an ill fitting hooded sweatshirt and slacks, trying unsuccessfully to hide herself behind the bookcase.

Author's Note

Cracks Appear

Big Macintosh stared over down where that Scootaloo girl was trying to hide. She was just where Apple Bloom said she would be. And he just didn’t know what to say to her. Seeing her like that, it would just kill him to scare her even more. He went and invaded her inner sanctum, to save her, but she didn’t know that. So, staying back by the door to the shed, he said as consolingly as he could, in that voice of his that still needed a few years to deepen,

“Scootaloo?”

Scootaloo jump startled, despite her poor selection of hiding spots, exclaiming “Nothinz wrong! Juss go away!!” She pulled that hood even more tightly over her head. “Pleash don’ htell anyone. I’m finne! I’ be right out, misshter!” She was completely panicked. She probably didn’t even realize what ridiculous sayings were coming out of her mouth. Anything to get him to go away.

She probably thought he was going to see her, whatever happened to her. Probably the same thing as Apple Bloom, turning into a pony. She thought he was going to see her and grab her, and go parade her around like some kind of scientific exhibit. It wasn’t no rational line of thought, but it was just the sort of thing that goes through the head of a young girl who’s totally terrified at being seen.

He kind of wished it was over a bad haircut, or something.

But she clearly thought he was there to harm her, so he just had to convince her he was on her side. Get her calmed down. Get the truck over to this side of the parking lot, maybe. So Big Macintosh said,

“Ah’m with Apple Bloom.”

While not true in the physical sense, it certainly was true in the spiritual sense, and the sense of picking sides between the good guys and the other guys.

“Happle Bloom?” Scootaloo said disorientedly, lifting her head up to look around with one unfocused and scared eye. “Where’z she?”

“She’s at the farm,” Mac told the kid. “Called me to pick you up.”

Again, not precisely a lie. It was what Scootaloo needed to hear though, because she calmed down enough to actually get a good look at him, and settle her thoughts enough to recognize him. She asked again in that quivery weary scratchy tone of hers, “Big Macintosh?”

Mac kind of regretted not spending time around those four enough. Hiding in his room all day when he was around, just letting them play on their own was fine, but maybe they should’ve been a bit more familiar with him than this. So he helped her become more familiar, by smiling and saying simply,

“Eeyup.”

Well, that was it. Applejack was calling Big Macintosh, and telling him about the formerly top secret clubhouse. Apple Bloom had no hope of being able to find another golden opportunity like that again, not that she could exactly take advantage of their clubhouse, if she couldn’t get her little pony self to school. Maybe they could make a clubhouse on the farm or something. She sighed, and trotted in a quick circle heading back to the table, where Sweetie was just finishing off the last of her sandwich. Laying back and patting her stomach Sweetie murmured “Sho.. good...”

“You sure like our food, Sweetie,” Apple Bloom remarked up to her.

Sweetie nodded down in return saying, “Rarity ushually can’t... I mean, doeshn’t sherve such larzge portions. Her zjob at the boutique ish um, shufficient, but there’sh jus’ no beating your family. You’re really lucky, Apple Bloom.”

Apple Bloom blushed and lifted a hoof, rubbing her pastern saying, “Aw, yeah, kinda.”

Sweetie jumped down then and wobbled a bit, looking down at her feet and clearly feeling uneasy about going down onto her heels. The sight of her weird bare feet seemed like it was going to make Sweetie Belle start crying again, but she sighed huffily and looked to her left, to Apple Bloom.

“Wazh i’ rearry like thish for you?” Sweetie asked with difficulty the little pony at her side.

Apple Bloom nodded, well sort of nodded, then said, “Yeah uh, well, for the most part. Ah was a mite more nervicited, since ah didn’t know what was going on. Mostly ah just sat in mah room reading books trying not to turn into a uh, lose mah memories or something. Ah’m kinda curious how it feels, when you’re all walking around like that. Ah didn’ walk around, mostly just moped around like a dummy.”

Sweetie frowned thoughtfully, saying, “Well, it feelsh badth, rlike I’m going um hfall over, and um... be on all fours, but I can... canno’ really do it.”

She demonstrated, bending down to put her hands on the ground with her butt high in the air, somewhere partways between human and pony, but definitely too human to be walking on all fours. Then she stood on her two feet again, leaning back against her oddly shaped knees. “I fink I’d fall if I tried to run. It’s eashy to shtand like this, but when I thry to walk, it just...”

When Sweetie walked, she extended her leg, forward stepping carefully down on her toe, then her heel. “’s hard to puth my heerl down. I don’ know if I can eshplain... it feelsh... like my foot ish sideways?”

Apple Bloom puzzled over that a second and then brightened with realization. “Ah think ah know what you’re feelin’ Sweetie,” she said trotting around in front of the girl. “Check out this!” Then Apple Bloom sat back down on her haunches and reared up, wobbling a little, then settling solidly. With her forehooves curled in front of her chest, Apple Bloom looked kind of like a bunny. She knew because she seen herself in the mirror like this before. She looked at Sweetie, then waved a hoof down at her flat legs, saying, “Look at mah back—uh, at mah legs.”

Sweetie looked, and then her eyes widened as she realized it too. “Apple Bloom!” she exclaimed, “You have feet!” She blushed then as her voice cracked, and said more reservedly, “I–I mean of coursh you have fee...feet. It’d be dhumb if you didn’t, but I didn’ realizhe they weren’ jush the bottom of your hooves.”

Apple Bloom bounced on her ‘feet’ a couple times before going to all fours again, her legs rising back to their natural position with the ‘heels’ up in the air. “Yeah it’s just your heel’s gonna be more like part of your leg. The hoof is just the part right at the end. Like the knuckles or somethin’. Ah mean, the toes.”

They continued in that fashion a while, toying with Sweetie’s changing anatomy and telling her where it was going, until it got to the subject of her hands. Bit of a delicate subject.

“Y’see how your middle finger’s all thicker, right?” Apple Bloom explained, patting Sweetie’s hand with a hoof. “Your other fingers get small and kinda go away and that middle one becomes your—”

“Fronth leg?” Sweetie asked.

Apple Bloom shook her head, “No, just the hoof. See ah can wiggle the tip of my front hoof a little. That’s the fingers, or uh, the one finger ah got left. And between that and the bend in the middle is mah wrist. And the part from there to where it goes into me is mah uh, arm... the part below the elbow.”

Sweetie reached forward and waggled Apple Bloom’s lifted hoof curiously, poking her ticklishly in the arm pit, saying “Wai..., thish ish your elbow? I though’ it wazh your shoulder!”

Apple Bloom pulled her hoof free from Sweetie, and shook it a little experimentally at the elbow. “Mah shoulder’s all stuck up inside. It uh...” she went back onto her haunches again, reaching around with her other hoof, to touch the side of her body, up above where her arm went inside her.

“It’s right here,” Apple Bloom indicated, at last resting a hoof almost on her chest, “And it don’t bend, when ah’m walkin’ on it. But ah can just wiggle it loose an’ uh...” She stretched her front hoof out, the interlocked bones releasing to allow her shoulder to bend flexibly. “There, now that’s mah whole arm when ah stick it outta me.”

“Thas’... really weird,” Sweetie commented somberly.

“It don’t feel too weird, but yeah...” Apple Bloom looked aside. “Ah only get it like this, when ah’m wrapping mah hooves around something usually.” That gave her an idea. She got a sly look on her face and jumped to all fours, trotting up to Sweetie and rearing up again, to hug the girl around her midsection. Sweetie giggled and petted Apple Bloom’s back, but didn’t seem to understand, so Apple Bloom clarified,

“When mah shoulders come out, that means mah arms are in hugging mode!”

And Sweetie’s chest shook against her with a laugh so sweet, Apple Bloom just knew she did it right. Sweetie seemed a bit less horrified about the part of her that was changing the most at least: the loss of her hands. They had to sit together and think though, on the floor by the cool fireplace, because Sweetie then brought up a surprisingly difficult question.

“Oh well,” she sighed, “Zh..should I do anything wif my handsh, before my fingersh go away?”

Apple Bloom had to smile at that saying, “Yeah, if it ain’t too much of a bother. May as well use ‘em while you still got ‘em right?”

Sweetie nodded, then lifted her arms. Then she stared at her hands pensively, for quite a while.

She shook her head then, saying “I got nothing.”

“Huh?” Apple Bloom asked cluelessly.

“Is thish part of being a p-pony?” Sweetie asked her. “I jus’ canno’ think of anything tha’ I coulrd do with my handsz!”

“Well, uh, write, ah guess. Not gonna have much chance to do that without hands, are ya?” Apple Bloom said with another cheek/shoulder rub on the half girl.

“Yeah, about that...” Sweetie said, looking over across the floor. Apple Bloom followed her gaze to where a couple of her drawings and diagrams were still scattered about, next to a box of crayons that didn’t taste like pencil eraser and yuck.

“Well y’can draw still,” Apple Bloom admitted, “But that ain’t writing words it’s jus’ drawing pitchurs with yer mouth.”

She looked at Sweetie, who had a raised eyebrow. “Maybe you should htry drawing lettersh,” Sweetie said in an unsympathetic tone.

“Well yeah ah could—” Apple Bloom paused. She rubbed her chin with a pastern. There wasn’t any reason she could figure that she couldn’t. Could that mean...!

“Hold that thought!” Apple Bloom said trotting over to her drawing stuff. She looked at her work, the increasingly less jittery lines, and how easy it was to draw circles now, that met at the ends instead of being misaligned. She had never been able to do that, even when she had hands. Flipping over a drawing of a uh, well, of that boy from the dance, Apple Bloom stuck her nose in the crayon box, pulling out a blue, but then with some thought a red crayon. On the paper in front of her, Apple Bloom thought a moment, then carefully drew two slanted vertical lines that connected at the top, with a horizontal line through them about a third of the way down.

She stared at it.

Then she swiped it aside with her hoof and grabbed another paper that wasn’t covered in drawings yet. Sweetie had approached from behind, hesitant to say anything to disturb the intensity of Apple Bloom’s attention. Apple Bloom repeated the process above, but as small as she could this time, on the left edge of the paper. It was wobblier and less precise than when she drew it big, but she could tell what it was!

Then, she drew a long vertical line, with a circle intersecting it tangentially. She was so excited, it ended up twice as big as the previous one. But then she concentrated, repeating it, then drawing just a line. Then she paused, tilted the crayon up in her lips, and off to the side she drew a simple swirl. She returned to position, and drew a more confident swirl, and most importantly, a specific swirl. She kept on like this, until she hit the edge of the paper, and pulled her head back and looked at what she made.

A P P l e B l O C

She couldn’t stop smiling bigger and bigger. The crayon fell out of her mouth, because she had to open it to shout, “Ah can write!!” as it clattered to the floor. She looked at Sweetie with big bright eyes saying, “Sweetie Belle, ah can write!”

“You shaid you couldn’!” Sweetie exclaimed right back to her crouched there in excitement.

“Ah never thoughta writing with mah mouth!” Apple Bloom shouted back.

“But you were dhrawing wifth it!” Sweetie responded in confusion.

“Ah cain’t believe ah didn’ see it!” Apple Bloom said hopping in place excitedly. “Ah’m so stupid! This is incredible, Sweetie Belle!”

“Oh, Apple Bloom!” Sweetie cheered, the whitish girl grabbing Apple Bloom and pulling her up into a big hug.

“What’s all that racket?” Applejack said, walking up to and stopping at seeing them hugging, or Apple Bloom being hugged at least. “Somethin’ about writin’?”

“Applejack, look!” Apple Bloom said swinging a hoof around, trying to point at the paper. Sweetie put her down, and Apple Bloom zipped over to it, picking up the edge in her mouth and lifting it up for Applejack to see.

“Land sakes!” Applejack gasped, “You can write!”

“Ah jsth–” Apple Bloom spit out the paper saying, “Ah just never thought of drewing it with mah mouth!”

Applejack swept her up in a hug next, holding her tight and saying to her weepily, “Mah lil’ sister’s gonna be okay!”

With the sound of a headset dropping and swinging against the wall, Rarity rushed around the corner saying, “What’s all this? Something happened?”

Applejack stuck the paper in her face saying, “Mah little Apple Bloom can write!”

Rarity blinked at the paper before leaning around it, asking in an even but puzzled tone, “She couldn’t before?”

“Ah ain’t got no hands, lady!” Apple Bloom said to her irritably from up held by Applejack, waving a hoof at her.

Despite Apple Bloom being right there in Applejack’s arms addressing her, Rarity ignored Apple Bloom, continuing to address Applejack saying, “How did she...”

“With mah mouth!” Apple Bloom piped up. That was enough to get Rarity to glance her way, saying merely, “...oh.”

Then Rarity turned to where Sweetie was standing beside Applejack saying, “Isn’t that wonderful, SweetieEEEAHHHAHAHHH” Rarity jerked back from her sister, her arms swinging wildly as she stumbled on her heels. A sudden look of terror was on her face.

“Wha!?” Sweetie exclaimed, backing up a step herself. “Did shomething changze? Wha’s wrong?!”

Instead of answering, Rarity hissed angrily at Applejack, “I knew it was a horrid idea! Cortisone, do you have it? Antihistamine!”

“Whu?” Applejack said pulling her and the curling anxiously against her Apple Bloom away from the antipathic girl. “What’s wrong? Sweetie havin’ a—”

“Thanks to your horrid pastrami sandwich, Sweetie Belle is having an allergic reaction!” Rarity said frantically.

“Oh no!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed, looking at her arms in horror.

“She could go into shock!” Rarity exclaimed, “She could stop breathing! We need to get her to a hospital!”

Applejack and Apple Bloom looked from Rarity to Sweetie Belle, from the terrified fashionist girl, down to the smaller, increasingly terrified, increasingly ponylike girl. Applejack turned to Rarity with a disgusted expression, saying,

“She ain’t havin’ no allergic reaction.”

“You lie!!” Rarity exclaimed, sweeping her sister up, saying, “Oh Sweetie, your skin is breaking out! It must hurt terribly, but don’t itch it, or it could get worse! I NEED A STOMACH PUMP does anyone have a stomach pump?!”

“That ain’t allergies!” Applejack shouted, trying to haul Rarity up from clinging to her panicking sister. “She’s fine!” Applejack said nose to nose with Rarity. “No allergies! No danger!”

“THEN W–” Rarity paused, and squinted at Applejack. “This is another one of those... pony things, is it?” she said in a considerably more level tone.

Applejack looked a little nervous now, saying, “Yeah, Apple Bloom went through the same thing. Ain’t allergies it’s just her skin is uh... changin’...”

“Why is it so... sanguine pink?” Rarity asked, kind of leaning away from Sweetie even as she hugged her to her. “These splotches look horrid!”

Applejack didn’t seem to want to answer, so from her shoulder, Apple Bloom called out helpfully, “Her fur’s comin’ in!”

Rarity’s face went blank. Oops.

“Her... fur,” Rarity said distantly. Sweetie had stopped struggling and just sat against her sister, looking up at her worriedly.

“Ponies have fur,” Apple Bloom said uncertainly, “All mah skin color went into the fur when it came in. That’s why ah’m still human colored, not brown or white, like a horse.”

“You mean to say your skin... is...” Rarity stared at Apple Bloom directly now. Finally paying attention to her, definitely a good sign!

“Yeap,” Apple Bloom said, “It’s all that weird pink color, but it’s too light to see it under the fur, except when the blood goes into it—” She would have concluded with “When ah’m blushing,” but she found it rather pointless to continue, because Rarity’s eyes rolled up, and she fainted on the spot.

Sweetie tried to hold up her weight, as Rarity sagged against her and... actually didn’t have too much of a hard time doing so. She sure wasn’t getting any weaker, even if she was getting smaller. Plus the thicker, shorter arms gave her better leverage. She managed to get Rarity laid out, and hovered over her worriedly, before turning to Applejack and Apple Bloom saying, “Do you have any shmelling saltsh?”

“Oh, Sweetie, your beautiful complexion...” Rarity would come to say sadly, cradling her sister’s head in her lap gently, after she recovered from coughing up a lung from inhaling the smelling salts. “You have always been fair as the driven snow, and now look at you...”

Everyone sat together in kind of a morose circle down on the floor by the dining table. Applejack kind of looking bothered by her inability to console Rarity, Rarity cradling the partial Sweetie Belle to her like she were made of glass, Apple Bloom flat on her belly feeling glum about the situation.

“You’ve alwaysh been fairer zhan me, shis,” the mottled looking Sweetie said; laying sideways so her head would lay in Rarity’s lap. Wouldn’t be a day before her everything could lay in Rarity’s lap. “It’ll cohme back ash fur, anyway.

“Ah never got what it was that fairness had to do with skin color,” Applejack said sitting by her, “Or beauty for that matter.”

“Well, the etymology,” Rarity put in, “Fairness’s origins are in cleanliness and purity. Whether cleanly skin or a cleanly agreement.”

“Mah skin’s plenty clean,” Applejack insisted, scrubbing at an arm to demonstrate the lack of dirt falling off of it, “And ah’m as orange as a sunset over Dallas. If’n I was white, how would anybody even see mah adorable freckles?”

Rarity’s hand went over her mouth to cover the titters, saying, “You do have admittedly adorable freckles, dear.”

“Yer darn tootin’” Applejack answered smugly.

“An’ what about chalk?” Apple Bloom put in, “Ah was white as th’ driven snow, an’ ah was still totally dirty!”

“Maybe next time you’ll learn not to use a broom to sweep off the blackboards,” Applejack chided offhandedly.

Rarity pinched her brow with that slender hand.

“Doesh anyone hear a beeping sound?” Sweetie asked, ear twitching towards the hallway.

That’s right about when the door swung open, and Big Macintosh walked in.

We all deal with adversity and turmoil in our own ways. For Scootaloo, it was holding onto to Big Macintosh so tightly and tenaciously that he had to carry her out of the shed. He didn’t have to pull the truck over because there was no way to get over there without bringing her along with. She even refused to use the passenger seat of the pickup, making his driving very unsafe.

She continued to cling to him, even after he pulled up the truck to a grumbling halt, and stepped out, jumping down to the packed dirt that occurred as a consequence of parking a truck there every day. Mac held onto Scootaloo with one hand while she hid her face in his side, her hood burying her head, neither of them speaking so much as a word.

It was okay though. She was real light for her size.

The swinging open of the front door brought Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Rarity, and Applejack running for the front. Sweetie was stumbling a little. Okay, a lot. She sort of looked like a funny midget at this point. Her tail was longer, and her lower legs were shorter. Sweetie Belle’s skin looked really weird. And there was this annoying beeping sound in the background like the phone was off the—

“The phone!” Rarity yelped, struggling up and dumping Sweetie unceremoniously off her. “I must have left it—” she jerked in the other direction, “Big Macintosh! Did you find her?!” Rarity called out, running for the front of the house, while also trying to run for the phone in the hallway. It wasn’t very effective.

Applejack was hot on Rarity’s heels, practically pushing her to the front door. Apple Bloom kept right along with them, until Sweetie started to stumble behind, and she stayed with her friend, walking along with her until they were all at the front of the house.

It was a sorry sight that greeted the others as they surrounded Big Macintosh and Scootaloo. Easily the lowest moment in Scootaloo’s life. The only time that could possibly have been worse for Scootaloo was that one totally crazy afternoon, when Big Macintosh found her cowering in a shed, halfway turned into a pony... about 10 minutes ago. She’d had a truck ride to calm down, and a quiet, strong man, or, boy rather, to hold onto, calming her nerves. She’d gotten so worked up over the... of course she was getting worked up. She was changing into a pony for freak’s sake. Freak is right!

No, she wasn’t a freak. Apple Bloom wasn’t a freak, so why would Scootaloo be? But seeing her own ears stand up like that in the mirror, and how they moved, and feeling the thing coming out behind her, less like a rat’s tail now and more like a brush. The frantic tearing off of her gym clothes, and getting every part of her covered up with her hoodie, or painfully pushed down the back of her pants. Going to lunch trying to find Sweetie Belle, only finding Diamond demanding to everyone, to know where Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were. Scootaloo barely managed to avoid being seen by the girl and just ran for cover.

She was unable to help the distraught Diamond who was trying not to look distraught, because Scootaloo was having the same problem as Sweetie Belle! Maybe. Scootaloo had an answer for Diamond, a good suspicion of exactly what happened to Sweetie Belle, but was unable to tell her, from the fact that Scootaloo would have to admit it was happening to her too. That there was a tail growing out of her and she was some kind of freak just like... no, Apple Bloom wasn’t a freak. She just had some weird magic happen to her, and it infected Scootaloo or something.

All that being said, Scootaloo wasn’t in the greatest state of mind when she retreated to the Cutie Major Clubhouse to plan out her next move, and found no sign of Sweetie Belle there, not even a partly pony one. And Scootaloo was pretty terrible at planning in the first place, without her friends to help. Scootaloo’s idea of a good plan was to ask Apple Bloom what she thought would be a good plan. Well, Scootaloo would certainly get plenty of chances to ask her, when they were happy little ponies together at Apple Bloom’s farm. If she could get to their farm, at all.

That’s about as far as Scootaloo got in the planning stage, just circling Sweet Apple Acres. Because it was way across town, and that’s across town. That meant Scootaloo would have to ride, or even walk if she couldn’t balance on her scooter, really far through a crowded, populated area. There was just no route she could stand going on, that wouldn’t end in total humiliation, or worse. She quickly realized that she was so terrified of being seen, that she couldn’t even make herself leave the shed, much less go on a journey across town trying to hide from staring eyes. She wasn’t... she wasn’t a freak!

So she just hid in that shed, like there was no world outside of it, no idea what to do and nowhere to go, and every minute she waited the changes became more prominent and the physical features more obvious. Her skin was starting to get weird and splotchy. Her hoodie wasn’t baggy when she first put it on. She didn’t even look human anymore.

Then she heard it. Above the everpresent noise of the automobiles, someone walking along the pavement. Nobody came over here in between classes! But there was no way they knew about this place; it was a CMC sworn secret. Not even Diamond knew about it. If anyone found out, the three of the major hopefuls wouldn’t have anywhere to meet, or put their stuff, or make their videos at school. There just wasn’t anywhere they were allowed to meet, so they had to make a place, and they kept quiet about it. So there’s no way that those steady footsteps walking up closer and closer were coming to this shed. They had to be passing by. They had to be passing by!

Then the footsteps stopped, along with Scootaloo’s heart, right in front of the shed. She stared at the door with dilated eyes, completely at a loss of what to do. The door creaked open, and she bit back a scream, diving desperately for cover. There was nowhere to hide. She just tried to put herself out of sight behind the partial concealment of the bookcase, but she couldn’t stop shaking! It was no good; she was just there in plain sight, as he walked up to her. She knew he could see her, that he was staring down at her, judging her, but she just wished he would go away, just poof gone, and then she could... do something to get out of this.

And then he said her name.

So yeah, Scootaloo was pretty freaking pitiful, once Apple Bloom’s brother calmly helped her all the way across town and right to the farm. She should have been fine. He was nothing but helpful. He solved all her problems at once after all, except for one big, glaring problem. She didn’t want to be a pony!

Thus instead of relieved, Scootaloo was feeling downright irascible once they walked in those doors. She just felt so humiliated, her whole life being taken away by an invisible hand right before her eyes, and there was nothing she could do about it. She wanted to go places! She’d go crazy on the farm. She needed hands! And she wasn’t feeling relieved or grateful, even though she knew she should have been.

“Hi,” she said resentfully, actually falling a bit, once she let go of Big Macintosh. Because she couldn’t even stand up like a human anymore, apparantly. She immediately shoved her hands in her pockets, the hands that she still had... for now.

“Sho... pony happerning for you th.. also for you, huh?” Sweetie was the first to speak, reaching for Scootaloo’s hood. Scootaloo jerked back, from her hood being pulled off by Sweetie’s... weird looking hand. Scootaloo didn’t want to look at her own hands.

Rarity was next to speak, leaning forward and saying cautiously, “Scootaloo, are you... alright?”

“Doesh it look like I’m alhright?!” Scootaloo snapped at her, and it came out sounding more hurt than she intended. “I–I look terrible,” she added, quieter.

“You’ll feel better if you take off your hood and relax,” Apple Bloom said in a calculating tone, from way down there on the floor. Scootaloo wondered how long it would be until they were looking eye to eye again. She wondered what the world was like from down there. But she wasn’t this curious!

“I’m fine,” she grumbled, pushing past the very large Rarity and Applejack, just so she could walk into the room, and feel a little more in control of things. She lost her shoes in the truck; her feet just didn’t fit them anymore.

Sweetie didn’t again reach for, or approach Scootaloo. Sweetie Belle was so lucky that she just looked like a cute little half pony girl. Scootaloo was all weird and splotchy and... oh, actually Sweetie was covered in splotches too. That didn’t look that bad... she looked kind of like a... white and pink cow. Scootaloo couldn’t help but feel better seeing Sweetie not look like a horrible inhuman mutant, because maybe Scootaloo didn’t look as bad as she felt she did. Scootaloo felt... Scootaloo felt her tail was hurting.

“Shoothaloo, it ish alright,” Sweetie Belle said to her consolingly. “We’re going th... we’ll all be okay.” She said that. She actually said that. Like everything was fine! Scootaloo glared at her and said,

“Oh shure, izh going thoo be okay for you, mish I wan’ ha be a cute pony. Well newzh flash I don’th! I never wanthed thish! I juth wanthed to make ih, and... and noth be a freakg. Dho you fink a little cute baby pony coul’ join the foo’ball theam?”

Scootaloo hated this stupid mouth that was too stupid big and she was sure her teeth were loose, and nobody could possibly understand what she said. She just shut up, hunching forward again.

“Actually you kinda get four kickers with the deal, so it might be feasible,” Apple Bloom pointed out helpfully, pony-walking up to Scootaloo. “You should see how hard these babies can kick!” She demonstrated, snapping her stubby back legs at the air in two hot thrusts. Scootaloo actually... started to realize that Apple Bloom always used her front legs to kick the ball around when they played, never her back ones. She wondered if... no, no a pony football player, that would never win Rainbow Dash’s attention, or respect. It was probably totally cheating to play football as a pony.

“Doeshsn’t matther hanyway,” Scootaloo slurred sullenly, not even trying to speak good. She just flopped down on the couch like she owned the place. She just didn’t care how rude she was, if it wasn’t going to help her be human again. She...

She couldn’t help but think that she probably wouldn’t even count as human already, the way she was now. Wouldn’t be long before she and Sweetie Belle were unrecognizable. And Apple Bloom said she had stayed herself on the inside, but what if she was wrong? What if Apple Bloom was lying? What if the pony thing was like a monster that ate up all your flesh, and copied your memories so it could lie about being yourself?

Scootaloo swore to herself once again, that she was never going to start out another school year with a scary movie marathon.

“Scootaloo,” it was Applejack this time, standing over her ill defended couch fortress. (Which is to say, just lying on the couch.) “Ya gotta take your hood off. It’s too warm to be wearin’ all that. And your tail must be awful kinked.”

Scootaloo tried to brush her off, because what did she know about what Scootaloo was going through? She had no right to give tail advice, even if it was the truth! Scootaloo just looked up into Applejack’s steady green eyes and tried to be tough, but her resolve broke along with her voice, and the truth just spilled out of her.

“I don’ wanna be a pony.”

She said it a million times before, but something about that moment just felt like she was admitting it for the first time. There was no joking about this. It was real! Something was wet on Scootaloo’s face. She just lay on her side on the couch there, ignoring Applejack and hugging her overheated sweatshirt closer to her sweaty body.

A hoof poked her in the shoulder.

“Lemmelone,” Scootaloo mumbled. Apple Bloom responded by jumping up on the couch and climbing up on top of her.

“I shaid leaff me alone!” Scootaloo snapped, rolling the pony off of her to fall onto the floor.

Apple Bloom’s hooves barely touched the floor before she leapt up again, landing softly on Scootaloo, saying, “No.”

“Geroff Apple Blm,” Scootaloo mumbled into the couch cushions.

“No,” Apple Bloom repeated. Instead of four solid hooves pressing down on her, Scootaloo felt a broad, soft curve as Apple Bloom settled down on her belly atop Scootaloo’s back.

“Y’don’t have to hug me,” Apple Bloom said all casually. She settled herself more. “Ah’m jus’ here if’n you need it.”

Scootaloo rolled to her back, half heartedly trying to roll Apple Bloom off again, but Apple Bloom just walked around her like a log as she rotated. And now Scootaloo was lying on the couch with a pony on her tummy. Great. She reached down to just slightly conform her hand against where Apple Bloom’s head came into her body, down at the bottom of her cherry red... it wasn’t hair anymore, it was a pony mane. It looked like her hair, but it was growing out of Apple Bloom all the way down her thick neck.

Scootaloo sighed in resignation, and hugged her other arm around Apple Bloom. Bloom didn’t say anything, just scootched forward to make it easier for Scootaloo to wrap her ...unusually short arms around her. That was how Scootaloo lay, thinking, and changing, her tail hurting, her body sweating and her ears flattened under the hood, and her skin... falling off, or whatever it was doing. Scootaloo couldn’t get out of her head just how light and airy, and ornamental that dress Apple Bloom wore was. She didn’t say anything to Apple Bloom though, and Apple Bloom didn’t say anything to her. For now it was just half pony freak and freaky final pony product, hugging each other for comfort.

Applejack leaned over the back of the couch again, saying reassuringly, “Rarity’s talkin’ with Ms. Cheerilee.” She didn’t notice Scootaloo’s eyes widening as she said, “She’s been drivin’ all up down the city tryin’ to spot you on your scooter.”

“Mom!” Scootaloo yelled, sitting bolt upright, Apple Bloom crumpling with a protesting squeal into a tangle of hooves in her lap. “Oop, thsorry Apple Bloom,” she said.

“S’ fine,” Apple Bloom grumbled.

“I forgod thoo thell her!” Scootaloo declared. She punched herself in the forehead saying, “Sthupid! Sthupid!”

Applejack stepped back in alarm, and said in puzzlement, “Don’t... worry none about it? We got ahold of her, an’ she’s on her way. Should be here any minute.”

Scootaloo groaned and let herself fall back onto the couch. “Szhould’ve jusz toldh her andh zshe’d be able thoo giff me a hride. Or hi’ me, or something.”

Apple Bloom blinked, sitting on her haunches up on Scootaloo’s thighs, her expression of disbelief somehow even more accentuated by that big pink bow framing her head. “Y’mean to tell me you didn’t go straight to her?”

“No,” Scootaloo moaned, putting a couch pillow over her face, which didn’t help her communication abilities no matter how she wanted to push this muzzle back into being a nose. “Jus’ goth thsome clotheth on, an’ went thoo the thecret hlubhouse... can hyou rearlly underthand wha’ I’hm thaying?”

“Ah can get the gist,” Apple Bloom said self consciously. “Ah been studying accents an’ inflections an’ such, for Ms. Harshvoice. Ain’t working too good on the speaking part.”

“Z’nothing wrong wiff th’ hway you thspeak, Apple Bloom,” Scootaloo said. “I juth can’ hthop lithping. Mouth ith tho wrong now.”

Apple Bloom tapped a hoof to her chin. Then she looked at Scootaloo and said seriously, “It’s your lips, not your mouth.”

“Wha’ hyou an exthpert now or thomethin?” Scootaloo said to her irately.

“Well, as ah’m no-tuh lissping, yeah, ah sorta am!” Apple Bloom said proudly, admitting “But there may have been a professional voice coach involved, just a little bit. Trust me, just try to say like, teapot or something, but purse your lips when you say it, an’ really feel what they’re doing.”

“Theapth–” Scootaloo cut off and crossed her eyes... she could actually look at her own mouth now. That was almost as weird as how she didn’t see it without her eyes crossed, when it should have been a big honking thing in her vision. “Thh,” she said, pursing her lips like Apple Bloom. They felt really weird, like, Scootaloo hadn’t even thought about them being weird. They were more sensitive, or ...movey, or something. “Theepoth,” she said, and it happened when she left them loose that way, so maybe if she actually firmed before saying... “Teapoth. Woah!”

“Pretty cool, huh?” Apple Bloom said, kicking one of her legs jauntily under her.

“Theapoth. Teapot. Theapot. Teapot. Thath isth tho coorl!” Scootaloo stopped and blushed, smushed at her lips with her fingers... the middle finger was really thick. That was so creepy. “Thath,” she tried again. “That isth... that. Isth. Is. Th..s...so coor...coorl.”

“Thorry ith shill hardh,” Scootaloo said apologetically to Apple Bloom.

“It’s okay,” Apple Bloom said with a smile, “You’ll have plenty of time to get used to... it...” her smile died, and she blushed, lifting a hoof more nervously than jauntily, saying, “Sorry ah didn’t mean... we’ll figure something out. It cain’t take too long... ah mean...”

“How can hyou be tho happy abouth thith?” Scootaloo moaned, covering her face again. “Thith ith therrible! Hlook at me! Lithen to me!”

“Ah’m lonely, okay?!” Apple Bloom shouted out, her hooves coming down firmly on the back of Scootaloo’s legs.

Scootaloo pulled her arms away from her face and looked at Apple Bloom, who was staring off like she’d seen a ghost, or something in herself that she didn’t want to see.

The little yellow pony focused on Scootaloo again, saying, “Ah know you’re hurting, but it ain’t been so bad for me as ah thought it’d be. Ah cain even write maybe now, with practice. But it’s just... ah’ve been the only pony in this whole mess. Ah’ve been all alone, nobody who could see things like ah do, an’ everybody is so different from me now it’s just hard. Ah know ah got mah Granny and mah sis and brother and you three, but ah just...”

Apple Bloom sat on Scootaloo again, but curling instead of flattening out. “Ah thought it was me,” she said distantly. “Ah thought it had to be something wrong with me, sort of like ah made mahself this way, an’ it was something nobody else had a problem with. Something broken inside me that made me a pony on the outside. And nobody else even has a problem, or deserves... or has a problem.”

She focused on Scootaloo again, saying somewhat tearfully, “You visit on the weekends maybe, but ah’ve just been so alone! I just cain’t... it’s not all bad, ah mean, we’ll figure it out right? Even if we don’t... if we cain’t change back, we can still live together. And maybe we can be even closer friends. Ah’ll show you everything ah know, just... just don’t be sad about it, please Scootaloo!” Apple Bloom sniffled, adding, “It’s tearing me up, to see you like this... ah know you don’t want it, but ah just wish you could be happy. Ah... ah miss you girls.”

Scootaloo gave Apple Bloom a long look, feeling... calmer somehow. But she asked “Where’s Thweetie Belle?”

Apple Bloom rubbed her eyes, and gave Scootaloo a very disapproving look saying, “Wayll, after you accused her of doing this to herself, because she wished it would happen, I don’t suspect she’ll want anything to do with you.”

“I heard,” came Sweetie Belle’s voice from behind the couch, which she was apparantly sitting against on the floor back there. “Canno’ no’ hear with thethe sthup...these dumb eareth.”

“Thwee...Sweetie I’m thorry,” Scootaloo called out over the couch. “I wath jus’—was justh upthet an’ it wasnth...was noth your faulth.”

“Thith not something I want,” Sweetie said in a resentful tone. “Even asthked Apple Bloom change me back, buth she change herthelf back if she could. Was only a big joke. Only thry–rying to be ...cute.”

“Remember about the purse your lips thing, Sweetie,” Apple Bloom called over the couch. “Say ‘trying’ but say it like you’re gonna kiss a boy.”

“Trying,” Sweetie said with little hesitation. Then cheerily, “Hey, thath worked!” Then in outrage, “Hey!!”

Apple Bloom just snickered. Wait no, she literally nickered. But it was the same as a snicker, just... pony.

Scootaloo sat up on the couch entirely, Apple Bloom walking off her lap, to sit beside her. She sighed, and lifted her arms up, to pull the hood off her head. Her ears... fwapped as they were released to stand upright instead of being squashed. They–ow, they actually started falling asleep! What gives!

Ignoring the tingling in her ears, Scootaloo said, “Thorry, Apple Bloom. I-it does feel bether with my hood off. A-and my th... my tail h-hurths.” She bent forward to look at her butt, where her pants were cinched tight. “Gueth thith is inevithable,” she added glumly. She didn’t even have to uncinch her pants much. Tight two hours ago was pretty loose now. It... the tail twitched on her... in her ...something. She could feel it, like a long, tickly rope with fu—hair, all along it. As she pulled it out of her pants entirely, Scootaloo’s most salient thought was, that tail’s probably a longer haircut than she’s ever had in her life.

“Better...” she said quietly.

“Better?” Apple Bloom asked her, with a cute head tilt.

Scootaloo nodded to Apple Bloom, noting how the little pony next to her was sitting there on the couch like a doggy would. “I geth... I guess I’ll be sitting like thath thoon,” Scootaloo said glumly.

Apple Bloom blinked, looked down at her hooves. Then she kicked her hind hooves right out from under her and scooted her back up against the backrest of the couch, her front hooves curling in front of her like a squirrel as she nevertheless sat upright, with her legs splayed out before her. Just like Scootaloo was doing. Except Scootaloo’s legs weren’t quite as splayed out. “How about that?” Apple Bloom said smugly.

Scootaloo just folded her arms with a smirk.

Apple Bloom then...folded her arms... with a smirk. Her arms like... extended out with an extra joint, just so she could fold them.

“That looks... really weird, Apple Bloom...” Scootaloo said uneasily.

“Yeah, it ain’t so comfortable either,” Apple Bloom admitted, tilting her nose straight up as Sweetie Belle popped her head over the back of the couch curiously. The pink white girl looked down on Apple Bloom, only to cover her mouth as a smile erupted across her muzzle.

“You are so adorable!” she said to Apple Bloom, “You’re sitting there just like Scootaloo except pony.”

Apple Bloom kept looking up at Sweetie without responding at first though, saying uncertainly, “Hey, Sweetie you got a sorta somethin’ on your—”

The three girls’ ears perked. Apple Bloom’s turned easily toward the front, where an engine was riding up dangerously. There was another screech of tires, and the loud clatter clank of metal hitting metal. Then a door opening and closing. Then heavy footsteps.

“Ah think your mom is,” Apple Bloom managed to say before the door crashed open, revealing Cheerilee in the fading evening light.

“Scootaloo?!” she shouted in panic, “Where are you!”

Scootaloo’s answer was “Shorry, mom!”

Not “I’m over here!” or “Two guesses and the first one doesn’t count!” No, Scootaloo got straight to the point. You don’t have to say where you are and then apologize, if apologizing announces your location anyway. So her mom ran over and on seeing her said, “Oh thank... oh honey, thank...” Cheerilee sank to her knees then, looking at Scootaloo in measurable shock, saying “I was so worried—you know I worry about you. Why didn’t you tell me! I could have helped you.”

“Thorry mom, I... Shorry mom, I ... ....”

Cheerilee blinked, and put a hand to her ear. “Didn’t catch that, sorry.”

“Sorry mom, I forgoth,” Scootaloo mumbled a bit louder.

“You... forgot?” Cheerilee said in a disbelieving tone.

“She really did!” Apple Bloom piped up, making the cherry colored lady startle in place. “She was hitting herself an’ everything!”

“How do you forget, that I work in the library every day?” Cheerilee continued to ask in disbelief.

“I jus’ went to the clubh—I jus’ went and hid,” Scootaloo explained. “I was juth...just thinking how thoo get to Apple Bloom’th houth on my th...scooter. Forgoth that you could take me. ”

“She always does her own thing, you know that Ms. Cheerilee,” Apple Bloom said continuing to defend her. “Might’ve been different if it were any other girl, but you just gotta understand who—”

“Oh, I don’t even care,” Cheerilee said incensedly. She stood up and walked forward and just... picked Scootaloo up, just like that. Scootaloo was too surprised to even react, and Cheerilee just hugged her tight saying, “Oh, Scootaloo, Scootaloo...”

“M-mom,” Scootaloo whined vaguely, “My friendzh are here...” But Cheerilee would have none of it. And her mom, she was so very big and strong. Scootaloo thought it was impressive when Big Macintosh carried her all this way, but her mom just lifted her like she was a sack of feathers. She wanted to be lifted that way, granted, and hugged by her mom forever, but... just how light was she?

And why was it so uncomfortable, how her mom’s arms were scrunching up the shirt on her back?

As the sun came down, Big Macintosh left again in the truck, and returned with Granny at the end of the day, who was considerably sore at them for not informing her of these complications earlier. With all of them finally there, and nobody roving around the city desperately searching for anyone, things started to settle down somehow. Apple Bloom was happy to see Ms. Cheerilee so glad to reunite with her wayward child, as Scootaloo needed all the moral support she could get at this point. She wasn’t even protesting as Cheerilee trailed her fingers curiously through the hairs on Scootaloo’s new tail. Scootaloo, in the meantime, was trying to get through a...

Well, she near collapsed with hunger, after Apple Bloom pointed out how Scootaloo hadn’t had time to eat during lunch, and had been exercising her heart pretty heavily all day. But instead of the family’s signature beef, Cheerilee insisted that they just use some cheap canned tuna, mixed up with mayonnaise, on two pieces of cold bread. Apple Bloom didn’t even know that was Scootaloo’s favorite, and Cheerilee was happy to explain how she used it to calm Scootaloo down when she’s had a hard day and her nerves are shot. Much to Scootaloo’s protest and disgust. At Cheerilee talking about her life, not the sandwich. Scootaloo displayed the opposite of protest and disgust to the sandwich.

So Scootaloo was trying to get through a tuna sandwich, while Cheerilee sat behind her messing with that tail. Granny and Applejack were off making dinner for everyone who hadn’t already been fed. Big Macintosh went upstairs to study like he was doing so much lately. Eventually Granny managed to chase Applejack out of the kitchen despite her protests, to get to her homework too.

Sweetie was cuddled into Rarity’s embrace there on the couch. The couch had been dragged in front of the fireplace, that Apple Bloom had overseen the lighting of. And Apple Bloom was trying to be subtle about walking around the couch to stare at Sweetie Belle, without bothering the two of them sitting there, both gazing off at some unseen thing a thousand yards away.

Apple Bloom winced as her hoof hit the brick of the mantle, but it was so brief as to be unnoticed. It brought to mind the first time she’d ever tried to walk. She sure had come a long way since then. Instead of an impassable barrier, the brickwork was now an easy obstacle to avoid, just a feature of the terrain. Apple Bloom looked up at Sweetie Belle again, with worry but also with curiosity. She couldn’t really see, even from this angle. Sweetie’s generous curls were just too... generous! Sweetie glanced down at her.

Apple Bloom zipped her gaze away, tilting a hoof and pretending to whistle idly.

“Whaht are you dohing, Apple Bloom?” Sweetie Belle asked in a chidingly suspicious tone.

“N-nothing,” Apple Bloom tried to lie, “Ah was just... aw shucks ah give up. Could you lift your bangs, Sweetie?”

“My... bangsh?” Sweetie said, pointing a prominent fingered hand-ish thing at her hair.

Apple Bloom nodded. “Yeah I... ah just wanna see what you look like with the um, the different hairstyles, yep.”

Sweetie complied, pushing her bangs away and Apple Bloom just had to sit there and stare again. Was she really seeing what she thought she was seeing?

Apple Bloom’s gaze must have been too intent, because Sweetie dropped her hair and asked with some alarm, “What’s wrong with my bangs?” Rarity’s attention fell on the two of them now, as Sweetie’s tone grew serious.

“th’sat your buth down,” Sweetie Belle accused Apple Bloom. “You only do zthat when you shee somesing shocking. Wha’ did it dho to my hair?”

Apple Bloom looked at her butt in surprise, then blushed peevishly. She lifted her butt up, standing on four hooves again, saying with a false confidence, if entirely truthfully, “There ain’t nothing wrong with your bangs, Sweetie.”

“You don’ haff to lie tho make me feerl bether Apple Bloom,” Sweetie said unhappily. “Isz my hair green, or shomesing?”

“No, she’s telling the truth dear,” Rarity puts in behind Sweetie Belle. “Your hair looks the same as always, ...even if it appears to be growing down your neck.”

“Yeah, uh, it ain’t nothin’ bad,” Apple Bloom said, shifting on her hooves uneasily, “But uh... hold on jus’ one sec!” She trotted off into the bathroom then, leaving the two of them looking after her with puzzlement and worry. She came running back with a hand mirror clenched in her teeth by the handle. “Here’re” she mumbled around it, rearing up to the couch, to pass it off to Sweetie Belle. Sweetie took it gingerly, wiping it off on her dress, which barely hung on by her tail at this point.

Apple Bloom fidgeted there. “Now uh, don’t freak or nothin, it ain’t anything alarming just lift up your bangs, and take a look at your forehead.”

Sweetie gave Apple Bloom a searching look, then lifted the hand mirror. It trembled a bit as she looked into it seeing more of a pony than a girl, and how she had to hook her finger around it since her thumb was mostly useless by now. But she still pulled back her bangs and took a look. She dropped the mirror with a squeak.

“What is it Sweetie?” Rarity uttered in a fearful tone, feeling at the girl’s bangs, “I didn’t get a look. Hand me the mirror again. I need a mirror!”

Apple Bloom didn’t even bother rearing up again, just grabbed the mirror’s handle from the floor with her mouth, and tossed it straight at Rarity. It turned end on end until Rarity caught it in her hand, whirling it around to stare a stunned Sweetie Belle in the face again with her own reflection. With both of their eyes on Sweetie’s forehead, Rarity’s delicate hand pulled back Sweetie Belle’s soft pink and purple curls. Sweetie Belle stared into the mirror, saying in a flatly stupefied voice,

“I have a horn.”

Author's Note

Woah! Didn’t expect that, didya? Epic mind blown! Big reveal next chapter, Scootaloo has a beak!

Gang’s All Here

“Ah cain’t believe you get to be a unicorn!” Apple Bloom whined positively fussily, pacing the floor beside the couch where Sweetie sat in Rarity’s lap. “Why didn’t I get that!” Apple Bloom continued in exasperation.

“Sorry,” Sweetie said uneasily. She was seated in Rarity’s lap on the couch, holding the mirror herself now, and peering curiously at her forehead. Rarity was holding back her curls for a full view of Sweetie Belle’s horn. It was an unremarkable looking bony protrusion, short and stubby, but with an unmistakable structure: a spiraling ridge turning clockwise, coming to a conical point.

“Don’t be sorry, dear,” Rarity said delighted, “This changes everything! You are not a simple animal, you are becoming a graceful magical being!”

“I’m turning into Apple Bloom, wifth a horn,” Sweetie responded in a flat voice.

“Ah’m plenty magical, Sweetie,” Apple Bloom said. “Rarity just thinks ah’m a boring old pony.”

“I certainly do not!” Rarity exclaimed, looking every which way but at Apple Bloom.

“Ah have the dream princess visitin’ me at night, and loads of other things,” Apple Bloom said almost defensively. She wasn’t being defensive though. Who said she was?!

“Ah cain do this,” Apple Bloom said as a for instance, bending down and lifting up the mirror, balancing it on her nose.

“Apple—” Rarity started to protest, but Apple Bloom was still shifting back and forth, balancing that mirror. Not flat ways either, nor upside down, but up on its end, with the thin side of the flat handle on her nose bridge. With a twitch of her neck, Apple Bloom flipped it up into the air and turned just in time to catch it in her hoof, gently placing the mirror back to the ground.

“And ah cain untie a bow,” Apple Bloom said, dramatically un...clipping her bow, but then sticking her face in it and pulling the ribbon out until it unravelled leaving only the clip left over. “And tie it again!” she cheered, shoving the ribbon back into the clip before it even had time to touch ground, and just... sort of arranging that she could pull it back into her favorite ribbon shape with careful pulls of her teeth. She clipped it back into her hair with a hoof.

“And clipping a bow with only one hoof,” Rarity pointed out.

“Yeah, that too!” Apple Bloom said cheerfully. “Wait,” she added looking at Rarity suspiciously, “Weren’t you tryin’ to prove ah’m not a magical pony?”

“I never said that, dear,” Rarity remarked lightly to Apple Bloom with a sly smile. Lord but that lady was infuriating at times, especially when she was cooking up a bunch of crow for Apple Bloom to eat!

Sweetie had picked up the mirror again, and was once more staring at herself. She reached up a hand and tried poking the horn on her foreahead.

“...huh,” she said reservedly.

“Do you feel something, dear?” Rarity asked her, peering over her shoulder excitedly.

“It feelth like an elbow,” Sweetie declared.

“An... elbow?” Rarity offered, hesitantly.

“I thoughth a horn would feel like a fingernail,” Sweetie clarified, “Actually feelth more like an elbow.”

“An elbow,” Rarity repeated.

“Yup,” Sweetie said mildly. She stopped poking at it.

“Does this mean you’re more magic than me?” Apple Bloom mumbled confusedly. “Can you like, purify water or something? Ah thought ah was just a pony, not a... whatever you call a unicorn without a horn. I ain’t even got cloven hooves!”

“Cloven hooves?” Sweetie asked in a worried tone. “You mean cloven like, broken? Why woul’ you do zhat?”

“No, ah mean cloven like,” Apple Bloom tapped her chin, “Like humans were too dumb to think that a hoof might be a toe, an’ some animals got two toes for a hoof, so humans thought that it was one toe that got broken in two.”

They looked at her.

“Like a deer!” Apple Bloom exclaimed throwing her hooves up in exasperation.

“I um...” Sweetie looked at her hand very leerily. “I canno’... move my lil’ finger or thumb anymore. Um, looks like is only one finger gething bigger...”

Apple Bloom hopped up on the couch, peering over Rarity’s lap with Sweetie at her hand... hoof thing. “Seems about right, Sweetie,” she said nosing at it. “If’n it was cloven it would be two fingers, not one finger dividin’ in half.”

“Wish I could have two fingers,” Sweetie mumbled. Apple Bloom sighed, and honestly truly sympathized. Sweetie could already tell what a difference just one extra finger would have made. She saw Apple Bloom’s difficulties with holding things. You could do so much with just two fingers on each leg: use them like pincers, or like chopsticks maybe, or make air quotes. It really just wasn’t fair that they had to make do with just one finger, no matter how much fun it was to run around on.

What was left of Sweetie’s hand came down behind Apple Bloom’s head and nestled against her, stroking softly down her back. “Guess I won’ be able zh–to do this much longer, either,” Sweetie said. Apple Bloom just lay her head in Sweetie’s lap, in Rarity’s lap. The evening was catching up to Bloom already, and she felt like she could drift off to sleep like this. She wished she’d something better to say, but all that was welling up inside her was,

“Ah’m gonna miss it too.”

“Whath zhe hell?!”

The three girls, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Rarity turned at Scootaloo’s alarmed outburst, Apple Bloom lifting up her head from Sweetie Belle’s lap to do so. From Apple Bloom’s guess, it would have to be about something Scootaloo saw in the mirror, because that’s where Scootaloo was standing right about now, right by the open bathroom door. With someone else’s footsteps behind her, Scootaloo came running to the couch, falling mostly, but still running over to the couch, saying “AP–ugh, Apple Blo–waugh! Apple– Apple Bloom somethinz–woAH” there was a crashing noise.

Apple Bloom really wished she could see over the back of the couch. That sounded hilarious.

Cheerilee leaned her head over the back of the couch shouting in a much less slurry voice, “Apple Bloom, something’s wrong!” right when Scootaloo’s ponyish head stuck itself over the back of the couch shouting, “Somethin’z wrohng!” Apple Bloom didn’t hesitate a second, scrambling to her hooves, and jumping off the couch. Sweetie was having more trouble getting up because her dress and undergarments were threatening to fall off, but Rarity helped her up by a hand. With her other, sort of hand, Sweetie scrunched her dress against herself, and hobbled with Rarity after her little pony friend. Apple Bloom turned the corner around the couch, and saw Scootaloo there and stopped and... stared.

“Scootaloo, wha’s—AHH!” Sweetie said, shrieking the moment she passed a mute Apple Bloom. Sweetie had turned to see Scootaloo standing there precariously balanced by Cheerilee supporting her from behind, with no shirt or undershirt on, and her breasts completely exposed!

“Scootaloo!” Apple Bloom whined admonishingly, “Why’d you take your shirt off? Ain’t you got no shame?”

“Sh–shame?!” Scootaloo exclaimed to the cranky pony, her eyes bugging out with disbelief. “We’re shanzhing intho ponies, how can you even thalk abouth hshame a’ a thime hlike this!”

“But your breasts are exposed...” Sweetie whimpered, still hiding her gaze from staring at Scootaloo.

Scootaloo’s face went blank at that. But then for no explicable reason, she glared at Sweetie and angrily shouted, “They’re no’ zha’ smarll!”

“Please honey bear, there is something more important to worry about,” Cheerilee said nervously to Scootaloo.

Sweetie was just staring at Scootaloo with one puzzled eye saying, “They’re no’... whad? I didn’ say that your breasts were small, even zthough I like small— never mind.”

“Well I though’ they weren’,” Scootaloo huffed. “But they’re sho shmall I guessh, you didn’th even notish they’re gone!”

Sweetie was staring with both eyes now, at Scootaloo, and in particular at Scootaloo’s even more flat chest, saying numbly, “...wha?”

“What,” Rarity echoed close behind.

“Oh, right...” Apple Bloom mused in recollection with an uncomfortable wince.

“My ti—” Scootaloo glanced uneasily at her mother, “My boobsh movethd,” Scootaloo admitted, “They’re uh... dhown here now...” she sort of pulled her pants up more firmly, so they’d stop sliding down her increasingly shrinking frame.

“What?!” Sweetie shrieked. “Is that a zhing that happenhs?” she asked frantically down to Apple Bloom.

“Well uh...” Apple Bloom’s voice died off, as she lifted a hoof and turned sideways, looking at the floor, “...yeah...”

Sweetie yanked away from Rarity who was stammering at her, and pulled open the neck of her blouse. Her underpants fell to the floor; she didn’t even care. She just stared at the two little smooth flat nipples that were flat and nestled way down almost in-between her legs!

“They were jus’ starting to ged big...” Sweetie whimpered in dismay, tears coming easily to her eyes.

“Abapathabuh,” Rarity stammered, her arms out but not touching Sweetie, almost as if she were afraid to do so.

“Can we stop talking about breasts now?” Cheerilee shouted irascibly. “There is something seriously wrong with Scootaloo here!”

“Yeah Shweetie, cohme on,” Scootaloo said pleadingly.

“Wait, so you weren’t talkin’ about your boobs?” Apple Bloom asked, giving Cheerilee a curious look.

“It is completely normal for horses to have their teats between their legs,” Cheerilee said irritably.

“Pfeats?!” Sweetie squeaked in alarm.

“Hepababah,” Rarity wisely contributed.

“Yes, the nursing foals just put their noses right between the mother’s legs,” Cheerilee explained, “She can’t exactly hold them to her chest if she’s standing on four legs, can she?. Really, what did you expect? We have—”

That was too much for Sweetie. She just sank to the ground and curled around the pooled remains of her clothes, whimpering in despair. Apple Bloom immediately ran forward and climbed on Sweetie, just hugging on top of the distraught half girl’s curled back, while Scootaloo immediately ran forward and fell on her face again.

“Ow...” Scootaloo groaned.

“Look!” Cheerilee shouted in unsympathetic agitation, gesturing at her ill fated child. “This is what we’re talking about! It’s some kind of... some kind of growth!! Is this normal??”

That was enough to shock Sweetie out of her tears, and she raised her head along with Apple Bloom, just as Rarity finally worked up enough nerve to lean down and embrace her sister, or what’s left of her, hugging Sweetie Belle with closed eyes and whispering, “Oh Sweetie I just don’t know...”

“Rari’y, look!” Sweetie said agitatedly. She and Apple Bloom, and soon Rarity were looking at what appeared to be some kind of... something. There were these twisted, weird, mutated looking arms, all covered in some kind of fuzzy orange material, emerging at a sharp angle from Scootaloo’s back.

Scootaloo shrunk from the attention, but still sat up and turned her back so they could see it better, looking at them herself with severe trepidation.

“So tha’ is why you remove your shirt,” Sweetie said faintly.

“Yeah I,” Scootaloo, “I’ wash all i’chy andh I couldn...could-en... could no’ –agh.” She stuck her hands up to her mouth and pushed at the offending muzzle angrily.

“Careful Scoots,” Apple Bloom warned her, “Just remember you purse your lips, an’ then you—”

“Bu’ whath if hyou hlost your theeth?” Scootaloo asked in a heavy lisp. “Canth shtop wishling!”

Apple Bloom mouthed out ‘wish-ling’ before shaking her head and saying, “You uh, gotta like... awrl...” she rolled her tongue around, trying to pay attention to the gap in her dentition. It turned into a yawn. “Ah ain’ essactly got that part down yet,” she admitted sheepishly. “Just uh... stick your tongue out more, ah guess?”

Scootaloo stuck out her tongue at Apple Bloom. “Fhine,” she said. “Thehn what’s hup withha fings onh my back!”

“Ah dunno!” Apple Bloom protested. “Ah didn’t get nothin’ like that! Ah’m just a normal pony! Who happens to be tiny, human colored, and unusually intelligent!”

Sweetie squeaked in alarm again, and everyone turned towards her. She and Rarity were sitting on the couch again, together. Really, Rarity had been pretty much inseperable from Sweetie Belle since, well... since that little freakout this morning. “Sthorry,” Sweetie Belle said blushing, “I just checked my theeth, and they’re loose...”

“leas’ you gotta finish your shandwish,” Scootaloo grumbled. “Mine cahme ohff in zhe tuna.”

“Would you like to keep them?” Rarity asked, leaning down to look at Sweetie imploringly. Sweetie looked at her blankly, so Rarity added, “As keepsakes. Sometimes we save our teeth that come out, as a reminder of our old... as a reminder of milestones in our life.”

“Okay, I guessh...” Sweetie said gloomily. Rarity handed her a lavender folded handkerchief, that Sweetie held onto clumsily in her pseudo-hooves.

“Just spit them out on that when they... come out,” Rarity said. “We can put them in a tooth box, like your baby teeth.”

“Aw man, ah wish ah’d thoughta that,” Apple Bloom said, kicking a hoof. “Ah dunno what the doctor did with mine.”

“Hol’ zhat thought!” Scootaloo yelped, jumping up and staggering over to the kitchen using furniture to balance herself. Apple Bloom perked up, but didn’t follow, just turning her ears that way and listening.

Judging from the sound of rifling through something and Granny shouting, “Get outta the trash yer lil’ varmint!” Scootaloo was looking for her missing teeth.

Cheerilee groaned, and stood up, running into the kitchen. “Granny, please stop throttling my daughter,” she said in the other room exasperatedly.

“Why’s she spillin’ trash all over mah kitchen then?!” Granny asked in a fuming tone.

“She accidentally threw away her teeth,” Cheerilee said, “And I assume in hindsight, she wanted to keep them.”

“Uh huh!” Scootaloo said enthusiastically, not sounding like she was getting throttled at all.

“She coulda jes’ asked!” Granny protested.

“Scootaloo, you can’t do everything yourself,” Cheerilee said in an exasperated strain, “Sometimes you have to ask for help.”

“Okay, mom,” Scootaloo said rather unconvincingly.

“I’m not kidding young lady,” Cheerilee said more strongly, “You were in real danger today, and you scared us all half to death. Do you really want to hurt people by not letting them be involved? I know you value your independence, but I want you to think long and hard about this, Scootaloo.”

A pause, and Scootaloo said more convincingly and meekly, “Okay, mom.”

“Now let me deal with this,” Cheerilee stated.

“But—” Scootaloo immediately protested.

“Ap!” Cheerilee interrupted her, “Who of us here has fingers?”

Scootaloo sighed, “Fine...”

Finally Granny saying, “Now you can shoo yerself right out. Get on then. Shoo!” and once again Scootaloo stumbled into the living room.

Her eyes flicked to both Sweetie and Apple Bloom’s ears, pointed right her way. “Uh... hey, girlsh!” she said in an artificially nonchalant tone, but her attempt to look cool just led to her falling over her own feet again, and faceplanting on the rug in front of the couch, losing her pants in the process.

“Ugh, how dtho you walk withph thfese things, Apple Bloom?” Scootaloo lisped unhappily, pushing herself up by her pseudo-hands. She ‘stood’ there a moment, looking back at her own depantsed bottom sticking up above her, with the bright magenta tail arching over behind it, before sighing in frustration and standing up straight on two legs. Then she yanked her pants back up around her midsection, instead of leaving them pooling at her legs. “Can’ sthand on four hlegs either,” she champed out in frustration, fighting back another yawn.

“Didn’ walk all that much this late at night,” Apple Bloom said with a long yawn. “Cain’t help ya much ‘til you’re all pony.”

“How long wishhhhh...” Sweetie Belle started to say but trailed off to a curious whistling. “Ptheh ptheh,” she added, running her tongue along her teeth and crossing her eyes. “Thath doesh feerl weirld.”

Sweetie held out her handkerchief to Rarity in explanation and... yeah, Apple Bloom could see there were eight very prominent teeth in it, with not nearly as much blood as when the doctor pulled out Apple Bloom’s. Then again, Sweetie had hung onto hers way longer. So, while Sweetie fingered, er, hoofed at her mouth, opening it and clacking her teeth together and sticking her tongue through the new holes, Scootaloo just sighed, and pulled herself up on the couch beside Sweetie and Rarity. Apple Bloom sat at their feet... and feet-ish things, looking up to the two of them, with sympathetic distress.

Scootaloo squeaked then, or squawked is more her style, and jolted up from sitting back on the couch. “Ugh, I forgothed about thoshe,” she groaned, looking at the strange tufty things on her back. “Zere lotsh bigger now,” she said unhappily, “Wish they’ be smaller.”

“What d’you think they are?” Apple Bloom said, jumping up on the couch beside Scootaloo to peer at her back. “They look kinda like real weird fuzzy arms.”

“Thentaur maybe?” Scootaloo suggested, then her expression darkened and she sighed, “No thath shtupid. Why they be on th’ back hten?”

“Can ya move ‘em?” Apple Bloom asked curiously.

Scootaloo concentrated, staring at them, then shook her head. “Nope. Dunno wath they are.”

Sweetie was leaning over to look at Scootaloo too, saying, “Maybe you’re like Quatho.”

Both Apple Bloom and Scootaloo looked at her cluelessly, but Rarity, she tossed her hair and rolled her eyes, saying, “I cannot believe you remember that awful movie!”

“Ith wasth a gool moofie!” Sweetie said insistently. “Quaith brough’ wather thoo Marsh!”

“It was a disgusting and bloody movie,” Rarity said insistently. “I regret even having allowed you to watch it before we returned it to the video rental shop.”

Sweetie blushed, staring at the floor.

“Do hyou have thethe Sweethie?” Scootaloo asked Sweetie, looking from her back to the other girl.

“Theeth?” Sweetie asked with confusion. “Rarity hath mine.”

“Thethe... theshe... the thingsh on my hback,” Scootaloo clarified, with difficulty.

Sweetie shook her head as an answer, and her blush didn’t diminish. She seemed real thoughtful then, like she was pondering a difficult decision, all flustered and clutching anxiously at the shirt there wrapped around her chest. Sweetie raised her head and looked over into Scootaloo’s eyes, with a serious look on her face.

“No, I do no’,” Sweetie said simply. Then, shrugging her shoulders, she let the neck of her blouse and her undershirt slip down entirely down to her waist, leaving her smooth chest completely open to view. Both she and Scootaloo had run out of patches somewhere along the line, the fur overtaking their bare, discolored skin. It didn’t look weird or anything. Something about Sweetie sitting there with a bare white chest made it... odd though. Scootaloo was a girl who could just casually threw off her shirt, and ignore any freakouts, but Sweetie sitting there without anything covering her chest, she looked ...uniquely vulnerable.

“No poinht wearing it now...” Sweetie offered as explanation. Rarity didn’t object, though whether it was because she agreed, or because she was afraid of hurting Sweetie Belle emotionally, it wasn’t clear. Sweetie then made it even weirder by feeling at her own chest. “Huh, my pethtoralsh are shtill there, bu’ no nipplesh...” she murmured distractedly.

She looked up at everyone else abruptly then stammering out, “S-sorry if ish weirld I was jus’—”

“Yer doin’ fine Sweetie,” Apple Bloom said. She was starting to become painfully aware that of the three of them, she was the most dressed. Her simple green dress adequately covered her chest and rump, and what clothing the others had left was hanging on them poorly at best. Scootaloo had plain white panties by the way, but it didn’t seem as so much of a forbidden thingy you weren’t supposed to do, not anymore now that everything was just lying around all baggy and limp. Apple Bloom wasn’t sure if there were any other forbidden clothing items you weren’t supposed to see. One can only glean so much cultural information from comic books after all.

“S-see?” Sweetie then said awkwardly, twisting her torso so they could see her back. It was as smooth and plush as her front, with no weird arm things. “Nothing szhere, justht a... horn...” Sweetie said turning forward. She started poking at the horn on her head distractedly again. Wasn’t clear if the horn was getting bigger, or she was getting smaller, but it certainly wasn’t a little nub anymore. Sweetie’s curls wouldn’t even cover it completely, just falling on either side. The horn didn’t look sharp, but... well, Apple Bloom didn’t know if that was a problem or not. It was yet one more thing Apple Bloom couldn’t offer anyone any help or advice on.

Bloom looked from Scootaloo to Sweetie Belle, both sitting there naked from the waist up, with no small amount of shock in their faces, but still calm and quiet and modest as can be. It occurred to Apple Bloom that she could probably remove the entire front half of this dress herself, without losing any modesty. It was convenient how her nipples and ...other parts were in the same place now. She could probably cover them up with just a pair of shorts. Apple Bloom blushed at the thought that she could safely go around in nothing but shorts, just like a boy.

“Penny for your hthoughts, Apple Bloom?” Sweetie asked her.

Apple Bloom shook her head saying, “Right now mah thoughts are a hundred bucks apiece, at least.”

Scootaloo laughed at that saying, “You’re a fthunny fony.”

“A ...fthun ...knee phony?” Apple Bloom asked hesitantly.

Scootaloo shook her head, “No a pthony. A th... A porn... thammit!”

“Scootaloo, language!” Rarity said in a shocked tone.

“You can understand what she said?” Apple Bloom said unbelievingly.

“No,” Rarity said pensively, “But the implication was rather obvious.”

“Maybe we sthould talk betther,” Sweetie suggested. “I mean practithe. Tith. You know, how do you thalk gool?”

“Hokay le’s...” Apple Bloom yawned deeply, “Let’s practice talking since y’all ain’t gonna be able to practice walking till tomorra.”

Scootaloo looked at Apple Bloom in mild protest, saying, “Prathithe—” but then she glanced down and said, “Okay yeah you hathve a pointh.”

Granny served her late meal, but the partial ponies didn’t partake. Whether it was their big late lunch, or the whole “turning into a pony” thing wasn’t really clear, but Apple Bloom just kept them busy so they didn’t have to think about it. She stayed with those two, and tried to drill them over the approximately 17 different ways she figured out to pronounce ‘s’ now. Her eyes were drooping closed before long though, and they kept laughing at her when Apple Bloom zoned out mid-sentence. It wasn’t long before each of them ended up going and yawning themselves though.

So Apple Bloom just gave up on the teaching, and curled in between them, hinting congenially, “Ah won’t mind sleeping down here... couch is big enough for me, for all of us come morning.”

“That how hlong i’ will take?” Sweetie asked.

“You should be ponies come morning,” Apple Bloom guessed. “That’s how it went with me, at any rate.”

“I don’ wanna sleep,” Scootaloo said crossing her arms resentfully. “Thith ish our lasht chanthe tho be hyoman.”

Sweetie looked at her own... well they sure weren’t hands anymore, hanging out in front of her bare chest. “We shorta are...aren’... we shorta already no longer humahns,” she pointed out, still hunting around for words she wouldn’t have difficulty speaking.

“Y’all ain’t gonna be doing much walking, not as humans or ponies, at this point,” Apple Bloom said to Scootaloo. “Y’may as well sleep it off. Ah’ll show ya how to walk an’ stuff after it’s all settled down.” The two of them looked down morosely at her words, but didn’t otherwise protest or comment further.

Applejack came over to the couch, after the late dinner the rest of the Apples ate, which wasn’t any particularly special meal. She was followed by Big Macintosh, and Applejack said quickly to the three of them, “Hey y’all, me an’ mah brother been busy tonight, sorry about that. Granny filled us in. You can stay here long as you need, don’t you worry about that. Anything ah can do for ya to get you settled?”

And Big Macintosh kind of stood at her side, supportively.

“Nah, we’re fine,” Scootaloo said easily.

Irrespective of that, Sweetie Belle said, “A glasz of water woul’ be hn...appreshiated.”

Apple Bloom winced at Sweetie’s request, but Applejack said lightly, “Sure thing, and how about a couple of blankets?”

“That’d be great, sis,” Apple Bloom said before Scootaloo could protest being helped out even more. Applejack headed off, and brought back two glasses of water, and the reason Apple Bloom winced was pretty clear. The two of her friends were now just too clumsy to hold the glass, even with both their hands at this point.

“Heh heh, sorry ah’ll just go get some straws,” Applejack said uneasily, backing away with a blush. They certainly had no shortage of drinking straws in the house, not since they had to deal with Apple Bloom’s lack of dexterity with a cup. And actually, she was getting pretty good with cups even without straws. The real problem was that most cups were just too big for her to handle now.

But Sweetie obediently drew the water up through the straw while Applejack held it for her. Scootaloo just waved it away, refusing to even consider the prospect. Apple Bloom was starting to get real worried about her. Scoots never acted this aloof and relaxed, if she wasn’t hiding some serious hurt feelings inside. Obviously this pony thing was bothering her, but... she just wouldn’t let it all out and kept closing them off from her, the more the evening progressed.

Cheerilee rejoined the group with a little pill box in her hand, in which she said Scootaloo’s teeth were... being sterilized. Rarity too joined them on the couch, and the five of them sat there watching the cooling fire. For all her touchiness, Scootaloo was still okay with leaning against her mother’s side while drifting off to sleep. And Sweetie was just about buried in Rarity’s side. Made sense really. Apple Bloom knew that Rarity lady and Scootaloo’s mom would feel a lot better, if they woke up knowing the ponies they were looking at were the same girls that they went to sleep with. It sure helped Applejack a lot with Apple Bloom. Boy that had been one crazy morning.

Rarity and Cheerilee were on either end of the couch, with each of their respective charge laying against them, both pairs wrapped up in one warm blanket each. Right in the middle, Apple Bloom had her own little blanket, more advisory than anything, that she curled up easily underneath, peering out at the dying embers in the fireplace. She wished her best friends didn’t have to go through what she did, but she couldn’t feel a little more secure with the thought that they’d all be in this together come tomorrow. It was so much easier to face adversity if you had companions to stand with you.

That was it for them, and they all slept off the rest of the transformation. During the night, a few restless mostly-fillies would shift around half asleep. Both were trying to get comfortable, as a leg started bending funny, or they shrank lower on the people they were lying on. It wasn’t the sort of thing you’d really remember, just that half waking daze where you shifted to get more comfortable before drifting off again. Just little adjustments. But by the time morning came, both Rarity and Cheerilee were greeted with a very memorable sight on awakening.

Some time during the night, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo had shifted away from Rarity and Cheerilee, and Apple Bloom had kicked off her blanket as she sometimes did on warmer nights. So when the two human ladies awoke in the morning, they were treated to the sight of three little ponies all sleeping soundly, hooves wrapped around each other in a little pile at the center of the couch. Rarity was the first to awaken, but just watched them with a sort of confused fondness, like she couldn’t have expected some alien creature to be this cute.

When Cheerilee too awoke, the morning light was streaming in through the windows. She saw those three fillies sleeping together and took in a surprised breath, whereupon Rarity shushed her urgently. Both looked silently at the three. Scootaloo was so... tiny now. But she was still very clearly herself. Scootaloo looked just like a Scootaloo pony, just like Cheerilee had thought Apple Bloom was some sort of color matching pet, and not actually the girl in question transformed. Both Scootaloo and Sweetie were that way, but... seeing your own daughter in a strange, yet strangely familiar new form, that did something to you.

Cheerilee carefully stood from the couch, letting the blankets draped over her lap slide gently to the floor. Rarity followed in kind, and took a trip to the ground floor bathroom to—as she put it—do something about this horrible disaster. Rarity then began to primp at her poorly dried hair. Cheerilee had to say that girl’s priorities were... well, she was admittedly getting pretty bedraggled. It looked like Rarity had just washed her hair by dumping a bucket over it, or something.

Cheerilee looked away from that bittersweet girl Rarity, over towards the back of the couch, from where Cheerilee stood in the living room. Three sleeping little fillies were concealed on that couch, the pony Apple Bloom, and now uncanny versions of Sweetie Belle and her own child. Cheerilee should have been horrified but, it was just so adorable seeing little Scootaloo all curled up with her friends as cute as a button there. A sigh and a silly, sideways smile teased its way out of Cheerilee, just thinking about that. She quietly tip toed into the dining room to give them their peace, letting the three girls sleep as long as they needed to.

This, it turns out, was a mistake.

Her first warning was the sound of a thump in the direction of the couch. But what got her running was another much more disastrous, regrettable and worrying sound. It was the sound of Scootaloo crying. Cheerilee ran up to the couch, where the ponified Scootaloo had fallen to the floor, and fallen from there onto her belly, where she was doing something she never did in public. Something Cheerilee never wanted to see Scootaloo doing ever again. Just laying there, crying helplessly.

Apple Bloom was standing on the couch, looking down at Scootaloo with worry and alarm, saying, “Scootaloo, it’s not so—”

“’s no’ fair!” Scootaloo screamed in despair, her little hind hooves thumping into the side of the couch she had fallen beside. “I never wanned zhis! Why no’ Thiamond Hiara? Why me? I dont wanna be zhis. I can’ even move! I can’ talk! I dont wan’ id! Why can’ I even I can’ stop idh and I wan’ to caaan’ don’ wannit...” she sort of regressed into word salad at that point, if you could even tell what she was saying through the sobs and shrieks. And the disturbingly ponylike sound of those shrieks was just making Scootaloo feel even worse.

Cheerilee was especially scared, because she didn’t know how dangerous these ponies were, whether they could seriously hurt you from biting or kicking. Some stories about Apple Bloom’s raw power were... troubling at best. Her usual way to defuse Scootaloo’s almost unheard-of tantrums was under the assumption, that Scootaloo couldn’t accidentally take her eye out, or do something terrible like break her ribs or crush the bones in her hand by biting.

She didn’t know of anything else to do though, and she knew how much it hurt Scootaloo to act like this, how much it hurt her to terrify her friends. Those two hadn’t been up the pre-dawn mornings with Scootaloo’s nightmares, and they had been shielded from the fallout, when Scootaloo’s grades fell and she held it all inside until she got home. No, there was only one person who could deal with this properly, and that person would have to put up with a few injuries, because she was not going to let Scootaloo suffer like this for one more second, no matter what the girl had transformed into.

So Cheerilee took a flying tackle and hauled Scootaloo right off the ground like a giant orange screaming football. It was desperately hard to hold onto her, with her new limbs flailing about, lashing out at anything nearby, and Cheerilee’s fears were confirmed in that this little orange puffball had a fearsome strength, that left Cheerilee’s ample chest bruised and sore, from where those painfully hard hooves thunked against it. She just winced through the tears in her eyes and tried to rock Scootaloo in the air.

Scootaloo still didn’t ease herself, but at least calmed down enough that she was making sense again. She was so tiny now... Cheerilee took that as a hint to act, when Scootaloo landed a solid hit right on her eye and shrieked “Put me down!” at her, kicking out uncoordinatedly in the arms of her struggling mother.

“Honey bun,” Cheerilee said getting right in Scootaloo’s face, “Shut up.”

Scootaloo was so shocked that she did, just staring fearfully at her mother, who went back to gently rocking her in her arms. It was amazing how expressive Scootaloo’s new pony face was. You could see every centimeter of fear, confusion and rage in her vivid violet eyes. Cheerilee felt like sitting down, but she didn’t. Ignoring the pain in her ... Cheerilee told herself it was a pain in her chest muscles, she stood there shifting from foot to foot, and humming a lullaby that always seemed to calm Scootaloo’s nerves.

She knew the crisis was over, when Scootaloo’s unfamiliar, uncoordinated front hooves still managed to find their way to hug around Cheerilee’s neck. Cheerilee was surprised at how well it calmed her down, in fact. In her arms like this, Scootaloo was practically asleep again! Cheerilee could only figure to chalk it up to being able to lift Scootaloo totally, as if she were a toddler, instead of just restraining her and holding her close. Such power in that gesture. And Scootaloo was so light in her arms. She seemed even lighter than when Cheerilee had first grabbed her this morning, Scootaloo’s fluffy soft pony form feeling more like carrying a pillow than a living animal.

“What the heck was that?” came Apple Bloom’s thin reedy voice, snapping Cheerilee out of her thoughts. Scootaloo gripped Cheerilee with painful tightness when Apple Bloom said that, weighing heavily in her arms and hiding her head against Cheerilee, so Cheerilee just said admonishingly down to the upset little pony standing at her feet,

“That... was something Scootaloo never wanted you to know about, because she was afraid you would ask her ‘what the heck is that?’”

“But—!” Apple Bloom blushed and looked down, kicking one of her tiny front hooves against the wood floor. “Aw shucks...”

Sweetie Belle was still lying on the couch looking at her own hooves stuck before her in perplexion. She looked at Scootaloo with sympathy and said, “Hey, iz noth so—”

“Yes, it is,” Cheerilee told Sweetie Belle very firmly. The little white pony seemed so humanlike in her tensing, and her irises narrowing. The ears ducking back were new, but they didn’t seem out of place or unfitting. Sweetie just did it so naturally and automatically, just like she had been born that way.

“Scootaloo has every right to act this way,” Cheerilee continued, in an even tone of voice. “Even if she would rather not have to. We are all people, we—” she glanced at the orange fur in her peripheral vision. “We are all still people,” she affirmed, “And we all have feelings, even the bravest of us. We all get scared, and we all get upset, and there is nothing wrong with that. Some of us simply have a different way of... expressing those feelings.”

Sweetie didn’t say anything, just resumed looking at her hooves, not really looking at them anymore, just lost in thought.

“Not like ah wasn’t doin’ the same thing,” Apple Bloom said resentfully, flumping down there on the floor. “Last Tuesday at th’ dance. Maybe ponies just cry easy, I dunno.”

“Yeah, no,” Sweetie drawled out from above the lip of the couch, “You were only... dance waz a loht... thifferent.” And Sweetie saying ‘different’ just made Scootaloo hide herself in Cheerilee’s bruised chest even more. Even if her pronunciation of ‘different’ left a lot to be desired.

“Only a mattera time before you get your turn, Sweetie,” Apple Bloom said wryly.

“Hey, I wahz crying!” Sweetie protested. “When you shaid I couldn’ have shdopped ith, and tha’ ith wasz happening, even if I never ashked for thish.”

Apple Bloom shook her head, “Yeah, but that was...”

“Thifferent,” Sweetie insisted, finishing the sentence while Apple Bloom just scrunched her muzzle up in frustration, and hmphed.

Sweetie stared at Apple Bloom’s reticence and frowned, continuing in a tight voice, “Well, I don’ care if we-er thifferent. You’re shdill my frien’, and sho ish Shcootaroo. I wish she didshn’ hide from ush, but if thash wha’ she needsh thoo zoo, ven izh fieng wiff me.”

Looking with confusion at Sweetie Belle’s insistent... something, Apple Bloom stated, “Ya wake up with hooves, you freak out,” laying on her back and dangling her hooves above her staring at the things. “Nothin’ wrong with that. It’s totally unfair Scootaloo has to be a pony, an’ it sucks sweaty monkey balls, but ah just want to get past this, stop worrying about it so much, an’ get you two practicing speaking, so ah cain understand a single freaking word you say.”

Sweetie blushed horribly and looked away, and, perhaps very wisely, didn’t say anything in response to that. The unicorn girl was having trouble getting onto her back, and just lay on her stomach, twisting her forearm awkwardly to try and poke at her own squishy muzzle.

In Cheerilee’s arms, Scootaloo relaxed at their words, but she still didn’t turn to face them. Cheerilee herself sat down on the couch next to Sweetie Belle, with a hiss of pain when Cheerilee bent forward slightly to do so. Scootaloo pulled away from her then, just enough to look at her with worry and exclaim, “Oh my gosh, you’ eye!”

“I suppose we match now,” came the voice of a partially coifferized Rarity, leaning over the back of the couch. It was even funnier, because Rarity had also applied makeup that seemed to subtly accentuate her new black eye instead of covering it up. Or, wait maybe that was intentional?

“You didn’t do any permanent damage, honey bear,” Cheerilee said to her... more literally bear-like daughter. “Just be more careful with your hooves in the future. Those things really hurt!”

Scootaloo started saying, “I-I’m shorry—” and Cheerilee cut her off with,

“I believe you.” That mollified Scootaloo enough, and she was soon staring at her own hooves there in Cheerilee’s lap.

“Thish ish reallry real,” Scootaloo said distantly. “We’re all pohnies now!”

“I canno’ believe veeze are my hoovesh,” Sweetie said herself, finally managing to lie on her back, and wiggling a front one above her, looking at it in fascination.

Apple Bloom jumped up on the couch in between them then and said in a frustrated whine, “Alright you two, ah need you to stick your tongues out!”

“Thungs?” Sweetie said in puzzlement.

“Muh thung feelth rearly thigk,” Scootaloo muttered, poking her own squishy muzzle with a hoof.

“Yeah, tongues. Just stick ‘em out as far as you can,” Apple Bloom instructed. “Give you an idea why speaking might be hard now, so you can speak better again,” she explained to her pony friends.

“A-a-and nobody freak,” she added hurriedly, looking at Rarity with worry. “Ah promise it’s natural, ah think.”

Scootaloo was looking wary, but Sweetie just rolled her eyes saying, “Thmooth Affle Bloob.” Then she tried sticking out her tongue and... well, it just kept coming! Not to say that she had half of her body cavity taken up by tongue, but Sweetie Belle had a very large tongue.

“Woah,” Sweetie said, stupefied at the sight. Probably the only syllable she could say at this point. There was the muffled sound of Rarity collapsing limply to the floor behind the couch.

Cheerilee looked uneasily at the pony in her arms. Scootaloo already had her tongue out now, and she said, “Woah gooth, eh thn thch mth sthst!” Sure enough, not that anyone could understand her, but that orangish licker coming out of Scootaloo’s mouth went all the way below her chin, to prod against her round orange... barrel.

“Scootaloo,” Cheerilee murmured to her, “Don’t you think that’s kind of ...strange?”

“Yeah ith ththally githhh,” Scootaloo said indulgently.

“Stop scarin’ your momma, Scootaloo,” Apple Bloom said up to her chidingly. “Ah just wanted ya to know so’s you can talk better.”

Scootaloo pulled her tongue in, looking at Cheerilee abashedly. Apple Bloom took that as a cue, saying, “So y’gotta keep your tongue nice and small when you say ess or tee or uh arr or anything. If you expand it too much, you’ll sound like you got a mouthful of marbles.”

“Thoothaloo,” Scootaloo said crossing her eyes searchingly. “Sgoota—Scoorahoo. Woah, thaths... thads... thack...” she groaned and put a hoof over her face, saying, “Ith sthill harld!”

“You’ll get it, Scoots!” Apple Bloom said. “Just listen ter me, ah’m sounding almost like my old self. Don’t worry it didn’t take me months to figure it out.”

“Yeah etheth...” Scootaloo looked like she wanted to respond with a comeback, but she really was struggling there trying to figure her new mouth.

“Thweethie,” Sweetie said experimentally. “Shweezhe... huh.” She seemed a lot more hesitant than Scootaloo to spray out her syllables to test out different things.

“Alright,” Apple Bloom declared. “So first we gotta... uh...” She tapped a hoof on her chin. “Practice or something... ah don’t recall what ah was saying at first... ah wasn’t talking a whole lot, ah’ll tell ya. Hm...”

“Well I—” Cheerilee spoke up, pausing but forging on with, “I might have a book in the library with speech exercises in it. Would you like to che—I can get it this afternoon, if you like.”

“That’d be great!” Apple Bloom said, relieved. “Ah guess until then, we can try um... walking an’ all.”

“Cahn yhou rearlly sthand on theshe?” Scootaloo said, eyeing the untextured hooves at the end of her legs, and her new legs, with consternation.

“Y’can do lots more than that,” Apple Bloom said. “Might take a while to learn, but if your hooves are mah hooves, then you’re in for a treat when it comes to moving aroun’.”

“Hath anhyone stheen Rarithy?” Sweetie said, craning her head around curiously.

After Rarity had been found, and revived (again), the three pony girls did try to figure out talking a bit better. It was lots easier with Apple Bloom there to provide advice. The other two just focused on trying not to slur their esses, and putting their ts in the right places. And that weird z-buzz that kept sneaking into Sweetie’s syllables. Not even Apple Bloom was sure about how to fix that.

That was how Applejack and Big Macintosh happened upon them, with Scootaloo smooshing her face in while Sweetie Belle was ignoring the two of them, still trying obsessively to figure out how to curl her tongue properly for ‘r’. Granny started trying to whip up a quick breakfast for Apple Bloom’s two siblings, before everyone had to run out for school. They weren’t quite stocked to feed five people, would have to get some more eggs from the grocery. But that brought to mind another issue Apple Bloom wanted to address.

“Oh, hay,” she said in sudden realization.

“Whath is id?” Scootaloo asked, looking to Apple Bloom with concern in her eyes.

“No,” Apple Bloom said, putting a hoof to her face, “Ah said hay.”

“Whas going on?” Sweetie Belle asked, lifting her head and looking (more) big eyed at Apple Bloom.

“Nothing,” Apple Bloom said to them seriously. “Ah just remembered about hay. Y’all can eat it now!”

Unsurprisingly, Sweetie’s gaze dropped and Scootaloo looked away. Sweetie remained silent, but Scootaloo muttered unhappily, “Don’ wanna eath glass.”

“Gla... oh, yeah,” Apple Bloom blushed herself. “It is a kinda grass. An’ you can eat that too, if’n you want...”

“Not leally,” Sweetie said in dismay.

“Hey c’mon,” Apple Bloom nickered to the two of them, “If’n I cain eat it, it cain’t be so bad. You’re not like all animals just ‘cause you eat something different. Think of it like a superpower. Y’cain eat something that grows right off the ground!”

The two still hesitated, until Granny leaned into the living room and exclaimed, “There’s a pancake with seerup fer any pony who eats their hay.”

Sweetie brightened immediately at the prospect of ~~syrup~~breakfast, and Scootaloo said eagerly, “Ooh, okay, so how do we eat it?”

Big Macintosh was busy taking over flipping the flapjacks. Granny was quite busy getting ready to go to work herself, as was Cheerilee. Applejack was due to head to school today, and Rarity was about having a fit with how she was going to get prepared for her morning classes.

“Ain’t you got all your books already?” Apple Bloom asked her in passing, to which Rarity exclaimed,

“Books? Books?!” and Rarity turned her streaky face to Applejack, waving a hand at Apple Bloom and tearfully crying, “She thinks all I need are books! She doesn’t even no-ho-hotice!”

Yeah Apple Bloom was not planning on disturbing Rarity’s frantic... whatever that was.

Instead, she stood before the bale of alfalfa all by herself, looking at it thoughtfully. Her two friends were still stuck over by the couch, and Apple Bloom didn’t exactly want to serve it on a plate, but all her family was sorta busy. So she just got... frustrated, and bit down on one of the cords wrapping around the hay bale, and tried pulling on it.

Surprisingly, it started to move. An exultant feeling filled her when Apple Bloom realized she was moving a hay bale that was bigger than her. It’d be as big as a couch if she were her old size. It was taller as the top of her head, like she was dragging a wall of straw alongside her, but it was easy! Hay wasn’t too heavy anyway. She could totally do this, and didn’t need to impose on her family any more hardship, not one bit.

So Apple Bloom smugly as possible, dragged the bale of hay over to the couch, and patted it, with a smile to her pony friends who looked at it apprehensively. “Hold on a sec,” Apple Bloom added, charging off and filling up her water bucket... hopefully it’d be enough for the three of ... kind of weird to be sharing a glass like this. Even if by glass you meant bucket. Oh well. Nothing to be done about it, because Apple Bloom was tired of pussyfooting around. Or would that be pussyhooving? Ponyhooving around?

Once fully situated, Apple Bloom said before the two of them instructively, “Y’can bite off little pieces if’n you like.” She demonstrated by nibbling at the hay bit by bit until she had a good sized bolus in her mouth. “It’s lots quicker to just let it hang outta your mouth, while you bite off pieces to roll to your back teeth. ” she said around the hay ball, “But for now, just bite off little pieces thirectly, so you can get used to it.”

Scootaloo was actually the most hesitant of the two of them to eat it, but she warmed up after she saw Sweetie Belle take a nibble of some hay sticking out, and then another nibble and another, until Sweetie had a mouthful to slowly chew on, looking pleased as punch with herself for doing it. Scootaloo cautiously stuck her neck out, putting her teeth around a tiny tuft of the straw. It snapped right off like a pair of shears when she bit down and she pulled back sticking her tongue out with the bit of grass on it. “Bleah,” she said neutrally.

She didn’t reject it though, pulling her tongue in and running her teeth over the stuff awkwardly. Apple Bloom offered, “It’s easier to chew if you get more in your mouth than a little bite... it kinda clumps together. Try takin’ a few more bites first.”

Scootaloo did, and the third bite was a bit too enthusiastic, the surprised pony pulling out a big clump of hay before her teeth bit off the end of it, the discarded strands settling to the floor. Apple Bloom hoovered them up though. She noted her friends’ shocked expressions as she stuck them into the hay bale again, and blushed, saying, “Don’t worry, ah sweep the floor.” At their continued looks of trepidation she said, “Aw gimme a break. The hay is a lot dirtier than the floor!”

Sweetie said very uneasily, “Um, maybe we shoul’ wash id firsh?”

Apple Bloom shook her head negatory. “That just encourages mold, an’ plus dirt has helpful microbes in it. A teeny lil’ bit is actually good for you, or so said th’ Survival Society’s Sweeping Soil Syllabus.” She blushed and looked away saying, “Which ah was uh... readin’ in mah spare... time.” Among other things. Many, many other things.

“Look, ah’ll show you,” Apple Bloom said fixing her jaw determinedly. She reached forward and biting off a big clump of hay, then standing there chewing it up until she got it all in her mouth, while the two of them watched with morbid fascination. “Ah been eating vish stuff for monthsh,” Apple Bloom said, “So ish fine to eat. You’d be surprished how mush dirt you might find in your food.”

So Sweetie hesitantly went back to getting herself a second mouthful of hay, while Scootaloo went and pulled out another big clump of hay, once again dropping it to the floor before she could eat it. She stared down at it kind of like a kid who just dropped their ice cream cone on the sidewalk. Apple Bloom went and picked up the dropped strands and slid them back in the bale, saying,

“If’n you really wanna do that Scoots, jus’ hold it the hay your lips, an’ bite with your chompers. You can hold lots of things with just your lips now.” So that’s what Scootaloo did, and it worked great once she used her lips to stop it from falling out of her mouth when she bit on it. Even expecting it, Apple Bloom had to admit that a ponified Scootaloo, with a tranquil expression on her face, slowly chewing a bunch of hay dangling out of her mouth, that was some sort of off-the-charts adorable.

So the three of them got their hay like good little fillies, and the three of them got their pancakes, even though Apple Bloom had to help them with the fork and knife. It was actually the first time Apple Bloom had put anything into a mouth, with a fork, all the way back to the day she changed. Usually Apple Bloom could only use her utensils for cutting it up and then just had to eat with her face. But helping them eat, she could bite the fork and spear the pancake segment, then put it over so Scootaloo or Sweetie Belle could snap up the syrupy thing sorta like she was their momma bird.

It was an odd experience, having to feed her friends, but throughout this whole ordeal Apple Bloom had gone through: turning into a pony, being stuck on a farm, changing her diet, all the troubles with her friends and family, it was all worth it to see the look on Sweetie Belle’s face. Sweetie’s eyes got real big as she took her first bite, learning just how much better maple syrup on a pancake tastes to her now. Scootaloo too, but Sweetie Belle’s reaction was just something else. Apple Bloom really shouldn’t have been glad that her friends were ponies. She really shouldn’t have been.

In the meantime, everyone who had to bow out for Canterlot High bowed out. Rarity’s boat scraped out of the driveway first, for a trip to her emergency salon, then Cheerilee’s beamer, and finally Applejack and Granny Smith in the Apple truck. That left Scootaloo, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, under the watchful eye of Apple Bloom’s brother, who really didn’t need to have too much of a watchful eye, as two out of three of the friends still hadn’t mastered walking yet, much less running around and getting into trouble. Plus they were sixth graders and could mostly take care of themselves, even if the kind of pony they turned into looked like a little kid.

All in all, the day went as uneventfully as it possibly could have for a trio of girls turned into little ponies. Oh and they never figured out what those weird twisted fuzzy arms were for on Scootaloo’s back. Then again, Sweetie’s horn seemed just as ornamental, so for all they could tell, they were just being a trio of ponies together, with no real differences between each other. It was the best day of Apple Bloom’s life since that dream long ago, because for the first time she really, genuinely, honestly wasn’t alone.

For Applejack and Rarity on the other hand, the day didn’t go as well. The latter had to minor in Olympic sprinting to get to her class on time, once her was hair properly squiggled out. Applejack was stuck with a pop quiz on yesterday’s lesson, which she hadn’t been able to attend due to watching over Apple Bloom at first, and then as the day progressed a whole lot of crazy drama with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. The two girls were already looking exhausted by the time lunch came around, and Rarity just slumped in her seat morosely, twirling her spoon in the pudding cup, while Applejack was still up getting her food. Sunset, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were all looking at Rarity with worry, but she hardly seemed to notice the attention, too lost in her private thoughts to even decide what to tell them.

Applejack meantime dropped her tray on the table her friends were sitting at with a clatter, flumping down in front of it, leaning back and declaring, “Whoo-wee! Y’all would not believe the day ah had yesterday!”

Author's Note

I used to have tantrums just like this. :heart:

Big Reveal Feels

Applejack looked at the other five of her best friends in the whole wide world. Cheerilee had given her the go, and Rarity was right here. If Rarity wanted to start something for letting out the truth, she could very well start something with her own two fists, because Applejack just couldn’t stand it anymore. And she hated to admit it, but she really needed the help.

Applejack felt out of her element in this, as bad as a fish that jumped out of the water right onto the grill. There might be some sciency thing or some sorta mythology about girls turning into ponies, but Applejack never heard or saw anything like that before, and she sure as hell didn’t know what to do about it. There was no way she could deal with this; hell there was no way anyone could deal with this. But if anyone could deal with this, it would be her friends. And Rarity don’t count because she’s in the same bag as Applejack now.

Applejack sorely needed help, as much good as it would do to just ask a bunch of fellow high schoolers about it. But they were her friends, and they ain’t never let her down. Not together, had the five, now six of them, ever failed to come around and solve a problem, which any one of them couldn’t face alone. When it was just Apple Bloom, it was none of their business what happened to her baby sister. It was Applejack’s duty to protect her, and make sure she wasn’t all alienated or nothing, and frankly Applejack knew her friends weren’t the best sort to respect Apple Bloom’s privacy.

Applejack was sore worried that if she told them, her friend Fluttershy was liable to go completely overboard, and that Sunset gal she was so sciency she would probably want to experiment on them or something. But now that Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle had been drawn into it, it was starting to get a mite... worrisome. It wasn’t just a family affair anymore. It was something Applejack just had to put her pride aside, swallow that lump in her throat, and tell them all. Because she would never be able to live with herself if it turned out even one of her friends could help those three younger girls, and Applejack had just never had the guts to ask for their help.

So she clattered down her tray and announced with deliberate enthusiasm, “Whoo-wee! Y’all would not believe the day ah had yesterday!”

Rarity paled at Applejack’s casual mention, which was an impressive feat for a girl who was already white. She seemed tongue tied though, which was good because it gave Applejack a chance to think of what to say, now that she went and stepped in it.

“Ah uh...” She sat up straight, then curled over, leaned over her tray, poking at her food bashfully saying, “It’s uh, been a right crazy whole school year, to be honest. And ah haven’t been tellin’ you girls about it, but not because you don’t deserve to know, just that there’s a sister very close to me, who I had no right to be spilling the secrets about her private life. Even if it is a real whopper of a secret.”

She looked up at the five, now very attentive, except Rarity who was shaking her head frantically and dragging her finger across her neck. “Ah know, ah know Rares,” Applejack said giving her a sympathetic look, “But this here’s beyond both of us, and it won’t do any of us good to keep on hiding it.”

“I...ugm...” Rarity managed to say, then shaded her eyes, quietly announcing, “Very well, then,” with a note of quiet finality to it.

“Alright, so me and Rarity’s sisters are also friends,” Applejack stated frankly, “And they got a third friend namea Scootaloo, who’s the Librarian’s daughter. You may have heard of a kid named Scootaloo, Rainbow Dash.”

Dash snickered at that. “Yeah, I’d tell her to give it a rest,” Dash explained, “But you should see the look in her eyes when I score. She’s like, my biggest fan or something.”

“Oh, I have a class with Scootaloo,” Fluttershy said in a surprised tone.

“Really?” Dash said with an eager grin towards Fluttershy, “What class is it?”

“Oh um...” Fluttershy trailed off, hiding behind her hair.

“Didn’t catch that,” Rainbow said putting her hand over her ear.

“I really shouldn’t,” Fluttershy said very quietly.

“It’s a dance class,” Sunset Shimmer spoke up, making Fluttershy hide further, but also cast a grateful glance at the girl who stole Rainbow Dash’s attention. “Don’t ask me how I know,” Sunset continued in her enigmatic fashion, “But I’ve seen Fluttershy and Scootaloo, and they’re pretty good at it.”

“Did you see Scootaloo at the Formal?” Rainbow said to Sunset. “I couldn’t believe she had moves like that! She’s been studying it? Go figure! She knew all the right moves and she never even skipped a step. I think she’s going to be an awesome dancer!”

Dash blushed then, and looked aside saying, “Er, you know, if that’s what she wants to do, I mean.”

“About that,” Applejack said flatly, with a core of dread in her gut. Rainbow was not going to like the news. Rainbow didn’t overstate her enthusiasm about Scootaloo’s prospects, and in fact Rainbow probably understated it. She wanted Scootaloo to succeed more than she even realized. She saw Scootaloo like herself at a younger age, with the whole world open to her, just waiting for Scootaloo’s success to take hold. And now, well... suffice to say Scootaloo wasn’t going to be majoring in dance any time soon.

“So those three had a...” Applejack tried to formulate how she was going to say it.

Pinkie Pie jumped right in, saying “A run-in with evil shapeshifting monsters who tried to replace them but were defeated at the last minute by a super secret spy agency who now had to induct them all since they knew too much so now they go on top secret missions to keep the world safe from tyranny and that’s why Apple Bloom has been absent because she had to fly to Bangladesh to meet with a famous adventurer so they could recover an ancient idol from a hidden temple deep in the jungle but she got lost so her fellow secret agents code-named Scooter and Bell (that means Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle) have to go and rescue her now?”

Applejack blinked at her.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure that isn’t the reason,” Rainbow Dash said with a wan look in the direction of the excitedly bubble haired girl. Pinkie just had the biggest smile on her face.

“If only it were so mundane,” Rarity mumbled into her plate.

“Not even... close, Pinkie,” Applejack said, as Pinkie’s enthusiasm deflated a teeny bit. “Now button up, so ah can tell y’all before we run out of lunch period.” Pinkie obediently, metaphorically, literally zipped her lips shut. The rest of them were listening pretty hard, except Sunset who just stared forward at nothing, with a dark look on her face, and Rarity, whose eyes were shifting about at the others with a nervous anxiety.

“So those three had a dream,” Applejack said simply, “An’ they all had the same dream, which was weird in of itself. You might recall the quote media hoax unquote that involved Apple Bloom pretending to be a pony. Well that dream was what caused it. She dreamed about findin’ this golden apple or something or other, and it changed her into a pony. She didn’t tell no one though, because it was just a crazy dream she had, even if it was weird her friends remembered it too. You sometimes have the same dream as friends, about something you talked about before and forgot, so it ain’t all that crazy a thought.”

She sighed. “Now, ah don’t make a habit of prevaricatin’, and ah’m glad ah don’t, because ah can honestly tell you that as crazy as it sounds, what ah’m sayin’ is the honest truth.” Looking them all in the eyes with an earnest plea, Applejack said, “Somethin’ big happened, that ah just cain’t deal with. Ah need your help, and for that ah need y’all to trust me, y’hear?” She paused and added, “Ah ain’t never lied to y’all.”

“Oh just tell them already,” Rarity seethed grumpily, turning away and crossing her arms.

Applejack tipped her hat down self consciously, but then raised it up again so that she was sure they could see her face, when she said straight, “Two days after mah sister had that dream, she really did change into an honest to gosh little pony, cute as a button. Ah swear it’s the truth, an’ not a hoax! And she hain’t been able to come to school since on account of she ain’t got hands anymore, and she don’t want people judgin’ her, or panickin’.”

The five were silent. “Mah little sister turned into a pony,” Applejack repeated, in case they didn’t catch that.

“Welp,” Rainbow Dash declared loudly, standing up from her seat at the table. “Guess there’s a first time for everything!” She started to storm off—

“Rainbow, wait!” Applejack said, starting to stand herself, before the girl could walk off in disgust. “There’s more!”

“I told you, I don’t wanna get into your freaky horse cult, or whatever it is,” Dash said over her shoulder. “We asked you for pictures, we asked you to come over, you had a million chances to prove it, but you always make some excuse! You fooled us once, and when we called your bluff, you couldn’t pony up. How is that not a hoax? Maybe when you care enough to tell us what’s really going on, you can—”

“Scootaloo’s a pony, too now!” Applejack said desperately. Sunset froze at that statement, but everyone else was too worked up to notice. “Ah’m not lyin’ to ya—”

“Oh, that’s just cold,” Rainbow said rounding to stare Applejack in the face. “Trying to scare me into believing you, just because Scootaloo didn’t show up for practice today? News flash: there’s no way, in no sense, that could possibly—”

Rarity snapped out from her seat at Rainbow Dash, “She is telling the truth, you complete, insensitive, pigheaded—ergh!”

“It is quite a lot to assume,” Fluttershy mentioned, irregardless of this outburst. “Um, not that I’m judging or anything, it just seems outlandish...”

“You’re telling me,” Pinkie exclaimed in outrage, “That my story about super secret spies and hidden temples is ridiculous, and your story about girls changing into dream ponies for real is not?!”

“No ah ain’t!” Applejack said hotly to the party planner. “They’re both ridiculous stories, an’ there’s no way ah’d believe either one, if’n I didn’t see them with mah own eyes.” She was hot under the heels now, glaring at Pinkie saying, “They’re both ridiculous, but mah story is the truth.”

Pinkie’s angry face immediately erupted into a pleasant smile and she said, “Oh, okay!”

Applejack was starting to regret telling them about this.

“Look, just hear me out,” she begged them, sitting back to her seat feeling downright enervated. “Y’all don’t have to believe me, ah just need to know what I should do.”

Rainbow didn’t let her eyes off of Applejack as she sat back down. “If you need my help, you got it,” she said, “But if you keep stringing us along like this, there’s just not much I can do to help.”

“So yesterday,” Applejack continued, watching warily her friends, as if they’d all just disappear on her like smoke, “Two of Apple Bloom’s friends, the ones with her, in her dream, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo they both changed into ponies. We managed to get them safe on mah farm, but they ain’t got nowhere to go now. And it’s been months since Apple Bloom changed, so it hit us right out of the blue, and ah don’t know how many months until someone else changes, or if it was just the dream, or what. They’re dang blasted ponies for god’s sake. Runnin’ around on four hooves, all furry and stuff, just about the size of a breadbox, and they’re still talking like they’re the same girls as ever.

“And... they ain’t even normal ponies either,” she said, slumping on the table. “They’re the same color as when they were human, and lots smaller than reg’lar ponies, and get this: Sweetie Belle went and grew a horn, just like a unicorn!”

“That’s—” Rainbow managed to say skeptically, before Applejack told her worriedly,

“And Scootaloo got these arms on her back, but they’re all weird and twisted. Ah think somethin’ went wrong with her transformation, and ah don’t know how to tell her without her havin’ another freakout. She’s not dealin’ with it, Sweetie’s not dealin’ with it, they were still in shock when ah left but ah don’t know how they’re going to do when it really hits them. They ain’t human no more, and ah... ah just want my baby sister back...”

Her arms were wet for some reason, where she was laying her eyes on them. Applejack couldn’t even continue, so she just sat there, shoulders heaving, for a ...good moment before she was again interrupted.

There was a clatter of a chair falling over, which shocked Applejack out of it long enough to raise her head in confusion. Sunset was standing there with her fists balled at her sides and such a look on her face. She blurted out, “I have to go,” and just took off at a dead run, beating her way out of the cafeteria and charging down the hallway. She didn’t even take her tray up, or finish her lunch.

“She knows something!” Rainbow shouted accusingly, her own chair falling over as she jumped up from the table. Applejack about threw herself after Rainbow. No hope she could catch up with that speed demon of course, but she was no slouch either, and Applejack’s speed was driven by desperation.

It didn’t help that Sunset used every trick in the book to shake them. Applejack caught up with Rainbow looking around, and it was only Dash’s keen eye that spotted Sunset sneaking out of the broom closet. Turning the corner with the busted light only to find she’d vanished, but then Rarity was there shouting that she’s on the ceiling, but by then she pushed past Rarity and was gone. Then there was that time they were chasing her back and forth through all those rooms in the hallway. Applejack never did figure how Sunset got them to chasing each other, while Sunset ran the other way. There may have been further shenanigans at one point, involving a janitor’s cart, really bad directions, and a large, handlebar moustache.

They almost caught Sunset in the trophy hall, but class bell rang, and she was outside before the rest of them could escape the crowd. Well, most of the rest of them. Fluttershy had thought ahead apparantly, the moment this whole thing started, and didn’t chase Sunset at all. No, she was just waiting out there all quiet-like, over by the bus stop, the only way out of here for a student, that wasn’t your feet. Wait, didn’t Sunset have her...permit or something?

Anyway, Sunset did go straight for the bus, and the flame haired girl turned on her heels at the sight of Fluttershy waiting there, then charged right back into the school through a fire door that, for all intents and purposes, should have been locked from the outside. Rainbow Dash, then Applejack ran in after her, and as they searched the crowds for her incredibly distinctive hair, Rarity walked up with an unreadable expression on her face. The crowds were already thinning out, and there was no Sunset to be found.

“It seems she has given us the slip,” Rarity declared in a note of disgust.

“Ooo! Ooo!” And here’s Pinkie Pie. “Can I have it?” the cluelessly bubbly girl asked prancing up to Rarity eagerly.

Rarity blinked at Pinkie, and said in a bemused tone, “Have what?”

“The slip!” Pinkie cheered. And then she about fell over laughing. It was ...uncomfortably contagious.

“Now hold on y’all,” Applejack said after her diapragm stopped doing the tango. “We gotta find her before a hall monitor finds us.”

“She’s at the library~” Pinkie sang.

Rainbow Dash gaped at her, saying, “How do you know that?!”

“Well, where else would she be?” Pinkie responded, rocking on her heels.

“...fair enough,” Dash conceded, hurrying in that direction. “Let’s go!”

The school library was a vast circular room with two stories of shelves. There was a platform at the middle topped with a Roman bust, which had been retrofitted with the computers that were all the rage these days. Around the perimeter were not one, but two stories of bookshelves, with more aisles of bookshelves behind them before anything reached the wall. It was easy to get lost there, closer to the arching glass array of panes that made up the ceiling. It was the largest library in the entire city, the next one down being some dinky book shack called Golden Oaks.

Unfortunately that also meant a lot of hiding places. Pinkie was very rarely wrong when she had a sense for those sorts of things, but saying Sunset was in the library didn’t narrow it down a whole lot. There was only one way out of the library, so once again Fluttershy guarded the door, while the rest of them went off searching. It didn’t take long before Rainbow Dash hissed to Pinkie Pie where she was, and Pinkie Pie told everyone else. Together, they managed to corner Sunset in a nook where there weren’t any places between the bookshelves through which she could escape.

It wasn’t hard actually, because Sunset wasn’t even paying attention, surrounded in a heap of discarded books on mythology and the like, didn’t even notice them sneaking up. “Ugh,” she sneered disgustedly, throwing another book into the pile and rifling through she shelves. “How can I stop people from turning into ponies if none of these books have anything about both ponies and the Golden Apple?”

“And just what is the Golden Apple?” Rainbow Dash ran forward on her own as usual, getting right up in Sunset’s face and saying to her heatedly, “And how do you know so much about this, huh? Are you turning people into ponies? WOAH”

Predictable as ever, Dash was totally caught off guard when Applejack once again yanked her back from an unneeded confrontation. That girl could be so hot headed sometimes, and coming from Applejack, that said a lot. “Simmer down Sally,” Applejack said, getting an immediate worried reaction from Rainbow, who really didn’t like people using her middle name. It got her attention though, and broke her temper, which was all you needed with that girl.

“She ain’t turnin’ no one into ponies,” Applejack said to Rainbow Dash, but then she turned to her mysterious friend Sunset Shimmer and said seriously, without looking away from the flame haired girl, “But she sure knows what’s goin’ on.”

“Don’t you, Sunset?” Applejack stated more than asked, giving Sunset a very even look. The rest of them, even Fluttershy were converging around her, two with a terrible onus on their heads, one with a burning curiosity, and two hardly aware of anything other than that their friends need them, and that there’s some serious bad mojo going on here.

And sure to her nature, Sunset looked for a moment like she was going to just blow them off, or tell them something false, because she just couldn’t trust them. But Applejack was determined to get an honest answer out of her, and it was just too much even for a sly fox like Sunset. Whatever was going on with this whole pony thing had likely had been bothering her for some time too, so Sunset’s head dropped and her shoulders sank.

“I’m a pony from another world,” she said. And it was so out of left field, it just had to be the honest truth. “I mean,” Sunset immediately corrected herself, raising her hands, “I’m not a pony now, but that’s because your world has humans, not ponies, or that’s what I thought. I was stranded here because your world is trapped in a time loop. You’ve been repeating the last year for as long as anyone—as anypony can remember. When I missed my exit, I was caught in it too, but my Equestrian spirit doesn’t reset, so I’ve been following along with you for a ...while.

“I’ve been trying to break the time loop so that I can return home, and you won’t keep repeating, but the only thing that can break it is something called the Golden Apple,” Sunset went on intently. “It’s only mentioned in vague myths and legends, but it’s clear that it’s a dream construct. A... persistent thingy that you dream about, that acts as the key to unlock the seal on time itself. I could never find it, not even in my wildest dreams, but then this time around, Apple Bloom did. She was just... perhaps it was her destiny. Perhaps she was part of it all along. Something changed, and I don’t know what it was.”

Sunset actually had a tune of gratitude in her voice as she looked beseechingly to and only to Applejack. “Your sister, Applejack,” she said, “She found the golden apple in her dream, and broke the time loop, and now I can go home, and you can all get on with your lives.”

Sunset paused at that point and backed away, as if unsure how to continue, but then just nibbled at her thumb, and stated frankly, “And then she changed into a pony. I have no idea why.”

Everyone erupted into questions.

As Sunset tried to calm them down enough to answer any one of them, the level of noise was horrendous enough to bring the librarian stomping up the stairs to bear down on them angrily. “Quiet!!” she bellowed out louder than any of them, as they all fell silent and turned to look at her.

“Do you mind?” Cheerilee said irately, pointing at the sign on the wall that said ‘Please Be Quiet In The Library’. “This is a library!” she hissed.

Rarity was the quickest tongue on her feet, and after a mind numbing pause, she was the first to speak. “She knows something about what happened to Scootaloo,” Rarity said rather accusingly, whereupon Cheerilee charged forward, grabbed Sunset in the blink of an eye, and shouted right into her face,

“TELL ME EVERYTHING YOU KNOW!”

There was a pause and, Cheerilee backed up laughing nervously, then said, “I mean, perhaps we should discuss this somewhere more appropriate.”

It was a rather awkward bus ride. Tensions were high since their confrontation had to be interrupted by the unquestionable necessity of classes, all the way until after school. None of them wanted to make a scene on the bus, either. They all wanted to speak their peace, but they agreed not to say anything until they arrived. And worse, since school took so long, they barely had any time to talk at the cafe, without skipping dinner or falling even further behind in their homework load.

Homework took a secondary priority to people changing into ponies of course. So everyone put up with it, while trying as best they could to avoid talking about anything pony related. It was more difficult than you would imagine.

“Ain’t no way ah’m gonna pass Econ now,” Applejack said glumly, “Not with having missed the weekly quiz twice on account of...” she fell to silence.

“I have had the pleasure to experiment with the most interesting fashions lately,” Rarity said happily, “Such as that of...” she fell to silence.

“So,” Cheerilee said in a broadcast voice, looking around, “Quite the... bus this is, huh?”

A chorus of muted agreements came from the various seats.

Pinkie was the only one who didn’t seem dispirited. Rarity and Applejack were both in the thick of it, Sunset was a pony alien, Fluttershy was always like that, and Rainbow Dash was bummed because her friends were. “C’mon, cheer up everybody!” Pinkie said unflappably. “The cafe is just a hop, skip and a jump away, and we can work everything out then, or at least get a tasty mint frappe!”

“Pinkie,” Rainbow said irritably, “How is a coffee drink gonna help any of our problems?”

“Well, it might not help all of our problems,” Pinkie admitted, “But it solves the problem of not having a delicious iced drink! And we might all be doomed to the horrible fate of being adorable little ponies, but at least you’ll have a peppermint frappe!”

Rainbow opened and closed her mouth and said, “That doesn’t—”

“She has a point, dear,” Rarity put in dryly. “Solving a small problem might be just what we need.” Dash blushed while the rest of them sort of chuckled nervously. It helped clear the tension more than anyone thought it would, except maybe Pinkie. Once the bus dumped them off at the corner, they weren’t outright running for the cafe, but walked into it together as friends, or at least as mutual comrades in strife.

Cheerilee stared at the little bowl full of cinnamon custard cream, muttering something about how this was going to go straight to her thighs. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie both had that mint frappe thing, with pink and red peppermint sprinkles. Applejack had a bottle of fizzy, and Rarity made do with a strawberry milkshake. And Fluttershy had a biscotti and water, because she was worried about fitting into the outfit for her role in the winter pageant, despite what encouragement her friends gave her.

And Sunset had a triple scoop vanilla fudge banana sliced sundae.

The five stared her way, until Applejack finally spoke up to the slowly eating girl saying, “We ain’t gonna wait for you to finish that y’know.”

“Okay, fine,” Sunset said, dropping her spoon with a clatter. “What is it that you want to know?”

“You can still eat it while we talk,” Pinkie said in complete ignorance of the whipped cream moustache on her upper lip.

Sunset ground her teeth, but picked up the spoon again. She was going to need a triple scoop vanilla fudge banana sliced sundae or two to get through this emotional rollercoaster. The thing is, she’d already told them. Many, many times. They couldn’t remember of course, but she could. She could remember this very situation, except without Cheerilee, and how Pinkie and Rainbow always ordered the same drink, and how Applejack had an unmistakable love for apples despite her insistence that her family was that in name alone. Basically Sunset had been through this before, and she didn’t even have to wait for them to telegraph their moods before she could guess what they were going to say.

But if this was the last one, and if she was going to be stuck here forever, then—no, no that’s a terrible way to think about things. But she couldn’t stop feeling anxious as a newborn foal despite how tired and repetitive this sort of scenario was. She knew how not to mess it up, but... now she could mess it up, and she’d never had to deal with that, now for the great majority of her natural life.

“Alright so,” it seemed Applejack was going to be grilling her this time. “You don’t know ‘bout why she changed into a pony, but you do know about ponies.”

“Did you say you came from another world?!” Dash cut in. And that was the point in this conversation where everyone devolved into—

“Hold it,” Cheerilee said quickly. “Let’s take turns if we’re going to ask questions. That way we won’t devolve into senseless arguing, and miss Sunset here can actually answer us.”

“Fine,” Dash said, while Sunset blanked a bit. She knew Cheerilee was good at defusing tense social situations, but she hadn’t had her in this particular argument before.

“Alright,” Applejack said, “What do you know about what... Apple Bloom is. She ain’t a normal pony.”

“S-she is a normal er,” Sunset stuck a spoonful of ice cream in her mouth. “Your world has strange horses,” she said at length. “Those kinds of creatures with weird little rabbit eyes and big long goat noses, they just don’t exist where I’m from. Which is kind of odd, because goats and rabbits do, and they’re mostly the same between our worlds. I can’t really speculate on the parallels with any kind of accuracy, because I’ve been trapped here for... a while.

“But Apple Bloom is a normal pony,” Sunset concluded. “Just... she’s the kind of pony from where I come from, that I am. She got changed into a pony from a human, and I got changed into a human from a pony. So, there’s probably some parallel there, but I was transformed by the portal, and the process is mostly instantaneous. Plus, it only turns you into a pony if you’re going out of this world into my own. And I’m pretty sure Apple Bloom doesn’t know how to use the portal, nor is your farm on the other side.”

“Where is this portal?” Rainbow Dash asked, “And how do you use it?”

“Why?” Sunset countered snarkily, “You want to be a pony too?”

“N-no,” Rainbow said, folding her arms very convincingly. “That’s not what I meant!”

“Well, the only reason I’m telling you at all is that it’s closed,” Sunset said with a note of finality. “It won’t open again for another year, and your time loop hits before that happens. Keep in mind, this is all theoretical, since we’ve been able to keep native humans from coming to Equestria, so there’s no way to test it. But on the hypothetical case that you did go through the portal, you would come out as a flesh and blood pony, as if you were born that way.”

Sunset’s face darkened as she added, “And three days later when the portal closed, you would explode in a concentrated burst of antimagic radiation, killing anypony in the vicinity and causing irreparable damage to your surrounding environment.

“Then when the Summer comes to an end again, after the time loop resets, you would reappear safe and sound, with no memory of having done so,” she finished impassively, looking at her nails.

For a while, nobody had any further questions. And they should have hastily called off the meeting and scattered. That was what should have happened. But no, Cheerilee has to be here this iteration. And Cheerilee has to speak up saying, “How many ...ponies died?”

“Just two,” let slip from Sunset’s lips before the spoon even went limp in her hands. “One was a professor, who I never liked much anyway,” she continued resignedly, “And the other was my uhm... prison guard.”

“I sort of wasn’t supposed to uh, come here you see. I kind of... broke a lot of laws to get here and uhm... well,” Sunset waved her hand around trying to explain, “My point is, there are huge consequences trying to escape this time loop phenomenon, and ...sorry I didn’t tell you.”

“You were in prison?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed right in Sunset’s face with big starry eyes. “Did it change you? Did you have a cellmate? Do you have any tattoos?”

Sunset physically shoved her away and just said, “No.”

“I think we’re getting off track here, darlings,” Rarity said in a discontented tone, “This... ‘portal’ to your... ‘world’ changes humans into ponies?”

“And the other way around, yeah,” Sunset said amiably, “And no we can’t shove those three through and back, because it wouldn’t open this time. I know it’s related somehow, but without a... horn, I haven’t been able to investigate further.”

“A... horn?” Rarity said in a tone of odd affect.

“Yeah I... okay don’t laugh, not even you Pinkie,” Sunset grumbled giving Pinkie a death glare. Pinkie returned a close eyed smile and continued to sip at her frappe.

“So, I am actually a unicorn,” Sunset said casually, only to be sprayed in the face with frappe when Pinkie spat it out shouting,

“What?!”

Sunset returned to her death glaring, not looking away from Pinkie as she reached her hand out to pull free a napkin from the dispenser and wipe her dripping face. “You did that on purpose,” she stated in an icy cold tone.

“What?!” Pinkie exclaimed, “No I—” she glanced nervously at a glaring Applejack, and giggled to herself, “Well mayyyyyybe a little.”

“Please Pinkie,” Rarity said in an exasperated moan, “Let the poor girl continue. I believe you were saying something about being a unicorn?”

Sunset felt a little leery at the stars in Rarity’s eyes. She hadn’t been nearly as impressed the last time Sunset told her this. “Yeah I, uh,” Sunset admitted clumsily. “I was a pretty magical one, in fact. Top of my class, they couldn’t even light a candle to me. I was even the personal student of the princess herself. Not any more,” she concluded somewhat glumly.

“You were the attache to a princess?!” Rarity exclaimed right in Sunset’s face with big starry eyes.

“It was a long time ago!” Sunset defended frantically from the overeager girl. “She moved on, got another student! I don’t even know if she’ll talk to me anymore!”

Rarity pulled back somewhat with a look of horror on her face, “And all because you were stranded and trapped in our horrible mundane world? How awful!”

“I quit!” Sunset shouted.

Rarity shook her head, “Oh no, no please don’t stop on account of me. Do feel free not to mind my—”

“No, I mean I quit from being her student,” Sunset said. “I told her she was an awful pony. I said that she would regret ever crossing me. I just about kicked her face in, because...”

Sunset lay her forehead on the table. “Now I know you’re going to laugh.”

“Oh Sunset,” Fluttershy spoke up quietly, “If you need us not to laugh, well if everyone doesn’t mind that is, but I’m sure we can take you seriously. It’s okay, whatever it is you did is in the past.”

“You already told us you broke out of prison!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

“And you were a magical unicorn!” Rarity pointed out.

“Ain’t much you can do to top that,” Applejack said offhandedly.

Sunset sighed, and admitted it. “I was on the lead of a magical method to become a princess. I found out the princess Celestia had the crucial key to its success. She tried to hide it from me, because she didn’t want me to be a princess. I called her out on it, threw a tantrum, and got stuck here.”

The others blinked at her uncomprehendingly.

“Ah don’t see what’s so funny about that,” Applejack said, unsure.

“I wanted to be a princess,” Sunset said flatly. “I almost kicked Princess Celestia in the face because she wouldn’t let me be a pony princess.”

Still nothing. Sunset started to say, “I thought in your culture, princess was a highly submissive, feminizing—”

But was cut off quickly by Rainbow Dash falling over laughing, “Bahahaha!”

To be fair, Rainbow Dash was the first one to laugh, but that didn’t stop Pinkie Pie from joining right in.

“You? A princess?” Rainbow said in jovial astonishment climbing back to her seat. “You mean like with a pretty princess tiara, and getting married to a handsome prince and living happily ever after?”

“No, I mean like a powerful being composed of the three tribes of earth, air and fire, with dominion over the cosmos itself,” Sunset countered immediately, nipping that thought in the bud. “Princess has a different meaning in my world,” she explained. “It just sounds stupid here.” She paused, and added, “And they call it a crown over there, not a tiara. Tiaras are something worn by duchesses and heiresses, rather than princesses persay.”

“Oh, but think about it Sunset!” Rarity enthused dramatically, “My little Sweetie Belle, an attache to a princess! And a powerful magical being of style and grace!”

“Wait, Rarity, stop,” Sunset facepalmed and held up her hand. “First off, not every unicorn is going to be equally magical. It depends on talent and training, and how hard they work at it. I was both, so I hit the jackpot so to speak. Second off, there are tens of thousands of unicorns in Equestria. They’re just one of the three pony tribes, and most are perfectly ordinary ponies. Third, I think you’re holding your sister to too high a—”

“What are the other two tribes of ponies?” Fluttershy blurted out.

Sunset blinked.

“Um... I mean, that is if you ......” Fluttershy whimpered, wilting back.

“No it’s a good question,” Sunset said, “Especially for those three uh, kids. There are three tribes... three kinds of pony would probably translate the best. Sort of like strains, except they breed true it... okay there are three kinds of ponies. Apple Bloom is an earth pony, which makes her a lot different from a unicorn, and not just the horn. There are earth ponies, unicorn ponies, and”

Scootaloo huffed furiously and crossed her arms. Or she would have, if she was coordinated enough to do that. “I cahn thalk fine now,” she said, “Stho can you teath... teach us how to walgk already?”

Back at Sweet Apple Acres, the three pony girls were all sitting around in a circle in the living room. Sitting was a bit of a euphamism, for whatever weird posture Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo managed to scrunch themselves into. Sweetie was rocking unsteadily with her legs in the air, on her back, and Scootaloo was sort of splayed out on her belly.

The sun was high in the sky, and Apple Bloom was doing her best to give two new little ponies a lesson in linguistics and pronunciation. Unfortunately, Scootaloo had about had it like, ten minutes ago. She was a girl of action, not words! She hated sounding funny as much as Sweetie did, but it was just driving her up the wall that she couldn’t even walk. Did Apple Bloom plan this, teaching Scootaloo how to pronunciate correctly while Scootaloo was still too inexperienced with being this way to escape?

She hated being this orange... puffball thing. She was supposed to have skin, not fur! She had always been orange, and short, but this was ridiculous! She had gotten so used to visiting Apple Bloom’s house, but now she had to see it from Apple Bloom’s perspective. Scootaloo was not a fan, so far. Everything was so high up now! And she had two stupid useless hooves at the end of her weird arms, instead of confident, capable fingers. How was she even going to hold onto her handlebars without things to hold onto with? Could you even get a scooter that was small enough for her anymore?

And worst of all, she hated those twisted misshapen things at her sides. Of course she had to be the freaky mutant, while the others got to be cute innocent adorable ponies. Scootaloo’s cuteness was forever denied, because of these bent pointy pseudo-arms coming right out of her back. She was like a cute, fluffy... Zergling or something.

Okay admittedly that would be kind of cool.

But these things on her sides didn’t seem to be useful for anything. They didn’t have fingers on them either, and Scootaloo had absolutely no idea how to move them. The weird thing is, they kept moving without her even wanting to move them. Stretching out and spreading, and folding to her sides again. They just wouldn’t leave her alone! Her tail wasn’t giving her half as much trouble. She couldn’t concentrate on the speech lesson, when she had all these weird things to worry about, like weird extra arms and weird hoof feet instead of hands. She wished she was a unicorn like Sweetie Belle, because Sweetie hardly even seemed to notice her horn, much less find it bothersome.

Apple Bloom looked at Scootaloo, looked at the clock and sighed. “Okay, fine,” she said grumpily. Who knows why she got to be the grumpy one. At least she had clothes! Yeah, Scootaloo did not even want to think about what was going on between her transformed legs now. Probably something weird and freaky, like every other part of her. Apple Bloom said, “Okay, y’all can start by standing up.”

Apple Bloom demonstrated jumping to her feet, and Scootaloo watched disinterestedly yet desperately, still lying on her belly. Was she really going to have to walk like that from now on? What a raw deal. She couldn’t help but look away then, the weight of what had been thrust upon her catching up to the riled girl. Apple Bloom distracted her by saying out loud,

“Okay, so ya gotta sit back on your haunches, that means your feet and your butt and stuff. You push off with your front arms... front leg things, and use your back ones to keep pushing until your front ones are high in the air. Then if you fall forward, you can catch yourself on your front ones, while your back ones keep pushing up straight. Got it?”

“Um...” Sweetie Belle said uncertainly. “How do I geht off my backh?”

“Um, you just, like... roll, ah guess?” Apple Bloom said uncertainly.

Sweetie squirmed around, but didn’t have much luck. “My shouldersh won’ um, push...” she mumbled.

“Oh right!” Apple Bloom said. “Naw, you gotta push with your elbows instead, because your shoulders don’t work that way no more.”

“I guess thash one benefi’o having thesh fings,” Scootaloo said, trying, and failing to figure out how to raise one up as she looked back at it. “Can’t ged stuck on my backh, wiff theesh fhings to push me uprigh’.”

“Can ya move them now?” Apple Bloom asked hopefully.

Scootaloo shook her head, “Nah, noht yeth.” She looked at the hooves in front of her, continuing insistently, “So you uh, you geth your hlegs under you righ’? I mean, duh.” She swivelled her hips with difficulty until her legs were flat under her. Dimly, she could perceive that it was the flat of her foot pressed against the ground, where she should have felt the ball of her foot, and the heel, but it didn’t feel that way anymore. The bottom of her foot felt more like the side of her leg now, since it sort of was the side of her leg. It made sense, because Apple Bloom and by extension ponies went around all the time on their toes, with their feet up in the air. It was weird, but not unexpected. Scootaloo could totally figure this out.

“And zthen you just...” she said, tensing her muscles. Then Scootaloo tried pushing off, but only ended up splaying out again on her belly, arms akimbo. “Ugh...”

Apple Bloom sighed down at her. “Ah’m beginning t’ think standing up’s even harder than walking.”

“No, no I got thish,” Scootaloo said, making another attempt, flailing about and flopping on her belly again.

“I’m on my belly!” Sweetie announced brightly behind her. “Now what?”

“Now ya—” Apple Bloom paused. “Say... why don’t we just work on sitting first? It’s easy to stand up from there.”

With Apple Bloom’s careful instruction, the two of them were soon both managing to sit up like rabbits. Well, not exactly like rabbits since Scootaloo’s arms were pointing up, not down. It would have been more stable if Scootaloo braced her arms on the floor, but even with her useless pseudo-hands dangling before her, she didn’t feel like she was going to fall over. Between the broad surface of her actual feet, and that tail sticking out behind her, Scootaloo was actually pretty stable reared up like this. Once they could do that, Apple Bloom announced,

“Alright. Be ready to catch yourself with your arms. Now that you’re all sitting proper, just push with your feet, like you’re gonna try to jump. Instead of jumping, you’ll fall forward right on your front legs, um, front ones.”

Scootaloo and Sweetie shared a look, almost double taking again at the sight of each other as a pony. Never would get used to that. Sweetie looked so weird, and no doubt Scootaloo looked weird to Sweetie.

But they faced forward then, and tried jumping like bunnies. As she was supposed to, Sweetie Belle immediately overbalanced, and fell onto her front hooves with a frightened squeak. But when Scootaloo tried it, she just flew up into the air like a freaking spring!

And now the things on her back were trying to go all crazy! She may have yelped in dizzy alarm the moment she was airborne before tumbling as a flailing heap of various limbs, back on her belly, sprawled on the floor.

“Good try Scootaloo,” Apple Bloom said totally patronizingly, “Just push off less hard next time, and it’ll work for sure!”

“Oh my god...” Sweetie exclaimed quietly.

Scootaloo stopped mid-groan to look at Sweetie Belle. The little pony version of her friend was standing there just like a... well, a pony, looking at her own body in captivation.

“Oh my gosh Shweetie,” Scootaloo exclaimed in exaggeration from flat on the floor at the standing unicorn, “I fhink you’re a pony!”

Sweetie didn’t even give Scootaloo a death glare. She just stared downward and mumbled, half to herself, “I can’ believe I’m shtanding like a real pony, it’s... it’s easy.” She lifted her head up in a graceful S, and said, “I can just stand straigh’ like this and izh not even tense.”

“Pretty weird, huh?” Apple Bloom said in confirmation, walking forward and patting Sweetie Belle’s now exposed chest with the side of her hoof. “Feels like it shouldn’t feel normal, doesn’t it?”

“Bud it does!” Sweetie agreed, looking forward at Apple Bloom in astonishment.

Apple Bloom blushed and nodded, saying with a self conscious hoof lift, “Alright Sweetie, you can... uh, wait there a while. Scoots needs to try standing again.”

“Maybe I just can’t do it,” Scootaloo grumbled resentfully.

“Don’t be that way, Scoots,” Apple Bloom said in a hurt tone, walking over to her. “You’re ten times th’ athlete ah ever was, an’ I managed ta figure it out!”

Scootaloo glared at Apple Bloom saying sardonically, “Yeah, bu’ you wanthed to be—um,” she stopped glaring. And stopped saying sardonically. Blushing heavily, Scootaloo just rotated her legs around again, and pushed into a triangle position, and from there to sitting up on her haunches. “Sorry, AB,” she said balancing there meekly, “I’ll thry it one more thime...”

Any anger in Apple Bloom’s eyes softened, and she said, “Just push off real easy, just enough to make you fall forward. Your back feet can finish pushing up after your front feet are down solid.”

Scootaloo did so, and with a moment of panicked vertigo she was falling, but then her outflung arms dropped to the floor, landing solidly on those responsive hooves she had. She kept pushing with her rear legs, and all they did was slide back and up, until her other hooves were also firmly against the wooden floor, with her heels high in the air. From hunching over, Scootaloo lifted her head up...

...and it was weird. She just felt like she was... standing. But her feet were behind her, but also below her? No, those below her were her arms. But they felt like feet too. Dimly she was aware of the extra arms on her back folding up, from where they’d stretched out in a panic at the sudden disorientation.

What was weirdest wasn’t so much Scootaloo’s position though, but her position relative to Apple Bloom. These past months, Apple Bloom had transformed into such a cute little tiny pony, who was just adorable in everything she did. And now Scootaloo was standing there looking Apple Bloom eye-to-eye. Apple Bloom looked a lot different from down here. She looked more powerful and sure, and more like a... like a person rather than some overgrown teddy bear running around your legs.

“Wow Apple Bloom,” Scootaloo gulped, “You look, um, big.”

Apple Bloom’s eyes widened and her pupils narrowed; she looked at Scootaloo like she was some kind of an alien. Scootaloo cringed back just a moment. Then those pupils reversed course, growing big and deep and limpid, and Apple Bloom was actually tearing up, when she said quaveringly, “You’re the first person since this ever happened, who’s ever said that t’me!”

Then she glomped Scootaloo in a full body chest hug.

Scootaloo Has Wings

“Ap—” was as far as Scootaloo got, before Apple Bloom just charged up and hugged her, right over her shoulders. Fur slid against fur, and fur slid against dress as Scootaloo jerked back in surprise. Her back hoof slid and hit the edge of the fireplace mantle, but that’s all she could do. Scootaloo didn’t know how to react, or how Apple Bloom was managing to hug her as a pony, or why Scootaloo wanted to hug her back, or how to hug her back, since Scootaloo didn’t know how to get up off of standing on four legs.

“Ah’m sorry,” Apple Bloom said tearfully, with her head cradled right up into Scootaloo’s now thick, long neck, “Ah’m a bad person. Ah’m a bad pony. Ah shouldn’t—ah just don’t know what I’d do without you. This is so... ah shouldn’t even say it, ah’m sorry.”

“Okay, okay, Apple Bloom!” Scootaloo shouted in rising alarm. “I–I dunnoh howwa ge’ you to leggo!”

Apple Bloom stiffened then, and just pulled right back from Scootaloo, who flumped down in relief, on her bottom in an ungainly mess. “Oh gosh Scoots,” Apple Bloom said apologetically, “Ah’m... yeah, all you can do is stand there right now. Ah didn’t even think about that.”

“Wha’ are you sho sorry for?” Sweetie Belle whined, from where she still stood beside them, but closer to the couch. Her head easily turned their way, where her body yet could not, giving her the impression of a candy white, curly haired submarine periscope.

Apple Bloom adopted a guilty expression at Sweetie’s gaze. Apple Bloom’s hoof toed the floor under that green dress she had worn today, as if she still had toes to toe with. Actually, hooves did sort of feel like toes, so even Scootaloo had to admit it totally counted.

“Ah shouldn’t want it,” Apple Bloom explained in a muted tone, “It’s just so lonely here, an’ nobody understands what it’s like, an’ everyone’s callin’ me little and they’re right, but it still hurts. And... ah shouldn’t...

“Ah shouldn’t be so glad you’re both ponies now,” Apple Bloom, confessed solemnly without looking up.

Sweetie unwisely chose that moment to break down again. “How am I gonna be a fashionish like my shister, if I can’ even shew,” she warbled, staring down at her useless forelegs in hopeless despair.

You could see it about killed Apple Bloom to hear that. Scootaloo didn’t even want to look. You could just see her, just, shattering inside. So Scootaloo forced a smile, and said to Apple Bloom casually, “Hey, ish no sweatz for me, Apple Bloom.”

Apple Bloom had such a haunted look she gave Scootaloo when she lifted her head. But Scootaloo continued, saying to her bravely, “I’m tothally cool wiff being a pony, if it helpsh you out. I’ve been looking um...” She probably shouldn’t say it, and she didn’t really want to, but heck why not. “You been having phroblemsh, an’ ...I couldn’ hreally do anyfing, sho I’ve been looking for a way to help hyou, an’ I couldn’ do anyfing, and it... shucked.

“Szho now I ca’ help you, an’ you won’ be hlonely anymore, and everyzhing’sh gonna be aweshome,” Scootaloo concluded confidently.

She added under her breath, after a pause, “Zhoon as we can shtop speahking shtupid.”

“Well, missing all your classes ain’t so awesome,” Apple Bloom countered bitterly at Scootaloo, pointedly ignoring that last statement. “What are ya gonna do about that?”

“I hate schoorl!” Scootaloo countered back, with a vehemence that surprised even her. “I–I’m therrib...awful attit,” she explained haltingly, “It’sh all shtupid and I can’ pass anyfing and I waszn’ gonna make ith anyway, sh-so it’sh no big lossh.”

“Nobody likes school,” Apple Bloom reasoned, giving Scootaloo an uncertainly sideways look. “You gotta tolerate it though, if’n you want to get anywhere in life.”

“Only peophle who do goo’ at school ge’ anywhere in hlife,” Scootaloo muttered resentfully. “If you do badh a’ it, there’sh no pointh. It jus’ hurtsh an’ you keep failing, an’ then you shtill have to work a’ shtupid fesh foo all your life, an’ never getta do anyfing fun.”

Sweetie said over to Scootaloo in a miserable mewl, made all the more poignant by her higher, thinner voice, and her smaller, rounder (nakeder) form, “I ha’ no idea hyou were having szo mush throuble in school! Why didn’th you shay anyfing?”

“Wha’ were hyou gonna do abouth it?” Scootaloo asked her acidly, “Make me sh...study more? I’m jush stupi’ thatsh it.”

“You’re not stupid, Scootaloo,” Apple Bloom said authoritatively, forcing Scootaloo to look her way. At least Scootaloo had snapped her out of that funk she was falling in, but she felt like her friend didn’t know what she was getting into. The therapist said you weren’t supposed to talk about your problems with ...normal people. They’d just make them worse or something, but when Apple Bloom followed up with, “What’s happening when you study, exactly? Maybe we can help you out,” it was just so earnest, Scootaloo couldn’t help but tell her.

“Hwell,” Scootaloo started, grimacing and saying more carefully, “Well, I shtart sh...studying an’ I alwaysh ge’ up an’ go do shomeshing...somesthing else inshtead. An’ zhen zhe tesht comesh, an’ I fail.”

“Why don’t ya keep on studying?” Apple Bloom asked simply. It was about the simplest, most straightforward question you could ask, and it just didn’t have any satisfactory answers.

A weird horsey snort sound escaped Scootaloo when she tried to huff, saying, “I don’ know ish jus’... so... boring! Can’d even shtay still.”

Sweetie hmmed, then suggested, “Didja try running aroun’ firsh?”

“Yeah,” Scootaloo admitted glumly, “Didn’ help ish still boring.”

“Well, ya gotta just put your nose to the grindstone and bear it then,” Apple Bloom explained practically. “Ah know it’s not fun, but it’s less fun to fail your test.”

“I know!” Scootaloo shouted at her. She paused and blushed then, at Apple Bloom jumping in alarm, and said more evenly. “I know ish hard an’ you jush have to do id, bu’ it doesn’ work, an’ I jush can’t do it.”

“I jush can’t,” Scootaloo said almost pleadingly, to her red and yellow pony friend.

“So what,” Apple Bloom said unsympathetically, in a challenging tone, “You physically cain’t sit down an’ point your head at a book all of a sudden?”

Before Scootaloo could snap back at Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle did. “Apple Bloom!” Sweetie squeaked over from her helpless perch on four hooves, “Leahve her alone alreadthy! You fthink she’sz lying to you?”

Apple Bloom’s eyes flashed, and it looked like she was going to protest even that, but unable to meet Sweetie’s gaze, she hung her head, grumbling “Ah jus’ don’t get it, but okay.”

“Isz a sher...a therapy fhing,” Scootaloo said, unenthusiastic about the prospects of fighting this battle. It was like beating a dead horse, trying to fix her problems about school and being dumb.

“Well, what did yer uh, therapist say?” Apple Bloom offered cautiously.

“She zaid... she said noshing ish gonna change if I keep doing zhe same thing.”

“Well duh,” Apple Bloom said boldly, then blushed and added “Ah don’t mean no offense or nothing.”

“What didz she shay to change?” Sweetie asked in her steadily placid demeanor.

Scootaloo casually listed off in response, “Jus’ like... do i’ in a differen’ horder, or magke a game out of id, or make szure to do id every evening befohre dinner, shuff like that.” Stuff she’d tried, and stuff they told her to do.

“And...” Sweetie prompted uncertainly.

“And nozhing works!” Scootaloo exclaimed exasperated. “Sho she said I wash shooting down arl her ideazh and I was alwaysh being too negative like I wanted to fail!”

“You’re nod nega’ive though, Scootaloo,” Sweetie emphasized. “You’re always sho exshiting and upbeazt! Well, excep’ when you shange into a pony, I guesh.”

“I’m not any differen’ a pony,” Scootaloo emphasized, “Ish jus’ yeah, kinda a little bit usshetting t’ hwake up like zhis. I’ll never zhoin the team hnow!”

“Huh, what team?” Apple Bloom asked in confusion.

“You know, foo’ball,” Scootaloo said in puzzlement.

And then you know what? Apple Bloom started looking sad again! “Ah don’t even know half of what you are doing at school,” she said self consciously, drooping her nose down in a weirdly sad way. “Just living on the farm like this,” she said seriously, “It’s all I know nowadays.”

“Zchill, Afpple Bloom,” Scootaloo said dismissively, leaning to touch Apple Bloom’s side with her uh... cheek? Whatever. “You’re no’ gonna lesh shome shupid farm beat you. You’re gonna hfigure zish out, an’ you’re gonna figure a way even bezsher than school.”

Apple Bloom smiled at her, and, well, that was alright. “Ah still wanna hear all about what you’re doing at school. Or... I wanted to at least,” Apple Bloom said peacably. “So, you were getting into football?”

Scootaloo sighed. “No’...really. Jush sthingking aboud it. Wash going to zjoin Rainbow Dash’sh team, an’ make it to zhe nazshionalzh.”

“Okay, ah don’t care what you say about walking,” Apple Bloom sighed, “You have got ta work on your esses.”

Sweetie spoke up cheerlessly over where she was standing on the floor by the back of the couch, saying, “Was gedding tire’ of shtanding anyway.” Instead of sitting down though, Sweetie adopted a confused look when they turned to her, and said “Waiht,” looking over her own pony body. “Izh thish sh...standing?” she asked, lifting her head and eyeing Apple Bloom insecurely, “Or do you call it chrawling?”

“Ah call it walking, an’ ah won’t let anyone say ah’m crawling,” Apple Bloom confirmed to her in a hurt tone, “That’d be so demeaning! Now come on, botha you say nash,”

“Nash,” Scootaloo said with a roll of her eyes.

“Nazs...Nash,” Sweetie said a little less confidently, smacking her lips again.

“Can we pleashe walk?” Scootaloo exclaimed irately, from there on her belly on the floor.

Apple Bloom stared at her a sec, then tossed out, “Okay, fine. It ain’t complicated though. Standing up’s the hardest part. You wanna try to do that again, Scoots?”

“Okay sho I...,” Scootaloo puzzled at her bizarre limbs, extra ones nonwithstanding.

“You gotta first sit up like a bunny,” Apple Bloom instructed. “That’s the easiest way to start ah think. It ain’t nothin’ like real horses. Well except the rearing up part to get your front ones planted.”

Once Scootaloo was standing, Sweetie Belle sank down on her belly. Apple Bloom was about to admonish her, but Sweetie just shook her head and said, “I’ll thr...try laider...try later. You jus’ show Scootaloo for now.” Apple Bloom was relatively mollified by that. Not like Sweetie would try to get out of it. She just needed a rest.

Apple Bloom spent the next hour or so showing Scootaloo, and it really wasn’t all that difficult to get. Once Scootaloo was on her feet, or toes, or whatever, she just put one hoof in front of the other in the right order and bam, walking. Scootaloo wanted to learn how to trot, but even Apple Bloom had never figured out that part.

Apparantly Apple Bloom’s feet just sort of started moving that way, when Apple Bloom had tried to go faster than she could walk. Either Apple Bloom would fall on her face, or she’d trot, and eventually the latter just became the default. It wasn’t anything she could explain to Scootaloo, or teach for that matter, which was way disappointing. Same with gallopping. Apple Bloom described it like... jumping forward a whole bunch, but it still just sort of happened by itself when she tried to run. Scootaloo was disappointed that Apple Bloom couldn’t teach her how to do anything but walk slowly, but she did appreciate Apple Bloom’s advice on turning around.

Turning around was one thing that didn’t come naturally, and that was good because that meant it was something Apple Bloom could teach them. The trick was turning your head the way you wanted to go, while sort of trying to walk backward, without letting yourself walk backward. Like moonwalking, sort of. Ended up turning the force into torque, instead. But Apple Bloom wanted to be sly about teaching it. So, after teaching Scootaloo to move forward, and to move backward, which was the reverse except you have to lean back more, it was a sneaky trick in which Apple Bloom taught Scootaloo how to turn. The way she did it was humiliating, but it admittedly did work great.

Scootaloo was stuck facing the wall again, and her ears were down all by themselves. “I just can’ figure it out,” she said. “You turn haround by... moonhwalking? Tha’s a tolally hard move! Shagson made his career out of ith! I dun even know whatta do with... my han’s are feet and it’s weirld!”

“Don’t worry, Scootaloo, you’re doin’ great,” Apple Bloom said encouragingly from behind her, “You don’t need to turn around yet, just start walkin’ backwards again for now!” And as soon as Scootaloo did, Apple Bloom just heaved her shoulder right up against Scootaloo’s bottom, bunching up Scootaloo’s tail and stopping Scootaloo from moving one inch backwards.

“What zthe hell, Apple Bloom?” Scootaloo said, alarmed, pushing back against her stubbornly, but Apple Bloom didn’t budge an inch. Scootaloo swiveled as she pushed, her rear end slipping past Apple Bloom’s chest. The orange newly pony came to face Apple Bloom, saying angrily, “That is my assh you know!”

“Well howdy there,” Apple Bloom smirked at Scootaloo, “Guess you figured out how to turn around.”

“Y–uh—” Scootaloo looked at Apple Bloom incredulously, and couldn’t retort because she was realizing she did turn around. “How dith I...” and then Scootaloo went and started blushing fiercely. The blush was a delayed reaction, but Scootaloo knew when she was beat. “F-fine,” Scootaloo admitted, “Buth did you haffta molesht me?!”

“Ah didn’t do nothin’ to you!” Apple Bloom said, aghast, “Ah just had to stop ya from going backwards so ya’d turn instead. All ah did was get in the way!”

“Yeah but you thouched my buth,” Scootaloo said uneasily.

“Ain’t that what happens when you back into someone?” Apple Bloom said with an eye roll. “Ah don’t mind, really. Everyone backs into people all the time in the halls between classes, right?”

Scootaloo blinked at the uncomprehending Apple Bloom. Did she really not realize this? “Apple Bloom,” Scootaloo said slowly and carefully, “I am naked.”

“Yer not—yer...um,” Apple Bloom said spluttering to a halt, as her brain crashed and it was her turn to start blushing up a storm, in that peculiar way that shone right through the fur. Which was probably happening to Scootaloo too now, whenever she blushed.

“Ah kinda forgot, sorry...” Apple Bloom said feebly.

“Well, of courshe you want shome of this,” Scootaloo smirked, shaking her tush with a growing smile latching onto her face. She looked back at her own ass—being able to do so was weird enough in of itself. Ignoring the weird twisted limbs alongside her barrel, Scootaloo pointed at her own butt with a foreleg and said smugly, “Tha’s the hothesht ash in Cannerlot.” Humiliating herself was totally worth it of course, when she got to turn her head forward again, and see Apple Bloom trying to respond, while dying of blood loss from the neck down.

Well, at least Sweetie got a chuckle out of it. Or, giggle. Definitely giggle. That girl just didn’t have anything left of a chuckle in her voice at all. When Sweetie spoke it was more like an adorable kid than a high school girl, even a Freshman. Just one of those weird things about Scootaloo’s new species, or whatever. But after the giggle escaped that little white unicorn puffball, she started enthusiastically struggling to her hooves exclaiming, “I wanna thry too!”

“Shorry Sweetie,” Scootaloo said slyly with a slight lisp maybe okay maybe more than slight. But yeah, she said, “Shorry Sweetie, bu’ I’m shaving my ass for Apple Bloom.”

There was a silence.

Scootaloo angrily shouted, “I shaid shaiving— sha— saving! I shaid... I szaid sh...saving!” but she couldn’t make herself heard over Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle who had both fallen to their backs, laughing so hard it hurt. Scootaloo just couldn’t stay mad though. It was just impossible not to laugh at this. Everything was so ludicrous! Scootaloo had taken a long look at her body in the bathroom door mirror, and now she was imagining herself as a cute little pony, except with nothing but bright pink flesh and orange stubble on her behind... and her tail would look like a rat, practically!

So yeah, after all three of them ceased with the belly laughs, and they all felt a lot better about everything, Sweetie got her first try at walking. Then before Apple Bloom could even tell her what to do, Sweetie wobbled on her hooves, and put one forward, then took another two steps, one right after the other. Sweetie stopped half-stepped and looked over at Apple Bloom with a happy smile.

“You’re a natural, Sweetie!” Apple Bloom exclaimed in surprise, but Sweetie shook her head gently.

“You woold be amaze’ whash you can hlearn jusz’ from watching an’ liztening,” Sweetie said simply. “I did no’ even know if I did it righ... until you shaid I was a natural, that isz.”

Sweetie tried another step and, well, Scootaloo wasn’t threatened or anything but Sweetie was already walking pretty good. Scootaloo could do it better, but it’d taken Scootaloo a lot longer to do it just from doing it, without having someone to watch. Maybe there was something to this watching and listening thing. Scootaloo didn’t want to sit down though, so she just stood there quietly, turning her head to watch Apple Bloom, who was enthusiastically running around Sweetie Belle, checking her hooves, and her posture and... well her tail and... stuff that Apple Bloom understood, from being a pony for so long.

Apple Bloom’s brother was watching them when they were scampering around, and he interrupted Apple Bloom’s enthusiastic, if questionably successful attempts to get her friends walking around as ponies. Scootaloo was too busy to notice, staring at Apple Bloom like she was going to burn a hole through her, trying to see her hooves under that dress, trying to figure out how they moved, when she trotted around. Then suddenly the giant blue jeans of Big Macintosh glided up to Scootaloo’s side, wrapped around tall, powerful legs leading up to a leather belt, dividing a checkered shirt, warm red arms and a tray of...

“Sandwiches, anyone?” Mac said, crouching down to put the tray of sandwiches on the floor. Nobody even bothered to answer him. Scootaloo hadn’t had breakfast, and was so darned hungry, that she practically made it through a sandwich that was like four times bigger than any sandwich she’d eaten before. Compared to her usual size, that is. The sandwich was the same, but Scootaloo was a lot smaller now. It was uh... lots of lettuce and dandelion greens and er, more green than bread even, with a little slice of cheese on it, but it almost tasted better than the sandwich she ate yesterday dripping with tuna and mayonnaise. This stuff was crisper and um... crunchier... and she didn’t know why, so it was probably some weird pony thing.

Eating with your face is weird.

Apple Bloom drilled them relentlessly on speaking after lunch, and during another hay time Scootaloo didn’t really want to contemplate, but she did let them take breaks, especially now that they could do some semblance of walking again. Apple Bloom led the two of them outside once, and Scootaloo wasn’t scared. She was going to walk right out, but she almost ran into Sweetie in front of her. Sweetie had stopped her slow, careful feeling forward of hooves, at the threshold of the door, looking from it to the outside fearfully, poking just her nose out, like her weird pony face could do now.

Sweetie didn’t want to go, saying, “There’sz ice on the ground! I’s so cold out thzere.”

Apple Bloom, already outside, turned around, and exclaimed in mock astonishment, “You’re right, Sweetie Belle!” Then she gallopped off around them back inside to bug her brother, and rushed back with a few scarves hanging over her torso. “Here ya go,” she said, using her mouth to toss one on top of each of them. “All better. Now let’s go outside!”

Sweetie just kind of stared at her from under the scarf, severely lacking in amusement.

“Just give it a shot, Sweetie,” Apple Bloom insisted, fussing over the unicorn, wrapping that orange woolen scarf securely around her neck, and draping the extra over her back. “We’re like, fat or something, so it don’t feel as cold.”

Scootaloo accepted her scarf a little more gracefully, but she too needed Apple Bloom’s help to get it secured on her neck. Trying to figure out how Apple Bloom did stuff like that, even when she was right up next to you, was... weirdly difficult. Scootaloo, despite her unsteady gait, did wander out first, making it gingerly around the hesitant Sweetie Belle.

Outside, the open yard around the farm house was bordered by a massive forest of tall, bare trees. Above Scootaloo and in her eyes, the slanting November sun was thawing the frozen dirt where it touched, but still leaving frost in the shadow. The sun felt... distant somehow. I mean, duh, it’s winter so of course it’s going to be indirect sunlight. Axial tilt and all. But besides the sun’s lack of enthusiasm, Scootaloo actually felt kind of... good. It was cool and crisp, and so much more open than that stuffy old farm house.

“It’sh not szo bad Sweetie,” Scootaloo called back to the unicorn, who was still peeking nervously out the door of the Apple family household.

“Aren’t your hoovesz cold?” Sweetie Belle asked with big, green, wide eyes at her. And surprisingly, Scootaloo hadn’t even thought of those. She was more worried about her uh... naked parts getting cold. But really, the icy breeze in the air just seemed to sluice off her, and even those fuzzy... robot arm... things attached to her sides were so fuzzy, that the cold didn’t even touch them. And Scootaloo’s hooves just felt... slightly chilly maybe. It wasn’t anything like bare feet. In fact, the texture of the earth beneath her hooves, it barely even bothered her. As a human with bare feet, Scootaloo would have felt like the ground was constantly poking her, making her hobble around for some shoes, and lift up onto her... toes...

“You don’ even need to put your feeth on the ground,” Scootaloo declared with authority, shaking a hind leg to demonstrate to the unicorn, who was finally venturing out through the side door to the kitchen. “Hooves are justh onrly your toes, right?”

“O-oh,” Sweetie said somewhat numbly. She stepped forward then stopped, staring at her less than chilly front hooves planted on the ground outside, saying “I shee...”

“S’ really nish out here acshually!” Scootaloo declared, inhaling through her nose. “So crishp and clean, and you can even shmell um... uh...” she honestly was at a loss to exactly what it was she was smelling.

“Well ah smell the water from the creek,” Apple Bloom said beside her testily, “And the mulch of fallen leaves, and even the ice on the rain barrel has its own smell, and the weathering on the wood of the boards to the farm house, and uh... one of the cows did her business somewhere hearabouts recently. So, something thereabouts.”

“Szmoke from the fireplaze,” Sweetie suggested, at last waddling up to stand timidly at Apple Bloom’s side. And sure as Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle wasn’t even shivering despite having nothing to wear besides a scarf. Scootaloo looked at Sweetie, and an odd thought occured to her. She turned to look at Apple Bloom, that pony version of her friend now so much bigger, staring blankly off into the distance, the only indication she wasn’t an animal being the plain green dress conforming around her furry yellow body.

“Ever get hot in zhat dress?” Scootaloo asked, prompting Apple Bloom to look at her in surprise.

“Oh! Yeah, actually,” Apple Bloom said curiously, “It ain’t a big deal or nothing, just ah get a little sweaty under it when ah’m inside or running around in th’ heat.”

“Jus’ didn’ realishe you were hot like that,” Scootaloo said apologetically, “When we were playing outshide an’ stuff... before an’ you ha’ clothesh on,”

Scootaloo looked at herself, her... furry, naked self. She was just a big furry jelly bean really, with weird arms on the side, and a long magenta tail coming out over her butt. If she even had a butt anymore. Horses had butts, right?

“This jus’ feelsh natshral,” Scootaloo said, regarding her lack of attire.

“Nat-tyu-ral or not,” Sweetie pronounced carefully, coming to face the other two, “I shtill woul’ like some clothesz.” Her tail went down, and she added, “Is alright wizh jus’ you two, but I canno’ imagine whath it’ld be like in p-public...”

“Yeah,” Scootaloo agreed, in a troubled quiescence.

The afternoon led on, and the three were soon exhausted, not as much physically but mentally. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were just so unused to being ponies, that moving and talking was such an effort it exhausted them. And Apple Bloom had to manage those two! Apple Bloom herself was... still feeling sort of in shock, that they were here, that she wasn’t the only pony in the room. Not to say they weren’t in even more shock, but it was just hitting Apple Bloom pretty hard. She hadn’t even realized how resigned she had become, to being the victim of some isolated freak accident. It was actually kind of... unsettling to know that there might be something more going on.

But Apple Bloom kept her mind off of the unknown future, by focusing on getting them recovered, and she kept their minds off of the unknown future by focusing on getting them recovered. She kept at it, until they were so sick of trying to say ess that they just dragged, hobbled and wobbled to get away from her, retreating into the cozy warm farm house. As Apple Bloom followed and apologized, Scootaloo just wanted to go back on the couch where she’d woken up, and sleep. Apple Bloom got up on its cushions, and helped pull both Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle up with her.

“Juth wanna forge’ about all this,” Scootaloo murmured sadly. She curled her legs under her, then just twisted to lay awkwardly on her side. The weird things on her back were all wiggling while she was getting situated, like adjusting or something.

Sweetie Belle laid her head over Scootaloo, saying, “It’ll be okay, Scoo’aloo,” but Sweetie’s chin was right on top of Scootaloo’s arm thingy, the one Scootaloo wasn’t laying upon herself. It lifted up, and pushed Sweetie Belle’s chin right out of the way when she lay on it. Undeterred, Sweetie went and laid her head underneath where it had been. Scootaloo glanced back, and looked like she was going to protest, but then just sighed and relaxed. The arm angled down to lay against Sweetie Belle’s head, something the unicorn girl didn’t seem to mind at all. Apple Bloom settled down behind Scootaloo, smiling tiredly at them lying there. She was way overdue for an afternoon nap herself, but she didn’t mind helping her friends. It was her duty, considering what happened to them!

They were all just about pooped though, and to Apple Bloom’s surprise, her friends didn’t even rouse when she lay against them. They just went to sleep right there, just like that. She wondered if maybe ponies really did need to sleep more, or something, but she didn’t wonder enough to worry about it. Laying her head down, Apple Bloom scootched as close as she could to Scootaloo without waking the girl, and just let herself drift on off to sleep along with the two of them.

Apple Bloom didn’t see the princess, but it was just a short nap anyway. Wasn’t long before the sound of the front door closing aroused her, something Apple Bloom had become highly sensitized to. Apple Bloom stuck her head up, but she didn’t want to move because she kinda... had draped her arm over Scootaloo’s shoulder while she was sleeping, and didn’t want to wake them up either. Thinking fast, Apple Bloom reached with her free hoof and silently threw a pillow over the back of the couch, so it’d land at the feet of... whoever it is, with a whump.

Applejack’s head came leaning over the back of the couch, and Apple Bloom shushed her with a raised hoof the moment her sister came over to check on them. Smiling understandingly or, smiling giddily about something, Applejack quietly pulled back out of the way, and just tip toed up the stairs. She started to speak with Big Macintosh in quiet tones, but Apple Bloom didn’t really listen in. It was hard to make out words, through a floor and a ceiling, no matter how freaky Apple Bloom’s ears were. She just lay her head back down right next to... next to her friend Scootaloo, who was right there, for her to sleep... with...

It wasn’t to be. The three of them couldn’t stay asleep with people arriving at the house, and moving around. Not in the front living room. Apple Bloom woke up again, at that door closing “alarm clock,” and this time it was two unknowns walking in the entryway.

“Where are they?” an excited, active sounding girl’s whisper came who Apple Bloom hadn’t heard here before. Must be Rainbow Dash, or Pinkie Pie maybe. Yeah, it... definitely wasn’t to be.

And Applejack said, “They’re napping on the couch but don’t wake ‘em you’ll—” but Rainbow Dash had already run over and stuck her face over the couch, with a look of absolute gobsmacked amazement.

Apple Bloom stared back up at the rainbow haired girl, managed to say quietly, “Ah’m already awake, but they’re still sleeping.” She could practically feel the excitement in the sliding up corners of Rainbow Dash’s mouth as she slowly inhaled. Why on earth did someone think to bring along Rainbow Dash?

Apple Bloom shushed her, whispering harshly, “still sleeping!” in regard to her friends. She really wished she could detangle herself from what her friends had become, so she could move around without waking them. Rainbow’s face dropped in understanding this time, and quicker than a wink, she zipped her head back out behind the back of the couch, without so much as a word to them. She was still being too loud though, whispering loudly in the entryway with excitement, to whoever brought her here.

“She does!” Rainbow whispered excitedly, “She has them! That’s so awesome!”

“Please, dear,” the voice of Rarity said, somehow speaking quieter than Rainbow Dash could whisper, “Let’s not disturb them. We can speak in the other room.”

“But—”

“Other room.”

So they went upstairs with Applejack, where any sound of Rainbow’s excitement could be muffled. It wasn’t really muffled enough though, and Dash quickly forgot to whisper. Before Apple Bloom could so much as turn her ears down at the noisy babbling upstairs, Scootaloo lifted her head at the sound.

“What...?” Scootaloo said groggily, looking around in confusion.

Apple Bloom blanked a moment, then quickly said to Scootaloo, “You’re a pony, Scoots.”

That pretty much nipped any panic in the bud. Scootaloo’s eyes dawned with realization, and she slumped her head down saying, “Righth, of courshe that couldn’ be a hdream.”

She lifted her head again saying, “Wha’s thad weight on my—” before she easily turned her head to see Sweetie Belle’s chin tucked over the side of her back. “Woah,” Scootaloo murmured, probably half in shock that she was so close to Sweetie, and half in shock that it was a pony’s head resting on her, not a human girl’s.

Apple Bloom cleared her throat saying, “Seems Sweetie’s a mite of a deep sleeper.”

Scootaloo looked at Apple Bloom incredulously, and Apple Bloom just shook her head slightly. “Don’t look at me! Ah just woke up this way,” she lied.

Scootaloo’s ear flicked, her eyes unfocused, and she said, “Izzat...?”

Before Scootaloo could make out the voices, Apple Bloom jumped down from the couch, walking around to turn her tail to the fireplace, so she could look up at Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle still laying there on the couch cushions.

“Yeah, uh, Rainbow... Dash is here,” Apple Bloom said leerily, regarding the upstairs sounds. That made Scootaloo’s weird arm thingies jerk right up into the air and she lurched upward, knocking poor Sweetie back who woke up with a squeak, but not even noticing it.

“Rainbow Dazhz here?!” Scootaloo whispered in a panicked tone. “I can’ let er shee me like hthis!”

“Great,” Apple Bloom said in sarcastic cheer with an eye roll, “You want to be the one who tells her you don’t want her around, or should ah tell her for you?”

“’s not funny Apple Bloom. She can’th—I jus can’—” Scootaloo scrunched her muzzle up in tearful frustration, her little arm thingies all wiggly and unsettled. “She’sh too aweszome, I can’... I can’th fairl her like this...”

“Well, it’s too late, because she already saw you,” Apple Bloom said a bit snippily. “So just calm down and—”

“She whad?!” Scootaloo snapped. Behind her, Sweetie was trying unsuccessfully to roll herself off her back, back onto her belly. Scootaloo continued heedless of Sweetie’s quiet plight though, saying, “When, where?!”

“When we were sleeping!” Apple Bloom retorted, distracted by eyeing Sweetie worriedly as the girl managed to right herself. “She didn’t mind,” Apple Bloom whined, “Don’t worry! She was all smiling an’—”

“How coul’ you let her shee me?” Scootaloo hissed at Apple Bloom in such a hurt tone.

“Ah didn’t!” Apple Bloom retorted angrily. “She jus’ poked her head on over!”

“Yeah bu...” Scootaloo pushed up on her forelegs, fussing “I mean...” Then she just sighed and sank back down to the couch.

Sweetie was standing now, and looked worriedly at Scootaloo, saying, “Szhe will not be madh. It wasn’ your fault. I’m zsure she won’... you know, bhe like Rarity.”

“If she theases me abou’ these fings on my backg, I’m gonna jus’ die...” Scootaloo mumbled into the cushions.

From on the other side of the couch, the voice of Applejack softly whispered to another person, “Are they awake?”

“Yeah, we’re awake!” Apple Bloom called over the couch. She trotted around to try and play interception, but she barely got there before none other than Rainbow Dash was striding across the room confidently, leaning against the back of the couch and saying to Scootaloo, in a way that sounded like Rainbow was trying way too hard to be nonchalant,

“So, Scootaloo, right? So, how about those things on your back?”

“I didn’ hask for these fhings!” Scootaloo blurted out in shocked indignance, looking up at the rainbow haired girl with an aching betrayal. “I’s not my fhault!”

“Woah, woah,” Rainbow Dash said, with a surprised expression, standing up straight and holding up her hands, “No need to get huffy about it.”

“Woul’ you like to hwake up wifh weird fhings on your backg?” Scootaloo barked out, struggling to stand up, and of course the best she could get is onto all four feet, since twos took practice as a pony.

“Why are you even theezing me—” Scootaloo’s face fell, as she apparantly realized who she was talking to. “Why—uh—but you’re—b-bu...” Scootaloo stammered incomprehensibly, climbing up the couch’s back to follow after her retreating idol, finally managing to say in a small voice, just, “...Rainbow Dash?”

“Uh...” Rainbow said, having backed up a few steps from the couch, and from the little pegasus girl. “That’s... me alright,” she said. She looked around at the others pleadingly, and a little angrily, saying, “Seriously, what’s going on?”

Scootaloo was the one who answered, asking again, “Why are you theezing me?”

Rainbow gave her a blank expression. “Theezing you?” Rainbow parroted uncertainly.

“Th–” Scootaloo tightened her muzzle up. “Teasing,” she said more carefully.

“Teasing you?” Dash said tilting her head, and crossing her arms. “About what?” she said defiantly.

“About the... fhings on—fthings on my back,” Scootaloo retorted, feebly.

“What about them?” Rainbow said, with even more confusion than was on her face, if that were even humanly possible.

“Vth...they’re all weird, an’...” Scootaloo turned her head, unclear on whether from shyness, or from wanting to look at her new limbs. “They just look all ugly an’–and like, muthated or... unhcool,” she said critically.

Apple Bloom meanwhile shook her head in disbelief. “Seriously, Scoots?” she said to the distraught girl. “Those things are all you’re worried about, an’ not that you’re a little pony?”

“T-that doo... that too,” Scootaloo said faintly, looking crestfallen down into the back of the couch.

“But...” Rainbow said in a most perplexed tone, “But why? What’s wrong with them? Scootaloo, those ‘things’ on your back are the most awesome thing ever! I’d kill to have a pair of those!”

Scootaloo looked up in surprise as Dash continued saying excitedly, “That’s why I just had to come over. We were all woah, and they said the thing where you turned into a pony and that was weird, but the other thing was so cool I just had to see it! Do they work? I mean of course they won’t work yet, but can you like wave them around?”

Scootaloo had a look on her face like a lost child, standing at an abandoned bus stop... on Mars.

“I can’ not...really?” she said hesitantly, “They jus’... um, I mean...” she turned her head to look at the weird stumpy things, and Apple Bloom was pretty confused herself. Was there something they didn’t know about Scootaloo’s weird arm things?

Scootaloo stayed braced up on the back of the couch where she’d climbed up, and with a look of concentration, managed to get the arm things to lift off her body and spread. “T-there,” she said, turning to face Rainbow Dash with wide eyes. “B-but jus’ that. I mean... it’s hard to f-figure out how thoo move them?”

Even Rainbow Dash seemed to be catching onto Scootaloo’s confused distress, saying, “I don’t get it, kid. Why aren’t you more excited about this? I know it’s weird and all, but think about how high you can get! I bet you could go super fast too, when you got high enough. You could be out of this city in ten seconds flat. You could fly above the clouds! You don’t even need a jet plane!”

Scootaloo’s lip turned up, one of her eyes half closed, and she said, very uncertainly,

“You mean... like... drugs?”

Rainbow mouthed the air a bit, before saying frustratedly, “No, I mean really flying.”

“How would I do that?” Scootaloo asked, equally flustered.

“Your wings?” Rainbow Dash declared exasperatedly.

“I—”

It was kind of eerie, how slowly Scootaloo’s confusion seemed to diminish as she looked at Rainbow Dash, then the things on her back, then back at Rainbow Dash, then back to the things on her back. She snapped her head forward, staring at Rainbow Dash with eyes the size of dinner plates as she exclaimed,

“Theshe are wings?!”

Rainbow started to answer and stopped with a frozen half-smile. Then she looked at Applejack in outrage saying, “Didn’t you tell her?”

“She was sleepin’!” Applejack protested, hands up. “Ah thought you were gonna tell her!”

“B-buth they don’ look like wings,” Scootaloo said frantically, sliding down to the couch seat, looking back at the things which now refused to fold back against her sides. And, now that Apple Bloom thought about it...

“Mah gosh, Scoots!” Apple Bloom exclaimed beneath her, “They do look like wings!”

“No they don’!” Scootaloo protested confusedly, “They jus’ look like... sticks or somesing”

“They do look like wings,” Apple Bloom insisted, “They just don’t got any feathers. You look like a plucked chicken! Or like a baby chick!”

“Why don’ I have any feazhers then?” Scootaloo said with a pained expression down to Apple Bloom, who was looking at ...Sweetie Belle, rearing up right next to Scootaloo.

“Maybe they just haven’ grown in yet?” Sweetie Belle suggested, taking the tip of one of Scootaloo’s wings in her mouth and pulling it down closer to her.

Scootaloo immediately blushed, saying, “Ah, Swezhie what are you—”

“Jush shaking a hlook attit,” Sweetie muttered, using a hoof to hold Scootaloo’s wing down so she could release it from her mouth, and nose at it more closely.

Rainbow Dash was right there too, leaning over the couch back and poking at Scootaloo’s other wing arm, saying, “Sunset didn’t know, but she wasn’t a pegasus. She just knew that the feathers replace themselves after... woah!”

She pinched the meat of Scootaloo’s left wing in her fingertips, and stretched it out more fully. “There are these weird things all along it. They aren’t feathers but like... right where the feathers would be!”

“You do have feathers, already!” Sweetie exclaimed on the other side of Scootaloo. “All this weird fuzz is feathers, but they’re just really tiny.”

Sliding her finger alongside the smooth side of the wing while Sweetie nosed curiously into the joint that folded into Scootaloo’s side on the other wing, Rainbow said, “Hmm, nothing on this side either. I bet these are like, proto-featheroid things. You are totally gonna have tons of big old feathers.”

Sweetie just wuffled something incomprehensible.

“Hey uh... Scootaloo,” came Applejack’s uncertain voice, as she walked up behind Rainbow Dash, looking down at the unicorn and the human there, playing with her wings. “Y’alright there?”

Apple Bloom had caught herself blushing in the mirror before, even as a pony, but it wasn’t full on red faced, eyes squeezed shut, ears askew, whimpery trembling blushing. Scootaloo’s fur wasn’t even yellow, so how was the blush so obvious behind that burnt orange? She was bulshing so hard it looked like she couldn’t even stop quivering all over.

“Stop it!” Apple Bloom shouted up to the two of them, “Cain’t ya see you’re hurting... her?!” Hurting wasn’t exactly the word Apple Bloom would apply to the situation, but she had to say something quick or Scootaloo was liable to burst an artery.

Rainbow let go so fast, that Scootaloo’s wing snapped back to her side like a rubber band. Sweetie was more clumsy about it, pushing herself off away from Scootaloo, to fall back with a squeak, letting that right wing try to reestablish itself. Scootaloo shuddered from head to toe as her own wing slapped against her side.

“It’s fine!” Scootaloo said tensely. “I’s fine! Nothing’sh wrong. I’m fhine! I ...gotta go.” She stumbled forward and just about fell off the couch, face planting on the wood floor in a heap. “Still fine!” she exclaimed, crawling up to a bunny position and throwing herself on all fours. “Be righ’... back gotta go bye.” She then stumbled unconfidently over to the bathroom, and slammed the door closed behind her, leaving the rest of them standing there without another word.

“What was that all about?” Sweetie asked critically.

“I bet Fluttershy would know,” Dash said, holding an elbow with her other hand. “It’s probably some bird thing. We shouldn’t have like... pulled on her wings or something, because she has these crazy new instincts and they’re totally fragile I bet.”

“Long as she don’t go killing rats,” Apple Bloom said uneasily, “Like this one book I was reading, the guy turns into a hawk an’ he had to—”

“Tobias, right?” Rainbow Dash said mildly, “It really killed him to do that. But don’t worry Sunset said—”

“You read it?” Apple Bloom asked in surprise.

“Psh, yeah,” Dash drawled, “I read all sorts of cool science fictiony stuff. There’s this series called Otherland that’s totally far out that I been reading lately, uh... not that it has to do with your condition or anything, but if you like scifi I really recommend it!”

Apple Bloom’s ears twitched and she said guiltily, “Actually, ah only started that animal morphs series lately, on account of mah... ‘condition’. Mah brother was looking for books about being you know, like an animal. Even fiction might help, ah guess.”

“Well, you didn’t hear this from me,” Rainbow said to her with a wink, “But there are actually all sorts of books out there that are fun to read. Don’t let school fool you. In stories, you don’t even have to figure anything out, because at the end it just tells you! I’d like to see a textbook do that!”

“Yeah ah... I do read a lot lately...” Apple Bloom was crossing her hoof and blushing now. She tried to stop doing it. “Got a lot of time to do it now.”

Sweetie climbed up on the couch back too, presumably to be closer to facing Rainbow Dash on an even keel, asking, “Doesz Schootaloo rearlly have wing inshinctz?”

Dash looked around as if for confirmation, as if Sweetie, Apple Bloom, or Applejack had any more clue than she did, then just blushed, saying to the curious unicorn, “I mean, maybe that is I dunno. But did you see it? That kid has wings!!”

“Wait...” Apple Bloom said in belated realization, looking up at the big ~~human~~girls. Applejack and Rainbow Dash fixed their gazes on Apple Bloom, as she said more and more excitedly, “Wait. Wait! Does that mean Scootaloo can fly?!”

“Yes!” Applejack snapped in surprised irritation. “Weren’t that obvious? Ah mean, that’s what Sunset said, anyways.”

“It has got to be the coolest. Thing. Ever!” Dash exclaimed to Applejack, in giddy excitement.

“Even bether—” Sweetie spoke up, and then shut down, when she flubbed the word.

“Even better what?” Applejack said to her gently, leaning against the couch to look down at Sweetie Belle.

“Even bet-ter than...” Sweetie pronounced shyly, looking away from Applejack to Rainbow Dash, “Than football?”

“But it just how could flying even work?” Apple Bloom puzzled quietly. Nobody really paid the confused normal pony much mind though.

Dash instead stared at Sweetie for a second, before exclaiming “Are you kidding? Kicking a ball through a net? Versus flying? No contest! Haven’t you ever wanted to be way up there, like a bird in the sky, with the whole world spread out before you?”

“But th’ surface area t’weight ratio...” Apple Bloom mumbled confusedly.

“Um,” Sweetie sort of hugged her mane to her face, answering Rainbow Dash, “No, but I never wanted to play football either.”

“Well, football’s tons of fun,” Dash agreed, “And I can kick anyone’s butt at it!” turning aside and grumbling, “Except Lyra...” turning back and saying, “But Scootaloo has bigger things on her plate. For her, the sky’s literally the limit!”

“Maybe y’all should tell her that,” Apple Bloom said, coming out of her confusion a bit admonishingly, looking over at the door behind which Scootaloo had hidden herself.

“Yeah, yeah,” Dash said, rolling her eyes at Apple Bloom. “Applejack already told me you guys could hear like a million times better.”

“Ah didn’t say a million times,” Applejack interrupted. “We ain’t never measured, it’s just... better-like.”

“So yeah,” Rainbow said to Apple Bloom smugly. “I don’t know why Scootaloo’s acting all weird about it. There’s nothing that can stop her now.” She called the next part exaggeratedly over her shoulder toward the bathroom door, “There’s nothing Scootaloo can’t do, that’s lame, or uncool!” No answer from the bathroom though.

Dash looked over there, then down at the other ponies, asking more quietly, “What do you think is taking Scootaloo so long in the bathroom, anyway?”

Sweetie Belle looked thoughtful, then blushed heavily, and Apple Bloom was sympathetic with feeling that way. Scootaloo did look awfully anxious when she stumbled off like that. That sort of anxiety must be awfully embarassing, especially for some poor girl who just had her life turned upside downy. They all paused in a moment of quiet contemplation.

Scootaloo’s mortified, muffled voice came through the bathroom door. “...help!”

Apple Bloom blinked at the closed door. The closed, latched... she facepalmed—ow!

Dangit, hooves are a lot harder than palms!

While Apple Bloom dealt with a hoof to the forehead, Applejack strode quickly over to the closed bathroom door. The swarthy girl turned the knob, pulling the bathroom door open for a shamefaced Scootaloo pony to skulk out.

Apple Bloom rubbed her forehead in the meantime, grumbling resentfully at Scootaloo’s dilemma, saying again not to anyone in particular,

“What kinda sick freak thought up the doorknob, anyway?”

Author's Note

So Close to Answers

Scootaloo was... fine, relatively fine. She was trying so hard to make a good impression on Rainbow Dash, yet she couldn’t see that Rainbow Dash was plenty impressed with her already, and trying just made things worse. On the plus side, Scootaloo was really paying attention to pronouncing what she said and not slurring in front of Rainbow Dash. But on the minus side, even knowing what they were, Scootaloo still tried not to talk about or draw attention to the things on her back, which Rainbow Dash was having none of. Dash’s unrestrained insistence that what happened to Scootaloo was a good thing, it really helped a lot, but it left tensions high. Apple Bloom would think it was an artificial enthusiasm, just trying to make Scootaloo feel better, yet the more she got to know this Rainbow Dash over the course of the afternoon, the less confident Apple Bloom was that a girl like that could display any kind of subtlety whatsoever.

Rarity returned in her tuna boat, and Rainbow Dash blustered out as intensely as she blew in. With Dash gone, Scootaloo was finally able to relax, just flopping on the floor by the mantle, on her belly, and giving a huge sigh of relief. “Y’gotta relax, Scoots,” Bloom told her earnestly. “Rainbow Dash ain’t gonna bite. She’s fine with you just being yourself.”

Scootaloo looked at Apple Bloom standing next to her, then looked away. “Thanks for teashing me about talking,” she mumbled in a dim apology.

Apple Bloom started to nod, but her ears drooped and she flopped down right next to Scootaloo saying in a dejected manner, “Ah wish that weren’t all I could do for you. This is just so much trouble. Wish ah’d never touched that golden apple.”

“It’sh fine,” Scootaloo said appeasingly, “I mean, flying righ’? Thash jusht... wow. Do you really thingk I could fly?”

“It don’t make no sense, a’course,” Apple Bloom said practically. “Your arm...wing thingies are way too small, an’ ah dunno how much you weigh, but you ain’t much smaller’n me. But come on Scoots, get real.”

Apple Bloom waved a hoof over to Sweetie Belle, who was up on the couch now, with her head in Rarity’s lap, while the older girl patiently brushed smooth Sweetie Belle’s still bouncy curls. “Sweetie’s a unicorn!” Apple Bloom exclaimed. “That is about as magic as you can get. No reason you shouldn’t be magic too. If I can crack eggs with mah mouth without dropping any shells in, for you flying oughta be a snap!” Apple Bloom smiled brightly, snapping as she did so for emphasis.

Instead of cheering up though, Scootaloo just stared at Apple Bloom like she was an alien. Well, more of an alien.

“...what?” Apple Bloom asked Scootaloo, looking at her uneasily.

“How’d you do that?” Scootaloo asked in an accusatory fashion, pointing at Apple Bloom’s upturned hoof.

“Do what?” Apple Bloom said, looking at it with worry.

Scootaloo just looked at her open mouthed, then shook her head and said, “Never mind. You’re right poniesh can fhly.”

“What?” Apple Bloom repeated, with a confused whine.

“I can totally fly!” Scootaloo said, waddling off. She was already getting better at a basic gait.

Apple Bloom chased after her on threes, brandishing her raised hoof worriedly, saying, “What? What’s wrong with my hoof!”

“Nothing!” Scootaloo yelled back, continuing to fail to avoid her, “Nothing’z wrong. I don’ wannta think abouht it!”

Ever persistent, Apple Bloom finally managed to get a straight answer out of her suddenly flustered orange bird pony friend. “Aw that’s easy,” came Apple Bloom’s confident reply. “You just...” She looked at her hoof again and said, “Uh, ah mean, you... like...”

“Come on Apple Bloom,” Scootaloo said derisively, flopping her own front right hoof in the air. “Explaining it should be a snap!”

Now Apple Bloom was staring at her own hoof like it was an alien.

After Apple Bloom’s little... crisis of existence, and her sudden inability to snap her ...hoof, no matter how she tried to repeat the process, she gave up and led the others walking around the house for practice. Bloom led them like a little pony parade, around the couch and the chair so they could get better at turning. Sweetie kept falling on her side, but Scootaloo got it really easy. She was weaving through furniture effortlessly, in short order. And Sweetie stopped falling at least, in short order.

That was what they were doing, passing right by the doorway, when Cheerilee walked in the door with her arms full of big square paper grocery bags, just bursting with food. Apple Bloom watched, as if in slow motion, the librarian’s sudden entry that brought her foot inexorably toward the side of the middle of their impromptu pony train. Sweetie turned her head just at the moment to see that she’s about to be used as a literal stumbling block.

Apple Bloom should have shoved Sweetie out of the way, but in her panic, she just went and shoved Cheerilee instead, rearing up and pushing on the lady to get her upright, before her unbalanced two-legged form could fall, spilling groceries everywhere. Cheerilee righted herself. She—!

“Eggs!” Apple Bloom shouted, when the recoil of Cheerilee righting herself sent the carton of eggs slipping out of the top of the grocery bag. Diving through the air over a squealing Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom managed to catch the carton, going down with a whuff on the floor as her forelegs gently cradled the falling eggs all the way down. “Got ‘em!” Apple Bloom shouted out in relief. She stood up then, carefully placing the eggs on the floor, out of Cheerilee’s way so the librarian could continue to walk inside.

While Cheerilee dumped the bags in the kitchen, Scootaloo sidled up to Apple Bloom saying, “You already convinshed me, y’know.”

“Huh what now?” Apple Bloom asked dimly, looking at the smirking pegasus with confusion.

“Didn’t need to show me more mashick,” Scootaloo answered with no more than that simple smirk.

Apple Bloom deadpanned at her, saying, “Catching eggs ain’t magic, Scoots.”

“Sure sheemed like it to me,” Scootaloo countered insistently. “You are sho good at moving.”

Apple Bloom blushed, and scuffed a hoof saying, “Aww, don’t be like that. You’ll get there too.” With a wince, she bit her lip and added, “Ah mean you’ll probably change back, and this’ll all be over before you do, ah was just speculating.”

They turned to look at Sweetie Belle, as her bright tones pointed out, “If we shange back, we shange back.” She shakily approached the two of them again, saying, “Until then, we can jusht pracshish at it as if we were gonna be poniesh forever.”

Just one of Apple Bloom’s ears went down at that, and she looked at Scootaloo worriedly, but instead of looking down with glum sadness, Scootaloo was looking down with a weird smile. “We’re not gonna be poniesz forever,” Scootaloo said laughing darkly to herself, “Becaushe Apple Bloom’s gonna fihnd the golden hamshter wheel an’ we’ll all turn into hamshters.”

Apple Bloom had to chuckle at that and added, “Yeah and then ah’m gonna dream about the uh... human... golden truck, an’ we’ll all turn human again.”

“Nope,” Scootaloo corrected Apple Bloom, in an official sounding tone of voice. “Zthen we turn into anshropomorphic carsh like in tha’ movie.”

“Oh no!” Sweetie said as if horrified at the thought of it, “And wha’ if I wasz the brohken down htow thruck!”

“Ah’d be that one!” Apple Bloom put in jovially to Sweetie Belle. “You’d be that cute lil’ Volkswagon beetle.”

“And I’ld be a ‘99 Dodgze Viper,” Scootaloo said, smugly.

“...that exact one, huh?” Apple Bloom said skeptically.

“Yup!” Scootaloo said confidently, her nose tilted up just a bit. “It haz the four hun’red fif’y horshpower V-10. It waz the lasht generation wish forged pisthons, but wish 18 hinch wheelz.”

Apple Bloom just looked at her blankly. Scootaloo smiled self consciously, and tried to rub the back of her head (unsuccessfully), saying, “I read abou’ it af’er I shaw the movie.”

Apple Bloom shook her head bemusedly

“We have to get ready!” Twilight Sparkle screamed, hurling the spectrogram machine across the room. Wait, shit. Sorry.

“We have to get ready!” Twilight Sparkle screamed, hurling the spectrogram machine across the room. The warehouse was a very noisy place this evening. Sunset ducked down as the heavy machine passed over her head, landing in the pile with the other...stuff.

The two girls and a dog were in an abandoned warehouse, where they kept all their ill gotten scientific equipment. The aluminum roof curved far overhead, muted sounds of traffic coming through the corrogated walls all around them. Some boxes labeled with “Unimportant box parts” were off to the side, and in them, the slimmer purple girl was rifling through everything she could get her hands on.

“Twilight, you need to calm down,” said the flame haired girl in a concerned yet somehow still unimpressed tone.

“No I don’t!” Twilight shouted, sticking her head out of the box she was completely immersed in. “This is big. This is huge! This could change everything!”

“This is a... new development,” Sunset admitted, hands raised as if in defense, but really she just wanted to catch the automobile code reader in those hands, before it landed and broke something. Spike was being his usual intelligent self, and hiding behind a box out of the way of this purple storm of scientific fury. “But there’s no reason to freak out!” Sunset shouted, dodging another... a thing. She put down the reader and stood up in time to catch a surge protector. “Twilight, we can’t even use half of this stuff!” she exclaimed, catching a flying egg beater in her other hand. “Twilight!” she shouted in exasperation.

Dropping everything, Sunset just strode forward and grabbed Twilight around the shoulders, before she could hurl something else, saying to her face, “You need to calm down!”

“No I don’t!” Twilight said struggling against Sunset.

“Yes you do!” Sunset countered, “There is no reason to panic! Twilight!” Twilight stopped struggling in vain, and Sunset told her eye-to-eye, “I’m not stupid. What is really going on?”

Twilight looked at Sunset with a trembling lip, then reached forward and hugged her. “Ack!” Sunset said intelligently, flailing backward at the sudden affection, making the box wobble as Twilight surged out of it.

“Oh Sunset,” Twilight said sorrowfully, “I messed up. I ruined everything!”

Sunset extracted herself from Twilight, and Twilight from the box, and the girl soon stood there guiltily, exclaiming at Sunset, “Apple Bloom was right there! Poor little Apple Bloom, and she needed my help. And I yelled at her! And ran away...”

“She’ll understand,” Sunset said as soothingly as she could, “You’ve been through so much!”

“No I haven’t!” Twilight said through angry tears, angry at herself as she stalked away from Sunset. “This is only my 5th cycle. I get to visit my friends every year! You—” Twilight got a blank look on her face and turned away.

“I’m sorry,” Twilight said softly, “That was terrible of me.”

Sunset just laughed, “My fifth one I punched out everypony who tried to get in my way. Even Principal Celestia.”

“You punched the principal?” Twilight exclaimed aghast.

“She caught me ransacking her office looking for whatever was causing this time loop,” Sunset explained. “Besides, it was the closest I could come to getting back at Princess Celestia. I was pretty uh, vengeful back then.”

Twilight seemed to have broken again, so Spike spoke for her, agreeing with Sunset as he said, “Yeah, you really were a huge—”

“Finish that sentence and I’ll make you a female dog,” Sunset growled at him.

“I’m just telling the truth,” Spike said itching at his ear. “You’re good now, so it doesn’t matter if you used to be evil.”

“I never was evil,” Sunset insisted to the dog levelly. “I was just... really, really frustrated.”

“And now?” Spike asked with a head tilt.

“Tired,” Sunset groaned, feeling her shoulders sink.

Twilight seemed to have recovered, and Spike had returned to her side, nuzzling her warmly. She placed her hand on Sunset’s shoulder. “We’ll get through this,” Twilight said comfortingly. “I just have to figure out how to talk to her without... blowing up at her. Again!”

“You’re not used to being angry, are you?” Sunset said mockingly to Twilight. But then Twilight actually blushed at her words, and turned away in embarassment. Was she really that not used to being angry? Sure Twilight had been nose bleedingly cheerful the past 3 years, but she couldn’t be that much of a goody two-shoes?

Sunset decided not to bet on that.

“Don’t worry,” Sunset continued, “If I know my temper tantrums, that was in the heat of the moment, and now that you’ve had some time to calm down, you’re not going to do that to Apple Bloom again.”

“I sure hope so,” Twilight sighed, leaning against her puppy’s cheek rubs. “I just... she looks exactly like Apple Bloom.”

A beat.

“Okay, okay yes I know,” Twilight said waving her hand at Sunset clumsily and blushing. “What I mean is I know she’s the Apple Bloom counterpart in this universe, but in our universe I know Apple Bloom. She’s quite possibly the most adorable filly in Ponyville. You know once, before all this happened, she asked me if I could use my magic to give her a cutie mark?”

“What did you tell her?” Sunset asked curiously.

“I told her the truth, that a cutie mark can only appear when your postcartunculus matures,” Twilight said, “And she wasn’t familiar with the anatomical term, so I told her it can only appear when the time comes, but she just wanted one to attend a cuteciñera, Diamond Tiara’s in fact.”

“How old did you say these fillies are?” Sunset asked skeptically.

“I know!” Twilight exclaimed. “The alternates here are aged so weirdly! I’m hardly out of journey age, Apple Bloom is a school graduate, and Cranky Doodle looks like he isn’t a day under 300!”

“Needless to say, It’s the nature of this world,” Sunset explained. “Why ponies are—I mean humans are biased toward the age to attend this high school is like asking why the sky is blue, or why the sun experiences a gravitational lens effect when it rises and sets. It’s just something you have to get used to.”

“Supposedly they’re shorter lived,” Twilight pondered. “Yet they don’t exactly have much opportunity to experience a full life span with this time spiral. There’s just no way to gain enough experimental evidence in so little amount of time!”

“Yeah, but!” Spike barked. “What were you saying about Apple Bloom? I know her too! I mean, our Apple Bloom, not the one here.”

“It’s just when I saw her transformed into a pony,” Twilight said, “The resemblance was just so uncanny. I thought... maybe it was stupid but I thought maybe she was Apple Bloom, here to explain why the portal isn’t working, another accident courtesy of the Cutie Mark Crusaders.”

“Then she wanted to be changed back,” Twilight said clutching her head, “And all I could think was, why? I wanted her to be the pony Apple Bloom, not a weird mixed up human Apple Bloom. I wanted to go home, not... her! I just took it all out on her, without once thinking about her feelings, and she was just—”

“She was just a little filly!” Twilight said on the verge of a sob.

Twilight looked at Sunset in a speechless plea, but before Sunset could think of what to tell her, Twilight’s face fell neutral. The purple girl took a deep breath to compose herself, and she said more evenly,

“After the cuteciñera, Apple Bloom, my Apple Bloom that is, went through the library shelves on her own, and managed to find and, at least partially comprehend Maxwell’s Many Manifestations. She trotted up to me not two days afterward absolutely hopping mad because—”

“The novelty cutie mark spell,” Sunset cut in with a look of surprise.

“Yes, I...” Twilight blushed and toed the ground. “I was trying too hard to be a good moral example, I suppose. It turns out several of the foals attending the cuteciñera had novelty cutie marks, themselves, and Apple Bloom was rather... ostracised for it. She... Apple Bloom that is, she tried to teach me the spell on the spot, saying I had no right being a ‘big fancy unihorn’ if I recall her wording, if I didn’t know a simple thing like that.”

Sunset tilted her head, asking warily, “...did she?”

“Oh I knew the spell,” Twilight said hastily, “In fact she got to have bells on her hindquarters for the next week, as a token of apology. She taught me that a lie is only a lie if you try to get ponies to believe it. If it isn’t deceiving anypony, then it could just be a little vanity or... social lubricant.” Twilight sighed, twirling a lock of her hair around a finger. “I guess what I’m trying to say is, what I saw last Tuesday was a scared little filly, but it was also Apple Bloom, in a sense. I yelled at her, but... I think she has what maturity it takes to weather whatever I can throw at her. I really don’t need to worry about talking to her this weekend.”

Twilight kept twirling her hair, until Sunset added, “But you’re still scared.”

“It’ll be fine, I just,” Twilight nibbled at the hair on her finger saying, “I’m just a little nervous, and... you think she’ll be mad at me?”

Sunset blinked. “Yes?” Sunset tried, and Twilight deflated at that. So Sunset tried something else. “She’ll understand,” Sunset said, “She’s a smart kid. Foal. Whatever. Doesn’t mean she won’t be mad, but if you sincerely apologize, I think she’ll be just fine.

“I could be wrong,” Sunset added, heaving to toss some useless equipment back in the box. “I’m sort of new to this whole friendship thing.”

“No, you’re right Sunset,” Twilight said intently. “I will sincerely apologize; I owe it to her, and it’s vitally important that I help in any way I can, whether predicting the future or adapting to the present. I can’t stop hiding from this.

“From them...” Twilight added with a whisper.

Sunset eyed her uneasily, but Twilight didn’t say anything, just kept chewing on her hair like it was wheat stalks. “So, now that you’re calmed down,” she said finally. “You are calmed down, right?”

Twilight inhaled evenly. “Yes, I am calm,” she confirmed.

“What equipment do we really need to bring?” Sunset asked, indicating the mess Twilight made of their stash. “Help me put together a checklist of these things, would you?”

Twilight smiled, and did.

The snow would come before the weekend did, tiny little motes of white descending from the featureless grey clouds above. It was a bittersweet time for Apple Bloom, both happy that she had her friends to help her with this, and happy that she could help them so much now. After having been helpless all year, it was such a relief to be the one who could provide needed assistance.

On the other hand, or hoof as it were, Apple Bloom was dismayed at just how much help her friends needed. This pony thing was no laughing matter. Apple Bloom had forgotten how long it took her to acclimatize to it, and days passed with neither Scootaloo nor Sweetie able to get more than a slow walking pace, and their new mouths so inscrutable they still had a hard time with lisping. She had to say they were improving in leaps and bounds faster than Apple Bloom had, since they had an experienced pony to pattern themselves after, but days of improvement just couldn’t add up to months of improvement.

She had expected the most resistance from Scootaloo, so was surprised when it was Sweetie Belle who gave her the hardest time. It was just subtle noncommittal actions you couldn’t really pin on her, forgetting lessons she should have learned, or pretending she couldn’t walk as well as she could, but it was really starting to get on Apple Bloom’s nerves. Little suggestions that Apple Bloom’s home couldn’t provide for her the way Rarity’s place could, not outright admitting to missing the hustle and bustle of the city, but just implying it with a sigh or a dull stare at nothing in particular.

Scootaloo in contrast was going all out to convince Apple Bloom that she was totally fine with this and it didn’t bother her one bit. And the funny thing is as powerful as Scootaloo was in denial, it sort of started working. Her attempts to act like she was enjoying herself turned into enjoying herself, without any sort of subterfuge involved. It was sort of contagious too. Scootaloo joking about the proper form of her waddle even made Sweetie Belle crack a smile, a small one at any rate. And she was the one who got all three of them doodling in an attempt to write with one’s mouth. Apple Bloom was the only one who could write anything legible, but the others were still having fun drawing pictures and testing the limits of their new bodies.

But at the end of the day, Sweetie was still sitting there, stared dully outside at the lightly falling snow. She had dragged a chair over by the window, so she could climb up on it and perch there. But she just didn’t seem too enthusiastic about what she was seeing. Just perching there, looking at nothing in particular. Apple Bloom walked quietly up and looked to the white unicorn.

They had been practicing walking up until lunch, when Granny announced there was fresh apple slices, and sweet buns, and hamburger bites. Granny took off work early that day just to spoil her grandchild a bit, and her friends as well, who were sorely in need of some comfort. They used their new walking ability to fall over themselves to get into the farm house, giving Apple Bloom the idea that she may be waiting a while before either of them can run with her. They each ate a hot bun fresh out of the oven, a bunch of apple slices, and one teeny little hamburger bite. After that it was hay, hay, hay, and it was great for Apple Bloom at least. She just loved the... the feel of it, or something. She was pretty sure her friends were enjoying the hay too though. Nice and relaxing to sort of stand there like cows eating hay together. Or horses, as such.

She hoped it was nice at least. Sweetie didn’t really want to talk about it, and Scootaloo just blushed and said it was totally cool and she was totally fine with it, no problem at all. Scootaloo was a pretty terrible liar, that’s for sure. The three fillies all had happy bellies after a balanced meal, but perhaps not as unanimously happy minds. Each troubled in some way, and Apple Bloom only really knew of her own troubles, her worries about her friends, her insecurity about being able to provide what they need, and her guilt at them having to go through something they never asked for, at least, not outside of asking in jest.

Scootaloo was off taking her nap, because well... ponies slept a lot more than humans, or even real ponies for that matter. But Sweetie didn’t join Scootaloo, and just went off by herself, then sat there looking tiredly out the window. It was at least a good time to... talk, talk with Sweetie, without Scootaloo there to make her feel silly, or put on the spot. But what do you say to someone like this?

“Hey Sweetie,” Apple Bloom said, drawing the girl-gone-unicorn’s attention. “Mind if I join you up there?”

“Hknock yourself out,” Sweetie said in a less than friendly tone, just going back to staring outside. The little soft white unicorn was just the right height to use the arm of the chair to hold herself up on two legs. Her big two toned curly tail was spreading out behind her, pressed against the seat of the chair like a fan. Sweetie Belle... she probably wasn’t doing that, just to try to feel human again. It was necessary to rear up like that, for a little pony to see out the window. But it worried Apple Bloom, nonetheless. Seeing Sweetie as uncomfortable with her body as Apple Bloom had been at first, it was hard to take.

Apple Bloom climbed up a lot easier than Sweetie Belle had, and joined her in looking out there, also rearing up on two legs to see outside. Wasn’t much to see. The fall leaves had fallen, and wasn’t any more to be done besides cover them up in snow. Scootaloo was excited at the possibility of sledding as ponies, but Sweetie was... not. Apple Bloom didn’t bother Sweetie Belle, but her presence there was enough, and little-by-little, Sweetie’s expressive new ears edged downward.

“I hate this,” Sweetie said bitterly, without looking at Apple Bloom. And that was it.

Apple Bloom sighed, and said, “Ah’m worried about you, Sweetie. This pony thing’s really gettin’ to ya. Can y’ tell me what’s on your mind?”

“I don’ know,” Sweetie said, slumping on the chair leg. “It’s jusht stupid.”

Apple Bloom watched her a sec, then said, “Ah had to drop outta all mah classes. Ah been living like a prisoner in mah own home, because people won’t take kindly to turnin’ their whole world upside down. Less seen of me the better. Ah couldn’t write a single word for the last three months, and even now ah cain’t write better’n a grade schooler, because ponies ain’t built for writing, and ah’m just using my mouth ta cheat that.”

Apple Bloom looked out the window, and continued with, “There’s a lotta fun things about being a pony, but there’s a lotta bad things too that ain’t no fun. Trouble is, ah only know the bad things that I can see. The more ah go on still being a pony, the easier it is to stop even noticing them. Ah barely miss mah hands anymore, not because it ain’t harder without them, but because I just cain’t even remember what it was like to have ‘em.”

Sweetie Belle spoke up, saying glumly, “I don’ wanna forget habout my hands.”

“Y’had real nice ones,” Apple Bloom said sympathetically. “Always kept ‘em nice and clean an’ manicured, and I just cut my fingernails on occasion.”

“You really sztart thinking of your appearance, when you’re living with...” Sweetie trailed off, then shook her head. “No, i’s fine if you know I wasz living with Rarity. I don’ um...” Her tail swished irritably, “I supposhe I do not have to worry about the orphanage anymore, if I’m like this, but she...she kept us both out of... that. I wish I coul’ do the same for Diamond HTiara... Tiara.”

“Y’really ain’t got no parents, Sweetie?” Apple Bloom asked bemusedly, before clamming up and blushing angrily at herself. That was wrong to ask.

Sweetie took it gracefully though, and in fact gave it more thought than you’d expect you’d need for a yes/no question. “I sthink I do,” Sweetie said uncertainly, “But I haven’ sheen them in... I mean, they went away a long time ago. I guessh they were on vacation or shomething, but then Rarity had to get the apar’ment, and she didn’t zsay anything bu’... I don’ sthink they’re coming back.”

“Somesthing musta happen’ to them, so...” Sweetie sighed. “I jus’ don’ know. Doesh that make me an orphan, too?”

“It’s kinda mysterious of a coincidence,” Apple Bloom mused quietly. “We just got to be friends like, forever ago, an’ we never even knew that you and I both ain’t got... y’know. Ah got mah granny, so it’s easier on me, and Applejack, an’ Big Mac. Granny teaches us everything about runnin’ a household. But ah think Scootaloo might be our only friend who still got parents. And where’s her dad, for that matter?”

“Guessh you’d have to ask her,” Sweetie Belle said with a noncomittal shrug.

“That ain’t what ah’m getting at though,” Apple Bloom said hastily, laying a hoof on Sweetie’s back, not quite a hug, but just being there. “Ah meant that ah cain’t tell every single thing that’s wrong about this. You can probably see things ah never even thought about. So, just... like... rattle off some things wrong with being a pony, and I’ll let you know if you think of something ah ain’t yet considered.”

Sweetie blinked at her. “Just like, off the top of your head,” Apple Bloom pleaded. “Like ah said, about the writing an’ the dropping out. It’s your third day, so what’re you missing so far?”

“Hmm,” Sweetie frowned, pushing away from the chair leg, trying to come down on all fours but just flumping down clumsily on her butt instead. “That, for starterz,” she groaned, while Apple Bloom helped her up, and off the chair to the floor.

“It’s jus’ sho boring,” Sweetie said tiredly, walking aimlessly once she was standing, with Apple Bloom there at her side. “There’s nothing to do here bu’ walk aroun’, an’ play, and work on t...talking. There’sh school booksh to read, bu’ it just feelsz so empty. There’s nobody here.”

She stopped her walking, and turned to face Apple Bloom intently, saying, “That’s really what it isz. I miss... all the people, and teachers, and zstudents. Fighting hthrough the crowdsh, working htogether, all the shtuff we were doing for each othzer... now I can only do stuff for myshelf, by myself. A-an’ I am so gladh that you’re here wish me I didn’ mean you weren’, jus’... it’s so hardh not being able t-to do shings... things for people.”

“You’re helping me lots just by being here,” Apple Bloom said to her sympathetically.

“I know,” she said reluctantly, “But...”

“Ah know how you feel,” Apple Bloom said. “It really does feel paralyzing... but remember ya just changed into a pony. You’ll be lots more helpful once you get the hang of it. Especially that horna yours.”

Sweetie crossed her eyes trying to look at it. “Do you really hthink I can ushe magic with it?” she asked, in a bit of an awestruck tone.

“Yeah, like real magic,” Apple Bloom said, “Didn’t Rarity say something about levitation? Sounds more like telekinesis though, with little objects an’ stuff. Levitation is more like lifting a whole person! Or uh, pony.”

“I thingk I can feel the magzic,” Sweetie said quietly. “I keep feerling something going sthrough it. Like, vfibrating but more liquidy. It’s... really weird.”

“Ah was so jealous when you got that thing,” Apple Bloom admitted, waving a hoof dismissively at her past misgivings. “But now that ah think on it, you gotta live with it. Cain’t exactly take it off or nothing. It’s a part of your body, like a foot or an ear, an’ if it does do something weird, you’re stuck there feeling it.”

“It is shcary,” Sweetie agreed, “Bu’ it isn’t dangeroush, Rarity said. She said Shcootaloo was going to break her neck wif thoze wingsh before I um, cast a wrong shpell.”

“Ah know you’ll be careful with it,” Apple Bloom said with a smile. “An’ once you got the hang of it, you’ll be helping people so much, you’ll be making Rarity look bad.”

“Well, I dohn’t wanna make her look bad,” Sweetie said, rolling her eyes. “Buth I hknow what you mean. She said you can even sew with it!”

Apple Bloom grimaced at that. Sweetie tried so hard at that fashionist thing, but it seemed the only thing worse than her sense of design was her cooking. Apple Bloom wasn’t going to call her on it or anything, but Sweetie really needed her sister taken down a few pegs. Maybe then Sweetie Belle would be able to see what she really wants to do in life.

“Don’t take Rarity too seriously,” Apple Bloom cautioned Sweetie. “You know how she can be. An’ what she told us was told to her by that Shimmer girl, who ain’t even a pony anymore.”

“Sunzhet Shimmer shaid she’d come to szee us, tomorrow,” Sweetie nodded hopefully. “We can ask her for sure then, and maybe she can show me shome um... horn things?”

“She was a unicorn, so it ain’t a foregone conclusion!” Apple Bloom said brightly. She added in a more serious tone, “Scootaloo is right up a creek though with those wings of hers. We ain’t got no wingy ponies from the uh... alternate universe. What do you even call those ponies? Pegasus?”

Apple Bloom turned away and fussed to herself, in a dissatisfied tone, “That was just his name though,”

Sweetie just shook her head unknowingly.

“Need to look up the fable,” Apple Bloom speculated, “To find out what they actually call his particular breed of winged horse.”

“Shunset is a mythopo... mythology dramatist,” Sweetie noted with a yawn. “It’sh really convenient I guessh... maybe that’sh why she majored in it?”

“Keep that in mind to ask her,” Apple Bloom suggested, and... Sweetie’s slow amble had uncoincidentally led the two of them to the pile of giant pillows (normal sized pillows to humans) that Scootaloo had conked out on. Between the weird pseudo wings on her back, and the way she was curled up on it, Apple Bloom couldn’t get out of her head how it looked like Scootaloo was up on a bird’s nest. It made her laugh anyway, softly so as not to wake the birdy pony girl.

Apple Bloom hadn’t bothered getting dressed after the first day. She liked the clothes, but without clothes sized for her friends, they’d just feel even more embarassed if she wore them. Sweetie Belle might have been been able to fit in Apple Bloom’s dress perhaps, but it was kind of dirty, totally reeked of Apple Bloom, and there was no way Scootaloo could wear anything without covering up her wings, something that was really uncomfortable for her. Apple Bloom didn’t mind the nudity so much, but her friends were still getting used to it, so she did whatever she could to make it easier for them until they could all get something to wear. They pretty much insisted on her wearing the bow though. Said it didn’t bother them at all. Scootaloo was actually wearing one of Apple Bloom’s bows too, until she got a look at herself in the mirror and promptly sent it flying across the room. And then went and collapsed on some pillows to sleep.

“Y’bout ready for that nap?” Apple Bloom said to a tempted looking Sweetie standing before the pillows.

“Shounds stupid when hyou say nap,” Sweetie grumbles. “I’m notta lil’ kid. Why do we hafta be so tired?”

“It’s either that or go ta bed at like 8,” Apple Bloom said sympathetically. “But it’s just ‘cause we’re ponies, not anything else. We’re supposed to sleep longer because we’re like, better at dreaming ah guess.”

“If you say so,” Sweetie said reluctantly, climbing up onto the pillows beside Scootaloo. If Scootaloo acknowledged them it was with nothing more than a wing stretch and rolling over. Apple Bloom reminded her self she still had to ask Scootaloo if she can get control of those things on her own.

“Are you gonna dream ‘bout the dream princess again?” Sweetie whispered while Apple Bloom situated herself.

“Hope so,” Apple Bloom whispered back. “Ah gotta tell her ‘bout you two. But she takes a long time sometimes.” She didn’t mention the princess’s reaction to Apple Bloom’s story of the purple girl, how frustrated and concerned she was with that girl’s actions towards Apple Bloom, and of course the lack of anything significant at all happening at the Fall Formal. Apple Bloom didn’t know how long it’d take before she snapped out of it, but the princess could stay in a funk for... weeks without any contact. Just had to wait until she came. That princess moved slowly as a stone sometimes, a symptom of her sensory deprivation perhaps. Or whatever was keeping her asleep.

Apple Bloom’s nap wasn’t long enough to dream, so she didn’t see the princess. But even at night she couldn’t find hide nor hair of her. The princess must have still been ruminating over something, was all Apple Bloom could figure. That princess really got stuck on pondering sometimes, on account of her distorted perception of time. But even dreaming on her own, Apple Bloom did enjoy how she could make the dream landscape do what she wanted, sorta. It was easy to lose track of yourself in a dream, but with the princess’s help Apple Bloom had gotten pretty good at catching herself. She used her dreams for brainstorming these days, mostly. Weird way to sleep, but Apple Bloom always woke up refreshed, so she guessed it was working.

In the case of a nap, Apple Bloom didn’t have much time to dream, so didn’t see the others or anything. It wasn’t as peculiar as Apple Bloom had dreamed the night before. That night, Apple Bloom had found herself just drifting into a scene of what looked like Sweetie Belle, as a unicorn, dipping her horn down and touching it to the surface of a murky lake, outside some factory sewage pipes. Crystal clear clean water spread from the spot where her curved horn touched the surface, to engulf the entire lake in crystalline purity. Sweetie stood, a tall, graceful and enigmatic creature who saved the—and then she fell flat on her face. And Sweetie wasn’t a big tall unicorn anymore, just the little stumpy self she woke up as. She was trying to talk and it wasn’t coming out right, and everyone was just laughing at her while she tried, and failed, to stand up.

But not Apple Bloom, no she’d never laugh or tease her or nothing! Apple Bloom just ran forward and helped Sweetie Belle to her hooves. And Sweetie looked at Apple Bloom with that grateful expression that made Apple Bloom understand. You can be weak, and flawed, and clumsy as all get out, as long as your friends are there to help you stand, until you can stand on your own. Doesn’t matter four legs or two, it’s the same thing.

So that’s how Apple Bloom woke, she, Sweetie and Scootaloo roused by the dawning of the sun. Apple Bloom didn’t know why she was dreaming about Sweetie Belle’s insecurities though, and it was weird how Sweetie kept giving Apple Bloom these looks during breakfast and hay time, like Sweetie was appreciative or something. Neither her nor Apple Bloom managed to put it to words though.

Regardless, their little pony nap here was ended by Big Macintosh coming home with Granny Smith. The three of them were wide awake pretty soon, clamoring for bits of sweet dough in the kitchen from Granny’s spoon, to varying degrees of ability. Watching her friends whether happy or sad, Apple Bloom had to feel confident that she was at least doing something right. No matter how hard it got for them, she’d always be there for her friends, to help them up from wherever they fell.

The weekend couldn’t come soon enough. Applejack said Diamond Tiara didn’t uh... want to come over. Apple Bloom really worried about that. But Applejack also said that her friend, the Sunshine girl was coming over, and she was going to clear up so much for them. Apple Bloom loved her sister, but Applejack just didn’t give Apple Bloom the benefit of the doubt sometimes, trying to protect her from the truth instead of preparing her for it. With a direct line to the flame haired girl, Apple Bloom really hoped she could get her questions answered, instead of being treated like a little kid, just because her species happened to look that way.

The three pony girls were outside, when she arrived. They were not so much waiting for that Sunny girl to arrive, but instead it was the simple fact that there was snow on the ground! That meant snowballs, wait they ain’t got hands to throw them with. But it meant snowmen, oh wait you need hands to... but no, maybe you could...

And so Apple Bloom built a snowman with her nose, bumping the little ball around like a football shaping the snow onto it until she could roll it up to where the other one was. Sweetie helped by putting in twig arms with her mouth. She wanted to use her “magic” as Rarity specified, but all Sweetie got from staring at the sticks was a constipated expression on her face. Sweetie didn’t mind using her mouth though, because Sunny Shiny was coming today, and she knew all about how to get horns working.

So Apple Bloom rolled three balls one on top of each other, the snowman coming... about to her chest in height. Sweetie stuck twigs in the little thing as arms. And Scootaloo took a flying leap and belly flopped on top of it, flattening it to the ground.

“Waugh!” Apple Bloom squawked scrambling back as the orange beast crushed the snowman beneath her unyielding bulk.

Scootaloo screamed “Waugh” too for a different reason, struggling to rear up onto her hooves going “Colcolcolcol!” at the snow that encrusted her underside. She shook like a dog to get the snow off her belly, and looked with big eyes between Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. Then she stumbled away as fast as she could, crowing, “No regresh!”

“Do that again, an’ ah’ll flatten you to the ground!” Apple Bloom called after her. She didn’t pursue though.

“Leas’ she waited until we finished it thish time,” Sweetie pointed out calmly.

Yep, Scootaloo was a piece of work alright. She could sort of use her wings at least. Not use use them, but move them purposefully. It wasn’t as satisfying as you’d think, because she still had to concentrate to trigger whatever got them to move, and they only seemed to either spread out or fold up. Nothing more sophisticated than that. Scootaloo did not have fine motor control over the things, that’s for sure.

Apple Bloom turned her ear then, at the sound of another car coming up. Specifically, a car coming up about a mile away, but... pony, freaky ears, you know the drill. She squinted down the road, not seeing much, but from the sound of it, it was Rarity’s cadillac. And Apple Bloom knew what that meant. “Hear that?” she said to the other two.

“I sthink they’re here!” Sweetie said excitedly.

“Go fetch someone, Scootaloo,” Apple Bloom suggested. “Ah think your mom was in the kitchen.” Scootaloo saluted, and bravely waddled off towards the warm farm house. The three of them should have been colder, but that’s one of the many benefits of being a pony, that extra fat layer or something. Really, the coldest Apple Bloom felt was on her neck where the fur was thinnest. Once the snow stopped melting on them, it was pretty easy to play around in the thin powdery stuff. More snow on the forecast of course, but this was pretty good for a first snowfall. Winters were pretty mild in Canterlot anyway.

Scootaloo returned with Cheerilee, who did have a light jacket on, and earmuffs. The lady’s slower paced 2-legged gait, and Scootaloo’s enthusiastic 4 crunched up to them, and Apple Bloom pointed where she thought she could see the car coming down the hill.

“Yeah thassit,” Scootaloo said squinting off in that direction. “Theresh Rarity an’ her friend’s in the passenger sheat.”

“Seat,” Sweetie corrected Scootaloo.

“Wha’ever,” Scootaloo said with a roll of her eyes.

“I really hope Sunshy is nice,” Apple Bloom said. “She seems real smart, but ah ain’t seen much of her at all.”

“I don’t think tha’s her name...” Sweetie prompted uncertainly.

Apple Bloom looked at Sweetie with surprise. “Shoot!” she exclaimed, kicked in frustration at the frozen ground. “It’s uh... Sun-something ah know that. Ah was thinking Fluttershy but that ain’t right.”

She looked at Cheerilee questioningly, who raised her hands and said, “Don’t ask me. I’ve only spoken with her once, and if I recall no names were exchanged! We had rather... odd things to talk about.” Cheerilee finished with a bit of a guilty smile.

“Well, Applejack knows at least,” Apple Bloom said reservedly. “Ah’ll just go ask her. Y’all yell if they get here before ah’m back.” Apple Bloom didn’t wait for an answer, just gallopped off across the yard, toward where their corral was.

Her goal was past the corral though, at the cow barn. Where all the cows hung out when there wasn’t anything to eat but hay. Which there wasn’t, but they had plenty of hay. Apple Bloom trotted right into the expansive interior, her hooves sounding hollow on the dirty boards, shadows long and covering everything with patches of dark and light, like a cathedral for cows.

“Sis, you still in here?” Apple Bloom called out, walking in the aisle between the stalls. Cows didn’t care one way or another about her presence, which was fine with her. She headed toward the one open stall, repeating “Sis?” and peering around the corner of it.

“Right here, Apple Bloom,” Applejack said, seated there in the stool right in the middle of milking one of the cows. “They here yet?”

“They are,” Apple Bloom said excitedly, “Scootaloo saw her uh... her, an’ everything! So uhm, I kinda forgot her name though. I cain’t exactly greet her if I only know it’s Sun... Sweet Sun?”

Applejack laughed at that. “Wise ‘a you to ask, then. Ah don’t wanna see what that girl’d say to bein’ called Sweet. Mah friend is about as sweet as a rutabaga. But her name’s Sunset Shimmer, so remember that good an’ you’ll get along just fine.”

“Sunset, right,” Apple Bloom said, ruminating over it while Applejack resumed making the hot squirts of milk spurt into the bucket. “Sunset Shimmer,” Apple Bloom repeated once more carefully. “Got it. Thanks sis!”

“Don’t sweat it, Apple Bloom,” Applejack said without looking up. Apple Bloom didn’t wait either, just went charging off across the farm again. The car was pulling up when she got back, and she gallopped up to the other two just in time for Rarity to pull her tuna boat to a halt. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were looking nervous now; who wouldn’t be? But they just clustered closer to Apple Bloom, while she looked forward bravely, seeing a girl who must be Sunset get out of the car, and then Rarity from the other side.

“So this is them, huh?” Sunset said down at the the pony girls in a casual tone, striding around the hood of the car as she spotted the three ponies. “They sure do look... like ponies,” she added noncomittally.

Rarity bent down and picked up Sweetie Belle right off her feet like a pony doll, saying to Sunset, “Ahem! Rude.”

“Right, sorry,” Sunset grumbled, glancing aside. She looked at the...two ponies remaining on the ground and said, “So, you heard a lot about me I suppose?”

“Not really!” Apple Bloom said, surprised at the tinge of bitterness in her voice. She added more humbly, “We been waiting till the weekend mostly. Nobody wants t’get the wrong story just ‘cause they were in a hurry.”

Scootaloo practically had her head buried in Apple Bloom’s flank, so Apple Bloom hooked her hoof around Scootaloo’s shoulder and hauled her to face Sunset together, saying, “Ah’m Apple Bloom, an’ this here’s Scootaloo. She’s mah best friend. An’ the pony Rarity’s uh, snuggling is Sweetie Belle. You can see the resemblance, no doubt. She’s mah best friend, too. Ah had two other friends this year, but they ain’t ponies.”

“Well,” Sunset said at once humorously and hesitantly, “Pleased to finally meet you, Apple Bloom. I bet you have a lot of questions for me.”

“Do I ever!” Apple Bloom cheered with an enthusiastic hoof pump.

“OK, 1) Nobody knows why you’re a pony,” Sunset stated then, ticking off her fingers. Apple Bloom sagged a bit at that, but she sort of expected it anyway. She’d have been human by now if anyone had the answers to that. “And 2)” Sunset continued, “There isn’t any way to go to my world, for now. But other than that, I can probably help answer anything you want to know.”

“O..kay,” Apple Bloom said cautiously. “How ‘bout, am ah from that pony world of yours? Is that why ah’m a pony?”

Scootaloo elbowed her and Apple Bloom corrected herself. “Ah mean, are we from that world?” she asked Sunset.

“Short answer: no,” Sunset said, as Rarity set a wiggling Sweetie Belle down to join her friends again, the girl gone unicorn zipping up to listen raptly to Sunset’s every word. “If you want the long answer though...” Sunset trailed off. The lanky flame haired girl then stepped back to the side of the car she rode up in.

Sunset pulled open the back door of Rarity’s tuna boat, and leaned in, beckoning. She then whispered, “Come on, you can’t chicken out now!” quiet enough Apple Bloom suspected none of them out here were supposed to hear it. Then Sunset Shimmer dragged by the elbow, a third girl out of Rarity’s car, who stumbled around the hood of that cadillac tuna boat... and Apple Bloom found herself staring up at the purple girl. The very same one who shouted her down at the Fall Formal.

Apple Bloom couldn’t help from shrinking back, as the nervous girl raised a hand and introduced herself,

“Hi... I’m Twilight Sparkle.”

Author's Note

Hi I’m Nightmare Discordbra. Pleased to meet you, everypony!

Twilight Sparkle

There she was, that strange purple girl. She didn’t have any sort of school clothes on, just some kind of white looking longcoat, slim fitting purple pants and a drab olive shirt underneath her coat. Her hair looked kind of ragged; crudely cut was the very best you could say about it, yet it was dark purple with that blue and magenta stripe through it.

Apple Bloom wasn’t sure why she was so terrified of seeing this girl a second time, but heck if it wasn’t true! She was gonna yell, and get all in her face with all those teeth and stuff! The feelings were just so strong; Apple Bloom found herself trembling, from her very poor hiding place behind the legs of her sister, Applejack.

“Apple Bloom! What the hay’s the matter?” Applejack declared, turning back to look down at her cowering sister.

“It’s her again!” Apple Bloom said, pointing an accusing hoof at the really angry scary giant lady. The fact that every girl in the world was a giant lady to Apple Bloom, and she was currently hiding from her behind the legs of a giant lady didn’t really register.

“This is my friend,” Sunset Shimmer said, in an irritated tone, looking down to Apple Bloom with an unsettled expression. “My friend, Twilight Sparkle. She didn’t mean to scare you, and she couldn’t—”

“I wanted to apologize!” Twilight interrupted abruptly, tense, with her fists clenched at her sides. Instead of snapping angrily at her, Sunset just glanced Twilight’s way and remained silent. “I’m sorry Apple Bloom,” Twilight said, in a more relaxed, sympathetic tone, with a sad smile. “It was wrong of me to yell at you, and I should have reacted more maturely.”

It started, if nothing else, to get through Apple Bloom’s haze, and she managed to squeak out, “Y’ain’t gonna yell at me no more?”

Twilight knelt down on the ground beside the car then, saying, “I just want to talk to you, and apologize for what I did that night, and in general. I think I might know a few things you’d find very useful, so I’m just here to tell you about them. Don’t worry. I promise I would never, ever do anything to hurt you.”

And oddly enough, Apple Bloom still felt too scared to approach her. But Apple Bloom shoved her feelings down and did anyway, because it didn’t make a lick of sense. She wasn’t a baby! This girl was being perfectly reasonable, even if back when she was shouting her down, this girl did give Apple Bloom a face of big scary sharp canines. As Apple Bloom inched forward, the purple girl held out her hand approachably, and Apple Bloom took a cautious sniff. Lemon scented soap, and sort of a musk like Rarity, but with more wait—

Apple Bloom abruptly sat down on her butt, forgetting all about the purple girl, and used her two front hooves to palpate her nose, crossing her eyes to stare at it in confusion.

Twilight wisely backed up, before asking, “Did I do something wrong? Do I smell bad? Oh please don’t tell me I smell bad!”

“Ah’m not a dog!” Apple Bloom said in frustration, planting her forehooves to block the sight of her unclothed belly, and looking aside dispiritedly. “Ah’m not...”

“Um... yes?” Twilight said, in a totally befuddled voice. Probably goggling down at her, like Apple Bloom was some kind of crazy pony.

Apple Bloom sighed, looking at Twilight with a “did you seriously not get that” look.

“Ah just like, smelled your hand straight out of a barn like,” Apple Bloom said bitterly, “But ah ain’t an animal, ah’m a girl! Ah just... never mind.” She looked away again.

There was a thoughtful pause before Twilight said, “We’re all animals, you know.”

“Yeah, but ah mean like a dumb animal,” Apple Bloom grumped, unplacated.

“I know how you feel, but you’re not acting dumb,” Twilight urged her emphatically. “You’re finding yourself doing strange things, that you never would have thought of doing before, but it’s just normal for what you are. The same thing happened to me, when I turned into a human. Unless you think humans are dumb animals, too?”

“You...” Apple Bloom had to look up at the girl in shock, “You used ta be like... Sunset did? A pony?”

Twilight smiled at her, and then more nervously up at Applejack, who had a surprisingly hostile expression for Apple Bloom’s liking.

“How many a’you human ponies are there?” Applejack asked suspiciously. “And what else ain’t you tellin’ us?”

“It’s logically impossible for me to tell you something I am not telling you,” Twilight stated, with a disapproving frown. “I think you mean what else have I not been telling you in the past.”

Applejack started to nod, and shake her head, and sort of said, “Ye-uh... that’s right. That’s what ah said!” She was pretty shaken by that though, and Twilight pressed her advantage, saying,

“Secrets aren’t going to help us any more at this point. I should have come forward a long time ago, in fact, but you have to understand it’s... I really want to tell you everything I know, but can we... um... go inside first?”

Apple Bloom looked between the two girls, Applejack and this purpled one, and up at the chilly snowy sky. She then saved her sister the trouble of collecting her wits, by jumping to her hooves and exclaiming, “OK, ah’ll go put on a pot a’ tea!”

Apple Bloom hoped her leaving would defuse any protective impulses, and leave Applejack obliged to make the others follow. Her hopes were met thankfully, as she barely got into the kitchen to beg Granny to put on a pot a’ tea before Twilight, followed by Sunset and Applejack came through the door, Apple Bloom’s two pony friends lagging behind as they came in more slowly and unsteadily. Applejack held the door for them then closed out the outside chill.

Twilight hadn’t even got her tea before Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were all clustered around her legs. Twilight might have been able to answer them, if the three curious fillies hadn’t been peppering her with questions all at once.

“Why am I a ponhy?” Scootaloo whined irately.

“Were you a unicorn, thoo?” Sweetie asked half twined under Twilight’s legs.

“Why were ya yelling at me?” Apple Bloom asked very seriously, not flippant questions like the other two, nudging Twilight in the knee to prompt her to answer.

“Why don’ I have feazzers yet?” Scootaloo asked, rearing up against Twilight’s thigh.

“How hdo you do magzic?” Sweetie asked bumping sideways against the back of Twilight’s legs.

“Can ya’ write with your mouth?” Apple Bloom asked, right about when Twilight finally toppled over, like a very awkward and ungainly tree, who still wasn’t used to walking on two legs.

Sweetie stuck her head out from under Twilight’s legs, crawling out saying, “...oopsz.”

“Give the girl some space, you three!” came Rarity’s admonishment, the snowy white girl kneeling down, and helping Twilight to sit up. “Twilight, dear, are you alright?”

“I’m fine, Rarity,” Twilight said rubbing the back of her head. “I...”

Then she looked at Rarity in a different way, saying in something of a lost voice, “You are just like her... I even suspected... the first time, I thought they had followed me somehow, my friends that is. Which you are, um... like.”

“I em... resemble one of your ...friends?” Rarity asked uneasily.

Twilight blushed, saying with a dry hint of despair, “Right, you don’t know anymore.” She clenched her hands in her lap, saying, “Ohh, this is so wrong in so many ways. She is my friend. You should be my friend, but this flour rotting time spiral just ruined that.”

“In any case...” Rarity said uneasily to Twilight, “Let’s get you settled down somewhere more comfortable.”

Apple Bloom soon could hardly remember why she was even scared about this skinny looking awkward girl. Twilight had been nothing but courteous since she arrived, downright sweet really, and it wasn’t long before Apple Bloom was seated beside her at the kitchen table, just like two buddies chatting with each other. Twilight didn’t think it was weird Apple Bloom was a pony; she didn’t even treat her like she was any different from any other girl.

It made sense, of course, with Sunset and Twilight’s wild story about being ponies changed into humans. If Twilight had been a pony, she’d have no reason to treat Apple Bloom like an animal. Apple Bloom just knew that portal she came through had to have the answers to this. If it was working, it’d change her human, and if it didn’t change her human, then Apple Bloom could study it piece by piece, until she found the part of it that can.

But for now, with that darn portal on the fritz, it was just nice to talk to someone who had not even the slightest doubt that you were a person inside. There was no hesitation or awkwardness in Twilight Sparkle’s voice, no flicker of fear or confusion in her eyes to be found. It was... nice, compared to how some of the other girls got freaked out every time Apple Bloom opened her mouth and revealed, once again, that yes, she was a talking pony.

Twilight was treating Apple Bloom kind of like a little kid though. That sort of got on her nerves.

Twilight, along with Sunset sat with Apple Bloom at the round dining table, in a vague triangle of people, two humans and one little pony. The little yellow apple pony Apple Bloom was up on her booster seat, and the other two were sitting in chairs, as is normal for human beings, happily ignoring the pleasant smelling cups of tea set before them, to discuss.

The back door was cracked open just a bit, to let in the breeze and rare sunlight this time of year. Outside, Applejack was attempting to corral Scootaloo, who wanted to take advantage of the momentary break in the weather, for the important task of running around heedlessly. That is to say, falling around heedlessly.

Sweetie wanted to stick around the table, but Rarity said that the two girls had come to speak with Apple Bloom alone, for some reason, and that they’d three of them get a chance to talk, once Twilight had properly apologized. That left Apple Bloom a bit on the spot, but she put on a brave face, and answered Twilight’s questions solo, as best as she could, while trying to field her own.

“So you thought ah was the other Apple Bloom?” Apple Bloom asked the purple girl, cautiously aghast.

“On some level, yes,” Twilight said. “You look just about the same, like two flowers from the same bed. But that’s just how the erm... special mirror works, so I should have never have yelled at you.”

“Mirror?” Apple Bloom said confusedly, “What mirror we talking about?”

“Oh, it’s like a mirror you can walk through!” Twilight said with an exaggerated smile. “You just point your hooves at it, and dive right in. And then with a woosh, you’re a human instead of a pony. Isn’t that neat?”

“Y’mean the portal to the other universe, right?” Apple Bloom said in an unsatisfied tone. “It ain’t a mirror, is it? You were all trying to go through a solid stone wall, down by that horse statue. Does it turn reflective or something?”

“Em... no,” Twilight said uncertainly. “It um... the stone becomes... pushy throughy, so you can just walk through it, and on the other side is another world!”

Apple Bloom sounded out the word ‘pushy throughy’ and then said, “Y’mean permeable? Ah think that’s the word?”

“You seem... unusually well read for a high school freshman,” the flame haired girl said, giving not Apple Bloom, but Twilight a scathing look. Twilight eeped and shrank back at Sunset’s gaze, mumbling,

“Oh, right... Freshman...”

“Ah try to keep up with mah English at least,” Apple Bloom said carefully, eyeing Sunset. Somehow Sunset held a note of disinterest, despite being the one asking about this, as if she already knew the answer. “Ah ain’t gonna fail, no matter how mad Ms. Harshvoice thinks ah am at talking.”

“Or at least—” Apple Bloom’s determination slipped as she looked aside, saying, “Ah wasn’t gonna fail.”

Twilight looked at both Apple Bloom and Sunset, before settling on Apple Bloom and admitting, “Yes, Apple Bloom. Permeable is the right word. Traversible might be more appropriate, because of the um... really hard math and numbers involved.”

“Try me,” Apple Bloom said irately, “Ah already studied Algebra, an’ ah was gonna pass Geometry.”

“Oh, well um...” Twilight looked at her nervously. “So you know the um... hypotenuse of a right triangle?”

“Y’mean the square root of A squared plus B squared?” Apple Bloom said, with a smug smirk.

“Well, um... the... our worlds you can think of, like... you can think of the two portals like rings, attached at 90 degree angles. Like this, see?” Twilight demonstrated with her fingers, making woo noises until Apple Bloom snapped out,

“Just tell me already!”

“T-the nascent effect of the temporal lock on your world causes its portal to rotate relative to our own,” Twilight said bluntly, “And it’s like a... a gear with a special tooth that um...”

“You’re saying it’s like two gears with holes that align,” Apple Bloom stated for her.

“More like a gear and a screw,” she said reflexively. “I–I mean, your time spiral pulls your side of the portal along with it, so as it cycles around, the grooves to the two worlds only align once every loop. Otherwise there’s no way through the gears, and no portal there at all. But it also pulls your world... backward in time since the portal is bidirectionally time fixed.”

“So that’s the reason it opens the same time every year?” Apple Bloom asked. “It’s just... a gear pulling up a screw that aligns once per turn?”

“That’s right!” Twilight said, “And my theory... a theory is a special guess, that I’m really really sure of—”

“Ah know what a theory is, Twilight,” Apple Bloom said in a hurt tone.

“Sorry, sorry!” Twilight said. “My theory is that it didn’t appear this year because, with the time spiral broken, it’s like the threads on the screw have vanished. The um... special grooves are two sides to the same s-surface. You know what surface means, right?”

Apple Bloom thunked her forehead on the table in exasperation.

“Right, right sorry,” Twilight apologized again. “I keep forgetting how old you really are.”

“How old do you think ah am?” Apple Bloom asked vexedly. She rapidly didn’t want to hear the answer though, because here was someone who really could confirm it for her, and Apple Bloom didn’t want it confirmed. Not that! She wasn’t... that! Twilight’s reaction made it pretty dang obvious though.

Twilight winced at first, and kind of twiddled her thumbs. “To be honest, you don’t look much different from the Apple Bloom in my universe, and I don’t think she’d be any older than 14 or 15 by now.”

Apple Bloom froze, then lifted her head. “So, ah look normal for a 14 year old uhm... pony, then?”

“Yeah let’s go with that...” Twilight said with a sheepish smile. “Sorry, I really shouldn’t assume—you just look so adorable I mean, um.” And now she was blushing and staring at her hands held clenched in her lap for some reason. Apple Bloom probably should have been able to remember what that meant better, when you do that with your hands.

“Well, maybe it’s an effect of being human,” Apple Bloom speculated, “But ah ain’t a baby, even if ah have that effect on you, so please try not to act like ah’m one?”

Twilight frowned, but agreed, saying seriously, “I’ll do my best, Apple Bloom.”

Apple Bloom reluctantly nodded. Best she was going to get, at any rate. “So uh, ah am not the other Apple Bloom,” she reiterated, “An’ she’s on the other side of this portal, that ain’t opening anymore?”

“Yeah, it—” Twilight sighed. “It doesn’t make any sense, because it really is one portal. The two sides are the same side, just you’re in a subverted timeline, except for approximately three days in November. Last... week, in fact. But if the time screw is unthreaded, then it should simply rotate back around, like magnets. The only thing keeping the portal closed at all was the time loop.”

“Either way,” Apple Bloom stated grimly, “Ah guess you’re stuck as a human, an’ wanna change back into a pony?”

Twilight squirmed with her hands folded before her, saying with a meaningful delay, “...yes. I have nothing against your species. It’s just... well... not me. I miss the ground under my hooves, and the simple pleasure of levitating a daisy and daffodil sandwich, and actually being able to eat it of course. Your skin is just... thin! I don’t know how to describe it adequately. You understand though, don’t you? It feels like you have the wrong skin?”

Apple Bloom wanted to shake her head at that. She felt just fine, in fact. But, shouldn’t she feel wrong like this? She should have felt that way, right? “Ah feel fine actually, Twilight,” she admitted nervously. “No skin problems or nothin’. Just feels normal by now.”

“Fascinating!” Twilight responded, without missing a beat. “Perhaps pony skin is objectively more comfortable than human skin! Or perhaps you’re unusually resilient towards transformations. Oh I am so glad I can finally... er, that is, heh heh.”

“What Twi is trying to say,” Sunset said for the blushing princess gone girl, “Is she’s been trying to get permission to drag a human across the mirror for 3 years now, to see if it’s an asymmetric experience.”

“I would never do this to you!” Twilight added hastily gesturing at Apple Bloom’s predicament. “The portal was only a consideration because it could be easily, and quickly reversed! In theory, that is. There was a slight possibility that a human would transform into something other than a pony, or even into an antimagic cascade immediately upon arrival. Hard to say, since your world has the lowest baseline magic levels of any we’ve encountered so far, and the time loop just devours any that comes out of it.”

“Well that’s funny, because ah can do lotsa magic stuff,” Apple Bloom said skeptically.

Twilight was uncertain at that. “Earth ponies are... special,” she said. “You claim you can do magic... stuff,”

“An’ ah cain!” Apple Bloom insisted.

“But you probably have had a hard time explaining it, or repeating your experiments,” Twilight continued without pause. “Earth pony magic is the most mysterious of all, because well... you don’t have a horn, and you don’t have wings.”

“So Scoots does have magic wings?” Apple Bloom asked, though she pretty much knew the answer.

“Ponies are magic,” Twilight explained, but seemed dissatisfied with that. “No, life is magic. Magic is... it’s the manipulation of reality, to conform with the will. Not using existing mechanisms to enact your will, but changing the underlying mechanic, so it better suits your continued existence. Having wings or a horn does not make you necessarily more magical, it just makes your magic easier to... observe. And measure.”

“Can I magick up shome wings?” Scootaloo cut in, toddling up to them like she knew how to walk. She blinked and shook her head. “I mean, shome feathers? Theshe thingsh look weird.” She looked over a proto-wing with no lack of dismay. Applejack jogged up behind her, hands extended, with an apologetic expression to the three of them.

“It’s fine. Twilight already said sorry,” Apple Bloom told her sis, “We were talking about Scoots anyways, so she has a right to know.”

“Well alrighty then,” Applejack said giving Twilight a look, “Why’s Scootaloo as fresh as a chick outta her egg when it comes to wing feathers?”

Actually all three of them turned to look at Twilight, expectantly. Barring Sunset, who just looked relieved at not having to answer.

“Well, this is just a hypothesis,” Twilight said reluctantly, “And there’s no ethical experiment I can think of to verify it, but pegasus feathers are very magical. Extremely magical. And, well, unlike a unicorn’s horn, they’re not permanent fixtures. So you’ll lose a pinion now and again, for others to grow and take their place, as a normal pegasus that is. It might just be that the transformation spell didn’t include flight feathers because there was less magic involved. I did mention that your world has been measured to have very low amounts of available magic.”

Scootaloo blinked at her.

“She said feathers are magic,” Apple Bloom clarified. “So you can’t grow them from magic, only from scratch.”

“But my horn is magzic,” Sweetie Belle said in confusion. Rarity was tagging along behind her hesitantly, while Sweetie determinedly hobbled forward, with slight course corrections from her sister. “Why izhn’ that growing from scra’sh?”

Apple Bloom shook her head, confounded. Sunset was the one to speak up saying down to Sweetie, “It should be impossible to turn into a pony at all. There was no incantation, no spell, no sense to it whatsoever. Whatever powerful magic created a unicorn horn from scratch didn’t create feathers, and that just seems arbitrary. It doesn’t make sense, but there you go.”

Sunset frowned and held a hand out as if to touch Sweetie’s horn, but carefully avoided doing so. “Unicorn horns grow for your entire life,” she said. “They’re kind of like hooves in that sense. But they grow very slowly, and if damaged, they can grow back in odd ways, heal crooked and such. A cracked horn needs medical treatment in order to heal without complications. Feathers on the other hand grow quickly, and are frequently shedded, so if I was trying to cut corners with this... impossibly powerful transformation spell, I’d certainly go for the feathers before I did anything to a unicorn’s horn.”

Sweetie’s ears were flat at that, and she tried to look at her horn, saying, “T-that sounds rearly badh. It can rearry c-crack?”

“It’s the hardest structure in your body, Sweetie Belle,” Twilight explained, squatting down with Sunset. “Almost unheard of to damage one. Just take care of yourself in general, and your horn should be fine.”

Sweetie nodded at that, looking at Scootaloo and saying, “So, me wishout a horn woul’ be like her wizhout a whole wingh, but with her wing, zhe feathersh still nee’ to grow back?”

“Exactly!” Twilight said cheerfully, shifting over to face Scootaloo again. “So unless there is something very wrong, your feathers should grow in naturally just fine,” Twilight said assuringly to Scootaloo. “Don’t bite the pinfeathers, and make sure you oil your pinions regularly, and they should practically take care of themselves.”

Scootaloo hung her head, “Why I always gotta be the weird one,” she muttered dispiritedly.

“Hey I have masgic echoes in my brain,” Sweetie said resentfully, “So that’s gotta count for shome weirldness.”

“Magic echoes in your brain?” Sunset cut in, giving Sweetie an honestly intrigued look.

Sweetie blushed at that. “Oh, I dunno, i’s jus’ a guess,” she said meekly. “I jus’ never had a horn, sho now that I do it keeps... you know, echoing. Like something flowing through it or... around it or something.”

“That is weird,” Sunset said in concern, “It’s not like you’d be picking up ambient magic levels at your age, not with how low they are in this world.”

“This is low amounts of magic?” Apple Bloom interrupted, waving her non-human pony hoof in Sunset’s face. At Sunset’s blank stare she had to clarify, “Ah ain’t wavin’ a human hand in front a ya.”

Sunset didn’t answer then, but just looked at the hoof and frowned. Then she turned to look at Sweetie again, saying with purpose, “Sweetie, have you noticed a direction they’re coming from? The magic echoes? They’re stronger, when you’re facing a certain way?”

Sweetie shook her head. “It’s jus’ random, maybe just imagining it. It is in my brain ahfter hall.”

“Er, I thought you said it was in your horn?” Sunset asked, eyeing Sweetie uncertainly.

“There’s a differensh?” Sweetie asked innocently, blinking at Sunset.

Sunset raised an eyebrow at that, saying, “You do realize that your horn is outside of your brain, right?”

“Yeah, but it’s pointing right a’ it!” Sweetie protested, poking the thing nervously with her hoof tip.

Sunset looked like she was going to say something snide, but stopped then and looked away thoughtfully, saying, “Huh, I never thought about it that way.”

“Well, you know what they say about unicorns and mental instability,” Twilight quipped to her wryly.

“Don’t be tribalist,” Sunset said with an eye roll.

“Hey, unicorns can make fun of themselves all they want!” Twilight said in mock indignance.

“You’re supposed to be above those things,” Sunset countered smoothly, “Because you’re not exactly a unicorn anymore, are you princess?”

Twilight reacted oddly to the jab, just blushing and going quiet and looking down at the table in front of her, but before Apple Bloom could ask, there was a crashing sound of something falling over in the living room.

“Scootaloo—!” Applejack shouted in frustration, charging over that way. Rarity looked between the living room and Sweetie with a wince. With a sympathetic grimace, Sweetie sat on her haunches, freeing up a front leg to wave Rarity off amenably so Sweetie’s Sister too could join the war against Scootaloo’s refusal to acknowledge her lack of coordination. That left Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, Sunset, and Twilight together. And Granny and Cheerilee were both either cooking, or duking it out in the kitchen, from the sounds of it. Mac was upstairs, away from the noise and hubbub.

“Well ah’d help you to a seat,” Apple Bloom said down to the little candy colored unicorn on the floor, “But y’probably should wait until you figured out climbing first.”

“No, it’s okhay,” Sweetie said pensively. “I jus’ wanted to ask, what does this horn do?” She blushed and turned to the other two girls, saying, “I mean, I wanted thoo ask you because you two were um... you were unicornth I guess?

“uni—...” Sweetie crossed her eyes, and went silent, trying to get her tongue in order.

“Unicorns?” Sunset laughed, “Forget unicorns. We studied at the best university in Canterlot!”

Twilight gave Sunset a misapproving look, and got up from her seat and knelt down to Sweetie, telling the little unicorn, “What we’re trying to say is, it might take a long time, many lessons and a lot of practice, but I think we can help you out. Whether we’re unicorns or not, we received the best education Equestria has to offer, so if anyone can get your horn to work, it’s going to be either Sunset Shimmer, or Twilight Sparkle!”

Sweetie didn’t seem placated at that. “It shoundzs hard,” Sweetie said grumpily, looking away from Twilight. “Why can’ I have...” she lifted a hoof, “Why not just have magic hoovbes, like Apple Bloom?”

“Oh, you do,” Twilight said to the little white unicorn, in surprise. “Hoofiwork is something every pony can learn to do. Granted earth ponies are better at it generally, but you’re not crippled or anything, Sweetie.”

“So what can ah do, that a unicorn or a pegasus couldn’t?” Apple Bloom interjected, somewhat upset that she seemed to be getting the short end of the pony stick.

“Nopony knows,” Sunset said to her in a spooky mysterious tone, drawing Apple Bloom’s attention, and ...waggling her fingers.

When Apple Bloom didn’t smile, Sunset stopped waggling, and said more seriously, “Earth pony magic is one of the least studied pony magics, and not from lack of trying. With no focus for your magic, it shouldn’t let you do anything at all, but there are stories of bizarre and unexplainable phenomenon, things appearing and disappearing without so much as a poof, impossible confluences of events, and the only thing at the center of it all was an earth pony, with not one cloud nor twinkle to give anypony any idea what the heck just happened.”

Apple Bloom stared at her, wheels turning in her head trying to imagine that, then slumped responded glumly, “Ah don’t know if I want to magic at all, then. That sounds freaking creepy.”

“Is not sho bad, at leasht your life gets to be interesting!” Sweetie squeaked cheerfully up to Apple Bloom.

“There are some measured phenomenon,” Twilight suggested, standing up straight, with another acidic look at the doomsaying Sunset, who folded her fingers demurely. Twilight smiled and explained, “One aspect to earth pony magic for instance, is soil fertility and crop growth.”

“Ah have magic poop?” Apple Bloom blurted out, aghast.

Sunset snorted.

Twilight...tried not to. “That’s... no, that would not be magic,” she said with careful restraint to suppress any snickers. “What I mean is, that anything you grow will likely grow very well, measurably better than either Sweetie Belle or Scootaloo could produce. In fact, my friend Applejack—”

Twilight got a pained look on her face. “My... friend Applejack,” she continued less eagerly, sitting back in her chair at the kitchen table, “From my world, had a trick where she’d put a seed in a clump of soil, and she could make it sprout, right there in her hooves. That’s a bit... much for most earth ponies, but she’s a pretty special mare.”

“There’s really a pony, for every one of us?” Sweetie asked in wonder.

“Yep!” Twilight agreed cheerfully, “Well, except for us,” she indicated Sunset and herself.

At Sweetie’s uncertain look, Sunset clairified, “There’s a pony on our side, for each and every one of you, but there isn’t one of you, for every pony over there. Many ponies have no counterpart. There are just a lot more pon—people in our world. It’s a whole kingdom, and you just have a city here. And there are a lot of missing ponies here, too. Humans, I mean. It’s confusing.”

“What am ah like over there?” Apple Bloom asked Sunset, curiously.

Sunset thinned her lips at the question. She said with slumped shoulders, “I haven’t been to Equestria in... a while. I haven’t really had a chance to get to know ponies for a very long time.”

“How long, exactly?” Apple Bloom asked, frowning at the odd choice of words.

“Next question,” Sunset said, with shaded eyes.

“Well alright,” Apple Bloom murmured uneasily, “So you cain’t tell me nothing about the other me?”

“I can’t, but Twilight can,” Sunset said, looking at the purple girl. “She came over recently, thanks to a stupid idea I had, that’s... a long story. And she’s been living in the closest analog of your city for quite some time.”

“Well, what am I like?” Apple Bloom asked turning to Twilight eagerly. “Am ah an adult already in pony years? What am ah studying? Are mah friends moving out, or can we live together in pony land?”

Twilight blinked at Apple Bloom and said bemusedly, “Wow, the sheer amount of differences between your world and mine in that sentence alone, I don’t even know where to start! She’s not studying... anything in particular but again, Equestrian education doesn’t really parallel this crazy system. For most ponies, their studies are a secondary thing to their occupation.”

“So what’s her occupation?” Apple Bloom persisted.

“She’s a... eh... student?” Twilight said with a nervous smile.

Apple Bloom raised an eyebrow. Because she totally still had those. “Okay, is she also a Freshman in high school?” she asked kind of worried they’d say she was in kindergarden or something.

“There isn’t any concept like a high school, I’m afraid,” Twilight answered soberly, “Beyond primary school, there are higher institutions that some ponies attend, but she certainly isn’t there yet.”

“Okay, then,” Apple Bloom said uneasily, “But what’s she like?”

“She’s one of the sweetest little fillies you’d ever meet,” Twilight said fondly, “She and her friends get up to such adventures, they’re often the talk of the town!”

“Me too?” Sweetie asked, definitely looking like she was feeling left out of the conversation down there. Apple Bloom considered joining her.

“I getta go on adhvenstures too?” Sweetie clarified in excitement.

“All three of you, yes,” Twilight smiled at her. “It isn’t always a good thing though,” she added with a wry grin. “One time you dealt with a little bullying problem, not by working with your teachers and parents, but by blowing up the harvest parade!”

“Oh no!” Sweetie exclaimed in honest distress, “Did anybo’y get hurt?”

“Well, my friend Pinkie Pie’s float was completely destroyed, but she just laughed it off,” Twilight said distantly, “Pinkie can find something wonderful in just about anything, even total disasters! She’s not as anxious or stressed as your Pinkie Pie, well at least not normally, so it really gives her a chance to be the most wonderful friend.”

“Pinkie Pie and Applejack?” Apple Bloom put in, “Who else are you friends with over there, Twilight?”

“Mostly the counterpart to Sunset’s friends,” Twilight answered smoothly, “Them and I didn’t meet under the best of circumstances, but those 5 friends are very special, no matter what world it is. I was so lucky for the six of us to have such a connection together. When your sister saved me that fateful night, I really saw a side to her that... I just, I miss... I’m sorry.”

“What?” Apple Bloom asked in confusion. “So they’re special?”

“I’m sorry,” was all Twilight would say and she looked awful sad... was she even crying?

“Next question,” beside her, Sunset said dangerously.

“Ah sympathize, but y’all aren’t being very forthcoming,” Apple Bloom said resentfully. “If’n I didn’t have hooves on mah feet, I’d say you were just about downright crazy!”

Sweetie interjected, stating admonishingly up to Apple Bloom, “Sunset Shimmer is Applejack’s friend, so we can trust her. You think Applejack would be friends with a crazy person?”

Apple Bloom looked away from Sweetie in acquiescence, but mumbled under her breath, “Well we are friends with Diamond Tiara,”

“That wasn’t nice!” Sweetie exclaimed in outrage.

Apple Bloom bugged out, looking down at Sweetie again, then realized, “Oh yeah, freaky ears right. You know ah don’t mean it.”

“She’s not crazy,” Sweetie insisted petulantly. Apple Bloom just rolled her eyes.

“Look...” Sunset said, putting her fingertips on her brow, “Do you know what a time loop is?”

“Ah guess so?” Apple Bloom tried to say, but Sunset Shimmer interrupted her with a very bad imitation of her “Ah guess so?”

“Did you just...?” Sunset Shimmer said before Apple Bloom could say anything. Apple Bloom froze and shouted,

“Stop doin’ that!” wait no, Sunset said it before she could.

“Stop copyin’ me!” Sunset Shimmer said. Apple Bloom blushed hard, trying frantically to think of something she wouldn’t be able to predict. She opened her mouth,

“Hippopo—aww, skip it!!” Sunset Shimmer shouted gleefully.

“Aaargh!” Apple Bloom yelled in exasperation. Sunset didn’t pre-emptively match that, though. Instead Sunset said,

“Suffice to say, I’ve told you you were in a time loop before. We’re all acting a little crazy. If you think Diamond Tiara is the crazy one, maybe you should take a more critical look at your own situation.”

Apple Bloom stared at her a while, then said in a smaller voice looking at Sunset with solemn new respect, “It’s really that bad, huh?”

Sunset glanced down at those words, but said, “No, it’s not that bad. I just led you to say something you’ve said before. I’ve only tried telling your family about the time loop thirty-seven times, depending. After the first few, I was pretty much just messing around. You always pick the word hippopotamus, and Applejack picks hornswaggling when I do it to her.”

Apple Bloom really didn’t know what to say to that. Sweetie did pipe up though, saying with worry, “How mush time do we have left?”

Sunset looked down at Sweetie, saying, “Everything resets at the beginning of the school year, on September 7th. But uhm... it probably won’t happen this time.”

Twilight shook her head at Sunset, saying, “Oh, we are most certain that the time spiral has been entirely undone. While possible that another loop might be put in place, some unknowable time in the future, this one certainly has shown hard evidence of being cleared.”

“What evidence?” Apple Bloom asked tilting her head at the purple girl. Twilight seemed hesitant to answer, though.

“Certain arcanosensitive dyes do exist in this world,” Twilight ventured. “We haven’t been able to measure the temporal magic directly, since obviously when we come to this world, our horns go away. But I could show you the photography... we have most of our relevant findings in Rarity’s automobile.

“Magic you see,” Twilight went on, “Has a distinctive effect on the electromagnetic spectrum, seen sometimes as distortion or colors, or sparkling energies. The low levels here would only produce x-ray spectra or higher though, and very rarely. When there is a time loop, slow exposure photography specifically tuned to that range can in theory pick up the coreolized entubation of the physiosomata.”

Apple Bloom looked at her blankly. “Smaller words, please?” she asked, in dissatisfaction.

“Oh I’m sorry,” Twilight blushed, “What I mean is, there is a kind of light that we cannot even see, did you know that? But there are magic picture devices that can. You have to use those ‘cameras’ which take the pictures, next to living things like your friends or your family. You are very special for being alive, you see. That means the um... around you is a very special area, that—”

“Never mind, ah liked the bigger words better,” Apple Bloom grumbled, her face against the table, again.

“I guess the point is,” Sunset cut in, “That we don’t know, but we have a very good idea. Between that and the prophecy—”

“What prophecy?” Apple Bloom zipped her head up, suddenly attentive. Sunset winced.

“It’s not exactly... more like a riddle, really. There are some... things in this world that don’t quite reset,” Sunset explained. “It’s really not obvious, but fragments in various um... books in your library, who have some pages that wear out, and on neighboring pages have a cipher that, when translated basically says that you’re in a time loop, and you need to dream of the golden apple to end it.”

“They refer to it as the dream of Eris though,” Twilight offered. “And only rarely refer to it being gold, and an apple. But there’s not much else to go on really. How to exactly dream this sort of thing isn’t obvious.”

With wide eyes down on the floor, Sweetie’s bright tones exclaimed unbelievingly, “How di’ you find out something lihke that?”

Sunset cut off any answer from Twilight, by just telling Sweetie, “It’s a long story,” and folding her fingers.

Sweetie Belle looked up at her, undeterred.

It was a long story, it turns out, and surprisingly unsatisfying. Suffice to say, when you’re repeating the same year for decades, you find ways to occupy your time.

Scootaloo ended up dragging of Sweetie Belle to play while the two former ponies talked with Apple Bloom about some other things too. But really, there was only one really pressing question Apple Bloom had. She just wasn’t sure she wanted this Sunset girl to hear it. So, with no more questions to ask, and getting fiercely jealous of the distant laughter of her friends, Apple Bloom said,

“Sorry Sunset, but can ah talk to Twilight in private for a sec?”

Sunset looked at Apple Bloom with a surprisingly serious frown, but then shrugged and said, “No problem, but I can’t promise she won’t tell me all about it anyway.”

“I can keep a secret!” Twilight said hotly.

“If you do, then I’m sure there’s a good reason to keep it,” Sunset sighed, standing up from the table. “I’ll be over uh... coaching those two if I can help at all.”

Apple Bloom jumped down from her chair too though, instead of just asking the question, saying, “C’mon, Twilight, we can walk through the woods a bit. Ah’m tired of sitting all around.”

Twilight glanced at her friend, but Sunset was already on her way out to the kitchen, just raising her hand, fingers up, without turning around. Apple Bloom was pretty sure that meant go ahead, if she remembered right. “Okay Apple Bloom,” Twilight acquiesced, standing up from her seat. Apple Bloom cantered over to the front door, looking back at Twilight saying, “C’mon Twilight, ah’ll show you over to the cattle pastures!”

The day was crisp and cool once the girl and pony walked outside. There was not much weather in the air, maybe a handful of flakes drifting down. Promise of more on the way that night. Apple Bloom trotted quickly alongside the longer lopes of the legged girl. Soon, nothing but the trees surrounded them, bare branches stretching up to the sky. The farm house was less visible by-and-by, as they walked along the edge of the pasture. Apple Bloom wisely didn’t lead them over that broad open expanse, on account of the shallow, untrammeled snow, that could still be concealing surprises left by the cattle previously this year.

“You really have a lovely farm,” Twilight remarked, looking around wistfully. “It sure reminds me a lot more of home than living in the city.”

“That so?” Apple Bloom asked. “So, there ain’t cities where you come from?” And then she mentally smacked herself. Of course there wouldn’t be cities. Ponies didn’t even have hands to build them with.

“Oh yes, there are cities,” Twilight said agreeably, making Apple Bloom look up at her with extreme skepticism. But Twilight went blithely on, saying, “Some cities would even resemble your own, with certain notable exceptions. We don’t have cement for instance, so you’ll see more cobble and brickwork.”

“Ponies can lay bricks?” Apple Bloom neighed in astonishment. Then, her mood dimmed again with realization, and she added, “Oh yeah, like unicorn magic like you said, right.”

“Actually it’s mostly earth pony cities that use brick construction,” Twilight offered, once again making Apple Bloom look at her incredulously. “Unicorns tend to use meldstone—that is—magically infused granite, which responds to their horn field. It’s a lot more... well, I’m biased because I was raised in Canterlot, which was melded directly out of the mountain it is er, mounted on.”

Apple Bloom looked at Twilight, then looked forward. “Ah have so many questions,” she grumbled, “But there’s just one ah needed t’ask you.”

They reached one of the old fallen logs the Apple family hadn’t cleared out and chopped for firewood yet. Apple Bloom jumped up on in, and turning around, tapped its surface with her hoof encouragingly. When Twilight didn’t get it, Apple Bloom said, “We can take a break here.”

Twilight nodded agreeably, and sat herself down on the log, the white coat she wore bunching underneath her slim, purple pants. Apple Bloom felt a flash of uncomfort, remembering she was naked again, but this Twilight really was a pony, so she’d understand right?

Um...

“Do ponies wear clothes?” Apple Bloom asked nervously. Then she added, “That ain’t the question. Ah mean, ah’m just ...curious.”

“It really depends on the altitude, Apple Bloom,” Twilight said, giving Apple Bloom a thoughtful look. “Clothing is more common in some of the colder cities, especially in the frozen north, but for most ponies it’s just something for special occasions.”

Apple Bloom bit her lip then, and turned away. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to know the answer, now. Ponies do wear clothes, so did that mean should she? Maybe it was better that she just innocently pretend to be an ordinary Earthling pony, and let Twilight keep her thoughts to herself. If Twilight wanted to say Apple Bloom should be wearing clothes, like a decent pony would in her world, then she could very well say it without Apple Bloom asking about it.

Apple Bloom didn’t really want to ask at all, at least not until she was more decent with some clothing on, just to be safe.

Besides, she had a more important question.

Turning towards the girl on the fallen log, Apple Bloom hesitated, lifted a hoof, then just blurted out, “Are you the dream princess?”

Bloom winced in hindsight, flicking her tail at herself in irritation. “You’re obviously not,” Apple Bloom corrected herself, before Twilight could speak. “She didn’t even know what humans were,” Apple Bloom explained, “Or much of anything, for that matter. But she looks and sounds just like you, except pony! Do you know her, or something? Is she trapped across the portal? She’s stuck in an enchanted sleep or some like, an’ doesn’t know what’s going on.”

Twilight looked like she was about to answer, but then frowned and put her closed fingers underneath her chin, for... some reason. What was that gesture to mean, again?

“We should be getting back,” Twilight said cryptically to Apple Bloom. “I’ll tell you... I have a hypothesis but I’ll tell you what I know on the way back, if that’s any help.”

The silent boughs above them swayed in the slight breeze, the sky overhead, a uniform, steady grey. As they walked back beneath the trees, the tall girl spoke to Apple Bloom, who was clipclumping quickly right along alongside her. Twilight said to Apple Bloom, “I am a princess, back home. You know that, right?”

“Yeah,” Apple Bloom said provisionally, “That’s why ah’m wondering, that maybe you’re like, know of her or something?” Apple Bloom wasn’t sure what she was asking really. It just had to mean something, that Twilight was here, and it was just like talking to the dream princess, except awake, and she’s just a girl. Thankfully Twilight continued to explain, so Apple Bloom just stayed in confused silence, happily turning an ear to Twilight as they walked along, listening attentively.

“I’m not the princess of dreams,” Twilight said, critically, “I am the princess of Friendship. Ponies have been... becoming more social over the recent centuries, and my position reflects that truth, at least I think so. But there is a princess who watches over dreams. Her name is Luna.”

Apple Bloom stumbled at that, looking at Twilight incredulously, “Our vice principal is royalty?” she asked skeptically. “But she’s so ...low key!”

“Not as low key as me, this time,” Twilight countered with a chuckle. “If you notice, the principal roles here are parallel to the princess roles over there, even if... bizarrely insulting. Both Luna and Celestia are princesses in my world. Princess Celestia is the princess of the Day, and Princess Luna is princess of the Night.”

“Ah see,” Apple Bloom said thoughtfully, watching her hoofsteps carefully this time so she wouldn’t stumble again.

“Princess Luna has domain over dreams,” Twilight continued, “Of the darkness and things that hide in it. She’s very low key, you might say. Low key or not though, she is who you would see in your dreams. Imagine a pony like Vice Principal Luna, except tall and s—well she already is tall and slender as a human, but with a deep blue coat of fur, and the marking of crescent moons on her hindquarters, graceful wings to either side of her, and a long, powerful horn. Her hair is always full and flowing, and filled with the same beautiful stars that grace her night sky.”

“Yeah, it was just like that!” Apple Bloom cut in excitedly, “Except uh... you.”

“Tell me more?” Twilight asked hopefully. “You met this ‘princess’ in your dreams, I’m told?”

“Well yeah,” Apple Bloom said easily, “The princess was kinda sitting there staring off into a uh, book or something, an’ some nightmare was chasing me, an’ we sorta ran into each other. She’s been looking for ponies for a long time. But ah wanted to ask you about her, because she didn’t look like Vice Principal Luna. Ah mean, yes she has the mane fulla stars and all, but she‘s lots more purple than the vice principal. Really purple. An’ she had the sunset in her mane, just like you see right around um... twilight.”

“That’s—” Twilight started to say, but Apple Bloom continued to speak urgently.

“And she sounded just like you! She was thinking that she just made it up. She wanted to wake up real bad, and when ah told her about you, so maybe she just turned herself to look like you, as a fantasy. It is a dream after all. But I didn’t tell her what you sounded like. Ah didn’t even know until the Fall Formal!”

“Alright, well here’s my hypothesis,” Twilight said quickly, adopting a grim expression as the farm house slowly eased back into view among the trees. Apple Bloom shut up then, to let the lavender lady speak her mind.

“Everypony—everyone here has a duplicate pony back in my world,” Twilight explained. “But someponies don’t have a duplicate at all. It’s odd really: many ponies from Ponyville can be found as humans here, but not from say, Manehatten or Trottingham,”

“Are all your cities named after horse puns?” Apple Bloom asked, with a raised eyebrow.

“Em... no,” Twilight stated frankly, “There is Hollow Shades, for instance and Dodge City.”

“Ah think there’s a Dodge City on this side,” Apple Bloom mused trying to recall her geography.

“There are a lot of crazy parallels,” Twilight admitted. “Sort of comes with the territory, this being a parallel universe. Technically a subcontextual derivation, not strictly parallel. Incidentally, verse might be a more appropriate term, as uni-verse is by definition everything unified into one, but not many people or ponies are well versed in the science of theoretical poetry.”

Apple Bloom had stopped trotting before they entered the open area, watching Twilight walking ahead of her before the yard to the farm house, and she called forward to Twilight urgently, “Sorry, wait a sec. Ah was interrupting you. What was that ‘bout parallel ponies, specifically?”

Twilight walked back to her, regarding the little pony. The girl shivered as a chill wind darted through her hair. Apple Bloom noticed Twilight’s biological reaction, but hardly noticed any chill herself, and she was buck naked! She found her thoughts on ponies and clothing again. How cold did it have to get, before she’d have to wear clothing all the time?

“Many ponies have no duplicate here,” Twilight said evenly, bringing Apple Bloom back to the topic at hand. “Sunset doesn’t have one. It was pretty obvious I don’t have one. But Pinkie Pie said something... in one iteration, she said that I had a twin sister, who lives in the city. She never said it again, even when provoked. She doesn’t... Pinkie Pie is... special.”

“Y-yeah it’s pretty obvious, she’s like, psychic or something,” Apple Bloom mentioned, glancing over her shoulder to make sure Pinkie Pie hadn’t been there all along. “So, you don’t mean...?”

“Yes, I think there may be a human version of me after all,” Twilight confided to Apple Bloom intensely, “And she’s only capable of communicating to you, through your dreams.”

“Ohhh,” Apple Bloom said in understanding. “Huh,” she added, rubbing a pastern on her chin in thought.

“Wait a sec!” Apple Bloom exclaimed with a sudden realization. “You mean to tell me that they’re all called pegasus?”

Author's Note

Well, that exposition dump was pretty comprehensive. Everyone knows about what’s going on now, and all the mysteries have been explained. Just have to add a quick monster battle, and it’ll all be wrapped up pretty nicely.

Meddling With the Natural Order

“This is incredible!” Apple Bloom exclaimed, beside herself with delight.

“Yeah, it...” Twilight said beside her, a little less enthusiastically.

“This could change everything!” Apple Bloom announced. “Ah cain’t believe I didn’t think of this before!”

“Here ya go, Apple Bloom,” Applejack said from behind the two of them, handing Apple Bloom a strange, cloth wrapped apparatus. “Biscuits might be a bit overdone, but you’re free to give it a shot.”

“Alright so, I hold this thing here,” Apple Bloom said carefully to Twilight, eyeing what was now balanced on her hoof, “And bite down to close it... an’ since it’s wrapped in a dish towel, it ain’t gonna burn me?”

“You won’t be able to get a better facsimile without sewing, and I’m sure you can let go if it gets too hot,” Twilight answered, leaning on the counter looking weary of talking down to the little filly standing in front of the oven. “But, anyway, let’s go back to the part about the dream princess...”

“Ah told you everything ah know,” Apple Bloom said snippily, then to Applejack in more excitement, “Sis, you got those real potholders, so you can catch it if’n it don’t work for me?”

“Gotcha covered, Apple Bloom!” Applejack said with a mitten wrapped thumbs up.

Apple Bloom placed what looked like (because they were) a pair of salad tongs wrapped in dish towels, secured with twine, on the chair next to the counter. “Ah’m gonna be so happy if this works!” she uttered, rearing up to peer at the handle slightly above her for pulling the oven open.

“I’m um... happy for you,” Twilight said, “But seriously, do you think she’s held in a facility, or some sort of laboratory?”

Apple Bloom dropped down jarringly on soft hooves, from the dish towels also wrapped around her forelegs. “Hold on, ah gotta concentrate,” she said, eyeing the oven one more time before really rearing up and biting on the handle. The heat blasted out as Apple Bloom dropped, then walked backwards, and the door tilted open. She couldn’t get it flat to the floor with her mouth, but she slapped it down with an insulated hoof until it was firmly horizontal. It hot, but it wasn’t burning her so far!

“Be careful now, Apple Bloom,” her sister said, also standing there rather anxiously watching her.

“Don’t worry sis, ah’ll stop if’n it don’t work,” Apple Bloom assured her. Then she faced the oven and reared up one more time, thumping down on the hot surface of the open door. Craning her neck to grab the tongs, she swiveled them forward in her mouth, and stuck her head into the oven. It was tricky to get the tongs to slide under the baking pan, but once they did, it was relatively simple to bite down and pull the whole thing out. Then the only trick was balancing a ridiculously unwieldy baking pan, in a pair of muffled wrapped tongs.

Apple Bloom... almost made it. She had to drop the thing with a clatter onto the chair she was aiming to jump on though. “Dangit, the chair!” she exclaimed in alarm as the hot pan hit the wood of the chair seat.

“Ah’m on it, Apple Bloom,” her sister shouted, nabbing the hot tray in her own pot holders, disaster averted. Wheeling her hooves up in the air meanwhile, Apple Bloom removed them from the hot oven door, jumped out of the way, and turned in a short short circle. She used her nose to flip up the oven door, which tilted up before her. Then she hoofed it closed, sealing off the heat, the door handle once again just above eye level.

“That... coulda gone better,” Apple Bloom said looking critically at where she’d dumped the tray onto the chair. “But still, all ah had a problem with, was gettin’ the tray all the way up to the counter.”

“I’d say it went darn well given the circumstances!” Applejack claimed happily. “Y’all better thank Twilight for showing you somethin’ so useful!”

“Thanks Twilight, ah really appreciate it!” Apple Bloom said gratefully to the discontent looking purple girl. “This is about the one thing the rest of mah family don’t have no time for. If I can help cook, that’ll be just the bees knees!”

“The... what?” Twilight asked, scratching her head for some reason.

“C’mon, let’s see what other pony things ah can do!” Apple Bloom answered, charging out of the room.

Both Sunset and Twilight seemed shocked that Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were eating hay. Apple Bloom looked from the Equestrian humans, to the hay bale that she had just snatched up a mouthful of, and back to them again.

“Aum—”

Apple Bloom paused to clear her mouth a bit. “Ah’m not s’poshedta eat hay?” she asked the pony humans, in utter confusion.

Scootaloo froze on the spot, with a bit of fear in her eyes glancing at those girls, and refusing to chew the hay in her mouth. Sweetie Belle just blushed self consciously, and hid her head behind the hay bale.

“Well of course you are,” Sunset said finally, in a disquieted fashion, “But you don’t even cook it?”

“What’s there to cook?” Apple Bloom whined. “It’s jush grass!”

Scootaloo started chewing again, furious that she couldn’t interject, even though she was still pretty terrible at talking.

“Yeah, but you’re not used to eating just... grass,” Sunset answered uncertainly, “You usually cook your food, I mean, as a human. You don’t even fry your hay, or anything?”

“Oh Apple Bloom, you don’t even know!” Twilight cut in, in perplexed enthusiasm. “There are a million and one things you can do with hay! You can bake it into bread! You can make muffins, cupcakes! You’ve never even had the pleasure of a bowl of frosted wheats in the morning?”

“Actually, those are here,” Sunset pointed out to Twilight, before Apple Bloom could answer, “They just only put the grain in it. Then they try to make it stiff like hay again. It’s crazy!”

“No, really?” Twilight asked Sunset with wide eyes. “How do they keep it from turning to mush in the milk?”

“High temperatures and pressures,” Sunset said in bemusement. “They basically starch their own cereals. There’s even some weird coatings I heard about.”

“Boy does that sound less than appetizing,” Twilight said with a twist of her upper lip.

“There’s really no reason to eat it at all,” Sunset said shaking her head. “Humans get by perfectly well on a diet of fruits, vegetables and meat. These days it’s all because of tradition and social inertia. There was one time in ancient history, apparantly, where humans discovered an efficient way to grow cereal grains. But rather than feed that hay to their prey, they selectively bred it over centuries to have larger and more calorie dense fruits. Why they didn’t do that with something more edible, I haven’t the slightest idea. There are so many things about human history that just don’t make any sense!”

Apple Bloom toed the floorboard, contemplating that. “How about grass?” she then asked tentatively, looking up at Twilight warily. “Like, the green stuff?”

Twilight smiled in response. “Yes, when grasses are in season, you can serve them for meals too,” she revealed to Apple Bloom, “A very good source of calories, vitamins, minerals and fiber!”

“...serve them?” Apple Bloom said with a nervous chuckle.

Twilight nodded and said, “Yes, we...” and then she took her fingers off her chest, and looked at Apple Bloom straight, saying in a more disgruntled tone, “You just eat it off the ground, don’t you.”

“So you mean to tell me,” Apple Bloom said doubtfully, “There’s a whole society of ponies, who eat grass, an’ they won’t eat it off the ground?”

Twilight blustered blushingly, saying, “T-there’s nothing wrong with it, it’s just very... um...”

“Unfriendly!” Sunset interrupted in sudden realization. Both looked at her, and she focused on them saying, “It’s unfriendly. I never even thought about it before, but when somepony could prepare the grass for you, and you just eat it off the ground instead, it’s sort of unfriendly. Ponies who do it are usually like, losers, or grouches.”

“I wouldn’t wanna be unfriendly,” Apple Bloom said pensively, “But ah mean, it’s just grass.”

“There’s a story of the days before Harmony,” Twilight said somewhat wistfully. “Ponies tell it to their foals every hearth’s war...every winter holiday. They talk about a time when ponies all did their own thing, and ate their own grass, but only by working together and becoming something more than they were apart could they overcome an onslaught of hideous ice demons.”

Apple Bloom blinked at her.

“The point is, ponies feel very strongly about helping other ponies,” Twilight said “So, there’s nothing wrong with eating grass off the ground at all. It’s just nicer if somepony can help make the grass tastier, and you can help them in return.”

“Seems like a lot of work for nothin’ to me!” Apple Bloom groused.

“But it lets ponies help each other,” Twilight persisted. “Any opportunity for that is something everypony can benefit from.”

Apple Bloom huffed, retorting, “An’ yet, humans doin’ all sorts of work to make breakfast cereal don’t make sense?”

“Well yes, because it—” Twilight paused. “It uh, it...” she looked at her knuckles. “Wow.”

“The agricultural revolution was humans discovering Harmony!” Sunset concluded excitedly for her. “It’s still crazy because it isn’t healthy food, but humans did it anyway because it meant helping each other!”

“Wow, I think you’re right!” Twilight retorted looking at Sunset excitedly.

Apple Bloom looked between them with dim enthusiasm, and said, “Cain we get back to our hay now?”

“Shtasthes fine,” Scootaloo slurred out irately around her hay. “Haysh good. Can’t justh eat bread anymore. Ish like sholid budder!”

“You can eat hay all you like,” Twilight told them with a smile. “It’s just odd circumstances. Really odd circumstances. Hay should certainly be a staple of your diet.”

So, the three of them relievedly went back to eating hay, in preparation for a tasty (and smaller portioned) lunch meal.

Twilight and Sunset’s reaction to ponies eating hay was nothing though, compared to when Granny brought a container of dried beef sticks up from the pantry. They probably should have wised up when both Sunset and Twilight shook their heads, Twilight declining for them with a raised hand, but at this point, Apple Bloom at least was more paying attention to the meat sticks than the girls.

Apple Bloom didn’t see their reactions afterward, because Granny told the three fillies, “Hey you three pony folk, see if you kin split one!” and then Apple Bloom only had eyes for the slowly rotating slice of dried, salted beef Granny Smith sent sailing through the air.

The three of them did manage to split the beef stick between them, but only after Sweetie Belle grabbed it in her mouth, and pushed the other two away from toppling into her, narrowly avoiding a three pony pileup. Apple Bloom bit the end sticking out of the curled up sides of Sweetie’s mouth, and shouted to Scootaloo, “Bite th’ en’!” Tasty, salty, meaty goodness filled Apple Bloom’s mouth as she chomped down with her incisors. Sweetie shook her head slightly as the two ends flew off, Apple Bloom falling one way and Scootaloo the other.

“Haha tha’ wasz sho grosh, Apple Bloohm,” Scootaloo said, gripping the piece of meat slick with saliva in her two hooves, and focusing on taking little bites out of it.

“Maksh sense!” Apple Bloom said, happily chewing the hearty, salty piece against her molars with a big open mouth. “We cainsh’t eat a whole one so we gotsha splish it somehow!”

“Tell that thoo Shweetie Belle,” Scootaloo said, eyeing her unicorn friend with some uneasiness.

Sweetie had rolled belly up and was lying there with the beef stick sticking out of her mouth and a blissful look on her face. “Mmm...” she said appreciatively, taking a rapid bite and then another, and the third sent the remaining piece flying up, whereupon Sweetie sat up and snatched it right out of the air with her teeth. She just chewed it then, giving a pleased little squee and wiggling her four hooves in the air.

Actually both of Sweetie’s ponified friends kinda forgot about their own bit of the stick, to watch Sweetie enjoy hers. She definitely was a happy little pony, as odd as that was.

“Boy Shweetie,” Scootaloo said teasingly. “We bether watch out or we’rll be nesht on vthe menu!”

“We cain’t do that!” Apple Bloom whined to Scootaloo in mock outrage, “That’s cannipalism! We cain only gobble up human beings now!”

“You girlsh aren’ funnhy,” Sweetie said blushing and covering her face with her hooves, and sincerely trying not to laugh with them.

“Who wants some juice to wash that down!” Granny said cheerily, walking up with a tray in her arms with a glass on it and two bowls.

“Ooh!” Scootaloo said, waving a hoof over her head, while Apple Bloom said “Ah do!” quite brightly, Sweetie nodded very earnestly, having had the lion’s share of the dried, salted meat to work on, and Twilight Sparkle toppled out of her chair with a heavy thud.

Apple Bloom looked over at that, turned the way of Sunset and Twilight, to find the Twilight girl passed out senseless, her limp purple cheek pressed into the carpet. Far from helping her, Sunset was just staring at the three pony girls in horrified shock, mumbling as she stood up,

“Of course they—oh jesus shit tits—they’d be feeding you meat, of course they’re human, they own a cattle ranch, of course they would!”

Apple Bloom’s ears went straight down at that. She was literally trembling at the level of Sunset’s alarm. She walked towards Sunset and exclaimed in sudden fear, “But ah been eating meat this whole time! Am... am ah gonna die?”

Sunset focused on Apple Bloom with some difficulty, and opened her mouth, but no words came out, then shut it again. She slumped back in her chair abruptly. “I—I don’t know,” she blurted out, “I’ve never, ever seen a pony eating... meat. I–I s-suppose it’s fine. But holy shit I did not see that coming.”

“Is that why Twilight, uh...” Apple Bloom hovered over Twilight, poking her unresponsive side.

“Oh j—Twilight!” Sunset exclaimed, as if noticing her for the first time. Actually that was probably exactly what happened. Sunset hauled Twilight up into her chair, while Granny hovered behind the three fillies uneasily with a plate of juice drinks (from concentrate, considering the season). After squeezing the purple girl’s cheeks in her fingers thoughtfully, Sunset looked around asking, “Does anyone have any smelling salts?”

When Twilight awoke with a sudden inhalation of breath and a hacking cough Sunset held her back as she recovered her breathing. “Thanks Sunset,” Twilight said in relief, “I don’t know what came over me. For some reason I had this crazy idea that those three little ponies were eating meat.”

Twilight smiled blandly at the serious look Sunset was giving her, and then at the three fillies clustered around her on the floor looking up at her seriously. Her smile slowly shrank away.

“Meat,” Twilight said looking at them in horror. “You were eating meat. You were but you but...”

“You wanna explain something to me?” Apple Bloom asked in a frightened yet unsatisfied tone. “How is it that ah get sick offa eating nothing but hay, but then some real pony girl comes along and is shocked that hay ain’t all ah can eat?”

“What?” Twilight said simply, focusing on Apple Bloom in confusion.

“Ah cain’t just eat hay,” Apple Bloom tried again to their renewed growing horror. “Ah got so sick at first! Thought ah could eat like a horse, an’ when ah did ah just got like anemia and terrible stuff.”

“Well yes, but... really? That’s why you were in so much distress back then?” Twilight said, boggling at Apple Bloom.

“Well uh, yeah... ‘cause ah’m a pony and all?” Apple Bloom said in an unsettled fashion. “It didn’t work. Ah ended up having to eat normal people food, an’ hay together. More hay than anything else though. But why cain’t ah eat meat, if the only thing that makes me sick is just hay?”

“That whole time,” Sunset groaned with her head in her hands, “And we just assumed you... you already knew how to eat. Of course you wouldn’t know.”

“We should have come forward so much sooner,” Twilight moaned, getting on her knees with actual tears in her eyes. “I can’t believe you had to go through that... I’m so sorry!”

“I-it’s alright, I feel better now,” Apple Bloom said blushing and putting a hesitant hoof on Twilight’s knee. “U-uh. Ah feel fine now. I just been eating whatever since then, an’ seeing if anything didn’t agree with me.”

“Did anything?” Sunset asked in curiosity, hovering over Twilight’s shoulder.

“...besides grass?” Apple Bloom asked skittishly.

“Y—it’s just that humans basically have the same diet as ponies, just with much different proportions, and not nearly as many flowers,” Sunset clarified. “I was curious if you found anything that didn’t digest well. But if you can even eat meat, I’m at a loss to think of anything...”

“Only a little meat!” Apple Bloom said. “But no, ah ain’t really found nothing. Of course, ah been trying not to experiment neither, since ah might find something. Mostly it’s just... proportions like you said. Like sugar, can ponies just eat tons of sugar or what?”

Sunset hesitated at that and looked to Twilight, who nodded at Apple Bloom saying, “Yes... but in my world many creatures can digest sugar. Perhaps my world did transform you somehow, because creatures in your world seem to almost entirely lack frycolysis. I would think ponies from your world would have that deficiency too.”

“Ponies from mah world bust open their stomachs and die if’n they eat sugar,” Apple Bloom said harshly. “That’s what really threw me about all this. So ah am your uh, your world’s Apple Bloom ...after all?”

“Er, no,” Twilight admitted, “Sunset was suggesting you had similar biology but if you were her, then you would remember growing up in Ponyville and living on your family uh... farm.”

Twilight looked around at the farm house surrounding her, then sighed and added in a flat voice, “Also, the other Apple Bloom would probably scream and run, at the first pony who mentioned eating meat.”

“Yeah, not gonna lie ah ain’t exactly screaming an’ running,” Apple Bloom said, kicking her hoof on the floor, “Even though I guess ah could technically be closer related to a cow now. But y’gotta eat, right? Ah mean, I could stop eating meat... ah guess... but long as it’s there, why turn it down?”

The pony humans gave her no answer, whether because they had none or didn’t want to say it.

“What abou’ flowers?” Sweetie Belle piped up, breaking the tension, “What flowers can we eat?”

Twilight laughed weakly, and said to the little unicorn, who still had juice on her face from drinking it out of a bowl, “Better to ask what flowers can’t you eat, Sweetie Belle!”

Sweetie put a hoof under her chin, then said, “What flowers can’t we eat?”

“Nightshade, mandrake, moonflower, henbane, if you eat those you’ll be insane,” Twilight ticked off on her fingers, while at the same time... reciting something? “Lily bells, oleander, monkshood make your heart feel not so good.”

She stopped then. Apple Bloom waited for her to continue, but Twilight just folded her hands.

“That’s about it,” Twilight said. “Some other obscure ones found in tropical climates, but for the most part if it tastes good, it’s a good flower! Though obviously if you aren’t wanting to take chances you can stick with the common favorites, like daisies, roses, bluebells, daffodils, mmm daffodils are a particular favorite of mine, lilacs, cala lily, orchids, foxglove, geraniums, lavender...”

Sunset cut Twilight off, who looked like she was starting to drool, saying, “Okay, they get the picture.”

“Ah’m... fairly sure some of those are poison,” Apple Bloom said, feeling rather diffident about all this.

“Yep,” Twilight responded agreeably. “There’s a reason you’re so brightly colored, after all.”

“Because... ah’m a human?” Apple Bloom continued to ask uncertainly, looking at her human colored fur, and her human hair colored tail.

“Ye—wait,” Twilight blinked. She looked at Sunset for clarification, but the flame haired girl just shrugged her shoulders looking equally puzzled.

“I don’t know any biological reason humans are pony colored,” Sunset admitted, “Just seems random to me.”

Twilight looked back at a confused pair of fillies (Scootaloo was off away a ways, currently trying to climb the bookcase.) and said, “I guess neither of us knows why humans are brightly colored. But for ponies, the leading theory in my world is that ponies are brightly colored as a warning to potential predators. Humans can hardly tolerate any toxins, so I’m beginning to wonder how true that theory is. Then again, you humans do have an unusual tolerance for many toxic substances to ponies: caffeine, cocaine, nicotine, oh sh—shoot!”

Twilight slapped her hands over her forehead, moaning through them, “I just thought of something you could get very sick from eating. You’re way, way too young to have started smoking, right?”

Sunset’s eyes widened at that too and she slapped a fist into her palm going, “Oh, right! Tobacco is in the nightshade family! Ponies can get seriously ill on that stuff.”

“While there are no texts I know of that research the effect on ponies of inhaling smoke from burning nightshade,” Twilight added, “I certainly doubt it would be anywhere near as safe as it is with humans. You could at the very least expect some severe hallucinations.”

“No smoking then,” Apple Bloom said, spooked. “Got it.”

“Do hyou even know anyone who szmokes?” Sweetie asked Apple Bloom.

“Come to think on it, ah don’t think ah do...” Apple Bloom said pondering on that. “Maybe people round here just ain’t dumb enough to do that?”

“There’s uh... one store that sells cigarettes,” Sunset said. “It’s kind of a hole in the wall, though. I don’t think they’re a very lucrative industry.

“Don’ tell me you sh...smoked?” Sweetie Belle said to Sunset Shimmer with wide eyes. “You know that hur’s your brain, right?”

“Time loop, remember?” Sunset pointed out remorselessly. “I was curious if it really was that harmless to human biology. Besides come on, enough of this and anybody’d need some stress relief. They’re great at helping you relax, trouble is you stop being able to relax when you don’t have them.”

“You’re okay now, though?” Apple Bloom asked, eyeing her worriedly.

Sunset nodded, “Yeah, I’m not stupid enough to start that, if I’m not gonna suddenly be standing there out by the statue without any cigarette cravings. Still it was nice except for that. Chamomile is pretty much better, all around though.”

“Ooh, chamomile is a flower humans can eat!” Sweetie pointed out.

“Very good, Sweetie!” Twilight smiled at her. Sweetie beamed and shifted on her hooves happily.

“So how else do ponies eat?” Apple Bloom asked, giving Sweetie an odd look, “Different like from humans?”

“Well, let me tell you about barley nut casserole...”

That was pretty much the sort of thing Twilight and Sunset occupied themselves with, that weekend: telling the three of them just... how to be ponies. Apple Bloom would have liked if the girls could reveal some incredible secret powers that ponies possessed, but as Apple Bloom had already figured out how to tie a square knot, it really couldn’t get much more magical than that!

She didn’t even really know if she was the same kind of pony they were talking about. These visitors were from another world (or crazy girls, but Apple Bloom was very reluctant to conclude that a relatively lucid individual was crazy these days, no matter what oddball story they spouted off). They said Apple Bloom had an alternate double who looked just like her, like the pony her, and there was a pony just the same for Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle.

But while Apple Bloom may have accepted their story, she only had their word that it was the truth. If it ain’t obvious, the two former ponies were unable to turn themselves into ponies to demonstrate, and apparantly transformation magics were really hard in general. Not the sort of thing that just happens to you without a lot of hocus pocus special unicorn stuff. Not the sort of thing that happens without you noticing while walking around school one day. So the idea that she was one of their species of pony was on a pretty shaky foundation, even if it was the only explanation anyone could come up with.

Predictably, the two had more to offer to Sweetie Belle than either of the other two ponies. Sweetie was totally fascinated with the idea of being a magic pony. Like, real magic; magic you could see, instead of that creepy subtle stuff they were talking about with regard to Apple Bloom. Apple Bloom couldn’t even conceive of how she would summon these supposed powers to like, pop her head out of a thing that was too small for her to fit in. Twilight did say that most ponies were just normal and not all that magic, so Apple Bloom probably didn’t have to worry about the boundaries of time and space warping in her presence. At least not when she was paying attention to them.

Sweetie was like the kid in a candy shop though. Which was weird, because try as she might, Sweetie Belle couldn’t even make her horn so much as twinkle. Sunset reassured her that it was normal, and gave her these exercises like, mental exercises like feeling out your horn or something. The fact that Sweetie understood exactly what Sunset was talking about was kind of creepy in-of-itself. Try as she might to imagine what it felt like to have a horn like that coming out of your head, Apple Bloom couldn’t really understand how flowing without flowing could work, or how you’d project your consciousness anywhere other than where it was.

Sweetie seemed to like the exercises though, or at least what they promised, and she was doing them a lot. And Scootaloo liked... moving. Twilight was absolutely sure this was normal, and the only thing that puzzled Apple Bloom is how Scootaloo’s enthusiastic activity was no different than her enthusiastic activity as a human. Just a bit younger maybe, and more playful. Scootaloo could have just as easily turned into a different kind of pony, and not been so full of motion as a ...pegasus.

Apple Bloom still couldn’t believe they were called pegasus. And Sunset had absolutely no idea why the pony in the myth was named Pegasus. What’s worse, not a single scrap or record from that ancient society said anything, about what you called the kind of winged horse that Pegasus was. Besides just calling him demigod, but Apple Bloom was not going to start calling Scootaloo that. It was like some sort of twisted joke. So Scootaloo got to be a pegasus, and the uncanny thing was how her new form fit her personality just perfectly.

Apple Bloom had her suspicions and theories. It was quite possible that whatever turned you into a pony did take your personality into account somehow. Apple Bloom’s sort of pragmatism worked well for an earth pony, because she had that kind of creativity you really needed to have the way she was. She didn’t have fancy wings or a horn, so she’d have been up a creek without her eye for a solution to a problem, no matter how you got to that solution. Maybe that was why it gave Apple Bloom the burden of being an earth pony, with the weird magic and the sort of middle ground generalism.

Scootaloo made sense as a pegasus, just because she loved running and moving, dancing, sports, Rainbow Dash, it was pretty obvious Scootaloo’d be a pony who’d fly through the sky if given a chance. Sweetie on the other hand was so... analytical and careful, and those were important qualities to have as a unicorn, what with a magical lightning rod stuck in your forehead. So whatever mysterious being was governing these transformations, they couldn’t have been entirely malevolent, because they gave Sweetie that nice and very useful horn to look forward to, and they gave Scootaloo something really awesome to look forward to, that’d take her mind off the whole “too small even for a kid’s scooter” thing.

They probably forgot a million things to ask Twilight and Sunset, before the two left that weekend, but what’s done is done, and honestly Apple Bloom had a lot better life ahead of her, thanks to them. She might have figured it all out eventually, well except that weird horn stuff... and wing stuff, she supposed. But Twilight certainly helped matters.

She confirmed that ponies do write, and draw, and even paint with their mouths. In fact, Apple Bloom had thought she was going overboard with the use of her mouth, using her mouth for way too many crazy things, but in fact Apple Bloom was barely scratching the surface! The craziest thing they taught her about mouthwork she could recall was, well... grabbing a hot baking pan in your mouth. But also frosting with your mouth, cutting things with your mouth. Cutting big things like carrots with your hooves though.

Hammering with your mouth? It was a thing apparantly! Even with these big stiff hooves. Apple Bloom could practically whack a nail into the wall in one blow with a stiff tap of her hoof, but that could chip the hoof apparantly, and there were protective braces you could wear to hammer with hooves, but ponies still used mouth hammers for precision work.

Yeah some of it sort of made sense, but some of it was obviously being exaggerated. Like Twilight said that her Applejack could use her mouth to lasso a uh, pegasus at a thousand feet in the air. That was just too much, and Twilight laughed along with everyone else, when everyone started laughing at that, so it was obviously just a joke, even if Twilight was laughing a little nervously, and also Sunset was looking the other way pointedly not making eye contact.

Ponies weren’t all that different from humans, in fact! Those two pony humans made sure to emphasize all the similarities, and didn’t really seem to think there were any differences worth mentioning. Apple Bloom was of a divided opinion about that, because she really did feel really freaking different as a pony, but she also was really grateful that not everything was changing about her. She still had her memories, and her sass, and her looks sort of. Her family even figured out ways to get her signature bow worked out, that Apple Bloom could put on her little pony head without issue.

“Let’s see the other Apple Bloom figure that one out!” Apple Bloom had said smugly primping at the pretty pink thing on her head.

“Yeah, sure,” Twilight said, wringing her hands together. “Let’s go with that.”

Apple Bloom sure didn’t know why Twilight was doing that with her hands. Something about confidence, if Apple Bloom was remembering right. Hands were just... crazy weird when you thought about them. Or, when you turned into a pony and thought about them. Apple Bloom never realized how much she used to use her hands to express herself nonverbally, until she didn’t have them anymore. It seemed like the longer she was a pony, the less confident she felt like she even knew what she was looking at!

That’s the last thing that Sunset and Twilight measured, in the three of them: body language. There were two categories of people here: girls that had just turned into ponies, and girls that had been ponies for a couple months. Apple Bloom found Sweetie and Scoots had this uncanny ability to figure out what Twilight was pantomiming, with Scootaloo saying, “No!” and Sweetie saying, “Worried!” and other stuff like “Stay there!” and “Thinking!” Apple Bloom was so lost, that her friends had to stop guessing, to give her a chance to answer at all. And she was pretty sure that “Arm wiggling” didn’t count as a non-verbal communication.

The daylight was getting long, and the other girls, the older ones at least, were all trying to get their homework done that was due on Monday. So they and Big Macintosh were pretty absent, even Sunset Shimmer having to take time to at least fill out the worksheets, even though she had them all memorized. Like, literally memorized. Cheerilee was a librarian, but she also taught Library Science, and just as much as students have to do their homework, teachers have to spend a lot of time making homework for the students to do. That left Twilight Sparkle, who used her extra-temporal knowledge to skip out on school this time around, and Granny Smith, who preferred to putter around in the kitchen, watching the four of them from across the counter with a fond twinkle in her wrinkly eyes at times.

While Twilight drilled them on human body language, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were both on top of the partially consumed hay bale, for them to sit on that is. They sat there on their bellies, letting their legs curl underneath them all pony style. Apple Bloom would have sat with them too, but she stood aside for this. She was really feeling too alienated right now to get all cozy next to them. Had she really gone and misinterpreted “That stinks” as meaning “That’s windy?”

So Apple Bloom was feeling a bit put out by just how much this transformation had affected her. Her memory seemed fine, but she was obviously thinking more like a pony, and more like a pony than her friends, likely from the amount of time she’d spent as one. It made Apple Bloom lose hope for regaining her humanity, if she was just becoming more and more like a pony every day, even if it was kind of comforting that she got to be a human-ish pony, not just some dumb animal. She was surprised then, when it was Sweetie who started to cry, not herself.

Apple Bloom stopped trying to figure out what squeezing your fingers in a ball and shaking them meant, though the shaking did look kind of angry-ish, and looked at her increasingly distressed friend out of the blue, saying, “Sweetie Belle, what’s wrong?!”

Sweetie shook her head, trying to choke back the whimpers saying “Nothing—ish... it’s sthupid I dunno... know whyy...” She just trailed off into stiff sobs then.

It was terrible. Sweetie was relatively noncommunicative here, and with her sister upstairs, there wasn’t anyone to comfort her. Apple Bloom jumped up on Sweetie’s other side on the hay bale, but Bloom just felt awkward, and helpless to assuage her troubled friend. Scootaloo looked the same, and she wasn’t the type to want to get all touchy feely, especially not with Sweetie acting so weirdly. Sweetie herself was sitting there trying to deny she was upset, while the tears were still coming out of her.

In the end Twilight just had to pick her up, and cradle her like a baby. Sweetie Belle said she didn’t want them to disturb Rarity over this but, she just really needed... a something. So Twilight gave her a something. Sweetie calmed down then, and her little voice said from a leery Twilight’s arms, “I think I’m okay now.”

“I’m jus’ upshet,” Sweetie Belle explained, once she was standing alone on her own feet, er, hooves again. “I didn’ wanna forget about handsz, and Apple Bloom was having so mush throuble. Tha’s going to happen to me hnow,” she asserted fretfully. “B-bud it’s no reashon to cry. I was jus’ feeling shad about... it, and it jus’ started to happen.”

“I’m so sorry, Sweetie,” Twilight said sincerely, down on her knees to be eye to eye with them. Those of them on the hay bale at least. “I was just trying to measure the psychosomatic acclimatization that seems to have a progressive effect. I didn’t even think it’d just remind you about... how your whole life is—about how something happened that you didn’t want. You must feel so helpless. I–I thought it would be comforting actually, not upsetting.”

“Comfor’ing?” Sweetie asked skeptically. “How would that work?”

“Well it’s like acclimatizing to your form,” Twilight explained. “You must feel so twisted up and bent right now, like you should be able to stand up, but you just can’t. But given a few months to acclimatize, I mean, look at Apple Bloom. She’s perfectly comfortable as a pony! You might lose a few subtleties of human interaction, but you could be more comfortable with yourself. I know I was.”

Sweetie just looked at Twilight confused and said, “But I am shtanding up. Whatha you mean?”

Twilight blinked at her, then Twilight’s expression flattened in understanding. “I mean on two legs,” Twilight clarified grumpily.

Sweetie looked at Twilight, and then looked down and—then raised her head in surprise, exclaiming, “Oh! I hadn’ even though’ ‘bout that! Wow that’s... ish true I should be sztanding on two legs.”

Sweetie reared her two white forelegs into the air, but quickly fell back to the hay bale she was standing on, her front hooves scrunching against the dry grass as they took her weight again.

“Oh no, I’m not making it worse, am I?” Twilight gasped, vaguely reaching for Sweetie, but unsure of what to do with her. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you feel weird about being a pony. Just focus on your body, and try to assert to yourself what you’re really feeling. It’s completely normal what you feel, even if it seems so alien to you right now.”

“But thaz what’s weird,” Sweetie said giving Twilight a confused head tilt. “It’s hweird that I do feel normal. I’m jus’ standing.” She looked down at her forehooves, then lifted her head again. “I don’t feel weird, or alienh, or... or anything! If anything, standing on two feet feelrs weird. I can’t stay up there like tha’... that.”

“It’s entirely possible to do, Sweetie,” Apple Bloom offered, rearing up onto her own hind legs. “See?”

Apple Bloom balanced there as best she could, stepping a bit to correct herself. Her forelegs remained simply curled in front of her, but she didn’t require them to hold her weight. Nope, a bit of practice and even a pony could stand on two legs like this, and even walk a little bit. In fact with her tail laid on the ground, it gave Apple Bloom a strong support, a sort of tripod she could center herself on.

“That’s very good, Apple Bloom,” Twilight said honestly. “You’ve been practicing that a lot?”

Apple Bloom nodded. “Ah have. Not for no reason or nothing, just ‘cause I wanted t’see if ah could do it. Ain’t that hard you just gotta—w-woah. Stand there, all reared up like.”

“Looksh pretty goo’, Apple Bloom,” Scootaloo said in an impressed tone. “But your uh...” her tone turned embarassed as she looked away. “Your uh, under... plashe is showing.”

Apple Bloom immediately clopped her front hooves down. Then sat her hind hooves down, flattening her haunches against the straw. It was really scratchy and unpleasant, but she wasn’t feeling good about being so exposed right now. “S-s-sorry ah d-didn’t ah just,” she stammered, “I ain’t got no clothes on or nothing ah mean I do have clothes, but I wasn’t wearing ‘em because...

“...pplesauce...” she mumbled, red faced, into her hooves.

“Hey, cheer up Apple Bloom,” Twilight said in an appeasing tone, petting her back. “It’s perfectly normal for ponies to go without clothing. I respect your cultural need to wear them, but it’s no big deal if you go without for a while.

“Even if your ‘underplace’ is showing,” Twilight added, giving Scootaloo a disapproving look. Scootaloo just blushed guiltily.

“I don’t care if I can’t stand,” Sweetie said resentfully, drawing their attention again. “I don’ even care if I can’t. It doesn’ feel weird, and that’s hweird! Are we already turning into I–I mean, are we already forgetting about handsz?”

“It certainly is remarkable to acclimatize this quickly,” Twilight said thoughtfully. “I know it took me a few months, before I was even walking properly. I suppose it makes sense really.” She gestured at Sweetie Belle’s short white cylindrical legs, saying, “Humans have a much more complicated method of locomotion. From a simple physical standpoint, you’re much more stable on all fours as a pony, than on two feet as a human. Plus I didn’t have anypony to help me adjust, since Sunset was off being a little... well, that’s a story for her to tell. Apple Bloom here took months to get as confident as she is on four hooves, and if you do so faster, it’s just because you have such a wonderful friend willing to help you with all this.”

Apple Bloom’s assessment was more that Twilight was simply a very clumsy individual, whether human or pony, because even Apple Bloom had been walking pretty good after a week, not a month. She didn’t tease Twilight about it though. Wouldn’t do to brag about something as simple as figuring out how to walk, if all that bragging did was make someone who helped them so much feel like she wasn’t any good.

That night, the three of them were all snug in their bed. Which is to say, Apple Bloom’s bed. The three of them could easily fit in it, with some room to spare. The lights out, they still couldn’t sleep. With all those revelations brought to them, there was just too much to talk about.

“Can we hreally read tailsh now?” Scootaloo said in quiet disbelief, her own purple fanlike tail swishing underneath the covers.

“Don’t ask me,” Apple Bloom whispered back. “That’s what she said. But it makes sense if’n we don’t got hands to communicate body language with.”

“And ears,” Sweetie noted. “It’s a good... notta bad trade.”

“Unthil you try t’ lif’ something up wisth your ears,” Scootaloo offered darkly. It didn’t come out as darkly as she intended, when they all thought about a pony doing heavy lifting with only their ears and a little giggle fit broke out.

“We’ll figure it out,” Apple Bloom said eventually, with a sympathetic look toward Scootaloo. Apple Bloom snuggled her own hooves over the blanket that covered her and her friends, that warmed the three of them together. “Long as ah got you two,” Apple Bloom said gratefully, “Ah think we can get through anything!”

“Can’ belief there’s another world,” Sweetie whispered excitedly.

“And a thime thloop?” Scootaloo asked. She paused and repeated, “Loop?” more carefully. “Wha’s even hup with that?”

“Ah dunno, but it better be fixable,” Apple Bloom grumbled. “And we ain’t seen nothin’ about it yet. Ah dunno if those girls knew as much as they said they did.”

“I wish she would tell uzs why we’re crying so much,” Sweetie mumbled unhappily.

“I hknow,” Scootaloo said exasperated. “Can’ belief I wen’ and cried abouth a shtupid scrape!” She touched with a hoof, a band-aid weakly affixed to her elbow, on account of the trouble with sticking things to fur.

“Scoots, you flew like twenty feet through the air,” Apple Bloom said in an unimpressed tone. “Th’ fact you just got a scrape is darn lucky, but it’s still okay to cry about that stuff!”

“Yeah, but the... the ice cream...” Scootaloo grumbled disquietly.

“Ish probably just that poniesz are more h’emotional, or...stuff,” Sweetie said uncertainly, tugging her own portion of the blanket closer in the quiet, of the night that made their colorful fur blue and dim in the indirect moonlight. “Just natshural. We don’th eat meat, so... I mean hwe do, but...”

“It sure was real awkward t’hear ‘bout how their ponies don’t eat it, after we were already fighting over that beef strip,” Apple Bloom said with a blush. “Those pony girls looked so freaked over it.”

“We couldn’ pfull it aphart any other way,” Scootaloo said, “Should’ve jus’ asked Granny to cut it.”

Sweetie mumbled out apologetically, “Sorry for taking the middle pieshe. Should have shared it more.”

“It was fun enough watching you enjoy it,” Apple Bloom said lightly. “I never got that excited over a bit of meat.”

“’s just good,” Sweetie said, blushing hotly. “I don’t ushually get any, so ish kind of... it’s just nice.”

“Bether watch out Apple Blhoom, or Sweetie will gobble ush up in her shleep,” Scootaloo said in an exaggerated tone.

“It’s not that funny,” Sweetie mumbled, up to her nose in the blanket while the others giggled to either side of her.

They were quiet again until Sweetie yawned loudly despite herself. Scootaloo spoke up quietly, saying, “Do hyu think you’ll finhd the dream printhess...princess?” Poor Scoots was still having talking problems. She had been scampering around more than yakking, so Sweetie definitely had a head up on her there.

“Hope so,” Apple Bloom said. “Ah feel like she’s avoiding me or something. I keep ending up in like, dreaming about you two instead.”

“She can enter hyour dreams,” Sweetie suggested nervously, “so... can you enter our dreams?”

Apple Bloom couldn’t quite put her hoof on it, but there was something about the way Sweetie said that that wasn’t just an innocent curiosity. “I don’t think so, Sweetie,” she told her friend, “But why would you think that?”

“It’s silly,” Sweetie said in embarassment, ducking further under the covers, but continued. “Wasz dreaming a while ago, abouth being a hunicorn like a real unicorn, and then I was just this sthupid ...thing. And I dreamed abouth you, and you told me it wasz okay and I was still a good... unicorn.

“So um... thanks,” Sweetie mumbled, “If tha’ was you.”

“Ah had that exact same dream!” Apple Bloom uttered excitedly. “Do you think we really can? Ah just saw you and helped you up and stuff it was no biggie but, y’think we can?”

“If it happensh, I guesh?” Scootaloo said uncertainly. “Iunno how to make a hdream changsh to you or anything.”

“Well, just keep your eyes peeled,” Apple Bloom said hunkering down against her pillow. “Ah’ll try t’set up a lil’ something... thing the princess showed me, so try to find the sunset hill out back, when you dream. If we find each other it’ll be so cool. Ponies really do dream different, so maybe it’ll just work.”

“Don’t gesh your hopes up,” Scootaloo said unenthusiastically. “Hardly ever hremember my dreamths.”

Apple Bloom nodded into the darkness, and the three of them settled into their shared bed, drifting off on their way to enter the world of dreams.

Several minutes later, Apple Bloom threw her hooves up and exclaimed, “Awwh! Ah cain’t sleep now ah’m too excited!”

“Shouldn’t ha’ taken hthat long nap,” Scootaloo said teasingly to Apple Bloom, over the tiny, peaceful lump in the bed that was Sweetie Belle.

Author's Note

Meanwhile, in Equestria...

Feasts and Failure

Apple Bloom did manage to get to sleep, in fact. She was soon trotting down the sidewalk in an empty city. Nothing real important going on. Blinking, the little pony looked around at the empty streets and quiet shops and exclaimed, “Oh, yeah!” Then she pushed off her hooves and jumped, the city quickly diminishing below her as she entered the clear blue sky. With a look of concentration, she angled her jump to land in one of the princess’s favorite meeting spots, Promise Peak.

It was always sunset here, in the dream. Well, it might not have needed to be, but sunset was where it liked to be, when you weren’t paying attention to it. Kind of odd how the sun wasn’t distorted at all down by the horizon, but sometimes dreams are just weird that way.

“Princess, y’here?” Apple Bloom asked the clouds. They didn’t reveal the princess though, the only noise a soft wind whispering through the trees that spread far below the little pony. Apple Bloom stood there up there on that hill listening attentively.

“Guess nobody’s around,” she said after a moment, “Wonder if ah can find Sweetie.” Apple Bloom turned on her hooves, looking around, moving her ears around as if trying to catch the sound of something somewhere. It was a more active process to do that, than while awake. Her dream softened and distorted in places, as whispers of other things started to leak through. Apple Bloom’s face brightened then, she turned to look at something. As she did, everything changed.

Apple Bloom found herself in a boutique of sorts, probably that place that Rarity worked. There were a bunch of Sweetie Belles here actually, all little ponies, some pushing the paddle on the sewing machines with their little hooves, some feeding the cloth into the machines, and contrarily some sewing through the cloth with big needles held in their muzzles. There was no rhyme or reason to the sewing, just a bunch of cloth piling everywhere. The sound of Sweetie’s pleasant humming filled the air in a way that felt just like Rarity.

Apple Bloom’s ears went slowly down, and she looked around uncertainly, asking, “Uh... which one’s... you, Sweetie?”

“Oh, Apple Bloom!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed, looking up from where she was using her forehooves to feed cloth into a sewing machine. The rest of the Sweeties just sort of... faded out when she did, and Sweetie continued to say, “I was just thinking about you! Before I started sewing um...” She held up the haphazardly stitched fabric coming out of her machine, looking at it uncertainly. “...something.”

“I think we did it!” Apple Bloom told her excitedly, standing on level with the little unicorn, now on the table next to a sewing machine which had become giant sized beside the two of them.

“Did what?” Sweetie asked curiously, looking around at the lavender and tan room she was in. “And where’s Rarity? Did she bring us here?”

“Sweetie, you’re dreamin’!” Apple Bloom said to her, putting a hoof on the unicorn’s chest.

“No I’m not,” Sweetie denied in puzzlement. “I was just... what was I just doing? Is this really a dream?” she looked around again at the humongous tabletop they stood on, next to a spindle the size of a car. Things were changing size weirdly now, and the air was wavering around the surprised looking unicorn.

“Careful now,” Apple Bloom cautioned Sweetie hastily. “Don’t move, just relax and let it settle, or you’ll wake up.”

Sweetie nodded in understanding, and sat on her haunches focusing on Apple Bloom while everything else sort of... calmed down.

“Alright, now I got a more stable place that we can relax some,” Apple Bloom said, “Just hold tight and ah’ll find us a way.” She hunted around the area a bit, until spying the fabric discarded by Sweetie earlier, now a giant pile of cloth on the table. “Oh here we go,” she said at the rumpled edge of the fabric. She called over to Sweetie still sitting on her haunches, “You remember that hill I took you to the other day, to watch the sunset?”

“Yeah, are we going there?” Sweetie asked curiously, and Apple Bloom nodded.

“Sure thing,” she said, “Ah want ya to think about that place, remember with the grass underneath ya and all the trees around and stuff.”

Sweetie nodded, then looked around uncertainly, saying, “It isn’t changing to there. Are you sure we can change this um... table?”

“We don’t have to, Sweetie,” Apple Bloom explained, hooking a hoof under the edge of the fabric. “There’s a tunnel leading to that hill, right under this cloth here. Come on over this way and ah’ll show you.”

She lifted the edge of the fabric as Sweetie stood, and trotted carefully over there, looking under the cloth into the darkness without confidence.

“C’mon! Follow me,” Apple Bloom said excitedly, sticking her head under and then wiggling the rest of her under the cloth, using her tail behind her to hold it open for Sweetie Belle. Sweetie hesitantly inched in next to Apple Bloom, who let the flap fall closed behind both of them, covering them with fabric.

“Are you sure this is the way?” Sweetie asked, looking nervously back at the boutique’s light still edging in under the cloth that was flattening her ears.

“It’s a way, and that’s what’s important,” Apple Bloom said matter-of-factly. “It’s just right over here, on the other side of the cloth.” She and Sweetie pushed their way blindly through the cloth’s folds, and Apple Bloom’s hoof lifted up the edge of it, to reveal that this pile of fabric was actually just lying on the grass, on the very hill she had been talking about.

Sweetie looked back in confusion, still seeing the boutique’s light coming from the other side of the fabric, then stuck her head out again, seeing herself emerging from a randomly placed pile of cloth out in the middle of a hilly forest out behind Apple Bloom’s house.

“Wow, this is really weird,” Sweetie said with a frightened wonder in her eyes, wiggling out from the cloth entirely. It didn’t disappear or anything. It was still there: just a little pile of cloth they crawled out from, looking out of place in the natural setting. Sweetie then looked up at the expansive sky with its teasing bits of clouds, and the sunset way out there past the endless stands of trees. “It’s also really pretty,” she added, “It looks so real. Is this your dream?”

“Sorta. It’s mah ‘memory’ more than my dream,” Apple Bloom explained, leading Sweetie up to the soft round peak of the hilltop, where some flattened grass clearly indicated some people, or ponies, had been sitting there. “The princess likes to talk with me, so she wants places to talk. She cain’t remember nothin’ more than a library, but she wants to see more than just that, so I gotta make places for her. Ah know this place real well, since I visit it often and spend a lot of time really takin’ it all in. It makes it easier to dream about, that way. That make sense?”

“How did you learn all this?” Sweetie declared, with a look of new respect for her surroundings, settling easily on her belly to watch the sunset, her pretty tail curled neatly around her hindquarters.

“Hmm?” Apple Bloom responded curiously. “Ah told you. The princess needed to talk, so she told me to think up a real good memory that ah really liked, and had me reinforce it, so she could put us there. She’s the one doin’ this really, not me.”

“Is she here?” Sweetie asked hopefully.

Apple Bloom looked around thoughtfully again. “Don’t think so, Sweetie, sorry. If’n she is, she’ll have to come walkin’ up on her own. She ain’t singin’ like you were.”

Sweetie blushed at that right through the fuzzy white fur on her face. “I was just humming, while I worked. I don’t even remember what song it was.”

“No big deal, Sweetie,” Apple Bloom remarked, coming to sit beside her.

“What about Scootaloo?” Sweetie asked turning to Apple Bloom with a curious look in her pale green eyes. “Are you going to get her too?”

Apple Bloom frowned, and looked forward. “Ah was, Sweetie,” she said to the filly at her side, “But now ah dunno. I don’t just wanna leave you here all by yourself. You ain’t even done this dream thing much. It was lots easier for me to slip out of it and get lost when I first started.”

“I don’t feel like I’m slipping though,” Sweetie said, looking back at her rump critically, that tail of hers moving easily and smoothly to her command.

“That’s ‘cause we’re both here, and I can kinda hold on better,” Apple Bloom answered easily. “If I left, it’d be just like when I first met the dream princess. Everything just sort of slides out, and you get distracted, then you’re somewhere else again, and just lost in the dream. Like normal, y’know? Takes practice not to do that, but it’s easy enough for me to help keep this place together for you.”

“So, you’re kind of like a dream princess now?” Sweetie asked curiously.

“Naw, I’m just...” Apple Bloom paused and put a hoof under her chin. “Ah guess maybe?” she admitted giving Sweetie an uneasy look. “Th’ princess just showed me this stuff a little so it’d be easier for her, but it ain’t nothing nobody couldn’t get with practice.”

Sweetie leaned her head sideways into Apple Bloom’s bow with a happy smile, saying, “It’s fun to dream together. I don’t feel lost when I’m not the only one in a dream.”

Apple Bloom didn’t stop her or anything, just blushed and looked forward, then stammered out, “S-so I figure we’ll just pick up Scootaloo later. Heck ah’m surprised ah found you on the first try. Surprised this even works at all. We’re like... are we in your head or mine right now?”

“Yours, because this is your dream,” Sweetie suggested helpfully.

“Yeah, but then how are you in mah head?” Apple Bloom puzzled. “If’n they measured your brainwaves, would they all be over here or the like?”

Sweetie didn’t answer, just looking baffled.

“Well anyways, we’re dreaming now,” Apple Bloom admitted agre, “So why don’t we have some fun!”

“Like what?” Sweetie asked curiously.

“We can play pirates!” Apple Bloom suggested brightly.

“Isn’t that a little... juvenile?” Sweetie said, giving Apple Bloom an uncertain look.

“Not the way the princess plays it!” Apple Bloom declared, standing up on fours on the hilltop. She whistled hard, and then from the distant horizon, something rose over the tree line, floating steadily towards them.

Sweetie squinted at it in the sun’s glare. “What is that?” she declared in a puzzled tone, “Is that a...” before just staring at it speechlessly. The zepplin swiftly dwarfed the two ponies in size, soaring up to them in a graceful hum of its whirring propellors. The canvas balloon was a sunset brown and gold, with Apple Bloom’s red and yellow painted around it in broad, lateral stripes. The ship’s bow came right up to the tiny hill on which they stood, making it easy for Apple Bloom to jump right onto the flat, oaken boards of the upper deck.

“C’mon, Sweetie!” Apple Bloom shouted over the wind whipping in her hair, holding out a hoof for Sweetie Belle to grab onto. “Let’s go find us some sky pirates!”

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle had a lot of fun, but no matter how many dream pirates they found, they never saw hide nor hair of Scootaloo. Scootaloo definitely got enough attention during the day, but during the nights that week, they just couldn’t find her, and it was obvious she was beginning to really feel left out from their dreams. It was child’s play for Apple Bloom to find Sweetie Belle, compared to Scootaloo. Scootaloo said she didn’t mind, and she slept fine, but the truth is she did, and she didn’t.

Apple Bloom was tempted to say Scootaloo didn’t have any dreams, but... when you sleep with someone, they can’t exactly hide from you anymore, what happens to them at night. Scootaloo wasn’t lying when she said she never could remember her dreams, but... there was something serious going on with her. Not every night. Not often. But once was enough. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle had been playing around in a dream with a scaled down model of Canterlot City, when an unearthly scream shook the world around them. “What’s going on?!” Sweetie shrieked.

“It came from all over!” Apple Bloom shouted, looking around and fighting with a... building that had toppled over on her, and had now decided to start wrestling with her! “Sweetie, help! This thing won’t let me g—” and that’s when Apple Bloom realized she was actually fighting with Scootaloo, awake, in bed!

“What the hay are you doing Scootaloo?!” Apple Bloom hissed out, pushing the struggling pegasus off her, only for Scootaloo to leap for the edge of the bed. Apple Bloom lunged forward and grabbed her before she could fall but Scootaloo was frantic.

“Help, I have to—help I...I have to” was all Scootaloo said, in an eerily subdued voice, while Apple Bloom wrestled her down, forcing her still and staring down at her in a fright, at her friend’s crazily unfocused eyes. Scootaloo finally focused, seeing Apple Bloom, and her eyes got really big and liquid even in the dim light.

“Apple Bloom, you’re okay!” Scootaloo sobbed, sitting up to hug the very confused pony girl.

“So you never dream, huh?” Sweetie Belle grumbled, staring at Scootaloo very irately, perhaps less intimidating with the blankets draping over her head. Sweetie was unharmed, but very miffed at having been trampled under the blankets, on Scootaloo’s way to wherever the heck she thought she was going.

“W-what?” Scootaloo gasped breathlessly, turning to look at Sweetie in confusion. Scoots looked back up at Apple Bloom who was holding her down, then scrunched up her face in dejection, and kicked up against Apple Bloom, but Apple Bloom wouldn’t let her go again. It wasn’t the same as before, though. Scootaloo was just... angry now, not... terrified.

“I can’ beliefe that happened again!” Scootaloo said angrily, crossing her forehooves over her head when she couldn’t escape Apple Bloom’s firm embrace.

“You ain’t gonna try to uh... run off now, are ya?” Apple Bloom said uncertainly, starting to feel uncomfortable with how she was literally belly to belly with Scootaloo like this. Her two friends really were gonna have to get some clothes too, for all their dignity’s sake.

“No, I’m fine now...” Scootaloo grumbled under her breath. Apple Bloom cautiously backed off and let her loose, and Sweetie Belle immediately set into her saying to Scootaloo seethingly,

“See? You shtill dream. What were you dreaming about that scared you so much?”

“Sweetie, I... I just...” Scootaloo sagged under Sweetie’s gaze, saying, “I can’t remember. I never can. I don’t know the t-therapist calls them night terrors, but they aren’t really a dream. It’s just black... like something eating me. I just... I’m not lying to you, Sweetie. I–I really don’t remember, all I remember is just that...

“All I remember,” Scootaloo said sorrowfully, “Is that it’s all my fault.”

After that display, it was pretty much Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle’s duty to find Scootaloo in her dreams. Scootaloo tried her best to remember and to really dream or whatever she could do, and at least she didn’t have any of those night things again. Apparantly literally the last dream Scootaloo could remember was the one they shared back near the beginning of the school year, with the Golden Apple.

It was so tricky to find her, whatever Scootaloo was doing as far as dreaming goes. Apple Bloom wished the princess was here, because Apple Bloom found herself pretty much feeling around blindly at this point. She followed Scootaloo-y feelings in the dream, dragging poor Sweetie along through some very strange landscapes. She tried calling Scootaloo, tried dreaming of things Scootaloo was familiar with, but all she could ever find is a sort of rushing darkness.

Thanksgiving was normally a huge affair for the Apple family, a big gathering of relatives from far and wide. Sort of like a reunion. Apple Bloom had fond memories of the dancing and the rodeo, and the delicious spread of food not just from their farm but far and wide, the roasting of a bull, good times.

But with Apple Bloom and her friends turning into ponies, that severely put a damper on things. What was causing it? Could they risk exposing anyone else? How could they in good conscience host a celebration that might end up spreading it throughout the whole country?

What really threw them for a loop is, it wasn’t hard to just call the whole thing off this year. Braeburn would have been crushed to think he couldn’t visit his family out in Canterlot, and they expected emails from him worrying about what to say when he did. But then they sent him an email and he didn’t even bother answering it. Nor did anyone else working on his farm in Appaloosa.

Apple Fritter employed a good portion of the family in his fudge factory, but she said there had been some kind of meltdown and literally none of them could attend. Nobody was surprised when the Oranges didn’t have time to call. About the only people asking about the reunion were Apple Cobbler, the repairman living off downtown, his daughter Red Gala, who was a drama major, and Fiddly, the school’s music teacher. Those, they had to disappoint, but it wasn’t... too bad.

So it was a bittersweet event when Thanksgiving rolled around. It wasn’t all bad, because they still had plenty of people who could come over, even if they weren’t strictly related. Cheerilee brought a big wobbly jello mold, and bags of carrots and green beans. Rarity brought with her these lovingly crafted vegetable turnovers all ready for deep frying.

Rainbow Dash came over, because as she put it her holidays were lame and she wanted to see more of Scootaloo now that her wings were grown in all the way. While Scootaloo was fawning over Rainbow Dash, the other two ponies were at the heels of Twilight and Sunset, pestering them with endless questions. The two had initially declined to come, but Applejack’s persistent argument that Thanksgiving was better spent with as much people as possible won them over in the end. Sunset even managed the grill allowing Applejack to spend more time making sure everyone was entertained and taking care of anything anybody needed.

Maybe there wasn’t enough people around to roast a bull, but there were plenty enough to get through a whole turkey. Big Mac made sure the bird arrived straight from the supermarket, and Granny Smith lovingly doted over the bird all day slowly cooking it to a golden sheen. Besides that there were plenty of delicious vegetables, some home baked bread that Applejack had all ready for the oven, and the turkey gravy came out just perfect. The pony girls may have only been able to eat small portions of everything, even for their size, but what they could they did eat with enthusiasm, even to Twilight and Rarity’s disgust a little slice of turkey.

That was when Pinkie Pie crashed the party.

She came riding up in that weird looking very pink painted jalopy. Apparantly Pinkie had renovated it herself from where she found it in the junkyard, and considering she was a dramatist, not a techie that was... an odd accomplishment, and an odd car. The back popped open into a whole three level platform, that she just detached from the thing. Pinkie detached the rolling tray from her car, wheeled around, and charged for their front door screaming at the top of her lungs.

Applejack got the door open, but not in time to get out of the way. She was carted along with the charging girl, bursting into the living room and careening around crazily on skidding wheels, finally coming to rest neatly at the corner to the kitchen.

“Applejack!” Pinkie squealed admonishingly in the aftermath, “Careful, or you’ll squish the cupcakes!”

Three pairs of pony ears immediately perked at that.

“Pinkie, what—” Applejack said carefully pushing herself off of this assembly which was a set of three platforms painted brightly pink, white and blue, all brimming with delightful fluffy frosty and sugary treats, straight from the bakery Pinkie Pie worked at in exchange for room and board. And cupcakes.

“You forgot dessert, sillies!” Pinkie said with a cheeky smile, standing beside her stand, with her hands on her hips. “How are you gonna call it Thanksgiving, without dessert?”

Apple Bloom snuck up and took a cupcake in her hoof. Biting into it immediately released a torrent of unimaginably delicious sugary vanilla, and the soft crumb of the cupcake parted in the middle to have a creamy center. “Ofm, vese’re goofd!” she exclaimed brightly, only to have Pinkie turn to look at her with a widening smile and exclaim,

“Oh. My. God. You are soooo cute!”

Apple Bloom almost lost the cupcake when Pinkie just bear hugged her right then and there, dragging her up into the air as Apple Bloom determinedly refused to let the pastry fly off of her hoof. The cupcake was the size of a big old muffin by Apple Bloom’s scale, but even then she managed to get through most of it in delicious bites of sugary goodness, the cupcake taking far greater priority than the strange girl who was hugging her.

“Oh,” came the disappointed voice of Pinkie Pie, “I made them too big! Of course I did, because you’re just a little pony now!”

Setting Apple Bloom on the ground, Pinkie zipped right over to the other two who had maybe 2 milliseconds to react to Pinkie’s approach before she was fawning over them saying, “Ohmygosh you’re adorable! You look just like humans, but teeny little ponies! You have a horn just like Rarity said you know she really loves unicorns oh I guess you do because you are one oh my gosh you’re so fuzzy! How can you be so fuzzy? Your back is just fuzzy as fuzzy can be! I wish I could fuzz Scootaloo’s back like yours but her wings keep pushing me away otherwise I’d be totally all over her I bet I mean really who doesn’t like fuzzy furry pony people? Not me!”

“What?” Scootaloo said with an uncomprehending stare, pushing Pinkie’s hand reflexively away with a wing.

Applejack hauled Pinkie away then and said, “Alright, alright give the girls some space. How’re they gonna enjoy your desserts if’n you’re all over them the entire evening?”

“Oh my gosh, you’re right!” Pinkie declared as if she wasn’t getting dragged backwards on her heels. “Dessert is on me!” she shouted to the two before Applejack got her into the next room. “Thirds should be perfect!” her shout came from the laundry room where Applejack had retreated with the girl.

“I forgot how overwhelming Pinkie Pie could be,” Sweetie said dizzily.

“C’mon, let’s get some of those cupcakes,” Scootaloo said hurrying forward, “Before she finds another excuse to come after us!”

Apple Bloom ran for a cake knife in the kitchen, coming out with its handle clutched firmly in her mouth. “Hol’ on,” she said, “Don’ jus’ bite it!”

Then she cut one of those oversized cupcakes neatly into three pieces, each falling over and somewhat smushing the rich, creamy frosting piped on top of them. Dropping the knife Apple Bloom said, “Okay, try that.”

Somewhat less enthusiastically, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle craned their heads down and started eating, quickly getting through the portion of cupcake they had, Scootaloo murmuring, “ftho sthweet...” in an enraptured tone.

Pinkie Pie brought about 20 times as much dessert as two ponies could eat, with two pies, a couple dozen cupcakes, a whole bowl full of cookies bursting with chocolate chips, and several puff pastries filled up with cherry jelly.

Thankfully there were more than just ponies here. They had some leftovers of course, but the pies would keep well, and Rainbow Dash it turns out was quite a voracious eater, sensible considering how active she was. There was leftover turkey, and mashed potatoes, cupcakes and cookies and pie, stuffing and gravy, and a little bit of that bread loaf. Not enough to get sick of leftovers, but definitely enough for a round 2 on Friday, with another helping of steamed green beans added to the spread on that day.

What really killed Apple Bloom was Diamond Tiara. Instead of being here with all this food and these great friends, she was just having her thanksgiving in the cafeteria, at the orphanage. She should’ve been here. She needed to be here. It was just wrong to think of that girl all by herself with nothing to comfort her besides a dinner that included a single slice of turkey and some stuffing made from a mix.

Two weeks were done and gone since the Formal, right on the brink of December, but still they had no luck with Scootaloo’s subconscious, and still no word that Diamond Tiara wanted to have anything to do with them anymore. Apple Bloom was honestly starting to get worried, in both respects, but especially where Diamond Tiara was concerned. She figured it was high time to start playing dirty, before Diamond could build it all up until she exploded from the stress, again.

“Applejack,” Apple Bloom asked her sister Saturday evening, rearing up to where the farm girl was sitting in her room, frantically working at her desk, on some essay questions for her homework studying. Thanksgiving was a four day holiday, so they had to give extra work for the students to complete. Apple Bloom just... didn’t feel good about that, but she felt worse about her conspicuously missing friend.

Applejack paused as her sister came to her, sat up and stretched so hard her back cracked. She looked down at Apple Bloom with a tired smile, saying, “What can ah do fer you, Apple Bloom?”

“Ah need you to help me get Diamond Tiara to come over next weekend,” Apple Bloom said frankly.

“Ah already asked her,” Applejack sighed, “An’ she said no. She just ain’t interested. Said she didn’t wanna spend no time with you, if you’re just gonna go be ponies without her.”

“That’s the problem though,” Apple Bloom insisted. “She needs to be part of this. She’s gonna be hurting even more if I let her stew on it than if she has to be the one girl among ponies. Plus she don’t really want to be a pony. She just feels left out, an’ she’s making it worse by staying left out.”

“Dunno how much ah can do,” Applejack said shaking her head. “You expect me to drag her off to the farm against her will?”

Apple Bloom pondered on that, pushing off of Applejack’s chair, falling easily back down to four hooves on the floor.

“Uh, Apple Bloom...” came Applejack’s warning voice.

Apple Bloom ignored that though, and just tapped a hoof on her chin going, “Against her will, huh...”

“Apple Bloom, if you’re thinkin’ about doing something sneaky—” Applejack pre-admonished.

Apple Bloom just smiled up at her sister, saying, “You don’t have to tell her to come at all. Just tell Diamond that if she doesn’t come over this weekend, some pony might have to let slip how she feels about a certain some not pony in this household.”

Now Applejack was looking worried. “...Diamond Tiara has a crush on Big Mac?” she said disbelievingly. It was the only logical conclusion, after all.

“No,” Apple Bloom pouted, swaying her tail cagily, “Maybe. Okay a little bit, maybe. But she’ll have to come over then, just so she can yell at me about how it ain’t true.”

Applejack just stared down at the little red and yellow pony, wrapped up in such an innocent little giant pink bow.

“...you are one sneaky lil’ pony, Apple Bloom,” Applejack said in a defeated tone, turning back to her essays.

“It’s the truth, though!” Apple Bloom whined in protest.

“Yeah,” Applejack said without looking her way. “An’ that’s the problem.”

“Ah just wanna see her again!” Apple Bloom exclaimed frustratedly.

“Well now ah gotta tell her,” Applejack said angrily. “She’s been puttin’ eyes on mah brother? You know ah cain’t let this go.”

“Ain’t nothing serious,” Apple Bloom muttered. “Ah think it might even help her reputation.”

“An’ what about your brother?” Applejack said. “You were just gonna keep this a secret and wait for her to move on him?”

“No ah—” Apple Bloom stomped in frustration. “Ah just think it’d get her attention. She’s being dishonest with herself if she thinks she don’t wanna come over, and when she is here, we can all work it out. Once we’re all together as friends again!”

“And with our brother none the wiser while she ogles him,” Applejack said in disgust.

“Ah promise ah’ll... talk to him about it, ah just... want you to tell Diamond, about the thing that don’t really exist,” Apple Bloom pleaded, “Ah know Diamond, and sometimes she just needs to get riled up! Otherwise she’s gonna stay stubbornly hurting herself.”

“Well ah’ll tell her,” Applejack said reluctantly. “But I cain’t promise it’ll go like you wish it would.”

“Well what else am ah gonna do?” Apple Bloom said resentfully. “Big Macintosh is the only kid living here who still goes to school besides you. You think ah should ask him to tell Diamond she’s got a crush on him?”

In hindsight, that probably wouldn’t have been nearly as embarassing as asking Applejack to do it. But hindsight is 20/20, even when you can see more sideways than you used to be able to.

“I am not in love with your brother!”

“You sure seem defensive about that,” Apple Bloom said slyly the very next day, strutting smugly back and forth in front of her tetchy pink friend, who was suddenly here after such a worrisome absence. “Had to come all the way over here to tell me about it, huh?”

“Well, who else am I gonna tell?” Diamond sneered down at the pony in front of her. “It’s not like anyone else gives a flying flip about my reputation.”

The two were facing it off against each other in the living room of the farm house, after Applejack got back from school, driving in with Granny and Diamond Tiara. Applejack immediately foisted the girl off on Apple Bloom, saying, “You dug your grave, now you get to lay in it.” Then Applejack just stomped upstairs in a huff. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were in the other room, working on drawing, and in the other room they remained, because DT was clearly on the warpath.

“Maybe ah’m trying to help your reputation!” Apple Bloom protested in a cheery voice, her cherry red tail swishing around behind her. “Imagine how envious all the kids at school would be, with knowing that Diamond Tiara’s special someone is a big, strong upperclassman.”

“He is not—” Diamond Tiara cut off and blushed hotly. “Are you seriously trying to hook me up with your own brother?!”

“What? No!” Apple Bloom snapped her head around to face the girl. “I didn’t mean—ah was just—!”

“Oh, I should tell my special someone,” Diamond said, now looking smug herself. “To thank you for setting him up with all the cute young girls. I’m sure he’d appreciate knowing how you’re thinking of him!”

“Ah didn’t mean it that way, Diamond Tiara, and you know it!” Apple Bloom said hotly.

Diamond frowned angrily saying, “Then why are you trying to spread rumors that I am?!”

Apple Bloom blinked.

“I just asked my sister t’mention it to you,” Apple Bloom said in puzzlement. “She ain’t the kind to spread rumors. I know what you’re thinking, but ah’m pretty sure she only told you.”

Earlier that week, Diamond Tiara was in the school cafeteria, getting her tray and looking for that... Dinky boy, who she of course saw going to hang out with the techies, again. Of course he sat right next to Silver. That so-called friend of hers just loved taking everything Diamond had, and still being so clueless about it! Silver didn’t even realize how important having a friend was to Diamond right now. Silver just laughed along with Dinky’s dry humor, and just in general was a happy, beautiful, popular girl.

Diamond clenched her teeth, betting that Silver chose that major just so boys would like her, and she didn’t even really like any of that electronic sciency stuff that she was always prattling on about. And now Silver had Dinky’s ear, and technically he was a techie and had always sat at that table, but who was Diamond supposed to sit with now?!

“Scuze me,” came a familiar older girl’s voice, one Diamond didn’t want to have to face again.

“Ugh,” she said dully, looking over her shoulder. “What do you want?”

“Word has it you got a crush on my big brother,” Applejack said quietly, with a dangerous glint in her eyes.

“What?” Diamond said sweating internally. “No! No I—maybe a litt–no! Why would I just randomly have a—a crush on some boy?”

“Oh, randomly, huh?” Applejack said in in a somewhat peeved tone. The two girls faced each other, lunch tray to lunch tray, Applejack’s full head of height above Diamond very apparant as the older girl expressed in a very disapproving tone. “Think you might be lyin’ about that? Because mah sister seems to think so. She seen you makin’ eyes at him. All that time you been spending at our farm, and you never even gave him a second glance?”

Diamond gulped, and really didn’t see a good way to talk her way out of this. “There’s nothing wrong with your... brother,” Diamond said diplomatically. “He’s pretty good as far as boys go, you know, for some girl in his class. But why would Apple Bloom even think that I was interested in him?”

“Can’t say,” Applejack said, slightly turning away with her eyes shifting nervously. “But ah reckon she’ll keep tellin’ people about that, long as she got some sorta mixed up notion in her head.”

Applejack faced Diamond again, saying, “What you need to do, is come to the farm this weekend, an’ set that poor girl straight. That is, if you don’t have a crush on Big Macintosh.”

“Well maybe she shouldn’t spread rumors like that in the first place,” Diamond sneered. “I think she’s just lonely like she always is. Oh wait no, sorry I forgot that all our friends are living with you now. Must be fun being a bunch of stupid little ponies who don’t care about anyone else!”

“You take that back!” Applejack said hotly, slamming her tray down on the lunch counter. “Just because Apple Bloom thinks you have the hots for Big Macintosh doesn’t mean she don’t care about you! Why don’t you come over anymore? Too good for a bunch of stupid little ponies? You don’t even know how it’s been eatin’ her alive wondering if you even care about her anymore! And you think she ain’t gonna do anything to get you back, even confess that she knows about your crush?”

“I don’t have a crush! Big Macintosh is nice, but... I—I don’t! It’s totally not like that!” Diamond retorted intelligently. “She shouldn’t be talking about it at all!” she said angrily. “She’s got no right to be spreading rumors like that. She doesn’t know anything about what goes on at school anymore!”

“Maybe if you would come see her, then you could tell her what’s goin’ on,” Applejack retorted equally hotly, folding her arms. “And then she’d stop trying to tell everyone about how you have the hots for my big brother!

“But maybe she ain’t lyin’ after all!” Applejack continued in agitation. “You know he’s my big brother, by a whole year? Big Macintosh? You got eyes for him, do ya? Wanna get with some hanky panky huh? Ah ain’t judging you, but if you don’t think Big Mac is the hottest thing since Clint Eastwood, then you better go tell mah sister, because with you makin’ eyes at him all the time, she somehow got the wrong idea!”

“Uh...” a dopey looking boy’s voice spoke behind Applejack. “Could you two argue about your crush on Big Macintosh over there? Some of us still wanna get our food.”

Both Applejack and Diamond Tiara suddenly turned beet red in the face. Slowly turning around, Diamond saw that like the whole lunch room was quietly watching them argue. Well, not quietly anymore! Now they were all whispering to each other, and Silver was smirking at her like you sly vixen, you, and of course one of her roommates had lunch this period, just looking at her with one of those delighted grins, one of the grins that told you you’re going to wake up one morning pretty soon, with your hair covered in oatmeal.

“N-n-now hold on,” Applejack said stepping forward and addressing the whole lunch room. Diamond wanted to leap on her and rip her to shreds like a bad dream, just to get her to stop talking but no, Applejack was going to try to defend her now. Thus attracting the attention of absolutely everyone. “Diamond here might not have a crush on mah brother!” Applejack protested. “I just heard that she did. So y-you shouldn’t just believe it because his own sister thinks so, a-and his other sister too. That don’t necessarily mean nothing!”

Behind them, the lunch line had given up waiting and were just walking past the stammering, apologizing, older girl, and the absolutely blushing pink Freshman, who was so humiliated that she couldn’t even do anything besides pretend she was a statue and wish that they’d stop staring at her, like she was some kind of attention whoring floozy, the kind who just ran after older boys and went and—and did things that Diamond Tiara would most certainly never even think about doing. Even though she was kind of curious...

“So, Diamond Tiara doesn’t have a... well, she might have a crush on mah brother,” Applejack explained clearly, “But that don’t mean she does, even though they been spending a lot of time together, on account of her coming over to visit on the weekends. But don’t y’all go jumping to conclusions now. Ah mean, maybe it is true that—”

“Just shut up,” Diamond hissed grabbing Applejack’s shirt and shaking her as effectively as possible. “Shut up!” she shouted up to the flustered upperclassmangirl.

“Diamond,” Applejack said gently, down to the girl grabbing her shirt, struggling to put her in a suplex, or something. “Ah’m just—”

“Like... shut it!!” Diamond shouted. “Not one more word! Don’t tell anyone about my crush on—” she staggered back from Applejack, now facing the crowd very interested in the suddenly distraught ragged looking girl. “I don’t have a crush!” she belted out, to which nobody anywhere paid any heed. “I don’t! I don’t—just leave me alone!!”

Diamond didn’t stop running until she had her back to the doors of the cafeteria, breathing hard out there in the hallway. If she had any slight vestige of a reputation left, it was completely and totally shredded. All because of that stupid friend of hers. Expecting Applejack to have any sense of subtlety or tact. Applejack! Apple Bloom must have scrambled her little pony brains if she forgot how stupid her sister could be about discretion. Did Diamond really just shout at the entire lunch room that she didn’t have a crush on Big Macintosh? She might as well have taken him to the Fall Formal!

The other door beside Diamond swung open, and Applejack stuck her head out, holding her hat apologetically. “So uh... sorry ‘bout that, uh...” she said apologetically. “Ah was just tryin’ to be uh... ah’m not really good at y’know ah mean to say... are you still comin’ over this weekend, to tell Apple Bloom you ain’t got a crush on Big Mac?”

“Oh I’ll tell her...” Diamond seethed. “I’ll tell her, like... really good.”

“That’s great!” Applejack said with a politely cheerful smile. “Meet me an’ granny by the pickup on Friday afternoon and ah’ll drive you right over.”

“Your sister didn’t tell me,” Diamond Tiara shouted wildly at Apple Bloom. “She told the whole lunch room!” She was so mad Diamond just picked up Apple Bloom around the waist and—

“Hey, let me go!” Apple Bloom said, struggling against Diamond Tiara fiercely.

“How could you expect her to keep a secret?” Diamond shrieked holding the pony in her arms to her face.

“Diamond!” Apple Bloom yelled back, kicking her legs out and squirming her torso underneath the girl’s death grip on her. “Put me down!”

“Stop struggling and answer me!” Diamond demanded, almost losing the pony when she pushed— “Why are you so darned—augh—strong?!”

“It wasn’ a stupid idea!” Apple Bloom squealed unrepentantly, easily pushing away Diamond’s cheek with a hoof, no matter how Diamond tried to get in her face, “Because you’re being stupid too!”

Then with a powerful buck of her hips, Apple Bloom broke Diamond’s attempt to bear hug her. It was like trying to hold down an out of control washing machine on spin cycle. Apple Bloom smacked Diamond in the side with a rear hoof, and then both of them were falling. Apple Bloom was gallopping away as soon as her hooves touched floor.

“Ow! that’s my—” Diamond struggled to her feet, holding her side and running after the pony, shouting, “Augh, get back here!!”

“Never!” Apple Bloom cried defiantly, running up the back of the couch and vanishing over the other side.

Diamond circled around the couch to block the pony off from escaping, saying with a manic twitch, “You’re going to—” A pillow hurled from the couch, right solidly into Diamond’s face, knocking her back on her butt.

“Raaagh!” Diamond roared, leaping onto the couch where the pony was still crouched in angry defiance. Apple Bloom bucked hard against Diamond, her pony body now less like soft marshmallow and more like corded steel as it threw the both of them off the couch, rolling on the floor.

“Say you’re sorry!” Diamond shouted, grabbing the pony’s forelegs and getting in her face.

“You say you’re sorry!” Apple Bloom said defiantly, her hind legs shoving against Diamond’s pelvis so hard it flipped the purple and white haired girl over the pony entirely, the wind knocked out of her with a guff when Diamond landed on her back.

Trotting around to glare at the girl furiously, Apple Bloom repeated, “Say you’re—!” cutting off as Diamond tried to sit up, struggling desperately to breathe. “Diamond are you okay?!” Apple Bloom exclaimed in sudden worried alarm.

“Shut... up just... shut it...” Diamond gasped, holding her arms around her sore ribs as stars spun in her head.

“Apple Bloom what the hay is—Apple Bloom, what did you do?!”

Applejack charged in the room, followed by a double take at the girl curled on the floor. There was Diamond Tiara lying there in the fetal position, beside the now frantically worried pony sister of hers. When Applejack spoke, Apple Bloom’s eyes widened, as she stared forward at Diamond with a distant shock, and it looked like she was gonna start bawling again. But then, Apple Bloom’s head shot up, to stare her sister in the face with an angry, hard glare.

“Ah trusted you, that’s what ah did!” Apple Bloom shouted venomously. Then her lip quivered, and she backed up a pony step. Applejack tried to approach her to hug her or—or something but Apple Bloom just ran then, clomping up the stairs, and clattering across the hallway overhead, the sounds of her hooves leading straight to her room. The sound of her somewhere between shouting and sobbing a distant second to that one.

Applejack just stared after her guiltily, hand still outstretched. Beside Applejack, Diamond Tiara coughed, “I’m...fine...” the younger girl sitting up and hunching forward, with her forehead resting against her closed fists. “Not even hurt, just got... winded,” she lied, her breathing returning slowly to normal. Giving Applejack a reluctantly serious look, Diamond added still a bit breathlessly, “Never pick a... fight with a pony.”

Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer returned from the Apple family’s Thanksgiving party laughing and chatting amiably with each other. It was so convenient Twilight thought that these public transportation wagons were there so that you could hold a conversation with your friend while someone else drove you where you needed to go. Which struck her as really odd, because aside from her and Sunset, every time she’d ridden on one of those, every human was ignoring each other, just playing with something on their phone generally.

“Spike, are you here?” Twilight asked, as she unlocked the door to their crummy apartment, which technically wasn’t theirs at all, but when you have a need, and a key, you make do right? That was something normal ponies did, who were in this sort of situation, right?

“Of course I’m here!” Spike barked, from where it sounded like he’d been sleeping on the bed again. “Where else would I go?” He came padding on all fours out of the single bedroom, not a problem for the three of them since none of them were exactly human. It was an odd custom of humans, to be avoidant of sharing beds together. Though considering Twilight’s first attempt at a sleepover, there could be problems with sharing the bed too.

“Why do you never invite me to your parties?” Spike said with a whine. He had these big, beautiful, soulful eyes in this form that... acklpth. Twilight shook her head fiercely, and explained,

“We’ve gone over this before. I’ve only just barely begun to win their trust, and they’ve been”

“Through so much,” he finished for her, rolling his eyes and waving a paw in the air. “I know, I know. Wouldn’t want them to get all freaked out at the amazing talking dog, huh? I still say I could just bark, and pretend to be a normal dog.” He barked twice, very convincingly, to illustrate his point.

“It’s just too much of a risk, Spike,” Twilight pleaded, getting on her knees to look him in the eye. “I don’t want to mess this up, so bad.”

“I know, Twilight,” he said in a subdued tone, putting a soft paw on her forehead. “It’s just...”

“I brought turkey,” Sunset pointed out, pulling out of her bag a whole leg of turkey she’d purloined through some miracle without anyone at the household noticing.

“All is forgiven!” Spike barked excitedly, jumping past Twilight and rushing up with a high pitched grumble, to weave hungrily around Sunset Shimmer’s legs.

Author's Note

Remember when you first entered high school, and you were sure that every unfamiliar feeling you felt for someone of the opposite sex must have been true love? Remember how your friends were even more sure of that than you were?

~~Good~~ times.

Snowballing

Applejack gathered Diamond Tiara, Apple Bloom and Big Macintosh all in the living room, Apple Bloom looking a little tear stricken but otherwise just miserably apologetic, for a pony at least. Even though she was finally here, Diamond Tiara hadn’t yet seen her other two friends as cute little pony creatures, because this matter simply had to be settled. That was the only reason why Granny Smith wasn’t here with the rest of Apple Bloom’s family, because someone needed to keep the other two occupied elsewhere, while Apple Bloom had some very serious apologizing to give.

“Ah’m sorry, Diamond,” Apple Bloom either croaked out or whinnied, it was hard to tell. Her words were legible though, when she said, “Ah just wanted t’see you again ah was worried you’d all get all... weird like the orphanage. Didn’t think everyone would be all told that you had a crush on mah brother. It was plum stupid of me! But what was I supposed to do? You were just ignoring me!”

“Now hold on, Apple Bloom,” Applejack cautioned the little yellow pony. “Don’t kick yourself too hard, but ah think you ain’t done apologizin’ yet.”

Apple Bloom blinked, and then blushed hard, saying to Big Macintosh without looking at him, “S-sorry bro ah didn’t even think... I mean ah had no right... oh golly...”

“You shoulda known better,” he said to her in a low, even tone. “Only natural though,” he sighed. “Ah’ll cover for ya,” he told his liquid eyed pony sister, “Just don’t do it again.”

“Oh, thank you Big Macintosh! Ah’ll never do something so gosh darn fruity loopy stupid again!” Apple Bloom told him gratefully, trotting forward and rearing up to hug him, just buring her nose in the side of his jeans.

It might have been a more touching moment, if Apple Bloom hadn’t used the opportunity to wipe her runny nose on reflex. With the apologies out of the way, it was time to give Mac a moment to talk with Diamond more personally... but only after Applejack grabbed a dish cloth and threw it to a horrified and apologetic Apple Bloom, who cleaned off her completely disgusted brother’s leg as best as she could, thankful as all of them that denim was a relatively thick fabric.

“Alright,” Applejack said then, “I think we’re square here. You ain’t gonna keep ignorin’ your friends,” she said to Diamond, “You ain’t gonna be putting pressure on us to get your friend back,” she said to Apple Bloom, “You ain’t gonna walk into school Monday wonderin’ why everyone’s whispering behind your back,” she said to Big Macintosh, “And ah’m not gonna go blabbin’ on about something ah don’t have no business with.”

“It really wasn’t your fault,” Diamond said, grumpily. “You couldn’t help—”

“Ah don’t care about whose fault it is, Diamond,” Applejack said firmly. “I just wanna know you ain’t gonna get in any more fights like that.” The farm girl then kneeled down to look Apple Bloom in the eye, saying, “And you may be a little pony sis, but you gotta be more careful. Ah don’t think you know your own strength!”

Apple Bloom shrunk down a little and mumbled, “Yeah ah was just... pushin’ her and ah didn’t mean to hurt no one and... guess ah do kick awful hard.” She looked at the mysterious little yellow hooves curled in front of her, with the fearsome power to support the weight of a dog sized pony. “Might be a good idea to measure that, actually,” Apple Bloom quietly postulated.

“You haven’t measured that yet?” Diamond said in astonishment.

“Measured how?” Apple Bloom retorted in a surly manner. “Ah can lift things, aind... what else?”

“Don’t you have any weights?” Diamond asked curiously. Apple Bloom shook her head. “Scales?” Diamond suggested cautiously.

“Ah’m over 20 pounds, if’n that’s what you want to know!” Apple Bloom said, blushing as she did. “Like a quarter of what I used to weigh,” she added sullenly.

“Well, why not hold up the scales?” Diamond suggested. “Like, see how hard you can push on them?”

“That ain’t a bad idea, Diamond,” Apple Bloom speculated, glancing at her hind legs, “But what about how hard ah can kick?”

“C’mon Apple Bloom,” Applejack interrupted, nudging the pony’s side, standing up and turning around. “You two can catch up with each other later. Let’s go’n get your other two friends so y’all can be properly reacquainted.”

“Guess so,” Apple Bloom admitted, frowning in frustration at first, but then she brightened, saying to Diamond with a growing smile, “Oh boy are you in for a treat! They’re so cool as ponies; ah think you’re gonna love it!”

“Pff, as if,” Diamond weakly denied, rolling her eyes. “I can already guess they’re still orange and white, like you stayed yellow.”

“Well if nothing else, it’ll be nice to see ‘em again, though?” Apple Bloom offered with the cutest little insecure hoof wobble.

“Yeah it—fine,” Diamond gave in without too much of a fight. “I can meet them again, it’s no big deal. I don’t care if they’re like, ponies or whatever. You should be thinking of your own hooves. Like, how hard they can hit things.” Diamond poked at her side and winced at the tender spot there.

Apple Bloom nodded solemnly and trotted off, led by Applejack, who gave Diamond a silently meaningful look before heading off herself. And with them out of the room, that left Diamond Tiara alone with... oh gosh darn it. Those two planned this, didn’t they? Diamond refused to blush as she glanced at the elephant—or rather boy—in the room. She didn’t want to have a crush on him, and she didn’t really, did she? What did having a crush feel like anyway?

Diamond rose from where she was sitting on the couch, nursing a bruise or two, and stood stiffly before Big Macintosh, the blushing girl keenly aware of just how much taller he was than her.

“So I don’t like, have a crush on you, okay,” she said mutedly, looking down and to the left of him. “Apple Bloom was just being dumb, and I didn’t think it was that important to her. I mean, I should have like, come over last weekend or something. Just kind of putting it off for, like, reasons.”

“Eyup,” he said to her in a very warm, forgiving tone. “Ah understand.”

“Well, good,” Diamond remarked precariously, “Because I really don’t have a... I mean, that would be totally silly, wouldn’t it? Just because I come to visit, and you like, sort of, were hanging out with us sometimes, and I sort of never did that before with a uh, boy and with anyone really.”

“Sounds about right,” he said in a neutral tone.

Rocking on her heels, Diamond continued looking the other way, adding, “So, if I did like, have like, a crush on you, you wouldn’t be like, interested or anything, would you?”

He raised an eyebrow. Then he smiled at her and said, “Nnnnope.”

“Okay, g-good,” Diamond Tiara said looking at him confidently, without a sinking feeling inside her at all almost, “Because I don’t.”

Big Macintosh looked at her silently, then reached his broad hand forward and brought it down on Diamond’s head, scruffling her bountiful hair. Then he straightened up, and shoved his hands in his pockets, just walking camly away.

Diamond blinked, and touched her head, and... did he just scruffle her? “Hey,” she shouted after him, “What’s that supposed to mean, messing up my hair like that?!”

“Yer too young,” Big Mac said over his shoulder, “An’ ah ain’t lookin’.”

“I—I wasn’t asking!” Diamond said with a furious blush. Big Mac didn’t answer her. The deep, ruddy red skinned upperclassman just walked on up the stairs heading back to his room. Diamond knew that’s where he was going, because that’s what he always did when he wanted to be alone, and she knew where his room was because she—she didn’t have any sort of crush on him at all! She didn’t!

Totally platonic like, um, knowing of his life. Yeah, that’s it.

Diamond just sat on the couch and crossed her arms, feeling at the same time relieved and... a little snubbed. He could have at least pretended she was a beautiful girl he had to put some effort into resisting falling in love with. That’s where she sat until the sound of three pairs of hooves came cloppling in from outside the front door. Diamond imagined Scootaloo, that scruffy looking friend of hers who loved riding around on that scooter of hers. Scootaloo always had a weird pointy chin that wasn’t exactly standoffish, but Diamond couldn’t imagine it on the face of a pony. And Sweetie Belle with her bountiful curls always gently shrouding her head. Would she even be able to walk if she had that hair on an Apple Bloom clone? Sweetie had this delightful magenta blouse, headband combination in her wardrobe, but now she couldn’t even wear anything?

...that was when Diamond recalled that she had never seen her other two friends naked before today. She barely had time to tense up though, when suddenly gallopping into the living room came Apple Bloom... by herself, alone.

“Uh...” Apple Bloom said to Diamond bashfully, “They’re kinda embarassed, still. We haven’t exactly taken care of the clothing uh, problem yet. So, you don’t mind if we’re all like, naked and stuff, right?”

“You haven’t even gotten them outfits yet?” Diamond said scornfully. “This is worse than I thought! Hasn’t Rarity been with you all this time?”

“Sweetie’s sister?” Apple Bloom remarked curiously. “She had a uh, exam last week that she had to study for, and she has some material on order that she cain’t finish her sister’s dress without.”

“Ugh, she would need everything to be perfect,” Diamond said face palming. “Doesn’t she understand how you need something functional, then she can try to make things pretty?”

“Well, we strictly don’t need clothes being uh, ponies and such,” Apple Bloom attempted, blushing redly.

“Oh,” Diamond told the blushing Apple Bloom in a very wry tone, “I suppose you really feel that way?”

“I... ah’d feel a lot... comfortabler with some dignity yeah, but...” then, Apple Bloom’s little muzzle firmed into a determined cuteness. “Ah ain’t gonna wear nothing,” she declared, “Until mah friends got something to wear too!”

“We’re not attractive in any way,” Sweetie Belle’s voice suddenly sounded out from across the room.

Both Apple Bloom and Diamond looked over, to see Sweetie Belle forcing herself to walk forward from around the corner, where she and Scootaloo were still hiding. “S-so it’s not like anyone is going to look down there, or... anything...” Sweetie pointed out. She stuttered to a halt then, unable to push herself further, once she tried to look Diamond Tiara in the eye.

Sweetie Belle had—get this—turned into a unicorn! Well, technically a unicorn, but she was basically just Apple Bloom with a horn. The little soft white pony was unmistakably Sweetie Belle. The mane on her head was pretty much exactly like her hair normally looked, if a bit dirty and tangled. What’s more and this probably shouldn’t have startled Diamond, but Sweetie Belle’s new pony tail was also thickly covered in her hair, in sworls of pink and purple.

“H-hi Diamond,” Sweetie said quietly, looking up with wide green eyes. “You got big.”

Before Diamond could stop staring long enough to laugh, she heard Scootaloo speak up, and darted her head up again. “I dunno Sweetie, there are some real weirdos out there!” came Scootaloo’s voice from the corner. Of her, you could only see one little orange pony hoof braced on the ground, and one little orange pony face coming around the corner and looking their way, topped with a swoosh of berry purple hair.

Sweetie Belle turned her head... just her head, to look back at Scootaloo, saying, “Yeah, but like, one or two. With most boys we’re perfectly safe.” It seemed weird how effortless Sweetie could crane her neck around.

Scootaloo crept the rest of the way out from behind the corner and what Diamond then saw would almost be humorous, if it wasn’t stark reality. Scootaloo’s short cropped hair had become a short cropped pony mane, even retaining her characteristic cowlick on it, but her tail? Scootaloo’s tail was long and flowing, lushly abundant with her purple hair. It might have even been bigger than Sweetie Belle’s tail, though Sweetie’s was certainly volumnuous. Scootaloo now had more hair on her butt than she ever had on her head.

Okay maybe it was a little humorous. Diamond tried not to snicker at the thought.

“There’s always going to be someone who’s attracted to you,” Sweetie continued to tell Scootaloo, “Even if you are wearing clothes.” Sweetie turned and walked back over to tell her that, which presented Diamond Tiara with a nice clear view of... not much, actually. Even if Sweetie’s tail did curve up into the air, all it revealed was a kind of scrawny looking horsey looking butt and maybe a little bit was showing, but mostly it was just sort of... there.

“No, that’s silly.” Scootaloo retorted, directing Diamond’s attention away from Sweetie Belle’s horse butt. “I could think of something to wear, that nobody would be attracted to.”

“Like what?” Sweetie asked suspiciously.

Scootaloo rolled her eyes, saying, “I dunno, a diver’s... no, wait like maybe pajamas...no, uh... a really slimy mucky...” She fell silent then, rubbing the side of her hoof underneath her chin, sort of like a human would the bottom of their index finger on the side of their face.

“My point exactly,” Sweetie said with a satisfied nod, encouragingly nosing Scootaloo’s side like a... pony, to get Scootaloo walking over to where the human Diamond Tiara and the pony Apple Bloom were waiting. As she neared them, it was obvious Scootaloo wasn’t a unicorn like Sweetie Belle. Diamond figured Sweetie must have just won the pony lottery or something, at first. But then she noticed Scootaloo’s... things.

“Scootaloo,” Diamond said carefully, “Are those, like...?”

“Wings?” Scootaloo said, looking up at Diamond and smiling. Scootaloo stopped walking then, concentrating, and one of the things tight against her sides spread out, just like the wing that it was. “Pretty cool, huh?” Scootaloo prompted, nibbling at her own wing. “It even has feathers now!” And it did, though they were all short, jagged, and poorly angled.

“I bet they’ll be all done in like a week,” Scootaloo said eagerly, folding the wing back against her and wiggling them happily, “And then Sunset said I can go and really fly!”

“You didn’t tell me you were like, super ponies!” Diamond exclaimed in a hurt tone to Apple Bloom. “I thought you were just like, pony ponies?”

“Turns out ah am the poniest pony they got,” Apple Bloom said, stepping up to Diamond sprightly. “The other two kinds of pony got wings and a horn. Ah got like, a special secret thing so I just look like a normal pony. Though uh... lots smaller than a real pony ah mean.”

“So each of you is a different kind of pony?” Diamond asked getting down on her knees to be more at level with the three of them, now standing together before her. “Scootaloo’s a pegasus pony, Sweetie Belle’s a unicorn pony, and you’re a... pony pony?”

“Earth pony!” Apple Bloom said confidently. Her confidence broke though and she scuffed a front hoof as if in embarassment, saying, “That’s what they call ‘em anyway, but it’s kind of confusing since you would normally use “Earth” pony to set apart ponies native to our planet in specific.”

“What do you mean ‘our planet’?” Diamond gasped. “You were right when you said ponies were aliens?”

“Sorta,” Apple Bloom said uncertainly, “The princess in mah dreams has a... wait, how did you know they were all called pegasus?”

“What?” Diamond asked blankly.

“Ponies like me!” Scootaloo said, spreading a single wing again. “Sunse’ said they’re all called pegasus, like it’s the kind of pony, not just the name of one of them.”

“Pegasus hwas the name of a winged pony in Greek legend,” Sweetie pontificated deliberately, in her steady four legged stance at Apple Bloom’s side. “He was created when zhe Gorgon’s blood spilled on the ground. It jus’ turned into a winged horse named Pegasush. It didn’t say if he had any babies.”

“Oh, I thought pegasus was just a name for the kind of horse with wings,” Diamond said uncertainly. “It really was his name name? Who gave it to him?”

“I... dunno,” Sweetie said, reservedly. “It was in the legend of Perseus... Apple Bloom has a copy, because um... Scootaloo. It didn’ say there ever were any other pegasuses, so maybe it was his name, and... also his species, since he’s the only one?”

“Well I’m the only one now,” Scootaloo remarked cheekily, “So now hyou have to call us Scootaloosuses.”

It was pretty clear Diamond Tiara was trying very hard not to laugh. “S-so, like, whatever, we’re...” She covered her mouth with her palm, briefly. “We’re getting off track,” she said a little more steadily. “You can call yourself wingiehorsies for all I care. But what about your princess, Apple Bloom? Did your dream princess start remembering things?”

“Oh, uh, we ain’t found her since the dance; she’s still ruminating or somethin’” Apple Bloom said nervously. “She didn’t tell us all this stuff.”

“So, someone else did?” Diamond asked Apple Bloom, then paused in thought, resting her chin on her fingers. She lifted her head slightly then, saying, “You didn’t find any actual alien ponies, did you?”

Every pony stared at her silently.

“Diamond,” Apple Bloom uttered seriously, giving her head a slow shake, “You have no idear what you missed!”

One lengthy explanation (that turned out not to be as lengthy as Apple Bloom thought it would be) later, and Diamond was so excited, about several things. First, Sweetie and Scootaloo needed clothing, and Diamond had a good idea just how that was going to happen. Also considering Sweetie Belle knew full well who Diamond Tiara’s secret tutor had been this school year, Diamond didn’t have to sneak around the issue, and since Rarity was already here, there was a good chance that Diamond’s work was pretty much already done for her.

Second, ponies were freaking awesome! Scootaloo was already trotting after only a week or so of practice, and Sweetie wasn’t far behind. Something about horses naturally knowing how to walk, maybe. Ponies were especially awesome, since Apple Bloom’s friends had special bodily accessories, making them much more special than if they were just three ponies, all alike. Apple Bloom wasn’t just a pony, she was a special kind of pony, and there was a whole ecopolitical system between the three kinds, that the mysterious alien pony had told them about.

Third, there were aliens among us! A girl called Sunset Shimmer said she was actually an alien pony in disguise, and had been able to back up that claim! ...sort of. She was mode locked in human form for some reason, but she and this other former pony both came over and blew Apple Bloom’s little pony mind with implications and other worlds and stuff.

And fourth, Diamond felt excited because Scootaloo was here, and Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom. Diamond Tiara had been so bored this past entire week or two even, because all her friends were ponies! And she was still totally resentful of that, but now she was here, with Scootaloo making her laugh in her clumsy antics as a pony, and Sweetie Belle trying and failing to show Diamond Tiara her “magic horn powers,” and Apple Bloom just sort of... being there to listen, like she always had been, like a tree that’s always there for you to lean on. Between the three of them with her, who she’d been missing so much, Diamond was actually starting to feel pretty good.

Going pony sure hadn’t put any more sense into her friend’s heads though. They still had barely even thought about the weirdness in the forest on the edge of Apple Bloom’s property. It was almost like they didn’t even remember anything was wrong, or didn’t care, or something. Like how that weekend, they were out in the front yard by the farm house, while Apple Bloom gave Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle a trotting lesson, but it ended up with Diamond arguing with Apple Bloom, saying,

“I can’t believe you haven’t explored that place more! Wasn’t your whole pony thing about the forest outside your property in the first place?”

“Me an’ Big Mac explored it lots Diamond,” Apple Bloom said with a patient sigh. “Ain’t nothing special about it. It’s just a scraggly old forest.”

“But there is! Don’t you remember we never turned around, and it like, rotated around us or something?”

“Oh, yeah but ah think we were just getting turned around or something,” Apple Bloom said shaking her head. “Easy to do once you lose sight of the farm house.”

“I swear it wasn’t,” Diamond said hotly. “You said you were going to like, measure it and stuff!”

“Oh I... ah guess I kinda fergot about that, sorry ...heh heh,” Apple Bloom said, rubbing the back of her head with a nervously close eyed smile.

“It’s really important though,” Diamond urged. “And you should measure how hard you can kick, and you should measure how hard you can pull things, and how much weight you can hold up. Haven’t you done any of that?”

“We been real busy with things, like learning to walk, and speak!” Apple Bloom said resentfully. “I was getting around to it, or something. All that measurey stuff and ...stuff.”

“Ugh, I swear,” Diamond said hands on her hips. “First you don’t have any clothes, or even measurements for Scootaloo’s wings. Then you aren’t even curious about your super pony abilities. Then you don’t even figure out why the forest is so weird. You were right Apple Bloom, I should have come here lots earlier! You three are complete doofs without my guidance.”

Apple Bloom started to retort angrily, but then she remembered it was Diamond Tiara, and her friends knew that Diamond didn’t believe one word that came out of her own mouth. So Apple Bloom just smiled and said, “It’s nice to see you too, Diamond Tiara.”

Diamond was properly flustered at that, and just stomped off in the end, exclaiming as she went, “Where is Rarity keeping her fabrics?”

Apple Bloom lead her to the laundry room, and showed Diamond the rolls of cloth Rarity brought in from the crafts store, not high quality fabric certainly, but the designer sure knew some cool things to do with it. Instead of taking the roll, Diamond Tiara just walked up to the crudely improvised pony forms Rarity had made from shoeboxes, on which Rarity had hung the rough patterns from when she sized the three of them. Not really dresses, just a bunch of patches pinned together in that sort of shape. “This’ll do,” Diamond remarked, lifting one off the shoebox and laying it out flat on the ground.

Sweetie and Scootaloo were all nosey about her affairs. Diamond’s pony friends sort of literally nosed around at everything, since they didn’t have fingers to pick stuff up with anymore. Apple Bloom herself was just looking at Diamond with concern, saying, “Those aren’t real dresses or anything, Rarity’s still trying to find th’ right uh, inspiration.”

“Mm hmm,” Diamond said distractedly, swiftly undoing the pins and pulling the pattern apart into pieces, making sure there was a mark by each hole with a set of colored markers.

“Ah dunno if you’re supposed to do that!” Apple Bloom said anxiously, “Rarity won’t appreciate if her things aren’t just right. She needs ‘em for inspiration!”

“Do you even know how Rarity’s inspiration works?” Diamond asked Apple Bloom, looking at her questioningly. When Apple Bloom didn’t answer, Diamond explained, “First, she has a good idea, then she tries out things to get it right, then she gets lost in the details and sits on it for months, then she goes with what she was going to do in the first place. I’d be doing her a favor getting her to start over again!

“But...” Diamond concluded reservedly, “There’s already marks for where the pins go. See, I marked them with a fabric pen. You have to take these apart, otherwise you can’t cut out new ones. I can just match up the marks and put it back together later, after I make Scootaloo a pretty little princess.”

Scootaloo meanhwile lifted her head out of a box of cloth scraps, saying, “Wait, what?”

“Oh hey, look at this!” Diamond exclaimed distractingly, holding up a round half oval-ish pattern piece. When no one said anything, she clarified, “It’s a hood!”

“A hood would be cool, I guess,” Scootaloo said neutrally. “It’d have to have something for our ears though, those things are sensitive!”

“Not for your head,” Diamond corrected snidely, “For your wings!”

Diamond explained, in so many words, that there was a bunch of complicated stuff that Apple Bloom didn’t really understand, about the mechanics of modifying a dress to accomodate wings. Apple Bloom thought you’d just cut a couple slits in it, but apparantly those would bind up with something. This hood thing would be sewn onto the back of the dress, and have to scrunch back when Scootaloo unfurled her wings, while flattening out to partially cover them when folded. It sounded cool, but... Diamond was clearly more excited about making this stuff, than actual need for it.

Apple Bloom supposed you might need wing... hoods, or whatever if it were truly arctic conditions. But she had to be honest, Scootaloo was even less phased by the cold than she or Sweetie Belle was. Nevertheless she didn’t want to disappoint Diamond, and it really would be awesome if they could all get some clothing again, to at least feel halfway human. Maybe feeling human wasn’t so important, now that Apple Bloom’s mental faculties were relatively safe, and her friends were with her, but it’d still be nice. Might even make it sort of okay to go back to school...

Diamond shooed the three ponies out, so she could trace and cut out all the patterns, and sew them up together. Only obvious fact was Scootaloo’s dress, whatever it was gonna be, was a buttery yellow in color, but Sweetie’s was a mystery. To pass the time, the three of them spent time out in the cattle pasture meanwhile, with nothing more than warm scarves to wear. Out in that pasture, there was a near endless, even expanse of newly fallen snow to play with. Sweetie couldn’t even do her horn exercises, because it was just too much fun to run around and just do stuff in that powdery snow.

It was Sweetie who managed the first snowball, in fact. She’d been idly poking chunks of snow loose with a forehoof, while Scootaloo was trying to make “literal snow angels” which obviously didn’t work so well since she wasn’t even humanoid, and didn’t have huge wings. It was kind of scary how Scootaloo could push herself upright using her wings though. Those flimsy things were a lot more powerful than they looked. And the feathers just got bigger and fuller every day.

But Scootaloo was on her back, wriggling around in the snow, and Apple Bloom was watching her, commenting on the shape of the depression, and then Sweetie managed to get a chunk of snow up lightly clamped between her two pasterns, rearing up onto her haunches. Giving a quiet little huff, she lobbed the thing in a graceful arc, right into the side of Apple Bloom’s face.

So a flying chunk of snow out of absolutely nowhere came soaring through the sky, and smacked into the yellow little pony, exploding on contact to cover her face and the side of her barrel in powder.

“Blgah!” Apple Bloom said, rearing up in surprise at the sudden shock of cold. “What?! Who threw that?!” she demanded, looking around.

Scootaloo was too busy laughing to answer. Apple Bloom glared at her, and then at Sweetie Belle, who was calmly looking the other way, with her hooves neatly gathered together on the ground.

Using the blade of her right hoof to scoop a ball of snow out of the ground, Apple Bloom gave it an experimental toss in the air, and sent it flying towards Sweetie Belle. Sweetie was so busy playing little miss innocent, she had let her own guard down, and her “Guah!” echoed out over the snowy meadow as the chilly powder blasted the unicorn right in the cheek.

“How didz you know?!” Sweetie said to Apple Bloom abashedly, wobbling as she brushed the snow off her cheek.

“Ah was watching Scootaloo, silly,” Apple Bloom admonished her, walking up to Sweetie. “That was pretty impressive though! How’d you figure how to make a snowball?”

Sweetie looked down insecurely.

“It was really more hoof a snow chunk,” Sweetie said looking shyly sideways at Apple Bloom. “You’re a lot better at it than I yam.”

“Me? Ah don’t know how ta make snowballs!” Apple Bloom laughed. “Ah think that’s your... wait.”

“Okay, don’t think,” Sweetie cautioned Apple Bloom in sudden urgency, holding up her hooves. “Don’t think, just make one. Jus’ scoop one up right off the ground.”

Apple Bloom tried not to think about it too much, just thinking like she was when Sweetie had her riled up, all ready to bean her with a retributive snowball. She scooped up a ball of snow from the... ground? It came up easy enough, but there balanced on the tip of Apple Bloom’s hoof wasn’t just a smidgen of crushed snow, but rather a nicely shaped ball of snow, much larger than you’d think she could scoop with.

“This is one of them earth pony things, ain’t it,” Apple Bloom said looking at it with disgust.

“No, it wasn’t—” Sweetie paused in thought. “I watched you do it,” she said carefully, “It was just like you were sort of, um...” Then she dipped her own hoof in the snow, and scooped out a bunch. Or a chunk rather. A big chunk just broke off from the edge of the hoof print that she pressed her hoof against, and came up with her. It certainly was just a misshapen, irregular chunk of snow, but it definitely wasn’t the sort of thing you could have formed with just an ordinary hoof.

Holding it before Apple Bloom with a smile, Sweetie smiled and said, “I think it’s just how hoofves work!”

“How do hooves work though?” Apple Bloom said in confusion, flicking her arm to toss the snowball smoothly forward over the trail of hoofprints, where they had left a trail getting out here into the clearing. It landed with a piff on the newly trammeled snow. It was weirdly easy to do it. It was just so... well behaved!

“Magnets!” Scootaloo put in, sidling beside Apple Bloom. “Mother fu—”

“No,” Sweetie said to Scootaloo, with a stare of intense disapproval. “Never again.”

“Well uh...” Apple Bloom said, a bit uncomfortable at that exchange. “If y’all can do it too, then why don’t we have ourselves a good old snowball fight? It’ll be great practice!”

“If I could pick up snowballs,” Scootaloo said skeptically, waving a hard nailed forehoof in front of her, “With these, that would be just incredible.”

So Apple Bloom taught her friends the trick, thus sealing the snowy grave of her own fate. It wasn’t just them that got the hang of it though. She got better at doing it, the more she tried to teach them. Well, not better at doing it, but better at... paying attention while doing it.

It was hard to think about, but you sort of had to tilt your hoof just so while you were scooping, to get the flakes to compress into a compact, shapely ball, just perfect for smacking against someone’s face from a distance. At first Apple Bloom couldn’t even watch, but pretty soon she could just reach down and scoop, and before her eyes the snow would just roll right up, and she’d have a beautiful ball of snow balanced in her hooves.

It was just like when Apple Bloom was setting the table. She was only guiding the snow, rather than actually moving it. Like when she slid a plate out, and it came to settle just in the right place. If that were true for everything... that’d be pretty awesome. Honestly, Apple Bloom had never been this good at making snowballs with her hands, even. She couldn’t see how a regular old horse could do this, but... she was starting to think a lot more seriously about the wild tales of another world built and run by ponies that the Sunset and Twilight girls had told her about.

The other two didn’t figure out snowballs so easily, and never quite got to where they could create such perfectly piffing snowballs as Apple Bloom did, but they sure could collect snow. Make vague balls or chunks out of it. And that was all it took to completely destroy each other. Sounds of screams, and horse-like squeals, and childlike laughter echoed through the hills as the three of them scooped up snow as fast as they could, and hurled it at each other. It also helped Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle learn to move better, as they tried to dodge snowballs thrown by the other two. Obviously Apple Bloom was better at that, but she still got whacked again and again by those tricky to avoid crystalline balls of cold.

Diamond Tiara came jogging up the trail to call them in for dinner, and just stopped in astonishment. Some sort of detached bemusement. She couldn’t figure out how to feel about this, or how it was possible, but these ponies were throwing snowballs at each other, hopping around and laughing like excited children. If those children had four legs, hooves, and were clothed only in scarves, that is. It was a really beautiful sort of... sight, in a way that made Diamond wish she could just run in there with them.

But Diamond felt like she would look so awkward in there, and she was here for a reason, so she just swallowed her urges and shouted, “Hey, ponies! Time to come in and eat!” The three all looked at her, and Diamond could swear they all simultaneously got these devious predatory grins. She didn’t even get a chance to turn and run before snowballs were plastering into her side and back and she was squealing at the cold soaking into her coat and pants, and edges where the snow could insinuate under to her bare skin.

Diamond fell on her butt strategically, less of a target and closer to the snow now. Grabbing handfuls of the stuff around her before the ponies could... scoop out more, however they were doing it, she lobbed one at Apple Bloom who easily dodged, and one at Scootaloo who tried to dodge but stumbled clumsily on her hooves and got a face full of powder. Three more were headed her way though, and another three before she could even get one fired off.

That’s when Sweetie defected to Diamond’s team, knocking Scootaloo off her hooves in disrupting her shot, so that Diamond had a straight shot with Apple Bloom. With the odds evened it was a lot more fun, but Diamond hadn’t waited for her clothes to get cold enough, so she was starting to get wet and already shivering. “Alright, cut it out!” she shouted to the three. “We have to get inside for dinner.”

“Aww...” the three ponies all said with such disappointed looks on their faces.

“C-come on, you’re not like, babies anymore,” Diamond said somewhat flustered. “Aren’t you l-like, hungry and s-s-tuff?”

“Yeah! We’re not babies,” Apple Bloom said with a determined change of heart. She trotted up to Diamond and said, “Ready when you are! You... look kinda cold.”

“I’m f-fine,” Diamond said, standing up and brushing off what snow clinging to her that she could. Apple Bloom gave her a serious stare, but continued on ahead, to the head of the trail that led out of the meadow.

Scootaloo came next, grumbling, “I hope we’re not babies...” her tail drooping a bit making her look all jaded and stuff as she followed Apple Bloom.

“I w-wouldn’ mind if we were,” Sweetie mentioned next, practically to herself, breath fogging in the air as she caught back her wind from running around so much.

As far as Diamond could tell, Scootaloo trotted steadily, though not as skillfully as Apple Bloom. Sweetie Belle... was only able to walk it seemed. Diamond kept back with her, walking more slowly alongside Sweetie Belle. Sweetie actually looked a lot colder than the other two. She was actually shivering, just a teeny bit, and her nose was flushed, and her balance seemed more ‘off’ than Apple Bloom or Scootaloo. Sweetie shivered from head to tail, and then seemed fine, but...

Looking up from Sweetie, Diamond saw Apple Bloom over at the trailhead, watching them with concern, right where Scootaloo was already approaching the pink bowed farm girl. Diamond looked down at Sweetie Belle again, continuing to walk beside the unicorn, who clumped along unsteadily on her short stubby little hooves through the trammled snow.

“H-hey, I’m l-like c-cold and stuff so,” Diamond exclaimed deliberately. Then she knelt down and picked up Sweetie Belle, mid-stride. Her friend was significantly large for just a girl to pick up, even as a little pony, but it was easy enough to lug Sweetie’s butt up in her arms, and lay her head against Diamond’s chest.

This fuzzy, Sweetie Belle colored unicorn, that is to say Sweetie Belle herself, stiffened in surprise as Diamond picked her up. “You’ll be my body warmer,” Diamond explained to her smugly, carrying Sweetie along as she sped up, taking longer strides to catch up with the other two waiting for them. Sweetie didn’t answer, just relaxed and didn’t protest, but good golly was it the truth. Sweetie was so warm, where she nestled against Diamond. It was like carrying a fuzzy warm uh... pony. Diamond Tiara could really see why Rarity enjoyed lugging Sweetie Belle around, as a pony.

Dinner was delicious, of course. Butternut squash casserole, cucumber slices, and corned beef (for the humans at least) with a nice hot slice of pumpkin pie, topped off with fresh churned ice cream. Literally fresh churned: they made it outside in the chilly evening after dinner while the pie was cooling, in a hand—or—hoof cranked bucket, combining vanilla, sugar and fresh cream, and ice, snow and salt on the outside. Diamond was fairly sure a motorized one would be vastly superior, but she had to admit the sound of the ice clattering away was a lot more pleasant, as the three took turns enthusiastically cranking the handle, spinning the stuff around inside to keep it all nice and smoothly churned. Actually Diamond tried a little bit too, but it was really hard to turn the crank since she went last, and the ice cream was already mostly all ready.

She wasn’t sure why it seemed like everything the Apples did was so anachronistic. They didn’t seem particularly affected with nostalgia or any sort of retro craze. There was good, practical reasons for them to use what they did, the way that they did. And yet, until she started visiting here Diamond’s best idea of what ice cream is, is what you get by the scoop in a cafeteria, or topping a bubbling glass of root beer on those very rare occasions to purchase it at a café. But she wasn’t going to go walking 5 miles off this farm, just to get that, and even if you drove, it was just... easier to sit there with a bucket and a crank. They didn’t have access to Diamond’s cafeteria, and she didn’t have dispensible cash to spend on gas or ice cream, but there was vanilla sugar in the pantry. Ice was easy to come by, especially in the winter. And salt? Well, actually Diamond wasn’t sure where they got the salt. But cream, I mean, duh.

Wash tubs and clotheslines, and ice cream made in a bucket. It was so colonial era. It was kind of like a different world, even though Diamond could hear the city nearby. It was kind of like the effect of the city just didn’t reach out this far. It was astonishing how quickly Canterlot city changed from a solid urban landscape to a practically wild environment, where the buildings looked like they could have been assembled and painted by hand, with no more manufacturing involved than cutting boards and forging nails, and painting uh... however you made paint. Actually that did sound like a lot of manufacturing, so it wasn’t that different, just... there wasn’t as much... cement?

Diamond really couldn’t put her finger on it. But she sat there, eating her surprisingly tasty ice cream that dribbled over the still warm pie, she couldn’t help but think that maybe they were onto something that people in the city just didn’t get. Something more than just being behind the times so far that they had a woodpile instead of just buying sawdust logs from the supermarket to fuel their fireplace.

She might have asked more about that, but Diamond had a whole bunch of homework to do for the next week, and three classes that had projects coming up. So Diamond sort of bogarted Apple Bloom’s room, lugging up her ponderous bookbag, where she could get laid out comfortably at Apple Bloom’s old desk, the one she scarcely used now that she was well, a horse. Dinner was at 5, so that gave Diamond 4 hours to work on the stuff. Not enough, but... she had wanted to play with her friends so she wasted a little of her precious time. Now, Diamond just worked through science review after science review, and a bunch of annoyingly hard statistics problems. Remembering all those weird ways to manipulate numbers always left Diamond checking the textbook again and again.

She kept finding herself looking at the frosty window, where occasionally the sound of a young girl’s laughter could be heard drifting up from the ground, or a young girl’s whinny as such the case may be, whenever the three of them got close enough to Diamond’s side of the farmhouse to be heard. Diamond stood up once, just to stretch her legs of course, walking over to the window and looking outside at the snow speckled yard, and the trees beyond. Her heart hurt with the forbidden desire to just forget her homework and go outside and take advantage of the last rays of daylight. Sighing, she went and returned to it, working until everyone had come inside, and there was nothing outside the window besides blackness.

In the final hour before bed, the girls all came up to join Diamond in Apple Bloom’s room, Apple Bloom took the rear of the three ponies walking into her room, pushing the other two ponies in with her forehead. “Okay girls,” Apple Bloom was saying brightly, “Lemme show you the difference between monkeys and... oh, hi Diamond.”

“Monkeys, huh?” Diamond said, pulling back from an annoyingly ambiguous social studies project about finding a historical figure and reporting on how they influenced our modern life. Not just like, talking about it, but making a big long essay that had to be in the proper essay format, and had to have at least 5 references, and a bibliography, and like, stuff like that. She was doing Benjamin Franklin because he was easy, and the teacher was a big fan of the founding fathers, but it was still annoying.

“We’re just gonna study some too, if’n you don’t mind,” Apple Bloom said to her shyly.

“Study?” Diamond declared in confusion, “What do you have to study?”

“Anything we want!” Scootaloo said eagerly. Maybe a bit smugly.

“Just because we’re not in school doesn’t mean we can’t... study...” Sweetie said shyly.

“Yeah, but why would you want to? Nobody’s forcing you to, right?” Diamond said in amazement.

That stumped the three for a bit, but Apple Bloom just shrugged in the end and said, “Ah guess it’s because nobody’s forcing us to do it? You don’t mind if we look up some things, do ya?”

“It’s your room,” Diamond said shrugging, “If you need the desk, I can get up.”

“At our size?” Apple Bloom laughed. “It’s easier to sit on the floor and just you know, read.”

While Apple Bloom was pulling a large, illustrated biology book from underneath her bed using her mouth, Scootaloo asked Diamond curiously, “So, what are you working on?” Diamond hoped that wasn’t a library book.

“Just some stupid report,” Diamond told Scootaloo dismissively. “I’m trying to write about how super great Benjamin Franklin is. It’s not hard. Really the hardest part is talking about all these sources.”

“Wow, really?” Scootaloo said intrigued. “I’m in Social Studies too, but I hadn’t thought of a historical figure yet. Because uh... you know.” She gestured at her own furry body with a one fingered hoof.

“Maybe I could help, if we were in the same class,” Diamond said a bit moodily, “But all I know is my teacher, mister Jubilee thinks revolutionaries are the cat’s meow, so this’ll be a snap. If I could just write the darn thing...”

“Oh! Uh, sorry, I uh, didn’t mean to interrupt you,” Scootaloo said, backing away. Diamond wanted to be interrupted, but she shouldn’t let that happen, so she just rolled her eyes and went back to working. Her friends didn’t make themselves obtrusive or anything, just talking with each other in quiet tones that should never have been able to come out of a pony’s mouth, over how weird monkeys looked now, and then some psychological thing. Diamond forced herself to tune them out at that point, and ignored her friends to perform her obligatory studies. She sure wished she didn’t have to.

The four of them all slept together. Oh, it didn’t start out that way. Diamond was a lot more willing to open up when it was just Apple Bloom there, but with the other two looking at her from their shared bed, she adamantly refused to even remotely consider sleeping together with them. No, she had herself a nice bed roll that she was going to sleep on, by herself, on the floor.

But when Apple Bloom thought Diamond might be asleep she whispered, “Okay girls, let’s go,” and Diamond lay there suspiciously, not moving just to see what these ponies were doing. Not that she could see in the dark room, but to her surprise and maybe even chagrin, she heard Apple Bloom’s hooves clop quietly up around next to her head, and then the earth pony crouched down on her belly, then lay against the human girl’s bouncy purple and white hair. At the same time, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were insinuating their way in, nestling themselves to either side of Diamond Tiara. Sweetie Belle remained nestled compactly against Diamond’s side, while Scootaloo curled in the crook of her belly, then later tossed in her sleep, and ended up laying across Diamond’s lap.

Diamond Tiara shouldn’t have pretended to be asleep. She really should have just told them to buzz off. But she did and she didn’t, so, covered in ponies and surrounded by the warmth of her friends, Diamond Tiara let herself descend into a perfectly normal human sleep, one lacking pony princesses entirely.

Author's Note

Yup, no ponies here.

Lost in the Woods

The next day dawned bright and early, and Diamond didn’t want it to dawn. She didn’t want to have to fess up to letting her friends ninja snuggle her, how they were all practically literally lying together on the pillows and blankets on the floor to the side of Apple Bloom’s currently unused bed. They were just so warm, and soft, and heavy, and breathing. It was just... really nice. Diamond wondered if this was what it was like having a pet. She wanted a dog some day, a nice big one who could sleep with you like... this.

Scootaloo woke up after Diamond Tiara, yawning and stretching out a hoof saying, “Ugh, what am I sleeping on...”

“Oh Scootaloo, is that any way to talk about your bed?” Diamond teased the pony. Scootaloo tensed up, then flailed herself right off of Diamond Tiara’s abdomen, her hoof contacting painfully once, as she did, but Diamond just grunted and ignored it. It was worth it, to see Scootaloo standing there like a dog next to her, head hunched and blushing up a storm saying “I–I–I swear I didn’t go to sleep like that!”

“What’re you two yammerin’ about,” Apple Bloom groaned, lifting her head from where she was practically making a nest out of Diamond’s hair.

“We were just talking about how you cute little ponies just looove cuddles,” Diamond said sweetly, tilting her head back to look at the pony.

“Ohh, heh heh..” Apple Bloom said discomfited, rolling off Diamond’s pillow so she could stand on her own. “We sorta did that, yeah,” she admitted, kicking a hoof on the ground. “Ah just didn’t want ya to feel unwelcome...”

“Well I don’t mind,” Diamond said in a subdued sing song, “If I’m just too irresistable to stay away from, that’s just my burden to bear!”

Scootaloo blinked at the two of them sleepily, and said disinterestedly, “I’munna go check on breafast.” She walked quietly out of the room, her hoofsteps scarcely clopping on the floor boards as she did so. Scootaloo’s scraggly wing arms were half spread for some reason, so maybe that helped? Diamond didn’t know, but Scootaloo was pretty good at being quiet when she wanted to be.

Before Apple Bloom could also tip toe out, Diamond looked to her right at the still sleeping Sweetie Belle, asking her remaining awake friend, “...what’s with her?”

Sweetie, the little fuzzy white unicorn, was still sleeping—and hugging—against Diamond. Her ear was flattened against Diamond’s shoulder, her right front leg crooked over Diamond’s side, and her left arm crossed over her chest in a human-ish fashion, so that Sweetie Belle could lay there, peacefully sucking on her hoof.

“She stayed in her own dream,” Apple Bloom explained quietly. “I been looking for Scootaloo’s dream, so we ain’t been dreaming together so much.”

“So, you... like, walk between each other’s dreams, right?” Diamond speculated.

“Sorta, ah dunno how to explain it,” Apple Bloom said uncertainly. “But I’d just let her sleep though. She was real tired after yesterday!”

“Yeah, I didn’t think you ponies could actually get cold,” Diamond said in a reserved tone. “But um... I’m still kinda stuck here.”

“Wait,” Apple Bloom said uncertainly, “She got cold?”

Diamond nodded, whispering, “Tell you later. You go check on breakfast and make sure Scootaloo isn’t getting herself in trouble.

“I’d come with you,” Diamond added, “But clearly I’m trapped here like, forever, crushed beneath the tremendous weight of her elbow!”

Apple Bloom snickered, covering her mouth with a hoof, then said, “Actually that’s her wrist.”

Diamond would have asked more, but Apple Bloom cantered off then, dancing lightly on her hooves until she got to the hallway then through the door and out of sight. Diamond had to guess ponies could just be like... quiet when they wanted to, which didn’t make any sense because a thick nail hitting a floorboard makes the same sound regardless, right?

Diamond lay her head back against the pillow, turning to look at Sweetie Belle again. Sweetie really was adorable as a unicorn. Those cute little ears sticking out of her bountiful curls. Her blunt horn was just below her hairline, enough that her hair parted around it as it cascaded down from the top of her head in alternating locks of pink and purple. It was kind of bad that she had her hoof in her mouth—don’t they walk on those? But it was so, just... like... adorable!

Sweetie wasn’t nearly mollified enough when she woke up, with a popping sound of a hoof leaving one’s mouth. She may not have even noticed she was doing it. Sweetie lifted her head, and Diamond sat up fully, instead of just drowsing there with her unicorn friend. Sweetie took a look around where she was at, and giggled, a blush coming to her face as she raised her right hoof to her chest, gathering her legs under her like a cat would sit up. “Morning Diamond,” Sweetie said smiling at her dreamily. “Sleep well?”

“Like a baby unicorn,” Diamond Tiara said impishly, crouching forward and standing up from her blankets, before Sweetie could respond to that. Sweetie didn’t even flinch though; she just put her front hooves straight, and worked out her back hooves so her butt rose into the air, tail bouncing up with it. Sweetie looked at her tail in disgust.

“Ugh, it’s all flat,” she said, sounding quite displeased with the mussy thing.

“Yeah,” Diamond admitted, “You sure did get a bad case of bed tail.”

Sweetie did blush at that, and swished her matted tail, saying shyly, “I don’t suppose you could...”

“Ohh, no,” Diamond declared, her eyes widening. She backed away hands crossed saying, “I am not gonna like, brush you. It was weird enough with you sleeping on me. I don’t want to make this any weirder than it has to be.” Diamond sort of did want to make this any weirder than it has to be, but she’d never admit it, so she wasn’t going to sit there brushing her best friend’s tail, come love nor money. Fortunately, there were soon to be more fearsome powers at work here, than Diamond Tiara could ever have imagined.

Sweetie looked up at Diamond Tiara with big, soulful, trembling, pale green eyes and said, “Pleeeease?”

Diamond Tiara was a little bit late for breakfast, for reasons.

Breakfast was carrots, pancakes and syrup. A surprisingly good combination. It was actually noticeable how much more vegetables the Apples were serving this weekend. Diamond had to guess that with three ponies to feed, veggies got a higher priority in what to eat for dinner, even with the humans. It was... a really strange feeling to Diamond, seeing the school’s librarian working in the kitchen. It wasn’t strange seeing the school’s lunchlady, but the librarian was for some reason. Apparantly Ms. Cheerilee was Scootaloo’s mom. Who knew?

“It’s like when ah’m looking for th’ princess,” Apple Bloom commented, over a very syrupy pancake. “You gotta just... get yourself in a mindset, so you look for something in the dream you cain’t see like a door or something, an’ you just gotta convince yourself she’s on the other side. Ah’m not very good at it though, so I can’t really find the princess when she’s not waiting for me, and can’t seem to find Scootaloo either. But Sweetie is right easy to find.”

“Not like I’m not trying to be hard to find,” Scootaloo grumbled crankily. “I never remember my dreams, anyway. It’d be totally cool if I could dream like that with you two.”

“Yeah...” Diamond added, wistfully.

The breakfast table was quiet at that, with just the sound of plates scooting as ponies tried their best to eat from them, the clink of tableware on part of the humans involved. “So Diamond,” Apple Bloom started, probably just to break the silence. She didn’t seem to know what to say next.

“Hey, you know what I wanted to do today?” Diamond interrupted to Apple Bloom’s relief. “We should go figure out what’s going on with that weird forest on the edge of your property!”

“That again?” Apple Bloom sighed. “Ah told you it’s just easy to get turned arou—”

“Yes, and then you said that you weren’t sure anymore,” Diamond stated forcefully, “And that we should check it out, after all. So now you changed your mind? We shouldn’t try to figure out the mystery?”

“No, we... ah didn’t mean—” Apple Bloom snorted, frustrated. “Ah didn’t say that at all, did I? It’s just a... an edge of a property, nothing special about it. We’re more liable to get lost than find a mystery that ain’t there.”

Diamond put down her fork and peered calculatingly at Apple Bloom, the little yellow pony looking nervous under her icy gaze.

“We’re going to the forest today,” Diamond concluded imperially, “And we’re going to find out its mystery.”

“But—” Apple Bloom started.

“Just like, humor me in this, okay?” Diamond clenched her teeth at her. “Why are you so against the idea? It’s just a forest, right?”

“Iunno, Diamond...” Scootaloo put in uneasily. She looked at the door to outside with her wings half extended, saying “Maybe we can do it later? I just don’t feel like it.”

“Yeah, can’t we do that another week?” Sweetie said. “I just want to go um... somewhere else.”

“It’s like the perfect time to do it,” Diamond insisted. “It’s not snowing this morning. The leaves are all fallen, and you can see like, everywhere in the trees, even on the edge. I really think there’s something weird there. Don’t you trust me?”

The three looked... uncertain.

“I’m not lying to you,” Diamond repeated anxiously, to the ponies who continued to be silently unconvinced.

“I’m not cra—” she blurted hastily, before Sweetie Belle interrupted her, admitting assertively,

“Diamond’s right. We shoul’ go check it out! Even though it’s just a boring old... um... the forest is weirdly not weird, and that’s weird.”

“Ah just don’t want us to get lost,” Apple Bloom said shaking her head. “How far are we gonna wander out into the wilderness before you’re satisfied?”

“Oh, we’re not gonna get lost Apple Bloom,” Diamond said smiling craftily. “Or turned around. I like, totally have a plan.”

With the girls done eating, that left room for Big Macintosh and the other older kids to eat at the table. That left Diamond idle since she was the only one not spending time by the hay bale, which gave her plenty of opportunity to plan and scheme. She immediately bugged Granny Smith, who expressed some concerns at them “playing” out at the limits of their property.

“We won’t get lost,” Diamond said confidently. “That’s why I want the twine. Here’s how it’s going to work.”

Despite explaining, Granny seemed hesitant even, her imposing figure looking down on Diamond Tiara. “Yer can’t urhm...” Granny said clearly trying to disapprove, “Well ah cain’t see anythin’ wrong with it persay, but ermn...”

“We’ll be really careful,” Diamond assured her uncertainly. “No running, nothing c-crazy. We’re just exploring it.”

“Hope yer know what yer doin’ child,” Granny said somberly, but then added, “Here, lemme see if ah cain set yer up.”

So when Scootaloo, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle finished their horsey hay thing, Diamond presented them with the plan. She had everything she needed, and just had to struggle into her winter clothing before heading outside with the three. They all kicked a ball around in the yard until they’d acclimatized enough to the temperature, and then went forging forth. Past the yard, past the fence, over a small swell of a hill and down a long meadow. Behind the three ponies, Diamond could see the bright red farmhouse, stark against the white overcast and the bare trees.

“Okay, listen up!” Diamond said gleefully, finally at the mouth of this weird forest place. “I have in my hot little hands what we’re gonna use to canvas these woods.” She held up the thick roll of corded twine. “After we get as far into it as we can reach with this, then we start looking for strange things. Like, not touching anything, but like, just to observe it. And if we ever get lost, we can just follow the twine right back to the farm house.”

And if her hunch was correct... well, she’d withhold judgement until then.

Diamond tossed Apple Bloom a stake, and the pony... caught it on her tail? Whatever. Apple Bloom agreeably pounded the stake into the ground, while Diamond tied one end of the twine securely around it. Scootaloo and Sweetie stood to either side, looking warily at the forest. “Okay, Sweetie Belle you need to stay here,” Diamond said. “Keep an eye on this stake, and make sure it doesn’t pull out on us. If you need anything, pull on the twine to signal us.” Sweetie seemed relieved at that, and it took away any excuse Scootaloo had to pussy out, without appearing to be a pussy.

Diamond stood there looking away from the farm house, peering into the winter forest, its twisted branches reaching nakedly up to the sky, the trunks seeming grey against the overcast, the undergrowth somewhat trampled by their other attempts to come through here.

“Alright, every pony,” Diamond said with emphasis. “Let’s do this. Apple Bloom, Scootaloo?”

“Right here!” the two chorused to either side of her. Diamond felt a queer nervousness in her evaporate at the sight of her friends, even if they were little magic ponies. Maybe especially because they were little magic ponies. Diamond couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt this confident about herself.

So she and the other two strode and trotted forward respectively, going from crunching on meadow snow to pushing aside crackly underbrush, much withered away from the freeze, some still retaining hardy branches, or evergreen leaves. There was way too much Holly back here. They had to be careful, avoid thorns and things that might get the twine tangled up. It was easy enough with Diamond holding the twine up at her height. She imagined something small as a pony might have a harder time keeping it untangled from the underbrush though.

They walked for some time without incident. Diamond was kind of worried; she was already about halfway through her roll of twine. Well, maybe she was wrong after all, and there wasn’t anything weird. They’d just explore the limits of this place without uh... limit. “Well, Ap—” she started to say, but Apple Bloom wasn’t by her side anymore. Neither was Scootaloo.

Diamond Tiara was all alone in the winter woods.

“Apple Bloom?” she called out, with an unsurpressable tremble in her voice.

“Over here!” Apple Bloom almost immediately called back, but she was like, way off in the distance!

“Why’d you go over there?” Diamond asked, when the yellow pony pushed through the bushes and sticks to reach her again.

“Over where?” Apple Bloom asked her, with an uncomprehending look.

“There!” Diamond said pointing away. “You were way over there! And where’s Scootaloo?”

“I said wai’ up!” came Scootaloo’s slightly horsey voice, leading Diamond to look back down her very straight trail of twine, while Scootaloo struggled over obstacles back there much slower than Apple Bloom.

“I was waiting for you,” Diamond said uneasily to Scootaloo. “I swear I was walking right with you. How did you get so far behind?”

“I didn’t—get far behind,” Scootaloo said irritably, “You went way ahead! Can’t we go other ways, besides just straight?”

“Going straight is the whole point,” Diamond said huffily to the orange pony. “We want to see how far in we can get, before the twine runs out. We won’t make any turns, and we’ll always go in the same direction, then when it runs out we can start looking left and right.”

“I suppose,” Scootaloo mumbled, clustering anxiously against Diamond Tiara’s poofy snow pants.

“This is dumb,” griped Apple Bloom. “We shouldn’t be here! Why are we even doing this?”

“Yeah, why are we way out here in the woods?” Scootaloo said looking... genuinely puzzled?

“We’re measuring how far we can go?” Diamond prompted her. “Trying to see how deep this place is?”

“O-oh yeah...” Scootaloo said, in a chastened tone.

“Maybe we should just—” Apple Bloom said, before Diamond hastily interrupted her.

“Alright, alright, we still have a lot further we can go,” Diamond said clutching her ball of twine nervously. “So just like, stick together and don’t separate from each other no matter what.”

They walked further through the brush, and Diamond Tiara could swear that Scootaloo just... slipped away in the corner of her eye. She turned her head to see Scootaloo standing a good 30 feet away looking very confused. “Over here, Scootaloo!” she shouted, letting the orange pony run up to her.

“You believe me now?” griped Apple Bloom as they got separated again, like the two weren’t even trying to stick with her. It was like from one step to the next, one or another of them was just... elsewhere. “Ah told you this wood was easy to get turned around in!”

“Suspiciously easy,” Diamond insisted heatedly to the pony. “I think we’re really onto something. We’re going to beat this forest I just know it! We just have to go a little further. Just until I run out of twine. I promise this place is totally weird!”

It got easier to stick together once they went much further, and finally everything stopped feeling so... off to Diamond. And, to her great excitement, with barely any twine left, Diamond caught sight of the bright red farmhouse through the trees right in front of her.

In front of her.

Diamond was practically giggling with excited triumph, as she led the two ponies out to meet Sweetie Belle, still sitting there on her belly over by the stake with twine. Out and out it spooled, until Diamond was just standing there with the end in her hands, outside of the forest.

“I knew it!” Diamond crowed triumphantly. “I knew it!”

“Oh,” Sweetie said with a wary look at Diamond. “You girls got turned around again? I thought you were gonna go deeper.”

“Yeah, ah guess we did,” Apple Bloom said with a shrug. “We were trying to go straight, but you know how these woods are.”

“I still don’t see what the big deal is,” Scootaloo said crossly. “We went in the woods, turned around, and came out.”

“What?” Diamond exclaimed, looking at the two ponies in alarm. “We didn’t! What is wrong with you? Look at this!” she waved the twine in her fist in Scootaloo’s horse face. “Can’t you see this?”

“Oh yeah! We were measuring the depth,” Apple Bloom said in realization, “With that twine.” She looked back to the woods, saying glumly, “Guess it musta gotten wrapped around something, when we turned around.”

“It didn’t!” Diamond insisted angrily. “I swear it didn’t! I never turned around not even once! Didn’t you see you getting like, lost? Like, slipping sideways and not moving moving? Look at the strings! Look at them!”

The three ponies looked at the twine extending into the trees, and then back out again. “It had to have gotten wrapped around something,” Apple Bloom asserted uneasily.

“Then, okay, fine, then let’s like...” Diamond walked back to the stake, and tied the other end of the twine to it too.

“You follow the twine!” she commanded the pony, “And tell me just where it wraps around something, and goes the other way! Tell me!”

She practically dragged them along their old path, everyone watching keenly for the place that it would do more than simply be bent aside by a tree trunk, where the twine would be forced to make a concave angle, to turn around. There was none, though. There was none!

“See!” Diamond said as they returned to the edge of the forest. “It never turns around! It just goes straight on through! It never even once like, wrapped around anything or turned around!”

“M-maybe it’s going in a slow circle?” Sweetie attempted uneasily.

“No it’s not!” Diamond shouted in giddy exasperation at the little unicorn, half picking her up and shouting desperately. “It’s going straight! I never once turned. I just went straight. It doesn’t turn around or go in a circle, it just goes straight through. And like, the farm is on both sides of the forest! It’s impossible, but it’s true! It’s so freaky, Sweetie Belle! Can’t you seeit?”

“Diamond, your eyes...” Sweetie whimpered, cringing back from the worked up human girl hunched over her. Diamond opened her mouth and—closed her mouth and... what? Of all the possible... things to say... what?

“What’s wrong with my eyes?” Diamond said in alarm, stepping back from the unicorn. “Is there something wrong with my eyes?” She fell on her butt right in the wet trampled snow saying, “My eyes? What? I–I need a mirror! What’s wrong with them?!”

All Sweetie Belle said was a big, fat, horrible nothing and Diamond couldn’t escape it and she started to scream, and then Apple Bloom was there.

Apple Bloom, who leapt in front of Diamond Tiara and reared up, putting her hooves on Diamond’s chest looking straight at her, said, “Diamond, calm down! What’s got into you?!”

“What’s got into me?!” Diamond said angrily, “I’m not the one who can’t even see the—”

“Diamond, calm down, please!” Apple Bloom said tearfully, looking so terrified, as she refused to flinch away.

“But you don’t—!”

“It doesn’t matter!” Apple Bloom shouted. “You need to calm down! Just stop an’ think a moment, and relax! You’re s-scaring them, an’ it ain’t doing you any good neither!”

“Okay fine, I’ll—” Diamond said, roughly shoving the pony off her breasts. “I’ll just calm down and...” she looked at her hands, then at her gloved palms. “Fine,” she repeated, putting her hands over her eyes. “I’ll just sit here and... like... whatever. And if my eyes are hurt, then it’s your fault!”

They didn’t answer. Listening to the shouts and the crunch of hooves around her, listening to them judging her, Diamond Tiara felt trapped in the darkness like, like it was all around her, and she couldn’t escape because if she tried her eyes would like, fall out or something and Sweetie Belle had been so scared of her and maybe the darkness wouldn’t even go away when she did because it was like, dark everywhere forever and—something bumped into her side.

Something bumped into Diamond’s side, that was soft and animated, and then started rubbing against her. Diamond risked peeking out from her gloves to see... Scootaloo? Scootaloo was standing beside her, and leaning against Diamond, rubbing her cheek against Diamond Tiara’s side.

This was starting to look like Diamond Tiara’s strangest day ever. It was like the weirdest gesture to have a pony rubbing her cheek on your coat, but Diamond just couldn’t help but be comforted by it.

She looked around the landscape, but didn’t see the other two ponies. “Where...?” Diamond said in a detached murmur, which got Scootaloo’s attention right away. The little orange pony, clad only in a thick purple scarf, pulled her head away and looked up at Diamond, Scootaloo’s purple eyes seemed perfectly normal, even if they were in the body of a pony.

“You kind of zoned out or... something. The others went to get help, but I stayed behind,” Scootaloo said to her, a hot blush creeping up underneath the pony’s fur, “It just... it just really looked like you could use some um... it helps sometimes, if you hug someone. Just to c-calm down, I mean. Nothing sissy or anything. It’d be uh, okay I mean, if you wanted to. It helps me sometimes... I mean.”

Diamond blinked at her, then looked over towards the farmhouse where the others had vanished, then back to Scootaloo.

“I won’t tell if you won’t,” Diamond said to Scootaloo, with a shaky smile. Scootaloo’s wings shifted self consciously, but she willingly reared up on her back feet, letting Diamond hook the pony around the waist in her hands, and pull her against her into a hug. Scootaloo was... so warm. Diamond forgot any sense of decorum, and just hugged the soft, yet bulky pony to her, like a security blanket, or a really big teddy bear. It felt like spring break and pizza Fridays.

“Thanks, Scootaloo,” Diamond Tiara said after a while, setting her pony friend back down firmly on four feet. “I feel like, better now.”

“Yeah, no problem,” Scootaloo said easily, looking over toward the farmhouse, “Just don’t... you know.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Diamond said with a note of finality.

“Your eyes look fine, by the way,” Scootaloo added. “I dunno what Sweetie was talking about. Maybe you just looked really angry at the time? People are kind of a little scarier, when you’re this ...little.”

“Thanks,” Diamond admitted, “It just... kind of threw me. I never had any problems with my eyes before.”

Getting to her knees and pushing off the ground, Diamond awkwardly balanced in a squatting position, then stood up straight. She looked forward at the farm house, not even wanting to think about what was behind her, which was just an ordinary forest with nothing special about it at all, but of course then Scootaloo pointed out the stake in the ground with two pieces of twine coming out from it.

“Should we uh...” Scootaloo said, swinging a hoof at it.

“No! Leave it,” Diamond said, before the pony could do anything. “We’ll like, come back to this later. When I’m a little less, like... jumbled.”

Scootaloo nodded in agreement. “Probably a good thing too,” she said, “Considering what’s at stake.”

“Glad somebody besides me is taking this seriously,” Diamond agreed, massaging her forehead. She felt so weird and shaky inside, like she was teetering on the tip of a cliff. “Let’s just go back to Apple Bloom’s house, before they send the ambulance,” she said wryly, “I don’t feel like... I just need to like, sit down a little and get warm.”

Scootaloo nodded, and trotted ahead while Diamond walked after her.

Then Diamond Tiara stopped short, and spluttered, “W-w-was that a... joke?! You aren’t seriously... you are taking this seriously, Scootaloo, right?”

Scootaloo paused ahead of her, but only a moment, before trotting on faster without answering. Diamond picked up her pace, wanting to get out of this cold if nothing else, and not really wanting to know how much thought Scootaloo put into what she said.

They got halfway back to the yard, before Applejack was running out with a bag of... medical something or another. Apple Bloom’s pretty cool older sister continued jogging even after she saw them, until she could walk with Diamond and Scootaloo.

“Oh dear sweet merciful Lord,” Applejack said in relief on reaching Scootaloo and Diamond. “The way Sweetie Belle was goin’ on, ah thought you had hurt your eyes or some such.”

Diamond Tiara glanced up at the older girl. “I don’t know what she was going on about, at all,” Diamond said with a shrug. “My eyes don’t hurt. I didn’t like, hit my eyes or even look at the sun or like, anything.”

“Sweetie was actin’ pretty nutty alright,” Applejack agreed with a frown, as they walked into the fenced portion of the yard. “Near as ah could figure she was makin’ it sound like your eyes were spinnin’ like wagon wheels.”

Diamond gaped at Applejack, utterly incredulous. “Sweetie said I was rolling my eyes?” she asked. “I was looking straight at her! Wagon wheels? That’s like, literally impossible.”

Applejack herself paused, to give a very meaningful glance down to the winged pony version of Scootaloo trotting along with them, saying, “Ah wouldn’t discount impossible no more, if I were you. Seems like some stories ain’t so impossible no more.”

“My eyes look fine now though, right?” Diamond prompted Applejack, in a note of anxiety, looking up at the tan skinned cowgirl.

Applejack looked into Diamond’s worried eyes briefly, and nodded in confirmation, with a small comfort of a smile. So... Diamond was fine now, and whatever it was wasn’t afflicting her anymore. If it was even a thing that really happened.

“Maybe that p...place does something weird to eyes. I dunno,” Diamond speculated uncertainly, as they reached the door to the farm house. “I think it’s a lot more dangerous than just an ordinary... forest on the edge of your property.”

“We’re gonna get to the bottom of this,” Applejack asserted firmly. “But for now, why don’t you just go inside an’ get yourself a cup of cocoa. Ah think you had enough adventure for one day.”

For once, Diamond Tiara found that she couldn’t agree more.

Sweetie Belle wasn’t any clearer on the subject of Diamond’s eyes, once she asked her directly. Diamond had hoped Applejack had just been making some sort of countryism, but Sweetie told her in her exact words,

“It was probably just me, but I thought your eyes were spinning like wheels.”

“Wait, that wasn’t a metaphor?” Diamond said, confused as she looked into the mirror again, there next to the little white unicorn who was sitting on the bathroom sink beside Diamond Tiara. Diamond’s bright pink face held searching eyes, with irises of icy blue. The same thing she saw in the mirror every day, nothing odd about them or... wheely. “How would they even spin?” she asked. “They’re just like, rings.”

“Well, the irises have lines in them,” Sweetie suggested, spinning a hoof over her own eye in circles uncertainly, “Sort of like um... spokes. Especially with your pupils contracted so much that I couldn’t see them anymore.”

“They were... really?” Diamond said, still at a loss to understand. “But I could see fine.”

“What?” Sweetie responded uneasily.

“I could see fine,” Diamond repeated, “So my pupils couldn’t... have been contracted, or that weird thing.”

“Oh, they were contracted, just I mean, they were pretty close to... gone,” Sweetie mumbled, kicking a hoof. “You were re–really excited and it’s a lot scarier when I’m like ...this. You know, little and... a pony. So maybe I just was imagining it. Or maybe my horn was doing something, I dunno.”

“I have no clue either,” Diamond said tiredly. “I don’t even know why I was so excited. We could have just gone in a big circle, for all I know.”

“Hot chocolate’s ready!” Apple Bloom called out from the kitchen, where a whistling kettle announced itself after her.

Diamond Tiara sat down tiredly with her hot cocoa on the couch again. Ponies had trouble drinking the stuff hot but seemed very content with just holding the hot mug flush against their chests as they sat on the floor. Diamond Tiara was tired alright, but she wasn’t out of hot water yet for this weekend. When she sat there sipping at her cocoa, and trying to understand what was happening in that forest, and in her, who should bustle busily in through the front door, but Diamond Tiara’s top secret sewing tutor: Fluttershy!

No, but seriously, it was Rarity. Rarity came into the house, shivering at the chill outside. Snow had begun falling again since they retreated from the cold, and it speckled her attractive looking but ultimately cheap faux fur cap, and the shoulders of her dark blue coat. “Sweetie, are you here?” Rarity called out hopefully, and Diamond gulped and put down her hot chocolate.

“Oh, hi there Rarity,” Diamond said simultaneously, with Rarity’s surprised,

“Oh, hello there, Diamond Tiara.”

“I uh... I’ll be right back,” Diamond stated, standing stiffly up from the couch and booking it quickly for the laundry room. There, the forms for three of Rarity’s cherished dress designs were tossed off carelessly to the side, and her design patterns were spread out all over the place to make them easier to pick out. Diamond hastily started reassembling them onto the forms, but at her speed she could barely get halfway through one, before (now accompanied by Sweetie Belle walking at her side) Rarity came into the room exclaiming in startlement,

“What the Christ happened here?!

“My designs!” Rarity moaned, picking up some limp fabric pieces in her hands, “They’re in a shambles! Oh this is terrible! This is awful! Who did this to you, my darlings?”

“I’m putting them back together!” Diamond announced hastily, but a little irritably. Rarity was acting like she didn’t even see Diamond Tiara standing there. Rarity turned to face Diamond as she spoke, her eyes dawning in realization, and relief. Wait, Rarity did see her, right?

“Oh thank heavens, of course!” Rarity said. “Diamond! I was worried someone else had done this. You did make sure to dot the pin holes, did you not?”

“Every one of them is marked,” Diamond said, rolling her eyes. She could almost walk down a list of questions at this point.

“You didn’t tear anything?”
“Are there any missing pieces?”
“Did you save the pins?”
“Are my measuring tools accounted for?”
“You didn’t lose the ribbon, did you?”

“It’s fine,” Diamond said to the older girl doting over her. “I’ll make it look exactly like you had it.”

“But why were you even disassembling my ensembles?” Rarity asked incredulously. “You weren’t actually thinking of sewing anything from ...these?”

“Way ahead of you,” Diamond said with an indulgent grin, pointing Rarity over to where the two outfits she’d finished yesterday were hanging, waiting overnight for the glue to cure.

“B...but they weren’t finished yet,” Rarity said in a disappointed tone, walking over and scowling at the plain looking things on the rack. “I had some ideas, but I wasn’t sure whether to—”

“They’re good enough,” Diamond whined exasperatedly. “What’s the big deal? I said I’d reassemble the forms. I just forgot until now. My friends need clothing, and they don’t have any right now. Why does it have to be perfect? Just give them these, and then you can make your perfect dresses!”

“Fall short of perfection, that you may achieve perfection?” Rarity poised, putting her hand on her chin. She formed a fist and slapped it against her palm exclaiming, “It’s so crazy, I do believe it just might work!”

Diamond resisted an urge to groan at her very... very eccentric mentor. Diamond wasn’t gonna get in another argument over whether perfection was even something anyone wanted. But the reason for Diamond’s reluctant deference to this lady became quite apparant, as Rarity sat down to assist Diamond, and reassembled the two other forms swiftly, with a practiced grace, much faster than Diamond could do a single one. And Rarity was only a Sophomore!

“Are these for us?” Sweetie Belle squeaked eagerly, having wandered herself over by the hanging dresses. Sweetie’s dress was a basic tube that hooked on the top of her tail for stability, a darker green than her natural eye color, with long sleeves for her front legs, which at least had some semblance of normality to them, when it came to designing sleeves. What distinguished her dress was the hood, that could hopefully fold up over her head, at least up to her horn. The fluffy lining Diamond added to the collar hopefully would keep the unicorn nice and warm. Beneath the collar, was a brown laced ribbon woven between the two chest flaps, so that Sweetie would be able to fit the dress on over her head and horn, but still cinch it snugly about herself.

Diamond had decided against that frilly one with lacy sleeves for Scootaloo. Definitely not something Scootaloo would willingly wear. Instead Diamond just went with something that looked more like a cloak than a dress. It could be secured with a cloth belt around Scootaloo’s waist though. Or barrel, or whatever you call it. The rich brown fabric Rarity picked out would go well with Scootaloo’s colors, without exaggerating them. It too had long sleeves on the front, presumably in preparation for the chill of winter. It didn’t have a hood, but none of Rarity’s designs had included a hood, so Diamond wasn’t sure if Rarity just thought hoods were a fashion disaster, or if she never noticed how much Scootaloo liked going around and wearing a hoodie.

Then again, there was a reason they hadn’t included a hood. Besides the ears. Because every one of Scootaloo’s dress designs had a carefully shaped flap that went over the back, where two broad openings were on either side, for Scootaloo’s wings to extend through, hugged when folded on all sides by the protective fabric. It remained to be seen, whether that would be a hit, as opposed to a disaster that Scootaloo could barely wear. There wasn’t much you could do to verify that without actually sewing one up and preparing it for her.

Which is exactly what Diamond Tiara did.

As for the rear legs of her friends, they were going to have to get some kind of custom wrapping for them. Not that the ponies even needed clothing to keep them warm. There was that one time with Sweetie, but it had been below zero that day, and they’d been playing in the snow! Anyway, Sweetie Belle’s dress looked like it had the warmest design, so Diamond was pretty confident that Sweetie wouldn’t have any problems this winter.

“Yep!” Diamond chirped from where she squatted beside the cute little unicorn. “I made sure to make one for each of you, except Apple Bloom of course. She’s got like, 3 already. They’re a little rough because I had to do it really fast. I wanted to finish them both yesterday. And... you wanna try it on?”

“Do I!?” Sweetie exclaimed, utterly delighted.

Diamond let out a sigh of relief as her stitching was... adequate, and by adequate that meant when they carefully wiggled the dress on over Sweetie Belle’s head, it wasn’t too tight, and when Sweetie walked around in it, looking at her reflection in wonder, it wasn’t riding up, pulling on her tail, or catching on her fur too much in uncomfortable places.

“Thank you so much, Diamond!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed beside herself with joy, right beside Diamond, rearing up and hugging her forearms around Diamond’s side. Diamond lifted her arm and blushed as the pony in a dress hugged her, but Diamond didn’t tell her to let go either, because it looked like Sweetie Belle was... crying, a little?

Sweetie pushed away from Diamond, falling on all fours—threes, and rubbing at her eyes with one hoof. “Thank you so much,” she repeated passionately, “This is so cool. I’m going to show it to the girls!”

“Knock yourself out,” Diamond shrugged dispassionately. But as Sweetie went back through the door and found the girls, the delighted squeals and cheers from the other room just warmed Diamond Tiara’s heart something fierce.

“I take it back, miss Tiara,” Rarity said in a dazed tone. “Your dresses are perfect after all.”

Diamond Tiara looked at Rarity confused, and said, “No they’re not. I totally rushed them. You said yourself they’re not finished yet.”

“That may be,” Rarity said more animatedly, “The stitching is uneven, and the patterns are plain, and I have no idea what to do for accents, but it’s your sense of timing dear. We should get this other garment to Scootaloo right away!”

And Scootaloo was like, “Oh, cool. Thanks!”

In the silence, Scootaloo lifted a hoof to touch the fabric, then put the hoof down, looking around calmly. Apple Bloom was there with her legless overalls on, and Sweetie her own new celadon dress, certainly not made from drapery. Scootaloo’s gaze fell evenly on a very hotly anticipating Diamond Tiara and Rarity, with a note of confusion in her face. Wrinkling up her snout, Scootaloo said testily, “So uh... you want me to try it on?”

“Yes!” Rarity and Diamond shouted at once.

With the three little ponies looking so cute and satisfied in their new, new and old clothing, respectively, Diamond had to think that the weekend ended on a good note. They hadn’t solved the mystery of that... place... but Applejack and Big Macintosh both promised they’d investigate, and that they’d take her experiment with the twine very seriously, and that they wouldn’t forget. Diamond still wrote a reminder in big dark marker, and stuck it on their wall, so that there was no way they could just... forget.

It’s not like the reminder would fall off all on its own, and slip halfway under the counter.

Diamond’s friends wouldn’t be with her at school. Duh, because they’re ponies, and who’d be stupid enough to try and attend school if you’re a little horse? Yet somehow, Diamond didn’t feel like that would bother her as much anymore. Sure maybe they were all being these amazing magical ponies without her, yet they still cared about her, and that really did make her feel better about herself. Diamond really honestly felt like she had important things to do that, they needed her for. She felt like... they might not be available, but they wouldn’t start finding excuses to leave her, so that she was alone again. Diamond could bitterly fight with an inflexible school day, without the fear that her friends were, once again, moving on without her.

She probably should have suspected that she wasn’t the only one who shared that fear.

Dinky tossed and turned in his bed. He was just unable to relax. He couldn’t stop thinking about the dance. He couldn’t stop thinking about her and what she’d done to him.
He tried not to think of her, to think instead of Scootaloo, that amazing girl who had pulled him out of his shell and treated him like he was someone who mattered. They worked together and... talked, and it turns out she was really excited about aeronautics and propulsion. He loved listening to her really get into something, even if it wasn’t exactly his thing. She was pretty inspiring, when Scootaloo wasn’t telling herself she could never achieve anything.

He huffed in frustration, because Scootaloo had been there for him, and now she was just... gone! He cursed himself a thousand times for not even kissing her at the dance. But that sort of cowardice shouldn’t have been enough for her to outright abandon him! Even after that disaster of a dance, Scootaloo still seemed to like him! But Scootaloo must have known... that’s why she left, because Dinky had to go and ruin it all, because... because of her!

Dinky had gone to the dance with Scootaloo, but then he met... Diamond Tiara. Diamond Tiara was beautiful! She was... she was objectively beautiful. She was the kind of girl that Dinky shouldn’t have even had the privilege of standing next to. The kind of girl you’d see in a... in a magazine or on T.V. She just had such an amazing body, he had thought she’d have a boyfriend for sure.

Then she saved... she may have saved his life! Diamond was fiery and aggressive, and even abrasive, but the more he got to know her, the harder it was to stop! He wanted to be around this girl. She never lost her cool, or maybe it was that she never lost her heat just storming into his life like a wrecking ball. She was confident and capable and...

And not one boy had asked her to go to the dance with him.

Dinky could see why, now. He could see how strongly she pushed away the people around her, while clinging to them with a desperation not all that different from Scootaloo. The boys who expected her to be the picture of grace and beauty would be pushed away by her brash attitude, and every other boy would be just... like... Dinky. Just assuming that someone that amazing and perfect would have her choice of boyfriends.

He hadn’t even known Diamond was at the orphanage! How was this presumably sought after girl supposed to get a date, if even the students in her own orphanage didn’t know that she existed? It was... too perfect a situation. They had more in common than Dinky had imagined. He could even see Diamond on the bus, now that he knew to look for her! Or more pertinently, she knew to look for him. There wasn’t a day Diamond didn’t sit next to Dinky in the bus now, laughing it off and making light of things, but... she was sitting next to him, and he couldn’t help but respond to that!

Dinky tried to be a good boyfriend, he really did. But with Scootaloo just gone, there was nothing he could do to make up to her. And with Diamond coming onto him more and more strongly, he was losing the will to resist and... and not be Scootaloo’s boyfriend anymore. Diamond simply would not leave him alone these days, not without Scootaloo to get in her way. He wondered if maybe she did something to make Scootaloo stay away from him, so she could have him for herself. Dinky wondered if that was a bad thing. He wondered if Diamond would break curfew, and come into his room and just... just take what she wanted.

His head hit the pillow, as the thought just overcame him and he tensed up, both frustrated and exhilirated imagining Diamond Tiara, and what she could do to him. He could just see her before him, kissing, and... and more. Dinky was fairly sure he wasn’t supposed to feel... however he felt about her. When he relaxed again, Dinky sighed and sat up on his elbows, looking at himself irresolutely.

“Wish I had someone I could talk to about this,” he said softly, alone in the room as usual.

He sighed again and ran his free hand through his mop of blonde. He would have to keep avoiding Diamond. He’d be outraged at anyone else passing up such a tantalizing opportunity, but now that it was in front of him, Dinky just... couldn’t do that to Scootaloo. He wasn’t going to hurt her any more, even if it meant he and Diamond couldn’t ever... be friends. He didn’t know why Scootaloo was avoiding him, but until he found her and... and broke up or something, he’d have to just... avoid Diamond Tiara and ignore his... his feelings about her.

Something told him that the next few weeks weren’t going to be very fun.

Author's Note

Uh oh, we’re not out of the woods yet!

Sorry if this seems to have come right out of the blue.

Ponylike Creatures

The next waking weekend for the three pony girls was peaceful, but still exciting, because Christmas was almost here! They decorated the house that week in festive wreathes and dark green holly. They might have been driving distance from the school, but the Apples were walking distance from a tree farm. Well, trotting distance.

They still drove, because who’s going to carry a tree down all that driveway? But then Cheerilee put out a tree skirt, Applejack filled a bowl of water, Big Mac bolted together a metal frame to anchor the trunk, and voila. There was a beautiful tree in the living room, for everyone to admire in the warm lamplight.

Scootaloo immediately crept towards it.

“Scootaloo what’re you doing?” Sweetie hissed after her disapprovingly as Scootaloo crept forward and managed to wiggle herself entirely under the tree.

“Ha, I can fit!” Scootaloo crowed, her voice emanating from the dark corner back there.

It was Applejack, Big Macintosh and Cheerilee helping set up the tree, but those three larger humans then left the tree to the whims of the pony kids. Squeezing under it, and cracking jokes at each other. Seeing what it looks like from wrapped inside tree branches looking out. It was great.

Alas, such freedom was not to last, and the Crusaders were ever so disappointed that they couldn’t play peek-a-boo under the tree anymore, because of all the presents they had ready to fit under it.

So disappointed.

Apple Bloom was somewhat mollified in her grief, by the great sacrifice of being allowed to hang the first ornament on the tree. It was actually kind of... not comfortable to be carrying an ornament hook in your mouth. She still did it though, and stretched forward to carefully hook it on the tree. When Apple Bloom pulled back, there was a pleasant looking blue and white ball reflecting her pony self back at her as it hung there.

“You girls wanna try?” she asked the two.

Scootaloo craned her head down to an ornament, but paused uneasily at the hook, saying, “They do look kinda sharp...”

“Here’s one on a cloth hanger,” Sweetie Belle said, sticking her arm into the box of ornaments and pulling it out with a sparkly crystally star hanging from her hoof, on a loop of cloth. “Here Scootaloo,” she said, touching Scootaloo’s hoof and tilting her own to make the loop slide from one hoof to the other. “Try that one!”

Scootaloo smiled at that and turned toward the tree. She stumbled, then tottered up to the tree on three legs, fiddling about with her raised hoof until the loop slipped off it and hooked on a tree branch.

“You gonna hang any, Sweetie?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Hmm...” the little unicorn said pensively. “Maybe. What do you think I should hang up?”

Apple Bloom rooted around in the box herself, before finding an ornament tied with a slim loop of string, a crystal ornament of a barn with a bunch of people in it. “Tryr rhis!” she said pinching the loop between her teeth. A moment of confusion, and then Apple Bloom just tossed it to land at Sweetie’s hooves, saying, “Just bite on the loop, it’s too small to fit a hoof into.

Sweetie nodded and craned down, biting down on the loop, which snapped neatly in two and fell once she lifted her head.

“Oops,” Sweetie said, blushing.

“Oh yeah,” Apple Bloom said blushing. “Gotta be careful with your chompers.”

Apple Bloom ran to get someone, finding Big Macintosh out splitting wood. “Mac!” she shouted, “Can you uh, tie a knot for me?”

The little pony blushed, and made sure to add, “It’s a little knot.”

Big Macintosh being the beautiful brother that he is, happily came inside and used his enviable fingers to take out a length of twine, and tie it in a neat loop around the lost ornament. Apple Bloom really wished she could believe Twilight, in that ponies were hindered in no way by their lack of hands, but this kind of detail work, tiny knots on such fine twine... well, maybe when Sweetie figured out her magic, she could help.

It was interesting how there were a lot of things that a pony couldn’t do well, that a pony could do to another pony just as well as any human. Brushing, for instance. Brushing. Yes. Oh yes. Brushing. Yes, brushing. Apple Bloom liked brushing, she did. Bruuuuu

When Apple Bloom needed a good brushing down, and didn’t have her wonderful sister, or brother, or grandmother, or Cheerilee, or Rarity, or Diamond Tiara, or Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle when they were still human, or basically anyone with hands around, not all hope was lost. Both Sweetie and Scoots, even in their new forms could just bite down on the handle, and drag the brush along every inch of Apple Bloom’s back and neck, flanks, and belly. And she could brush them too in return, the two of them quickly falling prey to the seductive temptation of the stiff bristle brush. Except... brushing Scootaloo’s back wasn’t so simple, but did Scootaloo ever love her belly being scrubbed!

There wasn’t a day that Apple Bloom or any of them had to worry about any clumps or tufts in her new fur. Even without adoring humanfolk, it was quite possible to brush each other. Easy, even, to do so.

But to brush yourself? Good spanking luck, there! When Apple Bloom tried, she had just ended up rolling on the brush in frustration, not even caring that she had no idea why rolling would be a gesture of frustration. Then, she went to get someone else to help.

In this fashion, being ponies really did bring Apple Bloom’s friends closer together with her. Anything a human did alone, ponies could do if they worked together, but left to their own devices, ponies were seriously limited in some ways that humans were not. Whether it was brushing, or washing, or being used as a step stool to get to higher places, or maybe one day asking your friend with a horn to magic a loop of rope with a delicate knot in it, there was so much ponies they could do for each other that they couldn’t do alone if they weren’t human beings.

Maybe Apple Bloom could’ve tied it. She didn’t try, since Big Mac did it for her. In theory, you just swirl the two lengths of rope around each other, then bend the ends around and swirl them the other way, bite down on the end and like, stomp on the other end to pull it tight. It was a lot more feasible though, with a big old rope you could stomp on, rather than a teeny tiny little loop of twine.

It was just easier, and more satisfying in a way, to ask her bro. To get someone else to help her out, and to help him out too. Out there splitting wood, feeling like he wasn’t a part of this because everyone’s got to give them ponies their space, Apple Bloom was glad that she needed his help after all, grateful even. Maybe she could tie a knot for him in return, or find something else to do for him.

It was so hilarious when Big Mac tied the loop on that house ornament, because he then threaded the loop right up over Sweetie Belle’s horn. The unicorn girl crossed her eyes, looking at the ornament dangling on her face, and just stated frankly,

“At least this thing’s good for something.”

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo messed with tree garlands, while Sweetie was busy blowing Mac’s mind with how she could get her horn to split wood. Scootaloo tried to use her new wings to fly up higher, to get the garlands up there, but was still unable to quite reach the top. She could flap those wings, and make quite a gust of a breeze, but didn’t know how to rise up with them. It wasn’t long before the lower half of the Christmas tree looked gorgeous with all sorts of ornaments and garlands, and then the CMC had to kind of sheepishly retire while the taller humans came in and decorated the rest of the tree.

As days went by, the three little ponies played, and laughed, learned and slept, and dreamed. Playing was so much easier now that Apple Bloom was a little pony. It was just a joy to move around, and it was just so much easier to be amused. Apple Bloom found it terribly hard to pay attention as a pony, but even the simplest things just started being fun again.

Like once the three of them were laughing and tearing apart the house in their excitement, over just a dumb paper airplane. Apple Bloom had the idea to fold one, and there was just no end to the amusement of tossing the thing off into the air and then chasing it seeing who could catch it first. It was usually Scootaloo, because her wings gave her a big height boost, but Sweetie Belle about died with laughter when Scootaloo landed heavily, standing up looking at her empty hoof saying, “Aw! I almost had it,” only to have Apple Bloom pluck the airplane right out from where it was stuck unknowingly behind Scootaloo’s ear.

“Ah caugf iff!” Apple Bloom said impishly dancing back from Scootaloo who jumped after her like a puppy who wants her bone. And with a toss of Apple Bloom’s head, the airplane was flying off through the air again, soaring crazily with Scootaloo jumping right after it, and Sweetie too busy laughing to participate at this point.

“Apple Bloom, consarnit!” came Granny’s voice, stomping into the living room. “Are you tryin’ ter take down the whole house? What’s got into you kids?” That made Apple Bloom stop cold, looking at her granny with worry, and it also made Scootaloo stop cold the same. The only problem was Scootaloo was in the middle of leaping to catch the paper airplane, and thanks to the law of inertia, Scootaloo continued sailing along through the air with it, all the way into the other room, from which a very unladylike squawk emanated.

In retrospect, getting all crazy around the house wasn’t such a good idea while Rarity was visiting.

Fleeing an angry granny and a furious Rarity who somehow had a paper airplane caught in her hair, the three pony kids found refuge outside in the chilly winter.

“An’ stay out!” Granny shouted dramatically, throwing a pile of scarves to land on the spooked cluster of ponies, slamming the door behind her.

There was a pause, whereupon Granny opened the door again and threw out Sweetie Belle’s jacket shouting, “Dinner’s in two hours!” then slammed the door.

Sweetie stuffed her forelegs in the very short cut sleeves, in a jacket sized for a toddler that Rarity found at the thrift store and spruiced up with a new pink exterior, and of course a faux fur ruff. It didn’t button up, so it was just perfect for Sweetie, once Rarity had moved the arm holes a bit down, so it would hang over Sweetie’s shoulders along towards her back. It seemed Diamond’s advice of totally disrupting Rarity’s creative process was having some good effect on the lady.

Either way, Sweetie was just about perfect cold-wise, with that cute little jacket on. With Apple Bloom’s super earth pony powers and fat, she could just put on a scarf and was still toasty warm, also from being inside and running around. Her resilience was basically inferior to Scootaloo’s though. Scoots wore a scarf to humor them, and she didn’t even shiver in the breeze. The falling snow didn’t seem to so much as touch Scootaloo’s back on the way down. Apple Bloom wondered if that was a super pegasus pony power, and made a mental note to send a question to Sunset and Twilight about that.

Since that one single weekend of frustrating illumination, the two former ponies Sunset and Twilight were keeping to themselves mostly, away from the farm. They had sciency things to do, or something, regarding the time thingy. Applejack had set it up so that the three of them could email Twilight on Applejack’s laptop, if they needed to ask anything. It wasn’t easy to type, since you had to hunt and peck with a pen in your mouth, but it was Twilight’s preferred way to communicate, so that’s what Apple Bloom did. Twilight liked to have everything written down all careful, like you were making a letter, rather than just blurted out on the phone, where she couldn’t have a record of what you said.

Diamond Tiara had visited just the weekend before, and she was living her life pretty normally. Apple Bloom was still worried from her weird episode that past weekend, but Applejack said Diamond was doing fine. Fine wasn’t “very fine” or “super awesome” though, so Apple Bloom still worried. But what can you do, when you’re just a pony on a farm?

“Welp, we’re off!” Applejack announced in the present moment, with a clatter clink of dishes, as she set all of them in the sink for Apple Bloom to take care of. She tipped her hat to Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, Sweetie giving a wave to her, and Granny, both ladies heading for the front door. A glance at the clock gave them plenty of time to get to school, but it was definitely time to get going. Apple Bloom joined in waving with Sweetie, saying, “Good luck, sis! Have fun, Granny!”

“Say hi to Rarity for me!” Sweetie added.

“Will do,” Applejack said pleasantly, and backed out the door behind Granny’s purposeful lumbering form. Cheerilee hung back, looking up the stairs as the Apple family truck pulled out of their yard, its heavy tires crackling on the frozen ground.

“Is Scootaloo up yet?” Cheerilee asked thoughtfully.

Apple Bloom shook her head, trotting up to stand beside the dark pink lady, saying, “She was still sleeping, but it won’t be long. Ah’ll just go wake her up.”

“No, don’t worry about it,” Cheerilee smiled. “I’ll just go give her a quick goodbye.”

Apple Bloom started to follow, but Cheerilee emphasized, “Alone,” leaving the little red and yellow pony standing at the bottom of the stairs, looking after the arising librarian contemplatively.

Apple Bloom shrugged then, and trotted away, over to Sweetie Belle who was in the kitchen, looking forlornly up at the refrigerator. Apple Bloom sighed, and went over to help the poor unicorn. It was so much trouble just to get a glass of milk or something!

“Bit of a trick to get it open, huh,” Apple Bloom said to Sweetie, looking at the refrigerator with her.

“Just thinking about getting something,” Sweetie said noncomittally, “Maybe a glass of milk. Or, just an apple I guess. Can’t really lift the milk without spilling it.”

Cheerilee came down while the two stood before the refrigerator, but didn’t attract their attention. She made herself scarce without a big sendoff. The two ponies just continued to talk in quiet tones, while outside, they heard her car driving away. It was kind of sad, since she hadn’t slept the night over, but just came in before work to help out. It wasn’t too bad though; Scootaloo was already in high school, and even before she was a pony they didn’t have much time to spend together, that wasn’t being taken up by school, sports or homework.

Apple Bloom meanwhile reared up, biting the dishtowel hanging on the door handle of the refrigerator, and letting herself fall back to all fours. She needed to throw her full weight into it to get the darn thing open, but open it did, in a crack of rubber seals and a rush of cool air. Sweetie climbed in, and did get an apple, carefully biting the stem to pick it up. She also looked wistfully at the jug of orange juice. Even Apple Bloom found juice kind of intimidating. Apple Bloom would have had to balance it on her head or something, just to get it to the table, and good luck not spilling it, then!

“Thinking about your magic, Sweetie?” Apple Bloom asked her sympathetically, eying Sweetie’s frustratingly impotent horn.

“Did—” Sweetie looked down, as the apple fell from her mouth, hitting the kitchen tiles and rolling.

She sighed.

“Did hyou read the email they sent?” Sweetie asked Apple Bloom, before bending down and picking up the apple again, turning to amble with it over towards the haystack.

“Ah did,” Apple Bloom said, recalling something along the lines of:

Never forget your horn is a magic resonator. The right frequency will amplify or dampen any magic you summon. The wrong frequency can produce a much more powerful effect than you intended, or just fizzle out. A careful unicorn will learn her resonant frequencies and stick with those, but with practice you can broaden your spectrum.

What followed was some even fancier mathematics that had nothing to do with aeronautics, about combining frequencies and harmonics, and separating a waveform into its constituents, that went way above all of their heads, but the end of the letter was pretty sensible advice.

So to summarize, just think of your horn like an antenna, or a violin string. When you pull it tighter or looser, you can try to find something that feels right, and then you might be able to spark a glow. There are organs at the base that you engage, adjusting them should feel kind of like dilating your eyes. Don’t be afraid if it gets suddenly difficult, because that means you are pulling the magic forth, and that means you are getting close. It takes hard work and practice, but in time you will certainly be able to spark a glow, which is to say make your magical aura appear around your horn. After that, manipulation is as simple as mentally reaching out and doing it.

Good luck, Sweetie Belle. And let me know if you get anything to appear, even the tiniest sparks or motes!

Your friend,
Twilight Sparkle

“It does seem like a lot of work,” Apple Bloom said glumly, while Sweetie worked her teeth into the apple taking chunks out of the side of it with relative ease, for a person without fingers. “You’ll get it though, an’ I bet it’ll be second nature before you know it. Even if you cain’t lift the whole juice jug, ah cain lift it, and you could just, magic it in place so ah didn’t spill it.”

“But for now,” Bloom told the apple munching unicorn, “Just get on upstairs and wake up mah brother. He’ll pour us both a glass of juice, an’ a little one too, so we can actually drink it.”

Sweetie smiled at that, and said a little sloppily, “Shure thing.” She blinked then, swallowed, and blushed, walking over to wipe her face clean on a dangling napkin, that hung by the cabinet for such purposes. Then, the unicorn walked her darling little candy colored butt over to the stairs, and cautiously begin climbing them, one after the other.

During the days on the farm, the three friends who had all somehow become ponies were pretty much inseparable. Sweetie’s horn exercises weren’t anything more out of the ordinary than meditation and calming techniques, though obviously it meant something special if you did it as a unicorn. Certainly didn’t mean magic right away. But regardless, Sweetie would always follow along with Apple Bloom and Scootaloo to wherever they were, even if she wanted to sit there and productively doze off, while Apple Bloom and Scootaloo gallopped and flailed around, respectively.

It did get a little awkward at times though.

“Sweetie, heads up!”

“Sweetie!!”

The ball impacted the quiet unicorn’s forehead, her surprise barely registering before it burst with a loud bang. If Sweetie hadn’t already been sitting on her belly, she probably would have fallen over from the shock.

“Aww,” Scootaloo gave a whine in disappointment, clopping up to look down at where the ball had fallen off the stunned unicorn’s horn, to lie in a sad, limp pile on the ground.

“Sorry,” Sweetie said guiltily, if a bit confused.

“It’s not your fault, Sweetie,” Scootaloo told her idly. “I shoulda been watching it better. The ball just got away from me.”

“Of all the places in the yard for the ball to land,” Sweetie said suspiciously, “And it had to land right on my horn?”

Scootaloo laughed sadly, “Yeah, funny how things work out like that sometimes.” She blinked and looked at Sweetie more angrily saying, “Hey, are you accusing me of—”

“Forget that,” Apple Bloom shouted, charging up. She looked at Sweetie’s horn, about beside herself with curiosity, and said, “How the hay did you do that?”

“Do what?” Sweetie asked, blinking her pretty green eyes cluelessly.

Apple Bloom responded by getting up close to Sweetie Belle and poking at her horn with a curious hoof. “This thing’s blunt!” Apple Bloom declared hotly, “How could it have even popped anythOW!”

She yanked her hoof back with a hiss as Sweetie immediately burst out, “I’m sorry! Oh no I didn’t... I was just trying to do what it oh no are you okay?”

“Ah think so...” Apple Bloom said mutedly. She pulled her hoof out of her mouth and showed it to Sweetie, where a tiny trickle of bright red blood was coming from a puncture in the frog. “Ya just dinged me. But ah didn’t think your horn was sharp?” With a wince, Apple Bloom went back to sucking on her hoof.

“Have you ever even gotten dinged yet, Apple Bloom?” Scootaloo asked worriedly. Apple Bloom’s mouth was a mite too busy to answer, but it was a powerfully good question.

Sweetie Belle looked up, but was unable to see her own horn just like that. “My horn isn’t sharp, but my magic might be,” Sweetie stated, with an uncertain ear tilt. “I think that’s what it is. What happened is the ball came, and all I could think was ball! In my face! So I um... pushed out of my horn sort of and it sort of popped.”

“That’s so cool!” Scootaloo said enthusiastically, getting up right to Sweetie Belle to tell her, “Your magic is working!”

“Yeah...” Sweetie carefully agreed, turning with a shy blush. “I guess it is. I mean, there’s no way I could break a ball with just this thing,” she tapped her own horn with a hoof, “So it must be something else.”

“Can you levitate anything?” Scootaloo asked, digging around at the ground and saying, “Here, lift this stick!” she held it up in a hoof.

Sweetie tried, but... it didn’t even twitch.

“I can’t get it started,” Sweetie Belle said in frustration. “I don’t know, that’s what it feels like I guess. Maybe my magic is sort of, stuck in my horn? It’s weird.”

Sweetie couldn’t break the twig either, even when Scootaloo carefully held it against her horn. She could poke holes in the leathery fabric of the ball though, with not too much pressure. Heck, she could even put holes in a tree trunk if she really punched it.

“Hey y’all, ah know we got experimenting to do,” Apple Bloom said apologetically, favoring her hurt foot, “But maybe we could get inside, an’ maybe clean off mah hoof?

The other two winced at her and nodded.

“That’s downright useful though!” Apple Bloom told Sweetie Belle, as she hobbled on three legs toward the house, with a still guilty looking Sweetie Belle standing next to her to be leaned on. “Ah knew you could get it. It’s like your very first magic!”

It was a lot different walking with only three legs, since Apple Bloom’s entire front risked falling down every time she lifted her good hoof. It was manageable though, just walk forward with your hind legs, and when your forelimb falls behind too much, you just rear up a bit to skip it in front of you.

“It could be useful, I suppose,” Sweetie said, “I can’t really think of anything we need to poke holes in, but... it’s a start at least?”

Scootaloo declared, spreading her wings perkily, “I’m jus’ glad my magic thingies are way out here and obvious. Yours sounds totally hard to figure out.”

“Whatever pony we became really seems to suit us,” Apple Bloom remarked. “Funny how there are three kinds, and there’s three of us. Ah wonder if there are any more kinds of pony that Sunset and Twilight didn’t tell us about?”

“Like what, fire ponies?” Scootaloo posed skeptically.

“Or maybe fish ponies!” Sweetie suggested.

“I’d love to be a fire pony,” Scootaloo declared, crouching low on her front limbs. “I’d be all throwing fireballs like in... or maybe like breathing fire, like a dragon!”

“Kirin are sort of like dragon ponies,” Sweetie remarked as they entered the farm house, making a beeline for the bathroom’s antiseptics. “But I don’t think they breathe fire. I don’t really remember.”

Apple Bloom inhaled in sharp pain one more time, when Sweetie clumsily daubed her hoof with alcohol. But despite that, Apple Bloom found herself reflecting on how this was probably the first time she’d actually gotten even close to hurt since changing like this. It wasn’t out of the question that she wouldn’t get hurt, as she hadn’t had the most exciting life lately, but she had to wonder at what power might be hidden in Sweetie’s itty bitty little horn. And for that matter, as Apple Bloom looked at her slightly puffy but swelled up shut hoof bottom thing, that just ached a bit now, and wasn’t even a trouble to walk on anymore, she had to wonder about the resilience of this ponylike creature they’d all become.

On the subject of being ponylike creatures, Apple Bloom was real excited about how Scootaloo’s funny wing thingies were growing in feathers! Though not as excited as Scootaloo herself! It was cool how the feathers sorta slid out of the feather ...thingies, bit by bit, the progressive growth of the large pinions being way more obvious than the little feather fluff that were the smaller downy feathers.

Funny thing is—or maybe the sensible thing—but, there was a smooth transition between the fuzzy hairs of Scootaloo’s coat to the more complex feathers on her wings. The smaller “feathers” weren’t hardly feathers at all, and once it got down past her wings it was just dense fur like the rest of them. It wasn’t like someone just stuck wings on a pony, but it seemed to have some kind of transition from bird to pony. Really it was shocking how similar she and Scootaloo were, considering what it took to have wings like that. Scootaloo’s anatomy should have been so different overall, with how she had wing muscles, and a bigger breastbone, and odd napping tendancies. And yet they both had hooves, and ears, and tails, and more similar between them than was different. And Sweetie was basically Apple Bloom with a horn.

Apple Bloom... kind of wondered if maybe Sweetie Belle actually wasn’t basically Apple Bloom with a horn. Maybe the differences were just really hard to see on the surface. Sweetie looked just like Apple Bloom, but she was just... different, somehow. And the same. It was weird.

Scootaloo couldn’t wait to fly, but about her wings, she said the feathers were really itching and “scrunchy” to coin a term Scootaloo thought up for the feeling. Scootaloo had learned what the friendly Twilight girl had advised about biting on her feathers, which was probably all you needed to know about wings, but just to be safe, Scootaloo’s mom came one afternoon halfway through the week, with a big book on bird anatomy.

As embarassed as Scootaloo was, Cheerilee forced the orange birdpony to sit in the larger lady’s lap, while they read through it together. Scootaloo got over her reluctance quickly, when she found that a book about birds is lots more fascinating and relevant, when you can actually have the bird parts coming out of your own body.

Apple Bloom encouraged Scootaloo as best as she could, but her pegasus friend really did have a point when she called herself the weird one. Scootaloo was right; she was the weird one. Apple Bloom didn’t have to do anything fancy, since her “magic” was just about being herself and not worrying about it. Sweetie Belle had real bonafied magic but it was subtle, and not at all involved with movement. Scootaloo was all about movement though. She had big dramatic wing things to deal with, that grew, and moved, and ...itchy scrunched.

That, and the general disarrayed look of Scootaloo’s wings, was the reason why when Apple Bloom trotted into the living room after school one day, she didn’t loudly announce she saw Scootaloo and Cheerilee over by the bathroom, poring over her wings again. When Apple Bloom saw Cheerilee in there, kneeled with Scootaloo down on the tiles, she just quietly hesitated at the threshold, rather than barging in and announcing herself.

“I just don’t get it,” Cheerilee exclaimed in frustration, doting over Scootaloo’s nervous form. “You should have a uropygial gland, but where would it be on a pony?”

“I dunno mom,” Scootaloo said, redfaced, “Couldn’t I just sorta you know use regular oil?”

“The book distinctly referred to a uropygial gland,” Cheerilee repeated. “We should at least find it before trying crazy, untested substances. It looked like very complex stuff, not just oil.”

“Yeah but...” Scootaloo said, wiggling the dock of her tail.

“It’s the only place on your rear end we haven’t looked,” Cheerilee demanded resolutely, “Now stop being such a baby and lift up your tail.”

And that was about enough of that for Apple Bloom.

Apple Bloom retreated to give the two their ...privacy, and went to check on Sweetie Belle, who was trying to levitate a feather as per Rarity’s suggestion.

“Feeling anything yet, Sweetie?” Apple Bloom asked the peaceful looking unicorn.

Sweetie opened one eye at Apple Bloom standing there, and said unsatisfied, “Feeling? Yes. Doing? ...not so much.”

Apple Bloom settled beside her, looking at the feather Sweetie was trying to levitate. “Maybe Twilight was right about there not being enough magic,” she speculated, “So maybe it’s like, concentrated in us, and not in the feathers and stuff.”

Sweetie looked from the feather to Apple Bloom, and her eyes brightened. “Oh,” she said, “I think you might be right. Touch my horn!”

“What?” Apple Bloom asked, discomfited.

“Just with your hoof again,” Sweetie said. “Touch it against my horn. I want to see if what I’m feeling is you. I promise I won’t do the sharp thingy.”

“Okay, ah trust you Sweetie,” Apple Bloom said, giving in semi-agreeably. She reached up a hoof and carefully pressed the pad of it against Sweetie’s horn, wincing at the memory of that sharp jabbing feeling. Quiescent, the surface of Sweetie Belle’s horn felt surprisingly soft for being a spiral of bone. Apple Bloom glanced down at Sweetie’s eyes, which were crossed trying to look at her own forehead.

“That good, Sweetie?” she asked.

“That’s definitely you,” Sweetie said confidently. “You can let go now.” Apple Bloom gladly pulled her hoof back to herself.

“What’d it feel like?” Apple Bloom asked, not sure what to make of Sweetie’s new experience.

“My horn?” Sweetie asked tentatively.

“Just, like when mah hoof touched you,” Apple Bloom clarified, “It felt different or something?”

“When you put your hoof on it, I could feel the magic going into me, like a tide coming in,” Sweetie explained, “And... then it went out, right before you pulled your hoof back. I don’t think you were trying to do that, just touching my horn like normal, right?”

“Yeah, normal,” Apple Bloom said fretfully.

“It just felt like a horn otherwise,” Sweetie said. “Like you were pushing a peg against my head. But I think you might be right about the magic, and us. Hm... hold on just one sec.”

Sweetie Belle stared at Apple Bloom in quiet concentration, and after a while Apple Bloom lifted a hoof and asked, “Uh, okay Sweetie Belle, but what’re you doing?”

“Oh, sorry,” Sweetie blinked. “I just wanted to try lifting you, if it was easier than the feather.”

“With how heavy ah am?” Apple Bloom said mighty skeptical.

Sweetie blushed, “Yeah, um... it’s not easier than the feather. Maybe I just suck at magic.” She turned away and scrunched her face in confoundment.

“Ah wouldn’t assume that just yet,” Apple Bloom told her encouragingly, “What could you be doing wrong maybe?”

“Well, Sunset said my horn was supposed to ‘light up’,” Sweetie offered, shifting to curl her tail around her side. “I assume she didn’t mean catch fire, so I guess it could maybe glow or something. I looked in the mirror in the dark though, and I couldn’t make it glow. It’s doing something but... nothing I could see with my eyes.”

“Maybe try a different spell than lifting things?” Apple Bloom poised.

“It’s only been a week,” Sweetie admitted, “I’m sure she could teach me more if we met again. It might be I haven’t practiced enough, or maybe if a real unicorn sees what I’m doing, she can tell me what to do differently.”

Apple Bloom rolled her eyes, saying, “Yeah, those two sure didn’t seem all that enthusiastic about teaching you to use the thing, or telling Scootaloo about how she’s going to get about flying. Ah dunno what they’re waiting for, because you’re clearly all pony now, so there ain’t no reason you cain’t do that stuff.”

“Hey girls!” Scootaloo shouted excitedly, clumsily trotting up to them. “Girls! Guesh what I found!”

“Your uropygial gland?” Apple Bloom asked over her shoulder.

“My uro—hey, how did you know?” Scootaloo said in an upset tone.

“Ah didn’t stay and watch,” Apple Bloom made sure to emphasize, “But just overheard you an’ your mom talking about it.”

“So... you found a gland?” Sweetie said uncertainly.

“It’s a thing to keep her wings tidy,” Apple Bloom explained hastily. “Just makes some kinda oil or something.”

“Yeah we found it alright,” Scootaloo said, with a half grin, “All oily and stuff too, since I hadn’t used it until now. Really weird location too, wanna see?” Big smile.

“What? No!” Apple Bloom yelped, struggling to her hooves. “Don’t stick your butt at us!”

Scootaloo blinked at her. Then raised a single wing. “They’re on my shoulders,” she explained. “Wing shoulder, whatever. It’s not on my butt.”

Apple Bloom just buried her head in her hooves, failing to hide the blush of being dreadfully embarassed.

“Huh...” Sweetie remarked looking at Scootaloo’s raised wing in a mild fascination. “So, does it help?”

“You bet, Sweetie!” Scootaloo said happily. She just uh... stuck her nose in the armpit place on her wing and nosed around in there, then started like, nibbling her feathers, saying, “Yeah it makes them all smooth and um...

“stuff...”

Scootaloo continued like that for a while, until Apple Bloom spoke up saying, “Hey Scootaloo, you need us for anything?”

“Wha?” Scootaloo said, rolling her eyes up to look at them, then lifting her head and blushing. “Sorry,” she said distractedly, “It’s super good at making my feathers feel better. Like scratching an itch, sorta.” She blushed and looked real put out at that, probably by being the weird one again, so before she could start beating herself up over it, Apple Bloom took swift action.

“Oh no!” Apple Bloom exclaimed dramatically, flopping belly up in shock. “Mah earth pony weird thing is makin’ me do stuff!”

“Your wha—” Scootaloo’s eyes narrowed at Apple Bloom’s amused appearance. “You don’t have an earth pony weird thing!” she accused Apple Bloom. That didn’t serve to help make the situation any less bizarrely funny though. And it distracted Scootaloo from feeling silly about her wings.

That adjustment sorta stuff was quite well occupying Apple Bloom’s time. She could have paid more attention to what was going on far away in Canterlot High, but for the most part her friends had their hands—hooves full with just discovering themselves, and Apple Bloom in seeing them do so. Apple Bloom was feeling like she was discovering herself all over again. Between that and playing in the snow, which never seemed to get old, they were pretty much set for things to do.

While awake, Scoots was getting mighty frustrated with her wings. She was trying to fly, and she could sort of do it, but she just couldn’t maintain any kind of height. “Just keep getting I dunno, heavy,” Scootaloo said unhappily, “Feel like I should stop flapping, but then I just... fall.”

Apple Bloom wanted to counsel Scootaloo, that flying is a complicated aerodynamic nightmare of fancy math and unpredictable systems. She really did. But one look at those tiny little wings of Scootaloo’s, and Apple Bloom had to conclude that fancy mathematics about flying were either dead wrong or completely inapplicable. Supposedly those little things could support her in flight, fancy mathematics be damned. Apple Bloom clearly had some serious misunderstandings about wings and flying, if the reality she saw on Scootaloo’s back was that different from what Apple Bloom learned in school.

Apple Bloom wanted to help Scootaloo, but she honestly didn’t know how, besides to encourage Scootaloo to try. Scoots was very enthusiastic about trying, and getting to be obsessive about that whole weird preening thing. Bloom’s feathery friend was so proud of how nice and even, and shiny her wings were looking, as the feathers filled out enough that Scootaloo didn’t just look like a dissheveled, orange chicken.

In fact, speaking of preening, it wasn’t long before Scootaloo was losing more than just goose down. One day, in that two weeks before Christmas, Scootaloo ran over to where Apple Bloom was drawing, the wingy pony all excited as the dickens. Scootaloo had pinched in her mouth, a single broad, orange feather. A genuine, full sized feather.

Scootaloo spit it out and exclaimed, “I just lost a pinion!” She seemed... weirdly excited about it.

“That’s a normal thing, right?” Apple Bloom said, dropping the crayon and looking at her friend oddly. “You just grow new ones after the old ones fall out.” Apple Bloom looked down at the shapely feather, saying uncertainly, “Sure is a purty one?”

“Apple Bloom!” Scootaloo whined, “Come on. If I lose a pinion, that means my wings are finished! Because the pinions are the big feathers, and those take the longest to grow. So all my feathers are in!”

“Oh!” Apple Bloom laughed, knocking the side of her head with a hoof. “Silly me, ah didn’t even realize. That’s great news, Scoots! How d’you feel?”

“Uhb...well, um... still can’t fly yet,” Scootaloo mumbled in admission. “I feel mostly normal, just a little... lopsided, when that one fell out. I’ve already got the new one growing in though, it sorta pushed the old one out as it did.”

“You’ll get it,” Apple Bloom told the insecure Scootaloo comfortingly. “Just gotta talk to them pony girls again. I figure at least the princess one has got some advice on flying with wings.”

Sweetie Belle came to Scootaloo’s other side, saying brightly, “You could ask the dream princess too!”

“She didn’t even remember her own name,” Apple Bloom said flatly. “How’s she gonna know about wing care?”

“Well um... she remembers... things?” Sweetie said uneasily. “Sometimes? It can’t hurt to ask.”

“Maybe if she ever gets done with whatever she’s doing,” Apple Bloom grumbled. “Ah ain’t sure what became of her honestly. Been wanting to get her to meet the two of you! Ah’m sure she’d welcome the extra friends.”

“She can’t meet me,” Scootaloo griped, “I still can’t figure out how to dream right.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll get there,” Sweetie Belle said, even as Scootaloo’s tiny orange shoulders sank, “We’ve almost got to you the other night. I bet the princess could find you, if we could find her.”

“What if I can’t dream, though?” Scootaloo asked anxiously, “What if there’s something wrong with me?”

“There ain’t nothing wrong with you Scoots,” Apple Bloom said reassuringly, “We just gotta try a little extra hard to find whatever it is you’re dreaming about.”

“What is it though?” Scootaloo said, “I don’t want you to have stupid night t-terrors too.”

“We’ll be careful,” Apple Bloom replied solemnly, “An’ ah’m one hundred percent sure that we cain handle any scary thing we run into, long as we’re together as friends.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Scootaloo said with a smile, but it was an uneasy smile.

One thing these three little ponies had no trouble with was sleeping. Lots of sleeping. And sleeping meant dreaming, pony style. The dream princess hadn’t shown up, even over a week after Apple Bloom’s friends turned into ponies, but then again, Scootaloo hadn’t shown up either.

Honestly Apple Bloom couldn’t be sure it wasn’t a normal thing to happen for pony dreamers, not to be able to find each other. Scootaloo didn’t have another... episode in the time that they were there. Scootaloo said she didn’t have them as much as when she was little, as far as her mom could tell her, but that it was only a matter of time. Apple Bloom never wanted Scootaloo to feel that way ever again. They needed to find her, and fast.

So Apple Bloom dreamed of Sweetie Belle, and together they sought to dream of Scootaloo. In this way, Apple Bloom finally found her way through the rushing darkness, into Scootaloo’s dream.

Author's Note

Nothing too eventful here. I had to gut a bunch of boring stuff because it was completely in the wrong place for the time it happened. Don’t worry, it’ll be around to be boring later in the story!

Scootaloo’s Dream

The night before Wednesday, Apple Bloom decided to try to just dive into the rushing darkness, and see what she could find in there. This time she had help though. She figured her friend was ready to come out of her dream as she’d ever be, and helped coax Sweetie Belle into this not place that Apple Bloom felt like Scootaloo was most at. There in that inscrutable darkness that pervaded this... place was the feeling of motion, and not much else.

“Is this it, do you think?” Sweetie Belle called out, her voice diminished as though there was a wind in her face.

“I think so!” Apple Bloom said. “But where are we?”

The two found themselves hurtling through an inky darkness, a darkness Apple Bloom had managed to find nights ago, but couldn’t make heads or tails of it. Unable to do anything with it herself, she finally had to coax Sweetie Belle gently, slowly out of her dream space, and into this... fluid that Apple Bloom found, somewhere that Apple Bloom thought maybe she had a feeling for Scootaloo being.

Sweetie Belle was barely into dreaming nowadays, but she was a second pair of eyes, and without the princess around, Apple Bloom sorely needed something like that. Or as such the case may be, a second pair of buttcheeks.

“Are we sitting in something?” Sweetie shouted back.

“Maybe?” Apple Bloom said, feeling around blindly along the edge of this thing they were sitting in. It was bumping and rumbling underneath them.

“It feels like a box?” Sweetie said, clearly visible to Apple Bloom despite the lack of any source of light.

“Like cardboard?” Apple Bloom called back, rapping the edge with a hoof. It wasn’t cardboard. It made a dull metallic clunking noise that could barely be heard over the noise that filled their ears. “No!” she shouted, “More like metal! Why are we sittin’ in a metal box?”

“And why does it keep moving?” Sweetie called back, wobbling as it shook and danced underneath them. What was going on here, and what was the source of that wind? A big metal box just hurtling through space, bumping and rattling around like

“A wagon, Sweetie!” Apple Bloom shouted. “We’re in a wagon!”

“Oh, yeah!” Sweetie exclaimed. The box was shaking and rumbling because it was up on four wagon wheels, not a wooden wagon but a metal one, like a Red Rider. “I think we’re going over stones?” she suggested, peering over the edge trying hard to see the ground.

“Scootaloo’s in here somewhere!” Apple Bloom said, moving around the wagon as best as she could. Why was a wagon rolling over stones? “It ain’t rough enough for stones!” she shouted, “It’s just like rough dirt!”

“Like a dirt road!” Sweetie exclaimed and the two were startled to see the wagon was actually hurtling down a dirt road, going down an incline then up an incline.

“A road where, though?” Apple Bloom shouted. “And where are we going?”

“It’s hilly!” Sweetie called back. “Maybe like a farm road somewhere?”

“What could you grow on hilly ground though?” Apple Bloom called back.

“...trees?” Sweetie suggested.

“That’s it!” Apple Bloom said, looking at the trees whipping past their wagon. “We’re in like a forest or a... a...”

“An orchard!” Sweetie exclaimed. “These are fruit trees!”

“I think we’re comin’ out of it?” Apple Bloom said squinting at the distance where the trees were rapidly thinning out with the flattening of the land.

“Maybe we’re going to Scootaloo?” Sweetie suggested.

“No, we’re goin’ to something else!” Apple Bloom said, “Ah just don’t know what!”

“This is weird, Apple Bloom!” Sweetie whined. “What’s outside this orchard, and why is Scootaloo dreaming about this?”

“She ain’t supposed to be dreamin’ about anything!” Apple Bloom shouted back. “There ain’t no idear I got, so just go with it for now. We can always wake up!”

“Ohh, here it comes...” Sweetie whimpered in anticipation, as the wagon barrelled heedlessly on towards the bright edge of the fruit trees. They blasted out of there and...

“I can’t see anymore!” Apple Bloom cried out in alarm, as blackness enveloped them again. She turned to face Sweetie, the both of them suddenly buried under some rumply thing that landed on them or ...something.

“Could we ever see?” Sweetie pondered almost to herself, “Or was it never there at all?”

“...no, ah’m pretty sure we’re just under a blanket or somethin’,” Apple Bloom bluntly corrected, struggling to the edge of the wagon, to lift up a corner and peer to the sunlit outside.

And it was just... “Farmland?” Apple Bloom asked uncertainly. “Lookit all the crops!”

Sweetie joined her, the two of them peering out from underneath the edge of this blanket they were covered in. From here to the distant hills there were orderly rows of crops, all unattended. What looked like wheat, and oats, and lettuce of some sort, maybe chard?

“Maybe this is the forest by your farm!” Sweetie suggested hopefully.

“We have a cow farm, Sweetie,” Apple Bloom said plainly, “Not an orchard, or a... ah guess this is mostly wheat?”

They buzzed along in this bizarre little wagon, past what looked like idyllic rows of crops to their left and right, lit by a pleasant bright sunny day from above. But the pleasant sun wasn’t holding that way. It was twisting somehow, and turning sinister even as they traveled along. The darkness they blasted out of seemed like it was still right close behind them, fluttering and seething not like a living thing, but like a lot of living things.

It was hard to look at. The dream scene just—stopped, shortly behind their wagon, and dissolved into confusion and darkness from there behind them. Hadn’t they been coming out of an orchard? The orchard was still there though! And yet it wasn’t. It was like there wasn’t anyone in it, anymore?”

“Apple Bloom, what happened to them?” Sweetie asked, peering into the darkness behind, in tearful confusion.

“What happened to who?!” Apple Bloom asked her incredulously.

“I don’t know!” Sweetie shouted back. “The orchard is all empty!”

“So’s everything, Sweetie!” Apple Bloom yelled to her, trying to pierce the crazy odd feeling of whatever was so different from the empty landscape far behind them, and the empty landscape right before them.

“Look!” Sweetie shouted, making Apple Bloom scramble around under the blanket. At the front of this self propelled wagon, Sweetie pointed her little white hoof to what lay ahead of them. “There’s a town!” she yelled. “We must be going for that little town!”

“There’s a castle!” Apple Bloom exclaimed in even more shock. “Look beyond the town, that thing is huge!”

“Wow, look at that!” Sweetie said looking up in awe. “A real castle! Are we dreaming about medieval times? Does Scootaloo read fantasy maybe?”

“She mostly reads adventure books!” Apple Bloom called out. “On account of that Rainbow Dash does!”

“It’s not a temple though, it’s a castle!” Sweetie protested.

“Ah dunno, Sweetie,” Apple Bloom said as they reached the town, lots bigger than they’d thought, and started zipping through it, past quaint looking cottages one after another, their propelled motion making a beeline for that castle place.

“WHAT IS THAT?!” Sweetie shrieked, pointing at the sky.

Apple Bloom looked up and... and... she didn’t know what the fuck she was looking at.

“It’s a... a dome?” she said uncertainly. It was a strangely shining pearlescent dome covering the sky above them. It spreading out from a point above the center of that castle, the shimmering edge sliding forward like it was growing towards them, or tilting forward, or... or falling.

“We’re gonna run into it!” Sweetie continued to shriek. “It’ll come down right in front of us!”

“No it won’t, Sweetie, look!” Apple Bloom said at the leading edge of the thing. “It ain’t falling fast enough! We can still make it!”

“Are you crazy?!” Sweetie shouted angrily.

“No!” Apple Bloom said in a hurt tone, turning and saying, “Why would I be crazy?”

Sweetie blinked at Apple Bloom in sudden uncertainty, saying, “Uhm... because this whole thing is crazy?”

They both lurched as the wagon jerked forward, and Apple Bloom had to grab Sweetie to keep her from falling out.

“Ohh lord Sweetie we’re going faster!” Apple Bloom shouted, the two of them hanging on for dear life, their blanket flapping as they gripped it in their hooves, peering up at the descending veil, looking like the jaws of a steel trap coming to shut.

“The thing is going faster too!” Sweetie exclaimed desperately, eyes on the sky. “It’s coming right for us!”

“We gotta make it, Sweetie!” Apple Bloom yelled back at her.

“What do you mean?” she retorted in a tight horselike squeal.

“I don’t know!” Apple Bloom shouted. “I just know we gotta!”

“I’m scared, Apple Bloom...” Sweetie whimpered, ducking low in the wagon, as if that would get them under this plummeting barrier more assuredly. Actually, Apple Bloom ducked down low herself. Couldn’t hurt to be too careful.

“Hold on, Sweetie,” Apple Bloom moaned, “Here it comes!” It was falling blindingly fast, like it could have sliced them right in two, and with a heart stopping crunch, the wagon flew up a hill straight into the air. The two ponies had their hearts in their throats, while the wagon hurtled in a graceful arc as

The thing...

Slammed to the ground, right behind them.

With a noisy clatter, the wagon landed, and kept moving forward.

The town was still there, some of it at least. The entire quaint hamlet had gotten a piece carved out of it by the weird sky eggshell thing, encompassing the castle, and at least some of the houses. It was a lot larger of a castle than it first appeared, as they rode up to it, with towering parapets, thin, defensible windows in places, and in others beautiful steel framed stained glass panels.

Everything was anything but peaceful now. That insane sense of urgency was gone, but it was replaced with a frantic crowded activity. The wagon was still going to the castle much more nearby now, but there were... shadows flitting around everywhere. It was like they were worries, personified. And none of them were running towards the castle. Unlike their wagon, everyone else was crowding each other to get past their wagon in the opposite direction, straight to the edge of that dome thing. It had taken over the entire sky, and neatly bisected the houses that were unlucky enough to be in the way. Perhaps not so unlucky, as it actually didn’t seem to cut them in half at all, just blocked everything from outside making it all look wavery and indistinct with a weirdly pearlescent glowing barrier.

“It looks like a shield or something...” Sweetie said engrossed in looking at the thing.

“Okay,” Apple Bloom said, confused and somewhat irritated. “Okay, fine. Something bad’s out there, and this here’s some kinda magic shield thing. And heck if this ain’t the weirdest dream ah ever had!”

“Shouldn’t we have woken up?” Sweetie asked in puzzlement. “That was frightening!”

“Yeah but it... it was fright’nin’,” Apple Bloom said thoughtfully. “You know what I’m sayin’? Was, but not is?”

“That makes sense, and I have no idea why,” Sweetie agreed, settling down to her haunches in the much slower moving wagon, rolling its way over what looked like even, flat cobbles. The crowd of... people? The crowd was clearing out around them in a broad circle. The wagon wasn’t moving as fast, and it started to take a more erratic course on its way, wobbling this way and that.

“What’s even pulling this wagon?” Apple Bloom asked, in puzzlement.

Sweetie Belle looked and, “Scootaloo!” she declared excitedly.

Apple Bloom took another long, hard look where Sweetie was looking and... of course! The wagon couldn’t just pull itself. There was a... a thing... no a person. There was a person pulling it. No, a... a pony?

At Sweetie’s cry, they both laid eyes on the familiar orange pony, their friend pulling the wagon in front of them as she moved forward. Scootaloo moved like... like she was standing on something, like her old scooter, back from... yeah, it was her old childhood scooter! The old model she used to truck around on! And didn’t she take the two of them around in this very wagon, or something?

Apple Bloom shook her head negatory. They only fit in this little wagon, on account of being changed into little ponies. When they were human, it’d just been a novelty, crowding one at a time into the little red thing to ride down hills all crazy like, just for the fun of it. She looked at herself, still all custard yellow like she was born, but all smoothly furry now, instead of just smooth. She didn’t have five fingered hands, but had two big fingers out in front of her, hooked over the edge of the wagon: hooves, that she walked on, now. And apparantly she and Sweetie could both ride in that wagon she remembered, as little ponies. Maybe this was a dream about if they ever found a wagon like that one, some time in the future?

When the wagon stopped, it was because Scootaloo took a hard right, throwing them around, and screeching the whole assembly to a halt. Her scooter clattered on its side in the cobbles, but Scootaloo didn’t—get thrown off. She just remained standing as if she were still supported by it. The scooter just passed right through her stiffly unwavering hooves, floating right up in the air.

“Scootaloo!” Sweetie repeated in a terrified sort of worry, “Are you okay?”

Apple Bloom looked up from the scooter and... Scootaloo was totally quiet, and didn’t exactly look right. She looked more like a place, than a person. Right in place, she turned to face them, in a way that didn’t look like moving. She was rotating around to look at them, her shadow dancing crazily on the cobbles, as if the steady light overhead were a guttering candle. She faced the two of them, and the pony had no face. Scootaloo was standing there looking at them, except she didn’t have any eyes or nose or mouth or face. The pony had no face. THE PONY HAD NO

The faceless Scootaloo popped like a soap bubble, before Apple Bloom could scream, bursting out in a... a splat noise, and inside of it was a very surprised looking Scootaloo standing there. The real Scootaloo, this time. Still the pony version of Scootaloo, but at least now she had a rather discombobulated, dizzily disoriented ...face.

“What the fuck was that?” Scootaloo swore, dropping to all fours and turning her head this way and that, desperately trying to get her bearings.

“Wh...” Apple Bloom said incredulously. “What was that?!” she accused right back, in a frightened, flustered tone.

“That’s what I’m asking you, Apple Bloom!” Scootaloo shouted, focusing angrily on her friend. “That was like, the weirdest...” Scootaloo trailed off, and her eyes widened. She looked around in amazement, saying, “Woah... where are we?”

Scootaloo started to take in this dome enclosed castle city, like it was the first time she saw it before. Which technically would be true, if... she hadn’t had a face, this whole time.

“Scootaloo,” Sweetie said urgently. “Do you remember anything? You were pulling us in the wagon! S-somehow.”

“I... I was?” Scootaloo asked, looking at the wagon, and then how it connected to her scooter there. “Woah!” Scootaloo exclaimed again, gallopping over to the scooter, the air rippling around her as she did so. “Look at this thing!”

“Careful Scoots,” Apple Bloom cautioned, “Ah think we’re in your dream, so you cain’t—”

“It’s so tiny!” Scootaloo said, rearing up and putting her hooves on the scooter. “I could ride this!”

“Scootaloo!” Apple Bloom shouted in alarm.

“I could ride this, Apple Bloom!” Scootaloo said so excitedly. “Even if I was a little pony, I could ride this! I could—” the whole dream popped.

“Still...ride...” Apple Bloom heard Scootaloo mumble, as she opened her eyes. Apple Bloom blinked there in the darkness, laying snug in her bed. That was...

“Scootaloo!” Apple Bloom exclaimed infuriated, kicking her leg in frustration at the darkness. “You woke us up!”

“But why we didn’t wake up before?” Sweetie uttered from beneath the blankets. Didn’t look like she wanted to come out.

“Because it wasn’t our dream,” Apple Bloom told her in a snide tone. “Of course Scootaloo could wake us up at the drop of a hat. Like with the princess. If’n ah got too excited in mah dream, I’d wake up, but in her dream, in her library, it don’t work the same. The princess just... lets me out, if ah’m wakin’ up in her dream. But if ah wake in my dream... she gets tossed right out!”

“I wasn’t dreaming, was I?” Scootaloo asked skeptically, sitting up to look at Apple Bloom with two luminous violet eyes. “I never remember my dreams,” Scootaloo said, “But I remember like a big castle thing, and you two, and also the sky was a shell or something? Was that really...?”

“Yeah, that was your dream Scootaloo,” Apple Bloom nodded to her friend.

“You mean we couldn’t have woken up, if we didn’t find Scootaloo?” Sweetie squeaked to Apple Bloom in a very anxious tone.

“No,” Apple Bloom said irritated, “It like... uh...

She rubbed a hoof under her chin.

“Oh lord, ah don’t really know actually,” Apple Bloom said in sudden creeping horror. “U-uh that is, ah mean... ah’d have to ask the dream... princess... wherever she is.”

“Well you did find me,” Scootaloo interrupted in a practical tone, cutting cleanly through Apple Bloom’s panic, “So we all woke up just fine. And I was dreaming somehow. But why am I remembering it now? I never remember my dreams!”

“Maybe because we were there, this time?” Sweetie suggested.

“Oh yeah, just like the golden apple thing,” Scootaloo recalled in a subdued tone, looking down at her little pony body, so small in that big bed. Each of them looked and felt even smaller than they were, with all three of them so comfortably situated in that poster bed of Apple Bloom’s. It was a big bed, even when she was fully human.

“That was the last dream I remembered,” Scootaloo remarked glumly, flopping her forehooves on the sheets.

“Ah don’t think it was just us being there,” Apple Bloom contested, shaking head at that, with her tomato-red mane swinging around sans bow. “We had to drag that dream outta darkness, practically kicking an’ screaming. Ah been tryin’ to remembe—uh—imaginember that dream for a while now. Between me and Sweetie, I think we sorta... made you do it.”

“So you... made me dream?” Scootaloo suggested, lifting her head and eyeing Apple Bloom with nervous worry.

“Yeah, ah guess you were kinda... rusty on dreaming,” Apple Bloom said unsure of herself, herself. “So we kinda had to... snap you out of it?”

“More like explode her out of it,” Sweetie grumbled. “What was with that faceless Scootaloo?”

Apple Bloom just had to shrug at that. Scootaloo was even more at a loss. She knew nothing about it even existing, and could barely remember even getting on that scooter, much less carrying them across an idyllic yet somehow indescribably horrifying countryside.

And now the three of them were so awake, that they woke up with their hearts still hammering. So Apple Bloom helped the two of them out of bed, and they crept down in the quiet night, to engage in the ancient, time honored tradition for consoling oneself over troubling dreams, by turning the lights on in the kitchen, and fixing up a midnight snack.

Plum jelly, graham crackers and hay was a stroke of comfort-food genius, if Apple Bloom did happen to say so herself. As long as it was plum jelly, at least. Plum jelly went really good with alfalfa. No, really. Scootaloo didn’t want to believe it,but one bite from that bale of dry crackly hay made the plum dripping cracker take on a more complex and satisfying flavor. Apple Bloom wasn’t huge on experimenting with food, and had yet to find food that outright made her sick, but plum crackers and hay. And a big glass, er, bowl of orange juice. Perfect combination.

They had to use a bowl for Sweetie and Scootaloo’s sake, even if Apple Bloom had drinking pretty much down pat out of one of those (now giant to her) cups. It was... actually all kinds of adorable, watching Sweetie sticking her nose in that bowl and sucking up the orange juice. Would have been for Scootaloo too, if she didn’t insist on noisily slurping while doing it. Come to think on it, that was probably intentional.

The three toddled up sleepily to bed then, and with that warm feeling in their tummies. Sure enough, the moment that they were asleep, they completely failed to have any more dreams that night, and woke up feeling disappointed, if refreshed. It would be some time in fact, before they got back to where they started at.

Cheerilee did in fact find a book or three on speech therapy, but Apple Bloom’s two friends improved a whole lot on their own, especially with how Scootaloo liked to chatter on about whatever they were doing. Sweetie was a quieter friend, but still better at improving her speech than Scootaloo. She had a frightening passion for what managed to catch her eye. Whether it was making beautiful clothing to help her sister, or making delicious food to help her sister, or... actually now that Apple Bloom thought about it, it was probably adding on years to Rarity’s life that Sweetie wasn’t there to help her out anymore. Sweetie was a handful even at her helpfullest.

It didn’t bother Apple Bloom one bit that she had to take care of her friends. She was just glad for their company, and did whatever she could do to make them as comfortable as they could. All their kin were busy with school most of the time, but Rarity and Cheerilee did come over a lot much to Sweetie’s delight and Scootaloo’s reluctant admission. Thanks to their tireless efforts, it was empirically demonstrated to be an objective fact that ponies really enjoy getting brushed while sitting in your lap. Apple Bloom was kind of glad in fact, that Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were right there with her, and she wasn’t the weird one for sitting there melting into her sister’s lap on chilly afternoons with a blanket draped over both of them and Applejack’s idle but supple fingers smoothing out all the tingly tight spots in Apple Bloom’s back.

Sweetie’s thing for belly rubs might have been a bit weird, but she didn’t mind it, not even when Rarity would poke her presented belly making her giggle and wiggle her hind legs. Rarity herself was doing so much better now, that she was forced to confront her own sister as a little pony; she’d been avoiding Apple Bloom like crazy! Apple Bloom hated that, and now that disaster had befallen Sweetie Belle, Rarity was actually starting to treat all three of them like people. As for Sweetie Belle, she was doing...

...better than she’d been doing, at least. Sweetie Belle’s confession about attending school again had neatly shifted her anxiety back onto Apple Bloom. Apple Bloom might be too dumb and scared to care about her own academic future, but she wasn’t going to impose any sort of exile on her friends, just to avoid trouble. Somehow, Apple Bloom was going to have to figure out how she was going to go back to school. She had time to think about it, with how long it took the other two to get steady on their feet and well spoken, and good at mouth writing, but it was still a thing she had to... think about.

It took a while for them to find the dream princess. Apple Bloom really wished they could have found her sooner. The first night after Scootaloo’s dream, she could really have used some advice from the dream princess, when all three of them were trying to get asleep again, and afraid of dreaming like that again.

“Apple Bloom, are you scared?” Sweetie asked in a quavering voice, there beneath the bedcovers.

Apple Bloom shifted her head to look at the moonlit huddled form of Sweetie Belle. “Scared of what?” she asked carefully.

“All this dreaming stuff,” Sweetie clarified, lifting her head up out of the blankets. “What if we get hurt?”

Apple Bloom smiled at Sweetie as comfortingly as she could. “Then we dream up not gettin’ hurt, silly!” she said with a false confidence, patting the unicorn’s oddly human-like curls with a hoof. “It’s just a dream, right?”

“I dunno, my dreams are really different now...” Sweetie Belle said reluctantly. “Maybe it is dangerous for ponies. We can dream together, after all. So maybe something... bad could, too?”

“Jeez girls, I already know it’s not gonna be dangerous at all,” Scootaloo grumbled on the other side of Sweetie Belle, in a groggy grackle.

“How do you know, though?” Sweetie insisted at Scootaloo, in a flustered worry.

“Because if you keep telling us how worried you are, we’re never gonna get to sleep in the first place!” Scootaloo griped, the little orange pony glaring at Sweetie Belle, from where her head lay buried deep in her pillow.

Sweetie blinked.

“Oh,” Sweetie meeped, meekly snuggling down into their shared bed, and carefully pulling the sheets up to her hooves. “Sorry.”

Apple Bloom herself worried, until her friends’ breathing evened out. But then she too was pulled into the seductive embrace of sleep. She was barely even dreaming when someone called out “Apple Bloom!?” in Sweetie Belle’s voice.

Apple Bloom opened her eyes and looked around in surprise. But her surprise dimmed as she realized this should have been expected. They were still in the exact same place, that frozen moment outside the castle, surrounded by the strangely translucent barrier. They were the only ones here this time, though. Her, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. All the activity and tumult before was just... empty. It was like they were in a preserved replica of the scenery of where they’d been.

“Apple Bloom, there you are!” Scootaloo said, trotting up to her, getting in her face anxiously. “We just woke up like—I mean we just fell asleep and it was like this. I don’t know how to go places in a d-dream yet! We just had to wait for you. This place is totally creepy!”

“It’s not so bad,” Sweetie said placatingly, pulling Scootaloo calmly away from Apple Bloom’s face. “It’s not even... doing anything. It’s kinda boring, really.”

“So now that ah’m here, we get to just... continue the dream?” Apple Bloom wondered curiously. Everything seemed so still around them, not even a breeze on the wind. Not that a breeze could get very far, even under this massive dome. Nobody was around, nobody distinct at least. It was like standing in a picture.

“It’s not continuing...” Sweetie said uncertainly. “Maybe if we redo what we did before, to remember what happens next?”

“Oh that’s totally gotta be it!” Scootaloo said with a big smile at Sweetie. “It’s just like in Assassin’s Creed!”

“Assassin’s what now?” Apple Bloom asked curiously.

“Iiiiit’s a video game,” Scootaloo said, waving a dismissive hoof.

“The character relives their ancestor’s memories as dreams,” Sweetie explained, abruptly cut off when Scootaloo got in her face and said excitedly,

“Oh wow, you played that?”

Sweetie gently pushed Scootaloo’s face away from hers, nodding and blushing. “I–I like the story,” she said, “He gets to dream of great adventures, even though he’s just this normal guy... even though he’s not really. I only rented it... I couldn’t get past the part with the horse.”

“Which part with the horse?” Scootaloo asked, with a head tilt.

“There’s more than one?” Sweetie queried reluctantly, insecurity wavering in her open green eyes.

Scootaloo just stared at her.

“He kept running off the cliff!” Sweetie vainly protested, rearing up bashfully.

“Girls, cain we focus?” Apple Bloom cut in, before Scootaloo could start laughing at how bad Sweetie was at video games. “There’s a horse running off a cliff over there, an’ ah don’t think it’s supposed to be here!”

“What?” Scootaloo asked, looking off to the mist on their left where a crudely rendered horse was just flipping end over end stiffly as it fell off an endless cliff. “Woah,” Scootaloo said with big eyes. “That’s exactly how I imagined it!”

“Well cut it out. You’re messin’ up your old dream!” Apple Bloom said, waving that mist back as best she could.

“H-how do I stop?” Scootaloo said nervously, everything taking on washed out colors, and also she had a white cloak on now, sized to fit a pony.

“The castle, remember?” Apple Bloom prompted her hastily. “We were riding on a wagon thing, and this shiny egg shield covered like half the town? Tons of cottages everywhere! And also this blanket keeps falling on me for some reason?” She crawled out from underneath the blanket at that, looking grumpy.

“Not all washed out an’ misty,” she told Scootaloo admonishingly, “Colorful! An’ real!”

That seemed to snap Scootaloo out of it, and the mist parted to reveal the empty castle town, again.

“S-s-sorry,” Scootaloo said, scrunching down on her belly uneasily.

“Ponies can dream what they want, Scootaloo,” Apple Bloom said gently, nosing at the orange furred shoulder of her crouching, unnerved friend. “It just takes practice. We probably should go to my dream for now.”

“I just feel all sorts of creeped out here,” Scootaloo fussed, not coming out of her crouch as she looked around nervously.

“It’s so... unquiet,” Sweetie observed, her voice sounding thin in the still air.

“It feels like... something should happen, I just don’t know what, so...” Scootaloo’s ears went down. “I guess I don’t know what to dream next?”

“Well, c’mon,” Apple Bloom said sighing, “We can at least try to get in that castle over there.”

They crept along the flat cobbled streets of this eerily rustic town, trotting easily on four hooves with soft clopping noises. At the gateway into the great stone castle, Apple Bloom put her forehooves up on the door, laying an ear against it to listen in.

“What’s inside the castle?” Scootaloo asked curiously.

“It’s your dream,” Sweetie said flatly. “Don’t you know?”

“It seems familiar, but... I dunno,” Scootaloo said, uncertainly. “Maybe in a game I played recently?”

“There’s somethin’ in here,” Apple Bloom said suspiciously, “But the gate won’t open. Ah thought we could get to the library through here. Maybe we should try one of those houses instead.”

“Why would those houses be a library?” Scootaloo asked in puzzlement. “They just look like ordinary houses. If really old medieval ones.”

“Because,” Apple Bloom explained unhelpfully. “Now c’mon!”

Once they stood before an apparantly random cottage, Apple Bloom instructed as best as she knew, saying, “We can get to my dream through here Scootaloo, because you ain’t never dreamed about what’s past this door. Somethin’s in the castle, but there ain’t nothin’ here, since you don’t know what’s through here. An’ that means ah do know what’s through here.” She swung her hoof at the door with a flourish.

“So what’s through there?” Scootaloo asked, with a tired look at Apple Bloom’s theatrics.

“A whole lotta books!” Apple Bloom declared, as if the answer couldn’t be more obvious, opening the door to dramatically reveal a...solid wall of books.

“Oops,” Apple Bloom uttered, climbing up in there and pushing books aside with her nose, to squeeze her face in to look beyond them. “Ah was aimin’ for the princess’s library. Guess it musta opened behind one of the bookshelves.” It was close enough though, and sliding the shelf aside, they made their way to the library.

The library was a dream the princess herself crafted for Apple Bloom. It made an exceptionally good meeting spot, being that it technically was Apple Bloom’s dream, yet didn’t seem as governed by Apple Bloom’s arbitrary head rules as much as her other dreams. The columns of pristine white marble, the elegant staircases with railings just the right height, and the everlasting sunlight beaming in through the tall framed windows high above them on the arching ceiling were all the princess’s imagination, so Apple Bloom didn’t have to think about it.

The library also had the advantage of having so many portals all over the place, and so many walls that could contain doors in it. The inside was brightly lit at all times, and even if they couldn’t read most of the books, their welcoming musty smell along with the scent of solid oak wooden shelves and furniture just gave the place a welcoming, magical feel to it.

The three pony girls carefully scooted the bookshelf aside so they could get through, then Apple Bloom closed the door behind them. It was an ordinary cottage door like the one they opened to get there, sort of stuck in the library wall.

“That way we can get back, once we find the princess an’ can ask her about this stuff!” Apple Bloom explained cheerily, closing and latching the door. The other two just eyed Apple Bloom with varying degrees of nervousness at how much control she had over this dream.

“Will the princess be here?” Sweetie asked uncertainly then, looking around wide eyed at the empty sunlit halls. “Hello, princess?” She trotted in a circle. “Princess Twilight?”

“Ah don’t hear her,” Apple Bloom said, disappointed. “Guess she’s still out.”

“Well I don’t care, this is the coolest library ever!” Scootaloo said in characteristic enthusiasm. “Is this really a dream? It’s so real! Is there an outside? I see the sun shining through the windows! The ceilings are so high too, but not as high as in the school library. But I mean, it has columns!”

Scootaloo got excited about her very first actual real pony dream, albeit kept from waking them all up by Apple Bloom’s stubborn levelheadedness. Apple Bloom and Sweetie nosed around in the meantime, but couldn’t find hide nor hair of the princess. That was disappointing, but when the three of them awoke that morning, they were pretty sure that things were gonna be okay for Scootaloo now, dream-wise.

From there it was clean sailing for Scootaloo. Snapped out of whatever that dark nightmare was, she dreamt normally now, dreaming together with the three of them when she dreamed. Scootaloo dreamed of her scooter a lot, except it was sized down for a pony. She drew crude pictures when awake too, trying to capture just how she could possibly use such a scooter as a pony, and maybe get some semblance of her old self back. The others helped too, but it wasn’t as simple as stitching an outfit. The physics of designing those was actually real complex. Plus Rarity had a big exam crunch, so even getting new outfits was a difficult proposition, much less a new scaled down non-motor vehicle.

It was kind of nice how ponies could all dream together. Apple Bloom didn’t know what you called that kind of magic, figured she’d ask Sunset again sometime, or that new Twilight girl, who herself seemed to know something about vice principal Luna having some relation with dreams. Which didn’t explain why the dream princess was Twilight Sparkle at all. Maybe the vice principal fantasized about being... some random high school girl, as a pony princess?

Even without the dream princess to help, Sweetie was already getting to the point she could snap herself out of a fugue state on her own, and the process of helping her two friends with their dreams was giving Apple Bloom tons of practice of her own. Apple Bloom seemed to be their temporary “dream princess” so to speak, though she could only dream up wings and a horn for herself as a prop gag. You could fly in dreams anyway, and your ability to do magic was limited only by your ability to imagine something vividly and with stability.

They didn’t run into any nightmares after Scootaloo’s... thing. Sweetie Belle didn’t know of any she was having at least, so she remained the odd one out. Sweetie dreamed of overwhelming tasks like giant boutiques, and of pirate ships that sailed over grass instead of water for some reason. Apple Bloom’s own vague nightmare of being chased never did return, at least not after the princess blew it to smithereens that one time, when Apple Bloom ran face first into her planetary starscape.

They probably should have checked that planetarium, because that’s where the princess had been this whole time, just sitting like a statue and thinking. But instead of doing that, and instead of discovering her, the three just played together, talking about plans, and pony things, and the princess got to leave herself be until she was good and ready to find Apple Bloom again.

Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom had been dreaming together again, just chatting about Diamond, and what they were gonna do about her when she came back, and if they were gonna prank her or not, when Apple Bloom almost lost the dream entirely. Suddenly, a dominating presence just swamped Apple Bloom, before she could even turn around. The dream princess just waltzed up out of nowhere right into Apple Bloom’s dream, saying cheerfully,

“Oh there you are, Apple Bloom! I think I finally have it figured ouWHO THE HECK ARE THEY?!”

Apple Bloom fell on her face at the sudden outburst, but quickly collected herself, and shook her head, just to make sure she could feel herself do it. She carefully kept in mind where Sweetie and Scoots were, and that they were all sitting here, out on a bright sunny summer day, on this giant, checkerboard clothed picnic table. Then opening her eyes, Apple Bloom found that to still be the case, and her dream was stable again.

With a satisfied smile, Apple Bloom turned her head away from her friends, and there before the little yellow filly was the dream princess, lavender wings spread in resplendant glory, majestic starscapes in her mane and tail, so ethereally unreal, yet so resemblant of that one purple girl’s hair. Really, Apple Bloom felt kind of dumb for not immediately making this connection, dream-confusion or not. Apple Bloom was definitely looking at a pony, a beautiful purple pony mare, suffused with the very power of existence itself. A unicorn, and a pegasus, and... an earth pony too, somehow. Three ponies in one, just like Twilight said.

And the dream princess gazed serenely back at Apple Bloom, saying somewhat less serenely, in a surprised and agitated voice. “Did you just... stabilize your own dream?”

Apple Bloom blinked. Actually, the princess was looking more along the lines of kind of shocked, and less along the lines of serene. “Uh, yeah...” she admitted bashfully. “Ah mean, who else is gonna do it? Mah friends ain’t doing the dreamin’, and they’re still workin’ on gettin’ good at it too. Maybe? Ah guess?

“Ah dunno!” Apple Bloom declared, exasperatedly throwing her hooves up. “You don’t come for like weeks, an’ ah just keep on dreamin’, so ah gotta just figure out this pony dreamin’ thing all on mah own!”

Instead of answering her, or even acknowledging that Apple Bloom said anything, the princess trotted right up to Sweetie and Scootaloo. The two were looking very calm and collected, for two ponies facing a divine superpony, while neither of them could wake up, thanks to the stabilizing influence of one very powerful being, and one very uppity earth filly who didn’t know any better.

Which is to say they were looking terrified as all get out.

“Are these your friends, as ponies, Apple Bloom?” the princess asked, getting right up into their faces. She wasn’t asking them though! She was just talking about them! “It’s uncanny, I have to admit,” the princess told Apple Bloom in an engrossed tone, never breaking her fascinated stare at Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. “You’ve only dreamed them up as humans before. I thought they were real ponies, at first.”

“What is she talking about, Apple Bloom?” Scootaloo asked, making the princess immediately yelp in surprise, and leap back from the two of them. Which caused Apple Bloom’s two friends to yelp in surprise and fall on their butts, looking up at the princess in mild terror. Craning around the princess’s fallen rump, the two of them looked at Apple Bloom in confusion,

“Ohh! Ha ha ha,” the dream princess gave a nervous but conclusive laugh, and stood, raising a hoof, folding her wings and looking over her shoulder at Apple Bloom. “You really got me, there. What’s got you in such an impish mood, to make your dreams startle me like that? I wasn’t gone that long, was I?”

Apple Bloom just stared at the dream princess, slack jawed. The dream princess stared back, in eerie stillness, and also total uncomprehension.

“Seriously people—uh... ponies,” Scootaloo said behind the princess. “You’ve been dreaming of Sweetie and me as humans, Apple Bloom? Why can’t we do that now?”

“W-well,” Apple Bloom admitted to Scootaloo, finding her voice somehow, “Ah ain’t very good at it. Uuh...” she closed her eyes and tried to remember Scootaloo as she once was, an orange girl with purple hair, busting out of the high school doors, and riding her scooter right down the railing, rushing to head into town to get a soft serve before lunch period was over.

Apple Bloom opened her eyes, seeing the scene rendered before her planted forehooves, hovering in like a little cloud sort of thing. “There we go,” Apple Bloom said happily, reaching in it with a forehoof and plucking the human Scootaloo right out of it. Placing her on the surface of the marble table they were standing on, the human Scootaloo was about the size of a doll, if Apple Bloom had been the size of a human girl.

“See?” Apple Bloom demonstrated with an awkward grin, giving the doll-like human Scootaloo a little push. The teeny little Scootaloo rolled forward on her scooter a bit, before bumping to a stop against Scootaloo’s hoof.

“Wow uh,” Scootaloo said with a less than impressed look. “I see what you mean, Apple Bloom. Uh—h-hey!” she squawked.

Scootaloo shouted, because suddenly the dream princess’s star speckled butt was shoved in her face. Scootaloo now saw this side of the princess, because the princess’s front side was right up close to the Scootaloo toy, pushing the pony Scootaloo back away from it with her princessly rear. The princess stared at the toy intensely, then gave Apple Bloom a frightened, frightful look, then whirled on her hooves to stare at Scootaloo directly nose-to-nose, then back to the toy, then Scootaloo.

“You ponies are real?!” the princess shouted at her terrified friends.

Author's Note

Oh no! Another uneventful chapter! Just some weird dreams that didn’t really mean anything, right? Right?

Dreamseekers

“Princess, please!” Apple Bloom called out shrilly behind her.“They cain’t wake up when they’re in mah dream, so you’re really scarin’ them!”

The dream princess was right in the faces of Apple Bloom’s two best friends, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, who she apparantly just figured out were real, both of whom may or may not have been going completely mad by the eldritch forces involved with having the princess’s undivided attention. The princess did back up from her friends at Apple Bloom’s words, but she was dancing on her hooves in increasing excitement on the ground, saying “oh my gosh ohmygoshomigoshomigosh”

“This’s the uh, dream princess,” Apple Bloom declared loudly, walking uneasily around the princess to plant herself herself solidly between the princess and her friends. “An’ these,” Apple Bloom said to the princess, waving a hoof behind her, “Are my friends: Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. They ponies now. You really should check up with mah dreams more often, princess.”

“How did this... happen?” the princess practically squeaked in excitement, her violet eyes glued to the newcomers.

“Same way it happened for me,” Apple Bloom explained patiently. “Just happened like three weeks ago for them. Nobody knows why but somethin’ about a portal to another world. But uh...” Apple Bloom looked judgementally at the barely restrained princess, and instead of bringing up the subject of world ending catastrophies that needed to be immediately addressed, Apple Bloom dealt with far more important matters. She faced her friends and told them,

“Hey, Scoots, Sweetie, I know she’s weird, but remember she ain’t been seein’ no ponies or anyone at all, for the last like, forever. She needs friends more’n anything, so ah think she’d really wanna be friends with you too. Trust me that means a lot to her.”

“Yeah...” Scootaloo said leerily, looking at the princess.

Scootaloo’s unease was very understandable when Apple Bloom turned back to look at the princess too. Said princess currently faced Apple Bloom, and the princess had her chest pressed flat to the ground, forelegs curled, butt in the air, quietly whining “plee-e-e-e-ease?”

“That’s sorta obvious,” Scootaloo added... leerily.

“Why is she asking you?” Sweetie Belle stated, looking from the little yellow and red filly, to the big powerful purple, prostrate princess in puzzlement. “Isn’t she the princess?”

Apple Bloom blinked at that, and agreed with that, saying to the princess, “Hey yeah, why are ya asking me? Just ask them, nicely and calmly. What do you need me for?”

“Well, they are your friends, right?” the princess said, standing and looking down at Apple Bloom in some confusion. “Aren’t you going to introduce me? Or... something?”

Apple Bloom blinked again. “Ah did introduce you,” she said exasperatedly. “Why don’t you try introducin’ yourself?”

With a meaningful look at her friends, Apple Bloom tilted her head twice in the direction of the princess. Then three times in the direction of the princess. Sweetie jumped up in realization at that, saying, “Oh! Um,” then crouching her forelegs and bowing her head down, said, “I’m Sweetie Belle. Pleased to make your aquaintance, your majesty!”

“Yeah, and I’m Scootaloo,” Scootaloo said beside Sweetie, puffing out her chest. “I’m the cool one.”

The princess looked like she was going to start crying again, but she managed to restrain herself saying, “I’m so glad to meet you. It really is my pleasure, really. Pleased to meet you, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. I’m...”

“uh...” the princess lifted a hoof, and looked at it confusedly.

“Twilight Sparkle,” Apple Bloom helpfully prompted beside her.

“Right, Twilight Sparkle,” the princess said with a smile, holding out a hoof. “Pleased to meeee—” she wheeled on Apple Bloom then, shouting into her face, “YOU FIGURED OUT MY NAME?!”

Apple Bloom just couldn’t hold it anymore, and she woke up with a startled yelp.

“Oh, man...” the little apple pony girl groaned in the night, covering her head with her arms in exasperation.

“You awake, Apple Bloom?” Scootaloo asked, from the other side of the bed.

“Of course she’s awake,” the voice of Sweetie put in, the soft unicorn cuddled right in between them. “We all wake up simultaneously.”

“Yeah I know,” Scootaloo said in an embarassed voice, “I just... shut up”

“Sorry ‘bout that,” Apple Bloom said apologetically to the two of them. “The princess can be a bit overwhelming sometimes.”

“I thought you meant overwhelming in the regal sense,” Sweetie piped up from beneath the blankets. “Not overwhelming in the unhinged sense.”

“Both really,” Apple Bloom admitted, “Once you get to know her she’s just as beautiful an’ regal as the night sky. But uh... see, she’s been all by herself for a long time. Doesn’t even remember why. So she’s like someone who hasn’t talked with another human being in like, lots of years. Kinda childish I guess? She really, really needs friends. So she gets excited, you know?”

“And woke you up, so now we can’t meet her again,” Scootaloo groaned, covering her face in the giant pillow she had laid on.

“Oh, ah think we’ll be meeting her,” Apple Bloom herself groaned. “With you two here? She ain’t gonna miss one single dream for quite a while, least ‘till she gets distracted again.”

“Will she be there when we go back to sleep tonight?” Sweetie asked anxiously.

“Dunno, we got like... ugh,” Apple Bloom groaned at the clock. “Maybe three hours till dawn, so maybe not enough time to get back into dreaming. Let’s just all get some sleep, and if we see her, ah promise it’ll be fine. Just like, hug the princess till she’s catatonic. Imagine she’s like the most attention starved puppy you ever laid eyes on.”

The morning came without dreams however, and Apple Bloom found herself strangely disappointed, as the winter sun came edging late over the distant hills and snuck its way in to coax open her sleepy eyes.

Scootaloo could dream now, at least, but she was still struggling to pull herself out of it and join the others in awareness. Apple Bloom was getting to be pretty good at dreaming together with Sweetie Belle, though. In Sweetie Belle’s dream one night, Apple Bloom took some time to really have a serious talk with her pale furred unicorn friend. Apple Bloom found Sweetie Belle dreaming of a soda fountain, that the three of them used to hang out at after school, except in the dream the fountain served hay instead of soda.

To find her, Apple Bloom walked through a door in her own dream bedroom. The other side of the door ended up being the swinging door that led into Sweetie Belle’s chosen shop, with the bright sunny day behind her a lot different from the pleasant but interior room that Apple Bloom had left behind. But that was just how dreams went. Apple Bloom found Sweetie here in this cafe, trying to make her way through a bowl of ice cream that looked (and tasted) more like balls of yarn, than ice cream.

Apple Bloom made a mental note to get Sweetie Belle some ice cream in the waking world.

“Hey Sweetie Belle,” Apple Bloom said easily, striding up to her dreaming pony friend on all fours, which weren’t anything unusual nowadays. “How’re ya doin’?”

“Oh, hi Apple Bloom,” Sweetie meeped, looking up in mild surprise. “I was just trying to figure how you were supposed to eat this...” she looked back at what was supposed to pass for ice cream, a disgusted and confused expression on her soft white snout.

“Never mind that,” Apple Bloom told her, hoof calmly sliding the inert dessert away from the unicorn’s puzzled gaze. “Ah think it’s just a centerpiece or something.”

“Oh, is that why it’s all dry and crackly,” Sweetie said, blushing. “I–I guess I should go order something else instead.”

“Or...” Apple Bloom said giving her a knowing look. “You could wonder how you got to the city here as a little pony, and why the tables are small enough for us, and why a soda fountain is serving straw for ice cream.”

“That’s... wait... wait.” Sweetie dropped her head and pressed her nose against the surface of the table, mumbling embarassedly, “I’m dreaming, aren’t I.”

“You’ll get it eventually,” Apple Bloom assured her, patting Sweetie’s back. “Maybe next time you can catch it yourself! Just ease into it for now, so you still have a table to sit at, and a nice city shop place, a place you can have a delicious glass of... of fizzy cider in.”

“That sounds... really nice actually,” Sweetie admitted thirstily, raising her head. She looked over across the dining floor, where some ambiguous dream people were bustling around behind the serving counter.

“Hey, could we get some cider over here?” Apple Bloom shouted to the counter.

“Right away!” came a male voice, the proprieter of the establishment, who Sweetie apparantly remembered very well. He came walking up with two soda glasses filled up with nice bubbly amber liquid, and a straw stuck in each so they could be easily sipped. You didn’t really see much of him, just his legs mostly, and his orange skinned hands lowering down to place the cider before each of them.

“Thanks a lot, fella!” Apple Bloom said appreciatively. That seemed to do the trick of paying him, and he left the two to sip at their cider in peace. Sweetie took a draw out of her own straw, and her eyes widened.

“This really tastes like cider!” she exclaimed in surprise, looking at the glass she sipped out of.

“Course it does,” Apple Bloom said, sipping at her own straw for that cool fizzy liquid with its deep sweet tartness. “Ah love that stuff!”

“But I never... but isn’t this my dream?” Sweetie asked uncertainly.

“Oh... uh... well,” Apple Bloom said blushing, “Ah’m in it right? So ah guess... that means... ah can be in the cider too? Just speculatin’” Then Apple Bloom chuckled at a thought that evoked.

“Ah sure do taste good, don’t I Sweetie Belle?” she said cheekily.

Sweetie glanced down, and then her eyes widened and she looked again at her cider ...leerily. Apple Bloom sighed, saying apologetically, “Sorry ah didn’t mean that in a weird way. It’s just cider, you can go ahead and drink it. Ah just kinda helped make it, just a little bit.”

Sweetie cautiously sipped at her cider again. “It really does taste good,” she murmured moodily. “I can never make stuff taste good in my dreams.”

“Don’t worry about that, Sweetie,” Apple Bloom said kindly. “You’ll get it just fine. We can even practice some time, but ah kinda wanted to do something else now that we got the chance.”

With her ears tilting bashfully, Sweetie told her drinking glass, since she was too shy to tell Apple Bloom. ““I really appreciate you helping me get better at this stuff. S-sorry I take so much of your time.”

“It’s okay Sweetie,” Apple Bloom said, walking around the table to sit beside her friend, so she could nuzzle at her friend’s cute curly pink and purple Sweetie hair. Make her feel right welcome. “Ah been hopin’ to get some time t’talk with just you, anyways.”

“Why’s that?” Sweetie asked uncertainly, flicking an ear at Apple Bloom’s odd attentions.

Apple Bloom paused in them, and just rested her head sideways against Sweetie Belle’s.

“You make a good pony, you know that?” Apple Bloom said to her in an encouraging tone.

Sweetie didn’t answer, looking forward with a neutral expression on her face... muzzle thing.

“You been real down about this whole thing, feelin’ all useless and stuff,” Apple Bloom said gently, coming to face Sweetie Belle steadily. “I just want you to know, you’ll be moving around just as good as you used to in no time flat, better even. You’ll get better at talkin’ and you’re already better’n Scootaloo. And you really will use that horn of yours. Ah dunno how, but ah know you’ll figure it out. You ain’t just some dumb looking critter who thinks she’s a unicorn. You’re Sweetie Belle, an’ you’re awesome, and you really are a unicorn, as real as they come. A beautiful one, not a dumb or clumsy one.”

Sweetie turned to look at Apple Bloom and gave her a shaky smile. “I want to go back to school,” Sweetie said automatically.

Then Sweetie blushed, and looked forward again, covering her muzzle with her forehooves. “I didn’t mean to say that,” she mumbled.

“Heh... dreams ah guess,” Apple Bloom said, feeling a bit shaken herself at that. “Y’can ah mean... ah’m sure you cain uhm... ah cain’t exactly stop ya.” She took a deep breath, and said to Sweetie, “When you know all about how to run around like a pony, and you ain’t got no more talking problems, you cain... go back to school. A-ah’ll come with you t-to stop any kids from teasin’ you or freakin’ out.”

“You don’t have to, Apple Bloom,” Sweetie said solemnly. “I just miss it so much. I miss Sugarcube Cafe here. I miss singing with Chirpy, and my teachers, and... and even mister Doodle. He was mean, but he was really... funny and stuff. I know you don’t wanna be embarassed...”

“Ah’m mostly worried about people panickin’,” Apple Bloom said gravely. “They can just ignore me bein’ a pony, if’n ah hide out here, ah ain’t a problem that way. But if ah went to school... I dunno, someone might wanna hurt me or some like, because they couldn’t pretend I wasn’t there.

“Ah’m just a pony, Sweetie!” Apple Bloom entreated her earnestly. “Ah ain’t got no horn or wing things or magic really. Ah just got like... my old human colors, and that’s it. I didn’t feel like I even belonged in school no more. Because I was the only one... but with you two with me I—I think I could...do it.”

“Is anyone else going to change into a pony?” Sweetie asked, not Apple Bloom personally but just poising the question.

“I really hope not, Sweetie,” Apple Bloom sighed. “There wouldn’t be enough hay in the whole city! Ah could be happy with just you two, I think. Not that I don’t wanna help ya be human again, but... if we’re the only ponies in school, I think we could still do okay as long as we have each other. M-maybe Diamond Tiara, too.”

“I hope she’s okay,” Sweetie said, shifting onto her side and letting her legs kick out from under her. “I was so glad she came over this weekend, even though we’re here, and made her sad.”

Apple Bloom eyed the ground thoughtfully, looking Sweetie in the eye and saying, “Ah don’t know much we can do for her there. Just keep supportin’ her. It’s just... it’s just important that she don’t feel left out. Even though she kinda... ah dunno. I just think it ain’t so good for her to be alone right now.”

“Rarity says she’s been doing awful, terrible things,” Sweetie said with a slight smile. Apple Bloom looked at that smile with suspicious puzzlement, but Sweetie clarified right away saying, “Rarity was saying ‘oh Sweetie Belle it is ever so scandalous. That Diamond has been flaunting around Scootaloo’s special um... beau, as her own!’

“Basically,” Sweetie explained, “I think Diamond Tiara has been friends with Dinky last week, and since Scootaloo can’t be there too, it looks... um... like she stole him.”

Her eyes widening, Bloom said on that topic, “Oh golly! Ah hope Dinky doesn’t mind that his girlfriend’s a...

“uh...”

Now Apple Bloom was the one hiding her nose under her forehooves. “...a pony now,” she managed to mumble through them.

“It is kind of a deal breaker,” Sweetie admitted with a wry eyebrow raised. “I don’t think he’s just switching to Diamond though. It’s just a... um... circumstance.”

“Ah do wish more people’d turn into ponies now,” Apple Bloom exclaimed glumly, planting her face on the table.

“Why’s that?” Sweetie asked her morose friend.

“What’re we gonna do about boys?” Apple Bloom asked in mild distress, rolling her head to its side to look at Sweetie seriously. Sweetie seemed unsure of how to answer that, understandably.

“Ah mean, we’re gettin’ to that age,” said Apple Bloom, sitting up, staring forward. “But any relationships we had, it’d be just... really wrong.”

Sweetie had a blush in her cheeks now, as she mumbled, “But would it be any better if they were ponies too?”

“Ah don’t wanna date a pony!” Apple Bloom squealed in frustration. She just flopped down on the floor of the dream cafe, then rolling belly up, big pink bow flat against the floor. She looked up soberly at her four pony hooves curled up over her plump round little barrel, with that bright, expressive tail coming out beyond her, that oughtn’t not have been there at all.

“An’ ah don’t think nobody else should have to, either...” Apple Bloom added in a more subdued tone.

Sweetie turned from where she sat, watching at the laying Apple Bloom pensively for some indescribable amount of time.

“You’re a beautiful pony too,” Sweetie Belle said quietly.

Apple Bloom smiled up at the ceiling. “Thanks, Sweetie,” she said to her best friend in the whole wide world. Sweetie’s response was wordless, simply laying next to her friend, table manners forgotten in these strange circumstances. The two just lay there then, looking up at the soft light fixtures in the green roof, until everything wavered out of focus, and the serving counter started to look like a flat projection.

“What?” Sweetie said in alarm, sitting up on the increasingly fake feeling ground.

“We’re just wakin’ up, Sweetie,” Apple Bloom said to the unicorn. She sat up too, and gave her friend one last hug as things started to fade out, saying, “See you on the other side, ‘kay?”

Apple Bloom thought she felt a snug back, before she woke up with her empty hooves curled over nothing but sheets and a thick quilt. She lay there in bed a moment thoughtfully, before in the darkness, Sweetie sat up next to her. Well, uncurled more like, and the unicorn stuck her head out from under the blanket.

“Was tha’...?” Sweetie asked unbelievingly, looking at Apple Bloom with wide green eyes that almost seemed to glow. “Were hyu rearly there?”

Sweetie crossed her eyes on the spot then, and smacked her lips, repeating more carefully, “really...there?”

“Hm...” Apple Bloom pondered in front of the curious unicorn, thoughtfully tapping on her chin with a hoof. “Only one way t’ confirm it.”

Then, she hopped forward, and gave Sweetie a nice big, tight, squeezy hug, quilt blanket and everything.

“Yup,” Apple Bloom declared cheerfully, “This feels downright familiar!”

“Ugh,” Scootaloo groaned, stirring on the other side of Sweetie. “Get a room, you two.”

Apple Bloom regrettably had to separate from Sweetie Belle, in order to use her amazing pony powers to smack Scootaloo in the face with a pillow.

Scootaloo was getting better at dreaming. But there was something else at which she had both of them beat, thanks to the kindness and wisdom of her mom. The three ponies were lying around the big living room one day, on the bottom floor of the farm house, while the wind whistled around the eaves, no other sound to be heard. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were flopped out on their bellies on the floor, while the curly haired white unicorn friend of theirs was on her back, staring at the ceiling.

“Maybe we should try sleeping...” Apple Bloom said dully, even her bow looking droopy in her languid malaise.

“We just woke up,” Sweetie grumbled, waving her hooves ineffectually at the ceiling.

“Why can’t we play with the ball inside?” Scootaloo complained grumpily.

“After we broke that vase, and the teacups, and the antique plates, ah think you know the answer to that,” Apple Bloom replied equally grumpily.

Scootaloo stared out at the window, where a whirling mass of white snow fell past outside. “Doesn’t look like it’s letting up...” she sighed.

“Maybe we could try cooking something?” Apple Bloom suggested.

“We just ate, too, though!” Sweetie protested.

“What books do we have left, that we haven’t read?” Scootaloo asked doubtfully.

“Mah brother’s engineering textbooks, and an old Introduction to Accounting book,” Apple Bloom confirmed glumly.

“Hope Ms. Cheerilee will bring some more books,” Sweetie mumbled, rolling onto her belly. “At least we can do that, then.”

“We have to face it, girls,” Scootaloo said bleakly, flopping onto her back, her little wings spreading to balance her back there. “We’ve done everything there is to do around here!”

“Maybe Big Macintosh would have an idea?” Sweetie suggested. Apple Bloom shook her head though.

“Mah brother just got to sleep, and he needs as much as he cain get, with all the extra schoolwork to go through and all.”

“Then what do we do?” Sweetie pleaded anxiously.

Apple Bloom just shrugged, and curled up half into a ball. “Welcome to mah world,” she said somberly. “Ain’t nothing to do around here with our pigs and all the cows taken care of.”

“How did you even last a whole two months?” Scootaloo asked in amazement. “It’s been two weeks, and I’m going nuts here!”

Looking at the window again, Scootaloo said with a frustrated huff, “I wish we could play outside, but even I don’t like snow constantly blowing in my face.”

“Maybe we could draw something?” Sweetie suggested, looking over at their growing pile of crayon (and rarely pencil) drawings.

“I guess,” Scootaloo responded without any enthusiasm. She rolled to her hooves, and sulked over there, collecting a bunch of paper in her mouth and balancing the crayon box on top of it. She came back to where the other two lay and dumped it on the floor, where Sweetie and Apple Bloom swiveled around toward it.

As they each picked a color, bit on the end of the crayon, and started doodling on the paper, it was pretty obvious to them all that they were gonna have to find something more interesting to do, and soon.

When Applejack got back, along with Cheerilee who came over to see Scootaloo, the CMC relayed their concerns to those two. Applejack didn’t have much idea beyond cooking stuff for later, which actually was a pretty good idea. But Cheerilee had a glimmer of an idea. She said to let her think on that, and then knelt there among the three ponies and regaled them with the incredibly exciting adventures of a librarian.

Considering what they’d done all day, learning about the students Cheerilee had to deal with was comparatively fascinating.

Well, it doesn’t snow much in Canterlot. Weather’s pretty even, in fact. The snow let up pretty fast, and the three finally got out to play during the day, and that was fine as could be. Cheerilee had brought more books with her for them to read, though there was a limit even for her how many books she could check out at once. More books meant more stuff to do, which was cool. But the really incredible thing was when Cheerilee came by a few days later.

Flat on her belly, Scootaloo grumbled out, “I am so... bored...”

She got no argument from the other two.

“I spy with my little eye,” Sweetie said, while the others groaned, “Something... tall.”

“That’s cheating, Sweets,” Scootaloo said casually, “Everything is tall for us now!”

“Okay, something...” Sweetie said taking Scootaloo’s quip straight, “With glass.”

“Is it a glass?” Scootaloo asked. Sweetie giggled and shook her head.

“It is glass, or it has glass?” Apple Bloom asked.

“It has gla—” Sweetie said, right when there was the sound of a car driving up the road to the house.

“They’re back!” Apple Bloom cheered, as the three ponies climbed to their hooves and trotted off for the front door. The chilly afternoon air cut into their coats as they made their way outside, greeting the truck and Cheerilee’s beamer as they came in one after the other. Applejack was in there today, along with Granny Smith as usual. And Cheerilee in her car. The three humans found themselves hounded by three ponies as they approached the house, Apple Bloom saying, “Good to see you!”

While Sweetie said,“What did you do today?”

With Scootaloo immediately following up with, “Hi mom!”

Then Apple Bloom saying, “What did y’all do today?”

And in short, the three fillies were speaking in such rapid succession that none of the three humans could get a word in edgewise, nor could they understand what the little ponies were babbling about.

Once they’d calmed down enough to be understandable, Cheerilee smiled at their curious inquiries and tales of woe, squatted down to almost their level and said, “Why don’t you three go see what I’ve got in the back seat of my car?”

Three little pony shaped clouds of dust were the only indication that they had been there at all.

“Lemme see!”

“I wanna see!”

“Lemme get the door open!”

Biting and tugging the handle to open the door, Sweetie Belle swung the door open while Apple Bloom and Scootaloo excitedly piled inside and looked at what was in the back seat. Scootaloo’s squeal of joy wasn’t quite audible from 20 miles away in Canterlot High, but it came close.

When Cheerilee noticed the pony children seemed a bit bored, and brought along her daughter’s video game console, she certainly expected them to appreciate it, Scootaloo especially, but she didn’t expect Scootaloo to bodily leap at her, and hug around her waist shouting, “Thankyouthankyouthankyou!”

“It’s not a problem, honey bear!” Cheerilee said in mild astonishment, catching Scootaloo’s weight in her arms as the pony’s momentum sent her stumbling back a step. “You were getting pretty bored there, huh?”

“You have no idea,” Scootaloo groaned.

“Now hold on,” Apple Bloom stated, less enthusiastically than Scootaloo, trotting up to her and Cheerilee, “We don’t even know it’ll work here! Ah know this house got ‘lectrical wiring, but it hasn’t been redone in who knows how long.”

“Well, you can plug in your T.V., right?” Scootaloo said challengingly, from where she was perched up here in Cheerilee’s arms. “So you can plug in my Playstation!”

“There’s only one outlet in the living room though!” Apple Bloom protested.

“Actually...” Cheerilee said tentatively.

It was intriguing watching the three little ponies assembling the video game station along with the Apple’s old cathode ray tube television. Cheerilee brought along a power strip, which solved any problems with an electrical connection, but you wouldn’t think that a pony could manipulate those things with a mouth and hooves. The only thing Apple Bloom needed help on was plugging the final assembly into the wall, and even that was because she was leery about wrapping her mouth around a live wire. What would have been lifted in one’s hands was now bumped by one’s nose onto one’s forehead. What would have been twisted in fingers, their pony lips could take care of it.

The only real sticking point was when the television had the wrong connectors on it for picture and sound. But Cheerilee was happy enough to drive out the the local Radio Shack and get a converter for it. It wasn’t long before everything was all set up.

“Alright,” Scootaloo declared, “Which games don’t need you to use the side buttons?”

Three pony faces fell to serious contemplation.

Pretty soon Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were laying there on their bellies, with one hoof over the D-pad and one over the buttons. It was more difficult to hit them, but by angling one’s hoof in the direction you could apply pressure to play them. On the television screen, a somewhat off-color image of little dudes running around and blowing each other up was displayed.

“Oh no, the corner—EEE!” Sweetie squealed as her little dude was trapped and blown up.

“Gotta watch out for the corner bombs!” Scootaloo said smugly, then slid her controller over to Apple Bloom. Well Apple Bloom was... pretty terrible at the game, and it didn’t take long for Sweetie Belle to hedge her in. “Aw, shucks!” Apple Bloom said as her dude walked right into an explosion.

“Better luck next time!” Sweetie said cheerfully, passing her controller to Scootaloo.

It was endearing for Cheerilee to watch them all working together like that, but in a bittersweet way, because once the victor was settled, and the next game was started, the three of them fell silent, concentrating on the screen, and not on each other.

When she first had Scootaloo, she steeled herself to not expose her child to video games, but they were just so convenient. She came to rely on them to keep little Scootaloo out of mischief, and to give Cheerilee a moment’s peace. But they certainly weren’t the most social of activities. These three didn’t seem to notice anything off, but when Cheerilee was young it was unheard of for kids to just... go silent like that and ignore each other, staring fixedly forward.

It bothered her, but she couldn’t put her finger on exactly why it was such a problem for kids to act like that. In the end, she tolerated that sort of thing, and here at the Apple household, one could only sit back and appreciate colonial architecture so long, it seemed, before getting snowed in started driving you up the wall.

There Dinky sat, with his book bag in his lap, legs close together, trying to look out the bus window. It was a chilly, overcast day outside, the buildings rolling by as the bus took them on their way to school. He stared out the window fixedly, at once both attracted and repulsed by the coy girl at his shoulder, who seemed determined to make friends with him.

“So then I like, had to show up late, and it was all over a giant misunderstanding. It worked out I guess because I like, would have missed the fire if I got to English class on time, and then we might not even have a Canterlot High, am I right?” she said, definitely a girl who liked to talk a lot.

Dinky just tried to put up with her, be there to listen to her, and not to blush at her closeness. He mumbled an affirmative or something, wishing he could just... open up to her, and tell her how he feels.

But enough about that boring stuff. During the long, cool nights back at Sweet Apple Acres, the Crusaders were making themselves busy in slumber, catching the princess up with everything that happened. The princess had a sort of childlike fascination with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. She never seemed to stop being amazed that they were real, and not something she or Apple Bloom made up. Real, for her, at least. Everything the princess knew was a dream, so her understanding of the difference between dreams and reality was tenuous at best. The princess was absolutely delighted at the idea that more ponies would be available now to dream, though she made a token effort to be sympathetic for their transformative plight.

“So,” Apple Bloom asked her majesty, on a night that all four of them were sitting there, out on a floating island covered in soft, yellow flowers, high over an endless ocean, “You are absolutely, totally sure you cain’t transform anyone into a pony?”

“I can’t possibly imagine how,” the princess said in a practical tone, legs curled underneath her in a larger fashion, but otherwise the same as the little apple pony, and the pale white unicorn sitting before her. Scootaloo was flopped out on her side less neatly, but listening nonetheless. “I’d be happy to try,” the princess said amenably to the three of them, “But who do you know, who’d be willing to change from being a weird two-legged thing into a pony?”

“Diamond Tiara,” Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo spoke up at once.

Apple Bloom herself blushed at the quick response from the two, and clarified, “Y-yeah, our other friend Diamond is kinda weird... she likes magic a lot, and wants to well, she’s probably the least likely to get upset over it.”

“Is she a unicorn too?” the princess asked, then corrected herself, “I mean, of course she’s a ‘human.’ And you couldn’t possibly know if she would become a unicorn, since she hasn’t yet.” Apple Bloom wasn’t sure if you were supposed to answer a question they just answered like that. So the princess smiled, saying, “Um, yeah. So, that’s that I guess. So, how about this cool... island thing!”

“I made daffodils!” Sweetie spoke up with a happy smile. The dream was, it turns out, her own creation this time. Just a simple, peaceful fragment of landscape under a clear blue sky. Sweetie was still rusty at it, and Scootaloo a complete neophyte, but Apple Bloom was pretty sure they’d pick it up quick, with the princess here paying attention to them.

“These are daffodils?” the princess said, putting her nose into the flowers and taking a bite out of them. The three watched somewhat shocked, as she chewed saying, “Hmm... why do they taste like alfalfa then?”

“I’m new at—this, sorry,” Sweetie admitted, turning her nose and blushing. “We’re mostly eating... alfalfa from a bale of it, in the waking world. I haven’t had a chance to t-try flowers, either, so I don’t know how they taste. All the flowers are gone, but it’s just winter out there.”

“Winter, huh...” the princess said, a blustery chill blowing through their fur. “I remember winter,” she said. “It’s got lots of white stuff, that’s actually crystallized water, if I remember right? Do flowers not like that?”

“It’s kinda cold for them,” Apple Bloom pointed out. “There are some berries. Winter’s got its own charm though, sittin’ by a fire, and how peaceful and quiet it is all the time. Spring’ll be here soon enough. Maybe when it comes around, you can be awake to see it!”

“Maybe...” the princess grumbled reluctantly, gazing listlessly at the faux flowers now.

“So, what happens when you try to wake up?” Scootaloo asked the princess, curiously.

“Hmm?” the princess said to Scootaloo. The seconds passed as she stared at Scootaloo, with no response from the princess. Then, just right before anyone could ask, the princess tilted her head and said, “You know, I don’t remember actually. It’s been a while since I tried it. One sec.”

The princess shimmered out of existence, leaving the three of them alone on their sunny island, unmoored from the shackles of the earth.

“...good going, Scootaloo,” Apple Bloom said, in a dead monotone. “Ah thought we’d never see the last of her.”

“Oh shaddup,” Scootaloo snorted, crossing her hooves.

“She’ll be back someday,” Sweetie said in apologetic comfort, “We just have to hope she remembers to check up on us, and maybe in a week or so we can start worrying.”

The princess immediately shimmered back into existence, surprising literally everyone. “Wow.” the princess said bemusedly, with a disgusted look on her face. “That’s why I never do it. I remember now!”

“What do you remember?” a surprised, but very interested Sweetie asked the peculiar purple princess.

“Hmm?” the princess asked, looking at Sweetie Belle in mild confusion.

“Oh!” Princess Twilight then concluded. “It’s just dark.”

“Dark?” Sweetie said, looking around as the moon rose over the ocean, that this island floated above.

“Totally dark,” the princess nodded curtly. “Boring. Can’t see anything, hear anything, feel anything, taste anything, smell anything, or anything. Your dream is much funner.”

She then proceeded to prance away, and rolled her regal princess self in the daffodils, laughing gayly at nothing at all.

Apple Bloom drew her hoof down her face, and gestured at the princess with it hopelessly. “Clearly she’s got important things to do,” Apple Bloom said grumpily.

Scootaloo rolled her eyes and responded, “Chill, Apple Bloom. Not like it’s a big deal or anything. So she’s a little weird. She’s also helping us a lot, and maybe it’s good for her to... do whatever she’s doing over there.”

“Um...” At Sweetie’s behest, the sun rose again illuminating them all, puffy clouds once again dotting the bright blue sky. “I don’t know about you,” Sweetie said, rising up onto her hooves, “But I think she’s onto something!”

“You wait here and be all serious,” Sweetie said to an ornery Apple Bloom, “While we go play in the daffodils.”

Then Sweetie Belle gallopped off, to jump on the princess, and started tickling her belly mercilessly. The princess was no match for the little unicorn, and both their laughter seemed to brighten the sun in the sky.

Meanwhile, Scootaloo asked Apple Bloom uncertainly, “Did Sweetie just... use sarcasm?”

“Ah’m not sure...” Apple Bloom said distantly, looking at the two chasing each other around the field. “Sure looks like fun though.”

“Oh I’m the fuddy duddy now?” Scootaloo drawled teasingly. “C’mon, let’s see how many of these things we can take out in one slide!”

She and Apple Bloom charged over, and somehow failed to decimate the daffodil population, despite bright white bursts of silvery dust escaping each flower that their bodies slid through.

It... was definitely going to take a while to catch the princess up on everything. Or on anything at all, for that matter.

The verdant green lands extended as far as the eye could see, rolling hills of waving grasses, dense forests that seemed like tiny matchsticks from way up here. Here, the billowing clouds rolled across the sky, like majestic temples of rain and weather. Their silver shone in the sunlight cast down from the emerald blue skies overhead. In these sweeping cumuli, among these valleys and mountains of white, the two figures conferring seemed tiny against that great expanse. High above the earth, a little earth pony named Apple Bloom nestled into the soft fluff like she was born to it, while next to her a regal pony princess was seated, listening to Apple Bloom with a childlike interest.

“So, Princess Twilight, why can’t I wake up, if ah’m in somepony else’s dream?” Apple Bloom asked the dream princess once another night, in a dream where Apple Bloom and the princess were alone, sitting in the sky on some fluffy clouds, once again high above the earth.

“It happened a while back,” Apple Bloom clarified, “An’ we woke right up when Scootaloo did, but ah don’t wanna get stuck in like, sleeping or something. Sweetie Belle was awful scared of that happening. Would I be like you then, stuck forever in th’ realm of dreams?”

“Would you?” the princess asked in response, “I don’t think so. I don’t remember how it works. I just live here.”

“Yes, but,” Apple Bloom kneaded nervously at the cloud material, like fluffy goose down. “When ah wake up, an’ you’re in mah dream, you don’t wake up too. What is it like when I wake up?”

The princess looked at her hooves, saying, “It’s really not like anything. Everything just... wobbles out, and I’m alone again. I can hold it a little if you just stop dreaming and stay in the blue wavy place for a while, but if you wake up even I just get tossed out. I can make my own dreams though, even while you’re gone.”

“Dunno why ah’m even asking really,” Apple Bloom flumped down. “You cain’t wake up, and you forgot why, so maybe you got stuck in some other pony’s dream ages ago, but you don’t remember so you cain’t tell me that no more.”

“I don’t know if you should be experimenting with this,” the princess worried at Apple Bloom. “There’s so much you don’t know about how the dream realm works, and I don’t know how much I can teach you. You already know how to stabilize, and to dream walk. That’s... pretty much all I can do, really. I know you like dreaming with your friends, but... I don’t want you to get stuck here like me. Nopony should have to go through this. It’s so horrible and empty, and long and lonely... but if you do get stuck, at least it won’t be lonely. I’ll always be here for you, and I’ll do whatever I can to help you wake up.”

“Hmm. You were in mah dream, while I was wakin’ up, and you didn’t wake up when ah did,” Apple Bloom poised, “You’re stuck even if someone wakes you up. So it really is different ah guess. I couldn’t wake up in Scootaloo’s dream, but Scootaloo could, and when she did, it was just impossible to stay asleep. We all wake up at the same time, when the one dreamin’ wakes.”

The princess added with a relaxed smile, “Plus when you’re in my dream, you don’t have any problem waking up. You can wake up at any time you want. I don’t... remember how I made it like that, but mine aren’t real dreams, I think. I’ve been here too long. This is awake for me, and there are no dreams anymore.”

“So it is different,” Apple Bloom agreed. “Here in your dream ah don’t feel like... tethered to the moment like then, like when ah was in that dream of Scootaloo’s. She was dreamin’ that I had to be there.”

The princess offered a suggestion at that, saying, “I could maybe show you how to shift your focus back to your own dream, when your dreamer awakes, so you don’t have to wake up,” She just shook her head then though, adding dismissively, “That’s about the opposite of what you want to do though. I’d say just don’t worry about it, if you are already waking up fine. But I really, really don’t know.”

“Guess ah could ask the other princess,” Apple Bloom offered. “She’s awake and... sorry ah didn’t mean—”

“It’s okay,” the princess said with an anxious wing ruffle. “I’m just glad that one of me gets to be awake, or however that works.”

“Ah’ll ask her, maybe,” Apple Bloom agreed. “Or maybe a professional dream like counselor or somethin’. They won’t know about pony dreamin’ but maybe...”

Something invisible nudged Apple Bloom. It just nudged her lightly, but for some reason Apple Bloom was compelled to roll over on the cloud they were on, rolling onto her back, and then to hold her front hooves over her. Apple Bloom looked at them confused, wondering why she had to lay like this.

“Looks like your friends are awake,” Twilight said in an echoey sort of voice.

“Oh, right,” Apple Bloom said, starting to realize how she was actually laying in bed, and her hooves were hooked over the covers. “See you later, princess!” she called out, as she left the dream, opening her eyes to join the waking realm again.

The slight movement against Apple Bloom paused, and Sweetie Belle’s voice quietly said, “Thank you, but I was just going to the bathroom... and I’m not a princess.”

“Oh! Heh...” Apple Bloom blushed and ducked her nose under her covers.

Sweetie gave her a teasing look, but just... quietly hopped over Apple Bloom and walked to the side of the bed, the unicorn getting on her belly and swivelling to dangle her hind legs down, dropping them to the floor. With all four legs on the floor, Sweetie Belle went walking towards the cracked open doorway, giving a sleepy yawn mid-stride.

Author's Note

The Calm

Apple Bloom watched Sweetie heading off into the dark hallway. Another restless night for Sweetie Belle, it looked like. As Sweetie went to go use the little pony’s room, Apple Bloom looked from the empty doorway over to the window of her room, where the dawn’s light was just peeking in over the horizon. Monday...

Apple Bloom could hear movement downstairs, clinking in the kitchen and boots on the floor. Everyone was real quiet when they got ready for school, all for Apple Bloom’s sake. It was silly because Apple Bloom didn’t even need to go to sleep and wake up at a certain hour anymore. She should just be able to adjust to be awake when the rest of the family was. But she still appreciated it.

Scootaloo didn’t wake as Apple Bloom wiggled out from the covers, trotting off in the direction Sweetie Belle went. Looking back, Apple Bloom could see her friend’s head was turned away, just a swoosh of purple visible, her breathing slowly rising and falling as Scootaloo curled on her side half under the covers. Scootaloo’s ear twitched at some unseen sound. Probably the princess bothering her now, not that Apple Bloom would ever blame that poor princess for seeking company in such a lonely place as dreaming alone.

Tip toeing out, Apple Bloom headed down the stairs quietly as she could, so as not to wake the only remaining sleeper in the house. Apple Bloom knew the three of them could sleep through a lot though, so she wasn’t all that careful about it. “Hey y’all,” she said in an inside voice, walking into an unfeeling, cold-cereal breakfast between Applejack, Granny Smith and Cheerilee.

Big Mac was still sleeping in today. Rarity was living in her apartment nowadays, but visited often after school hours. As for Rainbow Dash, well, Apple Bloom only got to hear about it from her sister Applejack’s depiction, but apparantly there had been some drama after the last time, as Dash felt bad about freaking Scootaloo out so much and thought she would mess things up by returning.

But Dash worked it out with her friends, and would be visiting soon again. Apple Bloom honestly couldn’t wait. She knew Scootaloo would be so much happier to be in Rainbow Dash’s presence, now that the pegasus could run around at least, and talk without sounding like she was chewing on marbles. She’d want to show Rainbow Dash everything she’d learned, even if flying wasn’t one of those things. Apple Bloom kind of wanted to see that.

With a flushing sound from overhead, Sweetie announced her presence, and subsequently the unicorn girl came downstairs and joined Apple Bloom. The two ponies sat there on the floor, watching with a detached sort of interest, Apple Bloom’s family busily getting ready to go at the very crack of dawn. Apple Bloom scooted a little closer to Sweetie Belle, and her warm friend nestled against her in return. The flurry of activity around them made them feel like an anchor in the storm.

Mac poured a tiny little glass of sweet orange juice, one for each of the ponies, and that quenched their morning goober thirst. Soon, he was making the three of them a nice warm breakfast. Whilst he did, Apple Bloom made herself useful by standing on a stool, and scrubbing the dishes that were dirty so far, making them all sparkling clean, continuing to think on who had visited her so far.

Apple Bloom didn’t have school to worry about no longer, but she still found herself studying even more than ever before. There wasn’t a lot to do besides study! Video games were a possibility now, but... it just didn’t feel fulfilling to sit there staring at a screen, when you could be learning stuff. When she, Scootaloo or Sweetie brought up a question that just drove the three of them up the wall trying to figure out, they’d be upstairs all quiet like, poring over the various textbooks and library books that they’d manage to amass a hoard of.

“Their nose?!” Sweetie exclaimed in disbelief looking at the marine encyclopedia.

“Ah thought so!” Apple Bloom said happily. “Ain’t nothing that’s gotta single spiral horn like that thing on your head. Narwhals got a single tusk that sticks out through their nose.”

“Wow, it says they live under the arctic ice all year!” Scootaloo exclaimed, scanning through the text on the creatures.

“Aren’t they whales though?” Apple Bloom said uncertainly. “Ah don’t remember how they breathe.”

“Hold on um...” Scootaloo continued reading, casually flipping the page with her nose, something Apple Bloom had figured out and taught her, but something that quickly came as second nature to the three of them. Scootaloo mumbled, “Feed on bottom dwelling... floating ice sheets come together... woah, it says they can suffocate under the ice!”

“Really?” Sweetie asked shoving her head where Scootaloo’s was. “But that doesn’t make any sense! Why stay under the ice then?”

“Guess the critters they eat stay under the ice?” Apple Bloom suggested. “It’s the same reason weasels gotta fit in mouse burrows.”

“Doesn’t say,” Scootaloo concluded uneasily, then, “Huh, it says they can dive up to five thousand feet.”

“Ah cain barely dive twelve feet!” Apple Bloom said in surprise, looking at the strange creatures with awe.

“Can you swim now?” Sweetie asked Apple Bloom.

Apple Bloom lifted her head and looked thoughtfully into the air, before focusing on Sweetie and saying, “You know ah ain’t had the chance to try. Ah don’t have to swim, at the creek nearby. We should try it sometime. In shallow water.”

“That’s something we are going to have to have a human present for,” Sweetie said grouchily. “I’m not going near any water, with these... non flipper things,” she raised a cylindrical white hoof and waggled it in front of her.

“Let’s check the horse book,” Scootaloo suggested, looking up from the marine encyclopedia. “I bet horses can swim.”

“On those spindly legs?” Sweetie laughed. “Bet they can’t!”

Sweetie Belle didn’t really enjoy the taste of crow.

For most of her reading material, Scootaloo wanted to read about mechanics and engineering, so she could figure out if there was a way that a pony could ride a scooter. Big Mac was kind of helping there, but it wasn’t one of those things you just followed a diagram for. They had to figure out how the pony would stand, and propel herself, and what she’d steer with. Scootaloo was honestly getting a bit down on herself for that, because nothing that she or Mac thought up ever quite felt “right” to her.

With active lives Apple Bloom and her friend lived, they could have accomplished a lot, but that much excitement and activity raised a powerful need for them to sleep, and sleep a lot more. Apple Bloom didn’t feel exhausted though, despite her need for sleep. If anything, she’d never felt more alive. School was just so draining and tedious, this frustrating thing that was just waiting for you to slip up or fail. -

But now she could learn all the things she ever wanted to learn, useful things that actually helped her and her friends. Apple Bloom expressed as such to Twilight, and Twilight responded with some noncomittal thing about how ponies didn’t have some special “education mindset” built in, and in different circumstances, ponies could have had the same educational system as humans, and how neither system was superior to the other.

But still, Apple Bloom had to wonder. She had studied just as hard from assignments in school, but she was just learning so much more studying with her friends. Maybe it helped that Cheerilee was there, and she could get them just about any information they wanted, and even worked through some of the hard stuff with them. Who knew that bee hives were formed of hexagons not pentagons, because they tesselated! And that they were hexagons, not squares, because of all the polygons that tesselate, hexagons were the one with the most sides! Certainly not anything her old math professor had brought up.

Sweetie Belle was sort of starting to get tired of magic, and horn exercises. Not that Sweetie didn’t enjoy magic, or even horn exercises. They sort of felt good, even if her horn wouldn’t do anything, just they were kind of exhausting. As for magic itself...

Sweetie Belle was just fascinated with all the implications and nuances of the magic that Twilight and Sunset claimed now suffused all their lives. Magic was an important part of pony biology, and it could have far reaching implications for the world at large, if they mastered it. But Scootaloo was really not good at sitting still and learning stuff, and Apple Bloom seemed almost averse to learning about magic. She’d been through so much, and, really it was like she sort of blamed herself for all this, and learning magic was sort of like siding with the enemy, or something?

Not Sweetie though. She listened to those alien pony girls closely. What they said could prove essential to the three—four now, of them in the future. Those two older girls seemed to have a—no pun intended—magical knack for knowing when things were going to happen. And those two had a better understanding of the pony Sweetie and her friends had become, than they liked to let on. If only they would stop lying so much. It was hard enough to separate fact from fiction, when Sweetie Belle had transformed overnight into a little unicorn, but when Twilight said there was nothing wrong with Sweetie’s horn... it just didn’t add up.

Sweetie did all the exercises, all the meditations and mindfulness, and she really felt like it was doing something in her horn. But the only measurable effect was making her tired. It’d been a month, and she hadn’t even been able to get a spark going. Not that Sweetie even knew what it would look like, aside from “It’s usually roughly the color of your eyes, minus certain eye-specific pigments.” All she had was this uncanny feeling like it was going to spark. As if she had a flint striker stuck into her head. That sounds more dangerous than it really was, because Sweetie just couldn’t get her horn to even do anything.

Well, but it was weirdly good at poking holes in things. That was definitely magic. After the new year, Big Mac was out back breaking down trees for firewood, when Apple Bloom had a great idea to put a smile on Sweetie’s face. She approached the little unicorn still concentrating on her magic, saying, “Hey Sweetie, ah know how your magic could be of real help!”

“Really?” Sweetie asked, eagerly distracted, looking around hopefully, “Where?”

“You know how you cain make your horn real sharp and pokey?” Apple Bloom said slyly.

Sweetie blinked silently in response, so Apple Bloom sighed and just told her, “Mah brother’s out back choppin’ firewood. With an axe. Nice big, heavy axe, takes a lot of work to swing it. Bet he’d be grateful if somepony could split that wood somehow. Maybe you should go see if—” but Sweetie Belle was already gone, sort of trotting over to where Apple Bloom’s big brother was.

She wasn’t very good at trotting yet, but she made it work. And the more important thing is, she made her horn work! ...sort of. Sweetie Belle loved the look on Big Macintosh’s face when she split a good sized log just by head butting it. Surprised, but also grateful, and somewhat intrigued. It was a good magic, even if it got troublesome at times, and even if it made her friends a little bit more leery of getting near her horn.

Sweetie just wondered why her regular magic wasn’t coming to her, the way Scootaloo was starting to fly, and Apple Bloom was... doing things. The alien girls said unicorns could all levitate things, and that there were other things you could do, with the right spell matrix. You could make things light up, transmute materials, do complex and delicate construction, hold pencils, and... teleport: the rarest of the rare talents.

Sweetie Belle didn’t expect to be able to just wink out of existence, and appear somewhere else, but she at least wanted to get her horn to glow. Twilight told her what you had to do to accomplish that, Sweetie tried it, and it just wouldn’t work. That’s what didn’t add up. And Twilight had this awkward smile when she said how to do it, almost like she was feeling sorry for Sweetie, but too embarassed to tell her the truth.

Well, Sweetie was gonna have to figure it out on her own, if nobody would help her do it. Her magic might be the key to ending this whole disaster, or to worsening it, and either way she needed to know what she was capable of. She hated being stuck in the dark like this all the time. Sweetie wanted to be useful, not just a useless pony with half the stamina of Apple Bloom, and not nearly the weather resistance of Scootaloo. They were all a lot... hardier might be the word for it, so without a horn to use, Sweetie was far behind the others. She could tell they treated her like something delicate and precious, but ultimately not helpful. Sweetie found it flattering that her friends and their family, and Rarity still cared about her so much, but she wanted to help too!

At least she was cute again. Really, really cute. Really, really, really cute. Ridiculously cute. Okay maybe it wasn’t entirely a good thing, because Sweetie liked being cute, but this was another level entirely. She even found herself making moonstruck doe eyes at herself when she looked at the adorable little pony clip-clopping around in the mirror. But being cute was—if not the best—probably the least bad thing out of all of this.

Even if nobody could stop smiling at her anymore when Sweetie got angry.

Her adorableness, and her renewed friendship with Apple Bloom, both made all this worth happening. Sweetie would give up her hands a million times, if it meant helping such a good friend as Apple Bloom. Now that Sweetie wasn’t being kept busy by school all the time, she could help her friends in their time of need, and that was way more exciting than advanced algebra. Friends like Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were absolutely priceless, and Sweetie was willing to do whatever she could to help them.

She just had to figure out what she could do that would accomplish that.

Christmas was an especially exciting affair at the Apple Family household this year, because the one thing the Apples had had a hard time figuring out so far is what provisions to get for one, now three little pony girls. It was the perfect opportunity to spoil the heck out of the little ponies. Plus, they now had the exciting challenge of figuring out how to tear off wrapping paper. (Spoilers: it wasn’t much of a challenge at all.)

Each of the three of them got a new outfit from Rarity, and from Diamond Tiara by proxy somewhat. Diamond hadn’t been around much, busy with school or something, but she did send her best wishes, in the form of her insignia incorporated into their clothes. Sweetie got a knitted cap with slots for her ears, and some experimental auburn leg warmers, that she loved to pieces. Scootaloo got a grey hoodie, embroidered in patterns of flames on it in black thread, a genuine hoodie, which had been a piece of work to watch Rarity secretly trying to create it. The problem was getting the hood up without hands, or articulation back there. What did the trick was a couple of pull strings that Scootaloo’s wings could sort of hook around. Scootaloo was weirdly dextrous with those things, and they were fully feathered and ready for flight. Even if flight wasn’t exactly... a thing Scootaloo had managed yet. Scootaloo could pull the hood up enough to get her ears in the slots, and then an ear flick was enough to toss the rest of it over her head.

Remember when Sweetie first got her very first new dress? Scootaloo had pretty much the exact same reaction when the hood successfully went over her head. While Scootaloo was bouncing in place with how awesome she looked in the mirror, Apple Bloom got to try on Rarity’s latest experiment, which was an umbrella. No, get this it was an umbrella that a pony could use! How you might ask? Well, it had a hard curvy part instead of a handle, that fit right in the small of your back nice and snug. It was broad enough to serve as a base for the pole of a cannibalized umbrella, and Rarity added a strap to the base, which wrapped around Apple Bloom’s chest and pulled snug, keeping it firmly situated above her. And she studded the strap with costume jewelry, which was also sort of hanging off the pointy parts of the umbrella.

Apple Bloom was of mixed feelings about the umbrella. She thought it was a fascinating idea, and it was so cool that she didn’t even have to hold the umbrella. But on the other hand it did look kind of... weird having a pole sticking up from her back. Handled a bit weird too. Apple Bloom tottered over to the mirror to look at herself, and was again both indecisive and intrigued. The crimson gemstones hanging down looked really pretty in the light, but Apple Bloom wasn’t sure it wasn’t too over the top there. It looked like it would cover her in the rain, but probably not her tail. And it’d be a while until it rained again.

Apple Bloom hadn’t really held out much hope lately that she was going to be anything other than a pony, for a very long time. There was no reason to think she’d change into a pony, and now that she was, there was no reason to think that she’d change back. Not even that alien pony girl knew heads or tails of the situation, and the dream princess just apologized without knowing exactly why. But even if Apple Bloom had no reason to think this bizarre... experience was going to end any time soon, she still didn’t want to think that she was still going to be a pony all the way into the rainy spring.

Plus it looked kinda like a—hey!

“Rarity!” Apple Bloom whined up at the blurple haired girl, the little pony standing there wearing this thing in severe irritation, “Is this a saddle?”

“No it’s not a saddle,” Rarity countered hotly. “It’s a... ehm...

“Okay perhaps it is a saddle of sorts,” Rarity admitted with a blush at the rightously angry pony wearing it. “But saddles are so well adapted to your ...contours! It’s not really a saddle, just one I got off of a toy... horse.”

“C’mon sis,” Applejack told the offended Apple Bloom pleadingly. “We had ya open that one first because we weren’t sure about it. You’ll love the other stuff!”

It wasn’t worth raising a stink over. “It’s fine Applejack,” Apple Bloom said in a defeated tone, pulling the belt of it forward so she could slip it off over her head. “Ah don’t dislike it, it’s just... strange. It’ll surely keep me dry, if’n it ever rains!” When they didn’t seem convinced, Apple Bloom quickly gallopped back to the tree and said cheerfully, “C’mon, lemme see what’s in the other presents!”

Books, popcorn balls, weird pony foods (a few of the weirder ones personally vetted by the alien girls), a Chia pet, a new scarf for Scootaloo’s torn one, three very frighteningly sharp bristly brushes that quickly became Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo’s favorite presents, some other things. Applejack got new boots; her old ones were pretty worn out. Sweetie gave Rarity a new set of eyeshadow that the girl was just delighted with. (Of course Granny helped with the actual buying of it, and fetching the catalog for Sweetie to pore through.)

Cheerilee got an oddly touching present from Scootaloo. A bracelet you wear on your wrist, but made out of little strings all woven together into a colorful pattern. Apple Bloom didn’t even know Scoots knew how to do that sort of thing, or really much about that sort of thing at all, but it was real pretty. What made it odd was that Scootaloo had been working on this before she went pony, instead of buying something or... something, and once Scootaloo got done panicking that Christmas was just around the corner, she totally finished the bracelet as a pony, just by the skin of her teeth. No, not that she was running out of time, but literally by the skin of her teeth. Scootaloo wasn’t so good at using her mouth still, but she persevered with the last touches to that bracelet through sheer determination.

So, successful Christmas overall. Apple Bloom was just tickled pink that she got all this stuff people really wanted to give her. She didn’t really know why she was enjoying it so much this year, but there was just something timeless and magical about waking up on Christmas and knowing that you can finally open the presents, and that your life’s sure to be easier once you do.

Dinky’s Christmas wasn’t nearly as interesting. Oh there were presents in the form of donations, but he had other things on his mind. Plus a lot of people liked to come to shop around because of Christmas, and it was annoying having to deal with them. Prospective parents so full of optimism, he’d honestly gotten tired of entertaining them, since they’d always look aside for someone else. There weren’t too many younger kids at the orphanage this year, so of course there weren’t many visitors.

Dinky wished he wasn’t so old, if for no reason other than to get someone to love him, but really he wasn’t unsatisfied with his current situation. His roommates were chill, his needs were taken care of, and there wasn’t a lot more he could ask for. It was an easy life, and the staff were really nice. Lots of them cared very deeply about all the children in their care. Emphasis: all, as in, collectively. For the most part, Dinky wished he wasn’t an older kid, because then maybe he wouldn’t have these conflicting feelings about Diamond Tiara.

But enough talk about unimportant stuff like that. Apple Bloom was thinking about stuff again!

Apple Bloom had a lot of time to spend alone with her thoughts these days, and some hay maybe. Eating hay made it really easy to ruminate on stuff. Apple Bloom found herself considering the part people had to play, for all who were involved in this strange phenomenon that had transformed her and her friends into ponies. Ms. Cheerilee, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Apple Bloom’s family, Diamond Tiara, Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer, the doctor and Dr. Cureall the vet, all accounted for. But there were still Applejack’s other two friends in the know: Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, and Apple Bloom didn’t know much about them.

Pinkie Pie was Applejack’s friend, and had visited once, but hadn’t had much reason to visit again. She just came, cupcakes, and vanished, like some kind of cupcake delivering superhero. Apple Bloom sort of thought Pinkie was going to plan a “You’re a pony” party or something, but Applejack said Pinkie was way too busy with the Hearth’s Warming Pagent to even think about it, and that was coming up next week, so they were really down to crunch time.

Apple Bloom wasn’t paying much attention to Pageant. At least she didn’t think she was dumb enough to risk another one of those school celebrations. Then again, things were different now, with Sweetie and Scoots this way too, so who knows? Maybe it’d be a good opportunity to reintroduce yourself, and be treated like people, even though you’re little ponies, with all those big, tall people crowding around, trying to dodge their legs, ignoring the stares in class, having to sit on your books to see over the desk, eating hay in the cafeteria...

Or maybe they’d just skip it this year. Yeah. There was always the Spring Fling.

Of their various friends and acquaintences, that only left Apple Bloom unsure about Fluttershy. Apple Bloom didn’t know what was up with her. Fluttershy even visited Applejack’s farm once, but Fluttershy visited long before they all went through this crazy school year. Apple Bloom found that especially puzzling, because if they were in a time loop, how long ago was she really remembering the soft pink haired girl coming over, and getting all awkward around the horses? Did each loop count as time advancing, or could you still say it was a little over a year ago?

Now that they’d changed into the cutiest little ponies you could imagine, Apple Bloom thought Fluttershy would be all over the three of them. She loved cute critters, didn’t she? Apple Bloom remembered her vaguely, one of those typical Eco kids who likes passing out flyers about nature conservation in the courtyard. Well, Apple Bloom never knew Fluttershy all that good, so she just had to assume there was a good reason for her uninvolvement in ponies. All Applejack would say was it was a bad idea, and while she had been under a lot of stress lately, Apple Bloom’s sister was not the sort to act without good reason.

Even as Apple Bloom stood there munching on hay, watching her brother come stumbling down the stairs behind an eager and thirsty unicorn, she couldn’t help but feel like she was missing someone. Someone who oughta have been involved with this. Some missing piece of the puzzle.

Diamond had been here just last week. One of Twilight’s friends, maybe? But that was just Sunset. Maybe one of the doctors needed to come over? Apple Bloom just couldn’t put her finger on it. Or hoof, as it were. Her rumination was interrupted though, when Apple Bloom’s ears turned left, and her head lifted with the sound of a vehicle pulling up into their driveway. Now who could that be?

Dinky found it very hard to just blend in with the rest of the background lately at school. He was usually pretty good at going by unnoticed, but when someone like Diamond Tiara has you in your sights, it was hard to be unnoticed.

He was starting to get really scared now. Scootaloo still was completely absent from anywhere, and Dinky really was thinking that Diamond had done something bad to her. Why would Diamond Tiara be going after him so much, if she wasn’t the cause behind Scootaloo’s disappearance? Because that’s what it was now: a disappearance. There was no way Scootaloo was just avoiding him. She’d disappeared entirely! He even went to find Scootaloo’s other classes, when he could escape the attention of Diamond, but none of the students from those classes had seen her either.

Dinky wasn’t sure if he should call the police, or talk to the principal, or what. He didn’t have anything to go on besides a wild suspicion, and an absence of Scootaloo, from getting in the way of Diamond Tiara’s approaching him romantically. He wasn’t even sure of his own conviction! Maybe Scootaloo was sick. Maybe she switched schools. Maybe she moved to another city! Any number of things could be true, but the possibility he was most scared of was really starting to make him less attracted to the beautiful Diamond Tiara, and more horrified of her.

She acted like it didn’t even matter, like Scootaloo wasn’t gone at all. Except now Diamond could go block him off at lunch, before he could sit at the tech table and listen to the others talk about what they enjoyed. Now she could run up to him between periods without worry of getting in Scootaloo’s way, and say, “Heyyyy Dinky! What did you think about that Stat class? Histograms are like, so confusing am I right?”

“Uh, yeah...” Dinky told her passively. He wasn’t much for conversation with her lately.

“I gotta hurry to my next class,” Diamond told him chirpily, “But you like, doing anything after school?”

“Yeah, I have to study for um... robotics,” he said, trying not to make eye contact. It wasn’t just that he was afraid of her, but he was also afraid of himself. Dinky just wasn’t used to a beautiful girl being so friendly with him. Those sorts always stuck with the Fashionists and Dramatists, and ignored him. He dreamed of attention from a pretty girl as much as the next guy, but now that he had it, Dinky was feeling overwhelmed. He wanted to... do more with her, and he couldn’t because she was just so infuriatingly casual about the complete and total absence of all of her friends.

“Boy, you like, study too much,” Diamond said resentfully, “Guess I’ll catch you uh, later then.”

“I guess...” he said noncommitally, his thoughts swimming with conflict. She just wouldn’t give up, no matter how many hints he dropped. He couldn’t bear to tell her he wasn’t interested. That would be a lie, first off, because Dinky really liked Diamond Tiara, and wished he could talk with her, and open up to her. She had such a passion for... about everything she did, and it just made his heart flutter to think that she might be willing to do... well... that with him.

But he couldn’t be friends with her. It just wasn’t right. She just wasn’t right. His desire was losing ground before his sense of outrage and anger. She would have been such an incredible girl that just dizzied his senses. Not just her beauty, but her forwardness made him feel like gazing at her forever. Nowhere was the resentment or fear, from any other girl he so much as looked at who might take offense at his weirdness, or wouldn’t want anything to do with him. Diamond wanted everything to do with him! And that made her so much more tantalizing than some cruel girl who just wanted him to stop being so perverted and boyish. It gave her beauty a flavor and depth, that he just really wanted to... be with.

Dinky even had a class with Diamond, to which he headed down the halls of Canterlot High, with both excitement and trepidation. Dinky had ever in his life thought he’d be asking a girl out, his first year in high school, but it had been relatively simple to do so with Scootaloo. Dinky had asked Scootaloo to the dance, and thought that was that, but it just seemed so different with Diamond Tiara. He felt so much more intense at the thought that Diamond might want him. Scootaloo was pretty, but... she was Scootaloo. She was just so... anxious, and always trying to cover it up, it kind of got on Dinky’s nerves. Not Diamond though, she was just bold and unapologetic. And from her lusciously wavy hair, to her shapely hips even for her young age, Dinky really felt like he wanted to be a typical boy around her.

Yet he couldn’t, because all this attention she was giving him was just a front, to try to make him ignore whatever she did to make Scootaloo just disappear on him. It didn’t take much checking to know that Diamond had done some pretty cruel stuff to the people who got in her way. She and her roommates were certainly not chill. Dinky wanted to just hide, to just ignore it and hope the problem would take care of itself, but he knew he’d never be able to live with himself if he didn’t do something. Dinky had to... he had to um...

Oh fudge muffins, where was everyone?

Dinky had just walked into the classroom lost in thought, only to find it completely empty, save one. He wanted to spin on his heels and just run, but that might alert her, or make her suspicious, and then he could suffer the same fate as Scootaloo! Assuming Diamond did something to Scootaloo. Dinky really didn’t understand how this whole jealous girlfriend business would work in outside of the mangas he’d read.

He’d barely stuttered to a halt anyway, when Diamond remarked in a calculatingly casual tone, “Oh, hey Dinky. Class was canceled today. Teacher had a sick day.”

Dinky didn’t even humor her. He just calmly turned and started for the door, and she shouted,

“Wait! Where are you going?!”

“Class was canceled, right?” Dinky said over his shoulder a bit snappishly. “So there’s no reason to stick around.”

“But, I thought we could like, hang out!” Diamond responded, in worried disappointment.

“Well we can’t, so—” He shoved down a tightness in his chest. “So leave me alone,” Dinky said as coldly as he could. He just stomped out the door, and closed it behind him, leaving her there in that classroom, alone. She might hate him for acting like that. Well, good. Maybe now she’ll start thinking twice before she makes her friends change schools just so she can get at a boy, or... or something.

Hands in his pockets, Dinky went walking through the emptying halls, heading out into the sheltered back courtyard, where the trickling noise of the fountain sometimes helped calm his nerves. He sat there on the fountain’s edge, trying not to think of how she looked at him when Dinky had just said that and left, how she acted like she was so innocent, when Diamond Tiara had to have a part in this. It was just too convenient.

Two yellow boots with black belts came and stood on the ground he was staring at in front of him.

“Hey,” Diamond said to the hunched over boy. Not a ‘hello’ hey, but a ‘hey what the fuck’ hey. Dinky looked up in a tumult. When did she come over? Why did she come over? Why didn’t he pay more attention to his surroundings, when he was lost in thought!

“Diamond...” he said testily, starting to stand up despite her leaning forward to glare at him.

“What is your problem?” Diamond accused him angrily, making Dinky’s butt fall right the heck down to the stone ledge. “Why are you being so hostile? Is it something I said?”

“Why am I being hostile?” Dinky said gaping at her. “Why am I being hostile?!”

“Yeah, you!” Diamond Tiara said with her hands on her hips. “You’ve been like, avoiding me all the way since the Fall Formal! Didn’t we get along, then? What put a bug up your butt? If it’s that thing with Big Macintosh, I swear—”

“What? No it’s n-not... that!” Dinky stammered.

“What, then?” Diamond whined unhappily. “I just wanna be friends! Can’t we even be friends with each other?”

“No,” Dinky said in frustration, because he wanted it too, and he hated that. “We cannot.”

“Like, please Dinky!” Diamond said, actually clasping his hand. “Why do you like Silver better than me?” she demanded in her flummoxed mood, “Can’t you like, sit with me, for even just like one lunch period?”

“You’re crazy if you think we could be friends, after whatever you did!” Dinky said acidly, pulling his hand away.

“I’m—not—” Diamond’s breath came quicker, as she said shrilly, “But you won’t even tell me what happened. So like, how could I do anything about it?”

“No,” Dinky corrected her, “You won’t even tell me! How am I supposed to know what you did?”

“I didn’t do anything though!” Diamond retorted. “I haven’t been mean, or done anything bad to you or, or anything!”

“Then where is Scootaloo!” Dinky stated accusingly.

Diamond looked at him, hesitating no doubt in her guilt and fear of discovery. Dinky started to sweat, keenly aware that they were the only ones in this courtyard. No one would know if she did anything to him. He w-wouldn’t let her hurt him! He stared at her like a cornered animal, while Diamond said slowly, confusedly,

“She’s... at... Sweet Apple... Acres?”

Is that where she buries the bodies? Dinky tried to figure out what this girl meant. “That’s a... farm somewhere?” he said cautiously.

“It’s Apple Bloom’s farm,” Diamond said, in a more subdued tone. “Scootaloo lives there, now.”

“She... what?” Dinky asked in confusion. “It’s... great that she lives... there? But... why isn’t she at school?”

“Uh, hello?” Diamond said to him incredulously, “You know, like, pony?”

“I uh...” Dinky blushed and rubbed his wrist, staring up at the radiantly flabbergasted Diamond from where he sat at the fountain’s ledge. “...no?”

The realization seemed to crash on Diamond like the Titanic on an iceberg, as she blurted wide eyed, “Oh my god you don’t know.”

“Know what?” Dinky responded anxiously, “What happened to Scootaloo?”

“Didn’t she call you?” Diamond asked in astonishment. “Didn’t she like, send you a text or like... something?”

“I haven’t seen her since she disappeared!” Dinky protested, “Right when you started trying to take her place! I asked her out, and she’s my girlfriend, and I am not going to be friends with someone who... who drove her away just to get to me! How can you even live with yourself? What did you do to her?”

Diamond just kind of sat down... not even at the fountain, just on the snowy ground. “You really think I like, did something to Scootaloo,” she said distantly, “And it wasn’t just a freaky like, accident.”

“You’d tell me if it was just an accident, I think,” Dinky said in an unimpressed tone.

“She was supposed to tell you!” Diamond protested. “It’s not my place to do it! She really didn’t like, even... tell you anything?”

Dinky felt lost as he said, “I... no, she didn’t. But... what didn’t she tell me? I just... I just thought all this time she couldn’t tell me.”

“Dinky,” Diamond said seriously, “Scootaloo is a pony now.”

Okay that was unexpected. “She... what?” Dinky said dizzily.

“You know what happened to Apple Bloom, right?” Diamond said, climbing back to her feet and dusting snow off the bottom her pink skirt. “Like the same thing happened to Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. Just after the Fall Formal. Don’t you remember that ridiculous hoodie Scootaloo was wearing?”

Dinky blinked.

“Even I didn’t recognize her at the time,” Diamond explained, “I think she got some big boy’s sweatshirt or something to cover up her like, pony ears or something. A-and then like, Big Macintosh picked her up, so now she’s stuck at Apple Bloom’s farm. And like, a pony.

“She has wings too,” Diamond added bemusedly. “It’s weird but it like, works for her.”

“She turned into a pony,” Dinky replied flatly, so very unsure how to feel about that. “Is... anyone else changing into a pony?” he added worriedly.

Diamond Tiara shook her head, “No, just them. But like, it was just Apple Bloom before, so who knows? They had some kind of pony dream together, so maybe it’s just them.”

With Dinky’s racing thoughts, one coherent sentence made it to his mouth. “I don’t have a cell phone,” he said quietly.

Diamond Tiara...winced. “Oh,” she said. “Yeah. Because you’re at the...”

“Orphanage, yeah,” Dinky said dully. “They only give those out to 16 or olders there.”

“So, she like...”

“If she couldn’t tell me in person... Scootaloo really is like Apple Bloom now?” Dinky said, the idea of that still not quite registering with him. “That little pony, not any taller than your belly? She has a tail?”

“Scootaloo has a big tail,” Diamond said with a short laugh, “It’s more hair than she’s ever had to deal with before. She can’t cut it shorter either because like, alien ponies have a tail all the way down, instead of like regular horses.”

“How did you find out?” he asked Diamond in a strained voice. “You don’t have a cell phone either!”

“A-applejack told me,” Diamond said, glancing away. “I’ve been going over to play with Apple Bloom on like, weekends for a while now. So it was no big reveal or anything, just like... weird.”

“She didn’t tell me anything,” Dinky said, looking at his hands.

“Does Applejack even know that you’re Scootaloo’s, you know... boyfriend?” Diamond said hesitantly.

“I guess nobody told her, either,” Dinky replied. “But that still doesn’t explain why you started trying to b-be with me, all of a sudden.”

“I guess I have been a little... overboard,” Diamond sighed. She sat down on the fountain, but not right up next to Dinky like she usually sat. “It’s just all my friends either don’t care or they’re like, gone. Scootaloo and Sweetie can’t be at school, and Silver doesn’t even say hi to me anymore. You’re like, the only... friend I have left.”

Damn did Dinky feel like a heel now.

“I’m sorry Diamond,” Dinky said hanging his head. “I knew it was stupid, and I just assumed the worst. I should never have... you weren’t trying to take Scootaloo’s place, you were trying to put me in her place.”

“What?” Diamond asked, giving him a puzzled look.

“You were just trying to make me your friend,” Dinky explained, “You weren’t trying to make me choose you instead of Scootaloo.”

“Choose—” Diamond managed to say before blushing even pinker and saying, “No I wasn’t like, doing that. N-not that there’s anything wrong with it but like, whatever. Maybe you can’t be with like, Scootaloo anymore because she’s a pony and that would be totally weird. But just because you can’t have her, doesn’t mean you can’t find another girl. Someone nice, who you really like. Someone good for you.”

“Someone like you?” he responded, seeing where this was going.

Diamond protested, “What? No! I’m like—terrible girlfriend material!” Or maybe he wasn’t seeing where this was going. “You really thought I was trying to be with you?” she said blushing heavily, “C’mon Dinky, you gotta have some standards!”

“Well—what’s wrong with you?” Dinky exclaimed, still seriously thrown off by Diamond’s confession to not stalking him for romantic purposes.

Diamond gave Dinky a measured look, saying honestly, “Dinky, I’m not like, the best girl out there, or even the best person. I have... problems.”

She smiled self consciously, as if to appease him, saying “I just think you could do like... better.”

Nobody had ever prepared Dinky for anything close to this situation. He shouldn’t have done it, yet Dinky couldn’t see anything especially wrong with what he wanted to do. So he just did it. Leaning over to softly, gingerly touch his lips to hers, Dinky kissed Diamond Tiara.

Author's Note

Dinky, stop. Dinky, what are you doing? Really, Dinky? Really?

Use More Tongue

Dinky, stop. Dinky, what are you doing? Really, Dinky? Really?

Diamond couldn’t believe this! The whole time she’d been just thinking she was just hanging out with him, and really she’d been going practically crazy over him. It was so obvious now. There was no way Dinky didn’t see this as romantic. She had done everything to make him think it was! She’d been practically literally climbing all over him all week!

Diamond wasn’t ready for this... she hadn’t had a boy think about her that way, before! She wasn’t used to boys... wanting girls, instead of just thinking that they’re weird. It was bound to happen as they grew older, but Diamond just never saw herself in that role! Dinky was looking at her, and thinking about the things that a girl could do to him. Her! He was just too naive to see that Diamond wasn’t the girl he was looking for. That had to be it. She couldn’t have been! She was terrible! He couldn’t be thinking about what she could do to him. She had never even—

Diamond had never even thought about what a boy could do to her.

Diamond couldn’t think about that now. She couldn’t think about all the things she was curious about, that he was right there to offer her if they were... together. About what she could do with a boy who trusted her and tolerated her abrasive attitude. Diamond knew she was a jerk. No way any boy would ever think of choosing her. And yet here she was, at the base of a fountain surrounded by greenery, in a secluded part of the school, sitting together with a boy who just said he was... said he liked her!

Like like liked!

So many things about boys were just locked off to her, and if Dinky was going to like Diamond, then suddenly all those things... wouldn’t be. It was frighteningly exhilirating for Diamond to suddenly think of him that way. To think of herself that way. She never even realized, but there it was. That all important difference between him and her, a difference they could explore together, and share. If he liked her.

Diamond wished she could have that. But she didn’t want to just lead him on. Dinky was just at a very vulnerable place now, and he’d never really go for her, if he thought about it for a minute. He needed a nice girlfriend, who could take care of him, and like, treat him right. He didn’t need some girl who just infuriated him and badgered him to his wit’s end, because she was too dumb to realize he was missing his real girlfriend so acutely. So that’s what Diamond told him.

“Just because you can’t have her, doesn’t mean you can’t find another girl,” she pleaded, looking at the soft faced Dinky with his round blonde messy hair. He looked kind of like an adorable grape. “Someone nice,” she explained, “Who you really like. Someone good for you.”

“Someone like you?” he responded, leaving Diamond so frustrated. Couldn’t he see it? This was Dinky, not some lame... boy!

“What? No! I’m like—terrible girlfriend material!” she immediately squawked, then regretted her words, or at least the tone of them. She sounded so like, insecure! “You really thought I was trying to be with you?” Diamond said more calmly, trying to laugh at this, make light of it somehow. “C’mon Dinky, you gotta have some standards!” she quipped.

“Well—what’s wrong with you?” Dinky said angrily, placing his palms on the stone fountain to brace forward. God, where could Diamond even start? The freaky visions? How angry she got about stuff? How everybody like, avoided her because they were afraid she’d do something weird or... crazy, and like, Dinky just didn’t know it yet? How Diamond just got mixed up sometimes and... and what if he found out about the pills? Half the orphanage already suspected it, Diamond was sure of it, but she didn’t want them to know. What could she tell him? She didn’t want him to like, avoid her!

Diamond looked at Dinky uncertainly, scared out of her wits as she said, “Dinky, I’m not like, the best girl out there, or even the best person. I have... problems.”

“I just think you could do like... better,” Diamond uttered haltingly, wishing she could tell him everything, wishing she could be the girl he really wanted, or the girl that someone really wanted, at least. She tried to smile appeasingly, but she couldn’t get her eyes into it. So close to having a boyfriend, and Diamond couldn’t have it, because of who she was, because she was being so stupid and clingy, not even thinking about him and Scootaloo.

And then, Dinky leaned forward to kiss her.

Diamond learned then, that when a boy decides to kiss you, there is no mistaking what he is doing. Dinky leaned towards her and brought his face closer to hers, with his eyes closing, and it was obvious he was gonna kiss her, on the lips. She should have been the better girl, and backed off to tell him to calm down, and find a girl that he can really love, but Diamond stayed right there. She didn’t care if she was just gonna scare him away once he found out about her. She just couldn’t cut herself off from an... from an opportunity like this, all the things she could do if she had a....

Diamond didn’t have time to think what a bad idea this would be, by the time his lips were touching hers. She sat there frozen, just, letting him do it. She was too afraid to kiss back. He barely touched her lips anyway, before pulling back. It was less like a kiss and more like a... statement. But even that light touch made them tingle, as he left them. She didn’t feel like that, when she touched her lips to other things!

Dinky just sat back then, and said, “I’m sorry, Diamond Tiara. I should have asked you to the Fall Formal. I asked Scootaloo and just made a mess of things. I didn’t know you didn’t already have a... date.”

“You didn’t know me at all, like a month ago,” Diamond said, folding her hands reservedly.

“I...knew of you. I mean who wouldn’t?” Dinky said worryingly. “You’re beautiful! You’re one of the girls that... everyone wishes they could have. I never thought that would mean that nobody at all would have you.”

“You don’t know me at all though,” Diamond protested, flustered by his choice of words. “I’m like, mean, and I can’t stop getting angry sometimes, and my roommates hate me.”

“Well,” Dinky replied in frustration, “Well, look at me! I don’t get angry when I should! I just let things get worse and worse. You’re just so passionate. I... can’t see why anyone wouldn’t like that.”

“Yeah, well you didn’t hit someone with a cafeteria tray,” Diamond pouted glumly.

“How did that happen?” Dinky asked incredulously.

“Dazzler was telling me how I was a loser runt who wouldn’t ever have any friends,” Diamond explained, “So I shoved her and told her to take it back and she pushed me and almost made me spill my milk, so I just got so mad and... hit her with my tray. Um... three times, until she ran away.”

“Oh, I remember that...” Dinky said thoughtfully. “Weren’t her friends trying to beat you up after that?”

“They would’ve too, if the adults hadn’t stepped in,” Diamond said, kicking her legs out. “But my point is that you don’t want me. I’m just... not right.”

“Would you do it again?” Dinky poised so gently. It made Diamond laugh though.

“No! Are you kidding?” she said, trying and failing to hold back her laughter. “I lost my lunch! I had to... and there it is.” Her laughter died.

Diamond stared forward dully, saying, “I don’t even care about them. I try to, but—I cared more about losing my lunch, than I did about hurting people.”

“...who hated you,” Dinky offered helpfully.

“Well, why do you think they hate me?” Diamond whined. “I just do that to everyone! Apple Bloom was the best thing that happened to me after Silver Spoon got sick of me. A-and I’m still friends with Apple Bloom, but she’s gone, so everyone thinks I’m a loner again. I don’t want to like, get mad like that again.”

“I still think you’re a good person,” Dinky said stubbornly, refusing to accept the truth. “You may have problems, but... you’re doing whatever you can to make them better. And I think it’s working. You’re just... you’re scared of who you used to be.”

“You sound like my therapist,” Diamond said, rolling her eyes. The scary thing is he did.

“Yeah, too bad there isn’t a therapy major,” Dinky sighed, rubbing his head. “Technology is fun, but really I kinda like the people who like machines, not all the boring details about getting a machine working.”

“Whaaat?” Diamond said caught off guard by that. “No therapy major? Then how do we have therapists at all?”

“Usually they’re technology majors, or dramatists,” Dinky admitted, “But there’s not one single psychology class in high school; it’s weird. I thought it would be social studies, but that turned out to be just history. I guess they want you to study general stuff like physics and uh... chemistry, for some reason.”

“Or statistics,” Diamond pointed out.

Dinky laughed, “Yeah I just took that to get my math requirement.”

“It’s good for like, business and management,” Diamond suggested warily, “So like if I want to sell outfits better or something.”

“Doesn’t help much if all you want to do is talk to people all day,” Dinky countered. “I already took algebra though, and well... trigonometry is just not sensible in any way.”

“And you call yourself a techie?” Diamond laughed, making Dinky blush with embarassment. It was almost as if they hadn’t kissed just now.

Diamond didn’t want it to be as if they hadn’t kissed just now.

“I like, didn’t even think about a boyfriend or anything,” Diamond admitted, rubbing the back of her neck. “Just assumed I’d get one like, later, or ...not. Why do you even want a girlfriend?” she added hastily, and on some guilty level curiously.

“I uhm...” Dinky looked at his knees and blushed even more heavily, “It’s um... you know... there are certain things a boy and girl can do, that I’m curious about... that I can’t do by myself.”

“O-oh right,” Diamond replied, blushing too and trying not to think about it, or about how she was thinking about the exact same thing just minutes ago. Or how she basically just asked him to do it, like a total weirdo. She wanted to ask if he kissed Scootaloo, or if he... did anything else with her. She couldn’t ask that.

“But I mean like... you and Scootaloo, like... got together so easy,” she said, desperate to save face by changing the subject. “I was so jealous how easy it was for her.”

Dinky didn’t pick up on her side stepping the issue at all, and just shook his head remorsefully, saying, “I don’t think it’s going to be as easy breaking up, though. Scootaloo really blames herself a lot. If I tell her I’m with you now, she might think it’s because there’s something wrong with her.”

“You can’t stay with her, though,” Diamond said practically, “She’s a pony, I mean. That’d be way too weird.”

Dinky paused, then groaned. He held his head in hands, saying, “Oh now you made me think of it. Ugh... is she really a pony, down there too?”

“What, like I looked?” Diamond said in offended protest, “What are you, some kind of like, pervert?”

“Just... no that’s... look,” Dinky rubbed his forehead.

“I thought what I was doing with Scootaloo was how you did that whole boy and girlfriend thing,” he said in a neutral, unreadable tone. “It was great at first, but then I met... you. I just don’t feel the same way about Scootaloo that I do around you. I think it’s... I don’t know what it is, just I feel like... you’re amazing, and beautiful, and cool, and unstoppable, and... you need my help. So I’d like to um... be there for you. I’m so sorry I didn’t... I should have just told you I’m sorry.”

“What are you apologizing for, being corny?” Diamond wryly remarked to him, “That was like, the corniest pickup line ever.”

It was so easy to make Dinky blush, it was hilarious and kind of cute. Wait no, not cute, that’s just the dating...thing in her head doing the talking. Diamond didn’t listen to that one.

“I’m the one who should apologize, anyway” she clarified. “I totally made you like, fall in love with me or something, because I’ve been all in your face all week, and I didn’t even think that you were just worried about Scootaloo. She’s fine. She’s a pony, but she’s like, fine otherwise.”

“Wait, when exactly did you make me fall in love with you?” Dinky asked in a skeptical tone.

“I—uhm, like how I’ve been acting all week,” she said more nervously, unsure of herself now that she actually had to explain it to a real boy. “I mean it would have that effect on any boy. I should’ve known; I wasn’t thinking. That’s like, how it works. It’s only natural. I don’t leave you alone, and you like me, and then... things happen.”

“Uh...” Dinky said in an oddly contentious tone.

“What?” Diamond said, “Don’t even tell me you aren’t responding to it.”

“It has been having an... affect on me, but I don’t like what you’ve been doing all week,” Dinky told her with a straight face. “I wish you’d stop.”

“Wha?”

“I don’t like when you keep chasing me like that,” Dinky said in a genuinely discontented tone. “It’s... actually kind of off-putting.”

“But I haven’t been doing anything but chase after you!” Diamond protested. “How could you even like me?”

“You were amazing at the dance,” he contested her, “When you just brought everyone together and saved the day. You’re fun to talk to, and really exciting. And just... just seeing you around school. And you... you’re beautiful, Diamond.”

He phrased that more like an accusation than a compliment, saying intensely, “That’s what I respond to! That someone like you doesn’t even have a boyfriend, and I could stand a chance. I–I mean, not like I only care about that. Lots of girls are beautiful. Silver is beautiful, and all she talks about these days are logic puzzles. Sweetie Belle is beautiful, but she’s so just... dreamy all the time. And what about upperclassmen? Have you seen Fluttershy? She’s gorgeous! She has all the curves, and the modesty, and the most beautiful eyes, that—that any guy would respond to!”

“You’re really not building a good case for yourself, you know,” Diamond told him dryly.

“I feel nothing for them, like what I do with you,” Dinky announced emphatically, “Not with Silver, not even with older girls. I look at Fluttershy and I think ‘she’s beautiful, and her name really fits.’ I look at you, and... I want you. I mean, not like evilly or anything but I just... want to be with you, Diamond. I–I really do.”

Diamond went from skeptical to full on blush at that, and she said quietly, even desperately, “Like, what about Scootaloo?”

Dinky paused at that. “Scootaloo’s not beautiful,” he said, “By the strict sense of the word. She has a thrilling wildness to her though, and she’s tough. She doesn’t give up either, and I really like that. A-and she’s about the closest to what I feel about you. I think she could make a really good special someone... for... someone. I know it’s wrong of me, but I just can’t hide it. She’s just... not like you, Diamond. I can’t be a good special someone to her because... I like you.

“Besides,” he added speculatively, “Didn’t you say she’s a pony now?”

“Well like, yeah,” Diamond admitted, waving a hand, “I was just being hypothetical.”

“Are you sure you’re not trying to get me to hook up with a pony?” Dinky asked, raising an eyebrow.

“She’s still herself, though!” Diamond retorted. “You can’t just like... dump her!”

“Wow, you are trying to hook me up with a pony,” Dinky said raising the other eyebrow. “And I thought I was the pervert.”

“Shut up, you know what I mean,” Diamond grumbled turning away.

Dinky was trying way too hard not to laugh. After a moment of ...deliberation, he said, “Can you ask her if I can come over to her... I mean to Apple Bloom’s house? They’re already cleared with the orphanage, so it should be easy.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Diamond said accedingly. “You totally deserve it, going all this time without even knowing.”

“And if,” Dinky postulated, “I know it’s hard to contact me, so this is a big ‘if,’ but let’s say hypothetically that Scootaloo just ...completely forgot that I was even her boyfriend. Then, will you be my special someone?”

“Hey, I never said I would b-be your girlfriend!” Diamond stated sitting at the fountain again, and crossing her arms. She just didn’t know how to deal with this. She wasn’t trying to beat Scootaloo at being a girlfriend, but it was just... like, happening!

“...so, is that a no?” Dinky asked persistently. She looked at him again. He wasn’t smiling or smirking, just looking at her so very hopefully. She couldn’t say no to that look. He was so freaking adorable! Diamond had been trying to get Dinky’s attention all week, and now that she had it, she felt just overwhelmed by it.

“Like, how are you even so sure Scootaloo just like, forgot about you?” Diamond asked, still hesitant.

“It’s Scootaloo,” Dinky said, as if in explanation.

“...yeah, you got me there,” Diamond admitted, looking away again. “O-okay, so I’ll like, I mean if she’s that like, clueless, then we could t-try it out for a while.”

Dinky gave a relieved smile, saying, “Thanks, Diamond. You have no idea how much I wanted to say that.”

“You’re welcome... Dinky.” Diamond said hesitantly. She looked at him, with his thrillingly golden eyes, so proper looking in his buttoned up collared black jacket, so just... like... boyish. “I’m like the worst girlfriend though,” she added self consciously. “I’m just warning you, so y’know...”

“I think you’re fascinating,” Dinky countered with a close eyed smile.

“Yeah, well, you kinda too, in your weird little way,” she told him with a downward glance.

Dinky looked at the tall tower clock at the apex of the school courtyard. “We probably should start getting to our next period,” he said solemnly.

“Y-yeah,” Diamond said, a flare of fear welling up in her breast as he rose to leave her.

“Dinky,” she said nervously.

Dinky looked back at her.

“We can like, still hang out until then, right? I don’t like, want to be like, alone at lunch.”

“Sure, no problem,” Dinky said agreeably. “I was only afraid for Scootaloo, so if she’s um... ‘okay’ then I don’t mind. I mean,” he blushed at his own words. “I’d really like that. Thanks, Diamond Tiara.”

“No problem,” Diamond said giving him an uncertain wave. “See ya, Dinky.”

He lifted a hand to match hers, then turned and quietly walked out the courtyard, leaving Diamond alone with her thoughts, now very different thoughts than she had had before. Could they really... be together? It would be so scandalous, and they shouldn’t, but... Dinky was a boy and Diamond never got to be like, with them before. The implications of that softest little touch of his lips to hers both thrilled and chilled her.

Diamond Tiara was still lost in thought in History class, completely tuning out the professor’s analogies between armies and boat models, to stare thoughtfully out the window. Then she saw Applejack running full tilt across the courtyard, toward the parking lot. “What’s up with her?” Diamond wondered, as the stetson toting girl jumped in their beat up old green truck, and started to pull out of the parking lot and wheel around to the front of the school, where Diamond Tiara couldn’t see her anymore.

“Come on, come on...” Applejack said to the steering wheel of the truck as she gripped it tensely and idled the engine. She couldn’t believe this! Of all the worst things that could possibly happen, this had to be pretty up there! Applejack waited there impatiently, while Granny Smith trundled out from the front of the school and lumbered up to the truck, heaving herself up to come in on the passenger seat.

“Be sure to check yer signals,” Granny advised as Applejack shifted into reverse and spun the truck around, gunning it forward then and peeling rubber as she left the parking lot for the open road. “Now hold on thar, let me get mah seat belt on,” Granny chirped admonishingly, as Applejack clenched her hands on the wheel.

“Now ain’t the time to be holding on, granny,” Applejack said anxiously, “We could be in big trouble!”

“Watch the road, missy!” Granny commanded, making Applejack snap forward in a panic to see the car ahead of her at a conservative distance. “You gotta learn to pay attention,” Granny continued unabashedly, “If you’re gonna be at the wheel.”

“What if they’re doin’ something to Apple Bloom?” Applejack fretted, trying to change lanes to get around this—oh for the love of pete why do these slow drivers always travel in pairs? There was no way to pass two of them!

“Yer tailgaitin’ Applejack,” Granny said warningly, and Applejack pulled her foot off the gas with a concerted effort.

“What if they lock her away, Granny?” Applejack asked. “What if they lock me away? Ah may never see mah sister again!”

“Ain’t no reason to be so fussy,” Granny said irritably, to the orange girl trying to drive her truck at a moderate speed without going completely insane. “Oh hey look,” Granny remarked, “One of them slow fellers is turnin—”

Applejack shoved the gas and swiveled her truck around the car ahead of her, as the other car blocking her way took a right turn down a side street. She accelerated then, trying her best not to just floor it and stay safely at or maybe a little bit above the speed limit.

“Here comes a stoplight, AJ,” Granny pointed out.

“Ah see it, Granny,” Applejack said tensely.

“You slow down at a yeller light!” Granny said in alarm as Applejack sped up to make it across the intersection when the light turned yellow. “You don’t speed up! What kinda driver are you?”

“The kind who’s worried about her sister!” Applejack said emphatically. “We gotta get there, and you gotta clear things up like, there’s gotta be an explanation. What do we say? We just plumb forgot? It was too weird for them? Ah don’t wanna be—”

“Calm down missy,” Granny said, laying a hand on Applejack’s tense shoulder. “We’ll get there, and frettin’ about it ain’t gonna get us there any faster. Nobody’s in danger it’s just a little euhmn... mix-up that’s it.”

“It’s one slap doodle of a mix-up, from what Big Macintosh said on the phone!” Applejack retorted hotly, trying not to scream as there was another slow driver in front of her, and this time the road only had one lane to it. Applejack leaned on the horn in exasperation, saying, “Come on, pick it up already!”

“Now listen!” Granny fussed angrily, “You really are gonna get yourself in trouble if’n you don’t be careful on the road! You young’ns think just because you got your permit you can do anythingGGGYYYY” The truck accelerated, as the car in front of her pulled over to the side of the road. Applejack thanked a thousand times whoever was driving that little coupe that pulled over for her. She wasn’t gonna let her little sister fret, not one second longer than she had to!

“Applejack,” Granny said as they cruised through the diminishing suburbs. “You ain’t feelin’ so good ah know, but...”

“Ah’m just worried about mah sister,” Applejack said fretfully. “Ah cain’t imagine what ah’d do if anything every happened to her! With all this mess she’s stuck in, ah just cain’t keep it together, Granny. Ah cain’t be there for mah little Apple Bloom on account of this gosh darned forsaken schoolin’ that just don’t make a lick of sense. And now she’s in trouble, and it’s all mah fault!”

“Yer so concerned about her,” Granny said thoughtfully, “You ain’t even said one word about Big Macintosh. You know he’s there too, an’ he’s in more trouble than she is.”

“That’s different, Granny,” Applejack said with a sigh, “Apple Bloom is mah sis... uh, well Big Macintosh is mah brother too. But it’s just... ah don’t know how to explain it. She needs me granny, an’ ah just cain’t be there to watch over her.”

“Suppose so,” Granny admitted, “But don’t ferget about him. He’s a lot more vulnerable than he looks. I wager he’s just eatin’ himself up inside over this, while Apple Bloom’s just fine. She can be a little firebrand when something don’t go her way. I wager they got their hands full of her, and she ain’t havin’ no problem at all.”

“What if she gets too mad?” Applejack worried, taking a hard semicircle around a car ahead of her once the passing lane came up. “What if she gets violent? If she hurts one of ‘em then who knows what could happen?”

“Applejack,” Granny said consolingly.

“What if she runs away?” Applejack said tensely. “You know there’s something strange out in those woods out there, and she’s just gonna run into it, after they chase her down for defyin’ them!”

“Applejack...” Granny repeated in a warning tone.

“Can you even go back to school when you’ve got taken into the—”

“Applejack, you’re missin’ the turnoff!” Granny shouted. Applejack’s truck swerved crazily as she snapped her attention on the dirt road turnoff right behind that pretty picket fence that her dearly departed folks had erected. As wheels hit dirt, Applejack straightened out the truck’s path, the noise filling her ears of wheels grinding on gravelly road dirt.

“Sorry, granny,” Applejack said a mite later, still a bit spooked from that last minute turn-off that she almost missed. She never missed the turnoff to Sweet Apple Acres. “Ah guess ah’m just lettin’ it get to me too much.”

“Darn tootin’ ye are!” Granny chided her, with a light smack on her shoulder. “Now just relax, and don’t think that one bad thing happened to Apple Bloom while you were gone. We’re almost there, and then we can ehumn maybe do something about it, or at least apologize.”

“It just don’t make no sense what happened,” Applejack declared, staring forward, shaking her head in bemusement. “Not her friends, not her family, but them? What the hay is goin’ on here?”

“We cain start by gettin’ there, an’ tellin’ them the honest truth,” Granny said sagely. “Ain’t nothin’ that cain’t be worked out once you knows all the facts.”

“Suppose so, granny,” Applejack said in a subdued tone. The two remained silent as the farm house in the distance, visible through the twisted branches of the winter trees, bright red against the white snow, grew larger and larger as they approached it. Applejack drove the truck up into her yard, trying not to think about how hard it was to fit, what with the extra vehicle haphazardly parked in here. They came all the way out here for this, but it made sense that they’d be concerned. Considering what happened, about any sort of overreaction is entirely justified.

After finally rolling to a halt, Applejack threw the emergency brake, and kicked the door open, jumping out of the truck and landing on the ground in one leap, before jogging straight for the front door. She could vaguely hear Granny shout a “Hold yer horses, missy!” behind her, but Applejack left Granny to struggle with the seatbelt on her own. There was someone else who needed her help more.

Applejack pulled open the front door and ran in, shouting, “Apple Bloom! Are ya here? Where are you?”

“Ah’m over here, sis!” Apple Bloom called out from where she, Sweetie and Scootaloo were right there, doing something on the floor with mathematical flashcards. Applejack rushed over to the three ponies, that cute as a button unicorn, that wished-she-wasn’t cute as a button wingy horse, and her darling little sister, even more darling as a pony than Apple Bloom had any right to be.

“Oh, you’re okay, Apple Bloom!” Applejack said in relief, picking her up and hugging the little pony to her chest. Apple Bloom smelled like a horse, but it was her horse smell, something Applejack had come to love in its connection to the person she loved inside this small, animal exterior.

“Applejack!” Apple Bloom whined, pushing Applejack’s cheek away with a hoof. “It ain’t that serious! Ah wasn’t even in danger.”

“Ah know ah just... you know how ah can be,” Applejack said with a bit of blush in her face. “They didn’t interrogate you did they? You’re not gonna have to go, are you? Like, with them? Ah don’t want you to do anything you don’t feel comfortable with.”

“Ah’m fine,” Apple Bloom said grumpily, if a bit touched with emotion. “Thanks for thinkin’ of me, but they been perfectly nice since they got here, an’ we’re all just waiting for you and Granny before we make any sorta commitment.”

“A-alright Apple Bloom,” Applejack said, holding her sister dangling out at arm’s length. Somewhat awkwardly, Applejack placed Apple Bloom back on the floor, Apple Bloom’s four pony hooves finding purchase and standing confidently like she was born that way. “Sorry ah... well, uhm...” Applejack stuttered unsurely.

Then Applejack turned her attention to two of the people in the room who were not part of the family, or Apple Bloom’s little pony friends. One of them stood up, while the other remained sitting, and Applejack took her hat of her head, clutching it nervously to her chest and approaching the two strangers.

“Afternoon, officers,” she told the uniformed police officers. Applejack turned her attention to the standing one, who spoke, while the one in the hat remained silent.

“Afternoon,” the tall man said in a clever, light tenor, “My name’s officer Linky, and this is Sergeant Noi.”

“Ah see that,” Applejack said, blushing despite herself in the sheer awkwardness of the situtation. Granny came up beside her looking equally nervous, and Big Macintosh was nowhere to be found, probably hiding his face from getting involved with this mess.

“We just had a few questions for you,” the standing officer told her politely.

“Yeah, ah see that,” Applejack agreed weakly.

“Are you the head of household?” he asked suspiciously. Applejack gulped.

“Ah’m the head of household,” Granny said dangerously beside Applejack. “You wanna ask yer questions, you ask me, an’ stop scarin’ mah granddaughter.”

“In all honesty, I don’t think there’s any way I could not scare her,” officer Linky said with a shrug. “People think police are just these common thugs who are going to blow their top, or drag people away. We don’t want any trouble, just answers.”

“Dunno how many answers ah cain give ye,” Granny said uncomfortably. “Even if mah daughter is a bit of a worrywort, heh.”

Applejack blushed, despite herself. She really wished she could deny that statement.

“So, you’re not angry?” Applejack asked him cautiously.

“Oh, I’m angry,” officer Linky said quietly, “But I don’t know what I’m angry at, yet. And Sergeant Noi here is...”

“Furious!!” Sergeant Noi shouted seethingly. The first word she uttered, since Applejack had come in. It was a fitting word, for a fitting situation. It’s safe to say that the sergeant was hopping mad, or would have been, given the ability to do so.

“Well,” Granny cut in uneasily, “So what can we ermn, help you with?”

Linky looked up from glancing at his fellow officer who had once again gone silent, and took a notebook out of his back pocket, flipping it open and pulling a pen out of the side.

“I was hoping you could start,” he said to Granny in a strained tone, “By telling us why Sergeant Noi here changed into a little pony.”

The four people faced off with each other, only three of them human. The orange skinned Applejack was in her shirt vest and jean-skirt like she always wore, boots still on from when she just ran heedlessly into the house. Green old granny was dressed up in her cafeteria scrubs, evidence that lunch today in Canterlot High would be one of great tribulation. Officer Linky was a tall, blue man, with proud grey curls coming from under his police hat, and a standard issue uniform, with a rather intimidating looking utility belt. And next to him was Sergeant Noi.

Saying Noi was in uniform may have been something of an exaggeration. She had her badge attached by a lanyard around her neck. The only other thing she was wearing was what was possibly the precinct’s smallest police hat on her head. Even as small is it was, it fit poorly. Stopping it from falling down around the eyes of Sergeant Noi were two broad, furry, triangular ears.

Noi was normally a yellow lady with blonde hair, and that’s about what Applejack and Granny were looking at. But instead of yellow skin, instead she was covered head to toe, or hoof as such the case may be, in a dense coat of corn yellow fur. Instead of being tall and imposing, she was tiny and round. She wasn’t standing on her hooves, and may have not been entirely sure how, because she certainly hadn’t acquired hooves very recently. Instead, Noi was sitting there, with her hooves neatly curled underneath her on the couch that she sat upon, or had been laid down upon, glaring around with her deeply violet eyes, looking fit to kick ass and take names.

Noi was a little pony, just like Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. She was yellow on yellow, darker in hair than coat color. If you looked closely you could see a second lighter stripe in her mane and tail. If not for her large, vividly purple eyes, Noi’s colors might even have passed for a normal pony. Her tail was shorter than that of the other three, Apple Bloom’s formerly being the shortest tail. Noi’s was small, and scruffy enough it actually kind of looked like a pony tail (but not a pony’s tail) except for the fact that the tip of it would twitch back and forth in agitation not unlike that of a cat.

“Ehm....”

“Euhmn...”

“Eurmnumnmmm....”

“Did ye dream about any apples, lately...?” Granny finally asked Noi, the grandmother ceasing her awkward mumbling mantra, and looking with worry down at the high ranking little pony police officer.

Noi just glared at her a moment, as if Granny was being totally inconsiderate, before saying in a thin but scratchy voice, “I cahn htalhk.” She stopped then, and repeated “carnh. ca—carhnot!”

“Flatten your tongue more!” Apple Bloom shouted, over from where the three pony girls were coloring and trying to make themselves inconspicuous.

Noi seemed to think a moment, then said “Wordsz,” to Granny Smith, then going back to intense deliberation, then saying “Harld.” Then she got stuck, saying “thoo... thloo... koo...”

“Tongue curled back, on the roof of your mouth!” Apple Bloom shouted over.

Noi glanced in their direction and said, “Hard th...to. Harld to pthalhk. Augh!”

Granny sighed, and said carefully, “Can ye say ‘yes’?”

Noi regarded her warily, then said unsurely, “...yesh.”

“And cain ye say ‘no’?”

“Ngo,” Noi said, then scrunched her teeny little muzzle up in frustration, and said again, “No.”

“Then,” Granny said, staring off into space, “Euhm... golden apples, that’s right! Didja dream of a golden apple? Yes er no.”

Noi blinked owlishly at Granny’s stare. Then said, “No.”

Granny looked up at Applejack shrugging and saying, “Well ah got nuthin’. Any idears?”

“Ah dunno how much we are gonna be able to help you,” Applejack said to the inferior officer. “We’re just the butt end of this joke, here. Ah don’t know why Apple Bloom is a pony, Sweetie Belle or Scootaloo. We’ve just been tryin’ ta deal with it, and we probably shoulda contacted you once something new came up.”

“This kind of hit all of us out of the blue,” officer Linky put in. “I’m not sure what the police could have done for you if... you called us over whatever happened here.”

“What happened,” Scootaloo spoke up excitedly, trotting up to the four of them despite Apple Bloom frantically gesturing for her to come back, “Is me and Sweetie had the same dream as Apple Bloom, about a golden apple. And Apple Bloom changed into a pony in the dream, and then she changed into a pony in real life. Then, me and Sweetie we just randomly changed into ponies, like a long time later, and we’ve been hiding out at Apple Bloom’s farm ever since. And uh... you can talk better as a pony, once you figure it out.

“Uh, I mean...” Scootaloo said, backing up from the cops, and glancing back belatedly, “You know if it uh, helps your investigation that is.”

“Stop botherin’ the police officers, Scootaloo!” Apple Bloom called out from across the room.

“No, no it’s fine,” officer Linky said, sitting next to sergeant Noi. “So you’re the only new uh... ponies, besides the sergeant here?”

“Far as I know,” Scootaloo said, with a very human looking shrug. “And we could talk pretty good after a couple weeks and a lot of practice. Still hard to say esh sometimesh.”

“Dhish izza nigh’mare,” came the seargent’s voice in a morose whimper. “Can barery hwalk, can’ thalk, soun’ like a lil ghurl, I dun hwanna prashtiz szpeaking!” From her seat up on the couch, Noi looked with glimmering fear at Scootaloo standing there on the floor, a worried little pony standing before her down there, trying to look confident and brave.

“Zheesh ki’sh dunno anyfing,” Noi said in a defeated tone, waving a hoof in Scootaloo’s direction. “We dunno anyfing. Wha I dhoo thoo dheserzsve hthis?” Noi’s voice was filled with a tremulous sadness. It made her ears flatten back all on their own, and thus, her police hat fell down over her eyes.

“Augh!” Noi cursed wordlessly, rolling onto her side to fight with the hat encasing half her head, trying to push it off with clumsy, uncoordinated hooves. The officer Linky rushed over and pulled the hat off her, but Noi was crying now, helpless bitter sobs escaping her chest as free of the hat she turned away from them, curling in a ball and moaning, “Don’ hlook a’ me!”

Looking severely out of his element, officer Linky just firmed his lips and awkwardly placed the police hat back on the general vicinity of Noi’s head, then backed away. And Scootaloo wasn’t sure if she was ever going to stop wincing, from this poor lady-gone-pony’s predicament.

“If it’s any consolation,” Scootaloo told Noi uncomfortably, “At least you’re totally adorable now.”

The sergeant sniffled and lifted her head without uncurling, turning it smoothly to look Scootaloo’s way. The hat just barely managed to stay on akimbo. “I... I am?” she asked in a weepy, if surprised sounding voice.

“Yup,” Scootaloo said, with a sympathetic smile. “I’ve never seen a more adorable pony in my life, and I live with Sweetie Belle over there.” She tossed her head in the direction of her friend to emphasize the unbearably adorable candy colored unicorn.

“Hthank goonesh hfor thsmall favorth,” Noi admitted, unable to hold back a sullen laugh. She turned to look away from Scootaloo, but at least she was not actively crying anymore.

Apple Bloom eyed Scootaloo as she trotted back to her two friends, whispering quietly, “Gosh Scoots, maybe you should major in psychologizing!”

“There’s no psychology major,” Scootaloo rolled her eyes chidingly. “I was jus’ trying to make her feel better.”

“Well, I’d be afraid to say that,” Sweetie warily noted. “What if she was offended from being called adorable?”

“We turned into ponies,” Scootaloo said with a hoof stomp, “Everything about us is totally weird and new now, and we’re all gonna think it looksh totally uh... weird. Sometimes someone’s gotta remind you that you’re still beautiful, not some kind of hideous freak.”

Sweetie blushed at that, taking Scootaloo’s comment entirely too personally. “Ain’t nothing wrong with being reminded of that neither,” Apple Bloom said consolingly. “It’s just a weird as heck on a cornstick situation.”

“Besides,” Scootaloo said stretching her back and snapping her wings out, “I’m not gonna be a psychologist. I’m gonna be a daredevil athlete, just like Rainbow Dash!” She paused to look back at her own wings in discontent, “Or, whatever a horse with wings can be. Heck yeah,” Scootaloo again brightened, saying, “I’m gonna be a flying athlete!” and she jumped then, fluttering a little in place before landing heavily on her hooves.

“That’ll be awesome!” Sweetie told Scootaloo indulgently, with an obligatorily gap-toothed smile.

“Ah hope the grownups have some idea what to do about all this,” Apple Bloom said dismally. “’cause they’re gonna ask me if they don’t, and ah ain’t got no idea either!”

“Let’s just stay out of the way,” Scootaloo said nervously. “I don’t wanna say something bad to a cop. I already almost blew it, just because they were so... clueless!”

Apple Bloom huffed a sigh, and said, “Yeah I gue— wait!!” she abruptly turned away, bleating out that last word as she ran across the room, straight towards the police officers. Scootaloo stared after her in puzzled exasperation.

“Then why don’t I get to do that?” Scootaloo asked Sweetie Belle.

“Because... it’s Apple Bloom,” Sweetie said, giving up trying to make sense of it.

“Well, that’s about all we’re going to need,” officer Linky said, folding up his notebook. “If you find anything else at all, please let us know. This could be very important, if other people are changing into ponies besides your little sister here.”

“Ah’ll do what I can,” Applejack said in uneasy reservation.

“Then thank you, miss Applejack,” Linky said politely, picking Noi right up off the couch to dangle in his arms. “Now if you’ll excuse the two of us, we’re going to get back to the station to—”

“Wait!!” Apple Bloom called out, gallopping across the room towards the police officers. “Ain’t the sergeant gonna stay? Why’s she leaving?”

“...because she’s my commanding officer?” Linky said, unnerved at the strident apple colored pony reared up on his knee and looking at him.

“But she—but...” Apple Bloom backed up clopping to all fours, and backed up to face an alarmed looking Noi saying, “But you cain’t even speak, and ah dunno if you’re all that good at walkin’ yet. I thought that’s why you came here!”

“I duthno how thoo... abou’ my thongue?” Noi said, crossing her eyes at her own brand new pony muzzle. “Goh’ a hjob thoo dhoo,” she concluded finally, looking neutrally at Apple Bloom from where she hung there. It would have been sad if it weren’t so serious.

“Not if you cain’t speak right,” Apple Bloom insisted in frustration. “Ah’m sorry an’ ah don’t wanna make trouble, but you shouldn’t leave just like that.”

“Pardon me, miss uh... pony,” Linky said, leaning down to peer at Apple Bloom uncertainly.

“You know ah’m called Apple Bloom, right?” Apple Bloom asked him suspiciously.

“Right, Apple Bloom,” he said, blushing beneath his sky blue. “You seem to think it necessary that everyone who’s a pony stay here. Is there some reason for that?”

“Well... yeah?” Apple Bloom said, her ears going down nervously. “Ah’m the only girl around who’s a pony, who cain teach her how to be a pony.”

Scootaloo arrived, butting up beside Apple Bloom, saying, “Yeah, I couldn’t even talk when it happened too, and Apple Bloom helped so much! She’s the best friend I could ever have.”

Apple Bloom blushed at that, but didn’t push away from Scootaloo, just mumbling something along the lines of “yer too kind” to her friend, with bouncy bangs shading her eyes.

Officer Linky looked at sergeant Noi uncertainly, and Noi was regarding the two ponies with an unreadable expression. “No gonna geth anyfhing dhone atha sthasthion anyhway,” she said reluctantly, waving a hoof up at him from where she hung in Linky’s arms. The officer obligingly returned the dusty yellow pony to the couch, where Noi tried to arrange her hooves comfortably, and then said to Apple Bloom, “You therioushly can hteatsh hme thoo thalk?”

Noi crossed her eyes again.

“You. Can helrp. Me. Thalk?” Noi repeated, very slowly and meticulously.

“Just a matter of adjustment,” Apple Bloom said confidently, crooking a confident hoof in front of her own chest. “You cain do a lot more with your mouth now, so you just gotta figure how to limit the darn thing to talking. An’ you’re an earth pony, just like me! So I bet you’ll do real good at it.”

“Hearth hfony?” Noi said skeptically.

“Oh!” Apple Bloom realized, with a nervous chuckle, “Uh, because Scoots here is a... sky pony, on account of the wings, and Sweetie is a... star pony. Yeah, that’s it.” Apple Bloom just made that up, because she really, really didn’t want to get Sunset and Twilight in trouble with the police, by spoiling the whole thing herself. But on the other hand, Apple Bloom couldn’t imagine how they’d stay uninvolved at this point. But on the other hand, weren’t those two already in trouble with all the stealing and stuff? But on the other hand, it happened to a police sergeant?!

“I can totally fly too!” Scootaloo cut past Apple Bloom’s inward dilemma. The little pegasus pony jumped up into the air, and flapped briskly to slow her fall.

“See?” she said, still beaming, “Soon I’m gonna really fly, too!”

Noi couldn’t help but giggle at that, and she blushed when what came out of her sounded more like some weird synthesis between a horse nickering and a child’s laughter, but she clarified herself, saying to Scootaloo, “You are hjusth sho exsheyeted abou’ htat!”

“Who wouldn’t be?” Scootaloo retorted smoothly. “Rainbow Da—a top athlete at Canterlot High thinks it’s totally awesome!”

“I suppose... I could just leave by myself, then,” officer Linky said in a hesitant manner. “You uh... want me to bring over some doughnuts or something?”

“YES” Sweetie Belle politely stated, zipping up next to Scootaloo and Apple Bloom at the officer’s feet, to stare at officer Linky with an intensity rivaling that of a polar bear. She seemed to realize at that point, and backed up a step saying, “I mean... yes, some doughnuts would be appreciated and I like vanilla with sprinkles. Um...”

Sweetie just sort of continued backing up at that point, blushing heavier and drooping in her ears and tail.

“Wow Sweetie, you really like doughnuts?” Apple Bloom asked looking at her curiously. “We ain’t got any since you came here! Why didn’t you ever say so?”

“Well, I didn’t want to impose...” Sweetie mumbled.

“It’s no problem, really,” the officer said, smiling congenially. “But uhm... you ponies can eat doughnuts?”

“Doughnuts are pretty fatty,” Apple Bloom remarked to the officer, tilting an ear, “But they got tons of sugar in ‘em, and that makes it easy to digest. Anything with sugar is just pure goodness, pretty much.”

“Al...righty then,” Linky said relatively calmly, standing up, and heading for the door. “I’ll just check with the station to update them on the situation, and I’ll be back to uh... pick up the sergeant after dinner?

“That uh... well don’t ask me,” Apple Bloom said flustered, “You’re the lawman here. What does your sergeant say?”

They both looked at Noi, who buried her face in the couch and mumbled out, “mmht ‘s well mmbldiaper mma bommle...”

After a pause, Linky said hesitantly, “I think that means... yes.”

And so officer Linky manuvered the police car around the Apple’s truck, and revved down the road, while sergeant Noi just stayed right there on the couch. She craned her head around in the direction of the diminishing engine, her hat flipping off her head so the yellow pony could listen with her conical ears perked forward, and an unfamiliar look of fear on her face.

“Y’wanna speak first, or walk?” Apple Bloom asked her from behind, startling Noi on the spot. Oops. “Seems like speaking might be right,” Apple Bloom said blushing abashedly once she had Noi’s attention, “But you ain’t exactly walking around either. So, whatever you want.”

Noi turned to face Apple Bloom and frowned, then looked herself over, lying on the couch there. “Shplhk,” she finally said to Apple Bloom.

“Alrighty,” Apple Bloom said readily. “I need ya to start by sticking out your tongue.”

Author's Note

For reference:

Just Noi

Noi displayed a very intense focus in learning how to speak. Too intense, even. She was fighting herself every inch of the way, like she was trying to be someone that she couldn’t be. At least, not any more. Apple Bloom tried to stick with her, but was getting so tired of just drill, drill, drill. Noi was getting good at speaking, but she just didn’t trust herself anymore. Whatever she wanted, she refused to do or say. So Apple Bloom may have gotten a little... creative in getting the sergeant to loosen up. Not to say she was conspiring with Scootaloo to criminally distract her or anything, but Apple Bloom was conspiring with Scootaloo to criminally distract her.

“Alright,” Apple Bloom whispered, “So ah go back to working on her zees, and you start makin’ cookies with Sweetie Belle. You don’t have to get ‘em in the oven, just make her feel all left out from making them.”

“Are you sure this will work, Apple Bloom?” Scootaloo said skeptically.

“Ah been drilling her for three hours!” Apple Bloom whispered harshly, “Ah’m desperate!”

“Just tell her you need a break!”

“She needs to speak, how can ah deny her that?” Apple Bloom said in frustration, “Could you say no to that face?”

“Better hurry or you’re gonna miss the bathroom, uh...” Scootaloo said loudly, glancing over at the couch where Noi had just emerged, staring over the back at them. “Yeah I’ll figure something out,” she whispered, “Now go.”

Scootaloo trotted off, presumably to find Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom used the facilities. Then she returned to the pony on the couch saying, “Alright Ms. Noi, you wanna work on your z’s?”

“Yesh,” Noi said noncommitally.

“You sure you don’t wanna take a break?” Apple Bloom pleaded.

“I neath to sthpeak I sthound shtupidz,” Noi tried to sound out, mostly succeeding. “Can’ you hthoo anyfing addall?” She looked at Apple Bloom so heart achingly, that Apple Bloom just climbed back onto the couch, and tried to once again teach a pony something she had hardly figured out herself, in a fraction of the time her friends managed to learn it. Sure Noi was working harder, but... even she was looking dazed and out of it, and weary from trying the same thing over and over again.

The sound of laughter began to drift in from outside. It looked like her friends were just out playing, and nothing Apple Bloom wanted more than just to run out and play with them. “Okay, you almost got the hard tee sound,” she said miserably, “Just say ‘to’ an’ don’t let your tongue hit your teeth.”

“Thoo,” Noi said. “Nowai’—thoo. true. No, thooth. No...”

Apple Bloom put her face in her hooves just trying to work it out how she was going to make this a diplomatic solution. Noi might look her age now, but she really was an older lady, and a police officer to boot. She wasn’t as easy to sway as some little kid. Apple Bloom just started describing all the ways to say ‘es’ she’d figured, and their varying levels of effectiveness, but now even Noi wasn’t paying attention. The buttercup colored pony’s ear kept turning towards the wall where Sweetie’s bright laughter rang out as she chased after something Scootaloo kicked to her.

“Listen,” Apple Bloom said flatly, “You’re gonna hafta pay... um...” she looked at the window again, where a football bounced past, two little ponies in hot pursuit. Wait...

“Alright,” Apple Bloom said quickly, “So suh is like zuh, except it ain’t vocalized, but ah think you’re vocalizin’ too soon, before your new mouth can catch up. So ah want you to say ‘so’ real slow, an’ make sure you don’t say like ‘szo’ with a zee in it. Just say ‘so’ slowly over an’ over again. I’ll tell ya when to stop.”

“Szo,” Noi said evenly. She looked frustrated then, and said more slowly “Sssss...zo.”

“Just ‘oh’ then,” Apple Bloom said, “Now try it with me, ohhh...”

“Ohhh...” Noi repeated obediently.

“Now ‘sssss’”

“Sssss...”

“Ohhhh...”

“Ohhhh...”

“Sssss...”

Noi’s head immediately turned at a surprised squeak outside, and the sound of the ball hitting the side of the farm house. Silence, and then more laughter. The buttercup pony, she sighed heavily, all the way deep down in her chest. Frustration, fear, and disappointment.

“Sure sounds like they’re havin’ fun out there,” Apple Bloom said only half insincerely.

“We coul’—” Noi started to say, then cut off, blushing, saying, “I–I can’ hwalk tho goord, so thereth no poin’...tuh.”

“But you can walk some?” Apple Bloom asked hopefully. “Come on, why don’t we give it a try? Ah bet you’ll have fun!”

“Y—ngo. No,” Noi bit out, her ears turning down as she forced her head away from the happy sounds outside. “I’m no’a litthle gurl any hmore. I can thake ith. Jus’ keep thrilling...duh-rilling me,”

“You sure?” Apple Bloom asked sadly.

“We can alwayth go ou’ layther,” she said noncomittally.

“Fine,” Apple Bloom said in exasperation. “Start again then, esssss...”

They continued along those lines just a few more minutes, and then Apple Bloom’s heart sank, because it must have been getting too late to play. Scootaloo and Sweetie came in with a burst of cold, Scootaloo in her own woody colored winter cloak, and Sweetie wrapped up in her fuzzy green dress. Sweetie trotted in behind Scootaloo, saying, “...and that’s how Rarity found out I like adventure movies.”

“Still say the books are better,” Scootaloo insisted, “You can really get into them then and...” she paused and shook her head sadly, exclaiming, “oh, but it’s a shame we can’t play outside anymore. It gets dark so early these days!”

If Apple Bloom was disappointed by that, boy howdy it looked like Noi had dropped her ice cream, after finding out that her puppy had died. “Ith dhark alrea’y?” Noi asked, with a tremble in her voice, a tremble that Apple Bloom had gotten familiar with in her own voice before.

“Ain’t nothing wrong with ya, miss Noi,” Apple Bloom reassured her hastily, “It’s just easier for ponies to—”

“What are you talking about, Scootaloo?” Sweetie then accused her friend critically. “It isn’t going to be dark for another hour! Why did we come inside anyway?”

“Oh, right!” Scootaloo responded with an unabashed smile. “I guess we can go outside and play more, then. It’s cold out there, but it’s really fun. You can go sledding, and make snowmen, and try to find where the ball got buried. And it’s so different as a pony! Don’t you think?”

“Yyyeah?” Sweetie answered cautiously. “I like how I can walk outside without shoes, I guess. It’d be hard if I couldn’t.”

“Totally,” Scootaloo agreed. “Now we don’t have much time left, so let’s make the most out of it!”

“I’ll go get the sled!” Sweetie said happily, carefully walking in a circle, and then running back outside.

“Can—er...” Noi said, staring after her as Scootaloo easily trotted outside. “Can—uhm...”

“Here, c’mon, let me help you get down,” Apple Bloom said, jumping down from the couch and holding out her hoof. “Y’cain’t just be all serious all the time, even if you are a big old police lady. Just give it a shot. You need to learn how to walk just as much as speak, an’ every one of us all talked funny at first, so nobody’s gonna look down on you for it.”

Noi didn’t say anything, didn’t look like she could say anything. Lip trembling somewhere between gratitude and self loathing, Noi reached out one smooth creamy hoof, and Apple Bloom hooked it in hers, pulling the new pony girl hoof by hoof off the couch cushions and down to the ground. Carefully releasing her hoof, Apple Bloom looked critically as Noi brought that hoof under her and stood uncertainly but steadily on her four hooves.

“Well you’re standing,” Apple Bloom said thoughtfully. “How much walking have you done?”

“I—a lithle,” Noi said, blushing as she took a few shaky steps forward. “I changthed on Thaturday... stuchk in my houth for two dayth. Didn’ thalk becauth... alone, buth... walkedh.”

“W–why didn’t you come here on Saturday, then?” Apple Bloom exclaimed in worried confusion.

“Didn’ have ‘nnyone look for me, unthil th’ worgk... day,” Noi grumbled, looking aside at imagined workmates and memories of the morning.

Apple Bloom’s ears went a bit down, as she suggested, “Nobody to check on you, on the weekend?”

“Why woul’ anybohy check on me?” Noi asked, looking at Apple Bloom in heartbreaking sincerity.

“Well, you don’t got family?” Apple Bloom suggested uneasily.

Noi blinked at her.

“You rearry don’ hwannah know ‘bout my fhamirly,” Noi declared in a decisive confidence, rolling her oversized eyes and turning her head to look at the door, “Now shuttuf an’ le’ me fink.”

The light yellow pony awkwardly kind of scooted around, and faced the right direction, blushing at her clumsiness, as Apple Bloom couldn’t help but be there watching. She seemed confident on four hooves then, and had clearly gotten over the weirdness of standing up straight with your butt behind you. With a wobble, Noi started a sort of awkward waddle, that swiftly translated into what you’d expect for a pony walking, or a cat, or something between that which didn’t fit either animal.

“S’eashy once y’ge’ vhe hang ohf ith,” Noi mumbled unconvincingly.

Her excitement earlier nonwithstanding, Noi was understandingly hesitant at the first touch of frozen ground on her front hooves. But Apple Bloom didn’t want to lose more of the house’s heat, so she butted Noi from behind, and slid her out into the tenuous chill of the late afternoon, shutting the door securely (and confidently) behind them.

And then it occurred to her that Noi might not be used to getting butted around by a forehead against her butt when she’s a buck naked pony. A sentiment Noi expressed sarcastically, feeling like her whole face was blushing. “Coul’ you kinly stop tushing my bu’?”

“Well, we’re outside alright,” Apple Bloom said loudly, throwing a scarf over the shocked Noi’s neck and wrapping it around with her teeth. “Your hooves can stand up plenty good against cold, and sorry let’s just gofindtheothers,” Apple Bloom mumbled embarassedly, trotting off around the farm house, where Scootaloo and Sweetie were using snowballs to take shots at the side of the house, apparantly trying to hit each other’s previous strike as exactly as possible. Noi just shook her head at the pink bow diminishing away from her. It hadn’t been that embarassing.

“Come over here, Noi!” Apple Bloom called out, attracting all three of their attentions.

“Oka—” Noi said starting to waddle forward, but stepping on her scarf and falling face first into the snow. “Hmpmph!” she protested in alarm, rear hooves pedalling frantically trying and failing to right herself. Apple Bloom gallopped back, and pulled Noi up, and... Noi felt a lot more confident on her hooves, now that someone was there to help her out.

“No’ one worb” Noi told her dangerously, brushing the snow off her face with a hoof, and more carefully walking forward to meet with the others.

Noi perked right up, after she started moving around. She had turned into a pony like Apple Bloom, so Apple Bloom had a better idea what she was going through than either Sweetie Belle or Scootaloo. Scoots was always so hyper and forward focused, and Sweetie just... really understood the value of a quiet moment’s peace, but if there’s one thing Apple Bloom had to characterize of her own experience as a pony, it was that it was just so much dang fun to move around. Just moving, not doing anything special. Feeling your body responding to your footfalls, or, hooffalls she supposed. Turning and shifting, and gallopping around. It just felt great to move, in a way that she couldn’t really share with the other two.

Noi, once she got started, it was like the sun opened up in the clouds, even though the sky stayed steadily grey. She went from grumpy, to surprised, to downright cheerful. It was sort of adorably gratifying, how eager Noi became to copy the motions of the more experienced ponies. She fell over and it didn’t even bother her, just sat there making a game of figuring out how to wiggle around back to her hooves again. Apple Bloom got caught up in that enthusiasm, and they weren’t even pretending to practice anymore. Apple Bloom was running around her and Noi was um... jumping after her, and they were both just laughing themselves silly in bright voices that made the evening less of a dreary time and place.

Not that it was all that huge of a difference. Sweetie was really friendly with Noi, and seemed to enjoy watching her enjoy herself just as much as Noi was enjoying herself. Scootaloo was really challenging in her sort of style, not trying to put yourself above someone else, but as a means of encouragement and excitement. Really she was way better at staying on task than Apple Bloom, who’d been sitting around so long she just wanted to go nuts.

The daylight waned all too quickly, and the four of them made their way back to the farm house. There, Cheerilee poked her head out from behind the doorway to the kitchen, saying, “Oh hello girls, we’re—there’s another one?!” she belted out in surprise.

Noi shrank back.

“You ain’t heard?” Apple Bloom said to the very tall, from her perspective, plum colored lady. Apple Bloom stepped between Cheerilee and Noi, saying, “Golly lady, you shoulda seen it this morning. We were all running around like chickens when Noi here showed up. She just randomly turns into a pony! Only reason she knew to come here is because the police—oh she’s a police sergeant by the way—the police sorta knew about me, from when they thought maybe the farm was a secret ponifying kidnapping operation, and so she came right here!”

Cheerilee blinked at Apple Bloom, gave a weak smile, and then looked at Noi and said, “Oh, well, pleased to meet you miss...Ms... Sergeant Noi.”

“Mish isz ...” Noi started to say quietly, but trailed off into red faced mumbling. She couldn’t meet the much larger woman’s gaze evenly.

Noi didn’t talk much at all beyond that point. The presence of a grownup lady must have been a lot of pressure, so with Cheerilee there towering over the three, now four of them, Noi seemed like she would rather just vanish into the background. It was plain and clear. She didn’t want to be here, not seen like this, in such a vulnerable and alien position. Noi just followed along neutrally when Apple Bloom suggested maybe they should work on hay before dinner, making not much eye contact with even the ponies she saw eye-to-eye with. It was Cheerilee and Big Mac doing the cooking today, so Apple Bloom was sure to know it was gonna be tasty... and well balanced. Not that exciting, but it was always a treat when Cheerilee came over; her presence in a room just seemed to brighten it like day.

The hay was simple enough to teach Noi, though Apple Bloom was starting to get worried. With so many of them little ponies, they were actually almost making it through one entire bale of hay. And they had plenty, for the horses and cows and stuff, but plenty didn’t mean it would replenish itself, not until the grass started growing next year, and shipments started to come in. It was just a stroke of luck that ponies were all so gosh darn little, because the hesitant and squeamish Noi barely added an impact to the pile at all.

There was something of a bathroom crisis going on though. The next day, Apple Bloom had to well, really had to go, and once again someone was using their bathroom. It was Rarity more often than not, but here it was Noi, and how could you complain about that? Apple Bloom really wished she could be human again, because she didn’t exactly know how to cross her legs as a pony!

Anyhow, she managed, with difficulty, but the strain was starting to show on their household. They just didn’t have the facilities with everyone who was coming and staying around these days. Cheerilee and... Rarity oddly enough were bringing in more food, but they couldn’t magically make a bathroom appear out of thin air. And, supernatural resilience aside, Apple Bloom still really didn’t like going outside on a winter night with the chill of frost in the air, to do her business.

Apple Bloom was worried about that, but she was more worried about Noi. Not for Noi’s well being, since that butter colored lady was stubbornly resilient as all get out, but for what Noi had become. Call it self reflection if you will, but Noi wasn’t exactly acting like some big grown up woman, far less a hardened police officer. Even Noi herself seemed confused and surprised by her emotional reactions to things. Apple Bloom had figured out that ponies were all just like that, and Noi was as grown up as any of the rest of them.

But when she looked over beyond the edge of her bed where Noi lay at night, Apple Bloom couldn’t convince herself of that. Noi wasn’t acting like a grown up police lady. She was acting like a kid trying to act like a grown up police lady. Noi stubbornly insisted on sleeping by herself, and none of them had any probem with it, but... Noi sort of did. It just broke Apple Bloom’s heart to hear those childlike whimpers, and even tears as Noi tried to sleep in the lonely, encompassing darkness of her improvised bed spread. Noi didn’t like being alone, at least not anymore. And Apple Bloom really... didn’t know how to make it better for her. Apple Bloom just didn’t know why ponies had to be this way.

It was like they weren’t prepared for any hardship worse than a boo boo or a bad dream. Like they all came out of some kid’s cartoon, where morals were tissue thin and the characters never faced any conflict or strife that couldn’t be fixed with a song. There’s that word again, kid. Apple Bloom... wasn’t supposed to be a little kid, but... neither was Noi. And that made Apple Bloom wonder as she lay there, and worry. She was a big pony, for a pony ...right?

In other news, Twilight Sparkle was panicking, again.

“Who are we going to tell?” she squeaked, “We have to come forward! We can’t make them stagger through this alone.”

Twilight paced back and forth past the dimly lit wall of their latest “unoccupied residence” that Sunset mysteriously knew about, where all the photographs of Apple Bloom, minus the motion capture sequences were hanging. Some had markings on them in red pen, attempting to guess at the magical nature of the time fracture back when it was still localized and measurable.

“This is our fault!” the purple girl declared throwing her arms over her head, “We started this! Our world is corrupting them one by one!”

Spike stood on four doggie paws in the doorway to the room Twilight was in, looking worriedly in her direction. “Twilight—” he started to bark out, but she just interrupted him declaring anxiously,

“Why would they even want our help? We’re just a couple of crazy and completely human girls, and the only thing they would give us is the criminal record that we totally and justifiably deserve!”

“Twilight—” Spike tried again.

“I don’t know why this is happening,” Twilight declared, looking at him yet not looking at him. “I can’t know why this is happening. Even I think I’m crazy!”

“You’re not crazy, Twilight!” Spike protested. But Twilight had already wheeled away from him again, making him whine in frustration.

“The police know?” Twilight asked, ticking off on her fingers, “The police turned into one? I mean, one of their members? Is she alright? Should we talk to her? Should we talk to her superior officer? Should we tell them everyone is going to change into a pony? Should we tell them no one is going to change into a pony? Should we tell them we don’t know how to stop whatever we’ve started? That we started it? About the spiral?”

Spike just shook his head and turned padding out the door that he came through. Twilight continued on unabated.

“They’ll need to severely adjust their food stores,” she pondered feverishly, “They’ll need to change their whole infrastructure. It could be a catastrophe of catastrophic proportions! How are they going to operate their motor vehicles? Can they survive if everypony needs to learn to write again? What about clothing? Humans love clothing so much, and how are they going to sew it before they learn to horn? How are they going to manage the flying issues?”

Sunset Shimmer walked into the room, the flame haired girl leaning on the doorjam, with Spike loping up right at her heels. While he continued to whine with worry, Sunset leaned there looking at Twilight with a lazy disapproval.

“Will the weather stop autoregulating?” Twilight continued heedless of those two, “Will the boundary destabilize? What if it stops autoreifying? We could all starve to death! What if it collapses into a singularity, with us in it? What if

“Twilight!” Sunset bellowed out. Twilight cut off, and looked at her fearfully over her shoulder. “You’re doing it again,” Sunset said in a more normal tone of voice. “Also, dinner’s ready. Instant noodles, your favorite.”

Twilight blinked at her, but Sunset was already turning away walking out of the room.

“They are not my favorite!” Twilight whined angrily, stalking after Sunset Shimmer. “I don’t even like them! They’re just so convenient!”

Being a cop isn’t easy. You had to see some awful things from the rock bottom of society, and from the top? With your responsibility to take care of everyone, and fight crime, there was more misguided bureacracy to keep you in check than there were criminals! Noi thought she was moving up in the world when she got the rank of sergeant, but she spent less time leading her squad and more time taking the heat for them and fighting with paperwork and her superiors to justify the use of force.

Being a cop wasn’t easy, but this year at least had been pretty uneventful. No murders, no major burglary outside of some photo place’s camera equipment. Some domestic violence, but you always had that. Long as parents aren’t accountable, you’ll have that sort of thing. Noi hated it on a personal level, maybe more than other crimes, but after enough times of seeing some hollow eyed kid, or a girl who can’t tell the police anything because she doesn’t want to hurt him, you start accepting it as inevitable.

Noi never meant to be a cop. It was just what she was good at, all she’d ever known really. By the time she figured out you actually had a choice in life, she was already at the top of her class in junior officer’s training, and it was way too late to back out. Not too late to skip town on her parents though, and work the beat in Canterlot instead, heh. She’d send a letter with a return address one of these days. Noi never meant to be a cop, but she was damn good at it, and Canterlot was one of the cleanest cities in the state, so it could have been a lot worse.

Well, now it was a lot worse! After getting home from her desk job disguised as defending justice, Noi had stalked into her crummy apartment, alone as usual. She didn’t really mind being alone. It meant she didn’t have to deal with other people. Compared to keeping those idiots in line back at the station, a little alone time was a welcome relief. Not like she had a choice about it anyway. Her squad were the only people she interacted with, and they saw her more as a taskmaster than a friend.

Plus with her unbearable family, cutting ties with them left Noi with very few options. Sure she made a token effort to go out to a cafe once and a while, but she never could rouse much interest in the men (always men) who paid attention to her. She wasn’t a prude or anything, but... you see enough in the world, and you start getting tired of playing the game. You start wishing for someone you can really connect with, who understands you and accepts you for who you are, not for who you’re dolled up to be. Noi probably should have had her bout of terrible relationships before hitting this point, but she always was ahead of the curve and skipped right to lonely cynicism.

So she walked in the house, heated up a TV dinner and used it the way God intended it to be used. Nothing good was on, so Noi kept watching. Didn’t have anything better to do. She ended up staying up late before she finally decided to head for bed. Noi was up at odd hours during her job, so she rarely slept before midnight even on the weekends. It wasn’t until late that morning, when she pulled her pajamas off her head, that Noi noticed anything was off. It wasn’t until she went to wash her face, that she saw a stern yet confused looking lady there in the bathroom mirror, with the ears of a horse.

“This a... joke?” she said, reaching up to touch one with her hand and ”oh god they’re real!” She snatched her hand away, and stared at her reflection fearfully. There was no sort of joke or prank, or advanced technology, or random circumstance, that could give you movable, conical ears of lightly furred flesh that you could feel being touched. This was... an ear moved. This was impossible!

Noi went for a walk. She... should’ve got in her car and just gone for some isolated location in the hills, but the experience had shaken her, and she didn’t have anywhere picked out to go. Better to be discovered as some half animal mutant at your legal residence, than trespassing on someone’s farm, right? She went for a walk, and the winter weather made it easy to wear a hood, but her animated ears did not like being covered. She had to jam her hands in her pockets and hold them down to stop her own ears from pushing the hood up above her head. She went to the local grocery, with the vague thought of buying survival supplies should she have to hide out for a long period of time. Lots of people were on the city streets, not all of them with thick hoods tight against their head, and none of them with horse ears.

She got like, cereal and stuff, and like... animal stuff, and got back to her apartment with her arms full of shopping bags. She walked in, pushed the door closed behind her, and then proceeded to break down, dropping everything on the floor, and crumpling to her knees, then tearing off her hood and lurching toward the mirror to see if... yep, they were still there. And her ears were even higher on her head, like they were moving somehow. She swore and punched the sink counter, but Noi just didn’t know what to do about any of this. She looked herself over, and that’s when she noticed the tail, and that’s when she noticed it was getting worse.

Who was she gonna call? She didn’t even have her parent’s number. No friends to speak of. She was gonna call her squad and they were going to see her like this? They’d laugh at her! They’d freak! Any credit she had as a superior officer and a human being would go right out the window. They’d lock her up in a facility! Or a zoo! So Noi didn’t call anyone. She just lay there in bed wishing she could cry. And, surprisingly later in the evening, Noi did manage to cry! She was thinking about the worse years she’d seen as a cop in the past, and the one officer who she was close with, who died in the line of duty. Noi would never forget the look on O’Fizzy’s face when his life bled away. It wasn’t angry or serene, just... scared.

Noi hadn’t cried over O’Fizzy in years, but tonight she just couldn’t deal with it. A harbinger of what was to come perhaps. It was... strangely relieving and worrying. She couldn’t cry over what was happening to her, or of how afraid she was about what was going to happen when people noticed she was missing, but that scared face, far in her past? It just broke the dam, and Noi was clutching the pillow with a death grip, crying into it to muffle her wails, not because anyone in nearby apartments would say anything or even care, but just because of the ghosts from her past, the ones who looked down on her with such disgust, whenever she was caught crying.

Sometime after she’d calmed down, Noi realized the pillow was like twice as big as it should have been. And in fact, she was twice as small as she should have been. Wiping her eyes, and looking at her body in fascination, she was barely fitting inside her loosely rumpled clothing, so Noi just took it all off. Not like anyone was going to see her like this, which was a relief because it must have been pretty grotesque. Her fingers were sort of fusing or something, and her legs were ...weird, and her body was all patchy looking. Some of it felt weird and fuzzy. She hobbled off to the bathroom mirror again and good lord but did she ever look like some kind of weird human colored animal now. She had a snout now, not just a nose!

Noi had a ...hard time, but she managed to write a note, barely legible. Basically telling anyone who finds her what happened, if she stopped being able to communicate for some reason. She didn’t really know how these weird horror stories went, more of a classic fantasy fan herself. Knights and princesses and daring rescues and stuff. But there was nothing royal about this at all. Just, inexplicably turning into a ...thing with a muzzle, conical ears, and a short little scruff of a tail.

Noi would think some kind of terrier, if she hadn’t just literally lost her canines. And there was this weird thing with her limbs... well, she just had no idea what she was becoming, or what consequences it would bring. After writing the note, she basically crawled to her bed, and just lay there whimpering morosely, less from what was happening to her, more from the sheer ennui of being able to do literally nothing but hide in her apartment for most of the day. But also for turning into this thing... whatever she was.

It was very clear what situation Noi was in, once she awoke from an uncharacteristically long slumber. Her fingers were all gone! Not just like, stuck together, or paws, but she couldn’t even feel them anymore, just the one! She spent a greater part of Sunday morning trying to figure out how to stand up on her new limbs, before finally figuring out that 1) she has to stand on all fours, 2) she has to stand on her toes, not the heels, not even the balls of her feet, and 3) don’t try to move both feet on one side of your body at the same time, or you’ll fall over sideways. Or, was it feet and arms? Handfeet? Noi’s self image was very confused to say the least.

She made it out of her room finally, and didn’t crawl so much as toddle like some kind of creature on stilts into the bathroom. There, she realized that 4) the bathroom sink is way, way too high, and 5) her nails were clopping against the bathroom tile, like hooves!

...Noi was a bit slow to the draw there. But she got it finally. Some kind of horse thing! She couldn’t get up to the sink to see herself, outside of a brief glimpse of a struggling pony’s face edging up over the counter and then slipping back down with a squeak. Her apartment really didn’t have much in terms of amenities. It was a place for one person to live alone, and didn’t have anything more than that. But now she wished for like, a full length mirror on a door that reached the floor. Or at least a stool.

Speaking of doors, Noi was now trapped in her apartment. Thankfully, she never closed the door to her bedroom... or bathroom, but the front door remained an impassable barrier. What moron invented doorknobs anyway? There was a two story drop out of the window outside, and no balcony. Noi didn’t exactly have anywhere to go, but... it was so frustrating!! Stupid door!

Noi felt fine, as far as being herself, but she wasn’t sure whether she was going to die of boredom. She had literally nothing to do but eat ...things, and try to walk around in circles. She spent a lot of time walking around in circles, and climbing on furniture to get at high things. For a creature without fingers, it was surprisingly easy to climb on things.

At least that caramel chocolate bar she’d eaten yesterday wasn’t bothering her stomach at all. She didn’t even suspect that she’d turn into some kind of horse. What was she supposed to eat now, hay? And how long was she gonna have to be stuck in here? Noi even came at one point to the verge of breaking her window, just to get freaking out of her apartment, but then she saw people below on the street outside, and shrank back, peering out fearfully at the passerbys. No one seemed to see her.

Though she could use a pencil for the keyboard, the computer was completely unusable, since Noi couldn’t figure out how to get the stubborn power button to depress. So, she managed to pull out an old phone book instead, and spent some time just poring through it, trying to find something—anyone she could call to get help for this. But outside of the police, Noi couldn’t find anything, and Noi already wasn’t looking forward to dealing with them.

She hadn’t just changed into a horse. She had changed into like, a little kiddie horse! She actually cried when falling off the doorknob to her apartment and banging her ...knee? It felt like a knee, but she actually cried, and there were actual tears running down her face. Noi didn’t know how to deal with this. She tried to keep her cool, but everything just seemed so much bigger and scarier, and for the first time in decades Noi had to go to sleep with a light on. Because she just... she knew there wasn’t anything in the darkness, but she couldn’t see it!

All things considered, Noi shouldn’t have been surprised when Officer Linky showed up at her door, asking if Noi was alright since she didn’t show up at the dispatch office today. Noi was always on time to work, never late, never absent unless she was desperately ill, and even then it was just to keep other officers from catching it. So when she was rolling a pencil back and forth idly with her new hooves, she shouldn’t have shot straight up in the air, every hair of fur on her spine standing up when there was a knock at the door.

“Sergeant, are you there?” Linky said through the door to her. “Dispatch said something about a shoplifter at the electronics store, and we really could use your input on this. Are you sick?”

“I’ fie, gho hway!” Noi shouted out nervously.

“What?”

She blinked and stared at her own muzzle. Noi realized belatedly that she hadn’t tried to talk yet. “Ugo hway!” she tried again. “Hway!” she said in frustration. Why couldn’t she say it?!

“You sound terrible!” Linky exclaimed sympathetically. “You better stay in if you’ve got that much congestion!”

“No!” Noi said desperately. She gave up trying to hide, at the sheer gripping terror that she might let this one chance to get out of her apartment slip away. “Jus’ hopemfhe gh.. gh... gdoor an’ then, ugo hway!”

“You can’t even open the door?” Linky said urgently. “Have you seen a doctor? I can call a doctor!”

“No!” Noi repeated urgently. “I’ fie! Jus’.... hopen. vhe. gdoor an’...” She fidgeted in place.

“...don’ hlaugh.”

Noi tried to stand there and take it, or... crawl there and take it, but when Linky gave the affirmative and clicked the door open, Noi panicked and zipped back around the doorway to her bedroom, too fast to even realize how she did it. She forced herself to look around the corner, staring in terror at the inconceivably large Linky walking into her inconceivably large apartment.

“Sergeant?” Linky called out, looking around. “Where are you?”

“Hover here,” Noi said, but her voice caught in her throat, and she could barely squeak it out.

“Was that you?” Linky asked unsurely, “I didn’t quite hear, could you—”

“H’over here!” Noi belted out, then clammed up tight. She tried and failed to not quiver as Linky approached. Her fellow officer turned the corner, looked down, and saw Noi looking up at him, eyes full of fear and shame. He regarded her silently, down there in all her tiny little pony glory.

...and then fell over laughing.

Noi wanted to yell at him, but really that kind of reaction wasn’t out of line. So she just blushed furiously and waited for him to calm down. Of the officers in her squad, Noi would have to say she was the closest with Linky. She figured it was all casual flirting on his part, just trying to get in her pants, but he was the one who was genuinely nicest to her, and he was really devoted in his field, having a passion for law enforcement that Noi never managed to summon in herself. Heck, he was the one who came to check on her. She didn’t see any of her other workmates here. Maybe he was kind of special, maybe? Maybe sort of a friend?

Now Noi felt bad for not calling him.

Not that bad though. So she just glared at him, until he calmed down and said,

“Is this some kind of joke? Sergeant, you got me good.” He wasn’t talking to her though, just about her, looking away from Noi around the room. “I know you’re sort of animal colored,” he went on, “But how’d you get a dog that looks exactly like you? And where are you, anyway?”

“I’ here!” Noi told him as best as she could. He glanced over at the pony, long enough that she had his attention, so she continued, slurring out, “I’s thnot a choke! I thurned intho this.” She stomped a hand—foot—hoof and added in tearful frustration, “I’s har’ thoo thalk li’e htis.”

Linky was staring full on at her now. “Ventriloquism?” he tried weakly.

“No!” she declared, looking right back at him, one of the few words she could say it appeared.

His eyes sparked in realization then, and he said, “Oh my god, it happened to you too!”

Noi blinked at him, then narrowed her eyes and said, “esplain.”

Well, a few months ago, there had been some cops from another department it turns out, who went to check out a possible violent incident at the local high school, and the story they came back with was... the stuff for office legend to say the least. Noi regretted not socializing with her fellow officers more, because apparantly they’d been all abuzz about some girl who somehow started changing into an animal. As difficult as it was to make herself understood, Noi immediately demanded to go see this girl, to see if the same thing had happened to them both. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Noi didn’t know how she got roped into staying with this farm family, but it’s not like she had anywhere else to go. Truly she was most surprised that they offered at all. It was the only decent thing to do, and should have been expected, but... it was a kindness Noi wasn’t used to receiving. She felt like she should compensate them somehow, but what could possibly be as valuable as saving her from that awful apartment?

The girl in question had changed, in just about exactly the same way as Noi it turns out. Which made no sense, as Noi never even had slight contact with her directly. Some disease that only certain individuals can contract, and the rest are carriers for? That’s the only explanation Noi could come up with. Not that Noi could explain anything very well, or like, at all. Nobody could understand a word that came out of her unpracticed lips. But this Apple girl was a godsend, because she already knew how to speak as a horse... pony thing, and she knew innumerable other things too.

What Noi, and the whole police department didn’t know, was that Noi wasn’t the second person to transform! Instead, the kid’s two best friends just went pony, like, hardly a month ago. And they didn’t call the police office because... seriously, what are the police supposed to do about this? Well, Noi learned how to talk alright, so she could solidly ream them from ear to ear on what the police can do to stop outbreaks of mysterious diseases, and that they may have endangered the whole city foolishly hiding what happened from law officers. Then Noi got really quiet, because she remembered that she did the same thing, technically. But she thought she got the point across.

It was... really weird being a pony. Noi found herself crying over the littlest thing, where before she’d been too burned out to cry over pretty much anything. It wasn’t just the act though. Her emotions were so confused now, and she felt an insecurity that she hadn’t felt since she was a little girl. She wasn’t as... decisive anymore. Kept looking to others for what to do. She couldn’t do her job anymore, not just for being four legged, because every time a tricky decision came up, she just... started looking for someone to tell her what she should do. Even if she knew the right answer, she just felt so unsure of herself!

The head kid horse herself said that ponies were just like that, and they were all fully grown, for ponies, but Noi had some serious doubts in that regard. She looked even younger than the other three ponies, and they looked pretty young! It was so unnerving how she had to look up to absolutely everyone now, even them, if only just slightly. Apple Bloom said a lot of things, and a lot of things she said were dead on. How to talk, for instance. Noi couldn’t express her gratitude enough for Apple Bloom helping her out there, once it started to stick at any rate. But some notions that kid came up with...

Apple Bloom may have had the best of intentions for all of them, but she had a bit of a big head, and she was awfully naive. Clearly this kid hadn’t been put through the grinder yet. She thought the world was still a sensible place, that nothing happens without a reason, and that on some level everyone truly cares for each other. Noi knew better, but...

It didn’t do her any good to know that anymore. Noi didn’t have any reason to be world weary and cynical anymore. All it did was upset her. Even when the only problem was that she wouldn’t be able to pay her rent check anymore, and would lose the apartment if things kept up like this, Noi ended up crying! Sure it was a crummy situation with no good solution, but it was nothing to cry over! It’s just... she didn’t want to lose her apartment!

So Noi got to be a complete basket case to them, or in a less critical light, a disturbed little girl, who’s seen too much not to be changed by it. But it was like... being the reverse of that little girl. Getting upset like that actually helped, and the more Noi was like this, the less... real her old life seemed. She actually enjoyed just horsing arou—playing around with the other ponies, to the point she was even laughing gleefully when they paid attention to her and encouraged her. She learned to eat hay, an easy skill to learn, but a really difficult one to get comfortable with. She took long walks with her friends—her—yes, her friends, walking all the way to the outskirts of the city, where the bus would have taken them back into Canterlot, if they were human.

Scootaloo seemed to sympathize most with what was going on with Noi, oddly enough. Noi wasn’t sure what it was that she understood, but when Noi had to cry over some silly slight in her past or future, that orange winged pony would come over to her and talk to her about it. Not like, ask her about it, but talk to her about it.

“You look like something’s bothering you. Wanna talk about it?” That’s all Scootaloo would ask. If Noi said no, she’d leave her alone. But when Noi told Scootaloo, that she didn’t even know her parent’s phone number anymore, and she’d been thinking of them and it just made her want to cry, from what they put her through, but also that they weren’t here, Scootaloo would say what she thought. Not asking for details, or interrogating her, but just trying to offer Noi some sort of insight. It was weird, but it worked, and more often than not Noi ended up walking—or—trotting away with a shy smile fighting its way onto her face.

Noi didn’t really connect with the other two quite as well. The Apple Bloom kid you already heard about, and that Sweetie Belle, well she was a delightful little girl, the sort of kid you would want to keep safe from harm. But, she didn’t really know how to deal with Noi, and she said as much. They had a sort of understanding after that. At the very least though, Sweetie Belle made sure all of them were well stocked for clothing, bothering her sister incessantly until Rarity went and cornered Noi to get her fittings, and tried to start making some sort of winter wear for her. Frankly, Noi would have been happy with just a scarf, but once she wrapped up in the fluffy thing that actually had pants sort of, she couldn’t help but feel a bit better about herself.

Heaven knows she could have used some of that feeling, even before she turned into a pony.

Author's Note

Oh Noi, why must every character I touch get so complex?

This chapter wasn’t originally going to be all about Noi, but as it got up above 70K I had to reconsolidate a bit. Hopefully some insight in her experience here, into the meaning and process behind the transformation. and not just more meaningless filler nobody likes to read

Flight Lessons

Scootaloo would have helped more while Noi was doing all that recuperating, but Scootaloo had her hands way busy. Wings. Whatever. Way busy.

It was absolutely terrible of Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo loved her for it, but some pony casually mentioned to Rainbow Dash herself, that she should try to train Scootaloo at flying. When the fallout of telling that to Dash reached Scootaloo, she angrily confronted Apple Bloom, after momentarily escaping the excited Rainbow Dash. Scootaloo accused Apple Bloom of messing everything up, and Apple Bloom just looked at her evenly and said,

“If she weren’t the one doing it, you’d be all trying to make this big elaborate show for her, and totally panic when you have to perform. Remember the slalom 500 of ‘03?”

Scootaloo... remembered the Slalom 500 of ‘03.

“Just treat her like she ain’t anything special,” Apple Bloom advised Scootaloo. “She’s gonna see you flying at your worst, so you can just focus on getting better.”

Scootaloo wished Apple Bloom could understand how she felt about Rainbow Dash, but... Scootaloo wasn’t sure she understood it herself! Dash was so awesome and cool and... and Scootaloo wasn’t. But she wanted to, like... be like Dash, and be like, this super athlete that everyone admires. But Scootaloo couldn’t do that, so she just kinda... still tried? It was confusing.

What else was confusing was flying! There were so many books on it, all this crazy complicated physics about turbulence and ailerons and airfoils. Actually, Scootaloo could move her feathers individually, so they did make sort of good ailerons, at least they would in theory.

But otherwise, she didn’t understand half of what those books said, and was terrified that Rainbow Dash would get frustrated with her, and just call off the training. But Dash proved to be surprisingly resilient, and supportive. She didn’t treat failures like failures, but more like opportunities. Ways to learn more about how Scootaloo’s wings worked, and how they’d fly.

Scootaloo already knew a lot about her wings, from the preening she been practicing with her mom, to just experimenting with the complex motions they could undergo. Pegasus feathers really were magic, the way Scootaloo could move them without any apparant musculature at all. Twilight Sparkle said something about flexing the something something field, and it was all complicated sounding, but what it came down to in the end is magic.

Scootaloo thought the actual alien pony girl with wings could help her, but Twilight Sparkle didn’t even think Scootaloo could fly. She didn’t admit it, but her attitude around Scootaloo was one of apology and hesitance. She never guaranteed anything to Scootaloo, and always carefully phrased her sentences in terms of pegasi in general. It didn’t help that her advice that “You really gotta flap ‘em” just ended up with Scootaloo plunging nose first into the snow.

Twilight said Scootaloo didn’t have to worry about airfoils, since her wings would naturally project the same basic airfoil common to every pegasus. She said Scootaloo had to learn more gravymetric something something, and lots of stuff like that, but Twilight Sparkle really didn’t seem to have her heart into it. She just smiled sadly at Scootaloo, and assured her that there wasn’t anything wrong with her wings. Which was weird because Scootaloo never asked that in the first place. By the time she got tired of pestering Twilight for flying lessons, Scootaloo was starting to think that Twilight didn’t seem to believe she could fly.

And that didn’t make sense! Because Twilight totally believed pegasuses could fly, and Scootaloo was a pegasus, but Twilight just... didn’t have any confidence in her. Scootaloo just didn’t know what she was doing wrong, to make the purple girl feel that way. Was Scootaloo just a really terrible pegasus? Was it because she wasn’t born as one, and the real pony girl didn’t think she could do it?

Well, Scootaloo was determined to prove Twilight Sparkle wrong. Scootaloo had these wings, magic wings at that, and she was gonna get up in the air one way or another! She didn’t know if it was a pegasus... thing or whatever, but—and this is gonna sound totally sappy, but—Scootaloo felt like the sky was calling to her. Not calling like “Scootaloooo you really want to fly, Scootaloo! Wooo!” but calling like: Scootaloo sometimes had weird feelings of being sort of pulled upward, or she could sort of... see how easy it would be, just to... slip up into the air. It was sort of like how Sweetie felt things with her horn, or Apple Bloom could uh... it was hard to explain what she could do. But it was totally like that.

Nevertheless, it seemed like it was gonna take a while.

Apple Bloom was right about one thing, Rainbow Dash was the best trainer you could possibly have, even for something she was completely unqualified to train. She shouldn’t have been patient with Scootaloo, but she was. She should have been driven up the wall by Scootaloo, but she wasn’t. She was just... always there, and Scootaloo didn’t know what to feel. This amazing, untouchable star of Canterlot was genuinely excited about Scootaloo’s prospects of flying. Not just as some kind of curiosity, but it really struck a chord with her for some reason. The silly smile on Dash’s face when Scootaloo managed to hover, when she saw Scootaloo’s delight at catching the wind, Rainbow shared in that delight too. It made Scootaloo feel like she was... important, like she was helping. There was nothing she loved better than really giving Rainbow Dash a reason to smile, and for the first time in her life, Scootaloo could!

It was... too easy.

Scootaloo stood there on the low roof over the Apple family’s porch. She hadn’t flown up there. Rainbow Dash had picked her up, and deposited the little orange pony at arm’s length, up there on the roof. Scootaloo wasn’t worried about falling. She’d used this spot before, and if anything, she was safer up here. Scootaloo could get a good glide in before having to deal with the ground, whereas from down on the ground she immediately had to worry about tripping up and tumbling. What she was concerned with wasn’t falling and hurting herself, but rather how to get altitude.

Because Rainbow Dash wanted altitude, and Scootaloo was gonna do everything in her power to deliver it to her. Rainbow Dash was gonna be so thrilled at this!

“Come on kid, give it a shot!” Rainbow shouted from a good distance down the driveway. She was aiming to catch Scootaloo, should Scootaloo come gliding down that way again. It was the kind of unreal situation that Scootaloo had started to get used to these days. Somehow, that brilliantly rainbow haired girl was bright eyed and attentive, instead of not even knowing Scootaloo existed. Somehow, here Scootaloo was, staring down at two orange cylinders, ending in thick orange nails that supported her weight, compressing down the snow on the roof. There were hoof-prints all over the roof of this awning, hoofprints made by Scootaloo herself walking around up here.

And that was mundane and ordinary, compared to what else she felt. While Scootaloo looked between those hooves to the ground below, knowing just how far it was before she landed, Scootaloo felt two strange limbs on either side of her body turn upward and spread out. She spread them out herself, moving them like arms, but not like arms. The cool air of the day drifted over her wings, each feather shifting in the slippery breeze, shining with a healthy orange sheen.

“Don’t be scared!” Dash called out again, “I know you can do it this time!”

They’d been playing with the football earlier, and Dash kept kicking it higher while Scootaloo would try to catch it. Try, and succeed! Scootaloo could leap into the air like an arrow to grab the thing in her hooves, before coming down with it in a gentle arc to the ground. And that was why Rainbow Dash thought that today, Scootaloo could fly.

“Okay here I go!” Scootaloo shouted in her weirdly high pitched voice, up there on that porch roof, speaking up before Rainbow could urge her on again, or worse, walk up to her with a disappointed look on her face. Scootaloo angled her wings experimentally, trying to feel the wind on them, the air that had to buoy her up, somehow. She could feel something, and she didn’t know if what she was feeling was right or wrong. But one way or another, Scootaloo was going to try.

She jumped off the roof, arm—legs stretched before her, as the air immediately gripped her wings, and Scootaloo was gliding. Gliding was something that was really easy. It was kind of like sliding, as if your wings were on oiled runners and you were sliding down an incline made out of air. It was easy to go too fast, if you tilted them down too far, but backwinging was also something that came naturally.

It came naturally, and usually ended up with Scootaloo landing nose first in the snow, so she didn’t want to do any backwinging this time. Instead, she glided towards Rainbow Dash at a gentle angle, and tried to imagine in advance the ball sailing up above her head. Scootaloo had to try to rise up somehow, from right here in mid-air, and grab it.

Right on schedule, Dash drop kicked the football, and it went sailing straight upward, shooting past Scootaloo’s head as high overhead as Rainbow could kick it. “I got it!” Scootaloo shouted unconfidently, trying to beat her wings or something to get up there. This was it. She either had to glide in descending circles until she landed, or... or something! Beating her wings made the air lurch under her, and Scootaloo called to... it or something? She looked up at the ball, like there was a hook pulling her up towards the thing, as it paused at the apex of its narrow arc.

Scootaloo missed the ball entirely, because she didn’t anticipate that it would start falling down again. Instead, she overshot, shooting above it and looking over her shoulder as it descended below her. Scootaloo didn’t have any vertigo. It was literally impossible to have vertigo, after the first time you spread your wings out and the air actually caught you. But she looked down and... and Scootaloo was so freaking high!

“You did it! You did it!” Rainbow Dash shouted from down there, jumping in place next to the discarded football while Scootaloo drifted further away from the ground. “Keep going, kid!”

Scootaloo didn’t spare a thought, and just... well, she didn’t just pump her wings, but she pumped them specifically when the air was there. It was hard to picture it, but Scootaloo could feel it. Like a really thin sort of water, like swimming in the lake. Scootaloo tilted her wings upward and beat them to push against the current that sucked around her nose, fighting to keep her altitude. At this rate, you could almost say she was flying!

Scootaloo gave a giddy whoop, just so excited that she might be doing it right. She was going so fast! Or the wind was lots stronger above the trees, and above the... farm house... jeez how did she get this high? How high she was caught Scootaloo off guard, and she immediately went into a tailspin, shouting out in alarm as the world spun around her. Scootaloo had to stop—! She couldn’t see! She backwinged frantically and stopped and—and plunged with a lurch in her stomach, then kicked her wings out, and

...was slide-gliding neutrally through the air again.

Scootaloo’s heart was hammering in her chest. She didn’t have any vertigo, but she sure as heck had dangergo! She didn’t want to be up here anymore. Maybe it would have disappointed Rainbow Dash, but Scootaloo was too frazzled to do anything besides glide in a slow circle, descending towards where the older girl waited her far below. Rainbow Dash was—if anything—the diametric opposite of disappointed, though.

“I can’t believe it! You actually did it, kid! You were flying!”

“...I was?” Scootaloo asked in confusion, once she’d landed safely in Rainbow Dash’s arms.

“How else would you get so high up in the air?” Rainbow asked incredulously. “You must have been a hundred feet up or something!”

“I guess that was flying?” Scootaloo said uncertainly. “I just saw the ball and swam uh, pulled, uh... wanted to get to it, so I dove um... up? I just got up there however.”

“There’s only one way up there,” Rainbow said confidently, jogging towards the farm house with Scootaloo perched up on her shoulders. “And that’s flying. Those little wings, kid? They really work! You went up just like a bird, and came swooping down like a... like a hawk!”

“Gosh,” Scootaloo said amazed, “It didn’t seem like anything special. You just... want to go up, so you sort of pull yourself up there. But I guess that is flying!”

Dash’s response was to spread her arms wide and go running around in circles, making Scootaloo laugh despite herself. Scootaloo was so happy she could impress someone so awesome as Rainbow Dash. She felt more on top of the world than she ever was in the air, riding around here on the shoulders of her idol, who was running around with her arms outspread, making airplane engine noises with her tongue. Scootaloo wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Indeed, that month of Scootaloo’s life was just full of good news and bad news. Good news because of Rainbow Dash, and also the flying maybe, but bad news because of... well...

Because of a little phone call, from Diamond Tiara.

“Scootaloo?” came Sweetie Belle’s voice, one Friday evening.

“Please kill me,” Scootaloo requested very reasonably, from her confident poise flopped face down on the couch, downstairs in the Apple’s living room.

“I don’t think Dinky would like that,” Sweetie’s voice persisted, slipping right into Scootaloo’s far too capable ears.

Scootaloo’s wings twitched. She wished this was something she could fly away from! She lifted her head, to look blearily red-eyed at the unicorn, Sweetie Belle standing neatly on fours, before Scootaloo and her couch that she’d claimed in her time of travail.

“I am so screwed,” Scootaloo groaned to a sympathetic but impatient looking Sweetie. “I can’t believe I forgot about him!”

“You’re not screwed,” Sweetie insisted, “And you’re not a terrible person!”

“I am a terrible p—hey!” Scootaloo shouted in sudden outrage, her pity parade neatly disrupted. She glared at Sweetie, then said, “I haven’t even checked my emails in—”

“Neither have I!” Sweetie said back with a frustrated snort. “You know how much trouble it is to compose a reply? We’ve all been avoiding... stuff!”

“And now he’s coming here?” Scootaloo exclaimed. “He’ll see me!”

Sweetie turned her head to the side, saying uncertainly, “Um, yes? It won’t be so bad. He already saw Apple Bloom, remember?”

“Yeah, but... I mean... I just don’t want to let him down,” Scootaloo said glumly. “Don’t want him to see just some dumb pony, instead of a girl.”

“He already knows you’re a pony,” Sweetie offered. “I think you’re just upset, cause you forgot.”

“I wish I didn’t forget... things,” Scootaloo said, rolling onto her back and gazing upwards. “I don’t know how other people do it. I just... I didn’t even think about him, not even once.”

“I don’t think people do, Scootaloo,” Sweetie told Scoots with a sigh. “It just sort of... happened that way. I didn’t even think about him, not even once. So did...didn’t Apple Bloom, and her family, and... anyone really. Dinky’s just really... easy to forget.”

“Well, you’re not all his girlfriend,” Scootaloo retorted sullenly. “What am I supposed to tell him? I can’t date you anymore, since I’m a pony, but that’s okay since I forgot about you anyway, so it’s no big loss?”

“Um... maybe something a bit more tactful,” Sweetie winced.

Scootaloo sighed. “All this time, I never even thought about him. I didn’t even know he was looking for me, until Diamond Tiara called!”

Sweetie grimaced at that, in a poor imitation of a comforting smile.

“Alright girls,” Apple Bloom reported, trotting up to the two of them. “Dinky’s all set to come over this weekend, and you can let him down nice and easy, Scootaloo. Don’t mean he cain’t be friends, and he can buzz off if he ain’t okay with it. Him and Diamond can play with us for th’afternoon, and we can introduce Diamond to Noi.”

“How am I supposed to let him down easy?” Scootaloo fretted anxiously. “I don’t know how dating works. He just asked me to the dance! What do I say to him?”

“Well, you could start by saying you’re sorry you forgot about him,” Apple Bloom offered flatly. “We all did, but he’s sorta your responsibillery, and he’ll want to hear it from you. Then, let him tell you he wants to break it up. Then if he won’t admit it, tell him that until you’ve got over this pony thing, he is gonna have to look elsewhere for a uh, girlfriend.”

“Hold on, I gotta take notes,” Scootaloo stated, half standing up before Apple Bloom jumped on the couch next to her saying,

“No! What? You’re gonna break up with him, by reading note cards?”

Scootaloo thought about that a moment. “Good point,” Scootaloo said, slumping down again. “So, apologize. Then... break it up? I forget, sorry.”

Sweetie sighed, and excused herself momentarily.

“Tell him until you got over this pony thing,” Apple Bloom repeated patiently to Scootaloo, “He’s gonna hafta look elsewhere. But give him a chance to say it first.”

“Okay, got it,” Scootaloo said concentrating.

“An’ if he gets upset at that,” Apple Bloom added, walking around in a circle on that cushion before sitting down, “Tell him what a good time you had at the dance with him.”

“The—uh, the dance kind of sucked though,” Scootaloo pointed out. “Not his fault, but I have more fun in class with him. Had.”

Apple Bloom looked off across the room, giving a coy little smile as she said, “Yeah, but if he thinks of the dance he’ll remember how he treated you right back then, so he won’t think he did nothing wrong.”

“He won’t... think...” Scootaloo repeated, scrawling on paper with a crayon she managed to get her mouth on somehow.

“What have you even done with him, besides go to the dance?” Sweetie Belle asked, while covertly sliding a box of crayons behind the couch with her hind leg. “Is he even your boyfriend at all?”

“Yes! No?” Scootaloo said, looking up in consternation. “I don’t know!” she threw her hooves into the air. “I never did this dating thing before. I was just winging it the whole time!”

The two stared at Scootaloo in amazement, until Sweetie Belle giggled, while Apple Bloom asked, “Did you not intend to make that pun?”

“What p—oh, ha ha,” Scootaloo said in disgust. “You know what I mean. I just have to... figure out what to say to him.”

“He seems like a nice, reliable boy,” Sweetie remarked, “Just tell him the truth. I’m sure he’ll understand.”

“Yeah,” Apple Bloom agreed comfortingly, “What could possibly go wrong with that?”

“I’m dooooomed,” Scootaloo moaned into the couch cushion.

So there Scootaloo stood. Sat, really. Sat there like a dog, with her front legs between her back legs, like was most comfortable to do now. There on her stupid pony butt, which should have been covered, now that she thought about it, but it was too late to do anything about that. All Scootaloo had on right now was her awesome black fire hoodie, and she could already hear the car pulling up outside.

“Wish I didn’t have to do this,” she mumbled to Apple Bloom, who sat there being a pony right beside Scootaloo.

“He’ll understand,” Apple Bloom assured her warmly, “Just don’t be afraid to talk to him about it.”

“Easy for you to say,” Scootaloo groaned. “I wish I could just fly away from all this. Actually...” she lifted an ear looking up at the ceiling. “I could literally fly away from all this!”

“Don’t even think about it,” Apple Bloom said disapprovingly. “You cain’t escape your problems on the ground just by flying above ‘em.”

“Well why not?” Scootaloo pouted. “It’s not like I could hear him get mad at me, if I was just a speck up there!”

“You’d have to come down eventually!” Apple Bloom retorted with a frown at her flustered, feathered friend.

“Why?” Scootaloo asked, maybe a bit of resentment fluttering in her chest.

“All the food is down here,” Apple Bloom explained simply.

“Oh.”

There was a clomping up the porch, and the thump of a hand gripping the door snapped Scootaloo back to attention. At least she didn’t have to deal with this and Rainbow Dash, and those two alien girls trying to pick apart her wings. Twilight had to come in the middle of the week to do her studying thing. Sunset couldn’t come along when she did that, as Sunset actually had classes to attend, but the two had declined to wait to visit until the weekend this time, on account of some friends coming over to play. Twilight didn’t want to disturb them, certainly.

And Rainbow Dash had been giving Scootaloo a much needed break the past couple of days. She was all too happy to leave well enough alone, after Applejack reminded Rainbow Dash about the unit test coming up on Monday. With the little project she and Dash had been working on, it was just exhausting Scootaloo to be practicing flying all the time. Rainbow Dash was awesome and amazing, but... a little overwhelming at times, when she wanted something from you.

So that left Scootaloo only having to deal with... this. The door swung open.

Applejack clomped in, sat down on the entryway bench and started removing her boots, and kicking the snow off of them, either disregarding or not seeing the two ponies waiting there. “C’mon in y’all,” she said to the others, whereupon a less nervous Diamond Tiara, and a very nervous Dinky ambled into the house. Apple Bloom looked nervous all of a sudden, which was understandable considering that she wasn’t usually entertaining boys coming over to her house. It was certainly the reason Sweetie Belle wasn’t running to introduce herselfy. So Scootaloo just helped Apple Bloom out preemptively, saying to the tall, round faced, lavender boy,

“We’re over here!”

Dinky turned and looked that way, and the boy’s golden eyes lit on them. He paused in taking off his shoes, as if not sure what to do about this, and responded in a light tenor, “Yes, I can see that...”

He shook his head fiercely then, saying, “Sorry—I don’t mean to stare.”

“Y-you shouldn’t be apologizing,” Scootaloo replied, trotting forward, “I’m the one who screwed up and forgot to tell you.”

Dinky’s incredulous gaze returned to her, making Scootaloo stop in her tracks, staring up at the big thing... the big boy anxiously.

“You really did forget about me?” he asked Scootaloo, who wanted to crawl right underneath the floorboards right now.

“I... kinda... yeah...” Scootaloo admitted miserably, “It’s not you, it’s me,” she corrected hastily. “I just forgot like an idiot, and it’s nothing you did wrong.”

“You did forget, though,” Dinky reasserted carefully.

Scootaloo’s lack of answer besides blushing must have been answer enough, because he gave a relieved sigh and said, “Oh, thank goodness.”

Wait, what?

“Hey!” Diamond Tiara protested loudly, while struggling with unlacing her last boot. “Just because I said, doesn’t mean that I’m really gonna just—”

“Oh, no I didn’t mean it like that!” Dinky yelped enigmatically to Diamond Tiara. “I just thought she was gonna be upset, or scared of telling me, or something. You really don’t have to, if you don’t want to.”

“I... um... like...” Diamond murmured in a conflicted tone. Scootaloo didn’t know what was going on, but somehow this Dinky dude had rendered Diamond Tiara speechless.

“You aren’t upset,” Dinky asked Scootaloo directly, “Are you? I’d hate to think I deserved it somehow.”

“No, it’s cool,” Scootaloo said, standing up, “You didn’t do anything. I’m just such a featherbrain sometimes.” She lifted a wing and added, “Heh... literally...”

“Wow, you really have wings, too,” Dinky said, leaning forward to look more closely.

“Yeah, and they really work!” Scootaloo chirped, fluttering them to lift herself in the air briefly, before thumping down on her hooves again. “Uh, not much clearance in here,” she said embarassedly.

“No problem,” Dinky said easily. “Not like you can hover or anything.”

“Actually, Twilight said I could, or that pegasi could do that,” Scootaloo said. “She didn’t know the details about it, but weather teams had to get really good at it so they could position the clouds just right.”

Dinky gave Scootaloo an open mouthed stare. “Weather... teams?” Dinky remarked, as surprised as he ever got.

“Boy, have you missed a lot!” Scootaloo declared, feeling pretty astonished herself, with just how much her... new friend who happened to be a boy didn’t know. “Buut I’ve only flied like... a week so far, so I haven’t been able to mess with the clouds yet. All I know is how to drag myself up there and try not to stall out.”

“It’s still a pretty big accomplishment,” he admitted. “No, like huge, I mean. Those wings shouldn’t even hold you up!”

Scootaloo looked at one of the tiny things at her side, saying, “Yeah, but Twilight said they’re normal size, and it’s just pegasus magic that gets it to work.” One of the feathers was a bit crooked, so she bit on it and pulled it straight, and then fiddled with it to get it to fold under the other one... and then blushed, turning back to face Dinky. Diamond had since been quietly led off by Apple Bloom, leaving Scootaloo and the boy relatively alone in the entryway there.

“Y-you’re just talking to me like you always do,” Scootaloo told Dinky, guiltily holding her wings tight against her, “Like I was a normal person. Most people are more uh... thrown by this whole... pony thing.”

Dinky moved his shoulders in a shrugging motion, saying, “Diamond mostly filled me in, and I already saw Apple Bloom. Why would I see you as any different? You still look exactly like yourself, just... pony!”

Scootaloo had to smile at that. “You’re a real cool dude, you know that Dinky?” she said relievedly.

“I um, guess so,” Dinky barely acknowledged, blushing himself.

“Well, I guess we got that outta the way,” Scootaloo declared, more confidently. She lifted a hoof and turned on her heels, to point herself straight to the other room. “How about you come meet my other friends?”

“Well I already met ‘em,” Dinky admitted, “Though, I’m curious what Sweetie Belle looks like as a pony.”

“Oh, right, at the dance...” Scootaloo said feeling uneasy about that whole... thing.

After a pause, Dinky asked, “So, just to be sure, we’re not um, dating anymore, are we?”

“What? No,” Scootaloo said waving a hoof at him dismissively, “O-of course not. That’d be totally weird, since I’m a pony now, and not a... uh... human.”

“I’d be happy to date you if I was a pony,” Dinky offered, “I mean... I would, except... I mean, there’s nothing wrong with you. Anyone would be happy to you know, date you.”

“Yeah, yeah I know, horse parts, and—” Scootaloo was interrupted by Dinky saying in a very guilty tone,

“No, it’s... not... just that.”

He looked at Scootaloo, looking a bit lost honestly, as Dinky confessed to her, “I was sort of hoping you would be okay with... I was just thinking about ...dating Diamond Tiara.”

Scootaloo reeled back at that. “Diamond Tiara?!” Scootaloo asked, surprise and aversion curling her lip, “Why would you want me to date Diamond Tiara?!”

The lavender boy stared at her blankly. Realization seemed to dawn in his eyes.

“No!” he protested, “I meant me dating Diamond Tiara.” Oh. Ohhh. Oh. Oh? ...oh.

“I guess?” Scootaloo asked uneasily, moving a bit sideways to Dinky. “You want ...tips or something?”

“No, I wanted... I mean we are or... were boyfriend and girlfriend, right?” Dinky asked, doing some weird thing with his hands.

“Oh, right,” Scootaloo said mutedly, “I forgot about—I mean I just wasn’t thinking about that. I mean, are we boyfriend and girlfriend? I didn’t ask you out to the dance, so what is it?”

“I suppose...” Dinky frowned, pinching his brow, “If it doesn’t bother you at all that me and Diamond Tiara are dating, then we’re not boyfriend and girlfriend. So that means if it does bother you, even if you don’t want to say it, then we are. Or, were. So does it bother you? It’s okay if it does, just... I just wanna know.”

Scootaloo looked down, actually thinking about it for once. She sure didn’t feel any... magic girlfriend urges rising up in her, but she did have some misgivings. “You’re kinda young, I guess?” she attempted, giving Dinky another wary look.

“Yeah, I know, and we’ll be careful,” Dinky said reassuringly to Scootaloo. “But I mean you, how does it make you feel?”

Scootaloo swished her tail, honestly not sure how to answer that. “I feel... kind of weird about it?” she suggested, “I mean, Diamond Tiara? Really? You really think she is someone you’d wanna date?”

“I...” Dinky gulped, “I really do.”

“She’s so... crazy though!” Scootaloo exclaimed with difficulty. “Most boys won’t even come within 10 feet of that. You saw her at the dance.”

“I think she’s fascinating!” Dinky reiterated excitedly, “And incredible, and—and she just really needs someone, you know? Plus she likes me and I don’t have to impress her, or anything; I can just be myself.”

“You know that she likes you?” Scootaloo asked, wondering how much of his dating thing was one sided.

“That’s what she said,” Dinky answered mildly.

“Seriously?” Scootaloo raised an eyebrow, making Dinky cringe at the unfamiliarity of his situation.

“...yes?” Dinky eked out.

“So, why are you not boy and girlfriend?” Scootaloo declared with a stomp. “If you like her, and she likes you, and you can deal with... her, then why even ask me oh because I was your girlfriend, right.”

Scootaloo just toed the floor, trying not to blush any more than she already had.

Dinky didn’t answer, since Scootaloo answered her own question. She was seriously thinking about just stuffing her hoof in her mouth, and ending this whole talking out loud thing once and for all.

“Yeah, you can date her,” Scootaloo conceded mutedly, despite her embarassment at the thought. “I guess you two could be cute together. I-if you’re ready for it. But just... don’t just do it just because you think she’s pretty. If you find out what she’s really like, and you can’t handle it... you could really hurt Diamond Tiara.”

So Dinky said to Scootaloo what he said to Diamond Tiara, about relative prettiness and what it meant to a boy. Ommitting the embarassing part about Scootaloo, of course. And Scootaloo was weirded out for a while, by that serious conversation they’d had, but Dinky was still Dinky, and after they rejoined with the others, things started to lighten up right away. Noi seemed to take a liking to him, though it was sort of weird the way she referred to him as a “cute kid” through her pronunciation problems.

Pretty much every pony took a liking to him, when it came time to be brushed and there was another set of hands to do it with. He didn’t come over very... often, after that day. He was more than willing to be helpful, but perhaps the pony thing was throwing him more than he would admit, and Dinky ended up more of a close friend to Diamond, to the rest of them by satellite. There was that little boost from meeting her at the dance, but if any of them figured it, Dinky would be the first friend Diamond Tiara made all on her own.

“Just... gotta... take a break...” Scootaloo gasped some days later, sort of starting to think that maybe she would have had it any other way with Rainbow Dash. She could swear her wings sizzled, when she flopped down on her back and the feathers hit the snow. They sure felt hot enough to sizzle. Rainbow Dash had been coming over every day after school this second week, utterly relentless, always with a bright eyed excited smile. She didn’t have any ulterior motives to doing this for Scootaloo, only the pure joy at seeing Scootaloo really flying, and Scootaloo couldn’t ever say no to that!

Well, that and their special project. But Scootaloo was in on that, so it didn’t count as taking advantage of her.

Rainbow Dash was making Scootaloo start to feel like Apple Bloom though, with how that Noi girl... lady latched onto Apple Bloom like glue at first. At least Rainbow Dash had to be at school most of the time, but... Scootaloo couldn’t believe she was looking forward to not spending time with Rainbow Dash!

“I think you almost reached the clouds!” Rainbow Dash told her excitedly. “You were so high up, it was incredible! Go on, do it again!”

“I’m taking a break!” Scootaloo called out, her voice muffled in the snow there from the pony shaped indentation that was the only sign of her existence. Rainbow Dash crouched over Scootaloo, and in a surprisingly sympathetic tone said,

“You can take a break whenever you want, but good grief kid. You’ve been going non-stop this whole week!”

That, and practicing when Dash wasn’t around.

“I wish I had half the stamina you did!” Dash told Scootaloo in honest approval.

“Yeah... stamina... right...” Scootaloo agreed pleadingly, still trying to catch her breath. “Man,” she said in false bravado, standing up on her shaky hooves, and brushing off her body, “My wings feel like they’re gonna fall off! I think it’s time for a snac—”

“Fall off?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed getting up in Scootaloo’s face in sudden bug eyed horror. “Your wings wouldn’t fall off, would they? Are you injured? Oh no, you’re hurt? Why didn’t you say anything? I don’t want your wings to fall off! Oh no, and you just started flying too! Of course you’d need to start slow! Are they okay, please tell me they’re—”

“I’m fine!” Scootaloo stated firmly, pulling her wing tip out of Rainbow Dash’s worriedly inquisitive fingers, and pushing away Rainbow Dash’s cheek until the sky blue girl gave Scootaloo some space. “My wings are fine,” Scootaloo clarified, “I’m just a little...” her ears went down.

“Tired,” Scootaloo mumbled.

“Sorry, what was that?” Rainbow Dash said, cupping a hand around her round, human ear. Was she joking around? Oh, oops.

“I’m tired, okay?” Scootaloo said a little louder, finally fessing up, a clenching feeling in her chest as she did... huh. Scootaloo’s chest was behind her now, okay weird.

“I’ve been fly—flying, yeah,” Scootaloo said uncertainly standing there before Rainbow Dash in the packed snow, “Pretty much all that I can. And I just... I just don’t want to disappoint you.

“I–I love being up in the sky,” Scootaloo half lied, “But, I mean—I just don’t want to let you down, Rainbow Dash. You come here every day and you get so excited when I get up into the air. I wanna do that for you, see you feel that way. You... you smile at me, like really smile, and I just can’t let you down. It doesn’t matter if I get a little tired, if I can do that for someone like you!”

“For me? Nononono,” Dash said in harsh correction, shaking her index finger for some reason. Dash crouched down to the snowy ground where Scootaloo was standing. “You need to do this for you,” she emphasized, putting a finger on Scootaloo’s snout. “All this... flying stuff,” Dash smiled, standing up straight again and looking into the sky. “You could make me happy if you just got ten feet off the ground. I’m happy for you that you can get all the way up into the sky, but I mean...” her smile faltered a bit and she said, “It’s not like I can be up there with you. When you’re up there in the sky, the only one around is yourself, so you gotta do it for yourself.”

“Well, if it’s just me, I... I just...

“...want my scooter back,” Scootaloo blurted out unhappily. She knew what words were fighting its way out of her chest, but it was just too hard to hold them inside. There was just no better way to put it. Scootaloo wanted to... be tall again, and not have this gigantic tail following her around, and she didn’t want to be dressing up in doll clothes, because that’s practically what they were. She wanted to be human, not some kind of animal, or some kind of... thing that flies in the sky and has to save her shed feathers, in case they might be magic. Because humans could do so much more than some stupid little pony. They could do one thing more than some stupid little pony, that’s for sure. They could ride scooters.

“My old scooter is even taller than I am now!” she complained, trying to save face by being outraged about it. “It’s like twice as big as the one in my dreams. I can’t ride on it anymore and I... I kind of really liked that thing. It was sorta my thing, you know?”

“You’re moving on to bigger and better things, squirt,” Rainbow told her confidently. “You don’t have to roll around on the ground. Just fly anywhere you wanna go!”

“But I don’t have anywhere to go! I don’t even care about where I’m going! I just want to be...” Scootaloo whipped her tail, “Look, never mind. Let’s just try this one more time. I really wanna get this right.”

Dash’s worry broke into an excited anticipation. “Can you imagine the look on her face?” Rainbow told her with an eager smile. “It’s gonna be legendary!”

“Heh heh, yeah...” Scootaloo said up to her, but she just couldn’t rouse that kind of enthusiasm, with the mood she had been sinking into this afternoon.

Rainbow seemed to pick up on that, and her smile softened as she said, “You know, I think that scooter was holding you back. Now you got no limits! I know it’s new, and way weird. But sometimes things just gotta change. It’s all part of growing up.”

“Yeah, getting too small for your scooter, growing wings and a tail, getting feet instead of hands, all just a normal part of growing up,” Scootaloo said mildly, inspecting a hoof.

Dash raised an eyebrow at that. “You know,” Scootaloo urged, lightly bumping Dash in the shin with that foreleg, “You got all the stages of life: baby, kid, pony, teenager, adult!”

“Hah, you are a riot, kid!” Dash declared with a silly smile. She rubbed Scootaloo’s hair with a hand, making Scootaloo blush from how much Dash had to bend over to do it.

“Now,” Dash said, lifting Scootaloo bodily up, to let her flutter up onto the porch roof. “Just one more time. This time it’s gotta be totally radical! Then we’ll be ready. And then, I dunno, if you really want it, maybe we can do something about that scooter of yours.”

“Really?!” Scootaloo said excitedly, sticking her head over the edge of the roof.

“I have no idea!” Dash called back up to her with a smarmy grin. “Why don’t you ask that big brother of Apple Bloom’s? He’s in metal shop, isn’t he? I just kick a ball around!”

“You do way more than that, Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo said with a fond smile right back.

“Aww, you’re too kind,” Rainbow said with a cute little, if brief, bashful blush, “But compliments won’t get you up in the air. Now let’s see you put up a good holler!”

“Oh boy, this is gonna be so awesome!” Scootaloo hollered eagerly and deliberately, once she was atop the highest peak of the Apple family’s two story farm house. There was no more sign of Rainbow Dash, and no more practice to be done. This was it. There was a long, sheer drop from here, all the way down the side of the house, down to the hard packed frozen dirt where the truck was parked, along with Rarity’s car, and a completely horrified

~ / o Twilight Sparkle. o \ ~

“Scootaloo, no!!” Twilight cried out to the foolish little filly swaying precariously, so very, very high off the ground. “You’re going to get yourself killed!”

How could this have happened? She had warned the filly, didn’t she? Was she not clear enough? Did Scootaloo just have a death wish? Oh no, what if she was suicidal because she couldn’t be human again? Why was it so hard to just tell her that she would never fly?!

Twilight Sparkle found herself outside alone, without knowing of anyone nearby, except one little orange pegasus who was just about to break her neck, once she jumped off the top of that farm house. Rainbow Dash was nowhere to be seen, and she was supposed to be keeping an eye on Scootaloo! Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were off doing something with the pigs, and Rarity was in the middle of a carefully heated bath! When Twilight heard Scootaloo cheering about something, she didn’t expect to walk outside and see this!

“Oh, hey Twilight!” Scootaloo shouted with a distant smile down to her. Twilight’s mind was racing. She couldn’t get up the stairs at a fast enough rate to catch Scootaloo on the roof, if she tried something foolish, but perhaps Twilight could predict heuristically where another family member might be in a more advantageous—

“Don’t worry, Twilight!” Scootaloo laughed heedlessly. “I got it figured out! See, I made bigger wings! Now I can totally fly!”

“Are those cardboard?!” Twilight shrieked, her fingers like claws halfway to outright climbing up the wall to get at the little pegasus. The odd looking flaps Scootaloo had attached to her back somehow, they did not look structurally sound in the least.

“Don’t worry, Twilight! I really did figure it out!” Scootaloo told her all too confidently. “I’ve been crashing into the ground every time when I try to fly, because I haven’t been jumping from high enough! From here, I’ll be flying for sure!”

“You don’t know that!” Twilight shouted, “That’s ridiculously dangerous!”

“What are you, my mom?” came Scootaloo’s derisive sneer, “Just watch this!”

“No! No I am not watching this! This is not happening! You are just going to calm down, and come right down from there and—”

“Okay, if you insist!” Scootaloo shouted back. And then

She jumped.

That horrible, reckless, stupid, sweet innocent little filly just—just threw her life away! She took a running start and cleared the roof by a good three body lengths, her tiny little wings spreading underneath the large cardboard squares. Now Twilight had to catch her! There was literally no one else around! Why was there no one else around?!

“Scootaloo!” Twilight shouted, “Hang on!” For a moment it looked like against all odds, Scootaloo was going to make it. She could glide or slowly descend or... or something. But then Twilight’s gut sunk even further as the cardboard wings just smoothly slipped right off of Scootaloo and blew away.

“Oh no!” Scootaloo exclaimed in terror, doing the absolute worst thing and looking back at her own wings. She stalled out and plummeted from the air like a stone, a terrified scream escaping the child’s breast as her wings betrayed her and she couldn’t do anything but fall. Twilight ran away from the farm house, arms outstretched. She didn’t know if it would be safe to catch Scootaloo at those velocities! Scootaloo was in a nose dive! She was rocketing for the ground far too fast for Twilight to even catch up! Twilight couldn’t understand it. How did things just suddenly go so wrong!

Scootaloo and Twilight were both shrieking, and Twilight barely had enough time to stumble forward, arms outstretched drunkenly. She had to catch her, before the pegasus would strike the earth and maybe never get up again! She’d never make it in time!

“Aaaaaah!” screamed Scootaloo

“Aaaaaah!” screamed Twilight.

“AAAAAA—oh hey, Rainbow Dash!” said Scootaloo, after backwinging suddenly, straining her wings to turn her dive into an upward loop.

There, Scootaloo just... floated at about head height, flapping her wings lightly to stay circling in the air, as if she were a butterfly, or a bit of dryer lint. She... she was flying, right next to Rainbow Dash, who was suddenly standing there facing Twilight Sparkle, and pointing a... camera at her?

Author's Note

I don’t know if this works, with the readers all knowing what’s going on. But, suck it Twilight! :scootangel:

The Game Has Changed

There she was, Princess Twilight Sparkle, in a strange, alien world of bipedal creatures with a multitude of hooves at the end of each limb, completely struck dumb by something alien, yet familiar. She was seeing it but she didn’t believe it. The little pumpkin colored filly known as Scootaloo alighted on Rainbow Dash’s shoulders, and perched there lightly on Rainbow Dash’s head, as if she hadn’t been actually, literally flying just now, while the human Rainbow Dash used her picture taker in Twilight’s direction.

Three pictures in, Twilight just blurted, “...huh?!”

That was too much for Rainbow, and Scootaloo had to launch airborne again, hovering over Rainbow Dash as the girl started laughing so hard she fell over on her back, kicking her legs in the air.

“What?” Twilight continued to inquire numbly, looking from Scootaloo to Rainbow Dash, back to Scootaloo, “What?”

“Why are you laughing, Rainbow Dash?” Scootaloo whined in a very loud and dramatic tone, while giving Twilight a sidelong, meaningful glance. “I was just practicing my flying!” said the little orange puffball, circling around above the fallen girl.

Twilight’s brain might have been quicker to the draw, but the relief was so palpable that she just collapsed onto her knees. “You...” she ventured, her mind stubbornly refusing to comprehend what just happened. “You...?” she repeated.

“Oh my god, she’s speechless!” Scootaloo said in surprise, holding her hooves before her earsplitting grin, looking at Twilight with a terribly amused expression. Scootaloo touched down on the ground, landing as if she meant to do that all along, taking a few hoofsteps in Twilight’s direction, before collapsing in a fit of the giggles herself.

“You... meant to do this?” Twilight finally managed to tell them. “You planned this? You set me up! This was all a prank?!” she shouted furiously.

“And you fell for it, hook line and sinker!” Dash crowed, sitting up and crossing her legs. “Still think Scootaloo can’t fly?” she said raising her eyebrows smugly at Twilight Sparkle.

“Blguh?” Twilight replied, her brain needing just one more reboot. “Scootaloo can fly? What? But in my world, but we’re not in my world. But the anatomy is uncannily similar, but why can’t Scootaloo fly? I thought it was congenital! What in the world? Scootaloo can... fly?”

“And I thought you were the egghead here,” Dash teased, standing up and patting the kneeling Twilight on the head. Then striding away from Twilight, Rainbow stretched her lanky, lithe arms behind her. “Whattya expect,” Dash said cockily, “With me giving her lessons of course she’s gonna fly. Scootaloo can do anything!”

“Yeah, Rainbow Dash is awesome!” Scootaloo agreed, popping up beside Twilight. And looking at her. Scootaloo used her hoof to cover up another giggle, batting lightly at what Twilight figured was probably her hair all in a tizzy.

“Okay!” Twilight said loud enough to make both of them jerk back, ticking off quickly on her fingers, “Okay, Scootaloo can fly. This changes everything! Do congenital defects not transfer over? What sort of transfer process could make an otherwise healthy pegasus fly?”

“Twilight, um,” Rainbow Dash said, approaching her while Scootaloo sort of shied away. “You just asked how could a healthy pegasus possibly fly.”

“Yes, but... Scootaloo!” Twilight demanded articulately. “Scootaloo,” she said, taking a second look at the filly.

“Scootaloo... can’t fly,” Twilight said, in a slow, even tone of voice.

“Maybe in your world,” Scootaloo boasted, “But in this world I’m just—”

“But no, that’s just it!” Twilight said urgently to little Scootaloo. “I don’t know why Scootaloo can’t fly in my world! She can’t. It’s obvious! But why not? Her wings aren’t any smaller than any other pegasus foal, and plenty of them were flying years before Scootaloo. I—I just assumed they were deformed. I mean, not that I want you to be deformed, but maybe that her wings flapped at the wrong angle, so only provided her with forward thrust? But I never verified that! I just assumed!”

Neither of them were laughing at this point, but Twilight didn’t care. “I have to go,” she stated, swiftly jumping to her feet. Then she just walked off stiffly, trying to think where she was going to get a quill and scroll and then remembering that they used machined pens and paper here and then needing some of those, so that she could make some very important calculations very importantly and preferably soon as in right now.

“Did that... work?” Scootaloo asked Rainbow Dash.

“I dunno,” Dash said in confusion. “She totally fell for it, but uh... she knows that she doesn’t know that something else is going on?”

“I have no idea either,” Scootaloo pouted. “It was such a great idea too.”

“Well look on the bright side squirt,” Dash said down to her. “There is no way Twilight is ever going to think you can’t fly, ever again.”

They looked after her for a while, before Scootaloo remarked thoughtfully, “I can’t believe she knows me from another world.”

“I think she knows everybody from another world!” Rainbow Dash added in awed agreement. “I didn’t believe it at first, but she even knew my old summer camp spirit chant! I haven’t even thought about that thing since me and Gilda met up. You shoulda seen it; we were running that camp together, it was priceless. I wonder what’s she’s up to these days.”

“Well, call her and ask?” Scootaloo suggested.

Dash frowned and shook her head. “Don’t mind me, squirt. I’m just thinking. Is it so weird to think that an other-world Twilight wouldn’t know that other-world you?”

“No it’s not, and that’s why it’s weird,” Scootaloo stated, using her tail to dust snow off her flank, looking up at her hero uncertainly. “She just seems like the kind of girl that everybody would know,” Scootaloo said, “Kind of like you, Rainbow Dash!”

“Well, I don’t like to brag,” Dash admitted with a corner of her mouth turning up, “But you really can’t beat perfection!”

“So in this world, Twilight is a... dream princess?” Scootaloo said, scrunching up her muzzle and tilting an ear sideways. “I still don’t get how that works, and I saw it with my own eyes! Dreamed about it, I mean. But nobody knows her, nobody knows where she is, and nobody is friends with her at all. I just wonder if maybe... what if the princess in our world was a real girl, would she know all of us too? I bet she’d be real popular.”

“Might even be able to give Sunset a run for her money, heh,” Dash quipped. “Anyway, we got our once in a lifetime prank accomplished, and I think miss pony princess forgot what cameras do again, so I need to go hide the evidence. You go in and get yourself warm, okay?”

With an eager hop in place, and a happy whinny, Scootaloo said, “You got it, Rainbow Dash!”

“And...” Dash said, pausing halfway through jogging off with the camera, looking half over her shoulder at the little pegasus pony. “Try to relax a bit, Scoots. You don’t have to keep pushing yourself so hard. You’re plenty cool already.”

Scootaloo couldn’t think of any words to say to that, but the smile that slowly regrew on her face itself spoke volumes.

“Ugh,” Sweetie Belle exclaimed suddenly, some time later, making Apple Bloom’s head lift up from the book she was reading, big pink bow flopping to attention with Apple Bloom’s ears going up.

“I am so sick of magic!” the unicorn huffed. She so huffed when the two were sitting in the downstairs living room, with Apple Bloom reading nearby, while Sweetie practiced her horn exercises. Or, didn’t, as such the case may be.

“What do you mean, Sweetie?” Apple Bloom asked her grumpy, candy haired friend, “You ain’t had no problem going at it before?”

“That’s just it though,” Sweetie sighed, ears drooping, “I keep at it and at it, and I’m not getting anything,”

“So, breaking stuff apart with your horn don’t count?” Apple Bloom asked practically.

“It does, but that’s all I can do,” Sweetie protested. “I’m supposed to be able to do more than just poke holes in things. But I can’t get it to go past my horn. It’s just so hard—it’s exhausting, I mean! I’m not even tired, so why do I feel so tired? Oh yes, because Sweetie Belle has a horn, that doesn’t even work, and it just is full of stupid little things that get tired and she can’t even find words to talk about it!”

Apple Bloom blinked at her, wide eyed. Sweetie blinked back, and pulled away from Apple Bloom a bit. She may have gotten a little bit loud there. Then, Apple Bloom warily sideways, suggested, “Maybe you need to take a break from the horn exercises?”

Sweetie deflated at those words. “Yeah, I do,” she said, resigned but unhappy. “But I just can’t even get that aura going, that Twilight and Sunset talked about. The one that makes my horn light up with magical power?”

Apple Bloom didn’t say anything, but Sweetie blushed anyway, continuing, “I know it sounds dumb, but I really can understand what they’re talking about.” She tapped her horn with a hoof, saying, “The more I mess with this thing, the more obvious it gets how you would make it light up, or... how you would make it light up, if I could even get it to spark. But I just don’t feel like I have the oomph to do it.”

“Yer outta shape is all,” Apple Bloom said placatingly. “You ain’t had a horn to use for 14 years, and you had a horn for what, a month? You just gotta wait till you get back in shape, and you’ll be doing magic unicorn stuff in no time.”

“Scootaloo can fly though,” Sweetie said almost accusingly, her ears going back in irritable self doubt. “Why can’t I do magic? I just wish it wasn’t so... complicated, and didn’t involve so much waiting.”

Apple Bloom gave the frustrated unicorn a solemn look, and closed her book, standing up and cantering a few feet closer to Sweetie Belle, to sit beside her, right up against her side. Some pony thing, that ponies were supposed to do, which was dumb, but it did make Sweetie feel a little bit better. At least she relaxed enough to straighten her ears again.

“You really wanna be helpful, huh,” Apple Bloom said to her friend. “Just been bothering you like crazy, that you ain’t got hands no more.”

“Not like I was all that helpful, even with hands,” Sweetie muttered, rolling her eyes even though it was true. “But, magic,” she said in an awestruck voice, “If I could do magic, I could help out so many people! Twilight and Sunset need me to do magic, to help them get back home, and find out what’s happening to our world, because I’m the only unicorn on the whole planet right now!”

“Right now,” Apple Bloom made sure to emphasize.

“Heh heh,” Sweetie said, biting her lip nervously. “I... hope that it doesn’t get any more people. How has Noi been doing?”

“She’s having lots more fun now,” Apple Bloom said, with a half smile. “I think she almost managed a trot the other day. She keeps talking with her police friend on the computer box, but it don’t seem to be getting her down. She says nobody else at the station turned into a pony, but they’re keeping their eye out for any reports.”

“They could check missing persons reports,” Sweetie speculated. “Maybe the people aren’t actually missing, but just changed into ponies and think they have to hide it.”

“I’m sure that’s what they’re doing,” Apple Bloom said confidently. “But if they found any ponies, they ain’t talking about it yet. Doesn’t mean there aren’t any, just it might take a while to find them.”

“I wonder if you were really the first, Apple Bloom,” Sweetie said, giving her a level glance. “Maybe people have been turning into ponies for a long time, and you’re just the first one who didn’t keep it a secret.”

“Could be,” Apple Bloom said noncomittally. She sure didn’t know.

She nosed at Sweetie Belle, getting under her snout so Sweetie had to lift her chin up. “C’mon Sweetie,” Apple Bloom said encouragingly. “Let’s get up an’ go do something fun!”

Standing up and trotting away, Apple Bloom looked back at the demure unicorn, telling her, “Forget about your stupid horn for now, and let it do whatever it’s gonna do. There’s lots else you could work on, like holding stuff with your hooves, or how to run around, or writing. Oh, you gotta see mah writing! Ah never knew there were whole instruction guides how to write letters. At least, not aside from just cursive in Elementary school. It’s still lots slower to write this way, but ah swear since I tried this I-talic stuff, mah mouth is getting even better handwriting than my hands did!

“...still can’t talk with a pencil in mah mouth,” Apple Bloom concluded, a mite disgruntled.

“Well, let’s go check it out,” Sweetie said amiably, standing herself. She wasn’t as steady to climb to her hooves, but she’d only been this way for like a month, so Apple Bloom wasn’t going to complain to her in the slightest. Together, they climbed up to Apple Bloom’s room, where Apple Bloom showed her the fancy, well-shaped if slow to draw letters that Apple Bloom had been writing. The letters were still too big to fit on college ruled paper, but they actually looked pretty decent, for mouth-written letters.

“Why don’t you try writing some?” Apple Bloom suggested. “It’ll give your horn a break, and you’re so focused ah bet you’ll do real well at it!”

“But I can’t do that stuff like you can, Apple Bloom,” Sweetie complained. “I’m supposed to write with my horn. It’s you who are supposed to have the quote Freaky Earth Pony Powers.”

Apple Bloom snickered at that, but persisted in her efforts, saying, “You remember, Twilight and Sunset both said that whatever mah ‘freaky earth pony magic’ is, it ain’t something you can measure or observe. Writing with your mouth ain’t even magic. It’s just making use of what you got! And all that holding stuff and climbing, it’s just what every pony can do. I don’t feel like ah even got no magic. Ah’m just being a pony, an’ doing whatever ah can. Maybe it’s there, but you know, I don’t really care, as long as I can make do with what ah got.

“And you’re just as special as I am!” Apple Bloom assured Sweetie. Sweetie’s yellow friend craned her neck down and bit on the writing end of the pen she’d been working with, presenting the holding end to Sweetie Belle and saying, “Go on, gib itta shoh!”

Sweetie didn’t have confidence in her smile, but she did take the pen in her mouth. Leaning down over a piece of paper, Sweetie then went to draw not letters, but a couple of crude circles, with some triangles behind the upper one, and a swooshy thing at the—

“Oh hey, it’s me!” Apple Bloom said in surprise at the drawing. Sweetie smiled, but didn’t drop her pen, just continued to draw a heart right next to the pen-and-paper Apple Bloom. “S-so you have been practicing, huh,” Apple Bloom said, raising a hoof to try to hide the fact that she was blushing.

“But let’s see you draw an ‘a’ instead.”

Apple Bloom didn’t really understand what Sweetie was feeling, but surprisingly, Sweetie found that Noi did. Sweetie Belle was shy to approach the blonde pony at first. Noi’s unintimidating appearance belied a very intimidating attitude. But they found some common ground, eventually. Mostly thanks to Apple Bloom’s ~~nagging~~prompting, both Sweetie and Noi worked a lot together in the category of “how to run around like a pony.” Sweetie wasn’t a fan of that category, but it at least beat the “sit around and think my stupid horn into working” category.

Noi was like Apple Bloom, and that meant she showed a delight just running around that was absolutely adorable. Sweetie Belle would almost have participated in these ‘races’ together, just to hear that delighted joy escape Noi, when she lost that tight control over herself and just started enjoying things. But, learning to walk better was an added benefit, certainly.

So Sweetie came trotting up to the pump house, and unlike any pony born on Earth, she was panting hard. Even if Noi was one of those special walker ponies, Noi still was way new at being one, so Sweetie Belle got there first, but she really had to push it. Sweetie looked back at the blonde pony stumbling her way, and hastily clattered into the shed. Rearing up on two legs, Sweetie’s forehooves came down and easily hooked around the handle of the water pump. With a grunt, she pushed with her legs, and lifted the pump lever, pulling it up and pushing it down, so that a cold stream of well water gushed out of it, just in time for Noi to come running in. The pump house was a very small shed, mostly just to weather protect the pump when it got below freezing, but for two little ponies, there was plenty of room to just walk right in.

“Fanks,” an exhausted Noi said, just sticking her head in the water and letting it pour into her mouth.

“Now you do me,” Sweetie prompted, not nearly as exhausted, but she wasn’t nearly as determined to push her limits as Noi was. Backing away from the lever, Sweetie let Noi more clumsily clamber up onto it. Just watching Noi accomplish that simple task, it was surprising to see how fast one got used to being a pony. Mostly, it was just a matter of point your legs where you want to go, and let your body work the details out. Sweetie would have hated if they got turned into something that wasn’t born able to run around, like a rabbit or a kitten.

When the water came out, Sweetie had to be more careful than Noi not to get the icy water on her face as she took a drink, but it still got her a little. Sweetie immediately shook her head to scatter the droplets. It was strange being a pony of her sort during the winter. Ponies were seemingly immune, or at least resistant to the cold, yet everything still felt icy, and you had to watch out—well—Sweetie Belle had to watch out, because the cold could sneak up on you, and you’d be shivering before you knew it.

That’s one thing that Scootaloo had, that Scootaloo didn’t even seem to care about, is what Sweetie remembered Sunset describe as an innate meteokinesis. Or as Twilight quipped, the weather flows off her, like water off a duck’s back. It was an unbelievable, if neat idea. Supposedly, where those alien girls came from, ponies managed a large part of not just their own lives, but of their very environment! In particular, pegasi had curious powers over weather, and could do what humanity had been trying to do since time immemorial: control when it rains, and where it rains.

Sweetie was still curious if there was any substance to that, but Scootaloo had not yet flown high enough to actually reach any clouds. Sweetie Belle was definitely excited for her friend, and did hope that Scootaloo could discover such a useful talent, but it meant that a unicorn, or even an earth pony would have to be more careful with themselves than a pegasus in extreme weather. Scootaloo could walk out into a blizzard without shivering, practically, but Sweetie had to be more careful about things like getting wet out in the snow.

She had to admit, for all that having a (totally useless) horn that (theoretically) could do cool things, unicorns really got the short end of the stick when it came to resistence to the elements. That wasn’t all bad though. When they were all safe inside, wrapped in thick blankets and warming by a crackling fire, Sweetie Belle had a singular appreciation for the wonderful feeling of warming up after a cold day, that Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, and Noi seemed to have lost, as a consequence of their transformations.

So out in the pump house, Sweetie was worried about getting wet, especially her clothing. As she got splashed, she had to shake off, and tried to use her forehooves to dry her face off as best as she could before it froze. Noi in the meantime went to a drawer in the wall, and pulled out a worn looking towel, tossing it to Sweetie with an apologetic smile. Sweetie wiped her face with it gratefully, and tossed it back to Noi who... hadn’t learned catching yet, but she could catch it on her head.

“I wish this stupid horn would work,” Sweetie said grumpily, trying to look at it. “Sorry for being so... useless,” she added to Noi.

“Usheless?” Noi repeated in that bold, scratchy voice of hers as she stuffed the towel back in the drawer. “You just go’ a lot of potential, kid.”

“Yeah...” Sweetie said, in an unconvinced tone.

Noi came to sit beside her then, looking at Sweetie with concern, but not quite knowing what to say. Sweetie didn’t want to make her feel on the spot, so she made ready to stand, but that brought Noi to speak, saying,

“My mom wazza shergeant.”

Sweetie settled back to her haunches, while Noi went on saying solemnly, “My da’ was in the milhitary. They both really hwanted me to be a cop. Raished me, fed me, but I always knew I had to get in the force, even when it sheemed like it wasn’ gonna happen.”

Noi sighed, and said, “I di’. Di’ everything zey ashked. I’m a damn good cop, if I shay so myself. But uh...

“Erryone wants you to ge’ your magic,” Noi said to Sweetie, “So you can help out, or wha’ever. An’ ish frustrating you can’t give ‘em what they want. But I wish...”

Noi glanced away, blushing insecurely and said, “Shometimesh I wish I spent more time jus’ being a kid. Shorta missed that. Sho your horn is important and all, but... don’ forget the important shtuff,”

She looked at Sweetie with those wide purple eyes, and with an encouraging smile, Noi told her, “You’ be shurprised. People like it better if you enjoy yourself, and it’s okay to be usheless sometimes. Where elshe are we usheful ones gonna find people to protect, right?”

She smiled and elbowed Sweetie, who obligingly protested being elbowed with a squeak, then responding with, “T-thanks, it really means a lot to me.”

Thus, Noi sort of helped keep Sweetie from getting too worked up over her horn, and the whole saving the world thing, and helped Sweetie enjoy herself. Sweetie couldn’t say she wasn’t grateful for it, but it felt a little funny how this complete stranger walked into her life, and now Sweetie couldn’t imagine Noi not being here, living with them.

It felt... sad in a way, melancholy, that such a nice girl was held separate from them by age and the responsibilities of adulthood. It felt more honest this way, more true. They helped each other, and they shared a common bond of being ponies lost in a world that had no place for them. And there was just something... nice about that. It felt like coming home.

You wouldn’t think there would be any empty houses in a busy little city like Canterlot, but Sunset Shimmer had been around the block many, many times, so she knew all the best hiding spots. If you find a house being sold, it’ll certainly be locked, but that’s hardly a deterrant to someone determined to have a roof over their head.

What is a deterrant is people coming by regularly to consider buying the house. Once the house is sold, you’ll have the people moving into it obviously. It’s just not possible to anticipate who might be checking it when, and then you’re not only trespassing but breaking and entering. Not possible, that is, provided you don’t have prescient knowledge of when, and whether, anyone will come. Small favors of a time loop is you can just watch house after house for sale, to see whether anyone comes to buy it. This house, nobody came the entire year.

Which was understandable, considering it was a dump. The yard was overgrown, and full of not just weeds but briars. The roof had leaked until a few days of unauthorized repair had patched up the holes with something crude, not meant to last more than a year (go figure). The smell of mold remained, however, and judicious applications of space heaters, powered by a portable gasoline generator, only mostly fixed the problem.

At any rate, that house would be their home base for the rest of the year typically, until the time loop rolled around. This was the longest Sunset had discovered a house went without any prospective buyers. It was a dump, and needed a lot of work done, but it was nice to have some place relatively semi-permanent, and not having to face angry landlords who discovered your records are forged, or having to thieve money from unsuspecting citizens in order to pay it.

They could pin documents on the wall now, and the living room was actually quite spacious, even though the fireplace had a few bricks missing. The fireplace was another reason Sunset liked this place, because when you are in a house without electricity provided to it, in the middle of winter, you’re gonna need to find all sorts of ways keep warm.

Twilight also kept warm by pacing, and fretting. Good exercise. That and a fluffy, powder blue coat with poofy sleeves that (like most everything else) she had to steal. It was so ridiculous to the purple girl. Twilight should have been an ambassador! She should have been greeted with open arms, living in a luxurious embassy suite. Since coming here, she had committed approximately 97% more crime than she had ever done in her life in Equestria. Keeping her homeland safe, fighting to deal with time repeating itself year after year, and being transformed into this... thing.

Humans were such a peculiar species. Supposedly descended from apes, they had strange features that no other ape possessed: large brains, colorful skin, large eyes. Apes had rather sparse fur, but humans only had fur in specific places. Heck, humans had manes! Twilight would have thought they were more closely related to ponies than apes! But, the lack of tails, and the five digits on each limb were a dead giveaway that they were apes. Twilight had certainly never felt in a more inpony body than when she felt like she was shaking around five little hooves on each foreleg. As useful as they were, Twilight sometimes found herself just idly drumming four of her fingers on the table in a certain pattern, trying to remember what a gallop felt like.

After dinner, Twilight Sparkle pinned the photograph she had printed out from the transformed police officer’s “Facebook” website up on the spare bedroom wall, next to photos of pony versions of this world’s Apple Bloom, Scootaloo (still sans feathers) and Sweetie Belle, and just stared at it. It was especially frustrating because that particular “Facebook” website didn’t seem to have any of those connections that others of their ilk had, so drawing conclusions as to how this could have transmitted itself to the officer were not forthcoming.

“I cannot wait until the weekend,” Twilight grumbled, turning away from it and striding out of the room again. In the living room, Spike was asleep on the couch, but Twilight didn’t go sit with him. Instead she went over and stared out the window, looking down the street where she thought Canterlot High might be.

“Hurry back, Sunset...” she said forlornly, leaning on the windowsill and hoping that with her only friend in the world currently (literally), they could make some sense of what was happening in Canterlot. They’d have to wait for the weekend though, when Sunset was free from that blasted educational institution. Sunset had to attend to keep up appearances, and she didn’t seem to mind it, having had the process memorized to the point of tedium unlike the rest of the extremely stressed student body. Twilight however, she... never wanted to see that place again. Not after 4 years of going there. Not after what happened last year...

Applejack held her hat nervously, wringing it in her lap as she sat there. Why principal Celestia would be so concerned with Applejack’s personal performance in school, Applejack had no idea, but it was pretty clear she was in some hot water now. She sat in a chair in the principal’s office, opposite the principal’s solidly constructed oak desk. The sunlight streamed around the principal just like she was that sun goddess that Twilight and Sunset kept going on about, and in the sense that Applejack was called to the principal’s office, Applejack felt pretty insignificant herself compared to the madame principal.

“Applejack, am I right?” Principal Celestia addressed Applejack, in a warm, melodious voice that somehow conveyed the notion of great strength. The principal held in her slim hands, a folder of no doubt important documents. Looking at it, she mentioned, “It seems your grades continue to suffer, and there are a number of your teachers who are worried about you.”

“Worried?” Applejack said in puzzlement, “Like who? An’ about what?” The principal’s office was a downright bright and sunny place, with how the curtains were spread open on the broad windows, letting the winter sunlight in. Ms. Celestia herself had a sturdy looking oak desk, with a comfortable looking easy chair, while Applejack had a plain, cheap chair to sit in. That wasn’t supposed to be intimidating, since the principal has to stay in this office all day and Applejack didn’t want to stay in this office any longer than necessary, but it still was pretty intimidating.

“Like this memo from professor Zipporwhill, for instance,” the principal said casually, “It says here that you turned in your report on molluscs two weeks after the assignment was due, and you spelled the word snail in at least five different creative ways.”

“Ah, heh, yeah I kinda got a mite turned around with that one,” Applejack said, looking the other way. She wished she could open up one of them big windows and jump right out of this office at this point. Applejack had no good news for the principal, and nothing but failure on her academic record.

“Ms. Harshvoice was unable to awaken you in class,” the principal went on. “She told me you’ve been skipping school to an alarming degree.”

“Well ah ain’t—ah mean, yeah I kinda have, but there’s a good reason for it!” Applejack said with an unconfident smile.

“I’m listening,” the principal said. How could Applejack tell her though? What was safe to say to the principal of the whole school, that wouldn’t end Apple Bloom up in a situation worse than Diamond Tiara’s short lived crush on Big Macintosh? Shucks, she was all wrong with the words, Applejack was. She never said anything right!

“Apple Bloom had some u-uh problems, and I don’t—d-don’t rightly know,” Applejack tried to say tactfully, “Ah don’t rightly know if I should speak, as the police are sorta involved and all, not that we did anything bad I just, it’s just...

Applejack sighed wearily. “It’s just been one thing after another...”

“I respect that you’ve been having considerable family problems lately,” Celestia said with a frown, “But I can’t do anything to help, unless you tell me what’s really going on. You reportedly told the guidance counselor a story about how your sister was I quote, ‘a little horse.’”

If only the principal would believe that. But truth or not, it was way too much for anybody to believe on one girl’s word alone. How much else did the principal know? Did she catch that frustratingly brief segment on the 10’o clock news? Applejack continued to stammer out, “I–I realize that— look, she... she cain’t come to school just yet. She’s barely walkin’ again and her friends and... aw shucks just—”

“Let’s not focus on her at this moment,” Celestia interrupted. More of a mercy killing than an interruption. “What I want to talk about is you, Applejack. You can’t keep this up. You’re trying to fit two days of learning into one, and there is only so much you can do.”

“What? No, ah can do it!” Applejack protested defensively. “Ah just gotta work a little harder, and do readin’ on mah own and stuff. I ain’t missed no tests so far!”

“Applejack,” Celestia said with one quirked eyebrow. “You slept through your Algebra exam last week. It does not count as being present, if you are asleep while taking the test.”

“Well it’s just the—” Applejack wracked her overworked brain, trying to remember that exam, and what she was doing the day before. She explained, “It’s just the night before ah was all studying for the... the history midterm that’s comin’ up, and there was this whole fiasco about Scootaloo jumpin’ off the... uh, ah was just up a bit... a mite late, so—”

“Applejack!” Granny Smith shouted, bursting right into the principal’s office.

Both Applejack and principal Celestia startled on the spot, then turned to the fat grandmotherly matron in surprise.

“Yer gotta get home right away!” Granny said persistently, walking up to Applejack and taking her arm, waving the other one and squawking out, “Big Mac says we gotta situation over there!”

Applejack warily glanced sideways at Principal Celestia just sitting there quietly, then turned to Granny Smith, stammering out, “Ah, uh—ah’m kinda busy an’—”

“Don’t you ‘busy’ me, missy!” Granny stated heedlessly. Then she seemed to notice the principal for the first time.

“Beggin’ your pardon ma’am,” Granny told Celestia, “We gotta family emergency.” Then she fixed Applejack in the eye and said, “Now move your caboose, missy, or yer takin’ the bus home!”

Granny stomped off then, closing the door behind her.

Pointing a delicate finger at the door where Granny left, the principal stated in a clearly unamused tone, “And then there’s that.”

“A-ah’m sorry Ms. uh, Celestia ah gotta hurry, this could be uh, important,” Applejack continued to stammer, trying to convince herself to slam her hat on her head and just march right out the door.

“We will speak on this in the future,” the principal told her, folding her fingers and raising an eyebrow.

“Thanks,” Applejack said, feeling peculiarly guilty as she stood up and just left. “Sorry. Gotta go.”

Applejack had a lot to think about on her drive home, but a lot more to worry about once Granny filled her in on the situation. They drove into a crowded farm, with at least three police cruisers, and a number of cops lurking around outside. Applejack didn’t wait for the truck to go into park, before jumping out, and dashing across the earth, right up into her house.

“Is it true?” she exclaimed, wild eyed, looking around with worry, “Is it happenin’?”

It was Big Mac’s turn to spurn school today, so he stood there already in the house, looking at the worried Applejack evenly. “Nope,” he responded in conclusion, turning to look behind him. “Just more the same.”

“Ms. Smith!” a policeman’s voice came from outside. “I need you to answer a few questions!” He was hollering at Granny though, so Applejack was still in the clear.

“Well, where are they?” Applejack asked heedless of that, looking at Big Macintosh in confusion.

“Dining room,” he said noncomittally, pointing past the kitchen with a thumb.

“Should ah go an’ an’ talk to them, or uh, go over there and ask them what’s what and... stuff?” Applejack said nervously.

Mac paused to think about that. “Eyup,” he told her with an approving nod. “You need it.”

“An’ what’s that supposed to—” Applejack ughed, clenching her fists. “Never mind. Ah’ll be right back.” With that, she went on clumping past her infuriating brother, off across the room, not even taking off her boots at the door. Applejack could see ‘em over the counter as she passed it, and it was... there were so many!

“Applejack, you’re here!” Apple Bloom exclaimed in relief, jumping to her hooves. Applejack’s pony sister tried to run to her sister, but had to step gingerly around Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, Noi, two other little ponies and one half pony, half girl. Three of those ponies, and one other out of Apple Bloom’s way, Applejack had never seen before in her life.

There were lots of other strangers too, mostly police. There was a nervous lady of purple and pink, still dressed in her factory scrubs. One somewhat sullen looking girl with curly grape colored hair on her head, was busy leaning against the wall and looking bored. Everyone else human was familiar enough: Granny Smith out talking with the officers on the porch, and Big Macintosh in the kitchen trying to cook something.

Rarity and crew wouldn’t be here, because they had school, just the way Applejack should have had, and Cheerilee would have her library duties. It looked like Applejack was the only one Granny had snagged on short notice, making the ponies outnumber the Apple Family ...the Apple Family humans 3 to 1.

As Applejack walked in, somewhat stunned at the tumult, her own sister gallopped up to her. Apple Bloom was wearing her denim overalls, and her favorite pink bow, and really just looked like a pony wearing a suit and a bow. Arriving at Applejack’s feet, Apple Bloom reared up, then clopped down on all fours, staring big-eyed up at Applejack and exclaiming in agitation,

“The police went and found everyone in town who turned into ponies the ones they could find at least, and they searched the whole town and found a bunch of ponies, except one who’s only half a pony, but she’ll be a pony soon, but they don’t know what to do with them and they’re just popping up all over town and Twilight and Sunset haven’t got here yet and ah don’t know what to tell them, especially the one who ain’t finished yet and Applejack, Elias is a boy!”

Applejack blinked.

Apple Bloom sighed in exasperation and stated with another little hoof stomp, “Ah said the police went and found everyone in town who turned into—”

“A little slower, sis?” Applejack said with a nervous smile. “Ah been awful tired lately, sorry.”

Apple Bloom’s ears went down at that.

Applejack acutely felt the weariness in her shoulders, and the dark bags under her eyes. She probably wouldn’t turn down a good brushing herself at this point, if anyone were to offer. But no one would, because Applejack had to take the lead here, and it was okay to sacrifice a little sleep for the greater good, right? But Apple Bloom seemed awful sad, and Applejack didn’t know, but she felt like something she was doing just wasn’t right.

Applejack shook her head at her little pony sis, saying, “Oh now don’t be that way. It ain’t your fault. It’s mah problem that I have to deal with. And these ponies, or, girls or whoever, ain’t your problem neither. Not you alone.”

She gestured behind Apple Bloom, making her little pony sister look behind her, and said, “What do Sweetie an’ Scootaloo got to say? They’re your good friends ain’t they? They can help you deal with it too”

“But they can’t deal with the fact that he was a boy!” Apple Bloom protested, stomping a cute little hoof of hers again.

“Now Apple Bloom,” Applejack cautioned her impetuous sister, “Just because someone’s a boy don’t mean you gotta treat him differently. Now, which of these ponies is a boy, now?” Applejack frowned in confusion, looking at the ponies around her.

“Truffle Shuffle,” Apple Bloom said in an impatient tone, frowning at her sister.

“Truffle Shuffle?” Applejack repeated, hoping for at least a little clarification from her agitated sister.

“Truffle’s the only boy,” Apple Bloom explained, calming down a little despite herself. You just had to be patient with that girl sometimes, let her cool her jets. “Ah don’t know why every pony is turning out to be a girl,” Apple Bloom said, “But he’s the only boy.”

“Ah thought you said his name was Elias?” Applejack asked, scratching her head as she tried to make sense of Apple Bloom’s intent here.

“That’s just it, Applejack!” Apple Bloom asserted, leading forward on her hooves, as she practically pleaded up to her older sister. “Truffle is the only boy! Elias isn’t!”

“Well now, Elias is a mighty strange name for a girl, Apple Bloom,” Applejack drawled, leaning, hand on her hip. “Ah thought you said he was a boy?”

“He was a boy!” Apple Bloom squealed out, in a worrisome sort of excitement.

“Well then, what is he now?” Applejack retorted in frustration, and as soon as those words left her mouth, her face fell into a flat indignancy. Her sworn exasperation:

“Oh cornfeathers.”

Author's Note

snell, sneel, snil, sanil, sales

Unbelievable

Elias couldn’t believe this. Elias could not believe this. Elias was physically, mentally, spiritually, existence...ly unable to believe this. He couldn’t believe it, when he dropped off half his weight, and then half again all in one day. He couldn’t believe when a purple tail sprouted from his bottom, the same lavender and violet stripes that should have been on his head. That stuff he could couldn’t believe just fine.

He couldn’t believe that when it started, he had to hustle out of the lab right in the middle of a titration, and ended up hiding at his uncle’s house because he didn’t trust going back to his apartment. He couldn’t believe how big his uncle had gotten, how big everything had gotten! He watched his fingers dwindle away, until only one was left on each hand, until his arms were feet. Fur sprouted all over his body, a small comfort that it was the same powder blue formerly owned by his increasingly pale, pink, patchy skin. All the while everything just kept getting bigger, until Elias found himself nothing more than a roly poly little animal.

All that, Elias couldn’t believe, but that was just your everyday average disbelief. This? This. This was not happening. This could not be happening. It was disturbing, and it was fascinating. He couldn’t believe it was happening. When he transformed he couldn’t sleep, not one wink. Had to observe every moment of this process. The tail, the ears, the changing skeletal structure; he took notes until he couldn’t take notes anymore. But now he wished he had slept because he wouldn’t have been awake when it... and then... then it... it changed him more than he could ever imagine!

Elias could believe he had transformed into a tiny, magical unicorn, but even a tiny, magical unicorn could not believe this.

It wasn’t that the cops had come, or that his own uncle had called them, after seeing Elias in such distress that he could hardly function. Uncle Star couldn’t even process what had happened to him. Neither of them knew how to deal with it. It wasn’t the police spiriting Elias away to some weird pony farm, where there were tons of other ponies just like him. Just like him. Elias could deal with all that. He could deal with so much trouble, but this?

He just curled into a vague, shivering ball on the floor there, staring forward at nothing, as he tried to just... think for a minute, what to do, how to react to all these people looking at him, how this could possibly be happening. Elias could walk, barely, but he didn’t want to walk around. He didn’t want to stand up on four legs. They could all see him. They could see what—what happened to him. He couldn’t hide it! He didn’t want them to see.

He felt his ears perk up on their own, as above him a girl’s warm voice started talking to him, in a gently apologetic alto. “Apple Bloom tells me you been having the hardest time of it,” she said in a low country drawl. Elias lifted his head and stared up at the lady who spoke... she was not more than a girl, really, but even when she squatted down to talk closer to him, it still seemed like this stetson bearing lady towered over him.

“How are you holdin’ together?” she asked, giving him an even look.

Elias couldn’t even answer. He didn’t want them to hear.

After a pause, the lady introduced herself saying, “Sorry, where are mah manners? Ah’m Applejack! This here farm’s my home, and Apple Bloom over there is mah sister. She didn’t used to be a pony neither. Nobody here did. You know y’all called ponies, right?”

Elias really didn’t want to answer.

“Look. Elias,” Applejack said in a sterner voice that drew Elias’s gaze inexorably up to meet her eyes with a frightened stare, her soft purple eyes caught in Applejack’s warm green. “That’s mah sister over there, and she’s been real upset on account of she cain’t help you at all, on account of you won’t even speak to her. Ah know it’s upsetting, but cain’t you at least talk about it with us? Sure as sugar it’ll help.”

Elias’s fear warred with outrage at this girl’s insensitivity. His emotions had been all over the place since this started. Of course his emotions had been all over the place. That was like the most stereotypical thing ever! He wanted to tell her, to answer her honest entreaty, and he couldn’t! Not like... like this.

“So, you don’t wanna talk about it?” Applejack said a bit impatiently.

“I can’—” he tried, but the sound of his words just stopped him cold. His vision started to blur with tears again. From his stupid new eyes that just wouldn’t stop crying. He didn’t want them to hear; he didn’t want himself to hear. He tried to whisper.

“How can I dalk, hwhen I shoun’ like dis?!” he whispered angrily, in that sweet little voice that he couldn’t stop making. He would have loved a voice like this, in anyone else, but him? It wasn’t supposed to be this way.

“I no supposeta be hlike dis!” he protested, as if it would make any difference protesting it to yet another person who was as helpless as he was to change things. “I no’ supposeta shoun’ hlike dis! not shposeto be a... a...”

“A pony?” Applejack offered in a hopeful tone.

“No, a girhl!” he shouted at her, in exasperation.

Applejack smiled grimly, and said, “Right. That too.”

Elias blushed heavily then, just like a girl would, dipping his head down and staring forlornly at the floor, the weird sensation of his ears moving on their own accosting him, as they drooped downward. He couldn’t believe this. He could not believe this! He... he could not stop crying again.

Elias fought the sobs making his chest shake, and Applejack, she—a complete stranger he’d never met before—did the one thing that his uncle couldn’t do. She touched him. She hugged him. She embraced him like this. She was... lifting him up off the floor. It was like the least manly thing that could have possibly happened to him, . Elias just lost it, and the strange sound of his new voice just started filling the room, because he simply could not stop from crying.

“It’s alright now,” Applejack told him soothingly, cradling Elias’s much smaller form in her arms. “Come on now, calm down. It’s gonna be alright.” Elias wanted to distrust her. He wanted her to be just saying that, just being sappy and lying to try and make him feel better. But it was just... impossible. More new alien thoughts from his new body, and his new mind, that he never ever even once asked for. He should have been upset. But it just didn’t work. He inexorably calmed down, with his whole body feeling the warmth of the girl holding him. His cries turned to hiccups, and they sounded so ludicrously adorable it was too funny to stay upset.

“Imma put you down now,” Applejack said evenly, “And I’m gonna get you some water, okay?”

“Y—yuh —’s oka—kay,” he mumbled between hiccups, trying to hide his face. He knew how feminine that must seem, and he didn’t even care. Elias let the lady place him on the ground, and settled his legs vaguely underneath himself as she did, but he still didn’t get up and walk around, or anything. He just didn’t want to draw attention to the strange, unfamiliar anatomy between his legs now, neither from others, nor from himself. He just wanted to be back at work, with a nice boring chem analysis, and with a nice ice cold glass of—a bucket plunked down in front of him.

A metal bucket. Clear water sloshed inside it, below its brim.

“Trust me, y’don’t wanna try figurin’ out cups just yet,” Applejack told him. Elias had to tilt his head up again, just to see her talking. “Use the bucket fer now,” she told him, “You probably ain’t had nothin’ to drink in a while.”

Elias just wanted to... reject it, and not be... what he was. But he was having trouble thinking, when the prospect of soothing his dry throat and puffy eyes was at hand. Or maybe that’d be at hoof. Elias glanced at that hoof: still a familiar pale blue, but not a hand any longer. Then he glanced up at the Applejack girl one more time. Then, Elias just firmed his lip, probably in a totally cute and feminine way.

He leaned down... leaned his head down, to just sort of stick his face into the water. His new muzzle entered the water, before the surface reached his eyes. It was cold and beautiful. Elias just closed his eyes, and sucked up gulp after gulp of the slightly metallic tasting but cold water. By the time he was done, he actually had his hands—both his front hooves—on the edge of the bucket to steady it.

“Feel better?” Applejack asked with a slight smile.

Elias nodded silently, then inwardly cursed and forced himself to say aloud, “Yh-yeah,” even though his voice sounded like a girl. It’s not like it shouldn’t sound like a girl, nothing wrong with that at all, considering that he was one now. How could this have happened?!

“An’ don’t give mah sister the cold shoulder,” Applejack added to the troubled Elias, glancing meaningfully over to his side. “Ah assure you, she don’t want nothing more than to help.”

Elias’s gaze followed, and one of the ponies, a red and yellow one had approached him again. The real girl pony was standing there nervously at attention, as Applejack pointed her out. Unlike the others... unlike Elias, this pony had some sort of clothing on. A bright pink bow, that was way too big for her head, and a weirdly pony shaped pair of denim overalls. Applejack walked away then, to see if anyone else needed help, and Elias found himself relatively alone, together with... the red and yellow pony, with the pink bow and green dress. The pony who must have once been Applejack’s sister, since she spoke with an accent similar, but not identical to the lady who comforted him.

“Ah cain’t possibly imagine what you’re going through,” the pony named Apple Bloom said clearly, with a rounder voice than Applejack’s, quite higher in pitch, but sounding uncannily human. “Ain’t none of us judging you for it,” she said. “Nobody knows what’s causing this, and it ain’t anything you did, or anything anyone knows about just yet. We got some friends coming over, who know more than I do, but they ain’t solved the conundrum either, so just...”

“Thank you,” Elias said softly. It came out sounding perfect, which is bad because he shouldn’t have been able to pour so much shy gratitude into his own voice. But his voice just... fit his emotions perfectly. His girl emotions.

“No problem!” Apple Bloom said with an embarassed smile. “Ah’m just... aw, ah just been standing here, not all doing anything to help you. Just if y’need anything, let me know.”

Elias nodded slightly, feeling skittish as he said, “...okay.”

A slight pause, and Apple Bloom asked, “So, you were really a...?”

Elias blushed again and his head sunk to rest on what were now his forelegs. “I yam sho differen’ nohw,” he moaned in hopeless confusion.

“What’s it like?” Apple Bloom said with an inquisitive curiosity.

Elias glanced to his side, where Apple Bloom was still standing, looking at him hopefully. “M-barashing,” he mumbled, hoping she’d get the hint. It was hard enough sounding like a girl, but he couldn’t even get these weird new lips to move the way he wanted them to.

...

Mouth lips! Mouth lips!

Elias could not believe this.

Twilight Sparkle exploded onto the scene, in a scattered array of papers and clipboards, saying loudly and immediately, “Alright everypony! we have a lot of points to cover so let’s get to work. I need every pony in a line so I can get a census, check your temperatures, and isolate any residual magic on your oh wow, you haven’t completed your transformation yet I am going to science the heck out of you!”

Sunset followed behind, looking at Applejack somewhat apologetically, as the hyper purple girl started setting up podiums and posters right on top of the photos on the wall, and the clock, chattering all the while. One of the officers, an important looking one standing around in the living room full of tiny little ponies, stated in a clear baritone to the nearest authority on such things, Applejack:

“Uh, you know this girl?”

Applejack jolted at that, and turned to the officer saying, “Why of course, officer! These are the girls ah told ya about. They know more about what’s goin’ on than anyone here.”

Sunset smiled nervously as everyone turned to face her, and waved unsteadily, while Twilight bustled around behind her in a blur of activity.

“We can start mapping out a pattern of spread,” Twilight was muttering ignoring everyone else as she fiddled with her wall map. “It might give us a clue on what the vector is. We’ll have to examine histories of genetic proclivity, perhaps even a blood analysis. Blood, yes!” She spun to face the terrified half pony, who looked like she wished she turn an even more pale white.

“The doctor got one already from Apple Bloom,” Sunset immediately said.

Twilight visibly wilted a bit. “Right,” she snapped up again, turning back to her graphs and checklists. “So next we—”

“Twilight,” Sunset interrupted her. “How about we take a little break, get something to eat, and then we can do science?”

Twilight’s interjected, “But she’s clearly halfway and—”

“And nobody knows what to make about half pony blood cells,” Sunset said, as if she were familiar with this sort of thing.

“We can do science after eating, though?” Twilight asked, lip quivering.

“Sure thing,” Sunset said easily, “You’ll feel better when you’re not running on fumes anyway.”

“I’m sorry,” Twilight sighed slumping her shoulders. “I’ve just been trying so hard to figure this out... to figure something out. I can’t help but feel like I’m to blame for all this.”

“Scuse me miss,” came Noi’s voice from down by Twilight’s feet. The pony was standing there looking up at her, unimpressed. “If you knew whose fault it was,” Noi queried, “Would that let you fixsh anything?”

“Well, no not necessarily,” Twilight admitted.

“Then leave the investigating to the police,” the blonde pony said conclusively. “And you do your shience thing to get us a way hout of this mess. Not your job to find out whodunnit.”

“Yes, about that erm, science thing,” interrupted a tall man, in what vaguely looked like a lab coat. “This phenomenon doesn’t lend well to forensics, but if you know something we don’t, I’m sure we would all appreciate if you could tell us about—”

“It after eating,” Sunset cut him off, before Twilight’s smile could grow any bigger. “I haven’t eaten since breakfast. I don’t care what you geeks geek out on, but we are not going back into it without a break and some food. ”

Sunset Shimmer, it turns out, had been tortured by the smell of burgers and fries the entire way here, as Twilight Sparkle had got it in her head to offer some kind of food reward to the ape creatures in order to pacify them, or in other words a peace offering. It... actually sort of worked, though Apple Bloom doubted that that food had been gotten with legitimately acquired funds. It was kind of hard to think of anything as legitimate at this point, if what those girls were saying about a time loop was true. Or maybe they were just genuinely crazy girls who somehow had freaky psychic powers.

Either way, a lot of the cops hadn’t had lunch either. And the Apple family didn’t exactly prepare fast food. It was probably a good thing, because while everybody—everybody human at least chowed down, it gave Twilight a chance to set up her some kind of presentation thing, and it gave Apple Bloom a chance to try and deal with a whole other bag of scared people who’d turned in one way or another into ponies.

Elias Doolots was the only one like... that. There was one other boy—an upperclassman named Truffle, but he stayed a boy. Other than that, it was just a bunch of girls, and women maybe. Apple Bloom could see it added up to seven ponies, counting the one who was still going through the transformation. Her name was Cotton Cloudy, and her mom was there, though she seemed kind of tired and out of it. Staying up late worrying about the transformation?

Apple Bloom didn’t really know any of these people. She might have seen them before on the street, as humans of course, but didn’t know them the same way she knew Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. She vaguely remembered having a class with Cotton Cloudy, but Apple Bloom had honestly been out of class this year, longer than she had been in class.

Changing into a pony was definitely not how Apple Bloom anticipated beginning her high school experience. This high school thing seemed so intimidating, a death knell to any kid’s childhood. You just have to give up on life, and just go to school. It wasn’t like elementary school, or even junior high. High school, you had to think of your future all the time, and make the best decision for what’s good for your future... and, in doing so, leave your past wanting. Apple Bloom thought she would be ready to do that, even though nobody gave her a choice, or a chance to be ready for it. She figured every boy and girl just had a biological... forwardlookedness built into them, that showed up when you walked onto that campus as a high school Freshman.

But no, apparantly the truth is that your biology stays exactly the same, until a month into school, whereupon you change into a tiny little, colorful pony. And once you’ve changed into a pony, you feel even less sure about your future than you did graduating from junior high! In all seriousness, Apple Bloom didn’t know any of these ponies, but she did know what they were going through, and what it was like to become this way. Except for that Elias fellow...er... girl..., that pony was out of Apple Bloom’s league entirely.

He...she...he seemed scared of his own backside, and Apple Bloom could definitely understand why. Apple Bloom never really paid much mind about her own femininity. It was just something about her, that she didn’t feel one way or another. Sweetie Belle had been upset at the loss of her budding womanhood, in a specific chest mounted form. But for Elias, it was like... what if one day, Apple Bloom woke up with a... y’ know...

She shuddered. She honestly didn’t know how she would feel about that. Definitely not positive. Apple Bloom loved being the way she was, and never had any problems with it. Elias was even afraid of talking; probably because his voice changed even more than any of the rest of them. Apple Bloom didn’t know what to tell him, didn’t have no experience with anything like that. Ponies and humans both had a mammalian ancestor, so Apple Bloom at least retained some of her old, familiar self, but to go all the way back to when life divided up into boys and girls, that was... like... way farther back!

Though on the other hand, Apple Bloom couldn’t help but bring to mind that she had changed into an alien pony from another dimension! That was even farther back than life itself! Farther back than even... molecules or something! So, why in the world did Apple Bloom feel normal, but Elias felt so different? Shouldn’t Elias be more concerned with not having hands, than not having a... thingy? Apple Bloom sighed. Maybe it was just a boy thing.

She certainly didn’t want to find out first hand. But that didn’t stop her from being so goddamned curious. And the worst thing is, Apple Bloom couldn’t ask Eli any of that stuff, because he—she—he was already on the verge of tears, any time you even brought it up! Or talked to him. Or mentioned the weather. Apple Bloom knew it was easier for ponies to cry, but that sure didn’t make it easier for her to find out from him what it’s like. If it is even like anything!

The one boy pony—stallion, Apple Bloom reckoned—had been nothing but helpful since getting here. He could walk himself, since he had changed a few weeks ago in fact, and he was already helping two of the other new ponies with walking. Truffle was his name, which kind of fit his rather rotund figure. His colors were grey and dark grey, nothing especially stand-outish.

But pony or human, Truffle didn’t seem concerned about his lot in life one bit. Not to say being a pony wasn’t totally throwing him off his game, but Truffle just seemed to have a naturally calm and patient personality. Or, if he was upset, he was covering it up real good, in order to be there for anyone else who needs his help. Apple Bloom could respect that.

Apple Bloom hadn’t gotten the story of how he spent the last couple weeks. She hadn’t gotten any pony’s story, in fact. Truth be told, she was feeling just a bit overwhelmed by the sudden influx of people into her home. It’d been a nice month or two by herself—well actually Apple Bloom couldn’t kid herself, it’d been a lousy month or two by herself. But now the world wasn’t waiting for her anymore, and things were happening, whether she liked it or not. It was a jarring feeling to Apple Bloom, still a lot more welcome than loneliness, but... jarring.

As Apple Bloom corrected Truffle’s attempt at demonstrating a walk, she noticed Scootaloo and that white half-one both getting pretty upset, but Applejack was hurrying over that way, so Apple Bloom just sighed and kept to herself for now. She couldn’t help but notice that of the four new ponies, Truffle had been at one point giving poorly pronounced advice to the blue white one still changing, until Scootaloo commandeered her attention. And now he was helping out the blue eyed pink pony. But he was not even coming close to even approaching Elias.

“You dun’ unnerthand,” Truffle told her calmly, when Apple Bloom confronted him on it, and tried to make sense of his speaking, which... wasn’t as bad as some ponies. “An’ I dunnerthand ether. Harld enough f’rim aroun’ other girlth. Now ywant him to hafta faishe another boy? ”

Apple Bloom really didn’t have an answer to that.

“Shust give him shome time,” Truffle assured Apple Bloom, putting a hoof on her shoulder. “He’ll be ogay.”

Truffle frowned, pulling his hoof back. “Oghay. O... I meantha say he be allhright,” he decided to say instead.

“Hey!” the pale pink pony who Truffle had been helping whined at Apple Bloom, “How lohng unthill we cah thalk betther?”

Apple Bloom gave her a level, sympathetic look, saying, “Uh, well it depends how much you practice. Noi over there, that blonde pony talking with those police officers, she went pony not quite 3 weeks ago. She still slips an ess or so, but she worked real hard at it. But it took Scootaloo like, a month? She didn’t put a lot of effort into it. So I guess, a month?”

“I’ gonnha prathstice a loh sho I cahn tahlk again,” the pink pony grumbled. And now that Apple Bloom got a good look at her...

“What is that ?” Apple Bloom asked, tilting her head in confusion at what she was seeing.

“Wath wha?” the girl said nervously, looking like she wished she knew how to back up, or shy away. This pony girl probably did want some personal space, so Apple Bloom kept her distance. But uh... how to put this diplomatically?

“You got some sorta tree on your butt,” Apple Bloom stated. There really wasn’t any subtler a way to put it. Apple Bloom was looking at a soft pink rear end, supported by short legs and unconfidently braced hooves. There was a good sized striped pink tail coming out of her rear, shifting around uneasily as this girl tried to get used to it. And a tree on her butt. Like, literally the picture of a palm tree, that you’d find on some sort of tropical island, complete with a little circle of sand. It just looked like it had been painted right on top of her fur.

“Oh thath?” the girl said, looking at her own ass in puzzlement. “No hidea. Juth appear whe I wath all thleeping. Ith no’ normal?”

“Well, uh, no it ain’t normal I guess,” Apple Bloom remarked uncertainly, glancing at her own butt, but thankfully she didn’t get any nasty surprises just appearing there for no reason. It couldn’t be a prank. None of these ponies was in any state to be joking about things.

“I goth onnathoeth thoo!” came Truffle’s voice to Apple Bloom’s left. She followed her ear to look, and saw that Truffle did have one of those too on his hindquarters. He had a... fork and knife? It wasn’t quite as stark in contrast as the green and brown on the girl pony’s pink bottom, but it was definitely there. Apple Bloom could swear his gleamed in the light, and the other one... it was downright impossible for fur to just change color so abruptly like that! Pale pink, and then sharply brown, green and sandy yellow, in crisp detail. But touching it only revealed a soft, plush, warm thigh. The hairs in the fur seemed totally normal, other than how they changed color halfway down their length, at exactly the right moment to make a picture out of it.

“Uhh, thuse me?” the pink pony said, warily.

“Oh! Sorry, I just—” Apple Bloom jerked her hoof back, smiling awkwardly. “I jus’ wanted to see if’n it was painted on or what. Maybe it’s like, part of your pony magic?”

“Mashic?” the girl said, leaning towards Apple Bloom curiously, with wide eyes.

“Yeah, even we uh, normal ponies get some kinda magic thing,” Apple Bloom answered uncertainly, not sure on how to indicate the lack of wings or the lack of a horn, that she and this pink pony both shared as part of their earth pony heritage, or whatever you called it. “I guess yours could be makin’ a tree appear on your... uh... butt?” Apple Bloom said at last, in regard to the strange mark this pony had.

“Hunno,” the pony repeated, looking at the thing on her rump again. “Ith was on my hclotheth tho!”

“Hecklo......what now?” Apple Bloom asked in confusion, batting at her own ear with a wrist.

The girl crossed her eyes, looking at her own short snout. “Hcl...clh...clhoes.”

“Oh, clothes! ” Apple Bloom declared.

“Lemmethee,” the girl suddenly demanded, getting her deep blue green eyes right in Apple Bloom’s face.

Apple Bloom shied back, yet the other girl continued to assert, “Sthay i’ again, stho I ca’ thee!”

Apple Bloom blinked at that, and then carefully pronounced “clothes,” so the girl could see her do it. It was actually a pretty hard word, for a pony’s mouth at least.

“Florthes,” the girl said carefully, but it obviously didn’t work.

“Clothes,” Apple Bloom repeated.

“Glohthes,” the girl tried.

“You’re getting closer!” Apple Bloom said cheerfully. “But what were you saying about your clothes?”

“Justh...” the girl adopted a cute pony frown. “Loth of peeful have ha zheeme...a pa’ch hthey wear, lihke a sthyle. Thith htree wazh short of my fing. Thith parlm three. ...three. I mee’ Dree. Dree. Dthree... thith thing! ” she exclaimed in frustration, pointing at her rear emphatically with a forehoof.

“Wiszh I broughth my hclothesh wif me, coul’ show you,” she added, in a disappointed tone.

“But it’s on your body now?” Apple Bloom said uncertainly. “I dunno why any kinda magic would do something like that. How’s your fur know what patch you were styling? You didn’t have like a tattoo or anything, did you?”

“No,” the girl repeated, blushing self consciously, “Hunno whacoolbe.”

“Well, don’t worry your head just ‘cause I brought it up. Probably ain’t all that important,” Apple Bloom shrugged, adding with a smile, “But it sure looks cute on you!”

“Really?” the girl said with a bright smile, and then added with a more reserved blush, “Thangs, I fink.”

“Mah name’s Apple Bloom!” Apple Bloom continued cheerfully, sticking out a hoof. Then Apple Bloom decided against that, when the girl gone pony didn’t know what to do with her own hoof. “Ah don’t think I caught your name,” Apple Bloom prompted gently.

“Peinhya Gohl—” the pony quickly answered, then cut off, staring at her own nose again. She sank her shoulders with a disgusted sigh. “Terll you when I cahn thalk aghain,” the light pink pony girl muttered bleakly.

“Hey,” came a third voice above them, lower in tone and more morose, “Mom.”

Both ponies, Apple Bloom and the other pony looked up, to see the mulberry colored girl, who was fully human, having walked up to stand beside them.

“Lemme do the talking for now,” she said to the other pony. “I’m still human after all.”

“Thansh giddo,” the softer pink pony girl said, with an awkwardly appeasing smile that didn’t really convey any genuine enthusiasm behind it.

Apple Bloom smiled uneasily, then blinked. “Wait, mom?!” she exclaimed in surprise, taking another long and hard look at the little pink pony.

The pony blinked back at her. “Yesh?” she offered in confusion.

“Sorry, ah...” Bloom backed off and rubbed the side of her head in consternation, trying to not be a complete idiot about this.

“I forget how ponies are of all ages,” Apple Bloom explained, “Even though you look about the same age as me. Of course you’re her mom! Noi is like, a million years old too, though she ain’t got no kid. But, I mean, your kid is even uhm—” Apple Bloom stared up at the tall cerise girl, declaring, “You’re even older than I was!

“...than ah am ,” Apple Bloom corrected herself.

“What, were you a student?” that girl asked, looking curiously down at Apple Bloom.

“Yeah, I was just starting mah first year though,” Apple Bloom said self consciously. “This whole pony thing just sorta got in the way of that.”

“I’m just a junior, so I’m not that much older than you are,” the girl said, in an annoyed tone. “I thought you meant you were in like, junior high!”

“Ain’t that young,” Apple Bloom admitted in relief, “But ah dunno why I gotta be the one making all these decisions nowadays. Just because I been a pony longer’n everyone else? I ain’t even graduated Geometry!”

“Fine, I’ll make sure not to ask you to help with my Trig homework,” the girl said unimpressed, rolling her eyes.

Apple Bloom gave her a thoughtful look.

“Okay, sorry this is bugging me,” Apple Bloom said, scrunching in frustration, “Ah still don’t know either of your names! There’s Elias, an’ Truffle, an’ uh... Cotton something.”

“I’m Berryshine Colada,” the tall human girl said smoothly, “And my mom’s name is Piña. It’s Spanish for pineapple.”

“Pineapple, huh?” Apple Bloom mused, looking at the round pink rump of Piña again. “Kinda odd that you got a coconut tree, not a pineapple plant, then.”

“Ith thropical,” Piña remarked, with a resigned look to her eyes as she glanced at it. “I boog peethle for highland tourth. Bethighs, I din ge’ tchoosh my hname.”

“You got to choose mine,” Berryshine said with a curious shrug. “Why did you pick Berryshine, anyway?”

“Becauth you’re...”

Piña lifted a hoof as if confused, rubbing at her chin.

“You thook a shine to... berrieth?” she tried, with a hopeful smile.

“You don’t even remember why you named me after berries?” Berryshine said angrily. Piña just blushed and looked away. “I can’t believe you, mom!” she griped, turning away and crossing her arms.

“Hey, it ain’t her—” Apple Bloom started to say, but then remarked, “Ah guess it is technically her fault, but that don’t mean”

“Ith fine!” Piña assured Apple Bloom. “Thees a teenhager.”

“Sorry if we can’t all be happy ponies,” Berryshine said with a bitter edge to her voice. “Maybe I’d cheer up if I had even one chance to relax once and a while,”

“No’ thith abou’ thcool aghain!” Piña said in a resigned dismay. “Ith very imphortant tha hyu shtuy...shu...shutudy.”

“Yeah I’ll get right to it, soon as I’m done freaking out over you turning into a pony,” Berry asserted grumpily. “Over there!” she added, stalking away from the two of them to stare at the wall, or... something.

Apple Bloom watched after her worriedly, but Piña just sighed, seeming familiar with this sort of attitude. That in itself was sort of worrying. “Theesh...” Piña said resolutely, “My daugh’er ish sho srs allhe thime, ish no’ goo’ foll her... for... her. Buthas jussa hway she iz.”

“Attention everypony!” announced Twilight Sparkle, drawing the attention of Apple Bloom, Piña, and everyone else in the room. “Er, I mean,” Twilight said touching her mouth with a finger for some reason, “Everybody, I would now like to take some time to explain my role in what has happened, or is currently happening to all of you...”

About ten minutes earlier, Scootaloo was so excited about the newest new pony. “Oh, man it’s gonna be so awesome!” she cheered, circling the still quite tall half-pony, literally walking on air. Scootaloo’s new hoodie was weird and didn’t fit perfect, but it was still cool since she could have a hood for her wings now too, and that meant that it was easy to stick ‘em out, and that meant it was easy to fly!

“You’re gonna love being like this, Cotton Cloudy,” Scootaloo said excitedly, “You can fly, and... you can fly! And it’s awesome! Kinda sucks though, but it’s still awesome! There weren’t any pegasi before, and I was the only one, but now you’re here! Isn’t that just so radical? You’re not gonna believe what it’s like. Can you move your wings yet? Those are wings by the way, even though they look really weird, they’re gonna be just like this once the feathers grow in. Hey, are you okay? What are you doing? Are you crying? What’s wrong?!”

Scootaloo’s excitement died as she landed heavily, stumbling to a halt. Cotton Cloudy was this girl’s name. She was still changing, so that meant that it just started today. But why was she breaking down right in front of Scootaloo, her eyes welling up with tears?

“I don’ want tho be a pony!” she cried in sheer mewling distress.

“Please don’t cry!” Scootaloo urged frantically, “I—I’m sorry! What did I say? I said something stupid, didn’t I,”

The girl sank to her... knees, but then tilted back onto her haunches, because she had those now, sort of. She tried to tell Scootaloo, but Scootaloo couldn’t understand with her trying to talk through the crying.

“Please stop, I didn’t mean it!” begged Scootaloo, climbing up the girl’s loosely clothed side to entreat her. Now Scootaloo was getting upset too! “I can’t stop it nobody can!” Scootaloo said anxiously, trying to wrestle her dark emotions back deep down inside. “I’m sorry, please, I—just was so happy I wasn’t the only one I’m sorry...”

And now Cotton Cloudy was worried about her ! The weepy half pony tried to reach out, to comfort Scootaloo somehow—probably trying to pet her—and then Cotton just jerked back, as her weird half transformed hands came into her eyesight. Scootaloo hated that look of horror that flashed on her face, when Cloudy was reminded of what was happening to her. Scootaloo hated feeling like that, herself. But what could she do that would help Cotton Cloudy feel better?!

“Everything alright over here?” Applejack asked, striding up to the two of them.

“I ju—I just—she doesn’t want to be a p–pony, and I jus’,” Scootaloo tore herself away from Cotton and faced Applejack, wiping at her eyes with a foreleg trying to stop getting so stupid upset. “Jus’ kept bothering her, and now it’s my fault and she’s—”

The miserable orange filly squeaked as she found herself grabbed from behind, and unceremoniously pulled into a close embrace. Cotton Cloudy hugged Scootaloo to her breast, like a large pony doll. It would have been a medium sized pony doll, but... Cotton Cloudy was a lot smaller now.

Scootaloo didn’t understand why Cotton was hugging her now! Wasn’t she just too upset to do this a second ago? Scootaloo never knew what to do when people got all touchy feely, and she just sort of looked up at the po—the girl holding her, with her short little muzzle, and her clumsy hands with their one large finger on them.

“Can’ do this much longer,” Cotton said with a tearful smile, “Just wanted to... whirle I shtill can...”

“Hey, don’t say ponies can’t hug!” Scootaloo protested trying to look backwards, trying not to blush at her compromised situation, “Or I’ll sic Sweetie Belle on you!”

Cotton laughed shakily, her tear stained cheeks forgotten for now, saying, “Sorry, ish just so weird, never in my whole life would have shushpected... and why ponies?!”

Applejack eyeballed the two uneasily, but had to run on over to put out some other fires.

Scootaloo shrugged as best as she could. “I dunno. Guess Twilight is gonna tell us over there, but spoilers: she already tried to tell me, and it was way boring. But I’m just saying it could be a lot worse. Ponies’re actually way cooler than you think.”

“Really?” Cotton said, in a warily hopeful tone.

Scootaloo squirmed out of Cotton’s grasp all casual-like, saying, “Yeah, I mean c’mon, wings? Haven’t you ever wanted to fly?”

“Well, I hahve...” Cotton Cloudy remarked thoughtfully. “Everywhone has flying dreamsh, right?”

Scootaloo blinked at that.

“Y-yeah, sure!” Scootaloo said, probably the last person who should talk about what normal people dream about. She heard that was true too, from... somewhere, so yeah it was probably true. “Don’t worry, once you get back on your feet, you won’t even miss your hands!” Scootaloo assured her confidently.

“...that was a lie,” Scootaloo then admitted guiltily, “But it really isn’t so terrible, just really, really...”

“Differhent?” Cotton posited.

“Strange,” Scootaloo decided. “Anyway, sorry about freaking out about you. It’s just, if you look around, you’re the only one besides me with wings. You know how freaking lonely it gets in the sky?”

Cotton looked at her blankly.

Scootaloo facehooved. “Of course you don’t,” she said, “But it’s like... it’s even boring up there. There’s nothing to dodge! Anyway, so, sorry and uh, yeah.”

“You made me feel better,” Cotton said with a simple smile. “Thanksh.”

“O-oh, and don’t worry about talking!” Scootaloo added raising a self conscious hoof. “You’ll sound dumb, but ponies have super... lips or something. Once your mouth’s done changing, you can work on it, and get back sounding like your old self in no time!”

“Ssh,” Cotton told her with a nervous urgency. “I thingk the purfle gurl is gonna talk.”

Scootaloo looked over her shoulder, and there was purple girl Twilight Sparkle herself, standing over by a chalkboard which apparantly she’d brought with her, currently in the process of clearing her throat.

“Ugh,” Scootaloo groaned, with her shoulders slumping.

“Attention everypony!” announced Twilight Sparkle. “Er, I mean,” Twilight said touching her mouth with a finger for some reason, “Everybody, I would now like to take some time to explain my role in what has happened...”

Not too long ago, Sweetie Belle could not believe this. Sweetie Belle stared across the room, filled with worry. The room was filled with worry, but she was also filled with more worry. When the police came charging in, Sweetie thought it was the worst of it, but when they brought more ponies with them? She thought that was the worst of it. There was someone still changing into a pony: a blue haired white girl, and there was a girl who was totally a pony, shades of pink all over. There was a greyer colored boy pony... stallion? And a purple haired, blue furred, unicorn mare.

Sweetie simply could not believe that of all these eight ponies, that “mare” had to be the only other one who ended up with a horn! 6 out of 8 of the ponies were just “pony” ponies! And even Scootaloo could have a nice conversation sorta, with the pony who had wings like she did. There were so many things Sweetie wanted to find out, if differences in her were because she was a unicorn, or because she was just herself. Sweetie would have appreciated being some kind of special pony, and not have felt huffy about it at all, but that meant the one pony she really wanted to talk to was... Elias. The one pony, and what happened to Elias was something Sweetie couldn’t even think of how to approach.

Hi, do you need any help learning how to be a girl? What’s weirder, being a pony or being a girl? What can I say to you that wouldn’t upset you even more? Oh, and did you know you would look so lovely in a dress?

It was pretty clear Elias wasn’t okay with this, and she was feeling really isolated considering many others shared her transformation, but none shared her change in gender. Sweetie had to do something, not just for her own curiosity! But what? From how Apple Bloom interacted with her, Elias didn’t seem to like talking, even though she sounded perfectly fine, so the worst thing Sweetie could do is ask her questions, or make Elias move in ways that... reminded her. Elias couldn’t hide it from anyone, and certainly not from herself.

She looked so vulnerable and alone. Really, what Elias needed was a reminder that she was a pony, and that she had people all around her, sharing in that situation. But not a reminder that involved talking. Or singing. Elias just needed someone to help her tune it down a bit, give her back some semblance of normality.

So that’s why Sweetie Belle bit down on a blanket laying on the couch, and trotted over to Elias, dragging it behind her. To make contact with the only other pony who had a horn, to ease some of the quivering fear in Sweetie’s heart, and because Elias really sort of really needed it. None of the ponies here had asked about it, but they were all kind of unsure whether they should ask about clothing, and humans just didn’t seem to realize ponies were... not just cute animals.

The purple-haired powder blue pony looked up in surprise, as Sweetie flung out the blanket over her. It landed sort of rumpled, and only half on the other pony, so Sweetie had to methodically go around pulling all the corners of it just right, but finally Elias was relatively covered. Just a lump under the blanket, with the head of a cute unicorn girl.

“Thought you could use something to cover your butt,” Sweetie Belle said frankly. She couldn’t really think of a more poetic way to put it.

Elias looked at the blanket over her rear end with a sober expression. Then she gave Sweetie Belle a grateful look, and Elias opened her mouth, but then closed it, looking worried. Then opened it again, but Sweetie held up a hoof, saying,

“No, no, no, you don’t have to thank me. I know it’s still kind of... weird for you to talk. You can tell me later, after you... feel better.” What? No, that was terrible. Why did Sweetie even say that? Sweetie scrunched her muzzle in constertation, mind racing as she tried to think of what to say that wouldn’t end up putting her foot in her mouth.

Hoof. Hoof in her mouth.

“Want some hay?” Sweetie asked, with a big, fake smile. She facehooved then and said, “No, I mean—sorry... I was coming over to ask you that, because it’s something ponies can eat, and I thought you might feel better if you... tried some.”

Sweetie was about to hurriedly blurt, “No, nevermind,” about-face, and retreat, when Elias uttered the softest little, most delicate,

“okay.”

Sweetie couldn’t believe how adorable it was.

Author's Note

Well, the ball is really rolling now! Ponies up the yin yang! I have to figure out how to characterize all these new people!!

I hope my indulgence in the sweet strife of a man becoming a mare isn’t too off-putting. It’s an overdone concept sure, but I don’t often see a story about someone subject to this, who actually gets traumatized by it. If it seems like a lot of this trauma is caused by Elias second guessing herself, not her actual gender, then a lot of this trauma is caused by Elias second guessing herself, not her actual gender.

Presentation is Everything

It was so obvious to Sweetie Belle, not so much to Elias. Elias was trying to be as quiet as possible, because Elias was scared of sounding too girly. That was understandable enough, but it had the effect of extreme girlishness. If Sweetie had felt confident about her grasp of Elias’s predicament, she would have advised Elias that she’d feel better about her voice, if she spoke more assertively. But instead, Sweetie held back on giving any advice for now. She just rolled with it, trying to figure out how to get this pony some hay, how to start a not upsetting conversation with this pony, and how not to squeal at how freaking adorable Elias sounded.

Ponies everywhere in the Apple household it seemed. Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo and Noi, and now these four. The people here who weren’t ponies were either police, or had some relation to the pony people. They were all interacting to varying degrees of success considering any given pony’s attitude and ability to speak. But Elias was all alone, and Sweetie wanted to connect with her, both because she was the only unicorn in the room, and because it just hurt Sweetie’s heart to see Elias going through such pain and fear, with no one to help her.

Hay on a plate, that would never do. It was never well received, by someone used to actual food being served on a plate. Plus, Sweetie had to carry it with her mouth, and she didn’t think Elias would appreciate eating off of the same plate as her mouth touched. Thankfully, Apple Bloom had been a pony for a while now (and really, Sweetie Belle had too). The Apple family was nothing if not resourceful, and over that time they’d had plenty of reason to figure out a way for a pony to carry hay around. Thus, there was a wooden bucket with a metal handle, left near the hay bale just for that purpose. That bale certainly wouldn’t last much longer, with this many ponies eating it. But for now, it would serve Sweetie well.

Sweetie pushed some hay into the bucket with her dumb, clumsy hoof, then just bit the handle of the bucket, to lift it up and totter off with its weight throwing off her balance. With a thunk, Sweetie plunked it right down next to Elias, and smiled at her as gratifyingly as the little unicorn could muster. Elias seemed surprised at the gesture, and exclaimed with wide eyes “Hueweren’—!” before her mind caught up with her mouth, and she blushed her way back to silence again.

Sweetie didn’t press her to speak, but instead of futilely trying to remain silent, the blue unicorn slumped in defeated resignation, saying in that sweet voice of hers, “Hweren’ ...gidding abou’ he hay.”

“Oh. No, it’s really good to eat actually,” Sweetie stated, looking at the dry straw a bit hungrily. “Important for pony digestion.”

“How’u diges’ ith?” Elias asked, uncurling enough out from under the blanket, and stretching her neck forward to peer into the bucket with open curiosity. “Diges’” she repeated. “Digesud... sorry,” she gave a frustrated huff. “I know I soun’ weirld...” and there was her blush rapidly returning. “...rlike htis.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Sweetie said appeasingly, “I don’t really know how you digest it, but it’d be a good question to ask Twilight Sparkle, or Sunset Shimmer.”

“Who?” Elias asked glancing around cluelessly.

“The firey haired girl over there, and the really purple one,” Sweetie explained, tossing her tail vaguely in their direction. “They used to be ponies, so they know all about how ponies are supposed to live.”

“Y’meaweca—?!” Elias said in choked excitement, actually trying to struggle to her hooves. Sweetie cut that right off though, swishing her tail and saying,

“No, wait. I meant that they were born as ponies... like we are now. And they got changed into humans against their will. So they’re just as stuck as we are, just opposite.”

“...oh,” Elias whimpered, sinking back down.

“They used to be unicorns, too!” Sweetie pointed out. “Just like you and me. They’ve been teaching me a lot about magic, even if I can’t figure out how to use it yet.”

Elias gave Sweetie a blank stare, then raised an eyebrow. “You’re shoking,” she chirped disbelievingly. Sweetie had to pause at that, because she wasn’t joking, so what part sounded like a joke?

“Joking about what?” Sweetie asked cluelessly.

“Hy know we’re hunicorns, bu’” Elias scrunched up her muzzle and squeaked out, “Magic? Thishsh jus’ a bone!” She poked at her own horn, while Sweetie shook her head saying,

“No, Sunset Shimmer said it was a specialized gateway for our magic channels, that only unicorns have,” Sweetie stated from what she remembered them telling her. “There’s a thing called the cochlea at the base that you can use for drawing it in from the cosmic field. Which is like gravity, but um... not made of energy. I didn’t really understand that part, but you draw the magic in from it, and project it into the world is what she said. It looks like a bone because it doesn’t have to be hollow, since the field isn’t... aligned with our um... solidness? Sorry, I um...

“I tried to listen,” Sweetie said, blushing now, “But I just got lost when they started talking about dimension brains or something. I dunno I barely got through regular geometry, so it’s really confusing. The point is yes it’s a bone, but it’s the shape of the bone that lets us... do magic. In theory.”

To a stunned looking Elias, Sweetie said, “You can ask them, Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle, but I think they’re going to present soon, so before they do, you should start eating some hay.” The purple haired, light blue unicorn mare glanced down at the bucket with a lot of curiosity. “It’s really easy once you get started,” Sweetie encouraged her, “Just watch how I do it.”

Sweetie leaned forward for the hay, then hesitated an inch away, adding for Elias’s benefit, “Oh, and I can’t talk with hay in my mouth so... um, yeah. Just watch.”

Sweetie took herself a mouthful of hay, and settled onto her haunches, just munching on it while Elias watched with utter fascination. Sweetie forgot to explain how you hold it in your mouth while chewing, but it was a bit late for that, so she just pointed a hoof at her mouth, and then gestured toward the wooden bucket full of hay.

“Ca’I...?” Elias asked, leaning towards the bucket. Sweetie nodded, kicking the bucket closer to Elias. The little blue unicorn lifted a hoof, then put the hoof down, then just craned her head down and opened her mouth, hardly hesitating to chomp down on a bunch of hay... sideways. Elias looked at her own muzzle in surprise again, probably surprised how the hay slips right into that gap between your teeth. Sweetie shifted her own mouthful sideways, sort of like a cigar, so she could speak around it.

“Meg it stick straigh’ ou’” Sweetie explained, pushing one end of the hay sticking out of Elias’s mouth, to rotate it until the other end was fully inside her mouth. “Hol’ it with hyour lips,” Sweetie continued to counsel, “An’ take li’l bites.”

Sweetie might have been more irritated in dealing with someone so slow to warm as Elias, if Elias didn’t just look so cute, sitting there looking at Sweetie with big concerned eyes, with a bunch of hay sticking out of her mouth. Elias was a quick learner though; she managed to start chewing somehow, and between the both of them it looked like they were going to have no problem eating hay.

So Sweetie scooted next to Elias, and pulled the bucket sort of between them, so they could both look forward to where Twilight Sparkle was standing, with her chalkboard all ready, clearing her throat and preparing to speak. And that was just fine for both of them. Somehow (and Sweetie still didn’t know how, but) everything had gone better than expected. Elias wasn’t upset anymore, and she wasn’t scared of talking to Sweetie anymore, and she didn’t have to talk, so it was okay. Elias just kept munching placidly, seeming calmer, and more collected than she’d ever been since coming here.

“Attention everypony!” announced Twilight Sparkle. “Er, I mean,” Twilight said fiddling with her lip nervously, “Everybody, I would now like to take some time to explain my role in what has happened, or is currently happening to all of you. While I don’t have solutions to all your problems, I do have some answers. If you’ll all remain seated or standing prone, I would like to present my findings so far.”

“Woah, deja vu!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed.

Twilight squawked ungraciously, and reeled back, arms wheeling as she grabbed at the chalk board for support. “Pinkie Pie?!” she exclaimed at the pink party girl who was standing entirely too close. “When did you get here?”

“I’ve been here all along, silly!” Pinkie said, with a cheerful if enigmatic smile.

“Since when?!” Twilight blurted back.

“Siiiince,” Pinkie chirped, leaning forward on one foot, “One of my friends was freaking out because her mom called and the police were coming for her, but she really couldn’t hold the phone because she was a PONY and I was like wooooah hold the phone I know where they’re taking her! And Berry was asking to the phone “Where are they taking you?!” And then she said to me how did I know she was going to ask that, and I said I dunno, and she said to the phone that mmphmmphMMMmmphmm”

Pinkie’s further words were muffled by Sunset Shimmer and Applejack, both reflexively covering the girl’s mouth. Amid Pinkie’s muffled words, their hands touched, and the two girls blushed, pulling away.

“So then we were driving toward the farm and she asked me where I got my license so I told her I didn’t have a license silly, I had a permit! And then she went into the glove compartment and she started screaming that this was a catering permit because I accidentally mmphmmphMMMmmphmm,” Pinkie continued, until Applejack took the initiative and shut her up a second time, or at least rendered her illegible.

“Ah think we get the idea, sugarcube,” Applejack told Pinkie seriously, before carefully taking her hand away.

“Okie dokie!” Pinkie said cheerfully.

“So you’re just...” Sunset said, eyeing Pinkie Pie hesitantly, “Giving Berry a ride.”

“Ohhh. No,” Pinkie answered confusingly, “I came here for a whole other reason entirely! And also to give her a ride.”

“Does it have any significance to the lecture that I’m trying to give?” Twilight asked balefully.

“None, whatsoever!” Pinkie announced cheerily.

“Alright, then! Pinkie Pie is here for... reasons,” Twilight said. “Now I would like to take some time to explain—”

“Aaaand Fluttershy!” Pinkie cut in.

“Fluttershy?!” both Twilight and Sunset announced in mortified alarm.

“Yeah, she reeeeeeeeally wanted to come even though she didn’t have a reason, so I gave her a reason, and now she’s here!” Pinkie said, gesturing towards the front door where the pale yellow girl with the lightest blond tresses known as Fluttershy was still standing, with a very dumbstruck expression on her face, due to her slack jawed stare and dilated pupils.

“I think the ponies kind of broke her though,” Pinkie said sadly. “Oh well!” And then she danced off without a care, hotly pursued by Twilight Sparkle demanding explanations for everything.

Sunset meanwhile unceremoniously hustled the fair Fluttershy away from the door, and sat her down on the couch. She grabbed the nearest clothed pony, Sweetie Belle in this case. Bodily lifting the unicorn filly up even as she squeaked out “Hey!” Sunset Shimmer deposited Sweetie Belle on the couch beside Fluttershy and said,

“You take care of her. Get her to pet you or whatever.” she addressed the other people and ponies saying brusquely, “The rest of you all shut your faces, because Twilight has got something to say and it’s freaking important that she tell you about this!”

Sweetie Belle looked back to Elias on the floor, who blushed and looked away. Then she looked up at the butter yellow girl and said “Um... Fluttershy, right? Sorry we didn’t invite you... over? Are you... okay?”

Fluttershy, who stopped chanting “This was a bad idea” under her breath over and over, managed to focus on Sweetie Belle. And then her pupils got even bigger!

“You’re so cute!” Fluttershy squeaked almost in anguish, “Oh, can I pet you? Oh what am I saying? You’re not animals, but you look just like adorable, sweet, cute little ponies! But I knew you were ponies, and I knew I could never treat you like people—oh, you must think I’m just awful!”

Sweetie Belle didn’t know why the girl was mumbling most of what she said, her volume going quieter and quieter, but it was still easy enough to make out Fluttershy’s words. “Is that all?” Sweetie asked incredulously. “You can pet us. I mean you should ask, but Rarity does it all the time, and it really does feel really good!”

“B-b-but you’re people, and I could never do that to you it would be... weird. Oh Fluttershy, don’t say that. Now she’ll never let you do it!” Fluttershy said, in that way of ever diminishing volume again.

“I just said I’d let you do it,” Sweetie said a little grumpily. “And you shouldn’t avoid people just because you’re scared of being weird. Go ahead, just touch my hair. I mean, my mane. In fact—”

Sweetie left Fluttershy then; jumped right off the couch, and went trotting over to the table with the lamp on it. She retrieved from it a wire brush, and with its handle firmly grasped in her mouth, gallopped back to the exceedingly nervous girl, who was trying to hide behind her pale pink hair.

“Ptheh,” Sweetie said dumping the brush in Fluttershy’s lap after having clambered back onto the couch with her. “There, use that,” she said happily. “Don’t worry, ponies do it to each other all the time, Twilight said! I can’t even reach my back, so I need someone to help me with that.”

Fluttershy remained frozen, so the little white unicorn sighed and said, “Look, how about I brush your hair? That wouldn’t be weird, would it?”

So Sweetie picked the brush up off Fluttershy’s lap in her mouth, and started gently sliding it through the girl’s long, graceful tresses. Bracing with her hoof on the other side of the hair really seemed to penetrate it effectively, and it didn’t look like it but Fluttershy actually had a lot of loose hair she needed to comb out. Sweetie was metaphorically walking on eggshells, so she couldn’t get any more than the edges of that girl’s hair, but it seemed to calm down Fluttershy enough. When Sweetie put the brush in her lap again, Fluttershy picked it up in a dainty hand, saying to Sweetie, “Are you sure about this?”

“Positive,” Sweetie said confidently. She presented her head forward. Then atop her head, a tiny, hesitant, ineffective brush stroke could be felt combing through her hair. Fluttershy continued past that though, when Sweetie didn’t make any sudden movements. Sweetie Belle closed her eyes slightly, as Fluttershy started to get more confident. Sweetie’s hair was naturally curly, which made it difficult to brush at best, but Fluttershy was nothing if not good with a brush. As the girl got to Sweetie’s scalp, a pleased noise escaped Sweetie Belle, and Fluttershy stopped, saying,

“Oh, um... is that okay?”

“It’s fine,” Sweetie sighed happily, practically lying across the girl’s lap by now, to offer Fluttershy better access to Sweetie’s head and maybe tail soon.

“You’re covered in fur all over,” Fluttershy said engrossedly, “Do you want me to brush there, too?”

“Hmm?” Sweetie said, distracted. “Oh. Yes, but you need something called a curry comb. My um... fur comes off in sort of little tufts and clumps. It’s very fine.”

“And also, you would need to get out of that dress,” Fluttershy pointed out.

Sweetie blushed at that. “You’re right,” she acknowledged. “It’s only really hard to get um, brushed when you’re wearing clo...clothes.”

“So, you don’t wear clothing often?” Fluttershy asked testily. She blushed then too, saying in a tiny voice, “Oh, I’m sorry. That was rude wasn’t it? I don’t mean to say that. Oh Fluttershy you’re such a—”

“It’s fine,” Sweetie assured her, waving her hooves to dispel the girl’s concern. This girl was so self critical, it was practically maddening! “We um... have fur, and... don’t really need a lot of clothing. I can even go outside, with just a scarf on. Just a scarf. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo are better at that though. They got super cold powers, and all I got was this,” Sweetie lifted a hoof to her forehead indicating her horn.

“That’s...” Fluttershy said quite excitedly (and quietly), “Fascinating.... What is it like?”

Looking back uncomprehendingly, Sweetie asked, “Like?”

“To go outside, in the snow,” Fluttershy murmured, “Without any... clothes on.”

Sweetie actually took a moment to consider that. “The weirdest things are hooves,” she concluded, lifting one hoof’s fingertip up, to illustrate what she meant. “The air just feels chilly and on my entire body, and that’s weird enough. But you can even walk through snow with these, and all it does is feel like... standing on hooves, that aren’t even very cold. I dunno if it’s magic or just... keratin.”

“This is just so incredibly wonderful,” Fluttershy said excitedly, “I’ve never seen anything like this before!”

“You think... hooves are better than hands?” Sweetie asked uneasily.

“No,” Fluttershy said emphatically, “Talking ponies! I mean wow, you’re not a person, but you are! You’re not big, and scary and dangerous but I can talk to you! I wish I could talk to my animal friends back at the shelter. They talk in their own way, but not like you! So many things must be different for you. I’m so curious I just don’t even know what to say!”

Sweetie settled more firmly in Fluttershy’s lap while the girl continued brushing her hair, the older girl’s words softly tumbling out of her like a dam had burst. “Well, what do you want to know?” Sweetie Belle asked, amiably. It was hard not to be amiable when someone was this good at brushing you.

“Absolutely everything,” Fluttershy said intensely.

“Okay! If I may have your attention please!” Twilight spoke up to the group at large, startling both Fluttershy and Sweetie with the volume of her voice above the mulling conversation. The purple girl was striding forward to her hastily assembled chalk board presentation, there along the wall in the living room of the Apple family household, saying, “I am so sorry for the interruption. If no one has anything else they want to address, I’ll continue with my presentation right away.”

Pinkie Pie was gone when Sweetie Belle looked toward Twilight; gone to where, she couldn’t say. Fluttershy stopped brushing her, but Sweetie was okay with that, because she was also really interested in what Twilight was going to say. Sweetie Belle really wasn’t sure what to make of Fluttershy though. This girl was weird.

“First, I want to clear any common misconceptions that may trip you up in this seminar,” Twilight said smartly, scratching out a crude pony on a chalkboard, next to a larger pony-like thing. “You all are what is known as ponies,” Twilight said. “Or on your way to being a pony, in the case of the white girl over there. Ponies are a highly advanced species, on par with humanity, so any problems, conundrums or troubles you face are not something you should assume is impossible for a pony. If there is something you cannot figure out how to do, please ask someone, and with luck you’ll quickly adapt to your current altered state.”

“The first thing I want to make absolutely clear is the process changing you into ponies is not a disease. It is not known to be contagious, nor is it transmitted by air, fluids or anything else,” Twilight went on. “Truffle Shuffle for instance... he’s here, correct?”

Truffle waved a hoof in the air.

“Truffle has been working in a delicatessan in the south district, and has had little if any contact with anyone who had any exposure to a pony. Were it possible that some people were simply immune to this... ‘pony disease,’ at the very least it would be unlikely to spread in such a randomized fashion. There would be statistically more cases in the vicinity of the high school, the hospital, and the close relatives of those afflicted, and I can assure you this is not the case.”

Twilight turned to the blackboard and drew a yucky face, followed by a guy throwing lightning down on a pony, followed by what sort of looked like a bubbling beaker, stating with each one, “This affliction is not caused by any known... disease, any known... malicious... action, or any known scientific... principle. By process of elimination, that leaves you with...”

She drew a lopsided star on the board, exclaiming, “Magic!”

A hoof went up, and without turning around Twilight said, “I will answer any questions after the presentation. I first want you all to be fully aware of the situation. Now, magic is very... real,” She paused drawing some sort of circle around the star, with lines radiating out from it. “You may not think so, as your world has historically had very low magic levels. We’re still working on a nonmagical magic detection system, but one thing is abundantly clear: if magic is the only explanation to what happened here, then magic must be increasing, to heretofore unseen levels.”

The lines Twilight drew all hit the edge of a larger square that she bounded it in, and she said, “Now one possible reason your world has such low magic levels is because of something called a time spiral, or time loop. You won’t know it, but you’ve basically been repeating the last year or so for... a very long time. This has a quasipotent effect on your world’s magical field, which could (and apparently did) drop it to very low levels. That could explain why removing it has increased the amount of magic available to you.

“However,” Twilight said, crossing out the whole star/circle/square diagram, “Higher levels of magic alone do not cause people to spontaneously change their species, all to the same species, namely ponies. What is happening here is not natural, so something must be causing it. We haven’t been able to find any little green gremlins crawling around deliberately turning people into ponies,” she granted herself a small chuckle, “But you clearly are being transformed. The only question is not how, but why? Why ponies?”

Twilight drew a square... thing. She certainly wasn’t a very good artist. “Now, you might find this hard to believe,” she said, facing everyone, “But I was actually once a pony! Before you all ask at once, no I can’t change anyone into a human. In fact, I didn’t think it was possible for there to be ponies in this world, until you started to become them!

“I come from a magical kingdom, in another world,” Twilight explained drawing a... horse on top of the square. Oh it was the— “The horse statue at your local high school had a mysterious secret,” Twilight explained, “Once upon a time, once every year, it becomes a portal to my world. That’s how I came here, and how my body was normalized to the human standard. I am one of two explorers, who have both become quite totally stuck in your world, because when the time loop resets, we get dragged along with it. Or, we already did, and so we will again, because the future is in the past. There are good reasons that we are the only two... envoys let’s say,”

She drew a line, with a pony on one side, and a stick figure on the other. “...and most of those reasons pertain to the time loop. You see, if someone from your world, myself included, enters my world, and remains there the moment the time loop resets, this causes a catastrophic paradox.” She scribbled out the pony with extreme prejudice. “This is the reason for keeping something fantastic as an otherworldy portal secret.”

Twilight drew a sweeping line from the scribbled out pony, through the...line, to the stick figure, saying, “The hapless victim in all this returns to whatever state they were in when your time loop reset, but the damage it does to my world is simply too dangerous to toy with.”

“I’ll be frank with you,” Twilight said turning to face everyone again. “I’ve been trapped here for years, Sunset for decades, and your world is long overdue for breaking out of this time spiral. So in order to return home, that’s just what Sunset and I did, or tried to do. Break out of the spiral.”

She drew a big pony’s head, and a lumpy thing inside it that didn’t look like a brain, saying, “The key to breaking the loop, as Sunset Shimmer researched in her extended stay here, is a dream construct known as The Golden Apple. Now, of all ponies here, only one is an Apple, and as luck would have it, Apple Bloom was the very one to dream of the Golden Apple, and the one to break the time loop.

“That’s right,” Twilight chuckled, rolling her eyes, “I got you all worried about getting yanked around in time, and it’s actually completely gone! No more time loop, no more problems. When September rolls around next year, you’ll proceed to the next year ahead for the first time in history.” Nobody really laughed at her joke though. Twilight continued with a flushed expression,

“Now, I can only speculate on why Apple Bloom was the one to have this dream, or why she had it this loop, instead of another one. Considering how long you’ve been looping though, my and Sunset’s presence probably played a deciding factor.

Twilight drew a ...square with triangles atop it. “When I first came to Canterlot High, Sunset Shimmer was quickly aware of my presence. A naked girl trying to figure out how to walk isn’t exactly inconspicuous. She foalnapped me, sabatoged my chance to return, and got me caught in the time spiral, not out of loneliness or spite, but so that she could steal a powerful magical artifact, an artifact which the Princess Celestia was sure would not stop the time spiral on its own. And it certainly did not stop it, despite Sunset’s... attempt.”

Now Twilight was scribbling over the Canterlot High in what looked like flames. (She used orange chalk.) “Sunset took over the school, used the magical artifact to enthrall the entire campus population, and planned on marching them through the portal the next time it opened, having turned into a raging she-demon bent on—if not escaping the time spiral—causing a lot of death and destruction, on the pony side of things.”

Sunset Shimmer wasn’t confirming or denying the issue, the leather jacketed, fire haired girl leaning against the wall, off next to the portrait of the family’s most famous pioneer Smudged Apple, returning nervous looks every bit as nervously as the ponies and humans in the room were giving them.

Twilight was energetically scribbling on the other side of the portal line, of ponies screaming, legs flying all over the place. “She was... quite insane at the time... it’s an inevitable... consequence of being caught in this time spiral.” Boy, Twilight was really getting into drawing all that—oh, she’s done.

“Ponies you see,” Twilight continued, “Or... people from my world have their bodies reset in your time spiral, but not their minds. Minds are notoriously temporally complex aspects of our being. We can speculate on the future, which is the tiniest window to travel into the future. We can’t transport our bodies into the past, but we certainly can transport our minds. In that way, some of you might even have some recollection of events happening in previous loops, if extremely traumatic and memorable.”

“Ponies from my world, trapped in this world,” Twilight went on, trying to erase some of the scribbles over her world, “We remember all past loops as clear as if they had really happened. It’s a terrible condition, which leads to feelings of being trapped, extreme ennui, and mental instability. Sunset was basically frustrated, to the degree that she would burn down the school and march its populus through an extrauniversal portal in order to blow everything to kingdom come.”

“And, as you may have noticed, the school is not on fire, nobody is enthralled, and Sunset has not transformed into a raging she-demon,” Twilight said with a smile at Sunset. Sunset Shimmer herself was sitting backwards on a chair, trying to hide the blush by burying her forehead in the chair’s back. “So, really, it was a good, healthy way for her to express her frustration. Time loops, no consequences!”

Twilight’s face went flat, “Except my world doesn’t reset when you blow it up.”

Sunset lifted a hand like she wanted to retort, but thought better of it.

Now Twilight was drawing four columns, in which she titled, “Demon, Denial, Depression, Demon 2.”

“The first year I was here I was learning how to be human, so to speak. I’ve lived on four hooves my entire life, and walking on two was a disorienting experience. I’ve had to accustom myself to your culture, and clothing, and technology, and your unusual diet. I have to admit I still haven’t managed to acquire a taste for meat. And during this year, Sunset stole my crown and used its power to wreak havoc etc etc.”

“That was the year me and—and my friends stopped her just in the nick of time,” Twilight explained, clutching a fist to her chest. “I made... I made friends here and together, we countered the magic of the crown with the power of friendship, and saved Sunset from making a huge mistake.”

She gave a long look at Applejack, Fluttershy, and... oh, there’s Pinkie Pie, saying, “Then... the time loop reset, and none of you could remember me. You didn’t even know who I was.”

Twilight started filling out bullets in the “Denial” column saying, “I sought answers. I sought some explanation why you were ignoring me. I blamed Sunset. I blamed myself. I may have taken some extreme interrogation tactics on one or more of you. I didn’t want to believe I’d been caught in something so... terrible. I made friends with all five of my...friends again, by the end of the year.”

She moved to the third column, “And then... they all forgot about me again. I was all alone, except for Sunset, who I hated for doing this to me. Not much happened this time around, at least not from where I was concerned. I went on a starvation diet, just to see if I could do it. I couldn’t. I dropped out of school, or... never dropped into school. I tried some of those psychotropic drugs Sunset had said to stay away from. And one thing led to another, well... I’m pretty sure it was an accident that I stepped in front of the train.”

Twilight sighed, with the chalk grinding against the chalkboard, her expression unreadable. Then the purple girl turned around with a bright smile and said in a really fake sounding cheer, “And when the time loop reset, I was alive again!

“I’m telling you all this,” Twilight explained, “To give you an idea of what your real history has been, so that I can speculate on what I or Sunset may have done that caused Apple Bloom to dream of something she never dreamed of before. The ending of the time loop is the key to this pony transformation; that much is baldly obvious. But how, what, and why remain elusive.

“Sunset took care of me the fourth year. She knew how painful it was to die, so to speak. I couldn’t get it out of my head and... well, suffice to say I was quite mentally unstable from the experience. So I devoted my newfound mania into finding a solution! And, one thing led to another, and I sort of ...transformed into a raging she-demon, and destroyed the school. A very cathartic experience, but... not what I’d call productive. I thought that if... if the Elements of Harmony couldn’t stop it, then maybe the opposite would do it. I don’t know why I—I basically ended up just mirroring what Sunset did.

“I planted drugs in Apple Bloom’s locker, and told Applejack about how she had been dealing with shady people, and acting crazy. By the time the truth came out, Applejack hated me. I vandalized Rarity’s apartment, made it unfit to live in. She and... and I didn’t know Sweetie Belle also lived there, but both of them were quite homeless and hating me by the end of the year. Rainbow Dash, I... suffice to say I did whatever I could to achieve the exact opposite of Friendship and Harmony in all my friends... former friends. And sure enough, whatever happened to Sunset ended up happening to me. And even that dark power couldn’t stop the time spiral from turning around.”

Twilight confessed, “I... I did some terrible things, and when it all came to a head, and the building was falling down around me, and that hatred was just... I just wanted to destroy everything, and... Fluttershy saved me.

“She doesn’t remember it,” Twilight said solemnly, looking at the pale yellow girl, stiffening nervously under Sweetie’s hooves and chest, “But Fluttershy came forward, and she forgave me for... all her animals, I... I did something very bad to her. She just... she didn’t care that I was the blackest of evil, she just saw someone who needed a... hug. So, um... thanks Fluttershy. Also, pleased to meet you. Again. I promise I won’t do that ever again.”

Sweetie looked up at Fluttershy, who just had a vague and distant mask of horror on her face.

“So, the time loop went around one more time,” Twilight continued, turning self consciously to eye the chalkboard again, “And I was... well, this year I was trying to not interfere with anything, so I could get a base level measurement. And so I wouldn’t... mess up so badly again.

“Then, Apple Bloom went and had that strange dream, the very dream we’ve been searching for. We saw her turning into a pony on the news network television show. That was... remarkably strange, but what got us actively measuring her was hearing that she’d dreamt of a Golden Apple. Whatever turned Apple Bloom into a pony, while it was happening, she was also part of the greatest magic this world has seen in ages. Literal ages. Sunset and I even got photographic evidence that it was occurring. Our cameras could actually pick up the raw magical flux.”

Twilight went to a cork board, where she had several photos of a glum looking indistinct Apple Bloom pinned up. “Now in this first one you’ll see—”

“Hang on, you were taking pictures of me?!” Apple Bloom spoke up in surprised outrage.

Twilight looked like she really wanted to let her ears turn down. She just hunched her shoulders instead, then turned to Apple Bloom with an apologetic smile, saying, “I... maybe? I would have asked directly, but then I’d have to...”

She glanced at Applejack, saying, “Make friends with Applejack again... you really don’t know how much she hated me. I... I mean you hated me,” Twilight told Apple Bloom anxiously, “I got you expelled! I... I just didn’t want to interfere, but this was too important to pass up, so I sort of yes I may have been spying on you, just a little bit.”

With a full face blush, Twilight turned around and said loudly to the corkboard photos, “So here you can see the secondary exposure from the sorceral aura already starting to appear. It maintained at the level shown in this picture, (and I assure you it isn’t doctored or overexposed), for about a month, until Sunset finally convinced me to allow her to ...interfere. Sunset Shimmer had discovered in her investigation that Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo also had the Golden Apple dream, so the presence of the three might have been the catalyst to get it started.

“We were desperate, you have to understand,” Twilight said turning forward with a pleading smile. “Sunset has tried so many ways to return home, she’s... she’s suffered horribly in a way that nopony should ever have to live. And finally, for the first time in her life, and in recorded time over my world’s historical records, Apple Bloom dreamed about the Golden Apple. It might never happen again! We might never be able to perfectly recreate the conditions. So um...”

“So,” Twilight recovered her wind, standing up straight and speaking confidently again, “Sunset used her knowledge of past loops to convince Rarity into allowing Sweetie Belle to visit, and getting Applejack to coordinate with Scootaloo, on the notion that... Apple Bloom was in trouble, see. She thought she had to eat only hay, and it was wreaking havoc on her new biology. We didn’t know she was eating so poorly, so I suggested that Sunset suggest that maybe the presence of her friends would get her mood up.

“It... sort of worked?” Twilight shrugged apologetically. “If only I hadn’t been so freaking... hands off about this loop. Apple Bloom, she... she figured out on her own how important it is to get a balanced diet of fiber, fat, protein and sugars. I was hoping seeing her friends would make her feel better again, but she ended up figuring out the true reason for her ill health all on her own. I’m... sorry, Apple Bloom. I just didn’t want...”

“Hang on! You mean you were the one who got Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo to come over?” Apple Bloom asked in disbelief.

Twilight scratched her chin, saying, “Well, Sunset and I jointly agreed that it might trigger the cascade, so yes.”

“Forget chocolate cake!” Apple Bloom declared, “Without them, ah was all alone! All the time! I would hug you, if you weren’t giving a presentation, and I wasn’t all the way across the room, sitting on the back of the couch like this!”

“Well, thank you,” Twilight said with less of a blush than before, “But, it wasn’t just for your benefit. That brings me to my last photographic set.”

There, she showed the CMC, and Sweetie Belle took a quick intake of breath as she realized that she was looking at herself, at her human self, before she changed into a pony. Sweetie Belle saw herself and Scootaloo, standing there on those spindly little legs, while a smiling Apple Bloom ran circles around them. And on the pictures labeled “polarized filter” and “UV filter” the three of them weren’t just figuratively shining with happiness. There was a bright boundary all around them, forking off radially, like lightning bolts! Sweetie sure didn’t remember that being visible, when she reunited with Apple Bloom!

“The cascade was for better or for worse outside the visual spectrum, so you wouldn’t have seen anything to the naked eye,” Twilight said, “But it was at least seven solar units of magical power, if our theoretical models of ultraviolet film exposure are accurate. Bringing those three together started a cascade that completely wiped out any temporal torsion. In theory, it “untied” the time dimensional knot that every molecule was bound up in, spreading outwards exponentially from that point.”

Twilight gestured at the last photograph, which was zoomed out from the Apple family farm house, with an overexposed, spreading ring of light turning the trees white with its glare. “And within the next ten minutes, it reached the border of your world, and ended once and for all this awful nightmare that we’ve all been trapped in, whether aware of it or not.

“Then...” Twilight’s triumphant smile became a little more strained. “Then, a month later, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo also changed into ponies. And... as you can see, it has since not been limited to them.”

Twilight Sparkle sighed, and crossed her arms. “My world is home to a whole kingdom of ponies,” she said, “With ponies everywhere from land to sky. I can’t... figure out any way that my world could somehow have perverted your prophecy, but... I mean, Sunset and I have been making waves lately. But it shouldn’t have... there’s no way for pony-ish-ness to just leak out from the portal and just randomly float into people. It doesn’t make any sense! It’s the only explanation I have though.”

She looked at them solemnly and said, “I’m afraid I’m the one who has accidentally turned you all into ponies. I... came here to tell you why I’ve had such a risky methodology, apologize for mistakes I’ve made, and to say that I’m doing my absolute best to stem this... pony... ifying magic, whatever it is.

“There’s only so much I can do without a horn, though. And... even with a horn, this defies all the principles of magic that I know. To transform you so totally, without any resistance? Without anyone there effecting it? Just randomly? Perhaps human biology is less resistant toward magic, but still to perturb one’s natural form is not something that happens without a lot of light, fury and sparkle. So... that’s what I came here to say. If anyone is at fault, it’s me, and it doesn’t matter since there seems to be nothing I can do about it!

“I can’t just find another golden apple, and change you all into hamsters or whatever,” Twilight quipped wryly.

“That’s what I said!” came Scootaloo’s voice from the kitchen, where she’d apparantly been listening and/or getting a snack.

Twilight cleared her throat. “Anyway, to make matters even more serious, you might have noticed there are a lot of you ponies. Now, I took the liberty of reviewing with the police the exact dates that each of you changed. I sketched it up on this graph... here.”

Twilight pinned a crudely drawn set of plusses in a line, with a row on the bottom marked “day 0, day 1, day 2...” and something about this diagram was immediately apparant to anyone who looked at it.

“As you can see, the incidents... are closer together towards the present moment,” Twilight pointed out grimly. “Considering Apple Bloom’s transformation as day 0, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo changed simultanously, but approximately two months later. And... Noi changed approximately one month after that. The four of you... all changed in the past month. Furthermore, Elias changed only days ago, and Cotton Cloudy here is changing on this very day. I don’t want to alarm any of you unduly, but according to our calculations, not only are more people changing...

“The rate of change is accelerating.”

When Cheerilee awoke, she knew in her heart that it was the weekend. The lazy late morning sunlight filtered in through her apartment window as she cracked her eyes open. Cheerilee awakened into solitude, the only signs of humanity being the dim sounds of her neighbors waking up beyond her apartment walls.

It was long past dawn, because Cheerilee didn’t have to get up today, so she didn’t even bother setting the alarm. She didn’t have to go to work! So she lay there, just appreciating the dazy thin light that met her on her eastward facing apartment. Alas, her slumber was not to be, because the troubles of her life started coming to mind again. In particular, when she sat up in bed and looked over to Scootaloo’s room... weekends were so quiet now.

Cheerilee wanted to be there for her daughter, but... she just didn’t know how to deal with any of this. Scootaloo seemed happier than she had ever been, over there on that farm, just a farm animal among farm animals. But Cheerilee couldn’t just move in, take over someone’s bedroom, and keep watch over Scootaloo 24/7. She, and Rarity, were stuck taking a satellite role in this, and unlike Rarity, Cheerilee didn’t have studies to distract her. Cheerilee couldn’t help but feel a little... helpless, and forgotten in all this. That girl of hers was so independent, it was a weak point of hers. Scootaloo hadn’t even called Cheerilee yesterday after work, to check up on her, and make sure her mother was okay.

Cheerilee had to chuckle at that, laying back in bed. It was the best way to get Scootaloo to engage with her, is to make Scootaloo feel like she was the caretaker. But as much as that girl cared passionately, her lessons didn’t take as well as they should have. So once again, Cheerilee was going to have to be the one to check up on Scootaloo today. Go ahead and laugh, roll your eyes at the irresponsible parent here, reluctant to check on her own daughter, living all the way across town from her. But Cheerilee was laying in a warm bed, on a lazy Saturday afternoon, and absolutely nothing was going to make her feel guilty about enjoying that for a minute.

She got up slowly, groggily. Her two, socked feet hit the floor, and she started walking around her empty apartment, wrapping her fuzzy robe around herself in the chilly morning air. Empty, but certainly not silent, Cheerilee could hear the neighbors were already clinking and cooking, and talking to each other through the walls, and there were sounds of automobiles, and rowdy shouts of children running around outside on the common green.

Cheerilee picked up the dirty clothes she’d discarded from yesterday and carried them to the hamper, just to get her blood moving. The air in the house was chilly, because Cheerilee kept the heater down for cost savings. A librarian’s job, while enviably secure, does not have all that great a salary. She warmed up quickly, though.

In the kitchen, Cheerilee licked her teeth, feeling more like brushing them than eating. It wouldn’t do to eat right after you brushed, though. So she stumbled to the refrigerator, and set about making some buttered toast and eggs. She wasn’t going through eggs as quickly anymore, now that her teenage daughter was subsisting on a diet mostly composed of hay, away somewhere else, somewhere that Scootaloo didn’t need her mother any more.

The noise of the percolator snapped Cheerilee out of her grumpy gloom, and she poured herself some coffee, waiting for it to cool while she flipped the slowly sizzling eggs.

Nothing quite like making a nice hot breakfast on a Saturday morning. Scootaloo never really saw the use in something that slow and leisurely, but Cheerilee was always happy to do it for two on weekends, if her daughter could hold back from playing video games, or gallavanting all around town on her scooter long enough to eat it. But this morning, Cheerilee was a bachelorette, so to speak. Solo, on her own. She put the eggs on her toast, and salt and pepper on her eggs, and sat it on a plate in front of her at their small dining table. A meal fit for a queen.

With her breakfast over and done with, Cheerilee was happy to retire to the bathroom. The coffee and the food in her stomach were already starting to rouse her metabolism, and she spared a smile, as she turned on the faucet, to run her toothbrush under it, then put on a little bit of toothpaste. Brushing her teeth, Cheerilee looked askance at Scootaloo’s room again, which had been empty for a month now. Should they turn it into a storage room? That was what you did when your daughter moved out, right? Cheerilee’s maternal instincts wanted to turn it into a historical monument, preserved for all time, but her practical instincts suggested that her lease agreement probably wouldn’t allow that, and not many people would pay admission to see the pile of dirty clothes that Scootaloo once called a bedroom floor.

Whatever the case, it sure was an empty room now. Cheerilee was really looking forward to heading to that farm again today. She’d been working late last night, and she really needed to see that smile on her daughter’s face, even if it was a pony’s face now. That and the fresh air, and the rustic architecture, there was just something healing about that farm. Cheerilee always felt better having driven that way, now that she had good reason to do so.

Spitting out her toothpaste, and running the water to rinse off her toothbrush, Cheerilee placed the brush aside and vigorously splashed her face. She felt fully awake and refreshed, and smiled at herself in the mirror, reaching for the brush to tame her unruly mane. There, nestled in her light pink curls were a moderately deep cerise colored pair of conical horse ears.

...

“You have got to be kidding me.”

Making Arrangements

You might think that being transformed into a fingerless beast of burden would be a terrible excuse to throw a party. You would think wrong. This Friday evening all the ponies came to understand that Pinkie Pie could throw a hell of a party, whether they liked it or not. So unbeknownst to Cheerilee, the afternoon before her unsettling discovery in her bathroom mirror, the humans and the ponies, new and old, threw one hell of a party.

The first thing you would notice is that the ponies, the new ones at least, would have spent the last few days of their lives in a craps shoot, of whether they figured out the right things for a pony to eat. But with a clumsy but well intentioned approximation of Equestrian cuisine, as filtered through a human baker’s assistant’s understanding of Twilight Sparkle’s best attempt to explain it, things were different. Actual baked goods, chock full of actual sugar and actual hay didn’t just whet everyone’s appetite, but filled that aching pit that had grown in them, that they did not yet know how to fill.

You wouldn’t think it was a good idea to play games and goof around, when many ponies were still having a hard time trying to walk, but in fact, many ponies had spent the last few days helpless, and wearily idle. It was a great excuse to try to walk, and there’s no pressure on anyone to perform in a simple party game! Even Simon Says was set up so that nobody lost, or felt left out. And say what you will about ponies trying to dance, when they can’t even walk, but as silly as it looked, it was more exercise than many of them had been able to accomplish in days, or even weeks! Even Cotton Cloudy got into it, if nothing else to show how it really doesn’t work to try to dance when you’re in the middle of transforming into a little pony.

Pinkie Pie arrived that day with a great purpose in mind. She threw the very first “Surprise! You’re a Pony” party. Everyone who was a pony hated and feared the idea. And ten minutes into it, everyone was flailing about and having a great time.

Even Elias was... looking cautiously optimistic. She, or he as such the case may be, was sticking to Sweetie Belle like glue, and not just because Sweetie had a horn. Actually, it turns out that Elias couldn’t use her horn either, so at least Sweetie wasn’t alone in that. But, two days wasn’t enough to tell if Elias could do it, so it still made Sweetie nervous that maybe she was just abnormal.

Scootaloo was the best dancer. She hardly even caused any property damage!

And Apple Bloom was... tired. She found herself halfway through a cupcake, and just leaning her cheek against the table, looking at it listlessly. “Aww,” came Pinkie Pie’s voice behind her. “Why’s such a cute little pony looking so sad?”

“Oh, hi Pinkie,” Apple Bloom said in mild interest, turning to look at the girl whose huge face loomed near. “Ain’t nothing wrong, ah’m just a bit worn out lately.”

“You wanna talk about it?” Pinkie said, in an uncharacteristically mellow voice, sinking down in the chair next to the one Apple Bloom was precariously perched on. Abandoning her cupcake, Apple Bloom slumped down in the chair, sighing, and looking up at Pinkie Pie, who like every human being now, towered so high overhead.

“Everybody’s been changing into ponies,” Apple Bloom said unhappily, “An’ ah just don’t know what to do about it. Some people are upset, and some are hurting, and... and what about the ones the police ain’t found yet? There’s lots of scared people out there and the only thing they did wrong was be a pony like me.”

“Maybe!” Pinkie admitted boisterously, “But why do you have to do anything about it?”

“Well somebody has to!” Apple Bloom protested. “Ah’m the first one who changed into a pony, so it’s sorta me who’s gotta be doing it.”

“But you didn’t throw this party!” Pinkie exclaimed in shock, “Are you saying this party just appeared all by itself?!”

“No, whattya mean?” Apple Bloom whined in a hurt and confused tone.

“Well, if you’re the only one who has to do everything, then I guess I didn’t do anything at all,” Pinkie said snarkily, “So this party must have just appeared by magic!”

Apple Bloom blushed and looked away. “Aww,” Pinkie whimpered unhappily, “Don’t be that way, that’s not what I meant. See all these ponies around here? See how much fun they’re having?”

Apple Bloom took a gander around, and... wow, was pin the tail on the donkey really appropriate for the current situation? At least it was velcro and felt, and not an actual pin. Amusingly, it looked like whoever took their turn last had discovered that Piña Colada’s flank had similar properties to felt. The pink pony was currently turning around in slow clumsy circles trying to snag the second tail in her teeth. She wasn’t upset though—far from it, her greatest obstacle was she kept laughing right as she came close to biting down on it.

Sweetie Belle was over there with that other unicorn named Elias, but also leading some ponies in drawing exercises, drawing with your mouth that is. It wasn’t the most active of tasks, but Elias actually gave a bright smile when she—uh... when she lifted up her paper and on it was a mostly legible rocket ship. Scootaloo was in the living room, cutting a rug with Truffle, and she hadn’t danced with anyone, much less a boy, since the Fall Formal! He was falling over his own hooves, but every time he did, he’d laugh it off, and Scootaloo would patiently stop to pull him back to his feet.

“It does look like they’re having fun,” Apple Bloom said distantly. “So glad you came. Things were all serious and sad, and just like that you got people’s worries off of what they were worrying about. It’s like magic, I gotta say.”

“Aww, shucks,” Pinkie blushed, “It’s not magic, just a little nudge here and there. And party favors. But I mean—gosh! All these people and ponies who are having fun, they’re doing it without me!”

“And... that bothers you?” Apple Bloom asked eyeing the pink party girl.

“No, and that’s just it!” Pinkie declared with a triumphant smile. “I don’t have to do anything about it. I just came here, and gave them the chance, and now they’re having fun all on their own. I don’t have to do anything because they’re helping themselves!”

“Well, that’s mighty convenient ah guess,” Apple Bloom admitted. “But what’s that got to do with me?”

“Well, once upon a time,” Pinkie began, touching a finger to her lip for... some reason. “There was a young girl named Apple Bloom. She turned into a pony, and needed a loootta help, and a lotta people helped her. Her friends, and her family, and her family’s friends. But then they started turning into ponies too, and they needed her help now. So she helped them, and now they can run around, and talk, and they know how to dress themselves, and Scootaloo can even fly!”

“Right?” Apple Bloom edged in, “An’ now ah have to—”

“And now,” Pinkie cut her off, “Just like you don’t need help, they don’t need your help! They’re having all sorts of fun without you, and when other people need help, they can go to your friends, without even asking you! I put up the confetti and streamers, but you,” Pinkie touched a finger to Apple Bloom’s pliable chest, “You all are the real party. It doesn’t happen without ya.”

“So, what you’re saying is,” Apple Bloom said, curling a hoof over Pinkie’s wrist, “Ah need to help people help themselves, and then I don’t gotta do nothing, whatsoever?”

“Yep!” Pinkie chirped. “If you keep trying to do something, you’ll get all do doned out, so you gotta just relax and let it happen, and take care of yourself instead.”

“But what about the people who need help?” Apple Bloom protested, “That ah ain’t helped yet? There are gonna be so many, if what Twilight said is right!”

“Well,” Pinkie Pie offered in a speculative tone, “Remember all those people you already helped?”

“Oh, so—” Apple Bloom stopped, and stared down at her hoof thoughtfully.

“All you really need to do is trust your friends, and take care of yourself,” Pinkie concluded, “Everything else will pretty much work out on its own. When you think about your friends, and all the people you’ve helped so far, and what they could be doing to help, don’t you feel less worried and down in the dumps?”

“Yeah ah guess I...” Apple Bloom yawned, despite herself. “Guess ah do,” she said. “An’ you’re right.”

She gave the bright pink girl a soft look, and added, “I cain see why Applejack likes you so much Pinkie; you’re real smart when you slow down a titch.”

“Titch!” Pinkie Pie cheered, “I love that word! It’s even funner than tisket!”

Apple Bloom blinked.

“That being said,” Apple Bloom offered slowly, “I think ah do know what I’m gonna do.”

“Yees?” Pinkie asked curiously, leaning over so extremely, that she was almost upside down.

“Ah’m gonna go to sleep,” Apple Bloom stated to the pink girl, unceremoniously standing up, then pushing the chair away from the table so she’d have room to jump down. “It’s way past mah bedtime,” she explained, “Like, ten o’clock at night, an’ ah usually gotta go to bed around 9 if’n ah wanna be up around dawn.”

“Oh, that makes sense,” Pinkie said cautiously. “Does every pony have to go to beddie bye early now?”

Apple Bloom vaguely nodded. “Yeah, uh, ‘beddie bye’ sure. Ponies just sleep more’n humans do. This party’s been keeping everypony up, but ah’m sure they’ll all be passed out before midnight.”

“Hmm, I didn’t think of that,” Pinkie Pie said in thoughtful frustration. “Maybe I can wind things down a—” she paused and grinned with a conspiratorial giggle, “—titch!”

Apple Bloom just eyed the giggling girl, not really sure what to make of Pinkie Pie’s sense of humor. “That’d be swell,” she said to Pinkie Pie, yawning again. “An’ auhm... ah hope you cain take care of the rest of this party here without me. Like a friend?”

“Reporting for duty madam!” Pinkie saluted smartly. “This party will be wrapped up so tight, you can bounce a quarter off of it!”

Apple Bloom really figured that she’d find these jokes a lot funnier, if she wasn’t so muzzy headed with the need for sleep. “Thanks Pinkie,” she said, “For being here even if we didn’t expect ya. An’ g’night.” With that, Apple Bloom trotted across the room, feeling a lot more light hearted, and a lot heavier in her eyelids after Pinkie helped her out there.

And as her luck would have it, on her way out of the kitchen, Apple Bloom spotted something that drove the sleep right out of her. There was a dog creeping around in their living room!

He must have came through the front door. Apple Bloom’d had such brave words about dogs before, and this was only a little dog, but that only meant she was looking at a carnivorous beast almost fully her own size, rather than a towering behemoth, and the first thing it did when she came trotting into the room is look right at her.

“W—where’d did you come from, lil’ fella?” Apple Bloom said in a cajolingly saccharine tone, taking a nervous step back, wondering if she should run or call for help, or what.

“Oh, hey Apple Bloom,” the dog said to her. “Don’t worry, I’m with Twilight. It’s alright if I come in, right? She said I need to stay out, but this sounds like a pretty sweet party. I figure with all this crazy stuff going on, nobody’s gonna be freaking out over a talking dog.”

Apple Bloom stared blankly, as her fear of the dog just crumbled into a dizzying dissaray. A talking dog? Twilight had a talking dog? He wasn’t gonna bite her? But he could still bite her, even if he talked. But he just asked her permission? Why was he asking her? Why did Twilight have a magic, talking dog? Was Apple Bloom just communing with animals now that she was one? No, but she couldn’t even talk to the horses, so that’s silly. A talking... what??

The purple and green dog adopted an alarmed look at... whatever he saw in Apple Bloom’s reaction. He sat on his haunches and waved his forepaws in front of him, saying, “Okay, okay don’t freak out, I didn’t think it was that serious. I’ll just go in my trailer, and we can all pretend this never happened.”

Apple Bloom pulled her jaw closed and blurted out, “No... what? How are you talking?!”

“With my mouth?” the dog said incredulously. Apple Bloom stared a moment more before he gave a coughing laugh, then saying in that gravelly yet childishly high voice of his, “I have wanted to use that line ever since I came here! But no really, it took me a while to learn, but basically it’s just like growling and besides that, it’s all in the tongue.”

Apple Bloom nodded, admitting, “Well yeah, the tongue’s real important, but wha?! When did you—where did you come from?!”

“Equestria!” the dog responded in a bright pseudo-bark. “I’m Twilight Sparkle’s number one assistant!”

“D-do dogs talk in Equestria?” Apple Bloom responded, drawing cautiously closer to this strangely cheerful talking dog.

He shook his head, saying, “Not usually, no. But I’m not a dog where I came from!” He flashed a toothy smile, announcing, “I’m really a fire breathing dragon!”

Apple Bloom tried to find the words for quite a while, before finally turning away and dropping her gaze to the floor with a lash of her tail, sighing, “Ah’m just gonna go to bed.”

“Heh,” the dog huffed smugly, putting a paw on his chest, “I knew things were too crazy for people to freak out.”

“You better stay in your trailer for now,” Apple Bloom grumbled. “You’re just lucky ah’m so tired.” The dog tilted his head questioningly as Apple Bloom told him, “Ah’ll tell Twilight in the morning that another one of her big fat secrets is out, and then she can properly introduce ya... or however it works for dog...dragons.”

“Well, okay,” the dog said unsurely, but Apple Bloom glared at him, saying,

“There’s new ponies in here, who haven’t been a pony more’n a day, and they don’t know up from down now. An’ they really would freak out if a pony eating predator half their size walked in the room.”

“Oh, right,” the dog said in a more subdued realization, casting his gaze away. “I was thinking from the whole—you know—talking angle, but I am a dog. I didn’t think about that.”

“Just please, go,” Apple Bloom pleaded, “Ah’ll make it better. Just wait till tomorrow.”

Not too reluctantly the dog walked on silent paw pads out the door, which Apple Bloom closed and latched behind him. A smart dog like him probably figured out how to pull the door latch, but she didn’t lock it, because a smart dog like him would probably know better than to try and break in after agreeing to leave.

Apple Bloom didn’t know where everyone was gonna sleep, or what tomorrow was gonna bring, but Pinkie was right. They could figure that out all on their own, and if Apple Bloom awoke with seven other ponies in bed with her, that’d be lots better than missing out on sleep. And maybe she could even have a dream, find the dream princess, and tell her about this monumental news. The Twilight Princess was gonna have a lot of company pretty soon, if the human Twilight’s speech held any truth to it at all.

That night, Apple Bloom did have a dream. She dreamt of a purple pony princess: a crazy one, and a scared one.

“Ah thought you’d be happy!” Apple Bloom exclaimed in distress. Smooth stone columns, big, bright glass windows, warm sunlit wood shelves surrounded them, filled with bits and pieces of the princess’s treasured memories. The two ponies stood, one little and yellow, and one tall, graceful and purple, in the princess’s favorite library dream. Only one pony was standing actually, and the other seemed to be crouching down on the floor, and trying to hide beneath her own wings.

“You’ve been so lonely so long,” Apple Bloom whined at the princess in confusion, “And now there’s gonna be so many pony dreams. We could go find ‘em right now!”

“I don’t want to!” the princess whinnied, hiding further under her wings. “I’m not ready there’s—so many of them! I can’t meet four new ponies. What if I say something? I say things! I always do! Or do I? I’m so confused!”

“Calm down, Princess Twilight!” Apple Bloom said, in worried aggrivation, rearing up to lean on the curled up frightened ball of princess pony. “You don’t have to! Ah just thought you wanted to. What’s wrong? Is something wrong with them?”

“No, it’s just...” the princess peeked out from under her wing, saying, “You met me, and—and that was fine. And I met Sweetie Belle and I got this feeling. Like I was falling. And Scootaloo, and Noi I just—things happen that I can’t control! I can’t make you dream what you’re not dreaming. Before, it was only me, and everything made sense! I just don’t want... I don’t know what you’re going to say I don’t know what to do!”

“Ah don’t understand princess,” Apple Bloom said sadly, settling down to lay against the princess’s side. “Ah ain’t gonna push you though. Never intended it. Just wanted to let you know. If’n we’re measurin’ right, gonna be a lot more ponies dreamin’ up stuff.”

“I did hear whispers...” the princess said semi-cryptically, uncurling and standing to her full, graceful height. “But what do I do?!” she asked in uncertain fear.

Apple Bloom started to answer, then rubbed her forehead, uttering, “Pinkie Pie...”

The princess tilted her head. “How do I do... ‘Pinkie Pie?’” she asked cluelessly.

“No, ah mean—” Apple Bloom clomped her hoof down looking up at the princess. “You gotta think of it like a party, and everyone dreamin’ is a party guest, and ah don’t really know if that’s the best analogy, but basically, you gotta do nothing.”

“Do... nothing?” the princess repeated incredulously.

“Do nothing,” Apple Bloom repeated firmly.

“Is that something I can do?” the princess worried, fidgeting on her hooves anxiously, “Do nothing? I’m the princess of dreams, I think! I can’t just do nothing. What if they all find me? What if they’re in trouble? What if they want me to wake up, and I can’t?”

“Princess, I cain’t find you, when you don’t wanna be found,” Apple Bloom said frankly. “An’ if people are in trouble, ain’t that just a nightmare? People deal with those all the time. You gotta let ‘em uh... have fun themselves? No that ain’t right, um...”

There was a pause, and the princess said, “Maybe I ca—”

“Can’t you just look at our dreams?” Apple Bloom asked hopefully. “You don’t have to walk up to anyone and say hi or anything, just like, watch over them and just help a little if’n they’re in trouble? Like a dream um... supervisor?”

“Yes! Yes I am almost entirely certain that is a thing that I do,” the princess declared. “Excellent idea, Apple Bloom! I have the strangest feeling I have had it before. Which is good! Yes, maybe I can... add some passageways in my library here, yes maybe a special book portal like in that... story about the place.”

“Story about the place?” Apple Bloom asked blankly.

“I can’t remember, sorry,” the princess hung her head.

“Listen, sorry ah upset you,” Apple Bloom said placatingly, brushing her tail against the princess’s ethereal nonsense. “Why don’t you just relax for now, and maybe Sweetie and Scoots will stop by if’n they get to sleeping.”

“What if another pony comes here to the library?” the princess worried. “I can’t give them these books, even if they want to check them out, because I can’t remember what’s inside!”

“To be honest, you might have a while to worry about that,” Apple Bloom commented confidently. “Ah was the only one who ever managed to find out how to reach you, without someone else showing them first. Not to toot mah own horn, but it just don’t seem like the sort of thing most folks would be just stumbling upon. I was lost in the darkness before I found you! Sweetie never was in the darkness... and Scootaloo sorta uh... the point is, this stuff takes practice, and nopony besides us three... four have been ponies long enough, to make it this far. And Noi barely knows when she’s dreamin’ still.”

Sweetie Belle came to them eventually, bringing a book in her mouth like a dog, a book that had actual stuff in it. She’d been helping the princess with her library, by reading stuff and trying to dream up what she read, and it worked out pretty good even if it wasn’t any good for the books that were already there. The princess was overjoyed of course, temporarily clearing the tense panic in the back of her eyes as she sought the proper place to shelve a book on philosophers of the 20th century.

But before Sweetie and Apple Bloom could say convince the princess to relax about the notion of more ponies showing up, above the three of them, there could be heard the sound of a filly hollering, growing in volume. Scootaloo came crashing in through one of the round windows overhead leading out to the sunlight. “Woahoah!” she shouted, cartwheeling into a bookshelf, as Twilight spun around and shouted angrily,

“Rainbow D—! Oh, Scootaloo?”

Scootaloo emerged from a pile of worryingly blank books, dusting off herself with her wings. “You can fly a whole lot faster in a dream!” she said with enthusiastic cheer. She looked between them, and added, “Were you... doing anything important just now?”

“We were just talkin’” Apple Bloom said. “Princess Twi here’s gonna hold off on meetin’ the other ponies, on account of she’s not used to this yet.”

“You told her about them?” Scootaloo asked intrigued. “What does she think is causing it?”

“What I think,” the princess said, moving to stand to the side of both littler ponies, “Is that anypony who really wants to visit me can figure out how to find my library. And if they find it, then I’ll be okay. But they won’t, so I’m safe.”

“That’s... um... one way to think about it?” Scootaloo said giving the princess an uncertain look.

“How about we help you, princess!” Sweetie Belle suggested with a widening smile.

“Wait, what?” the princess said with slight unease.

“Huh, that’s a good point Sweetie,” Apple Bloom stated, strutting back and forth as she spoke, “We’re basically already dream princesses in training. So if any ponies are in trouble, we can go help them, if’n it’s too much for you!”

The princess smiled sheepishly, saying, “I really don’t—”

“And I bet the other ponies will have a lot of crazy dreams!” Scootaloo put in with an enthusiastic hoof pump. “They’ll be having nightmares because they’re not used to being ponies yet, and we can kick their asses!”

“I guess that um...?” the princess said uncertainly, looking at the three with some memory of concern in her eyes. “I can’t think why you couldn’t do that,” she admitted at last.

“I sure would love to help Elias feel better, and maybe she’s not as quiet and shut down in her dreams,” Sweetie offered, looking around the tall, sunlit library halls they were in, with sturdy stone construction and solid oak shelves. “You can learn a lot about someone by what they dream about.”

“Ain’t some of that stuff private, though?” Apple Bloom said in a concerned tone.

“Yes! Private!” the princess interrupted. “So you probably shouldn’t really—”

“We’ll just have to swear a solemn oath, not to tell anyone about someone’s private dreams,” Sweetie stated seriously. “We should do that anyway, because I know Apple Bloom already can find other people’s dreams if they’re ponies.”

“We’ll be like the late... night patrol!” Scootaloo suggested hopefully.

“That’s definitely a working title,” Apple Bloom offered with a wince. Have to figure out something really amazing to call each other, just like the Cutie Major Crusaders, except in regard to their new responsibilities.

“You don’t have to, really,” the purple princess practically apologized to them, “I’ll just um... I mean, there probably won’t be too many nightmares, right? Am I even supposed to stop those? I think I am.”

Apple Bloom was stumped at that, but Scootaloo spoke up pretty quickly, stepping closer to the princess, saying, “No, there are gonna be a lot of nightmares, and they need our help. You were never human, princess. So, you don’t know what it’s like for us. People will be upset, and scared, and they won’t know what to do. I mean, becoming a pony? I was—okay I wasn’t fine with it, but I had my friends to help me, and my mom. Some people don’t have... anything.”

Apple Bloom nodded at that, recalling the somewhat troubling story of Noi, who could have had a seriously bad time if she hadn’t been so emotionally resilient when it happened to her.

“I don’t think I could live with myself if someone hurt themselves,” Scootaloo said apprehensively. “People are gonna be stupid and stuff, and you can’t do anything about that, but if I could have helped and I just didn’t because I wasn’t supposed to?”

“But what if something happens to you?” Princess Twilight said in a frightened tone. “You were my first friends! I like you! I don’t want anything bad to happen to you!”

“It’s not like it won’t happen anyway,” Sweetie pointed out somewhat bleakly, “We already go into each other’s dreams. One day we’re gonna end up in someone else’s, now that there are more ponies. Isn’t it better to be prepared for that, so we can do some good, instead of just trying to hide from it?”

“We’ll be careful,” Apple Bloom said, rearing up to push against the princess’s shoulder consolingly, “Plus we know plenty of ways to get outta someone’s dream if’n it gets bad. Worst comes to worst, we’ll have a nightmare with someone else, and when it’s over, we both wake up and do better the next time. Dreams are important but... they’re not reality!”

Stepping back from Apple Bloom who dropped to all fours again, the princess looking at the three of them with a guarded expression on her expressive pony snout. The three fillies looked back at her in the suddenly serious moment, with big, worried eyes, wondering if they crossed a line somewhere.

“Oh what the heck,” the princess said with an agreeable smile, crouching down to the three of them, saying, “I don’t want to make you do anything you don’t want to, but that sounds like an amazing idea! All three of you will really help me like that? I–I don’t know what to say.”

“How about ‘let’s do this?’,” Scootaloo suggested.

“Let’s do this,” Princess Twilight said hopefully.

“No, no you gotta say it real wicked,” Scootaloo shook her head, “Like... let’s do this!”

“Let’s do this!” Twilight repeated with passionate enthusiasm in her beaming smile.

“Yeah!” the three others cheered together.

The princess was actually really shaky on exactly what they were supposed to do to accomplish this. All three of them had gone into other dreams before, and they all understood how frustratingly hard to teach it was, with so many ways to interpret a door, or portal, or pathway. But finally they came to relative agreement, that they could train themselves in dream travel tonight, using the books in the library.

The three of them combed the library, trying to find a book that wasn’t entirely blank, but a book that wasn’t entirely complete either. Not something that needed reading, but something that needed recalling. “I found it!” Scootaloo crowed triumphantly, “Blazing Trails of the Something Mountains! It’s like half written!”

“Ohh, I know that one,” the princess said in a tight, frustrated tone, rushing over to Scootaloo. “It’s the Blazing Trails of the burning—no the stink smell, no the... uhm... big grey cloud of barbecue... ugh, no, I... guess I don’t remember that one.”

“Well, I’m ready to explore,” Scootaloo professed. “Maybe you’ll remember while we’re in there.”

“This is so exciting!” the princess said dancing on her hooves. “I wonder what we’ll find there? Maybe I’ll even remember the name!”

And so the three of them went hiking around a mysterious mountain range, in the guise of dream training. The view from the mountain was indescribable. Beautiful, green valleys below, gorgeous cloudscapes filling the sky. The dream was so vividly realistic, that Apple Bloom almost felt like she was standing on that windswept peak.

Into the book they vanished, seeking to restore what they could of its pages, and in that way awaken the forgetful princess’s memories of her past, and her old home. The book was one of dozens that had sat lost on that shelf for who knows how long, words slowly fading away. One of the dozens of shelves in that wing of the library, one of dozens of rooms full of books. They threw themselves into it with gusto, and yet there was so far for them yet to come.

And among those shelves, behind a bookcase, there was already one little door in the wall, left alone and mostly forgotten. It looked like the doorway to a cottage, a cottage in a kingdom town, in a fantasy land that none of them had ever seen before.

Apple Bloom awoke slowly, blinking in the late morning light. She was more alone than she expected, which is to say Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were snuggled right up to her, but the other ponies, and any new people who weren’t ponies, had found somewhere else to sleep, apparantly.

She didn’t worry about disturbing her friends as she roused herself. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle had been up even later than she had, and their only response was to murmur and settle more tenderly into her bed. Apple Bloom hopped over the backboard, using it to catch her fall, so that her hooves didn’t outright clunk on the floor. Then she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, and took in a breath through her nose. The sweet, sweet smell of Apple Bloom’s new favorite meal: breakfast, was wafting up from downstairs. She hoped there was enough for everyone, but was fairly confident that if there wasn’t, they could all chip in to make sure there was.

She quickly slipped into her overalls, wincing as the fabric tugged against her fur. Apple Bloom supposed she would have to wear clothes every day from now on, otherwise people might think she was some kind of nudist or something, but she was already missing the freedom of all that pony skin of hers not being all covered up like this. Small sacrifices to maintain one’s grace and dignity, or something.

Apple Bloom spent some time combing out her mane and tail. She couldn’t do it as effectively on her own, but she could basically get most of the tangles out of her cherry red hair. She smiled at herself in the mirror, liking what she saw, even if a cute little yellow pony in overalls wasn’t what she would have thought she’d be looking at a year ago. It seemed like just a year ago, that Apple Bloom and her friends were making their way triumphantly through middle school graduation, but it also seemed like a time from a different age. Apple Bloom supposed that could be more evidence that Twilight’s story about time repeating a million times was true. But maybe it was just the huge changes in her life lately.

Clipping the pretty, bright pink bow into her hair, Apple Bloom faced the morning before her with confidence. She felt more human again, or whatever ponies felt when they were what they were supposed to be. Complete. With a light heart, she took a deep breath, and briskly trotted her way out of her room, curious but also anxious about how the other ponies fared the night, and what people, or ponies, might this day bring. She certainly was hungry for some breakfast chow.

Meanwhile, Cheerilee was not panicking.

No really, she was not panicking. “Don’t panic, Cheerilee,” she told herself as she hurriedly got her things together, “You knew this was coming. You’re not prepared, but... but you can make the most of this. You just have one more day before you need to get to the farm, and... and be the same apparant age as your own daughter again.” Silently, she continued to wish she had been better prepared, that she’d spent more time gathering supplies, or planning what to do if she should ever run out of hands one day. She walked through her empty apartment easily on two legs. The greatest announcement of her impending transformation were not her legs, but her ears that were most certainly on top of her head.

Cheerilee chose deliberately baggy pants, for what no doubt would need room to conceal a tail. She really wished she was more in the loop here, since she’d know what the heck to do. Though with this happening to her it was certainly looking promising that her wish would come true, sooner than later!

Cheerilee didn’t exactly know that ponies weren’t walking around all willy nilly in the city, but she had a good idea that it was not yet common knowledge. The last thing she wanted to do was start a panic. So she got the baggy pants, and a nice concealing cap. Cheerilee winced as she pulled it on her head, her ears scrunching uncomfortably underneath it. She wasn’t surprised by these sensations, but they were still astonishingly strange. One thing that cannot change in your life is the position of your ears. Gaps in bone do not simply migrate upwards, to adopt a more animalistic configuration. Experiencing that firsthand, well, it certainly made Cheerilee shiver to actually feel it.

This was what little Scootaloo felt, Cheerilee thought to herself, as she strode with false confidence out of the apartment complex to her beat up old beamer. It was a fine vehicle, for a second hand purchase that had enough cosmetic dents for a less discerning owner to send it to the scrap heap. You couldn’t beat the classics though. Revving her vehicle, Cheerilee’s fingers slipped on the keys. With the engine running, she peered at her hands worriedly, wondering what it was going to be like with them as hooves. Her slim, dextrous fingers seemed so much more delicate and ephemeral, now that their expiration date was set.

So no, Cheerilee was most certainly not panicking. The first thing Cheerilee did was go to work. She went to work, on a weekend. A librarian at a school library does not have desk duty on the weekend. As a matter of fact, she needed to find a janitor to get the library open for her. He didn’t once suspect that Cheerilee was about to betray her own place of employment, if on a temporary and emergency basis.

Recently, Cheerilee had been covertly planning, and arranging books that might be potentially useful for Scootaloo, and for... any other pony who might need them. Books on Animal Husbandry, on tack and feed, livestock management, books on speech disorders, and resources for the handicapped. While ponies seemed far from handicapped, they definitely had a different way of interacting with the world, that a book on how to deal with stairs and doorways in a wheelchair might somehow come in handy.

With those books prepared, Cheerilee sat down in the library kiosk, and ran her hands over her face stressfully, breathing out as she tried to make sense of this... thing that was happening to her now. It seemed so much crazier, now that she was feeling it. She was... feeling something poking her underneath her on the seat. Two guesses as to what it was, and the first one doesn’t count.

Cheerilee was actually... extremely curious what her... her tail would look like. She already had a relatively volumnuous head of hair. Would her tail follow suit, as it had with some of the others, or would it be short and uncharacteristic? It certainly wouldn’t look like much until the afternoon, she was pretty sure. But even having a tail was just... wow.

Cheerilee reached back and felt at her shoulder blades, but there didn’t seem to be any strange, alien limbs back there. It must have been too early for them to... grow. Cheerilee was honestly unsure of whether it would gratify or upset Scootaloo, were her mother to end up as a pegasus like her. But Cheerilee certainly wasn’t going to be a totally different species than her own daughter, and she was absolutely sure they were biologically related. Scootaloo was the best thing that ever happened to Cheerilee, but she could very distinctly remember the event in which it happened.

It seemed like only yesterday that Scootaloo was a squalling infant in an exhausted and sore Cheerilee’s arms, so very tired from that maddeningly unceasing labor, that she hardly had the strength to hold her own daughter. It was not something you forgot easily. Or, perhaps it was for some mothers, but for Cheerilee, the sheer pain of it kept it in crystal clarity. It actually hadn’t... hurt as much as she thought it would.

But then, Cheerilee had had some very pessimistic, and frightened thoughts about how it would be, back in that era of her life. It still was one crazy ordeal, and one Cheerilee could hardly believe had happened to her, not some other girl. Cheerilee didn’t exactly feel like “mommy” material, even so many years later, but there you have biology and stupid mistakes, rearing their ugly twinned heads.

Scootaloo was the best thing that ever happened to her, not by being her daughter, or completing her, but by teaching Cheerilee that even a babe can be their own person, and that even Cheerilee could be a mother. The little scamp was walking away from her mother without pause as soon as she could walk, getting into trouble, bothering passerby without fear. She was a handful, but... everything Scootaloo did made Cheerilee more comfortable with being a mother. Some daughters hate or resent their parents, but for Scootaloo, it was like having a daughter who was also your best friend. Your... very forgetful and inattentive best friend.

So there was no way on God’s green earth under the Great Blue Sky that Cheerilee was going to get out of this without four hooves and wings. You just don’t make up memories like that out of thin air. She sat there in the empty library that morning, writing a lengthy message to whoever would find it. Hopefully the assistant librarian would show up on Monday, or they would call someone in. But when they did, Cheerilee wanted to make sure they knew if not the exact nature of her affliction, that she was going to be safe, and that she might be gone for a very long while. Cheerilee didn’t precisely know that she couldn’t be a librarian, as a pony, but she certainly suspected if she did... transform as extremely as the others, it would be some time before things settled down enough for her to return to her simple, mundane occupation.

“some... time when things... settle down. Contact me by way... of the Apple residence, or my cell.. phone. I may have difficulty answering it, but I will... surely call you back when... my affairs are settled...” Cheerilee mumbled as she wrote. It was sad in a way, that the only people Cheerilee really had to notify were her fellow employees and supervisors. Her life was full of people coming in and out of the library, of bored students in her library science class, and none of them really had reason to give her a second glance. She and Scootaloo had really ended up alone in the world. Heaven knows a father being present might have done Scootaloo a world of good, but if wishes were horses...

Cheerilee deliberately did not finish that train of thought. Looking at the pen in her hand, she raised an eyebrow at it, then tried putting it in her mouth. Way too early for that, of course. A pen in mouth didn’t seem like the sort of thing you’d think to do, unless you were a pony, or an overstressed college student. Cheerilee took the pen in her hand again, chuckling softly under her breath. “Mouth writing...” she murmured to herself.

Then with a heavy feeling in her chest, Cheerilee, reached into the pocket of her baggy sweatpants, and pulled out one thing she really did not want to have to deal with: her cell phone.

“Hello?” came Applejack’s muffled voice from the phone’s speakers, after Cheerilee reluctantly dialed the number. Cheerilee could barely hear Applejack though. What was—oh.

Cheerilee sighed. She pulled the phone away from pressing against the... bare side of her head, saying into it,

“It’s Cheerilee. Hold one just one second.”

Cheerilee looked upward and slightly shook her head. Seeing as she was relatively alone here in the library, she pulled the hat off the top of her head, and her ears figuratively flapped— no, literally flapped out. An unsettling, yet quite relieving feeling. Cheerilee supposed she would get plenty of chance to experience it, in days to come. In a dazed puzzlement, she touched the side of her head, where her ears were supposed to be, feeling only smooth flesh, and... oddly loosening sideburns.

“Miss Cheerilee?” came Applejack’s voice again. “Ya there?”

“Yes, I’m—” Cheerilee fumbled with the phone, finally just speaking into it like it were a Star Trek communicator. Her new ears released were quite sufficient to make out what Applejack was saying even from way up... there. “I’m here,” she said, trying to figure out how she was going to formulate this.

“I’m in the library,” Cheerilee claimed clumsily. “I mean, if there are any books you need I think you should ask for them right now.”

“The library?” Applejack’s voice uttered in confusion, “But it’s Saturday! You got extra work or somethin’? I ain’t gonna have to tell Scootaloo you ain’t comin’ over, am I?”

“No, it’s...” Cheerilee tried to control her breathing, but her heart was fluttering in her chest. “Oh Applejack,” she said, her voice quavering with emotion, “It’s happening to me too!”

There was a very quiet pause, and Applejack said, “Do you want me to wake Scootaloo?”

Still asleep this late in the morning, typical Scootaloo. Or, atypical perhaps, now that she was living with the Apples. Cheerilee honestly Did Not Know.

“No, don’t bother her,” Cheerilee said, “I’m only calling to let you know that I’m... I’m all in, so to speak. I should have about a day to get my affairs in order. I have the library at my disposal, and about 2 thousand dollars in the bank, and I frankly would like to get all of that spent before I... can’t drive anymore.”

Cheerilee settled back in the chair, finding it rather easy to speak on the phone this way. You didn’t even have to hold it cradled in your shoulder this way, something that those tiny squares they called phones nowadays made it very difficult to do. “If there’s anything you need,” she repeated, “I need you to let me know. So far I’ve thought of dry goods, charcoal, blankets, and maybe some inflatable beds.”

“Inflatable beds?” Applejack asked incomprehending.

“It already happened to Sergeant Noi,” Cheerilee said frankly, “If it’s happening to me too, it could be happening to more people. I just want to be as prepared as possible.”

Cheerilee paused uncertainly adding, “Of course, if it’s more comfortable for ponies to sleep on a bed of straw I understand—”

“No, no inflatable beds are fine,” Applejack assured her. “Listen, you should get over here right away. We don’t need you to go pushing yourself an’ gallavantin’ around town if it’s happening to you too.”

“I’ll be careful, Applejack,” Cheerilee said placatingly. “I won’t push myself any further than I feel is safe. How’s Scootaloo?”

“Oh, Scootaloo’s fine,” Applejack said easily. “She was up mighty late last night, so she and Sweetie are sleepin’ in.”

Cheerilee chose not to question that, saying, “Well, tell her that I’m coming over. I certainly will be spending more time with her, if this is... what I think it is.”

“You’re not sure then?” Applejack wondered aloud.

“I have horse ears,” Cheerilee said flatly at the phone. She winced, shifting on her butt, adding, “...and a tail. It’s pretty obvious what’s going on.”

“Look, people don’t know about this still,” Applejack cautioned her. “We’re tryin’ to figure how to make a statement, but it ain’t exactly public yet. People gotta know, but uh...”

“I’ll be careful,” Cheerilee assured her. “The f—fur doesn’t even start growing until the afternoon, right?”

“Yeah, it starts gettin’ pretty obvious then,” Applejack sighed.

“I’ll keep a close eye on it,” Cheerilee assured her. “Now, this might be my last chance to get anything from the library. What do you need?”

“Huhm... lemme ask Big Mac real quick, he was wantin’ something,” Applejack said.

“You do that, and call me back. I still have to pack up these books,” Cheerilee said. Then she went to secure her own collection of literature.

Cheerilee stood from her place at the circulation desk, feeling a little odd as she did so. Was her balance off already? She had to make tracks here, if she wanted to get what she needed done before she was too ...horsey to do it. Big Macintosh called back, and he mostly wanted books on engineering and mechanics, which he was hard pressed to learn about, with his schooling cut in half by the pony predicament. It added to Cheerilee’s rather worryingly large pile of books, along with Apple Bloom’s pre-established desire for absolutely everything. Cheerilee was glad Scootaloo wasn’t awake, so that she wouldn’t have to... tell her. It was stupid, but Cheerilee just didn’t want to have to admit it to her daughter that she was changing into a pony like her. It was kind of... humiliating.

Cheerilee grunted, lifting up the large sack of purloined books. It wasn’t as heavy as she anticipated though, so she just slung it over her back and marched out of the library. So pleasantly surprised, she made her way stealthily to her car to drop off the books, ready to bring these books to the people who really needed it. People like herself....

If the janitor cared that Cheerilee was basically 20 times over the limit for books you can check out, they didn’t hassle her, and it’s not like there was a librarian to complain. Cheerilee didn’t mince words with the janitor beyond to let the man know that he could lock up the school again. Then she got to her car, and checked the time. Almost afternoon, time to pick this up a notch. Cheerilee pulled hastily out of the parking lot, and headed down to the bank. She was past ready to make a big withdrawal.

“Hey... Diamond?”

“Yeah, Dinky?”

The lavender boy sat up on his elbow, saying, “Why do your roommates hate you so much?”

Diamond sighed dramatically protesting, “Like, I don’t know! Why would I know? I do lots of nasty things to them, even if they do it to me. We just can’t like, like each other since we’re all fighting to get adopted.”

“My roommates are okay,” Dinky protested. “And yours don’t seem to be mean people. Plus aren’t they friends with each other?”

“I don’t knowww,” Diamond whined, flopping her head back down. “They are friends with each other, so like, maybe they just think I’m weird and like, wrong in the head?”

Dinky raised an eyebrow at that, but he at least tried asking, “Have you thought about switching rooms before?”

“Yeah, but like... if I’m the problem, I’d just make the next ones just as mad.”

Dinky lay beside Diamond, his hand idly moving to hold her own. “I think you should talk to your roommates,” he said. “Tell them you don’t wanna fight anymore.”

“Well, maybe I like, do?” Diamond offered peevishly. But she did squeeze his hand back.

“I think it’s really hurting you, Diamond,” Dinky murmured. “You need a safe place to sleep, and it’s just getting worse between you and them.”

“I can’t like, tell them that I just gave up, though,” Diamond fussed. “They’ll just humiliate me and think I’m a pushover!”

“What, are you too scared to do it?” Dinky offered in a teasing tone.

“No,” Diamond protested reflexively, “I mean... no. Of course not! I’m not scared of them.”

“Then tell them,” Dinky urged. “Tell them you don’t want to fight anymore, and that you’re afraid to sleep with them around. Tell them you won’t do anything to them ever again, if they just... like... stop.

“You all might be living together for a long time,” Dinky asserted. “It just doesn’t make sense to keep fighting like that.”

“Yeah, I guess so...” Diamond said in a defeated, almost uninterested tone.

“Plus, then I could um—” Dinky blushed, “V-visit your room, without them getting us in trouble.”

Diamond didn’t answer at first. She sat up silently, and leaned over. And then her beautiful smirk was right in front of his face. She said, “Oh, you are a sneaky boy, Dinky.”

“W-w-ell it doesn’t have to—” he stammered, but she silenced his protest with another kiss. Dinky’s eyes slipped closed, as Diamond passionately pressed her lips against his, loving everything about this. Every time they did, every kiss seemed like it was better than all the ones before it.

Author's Note

Uh oooohhhhhhhhh

Twilight Trouble

The stores were busy and crowded, as one would expect on a Saturday morning. Cheerilee tried to pay it no mind, but she was getting very nervous with all these people around. How long before the changes were apparant, and undeniable? She wasn’t sure she wanted to be surrounded by shoppers when her clothes fell off and she dropped down to all fours. Cheerilee could already feel a—a thing hitting her leg. She didn’t understand why her tail kept moving; it was turning out to be a very active thing, possibly somehow attempting to correct her balance beneath the baggy sweat pants she wore.

Cheerilee got a whole lot of dried goods, beans, rice, cereal grains. That would last the longest if they all had to hide out on Granny Smith’s farm as ponies. She suspected it was too high density calories, even for the altered ponies that she knew of, but she really didn’t have much to lose at this point. And then there was the ponies’ curious resistance and even affinity for sugar to consider. The supermarket may or may not have found half of their cookie shelf completely depleted that day. Cheerilee was going to be a very popular pony when she arrived.

She figured on getting some extra blankets, or at least some sort of bedding material that her inexperienced eye guessed that a pony could rest underneath, without too many aches or pains. $300 on inflatable mattresses; she’d been meaning to get one, so Noi didn’t have to sleep on the floor as she was, but just in case Cheerilee got as many as she thought her pocketbook could handle. If this was happening to Cheerilee, it could be happening to Applejack too, or even Granny Smith. Cheerilee doubted she and Noi would be the last. The beds were expensive, but they were portable, and compact, and had a hand pump.

On her way back to her car with another armload full of bags, Cheerilee was startled to realize that she wasn’t able to see over the top of her own car anymore. She looked over herself with concern, and a morbid sort of curiosity. Certain parts of her that will remain uncommented on were looking quite... saggy, but Cheerilee was still mostly herself. Her finger in the middle of each hand was larger than it had been before. The finger also felt more... present, if that was the right way to think about it. Cheerilee supposed that was what would be her new hooves, and her farewell to opposable thumbs. For now, it wasn’t... too much trouble.

Cheerilee kept discreetly looking in mirrors she passed, telling herself she wanted to make sure she wasn’t showing too much, but also fascinated by what she could see. Cheerilee always had something of a button nose, but this was ridiculous! It was still her face though, even as it slowly started proceeding more towards that you might find on some quadrupedal being. She was losing height like nobody’s business. Everything just looked so much higher as the day went by. Cheerilee didn’t know what to think!

Blankets, extra beds, dried bulk foods, half a trunk full of fresh water jugs, the kind that looked like they could be refilled, Cheerilee then went to the sporting goods store. She passed on the shoes obviously, but sleeping bags, flashlights, hammocks. She also got some tents... not that she wanted to be camping outside in sub-zero temperatures, but perhaps if the legends of pony metabolism had weight to them, then it wouldn’t be as much of a problem. With herself added to Scootaloo’s friends and Noi, the Apple family surely could use the space, even in their already spacious farm house.

Dropping another $200 on bags of charcoal seemed like a foolish idea, but Cheerilee wasn’t sure what the Apples had in the way of natural gas, and it couldn’t hurt to be too careful. Unlike their wood pile, charcoal was compact, lightweight, and easy to keep dry. Towels; couldn’t be a bad idea to have a couple of extra towels, especially with having fur all over your body.

Cheerilee itched at her side nervously. Her fur was starting to spread in blotchy patches from her hips up, from where her... her tail was coming out. It hadn’t hit her face, so she looked... passably normal. Her tail, she had to keep in her pants, but it seemed like whenever she covertly looked, that tail had gotten longer and more volumnuous, with hair eerily similar to that which cascaded down the back of Cheerilee’s head. She was pretty well hidden, with how concealing her clothes were, but she didn’t have much time left. Cheerilee just felt so excited about all this. She was going to be a cute little pony!

Wait, where did that come from? Cheerilee blinked and looked around, but nobody noticed her little impromptu jig there. Was she happy about this? She couldn’t imagine why. It’s just that the ponies she saw were so very adorable, and... she didn’t want to be one, but it was just exciting to be able to... to... to see them again? Cheerilee never would have thought herself a fan of horselike creatures, but it certainly was going to be a bizarre, yet novel experience to be one of those creatures. It was like a free pass to... give up her role and her responsibilities, a chance to be with the ponies more... with her daughter more. She just... liked that idea.

On a whim, Cheerilee went and gathered about fifty bucks worth of seeds. She didn’t think they’d be useful right away, but spring was just around the corner, they could possibly plant things with their mouths, if worst came to worst. That Twilight girl seemed to think that flowers were particularly edible for ponies, so Cheerilee had a lot of those, from begonias to zinnias, and of course daisies. Cheerilee sure did like daisies, for appearance’ sake. Most of her clothing was moderately decorated with them. She wondered how they would taste. But also, Cheerilee snatched up corn, squash, cabbage, carrots, broccoli... just anything that looked good, really.

It actually was making her really hungry, so Cheerilee threw one of those... pre-wrapped sandwiches you can get at the supermarket into her cart. She picked the vegetarian one because, well, she knew ponies could eat a little meat, but she wasn’t sure that a whole sandwich would agree with her, depending on how totally she’d transformed. Eating it on the side of the road was fine, once she’d gotten the wrapper open in her clumsy fingers. Nobody to come look at her, and suspect she was changing into a horse. But, of course, her teeth were getting loose already.

Perhaps it was less of a whim, and more of a concern: Cheerilee’s teeth fell out all of their own volition. She was definitely joining the ranks of the plant eaters. The afternoon was getting on, and she didn’t have much time left. She just... collected the teeth in a napkin and kept going. Cheerilee didn’t feel as exhausted as she expected. She wasn’t used to running around this much; she was used to just sitting around at the library, or standing and reshelving books. But far from exhausted, if anything, Cheerilee felt... downright peppy! So, she pepped right along, and tried not to pay too much attention to how her teeth were changing shape, as her mouth grew longer and more extended.

By the time she was finished shopping, people were mistaking Cheerilee for somebody’s child! Cheerilee’s clothing was becoming so ill-fitting, she could barely keep it on. If Cheerilee hadn’t known better, she’d think she was one of those new generation “hip” kids; the ones who thought it was cool to walk around with your pants sagging down. And it was... unsettling, when one such youth came up to address her as an equal.

“Sup!” the orange haired blue boy said to her. “Haven’t seen you hangin’ around before!”

“Oh! Um...” Cheerilee refused to look at him. “Shorry, gotta go, heh heh!” she blurted, turning to walk briskly away from him.

Thankfully he didn’t follow, and Cheerilee scurried back to the parking lot, dumping the last of her bags in the open window, and pulling up her pants again, cinching them tighter around her... breasts. Nope, not worrying about that at all, perfectly normal, NOT PANICKING.

Her car seemed huge now, and if Cheerilee wasn’t standing up on her toes all the time, it would have seemed even larger to her. That gave her a little extra height, which was important if she was going to be driving back. Taking her earlier encounter as a sign, Cheerilee decided to stop tempting fate, before she really did start to get alarmingly small.

Cheerilee wondered if she was ready to be the same height as her own daughter.

She shuddered.

It was surprisingly easy to drive, even as far along as Cheerilee had let herself go. Turning the ignition was next to impossible, but besides that, it only took one toe to push the pedals, and you didn’t need fingers to turn a steering wheel. It was harder to reach the pedals, and she was very low in her seat, but really it wasn’t too bad. As she drove along, she glanced west, where the sun was already low in the sky. Cheerilee didn’t bother trying to pull out and unlock her phone to check the time. There was no way she could possibly manipulate that little touchscreen with what remained of her fingers. With a bemused laugh, Cheerilee realized that she’d never have had a problem, if she had just kept her old, outdated wristwatch instead. But times changed, and nowadays everyone seemed to do everything with their phones.

The pressure was finally too much, and Cheerilee didn’t see any reason to hide it anymore. She pulled off on the side of the road, and... let out her tail. She leaned against her car, regarding it with a dazed awe. So this was her life now. Standing there close to the edge of town, discreetly pulling your pants down to let a bright pink fluffy tail slide out of them, before cinching them up again. It was... well, it was not unlike Apple Bloom’s in shape and size, if a bit more wavy. It was like Cheerilee was looking at her head, but... it was attached to her back. It was... odd that Cheerilee could feel her tail, but she had no idea how to make it move on her own. She just opened the car door and lifted the sensitive thing in what was left of her hand, like a glorified pink boa. She then sat herself back in the car, this time with it kinked off to the side, instead of squashed up against her leg.

That was... marginally more comfortable.

By the time she reached the Acres, Cheerilee was quite ready to just... spend the rest of the evening changing, and wake up the next morning, fully pony. This halfway status was just maddeningly difficult, where it seemed like you could do things, but your body wasn’t quite the right shape to do them anymore. On a related note, Cheerilee’s mirrors were hopelessly askew, and she reflected that perhaps she wasn’t the safest driver right now.

As she drove, she wondered... Cheerilee wondered what she was going to do for clothing. It was a silly vanity, when there were far more important things, like speaking and walking, and it’s not like you can just go out and buy pony clothes. That poor Rarity girl was driving herself to her limits trying to design entirely new forms of clothing for the girls. But Cheerilee still sort of... wondered what she was going to do for clothing. No answers came to mind.

Cheerilee was completely “hooved” below the belt when she arrived at the farm, and seeing over the dashboard was actually becoming an issue. Her poor beat up old car was so loaded down, it was a wonder it made it along that gravelly dirt road at all. Cheerilee realized she’d have to get some kind soul to take her car after she couldn’t drive it anymore. So many things still left to take care of. As she parked, she took a look at herself in the rear view mirror. There was a purple pony there, lost in some very baggy clothing, it looked like. Her pony-like head shook in detached disbelief as she saw of herself what she could. Cheerilee knew full well that like all the ponies, she would look like herself, but... pony. But actually seeing yourself looking like a pony was a whole different experience.

She got out of the car and almost fell over. Cheerliee pulled herself up the side of her vehicle, quite aware now why her daughter and friend hadn’t walked around much toward the evening. Her feet were just... her toes were just not meant for standing normally. From within the farmhouse, a little pony known as Apple Bloom, with a big pink bow and overalls, came galloping out the front door shouting spryly, “Cheerilee! Ya made it! Y’alright?” Close behind her was Scootaloo, the little orange filly just cute as a button as she trotted along, not that Cheerilee would ever accuse Scootaloo of being cute. And... Sweetie Belle remained inside, but Applejack came next, followed by Rarity. Two normal, everyday, average human girls, that Cheerilee was well familiar with.

That familiarity ended, with how she was now. She was looking up at Applejack and Rarity in a way she never expected she would ever have to do. “Oh my, you girlsh do look... bicg, now!” Cheerilee stated, clinging to the side of her car. She immediately blushed, as she remembered how ponies and speaking went together. Her mouth felt so... different now. She couldn’t keep silent, with everyone clamoring for attention. She’d just have to try to remember the speech lessons that she and Scootaloo studied together.

“Oh my dear you look awful!” Rarity exclaimed in distress, picking up her pace to run to Cheerilee’s side, “What on earth are you wearing?”

Cheerilee blinked.

“Hoh, this?” Cheerilee looked down at her baggy, olive colored hoodie, and her rumply, tightly cinched grey brown pants, that her legs barely fit in anymore. “It looshed be’er thish morning,” Cheerilee said with an apologetic—

“Wow,” her eyes widened. “Idh... it... really is har’er to speag... speak, like zis!” And it was so much harder to speak like this. “Didn’ think I... waz sho far along,” she admitted, blushing guiltily.

“Don’t worry mom, you sound good already,” Scootaloo said in good cheer, rearing up to put her hooves on Cheerilee’s hips... which were low enough for Scootaloo to do that easily now. “I bet you even remember how you pull your tongue back more to not say thuh all the time,” her daughter said hopefully.

“Id’ll th...take shome time for me to get ushed to,” Cheerilee told her, with difficulty.

“What the hay is all this?” Applejack exclaimed, ogling the tents hastily tied to the top of Cheerilee’s car.

“Tol’ you Applejack,” Cheerilee said curtly, if sloppily, “s’ going get a few things. Th’ books you ashk for... in the trunk... and in th’ back sheat.”

“Well, thanks for doin’ that, but you really didn’t have to,” Applejack said abashedly. “You shoulda got yourself here right away, and let us deal with the supplies. Still, ah never look a gift horse in the mouth. Tha—oh.”

Blushing deeply, the orange girl ducked her hat brim over her eyes and said, “Ah never ...say no to a gift freely offered, if’n ah cain make use of it.”

“Pleash Happle—” Cheerilee’s face twisted in frustration. Or, her nose did, at least. Weird. “No’ inshulted... at all,” she said carefully.

“Well,” Applejack said, managing to get the rope untied so she could unload the tents, “Thank you kindly nonetheless.”

Cheerilee smiled and nodded.

She didn’t want to say anything more, in fact, but there was one problem still vexing her. Apple Bloom was already trotting away possibly to inform the rest of her family. Cheerilee looked from one (human) girl to the other, and then down at Scootaloo, who was sitting there on her haunches, just staring silently up at Cheerilee with big eyes.

“Coul’ um... somebo’y help me get inshide, perhaps?” Cheerilee asked with an embarassed wince, looking around again from where she was leaning against her car. “No’ too... good at balanshing righ’ now.”

She laughed nervously, and Scootaloo burst out in a guilty squeak, “I’m sorry mom! I didn’t think it would happen to you too! I didn’t—”

“Hush dear,” Cheerilee said putting a hand...thing on Scootaloo’s maroon colored head. “You aren’ shangeing anyone into a pony. I’m just a li’l... diffrn’ now. Oh don’ gih me tha look. I know you know how it is.”

Giving Cheerilee a look, Applejack stated, “Apple Bloom! Can y’ stay here, and help me with unloadin’ these uh, things,” thus halting her ponified sister from trotting away back to the farm house.

“Yes, sis!” Apple Bloom chirped responsively, spinning on a dime to gallop back, then clambering up bodily into Cheerilee’s car to unload it. It was kind of impressive, really, how much that pony could toss at once.

“And I will lend an arm, if you will,” Rarity offered, holding out her hand to Cheerilee, distracting Cheerilee from the sight of Apple Bloom treating Cheerilee’s little car like an excavation site. Cheerilee smiled gratefully, and took the other girl’s...

Cheerilee’s smile wavered, as she laid what passed for her hand, on top of the other girl’s hand. Rarity—to her credit—was trying valiantly not to shudder.

“Hope you don’ mind my hand is hawfully... strange,” Cheerilee told her soothingly, helpless to let go as she leaned against Rarity for support. “’s even stranger, from my pershecive...pershpec... from inshide! Id’ll be a nice little ...hoof inna morning,”

The snow white girl smiled weakly at Cheerilee, but only tightened her grip, saying, “That it may be. But don’t worry about my sensibilities; I’ll do whatever I can to help you with this, just like... everyone else.”

Together, Cheerilee clumped, Scootaloo trotted, and Rarity strode into the farmhouse. It was so strange to Cheerilee, being alongside a girl half her age, who was a head taller than her. Cheerilee felt like a little girl again, walking alongside the now very tall Rarity. That was somehow even stranger than the experience of her daughter being totally a pony. You can get used to anything, I guess.

As she walked in the farm house, and looked around, Cheerilee... didn’t know what on earth was going on here!

“When were there sho many poniesh?” Cheerilee blurted in surprise, as she tottered into the living room. There, she could see four complete unknowns lounging around. There were still streamers hanging up on the wall as if from a celebration, and confetti scattered here and there, as well as the remains of some cupcake trays collected on the counter dividing this room off frome the kitchen. And there were four cute, little, new ponies, each looking up at her from their activities, with varying degrees of curiosity and fear.

“The police were here!” Scootaloo suddenly declared excitedly at Cheerilee’s side. “They’ve been looking all around town for ponies who turned into—for people who turned into ponies! Miss Twilight said it’s getting faster, and she doesn’t know if maybe everyone will be a pony or something! Mom, you look so... pony! Are your wings coming in yet?”

Cheerilee stiffened in surprise, Rarity holding her steady and looking at her worriedly. “I... really need to si’ down,” Cheerilee admitted. She looked at Scootaloo worriedly, who looked back equally worriedly. Clearly the girl was wondering why Cheerilee wasn’t excited about her... wings. Rarity helped Cheerilee to the couch, where a pink pony there was in the process of climbing clumsily down to make room for Cheerilee.

Sitting there relatively soundly, Cheerilee looked at Scootaloo, and she didn’t know what to say to her daughter. Cheerilee didn’t know if she even could say it, with her entire jaw structure changing shape even as she speaks.

“Scoo’aloo I...” Cheerilee began hesitantly, then just sighed, slumping there where she was sitting. Cheerilee didn’t want to make her poor daughter feel even worse than what was already self inflicted!

Cheerilee testily pulled forward the neck of her very baggy shirt, looking down inside it, at what appeared to be a somewhat patchy looking... pony’s upper body. Nothing to even cover up anymore. Cheerilee just pulled her shirt over her head, and then her t-shirt, until she was bare naked to the world from the waist up. It felt... odd, because the furred patches were less chilly than the parts where fur was still growing in.

It felt really odd, because Cheerilee’d never been able to bare her chest before, not since she was a very young girl!

With her blouse removed, Cheerilee turned to show Scootaloo what Cheerilee suspected was a smooth back, quickly growing furry, but unbroken by any new, oddly altered limbs that she could possibly sense. She admitted to her daughter uneasily, “Scoo’aloo, I don’ sthink I’m gonna have... wingks.”

“W-what?” Scootaloo exclaimed in confusion, staring at Cheerilee’s back. “But you’re my mom! You have to be a pegasus! How could a earth pony mom make a... pegasus?”

“Theshe transfor...the changes don’ have any hrhyme or reason,” Cheerilee said to the little orange filly, who hopped up on the couch next to her, looking at her as attentively as Scootaloo ever did. “Maybe i’s jush... random?” Cheerilee tried, shrugging helplessly at Scootaloo.

“It’s not random though!” Scootaloo said, her eyes full of determination. “Twilight, she knows all the other ponies, and who’s going to be a pony of what!”

Scootaloo blinked and briefly looked away, staring into space in confusion.

“Twilight knows our alternate reality selves,” Scootaloo said more carefully, looking at Cheerilee again with less fervor in her eyes. “Like, she knows that me and AB and Sweetie are totally best friends, and her world’s Sweetie is a unicorn, and her Scootaloo is a pegasus!”

“There are little differences between them,” Scootaloo cautiously explained, “But she gave this big, long boring speech, that pretty much said that lots of people here are ponies she already knows. And since her world is leaking or... something, that means we’ll turn into the ponies that they are!”

“Leagking?” Cheerilee asked in confusion.

“Like... in Twilight’s world, Apple Bloom was an earth pony. And she is in this world too, and she’s the same color. So the poniness...stuff leaked from there to here? And that means you should be a pegasus, because if Scootaloo’s a pegasus in the other world, then her mom has to be too!”

Cheerilee looked blankly at Scootaloo, having... had no idea that Twilight was anything other than a very helpful crazy girl who knew a lot about pony physiology. Just how out of the loop had Cheerilee been all this time? “I may have to ashk this... Twiligh’ for more informashion,” she admitted dourly.

“I bet she’ll give it to you,” Scootaloo replied, with a roll of her eyes. “Twilight Sparkle talks even longer than Mr. Doodle! Oh, she’s here too now. She and Sunset moved in to help ponies with pony things. And um...” Scootaloo tilted one ear, in a way that looked uncannily like she was trying to find the words to say this.

“Maybe you should wait to talk to her, until you can talk again,” Scootaloo said almost apologetically to her mother. “Or at least tomorrow, when your mouth isn’t changing anymore.”

Cheerilee nodded solemnly. “Prolly a gool idea,” she said. “Hyou looking forward to a pint sizhed... ‘pony’ me?”

“I...” Scootaloo glanced away briefly. “A-a little,” she admitted, “But you’ll still be my mom, even if we look the same age.”

“It’ll be okay, Ms. Cheerilee!” a walking bag of charcoal said to her. Oh wait, that was Apple Bloom, who had become entirely obscured by the bag of charcoal she was carrying on her back.

“Piña Colada is a mom too,” Apple Bloom chirped out, “And her daughter ain’t even changed yet! You should talk with her, when you get a chance. Piña ah mean. She can tell you what it’s like, bein’ a mom and a pony like this.”

“Apple Bloom, c’mon!” Applejack called over from the door.

“Oop, gotta go,” Apple Bloom said hurriedly, dashing over to toss her bag where they were piling up stuff from Cheerilee’s panic fueled supply run.

“I ha’ no idea things were sho... acgtive around... here,” Cheerilee said, just getting quiet then, and leaning back against the couch, right onto her tail. She sighed in frustration, shifting sideways so it could bounce out from behind her.

“Can’ talk, can’ walk haround, might as well just wait for it thoo finish,” she grumbled.

“Ms. Cheerilee?” a sweet voice spoke up shyly behind her. Cheerilee looked over to see Sweetie Belle rounding from behind the couch. “Rarity has um, a place set aside for you,” Sweetie said, “Over in the laundry room. It’s on the first floor, so you don’t have to climb stairs. It’s still kinda noisy, but you can sleep in there, when you’re ready.”

That is what Cheerilee ended up doing, instead of just changing the rest of the way on this couch like Scootaloo did. Cheerilee was already practically a pony when she went to sleep. Well, she hadn’t quite shrunk down to pint sized yet, and she still had a... mostly human shaped torso, but she certainly was on her way. She was about the height of a young girl, and her lisp was only worsening. She ate a few crackers, and drank some water, but didn’t really feel like there was much else she could do, until this transformation had run its course.

It was so strange how subtle this transformation progressed. Cheerilee didn’t feel like she was changing at all, but she couldn’t deny the loss in height, the fur over all her body, and the bizarre experience of her limbs turning into a pony’s equivalent. Every time she stopped to pay attention, it seemed like something else had changed profoundly. Even in her fitful sleep, Cheerilee lay there in peace, and no changes even alerted her enough to fully awaken again. The quiet woke her up, but not any of her changes.

So she slept, and changed, and as she slept in that improvised pile of blankets and pillows bed in the laundry room, her dreams were peaceful and undisturbed. The sounds of activity outside diminished to silence, and when she awoke once in the middle of the night, Cheerilee was startled by just how very quiet it was. She lifted herself onto her el...wrists, and looked around in the pristine silence. Everybody was asleep, and the city noises were so distant. Even her amazing new ears weren’t picking up much of anything, other than the creaking of boards, and the wind whispering in the trees. The silence woke her up, because Cheerilee just wasn’t used to it being this peaceful. No noisy neighbors, no cars driving right outside. Just... peace.

In the dark, Cheerilee didn’t know how much of a pony she was at all, but she didn’t really care to find out at this point. She just let herself slip back into sleep, with the warmest feeling flowing in her heart. Cheerilee hadn’t been able to sleep here before, until she was forced to tonight. And now that she did, she realized how nice it was to be away from the hustle and bustle, and relax for once to let her guard down. She’d forgotten what a quiet night like this even sounded like. It was... nice.

An actual rooster awoke her the next morning. A rooster, it turns out, from a neighboring egg farm, but a rooster nonetheless. Cheerilee lifted her head and—only her head lifted. That was new!

Cheerilee turned her head left and right, surprised at how very flexible her neck was. She shouldn’t have been surprised, since obviously Scootaloo was the same way, but it still was a surprising feeling. The rooster’s crow in her conical ears came accompanied by sunlight gently filtering in through the window, so with enough light, it wasn’t hard to see herself at all. Cheerilee woke up laying on her side, with her arms and legs kicked out beside her. Underneath the blanket, Cheerilee’s pants were still draped over her rear end loosely, and as Cheerilee looked herself over, she was... a pony.

Cheerilee was a pony.

She was a small, plum colored pony. Her hair still cascaded down around her ears in pleasant pink curls, but it attached to her head very differently now, and somewhere beneath the blankets, beneath the clothing she’d previously worn, there was a thick, volumnuous tail fashioned from the very same hairs as her head, laying limply beside her horselike rump.

A giddy giggle threatened to fight its way up in her chest. Cheerilee was looking at herself, at the body she was in, and... and she was a pony!

She’d gotten half of herself righted again, trying to work her legs under her into some sort of sitting posture, when the green Ms. Smith poked her head in the door. “Hey there, yer awake huh?” she said to Cheerilee in a quiet tone. “Careful, the other ponies are still sleepin’.”

Cheerilee looked at Granny like a deer caught in headlights. “I’ a phony,” she stated lamely. Then, Cheerilee remembered she couldn’t talk yet. She tried to facepalm, only to slip back onto her side with a whump. “Still thrying thoo...” Cheerilee stuck her tongue out and woah not that far! She just licked her... her lips, and blinked at her own muzzle. Because she had a muzzle now.

The most shocking thing about it was her new muzzle didn’t seem to be obscuring Cheerilee’s vision at all, when she didn’t have her eyes crossed. Her eyes were just further apart to compensate, and... she should have been totally confused by how far she could look behind herself now. Somehow, it just looked like it always looked, just with a wider... peripheral. There was no fishbowl lens effect, just... looking at things normally. And in full color, Cheerilee would notice, gratefully.

Cheerilee looked directly at Granny again and said, “Shtill—” but there was no Granny to speak of. The elderly matron had left the room already, while Cheerilee was distracted by her own... eyeballs and snout. Cheerilee sighed in frustration, and began going about trying to get a good look at herself, at her whole body. Removing the blanket was easy enough, but it was more difficult to remove her pants than she anticipated. Cheerilee was much smaller now, but not that much smaller. Her legs were differently proportioned, and the already tightly cinched waist had to seriously strain to get around her much broader thighs.

But at last, she managed to push with her arms and kick with her legs, and her pants came off revealing Cheerilee’s horselike rear end in all its glory, with that tail of the same style as her hair, and... flowers? What?

“Up and at-em already, eh?” that orange girl known as Applejack remarked, broadly striding in and pulling Cheerilee’s attention away from her own rump. “Granny said I...”

Applejack stopped short. “Oh, my,” she said in a note of dread, upon seeing Cheerilee.

Applejack stared down at Cheerilee in open surprise, while Cheerilee stared up in confusion. “Thomething wrogn—wrong?” Cheerilee asked tenuously. Why were there flowers on her butt?!

“Well uh,” the rather large looking Applejack said to Cheerilee, “Ah don’t rightly know, but weren’t you supposed to be uh... smaller?”

Cheerilee blinked, and looked down at herself. She saw a strange, herself-furred pony, with its front hooves braced between its hind hooves. That’s what she saw, is a cute little pony, a deep, dark cerise like she always was, but still a pony. A pony who, sitting up like this, was only just over half as tall as Applejack. And that was being generous.

“No?” Cheerilee offered cluelessly, looking back at Applejack again. “I’ nothaposed... supposethoo be rike dis?”

“Ah dunno!” Applejack replied, kneeling down to peer at Cheerilee in worry and curiosity, “All the other ponies were just pint sized. You’re like... big or somethin’. Like a giant pony!”

Cheerilee wasn’t though! Everything and everyone else looked so big now! If Cheerilee ever managed to stand up, she wouldn’t even... be past that girl’s shoulders, in height!

“Buthtill small,” Cheerilee pointed out in confusion. “If I coul’ sthand up, I wouldn’ evebee patht you thsho... shoulders!”

At that absolute failure to explain, Cheerilee blushed and looked away again, but it looked like Applejack had caught on to what she was trying to say. “Ah’ll get Apple Bloom,” she said kindly. “She knows everything there is to know about... movin’ around as a pony.”

“Don’ neetoo throuble her,” Cheerilee said sloppily, struggling to raise her strange ass in the air. “I ca’ justh... just thry thoo um...”

“Nonsense!” Applejack said, in a very artificial sounding confidence, “She’ll be happy to help you out. More’n happy even. Just wait there while I go see if she’s up yet.”

Cheerilee sighed in defeat as Applejack just left the room and closed the door, and Cheerilee thought that was that. But then, before Applejack went walking up the stairs, the girl leaned back against the door to the laundry room where Cheerilee was. Cheerilee actually felt like her ears were perking up, when she distinctly heard Applejack say to herself,

“Apple Bloom is not gonna like this.”

Cheerilee hadn’t even been meaning to eavesdrop. It was just so quiet that she could hear everything. How did that even work? Pony ears... were weird to have, whether or not the rest of you was a pony. Cheerilee stubbornly fought with her uncooperative limbs, bending her ankle experimentally, finding that her ankle didn’t really bend much anymore, but her knee still did. It was easy to rotate her hips in ways that horses never could, yet it was still... a horse’s ass.

Pushing her arms—her forelimbs straight, with her rear on the ground, her haunches?, Cheerilee tried one more time to stand. She managed to slip one leg under her, and then another. Were they all legs now? No time, must concentrate—there! Every finger... hoof was firmly on the ground, and Cheerilee just straightened up a bit, and she was successfully standing on all fours. She lifted her head up and—

Wow, that was weird.

Cheerilee felt like she was standing, but sort of... curving behind her. That was literally true of course, but it felt like a contradiction to her. She was used to her whole body being underneath her when she was standing up. And she was used to not actually feeling her tail dragging on the floor. Nor was she used to feeling her neck able to curl back with a swanlike grace, firmly settling atop a pony body standing there on all fours, without any difficulty or strain she could detect. However odd it felt, Cheerilee did manage to get to a standing position at least, before Apple Bloom came in.

It was a very cranky looking Apple Bloom who came to see Cheerilee, yawning and saying, “Yeah yeah, ah’m up,” on her way down the stairs. Cheerilee could hear that too, and, “Ah don’t see why you gotta bring the camera. She cain’t be that bad.” Cloistered here in the laundry room, Cheerilee was starting to get really worried. But worried or not, she could do little more than stand there with a concerned look on her horsey face, while Apple Bloom pushed open the door and trotted in.

Apple Bloom started out exclaiming gladly, “Oh, you already figured out standing! Ms. Cheer......” but her words died, as she slid to a halt, and Cheerilee could easily understand why. She could understand everything, now, and yet she understood nothing.

Two ponies were standing there in that room, both on all fours, one facing the other. One was surprised and a little alarmed, and the other alarmed, and a little surprised. The yellow one of them, with the cherry red hair, was approximately half of Cheerilee’s height. Cheerilee could only estimate it, but she was definitely looking down at this pony. Significantly looking down at this pony. Apple Bloom was tiny! There was the sound of a camera photo being taken.

That seemed to snap Apple Bloom into action. “What?” she exclaimed stridently at Cheerilee, eyes aflame in turmoil, “Why’re you so big? What? You’re... what?!”

“...wha?” Cheerilee asked in complete lack of understanding, why Apple Bloom was getting so... upset?

“I don’t get it!” Apple Bloom shouted angrily, “You’re all huge, like a big old, old pony. Why are you so old? You don’t look like the other ponies. You don’t look like a... like a little kid!!”

Cheerilee was starting to understand what was going on, but... she couldn’t say anything! Her verbal skills were so poor, she was kind of afraid to try speaking, and before she could, Apple Bloom just turned without another word, and galloped out of the room. She didn’t stop there, though. Apple Bloom galloped all the way across the next room, and Cheerilee could hear a brief scuffle as she fought with the front door, upset enough even to cry!

To her great credit, Apple Bloom got the door open in short order, and Cheerilee looked at Applejack in confoundment. Applejack’s face went from shock to an unhappily guilty expression, as she gently set the camera down on a laundry shelf. Cheerilee distantly heard Apple Bloom charging outside, shouting through tears, “Twilight! Twilight where are...” before at last the little pony’s tiny voice diminished far enough, that Cheerilee could no longer make out the words with these... freaky radar dish ears.

“Ah’m gonna go try an’ smooth things out,” Applejack said nervously, “Sorry, just scuse me for a sec. You gonna be okay for now?”

“Hwellli—” Cheerilee frowned. “I’ll be... fine,” she said slowly, “Go hel’ your shishter.”

Apple Bloom wasn’t upset. She wasn’t upset. She was furious!! How could—how dare Cheerilee be so big and... and not like a little kid? How could Twilight not know this? How could Twilight not tell her? How could... well, she could understand if—but no! This was all wrong! The stupid door wouldn’t open, making Apple Bloom cry like a stupid little kid, and she ran out hollering for Twilight in her stupid... little kid’s voice! Apple Bloom was so not upset, it wasn’t funny!

The chilly air embraced her as she blasted outside, galloping right for the trailer that Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer had... borrowed from a friend. Apple Bloom must have been making quite some noise after she got outside, though inside she didn’t dare make a peep, with all the little teeny baby ponies sleeping all around her. “Twilight!” she shouted, hammering on the door. “Wake up! You didn’t tell me ah was a little kid! Ah’m not a little kid! Why is Ms. Cheerilee so big?!”

There was no answer, so Apple Bloom wiped off her eyes so she could see again, and jumped up, clinging to the edge of the window as she peered inside. Amid all the sciency looking equipment, there were a couple beds, one of which held a very amused looking Sunset Shimmer, and the other was empty, because there was Twilight Sparkle, trying to climb through the window on the other side of the trailer!

Apple Bloom just charged right underneath the trailer, which was easy to do on account of what a little pony she was! Twilight tumbled clumsily to the ground, and before she could run away, Apple Bloom just jumped onto her chest, accusing down at the guilty looking purple girl, “Ah ain’t a little kid—ah’m already a Freshman, and Piña is a grown woman, and so is Noi, and so is Elias, except he was a grown man, so why are we all ponies who look just like little kids? How come we keep gettin’ all weepy, and ah just woke up and ah’m still tired, were you laughing at us, when we were using crayons to draw, because those are just because they don’t taste like a pencil eraser not because we’re dumb little kids ah don’t wanna be a baby pony, and you didn’t even tell us?!”

Twilight just stared at the pony on her chest, like a kid with her hand caught in the cookie jar. “Answer me!!” Apple Bloom demanded hotly.

“I didn’t think it was... important?” Twilight tried with the most hopefully awkward of smiles.

Apple Bloom rolled her eyes so hard she practically fell off of Twilight. “Aggh,” she whuffed, jumping off the prone girl. “How could it not be important?” she said pacing beside Twilight, “Look at me! Ah’m just a little... baby pony, and ah cain hardly do anything!”

“You’re not a baby, pony,” Twilight said in some irritation. “You’re closer to the pony equivalent of human primary school age. Or, that’s just what my gut feeling tells me. My human gut feeling, because if you haven’t noticed, I’m still a human!”

“So what?” Apple Bloom sniffled, “How do you scientifically tell that sorta thing?”

“You don’t,” Twilight stated. “I have no way to know that this world isn’t simply larger than my own, because nopony has ever walked on this earth as a pony before. I have no way to determine your relative age, because of the more rapid transitionary periods in ponies. And with my human instincts, for all I know adult ponies look like little children to a human! And...”

Twilight paused, which was a good thing, because if she kept on tearing down Apple Bloom’s outrage, there would be no way Apple Bloom couldn’t have just started bawling right there on the spot, because she was just some stupid, unstable little kid.

“And because I was afraid,” Twilight said more softly, shocking Apple Bloom out of her inner struggle.

“I know how important your maturity was to you, Apple Bloom,” Twilight told her earnestly, sitting there right on the cold ground, on her knees underneath the hem of her night gown. “I haven’t known you especially well, but I have been around your counterpart in my world, and she has such doubts about herself, because she doesn’t think she’s grown-up yet. And I have seen you these past four loops, not especially, but... it was just nice to see you so confident and carefree. You were just beginning your higher level education! That must have been...” Twilight sighed plaintively. “It must have been so hard for you to give that up. I just couldn’t... I just couldn’t tell you that you had basically gone all the way back to kindergarten.”

And now Apple Bloom was more confused than upset. “You didn’t tell me,” she said warily, “Because you thought I liked school?”

“Well, don’t you?” Twilight asked, as if the answer were obvious. And the answer was obvious, but not the one she was thinking of.

“No!” Apple Bloom told a surprised Twilight in irritation. “Nobody likes school! We just gotta do it, or we’ll get in trouble later in life!”

“Well, what about—” Twilight frowned, looking at her fist for some reason, and starting to shiver. “There was one... some people like school!” she retorted frustratedly. “It’s just that everyone who doesn’t, in this crazy mixed up world has to do it anyway! Y-you were taking what, G-geometry? Why?!”

Apple Bloom moved back a step from the suddenly accusatory, shivering purple girl. “It’s the next math class ah had?” she said uncertainly. “You cain’t just not take a math class.”

“B-but you d-don’t even like g-geom-metric f-figures!” Twilight shivered fiercely. “T-that’s w-w-what I don’t get a-a-about this c-c-crazy—”

“Twilight, please,” Apple Bloom interrupted, moving forward to put a hoof on Twilight’s chest. “Can we talk about this inside your trailer? You’re colder than an icicle!”

“M-m-maybe I s-s-should tell e-everypony I c-c-an prepare a p-p-presentation...” Twilight suggested with a beseeching pout. Apple Bloom sighed, and whatever rage she had built up was just gone... before this brilliant, yet pitiful shivering girl in the snow.

“Just get warm, get dressed, and... you can do whatever,” Apple Bloom said bleakly. “Ah’m gonna go back to bed. Because it’s mah n-n-nap... time.” She choked back a sob. It wasn’t really her nap time, but it might as well have been. Apple Bloom couldn’t believe that all this time she had just... wished she could deny it. All this time she just pretended to be some big, strong budding woman, and she was just... Apple Bloom all along. The little kid, who nobody took seriously. Again.

Twilight wanted to follow after the pony so very much, and just somehow make it all better again, but it really was a cold morning, and she certainly had inherited the human resilience to adverse weather, or lack thereof. Twilight hustled into the trailer, and rifled through the chest they’d packed all their clothing in, trying to find something appropriate to say to the poor girl. Her trusty assistant-gone-dog Spike—who’d woken with all the shouting—walked his little doggy self beside the kneeling girl, to look up at Twilight levelly.

“Look, I know what you’re thinking,” Twilight grumbled without looking at him. “And I tried to tell her.” Twilight couldn’t find any clothing worth wearing digging around in there, so she admitted, “Okay fine, I didn’t try to tell her. But what was I supposed to tell her? Congratulations, you’re prepubescent again?”

Spike rolled his eyes, but before he could speak, Twilight cut in saying, “I really didn’t think it was all that important! I mean, it was obvious! How could she not know?”

Spike sighed and shook his head. He managed to say “Twi—” before she told him,

“I am not stalling,” she retorted, “I’m just not sure what to wear. She already knows, I already told her, and I have no reason to stall.”

Twilight finally groaned in exasperation, and shoved on a sweater, and a moderately long skirt. “There, see?” she said fighting with her boots, “Not stalling.”

“It doesn’t bother me!” he said quickly, startling Twilight and himself as he barked out the words before she could interrupt. “It... doesn’t bother me,” he repeated more slowly, “Being a baby dragon. Even when I’m not. Because, I mean... I’m not all that younger than you are, right? But it doesn’t bother me if I’m still a baby, because I know what I am.”

“I’m sorry, Spike,” Twilight told him tenderly, “You’re right as usual. I really should have said something. She just seemed so... happy not having to worry about it.”

“I agree,” Sunset remarked from where she was still lounging on her cot. “You should have told her. You gave a whole speech on your history with the ponies in Ponyville, and you never mentioned that all the people here who transformed just happened to be foals.”

“It... I thought it was more important that I talk about...” Twilight dropped her foot grumbling, “You’re right, I screwed up.” She rubbed her face with her hands, mumbling, “What am I supposed to tell them? Should I tell them about the Boundary? What about the Elements of Harmony? They have those here, you remember. But what does it mean that they have those here? Is it my place to tell them?”

“Look, it’s not complicated,” Sunset advised Twilight, “You don’t need to blow her little mind. Just tell her why you think she’s a little filly. And tell her the whole truth about what you know about her. Apple Bloom’s a smart filly—girl; and if she’s anything like me when I was a filly, when she learns what’s really going on with her, she’ll forget all about being upset.”

Twilight nodded solemnly. She made ready to leave, but—and she totally wasn’t stalling at the door, but Sunset clearly wasn’t done with her yet.

“Did you hear her?” Sunset added at Twilight in genuine agitation, the fire haired girl gesturing at the window, still lounging on the fold out bed. “She thinks she has to take naps! She still has the wrong idea, and you’re the only one of all of us who knows her... filly self, across the mirror.”

“Not the only one,” Spike pointed out. “I know her lots better than Twilight! Why can’t I tell her?”

“We’re trying not to freak them out with a talking dog just yet,” Twilight said flatly. “You can behave yourself once we’re in their house, right?”

“Yeah yeah, I’ll be quiet,” Spike grumbled, turning in a circle and laying down again.

“Anyway, you saw Apple Bloom just now,” Sunset leaned over the bed, to tell Spike there on the floor, “She didn’t go looking for Sunset Shimmer, or Spike. She went straight to Twilight. Not me, not you.” Sunset looked up at Twilight somewhat sympathetically, saying, “Afraid it’s gotta be you, princess. But the worst is over. You knew Cheerilee was gonna...”

“Yes, I... I could have been wrong though?” Twilight suggested hopefully. “I was so worried that she would be a foal too.”

“A city of foals, now that would be a disaster,” Sunset said darkly.

“We don’t know that everyone is going to be changing,” Twilight cautioned her. “Only that it has a worryingly accelerating rate of incidence.”

“Just find Apple Bloom and tell her,” Sunset grumped, throwing her pillow at Twilight’s face, “It’s too early to argue semantics with you.”

Author's Note

On the Subject of Pony Youth

The house was still quiet, despite some ponies waking up sleepily, including one brand new cotton white filly with incongruously bare little wing arms. She would hopefully be unalarmed when she awoke, fully transformed, because of all the other people around to help her, people who’d gone through the same thing that she was going through. That was the primary purpose behind Twilight’s last afternoon speech: to ease the worries of those afflicted, and give them a better idea of what was going on, so that they didn’t make any terrible mistakes.

Twilight Sparkle hadn’t thought that whether one is physically an adult or not really mattered when it came to preventing terrible mistakes, but considering Apple Bloom’s reaction, Twilight figured maybe she should have given it a higher consideration.

Applejack met her halfway, as Twilight was sitting on the bench at the door, removing her boots. The cowgirl walked up to Twilight who was busily brooding over what to say to Apple Bloom, and to all of them, and looked at Twilight pensively. “Apple Bloom went upstairs,” Applejack said in a guarded tone, “Ah think you got a lot to explain to her. We probably shoulda talked this out with her, instead of....”

“I’m sorry Applejack,” Twilight mumbled, “It’s just so hard to... what was I supposed to tell her?”

“I dunno, but you cain’t keep withholdin’ stuff like this,” Applejack replied folding her arms and frowning. “You’re involved whether y’like it or not sugarcube, and it might be real important for us to know something y’all were hiding from us.”

“I know, I just... I won’t do that anymore Applejack. I don’t want to hide anything from you,” Twilight said, feeling a little relief as she did so, kicking her shoes off beside all the others. “I just... I don’t always know what’s important to know, and I don’t know everything. Sometimes, it seems like I only know enough to make things dangerous. What do I tell her, Applejack? That she should be in kindergarten?”

“Just talk to her,” Applejack reassured Twilight, holding her shoulder. “You seem like you got a good head on your shoulders. She needs someone who knows what’s going on, to set her straight.”

“Applejack...” Twilight said, looking up at her friend—at the girl who resembled her friend, with a storm of emotions fighting inside. “You have no idea how much that means to me. I... thank you. I will talk to her.”

Twilight hesitantly parted from the concerned Applejack, and climbed her two legs up those stairs, as quietly as she could. She hadn’t actually... been up here, in this world. Twilight had been around the Apple family household in the world where they actually grew apples, but not this one, not yet. It looked different up here, yet eerily familiar.

It really was remarkable how much this house resembled Applejack’s home, back... home. Just with everything sized for humans, taller and thinner, and with a lot more doorknobs. Even if Twilight hadn’t known where Apple Bloom’s room was from the parallel universe, it was pretty obvious which room Twilight should head towards. The door she approached was emitting the unmistakable sounds of a little filly whimpering through her tears.

And also from Scootaloo, who was walking out the door, and looking up at Twilight, just as the girl approached the little pumpkin colored pony, wincing down at her hopefully.

“You do not want to go in there,” Scootaloo said to Twilight with a sour grimace. “Apple Bloom is totally in one of her moods again.”

“Yeah, it’s... kind of my fault,” Twilight said with a nervous grin. “I just need to talk to her, and... she’ll be fine, I think. So if you could give us some privacy? I’d really appreciate it.”

Scootaloo gave Twilight a long look, then nodded sharply, and vanished back inside the room. Shortly thereafter, she was headbutting the rump of a sleepy Sweetie Belle, getting the two of them out of the room. She whispered quietly with Sweetie Belle, no doubt headed downstairs, where the rest of the ponies were, and also where breakfast was, if the smell of pancakes was any indication. Resisting the temptation to just leave to go eat herself, and pretend that this never happened, Twilight Sparkle pushed open the door, stepping softly into Apple Bloom’s room.

It was a lovely room that Apple Bloom had, with green striped wallpaper, and some framed pictures of flowers hung up on the wall. The large window had blue drapes pulled aside, letting in what of the sunlight hit this part of the house. There was a dresser with various pony shaped outfits laid out on top of it. Next to the poster bed was a small table, with a simple table lamp, and a picture of Apple Bloom’s family. And in that large, poster bed, on its apple themed sheets, a small, yellow and red little pony was face down on the pillow, crying.

“Apple Bloom—” Twilight started, only to have Apple Bloom raise up her head, and spit out angrily,

“What? Here to tell me more about how much a little kid ah am?”

“No, I—” Twilight said hesitantly.

“Ah’m so humiliated!” Apple Bloom declared in exasperation. “All this time ah been telling people an’ telling people that I’m not a little kid, and that ah’m all grown up, and that ponies are just like this. Ah told them I knew that it wasn’t what it looked like, and it was exactly what it looked like! It’s so obvious! Did you see her? Ms. Cheerilee—she was like twice as big as me!”

Apple Bloom just shoved her face back into the pillow and took out her frustrations on that, trying to shut Twilight out. But her pony ears were certainly not covered by that pillow.

“You know what?” Twilight told the pony a bit snippily, “Yes. I am here to tell you about how much of a ‘little kid’ you are. And you’re gonna listen to me.”

Apple Bloom rolled on her side grunting out, “Ah already know I’m some kinda little baby pony, just like everyone—”

“No, you don’t know,” Twilight interrupted her bitter accusations, “You still don’t know. You came up to my trailer, then you asked a very difficult and complex question, and then you ran away! Well, technically I ran away, but you aren’t dealing with this either, and we have to stop running away from each other. So I’m going to tell you exactly what I know, and you won’t like it, but I promise you it is not as bad as you think.”

Apple Bloom didn’t say anything, so Twilight took the opportunity to begin. But where to start? Twilight declared her intentions so confidently, but she didn’t have any plan for what she was going to tell her at all! All she could do is... tell... the truth.

“Apple Bloom, in my world, Miss Cheerilee... is my book buddy,” Twilight said experimentally. Apple Bloom didn’t respond, but from how Apple Bloom’s ears perked, she could tell she had the pony’s attention.

“We would meet once a week, to exchange books, find new, fun things to read,” Twilight explained. “After I found another pony with a love of reading, we became fast friends. Nothing serious, just a shared common interest. Even after the whole thing with Discord, and the Crystal Empire, even after princesshood, she didn’t stop being my book buddy. She treated me like the pony I wanted to be, like a friend no matter what I looked like. I could help her in return, as her occupation as a school teacher made it hard for her to spend a lot of time perusing the shelves. Apple Bloom, Cheerilee is... my Cheerilee is your teacher, and you love studying under her wing.”

Apple Bloom was looking solidly at Twilight now, with a look of warm nostalgia in her eyes. “Yeah, I—” Apple Bloom started to say, then just sat up and stared forward in puzzlement.

“Ap—?” Twilight started to say, but Apple Bloom stated in a puzzled tone,

“Ah know she cain’t be mah teacher in this world; Ms. Cheerilee’s the school librarian. But I thought she was... maybe, she used to be a teacher? Ah think she was mah teacher like that too, or something, back in primary school. But... of course I was gonna love primary school. It don’t even have separate classes, or—or tests! Not crazy ones at any rate.”

“That’s not—wait, really?” Twilight said, blinking in surprise. “You were taught by Cheerilee, in your primary school?”

“Dunno, I’d have to look it up,” Apple Bloom whimpered reluctantly. “You’d have to ask her about it, maybe. But... what’s that got to do with me being a little kid?”

“That’s how I know you, Apple Bloom,” Twilight explained, “Or rather, the other you, from my world. Mostly through stories from Cheerilee. And on occasion, through my friend Applejack. My Apple Bloom is a wonderful, active little filly who can’t get enough of learning how her world works. Or... she was, the last time I happened to see her...

“So when I say you are a foal,” Twilight concluded, sitting down next to the little pony on the bed, “You have to understand that I am not intending that as an insult. I’m saying it out of respect for you, and out of the memory of the imaginitive young filly that I once knew, before I got... stuck here.”

“This’ll be five years, you said,” Apple Bloom offered soberly, and thankfully without a tremble in her voice.

“Yes, it’s... it’s been a while,” Twilight admitted. “I know my friendships won’t outright vanish in the blink of an eye, but... I’ve almost been away from my friends longer than we’ve been...friends.”

“Sounds like you miss ‘em real bad,” Apple Bloom commented, turning around on the bed to look Twilight’s way.

“Yes I...” Twilight blinked back tears. “Yes I do, but that is not what I came here to talk about.”

“What do you think she’s like?” Apple Bloom asked curiously. “The other me, ah mean? When you see her again, is she gonna have a job, or what?”

“She’ll be old enough to help with the apple bucking in a few years,” Twilight said offhandedly. “She probably has her cutie mark by now. But my world really does have a different society than you’re used to.”

“I’ll say,” Apple Bloom responded frankly. “Ah don’t even know what the heck you just said? Bucking apples?”

“The point is, I’m—sorry I... deceived you,” Twilight told Apple Bloom, standing up to face her. “I don’t want to make this any worse,” she said apologetically. “You really need to know what I mean, when I say you’re a little filly, so please just... don’t yell at me or run away, and listen to my reasoning.”

“Uh... s-sure,” Apple Bloom said, eyeing Twilight reluctantly. “Ah ain’t gonna like being a little... filly though. Nothing you can do about it ...but ah ain’t gonna like it.”

“When you were human, you were a high school Freshman,” Twilight recalled. “Like I said last night, every human here has a pony counterpart in my world, and a lot of them live in my home town, in Ponyville. And of all the ponies I know, the human counterparts here are... normalized in age.”

“Normalized in... age? You mean like, older?” Apple Bloom asked in confusion. Twilight wasn’t sure whether it was a good idea to talk about this, but... it was important for Apple Bloom, she was the only one here, and she could certainly withstand her world being shaken up a bit, if it relieved her of whatever burden she felt for being foalish again.

“Tell me, do you know of any little er ‘kids’ in your city?” Twilight asked cryptically. “Like, real kids, who are very young, not people changed into pony children?”

“What, not like there ain’t none?” Apple Bloom said in disbelief, braced up on her palms. “Ah go to the high school,” she said, “So I don’t exactly get to hang around littler kids so much.”

“Everything in your world revolves around that high school,” Twilight declared vehemently, “And that’s why Sunset’s theory made sense, that humans just didn’t have young foals, so they could all attend high school. It was a symbiotic relationship, between your species, and that... educational institution. Do you get it?”

“Not even close,” Apple Bloom sighed.

“Your city is a—a high school town,” Twilight declared. “There are students that go to high school, teachers that go to high school, businesses that cater to students and teachers that go to high school, and residences for parents, and high schoolers. So there aren’t many, or in fact any kids right now in your city, who don’t go to high school. Not one youth I know of, who is under the age of 13.”

“Well that’s... peculiar,” Apple Bloom said uncertainly. “That couldn’t be right, could it?”

“That is why your ages are normalized, by whatever in your society brought high school into existence,” Twilight explained. “Your ages have to match what your school grade is. And that means that some of you are going to become younger when you turn into ponies from my world, and some older. You’re younger because you are matching the age of the pony version of yourself in my world!”

“That’s crazy,” Apple Bloom said. “School cain’t set mah age. You ain’t even listening. I just said ah went to primary school! Ah can’t have always been the same age?”

“Well, it might have something to do with the time loop...” Twilight pondered, “Yes, you don’t remember it, but you have been that age for a very, very long time.”

“So why am ah not an old granny pony then?” Apple Bloom asked in frustration. “If’n ah been doing this over and over again, for how long did you say?”

“I... don’t know,” Twilight admitted. “I don’t know, but... the princess told me—er—the ruler of my kingdom told me that your loop was on the verge of breaking down, because our worlds are becoming synchronized; they’re... parallel worlds, so to speak. We have the same history, up to some point where everything diverged.

“Every year you loop around, it ratchets your world back one more year, while a year passes normally in my world,” Twilight said. “But you’re ratcheting forward, not pulling us backward. When we happened upon you in the distant past, you were already many years set back from us. We see you unchanged in the past, but what we see is the future, our future, repeating over and over again on your side. As our natural timeline catches up with your own, our worlds begin to synchronize.

“The reason the princess even risked sending me here was because events in our world were starting to match up with those in your world,” Twilight continued. “When they looked in the mirror in the past, they would have seen the future. But now, when the princess looks into the mirror, she sees the present. Ponies were born—ponies grew up in my world, who are the alternate versions of you, of you humans who have ‘always’ been here.

“But you just... but... what?” Apple Bloom said in confusion.

“I’ve been here for five years, Apple Bloom,” Twilight said. “It should have been over the very same year that I came through, but it wasn’t. Whatever happened in your world that caused this, would have happened in my timeline approximately four or five years ago, when we diverged. And now that this is... ending (I hope), you’re approximately the same age as your alternate reality counterpart. Who is 14 years old, currently.”

Apple Bloom shook her head, at that. “Ah was 14 years old,” she corrected Twilight, “But now ah’m just a little kid!”

“That’s the thing, though!” Twilight said intently. “Ponies age much more slowly than humans. Your Granny Smith is only what, 72?”

“Uh, yeah,” Apple Bloom said uncertainly. “Somewhere thereabouts.”

“In my world, she’s over 500 years old!” Twilight declared vehemently.

There was silence.

“What?!” Apple Bloom yelped, jumping to the edge of the bed. “Why didn’t you tell anyone about this? Ponies are what—immortal?! 500 what?”

“Ponies age slower than humans,” Twilight said placatingly, “And I didn’t tell them because... I was trying to figure out how to tell them diplomatically that they were all small children again. And I don’t want to go saying that they age like ponies back home, because I don’t know for sure.

“Ponies age differently where I’m from,” Twilight emphasized, “Not just more slowly. In particular the growing periods are more pronounced, and adulthood is much longer. A pony in my world would be considered of age to foal by her 50th birthday, whereas you humans become adults at 18, over twice as old proportionally. And—it’s hard to explain without a diagram.”

“Horses live like 30-something years,” Apple Bloom offered distantly, “An’ they’re all grown up by age 3. Something like that, maybe?”

That was... “Of course!” Twilight yelped in surprise, “Exactly like that! Horses and... and that lines up just about perfectly. Apple Bloom, you’re a genius!”

Apple Bloom didn’t seem convinced, but she did seem placated. “Are your years like... only 3 months or something?” she asked skeptically. “Or... whatever 500 divided by... 30 is...”

“Our years are three hundred and eighty four days,” Twilight stated after, some mental calculation. “With the same 24 hour days, and I can only speak subjectively, but it seems like an hour feels about as long,”

“Humans are the oldest lived species on the planet!” Apple Bloom protested.

“Dragons are the oldest lived species on my planet,” Twilight countered. “Ponies are only among an armful of distant thirds. Tortoises live so long, for instance, that ponies have been known to bequeath them to their next of kin!”

Apple Bloom just shook her head in disbelief. “So ah’m some kinda super long lived pony,” she stated, “An’ that’s why ah’m just a kid, at age 14 still?”

“A-actually,” Twilight clarified softly, nervous to say this, but Sunset did say the whole truth. “This is the fifth year I’ve been here, Apple Bloom,” she said with a meaningful look.

“So?” the filly asked, with a quizzical eyebrow right back.

“So,” Twilight persisted fussily, “When I said you looked just like my version of Apple Bloom, I meant the last time I saw her, five years ago, back when she would still have been—”

Apple Bloom squealed in anguished aggravation, “Ah’m nine years old?!”

That darned no good rotten lying Twilight Sparkle just smiled at Apple Bloom apologetically, confirming everything for her. Not a little kid, Apple Bloom’s butt! The little filly threw herself backwards from the back board, flopping down onto her back on the mattress. She lay there limply, uttering in distress, “Well, this is jus’ great! Not only am ah a little kid, ah’m a little kid even compared to humans, and ponies are like, little kids for super long!”

“It’s... different,” Twilight disputed, hesitating to sit herself on Apple Bloom’s mattress and explain things to the pony. “You probably would only be a little... er... ‘kid’ for about... 6 more years maybe? Most ponies have their cuteciñera at age one-huh... at age 16, though certain fillies insist on having it earlier. But technically you’re not a little foal then. That’s the age when you can apprentice, and some years afterward, you’ll have a growth spurt and... start becoming adult for all intents and purposes, by journeypony age, or t...twenty-one.”

“Twenty-one,” Apple Bloom stated flatly, as if that’s all she heard.

“Well, 16 or er, 18 is when it begins,” Twilight offered pleadingly, “And it’s mostly for legal reasons, and... yes. 21 is when you’d... qualify as what humans know as a ‘teenager.’”

“How old are you?” Apple Bloom piped up, still staring at the ceiling, laying there like a lifeless pony doll.

“I’m... I was thirty... three when I came here,” Twilight told her, “But I’m considered somewhat perspicacious among ponies. Especially now, that I have had 5 more years added on for free. Ponies like me don’t... seem to age, when they’re caught in this time loop, no more than you humans—er I mean... no more than you do.”

“So you haven’t been through like... years and years of high school,” Apple Bloom asked uncertainly, “Even though you’re already... 33, really?”

“I’ve been normalized myself,” Twilight said uncomfortably. “So I’m currently a lot less physically mature than I... was. I did spend a decade in higher education, but I’m an outlier, like I said. Most ponies go into their trade, rather than dedicating themselves to more studying. I was... pretty extreme, honestly. The princess herself had to boot me out of it, before I had any chance to get my nose out of those books and make some friends.

“I like studying,” Twilight emphasized, holding her hands before her for some reason, “Learning new things, reading about ancient legends, it’s all so amazingly fascinating to me! And nopony ever forced me to study it. I had to fight tooth and hoof to get into Celestia’s School for Gifted... oh.”

“Oh?” Apple Bloom asked worriedly, once again perched on the back of the bed as she peered at the purple girl.

“It’s nothing really. I just realized that Princess Celestia, the one in my world, would technically count as a principal too,” Twilight said, blushing and looking at her hands upheld for... some reason. “She established a school for gifted unicorns... occasionally expanded to include ponies in general who study the arcane arts.”

“This is all making mah head hurt,” Apple Bloom moaned, rubbing at her frizzy curls with her forehooves. “So—so ah’m like... nine, an’ ponies live longer, so that’s like, a super baby pony, and the principal is a principal. Got any more facts you wanna share with me?”

Twilight blinked. “No, you’re—”

“An’ ah’m hungry, too!” Apple Bloom declared in a petulant whine. “Ah’m missing breakfast! Bet a little baby like—”

“You are not. A baby,” Twilight growled out angrily, pushing off of Apple Bloom’s bed, and pacing across the room as she ranted. “You are a filly, and yes you are a foal, but you are fully ambulatory. Your eyes are fully irised. You have all your teeth. You are eating solid foods. Yes, you’re a lot younger than you used to be, but you are not some kind of... helpless infant! You’re a pony, Apple Bloom!”

Apple Bloom didn’t comment on that.

“You don’t even—realize just how not incapable you are,” Twilight said, shaking her head in harsh disbelief at the despondent filly. “I told you everything I know. I suspect—and I haven’t even seen Ms. Cheerilee yet—but I have a very good idea that compared to her, you are physically a young filly, and that should stop you from doing precisely nothing! You don’t have to hold yourself back. There’s no way you’re supposed to act to be a filly, that you aren’t already doing, just by being yourself!

“So, no, you are not a baby. That’s all I came here to say,” Twilight concluded, turning away from the bed. “Just... do whatever works, and don’t ever tell yourself that you’re too young to do so. Ponies will—your family and friends will take care of you, if you need it, and otherwise, you just need to... be yourself. And stop worrying so much about how old you are.”

Twilight was almost out of the room, when Apple Bloom squeaked out a noisy, “Thank you!” The little pony blushed as Twilight turned over her shoulder, adding less anxiously, “...thank you, Twilight.”

Twilight gave a small smile, and just continued on her way, opening the door with confidence, a little more reassured now that everything was going to be fine as Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo tumbled in, rolling right up to Twilight’s feet, from where the little ponies had been stacked on top of each other, leaning with their ears against the door just now.

“Oh... hayfeathers,” Twilight declared, staring forward in disgust.

“I can explain!” Sweetie Belle squeaked desperately.

And of course, she couldn’t.

“Why do I always say that?” Sweetie groaned, covering her face in shame.

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo found themselves sitting in a heap at Twilight’s feet, from where they’d rolled in after Twilight Sparkle had opened the door to Apple Bloom’s room, revealing them both as two little eavesdroppers. As soon as Sweetie spoke, her eyes shifted with uncertainty, and Twilight just stared down at her, as if waiting for Sweetie to explain why this totally didn’t count as spying on them.

“So that’s three ponies now, who know about... the limitations of longevity in the human world,” Twilight said distastefully, down to Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. “You two are not going to go telling everyone that you’ve just found the Fountain of Youth, right?”

“The what?” Scootaloo asked cluelessly. Sweetie turned to her.

“The Fountain of Youth,” Sweetie told the orange pony in a practiced tone. “You know, that they were searching for, when they explored the New World?”

Sweetie then looked up at Twilight and said nervously, “Don’t tell me your world has a Fountain of Youth? I promise I won’t tell if it does.”

“It... doesn’t precisely,” Twilight stated uneasily, “But the point is that humans get all crazy about youth and childhood and... stuff, so I’d really appreciate it if you could not tell everyone that you’re going to quote live forever unquote.”

“You don’t actually have to say quote and unquote,” Scootaloo stated abrasively. “Besides, ponies don’t live forever. You said like, Granny Smith was what, 500 years old?”

“She’s still kicking too,” Twilight added. “Might have another century in the old girl, though that would be pushing her luck. I don’t want to give you unrealistic expectations, but ponies in my world do have a very long natural lifespan, compared to humans in your world... and horses, in your world.”

“She’s right Scootaloo,” Sweetie Belle said unhappily. “People care an awful lot about that stuff, and I think they’d do anything to find out how it works.”

“I don’t uh... fancy mahself ending up in some labratory in Manhattan,” Apple Bloom said nervously, “But if the pony’s spreading, ain’t they got the right to know?”

“The mayor is going to be here on Monday,” Twilight said. “No doubt along with the local news crews. I think we’ll be able to pull together something to satisfy them. What I’m most concerned about is how are people going to react, if this keeps getting worse? This is when people need to keep it together and use their incredible ingenuity to prepare, before they’re completely caught splay hooved by an unfortunate transformation. It’s the absolute worst time to start a panic!”

“When’s a good time to start a panic?” Scootaloo asked skeptically.

“The time to panic is when everything is completely out of control,” Twilight explained easily, “When your lives are falling apart faster than you can put them together, your last resort has failed, and disaster is imminent. Right now, we have a still slow rate of incidence, enough food for everyone to eat, no serious injuries or destruction, and 99.98% of the population still in possession of their hands. I think the next weeks are going to make the difference between weathering this, and total disaster.”

She paused, adding shakily, “You—you know, assuming it does continue to accelerate, and is somehow tied in with the time loop, a-and is all my fault. For all I know, you could be the last people to transform.”

There was the sound of a car pulling up outside. Apple Bloom glanced out the window, and then gave Twilight a severely disappointed look, whining, “You jinxed it, Twilight!”

The three little ponies crowded onto the crate that was left beneath Apple Bloom’s windowsill, while Twilight peered over their heads, where down on the ground you could see a police cruiser pulling up into the driveway. And there was only one reason those fellows would be back.

“I think I should go check it out,” Scootaloo said, leaning forward.

“What?” Twilight said in a surprised tone, “No, why would you think that? They’ll either want me, or Granny perhaps, and it’s not even your responsibility to just... walk up to the police and interrogate them. Why would you do that?”

“Because I can totally just jump right out the window, that’s why,” Scootaloo smirked, indulgent with excitement. With a wiggle of her tushie, she lunged forward, and arced smoothly over the windowsill, her incongruously tiny wings catching her less tiny body in mid air. While Twilight stood with a cautionary expression and a hand outstretched, the orange pony fluttered safely downward to where the police car had just come to a stop.

“Well, I guess I can’t argue with that,” Twilight said, dissatisfied. She looked down at the other two less mobile little ponies still perched up on the window sill, saying, “Could one of you two go warn Granny that another pony is here, and Scootaloo is probably getting in trouble with the police again?”

Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom both saluted smartly, then both of them went gallopping out of the room and giggling down the stairs. Even Apple Bloom. Twilight couldn’t help but feel like she was the butt of some sort of joke here, without a jokester anywhere to be seen. Which was actually a pretty good summation of her experience since coming here. At least the news she was dreading having to give these fillies had gone over better than expected. Apple Bloom was justifiably unamused, but once she forced Twilight’s hoof, it actually didn’t work out so bad after all.

Scary how fast foals can go from upset to giddy at the flip of a tail.

Twilight still hoped those three could keep it relatively low key, but perhaps it wasn’t as much of an issue as Twilight had feared. With Cheerilee as... herself, and not a little filly, it was proven that people were changing into ponies from Twilight’s world, including attendant age, so it wasn’t a free ticket to a second foalhood for everyone.

“City of foals indeed...” Twilight murmured, leaning on the windowsill and just watching bemusedly at the scene unfolding beneath her.

Around that time, downstairs in the laundry room, Cheerilee sat there where she awoke, still in a bit of a daze. Now that she had a moment to think, she was eyeing her brand new rear end in puzzlement. On the side of her furry, magenta thigh was the most peculiar thing. Three... daisies? Sunflowers? Cheerilee wasn’t sure what flower they would be; they were highly stylized, like someone had painted them right on. And each one had a smiley face in the center of it.

Was this thing on her thigh some kind of... in-joke? Do ponies—or, people transforming into ponies fall asleep so deeply, that you can paint on their rears without them awakening? How would anyone do it, when Cheerilee still had her pants on? Because she certainly had her pants on, upon waking! Did they put her pants back on?

Cheerilee tried touching it. It felt surreal to even lift her arm, because it was just so... natural to do so! It was a jointed hoof, that only wanted to curl forward, and that didn’t feel nearly as weird as it should have. Cheerilee prodded at her own rear, feeling the smooth, oddly downy fur that covered her entire body now, feeling it dully against her own fingernail... which was a hoof, now. If the—mark was painted on her rear end, the paint would have broken up when she disturbed the fur, but it just seemed like it was the fur.

Could ponies control their fur color, like an octopus? Was that a thing that happens? Cheerilee stared at it, but try as she might, she couldn’t get the image to change just by sheer mental will. What was she even doing? This was complete lunacy, and the mark on her butt, or—brand even, was the icing on the cake. What was she supposed to be, property of the Flower Smiles ranch?

Cheerilee was pretty sure there wasn’t an actual ranch by that name.

Cheerilee’s exploration of the strange mark was done laid on the floor again, twisted around to palpate herself with a surprising flexibility. She wasn’t standing, but she had at least figured out how to get her... hooves underneath her earlier. Now, she was thinking of taking a shot at standing up again, like those other ponies had done before her, so many times. But Cheerilee wasn’t sure whether she should be standing up, or whether she should go anywhere, or what to do at all, in light of the current situation. She just knew so little about what was going on, and now it affected her so profoundly, that Cheerilee was unsure whether to sit or stand. She certainly didn’t want to repeat that thing with Apple Bloom earlier.

Cheerilee looked at her tail. Cheerilee looked at her own tail. She had a tail, she was a horse, and she squinted at it, experimentally willing the pink striped thing to move. She tried to imagine it... lifting or something, but it stubbornly lay there, quiescent. Apple Bloom had little problem using her own tail, so Cheerilee was sure utilization of hers would come in due time, but... acknowledging that meant admitting that this was real, and that this could last for a very long time, long enough for a human being to learn how to have a tail. So instead, Cheerilee just looked at her tail in bemused curiosity, imagining her experience as if it were a game that she was playing, like in her old roleplaying group back in college.

There was a noise and—Cheerilee’s ear turned to face it. She still wasn’t used to that! She turned the rest of her head, to see a small, pink pony easing her way into the room, staring at Cheerilee with wide open eyes of greenish blue. It was one of the new ponies Cheerilee had just seen as of yesterday evening, when Cheerilee tumbled into the Acres half transformed into a horse, with as many last minute provisions as she could think of. This little pony’s complexion—er, that is to say—her fur was a washed out pink, with two shades of pink in her hair. This little pony snuck her head into the laundry room, where Cheerilee had been sleeping, and upon laying eyes upon her the pony said, “Woah! Hyouure hueg!”

Cheerilee looked on in helpless silence, as the pony boldly moved into the room, and unsteadily toddled all around her, saying, “Hyour ligke twishe az big ash me or anybo’y!”

“Whaf?” Cheerilee said uncomprehendingly, in regards to... whatever that pony said. The littler pony responded, by half climbing up Cheerilee’s side.

Cheerilee stiffened at that. The feel of it was... intriguing. She felt the weight on her own body, the little hooves curling over her own back, even though she was watching it happen to a Cheerilee colored pony. The filly’s hooves didn’t hurt, and in fact it was kind of satisfying to feel her leaning against her.

“Ho may! I coul’ rie you!” the pink pony chirped, with the most adorable beaming smile on her face, leaning there on Cheerie’s sloping, deep magenta side. “Why hyou soh bigh?”

At that moment, a glowering pink, almost purple girl with deep magenta hair in long bouncy curls pushed her way into the laundry room. She wore a purple, berry decorated dress, and a sour look of exasperation on her face. She was saying “Hey, Mom—Mom! What are you doi...”

The girl trailed off at the sight of Cheerilee, for one of a few possible reasons. Blinking at Cheerilee, this tall girl asked her, “Why’re you so... big?”

Yes, that would be the elephant in the room.

“can’ thalk...talk hverry gool...very well ye’,” Cheerilee said to the girl carefully, looking up at her with some trepidation rising in her chest. “Nobo’y tol’ me wha’s going on,” she slurred slowly, her mouth feeling so... stretched and stretchy. “Bu’ happle bloom know...sh. Askh hap—Apple Bloob...Bloom.”

The girl stared blankly at Cheerilee, and Cheerilee just gave up on talking. Not until she figured out why her tongue felt so... oh this was what Scootaloo had been talking about when she was learning to talk. How interesting!

“Thry shanding up!” came a high, excited voice above Cheerilee. The light pink little little pony commanded her eagerly, having managed to situate herself entirely on top of the small of Cheerilee’s back, hooves curled around either side of her.

Cheerilee was still sitting on her belly, as she had been since Apple Bloom ran off in such a tizzy. Cheerilee looked down at her own folded hooves insecurely, thinking about what it would take to stand up again, and trying not to think about the curious feeling of a warm body pressed down on her bare back. Was this appropriate? Cheerilee didn’t know anything about how ponies were supposed to treat each other.

“How d’I... do htat... with hyu on my bagk?” Cheerilee asked the not-much-more-articulate smaller pony hanging on up there.

“Jus’ braesh your fron’ hoobes flat, an’ slide your bagk hoobes bagk until ur shanding!” the cutie coached sloppily up there.

The girl still in the room with them exclaimed aggrivatedly, “She doesn’t need you riding her. What are you even doing?”

“No, no, ishogay... ith ish o-gkay,” Cheerilee cautioned the girl, moving a hoof out from under her to try to wave it accedingly in the girl’s direction. This girl who just barged in here seemed to know the pony on her back, but Cheerilee hadn’t really picked up on what her deal was here. But Cheerilee honestly said, “I wanna thry thish,” to the reluctantly impassive girl. Then the librarian gone pony began seeing if she could get herself standing up again.

Stretching her arms out in front of her, flexing them uncertainly, then planting them curled, almost to either side of her, it was sort of like weird pushups, where your head was already raised up high and far back. Cheerilee felt her fingertips—that is to say, hooves—plant firmly on the blankets and the loose clothing she had emerged from this morning. Cheerilee didn’t want to disturb the excited little... filly on her back, so she had to make sure not to trip on these rumpled layers of fabric. But it felt stable enough? Shaking her head slightly, Cheerilee just went for it, trying to slide her back legs back, which incidentally ended up throwing her whole weight onto her arms... arms which bore her weight nicely, of course.

Pushing up with her arms, Cheerilee found that the poorly pronounced, if well meaning lesson of the filly, whose terribly warm belly rested firm on Cheerilee’s back now, was entirely true. That little pony’s excited squee rose in pitch, as Cheerilee’s rear legs slid backwards almost on their own, while she pushed her front ones straight, until her hips felt... stable. It was a surprisingly easy way to stand up, and less hectic than before.

Cheerilee stood there, somewhat shakily, feeling a lot more steady than she thought she would feel. For fingertips, these hooves sure pressed broadly on the ground. The weight of the filly on her back was noticeable, but manageable. Even comfortable! Cheerilee looked up at the girl standing in front of her, the human girl who was keeping herself uneasily separate from them. That girl was looking weirded out as all heck by this. Understandable, considering she was currently observing a little pony riding upon another slightly less little pony.

“Well!” Cheerilee declared to her in a forced pleasantness, “Loogs hlike it whorked. Hereyam giving hrides hlike a fony... a pony. Htangs! ...Thangk... hyou.” She referred to the pony on her back, who just beamed back at her and said,

“Now htry walhking!”

Cheerilee looked forward at the still human girl pleadingly, and the girl relaxed a bit, at least. The girl just rolled her eyes, looking down at her unsympathetically saying, “Hey you wanted this, didn’t you?” Cheerilee didn’t know what to say, or what she could say.

It was so very strange standing there feeling normal, but looking up at this younger girl, not down at her. Cheerilee might have been closer to the girl’s height, if she could stand up on two feet, but she was definitely a lot smaller than she used to be. It was kind of... intimidating.

And yet... there was a pony on Cheerilee’s back, who was even smaller than she was. There were a lot of ponies here, who had transformed into what appeared to be little children. Cheerilee didn’t know for sure, but as a human, every pony Cheerilee had met had looked like an adorable little filly, not like a full grown mare. Looking at this pink lemonade one on her back, even a fully transformed Cheerilee could only reach the same conclusion.

Cheerilee couldn’t even imagine what it must be like to lose not just your species, but your adulthood. Her thoughts turned to Scootaloo, fiercely independent Scootaloo, who might not even be able to take on grown up roles anymore. Cheerilee firmed her ...face determinedly, and said, “Hokay, how d’I walgk?”

There was a moment’s pause, and Cheerilee turned her head as easily as she had while sitting, to face the confused filly on her back saying, “I meant hyou. You whalked in here. Terll me how.”

“Oh!” the littler pony declared, lifting a forehoof from where she currently straddled Cheerilee, chest right up against the base of Cheerilee’s mane. “E’er wear high heels?” this filly asked, very helpfully. Cheerilee blinked, but nodded.

“Ligk the highst heelsh evar!” the pony instructed, “Sho high hyou fall o’er, an’ shtand like zhat. Zen zhust hobble fhorwar’”

Cheerilee tried, and... it was no surprise, but it worked! She just had to decipher the pony’s pronunciation, then imagine her legs trapped in high heels as if she were at another fancy party that she would end up walking away alone from. The hardest part was how her neck just curved up and back now, instead of being hunched forward like one would expect. But that actually made moving easier, not more difficult. Just less... familiar.

It was so frustrating to learn this from a strange pony, because this kind of metaphor would have helped so much, when Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were learning how to walk. Well, perhaps not, since Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle hadn’t spent any late nights trapped in high heels. Not if their respective mom or sister had anything to say about it! Which brought Cheerilee to wonder about what this little girl’s been up to, who was riding on her back.

“How hyu know abou’ heelsh?” Cheerilee asked the filly, who immediately rolled her eyes and said,

“Mayn, you dunno me. I no’ such a homeboddy befhore my daugh’er wash born. Bee’ too my hshare uff parhies. Now c’mo’ giyyup!”

“Now hol’ on,” Cheerilee protested, “What hyu mean your daugh—” Cheerilee glanced between this adorably excited little filly, to the girl standing there looking at them with attentive worry. She looked at the pony. She looked at the girl dead on, Cheerilee’s voice escaping her in a surprised bleat as she said,

“Your daugh’er?!”

The girl standing there actually blushed at that, saying, “She—mom—she’s not acting herself!” as if to justify the actions of this young child on Cheerilee’s back.

“Rearry, Berry?” said the filly straddling Cheerilee, rolling her eyes. “Lige I’ pash ohn thish, e’en if I wasza crow-nup!” She leaned down towards Cheerilee’s back, patting Cheerilee’s side encouragingly with a hoof, saying, “Don’ worry. My babysh jus’ being a shilly ol’ shdick inna muhd.”

“Okay fine,” the girl said disgustedly, drawing Cheerilee’s attention again, “She is acting herself,” the girl said, pulling open the door, adding, “And I officially have the weirdest mom in the world ever.”

Cheerilee was a bit stunned by the realization that this little filly was that girl’s mother. But again, she didn’t know what she could say to the girl, to ease her worries. At least the mother seemed totally unfazed by any of this. Really Cheerilee had to admit the mysterious pink riding pony had a very good attitude. Trying to figure things out at this point was just an exercise in futility. And it occured to Cheerilee that this girl who was the daughter of a pony, was helpfully pulling open the door for Cheerilee’s benefit.

So Cheerilee giddyupped. She took a step, then another, and then since it was only her hind legs stepping, Cheerilee found herself too scrunched up, so she used her arms to catch herself from falling forward. Just as she’d worked out with Scootaloo a dozen times, it enabled Cheerilee to slip into an uneasy hobble, and despite the noticeable weight on her back, Cheerilee was moving forward! Just like a woman in heels. Minus the heels, and the woman.

“Ha ha, yeah, giyyup! This’s sho wigged!” the pony on her back cheered squirrelily, her hooves coming to rest atop Cheerilee’s head, so she could see over it. It made Cheerilee acutely aware of just how thick and muscular her neck had become, but didn’t otherwise inconvenience her at the filly’s shifting weight. Cheerilee just silently put one foot/toe/hoof after the other, and made her way to the door out of the laundry room.

Cheerilee smiled accomodatingly at this pony’s daughter as she passed, and the purplish pink girl just rolled her eyes again, saying, “Fine, while you two give each other pony rides, I’m going to find out what the flying flip is up with miss giant small horse here.” She flounced out of the room then, leaving the door ajar with Cheerilee half in and half out of it.

As difficult a time as Cheerilee was having, it was so amusing to be this way! Cheerilee was a cute little pony, and she was giving an even littler pony a pony ride! Cheerilee had always been curious how horses felt with someone riding them, and it was a strange sort of satisfaction she felt, the weight bearing down on her hips and shoulders like she was built to carry it. Cheerilee had known these ponies were far too small to give a ride to anything larger than a cat, but now Cheerilee seemed to be the exception to that. Still extremely small, even for a pony, she could nevertheless easily manage giving a ride to a... littler pony.

Cheerilee and the light pink pony both extended their heads out the door to the laundry room, Cheerilee at least giving a cautious look around. There wasn’t anything especially loud going on outside, but there were ponies... other ponies out there. And apparantly all the others were very small ones, who were... young?

Cheerilee certainly found it surprising, that she would be this large. It was definitely not the case that other ponies who transformed were all Freshmen, if the one on her back had a teenage daughter. But how young had they become? This whole time, Cheerilee had thought that’s as old as ponies got, but... they were actually very young ponies, the lot of them. Cheerilee would have to ask that Sunset girl, if ponies grew quickly or whatnot.

Pushing down an urge to squee excitedly, Cheerilee wobbled, then stepped forward, walking into the main living room on all fours like an animal, and with another pony on her back to complete the illusion. Or, unillusion? For all her years as a librarian, Cheerilee had never run across a word for the opposite of an illusion, but this all felt very, very real to her. She had left her clothing behind, because... well, it was just impractical to consider at this point. She wanted to do something to help Apple Bloom, and she wanted to try moving around, and she really wanted to see the other—

The other ponies.

Cheerilee made her way into the living room finally, and... there they were. Cheerilee balked suddenly, her bold shuffling coming to a halt, when four little ponies all lifted their heads from various places in the living room, and looked her way.

Cheerilee was just floored by the feeling of... of being this, in front of them. The other ponies stood and, with varying degrees of walking ability (all greater than Cheerilee’s), converged on her location. Noi, Cheerilee knew relatively well. She was helping along a cute little purple and blue filly, with a horn just like Sweetie Belle had. To Cheerilee’s other side came a charcoal grey filly, who looked kind of... off, for a filly, and the fourth filly was a beautiful little bluish white pegasus, who looked more unsteady on her feet than any of the rest of them.

“Whyre hyou sho big?” asked the blue unicorn in a sweet, shocked tone.

“Ey, ge’ your own hride, zish onesh mine!” lisped little Piña on Cheerilee’s back, with a bubbly laugh.

“You’re an... adult?” Noi asked, in a bright, clear, and so confused voice.

“I...” Cheerilee felt dizzy. “I neetha shiddown.”

They all came to her, sitting with Cheerilee as she sank to her belly once again. They looked at her with big, curious eyes, while Cheerilee looked down among them, unsure of what to do, unsure of what to say. She felt strangely... protective. She was a mother hen here, with a bunch of children clustering around her. No matter how Cheerilee tried to tell herself that one of these ponies was a girl’s mother, or how Noi here was older than she was, she felt like she was here for them, and they needed her. She didn’t believe it could be this way, but it just... was.

Announcements

Twilight and the CMC were just finishing up negotiations. Having worked out their differences, and a sort of arrangement, the three ponies and a girl descended to the ground floor. Twilight came down behind them, stopping short as they stopped short, as they came upon a surreally picturesque scene.

Cheerilee could be seen sitting peacefully on her belly, a pony in the living room. Just a little (for planet Earth) deep magenta hued pony, with bright pink hair, seated there with her hooves tucked against her like they belonged there. Flanking Cheerilee were a half dozen little fillies, and one colt, some trying to get her attention and vying to talk to her animatedly, others just laying against her and looking at her curiously. Everypony was clustering close around her, like the librarian were an anchor in the storm.

Twilight looked at the scene with a fondness in her chest, but also an aching worry. There was something important about this, that Twilight was missing. She just knew there was. It was an obvious reaction among a bunch of foals, lost and scared because of their transformation. Why would a librarian be the first pony who wasn’t transforming into a foal? And what did this situation remind her of?

Without answers, it was a moot point, and Sweetie Belle went right forward to join Cheerilee, speaking to the other foals, and continuing to try and reassure them about the situation. Apple Bloom only hesitated a moment, before trotting after.

Twilight should have told them everything she knew about everything right then and there, but... it couldn’t hurt to get a quick presentation together, right? Plus, she wanted to cross bases with Sunset, before committing to anything. Plus, she really didn’t want to disrupt such an adorable scene. So Twilight Sparkle just silently excused herself, and made her way to put her boots on again.

With everyone quite engaged in Cheerilee’s new transformation, not many were paying much attention to the quiet, mousy purple girl in the corner. As Twilight headed out, only one other girl known as Applejack stared after her suspiciously. But Twilight herself didn’t even notice, just heading blithely out the door to prepare for more lectures.

On her way out, Twilight spotted a pony... two ponies in fact, one being Scootaloo, and the other was a rather befuddled looking filly with shocking green hair and a bright red coat of fur. Quite bold colors for a pony, or a human for that matter, the filly wasn’t walking, but was being carried in the arms of a pale green police officer with even paler blue hair. Scootaloo was trotting alongside the pair, assuring the filly that everything’s going to be okay now, but Twilight wondered.

Yet another filly, it was making Twilight wonder if this transformation somehow was sexist. The gender ratio wasn’t that skewed, even in ponies. One colt, and one adult, both on the same day, as if to mock Twilight’s attempts to find any underlying pattern in all this. Would there be more colts? Twilight knew many of the counterparts to humans in this world were stallions, or colts, so it had to happen eventually, right? Would there be more adults than just Cheerilee?

There was a new pony showing up every other day now. As Sunset had calculated, the rate was accelerating, and there’s only one class of function that applies, when the rate is proportional to the acceleration. The exponential. With a lot of thoughts on her mind, Twilight returned to the trailer that she and Sunset had “borrowed” for their equipment and boarding, to once again try to make sense of things.

Meanwhile back in the farm house, Cheerilee was a pony, sitting there on a hardwood floor in a beautiful farm house, surrounded by other littler ponies. The others seemed to find some strange comfort in her physical presence. Not so strange, when she took some time to think about it. Cheerilee was an adult pony, and they were all foals, simple as that. Cheerilee felt unusually calm; she felt she should have been more terrified of her transformation than she was, but had one big advantage:

Cheerilee had seen it happen before, in Scootaloo, and her friends. She had at least run across this transformation, and had some familiarity with the idea. She knew what was going on when she transformed. But these other ponies, they could have been caught completely off guard, and had no idea what was happening to them. They were just a bunch of frightened children, who had their whole world taken out from under them without warning. A bunch of frightened foals who, of course, gravitated toward the one adult in their life.

Cheerilee didn’t feel like she was ready for that kind of responsibility, but what else could she do?

In particular, she could look up pleadingly at the orange teen approaching her, who had been so helpful in all this, both in word and deed.

“You bein’ like this answers a lotta questions,” Applejack told Cheerilee as she approached, glancing unhappily at the door Twilight walked out of, before turning back to regard the librarian, “But it sure asks a whole lot more questions than it answers. Twilight, she... well ah mean—I didn’t wanna say nothin’, but... that pony lady, the one who knows all about us as ponies from another world...”

Applejack folded her arms, glowering darkly at the wall separating her from Twilight Sparkle, saying, “Ah’m startin’ to think she ain’t been givin’ us the whole story.”

They remained silent for a moment, before Cheerilee collected her wits enough to utter in astonishment, “Dishu shay another worl’?!”

“Good grief lady!” Apple Bloom piped up at her side, “You really been outta the loop!”

Applejack glanced down at Apple Bloom, laying up against the uncoordinated little pony, that Cheerilee found herself being, and looked back to Cheerilee. With a look of tired resignation, Applejack said, “Ah can tell you the basic idea, though only Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle have all the details about their trip. But from what I hear, it all started in the magical land of Equestria...”

Cheerilee just wanted things to be simple again! She just wanted to have her daughter and her job to deal with, and none of these crazy... other things to worry about. Being a pony, she could handle. Being the temporary surrogate mother to a bunch of frightened foals, fine. But another world? There was another Cheerilee just like her, except this one had always been a pony? There were portals to other universes? She’d had to come to terms with at least some sort of unexplainable phenomenon with how Scootaloo started flying of all things, but that was a lot less obviously... magical than magic mirrors and fantasy kingdoms populated entirely by ponies.

Cheerilee wished she didn’t have to know about this. Her whole life, everything that she remembered up until the beginning of this school year was... gone? It had all happened untold ages past, and she’d just been dealing with her daughter and her job exactly the same way, year after year, in a time loop? She just... felt so ephemeral, and old, as if yesterday was a million years ago. It certainly seemed like it was the case.

Scootaloo and her friends had managed to separate the other foals from Cheerilee, enough to give the poor librarian-gone-pony some space. She smiled at them all accomodatingly, trying to keep herself together, but it was just so overwhelming. Cheerilee wasn’t ready for crazy adventures like this! She... could understand why everyone had kept her out of the loop all this time.

Sighing and lifting her head up, Cheerilee managed a standing position again. If you called standing on your arms, standing. She lifted one hoof after another, and just as Scootaloo had expressed, Cheerilee had a hard time thinking of her front ones as two arms. They were already starting to feel more like two of four legs.

But unlike Scootaloo, Cheerilee had nothing to replace her hands with. She felt... simplified by that. When it came time to reach out and grab something, Cheerilee would just have to stand there, being a pony. Or use her mouth, perhaps. That seemed to work for the others. But it still felt worrying, that she didn’t have any... way to grasp anything, anymore.

“You doing alright, mom?” Scootaloo asked, drawing Cheerilee’s ear that way, before drawing her eyes. Cheerilee turned and looked at her daughter, feeling so dull and just wiped out, there beside a little filly, her young winged daughter who in her brazen confidence seemed somehow larger than life.

“Jus’ a little s–uh—” Cheerilee closed her eyes and dipped her head again. “Shcared...” she admitted with frustration in her chest. “I jush dunnho howtha take hall thish.”

“I dunno either,” Scootaloo said shaking her little pony head, which wasn’t so little now that Cheerilee was downsized at least closer to Scootaloo’s level. “But I um, just wanted to, uh...” Scootaloo prevaricated, lifting a hoof and scraping it on the wood of the floorboards with such an adorable insecurity it was a crime not to hug her. Cheerilee was a hardened criminal in that respect though, and gave her daughter her personal space for now, gently prompting Scootaloo,

“Shpill it.”

“I just—!” Scootaloo looked up at Cheerilee with a pleading expression on her face. “I just wanted you to know that it’s okay if you’re not a pegasus,” Scootaloo said, sidling up to Cheerilee. “I don’t care if you’re just a regular pony, and if we’re not really related. You’re still my mom, and you’re always gonna be. A-and I’m sorry I got upset that you didn’t have um, wings.”

Closing her eyes, Scootaloo just slightly nuzzled Cheerilee’s elbow. Which was taking the place of her shoulders nowadays, it seemed. Scootaloo pulled back, and was gonna trot away and be all embarassed over nothing, so Cheerilee gave her something to be embarassed about, saying, “C’mere, giddo,” and pulling Scootaloo into a hug. It was hard to figure out how to rear up on two legs, but by sliding her side to the ground, it gave Cheerilee the freedom to stretch out her forelegs, and pull her bewinged daughter against her.

Scootaloo didn’t protest too much, and Cheerilee really needed to have someone with her right now.

Until today, it seemed so silly and... trivial, frankly! Turning into a pony. Until today, all Cheerilee had to think of was how her Scootaloo had blossomed for lack of a better word into her new role. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom, and now the adorable Noi who was so astonished at her own adorability. They were themselves, and they were ponies, and that was that. There were no world shaking dilemmas to worry about, and no catastrophes shattering the deeply held tenents that we all rely on, such the assumption that what we remember happening a year ago, happened a year ago. Just something very strange that happened to three girls, and how to deal with it.

But it came out of Applejack’s own mouth, like it was the honest truth. Cheerilee had the impression that poor Applejack could be fooled at times, but for her to speak with such conviction, it would take more than a simple ruse to convince the level headed girl of something so outlandish. Magical kingdoms across mystical portals. Time turning in on itself, the lot of them repeating year after year without awareness of doing so. Even the impossible seemed perfectly sensible, given the astonishing impossibility of what Cheerilee saw here and now. Every time she craned her neck around at an unimaginable angle, to look with disbelief down at the dusky cerise animal who was laying there in her stead, Cheerilee found herself less able to deny Applejack’s tale, and more worried about what it might mean for all of them.

It was a full two days before Apple Bloom remembered about the dog, to her great embarassment. How do you forget a talking dog? Suddenly finding out that you were a little kid sure seemed to do the trick! Apple Bloom had just been chasing Scootaloo outside, when she saw in the window of the pony girls’ trailer, a medium sized purple dog glaring at her accusingly.

“Oh magawsh!” the pink bowed filly skidded to a halt, and ran wide eyed up to the trailer, rearing up to peer at the dog staring at her from the window. She started to say, “Ah dunno if y’can hear me, but—” and the dog opened the window. Of course the dog opened the window.

“Apple Bloom, what gives?” he growled, very clearly irritated. “You promised you would talk to her! I’ve been stuck in here ever since we brought this stupid trailer to your farm!”

“Ah’m so sorry, uh... puppy... dog...” Apple Bloom tried to apologize, trailing off into vagueness as she had no idea how you were supposed to address a talking dog.

“Spike,” he sighed. “My name is Spike.”

“Oh, because of the collar, right!” Apple Bloom said, giving it an appreciative glance.

“No, because of the magic spike that hatched me,” Spike said, rolling his eyes grumpily. “Now, how about telling all your little pony friends that I’m not gonna bite them, so I can get out of this thing. I’m going stir crazy, I tell you!”

“Apple Bloom, who are you talking to?” came Scootaloo’s voice as she trotted up to the trailer. “Why did you—is that a dog?”

“No, it’s a fire breathing dragon,” Apple Bloom said ironically. “Of course it’s a dog!”

“Is he... tame?” Scootaloo said a little nervously.

“Ah dunno,” Apple Bloom said, turning up to the dog saying, “Mister Spike, are you tame?”

“It’s just Spike,” he replied, “And yes I am perfectly tame.”

“Oh ha ha, Ap—” Scootaloo started, then her eyes bugged out as she stared at Spike, saying, “We really can communicate with animals?”

“No, whu...” Apple Bloom put a hoof to her forehead, saying, “Spike is a magic talking dog. Even humans can talk with him.”

She faltered, glancing up at Spike and saying, “Even humans can talk with you, right?”

“Yeah, right,” Spike said with a sigh. “Twilight thinks it’s because I have an Equestrian mind... wave thingy. Other dogs can’t talk, and I sure haven’t met any other dragons.”

“That is so awesome!” Scootaloo said with big, limpid eyes, rearing up to look closer. “Can all dogs from Equestria talk?”

“I’m not—” Spike started, just as the other pony they were playing with, by name of Peachy Pie ran up, shouting,

“Hey where did you girls—Is that a dog?!”

“Ah’m gonna talk to Twilight right now,” Apple Bloom said to her in answer, “This ain’t something ah wanna tell absolutely everyone one at a time.”

“O...kay,” Peachy said looking with unease as the red and yellow filly went trotting off in search of the purple princess. She reared up onto the side of the trailer, holding out a hoof cautiously and saying, “Nice doggy, good doggy. You sure are a cutie, huh sweetie puppy? Are you a good doggie? Who’s a good puppy? Who’s a doopie shoopie wooby poo?”

Spike closed the window.

Apple Bloom found Twilight doing some measuring thing with her chart in the main living room. She gallopped into the house, and paused, scooting back outside to scuff off her hooves on the mat. Then she charged into the house and ran up to the purple girl, shouting assertively,

“When were you gonna tell us about the talking dog!”

“Talking?” Twilight said, turning an oddly pale shade of lilac. “Oh, no no, Spike’s just a normal, everyday, average—”

“Everyone already knows he’s a talking dog,” Apple Bloom said, somewhere between sullen and smug. “Ah heard him talking and so did a bunch of other people. Why cain’t you let him outta your trailer, if he’s a talking dog, who ain’t gonna bite no pony?” Apple Bloom neglected to mention that “a bunch” was one, maybe two other people, but she figured she owed it to the dog to ham it up a bit.

“I um... it doesn’t bother you?” Twilight said, all big eyed and mystified.

“Of course it doesn’t—you know what bothers me?” Apple Bloom said angrily, “Is you locking something like that up, so you can keep it a secret! And not telling me mah true age, and not telling all sorts of stuff. Why do ya keep doing this? Aren’t we your friends?”

Apple Bloom looked down at her hoof at that, and corrected herself slightly saying, “Ah mean—aren’t we people who got the right to know what’s going on in our lives?”

“I just...” Twilight sighed, putting down her presentation thingy she was working on, facing Apple Bloom levelly and pleading, “Haven’t you had enough disruption already? I didn’t want to throw another wrench in, just as you’d managed to achieve a good, orderly routine again. What does Spike have to do with your lives, anyway?”

“He... he doesn’t?” Apple Bloom said, bow drooping unconfidently. “But ah mean, he’s all cooped up in there. It ain’t us,” she realized, perking again, “It’s him! It ain’t fair to him to be stuck in that little trailer. It ain’t right to do that to an animal, even a talking one who used to be a dragon!”

“He’s not an animal, he’s a...” Twilight frowned looking supremely conflicted. “He usually has the whole run of the... it’s just a temporary... oh Celestia, I’m doing it again.”

Apple Bloom blinked, not sure she wanted to know the answer when she asked, “...doing what?”

“Being a clueless, teenage girl,” Twilight said unappreciatively, “Who can’t even remember to care for her friends because she’s busy freaking out about her own hormones!”

“Uh, okay, that’s... not good?” Apple Bloom offered uneasily.

“It’s fine, Apple Bloom,” Twilight sighed. “I just let it get ahead of me again. Believe it or not I was something of a jackass in college. Poor Spike, he didn’t know what to do with me, and I was too busy to notice him, busy with studying, with hiding from myself with... with being busy! Well, I since learned to treat other ponies with respect and consideration... and I suppose I shouldn’t blame hormones for it, but I do still have my moments... at times.”

At times? Apple Bloom wanted to say, so sarcastically.

“But you’re right, and I will incorporate his um... personhood into my presentation,” Twilight said accedingly, picking up her papers and sorting through them again. “So please, just give me a chance. I might not get it right every time, but I will find a way to do the right thing.”

Apple Bloom nodded. Then she leaned forward, looking at what Twilight was busily scribbling out and rewriting on them. “So when are you—” Apple Bloom started to say, but Twilight interrupted quickly, saying,

“Not now please. I have to completely redo this thing to account for my obligation to Spike.”

Apple Bloom figured she made some progress with Twilight, but she just wasn’t feeling that she did. She sighed in tense frustration, and just trotted off then, leaving the purple girl to do her... thing. Twilight’d come through with her promise, wouldn’t she? But would she do it in a way that nobody was happy with?

“Okay, attention everypony!” Twilight Sparkle announced, standing before a lecture hall that was the Apple Family living room. Rarity and Applejack were in the other room, and Big Macintosh was out in the cow barn. Twilight’s lecture hall seating was merely a single, beat up, old, comfy couch, and her audience were all young foals, save the one somewhat shell shocked librarian who was stuck up on the couch, as she was currently being used as the perch for several of the foals. But that was all fine, since Twilight was ready for them. She turned to the first page of a flippable pad of poster paper she had on an easil to present with.

“I mean, everybody,” Twilight corrected herself deliberately. Again. “The first matter has been brought to my attention by Apple Bloom, and I’m terribly sorry if I alarm anypony in saying this, but my most trusted assistant, and one of my best friends, is a dog right now. Spike came through the portal trying to save me, and ended up getting caught himself, but for whatever reason that I became a human, the same rules didn’t apply to dragons, it seemed. Now, he may be scary, and your lives have seen a lot of turmoil recently, but I promise you he would never do anything to hurt any one of you. That being said, does anybody, or, any pony have any objections to this dog roaming free around the farm, rather than having to be confined to my trailer?”

“Yeah ah have a question!” one crotchety sounding Granny Smith spoke up from across the counter in the kitchen, staring bullets at the purple girl. “How are you so sure your dog is so well behaved? You talk pretty now, but then someone’s gonna spook him, and we’re gonna have a pony with dog bites! Dogs cain’t adjust easy to new routines, don’t ya know? How are we supposed to know if he’s gettin’ antsy?”

“Well, you could try asking me,” came Spike’s whiny voice from over by the front door. Sunset Shimmer was standing there, waving to the crowd with a not very pleased smile on her face, holding a loose leash going to the collar of a small to medium sized purple and green hound of some sort, who Apple Bloom knew as Spike.

“Because I’m not really a dog!” the dog named Spike declared confidently, puffing up his chest, saying, “I’m actually a fire breathing dragon!”

As an afterthought, he added, “And that means I’ll tell you, not bite you, if I need something. I don’t bite humans, and I don’t bite ponies.”

“Iszha’ a thalking dhog?!” somepony screeched, in a high voice.

“Oh my gosh!” Twilight loudly declared, as planned, pointing at the white filly who’d reared up in surprised alarm. “Is that a talking pony?!”

The pony, Cotton Cloudy actually, sank to her haunches rather than clopping down on all fours, looking at Twilight apologetically. Before the filly could say anything, Twilight went on saying,

“Yes, Spike was my assistant in the other world. That means he is not a normal dog by any measure. I know it’s alarming, and strange, but please don’t freak out, panic, or stampede, because I assure you he is nothing less than a kind, capable gentledrake...gentledog. I’m sorry, but you’ll have to accept that Spike is who he is, because I can’t keep him locked up in my trailer just for your benefit.”

“Are you kidding?” Noi spoke up, looking at Spike with big eyes. “That’s amazing! You can really talk?!”

“Yes he—” Twilight started to say, but everyone was looking at Spike now.

“Well, I try not to brag,” Spike said somewhat smugly to the tan filly, putting a paw on his chest.

“She iz fhrom anozher worl’!” one of the new ponies said, struggling to her hooves and staring unabashedly at the odd little dog who was starting to look nervous now.

“Whas’zhe ovver worl’ hlike?” a pink filly asked, toddling over in Spike’s direction.

“Um, bigger,” Spike said thoughtfully, “It has a lot of tall mountains, and deep valleys. And beautiful cities. I grew up in Canterlot, if I do say so myself.”

“Wow,” a number of others were saying, now making their way towards Spike to peer at him with interest, their poorly pronounced questions sounding like one uniform, awestruck babble. Spike tried to back out the door, but he was surrounded, not just by ponies but by humans too. Cloudy’s mom was outright starry eyed, and Piña’s daughter was on one knee, looking at the dog in disbelief. Only Applejack remained unfazed by the revelation, though Rarity merely looked a bit discomfited by the presence of such a strange creature as a talking dog.

From her completely ignored position across the room, Twilight gave Sunset a pleading look, but all Sunset could do is hold his leash, smile sympathetically, and shrug at her. It seemed Twilight was no longer the center of attention. But once the audience had been satisfied with greeting Spike, Twilight found a solution to that. Spike found himself sitting at attention beside Twilight’s presentation, not because he hadn’t heard it all before, but because he was surrounded by a small herd of fascinated and very young ponies, who actually had to listen to what Twilight had to say.

“I know I presented on this subject earlier,” Twilight said, giving a look at a relieved pony Cheerilee resting by herself for once, over there beside the couch. “But in light of Ms. Cheerilee’s transformation, I think I might have some more to say. I’d like to apologize; I haven’t been giving you the whole story, and while I haven’t been trying to deceive any of you, there are some important things I may have neglected to bring up, such as how you have all thus far been transforming into ...foals.

“Foal is a term for a young pony, a child really,” Twilight continued, raising the pointer to her diagram of an adult pony next to a foal. “Foals may vary in age from about 5 to 20 years of age. You are all in a completely normal stage in any pony’s natural life. There is nothing wrong with you, and it’s not at all unusual that you might be so small, or... well, feel younger is the best I could describe it. I’m not here to talk about what you already have experienced though. I’m here to talk about what it means for you all.”

“Until Cheerilee here, I had strong suspicions that you were all transforming into foals,” Twilight said with a frown, flipping to the next page, that had pictures of several of the foals and their measured heights, “But I had no strong reference of scale to back up my feelings. See, no pony has ever been a pony on this side of the mirror, so I had no way to tell what the relative size of a pony would be. I could guess at the head to body ratio, but frankly even adult ponies have a larger head to body ratio than humans, and thicker limbs to boot. But thanks to Cheerilee here—”

Twilight flipped a half cutout page, with just Cheerilee’s profile on it, while indicating the measured difference in height, “I can conclude that you are in fact foals, and she is an example of a larger adult pony.”

“Larger?” Cheerilee spoke up, with an unconsciously offended swish of her tail.

“Oh, um,” Twilight blushed, flipping the cutout back so it only showed the foals on it again, “You—Cheerilee is—my world’s Cheerilee is a very large mare. She’s one of the few mares who can almost look Big Macintosh eye-to-eye. It doesn’t have the stigma you might associate size with in the human world, though. Quite the opposite in fact.”

Holding a hand on her breast, Twilight tried to give them some reference for comparison, saying, “My world’s Fluttershy is also on the taller side of mares, as well as my er... myself, as becoming a princess did increase my size quite a bit. Perhaps due to the princesses, tall, slender mares are considered very, er...”

She realized she was nervously bending her pointer stick.

“This is getting somewhat off topic,” Twilight hastily added, “My point is that you may find yourself acting in ways that you aren’t used to, and that’s probably because you’ve inadvertantly become physiologically younger, in some cases a lot younger than you once were. You didn’t used to be foals, so you might find your behavior changing markedly as a consequence.

“Now this is not any sort of Fountain of Youth,” Twilight stated firmly. “It is not normal for ponies to become younger, and the magic to do so is very difficult, rare to come by, and not without consequences. I don’t know how or why you’re transforming into ponies, and not even my world’s magic is sufficient to explain why you’d be transforming into ones so much younger than your age as a human.”

“Sans Cheerilee you are all now young foals,” Twilight continued, “Physically, I mean. You may find yourself more prone to emotional outbursts. You won’t be as strong, or capable as a fully grown pony, and you may find yourself more...” she searched for a word twirling her hand, “Malleable. Which is to say, have a harder time paying attention, more forgetful or disorganized, but much better at learning new things, or changing your own worldview. The standard stuff you would expect of human children, Equestrian foals are no exception, I’m afraid.”

“Hey!” sounded out Sweetie Belle’s penetrating voice. “Twilight! Um.”

“Yes?” Twilight asked, looking at the little white unicorn gently. “I am mostly here to answer questions, Sweetie Belle, so ask whatever you want and I’ll answer as best as I can.”

“Well, um, it’s... not me, actually. It’s... “ Sweetie looked to her left, where an aqua colored unicorn foal with purple hair sat, looking absolutely terrified, from how stiff she held herself, and how narrow her pupils were.

“Go ahead, Eli,” Sweetie prompted with a nudge to the pony in question.

“An’ um...” Elias’s face rushed to a full on blush, as she said in a whispery voice, “What if you didn’ ushed to be ......”

“Didn’t catch that,” Twilight prompted, holding a hand up to her round ear.

“Whaifuwereaboy” Elias blurted out, then scrunched her eyes shut and turned away.

Twilight blinked, trying to figure out what a pony who could hardly pronounce her words had blurted out rapid fire. What if you were...

“Oh! Right!” Twilight yelped, straightening up stiffly to face the purple and green foal more seriously, among others. “...that,” Twilight said uneasily.

She definitely didn’t want to upset the poor filly, but it was an important point to bring up. “That kind of caught all of us off guard,” Twilight said to little Eli over there, “But if more people are changing, we might have a... bit of a crisis on our hooves. You see, ponies don’t—erm... have as many stallions, as mares. To very briefly summarize the genetics behind it, ponies have two sex chromosomes, and only one who is XYZZ will come out male. XXZW, XYZW, or XXZZ ponies are all fully functionally female.”

“Wha’ thheck isz a chromoshome?” the light pink filly chirped out irritably.

“Well it’s—” Twilight chewed on a lock of her hair, contemplating her audience here.

“It’s really not important,” she said to the ponies at large, trying a laugh to calm the tension. “All I’m trying to say is, only about 25% of the pony population is going to be born a colt. I don’t mean to suggest that this transformation has any genetic basis whatsoever, but if it’s turning you all into ponies, it might be... correcting the gender ratio as well.”

Then out of nowhere, that aqua and purple filly who spoke so shyly before, whinnied out in wide eyed astonishment, “Two shex shromosomesh?! How doesh tha’ even work? How di’it evorlve? Are hyou rela’ed to birbs? Ish that why shome of us have wingsz? Wha’ ‘bout unicornsh? Ca’ we innerbreen? Can we—

“...

“I-inhter...breed,” she repeated, eyes losing their excitement for fear again, as the filly trailed off in a squeak.

Before Twilight could let the awkward silence continue any further, a pudgy little grey colt spoke up, saying, “Why ish Eliash zhe only one, zthen? I’m zhe only bhoy who change’ so far. ‘zzit only going after girlsh or shomesthing?”

“Good question, Truffle!” Twilight told him, with her shoulders slumping in relief. “And the answer is, I have absolutely no idea. Let me elaborate a bit. Um... hold on a sec.”

She charged off then, running out in the snow to her trailer. “Need the map!” she shouted anxiously, pushing her way in and rolling up a big map of the city they had pinned on the wall.

“Can’t you take a picture?” Sunset told her wryly, laying on the bed with absolutely no dog to attend to, “It’ll last... longer,” but Twilight was already running back out again for the farm house.

Wow, were her feet getting cold!

With her toes warming on the floorboards, and spreading the map hastily over her presentation sheets, Twilight said, “I’ve been recording where you all live, to see if there’s a pattern to the occurrence, and as you can see... well, here, here, here, here, it’s all totally randomly distributed!” she pointed at a few red circles indicating where each of them reported living.

“It is a concern of mine, because humans have such a high male to female gender ratio,” Twilight explained, pointing to a group of hastily drawn humans to indicate male and female. “If you become ponies from my world, we might not have a 1:1 gender transferal, which is to say that a lot of colts are going to be becoming mares.” Her eyes rested upon Elias again, and Twilight’s blush deepened, as she stuttered, “B-but until you, Elias, I had thought we had dodged that particular bullet.

“It does seem to be quote, going after, unquote females in preference to males, even considering the sex ratios,” Twilight said suspiciously. “There are 9 ponies who have thus far transformed that we know of, the incidents increasingly spaced closer together. Of those nine, 8 are female and 1 is a colt. Statistically there should be 2 colts, by now, but unfortunately 1 is a very small sample size, statistically speaking.”

Twilight rubbed her forehead, and continued, saying, “I cannot make strong claims about any sex ratios at this point; the sample size is just too small to tell whether it is inordinately biased towards females, or whether it’s just random chance that another colt hasn’t shown up yet, who... stayed a colt. But what I can see a disparity in, and what’s far more odd about this scenario, is... why are you all turning into foals?”

Twilight rolled up the map again, flipping through her presentation, to get ahead to the part where it summarized statistical age distribution among ponies: a nice, sensible exponential decay. “Most ponies are adults,” she claimed, “So if it was just random selection, reason has it that 92% of you would be above the foal age. Your gender ratio is off because of the absence of 1 colt, but your age ratio is completely upside down! If there were 8 foals in a random selection of Equestrian ponies, then there should be 92 other adult ponies, here in the room with us.”

Twilight looked at the young assembly sans Cheerilee and said seriously, “That’s the other reason I wasn’t sure you were foals, because there’s just too many of you to be a coincidence! Why only Cheerilee? Why are human adults becoming foals? It simply doesn’t make sense! Except for one even more puzzling observation.

“There is a strange rhyme and reason to you all being foals,” Twilight revealed, turning the next page in her presentation, showing a human overlaid over a pony, next to a simple pony of the same color, with a multitraversal symbol dividing the two (basically a squiggly line). “In my previous presentation, I mentioned that I came from another world, which appears in some way to be adversely affecting your own. In my world, there is a pony very similar to each and every one of you, uncannily so, now that our timeline has caught up to yours. In my old life, I personally came to know many of these ponies. Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, they all have versions of themselves in my world. And in my world, those three are all foals.

“In my world,” Twilight said, tapping the pony side to emphasize, “They are foals, and my version of Ms. Cheerilee here is an adult mare. Just as Ms. Cheerilee remains the only adult mare among the lot of you. I can’t be certain, since I don’t know everypony in my world, but I’m fairly sure for all of you who changed, besides Cheerilee, all of your alternate verse counterparts are of foal age. It’s as if my world is ...leaking over into this one, and regardless of your age here, someone whose counterpart is a foal in the other world, transforms into a foal in this world.

“That’s what’s peculiar about this,” Twilight said, “Is it seems to be targeting you, not necessarily based on whether you were originally female or not, but whether you happen to be a foal, in my world. I can’t think of any reason such an enchantment would specifically choose the ponies who were going to become foals, but here you all are, incontrovertible evidence that it is picking out people whose alternate selves are little colts and fillies.”

“I think I even recall seeing a filly just like yourself in Apple Bloom’s class, Elias,” Twilight offered, looking straight at that filly so traumatized at being a filly. “Not a man, not an adult, but somepony who was born female, and remained a filly her whole life. I recognize a lot of you, in fact, since I’ve been asked at times to give presentations for Cheerilee’s class. But I don’t have as much familiarity with you as she would, as much as I wish I did.”

“My... libhrary shience classz?” Cheerilee spoke up, uncertainly.

“Oh, no in my world, Cheerilee is a schoolteacher,” Twilight informed the mare. “She teaches er... what you would call primary school, on many general subjects.”

“...huh,” Cheerilee said simply, sinking back down on her belly, and staring forward in thought.

“Didn’t you used to be a teacher, Ms. Cheerilee?” Apple Bloom asked the deep plum mare. “I remember your class back in prim’ry school. That was you, weren’t it?”

“No, I... I’ve been a libhrarhian my enhire life, Affle Bhloom,” Cheerilee told her in a mystified tone. “Ith takeshs a very hlong time to buil’ a cahreer in libhrary shience, an’ I shertainly didn’ start off wiff my theaching gredential. I only shtarted teashing libhrary shience recentlr...ly, in fac’.”

Twilight looked at the two neutrally, then her face fell in an absolutely horrifying revelation. “I–I don’t mean to alarm any of you,” Twilight stammered, gripping her pointer more tightly, “But I don’t have any guarantee that your m—”

There was a hammering on the door. “Got two more!” a loud voiced cop said through it.

Heart hammering in her chest, Twilight wisely decided to say to the group, “I need to conduct some tests. I don’t have enough information to draw any conclusions yet. I–I need to consult my notes, so I think this lecture is over. If anypony has any questions, j-just direct them to me individually afterwards.”

The foals just blinked at her uncomprehendingly.

“So, we can go?” Scootaloo piped up.

“Yes,” Twilight said tensely, and the Crusaders at least went galloping off for the front door, no doubt to greet whoever had just been saddled with becoming a pony. The rest seemed content to work on standing up and wandering off more slowly. But though her speech was rather abruptly ended, Twilight wasn’t out of hot water yet.

Something about Apple Bloom’s words had struck a deeply troubling note in Twilight’s mind, and she tried to control her rising level of panic by cleaning up her presentation supplies. She wasn’t exactly... approachable like this, or responsive, so thankfully they mostly left her alone. But what Twilight heard would not leave her alone, and the one thing she couldn’t stop from asking herself.

“Are their minds being transformed?”

Elias Doolots was still trying to wrap his head...her head... its? Still trying to understand the implications behind what that girl Twilight had told them. He... she... Elias supposed he should go with she, as long he was in this temporary form. The notion that it was temporary was alluring, but she honestly didn’t have her hopes up. It would figure that this portal closed itself before it could do any of them any good. If there was a way to change back, it sure wasn’t obvious. And anyway, she wasn’t too... upset about it, anymore?

There was a fuzzy feeling in Elias’s chest, that wasn’t just chest fluff, as she curled around a cup of hot cocoa that she’d been so weirdly happy to receive. It just... it’s chocolate! And sweet! And hot. That’s all it took to make her face light up with delight like a circus sideshow.

Elias thought he had never been more scared when he transformed into a pony, and into a girl, but there was the one time on the playground, when he got accidentally locked out after recess. It was no problem, they let him right in, and chastised him for being where the teachers couldn’t see, but he was so scared at the time, and... it was the same sort of fear.

Her thoughts had been so disorganized and... frankly ditzy. The dreadful amount of concentration she normally had was just shot, and the slightest thing seemed to be able to distract her, or even fascinate her. She spent hours the other day just playing with what it looks like when you draw red lines next to blue ones, and pairing other colors like that, just because it was fun!

And all that, because she’d changed into a girl? No, no none of that had anything to do with it, Eli was coming to realize. She was shyer, but... she was as shy as when she’d been younger. People just seemed so much more important all of a sudden. Elias had never noticed slowly becoming disinterested and numb to them over the years, but now that she thought about it, a lot of the strange, alien behaviors she’d been trying to resist were actually very familiar to her, an Elias from a time lost in the past.

Elias wasn’t sure how much having this... place between her legs was affecting her behavior, but it actually wasn’t as dramatic as she’d feared it to be. She walked on hooves now, and her arms felt like just another set of legs, and that was a more dramatic change than anything. She moved her tail and it felt so natural to do so. It was staggering how much her mind would have had to change to become like that.

She might have been more protective of her backside, and more ashamed of others seeing her, but was that a female instinct, or was it just the reaction of a male turned female? Would you be equally as embarassed as a female turning into a male? Didn’t males have more vulnerable equipment down there? So how could Elias attribute it to her new unasked-for femininity?

Elias only made it through a quarter cup of her hot cocoa, which was good considering that they only gave her a quarter of a cup. But she was eating like a teeny little pony, not specifically a female one. Cradling the still warm mug in her hooves and angling her muzzle in, Elias licked off the chocolate from the bottom of the cup, easily doing so with that crazy tongue she had now. Elias struggled to even consider it a tongue, this strange expanding organ inside her mouth. And here she was, using it like she was born with it. Where in all these changes, had becoming a girl changed her?

She honestly couldn’t think of any change, that wasn’t attributable to something else, either her ponyhood, or her youth, and that made Elias a little less upset about basically going from an outie to an innie. It was still... crazy and weird, but she felt comforted in the others. They hadn’t outright changed sexes, so she assumed all these feelings were normal for them. But now that Elias wasn’t assuming that, she could remember how upset the grey pony was for instance, when he tripped over himself trying to walk and landed in the shoe pile. He stumbled off to hide in the corner crying, and he stayed a boy!

It was an incredible shock to transform into a pony, and into a female one, with a female... thing that she had now. And while it was a shock to find out that Elias had been reduced to childhood too, it still explained so much. Now that she knew what was going on, she... couldn’t say she was all that upset anymore.

Noi could not believe this. She was a little pony child? She wasn’t old anymore? Fucking righteous! And she had twenty years to make up for lost time? Noi couldn’t scamper around the house more eagerly or more giddily than she did now. They had to toss her out because she was freaking hyper after that huge reveal. Noi rolled in the snow, because she could! She pretended to moo at the cows, because she could! This was all stuff she could do now!

She didn’t have to be a big, strong, stoic defender anymore. She headbutted a tree running around and she honestly couldn’t care less. She was a kid again! This was awesome! She could just mess around and play, and there wasn’t anybody to tell her to think of her responsibilities. A life of regrets, and the only thing she really regretted was back on the table. She hooked her hooves over branch and swung on it, just for the heck of it! She had a chance now, a second chance!

And no way in Hell was Noi going to waste it this time.

Author's Note

Well, this was a long time in coming out. Not for lack of writing though. I honestly should have posted it last week, but just never got around to it and figured I’d just wait until next Friday. I’ve got a pretty huge buffer and, while I’ve had to retcon a bunch of stuff in future chapters, it’s starting to look pretty solid.

Now if only my story wasn’t so darned long.

Back to School

Citizens of Canterlot! You may have become aware of some strange occurrences happening in our fair city. You may have heard the legends, seen strange stories on the news, or encountered someone who has been afflicted with this bizarre phenomenon. I want to caution you all that leading scientific experts have agreed this is not an illness, and is not in any way contagious. It appears to be completely random in who it chooses to affect. We are not sure how many people will be afflicted, so it is my duty to inform you all of the situation, and what should be done if you have been so afflicted, or know someone who has.

Things were getting mighty interesting around Sweet Apple Acres. The trickle of ponies coming in showed no signs of abating. Twilight’s prediction was all too unfortunately accurate. Before the month was out, 12 ponies had shown up at the Acres, and there wasn’t a day that went by now where someone’s car didn’t come driving down the road delivering one more spooked foal. Playtime was a distant memory, as Apple Bloom suddenly had her hands full, or hooves full, with teaching more new ponies how to be ponies.

Never in my entire career or all my life have I seen or heard of anything this bizarre and miraculous. I honestly could have lived a thousand lifetimes, without even once suspecting that something like this has occurred. It’s shaken me to see, and it will shake you to hear, but it is important that you know what our city is facing, so that you can be prepared, should it happen to you, or those you love. I would like to emphasize that if you are not one of the afflicted, then continue about your lives as much as possible. There is nothing at this point that any of you need to do, other than live normally, and keep your eyes and ears peeled for any of the signs of concern.

Apple Bloom had a lot of help, though. Cheerilee, the first adult pony they’d ever seen, was every bit as mature as Apple Bloom wanted to be. Cheerilee mastered talking even faster than Noi, not so much from intensive studying, but because she’d already worked on it with Scootaloo so much. She had the idea of big “Simon says” games, where every pony had to copy your movements as you pranced about for them up on an impromptu stage.

Her daughter was hard working too, probably more than Scootaloo had ever been. She seemed driven in her desire to help make ponies feel better about themselves, and get used to their situation. As she was the only one who could fly, she was certainly the number one expert on wings. She and her mom tried their best to teach all the foals who turned out to be pegasi all about preening and staying healthy. Slowly with the help of the ponies she helped, Apple Bloom found she wasn’t in high demand anymore, and that suited her just fine.

I wish I could say all our lives will remain the same, but I’m afraid it may affect a lot of us, in days to come. All I ask is that you remain strong, and show firm solidarity for your fellow citizens, who may need your help in these troubled times. If you have any relatives in the city, it would be good to get in touch with them. At the current time, our city is under a temporary quarantine, in the event that this could indeed spread beyond our community into the world at large, so please do not try to leave the city limits. The world is counting on you, to keep them safe, and keep yourselves as safe as you can.

The second to change into an adult pony had been unexpected, but no one was surprised because unexpected seemed to be the new norm. It wasn’t a local, but someone who immigrated all the way from Scandinavia, Aloe by name. She had a twin sister, with matching palette even, who weirdly enough remained as human as ever. Aloe wasn’t nearly upset with her transformation, seeming tickled pink that she had simple little hooves now, instead of fingers. Apparantly a massage artist has to worry about stuff like arthritis pretty early on in life, or something. Whatever her reasons, Aloe quickly became Applejack’s favorite pony. Twice as heavy as any foal, Aloe was still a third of her original weight, which let her outright walk on the farm girl’s anxiety and work knotted muscles.

You may be wondering what terrible disease or disastrous plague I am referring to. Is it some terrible ailment, that destroys all in its grips? Are we all doomed to be bedridden and suffering? Why would I quarantine the city, if it wasn’t some terrible affliction that strikes fear into the hearts of the bravest man? Or is it something spooookier?

Elias wasn’t the only boy gone girl now, thankfully. He or... she had seemed really lost in that. Elias had no one who could really sympathize with her, but when the fry cook named Red Jim showed up, just looking so lost as a filly, Elias was quick to... um...

Okay, fine Elias was shy as all get-out, but Sweetie managed to arrange it so the two ended up helping each other a lot, on account of they were both men, and both fillies, and... both unicorns, oddly enough. Then when the mechanic named Fuzz came by, becoming a filly had only made that one downright bouncy with exhuberance. The three former males quickly got to be pretty good friends, and it looked like they were going to be alright at least for now.

ahem...at any rate, fear not, fellow citizens. What I am about to show you may come as a shock, but while it could be an astonishing change to your life, what we face is a strange, but entirely painless and somehow whimsical phenomenon. Let me ask you, citizens of Canterlot. Have you ever wanted to be a pony?

When the mayor gave his speech, before every journalist and newscaster the city could produce, a blown up photograph of Apple Bloom was rolled down behind him, with Apple Bloom’s permission of course. It wasn’t something she was real comfortable with, but they said it was only for reference so people would know what to expect, and Apple Bloom knew that was kind of important. Besides, she’d always wanted to be a mascot before!

...she’d basically never wanted to be a mascot before.

Early last October, the girl known as Apple Bloom transformed overnight into a strange and magical creature, an animal in appearance, but with all her memories intact, a sharp intellect, and capabilities even she has not yet fully understood. For reasons unknown to leading scientific experts, this has been occurring to more people, more frequently as time goes on. If it happens to you, you can expect some difficulty in walking, and speaking seems to be difficult for the first month or so. You should experience no loss of memory, or consciousness, and no pain in the transformation itself. You could, of course, get your tail caught in a door. ;)

The food situation was stable for now, but a new pony was coming in every other day practically. Truly the mayor’s speech was cutting it close, before whatever this was blew up into a citywide crisis. Harder was getting new ponies ready, and used to eating hay. Apple Bloom did her best, but mostly what she was doing was trying to show other ponies how to help. The ones who were already walking around and talking, they still had that insecurity, like they didn’t have a right to judge what a pony’s supposed to be, and Apple Bloom was somehow privvy to that knowledge. She didn’t have to teach them, so much as show them how little she knew, and they could improvise from there. Unsurprisingly, the earth ponies seemed to be the best at improvising, since they had to make do with nothing other than being a strange pony.

It seems to have its full effect over a 24 hour period, after which you will for all intents and purposes be a very humanlike pony, much like the one shown here. Some of you may additionally get a possibly magical horn, like that of a unicorn, or a pair of wings likening to the Pegasus of Greek legend. Do not be alarmed if these things appear.

Sweetie Belle was a lot happier now that there was other unicorns around. Eli Doolots in particular, for all his/her problems really helped Sweetie find some common ground that other non-unicorns couldn’t share. Neither of them could use their horns, of course, but they could share their experiences with them, with each other. Red Jim seemed less inclined to even admit that she had a horn, so Sweetie didn’t push her too hard.

Twilight Sparkle also had a semi-private conversation with Sweetie, after which the little white unicorn seemed less intent on spending all her time on horn lessons. Sweetie was still interested in the concept, but the pressure was off her shoulders somehow. Not that any other pony could take up the slack, but something between Sweetie and Twilight had relieved Sweetie. Apple Bloom really had to find out about what the skinny on that was.

If it does happen to you, please contact your friends and family to inform them of what is happening, then find some way to get yourself over to the following address, just south of the city. We have concentrated the city’s resources there, to assist those affected with recovery as much as possible. If you cannot get there on your own power, you should call 9-1-1, and an emergency response vehicle will be able to assist you in transportation. At this time, we ask that only people becoming ponies, or their immediate relations travel to Sweet Apple Acres, as we want to help people get through this crisis and back to their normal lives as smoothly as possible.

Scootaloo remained the only pegasus who could fly, but Cotton Cloudy’s wings were almost all grown in, and Scootaloo had briefed her closely on how to get them to work right. According to Sunset Shimmer, earth ponies were the majority of ponykind, with almost half of all ponies being the sort that Apple Bloom was. From the ponies left over, over half were to be pegasi. Unicorns, the rarest of all, were only 1 in 5 ponies.

Not that Apple Bloom could really figure what an advantage was to being a unicorn, if your horn don’t even work. The numbers among ponies they saw seemed to add up that way so far. Sweetie, Elias and Red as unicorns were skewing it by 1. But the ponies so far were definitely mostly earth ponies, with Scootaloo, Cotton Cloudy, Chirpy, and Cheery as pegasi. And a whole buncha earth ponies.

There should not be much disturbance to your daily lives at this time, but you may begin seeing people among you who have transformed. Please treat these people with respect and dignity. Life is going to be very strange for a while, but until we have taken care of this pony crisis, I have faith that the good citizens of our fair city can remain together, and work with each other in harmony, regardles of whether some of us look a little different than we were before.

Little chance of that happening, but for the ponies watching clustered about the old television set in the living room watching the mayor give his speech, they took whatever comfort they could get.

All seventeen and counting ponies had gathered around the television set to catch the speech. Cheerilee and Aloe were in the back, on account of their size. Apple Bloom was in front, on account of it was her mug going up there on TV again. Really it could have been any of them on that banner, but Apple Bloom just didn’t want to put someone else through that kind of worry. She was trying to psyche herself up to be braver, anyway, so it worked out right in her head.

“There will be a question and answer period afterwards, but for now I would like to direct your attention to the (ahem) esteemed researcher known as Twilight Sparkle...” the mayor on TV stated, singing Twilight’s praises and passing the mic off to her, where Twilight proceeded to give a very similar speech to the one she gave the fillies earlier. Of those gathered around the TV, Sweetie Belle exclaimed disapprovingly, “What gives? They didn’t even mention Sunset Shimmer! She did all that research stuff too.”

“Guess it was easier to just have one speaker?” Apple Bloom said over her shoulder to Sweetie, ignoring the TV Twilight for now.

Sweetie seemed mollified by that, remarking to Apple Bloom, “I can’t believe they’re actually doing it. They’re telling everyone.”

“Couldn’t be helped,” Apple Bloom shrugged. Some other quiet conversation was popping up, as the others lost interest in Twilight’s familiar speech. Some here were still listening closely, perhaps to check if she changed her story this time around? Apple Bloom was kind of tired of it though. Scootaloo had already completely wandered off to go do something else.

“You know, we cain probably go back to school pretty soon,” Apple Bloom added with unhappy concession to the white unicorn. “Since everyone knows and all, and we’re as good at being ponies as we’ll ever be.”

“Well, we’ll probably get a little better at being ponies,” Sweetie noted. “We’re growing fillies, after all!”

Apple Bloom laughed nervously, “Heh heh, yeah...”

After a moment, Sweetie said quietly, “You don’t have to do that, just for me.”

Apple Bloom waved her hooves before her, saying, “Oh, no, no ah want to go back to school, Sweetie. I just... uh...”

Apple Bloom glanced away from Sweetie’s unbelieving look, saying, “Okay, so ah don’t want to go back to school. I know ah’m just a big ol’ uneducatered hick, but ah wanna see you do good.”

Sweetie kept eying Apple Bloom, saying, “Well... neither of us should do good, since we already missed a lot of months of classes.”

“Still though, ah bet you could catch up,” Apple Bloom insisted, nosing encouragingly at Sweetie’s shoulder...elbow. “An’ y’wanna get back to your friends and all.”

Sweetie responded by hugging around Apple Bloom’s head, murmuring, “I have my friends right here,” with a happy smile.

Her smile faltered as she admitted, “But yeah, I wanna get back. I just... you never know, it might be fun! I haven’t even seen the school as a pony!”

“It’s big,” Apple Bloom grumbled. “Not sure what else there’s to say about it.”

“I’ve been following along with my classes,” Sweetie confessed, adding less eagerly, “...sorta. It’s hard to study stuff when you don’t even know what they lectured on.”

“Ah like studying stuff ah want to know,” Apple Bloom said with a little pout. “But yeah, probably should study what’s on th’ curriculum or some such...”

Study, she did, and it didn’t make Apple Bloom feel one bit more ready to return to school. But Apple Bloom was determined to do it, for sake of Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo. Well, maybe only Sweetie Belle. And maybe Apple Bloom was doing it for herself, a bit. Just a tiny titch. Apple Bloom really felt bad about all the school she was missing. The last thing she wanted to be is just one more uneducated backwoods redneck, stuck living out in farm country because she ain’t even bothered to learn how to count to 10. But more than anything else, her brother and sister...

Applejack and Big Mac had taken so much out of themselves just to take care of her when Apple Bloom needed it. Just to keep her company when she was all alone. They wanted her to get better so much, and even if she weren’t human again, even if they couldn’t make up for their lost classes, Apple Bloom could still show them just how much better she could get.

So that’s why she was going back to school. Today, not tomorrow, and without any hesitation or reluctance. She was doing it. She was gonna make it happen. Just as soon as Apple Bloom could figure out what to wear.

“Maybe ah could be a bit more incognito, if’n I wore shades,” Apple Bloom pondered, trying without much luck to balance the relatively giant sunglasses on the bridge of her nose.

“You’re a pony, Apple Bloom,” Applejack told her, with a sigh. “Ah don’t think incognito is somethin’ that’s gonna be happenin’.”

She and Apple Bloom stood on twos and fours respectively, in Apple Bloom’s room. Applejack was leaning on the wall, all ready to go to school, and Apple Bloom had totally not been stalling at all. She wasn’t collecting every possible article of clothing she could possibly wear in order to try it on. Bonnets that didn’t fit, kerchiefs, hats, 3 different sunglasses, even a snorkel got thrown in there. Nothing seemed right though. Nothing screamed, “Ah’m Apple Bloom. Now stop lookin’ at me.”

“Why don’t ya just wear that pink bow’a yours?” Applejack asked impatiently. “That’s good enough, right?”

“It don’t cover mah privates, Applejack!” Apple Bloom harumphed at her.

“Well, it’s all you been wearing most every day!” Applejack said contrarily, folding her arms.

“Ah only did that because none of the other pony people got no clothing,” Apple Bloom said grumpily. She didn’t add because it makes you all hot and sweaty to wear clothing, any time you had to go indoors.

“Well, how about some shorts, then?” Applejack offered, holding up what looked to be a pair of boy’s boxers.

Apple Bloom glared at them, grumbling, “Sure ah’ll just add a pair of galoshes, and then I’ll fit right in!”

“We don’t have time for this, Apple Bloom,” Applejack pleaded. “We’re gonna be late!”

“Okay, hold on just—” Apple Bloom tossed another dress over her rump, looking at it. “Just tell them that ah’m a pony and it just takes a long time for a pony to get mahself dressed!”

“Apple Bloom...” Applejack warned disapprovingly.

“What? It’s the truth!” Apple Bloom protested, not sure if she should go with the pink ribbon or the cinnamon ribbon.

“That’s it,” Applejack grumped, sweeping up Apple Bloom right off her hooves, making her lose track of all her potential articles of clothing!

“Applejack, put me down!” Apple Bloom protested, hooves hooking over the girl’s shoulder as Applejack hoisted off the little pony right out of her room and down the stairs.

“That’s enough from you!” Applejack shot back, “No more stallin’ either you’re goin’ or you ain’t!”

“But ah ain’t even et breakfast!” Apple Bloom whimpered with teary eyes.

“There’s hay in the truck bed,” Applejack grumbled in response.

“Ah have to sit in the back of the truck?!” Apple Bloom squealed, struggling weakly against her sister’s firm grip.

“You can eat it when you get there. Now come on, let’s go!” Applejack said, walking right out the house, since she already even had her boots on, and jogged through the dark night to the green truck, depositing a pouting Apple Bloom inside its cab. Apple Bloom slunk across the truck’s cushions, and just sat down facing away from her sister, curling her tail around her rear. Instead of getting in the truck right away, Applejack ran back to let Granny know they were ready, and when the two of them returned, Applejack had something else with her.

“Here ya go,” Applejack said, throwing Apple Bloom’s green sun dress on top of her, along with her signature pink bow, and a sort of couple of book bags, rigged to hang on either side of her, the book bags Apple Bloom had packed last night. Apple Bloom gathered those up, heart warring between grateful, anxious and resentful as Granny got in one end, and Applejack on the other. The truck technically didn’t have 3 seats in the cab, but Apple Bloom wasn’t very big, so she fit in the center half-seat just fine. Nevertheless, she relented and climbed into the narrow back seat, in order to have some room to dress herself.

Apple Bloom would have been more upset, but it was her own darn fault really. She knew how hurried they had to be to get to school on time. She remembered the cold breakfasts, having to leave the house before the sun came up, and all she had been doing this morning was stalling like crazy for time. No, she wasn’t mad, but instead she started getting scared. Just the thought of everyone walking around that school, that she hadn’t even seen in months, who would all look at her coldly, and blame her for putting them all in danger. Even the rumbling of the truck scared her, as it traveled to new, unfamiliar territory, taking her places Apple Bloom hadn’t been since way back in November.

She tried not to cry, she really did, but her whimpering got the attention of the people in front, and Applejack turned over her shoulder saying, “What’s wrong, sis?”

“Ah’m scared, Applejack!” Apple Bloom said trembling there on the back seat, with nothing to protect her from the world other than a pink bow and a green dress.

“Listen sugarcube, you don’t have to do this,” Applejack told her seriously. “If you ain’t ready, you ain’t ready. You should be with your friends, not tryin’ to do this all alone!”

“No!” Apple Bloom said, firming her lip. “It’s probably fine, but if it ain’t, ah ain’t gonna let Sweetie and Scootaloo get hurt too! Ah just wanna try it out, see how people react. I-it’ll be okay, and then they can come too. But now ah gotta do this without ‘em.

“Just because ah’m scared don’t mean I don’t wanna do it!” Apple Bloom pleaded to her sister.

“Fine,” Applejack said with a sigh, turning to face forward again. “But you come cryin’ to me, the moment anything goes wrong, you hear?”

“A-ah will,” Apple Bloom said meekly, sitting her haunches down. “It’s just n-nerves, Applejack. Ah’m fine ah just... get upset easier on account of the whole... being 9 thing.”

“You better act your age,” Granny warned, not able to turn around since she was doing the driving. “Don’t get yer head in a kerfluffle if’n you cain’t stand on yer own like some big ol’ grown pony. Ah’m always at the cafeteria if’n you need me.”

Applejack nodded grimly, saying, “Ah’m honestly worried more about the principal mahself, than the whole student body combined. There’s school legends of the times when she’s gotten upset. Runnin’ out on her like that, then missing days to set up the pony refuge, an’ she couldn’t even get the truth from me. She had to watch it on the news, find out ah been basically lyin’ to her the whole time.”

“You had to do it, sis,” Apple Bloom said, resisting the urge to rear up on the seat and nuzzle her sister’s hair, on account of Apple Bloom was already unstable enough without the ability to put on a seat belt. It was with good reason Granny was taking her good sweet time to get to the school. Apple Bloom just said hopefully, “The police even said you did, an’ they know all about stopping a panic. Ah’m sure the principal will understand.”

“Hope you’re right, Apple Bloom,” Applejack mumbled.

“Course ah’m right!” Apple Bloom said smugly, sniffling and wiping her eyes dry. “If she gives you any lip, she’ll have to go through me, first!

“Just like...” Apple Bloom gulped, “Everyone at school.”

They drove on silently for a while. “Ain’t used to havin’ an escort,” Granny stated, looking uneasily at the cop car that was patiently tailing them. “Should just be precautionary, but it don’t ‘sactly fill me with confidence.”

“You remember what to do if anythin’ goes wrong, Apple Bloom?” Applejack asked worriedly, turning to look at her sister again.

“Yeah, run and find mahself officer Linky,” Apple Bloom repeated. “I get t’take one class, and then he’s gonna gimme a ride back to the farm. Just a nice an’ easy slow reintroduction to schooling.”

“Ah’m sure you cain do more later,” Applejack said with a sad smile. “You’re just a few months behind... you’ll be back in the swing of things before you know it.”

“Take a miracle for any of us to graduate at this point,” Apple Bloom said glumly. “But it’s just one year, right? We can always retake any classes we didn’t pass.”

“Now that’s what ah like to hear,” Granny said with a proud smile at the road in front of her. “You should listen to yer sister, Applejack. One year ain’t a drop in the bucket compared to yer whole life.”

“Especially if—” Apple Bloom cut off. She was trying to take Twilight’s advice not to alarm them by saying she was gonna live to be older than an oak tree. Good golly, Granny was righter than she knew. Suddenly, falling behind in school seemed to take on a different perspective, when Apple Bloom took what she learned from Twilight into consideration. Even if she didn’t live longer than everyone else, because they all changed into ponies too, a year just... didn’t make as much a difference, not as much as it did when you only had 7 human years to grow up.

“Especially if what, Apple Bloom?” her sister remarked. Well, crap.

“Especially if everyone changes into ponies,” Apple Bloom said, trying to think how to say it without lying, “It’ll be totally crazy, yeah, heh heh. We’ll all be catchin’ up then. Heh.”

Applejack eyeballed her, but turned forward again, and didn’t press for information. The school was fast approaching, and she and Apple Bloom had a date with destiny. Or at least a meeting with the school principal.

“I must say I’m disappointed you didn’t come forward to me sooner about this, Applejack,” the ice cream haired principal said, in that indecipherably melodious voice of hers. Apple Bloom had only heard that voice from loudspeakers before. She hadn’t visited the principal’s office yet, since she wasn’t a troublemaker, or at least she didn’t used to be. But this pony thing was trouble overall, and before she could be allowed back to school, Apple Bloom had to talk to... the principal. She, and Applejack for some reason.

Apple Bloom didn’t know Principal Celestia’s reasons for dragging Applejack along too, but she was grateful to have her big sister to stand with her, just in case something went wrong. Apple Bloom did know that she really wished she had thought to sit up on the chair, though. From down here on the floor, she couldn’t see a darn thing over that desk! So instead, she just sat there on her belly, on the floor, trying to distract herself from the gravity of the situation by gazing at the horseshoe styled trim on the bottom of the principal’s desk.

“Ah’m sorry, principal, ma’am, I just—” Applejack managed to get out, before Celestia interrupted, waving a very slightly pink hand, saying,

“Oh, no I’m not disappointed in you. I’m disappointed that I could not have been a more approachable student administrator. I wasn’t doing my job correctly, and when something truly life changing like this occurred, we didn’t have that pre-established trust that students and administrators should share.”

“Ah was gonna tell ya!” Applejack protested, “But well, y’know... an’ the police got involved, and ah didn’t mean no disrespect, principal ma’am.”

“No disrespect taken, Applejack,” the principal said, and Apple Bloom really wished she could see Celestia’s facial expression right now, because she was at a loss whether the principal sounded angry or not. “You have gone above and beyond your duty as a student, and a sister,” Celestia continued, “I can’t promise to have the solution to your academic issues, but I want you to know you have my full support.”

Apple Bloom’s ears went down at “academic issues.” Applejack tried to hide it from her, but Apple Bloom knew both she and Big Mac were... struggling.

“You have my support, and Apple Bloom as well,” the principal said in a respectful tone, “Who has finally returned to us. That is... I’m fairly sure she’s down there.”

“No jokes about me being little!” Apple Bloom squealed irritably. Then she blushed hotly, and said, “Ah mean—no offense uh, mister principal... ma’am! I didn’t meanta uh... yes ah’m still here, principal... ma’am.”

A moment to mourn Apple Bloom’s dying dignity, and she mumbled, “Ah’ll just climb up on the chair...” and did so. Well, more like hopped up on the chair. Its seat was almost higher than her eye level, but Apple Bloom could jump higher than herself, so it was easier to just hop up instead of the tedious process of rearing up and pulling herself up hoof by hoof. Apple Bloom turned in a circle, and sat on her side in the seat, looking at the principal silently, while the principal’s calculating, discerning eyes bored into her, reminding Apple Bloom of why she’d been hiding on the floor in the first place.

“That dress is adorable!” Celestia exclaimed, half standing up from her desk to look at Apple Bloom with a twinke in her violet eyes. Wait wha— “Do all the ponies have clothing?” the principal asked Apple Bloom. “It looks just like it was made to fit you!”

“I... ah... uh... yyyeah?” Apple Bloom replied, lifting a hoof nervously.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Celestia said, composing herself and settling back into her seat.

“No, no it’s fine ma’am,” Apple Bloom chirped hastily. “Not all the ponies got clothes... it’s a real problem actually. A few of us do though.”

“A friend of mine been workin’ with one of Apple Bloom’s friends to stitch up some dresses for the ponies,” Applejack put in. “She’s a real gem of a fashionist I tell ya, for all ah’m a judge of those things. It ain’t exactly been high priority though. Mostly we’re plum busy just tryin’ to keep everybody fed and safe... and sane.”

“I see...” the principal said enigmatically. “Well, I won’t keep you two any longer. I just wanted to have a look at the new pony student, and make sure everything’s alright.” She turned to Apple Bloom and said, “I want you to know, miss Apple Bloom, that I am on your side. If anyone gives you any trouble, please do tell me about it, or a faculty member, and I’ll do anything I can to keep you safe in my school.”

“Ah dunno that it’s dangerous exactly,” Apple Bloom remarked bravely, “Ain’t no secret ah’m really a girl, not really a pony. It’s just an ir-rat-ional fear ah gotta deal with.”

“Nevertheless,” Celestia said seriously, pulling some papers out of a desk drawer, “I’d at least like to make sure you have a permission slip explaining the situation.”

“Oh, right...” Apple Bloom said, blushing in embarassment. “That’d be real helpful.”

First period was approaching quickly. Apple Bloom wasn’t ready for it, but she had to be, because it was coming up fast. She wasn’t gonna try anything fancy at first. Just attend a class, see how it goes. She kept close to Applejack’s legs, but together they went out in the hall, already filling up with students milling for class. Bracing herself, Apple Bloom attracted absolutely no attention at all.

Wait, what?

Apple Bloom walked along the hall, her four legs moving quickly next to her sister’s long stride, looking left and right at the students walking the hallway, all massively towering tall humans beside gargantuan lockers and huge doors, and all not paying attention to her, or... calculatingly looking the other way? Call her crazy, but Apple Bloom was pretty sure that the capacity for human denial was not that strong.

“I’m sorry, miss,” an orange haired hall monitor said, getting in Applejack’s way and looking down at Apple Bloom. “Unless this is a guide dog, you’ll have to leash it outside.”

For one frozen second, Apple Bloom stared up at the hall monitor in astonishment, finally stomping a hoof and exclaiming in outrage,

“Ah’m wearing a dress!”

Oops. A few heads turned her way, and the hall monitor’s mouth dropped open. Apple Bloom bumped up against her sister again, curling her tail around herself wondering why she had to go and be such a loudmouth. “I... ah... uh...” she said waveringly.

“It’s one of those ponies!” whispered a student to her right. Apple Bloom turned to follow her ear, and now a lot more heads were turned her way. This was what she was afraid of, why Sweetie and Scootaloo couldn’t be here. The urgently whispered word “pony” was dancing from student to student now, as a crowd started to form, staring at her. She thought of what she was going to say to them, but nothing sounded right anymore in her head. She was drawing a blank on what to do. She—Applejack stepped over her, standing in front of Apple Bloom, putting her between Applejack and the lockers.

“This is mah, sister,” Applejack said, remembering her lines at least. “She’s a student here, attendin’ a class, and if’n any you got a problem with that, you can talk to th’ principal.” With that, Applejack knelt down and started going into Apple Bloom’s bags, ignoring everyone else for the moment.

Apple Bloom was so scared they’d attack Applejack and take her away, and get her, but... all that happened was that one of the ones staring at her, a dusty haired boy said, in a light tenor,

“Are... you real?”

Apple Bloom just couldn’t help but feel a little sympathy for him, for all of them really. It was hard to stay scared when you knew they were just as scared of you as you were. “Ah’m just a normal student,” she spoke in a clear voice, to him since she didn’t want to think about everyone else listening, “Attending a class. Y’all saw the big announcement. Ain’t nothing wrong with me. Ah’m just a pony.”

“B-big announcement?!” the hall monitor meanwhile stuttered in narrow pupilled shock, “What a-announcement? W-what are you?!”

Apple Bloom couldn’t believe this! “Don’t nobody watch the news?!” she exclaimed in a wounded tone.

“I do!” some girl exclaimed, followed by a few others saying the same thing, and one guy saying, “I heard it from my friend!” and the hall monitor saying,

“So, wait, this... is normal?”

“Ah didn’t want to make a big deal of it,” grumbled Applejack, standing up and showing a slightly ruffled permission slip for the monitor.

In the meantime, Apple Bloom announced, “Ah’m perfectly fine!” to the ring of students keeping a cautious distance from her, “An’ ah’m not contagious, so you don’t gotta keep your distance! Just go on to class, an’ please don’t mind me.”

A mousy blue haired girl asked, with a hand upraised, “...can I pet you?”

“Uh, sure ah guess?” Apple Bloom said, uncertainly but it seemed harmless enough.

“Apple Bloom!” Applejack immediately shouted disapprovingly, down to her.

“What?” Apple Bloom protested, albeit with hoof lifted and a powerful desire not to face her sister head-on. “Why shouldn’t ah get petted?”

“You ain’t really a...” Applejack trailed off and grimaced, trying to come up with the words. “Apple Bloom, do ya really think—” but it was too late, and about three pairs of hands had descended on Apple Bloom’s mane and dress. Students clustered around her, but instead of being alarmed or frightened, they just seemed amazed with her, and somehow in some small way, they seemed relieved?

Everybody wanted to touch her, to see if she was real, but both Applejack and the much more amenable hall monitor muscled them off, when first period bell rang. Apple Bloom was in a bit of shock as she got to her classroom door. Why wasn’t she scareder? She’d been so terrified in coming here, but she just couldn’t explain how she felt now. People actually... kinda liked that she was a pony? There weren’t any yelling people in her face, or people trying to kidnap her, or call animal control (who had been very thoroughly informed of the situation at hand). When people noticed her, it wasn’t a horrible feeling of being on the spot that Apple Bloom felt, but like she was helping them somehow, just for being there, and being what she was.

So with one more nervous glance up at Applejack, who really needed to get to her first class, Apple Bloom trotted right past a number of shocked students, her hooves clipclopping on the floor of the suddenly silent classroom. She got one of her bags open with a hoof, but then stuck her nose in and carefully bit down on the edge of that important slip of paper, holding it up for the teacher to read. Mr. Lightning didn’t seem to notice she had done so though, staring down at her fixedly from under those curly blue locks of his.

“Ah’m Apple Bloom,” she said to him, trying to sound confident. The permission slip fluttered to the floor. Cursing her forgetfulness, Apple Bloom bent down and bit a corner of it, craning her neck up to set the permission slip on his desk. “Ah was supposed to be attending this... class,” she said, “But ah kinda got waylaid for a while, on account of how ah look like... this. You saw the news, right? But they said ah cain come back to school, s-so here ah am, just... seeing if it works, testing it out, heh heh...”

When the teacher didn’t look at the slip, Apple Bloom urged him, “Th’ principal gave me that there thing, said ah could attend!” and finally he followed her hoof to the slip, and looked at it.

“You’re Apple Bloom?” he said, in kind of a lost tone, looking at her again.

“Uh, yessir,” Apple Bloom said, looking uneasily at the rest of the class.

At that point a blue girl with a shock of brown hair shouted out, “She’s fine! I saw it on the news. It’s just some crazy thing happening to people or something.”

“I—I don’t see any problem with it. Please have a seat, miss... Apple Bloom,” the teacher told her. “You’ve been... absent, but you should have the same seat.”

Well, it was the same seat, for what that’s worth, but Apple Bloom couldn’t sit in it the same way anymore. Fortunately, she could sit in it even easier, since her legs weren’t hanging off the edge, but there wasn’t a hole to stick her tail through, and her dress caught on the support bar of the attached desk on the way up. But she managed, somehow.

Still, given the teacher’s reaction, Apple Bloom couldn’t help but think that maybe she should have waited a few more days, just to make sure everyone was well informed of what was going on before she even set hoof in school. But there weren’t no clearer way to inform them than her actually being there. Nobody, not even the poor, beleagured police department wanted to stand before the principal of Canterlot High, and tell her that a girl transformed into a magic horse, and the principal isn’t allowed to see her in person yet, but she still has to inform the whole faculty that it’s the unvarnished truth. So instead Apple Bloom was here, proving herself with herself. Just one class, then nobody would be able to deny it, or freak out over it, since it was already something they seen with their own eyes.

The class could have gone better. Apple Bloom was completely and totally lost on the subject matter. The teacher was talking about triangle equivalencies or something, except whatever that meant had been covered in a past class, so Apple Bloom pretty much had to just stare at triangles that sort of looked similar, but having no idea how to calculate it. She hoped they’d be doing that opposite/adjacent angle thing today, which she had studied, but it wasn’t to be.

She had didn’t think it was turning out too bad, but even this one little class was stressing her out. Apple Bloom felt so alone and tiny, and wanted to find her sister again, or somebody who didn’t sit so far away from her and look at her in worry and fear. She couldn’t hardly concentrate on the lesson, just thinking how big the classroom was, and how the door was closed, and there might have been something outside lurking around to get her. It was just a really unfamiliar place to be in, which was stupid since she’d been in this classroom before, just not... like... this.

It didn’t help that Apple Bloom remained the center of attention. Students just couldn’t stop looking at her, and her nerves were starting to catch up to her. Even the teacher ended up accidentally drawing a pony out of triangles as he tried to illustrate his... math thing on the chalkboard. It was hard to say anyone got much learning out of that lesson, but what Apple Bloom did get out of it was that she could do it. She could attend a class! With her mouthwriting, she could take notes, from the papers she got out of her saddlebags. Sure it wasn’t stuff she knew, but just writing down “3/4/5 triangle,” Apple Bloom hoped she could look up what that meant when she had a moment of her own.

After the bell rang, Apple Bloom barely made it out of her seat, when she found herself accosted by the students in her class. She was biting on her notebook to slide it into the bag strapped around her barrel over that green dress, when suddenly kids! In her face! Not antagonistically, but again approaching her, and... staring at her, and along the lines of, some blue girl asking her,

“Are you really a pony? What’s it like?”

and then a yellow fellow all interested with,

“Can you do math as good as you did before? How are you smart when horses are dumb?”

They were staring at her directly in the eye more than the students in the hall, expecting her to quickly reply. Apple Bloom realized she was backing up, when her rump hit a table leg. She was getting kind of nervous at their looming figures and eager faces, the faces of strangers. “Now hold on, just a—ah don’t know if—a-ah...” she tried to respond, but getting startled like this had her heart in her throat already, and they wouldn’t leave her alone!

No, it was fine. They were just asking questions. They would leave her alone. It was fine.

She faced the blue girl and said, “You get hooves,”, then turned to the yellow one and said, “Yes, and I dunno,” and to the rest of them, “Please y’all, ah just wanna go home now. I ain’t up for m–more questins.”

They didn’t look like they were going to listen, though! Apple Bloom had to make tracks, before they realized they could just get her, and there’d be nothing she could do about it. They were gonna get her! Watching them warily, she hastily trotted out of the classroom into the hall, and turned forward right into a face full of reporters.

Author's Note

This is a disaster!

The camera flashes blinded Apple Bloom for a blessed moment, before the gang of reporters all got in her face and made her tail droop weakly to the ground. Gosh darn it, they weren’t supposed to know about today!

“It’s true! It’s the pony girl!” was the only whispered warning she got before microphones were right up against her snout, like 5 different people all saying, “Is it true that,” and then various questions that all blurred together in one confusing collective babble.

Apple Bloom wasn’t really thinking anymore, when she fled right back into the classroom she came from, a classroom that had only one door out of it. Slamming the door behind her, she leaned up against it breathing hard. Apple Bloom had seconds before they’d be through it. She scanned the room frantically for hiding spots. All the classmates who remained in the classroom looked shocked at her! It wasn’t her fault!

“Oh crabapples, just let me through!” Apple Bloom squealed, charging for the teacher’s desk so quickly, that she sent one of the student desks tumbling when a stray hoof clipped it. She had to get to the teacher’s desk, because it was covered under there. It was hidden. It was safe!

Huddled under the desk, Apple Bloom came to the terrible realization that she’d screwed up. It wasn’t hidden. It wasn’t safe, and they were just gonna come around to get her. The teacher was yelling something, but Apple Bloom wasn’t listening. She was trying to think for just one minute. If they didn’t think to block the door, Apple Bloom could just run past them! She had to find officer Linky! Why hadn’t he stopped the reporters?!

A face swung around to face her, a broad, toothy grin on the maw of the crouching human, looking under the desk for her. Apple Bloom exploded into motion, leaping past him, and turning so fast she literally bounced off of the wall, then gallopping for the door that the reporters had left open in their haste to get to her. She turned to look over her shoulder as she shot into the hallway, and it was Rarity all over again. Like a whole army of people in news caps with microphones and camera equipment were charging after her shouting, “What do you think of the” and “How will our communities be” and such like that.

The hall was a maze of legs and bookbags, the likes of which the former human girl had never even imagined before today. She navigated it as best as she could, but spurred by the commotion, people were trying to see what was going on, and of course cutting off her passage in order to do so. Finally, she gallopped into another classroom that was empty by now, an art class it looked like. But what caught her eye here were the supply cabinets at ground level. Tearing one open, Apple Bloom found a lot of buckets and squeeze tubes, but enough space for her! Fighting a low wail in her throat as she frantically pulled the door closed, soon Apple Bloom was engulfed in blackness.

Breathing hard, she backed up until her rear hit the back wall, and huddled there, whispering quietly, “Oh please oh please oh please...”

But a minute went by, and nobody pulled open the door. Had she made it? Did they see her come in here? Was she really stuck hiding inside a cabinet? Apple Bloom tried not to cry, and failed, not from sadness but from sheer unimaginable frustration. “Why does it always go wrong?!” she whispered tightly, angry at her own burning tears. “You knew it was going to go wrong! Why couldn’t you have waited until the news died down?”

The answer was, unfortunately, that the longer she waited to return to school, the more people gone ponies had to miss out on their own education. Apple Bloom didn’t care about school herself, but people like Twilight and Sweetie Belle did, and it’d just kill Apple Bloom if she was in the way of that, just because of some silly fear of ... of exactly what happened just now.

Apple Bloom knew she should go outside, expose herself in the hallway, and go find the police officer just like she said she would. But out there just seemed so terrifying. She couldn’t have comprehended just how different things were now, if she hadn’t seen it herself. The school just felt like a big old ball of danger and shame, and Apple Bloom just wanted to hide in here, until... at least until the halls were empty, so she could sneak out without running into that maze of student legs again.

Her tears were almost done, when her sensitive ears heard people milling into the room, and scooting around chairs as they sat themselves in front of desks. Her panicked fear was eroded away by a healthy sense of disgust, as Apple Bloom realized she couldn’t sneak out if they were having a class in here. They’d all see her, the weird, stupid pony girl who ran and hid like an animal or a little kid, crying her eyes out. She settled back there in the darkness, the light filtering in from the door crack enough for her to see outlines of pretty much everything here. Pushing the supplies away from the floor and sitting on her belly, Apple Bloom didn’t even have to slouch much in order to fit in this cabinet.

But that meant she was stuck here for a whole nother hour! And what if someone decided to open the cabinet while she was in here?

“Ah sure could use some of that earth pony magic right about now,” Apple Bloom said miserably, looking over her pony rump and fluffy tail way back here in the supply cabinet. Her rump that was glowing. Wait, what?

As quietly as she could, Apple Bloom scooted around, finding that it wasn’t her rump glowing, but a mark on the wall. It wasn’t anything especially notable, just some sort of curved omega shaped symbol painted on the wall, glowing ever so slightly as if it was done with glow in the dark paint.

Apple Bloom’s ears went flat, as she recalled just what sort of classroom she’d fled into. Some art student must have done it on the back wall of this cabinet. There were probably a ton of doodles that Apple Bloom couldn’t see in the darkness, but that was the only one done with phosphorescent paint. She touched her hoof to it, feeling a weird sort of humor about the situation. Like her, these doodles were hiding in the cabinet, where they weren’t supposed to be, but still sort of appropriately. She—uhh...

She couldn’t help but notice that her hoof was just the right size to fit over the omega symbol. And wasn’t an omega basically a hoof shape, anyway? Apple Bloom scooted around curiously again, forgetting the class outside for now, to see if she could conform her hoof exactly to the shape of the drawn symbol. She could, and... it depressed inward when she pushed on it. With a click more felt than heard, the glowing hoof shape became a depression as it sunk into the wall a half inch or so. And that triggered... well, it didn’t trigger any huge, crazy mechanisms or anything. Just unlatched a door.

Apple Bloom was honestly intrigued as the whole section of wall could be slid aside, if she fitted her hoof into that groove the latch made. It was hard to make out in the darkness, but she was pretty sure that there was some sort of passage back there.

“Ah was kidding ‘bout the magic,” she whimpered quietly, to no one who could hear her.

“Alright,” came the voice from beyond the dark cabinet, making Apple Bloom look over her shoulder at the crack of light that the doors let in. “You can find your oil paints in the cabinets, beneath the drawers of acrylic. Each student to a station, and let’s get to creating some art!”

Well, horseapples.

After fleeing reporters, and her own stress levels, Apple Bloom had gone and hid in a cabinet from everything and everyone, and then she found some kind of secret passage? What was this thing? A vent? A maintenance tunnel? A secret passageway leading to treasure and adventure? A trap???

Apple Bloom didn’t know, but she knew she had to get out of the cabinet, before someone saw her in here. Shuffling herself along, Apple Bloom found she could get totally inside the passage, with plenty of room to stand up even. So in the passageway, she slid the panel mostly closed. It didn’t seem to be spring loaded or anything, but she didn’t know if she could get it open again, if it did close. Then she really would be in danger, not just her dignity. A sliver of bright light played over the little yellow pony as someone opened the cabinet she’d been hiding in, and started rummaging around.

“Like, oh my god, someone knocked over the paints. How long have they been on their sides?” came an unfamiliar voice sounding extremely displeased. Apple Bloom was pretty sure none of the cans had been open, but she did have to shove a few over to make room for herself. She winced, as the student uprighted the cans she’d disturbed, then finally made their selection, and closed the cabinet door again.

There wasn’t much light back here, so it probably wasn’t obvious to anyone opening the cabinet that Apple Bloom was hiding back here. So she could leave it open, just a bit. Apple Bloom placed a paint can in the way of the door, just in case it decided to try and close on her. It didn’t. Then, backing up from it, and looking forward into the darkness, Apple Bloom began to hesitantly walk forward.

Her hooves clopped on the floor of this passage, harder than the linoleum of the school hallways. She peered wide-eyed into the darkness, unsure of just how far this passage led. About 50 feet, it turns out. Her nose bumped into a wall, making her fall back on her rump, cursing lightly. No harm done, she’d basically been just creeping along. But waving her hoof in front of her, Apple Bloom definitely found a wall. Just a dead end? Oh, no it turned to the right, where there was... another glowing hoof.

Reaching her hoof forward, Apple Bloom again depressed the hoof, and with a soft click another panel opened, allowing her to push it aside with her arm, and emerge into... someone’s locker. Was this how they got the lockers bolted to the wall without being able to walk behind them? Couldn’t possibly be something this elaborate, but the fact remained she was staring out from the inside of a locker right now.

This panel, Apple Bloom slid closed again, and with a click the hoof-shaped depression popped back out. Looking back a second, Apple Bloom instead looked forward, where another glowing blue hoof was situated. She followed along these for a little bit, and each seemed to open into another locker, until finally she found one that opened into what looked like a broom closet.

“Oh, perfect!” Apple Bloom whispered, squeezing out through the space of the panel, and clip-clopping around a mop and bucket, to where the conventional door to the closet was securely closed. Rearing up, Apple Bloom could wrap her hoof around it though, and swinging awkwardly, turn the doorknob. The door to the broom closet cracked open, to reveal an empty hallway. Class was in session, and no reporters were to be found. Having found that, Apple Bloom retreated back to her maintenance... passage thing, and retraced her steps back to the original panel, making sure to push the paint can out of the way and securely close it, before moving forward.

Apple Bloom was not gonna let an opportunity like this pass her by. Maybe this was one of the seven school secrets! The seventh was so secret, nobody even knew what it was, and that could mean it was anything. But whatever it meant, she made sure no art student would accidentally stumble upon it, then exited from the janitor’s closet with any secret passages still safely secret.

Trotting gingerly, then confidently, Apple Bloom started roaming the halls, trying to find the police officer who was to take her home. She found officer Linky out on the front courtyard, busily attempting to conduct a search for her while not alarming anyone at the school. Apple Bloom peeked out the door to the hall she was in, and there he was.

“She’s not anywhere in the gymnasium!” a uniformed lady officer of brown and blonde said, jogging up to Linky, who replied with,

“Go find October in the courtyard and ask her to... annnd she’s right there.”

“Sorry!” Apple Bloom yelped, pushing her way the rest of the way out the front door of the school. “There were reporters! They were all... ah just kinda panicked, sorry.”

She trotted up to Linky’s legs, where the elegant looking tall blue man was standing with the shorter brown lady of wavy hair who frowned at Apple Bloom saying, “And just where were you the past half hour, young... pony?”

“Young lady is fahn,” Apple Bloom said grumpily. “I was just a little spooked, sorry! I went an’ hid in a cabinet!”

“Ugh, when I saw the news crews, I assumed the worst,” Linky said, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “You knew where I was waiting, right?”

“I wanted to go there, I did, but didn’t even think until ah was all hidden in that cabinet,” Apple Bloom said, scratching at the ground abashedly. “There was like a whole army of people chasin’ me... well, more like three or four, but it felt like a whole army...”

“It’s okay, I’m just glad you’re safe,” Linky said. “They think they can sneak in and accost you, when we’ve very clearly stated it’s not okay to give unscheduled interviews. Let’s just... any other disasters I should be worrying about?”

Apple Bloom shook her head slowly, looking up at him in sober reflection over how it could possibly have been so much worse.

“Then let’s get you home, and get this whole kerfluffle over with,” he said in relief. “I’ll radio the other officers to call off the uh... search, and we’ll get you back to your farm. Other than the reporters, uh, how’d it go?”

“It went... fine...” Apple Bloom said tentatively. “Could have been lots worse. Ah ain’t really had time to think about it yet. Maybe it was a little too soon to come back.”

“Compass, can you escort her back to the squad car?” Linky asked, then he straightend and started saying stuff into his radio, like “Alpha Bravo has been retrieved, repeat Alpha Bravo has been retrieved. You can return to the station,” with a few responses of,

“Copy that,” and “10-4,” and such. Apple Bloom wasn’t really listening, because she went with the brown lady over to the police car.

“Sorry you were scared, cutie,” she said to Apple Bloom, opening up the door so Apple Bloom could clamber in the back. “Do you see now? High school is a big kid’s place. Linky should have been taking better care of you, and not let you get separated from him. Always stay in a grownup’s sight when you’re out playing, okay?”

Apple Bloom looked at the officer wide eyed, and said, “Lady... ah’m 14. I just look like a little girl pony. They don’t brief you on these things?”

Compass immediately proved that even one of as dark a tone as herself could blush, saying, “I–uh, no I just saw the news, and they just said that one of the ponies was missing, and uh, what?”

Apple Bloom shook her head slowly, fiddling with her bow in a hoof. She said, “You better tell your officer... or whatever, that people all ages been changing, and only a few ended up as adults. Mostly we all ended up as little kids, an’ ah’m one of the young ones. Didn’t they tell you about Noi?”

“The sergeant?” Compass said in surprise, “She got called away from duty for something, are you saying...?”

Apple Bloom’s eyes widened and she said, “Oh shoot! Ah don’t know if’n that’s a secret, or private or whatnot. Please don’t tell nobody I told you. She’s fine she’s just not exactly... ready to do police things.”

“So, she’s a... little kid pony?” Compass asked with a bemused expression. “Her? I really can’t imagine that.”

“Ah’m just saying you gotta be careful. We are little kids, but...” Apple Bloom rubbed her chin, trying to figure how to word it. “You cain’t be sure how old a pony was before, so just...”

“I’ll be careful cutie,” the officer said with a smile that faltered as she added, “Oh, i-is it alright if I call you cutie?”

“Yeah, you can go and do that, um...” she turned and curled on her side in the squad car, facing away from officer Compass so that she wouldn’t be able to see her blushing. Apple Bloom waved a hoof at her, hoping she’d get the picture and just give Apple Bloom a ride in peace.

“I think I scared her!” the officer could be heard whispering to Linky on his way to his police car. Apple Bloom sighed regretfully, but didn’t yell at them or nothing. She wasn’t supposed to be able to hear that stuff, anyway.

Apple Bloom had never ridden in one of these police cars before. It was scary, but it was also weirdly... normal? The back seats were just normal seats, didn’t have any chains and manacles or anything. There was a metal grill between the back and the front, though, and there were no handles on the doors. Linky was mostly silent as he drove, pulling out of the school and down the streets, lights off of course. But on the way to the country road, he said, “So, how was it?”

Apple Bloom snorted and lifted her head up from laying against the seats. “Fulla reporters and hiding in cabinets?” she offered uncertainly.

“Well, besides that I mean. I’m just curious if you were, you know, ready for school again.”

Apple Bloom sighed at that. “Dunno really,” she said in a lackluster tone, “Everything’s so gol’ darned weird now. Ah just wanna be home with mah m–my sister and granny an’ all. But home’s full of strangers now too. So it wasn’t worse, ah guess? Could stand to do it again.”

Linky gave a chuckle at that, and said, “You’re pretty smart, for a little...” Apple Bloom glared at the back of his white haired head. “...freshman,” he concluded as if that’s what he meant to say. “I sure didn’t think they’d be stalking you at school. Can’t believe they snuck right past me. Didn’t they get a press conference and everything?”

“Guess they ain’t got all their questions answered yet,” Apple Bloom said with a shrug. “Ain’t no problem, just ah was a bit too... frazzled-like. But yeah, maybe after the press dies down a bit. An’ maybe with mah friends along.

“Ah shouldn’t have left ‘em behind,” she admitted. “Sweetie and Scootaloo both wanted to go back to school, well Scootaloo just to cover me, but ah didn’t want ‘em to get skeered and chased and stuff. But actually it would have been lots easier if we were together, than just me on mah lonesome, the only pony in the whole school.”

“It went better than could have been hoped,” he said, as they crunched down the dirt road leading to Sweet Apple Acres. “I think we will have a lot better luck next time avoiding any disasters.”

Apple Bloom watched the house rolling up from perched up on the window, and said, “Glad ah only did one class. Dunno if I coulda made it the whole day. Thanks so much for giving me a ride and all.”

“Least I could do, with how much you helped the sergeant,” he responded.

“She got to figuring how to walk and talk again, mostly on her own power,” Apple Bloom said bashfully, “Ah just helped with any questions she had.”

“No that’s not... I mean...” Linky said in curious frustration. Apple Bloom tilted her head, holding tight to the seat as he pulled the car into the driveway, trying to find the words.

“I’ve known Noi for years,” he said finally, “And she’s never been really happy before. But now... well, it’s honestly adorable, but... you get what I’m saying right?”

“Guess so...” Apple Bloom said both embarassed and contemplative. She didn’t help Noi be happy, but also she kinda did? It was just getting around that lady’s shell, not anything anyone else wouldn’t do.

“Anyway, we’re here,” Linky said hurriedly, “So uh, hold on a sec.”

He opened the driver side door and walked around, opening the passenger door where Apple Bloom was just as Big Macintosh came walking out on the porch, with three little ponies gallopping out past him. One pony continued trotting on into the yard, while the two more familiar ones charged up to Apple Bloom even as she wiggled her rump out from the police car and down to the cold earth, both shouting simultaneously, “Did you do it? How did it go? How did it go??”

“Hey you two!” Apple Bloom said happily, hopping the short distance to meet her friends. “It went uh, coulda gone better. Ah’ll tell you inside!”

When she got in her home, Apple Bloom felt... safer, relieved, but... also excited for what she just did. “It was like we never left!” she crowed, scooting out of her saddlebags and going into them to pull out her notebook. “They were just giving a math lesson, and I didn’t know what they were talking about, but it was pretty cool! Any of you know what it means when a triangle is 3/4/5?”

“You’re the math whiz, Apple Bloom,” Scootaloo said shaking her head. “You should be telling us that!”

“Actually, technically I’m the math whiz,” Sweetie said demurely. “I took Geometry last summer, remember?”

“Jeez, I can’t believe you took math in the summer,” Scootaloo said, planting her face on the floor in disgust. “I’m just in Algebra...”

“Yeah, well you can fly,” Sweetie shot back in an unimpressed tone.

“Heh, good point,” Scootaloo admitted.

“Math isn’t too hard for me,” Sweetie said, “But I shouldn’t have taken it in the summer. I didn’t get to study it nearly enough.”

“Do ya know what uhm...” Apple Bloom nosed through her notes, “Pythagorean triples are?”

Sweetie looked up thoughtfully, saying, “I think so. You’re still talking about 3/4/5 triangles, right?”

“Hey, Happle Bloom’s bahck!” a pony named Piña called out, sounding a lot better at speaking than she did last week at least. But then, two new heads popped over the edge of the couch, a green, blue haired colt, and a green, sort of off blue green haired mare who looked pretty much full grown, neither of whom Apple Bloom had seen this morning. The colt said,

“Hey, szhe’sh teh whone on theevee, whoo shanged hfirsht!”

The mare’s ear twitched at the colt’s horrible butchery of words, and she just blushed and didn’t say anything.

“Noi’s been handling pony speaking lessons today,” Scootaloo told Apple Bloom in explanation, “With some help from Twilight and a speech therapist who came today.”

“Well that’s great!” Apple Bloom told her cheerfully, easily trotting to a halt to wave a little bashfully at the ponies looking at her from over the couch, “Uh... hi y’all.”

“Sheesh sho gratheful...” the green mare said in awestruck admiration.

“Anyway,” Sweetie said, attracting Apple Bloom’s attention again, “I know a little about Pythagorean triples. I could probably at least show you what they are all about.”

“It’s not a huge deal,” Apple Bloom said leading her friends over to the stairway. “Just what they covered in class. But ah really went to class! It was totally working too, until the end!”

Apple Bloom filled them in as best she could, and she even told them in hushed tones that she might have found a secret passageway behind the walls! That was way better a secret than some dumb old abandoned supply shed. Well, now Scootaloo really wanted to go back to school, to check it out. They pinky swore that this would be a Crusader secret, and they still had one finger so it counted as a pinky swear. Then they started making eager, if a bit overly optimistic plans about how they were going to go back to school.

Apple Bloom couldn’t help but be worried though that night, listening to all the new people and ponies sleeping or readying for sleep. The house was getting really crowded, and they hadn’t been able to set up portable buildings yet. The thought of those buildings made Apple Bloom think of the school as a possibility, but then wonder how they could possibly attend school, if it was being used for pony rehabilitation?

She was really glad Sunset, Twilight and Noi, and some of the officers had it set up pretty good on the farm here, to help anyone with the transformation, but there were a lot more people who needed help than people who could help them, and more were showing up every day. They were up to what, a hundred now? They were barely done with the month of April!

As the days passed, people were working really hard to help each other all around her, and everyone was being real good about it so far at least. It wasn’t too crowded just yet, so Apple Bloom still got to sleep with her friends. She snuggled up to Sweetie one night and drifted off, hoping to talk with the dream princess more. And as it so happens, Princess Twilight was there waiting for her, when Apple Bloom asleeped.

Tapping her hoof. Um...

“Apple Bloom?” Twilight said in a very disapproving tone. “Have you been meddling with my library?”

“Um... what?” Apple Bloom said, having materialized in the golden stone halls of Twilight’s library.

“Now that we’re all here, can you tell us what we did, please?” Sweetie Belle asked fretfully, getting Apple Bloom’s attention that the two of her best friends were both with her in the library here, and the princess was glaring daggers at all three of them.

“Well, come on then!” the princess said, turning on her hoof and strutting away from the central lobby. Giving her friends a look, Apple Bloom trotted after the princess shortly followed by them, saying,

“Princess, what’s wrong? We didn’t do nothing to hurt your library! Ah know how important it is to you!”

“Oh, and this door here just walked itself into my library, and planted itself in my subconscious?” the princess said snidely, gesturing with an elegant wing at where a bookcase once was, but now the bookcase was pushed aside, and the wall was taken up by a rather out of place looking cheap, rounded, wooden door, like a door you might see on a rustic cottage somewhere.

“You even tried to hide it behind a bookcase,” the princess whined in a hurt tone, “Do you really not trust me that mu—”

“Oh mah gawd, that thing!” Apple Bloom exclaimed in loud surprise. “I totally forgot we did that!”

In an ancient dream library, surrounded by ivory walls and sunlit windows, and shelves full of barely filled out books, one unicorn, pegasus and earth filly were clustered together while a graceful princess hovered above them with a disapproving scrunch. Beside them was a dream bookcase, pushed aside, and behind the bookcase was a roundish pink tinted wooden door on the wall, that looked seriously out of place in this grecian themed library hall. A door to a cottage, in a very different place entirely.

“We were going to tell you,” Sweetie Belle said to the princess guiltily, “We didn’t mean to hide it. Or put it in your library. We just needed a place to put the door.”

Scootaloo wasn’t nearly as guilty or regretful though, laughing, “Ah hah hah, I can’t believe I’m not the only one who forgot this time! Excuse me princess, but this is just too rich!”

“Hey, ah forget things!” Apple Bloom said in peevish response. “Like uhm...” but for some reason, she couldn’t recall the things that she forgot.

“So you were going to tell me, but you forgot? That’s better, I think?” the princess said, looking at the three more in confusion than anger now. “But why did you put a door there? Aren’t there plenty of other places that have doors already? What if you hurt the library!”

“It was kinda spur of the moment,” Apple Bloom said, flicking her tail. “If’n we hadn’t gone and forgot about it we’d have asked how to move it. I was afraid I’d forget how to get there, if I tried.”

“And why did you put a door there?” the princess repeated, albeit in a different way. Apple Bloom caught a glimpse of Scootaloo looking away from the princess anxiously, but Apple Bloom insisted anyway, saying,

“This was Scootaloo’s dream,” she explained. “The one that we pulled her out of, so she could dream normal again. We wanted to get back to it, in case we could figgur out what was goin’ on there. But um... we never figured it out. And then kinda forgot. Sorry.”

The princess looked at the door, and then back at them, then tilted her ethereally limned head. Her ire looked considerably cooled now, but replaced with a burning curiosity. “What’s behind the door?” she asked. “Can I see it?”

“She can see it, right Scoots?” Apple Bloom asked Scootaloo, who hesitated a bit too long before saying,

“Y-yeah, no problem.”

“I hope it hasn’t faded after a month,” Sweetie remarked, walking up to the door and looking at it critically.

“Well, I’m better at dreaming now too though,” Scootaloo corrected her, “So I should be able to hold it together more.”

“There’s some kind of fantasy land past that door, Twilight,” Apple Bloom told the curious purple pony princess. “With cottages and farms and even a castle! It was from a book Scootaloo read somewhere, or... or something.”

“Well don’t just sit there, open up!” the princess said happily, pushing Scootaloo towards the door.

“Me?” Scootaloo said reluctantly. But, not really picking up on that, the princess said,

“Yes, it works best if you’re the one to open your own door.”

“Well... okay,” Scootaloo said, turning the brass latch on the door, and pushing it inward. As the four of them peered through, the scene on the other end hadn’t faded. It was... curiously pristine in fact. Like they’d never left it. Scootaloo was followed by Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and behind them, a wide eyed princess taking in all she saw around her with that childlike curiosity that seemed to be the sum total of her personality.

“Y’see, princess?” Apple Bloom said. “It just sits like this, since we cain’t figure what comes next. It’s like an empty movie set. But there’s the road there, going down to the castle, and you can still see that there magic shell thing that almost came down on top of us.”

“Past the eggshell is a lot of farms,” Sweetie put in, “We were riding in our wagon past those.”

“Yes,” the princess said distantly, “It’s a very interesting dream. It feels... homey.”

“We tried to get in the castle, but me and Sweetie couldn’t make our way inside,” Apple Bloom said, “Any idea about that? Ah really wanted to ask you ‘bout this before we lost track of it. Any idea why a dream would be so uh, not changey?”

“A very strong emotion tends to make my dreams more stable, but mostly it’s its familiarity,” the princess explained. “My library is a place I know top to bottom, and so it’s always there when I need it. I don’t know much, but... but that much, I know.”

“But even I don’t know where this place came from,” Scootaloo protested. “I don’t remember reading about any story like this. It’s not in any TV shows, or video games.”

“Still...” the princess murmured, pawing at a tuft of grass, “Something about this place is so familiar. I know I’ve dreamt of this before. I... I remember these streets.”

“Oh, that would explain a lot,” Scootaloo said in relief, “If it’s your dream, then I don’t have to be the one who remembers it.”

“Yes...” Twilight said, looking down the packed dirt road thoughtfully, before turning back to look at that pearlescent shell surrounding the castle and surrounding area. “How did you say you got here, again? A wagon?”

“Oh, right!” Scootaloo declared, charging off to the spot they came from. She came back, pushing along with her hind leg, riding on a pony sized scooter. Hitched to it was that simple red wagon, with the blanket that covered them piled inside it. “See, it’s a pony sized scooter, and wagon!” Scootaloo exclaimed. The princess stared at it wide eyed, while the fillies continued to explain.

“The wagon’s normal sized,” Apple Bloom corrected Scootaloo. “It’s huge for ponies, enough for both me and Sweetie to sit in it.”

“We were riding through a forest, covered in a blanket for some reason,” Sweetie told the princess, waving at the wagon. “Scootaloo was pulling us... I think. But she wasn’t really there until the end.”

“Then some sorta scary thing started to happen behind us,” Apple Bloom added, walking slowly around the wagon as she told the story. “Like a million eyes full of darkness headin’ our way. And above us, that there shell thing started to appear.”

“I don’t remember any of this,” Scootaloo stated. “I only woke–uh–dreamed up here, after they got inside it.”

“It appeared above the castle,” Sweetie said, staring overhead at the strange sky they were under. “And grew bigger and bigger until it hit the ground, and covered everything.”

“We weren’t gonna make it!” Apple Bloom said in excitement. “But we just barely made it by the skin of our teeth, and flyin’ through the air and everything!”

“Wish I got to see that part,” Scootaloo said with a half smile, “That sounds like it was totally wicked.”

“Yeah, Scootaloo was here then, but she wasn’t... right,” Sweetie said uneasily. “She didn’t have a face. It was like everything about her was just... blank.”

“But then I woke up for real, and we were all here,” Scootaloo concluded. “I don’t remember the parts before, but I bet I totally was pulling that wagon when we caught air time to get under the thing in time, before it closed right in front of us.”

“It kinda stopped after that,” Apple Bloom said. “We just... ran outta dream ah guess, but didn’t wake up for some reason. Guess it’s because it’s your dream we accidentally made it into?” She looked at the princess who was looking around shiftily, mouthing something so under her breath not even pony ears could pick it up. “You got any idea why we’d dream of riding a wagon under a magic wall, and end up in this strange town, princess? Is it your dream, after all?”

“I remember...” the princess said quietly. She didn’t look at Apple Bloom, just said it, but Apple Bloom smiled and said,

“Well that’s good. What do you—”

“I remember!!” the princess outright howled, and everything around them just exploded into tumultuous activity. Suddenly, the square they were in was full of ponies, ponies like them, and a ton of them! Ponies were packed elbow to elbow on the roads, as far as the eye could see, and all of them were gallopping for the border of that barrier thing. Apple Bloom shrank back in shock, at the huge crowd towering over her, resounding with screams of fear and anguish, so many bright colors it was dizzying!

“What—” Apple Bloom managed to get out, before Scootaloo’s scream cut above them all. Whirling, she saw that even in the crowded mass, the ponies had made a wary circle around the four of them, with Scootaloo in the center of it being completely covered in the soft magenta glow of the princess’s magic. The pegasus was in the air, her wings were straining but not carrying her away. She writhed and arched back, and screamed again, a painful, agonized wail.

“Stop!” Sweetie Belle shouted, shoving at the princess whose horn was lit so brilliantly it was hard to look at. “You’re hurting her! Stop!!”

“I don’t have any choice!” the princess shouted in aggrivation. Tears were streaming down her panicked, anguished eyes, and every essence of her attention focused on Scootaloo. “I have to do this! There is no other way!”

“Wake up, princess, please wake up!” Sweetie begged, “You’re having a nightmare!” But the princess could not be moved. Scootaloo clutched her head and screamed again. Apple Bloom ran forward so fast she was just there, beside the princess, and she did the only thing she could think to do. Rearing up on her forelegs, a panicked Apple Bloom bucked the princess in the side of the head.

The whole world flashed into a swirling starscape, before snapping back to the empty courtyard once again, with only the four of them there. The princess’s head knocked sharply to the side, the light in her horn flickered and faded. Scootaloo fell to the ground in a boneless heap. Then the princess crumpled to the ground in a boneless heap. Neither of them moved.

Apple Bloom was going on pure impulse at this point. All she knew was they had to get away. She didn’t know how she’d scooter as a pony, so she smashed into that scooter with a forehoof, breaking the tether from it to the wagon. “Halp me get Scootaloo in, hurry!” she shouted to Sweetie Belle. The two of them lifted the limp, quietly moaning Scootaloo, tumbling her into the wagon. Then, Apple Bloom grabbed the tether in her teeth, and shouted, “H’m on!” yanking it up the road behind her as she made for the cottage door, still hanging wide open.

Apple Bloom was in the library then, and Sweetie ran up right on Apple Bloom’s heels, with the scooter precariously draped over her candy white rear end. This was still the princess’s dream though! They had to get out!

“Book!” Sweetie shouted, yanking out a volume on Sweet Apple Acres that they’d used often, slamming it down in front of them, open somewhere in the middle.

“Book!” Apple Bloom repeated tensely, pulling the wagon into it, tumbling into the pages like falling down into a well. Sweetie jumped in afterwards, and with a whirring ruffle of its pages, the book slammed shut behind them.

With Scootaloo collapsed in the wagon still, the three of them were outside the front yard of Apple Bloom’s farm house, the crisp, clear sunlight shining down on the bright white eaves. They weren’t really there, though. The house in this dream was silent, and the trees were impenetrable.

“Scootaloo, are you okay?” Sweetie Belle said, nosing worriedly at the pumpkin orange filly in the wagon. Scootaloo didn’t even seem to see her though, staring dully off into space, looking more indistinct and faded than she had been since she first came out of the dream. “Please, Scootaloo, say something!” Sweetie begged.

“Scootaloo, please!” Apple Bloom cried on the other side of the wagon, “You’re scarin’ us!”

“You have to wake up, Apple Bloom!” Sweetie told Apple Bloom urgently.

“But Scootaloo’s hurt!” Apple Bloom responded.

“The princess can get into our dreams!” Sweetie squealed anxiously.

“Why did she attack Scootaloo?!” Apple Bloom demanded frantically.

“I don’t know!” Sweetie moaned. “She just picked her up, and hurt her!”

“Hang on, ah’ll—ah’ll try,” Apple Bloom said. It was her dream after all. She closed her eyes, then opened them. There, she saw Sweetie in front of her, beside Scootaloo laying in the wagon, nope. Closing them again, Apple Bloom tried to imagine opening them, that when she opened them it’d be for real. She thought she could hear raindrops hitting the window from outside. She opened... the right set of eyes this time. There was a ghostly feeling of standing, despite being laid back on her bed in the darkness of her room greeted by pitterpatter of rain on the roof, but that feeling passed as Apple Bloom fought up, and quickly shook her two friends awake.

Sweetie sat up right away, the little unicorn girl breathing hard in the darkness. Scootaloo... didn’t. “Oh no,” Apple Bloom moaned. “Oh, no no no.”

“Get the lights!” Sweetie said urgently. So Apple Bloom did, leaping down from the bed to accidentally land on a girl named Aura, who gave a squeak of protest as she too was awakened. “Sorry!” Apple Bloom whispered, though she didn’t know why. She jumped up, flicking the light switch mid air, and as the room flooded with light from the light bulb overhead, she went hopping back to the bed. Sweetie Belle was with Scootaloo there, holding her up in bed. Scootaloo was awake, but she wasn’t... looking at anything.

“Oh Scootaloo, what did she do to you?” Apple Bloom asked, getting no answer, or particular response. Sweetie had her, and it didn’t feel right to touch her, so Apple Bloom yelped, “Ah’ll go get help!”

The other two ponies and the human in the room were waking up with the overhead light on, and in the commotion, but Apple Bloom didn’t pay them mind. She jumped over Aura this time, to gallop hard out the room. She was halfway into Applejack’s room, before she realized where she was going. She stared at her sleeping sister, wanting so bad for her to make everything better, but Apple Bloom firmed her lip, and ran away from there, where she should be going. She ran downstairs to where a number of beds had been set up in the living room. It was dark, but not too much for her to see shapes to avoid. Apple Bloom hopped around the sleeping ponies and people, and found the bed she was looking for. Rearing up on it, she shook the occupant, whispering urgently,

“Doc! Doc wake up! Scootaloo’s in—something happened!” Apple Bloom whispered to Dr. Cureall, the veterinarian who was living here on the farm in case any...pony got sick.

“Wha–what?” the lady doctor said, struggling to a sitting position. “What happened? Did she fall and hurt her head?”

“Yes!” Apple Bloom said. “No!” Apple Bloom said. “Ah dunno, yes and no,” Apple Bloom said, “She had—we had a really bad dream, and—and something’s wrong with Scootaloo!”

“Calm down, let’s uhm, let’s get up to see her,” the doctor said fumbling in the darkness for her glasses. “Hold on I don’t—” she said, stumbling around blindly trying to walk over the ponies lying on the ground. “I don’t want to wake anybody—eep”

Apple Bloom bit on the sleeve of her pajamas, pulling the doctor in the direction of the stairwell mumbling “’urry!”

“Apple Bloom I can’t—” the doctor pulled free, climbing up the stairs on her own pace instead of being dragged up them by the eager filly. “I can’t help her if you panic,” the doctor said, “Are you sure this wasn’t just a bad dream?”

“It was a bad dream, that’s the problem!” Apple Bloom insisted, waiting atop the stairs for the doctor before running to her well lit room.

“I’m sorry she had a—” the doctor said, before Apple Bloom was tugging her along again. “Sorry she had a bad dream,” the doctor said, the light and shadow playing over her yellow face as she struggled with Apple Bloom in the doorway, “But these things happen. You just need to rest, and I’ll be happy to show you the monsters aren’t real.”

“The dream princess ain’t a monster!” Apple Bloom said fussily, then corrected herself with an ear flick, saying, “Well, maybe she is, but ah didn’t know she was until now!”

“Seriously, you should be telling your parents if you had a bad dream,” the vet said soothingly to her, “I hardly think it’s a medical emergency.”

“Ohh, just—come on!” Apple Bloom shouted, dragging the vet by her sleeve into the lit up bedroom of hers. There, the vet came to witness a curious sight, the four ponies who were sleeping in there besides Apple Bloom and her friends had all woken up, and stood on either side of the bed that the CMC slept on. Noi, and Aura, and two that Apple Bloom couldn’t remember the name of, were watching somewhere between terror and concern, as Sweetie Belle cried her eyes out, holding a dazed looking Scootaloo, who didn’t even turn to look at them when they came in the door.

“The dream princess attacked us!” Apple Bloom explained frantically, “She attacked Scootaloo in our dream, and she was really hurting her!”

“Please, she won’t say anything,” Sweetie Belle said tearfully, “I can’t get her to sit up by herself!”

In puppy patterened pajamas, with uncombed blue striped hair, Doctor Cureall hurried over to the bed and stared wide eyed, saying, “What?! What’s wrong with her?”

The two ponies on that side moved to make room for the doctor, and she looked at Scootaloo, who looked back at her dully, with a face devoid of emotion. “Ohh man, I—I don’t—I’m just a vet!” the doctor cried, “I don’t know anything about head problems. Scootaloo, are... are you alright?” Scootaloo may have frowned slightly, but she didn’t say anything.

“We gotta get her a doctor,” the doctor concluded.

“You’re the only doctor living here!” Apple Bloom whined, “Ah had to get someone fast!”

“I’ll get the uh—hospital on the line, hold on!” the doctor said, running for the door. The pained thud outside indicated either she really hated her shins, or she still couldn’t see out there in the hallway. Apple Bloom started to follow, but... how much help could she be, calling a doctor on a phone? So instead, Apple Bloom jumped up on the bed, and went over to nuzzle Scootaloo’s cheek, trying to get a response out of her. And Scootaloo looked at her... sorta. But she just...

Scootaloo just looked at her, as if she didn’t even know who Apple Bloom was.

Author's Note

A horrible, horrible disaster!

Apple Bloom’s act emboldened the other foals, and soon Noi and the red one and the blue one Apple Bloom didn’t know, and that green blue Aura were all climbing on the bed to sit close to the three of them. Aura needed some help figuring out how to climb, but the other pony helped hook her hooves and pull her up.

Apple Bloom didn’t care. She just wanted Scootaloo not to be hurt, and... and she wanted a certain ketchup and mustard colored foal who will remain nameless to stop saying things are safe, when Apple Bloom should be realizing that they’re in terrible danger. She should have been more careful. She shouldn’t have ever trusted that dream... creature. She didn’t know what happened! Apple Bloom just... wanted Scootaloo back. Some horrible, ugly longing rose in her, older and deeper than anything she could remember, even if Scootaloo was probably fine and just had a real shock or something. She wanted Scootaloo back.

So that’s why 10 minutes later, when the ambulance got there, and the paramedics and a doctor Apple Bloom hadn’t seen before fought each other, for the right to climb the stairs, they found not just an unresponsive Scootaloo, but a strange cluster of ponies all pressed up against each other, with the orange pegasus in the middle. Apple Bloom was on one side, with two she wasn’t entirely familiar with, and on the other side were Noi, and Cheerilee, who had just come crawling upstairs and practically knocked the bannister down hurtling herself into the room, just to be close to her daughter. Sweetie was somewhere in the periphery, with Aura and... that one pony girl.

Apple Bloom vaguely recognized it was weird to do this... pile of ponies thing, but she didn’t know what else to do. They were all comforting her, maybe? Apple Bloom thought she should just leave Cheerilee and her daughter alone, but at the same time she just couldn’t feel it. Apple Bloom didn’t understand, just blushed and wiped away crusted tears off her face, and told the very distressed looking doctor, who looked to be a deep lilac colored man with pale pink hair,

“Ah know it’s strange, but you gotta help!” Apple Bloom said urgently, “See, since we turned into ponies, and you don’ gotta help with the pony part of it, but since we turned we been having strange dreams where we can all dream together and there’s a dream princess in there and she’s real nice or so I thought! But we were just showing her one of Scootaloo’s dreams, the one where we found her in, and the princess just went haywire! She was freaking out and using her freaky dream magic on Scootaloo, and Scootaloo was outright screaming in the dream! Well I woke us up as fast as I could but she’s still not talking and I don’t know what’s wrong, please you gotta help her!”

The doctor seemed completely frazzled, looking at them in astonishment, like they were something he just couldn’t accept as real. The paramedics were better though; they didn’t even hesitate, hustling past him into Apple Bloom’s room. It was a man and a woman. The pink woman with grass green hair said in a no-nonsense if very gratingly sweet tone, “Alright, clear out of the way, you ponies! Let me get a look at the patient.”

The ponies cleared out of the way, except a tear stricken Cheerilee who was still propping Scootaloo’s head up on the pillow, and Apple Bloom who backed up but didn’t jump off the bed. Knelt on the floor at the foot of her bed, the cream colored redhair of a male paramedic was unpacking the equipment from a case they’d hauled upstairs. He started taking notes after throwing the case open, when the the pink lady announced, “Profuse sweating, eyes appear—”

The lady cut off abruptly and grabbed Apple Bloom’s chin in her fingers, staring right into her face! Before Apple Bloom could even pull away, the lady paramedic released her, looking at Scootaloo again stating, “Eyes appear dilated. Heart rate is—”

She cut off again, staring at the heart rate monitor she’d just been handed. It was a finger clip. Throwing it down, the lady pressed her index finger against Scootaloo’s orange neck, then checked her watch, spouting out after ten seconds, “Heart rate is 137 and dropping. Is that high for you ponies?” Apple Bloom blinked as the lady was talking to her again.

“Ah dunno, ah guess?” she said backing to the edge of the bed now that the paramedic had a handle on it or... something. “Hundred uh...” her mind was racing, “Ah don’t think it’s normally much above a hunred,” she offered reluctantly.

Listening at Scootaloo’s ear, continuing to look at her watch, the medic stated, “Breathing evenly at 30 breaths per minute. Appears to have been drooling.” The paramedic had barely pulled away before of all times, Scootaloo chose now, to say in a messed up, groggy slur,

“Wha’s... goingh on?”

Cheerilee burst into tears again. “Scootaloo!” Apple Bloom exclaimed in joy, leaping from the edge of the bed to—she smacked nose first into the paramedic lady’s upraised pink hand, as the lady hissed, “Hst!” at her, stopping Apple Bloom in her tracks.

Cheerilee was still clumsily holding Scootaloo in her new forehooves, but the lady didn’t seem to care about that. Apple Bloom on the other hand backed off blushing and lifting a hoof. It probably wasn’t all that smart to become a red and yellow hug torpedo, when Scootaloo could’ve been seriously hurt. But her impulse halted, Apple Bloom still sagged in relief.

“Patient regained consciousness,” the paramedic continued shortly, “Speech appears to be slurred. You ponies don’t have trouble talking, do you?”

Apple Bloom stared back at her like a moonstruck calf, until realizing that she was being talked to again. “Yeah!” she yelped, “Uh, no! Ah mean, Scootaloo don’t have no problem, no.”

“Are you experiencing any pain?” Another moment for Apple Bloom to realize the lady had switched on a fast track to talking to Scootaloo directly now. Then, the paramedic just waited, looking at Scootaloo steely eyed, while Scootaloo mouthed silently with a worried stare, then winced, holding a hoof to her temple, saying,

“Headegg... wha’s... wha’ happen?”

“You’ll be fine, little girl pony,” the paramedic said in a surprisingly comforting tone, then barked over her shoulder again, “Headache. May be experiencing retrograde amnesia.”

She checked in Scootaloo’s mouth, seemed satisfied by that, and had Scootaloo lift her hoof on command, to which the extremely confused looking filly automatically complied.

The purple doctor was listening in now, along with looking at the notes the other paramedic had taken, while the male paramedic with the rose red hair was also taking out equipment like blood pressure cuffs that were too big, and a thermometer.

While they had been all waiting for the doctor to get there, Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer had both come up to Apple Bloom’s room, and they were still here now. But they had no idea what was wrong with Scootaloo, neither having ever seen this happen to a pony before on their side of the portal. They stood by awkwardly, and the purple Twilight herself looked unusually anxious as she stared at the lead paramedic. Cheerilee of course, refused to leave from being her daughter’s impromptu giant pillow, and Granny Smith was here too. Granny looked like she was about ready to head off and do something important elsewhere though, instead of just crowding up the room. Sweetie Belle was still around, but she was on the floor reared up with her forearms perched up on the bed, rather than standing on top of it like Apple Bloom was.

“Scootaloo, are you okay?” Sweetie asked, eyes full of worry, once the paramedic had finally finished grilling the orange filly.

Scootaloo focused on her with difficulty, and said, “Uhm... thirshty...”

Sweetie was gone to get some water so fast, Apple Bloom swore the little white unicorn left a cloud of little white unicorn shaped dust in her wake. Scootaloo continued to improve as time went on, and she seemed a lot better after plunging her face into the water bucket Sweetie brought up in her mouth. “Serioushly,” Scootaloo said, looking from Apple Bloom, to Sweetie, and then up to her mom. “Wha’ happened? I jus’ woke up all f..fugged up.”

“The dream princess attacked you!” Sweetie told Scootaloo, her voice like a hurt kitten.

“Do ya remember what she did to you in the dream?” Apple Bloom asked hopefully on the other side.

“Wish dream?” Scootaloo responded with a clueless deadpan. She winced again, and repeated, “Which... dream are hyou talking about?”

“You know, where we showed her that castle town you dreamed up once?” Apple Bloom prompted. Scootaloo’s eyes widened at that, and she exclaimed,

“Oh, right, tha’! Why haven’th we shown her that already?”

“We... did show her,” Apple Bloom said uneasily.

Scootaloo stared at Apple Bloom blankly, and then her brow knotted and she exclaimed in frustration, “Amnethsia?!”

“Is an uncommon side effect of an epileptic seizure,” cut in a warm voice, that while quiet nevertheless had a penetrating presence. It was the purple doctor! Or eh, uh, whatever her name was. “Do you have a history of epilepsy, miss Scootaloo?”

Scootaloo looked at her blankly. The doctor smiled, and started to repeat her question, but Scootaloo interrupted, saying in frustration, “No. No, I don’t have... that.”

The doctor sighed. “And it was going so well,” she said regretfully. “I’m afraid I haven’t an idea what might make a pony behave this way. You’re showing classic symptoms of such a seizure, but I’m told that a... dream princess did it?”

“Are you chrathzy?!” Scootaloo declared, then held her head, grimacing again while her mom worried over her. “She’s the... nicesth printhess, she couldn’t... wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

“She did do it!” Apple Bloom said in, switching her tail in angry righteousness. “Ah saw her! She was fine an’ then she just went crazy! And Scootaloo you were... were screamin’, and and then you weren’t and I just...”

“I don’ remember any of htat,” Scootaloo said solemnly to Apple Bloom, looking a bit haunted from hearing it.

“It’s okay, Scootaloo,” Apple Bloom said sympathetically. “Really better that you didn’t... it looked mighty painful from where we were.”

“If Scootaloo had a seizure, we were in her dream,” Sweetie offered, “So maybe that messed us all up, including the princess?”

Sweetie looked at the doctor who raised her hands and shook her head saying, “Oh no, I don’t know anything about that. I have known some patients with epileptic seizures, but they never said anything about a seizure interrupting a dream. This pony thing is just... are you... telepathic or what? Is your horn an antenna?” She reached out a smooth finger to poke curiously at Sweetie Belle’s horn.

Sweetie jerked away in response with a look of alarm, saying, “Careful! This thing’s sharp!”

The doctor ceased trying to poke at her horn.

“There’s... special ponies,” Apple Bloom explained to the doctor, giving a nervous look at Twilight and Sunset Shimmer, who didn’t volunteer the info, but didn’t sit there crossing their hands and mouthing ‘N O’ either. So Apple Bloom went on, “There’s special ponies, who do special things, ah was told. They’re called princesses, not queens, because there’s more’n one of them, one for each special... thing. There was only one for a while, but that’s getting better now, or so ah heard.

“An’ one of those special ponies is over here in our world,” Apple Bloom said, walking across the bed to face the very curious looking doctor. “For every one of... oh, right. So, those two girls are from an alternate universe, where everyone’s a pony, and they’re trying to figure out why it’s happening to us. But for every one of us humans or... human ponies, there’s one of them ponies in the alternate universe, like a pony me, or a pony you, who always was a pony. A lot of ponies don’t have a counterpart here, but I met Twilight Sparkle’s counterpart in mah dreams.

“Her counterpart is a pony, but is stuck in dreams,” Apple Bloom said uncertainly. “She’s the dream princess, or n-night princess ah guess. Dreams are part of the night, but we just call her the dream princess. Since she’s a princess pony, she can go into our dreams, but only people who are ponies. Ponies dream... different. It’s more vivid-like, an’ tangible. You have to really hunt for the symbolism, unlike in human dreams. And uh... so we don’t really know what we’re doing. We just sleep and figgur out dreaming as ponies, and then the princess goes nuts and uses her horn on Scootaloo—”

“She used her horn?!” Twilight Sparkle suddenly shouted in complete aghast horror.

“No!” Apple Bloom gulped, waving her hooves at Twilight. “That’s not what ah meant. She didn’t skewer her or nothing. She used her horn to do magic on Scootaloo.”

“That’s... that’s what I meant,” Twilight said boggling at Apple Bloom’s words. “Skewer—what? You... you have issues, filly. But no, I’ve at least studied the basics of oneiromancy, just in case Princess Luna is incapacitated, and the only time you use your horn in a dream is when you want to change somepony’s dream, in significant ways! Casting magic in somepony else’s head is incredibly dangerous! And she was just doing it on reflex?”

“She changed her dream, alright!” Apple Bloom retorted fretfully, “She gave her downright amnesia!”

“I can’t believe she’s this world’s version of me,” Twilight fumed seated in one of the chairs they’d brought in. “She’s such... a... a moron!”

The rain came down softly on the roof overhead, as the sound of Twilight’s shout faded from the air, while the flame haired girl next to Twilight failed to hold back a snicker.

“Someone going to do something about the doctor...?” Sweetie Belle asked uncertainly, pointing at the limp figure of the purple haired pink doctor, currently slumped over Apple Bloom’s bed.

“She’s fainted!” the pink lady paramedic practically screeched.

The male paramedic propped her up and looked into her eye, but the doctor was already rousing herself. “No, no marzipan, thanks I’ve had plenty,” she murmured, opening her green eyes to see... three little ponies, in various positions on the bed.

The green haired pink paramedic stood up from crouching beside the doctor. She went up to Scootaloo, saying in a wearily disgusted tone to the woozy filly, “Look, we’re all completely out of our league here, but I don’t care if you’re a pony or a rutabaga. All you had was a seizure. Nobody got hurt, you’re getting better, end of story. Drink fluids, call the hospital if you have another seizure.”

Then the paramedics went and started packing up their supplies, swiftly and efficiently.

Sort of... called for, but damn. Apple Bloom hadn’t seen a worse bedside manner in just about ever!

Twilight Sparkle then raised a slender lilac hand for some reason, behind the three who were cleaning up their stuff, with a curiously worried expression on her face as she regarded the paramedics in particular. The girl stood up, walking over to those paramedics to address the two of them.

“...Daisy?” Twilight asked hopefully. The lady paramedic lifted up her head, looking Twilight’s way.

“Am I supposed to know you?” she asked flatly. Twilight blinked, and then shook her head.

“No, no it’s just—I know a Daisy and she’s just so much more um... delicate.”

“What, everyone named Daisy’s all the same to you?” the paramedic, named ‘Daisy’ apparantly drawled with disdain. “Look maybe I used to be a pushover, but you work this job long enough and you are gonna stop freaking out over every little thing. Me and Rose here, we’ve seen things. Awful, awful things. So be glad your Daisy or whatever is such a delicate flower. Me, I have a job to do!”

“You and...” Twilight gulped anxiously. “Rose, huh,” she said, looking at the male paramedic. “And I suppose Lily’s driving the ambulance?”

“Lily?” Daisy replied loudly and testily, “No, Rose drives the ambulance. Who’s Lily?”

Apple Bloom really wasn’t sure what she was looking at, at that point. Daisy and Rose both started crying then, but just silently crying, and they kept on packing up! Apple Bloom was pretty sure if Twilight was a pony, her ears would be drooping, and her tail would be right between her legs. “I–it’s nothing,” Twilight said miserably to the two of them. “I guess you’re just... not friends in this world.”

“I don’t know who this Lily is you’re talking about,” Daisy said crankily, “But I hope your Daisy friend takes good care of her. We’re just not the same person, I don’t see how this is hard to understand.”

“Sorry, you’re right, and you’re your own person,” Twilight said in an embarassed apology. “I just thought you resembled... um... why are you crying?”

“What?” Daisy said, drawing up short and putting a hand to her very pink face. “I’m not— huh.” She hadn’t even noticed the tears start running down from her eyes? “I don’t... know,” she said thoughtfully, quieter than she spoke before.

The male paramedic, who Apple Bloom supposed was Rose, even though it was an odd name for a man, he sniffled, and said in a pleasant, if downhearted tenor, “Can we just get back to the hospital?”

Daisy looked at him in surprise. “Ambrose, you spoke!” she squealed shrilly.

“Hey, I speak!” he said angrily in reply. “I just... don’t like how I ...sound.” And fell silent again.

Now Apple Bloom was really confused, because Ambrose actually had a pretty nice voice, and Daisy was the one who was sounding so grating. It would have been horribly insensitive of her to just start demanding answers though, and these were just a couple of random paramedics, right? Did Twilight know the other side versions of them? But why was everyone getting upset over this Lily fellow that nobody even knew?

Twilight didn’t seem to know what to say either, and the paramedics cleared out of there and drove their ambulance away. Doctor Swirly Cotton stayed around to monitor Scootaloo a while, and help her with... whatever happened to her. Scootaloo had managed to extricate herself from Cheerilee, assuring her mom that she was fine, even though she did seem to be slurring her words pretty bad. But Apple Bloom didn’t really feel comfortable commenting on that

“Okay mom, jus’ talk to the doctor. Sshe said it was okay,” Scootaloo grumbled at a nervous Cheerilee, standing there before her daughter as best she could on all fours. (She still wasn’t confident on her hooves yet.)

Apple Bloom stood with Sweetie by Scootaloo’s bedside now. Any other ponies had found another room to sleep in. It was still the middle of the night, and Apple Bloom really wished she could sleep.

“Oh man, ish middle of the night,” Scootaloo moaned. “Wish I coul’ jus’ go back to ssleep.”

“And let the dream princess get you?” Apple Bloom said dully. “Ah wanna sleep too, but ah just don’t know anymore what to do.”

“Guessh you’re right, uh...” Scootaloo started to acquiesce, then just looked at Apple Bloom blankly again.

“You okay, Scoots?” Apple Bloom said uneasily at the unresponsive pony.

“I’m fine um...” Scootaloo’s eyes had alarm in them though, as she looked at Apple Bloom, then looked down, saying, “I know it, i’ss right on the tip of... shomething.”

“Your tongue?” Apple Bloom offered.

“My tongue, yeah!” Scootaloo agreed, lifting her head to look at Apple Bloom. With a terrified wince, she went on to say, “What was your name again...?”

“You... you remember me, right?” Apple Bloom said, feeling hollowed out at what Scootaloo was saying to her.

“Hno, I remember hyou!” Scootaloo protested sloppily. “I know you an’ we been friendsh forever and... I should know it. I don’ get it!”

“Calm down,” Sweetie said, “It’s probably normal or something. I’ll go get the doctor.” She trotted off while Apple Bloom hovered nervously by the antipathic Scootaloo.

“Why’d she messh my head up so bad?” Scootaloo moaned, burying her forehead in her pumpkin orange forehooves.

“Ah’m Apple Bloom,” Apple Bloom said in a subdued tone.

“Tha’s it!” Scootaloo said with the most relieved smile on her face. “I can’ believe I forgot htat... hth... that. Thanks uh... wai’ what was it again?”

“Apple Bloom,” Apple Bloom said feeling wearier than she had a right to be. “An’ Sweetie Belle is your pink haired white friend, the really nice one who’s going to bring the doctor.”

“I know who szhe is, um...”

“Apple. Bloom.”

Once the doctor jogged in again, herded along by an insistant white unicorn filly, she knelt down beside Scootaloo. “Don’t worry miss, forgetting names is perfectly normal.” The doctor told Scootaloo soothingly. “I know it’s very scary since you’ve never had a seizure before, but your memories might be a little... jumbled for a while. Since you have no history of seizures, there isn’t likely to be any long term damage at all in your left temporal lobe. It should get better all on its own, but it might take some time.”

“Oh, sso, remembering, uh... her,” Scootaloo said, pointing a hoof in Apple Bloom’s direction.

“Ah’m Apple Bloom!” she said furiously for the umpteenth time, furious that the princess would do this to Scootaloo.

“Apple Bloom! Tha’s it!” Scootaloo said with a relieved smile flashing on her face. “Oh man Apple Bloom, I’m sho sorry it’s just the name was just...”

“The left temporal lobe is the part of your brain that stores names of things,” the doctor explained simply. “Unfortunately, epileptic seizures often begin in that region of the brain. Think of it like turning on all your neurons at once. That drains the neurotransmitters from your synapses, making the connections not work, regardless of how strong they normally will be.

“So, the hardest thing for you to remember should be words or names,” he concluded. “None of the connections have been cut, or atrophied. It’s only temporary. Once your neurotransmitters replenish themselves, you should have no problem remembering the names of things... or people.”

The doctor gave Scootaloo a sad look and added, “Some evidence shows that the names of people close to you are all stored in one very specific place at the front of the temporal lobe. So, if you forgot Apple Bloom’s name, it probably means that spot got hit, and that she’s very important to you.”

He turned to Apple Bloom then and said more disapprovingly, “And if you try to judge her for something beyond her control, you’ll have the wrong idea about what’s really going on every time.”

“Oh,” Apple Bloom said sinking down guiltily, and blushing submissively, “Eh heh... guess maybe I shouldn’t get mad over it then.”

“It’s also normal for the patient to forget everything that happened shortly thereafter,” the doctor said, turning to Scootaloo and saying, “I’ll make sure to write down everything I told you, so you can pick it up again if you need some time to recover.”

“I’m not forgetting shtufff,” Scootaloo said self consciously. “I feel fine, jus’ a headache, and that’s it.”

“You might not feel like it,” the doctor said sympathetically, “But what you think you’re remembering now might not stick for a while.”

“Hthen why are you even talking to me?” Scootaloo said in angry sorrow, twisting in her mother’s arms. “I don’t hwant this! I can’ even shpeak good anymore!”

“Honestly, the best thing for you to do now is probably to sleep it off,” the doctor said. “And recover your—”

“No!” Scootaloo, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle all shouted at once.

“No,” Apple Bloom repeated more levelly, “No sleeping until we’re sure it won’t happen again.”

“I don’t what this to happen ever again...” Scootaloo whimpered, burying her face in Cheerilee’s shoulder.

“We’ll go to sleep first,” Sweetie Belle said in tense suggestion, “And if the coast is clear, Scootaloo can go to sleep.”

“How’ll I know?” Scootaloo asked worriedly.

“Just give us ten minutes,” Apple Bloom said thoughtfully. “We’ll be sure to wake up the moment we so much as even see the princess, so if’n we don’t then it’s safe. Ah won’t let her so much as even touch you again...” and she found her voice shook with a hot rage that scared even her. “Ah don’t care if she’s a princess,” Apple Bloom whimpered petulantly, “Ah won’t let her hurt mah friends!”

It was so hard to fall asleep when you’re excited and angry, but Apple Bloom had a lot of practice, and her friends were counting on her, so she managed it. When Apple Bloom went to sleep again, she found herself standing on Promise Peak outside her farm. It was a normal place for her to dream up, but she went instead to the big red farm house, and made her way into its much more secure feeling confines.

Apple Bloom didn’t catch so much as a whisper of the princess, not that she could really do anything about it if the princess really wanted to mess them up, but she had to try. Sweetie Belle came by next, when Apple Bloom was in the middle of making a blanket fort, that would serve as the tunnel to Scootaloo’s dream, wherever the orange filly popped out. (Scoots wasn’t that consistent in dreaming yet, and who knows where it was gonna be this time?)

Sweetie found her way to their farm house easily enough, popping out from a hatch in the floor that led to one of her classes in the high school. The unicorn locked the hatch behind her then, if that would help, and they both went through the blanket fort. They found Scootaloo, once she started dreaming... of the castle town again. As that familiar yet terrible vista surrounded them, Apple Bloom had a moment of terrible panic, before realizing that she still couldn’t see the dream princess.

Maybe Apple Bloom had hit her harder than she thought she did?

Well, now Apple Bloom was feeling kind of guilty that maybe she hurt the dream princess. But not guilty enough to go looking for trouble. So once Scootaloo came around, the three of them hustled back through one of the cottage doors, into a surprisingly modern looking living room, where a number of stools had been moved so a blanket could be draped over a table. They snuck through that, and kicked it down behind them so nobody could follow once they got back to the farm house. That was as near as Apple Bloom could figure, the best way she could make sure that all three of them were safe.

Even in her dreams, Scootaloo wasn’t doing so well. She wasn’t slurring anymore, but she kept spazzing out, like going left and right at the same time somehow, just for a moment, before snapping back to herself. They talked to her though, and led her through a journey of discovery, mostly by way of flashcards mouthdrawn in brightly colored crayon. It was kind of boring actually, but none of them really wanted to do anything exciting anymore.

When they did wake up, quite late into the day, Scootaloo was... better. Her headache faded away, and she wasn’t slurring anymore while awake. She didn’t remember a thing about the night before, even the part where she was talking and stuff! Nothing about the dream itself, of course. She didn’t even believe them at first!

“Come on, a seizure?” Scootaloo said jokingly, searching their faces for shenanigans. “I’m not that messed up!”

“We were in your dream at the time,” Sweetie explained, “So it was easy for the princess to mess you up, and thankfully it was just temporary.”

“Here, the doc gave us some information,” Apple Bloom said, grabbing the notes he left in her mouth and tossing them over to Scootaloo. “Says you ran outta neurotransmitter somethings, on account of she blasted ya.”

“You’re serious,” Scootaloo said looking up from the paper with a raised eyebrow. “The dream princess? She’s the nicest princess she could be! I don’t think she could even hurt a fly!”

“Well, she did,” Sweetie told Scootaloo frankly, “We showed her your dream of the castle town, and then she filled it up with dream ponies. Then she went crazy, and said she remembered, and then she attacked you!”

“Used her horn on you!” Apple Bloom said vindictively. “Twilight said—the real Twilight said it was real dangerous to do that, and she still did! Said she had to!”

“She probably even gave you amnesia, so you wouldn’t remember it,” Sweetie added. “But I swear you were there, and even awake for a little, after the seizure!”

“You really saw me having a seizure?” Scootaloo said, looking at her hoof and shaking it, as if to dare it to start spasming.

“Well, nobody noticed any sort of seizure,” Sweetie corrected her earlier claim, “But the doctor said they aren’t always obvious, and don’t usually last very long. You were just... really out of it when they got there. You were talking, but upset because you started lisping again. And also upset because they said you wouldn’t remember maybe.”

“Well, I guess I would be upset,” Scootaloo said noncomittally, “But now it just seems weird. I don’t remember that at all!”

“Guess you have to wait for her to go after one of us, before you get to see how weird it is,” Apple Bloom said in a half joking tone. “It was so weird. You even forgot our names! Quick, what’s mah name?”

“Apple Bloom?” Scootaloo said uncertainly. “Get out. How would I forget your name?”

“You totally did!” Apple Bloom crowed impishly. “You were all ‘Hey there uh... hold on, it’s right on the tip of mah tongue’ And I’m all ‘Ah’m Apple Bloom!’ Then you forgot again! Ah didn’t even know memories could be just turned off like that!”

Scootaloo shuddered, saying, “Yeah that’s... kinda creepy. I don’t ever want to forget who you are.”

“Wayl if she gets me next, you cain see for yourself,” Apple Bloom insisted. “It all came back to ya, so no harm done, right?”

Scootaloo shrugged at that. “I can’t believe the dream princess would do that,” she said in confusion. “She’s a total pushover!”

“Yeah, she just went crazy for no reason,” Apple Bloom said shaking her head. “Guess she really is crazy.”

“Maybe there was a reason, but none of us understood it,” Sweetie Belle said. “She even told us that she had to do it. Maybe she was possessed?”

“By what?” Apple Bloom retorted.

“By a nightmare?” Sweetie guessed. “I don’t know. But she wasn’t just doing it randomly. Don’t you remember all those other pony people running around?”

“What part of amnesia do you not get?” Scootaloo griped at Sweetie, who of course shook her head and said,

“No, I meant Apple Bloom.”

“Ah remember all those ponies running around,” Apple Bloom said. “They sure seemed scared of something. But ah wasn’t exactly paying attention, because that’s when the princess attacked!”

“I’m just saying there was something else going on there,” Sweetie insisted. “She said she—remembered...”

None of the three of them, and for what it’s worth not any other pony, saw any sort of dream princess that night. Apple Bloom was honestly starting to get worried. She wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she’d gone and hurt the dream Twilight, and she couldn’t get better or anything. But Twilight’d almost done the same to Scootaloo, and there really wasn’t anything Apple Bloom could do about it yet.

So the days went by.

Twilight Sparkle used her multi-digit hand to place another pin in the map of the city that they had up on the wall. They were out of their trailer now, and set up in a portable building. Though it was pretty sparse on the inside, just a shack really, and had a very poor level of climate control, it kept back the blustery wind and kept them from being rained on at least.

She stepped back to look at the map, and once again all the pins of people becoming ponies had an apparantly random distribution, with no pattern to it at all. It wasn’t centered on the portal, nor on Sweet Apple Acres. It was just... all over! Red pins indicated approximately where people were when they started changing. Blue pins indicated where they lived, and green pins where they worked.

“Any ideas?” Sunset Shimmer said unhopefully to Twilight. Twilight shook her head, turning to the flame haired girl who was standing next to her.

“I can’t make heads or tails of it,” Twilight said, “All I know is the standard deviation in location is greater than the sample size, no correlation whatsoever. I’ve studied statistics, but...”

“We need something like a whole team of analysts working on this,” Sunset grumbled in frustration. “But this city doesn’t even have a college of higher learning. It’s just this high school thing.”

“And a research laboratory on biochemical synthesis,” Twilight pointed out unhelpfully.

“We had more luck with those forensics guys,” Sunset said shaking her head. “And they don’t see any connections either.”

“There is, um... you know,” Twilight mumbled, running her hands over each other. Sunset cut her right off,

“No. No you do not want to deal with that guy. He’s absolutely infuriating.”

“Well, he is a statistics profess—”

“He’s like the crankiest old bastard that I’ve ever met!” Sunset said, throwing up her hands. “I never got any answers out of him, only a depressing, pessimistic worldview that he feels like he has to push on everyone.”

“I have to admit I’m curious what he’s like in this world, even if he is as unpleasant as in our world,” Twilight said, crossing her arms thoughtfully.

“I can’t believe you’re the one suggesting it,” Sunset said in bafflement, “You actually met him, in all his horrible glory, and you think he’s any better here, just because nobody has any magic?”

Sunset turned to the map again, uttering gloomily, “It’s not like finding out where this is coming from will help at all. You still have no magic. I still have no magic.”

“It’s only a matter of time, at this point,” Twilight said pleadingly. “When the phenomenon reaches us, we’ll be able to do something about it!”

Sunset didn’t cheer up at that, just sat down on one of the beds with a huff. “You more than me,” Sunset said, staring at her feet. “I’m just another unicorn, remember?”

Twilight looked at Sunset with a heavy heart, not sure if there was anything she could say to cheer her up, considering what Twilight really was under this human guise.

“Don’t underestimate yourself,” Twilight decided on saying eventually. “I did become technically more powerful in my princess role, and I don’t know how to say this right, but... a lot of my potential has already been realized. I don’t want to call it tunnel vision, but... the more I adapted to it, the more everything just started looking like a nail. When you know what works, you use it right?

“I guess I’m trying to say that being a princess is a lot more passive than you might have thought,” Twilight said modestly, “Your ability to use your magic with impunity, I truly feel that you still have a big role to play in all of this.”

“Those are nice words, princess,” Sunset said bitterly, “But in the end, you know who’d win in a magic duel. I just... all these years, and I still can’t get over it. I don’t just want to be a unicorn. I want to be something special!”

“Like, a human?” Twilight offered playfully. Sunset couldn’t help but smirk at that.

“Nope, totally sick of being a human,” she replied. “Been there, done that. Heck, I’ve been a human longer than I’ve been a pony!”

“You must be looking forward to it even more than I am, then!” Twilight said with starry eyes. “So long without it, you’re finally going to be able to stand on four hooves again! Doesn’t that make you feel absolutely terrific?”

“Honestly?” Sunset said, sitting next to Twilight on the bed. “It makes me feel absolutely terrified.”

Apple Bloom was tired. She was tired! Something kept poking her.

“Grmuwph” she said articulately.

“Apple Bloom, c’mon, wake up,” whispered Applejack, nudging Apple Bloom through the covers again. “Come on, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle. Time to get up and at ‘em.”

“Already?” Sweetie Belle whined. “But I'm still tired!”

“Well ah am too,” Applejack said frankly, “But school is school. You three have to get up now, if’n you wanna make it today.”

Scootaloo appeared to be attempting to smother herself with the pillow, mumbling into it, “Not again…”

To get an idea of just what is going on here, some time had passed since the dream princess’s strange attack, and Apple Bloom’s first attempt at attending school. It had been a total disaster, but instead of discouraging anyone from repeating that, Apple Bloom found it seemed to convince everyone that it was super gosh darned important for her to attend! With more and more pony people showing up, and it wasn’t showing any sign of abating, the farm just couldn’t house all those bodies. And what that meant is those people needed to be housed somewhere else. Somewhere like the house they came from. Or apartment, or flat, or orphanage, or what have you.

Or school.

As Granny explained to Apple Bloom, “People changed into ponies, fer sure, but they gotta go back to their old lives somehow.”

“Buh Gimmle,” Apple Bloom had said in response, looking up from her business sweeping scattered bits of hay off the floor. She was using a broom, okay? A broom. Okay a brush, but it might as well have been a broom. “But Granny,” she repeated, dropping the brush out of her mouth into the crook of her hoof, “Ah don’t think there’s one single pony ready to do that! They cain’t do their jobs, or study in school. Most of ‘em don’t even know how to talk, yet!”

“They gotta make enough space, somehow,” Granny insisted, dumping out the contents of Apple Bloom’s dustpan. “There are new ponies coming in. We just ain’t got the space!”

Granny Smith was right. Ponies needed to feel like they could go back to their lives, just like normal people. And that was where Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle came into play. The plan was to have the school remain a no-press zone, to prevent from alarming any new, or not-so-new ponies. The first time the three crept through those halls, Apple Bloom was sure there was no way this could possibly work. Somehow, someone was gonna ruin their day. But then, she and her friends made it through their classes... separately, and met together without incident. And that was that.

Apple Bloom couldn’t help but feel a bit snubbed, that she’d had so much trouble when she was on her own, and now nobody was bothering with them.

The Cutie Major Crusaders were the best at being ponies, of anyone on the farm, so they were the best candidates to return to some semblance of normality. Noi being the next best, she didn’t have a school to return to. Her job was still fairly unaffected by ponies, and she certainly wasn’t going back into it any time soon. But Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo all had already established classes to attend, even if they had almost none of the same classes together. That would, the authorities hoped, warm people up to ponies rejoining society. The three of them could be the model for anyone forced to come after them in desperate times.

So that’s what was going on. Dawn hadn’t even cracked and Applejack was lightly shoving Apple Bloom, who struggled to swallow the acidic crankiness that rose up in her breast at the thought of getting up early, again. Apple Bloom tried her best to be a model citizen for reintroduction and all. But she just hated getting up so early

Three pony zombies crept downstairs, trying their hardest not to awaken any other ponies or humans littering the Apple Family household. Of the ponies they awoke who were foals, those ones just went back to sleep after waking up, and Apple Bloom envied them so much right now. She felt achy, and droopy, and her voice was creaky, and she just wanted to crawl under the warm covers and continue avoiding dreaming of the princess ever again.

The problem with the princess wasn’t making matters any easier. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom were sticking close to Scootaloo in their dreams now, but neither hide nor hair of the dream princess had shown up or tried to go after Apple Bloom’s scooter loving friend. Nor had the princess shown up to apologize, for that matter. That left the three of them on edge, even in dreaming. Losing sleep because of school, and not getting as good of sleep because you’re always looking over your back for a princess who was completely flipping insane, and dangerously so.

To make things even dicier, Noi decided she wanted to walk through dreams too.

Noi tried to play it down as just for fun, but she was obviously worried sick about a bunch of kids wandering around with some psycho, who could go after them at any minute. After what happened to Scootaloo, it was clear that the dream princess was a very real danger. As a cop, and as an older woman even if only in spirit, Noi felt it her duty to protect the three of them. Or whatever she could do, with these new pony dreams of hers.

So they had to figure out a way to teach Noi the delicate art of pulling onesself out of one’s own dream, while making Noi think she was the one running the show. Then they had to wake up after way too little sleep, so they could make it downstairs before the Apples took their truck down into town, in order to reach school for first period.

Well, needless to say, Cheerilee wasn’t going to be driving her daughter down the road any time soon, at least not in any sort of vehicle. Rarity was always there to pick up Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo at first, but it was exacting a toll on Rarity to drive all the way across the city and back, just to get her younger sister to school, so instead Rarity just started meeting Sweetie, who came in with Apple Bloom and Scootaloo when one of the humans here loaned their minivan to Granny Smith so she could get the lot of them over there.

The Apple family tried to make things as easy for the three as possible, waking them up only when they absolutely needed to get going. But that meant having to hurry into poorly fitting, uncomfortable clothing, and getting in the back of the van, and...

and...

toast.

Apple Bloom wanted to cry. She had in her little yellow hooves a piece of cold toast. She couldn’t help make waffles today, or use her mouth to scrape the spatula around a pan full of fried hash browns. She couldn’t have a pot of warm, delicious, filling oatmeal. No, all she had time to eat was toast, and they had to eat it on the way, so it got cold. That was her breakfast now. That was her life now.

She did cry... the first day the three of them returned. She was the only one. The other two couldn’t understand why Apple Bloom was so upset over having to eat dry cereal, when she’d already been eating hay, and she wasn’t really sure she understood it either.

But today was like, the second week of it, the seventh day of returning to school, so Apple Bloom didn’t cry. She didn’t do anything today other than stare crabbily at her stupid piece of toast, trying to work up the will to eat it when she’d really rather be sleeping right now.

Things got... better towards the middle of the day. Apple Bloom woke up, stopped falling asleep in her chair at least. She packed a snack of hay and crackers, and just a little bit of cheese, and that got her blood flowing a bit better than just toast.

But golly, what were they even studying? It’s not that Apple Bloom couldn’t grasp what they were studying. That happened to her in Geometry, not in English. But now in English, they were reading about someone called Holden Caulfield, and Apple Bloom could honestly not imagine anyone on the planet she identified less with. He was just some whiny, stupid teenager, and that’s coming from the perspective of a whiny, stupid teenager. That was supposed to make him deep and thought provoking, somehow. Apple Bloom just wanted to kick the book out the window when he got in his stupid car and tried to kill himself. Big surprise there.

People still wouldn’t stop giving Apple Bloom looks in class, and treating her like she was some kind of toy, not a real person. And Ms. Harshvoice still wouldn’t call on Apple Bloom to speak, because of her stupid accent! Apple Bloom tried affecting a British accent once. She got about half a sentence in, before choking. It just did not sound like her. Who the heck says “cahn” instead of “cain” anyway, and why's saying it that way so superior?

After a breakfast of lukewarm toast, and a terrible morning, Apple Bloom was just trying to get through English class, when she saw her two best friends, just standing on the green out the window, and waving at her cheekily. Apple Bloom stared out at them in astonishment, but then looked away to avoid drawing attention. She looked up at the teacher, and around at the students working on their essays.

Aw what the heck, why not go join them? It sure beat trying to finish an in-class essay on the reasons behind Holden’s suicide attempt, when you don’t have any chance of finishing, because you write about 10 times slower than everyone else, on account of you have to use your mouth. So, spitting out her pencil, Apple Bloom cursed the name of whoever thought it was a good idea to put an eraser on the end of these things, and glanced thoughtfully up at Ms. Harshvoice.

She wasn’t watching Apple Bloom specifically, but she was keeping a general eye on the class. They’d be expected to discuss their essays at the end of the class period, but Apple Bloom was just sick of it. Just sick and tired and done with it. So what she did was she put up her binder so it looked like she was working behind it, and cautiously removed her bow, clipping it on the uppermost ring, right where it would pop up over the edge if her head was there.

Then Apple Bloom shimmied easily off her seat, landing on the stiff linoleum floor relatively quietly. Now, granted that didn’t make any sense, but neither did snowballs. Apple Bloom found she could avoid clopping noisily on hard surfaces, just by sort of... pulling back when she put her hooves down. She still winced at the slight amount of unavoidable noise her hooves made, but with her decoy in place the teacher wasn’t looking around for any sounds of missing students quietly clopping around.

Free from her desk, Apple Bloom now had a forest of table legs and human legs to navigate. She dragged just the belt of her bookbag with her, tip toeing lightly across the dangerous territory. Once she got to the door, Apple Bloom risked a look where Ms. Harshvoice was sitting, but the lady wasn’t even looking at the door. She was looking the other way entirely! So with her eyes glued on her English teacher, Apple Bloom slipped her belt loop over the door handle, and pulled, carefully sliding the door open just a crack, so she could slip out to the hallway, and freedom.

Author's Note

Yes I know I’m stupid about epilepsy. Apologies to any epileptics I horribly offended.

The Limitations of Patience

Apple Bloom couldn’t believe she was doing this. She felt like she was going to explode into nervous giggles. She never even had the guts to play hookey before! But then, before this, she never had a whole two months of blissful not having to get up at the crack of dawn, either. And now that Apple Bloom had a taste of paradise, she found she just couldn’t give a single care about her academic record. Right now, she wanted to play, not study!

Apple Bloom felt that way once before, early in her life, but it was eroded ever so slowly as she advanced in school. Shorter recesses, more lessons, less play time, less homeroom activities. Freedom of expression was eaten away from Apple Bloom’s life in bits and pieces, fits and spurts, until the only thing she knew anymore was waking up to hurry out of the house with a cold breakfast. A disciplinary lesson here, a down-to-the-wire deadline there, it wasn’t long before Apple Bloom didn’t even notice how she put so much of herself into school.

But then in a single day, it was just sort of... gone, all at once. Her life as a pony had its share of hard times, but it was like a refreshing return to a world she hadn’t been ready to leave. So to hell with that English class. If she wanted to skip out on it, then she would very well do so! Besides, she and her friends had some really important stuff to do today.

She ran from where she escaped the classroom, her hooves going clippyclop lightly on the floor tiles as she trotted quickly down the hallway. She paused and checked around every corner for a hall monitor that might have been lurking out there, but this far into the class period, Apple Bloom didn’t run into any trouble whatsoever.

The doors out of the school didn’t pose any problem at all. Rearing up on her firm, squat hind legs, she was quite high enough to reach the bar, and pushing it unlatched the door. She wasn’t too hindered from doing so either, as all she’d bothered to wear today was a light jacket that Diamond Tiara had altered for her from a little kid’s jacket. There was some concern about noise, but as long as Apple Bloom stuck her little yellow hoof in place, the door wouldn’t slam closed, and with careful removal, it only closed quietly with a soft click.

Then she outright gallopped, hooves pounding on the frozen dirt as she ducked her head unseen beneath the first story windows of the school, and rounded its walls to the inner courtyard, where Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were waiting. Sweetie had her winter coat on, making it less obvious that she was a four legged animal, and not just a walking tube of fluffy stuffing. Scootaloo had a pair of modified shorts, with a rather ineffective tank-top on her upper body that had the phrase “2 hot 4 cool” stitched into it, and two folds in the side that her wings emerged from, the folded orange wings easily holding the shirt’s fabric against her barrel.

“Oh my god, Apple Bloom!” Sweetie Belle said in an unnecessary whisper, as Apple Bloom came out of the class hall, gallopping right up to the excited white filly. “You actually did it!”

“How did you get away?” Scootaloo asked eagerly.

“Well,” Apple Bloom remarked quietly, leaning on three hooves to free up one of her forelegs, “You see mah big pink bow?” She pointed to the top of her head, where no bow was to be found.

Sweetie Belle just stared uncomprehendingly, while Scootaloo, tilted her head and leaned forward to look closer, but there wasn’t anything on top of Apple Bloom’s head outside of soft red hair.

“Um… no?” Scootaloo said giving her a precarious look.

“Ms. Harshvoice sure does,” Apple Bloom said with a cheeky grin, pointing back up to the window.

“You didn't,” Sweetie gaped. “How did she not see that?”

“Ah cain be convincing!” Apple Bloom pouted. “I put up on mah binder, so she'd see mah bow and think I was behind it.”

“I wonder how many times that's gonna work,” Scootaloo said, rolling her eyes.

“Ah don't know exactly, but if’n I get back before class is over, she'll be none the wiser!” Apple Bloom said confidently. “Now let's hurry. Ah wanna show you this cool back space behind the walls.”

Sneaking back into the hallway, three sets of ears trained for the slightest sound of a hall monitor, Apple Bloom led Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo over to the broom closet she'd come out of before. “Check it out,” Apple Bloom whispered, pointing at the glowing horseshoe thing.

“Woah, who put that there?” Scootaloo asked curiously, butting up with Apple Bloom so she could poke at it.

“I dunno,” Apple Bloom said, and on reflection it was suspiciously peculiar that anyone would put it here at all. “Try pushing on it,” she said.

Scootaloo did, and there was a quiet click. “W—oah!” Scootaloo said more reverently, her arm effortlessly sliding the wall panel open.

Apple Bloom trotted right in, having to duck slightly to get in there, and she looked back at the others, saying, “C’mon in, girls!”

“Does anybody know about this?” Sweetie asked, standing uneasily at the entrance, peering in.

“Don’t worry,” Apple Bloom assured her. “Ah already went all around back here, and there are plenty of other horseshoes for opening things on this side. It’s like some kinda school themed... secret thing.”

“But seriously,” Sweetie said, poking her pink and purple limned head into the space and looking around it bemusedly. “Does anyone know about this? How could they not?”

“It’s not like the janitors could fit back here,” Apple Bloom noted. “Now come on, ah wanna show you some of the places it comes out in.”

Reluctantly, but trustingly, her friends came into the dark passageway. Apple Bloom demonstrated, sliding the panel closed with a click, then depressing the horseshoe symbol to slide it open.

“It seems safe,” Sweetie said nervously, “But what is this? There’s no way we’re supposed to be in here.”

“There’s no way we’re supposed to be out of class either, so deal with it,” Apple Bloom said snippily. “Wasn’t it your idear that ah skip mah class?”

“We were just worried about you,” Sweetie said guiltily. “And also Trigonometry is really boring.”

“But mostly, we were worried,” Scootaloo said, glaring at Sweetie in the darkness. “You’ve been so miserable lately, since we came back to school,” she entreated the yellow pony girl. “Why are we even doing this, if it keeps making us miserable?”

“You know!” Apple Bloom said defensively, “To better yourself, an’ get a good job when you grow up? Unless you wanna spend your life flipping burgers?”

“I told you, I’m gonna be doing that no matter what, Apple Bloom,” Scootaloo said rolling her eyes. Which Apple Bloom could see, now that her eyes were adjusting. Man, pony eyes were freaky good at seeing in low light. The light from the glowing horseshoes was enough to clearly make out her friends, if not their colors.

“I wish we didn’t have to,” Sweetie said tensely.

“Well—Sweetie,” Apple Bloom put a hoof on the unicorn’s back. “Without going to school, we would never have found this secret passage! You have to admit this’s pretty cool.”

“It is pretty cool,” Sweetie admitted, sniffling. Good gravy, was she crying just about that? Sweetie was bothered by school, even more than Apple Bloom wanted to admit she was bothered, herself!

Apple Bloom sighed, “Let’s just explore this thing, and worry about school later. Ah’ll show you how it works, and then we cain get back to class.”

This mysterious passage didn’t seem to serve no purpose, other than opening into other rooms, but exploring it quickly distracted them from such dark thoughts. Sweetie Belle was fascinated by the glowy horseshoes, wondering if they were powered, or lit up from the inside maybe.

Apple Bloom didn’t have any answers, but she did know you could open them up to get to behind the bathroom sink in the girl’s and the boy’s bathroom. Boy was Sweetie blushing at that. There was a way to get into, and out of most of the classrooms. Really anything that shared a wall with this central corridor had exits.

That’s when Sweetie noticed something.

“Girls!” Sweetie whispered. “Look behind you!”

Both of them looked back, but there was nothing but darkness, as far as Apple Bloom could see at least.

“Ah don’t see nothing,” she said, squinting that way. Squinting doesn’t help at all in low light conditions, by the way.

“The horseshoes are gone!” Sweetie said somewhat fearfully. And justifiably so, because as Apple Bloom could see, there wasn’t a glowing anything more than a few paces behind them. Apple Bloom immediately fumbled with the nearest one, opening it up into a... into someone’s locker? Well, she opened it at any rate, and said, “Okay, ah got one open. Let’s just h-hold it open for me Scoots, and ah’ll see what’s going on with those back there, before we try to bust outta someone’s locker.”

Scootaloo did so, and Sweetie whimpered, “Be careful, Apple Bloom...”

Apple Bloom was careful, and she didn’t have to go more than a few paces into the darkness, before Sweetie’s gasp sent the fur on Apple Bloom’s spine standing straight on end.

“Apple Bloom, look!” Sweetie said in an excited whisper, while Apple Bloom tried to get her heart to stop racing, more than usual that is.

“What is it?” Apple Bloom said, turning around to look. She hadn’t even got past the lit horseshoe section even, before Sweetie brought her up short just now.

“Keep walking down the corridor,” Sweetie instructed. “Watch the horseshoes that haven’t lit up, yet.”

Apple Bloom did so, and walked forward, almost to the bend in the corridor by now. And as she did, she could see soft glows growing ahead of her, the horseshoes lighting up as she approached them. Apple Bloom turned over her shoulder and looked back. Sweetie and Scootaloo were on the other end of this stretch of tunnel, sitting in an island of horseshoes themselves. And between them and Apple Bloom was blackness.

“B... but how is...” Apple Bloom said, her hooves clipping on the stone as she rejoined with her friends and trying to get her mind wrapped around it. “Is it because we’re ponies?” she asked very uncertainly. “Why’s it reacting to us just being near? How’s it reacting to us just being near?”

“I don’t know,” Sweetie said, “But maybe we should tell someone about this. L-like Twilight. She’s good at keeping secrets, if the past month is any indication. And... maybe it is because we’re ponies, so she’ll be able to tell what it has to do with our... with us.”

Apple Bloom looked around at the soft lights lining the corridor around her, and could only nod numbly. She didn’t know what they had managed to find, but it was starting to scare her that it might be something real serious.

Apple Bloom snuck back into her English class without any trouble, just right about when it was time for the presentations to begin. And then, Apple Bloom was royally boned, because she spent the whole period playing with her friends, but she knew she was gonna be anyway. After that class, with her bright pink bow now attached to her cherry red mane, Apple Bloom hurried over to Home Economics, which wasn’t her next class. It was Applejack’s.

Apple Bloom waited impatiently by the door watching students go in, looking for her sister. And every one who passed just... looked at her.

“Don’t mind me, heh heh. Just waiting for someone, no worries heh. Heh.” Apple Bloom said nervously, and then she saw her.

“Applejack!” Apple Bloom exclaimed, gallopping up to her sister. “I gotta talk with Sunset and Twilight! We all found something secret in the school, an’ I think it has to do with ponies!”

Wait, was she supposed to talk about this with her sister? Apple Bloom blushed, and pushed off of Applejack’s legs. “Sorry, just excited about ...something,” Apple Bloom said abashedly, her voice dropping to a whisper. “Wanna bring one of those former pony girls here, see if they know why something around the school’s reacting to anyone who’s a pony.”

“What you talkin’ about?” Applejack asked, hands on her hips. “Something is reactin’ to you?”

“Because we’re ponies now!” Apple Bloom asserted. “It was a little glowy thing. Ah wanted to show one of the pony girls, so they could see if it means anything!”

“Weren’t you supposed to be in class last period?” Applejack asked suspiciously.

“Oh, uh... yeah ah was in class I just... found it during a... break,” Apple Bloom said nervously, nervously but carefully. Applejack squinted at the uneasy little pony, but then the bell rang, and Applejack said,

“Whoop, sorry lil’ sis. Ah gotta go.”

“Oh mah gosh, ah’m late for P.E.!” Apple Bloom replied with a frightened whinny. She broke for the school gym at a dead gallop, not even seeing if Applejack had gotten inside yet.

Physical Education nowadays was an exercise in paranoia. Apple Bloom didn’t want to think she was complaining about every little thing, but she was so physically different, it was kind of nerve wracking for everyone involved. They just had her sit out at first, which was a torture in of itself, but then Coach Blue Dandy got it in his head that Apple Bloom was feeling left out. (You think?) But her trying to participate opened up a whole nother can of worms.

The worst part is she couldn’t hardly wear any clothing at all when she was exerting herself. Apple Bloom quickly learned that a sweaty mess of a pony falling over the shorts tangling her legs up is far more offensive than a naked one. She could maybe wear a tank top like Scootaloo did, but... what really was the point of that? It wasn’t like anyone was staring under her tail with anything more than disgust she was pretty sure. It just meant Apple Bloom had one more thing dividing her from her other classmates.

Really, when she stopped wearing clothes entirely it was easier, because people stopped seeing her as a person. It was a lot less alarming to have some innocuous animal scampering about, than to have to acknowledge that there was someone there who was trying in vain to look less like a pony and more like a girl. The less she tried to resemble a human being, the less awkard it got. So she went to P.E. with nothing on besides her favorite bow, and that was about as good as she was going to get.

Today they were playing volleyball, so at least it wasn’t tennis. Not that the racket was too heavy or anything. As much as she was using her mouth for everything, Apple Bloom could have really given them tennis balls a whack, if she could ever hit them, that is. But she could barely hang onto the gigantic tennis racket, and despite her attempts to train herself otherwise, Apple Bloom kept standing right where you would hit the ball, if it was way off where your human arm was stretched out. There was just no way to compete with the length and reach of anyone else.

Volleyball was easy enough, though. Apple Bloom just had to navigate a crowd of flailing high school students, avoiding getting stepped on or tripped over, and continuously lifting her poor, yanked, stomped tail out of harm’s way. Yeah. Easy.

If her team was really unlucky, Apple Bloom got to hit the ball with her head, because when the team was lucky, it never got low enough for her to hit it. But she was real good at hitting it with her head. Apple Bloom was sort of their insurance policy, for when the rest of them missed the ball.

As for the other team, Apple Bloom wasn’t sure if the boy up by the net (name of Jubilant), she wasn’t sure if he kept spiking the ball right at her on accident, out of spite for her, or out of sympathy. But she heartily butted it back every time he did, so it was all in good fun.

Just highlighting her differences made the students even more wary of her. Apple Bloom couldn’t get Bolt to even talk to her anymore during P.E., and he was usually talking to her a lot, since she knew him through Scootaloo’s friends at the skate park. When you’re randomly hurled together as a class, Apple Bloom took whatever friendship she could get. But Bolt was scared of her now, or something.

Apple Bloom couldn’t help but be aware of how the other kids just... they noticed, when Apple Bloom tried to touch her toes and it was just like, “Yup those are mah toes,” while everyone else had to stretch to reach them. They noticed when she wasn’t even winded after running laps on the track. They noticed how she couldn’t be the goalie anymore in football, because it was just impossible to stop the ball with her shorter reach, and her lack of hands.

Apple Bloom was sick and tired of getting noticed.

Apple Bloom actually ended up having to wait until lunch to use Rarity’s phone. There just wasn’t time between classes. Over the phone, the pony alien girls said they weren’t really going to be able to get away from taking care of new ponies and such on short notice. But it wasn’t more than a few days later, when Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer were there after school, along with the CMC, to check out the mysterious secret passageway. Sunset had with her a wierd instrument measury thing, and Twilight had... a camera.

“Okay, show us the glowing horseshoes,” Sunset said, looking down at the ponies questioningly. Apple Bloom nodded curtly, and led the way into the janitor’s broom closet. There, she showed them the horseshoe, Twilight was taking copious amounts of pictures, while Scootaloo obligingly depressed it and slid the panel opened and closed. Then the three girl ponies backed away out of the closet, while Twilight and Sunset watched the horseshoe with interest, to show the two girls how the glow in it faded with diminishing proximity to the ponies.

“I do believe you’ve found a set of imbued sigils!” Twilight said, kneeled down amid the brooms and cleaning supplies, fumbling one of her fingers finger at the hoof shaped switch and trying to depress it. Doing that only worked if they were lit up though. “These have clearly been enchanted to glow. But they can’t glow without magic!”

“Magic, huh,” Apple Bloom said in a dazed tone, looking at the soft light of the horseshoe somewhat warily. “Even ah got magic. It don’t feel like I got nothing, but... it’s right there, all aglow.”

Twilight waved her hand in the air around Apple Bloom saying, “I can’t quite figure it out. Are you somehow radiating magic, or is it just your normal thaumic field? You’re a genuine pony, in an amagical protoworld! We haven’t been able to study ponies in a world like this before. A sigil like this would normally glow indefinitely, but in a world with a dampened ambient field, it might become entirely invisible! Who created this? Who planned this? What does it mean??”

Apple Bloom took a step back, at the girl’s very large face getting right up close to her again. Stepping back a little more, and standing decidedly on her own, Apple Bloom asked, “So, it’s like we’re sweating out magic? Ah seriously don’t feel nothing!”

“From what I remember, it’s kind of like magnets,” Sunset offered. “You know how magnets have a magnetic field?”

“Uh, yeah?” Apple Bloom said, dancing around the horseshoe sigil with fascination at how she could get it to brighten and dim. “So ah’m like a magic magnet?”

“You could put it that way,” Sunset said, “In theory, all magical organisms have a thaumic field, generated by the arcanocrystalloids found in their tissues.”

“Sort of like magic sugar crystals,” Twilight clarified to everyone’s relief. “Except with hyperfullerene instead of sugar,” she added to everyone’s less than relief.

“But who put this here?” Sunset said in clear frustration, gesturing at the sigil. “I know for a fact that nobody has any magic here, unicorn or otherwise.”

“It is very strange...” Twilight admitted, sticking her head and shoulders in the crawlspace, shining a flashlight down its depths, taking a few pictures. Something caught her eye then.

“Sunset, come and take a look at this!” Twilight exclaimed, scrabbling back out of her ensconced position.

Sunset half crawled in, shining the flashlight around.

“It looks like hewn stone,” Twilight explained, standing hopefully behind her.

“Huh, you’re right,” Sunset said, coming out of the closet with Twilight hot on her heels. Sunset followed the wall outside, leaning her ear up to it and tapping on it. “Why is the rest of the school just a bunch of cheap drywall then?” she mused.

“We need to tear down this wall,” Twilight said intently.

“You are not going to tear down the wall,” Principal Celestia said in a very unamused tone.

Not a day later, the gang found themselves in the principal’s office again, trying, and failing to convince the principal to give permission to demolish the wall. Twilight, Sunset, Apple Bloom, Sweetie and Scootaloo, and Applejack stood in Principal Celestia’s office. Twilight herself looking like someone just kicked her favorite puppy. Which considering it was a talking puppy would indeed have been cause for alarm. Apple Bloom was missing dinner for this, but it seemed important enough that this was worth it. But the principal was adamant that nobody take down the wall, and she had some good arguments too.

“Despite your involvement in this strange... pony phenomenon,” the principal stated coldly to Twilight and Sunset, “You have yet to demonstrate any evidence for your knowledge being anything other than an elaborate ruse. The community at large is experiencing great hardship right now, and they’ll turn to any hope of help in their time of need. A clever swindler could take advantage of that, leading people to believe only they know what’s going on. Just as you have done. Are your intentions honest? I have no way to tell, but a number of things concern me.”

The principal folded her very slightly pink hands, saying, “First, you seemed determined to keep the school faculty wilfully ignorant of what was going on. Yes, an attempt to contain this phenomenon is admirable, but you only waited until now to come to me about it. I had to learn that my students were transforming into small colorful horses from the the network news. Why didn’t you tell me of this right away, so I could have helped with recovery and adjustment?

“Second,” Celestia continued, “You have already been shown to be withholding information several times. The sheriff tells me that you waited until long after the phenomenon had spread to inform them of the new development. Applejack herself seems to think that you staked out her farm and installed surveillance equipment, rather than come forward and tell her your intentions. And from what I hear of Apple Bloom here, you failed to inform her that she was not a fully mature form of the very pony that we assume you to be experts on. Did you not know she was a small filly? Then why should anything else you claim to know about ponies not be circumspect?

“Furthermore, what else are you not telling us?” the principal stated, wiggling her fingers together for some reason. Apple Bloom couldn’t really remember why, but she could tell beyond a doubt that Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer were in big trouble right now.

Celestia picked up a folder and stated, “Sunset Shimmer, a junior student who transferred, from a high school that will not forward your records,” while Sunset grimaced and muttered,

“Oh yeah, that would happen. I only needed to be good for a year, I thought.”

“And Twilight Sparkle,” Celestia continued, looking at the purple girl. “If that is your real name at all. A girl who came from nowhere, with no former education, no former residence, and no birth record in town hall.”

“To be fair,” Twilight said with a quaver in her voice, “That would all be readily explainable, if I had recently come here through a portal to another world.”

“Ah yes, the portal,” Celestia stated. She shook her head slightly, and added, “Which you are conveniently unable to open, to demonstrate your claim. A portal that otherwise appears to be nothing more than the side of an ordinary stone statue. Who are you really, Twilight Sparkle?”

“I swear I’m telling the truth!” Twilight begged in an anguished tone. “I know it sounds crazy, but—Applejack knows! She knows I’m telling the truth!”

“Quite honestly Twilight,” Applejack said giving her a careful look, “Ah’m not sure that you are telling us the truth.”

“But I—” Twilight yelped. Applejack cut her off saying,

“The whole truth.”

And Twilight didn’t answer that, but the way she stared at Applejack was the sort of way that you stare at a man eating beast about to make a meal of you.

“So frankly no, I am not inclined to let you demolish my school,” the principal continued, “And in fact, I’m not sure you should be allowed on campus, either of you. If you weren’t already working with the police, I would probably call them right now. If you have any evidence that your magical glowing crawlspace poses any threat to the student body, or offers a concrete solution to our pony problem, you may present it to either me or Vice Principal Luna, and we will take the matter of opening up the walls into serious consideration.”

Both of the girls in the principal’s sights seemed unable, or uncomfortable to answer at first, until Twilight blurted out, “You’re a princess!”

Sunset’s face fell in disgust. She grabbed Twilight’s arm and pulled her around towards the door saying, “Okay, we’re done here. Don’t make this any worse than it is. They already think we’re crazy.”

“You’re a princess,” Twilight insisted frantically to the principal. “And so is Vice Principal Luna. That means you have wings and a horn. You’re tall and graceful. You are incredib—” Sunset jerked on her arm again, trying to get Twilight to just leave.

“Wings and a horn,” Twilight repeated, “All three tribes together. Only you and Princess Luna will change that way. And me. I’m a princess too. You know I’m not lying to you and—” she fought with Sunset saying, “You’ll know that I’m not just making this all up, when you transform, and I predicted what forms you alone shall take!”

“I think we’re done here,” the principal said in a tired, bored, and generally disapproving tone. It seemed to hit Twilight pretty hard the way the principal said it, and Twilight clammed up with a look like she was the lost puppy, letting Sunset lead her numbly out of the principal’s office.

“Ah’m sorry, princess—ah mean principal,” Applejack said to Principal Celestia. “Twi is a bit of a wildcard it’s true, but she’s all we got right now. She’ll understand where you’re comin’ from, once she thinks a mite bit about what she said.”

“I don’t mean to tell you who to make friends with, Applejack,” the principal said worriedly, “But do take care of yourself. As admirable as it was you neglected your studies to take care of your sister, I won’t be nearly as understanding, if you do so at the request of those two, no matter how knowledgable they seem to be.”

“Thank ya kindly princess. Ah will keep that in mind,” Applejack said, respectfully doffing her hat.

“I’m sorry the rest of you had to see that,” the principal said, leaning over her desk to look down in thought at the three fillies who stood about level with the desk’s surface. “You should heed that warning too, though. Those two could possibly be a wealth of information, but until they demonstrate the veracity of their claims, be careful about trusting what they say.”

The three were blushingly silent, until Scootaloo elbowed Sweetie Belle, who blurted out, “Of course, princess! I mean, principal.”

Celestia sighed, and rubbed her fingers on her temples like she had a headache or something. “I am never going to hear the end of that, am I,” she said to no one in particular.

Well Applejack thought the principal was remarkably lenient with what she did, not outright banning those two alien pony girls from ever being seen on school campus. The three fillies weren’t supposed to go in the passageway again, which was sensible enough as its only function seemed to be a secret way into a bunch of the other rooms. Applejack was fairly sure that wouldn’t ever be needed for anything, even if they were having an awful lot of fun with it.

After seeing the principal, Applejack led the fillies out to the parking lot, to find the Apple family’s truck. Applejack could see the girls Sunset and Twilight were already over by the bus stop, so she jogged on over to make sure they were on the up-and-up.

“You two gonna take the bus?” she asked them.

“Well it’s not like we fit in the cab,” Sunset replied, tapping her toe as she looked up the street to see if the bus was coming.

Twilight looked at Applejack directly though, and said with a hopeful smile, “We could just sit in the cart behind the cab, if you want us to come with you.”

“Eh, not particularly? We’re gettin’ to the same place in the end,” Applejack replied, rubbing at an arm. “Just take the bus for now. It ain’t technically legal for people to be sittin’ in the cargo area, and ah don’t wanna lose mah permit over something as silly as that.”

“Oh, it’s illegal?” Twilight said, wide-eyed.

“Humans aren’t as good at anchoring themselves,” Sunset reminded Twilight. “No seatbelts back there.”

“Oh, I suppose that would be the case,” Twilight said softly, rubbing a finger on her lip and staring forward.

“Granny should already have the fillies in the cab, so ah’m gonna go with them,” Applejack said to her friend and... friend’s friend. “Meet ya at the farm? You know to call in once you get to the bus stop, right?”

“Not going to go on a three mile walk any time soon, though why your farm house is all the way on the other end of your farm from the road still eludes me,” Sunset replied.

“Quieter that way,” Applejack said simply. Sunset didn’t seem convinced.

So Twilight and Sunset took the bus, while Applejack drove the CMC back home. Once they rolled up into the driveway that evening, Apple Bloom immediately jumped out shouting, “C’mon girls, let’s go get some grub!” The three suddenly starving fillies then descended mercilessly upon that household, dodging ponies and people, but mostly ponies, in order to get themselves something to fill their hungry bellies. Clearly, it’d been a long 13 minute car ride for them.

As she walked in the main house, Applejack watched her sister and her two friends, three little ponies hopping up in the air to accept some fried taters from Big Macintosh. Looked like dinner today was a fryup... again. Couldn’t be picky, when you had to feed so many mouths at once. Big Mac probably took care of the cows already, but cooking on top of that had left him looking weary and haggard.

It looked to Applejack like the family needed help and a half with making enough food to feed and please everybody. They were on their third bale of hay, but that wasn’t looking like it’d be a problem. The cows had eaten way more hay than the ponies this winter, and now the little flowers were already starting to poke their way up through the snow. Wouldn’t be long before they could grow grass again, and... and when spring came, they’d likely have a lot more people in the world who could get by on eating grass.

“Hey, Big Mac!” Applejack greeted her brother, once she kicked her boots off and could stride into the kitchen with confidence.

“Eyup?” he asked, looking up from the three munching fillies.

“Nothin’ much,” Applejack said. She noticed Granny Smith followed along behind her, no doubt with the same thing in mind as she had. “Me and Granny wanted to take over the fryin’ if you wouldn’t mind,” Applejack related to the boy.

He smiled and said, “Thanks,” letting Applejack get right into it. Applejack jumped in with the frittering, the good old twist and flip that she was intimately familiar with. Big Macintosh in the meantime retreated gratefully to try and catch up on his studies. Applejack was soon working side by side with Granny Smith, who’d been driven by Applejack home earlier, after Applejack had that meeting with the principal. What a meeting that had been, too.

Strictly speaking Applejack wasn’t supposed to be at that meeting, but she was nervous about the ponies, and her darling little Apple Bloom, so she sort of hung back after school, and tagged along with them, and good thing she did, because the principal was right. Those two former ponies were acting downright sketchy in how they doled out their secrets as convenient, and Applejack was glad to have been given some warning to be wary about them.

Those other girls would get here in due time, when the bus dropped ‘em off, and Sunset phoned for a pickup from the stop. And then maybe they could all have a chat about the importance of being honest and straightforward. For now, everyone had to get some food ready for the hungry ponies, that was slightly more flavorful, nutritious and calorie dense than hay.

“8 more showed up todee,” Granny Smith said quietly to Applejack as they worked on food preparations.

“So many ponies showin’ up,” Applejack replied somberly. “There’s gotta be a hunnred of them now. Maybe even two!”

“An’ not nearly enough goin’ back to their lives,” Granny quite legitimately complained. “We got ponies tramplin’ this here farm to the ground. They outnumber the cows now. Maybe not in weight.”

“We’ll figgur somethin’ out, Granny,” Applejack consoled, “We just gotta take things as they come, and get people ready to deal with this, whatever it is.”

There was only the sound of sizzling and stirring for a while, when Granny said, “What kinna pony ya think you’ll be?”

Applejack snorted a laugh. “Earth, def’nitely,” she said with conviction. “Ah wouldn’t know the first thing of what to do with a horn or wings. Plus ah’m a rancher. We both are, an’ that’s about as earthy as you can git. Apple Bloom’s an earth pony, so it’s likely we’ll be that way, right along with her.”

“Likely but umnhm... crazy what happened with Ms. Cheerilee there,” Granny mentioned. “To think she wouldn’t get wings like her own daughter.”

“Doesn’t seem to bother her much,” Applejack said happily. “It is plum weird though.”

“Those... girls said,” Granny pointed out, “That an earth pony can give birth to either a unicorn or a pegasus.”

“Yeah...” Applejack replied in dismal agreement, trailing off unhappily as she repeated. “Those girls said...”

“Alright,” Sunset prompted Twilight Sparkle, “What do we know so far?”

Twilight and Sunset Shimmer were in their trailer again, which thankfully nobody had thought to check for license or registration now that it was parked here. The walls were very crowded with photos, and posted notes, and a map of the town, with a number of colorful push pins in it. Twilight stood by the map, while Sunset lounged on the bed again, Twilight saying curtly,

“The phenomenon is accelerating at a fairly predictable exponential curve, that much we know. A diminishing amount of ponies are becoming foals now, perhaps a 1:3 ratio of new foals to new adults. We recorded red pins for where everyone so affected was living when they changed, blue pins for where they worked or spent their day, and green pins for where they first noticed any changes happening to them.”

“And punching the numbers into the computer showed no correlation whatsoever,” Sunset said glumly.

“Yes, the correlation...” Twilight said thoughtfully, “If only I knew more about statistical analysis.”

“We’re gonna have to ask him for help, aren’t we,” Sunset said flatly.

“I suppose it’s better to ask now, than after he changes,” Twilight said with a shudder.

“He was really bad, was he?” Sunset asked with a sympathetic frown, her hands folded neatly in her lap.

“Completely unbearable,” Twilight groaned. “And frankly if I wasn’t tempting fate, I’d wish that I could talk with our version, instead of this alternate universe one. At least in our world, he’s not so...”

“Depressing?” Sunset suggested.

“Cranky,” Twilight replied flatly.

“There’s just nothing more we can analyze,” Sunset said with genuine regret in her voice. “You haven’t studied statistics enough. I haven’t studied statistics enough. I had plenty of time to do so, but I didn’t, so now we’re in a time crunch.”

“You didn’t have any reason to do so,” Twilight reassured her, sitting on the bed beside the flame haired girl.

“You’re right, Twi,” Sunset said with a sigh. “Just doesn’t leave us with many options here, and I really would like to help... somehow.”

They sat there silently for a while, before Twilight reiterated cautiously, “As far as expert statisticians, I can think of no one on this side of the portal more qualified than he is.”

“You really think he will have any ideas about this?” Sunset said with a note of disbelief in her voice.

“Well, if he doesn’t, then it’s back to the drawing board,” Twilight said, “Perhaps some analysts at the biotech lab will come up with something useful?” she suggested hopefully.

“Statistics is not their forte though,” Sunset sighed, “Not statistics like we need. The forensics scientists would be helpful, but they’ve already taken a crack at this, and until more evidence surfaces, all we have are a bunch of pins scattered randomly all around the map, with no rhyme or reason to any of these changes.”

Twilight thought quietly about that for a moment, and said, “You don’t think he’s causing it, do you?”

A harsh bark of a laugh escaped Sunset, attracting Spike’s attention however briefly. “If he could change people into ponies,” she said, “He’d probably end this whole phenomenon out of spite, or else we’d all be ponies right now, no exceptions, because, well, as he would probably put it...”

“I don’t see why I should even bother with anything. We’re all still fundamentally condemned,” said bitterly, an elderly, greying man, to the two beleagured once-ponies. He was sitting his well dressed, lanky form behind his desk, sitting there hands folded, like some kind of criminal mastermind, or a school teacher. The difference is subtle between those two roles.

“Believe it or not, miss ‘Twilight’,” the man said, glaring at her crankily, “If that is even your name. Not all of us want to be precious little pretty ponies. You think it’s the solution to everything, but does it really make a difference in the end? We all have an eternity of death to look forward to, even if your fantasy about walking on hooves comes true. Let it happen, or not, I’ll just keep teaching math to idiots, awaiting my inevitable doom.”

“Why do you keep insisting that death is forever?!” Twilight retorted in frustration, “Why do you keep dwelling on death in the first place? We’re not even talking about that! Why are you acting this way? It doesn’t make any sense!”

“I’m sorry if ontological annihilation has me a bit peeved,” he said with a disgusted sneer. “Get real. Parlor tricks aren’t going to stop our orderly progression toward heat death.”

“How is people confirmed as transforming into ponies a parlor trick?!” Sunset declared in exasperation. “How is that not proof positive that there are certain things about your paradigm that don’t hold water!”

He shook his head disapprovingly. “Oh please, I bet you’re going to say that it’s magic that’s afflicting these poor fools, sparkly, song-and-dance, Saturday morning cartoon magic?” he retorted hotly. “In case you haven’t noticed, our city is home to a very advanced biological research laboratory. And I’m sure you’ve heard of our thrilling advancements in the science of designer pets. It doesn’t take magic to think that someone’s pet project got loose, and people are finding themselves reduced to caricatures, all ready for some young girl to purchase them off the store shelves with a smile and a giggle, and ribbons in her hair.

“Humans tampered with the code of life,” he concluded simply, leaning back in his chair, “And now they lost control of the consequences. This is all basic logic. People think they can reduce us to something comprehensible, but we’re all just a mishmash of failed genes and duct tape. And now we’re starting to learn just what a good idea it is to tamper with that, no doubt to design a humanlike pony... who can really talk!” He finished his sentence with pursed lips, and an insultingly squeaky high voice.

They just stared at him speechlessly.

“Or perhaps it’s something else,” he said casually. “But there are far more scientific explanations out there than ‘The portal to a magical land did it.’ It’s not magic what’s happening, and it’s not special. Nor are you. Nor is anyone here. I don’t care what you think. You can’t convince me that turning into cutesy ponies will stop us from burning out all our puny little lives, annihilated on the way to that cold, unfeeling end of everything. That is what you’re here for, isn’t it? To convince me? Again?”

“Actually no, professor Discord,” Sunset said, and she said it in the way, that you speak to someone who does not have all their faculties together. “What we asked is if you can help us with the statistics on who’s being changed, to try and find a pattern.”

“Oh, well why didn’t you say so,” the greying man said in a syrupy tone, but then immediately switched to unfriendly disgust.

“Get out of my office,” he growled, and then went back to sorting papers, as he had been doing for the first ten minutes that they tried to get him to speak to them.

Author's Note

Uh oh, what’s his problem?

Seeing the Forest for the Trees

“There ya are!” Apple Bloom declared triumphantly. After being back at school for a solid week and a half, she finally managed to corner Diamond Tiara at lunch. Blocking the way from Diamond going from the lunch line to hide, of all places, with the Techies, Apple Bloom stood there on all fours on the cafeteria floor, with a tray of food on her rump, staring up in outrage at the hot pink girl.

“You been avoiding us!” she asserted frankly. “The whole school has been, but you already knew we were ponies, so you ain’t got no excuse!”

“Oh, hi Apple Bloom, I...” Diamond blushed, shifting on her feet and looking around nervously. “I mean it’s not like I was avoiding you, I just you know, met some other, like, fun people, and—”

“Wayll ah gave you the benefit of th’ doubt so far, but come and sit with us today!” Apple Bloom whined insistently. “You cain spare a day, can’t you? You at least owe us a summation of what you been up to since you last came over. Scootaloo, uh—”

Apple Bloom looked at Scootaloo guiltily, sitting there eating away at her lunch without a care in the world. “Scootaloo uh, misses ya,” Apple Bloom mumbled unconvincingly, blushing despite herself.

It only took Diamond a second to capitulate, groaning and saying, “Fine, I’m sure I can spare just one day, but I’m a busy girl you gotta know! Things are—different now.” She got quieter at that last part, glancing away self consciously.

“Ah’ll say,” Apple Bloom said in amazement. “Ah never thought I’d be in this cafeteria again, but here ah am, and I cain’t see even over the lunch tables.”

“R-right, well come on, let me um... I’ll just tell my f-friends that I just like wanna catch up with you, and I’ll be right like over,” Diamond said relatively sincerely.

Apple Bloom squinted at her, but nodded. “Sure thing, just don’t leave us in the lurch just on accounta you’re not a pony yet.”

Apple Bloom returned on her own to the table that she and the CMC had commandeered. It wasn’t too difficult to do so, with everyone being all shy and boggle eyed around them. Nobody had outright attacked them, but Applejack was telling Apple Bloom the other day about how some people were complaining about her, about... it in general. Turns out not everyone wants to wake up with four hooves one day, who’d have thought?

“What’d she say?” Sweetie asked, giving a concerned look to the yellow pony who hopped up onto the chair and started nosing at the food on her tray, having to stand while she ate. Wasn’t too shabby. Some strawberry jello, and yes she made doubly sure that jello comes from pigs and cows, not ponies. A nice salad, mostly lettuce and spinach with some cheese thrown in there for zest. A good helping of peas. And some hay. In a bowl. What could she say? You can get used to anything, it turns out!

Apple Bloom wasn’t so rude to start eating without answering though, and she said with a hopeful look to Sweetie Belle, “She’s just checking with her new friends, but she said she’d come over. Ah guess she could just stay there, if she’s in one of those clique things now, and cain’t be seen hanging out with ponies.”

“Wow, even I know how ridiculous that sounds,” Scootaloo said, raising an eyebrow at Apple Bloom’s choice of words. “You know this is high school, not a high school drama, right?”

“Kinda silly, huh,” Apple Bloom said with a nervous smile. “Ah’m sure she won’t do anything mean like that.”

“Besides,” Sweetie pointed out. “Everyone knows she’s been hanging out with ponies all this time, so if they’re worried about getting infected they’d be avoiding her too.”

Apple Bloom looked over to Diamond Tiara, who was bending forward at the Techie table, and laughing with some of them about something, and with... Silver Spoon.

“Hope you’re right, Sweetie,” Apple Bloom said solemnly. Then she went straight for the jello. She didn’t have long to wait though.

“Hey, you three!”

“Well look who it is,” Apple Bloom declared in happy surprise, turning and hooking her hooves over the back of the chair. “Ah guess Sweetie was right after all!”

“Thanks for coming and talking with us,” Sweetie Belle said shyly there alongside Apple Bloom. “Hope it’s not too much trouble.”

“Pff, those guys?” Diamond said, tilting her head towards the table she came from. “As if! They’re total sissies when it comes to a real girl. You just wave your hand and they’re all over—oh, uh, s-sorry. No offense.”

Sweetie tried not to laugh at that, but she wasn’t doing a very good job. “None taken,” the little unicorn said amusedly.

“So, you’re hanging out with Silver again?” Scootaloo cut in somewhat abrasively, not really able to conceal her disappointment. Apple Bloom could definitely feel for her. Poor filly was back to school finally, and all her old friends were treating her more like a sideshow exhibit than an old friend.

“Oh, yeah S-Silver like totally. Well we haven’t like, talked or anything, but you know how it is,” Diamond said lightly, sort of wiggling her fingers at Scootaloo for some reason. “I had to hang out with someone, right? Girl like me can’t just sit here having lunch all by like, myself.”

“Well that’s right nice to hear,” Apple Bloom said happily to Diamond, leaning forward on her perch half atop the table. “Always did hope you two would make up together.”

“Hey, it’s not like we were fighting or anything. She’s just so... blah!” Diamond said rolling her eyes.

“So you ain’t happy to see her?” Apple Bloom asked cautiously. Diamond didn’t want to answer, for some reason. Why didn’t she want to answer? Diamond Tiara finally broke the awkward silence, saying,

“Well she’s, like, not the only friend I have,” Diamond said with a bit of a tremble in her voice, just that tiny hint of fear.

“Diamond, what’s goin’ on?” Apple Bloom asked quietly, greatly concerned over her friend.

Diamond just gave a brazen, toothy grin though, and said, “Oh come on you three. Don’t tell me you all like, forgot a-about Dinky already.”

“Oh right!” Apple Bloom said, along with looks of recognition from Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. Sweetie turned to peer over at the techie table, probably trying to pick him out. Apple Bloom kept at Diamond though, saying, “Ah did forget you were gonna be friends or some such.”

“More than friends, huh,” Scootaloo said teasingly, with a smug grin at Diamond. “You like him.”

“Nice try Scootaloo,” Diamond said frankly, “But that totally doesn’t work when we’re already like, dating.”

“How’s that been going?” Sweetie offered curiously. “Are you doing it?”

“Sweetie!” Apple Bloom cried out admonishingly, “What a thing to say!”

Sweetie Belle blushed, mumbling an apology, but Diamond was quick to settle her fears, saying quickly to Sweetie,

“Haha, what? No, we’re not like, doing it. We’re just Freshmen! It’s nothing serious.”

“Well, what do you do, if you’re dating, then?” Sweetie asked skeptically. And fearlessly, Apple Bloom might add.

“Just... you know, hang out,” Diamond said with a bit of a nervous giggle, “Nothing special. We’re just like, friends.”

Sweetie didn’t seem convinced, and frankly neither was Apple Bloom. “So, if y’all were doing it,” Apple Bloom said leerily, “You would use some kinda protection, right?”

“Oh my god you three,” Diamond said beside herself with bafflement. “Turning into ponies made you into such perverts! Look, we just started hanging out, and he introduced me to some of his... friends. As friends. Nothing’s happening between me and Dinks. I like, like him, but I don’t like, like like him.”

“You sure seem disquieted about something though,” Apple Bloom replied with a searching frown.

Diamond pursed her lips, telling Apple Bloom, “Well honestly, it’s like, really weird to have a bunch of little baby ponies talking about all this sex stuff.”

“Hey, how’d you know about that?” Apple Bloom said a little dismayed at the thought. “The news of our real ages is already going around school?”

Diamond blinked. “No, it was just a slip of the tongue,” she said, “Because you sorta look like baby ponies.”

“Well, don’t go telling no one, but...” Apple Bloom scooted closer to Diamond whispering, “Ah mean it. Don’t tell not a single soul about this.”

“Okay, but about what?” Diamond asked in concern.

“Just between you an’ me,” Apple Bloom said, “An’ Sweetie and Scootaloo. Ah’m technically 9 years old.”

“What do you mean?” Diamond asked confusedly.

“When I changed into a pony, ah changed into a pony you’d find on the other side of the portal to Equestria,” Apple Bloom explained. “She’s 9, or at least she was, so ah ended up lots younger than before I transformed.”

Apple Bloom blushed, adding hastily, “I-it don’t mean nothing. It’s just that ah’m... that we’re pretty young as far as ponies go. Cheerilee actually changed and she’s like twice as tall as me!”

“So, like... chest high instead of waist high?” Diamond replied dryly.

“...and she’s eight times as big!” Apple Bloom said with a disgruntled squint at Diamond’s comment there. “She weighs in the realm of a hunnred thirty pounds! Well it ain’t essactly 8 times, she’s about 3 foot 10 so it’s more like 6 times but—”

“She’s like a pound or so heavier than she used to be!” Scootaloo cut in excitedly. “She’s the biggest pony there! Well, except for that really tall tap-dancer guy, but—”

“Oh and lots of ponies are adults now!” Sweetie cut in, with an excited squeak. “That’s how we found out we were foals all along!”

“Okay, okay, sheesh!” Diamond protested, holding up her arms at the eager fillies. “You girls have been up to a lot, but eat your lunch already!”

As they ate and acted a little quieter and more reserved, Diamond asked worriedly, “So like, everybody’s gonna change into a pony, now?

“Like... even Dinky?”

The other three munched on their hay more, before Apple Bloom ventured an answer. “Y’know why we’re here, right?” she asked.

“To... go to school?” Diamond asked back, uncertainly.

Sweetie took the initiative then, saying seriously, “There’s over a hundred people changed now, and more show up every day.”

“Yeah, you might...” Scootaloo winced, “See a few more ponies here, pretty soon. We’re basically uh... out of room.”

“Nothing wrong with that,” Apple Bloom insisted. “They gotta return to their homes somehow. We been taking classes just fine, so other former students should do fine too, and um... a teacher, and... librarian... and a coach if’n ah recall. But that’s kinda why we are taking classes... to get other pony people to warm up to the idea.”

“How long before... I mean, before like, half of everyone’s changed?” Diamond murmured.

“It’ll be a while... it’s exponentiated or something,” Apple Bloom said, and Sweetie Belle nodded approvingly at that. “Basically means more at the end,” Apple Bloom continued, “Whenever the end is. It looked like a straight up-and-down line to me, but Sunset said it ain’t got an end, but it sure looks like it.”

“Breaking news, math is confusing,” Scootaloo rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, but like... how long?” Diamond persisted.

The three glanced at each other.

“Six people arrived today, Sunset. We’re almost up to 200,” Twilight said in an urgent tone, sitting on her bed, and kicking her very much still human legs out. “Yet we still don’t have a coherent pattern in the transformations. I just don’t know what data to sample! The moment of the facture, nothing. The moment they noticed the transformation, nothing. Their workplace, their living place, nothing at all. How do we find out when, where and how our world leaks, without any working magic detectors?”

“Well, at least there are some adult unicorns,” Sunset offered hopefully.

“With no training, even an adult will be lucky if they can levitate things!” Twilight retorted angrily. “It’s just not fair. The only coherent figure I’ve managed to come up with is the amount of time before they’re all converted. They need answers, Sunset!”

“We’re trying!” Sunset said angrily back, “You don’t think you’re trying? You don’t think I’m trying? There’s nothing we can do, princess! You should just tell them the facts you know, and keep looking. That’s what I’m doing, and that’s what you should be doing. I know I sound like a tired old nag, but you have to stop sweating the small things!”

“We need a statistician,” Twilight insisted. “We need someone who can interpret this data, and make sense of it. Who else could possibly make sense of this much... chaos!”

“Look, I trust you Twilight, and I trust you’re not lying to me when you say that,” Sunset groaned, “I believe you when you say Discord is an all powerful Spirit of Chaos in our world, who had to be locked away in stone to keep his magic from destroying everything, but as far as I know, he’s just a very rude, jaded, depressed, and stubborn mathemetician.”

“And he’s the only statistician in this world!” Twilight retorted eagerly, “There has got to be a reason for this! He is the key to understanding all of this, some key figure we simply haven’t stumbled upon, I just know it!”

“I’m telling you he won’t help us. He won’t help anyone,” Sunset said. “His class is the stuff of nightmares. Students come out of it dumber than they went in! Do you remember what he said we had to do, to get his help? We’re humans! How on earth are we going to do... that?

Twilight frowned and rested her lips on her fist. Then she raised her head and declared in open mouthed shock, “That’s it! Levitation!”

“We don’t know exactly,” Sweetie Belle said, if for no reason other than to break the silence. “But more than two people are coming in every day now, and it used to be just one every day. So we came to school, to help other ponies know that they can come back to school. To get people out here used to the idea that some of us are going to be walking on four hooves.”

“I can’t even tell who’s who there anymore,” Scootaloo said shaking her head confusedly. “I didn’t even realize there were that many people! I mean, until you have to deal with them, they’re just sort of in the background on their own. But now we have to deal with everyone!”

“Okay, like, I get it, but could you find out? I’m just like, curious how long it’ll take,” Diamond stated carefully.

Scootaloo snickered at that.

“What?” Diamond said irritably to the little orange pony.

“Oh I just realized,” Scootaloo said with an odd smile, “You were the only one of us who actually wanted to be a pony.”

Diamond blinked. “Not that!” she said, “I just want to know, because of Dinky! And I mean, like, my friends. And I don’t want to be a pony! I never said that! I just think that it wouldn’t be like, so bad.”

“You really like him, huh?” Sweetie said softly, her concerned gaze flustering the poor Diamond Tiara.

“You’re worried that you’re gonna change into little kid ponies!” Apple Bloom realized with a shock. “An’ that you won’t be able to be boy and girlfriend anymore!”

“Wh–well—like—maybe?” Diamond stuttered, looking even pinker than usual.

“Well don’t you worry about it,” Apple Bloom said comfortingly, climbing more up on the table to speak her mind. “We might be little kids again, but not every pony ended up that way. Maybe you two will end up as adults, even. But if you do end up as f-foals, then you just keep on doing what you wanna do. Twilight said it best. If we’re gonna be foals, we’re gonna act like foals whether we try to or not, so why should we hold ourselves back? There’s no wrong way to be a foal!”

“So you’re a... foal, huh,” Diamond said in a curiously subdued tone, laying her fingers against her cheeks for some reason as she gazed at Apple Bloom.

“Same age as the other me, across the portal,” Apple Bloom asserted, “Just like every one of us. Except a couple more years into the future, on account of Twilight being all... stuck with Sunset and stuff the past 4 years.”

“Sunset is stuck?” Diamond said in confusion, looking at the cafeteria window. “I thought it was like, noon right now. What are you talking about?”

“No, ah mean the girls Twilight and Sunset,” Apple Bloom reiterated patiently.

“Yeah, you know, the aliens?” Scootaloo prompted.

“Ohh, those girls,” Diamond said in recognition, and, “That reminds me. Have you done any more investigating about the forest outside your farm?”

All three blinked cluelessly.

“Oh my god,” Diamond whispered. “I think it’s getting in your heads or something! I’m like, the only one who can remember!”

“Remember what?” Apple Bloom said weakly.

“It’s nothing bad, is it?” Sweetie added in fear.

“No, it’s... you went with me out into the woods, remember?” Diamond said patiently. “When Sweetie and Scootaloo were still like, humans. We took a bunch of string, and went straight out, and things got like, weird, and then we were completely turned around, except we never turned around. You remember, I staked both ends of the twine in the same place?”

“Oh ah do remember that!” Apple Bloom realised suddenly. “With all the crazy pony transforming going on down at the farm, it completely slipped mah mind!”

“Hmm...” Diamond stared piercingly into Apple Bloom’s eyes, making the three of them kind of nervous. “And the note that I stuck on your wall?”

“Note?” Apple Bloom asked weakly.

“Well, never mind,” Diamond said, bending over to fumble through her bookbag distractedly, “It probably wasn’t like, anything important.”

“Well, alright, but you seemed kind of worried there for a minute,” Apple Bloom said, feeling curiously relieved as she did so. It was probably just nerves. “So about Dinky—”

“Can we not?” Diamond said. “I already know you’re like total pervs, and we’re just friends. You really think I’d go do something stupid with him? Good grief!”

“We never said you’d go do something stupid with him,” Sweetie remarked cautiously.

Diamond glared at the sweet little unicorn and said, “Well, we’re not. So just like, drop it.”

“Fine,” Sweetie retorted grumpily. “But for the record, I think it’s adorable, and anyone who thinks it’s something bad is just projecting.”

“Yeah,” Apple Bloom said, “We know you’re good people, even if others are givin’ you a hard time.”

“Plus when you’re old enough,” Scootaloo pointed out, “You’ll already have someone ready for you to, you know,” She pointed a hoof at Diamond and winked, “Get busy with?”

“Oh my god, Scootaloo,” Diamond groaned, turning an even brighter shade of pink with her head buried in her arms.

The rest of the lunch made some conversation, but the ensuing awkward silence really cut into the time they had left. The only thing Diamond really had to say was when the bell rang, she said, “Oh, hold on,” and hastily scribbled out a note on a piece of paper. Then she folded the paper several times, and went and slipped it into Apple Bloom’s bag, saying, “It’s a note for Ms. Cheerilee. You know, the big pony Cheerilee?”

“She’s still the same Cheerilee, but yeah?” Apple Bloom said.

“Well, I just like, had something to tell her,” Diamond said lightly. “Anyway, nice talking with you three!”

Diamond jogged off then, to where the used cafeteria lunch trays were to be deposited. Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo had to hustle their way through lunch too, because it took them longer to pick up the trays and get over there. They weren’t too pressed for time getting to their next class though, because the first week of being surrounded by a sea of giants mingling around the halls was intimidating, but by the third week you got to realize that being small made it so much easier to get around them, squeezing through spaces between legs and dodging feet. They made good time as they trotted on four hooves to their lockers, and then each to their next class.

Not much of note appreciably happened after that, because it was high school where not much of appreciable note ever happened. Nothing special happened when the three met with Rarity at the end of the day, getting in Rarity’s big tuna boat car to get a ride back to the farm. Sweet Apple Acres was the same cattle ranch it always was, albeit with a lot more cars out front, and a lot more people (and ponies) to help out with the cows. But when Apple Bloom and her friends trotted through the crusty snow and up the porch steps into the house proper, they were greeted with a peculiar sight.

“Please, you have to concentrate!”

“Th’ fug you think I’ thryinga do furflebut?!”

“It’s absolutely vital that you lift this feather!”

The two pony girls were there in the living room, the flame haired Sunset, and Twilight “purplebutt” Sparkle. They were cheering on a white pony in between them, an adult pony from the size of it, who had a prominent horn jutting from her forehead.

Surrounding the three of them were a panalpy of ponies, adults and foals alike, but mostly foals, watching with fascination and chattering quietly with each other, as the unicorn stared with increasing frustration at what appeared to be a little yellow feather left lying on a coffee table in the center of the room. It didn’t seem to help the pony’s mood at all that her purple, opaque glasses appeared to be taped to the sides of her head.

“Why on earth are you accosting that poor unicorn?” Rarity said, walking up behind the surprised fillies to stare at Twilight and Sunset. The fillies hurriedly stepped inside to make room for her, as Twilight and Sunset both looked up at their friend.

“We may have a lead!” Twilight said with a bright smile.

“We may have a way to convince someone to helping us look for a lead,” Sunset corrected her. “We’re trying to model the incidence of transformation, see—”

“And if we can find a geographical correlation, then we can tell where the phenomenon is coming from!” Twilight said eagerly. “If say for instance rifts to Equestria were opening because of the facturization/portal interaction, then we could tell who was going to change into a pony next!”

“That sounds wonderful!” Rarity said, hands on hips, giving each of the girls a suspicious look. “But why are you yelling at that poor unicorn?”

“Because Twilight thinks that Professor Discord has some kind of insight into all this,” Sunset said. “His counterpart is apparantly a pretty big deal on the other side of the portal. But he said that he would help us analyze our data sets,”

“—if we showed him one example of magic, that he couldn’t explain without magic as an underlying assumption!” Twilight cut in excitedly. “Which is why Vinyl here—”

“Pohnee!” the blue haired unicorn said irritably.

“Right, PON-3 needs but to perform a simple act of levitation,” Twilight went on, “And we’re sure to win over his support! Unicorn magic is going to save the day!”

“What Twilight means is, unicorn magic is much more measurable than that of other tribes,” Sunset said, pulling Twilight back from smiling gleefully in Applejack’s face. “So if Vinyl—”

“Pohnee,” Vinyl cut in.

“If PON-3 can get her magic working...” Sunset said hopefully, “Well, let’s just say that this professor is someone so closed minded, that he could probably explain away how Scootaloo could fly, with those teeny little wings. Spike outright talked to him, and he just thought he was well trained. We need something that’s genuinely unexplainable by conventional science, and if Vinyl here could just levitate that feather, ”

“Shwha’ I’m thrying to do!” Vinyl squealed out in frustration. She glared at the feather on their coffee table, just some discarded down from one of the pegasi. “I tur’ intho a sthupid horth who can’ talk, and can’ thurn thables, can’ even ge’ her horm workhing an’... I can’ belhieb how zhis shtupid pohny shid ish ruining everyonesh life!!” Vinyl shouted at the feather, eliminating it with an angry red bolt of light.

Silence descended on the room.

“Woah...” Vinyl said.

“Didn’t see that comin’” said Granny Smith, and apparantly Granny Smith was here too, keeping an eye on them or something, as best as she could.

Rarity didn’t say anything, but instead charged out of the room and vanished into the kitchen, without even taking off her boots.

“That’s... good, but,” Twilight said to Vinyl with a strained smile. “We need an example of nonlocal magic, whereas a magic bolt is localized, ergo travels through space in a predictable path. You need—”

“Magig ish red?!” one of the foals shouted excitedly. “Zhat’sh sho cool!”

The sound of running water could be heard.

“Za was sho awethome!” the big white and blue pony known as Vinyl Scratch, or DJ PON-3 declared, a broader and broader smile adorning her pony muzzle as she realized what she’d done, looking around at every pony and shouting, “Dishoo shee zat? I tothally did zhat! Hey, every pony! I’m mazhic! Haha, I’m mazchic!”

“Doez anyone shmell something burnhing?” another softer spoken foal said. And come to think of it, Apple Bloom could—right about then, Rarity flew out from the kitchen, and dumped a pitcher of water on the coffee table, putting out the fire with a hiss.

“I am very impressed with your accomplishment,” Rarity said with a strained smile, “But perhaps you could practice this outside, where you aren’t at risk of burning down the house we live in?”

“Yeah, okay,” Sunset said mildly, not even looking at Rarity. Just staring at the big white unicorn who wasn’t Rarity, staring at Vinyl’s horn, with an absent look of what must have been longing in her eyes.

Rarity seemed to pick up on that, and her eyes softened as she regarded Sunset. “I must say, that the way things are going, you’ll be back to your old self in no time,” she said putting a hand on Sunset Shimmer’s shoulder.

“Yeah,” Sunset said, still with a guardedly neutral expression on her face. “That’s what I’m afraid of...”

“Afraid?” Apple Bloom piped up, “Why?”

Rarity looked at Apple Bloom, the little yellow pony suddenly wondering whether she should have spoken up. But Rarity didn’t say anything, just walked away, letting her hand leave Sunset’s shoulder with a sympathetic grimace for Apple Bloom. Sunset didn’t seem too upset by the question either. Just... pensive.

“It’s really hard to keep count how long I’ve been here,” Sunset said to Apple Bloom with a sort of sad look in her vividly green eyes. “There aren’t many things that will last through to the next time loop. Most of everything all just goes back the way it was, again and again. There’s the trophy case... it usually lags 3 or 4 loops behind, so I can put my notes in there. There’s the bell tower. Sometimes it... doesn’t move back all the way. But I have lost all my notes before.

“Really, it’s amazing how far your society has come,” Sunset continued, not really addressing anyone in general. “When you can’t advance without... well, suffice to say we Equestrians were convinced for a while that you just spontaneously appeared, complete with your automobiles and your moving pictures and your skyscrapers and stuff. But things do change, slowly, bit by bit. You get by as best as you can, with everything you do wound back year after year. You don’t even know it. You just... remember as if the changes happened last year, or some time ago. Those of you who can remember anything at all, that is.

“So, my point is,” Sunset said to the quietly concerned Apple Bloom, “I’ve been in this time loop for 87 years, and I remember every one of them. My Equestrian neuroform isn’t compatible with your reality, and so the time loop never resets anything other than my molecules. I thought it was even more, until Twilight came and told me how many years had passed. There have been times that I got too depressed or lazy to even bother counting, and I just had to estimate how long that was.

Apple Bloom pondered that. She’d heard some figure like that before, but she really pondered that now. “How old did you say you were again?” she asked the big, flame-haired girl.

“I’m... 37,” Sunset said deliberately. “Or that’s how old I was, when I came here. So that’s why I don’t know if I’m comfortable about this whole ‘unicorn’ thing. I avoided the portal for decades, because I blamed Celestia for what happened to me. The last time I saw myself, I—I didn’t even stop to look at my reflection.

“I’ve been human for 80 years, Apple Bloom,” Sunset said dully, staring off into space. “That’s over twice as long as I’ve been a pony. I just... don’t know if I’m ready. If I change back, if I... if I go back to Equestria, then I’ll never have to be a human again. I remember having a horn, all the amazing magic that I got to be a part of, and I’ll have that again. I’ll be me again. I’m just... not sure if that pony is me, anymore.”

“I reckon it don’t matter though, Sunset,” Apple Bloom said in a consoling tone. There had to be a way to show the girl how to be pragmatic about this. “I changed into a pony, and was so scared it’d change who ah was. But then I just... woke up, and nothing changed. Ah was a pony. That’s it. Some things about me are lots different, but... ah’m not any different a person, just because I got hooves now.”

She put one of those custard yellow hooves on one of Sunset’s folded legs, saying, “I don’t know what kinna pony you remember back then, but if you changed into a pony tomorrow, you’d be the same person you are today, not back then.”

Sunset’s chin lifted a bit, and she said, “Huh. Yeah, you know, you’re right?” Unfolding her legs to kick them out in front of her, over her shoulder Sunset gave Apple Bloom a cautious smile, saying, “You’re pretty good at this whole person-to-person thing. I don’t know why we haven’t talked much before.”

Apple Bloom lifted a hoof, and said, “W-well, we were kinda two friends distant, back in September, and you’re an upperclassman, while ah’m just a Freshman. A year just ain’t enough time for us to get acquainted, ah think?”

She then deliberately placed her hoof down. Seriously, why was she doing that all over the place?

Sunset responded by ruffling Apple Bloom’s hair, mussing up her bow again, saying, “Well, thanks. Good talk, Apple Bloom.”

Sunset rose above Apple Bloom as she stood and strode over to speak with Twilight and a still ecstatic Vinyl Scratch, while Rarity, and now Applejack busily tried to hustle the three of them outside, to practice their hocus pocus out by the fire pit, and leave the farm house alone.

Apple Bloom, along with a number of others over the course of the day, crept up cautiously to peer at the burn mark left on the coffee table. It was amazing, and spectacular, and world changing and all, but on the other hand it was just a burn mark on the coffee table. Somehow Apple Bloom couldn’t shake the feeling that things like her talk with Sunset Shimmer were more important than getting some unicorn’s horn to work.

Sweetie Belle was futilely trying to get her horn to work again when Apple Bloom found her. Apple Bloom helped the poor girl out by distracting her with a cupcake, and letting Sweetie tell Apple Bloom all about the incredible things that Twilight and Sunset got Vinyl to do, which is to say, light a coffee table on fire, and lift a feather. Apple Bloom was glad Sweetie Belle was excited about it and all, but considering that was what an adult unicorn could do, Apple Bloom really wasn’t feeling too envious of unicorns anymore.

She would change her tune, when Sunset Shimmer transformed, but pretty much everyone on both sides of the portal would have been envious of Sunset Shimmer in her prime.

“Alright... yes. No. No. ...no. Yes. No. Nope. Emmmnope. Yes! Yes—oh dear. Yes. No. No. No.”

“What’s ‘oh dear’?” Spike asked Twilight Sparkle, who sat in her trailer for some time alone, with an array of names and photographs arranged in alphabetical order on the desk in front of her. The lilac girl was flanked by her trustworthy assistant, Spike the dragon, the dog. He was watching with interest and occasionally concern as Twilight made little notes on each photograph she seemed to recognize. He knew what she was doing; heck everyone who read the newspaper knew what she was doing, but he sure didn’t know what “oh dear” meant.

“Well it’s just...” Twilight said, pausing as she lifted up one of the photographs. “It says here that the Canterlot Fan Emporium is owned by one Mrs. Breezy.”

“So?” he asked. “Do you recognize her?”

“I do... I think,” Twilight said, wincing. “It appears this is one of the rare cases in which... well, as a matter of fact, you should recognize Mrs. Breezy, yourself.”

Twilight held the photograph down to his level, where a heavyset lady stood with a satisfied smile outside the office next to her warehouse full of central heating, duct and fan supplies. She had pleasant orange hair in a bob, and a green vest over her button-up shirt, her skin was a light tan in color, and her eyes were clear blue.

“You know of a pony who looks like that, who lives in Ponyville?” Twilight asked uneasily, “Usually wears a cap? Sells fans, blow dryers?”

“Oh,” Spike said, looking at it in a new light. “Oh dear.”

Twilight lifted the photograph back up and wrote something on it, saying over her shoulder to the dragon-gone-dog, “It’s so vexing. If Equestrians have a higher ratio of females born to males, then it would make sense if certain Earthling males became females. But this? This just makes no sense at all!”

“Maybe there is a Mr. Breezy?” Spike asked uneasily. “It does say Mrs. after all.”

“Maybe...” Twilight replied unconvinced. “But with the exact same colors, manestyle, special talent and taste in clothing?”

“I guess you gotta be the bearer of bad news then,” Spike said, putting a paw up on Twilight’s thigh in the chair there. “You really are helping people, though. Just imagine if she changed, without knowing about what she was going to change into!”

Twilight smiled down at him making Spike grumble contentedly. “Thanks, Spike,” she said going back to her photos. “And if only I knew more ponies. So few I remember from Canterlot, and even in Ponyville... but I’m the only hope they’ve got, so I’ll just have to pick at my memories, until I find as many people’s pony counterparts as possible.”

She shuddered unhappily, adding, “And stars help me if I remember wrong. They’ll never trust one of my predictions again!”

Meanwhile, having been personally sent letters from the Princess of Friendship herself, one paramedic screeched to another, “You’re going to be a mare?!”

“What am I going to do?” he ...didn’t screech back in an alarmed tenor. “I can’t be a woman!”

“You think you have a problem?” she squealed back, “What am I supposed to do without your thingy?”

He glanced away from the view in front of him just enough to stammer at her, “W-w-well there are ways for two girls t-to do stuff together i-it’s not,”

“How does the purple girl know?” the pink lady complained irregardlessly, “Maybe it’s just a hoax after all!”

“Hoax, yeah...” the man said, running a hand through his red hair. “What a nightmare though! It seems like everyone’s going to end up as a pony?”

“I only hope nobody fucks up and gets themselves seriously injured,” the green haired pink paramedic lady said in aggravation, “I really don’t want to have to deal with the horror of a mass panic right now.”

“Been there, done that, right?” he said with a shaky smile her way.

“Yeah,” she smiled back, planting a kiss on his cheek. “Now let’s get that burn victim taken care of, sweetie bear.”

The speeding ambulance slid to a halt just in time, its siren dying as their faces hardened and the two paramedics cleared out, one getting the supplies out of the back, while the other went in to assess the situation with perhaps seconds to spare. All in a day’s work.

Apple Bloom was up in her room, pulling her books out of her bags, when Diamond Tiara’s note dropped out. “Huh,” she said, craning down and snagging it in her mouth, then trotting herself right downstairs with it. Apple Bloom was awfully curious what Diamond would want with Ms. Cheerilee. Didn’t make sense that they’d have much to tell each other, really. But whatever it was, Apple Bloom was happy to deliver a note.

Cheerilee wasn’t hard to track down. She was trotting around with the best of them now, and she had her mouth noises all worked out, but Cheerilee stayed around the farm house most of the time, helping other ponies work on their new ways of moving and speaking. So Apple Bloom checked out back, finding Cheerilee giving ponies balance practice, using a board up on two crates.

“Looking good, Key!” Cheerilee said to a green earth pony filly with blue hair, then to a peach colored filly, also with blue hair, “Tuck in your wings, Petal. You can balance without them, I promise. Now every pony, take a step with hoof 2!”

Apple Bloom watched with vague interest at the ponies making their way across the boards, without too much trouble. One fell over, but there wasn’t any distance to fall, so Cheerilee just nosed them up and helped them back onto the board. Cheerilee noticed her then, and said, “One second, Apple Bloom!”

Apple Bloom would have protested interrupting their lesson, but it looked like Cheerilee was winding it down anyway, plus Apple Bloom sort of had a note in her mouth. “What’s up, Apple Bloom?” Cheerilee said after all the ponies had gotten to the end of their boards, and were just standing around on the ground at the moment.

Apple Bloom shook one of her hooves free of snow, and spat the note out onto it, holding it up for Cheerilee saying, “Talked to Diamond Tiara today, finally. Turns out she had something to say t’you!”

“Oh?” Cheerilee said, looking at the folded paper on Apple Bloom’s hoof with some uncertainty. The powerful looking fuscia mare leaned her face forward, and it looked like Cheerilee was going to bite the corner, but then she pulled back and just nudged it uncertainly with her hoof.

“Sorry unfolding it’s a little beyond my... capabilities at the moment,” Cheerilee said with an apologetic smile.

“Oh! Right, sorry,” Apple Bloom declared, wobbling on three legs over to Cheerilee’s broad magenta barrel. “Hold still a sec, wouldya?” Apple Bloom asked, then flattened the paper against Cheerilee’s ribs, holding a corner with a hoof as to unfold it, she pulled the other corner open with her mouth. “Sorry, no other dry spot to do this,” Apple Bloom mumbled somewhat apologetically, as she worked it open using Cheerilee as a table.

“No it’s... fine,” Cheerilee said somewhat bemusedly, watching Apple Bloom unfold a piece of paper on her side. Then Apple Bloom took it and bit the top, rearing back from Cheerilee to stand on her own. Standing before Cheerilee, unless Apple Bloom had got it backwards, the full note was on display for the librarian, from where it hung from Apple Bloom’s mouth by the upper edge.

“Mmviffgoo?” Apple Bloom asked, facing Cheerilee again.

Cheerilee smiled, nodding. “Yes, thank you Apple Bloom. Now let’s see... oh, it’s a note for... you?”

Apple Bloom blinked. She couldn’t see the note herself from this angle, certainly wasn’t going to drop it on the ground.

“Here, let me see it,” Cheerilee said with a sympathetic look, carefully taking the note cradled in her crooked hoof. “It says to ask you if you remember what you talked about at lunch today.”

“With Diamond Tiara?” Apple Bloom said in confusion.

“Guess so...” Cheerilee said, looking at the note more worriedly now for some reason.

“Mostly just boy problems,” Apple Bloom said, tilting her head at the magenta pony. Why would Diamond leave a note asking Cheerilee to ask her about that?

“So... nothing else?” Cheerilee asked, definitely looking worried now as her soft green eyes peered into Apple Bloom’s own.

“The... food maybe?” Apple Bloom tried. Didn’t make Cheerilee look any less troubled though. “What’s this about?”

“Well I can’t say why she wrote it, but it says here that something might be messing with your... mind, and making you forget things,” Cheerilee said, glancing between the note and Apple Bloom. “Actually it says, ‘everyone’s’ mind. Apple Bloom, is there something strange going on with the forest outside your farm?”

“Oh! Right!” Apple Bloom’s eyes widened. “We talked about that strange... string thing. See, Diamond took us out there, and she doesn’t think she got turned around, but she had to have, since we never changed directions, and she ended up right back where she started. So now there’s a string out there staked down, with no loop in it, and both ends at the same... place. Wow, that is kinda weird.”

“What’s kind of weird?” Cheerilee asked blankly.

“The string going in and out of the forest,” Apple Bloom said. “It ain’t wrapping around anything!”

“Oh, right, the forest,” Cheerilee said, recognition flickering in her eyes. “It’s... did I just forget too?”

“Forget what?” Apple Bloom asked curiously.

“Forget about the forest!” Cheerilee repeated in agitation, “With the string!”

“Oh, right, that!” Apple Bloom said. “Ah plum... fergot?”

“Take five, everypony!” Cheerilee shouted over her shoulder. She said to Apple Bloom, “We have to do something about this! I think something might be tampering with our memories!”

“What?!” Apple Bloom asked, crouching in alarm. “What makes you think that?!”

“You forgot again!” Cheerilee repeated outright fearfully now. “About the note!”

“What note?” Apple Bloom asked, trembling.

“The note you just gave me!” Cheerilee retorted. She crumpled the note tightly against her shoulders, saying, “Come on we need to get inside, before something makes us forget again!”

Cheerilee stumbled on three legs, but recovered easily enough, and still holding the note, trotted along with Apple Bloom into the farm house. They kicked snow off their hooves and got to the entryway, before Cheerilee said in confusion, “Wait, why are we going inside? I didn’t finish the exercises!”

“Some sorta emergency?” Apple Bloom said uncertainly with a pained grimace, looking at the paper clutched against Cheerilee’s chest. “Maybe that note’s got something to do with it?”

“What note?” Cheerilee asked cluelessly.

“The one you’re holding!” Apple Bloom shouted exasperatedly. “Where did you even get it?”

“What the hay is goin’ on over here?” Applejack shouted, the tawny girl abandoning the ponies she was working, with to stride over to the alarmed pair of Apple Bloom and Cheerilee.

“We cain’t remember!” Apple Bloom squealed in a fright, pointing at Cheerilee, “But it’s got something to do with that note, there!”

Applejack’s face twisted in confusion at Apple Bloom’s words, and she said, “Let me take a look at that,”

“T-thank you,” Cheerilee said, letting the girl pull it away from her. “I’m still not entirely confident about holding things.”

“What, is this a joke?” Applejack asked. “It says to ask Apple Bloom what she talked about at lunch today.”

Cheerilee looked Apple Bloom’s way, and said, “Well?”

Apple Bloom was confused though. “I cain’t remember,” she said uncertainly, like there was some kind of... pressure in her head or something, “We talked about Dinky, and then about... techies, and... and nothing else!”

“Says here, you talked about the forest you went into with her,” Applejack said, “And if you don’t remember, then something’s messing with your mind!”

“Oh, right!” Apple Bloom declared, the memory rushing back to her. “We did talk about that, and I did forget, and then I forgot again! I think she’s right! I told Cheerilee, and she stopped the lesson, to try and stop us from forgetting somehow!”

“Oh, yes! That’s why I stopped the lesson!” Cheerilee exclaimed, wincing at what was threatening to be a huge headache. “I had forgotten... entirely. This is serious, Applejack! What are we supposed to do?”

“What’s serious?” Applejack asked blankly. “Why are you two over here getting all worked up?”

“You forgot too!” Apple Bloom exclaimed, pointing at Applejack. “About the forest, and the string, and Cheerilee, and stopping the lesson, and how it keeps making us forget everything, and the note on the fridge!”

“What note on the fridge?” Applejack said.

“We put a note there!” Apple Bloom shouted, “It’s gone, now!”

“Well, what was on it?” Applejack asked worriedly.

“Ah don’t... remember,” Apple Bloom said, grimacing at the pressure in her head. “Something... about... trees?”

“The forest!” Cheerilee declared. “We keep forgetting. Oh, this is getting us nowhere!”

“Mah head is hurting,” Apple Bloom complained, rubbing at her temple with a hoof. “I don’t think that’s normal!”

“Mine is too!” Cheerilee exclaimed, “Because... of the forest and... um...”

“The string,” Apple Bloom remembered. “It never turns around, but it came to the same spot. Something’s making us forget that!”

“It’s got to be this... pressure!” Cheerilee grimaced, holding a hoof to her own head. “I don’t want to hurt myself, but I really want it to... stop!”

“What are you girls so agitated about?” Applejack asked. “Ah don’t feel nothing! Is it some sickness that only goes after ponies? Oh lordy, are you okay? What do we do?”

“Not a sickness,” Cheerilee muttered, grimacing again, “Something else... it’s... it’s making us forget something. We’re not sick, we’re forgetting. What could make us forget something? I don’t want to forget! If I—”

There was the sound of something shattering. Not really a sound, but a sound nonetheless. With a look of mild surprise on her face, Cheerilee’s hooves collapsed underneath her and she tumbled over into a boneless heap. Apple Bloom’s outright squall of alarm was premature though, because Cheerilee hadn’t even passed out. She just said, “Woah, what was that...” and started climbing to her hooves again.

“You just fell over!” Apple Bloom said to the pony she was reared up to lean on. Clopping to her hooves as Cheerilee stood, Apple Bloom said, “You were talking about forgetting or... something... ngh...” and now her head was hurting. Why was Apple Bloom’s head hurting all of a sudden?

“You okay, Apple Bloom?” Applejack asked, lifting the pony up into her arms and looking at Apple Bloom with worry.

“I dunno, there’s just this pressure in mah head...” Apple Bloom said dully. “Hard to think about... whatever we were thinking ‘bout.”

Cheerilee stuck her head right up to the two of them then, saying with panic in her eyes, “You have to fight it, Apple Bloom! Something’s making you forget! Just keep pushing it back! You have to remember!”

“Remember what?” Apple Bloom said miserably, “I don’t remember nothing, and it hurts!”

“Remember... remember—” Cheerilee gave a quietly exasperated squeal, and tore the note out of Applejack’s hand, scanning over it rapidly. “Remember the forest!” she urged Apple Bloom. “What you talked about at lunch! Absolutely nothing about boy problems!”

“Really?” Apple Bloom said, trying so hard, but... “I just... can’t... I dunno what you’re talking about Ms. Cheerilee. It—” and then Apple Bloom just sort of blanked out as the pressure in her head released all at once.

“Apple Bloom, speak to me!” came Applejack’s voice.

Apple Bloom realized she was laying on her side, in her sister’s embrace. Dizzily, she focused on her sister, saying irritably, “Ah’m fine, ah’m fine. It was just like with Cheerilee. I just got a little uh, something, because the pressure let up all at once.”

“Did it make that... sound with me?” Cheerilee winced. “I could swear I heard the sound of something breaking.”

“Kind of hard to pay attention, when your head’s emptying out like a bucket,” Apple Bloom retorted grumpily from where Applejack held her tenderly.

“What happened to you?” Applejack asked her sister worriedly. “Ah swear there was something wrong. Are you okay?”

“Don’t tell me everyone’s gonna have to do that!” Apple Bloom exclaimed in exasperation. “What is going on?”

“Okay, Applejack,” Cheerilee said carefully, “Do you remember how Apple Bloom went into the forest with Diamond Tiara...” she glanced at the paper again. “And how whatever she found is messing with her mind?”

“You just said somethin’ along those lines, but that’s silly,” Applejack said, holding up Apple Bloom in demonstration. “See? She’s perfectly fine.”

“Alright,” Cheerilee stated, “Now, do you feel a sort of... pressure in your head right now?”

Applejack blinked.

“Can’t say that ah do?” she said. “You mean like a headache?”

“Sort of, yes. Do you remember what’s on this note?” Cheerilee asked testily.

“How would I remember what’s on your note?” Applejack asked. “Is it important?”

Cheerilee regarded her in frustration. “And... no pressure in your head, at all?” Cheerilee asked uneasily.

“I told you ah feel fine,” Applejack said, looking disapprovingly at Apple Bloom as she said, “Except a certain somepony apparantly decided I was gonna carry her everywhere.”

She put Apple Bloom down to her hooves saying, “Hep, there you go. You cain stand on your own just fine.”

Well, it was plum obvious that Applejack was forgetting anything about the forest that they explored, or the string, a string that seemed to double back on itself, without changing directions. But nothing Apple Bloom nor Cheerilee could do could duplicate that effect that had knocked it out of the two of them. So Applejack went off, mighty confused about herself, while Cheerilee conferred uneasily with Apple Bloom.

“I don’t know what that was,” Cheerilee said to her quietly, “But I think we’re going to have to keep it to ourselves.”

“I hear you, ma’am,” Apple Bloom said glumly. “Ain’t no good to talk about it, if you cain’t even break anyone out of it.”

“Why just us, though?” Cheerilee asked. “Applejack couldn’t even feel it!”

“It is awfully peculiar,” Apple Bloom agreed. “I wonder if anyone else gets to feeling like that?”

“We should try it,” Cheerilee said. “Perhaps those aliens can break out of it. Or perhaps they’re... causing it. Hm.”

“Ah’m getting pretty scared about all this,” Apple Bloom whimpered. “What other things are going on that we don’t even know about? How long have people been forgetting about that forest back there?”

“You can still remember it alright?” Cheerilee prompted hopefully. “Everything you did there?”

“Well, not... everything,” Apple Bloom said. “Just what I was reminded of. Like Diamond’s note reminded me that she reminded me earlier today, that there’s a twine with both ends tied in the same spot. But when ah went walking back there, it’s just... you know, walking. Nothing special happened... not that I remember at least.”

“We should try your friends, at least,” Cheerilee said. “And maybe... the principal? I don’t know anyone else who’d be... especially necessary to break out of this.”

“I know one person whose help we’re gonna need,” Apple Bloom said, with a grim expression. “Big Macintosh.”

“What for?” Cheerilee asked.

Apple Bloom’s answer was swift and final. “Someone’s gotta hold the chainsaw if’n we’re gonna cut down that whole damn forest.”

Author's Note

Next chapter:

As always, my stories are available at my website, a lot more than I manage to publish here, but also less reliable and subject to change.

Dreamkeepers

So it turns out that levelling an entire forest, on short notice when you’re a baby small horse is easier to talk about, than it is to accomplish. Apple Bloom had Cheerilee’s support, but... Cheerilee wasn’t quite as vindictive about that particular copse. It was kind of crazy, if fun, to imagine just mowing down all those trees and getting rid of whatever it is once and for all, but on the other hand, Apple Bloom didn’t want to wake it up! If it could wake up, whatever it was that was making people forget.

Sweetie and Scootaloo broke free right away, thus binning yet another hypothesis for a measurable earth pony power. But it was hard on both of them too, and they didn’t know what to do about it, either. It didn’t seem like anyone who was still human could get past the memory block at all, and that took out a lot of (legal) options for modifying the Apple family’s property.

Scootaloo had the bright idea to snap Noi out of it, on account of Noi technically being a police sergeant could authorize just about whatever. Apple Bloom hesitated at that though, unsure of whether she wanted to put that kind of burden on the wheat colored filly. Bad enough that Apple Bloom’s own family didn’t believe her, if Noi tried to get the police involved, her whole police department wouldn’t believe her. They wouldn’t be able to believe her!

It was so peculiar this sort of friendship Apple Bloom found she was developing with Noi. That filly looked, and... well, acted like a kid! Apple Bloom wouldn’t have known Noi was a police sergeant except when her squad was around for her to boss around. She was playing games with the three of them, running around and dancing with them, and even joining in on the occasional impromptu musical number. Noi wasn’t even that good at policing, no matter how much she might’ve tried to deny it. She worked hard, and she knew so much, but... it was like some kid from Apple Bloom’s gym class had just been put in a police outfit, and told that the whole city depended on her to take care of them.

Even Noi was starting to pick up on this, and you could see it hurt her terribly. She had all this knowledge about laws and enforcement, and when it came time to discipline someone into submission, she just couldn’t summon up the will to do it. There was a time that Apple Bloom had been dead set on stealing a chainsaw (for some crazy reason), and Noi had actually shrunk back from her!

“You’re just gonna run out there, and cut all those trees down?!” Noi exclaimed at her. “Why??”

“Well, ah cain’t exactly tell you, without ...problems,” Apple Bloom said cautiously, “But I swear it’s for good reason!”

“Just because it’s... good reason doesn’t mean you can just... um...” Noi said, cringing with embarassment, and saying “but they’re not your trees!”

“They’re on my property!” Apple Bloom huffed. “Ah just ain’t the title holder, but I’m part of this family too!”

“Well, maybe you could... ask the title holder?” Noi suggested, an uncertain waver in her violet eyes. “That’s Granny Smith, right?”

“Suppose it has to be,” Apple Bloom said, giving Noi a thoughtful look, “She’s the only actual adult around here.” Apple Bloom was thinking more about Noi’s status than of Granny though, at this point. Noi seemed like she was even younger than her sometimes.

Noi seemed to pick up on that something was odd then, and shook her head violently, saying, “Sorry I... yeah, it’s like a city code violation! Can’t just cut down trees in the middle of the city without—oh actually we’re on the outskirts hm...” The little tan pony trailed off again, and looked away. “You know I actually have no idea,” she mumbled, “have to look it up, but it just seems... bad, okay?”

“Ah’m mostly just complaining,” Apple Bloom admitted. “You’ll be the first to know if’n I figure out any sort of actual plan to do with... the woods.”

“What woods?” Noi asked curiously. Apple Bloom grimaced. She had to do something about this sooner than later. But what would pushing against it do? If they broke enough ponies out of it, would it backfire on them somehow? Were those alien pony girls hiding something in the woods, and using their... nonexistent magic to keep people away? Or, maybe it wasn’t the girls at all, but instead the source of that mysterious dream that Apple Bloom had? The dream that hid in those very woods that golden apple she dreamt about, what might be the key to the salvation of her humanity?

Speaking of dreams—and Noi—Apple Bloom had a lot to do in her sleep these days, travelling from dream to dream in different ponies’ heads. She, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and surprisingly (or unsurprisingly) Noi were all getting pretty good at dream hopping. Apple Bloom hardly had to stomp a hoof to stabilize herself, and it didn’t take her more than a moment to find the pathway into the next person’s dream.

Meanwhile, all was lost. The earth had fallen. The barest pockets of humanity remained, clinging to life in the harshest of conditions, and everywhere else, zombie ponies stalked the earth. An unstoppable plague of mindless, candy colored creatures that had once been men. Their sugary touch would corrupt your flesh and consume you to fuel the growth of more twisted abominations.

The piercing scream cut off, as another gaunt, pink zombie pony fell in half before an oversized sword held firmly in a little yellow pony’s teeth. “They’re swarming!” Apple Bloom shouted, from where she stood in a mysterious white cloak beside that little yellow pony, as more and more horrible beasts poured out from the surrounding buildings and houses, climbing out of windows, pushing down broken doors, all trying to catch them, to infect them!

...even if they were already ponies.

“We gotta find the dreamer!” Sweetie Belle shouted to them from up on the rooftop, picking off corpses one by one, as they stalked up behind Noi trying to flank her. A black rifle floated beside the unicorn, with a sparkling, ruby red glow all around it.

“Ah’m goin’ in!” Apple Bloom shouted, kicking in the door of the building they were trying to defend, the last one that hadn’t been overrun by these things.

Noi backed in after Apple Bloom, slamming and barring the door. The two ponies backed up from it warily at the eerily creaky silent building around them. Then the rotting wood splintered as a diseased hoof slammed through it, groping for them.

“Why didn’t she reach the roof?” Noi shouted, lopping off the hoof with her spinning blade.

“Somethin’ must’ve got in her way!” Apple Bloom cried, charging for the stairs. Noi seemed to want to linger, but she couldn’t shore up the door, so she gallopped away too, bounding up the stairs even as the door busted in and zombie ponies came pouring forth.

“Why does everyone dream that we’re a zombie plague?!” Apple Bloom demanded in exasperation. Noi didn’t answer, just kept focused forward and upward, sword held across her back... somehow.

The third floor stairwell was broken in, and both ponies heard the cries for help coming within the floor. Charging in through an office complex of identical cubicles, they followed the damage until they found the dreamer in question, a battered and scraped lime green pony with a ragged, disarrayed mane of striped orange, crying out, “Please, I’m not one of them!”

She was surrounded by four angry human beings, all armed to the teeth.

“Well, that’s new,” Apple Bloom remarked curiously.

A flying kick took out the one with the baseball bat, Apple Bloom’s hooves connecting with a solid thunk as the figure didn’t even change in his angry expression as he went soaring out the window at ludicrous speeds. Noi took out the two with rifles, their weapons hardly suited for close range even after the yellow filly sliced them in half at the barrel. Not even pausing to destroy the remaining constructs, Apple Bloom grabbed the mare by her cheeks and said right to her face “Roof! Get to the roof! Go!”

The mare rose up and stumbled off on frightened hooves, while the remaining three humans squared off against the two fillies. The two disarmed ones now had a pipe and a crowbar respectively, and the third didn’t hesitate to unload her handgun on the two of them. Noi blocked the bullets with her sword, while Apple Bloom sent the angry, gun-toting lady slamming into the ceiling, then finished her off with that switchblade attached to her right hoof. The lady exploded in a cloud of grey smoke, even as the redheaded pony drove up through her midsection.

“Where’s—ow!” Noi said, backing up as the other two were wailing at her with their respective tools of pain, “Scootaloo? Ow! Stop that—ow!” She cut one of the humans in half, the one with the eyepatch, the two halves similarly vanishing into smoke, while the bald guy knocked her across the room. “Little help!” she shouted out as a bunch of crates were shattered with the impact of her body.

“On it!” Apple Bloom said, giving the last human another buck, sending them flying out the window just like the first one. Helping Noi out of the rubble, Apple Bloom shouted to Noi, “C’mon, Scootaloo said to be on the roof!” With the humans dispatched, the oddly reluctant zombie ponies suddenly started to flood up the stairwell. “Said she knew this game!”

Noi gave a sharp nod and took off at a solid gallop, carving a path through the shambling pony corpses as she did. The two fought their way into the stairwell, and went charging up after the fleeing tail of the mare they’d saved. They got up there and Noi slammed the door to the rooftop, looking from the confused dreamer mare, to Apple Bloom. With her hair whipping in the wind, Noi shouted in the whistling wind that battered her so,

“What now!”

Sweetie Belle had been waiting for them up there, and running up beside Apple Bloom, the white unicorn stuck a hoof up in the air shouting, “Look!”

Everyone on the roof looked up, to see a helicopter descending from above. At the helm, waving a cocky one-hooved salute their way, three guesses as to who was piloting it, and the first two don’t count. It seemed almost serene as it landed, and they stumbled into the machine, the rotors winding up as it picked up off the ground. A zombie pony that was suddenly there leapt for the edge of the helicopter, but it got a 20mm round to the face, courtesy of Sweetie Belle.

As the helicopter flew away from the ruined city, the mare they rescued looked at them in shock and relief, saying, “You mean I’m not the only one who hasn’t turned?”

“Nopony’s turnin’ into any zombies today, ma’am,” Apple Bloom said confidently to the larger yet somehow so much more vulnerable pony. “Gonna get you to safety now, so you should get some rest.” The mare’s smile was a sweeter reward than any of their kill counts, and she settled down right there on the floor and drifted off, the rest of the world sort of smearing into nonexistence as she did.

“Huh,” Noi said, looking around at the bluish colored nothingness in which they were floating.

“This is what it looks like when someone stopped dreamin’,” Apple Bloom explained. “See if you can hold it a while. Focus on the dreamer, how they’re all sleepin’ peaceful, and then just stabilize.”

When she felt like Noi had taken the reins, Apple Bloom relaxed her concentration, looking with more attentiveness around at the surrounding area. It had a texture to it, sort of traces of light like bleeding in from a great distance. Then Noi said “Whoop—” and they both woke up.

“Welp,” Apple Bloom whispered to Noi from over Scootaloo’s sleeping form in the middle of the night. “One more nightmare taken care of.”

“Sorry I lost it,” Noi whimpered unhappily. “I wonder where that place is, when someone’s not dreaming?”

“No problem,” Apple Bloom whispered back, “And ah dunno. Honestly it’s like tryin’ to hold onto a greased pig so don’t be hard on yourself. Only gotta hold it steady long enough to get to another dream before they wake you up, if’n you wanna stay sleeping.”

“Can’t believe you know all this about dreams!” Noi said in honest astonishment.

Apple Bloom felt herself blushing lightly, saying, “Well, the princess showed me a lot before she went all loopy... but I did figure out the staying outside a dream part on mah own. It don’t even work if the dreamer actually wakes up. And... ah may have been reading a book about sleep science, or two.”

“Let’s get back to sleep,” Noi whispered. “See how the others are doing.”

Noi was determined to master the art of dreaming like a pony, especially after she heard about what happened to Scootaloo. She couldn’t stand the idea of a bunch of kids going into that, without her being there to protect them. But again, that was more wishful thinking than reality, as Noi was the most inexperienced of the three of them. Apple Bloom had been working on some pretty intense dream training for almost half a year, so she was decent at teaching Noi, but Noi hadn’t even had a chance to even meet the dream princess, so all Noi could learn was whatever the CMC had learned, that they could teach her. But like many things, Noi was absolutely relentless in her pursuit of that, and her dedication was paying off in a way that Piña’s cheerful exhuberance, or Elias’s scientific curiosity could not match.

Plus, in a certain sense, Noi was into it for the thrill of danger. There was always that threat that the princess might come after them, or they might catch up to her, or that something might go wrong in someone’s dream. They were pretty much surfing blind through this sort of thing at this point, and there was little indication of what would provoke the dire yet waffly warning that came from the Twilight Sparkle in the waking world.

“Dreams are nothing to toy with,,” Twilight said to Apple Bloom once, in a very serious tone. “Only Princess Luna is allowed to go into other pony’s dreams. What you three are doing is... well, it probably would be forbidden, if it wasn’t so unprecedented. In my world, nopony leaves their dreams, because Luna keeps everypony safe in their own dreams. The secrets of dreamwalking, she remains fiercely guarded on, yet in this world, your dream princess taught you it openly, and freely. I’m... kind of jealous really.”

“We’ll be very careful, Twilight,” Sweetie Belle said, and before Twilight could warn her even more, Apple Bloom cut in with,

“She’s the most dangerous thing in our dreams right now. We gotta learn how to do this if we wanna defend ourselves from that crazy princess!”

“I haven’t ever really dreamt any other way,” Scootaloo added. “I wouldn’t know how not to dream walk, or whatever you call it.”

“Three very good points,” Twilight had sighed, shoulders slumping in defeat.

Whatever dream muscles she had as a pony, Apple Bloom sure had to exercise them, because in the past months, dreams had served not just as training, but as an invaluable source of information. New people changed into ponies every day, more and more every month. They were getting two new ponies showing up at the farm every day now. People were starting to get worried. People were starting to panic. And worried, panicking people who were ponies, were starting to have nightmares. Bad ones.

Sometimes it was zombies. Sometimes it was government experiments. Sometimes it was being trapped, or helpless, or exposed up on a stage for all to see. Sometimes it was about their closest friends rejecting them for what they’d become; sometimes it was about their closest friends becoming something they could not accept, or trust.

And sometimes... it was like... this:

Trotting through the burning building in full fireman’s gear sized for a pony, the dreamwalkers hosed down the wood until it was soaking and unlit. The pony they uncovered was a blue haired filly with a light yellow coat of fur, who was trapped under some burning rubble.

“C’mon, we gotta get you out of here!” Scootaloo asserted, trying to lift the filly, a pegasus it turns out, only to drop her in shock when the filly squealed out in pain, louder than anyone they’d ever dreamed about before. “The heck?!” Scootaloo blurted, scrambling back in alarm.

“What’s wrong!?” Apple Bloom asked the filly, pushing up her visor to see better. The rubble that had fallen on her was mostly cleared away, but the filly still wasn’t standing up.

Her eyes were tearing up as she hissed, “My leg,” and glancing at it, Apple Bloom could see her right rear leg was twisted at an unnatural angle, even moreso than usual for ponies.

“Listen,” Noi said to her seriously, while the others surrounded the pony in uncertain caution, the eaves of the building overhead groaning worriedly as the whole thing threatened to come down on them. “This isn’t real,” Noi said, “You aren’t really hurt. You’re just dreaming.”

“What?” the filly whispered breathlessly, looking at Noi with unfocused eyes.

“You can wake up from this,” Apple Bloom said next to Noi, “It’s just a dream. You’re only dreamin’ you’re hurt.”

“No I’m... not?” said the filly, looking down at herself.

“Ah know it seems real, but—” Apple Bloom started, before the filly whirled her head to face Apple Bloom, belting out in sudden urgency,

“I’m not dreaming! I really am hurt! I swear I’m not dreaming—you have to help me!”

“Ah’m tellin’ you the truth!” Apple Bloom protested. “We’re in your dream. You’re just dreamin’!”

“I’m not dreaming!” she shrieked back at her in total panic with sweat trickling down her temple. “I’m really hurt, for real!”

Apple Bloom was going to say something more, but Sweetie Belle was in her face then, saying urgently, “Where are you?”

“Where...?” she responded disorientedly, turning to face the unicorn.

“Where are you right now?” Sweetie insisted. “What happened?”

Apple Bloom backed up, as the fires around them faded, while the filly said, “I was... couldn’t open my door so I just...” The whole building faded to darkness in fact, but not a pitch black darkness, just the cold, open darkness of a road passing by.

“Where are you though?” Sweetie continued to demand. “What road?”

“I—the highway,” she said tensely, climbing to her feet to tell them, “You have to—!”

Then her dream tore itself apart so fast, Apple Bloom wasn’t sure where she was when she woke up. She was, of course, safe in bed, and laying there under the covers, she murmured into the darkness, “What the heck was—”

Apple Bloom didn’t finish her sentence, because another pony in her bed had already risen, and was jumping over the other ponies sleeping on her floor, on the way to the door. As that little pony slipped through the door, Apple Bloom heard her hooves clatter down the hallway, and down the stairs.

“Where’s Noi going?” Apple Bloom heard Scootaloo say groggily.

“I think she’s going to get help,” Sweetie replied.

“About that dream?” Apple Bloom asked thoughtfully. “What was going on with that filly in the dream? You think she needs help?”

“I think she was telling the truth,” Sweetie said quietly.

Any doubts the alien pony girls Twilight and Sunset had about the four of them walking through dreams pretty much evaporated, after a file clerk by the apt name of Rainy Feather was found on the side of the highway, having gotten hit by a car when she tried to make it to the farm on foot at night, in the later stages of the transformation. It was only the second night, when she’d passed out from exhaustion, that anyone knew she’d been hit.

Because they managed to reach her pony dreams.

There hadn’t been any... fatalities so far, as a direct consequence of transforming into a pony. Pretty good for about 200 ponies and a city of over fifty-thousand. Accidents had been minor, with the exception of Rainy Feather, and he (now she) was responding well to pain medication, and could put some weight on her leg when it was set and splinted. Unlike horses, Equestrian ponies had plenty of muscle tissue in their legs, and she had been struck rather than crushed, breaking her hoof on landing. Pegasus bones were more fragile than earth pony bones, but Rainy joked with Scootaloo as she hobbled around the farm, that she wouldn’t need her hooves anymore, after she got her wings working.

Apple Bloom was starting to get hints of the dream princess again. Just passing glimpses as she tore through some nightmare or another. Whatever the dream princess was supposed to be doing to protect them she sure wasn’t, and every time Apple Bloom tried to follow her, chase those fragments of a hint of a princess, it was like trying to think about a square circle. Like fishing for catfish, by wrapping your hooves around them and holding on for dear life. Wherever the princess was, in whatever state she was in, she definitely didn’t want to be found.

Apple Bloom had the strangest suspicion their dream princess was pouting.

Sweetie Belle was having dream troubles of her own. She hadn’t told the others about it, but she’d been going on her own to visit the purple and blue unicorn known as Elias at times. It’s not that she didn’t trust her friends, but Elias’s dreams as of late had been really... vulnerable. Sweetie didn’t really want anyone else to have to deal with it, for Elias’s sake.

Elias was dreaming about being a pony, and being a... girl, and it really showed how Elias felt about that, by what she was dreaming about. Being obsessed with your new anatomy was one thing, but Elias wasn’t dreaming about having any fun with it.

So Sweetie kind of started... hanging out with her in dreams. If for nothing else to avoid having the poor filly dreaming about walking around with a broom—with some very odd things happening to her. Elias didn’t even seem to feel it when something should have felt so much, that it would wake her up. It was more about the spectacle in her mind, and having troublesome things to deal with, even if those things were completely ridiculous scenarios. That’s what dreams are for, Sweetie supposed, but this? This was ridiculous!

The other men gone mares like Cherry Spice, or Jim (now going by just Red), seemed pretty normal about it, if a bit disturbing at times for the crazy notions they had about what a woman was. Dreams of over the top fashion shows, giggling tea parties, being held prisoner up in a tower while the brave knight outside charges the dragon, with another knight riding on top of his back. But for Elias, it was starting to get out of hand.

That Elias was also curious about magic, and really fun to talk with may have also played a part in Sweetie Belle’s interests.

For Elias’s latest nightmare, it was an over-the-top fashion show, but not a... normal one. Elias was forced to wear a flowery gown again, with ruffles on the sleeves and a lace fringe, and trapped up on a stage in front of every other pony. To make matters worse, a fan was blowing, making Elias’s dress billow up and get caught around her waist, exposing her privates for every pony to see. There was a stairwell up to the stage, for interested stallions to come up so that Elias would perform her marely duties, which usually got... really disturbing. There laying against the wall of the stage was that stupid broom, that in the nonexistent wind, it wobbled and threatened to tip forward and fly through the air right into...

Well, Sweetie kicked that thing out of harm’s way, first off. Then with an identical dress to Elias’s, she let the wind pick her up into the air, and went soaring right past the surprised filly. “Hi Elias!” Sweetie Belle called out as Elias looked up at her in shock. As Elias’s attention fell on her, the breeze began drifting Sweetie Belle around in circles like a dandelion, making her dress poof out like a waist mounted umbrella. At the laughter below, Sweetie wanted to put her tail between her legs, but she forced herself to relax because this was about helping Elias get more comfortable with her body, not more insecure about it.

At last landing lightly on the stage, she trotted up to the other filly and said, “Showing off your new dress, huh?”

“Oh, yeah,” Elias said in her softly sweet voice, with a self conscious blush. “I don’t really want to wear it though. But I have to b-because...”

“Yep, you sure are a girl,” Sweetie said frankly. “Nice girly dress, just like the stallions want us to wear.”

Elias’s ears went down at this, but Sweetie had a plan. Elias whispered, “Don’t say that! The stallions will hear you, and then they’ll make us t-take care of them!”

Sweetie looked over to the stairwell, where a number of bulky brutes were trotting up onto the stage, exposing their sides and... other things, for the two fillies to see.

“Do we have to?” Sweetie sighed in an exaggerated whine.

“We have to,” Elias insisted, “I don’t want to be one of those girls who... says no.” Elias was inexorably drawn to walk towards the stallions, and Sweetie found herself caught along with it. So far so good.

“They only want us to wash their sides,” Elias said, picking up the sponge from the bucket, and rearing up onto the stallion, polishing his gleaming magenta flank like it was the side of a car. “It w-won’t get any more than that.”

It always got more than that. Time to end this.

“Excuse me,” Sweetie Belle said to the stallion she was... scrubbing for some reason. “Do you want to force us to do this, mister stallion?”

“What?” the stallion said in a deep basso profundo, his expression unreadable as she wasn’t able to look at his face directly.

“We’re being forced to do this,” Sweetie told him. “Do you want us to do this against our will?”

“No,” the stallion replied, looking down at her in surprise. “I thought you wanted to do this!”

“So, you don’t like it when fillies have to do this, and don’t want to?” Sweetie asked.

“No, only if you want it,” the stallion repeated, “I don’t want to hurt any fillies.”

“Then can you help us escape?” Sweetie asked. “We won’t have to do this, if you help us.”

“Sure thing,” grunted the horse sized stallion, who went and squared off against the other stallions. While they clashed like titans, Sweetie grabbed Elias, and led her off down the stairs the stallions came from. They ended up in the audience, where the team of stallions had assembled themselves into a Battle of the Bands style laser light show. As the light flickered across their fur, Sweetie said to Elias,

“Do you really think fillies have to do this? Maybe we’re just people, and we can just be ourselves, and have fun.”

It was just like what Rarity said a few years back, when Sweetie and her friends joined the school newspaper. The three had thought that being journalists meant so many things you had to do, so many ways you had to act, but in the end the best thing to do is just what you feel is right, and let your true colors shine through. Or else you’ll get sucked into a web of lies that just gets weaker, and more constricting as time goes on.

“But what about pregnancy?” Elias whined pleadingly to Sweetie. “What about s-s—the thing you do to a woman? They could do it to me now!”

“Some things are different, yes,” Sweetie admitted. “But we don’t have to do anything about it. Just do what you normally do, and let the differences take care of themselves.”

Elias looked down at the ground, the sounds and dancing diminishing around them as the dreamer thought to herself, reluctantly. “I’m... afraid it’ll make me want it,” she said at last, looking at Sweetie Belle with searching purple eyes. “I don’t feel the same about girls anymore as I... remember feeling. What if I have to... to want it?”

“I haven’t quite been old enough, I think,” Sweetie said uncertainly, “But even if you do want um... boys, it won’t make you a different person. It’s just like... it’s like hay.”

“Hay?” Elias said in confusion.

Sweetie nodded. “You didn’t like hay before, and now you do. But you’re not a different person. You just... started liking hay.”

“Sex is a bit more violating than hay,” Elias mumbled.

“Are you kidding?” Sweetie countered. “Hay goes way deeper than that ...other thing. It goes all the way into your stomach!”

A smile flickered across Elias’s round, blue muzzle, and a light of comprehension deep within her eyes. “Thanks, I think,” she said in relief. Then the dream dissolved, and falling out of it, Sweetie Belle snorted awake.

Elias had enough troubles to even think about leaving her own dream, so Sweetie Belle still rolled with the CMC for the most part. Really, with so many ponies around to pay attention to, it was just about impossible for Sweetie Belle to make even more friends. They all just started to blur together, at some point. Sweetie just stuck by her core friends, and tried not to sweat the small stuff, spending the rest of her spare time totally not stalking the unicorn pony known as Vinyl Scratch, or DJ-PON3 as she liked to be referred to.

There were an embarassment of unicorns at the ranch these days. First it was Elias, then Cherry, then Vinyl, then... well Sweetie lost track at that point, but there were over 2 dozen unicorns now. Only 8 of them were foals though, with only 2 unicorn colts. New foals continued to show up in small bursts every now and then, but had pretty much evened out to a still skewed but more sensible situation where there were about twice as many adults as foals. Twilight and Sunset still said it was more foals than predicted, statistically. But it wasn’t just foals and Cheerilee.

As the most magical unicorn of all of the unicorns in the world, which is to say the only one who had successfully lit up her horn and used telekinesis, Vinyl Scratch was of particular interest to Sweetie Belle. Sweetie wanted to learn about magic as much as possible, so she wanted to learn about the pony who actually used magic. Vinyl used enough magic even to convince Professor Discord to come out of his funk enough to help them out! Boy what Sweetie would have given to see the look on that grouchy old man’s face, when Vinyl levitated something right in front of his eyes.

Quite a while back, Professor Discord was tired of everything. He couldn’t believe what people were going off on nowadays. Some sort of pony plague that turned everyone it touches into ponies. Oh they tried to play it off as some sort of ‘mystical phenomenon’ bullshit, but it was just more blowhards pretending to bend the spoon with their mind, trying to weasel out of the responsibility for doing something so incredibly moronic as making pony contagious. He wasn’t looking forward to it himself, and did his best to stave off any infection by avoiding all social interaction and glaring down anyone who bothered to try to approach him. It wasn’t easy though.

He’d been a better man, once. He had dreams once, ambitions. None of those ambitions involved being a high school statistics teacher, however. It was nothing but the ordinary mundanity of reality that had crushed his dreams forever. Everything he studied just led him around in circles. Mathematics was, as he discovered, a kind of mental masturbation, patting yourself on the back for following the rules that you declared should be followed. Science was just an exercise in utter futility.

Once, he’d hoped that he could do incredible things by manipulating the underlying probabilities, unrolling the fifth dimension and such, but all his studies had proven to him was that doing those things was entirely impossible. He tried to make a model for self renewing energy, only to find that the very idea was a fundamental paradox. Portals to other worlds that those girls had raved about, those were beyond impossible. It would take the gravity of a supermassive black hole to create a traversal at all, and it would take an entire galaxy worth of negative energy just to open the damn thing. There was literally no other way to do it. You study the equations, the observations about gravity and physical consistency, and you learn that the fabric of the universe is so stiff, that distorting it can only happen in the most impossibly cataclysmic of situations. After all, if it were at all probable, then it would have already happened sometime in the last billion years or so.

The more Discord learned, the more he learned just how screwed everyone was, trapped in this pseudo-existence. He learned that everything we are and were would be as unreal as a fictional story after the evidence of our existence expires, and it always expires. Eventually, Discord just decided to stop learning entirely, and teach statistics at some crummy backwoods nothing of a city where the greatest achievement was its high school. And that suited him just fine.

So when those girls returned, and brought with them one of those mutant ponies, Discord was thinking very hard about taking some time to go to the gun store, buying a pistol, and keeping it unloaded in his desk. Just for scaring off any annoying invaders that decided (once again) that they were going to try to cheer him up.

As if he didn’t have a right to be grouchy!

“OK Professor Discord, we—”

“Get that thing out of my office!” he squawked at the blue haired unicorn, climbing up onto the back of his chair, which obligingly tipped backwards and clattered on the floor.

“This thing is a unicorn,” the purple one said vindictively, as acting sergeant of the Obvious. “And she is going to demonstrate the existence of magic.”

“Path-dependent matter manipulation,” the yellow one agreed with the fierceness of someone who hasn’t been crushed by the system yet. “Even you can’t deny that’s impossible, right? Conservation of energy only applies in a conservative vector field!”

“My bathtub is a non-conservative vector field,” Discord replied dryly, “But that doesn’t make it physics breaking.” He slowly righted his chair and settled into it. Discord supposed it was too late to worry about exposure now, especially with those things stalking about the halls of the school itself. “If you can show me some... phenomenon this unicorn can do,” he said, “That truly results in a path dependent force field, then I’ll eat my hat.”

“Uh,” the unicorn spoke up in confusion, saying with some amount of slurring, “You don’ hafe a hat, prof.”

“My point still stands,” he said acidly.

“Well, your point is moot!” the purple one declared with an insufferably triumphant grin. “Go on, show the professor what you can do!” she said to the unicorn.

“You’re the bosh, ma’am,” the unicorn said, with great irony in her voice. Discord already liked this once human creature better than these two self righteous lunatics, who preached magic to him like they were quoting the Book of Mormon. Well, he sat back in his chair to watch their attempt at trickery and slight-of-hand fail miserably before his powers of observation and deduction, figuring they’d already have a rigged prop with them—why yes, they had a feather. How quaint.

The unicorn’s cosmetic accessory not only started glowing with a cherry red aura, but gave a sparkly twinkle noise as it did. Clearly synthesized. They then somehow got the feather to glow similarly, and lifted it up in the air!

“Ha! See?” the purple girl seethed.

“Bravo,” Discord replied, golf clapping at the unconvincing display. Then, with one sentence, he dismantled their entire deceit. “Now lift my coffee cup here.”

The unicorn creature looked at the cup uneasily, and Discord’s heart would have soared with triumph if he gave a fuck about anything anymore. His only consolation was that he once again crushed the hopes of these girls, and possibly, maybe they’d learn their lesson, and stop trying to infect their fellow human beings with pointless dreams that can never be achieved. Then maybe he could be alone to his misery again.

“Tha’ looksh kinda heavy,” the unicorn said. “I only prashticed with feazzers.”

“Well, maybe you should have practiced speaking,” Discord replied, undaunted as the unicorn’s ears went down. Pulling open a drawer, he pulled out a cheap pen he used to scribble notes with, or fill out detention slips. Placing it on his desk, he looked into the unicorn’s so very humanlike cherry colored eyes and said, “Very well, miss ‘pony’...”

But before he could finish his musing, those human eyes he looked at widened in surprise.

“He gesh it!” the unicorn blurted out senselessly, looking around wildly and waving a hoof at him. “Ishhisho hard for heveryone elshe to figure out?”

Discord really wasn’t sure what... just happened. A distraction tactic?

“She wants to be referred to by her online alias,” the yellow one explained, a little disgustedly, “DJ-PON3.”

“DJ Pony?” Discord replied.

“Besh deshicion I ever acshidentally made!” the pony replied, proudly.

This was quickly getting to be yet another waste of Discord’s completely worthless time.

“Very well, deejay pony,” Discord replied. “Levitate this pen up into the air, without any of you three taking one step closer to my desk. Not any pen you brought with you, but this specific one.”

The unicorn frowned, and one of them activated the sparkly sounding horn effect again. Discord was so preoccupied watching the three of them like a hawk, he almost didn’t notice his pen lift up from the desk and hover in midair. But then he paused, and stared at it in disbelief.

“There’s a fourth student,” Discord snapped. “Where is the fourth one?”

“We’re the only people here,” bacon-hair replied.

“So now you have to believe us—” purple-nipples started to say, but Discord cut her off, with,

“You broke into my office! And manipulated my pens, somehow!”

Twilight’s face fell in a deadpan, and she stated more than asked, “Really?”

“Yes, really,” he shot back. “You must have injected helium or... something.” Digging through his pockets, Discord found a quarter he’d brought with him from home this morning. “How about this?” he said cagily. “Can’t levitate this, can you?”

The quarter levitated right out of his fingers to float beside the pen.

Discord looked at the quarter and the pen, both of which seemed somehow wreathed in the aura the pony was... emitting. Some sort of gravity manipulation? The coin wasn’t turning as it hovered there. If it had been turning, that would indicate it was hovering in zero-gees. Touching the coin didn’t make it spin either, though Discord got an unsettling tingle from the red glow he stuck his finger into.

Waving his hand around the objects in all directions did nothing to disturb their motion.

There had to be an explanation for this. Discord had not spent most of his life finding absolutely nothing but dead ends, for a couple of high school girls and their pet pony to solve it completely on their own. There was a reason this was phony, faked, contrived, and Discord was just swept up in the moment. He was being rused just like any audience before a two bit carnival magician. He would deliberate about it later, and come to the realization that there was a string hanging from the ceiling somewhere. But until then...

With a floating pen one side of him, and a floating quarter on another, Discord folded his hands and looked at the girls, saying, “Alright, I’m listening.”

Yep, Sweetie sure would have loved to see him bug out, or whatever he did. The professor was in the girls’ portable laboratory at the moment, checking some figures he hadn’t collected the first time around. No, that was not an innuendo. He had just driven up in his battered coupe, coughing it to a halt, then stalked over to their trailer, knocking twice before being let inside.

So, while Professor Discord bogarted the building and did his important statistical things, Sweetie had another golden opportunity to speak with the unicorn who actually did magic. She found DJ-PON3 sitting at the dining table with Sunset Shimmer, telling the very bored looking girl about her latest idea for a mix tape. Twilight was busying herself with an anatomy lesson for the newer ponies, but the DJ wasn’t interested in that tonight it seemed.

“So, what was it like?” Sweetie Belle asked casually at a lull in the conversation. So casually. Sweetie was just coincidentally sitting besides the DJ-PON3 pony, the one who was a unicorn, who really did use magic. The huge, blue haired unicorn had lost her glasses at one point, or at least gave up trying to keep them attached to her face. Sweetie decided to sit next to her, while they ate a dinner of ...chili and hay, again. Not much variety possible, when you have hundreds of mouths to feed. No worse than cafeteria food, though.

“Hmm?” Vinyl said, turning her head to look at Sweetie Belle.

“What was it like, using magic, in your horn,” Sweetie explained eagerly. “You’re the first pony to ever do it in the whole world!”

Vinyl had the poise to swallow... mostly, saying, “Oh, hyeah. Pre’y gool, huh? I’m getting houtta here shoon as I cahn talk good again. An’ when I grashuate look out! Beht the hwhorld hasn’ sheen a horshe deeshay before!”

“I’m sure you’ll be really good at that,” Sweetie said politely, “I just wanted to know how it felt. I can’t use magic yet, so I’m just really curious how it felt.”

“It’s uh...” Vinyl said a little nervously. She crossed her eyes as if to look at her own horn, and twitched a bit as she thought on it, but it wasn’t long before her horn ...burst, somehow, and was covered by a tinkling aura the same color as her ruby red eyes. “It’sh tingly,” she said uncertainly. “Like shticking my head forwhard, juth...” her glow enveloped a corner of the napkin, lifting it shakily up into the air. “...making it the shame,” Vinyl concluded, sounding dissatisfied with her own answer, the napkin fluttering down of its own power as she did so.

“Sympathetic resonance, Twilight called it,” Sweetie pondered. “Making your magic be in two places at once. Sounds really tricky, but... I hope I can do it one day.”

“Well, y’jus’ gotta like, pull it dhown your horn,” Vinyl said vaguely.

“Pool the thaumic potential in your carbuncle,” Sweetie recited. “Like pulling a balloon on a string through your horn.”

“H’yeah, justh like htat!” Vinyl slurred with a smile. She frowned then, and said more deliberately, “Just like thaht.” Then she grinned again and said, “An’ then you sort of do this shlippery shnap thing.”

“You spark your focal point,” Sweetie translated, from what she’d heard at least. “Engaging the carbuncle like flexing a muscle, reinforcing the frequencies to peak at that spot.”

“Yep, hlike adding shine waves,” Vinyl agreed. “You pull hte wiggy thingy an’ jus’ wave it till it goes poof.”

Sweetie sighed, and nodded.

“Hey, don’ be shad, kid,” Vinyl said, sort of uncoordinatedly trying to wrap her hoof around Sweetie’s back. “You already know whay more than I do. I be’ you’ll be hway good at zhis horn shtuff when you do gettit.”

“I guess so,” Sweetie said glumly, “I’d settle for just helping someone with something though.”

Vinyl looked at her enigmatically. “Gi’ me shome speesh leshons?” she suggested.

Sweetie blinked, and a smile teased across her face. “Okay! Try biting your lower lip and saying ‘V’!”

The scene was so adorable, with the young filly so eager for knowledge, sitting there lecturing the larger pony, Sunset Shimmer almost didn’t want to save Vinyl from Sweetie Belle’s relentless assault. Almost.

Author's Note

Next chapter I lose half my readers... :ajsleepy:

Too Little, Too Late

“Sweetie Belle, are you bothering the nice unicorn girl, again?” came the voice of Sunset Shimmer, making Sweetie Belle hunch guiltily as she looked at the flame-haired human girl, who was most definitely still sitting there beside Sweetie Belle and the amazing unicorn who really could use magic.

Sweetie had been giving the other adult white unicorn known as Vinyl Scratch some voice lessons, but she admittedly approached Vinyl with the express goal of learning all of her dark secrets. Sweetie’s ears went down, but Vinyl laughed at Sunset’s words though, an unhesitant, hearty laugh, saying appeasingly to the fire haired girl,

“Shee’sh fine. Firs’ it was wha’ did my mashic do, then wha’ coul’ I do wish it, then what’d it feel like. Good quesshions!”

Sweetie wasn’t done blushing so she didn’t answer. Sunset scooted up closer to the two of them. To the less than satisfied Sweetie Belle, Sunset said, “Hey, don’t mind me. I’m just joking with you. Seriously, it’s fine if you want to grill us about magic. You kind of remind me of when I was a filly. Couldn’t learn enough about magic back then!”

“Yeah, but you could actually use it,” Sweetie said somewhat bitterly, still only half looking at the fire haired girl.

Sunset shook her head lightly, “I grew up with my horn,” she said. “It took me years to get it to spark, just those were years I spent growing the darn thing, the first years of my life.”

“When did you first um... spark?” Sweetie asked, hardly expecting the answer would be anything she liked.

“Well, not counting wild surges, the first time I did it on my own power was when I was 7,” Sunset said, smiling fondly as she remembered. “I was the first in my class. Knew I was destined for—” her smile faltered, “...great things. Really, I think I just wanted to get my dad in line. Wasn’t very complicated, back then.”

“What was his deal?” Sweetie said curiously.

“Oh, heh, he’s a good stallion, but he had to raise us alone,” Sunset said with a roll of her eyes. “The old story of a pony without a herd, having to pinch to get by. We had a disagreement over getting enough to eat, and I was gonna like, make it big in Canterlot and summon tons of money, or something. And then eat tons of cookies right in front of him. We worked on it though. My brothers helped me a lot, with getting the hang of my horn.”

Sweetie smiled a bit, and asked, “How many siblings do you have?”

“Two brothers and a sister,” Sunset said. “It was a pretty crazy household, especially without my mom around.”

“Why wasn’t—I mean, no pressure or anything, just curious,” Sweetie said, biting her lip. She certainly didn’t want to bring up any old wounds, especially in someone as cool as Sunset.

“Don’t worry about it. Was a long time ago, and I’m pretty much over it,” Sunset said, a bit too easily. “Really, I could never blame her for skipping out on him. After she had me, she was pretty much done with him. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times, and you’re getting a divorce, buster.”

“Um...” Sweetie said cluelessly.

Sunset glanced at her, offering a dry chuckle. “Heh. I meant that I was sort of a happy accident. The third happy accident. My dad always wanted a lot of foals, you see. And my mom kind of... well, she wanted the first one. But after that... you know how it can be.”

Sweetie honestly shook her head at that.

“Uh, you know...?” Sunset said, wincing and closing her index finger and thumb into a sort of circle. She then pushed her fist through that circle.

“Oh,” Sweetie blanched. “That.”

“Yeah, I didn’t... tear her or anything, but it sure isn’t a lot of fun, I’ve heard,” Sunset said, waving her fork around in the air. “Nail in the coffin, really. They just didn’t love each other, by then.”

Sweetie thought about that, and it kind of hurt in her chest to really think about it. “You mean, she just abandoned you, b-because she didn’t want you?” Sweetie asked unhappily.

“No, because she didn’t... because...” Sunset clenched her fist, touching her forehead with it. “She didn’t want me,” Sunset said carefully, “And on an unrelated note, she got a divorce, so that she wouldn’t have to... uh... raise us. God, it does make it sound like she divorced him to get away from me, doesn’t it.”

Sweetie didn’t know what to say to that.

“I visited her, I mean... sometimes. She’s nice enough,” Sunset said uncertainly. “I shouldn’t really complain. She took care of the hard part at the beginning, and he took care of us after that. Heck, we bought groceries with her child support.”

Sunset blinked.

“Wow, okay, wow. Enough about how my mother is an ass,” Sunset said lifting her hands and spreading her palms for some reason. “Dunno why I’m going and dumping on you. This is why I never tell you people that I come from the magical kingdom of Equestria.”

“Doesn’t sound like it was magical enough, if you ask me,” Sweetie offered snidely. And Vinyl Scratch, who was totally still here too, had to suppress a snicker at that.

“Hey, you’re looking at the top student at Princess Celestia’s School for Magical Unicorns,” Sunset retorted smugly to the little filly. “We may have had some hiccups at first, but I was the princess’s personal protege! My stipend alone was enough to put my dad on easy street, and my brothers and my sister were working by then, too. Once I got into that school, and started seeing what I was really capable of, that was the magic of Equestria to me. It was a really magical...”

Sunset just trailed off and shook her head. “Anyway, enough about ancient history. How about you? How’s school been uh, going?”

“Ugh,” Sweetie said, taking a bite of her boiled peas.

“Ugh?” Sunset queried.

“Ugh,” Sweetie confirmed a bit messily. “It’s all just so... boring. I feel even more useless than I did before. I just... I never realized how hard it is to hang out with people at school. Not even cause they don’t want to! There’s always a lesson, or a hall monitor, or a lecturer, or an assembly. I just have to sit there, being... a unicorn in the middle of a bunch of people, and they’re not even allowed to look at me! They just look at the teacher and take notes. And don’t even get me started on how hard it is to take notes with a crayon in your mouth.”

Sunset smirked at that, saying, “Definitely some advantages to humanity, eh?”

Sweetie thought about that. Then she gave Sunset a sly sideways glance, and answered with a testy statement, “So, my back is kinda itchy. It’s very hard to reach that... on my own.”

She looked more steadily towards Sunset, turning it up until the girl caved, saying, “Okay, okay, sheesh,” and Sweetie happily presented her back.

Sweetie Belle soon felt Sunset’s slim fingers combing into the fuzzy soft fur on her back, and already felt herself starting to relax. “Thanks...” she said gratefully, leaning into it a bit.

And Vinyl Scratch was looking at her oddly now.

“Hey, don’t knock it until you try it, sister,” Sweetie grumbled to the older mare.

Somewhere along the line Vinyl had wandered elsewhere, while Sunset ended up with her chair pulled back from the table, Sweetie Belle draped across her lap so that Sunset could afford better access to Sweetie Belle’s soft white hide. Sweetie wasn’t wearing her dress at the moment, because back scratches. Their dinner plates weren’t put away, though Sweetie at least had the grace to let Sunset finish eating first. But now that the meal was done, other things took priority.

“School hasn’t been all bad,” Sweetie Belle purred, as Sunset’s fingers did their own magic to her. “We finally got to hang out with Diamond Tiara at lunch the other day.”

“Still having a problem with that, huh?” Sunset said distractedly, more focused on her own thoughts of the past, and the warm weight of a small horse draped across your lap.

“Yeah,” Sweetie said, shifting to get a bit more comfortable. “It’s almost like she’s been avoiding us. I think she’s just jealous, that she’s not a pony.”

Sunset had to raise an eyebrow at that, glancing down at Sweetie and saying, “So, Diamond Tiara wants to be a pony?”

“She won’t admit it, but yeah, I think so,” Sweetie Belle said wryly, considering her ambivalent pink friend. “So she’s been sitting with the techies instead of with us, all the time.”

“That was where she sat before you were friends?” Sunset asked idly.

Sweetie Belle shook her head slightly, “No, it’s actually really nice to see she’s making some other friends. Before us, she was pretty much alone. Diamond has some problems getting along with people, sometimes.”

Sweetie sighed happily, continuing, “But now she’s back with Silver Spoon and all the other techies, mostly thanks to help from her boyfriend, Dinky.” Sweetie giggled, saying, “Oh, you should see them, they’re so adoraAAAAA”

Sweetie Belle’s words turned into an undignified squeal as Sunset stood up from her chair, unceremoniously dumping the candy haired unicorn right down to the ground.

“Hey!” Sweetie shouted, trying to get her hooves under her as Sunset Shimmer vaulted over her and ran across the room. “What was that for?!” Sweetie shouted afterwards, but Sunset wasn’t even paying attention to her anymore.

“Who has a car?” Sunset demanded loudly, of the ponies and humans lounging around the crowded living room. “I need a car!”

“What’s this about, Sunset?” Applejack called over, standing up from the couch to jog over to her. “I got the truck, if’n you—”

“I need to get to the orphanage,” Sunset said gripping Applejack’s wrists and pulling her face-to-face. “It is an emergency.”

Sweetie Belle’s blood ran cold.

“Sunset, no!” Sweetie Belle said, jumping down from her chair and trotting up to Sunset to peal up at her. “I didn’t mean it that way! Dinky and Diamond Tiara are just friends! They said they were going to be careful!”

“They are not careful,” Sunset said staring down at Sweetie Belle in a total panic, her pupils down to pinpricks. “They’re never careful. Oh fucking damnit I can’t believe I forgot. Those two! Oh buckfucking god damnit!”

“Language, Sunset!” Applejack said irritably, as the fire haired girl pulled her by an arm towards the front door. “Are you sayin’ that you don’t trust Dinky’s virtue? I met the feller, and he’s a downright gentleman!”

“He has mommy issues a mile wide,” Sunset said urgently to Applejack, “We need to get those two separated, now. I am dead serious.”

Sweetie Belle was starting to feel like she should have brought this up, a lot sooner.

Folding her arms stubbornly, Applejack said brusquely to Sunset, “And just how do you know just what those two are gonna do together?”

Applejack’s face fell then, and the words tumbled out of her mouth, “Oh, Nelly.”

“Yes, time loop. Yes. Previous knowledge,” Sunset snapped, fighting to get her shoes on. “Let’s go!” Applejack seemed beside herself with unease, until Sunset snapped at her, “Applejack, come on!”

Reluctantly and unsurely, Applejack joined her, trying to get her own boots jammed on quick as a licking. “OK so you need me to take th’ truck, but...”

“Wait!” came a third strident voice from across the room. A large, moderately cerise pony known as Cheerilee came gallopping up (well, stepping unsteadily up) as she made her way around the various obstacles, animate and inanimate.

“Don’ go yet! Oop—” she shouted, flouncing on the pile of bags assembled beside the closet full of bags, yanking her handbag out from the bottom of the pile. “Jus’ a sec!” she called out, then basically shoved her nose into the handbag.

Shortly thereafter, Cheerilee’s keys came sailing through the air, caught by Sunset as Cheerilee leaped back up to four hooves.

“Take my car!” Cheerilee said urgently.

“Why?” Sunset asked, confused.

“It’s faster!” Cheerilee shouted.

Nodding curtly, Sunset walked out the door.

Then she walked back in the door, grabbed Applejack by the arm, and dragged her out the door, slamming it shut behind her.

Cheerilee’s beat up old beamer had a powerful engine in it, the sort of engine that would make car lovers cry, with how little Cheerilee used it. Rudely awakened from its time as a go-to vehicle for a reserved librarian, it coughed smoke as it roared down the highway. Not many cars out in the evening, the light in the sky dimming overhead to darkness as the sun made its trek beyond the horizon.

“Okay, now,” said an orange girl at the passenger’s seat, in a button up shirt, a hastily worn overcoat, a jean skirt and a stetson, “Number one, why aren’t we floorin’ it?”

“Because if you only drive 10 miles above the speed limit,” explained a very anxious looking fiery haired girl smoothly driving down the highway with one hand on the wheel, “You won’t get pulled over in the evening and held for an hour on the side of the road by an irritated cop who just wanted the day to be over with.”

Sunset swallowed, and added, “Plus, it’s probably already too late.”

“Number two,” Applejack continued heedlessly, “How do you forget somethin’ like this?”

“It happens almost every loop!” Sunset exclaimed in exasperation. “Those two can’t keep their hands off each other! When something happens every loop you start losing track. I just forgot that it was... I just—he’s really easy to forget about, okay?”

“Third question,” Applejack said insistently. “What did you mean by he’s got mommy issues?”

“Because for example he keeps crying himself to sleep,” Sunset said grimly, “After he wakes up thinking his mom is going to be there. Because he told me that, after I tried to get him counseling, because I was trying to figure out why he was fucking Diamond Tiara!

“I can’t believe those two!” Sunset continued to growl to herself. “Diamond Tiara wants to get herself knocked up, because she blames herself for getting orphaned. And Dinky doesn’t even know who his mom is—he grew up in the orphanage! But he wants to knock her up, to replace the mom he lost! And like clockwork, those two fall head over heels for each other, every single year! I stopped even thinking about it; it was just this thing that happened. It’s actually...”

Sunset blinked.

“It’s actually kind of adorable,” she admitted. “When there are no consequences, that is. But now, we broke the time loop. There are going to be consequences! And worst of all, everyone is changing into ponies!”

Applejack massaged the bridge of her nose, uttering in exasperation, “You’re not sayin’ that Diamond Tiara is going to give birth to a horse. Please tell me you’re not sayin’ that.”

“I don’t know!” Sunset said desperately. “I never even thought about that! Are pregnant women going to be pregnant mares, with foals? Is something going to go wrong? What happens if an unborn child changes before the mother? Or the mother, before the child?”

“Well they—oh... cornfeathers,” Applejack swore, “Sunset, what’re we gonna do?”

“I don’t know,” Sunset said, gripping the wheel harshly. “Why didn’t we see this coming? It’s so obvious, now. Only a matter of time before we have to deal with it. We should have warned people. Told them not to have—have sex, until it’s run its course. Found out whether their children are going to be okay.”

“What do we do about those two, though?” Applejack asked, “They’re way too young to have a baby, even if they don’t change into ponies! Dinky and—and Diamond Tiara? I have a class with Diamond Tiara! She’s even younger than I am! She can’t go bein’ a... a mom!”

“I don’t know what to tell you,” Sunset said with a panicked edge to her voice, “I just let it happen. I just—didn’t even care, every single loop, because it wouldn’t stick! It’s going to stick now! What do I—”

“Okay hold on, we gotta calm down,” Applejack interrupted, putting a hand to her breast. “Won’t do us no good to get worked up over something we cain’t do nothing about. We’ll get to ‘em and then we’ll deal with whatever... we got to deal with.”

“I can’t take this, Applejack,” Sunset said in a haggard tone. “I’m not ready for things to happen. It won’t all go away anymore, and I’m freaking out... completely not ready for this. Horrible things could happen, and I can’t do anything about it.”

Applejack took a long look at the tense Sunset, and put a hand on her shoulder. “It ain’t your fault, sugarcube,” Applejack said gently. “You gotta do what anyone else does, just take things as they come. Do your best to fix things, but don’t beat yourself over the head just because you messed up. Even if...”

Applejack gulped.

“Even if messing up, means that this happens,” she said.

It was in silence that they screeched up to the building complex known as the Canterlot Home For Wayward Youths. Sunset had a calculating look to her face, while Applejack just looked strained.

“One more question,” Applejack said to Sunset before they made it to parking. “Why am ah here?”

“To keep me from going crazy,” Sunset answered curtly. “And to call the guard, while I sneak into the boy’s dormitory, and stop them.”

“You don’t think that they’re—right now?” Applejack gasped.

“Like. Clockwork.” Sunset growled.

“I don’t know Sunset,” Applejack said uneasily, “Ah ain’t so good at that subterfuge stuff. You know how I value honesty and integrity.”

“There’s nothing dishonest here,” Sunset retorted, “I’m the one doing the sneaking. I’m going to sneak into the boy’s dormitory, and it’s a Friday night in April, so I’m going to catch Dinky and Diamond Tiara red-handed. You’re going to walk in the front door and demand that the staff go check on Dinky. They’re going to check on them. They are both going to both confess to what they’ve been doing, and I’m going to make sure they’re both completely clothed while doing so. That’s the honest truth.”

Applejack still hesitated, but then shrugged. “Cain’t argue with that logic,” she guessed. “But land sakes, if you ain’t acting like Apple Bloom tryin’ to get out of a parent/teacher conference. How am ah supposed to talk to them at the office? Ah told you I ain’t good at subterfuge!”

“No, but you’re good at attracting attention, and getting things done,” Sunset said. “So just pretend I’m not here, and do what you think is right.”

“I don’t know what’s right about any of this!” Applejack protested miserably.

Sunset responded by pulling her hood on, stuffing her hair under it and pulling the drawstrings tight.

Desperate for not having to deal with this, Applejack asked, “But ain’t it hard to break into those dormitories?”

“Not nearly hard enough,” Sunset said grouchily. “Now get in there, and get those kids some help!”

“...yes ma’am,” Applejack said resignedly. Sunset had it right. There wasn’t any better way to handle this that... didn’t court danger even longer. People were gonna be turning into ponies! What about the ones who got pregnant? Were they just gonna explode or something?

Sunset hadn’t given many answers, instead slinking off to break into a dormitory full of young boys. As creepy as that sounded, Applejack just let her go, and got out of the car herself. The stars were already overhead, barely a glow on the horizon from the dimming twilight. Applejack hunted around in the dark for something that looked like an official office building. Oh why hadn’t she paid more attention when Granny arranged things with the orphanage for Diamond to come over? Finally Applejack found something called “main office” in the front center of the complex, with the lights still on, and she figured that was as good as anything.

Pushing the door open nervously, Applejack walked into the orphanage’s office, where a greenish blue lady with closely combed dark black hair was sitting at a desk, looking at something on her phone. The lady looked up in honest surprise when the door opened. “Our visiting hours are over, miss,” she said cautiously, “You look a little young to adopt anyone though. What brings you over?”

“I got a little uh, situation,” Applejack said nervously. “You may have seen me on the TV but ah’m one of them people who’re helping with all the pony stuff.”

“You mean, one of our kids is turning into a pony?” the lady said in guarded interest, standing up from her chair. “Who is it? How do you know? Perhaps you have a sort of ‘space pony radar’ for that sort of thing?”

Applejack blinked, and shook her head. “N-no, I didn’t mean that. Nobody’s turning into a pony here, that I know of. You’ll know about it before me, so just keep an eye out for if your uh, kids get pony ears or anything.”

“So what is it then?” the lady asked. “A girl shows up at the office, an hour after curfew, and—”

“Your curfew is 8pm?!” Applejack yelped in outrage. She blushed then, and stammered, “A-ah don’t mean no offense that just seems k-kind of early, and givin’ the older kids a b-bit too much time to uh... dangit ah’m bad at this. I told her I was bad at this!”

“Seriously, what are you talking about?” the lady asked. “What’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong is you ain’t watchin’ your ‘kids’ nearly close enough!” Applejack retorted. “I need you to go check on uh... boys dorm, right. Ah need you to go check on a boy here, name of Dinky. My friend is right convinced that Dinky’s getting up to some uh... some seriously dangerous... uh... stuff.”

The woman winced painedly, and exclaimed, “Oh no, not him! He’s such a nice boy! What did she find he was carrying?”

“...carrying?” Applejack replied cluelessly.

“Yes, what substances?” the lady asked. “Was it marijuana? That stuff is unfortunately prevalant in this city. I don’t even want to think if it’s a harder drug, like cocaine, or—”

“Woah, woah, no ah didn’t mean that!” Applejack said, raising her palms, as if to hold the lady back from jumping to conclusions. “No drugs involved at all!”

“What is it, then? He’s not hurt, is he?” the lady asked worriedly.

“Will you quit guessin’?!” Applejack snapped. Then her anger broke into fear again, and she said, “A-a-ah didn’t mean to snap sorry, it’s just kind of a messed up situation.”

“Alright,” the lady said patiently. “I’m listening.”

“So... Dinky’s real good friends with this Freshman girl at school, name of Diamond Tiara—” Applejack started to say, only for the lady to jump up from her desk and practically shriek,

“Diamond Tiara’s been sneaking into the boys’ dormitory after curfew to have sex with Dinky?!”

“Uh...y-yeah...” Applejack said, looking away as she toed the ground. “How did you know I was gonna say that?”

“Process of elimination,” the lady said curtly. “You have to understand this is a very serious accusation though. Our facility makes sure to keep our children well educated, and we keep a close surveillance on the older children. We truly haven’t had any incidents like that in... quite a while. You seriously think he’s...?”

“Sunset seemed pretty damn sure of it,” Applejack said. “Enough to drive me over here after the sun went down, just so I can holler at you about this, while she goes in and breaks them up before they get in any more trouble.”

“You think they’re doing it right now?!” the lady exclaimed all in a tizzy.

“Sunset thinks so!” Applejack retorted. “An’ it don’t matter if they’re doing it now or not. It matters if they did it a week ago! Or a month ago!”

“L-let me just pull up the footage of Diamond Tiara’s room,” the lady said, nervously. Working at her keyboard, she got a picture of a dark room popped up on it, with three beds, a sleeping figure laying in every one.

The lady blinked at that, adjusting her spectacles.

“Diamond Tiara, you said?” she asked in a puzzled tone.

“That’s what I said,” Applejack agreed. “But is it exactly ethical to go put cameras in everyone’s room?”

“Well, how else are we supposed to keep hundreds of kids all going into puberty from having sex?” the lady retorted irritably. “I’ll just check Dinky’s room to be sure.” She typed some more, and another camera image popped up. This one looked like it was brightly lit from below, but everything was enveloped in blackness.

“What the... heck?” the lady said staring closely at it. “Their lights are on, and something’s covering the camera?”

“Yeah, looks like Sunset’s jacket,” Applejack said appraisingly. “She’s probably already in there.”

“Your friend went into the boy’s dormitory after curfew?!” the lady exclaimed even more stridently. “But the doors are locked!”

“Ain’t never stopped Sunset before,” Applejack grumbled. “Sometimes I think she already is a unicorn.”

“What?” the lady said, then closed her eyes and shook her head saying, “No, never mind. You mean there are two girls in Dinky’s room now? If your friend is trespassing, and breaking and entering, just to—”

“Stop them from doin’ anything,” Applejack retorted. “I don’t even think Sunset’s ever looked at a boy that way. She just knows what those kids’re up to, because she’s one of the alien ambassadors, who was originally a pony, and her mind don’t get stuck in the time loop every time it repeats!”

The lady at the desk paused, then gave Applejack a slower, more critical look, asking,

“...are you high?”

Applejack carefully raised the palm of her hand and laid it against her face. “Ah told her I was bad at this,” she said, into it. Her palm was a good listener.

“What—” the lady started to say, but Applejack recovered quickly, spearing the lady’s gaze and saying,

“Ah ain’t high, and ah ain’t crazy, but it don’t matter if ah’m crazy. You gotta send someone to that room, to find out what’s goin’ on, and you gotta do it right now!”

The lady sniffed offendedly, but said, “Fine, it’s worth checking out at least. Hold on, let me get the courtesy officer, and we can all go and... work this out somehow.”

Minutes later, Applejack still didn’t know why she was getting dragged along. Accomplice or something? More like hostage! The thin male guard, and the lady who was a case worker literally named Lady Moore it turns out, escorted Applejack to the boy’s dormitory, where lo and behold, the back door was unlocked. Going in there, trouncing up the stairs and down the hall, there was light coming from inside one of the doors on the third floor.

Knocking on the door, the lady said, “Hello? Dinky—” but the door opened quickly. Sunset was at the door, apparently waiting in there for them. Sunset stood saltily there by the door, as the two adults and Applejack filed into a nice, brightly lit dormitory room. In it were three empty beds, and a very miserable looking boy and girl, each sitting on respectively separate beds now. Diamond Tiara was wearing a pair of purple pants and a rumpled looking blouse, rumpled because uh—and hugging a winter jacket around her shoulders. Dinky had a plain yellow t-shirt on, with some sweatpants instead of his usual slacks because uh—

Yeah Applejack really, really didn’t need to be here right now. And Diamond’s hair was all mussy and her tiara was askew because—and Dinky was looking at the three who entered the room, with such a scared look on his boyish face because he was just a kid who didn’t know what to—and Diamond wasn’t looking scared, just hopeless, like she got everything she wanted and it was still so wrong, like she felt betrayed... by herself.

Applejack grabbed Sunset’s wrist, and dragged her out in the hallway. Sunset barely had time to snag her jacket before Applejack had shoved past the security guard and taken her away, saying, “We’re goin’ Sunset.”

“W–wait!” she said, pulling against Applejack, “But they still need help!”

“Ah don’t care what they need, ah’ve had enough,” Applejack growled at Sunset, “I think they got plenty already. Now let’s just go!”

“Wait!” the guard shouted at them, and Applejack just shouted back at him,

“Crisis is over! Problem solved! Y’all can take care of it, like yer supposed to!”

“I still need to ask you some questions—” he started to say, but Applejack belted out,

“No! No questions! No more! Ah cain’t take one more second of this! Ah wanna go home!”

A worried glance at Applejack, and Sunset said to the guy in a dangerously smooth tone, “You know where we live. Just send a report to the police, if you’d really rather take this to court, instead of keeping it out of the spotlight.”

Then she and Applejack fled the building.

The guard didn’t say they could go, but he didn’t stop them. Applejack was just... she knew that sorta stuff happened, but to them? Those two? They weren’t mean kids, or messed up, or nothing! Well, Diamond Tiara was kind of messed up, but she had been getting better! Applejack was not meant to see that, she was pretty sure. All you wanted to do was deny what was happening and pretend everything’s gonna be fine, but when you’re looking right at it, it was just impossible for Applejack to deny it.

So she just stomped right out of there, down the hall, down the stairs, and out into the night. It was probably the only time she’d ever been a building reserved solely for boys, and she couldn’t have been more disgusted. Not with those younger kids, not with what they done, Applejack was disgusted with what happened to them, what it was gonna do to them, and why Applejack had to be there, seeing it all.

“Applejack, I’m sorry,” Sunset said with honest concern, as they got to the automobile Cheerilee graciously let them borrow in the panic. “I could have handled that better. I’m sorry, it’s just the last time I interfered with these two, this is what... worked best. You don’t have to forgive me.”

“It’s fine, Sunset,” Applejack said darkly, “I just wish it weren’t the case. Is Diamond gonna be okay?”

Sunset didn’t say anything, just climbed in the driver’s seat, and patted the passenger seat. Applejack got in too, and the car revved up, departing the parking lot a lot less crazily than it came in.

“She’s usually fine,” Sunset said as they got onto the street proper. “Mentally, at least. She really does want to be a mom, if nothing else as penance for what her parents did, leaving her at the orphanage. I don’t... know much about her. I only studied that particular relationship for a handful of loops. Diamond’s kind of a wild card. She doesn’t...”

Sunset frowned at the street ahead, trailing off into silence, before saying with some concern, “She doesn’t loop the same, every time. Not quite. Something’s... wrong with her, I think. She usually goes insane, especially after really traumatic loops. Like, to the point she has to be restrained from hurting herself. Not when she befriends the CMC though. They help her at a real... crucial point in her life. I don’t know what it is, honestly. Just loneliness?”

Shaking her head, Sunset went on, saying, “It’s rare that she carries the pregnancy to term. She doesn’t have enough time to carry a pregnancy to term! Meets Dinky, falls in love, does... this, and now there aren’t 9 months left in the year. But with how early they could have come together, sometimes Diamond has... just enough time. Then the time loop rolls around, and he’s just... gone.”

“Her... she actually has a...” Applejack said in shock.

“It’s a boy,” Sunset replied with an ironic turn of her lip. Applejack didn’t even... Applejack didn’t know what to think about that. What did Sunset go through every year?

Seeming to pick up on Applejack’s stunned silence, Sunset remarked, “I could convince her to get an abortion. I know exactly what to say to her.”

“What?” Applejack said in a note of horror.

“I’ve done it before,” Sunset went on. “Not proud of it, but I did. It was better than letting it ruin her life when it alienates her from the few friends she has. Plus, who cares about a dead baby, right? It’ll all go back the way that it was before, in less than a year.”

“Sunset, that’s... that ain’t a healthy way to think,” Applejack pleaded with her. “You just don’t even care if someone’s baby d-d—”

“That’s just dark humor, sorry,” Sunset cut in. “I never tried to get her to abort after the first trimester. The only thing she loses thanks to me is a little cluster of cells, not bigger than a little speck. It’s still kind of eh... not good, but it’s not the worst thing I’ve done here, by far.”

“Well it ain’t healthy to joke about it either!” Applejack said in hot faced frustration. “She should be fine though? You said she met the Crusaders, an’ then she’s fine?”

“Befriend them, yes,” Sunset said thoughtfully. “But like I said, I don’t know what’ll happen after next September.”

Applejack counted out on her fingers, and came to the conclusion of, “7 months. Whooee.”

“She’s probably been pregnant for a while now,” Sunset muttered. “The Fall Formal is when they first meet. After that, it’s... CMC drama that decides how long they hold out.”

“The Fall Formal, that was...” Applejack paled at the thought.

“3 months ago,” Sunset said, “I don’t know how long it’s been happening this time. We ran out before I thought to check if she was—you know, showing.”

Applejack rubbed her neck, wondering what to say to that. What to say to her. Wondering about Sunset, and her supernatural knowledge. Time loops, and watching everyone’s life go by, again and again.

“Listen, Sunset,” Applejack said hesitantly, “Ah’m sorry I just ran outta there. We coulda stayed, helped them, or... something.”

“It’s fine,” Sunset said unconvincingly.

“You could see everything they did... in everything about them,” Applejack said hollowly. “Ah just couldn’t even look at them no more, because you could see everything they did... and... and they didn’t want to do it!”

The BMW they were in cruised smoothly on the highway out of town, as Sunset ruminated over Applejack’s words. “Love can make you do things you don’t want to do,” Sunset replied quietly, “I think love is the most evil force in the universe. Nobody ever died of unrequited hate for someone.”

“That... ah cain’t even begin to start on what’s wrong with that,” Applejack replied frankly, trying to read the girl’s features in the indirect glow of the headlights.

“Concentrate on that, then,” Sunset said, “Don’t dwell on their personal problems. What happened to Dinky and Diamond Tiara was... it could have been avoided, if I’d remembered, but I didn’t, so it’s done. They’ll... just have to deal with it. It’s terrible, but that’s the truth.”

The turnoff to the farm came, and soon the car was crunching over the dirt, down the long road to the center of the Apple family’s farm.

“You’re right, Sunset,” Applejack sighed. “Ah just felt so bad for them, just seeing them like that. They were just kids, Sunset!”

“They’re not all that young,” Sunset said wryly, “People—humans grow up in just 18 years! They start going into puberty as early as—well, 12, I mean! Twelve! That’s like... I can’t even imagine, if I had gone into estrus that young.”

Applejack blinked.

“Did you say... estrus?” she asked.

Sunset gave her head a little toss at that, saying, “Oh. Right. Yeah, that’s another big difference between humans and ponies. Or, similarity with horses, I suppose.”

And now Applejack was clutching her hat and feeling like she was gonna panic again. “Are you sayin’ that our entire pony population is gonna go flipping nuts in June?!” she said to Sunset shrilly.

“What?” Sunset said, turning to look at Applejack incredulously, before bringing her eyes back to the road. “Nuts?” she asked distractedly, “How crazy do horses get?”

“Well, suffice to say you never want to get behind Winona when she’s in heat,” Applejack grumbled. “But we don’t have a stallion, except Gummy but he’s gelded, so all she gets is mighty irritated that time of year. Cain’t even touch her flanks. Pisses on everything. I certainly hope that’s not what you’d call normal?”

They actually pulled up to the house entirely, before Sunset saw fit to answer.

“Well—” she said uncomfortably, “The flank thing, maybe. I mean, it’s an erogenous zone for mares. And I think it’s a universal constant pretty much, that estrus puts you in a bad mood.”

Pulling the car to a halt, Sunset pulled the parking brake and turned Applejack’s way, saying, “But come on, Applejack. Humans are even crazier! They go into estrus every month!”

“Yeah, but Winona’s an angel compared to some mares,” Applejack retorted. “Break down doors, jump fences, whatever it takes to get in the company of stallions. Biting, squealin’ like a banshee. Do ponies... wink?”

In the dark it wasn’t clear just how much Sunset was blushing now. She pulled open the door, getting out of the car and saying to Applejack, “You know what, I liked our old topic. Let’s go back to talking about human kids making stupid mistakes. It’s less embarassing.”

Jogging after Sunset in the icy night air as they headed toward the mostly dark farm house, Applejack said, aghast, “Ponies do go crazy, don’t they!”

“No!” Sunset shouted behind her, “No they—look, it’s like chimpanzees and humans. Ponies are... I don’t want to say more evolved, but we’re only similar to horses. And that’s Equestrian horses, rather than Earth ones. Estrus is something that every mammal experiences, except apes, so it’s humans that are the exception!”

“What are Equestrian horses like?” Applejack asked curiously.

“Well, honestly I don’t know,” Sunset said frankly, standing on the porch where the light inside provided at least some illumination of them. “Ponies pretty much took the place of horses... same ecological niche and all. Horses in Equestria are less of an equipological thing, and more... archaeological. Generally, what are considered the direct descendents of horses are smaller, and more foragers than browsers now... donkeys, basically.”

“Donkeys?!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed, from where she was peeking her little white nose through the front door. “Ponies are like donkeys?”

Sunset paused.

“Uh... honestly Sweetie Belle, I specialized in sorcery and omniothaumology,” Sunset told the little unicorn filly, crouching down to speak with her. “You’d have to ask an equipologist to be sure, maybe a specialist in paleoequipology. But in other news, hello Sweetie Belle! What are you still doing up?”

“Worrying about Dinky and Diamond Tiara,” Sweetie Belle said seriously.

“Oh... we did kind of run out on you, didn’t we,” Sunset said, downright abashed by it.

“It’s okay,” Sweetie said testily, gazing up at Sunset through the open door now. “Did you get to them in time?” she asked.

Sunset squared her lips, and said, “Nnnno. But I think we stopped the chance of any further incidents.”

Sweetie Belle grew a little blush, as she asked, “So, is Diamond Tiara... pregnant?”

This conversation was important and all, but it was a real cold night. Winter hadn’t quite let go of ‘em yet, after all. Applejack didn’t want to break ‘em up, but she was starting to get kind of cold.

“Can’t say at this point,” Sunset lied to Sweetie Belle, “But I’m sure she’ll be finding out pretty soon, if she is.”

“How will she know?” Sweetie asked innocently.

Applejack cleared her throat, couldn’t quite get around Sunset and the girl.

“Oh, you don’t know about pregnancy tests?” Sunset replied curiously looking down at the tiny unicorn.

“Oh,” Sweetie said without humor, “No, I’ve heard of those.” She added in a whisper to Sunset, “(I think you pee on them!)”

“Y’all’re gonna have to cut this conversation short, ah’m afraid,” Applejack cut in. “Freezin’ mah toes off out here!”

The two girls carefully walked inside, where the body heat from all the ponies and humans was enough alone to keep the living room warm. Kicking off her boots, Applejack found herself yawning, and noticing Sweetie Belle was still standing there beside them, said, “We should probably all be gettin’ to bed... and homework, respectively.”

Sweetie Belle stuck her tongue out at that. “I shouldn’t be sleeping either. I still have homework, and it’s due tomorrow,” she whinnied chirpily. “Too much to do, with how much we have to sleep!”

Applejack had to smile sadly at that, ruffling the girl’s soft pink and purple curls. “Just... deal with it as best you cain, Sweetie,” she reccomended, “At least you can get your homework... eventually. I honestly envy you, for all that sleep you get. You start feeling worn out on 6 or 7 hours of sleep, even as a big sorta-grown-up high school girl like me. But what cain you do?”

“Not do school,” Sweetie said in a disgusted tone.

“I think we’re all a bit cranky this late at night,” Sunset cut in catching both of their attention, “Plus with that... thing with Diamond Tiara. I’m really sorry I dragged you into that, Applejack. I really didn’t think that through.”

“Well... at least you didn’t try to drag Cheerilee along with too,” Applejack said amiably to Sunset Shimmer. “Besides you were right. You needed somebody there to keep you sane.”

“Heh,” Sunset chuckled quietly, then her eyes flicked up and she said, “Oh, by the way where is Cheerilee? Is she asleep yet?”

“We were waiting for you, and kind of fell asleep,” Sweetie admitted. “I woke up when I heard the car coming, but I think she’s still asleep, over there by the couch.”

“Guess we can get her caught up tomorrow,” Sunset said with a sigh. “Sort of out of our hands at this point.”

“You did good, Sunset,” Applejack said encouragingly.

Sunset smiled at Applejack, and said, “I hope so... this time I have to make it count.”

“So... what was that about estrus?” Sweetie Belle asked innocently.

Sunset’s palm transformed into a face seeking missile.

The fallout over Diamond Tiara and Dinky’s... mistake was pretty minimal, as far as Apple Bloom was concerned. She didn’t get the full story when they woke up in the morning, because they all had to go to school, and it was a bit too awkward for a synopsis on the way there. She talked about it with Sweetie and Scootaloo at lunch though, in hushed tones, of course. There were a number of people who had overheard the initial overreaction, but everyone still wanted to keep this sort of low key, if only for the sake of those two kids.

It got Apple Bloom thinking about her butt a whole lot more. Was it really that easy to go and do that sort of thing? What had those two been thinking, and could it happen to her? And that got her talking with Sunset and Twilight about it a whole lot more. Just to settle her doubts at first, but then it was just fascinating how much those girls knew about pony biology. Twilight especially, as Sunset’s knowledge was quite a few decades rustier than it ought to be. Especially since Twilight was a lot less weirded out by the idea.

“So... ponies have estrus,” Apple Bloom said uncertainly to Twilight who was all too happy to educate her, “And that’s like menstruation, but happens once a year, not once a month?”

“Essentially,” Twilight replied, while Apple Bloom went and put off her homework again, so she’d have some time to learn something from this girl. Apple Bloom was seated at Twilight’s feet while the girl sat on the couch, reading something or another, but Twilight was quick to put down the book when Apple Bloom came around, because she loved to have a chance to teach someone something.

“Ponies however, absorb the uterine lining rather than just... leaking it out,” Twilight continued, “I can tell you that was a surprise for me, the first year I came here! Humans sure have a crazy biology, from my perspective at least.”

“Yeah, um... ah know, I guess,” Apple Bloom said a little embarassedly. “I was kind of wondering why I stopped... you know. That. But with four legs under me, I just assumed it was a pony thing. I guess I’m... too young for that estrus sort of thing?”

“Well, yes you have quite a ways to er... grow, assuming we don’t get this all cleared up and return you to your original forms,” Twilight said. “Pre-estrus doesn’t begin until around age 20, when you have your growth spurt.”

“Pre-estrus?” Apple Bloom said skeptically.

“I—I’m not a—a qualified authority to ask about the biological specifics of that um... stuff but it isn’t... bad?” Twilight said with an uneasy smile. “So anyway,” she went on, “It occurs naturally when the length of day reaches between...”

Apple Bloom was still worried about it at school some days later, trying to pay attention while professor Berry tried to ignore her hangover from last weekend. The teacher ran a hand through her straw blonde hair, grumbling something out about the war of 1812, or about her past weekend, it wasn’t really clear. Apple Bloom was remembering her own human growth spurt, and the weird excitement she felt when she had shot up 4 inches taller from the previous year, more than ever before. It’d been kind of achy, but not too bad overall, and she could reach stuff so much higher.

And she was counting the years... pony years until she hit 20. It wasn’t longer than Apple Bloom’d been alive, but it wasn’t far off. She wanted to be there, and be past all this being little stuff, but... really she couldn’t find too much to complain about. She could run faster than when her legs were longer, and she wasn’t having any problem with jumping and climbing to get at what she needed. Really the loss of hands was harder on her than the loss of height. She wanted to be all big and stuff again, and maybe look eye to eye with her sister one day, but... it also felt fine where she was right now. Natural-like.

It was weird enough being a horse thing, Apple Bloom didn’t know what she’d do if she had to deal with having an adult’s problems on top of that.

At least they’d finally found a new location for their club meetings.

Author's Note

Note: Dinky died on his way back to his home planet.

Seriously though, there is always going to be a lot going on behind the scenes, sometimes. It is a whole city, and a very large cast. Not everything happens in the same place or happens to every character. So, sorry if this came out of the blue, and sorry in advance if it fades back into the blue. This story is not “Dinky knocks up Diamond, The Musical” after all.

Um.. Diamond, Dinky, where are you right now, cause if it's where I think it is, :applejackconfused: - raven618 :rainbowderp:

At World’s End

Author's Note

Okay, time to get this ball rolling.

At World’s End

Scootaloo sighed, then glanced out the window. Her eyes widened because there outside the school were her two friends, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom, sitting out there on the green and waving to her, both with cheeky smiles on their faces. They were playing hooky and they didn’t even tell her about it?!

Scootaloo looked up to the teacher, but her gruff math instructor wasn’t doing much more than sitting there grumbling to himself after assigning them more from the workbook. Scootaloo would say he was a bad teacher, if she wasn’t already such a bad student. She honestly was glad that he didn’t go trying to teach them about “The Algebra” as he called it. He could start going on and on, so Scootaloo was glad he was too distracted to do more than give them the next day’s homework assignment to work on. Though she had no idea how to actually work on that homework, it made it easy to sneak out of the classroom.

He didn’t even look up when Scootaloo glided out of her seat as silent as a feather. Some of the other kids looked her way, but she smirked at them and held a hoof up to her mouth in a universal shushing motion. Not even waiting to see if they would rat her out, Scootaloo darted over to the door and fluttered up to the handle, pulling mightily to get the thing open, then squeezing out the crack before the door could close again. Yanked her tail through for good measure. Then Scootaloo fluttered to four solid hooves on the ground.

She smugly checked a wing, and one of the pinions was crooked, so Scootaloo worked at it a bit, nosing it back into place, and also another feather that was just slightly misaligned. And... oh, right. Scootaloo lifted her head from the now-habitual preening, looking around the empty hall. It was not likely to find any hall monitors patrolling this far into the class period. No monitors in sight, Scootaloo made a break for the door outside.

There, Scootaloo found Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle eagerly awaiting her fuzzy orange presence. “Hey girls,” she said amiably strutting up to them. “Skipping out of class without me, huh?”

“Apple Bloom found something amazing!” Sweetie Belle said with a bright smile. “We’re going to show it to you, it’s a—” and Apple Bloom took that moment to stuff her hoof in Sweetie Belle’s mouth, looking to Scootaloo with her own crafty smile saying,

“It’s a surprise. You’ll get a real kick out if it though. I found another school secret, over in the west wing above the offices.”

“How did you find it?” Scootaloo asked incredulously.

Apple Bloom shrugged, primping proudly at her big pink bow. “It weren’t glowing, but I was walkin’ the second floor hall and saw the same hoof symbols up by one of the banner holders. And boy was ah in for a surprise!”

“Eeeehehe it’s pretty cool alright,” the soft white Sweetie Belle squeaked in glee. “I didn’t know our school had so many secret tr—” Apple Bloom stuffed a hoof into her mouth again.

At just the thought of this, Scootaloo was absolutely bubbling with unquenchable excitement! A new secret? Was it going to be a new clubhouse location? Something about that backspace they found the other day? Kicking a hoof out lazily, she rolled her eyes and casually said in a relaxed tone, “Okay fine, I guess I can go check it out.”

“Follow me!” Apple Bloom whispered excitedly, then went trotting over to the west wing. Scootaloo was hot on her heels, the three fillies unable to suppress happy laughter as they scampered across the courtyard.

Still being careful for hall monitors, Apple Bloom led them up to the second floor, where there was... a hallway, with offices. And of course banners on the wall. The school spirit was alive and well in Canterlot High, and the Canterlot Colts were gearing up for the Spring Games. Obviously no banners from the rival school, but the ones proclaiming her school and her team as the best never failed to lift Scootaloo’s heart. Someone put up these banners, who really believed in kids like Rainbow Dash, and Scootaloo could get behind that.

But, as nice as that was, there wasn’t anything special about this part of the school. “I don’t get it,” Scootaloo said, looking around the ordinary looking hallway for what might be a school secret.

“You gotta stand on the spot under the banner,” Apple Bloom replied, pointing her hoof to the floor over by one of the batteries of lockers.

“Over here?” Scootaloo asked, ambling hopefully to where Apple Bloom indicated.

“Little bit to the left,” Apple Bloom said critically, so Scootaloo shifted over. “Bit to the right now,” Bloom said, squinting at Scootaloo with one eye. Scootaloo tried moving a teeny bit right. “Perfect!” Apple Bloom said happily. “Okay, Sweetie Belle, you ready?”

“Ready!” Sweetie reported, from where she came to stand by Scootaloo.

“Alright Sweetie, let ‘er rip!” Apple Bloom cheered triumphantly. Sweetie hopped up beside Scootaloo, and pulled at the... banner hanging on the wall? Scootaloo stared upward as not the banner, but the banner holder way up on top of the wall gave a quiet shunk as it shifted downward.

And then the floor dropped out from under her.

...

Several seconds later, Apple Bloom groaned in frustration,

“Ohh, shoot! That’s right. You’re the flying one!”

Scootaloo had fluttered up into the air as the floor dropped out from under her, and to her astonishment, the floor of the hall had sunk and tilted down into a steep slope, vanishing into a dark tunnel underneath the lockers. There was a faint clanking noise as the panel slid back up closed again, and merged seamlessly with the rest of the floor.

“What the heck is that?” she declared, staring in astonishment.

“It’s a chute!” Apple Bloom declared. “Ah went and fell down the thing, when I pulled on the banner! And it’s like a slide that goes real far!”

“Yeah, yeah, try it!” Sweetie cheered eagerly. “You just jump down and whoosh, you’re sliding! And you wouldn’t believe how far down it goes!”

“Wow, that sounds awesome!” Scootaloo said excitedly to the other two. “You both went and slid down it?”

“I’m gonna go first,” Sweetie announced, climbing up the wall to pull down at the banner again with her teeth. Once again, the panel in the floor sunk down, and this time the unicorn girl didn’t balance on the edge of it, but let herself slip down into the space, vanishing as she swiftly slid beneath the lockers. Her excited squeal didn’t vanish until the panel closed again, sealing the secret in utter silence.

“Okay, you pull it, I’m gonna jump!” Scootaloo said, spreading her wings and crouching like a panther ready to leap. Apple Bloom nodded, and did so, and as soon as the panel sunk beneath the lockers again, Scootaloo just threw caution to the wind and jumped. It was... it must have been metal or something, because it was super smooth, and she found herself in a spiraling tunnel, sliding forward at a steep angle. “Wo—ah!” Scootaloo exclaimed in exuberance, going fast enough, it felt like she was in a dive, before it shallowed off at the very end, and dumped her out into a room with a bunch of... boilers?

“Wow,” Scootaloo declared, looking around as her hooves landed with a clack on the stone floor. “We’re in the basement!”

“Woo hoo!” came Apple Bloom’s voice from behind her, and Scootaloo turned to see Apple Bloom come flying out of a hole in the wall, that immediately slid closed again behind her like a teeter totter. Apple Bloom landed beside Scootaloo and said, “How about that for a school secret!”

“I wanna go again!” Scootaloo replied with an eager smile, looking around for the stairs out of here or wherever.

“Over here,” Sweetie called out from a more brightly lit part of the room. “The stairs here go right out into the hall.”

Once they emerged on the ground floor, Scootaloo looked back curiously, saying, “Isn’t that door usually locked?”

“Not from the inside,” Apple Bloom said smugly.

“Our school has a freaking... escape chute?” Scootaloo said giddily. “That is so Ghostbusters!”

“Ah bet it has a bunch of these things!” Apple Bloom declared, “And we just have to keep an eye out for that special symbol to get a clue where it is.”

“I bet I’ll find the next one,” Scootaloo replied passionately.

“Apple Bloom found both of them so far,” Sweetie Belle said in response. “Maybe it’s her special earth pony magic working!”

“A super sense for finding things?” Scootaloo asked.

Sweetie shook her head saying, “No, a super sense for coincidences. A coincisense!”

The other two gave the self-satisfied smiling filly an odd look.

“Ah don’t got nothing, girls!” Apple Bloom said blushing heavily, “It’s just a matter of keeping your eyes open. An’ I know for a fact that Scootaloo’s eyes are better than mine.”

Scootaloo swished her tail carelessly, saying, “Well, it’s true. I can even get the bottom level on the eye chart.”

“I wonder if your eyes were why you turned into a pegasus,” Sweetie Belle mused, peering her own pale green irises into Scootaloo’s.

“What, why would eyes matter?” Scootaloo asked, backing up a step.

“Well, because—you know, like how hawks have really good eyes,” Sweetie said, curling a hoof and blushing, “Um... but maybe sparrows don’t, so I guess it’s not related.”

“Okay girls we gotta hurry if we want to try it again,” Apple Bloom said, insistently hopping between them. “We don’t wanna get caught if they take roll call before the next bell.”

“I’m pretty safe from that with Mister Doodle,” Scootaloo said relievedly, “But yeah, let’s hurry so you girls don’t get in any trouble.”

Sweetie Belle would go on to find a switch in one of the walls that let you swivel the whole wall around into the neighboring hallway, and that was pretty awesome, if... kind of a mystery as to its exact purpose? Apple Bloom would find the podium passageway, connecting the east and west wing from underneath. They didn’t... tell anybody about their discoveries, keeping it between the three of them. The reason was because... well, the last time they said anything, all that it ended up doing was making it so that they weren’t allowed to play with it anymore. A secret two story tall slide was not something one could give up on so easily.

...and because Scootaloo found the new location of their secret clubhouse.

It was a room you could only get in from the outside, up on the second floor. Scootaloo had flown by it a million times, before noticing that it didn’t seem to lead to an office, or a classroom. It was in the south wing over next to the library, overlooking the central courtyard the school was built around. She flew up to the window, peering inside to darkness, but a strange darkness. She didn’t see any chairs, or desks, or anything in there. So, perching on the windowsill one day after school, Scootaloo glanced around nervously behind herself, then lifted up the window, squeezing her way into the dark room.

It was really dusty in here. Nobody had cleaned in forever, it looked like. Scootaloo sneezed as soon as she landed. It looked like there was... supposed to be some furniture in here, but someone just wrecked everything at some point, and then just left all the parts lying around. There was a knob, like you’d find on a bed or a sofa, and some broken glass that could have been panels or windows to something from the way it was cut. A plain glass cup was just lying around what looked like the crumbling, broken apart remains of a table.

Carefully drifting across the room to the doorway, just an archway really, Scootaloo had to pause, because it looked like there was a doorway here leading straight into a wall. But next to the doorway, there was... a lever, with one of those special glowing hoofprints right beneath it. Scootaloo swallowed nervously, and hooked her hoof over the lever. It felt solid enough, even though it was pretty rusted. Pulling on it caused some more well preserved mechanisms within to shift into motion. The old machinery gave out then with a shudder in the floor, but what Scootaloo saw is that the wall in front of her shifted aside, just a little bit.

Creeping up to the archway and pulling, Scootaloo saw that the wall was divided into two sliding panels, and felt like smooth stone under her hoof pad. She hooked a hoof into the gap, and braced on the ground, pulling until one of the panels had slid aside enough for her to squeeze through. There was an obstacle on the other side, a thick wooden cabinet, but Scootaloo pushed that aside too, and squeezed around it. Light greeted her on the other side, as Scootaloo found herself in the library. The school library. This room was literally hidden behind the wall, behind a bookcase, in the school library. And that’s when Scootaloo knew that this had to be the new meeting place for the Cutie Major Crusaders. It was just too perfect to pass up!

Scootaloo cleaned the place up before showing it to her friends. She swept the dust and debris into a big garbage bag, after carefully removing the larger glass fragments with one of those pot holders that Apple Bloom’s family had thought up, and sweeping up the rest, until the floor was spotless. She kept the cup though, because it was kind of cool. Scootaloo also snuck a battery powered lantern in there, because the window was actually pretty tiny despite its large frame, and didn’t let in much light. On the inside, the window looked like it’d be a big arching window, but for whatever reason, there was just a little square one constructed on the outside, like all the rest in the school beyond it.

With better lighting, Scootaloo could see that the walls were a different construction than the rest of the school! They were made of smooth, bluish grey stone bricks, solidly constructed, but certainly unusual. It had a sort of cool dungeony feel to it. Scootaloo snuck a table-top in, once she’d gotten the floor clean, and a few cushions that would be comfortable for ponies to sit on. She didn’t have a bookcase anymore, but she had a few books on travel and world history that she’d gotten from the old clubhouse, that she piled up beside the table. The rest of their club related literature, the grownups had already all taken... back. It didn’t really matter though. They were like, right next to the library here!

With that in place, Scootaloo got Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle to walk innocently over to that quiet little back area in the library. With a dramatic gesture, Scootaloo said, “I present to you, our new, secret clubhouse!”

Getting her forehead in and shoving hard, Scootaloo slid the stubborn bookcase aside again, and the room behind it was already illuminated by the lantern she’d left in there for demonstration purposes. Her two friends woahed and oohed as they walked in, the transition from green linoleum to smooth granite, noticeable as their hooves clicked on it in soft echoes.

Scootaloo dragged the panel closed again, and said to the rear ends of the other two still looking around, “How’s this for a school secret?”

“How did you find this?” Sweetie Belle squeaked, looking overhead at the smooth blue arching ceiling, barely visible in the lantern’s glow from where it sat on the table.

“It’s a window that doesn’t have a room,” Scootaloo explained, waving a hoof at the square window out to the courtyard. “I just came in the window, and opened the secret door from the other side!”

“This is perfect!” Apple Bloom declared excitedly, “We can get some wiring in here, and have the place lit up, and then we can set up some posters on the walls, and we can plan stuff. I bet the room is soundproof from the thickness of the walls! Maybe we can even make some more videos!”

“Our video didn’t exactly get good reviews on Youtube,” Sweetie said abashedly.

“But it was funny,” Scootaloo pointed out. “We can make the next one even funnier now that we know what people want to watch!”

“Mighta been more well received,” Apple Bloom pondered, “If’n we didn’t accidentally break all the video equipment before we finished it.”

Scootaloo winced, and nodded. That’d been a real mess to clean up.

“Well, now that we’re ponies, we can have pony related meetings here,” Sweetie said, climbing up on the table to look further overhead.

“Like what?” Apple Bloom asked curiously, looking up at her.

“Like um...” Sweetie looked down. “Like what we’re going to do differently at school now that we’re ponies. It’s really different, and I don’t think doing the same thing is working.”

“You said it, Sweetie,” Scootaloo agreed with a sigh. “I think we already missed the bell for next period.”

“Next period!” Sweetie squealed in panic, rushing for the panels. “Open, open,” she chanted, hooking her hooves around and pulling on it like Scootaloo did. Apple Bloom was hot on her heels, helping push the panel open, and she said hastily to Scootaloo,

“Amazing discovery! We can all work on this after school. But we gotta hurry now, okay? Bye!”

The two dashed off, and Scootaloo squeezed out the small opening they’d made herself, pushing it closed behind her with a grinding noise. She backed up, looked up at the ordinary bookcases that she was facing, gave the whole thing a satisfied grin, and went galloping off after her next class.

Dinky tried to use his bag to shield himself from hitting the turf too hard, and it was somewhat effective, but it meant the zipper popped loose and dumped all his books out on the blacktop. He looked up, saying “Sor—” but the kids who pushed him over had already gone inside, not even sparing him a second glance. Honestly, he didn’t blame them.

Obviously Dinky felt guilty. It’s exactly what he should have felt, for doing something like this to someone like... that. Dinky wished Diamond didn’t have to be the one to suffer. But there she was, getting more and more pregnant every day, and all because Dinky couldn’t control himself. She just felt so good he—he could understand why those kids didn’t let him inside the hall.

He didn’t even know who they were, but they clearly knew him. Everybody in the school knew about him and what he did. His roommates hated him for abusing their trust and using their partying habits to find time to meet with Diamond Tiara and... and it really got them in trouble, because they should have noticed, and they should have said something. Well what about Dinky? Shouldn’t he have said anything?

Dinky painfully picked himself up, glad to see he hadn’t ripped his pants this time. He’d have to find a way to fasten his backpack shut though. The kids had accidentally bumped into him, moving out of their way to do so and shoving him to the asphalt outside the school, then just walked away. They couldn’t even stand him long enough to tease him! At least it wasn’t the techies this time. No, Dinky’s former friends mostly just coordinated this stuff, making everyone online aware of just how low he’d sunk.

Dinky wished he wasn’t a guy. He wished he’d never been born a guy, that he could take back what he did to her. She said she wanted it, but she was lying to him and herself. Dinky could see the fear in her eyes. Dinky wanted Diamond to not be pregnant, her belly smooth and slim instead of swollen. He wanted to stop thinking about her in that way. But it was hopeless. He did it to her, and he’d do it to her again, because he was just some stupid guy who couldn’t think outside his pants.

Dinky had never thought of himself as much of a “guy” guy. He wasn’t all that manly or aggressive. He still had a boyish face, and his voice hadn’t gotten very deep yet, and it just hadn’t been something that affected him a lot. But this thing with Diamond had turned it up to eleven, shown Dinky just how much of a man he was, and just how fundamentally different he was from a girl. He couldn’t stop being a man around her. It was just impossible to resist that, to resist her. And the more she reminded him of this, not in words but with actions, the less comfortable Dinky felt about himself.

It’s not like they stopped doing it. Nobody even cared about stopping them anymore, because it’s not like Diamond Tiara was going to get even more pregnant. He wanted to hate it, but it was amazing. Without that constant fear that they would be discovered, the fear that it might not yet be too late to back out, he could just give himself totally to that... activity. He didn’t want to, but it was thrilling when he did, and thrilling that a girl like Diamond Tiara would think of him in that way. He felt so thrilled and confident while they were lost in passion, but after he was done, he’d just start feeling so anxious and full of regret. Another one of those male things, probably. It doesn’t let you feel guilty about it, until you’re done and it’s too late.

Dinky was honestly sick of it, and Diamond Tiara didn’t know how to deal with him. She didn’t understand, and he really didn’t blame her for that. Dinky didn’t really even want her to understand. What good would it do, besides make her afraid of him too? He felt trapped by his urges, forced to think a certain way, and want certain things, things that a girl would never... want. Diamond thought he wanted it, that it was his decision, not a thing that just... went out of control.

A silver hand slammed Dinky’s locker in his face while he was trying to put away his books. Dinky didn’t blame her, especially not her. She’d been Diamond’s friend at one point, and now all Diamond cared about was Dinky. He felt guilty when he was talking with Diamond, and he saw her glaring at him hatefully. He stole her friend, and ruined Diamond’s life, and still Diamond stuck with him. Dinky knew Diamond was just doing it out of desperation that he’d leave, but other people saw them together, and assumed he had her on a leash. He didn’t mean to be such a man that she felt compelled to be with him, but that’s not what Silver saw.

The teacher wouldn’t even call on him in class, not that Dinky tried to volunteer information anymore. The grownups didn’t know how to deal with him any more than did the student body, any more than Dinky knew how to deal with himself.

Dinky wanted to be supportive, and a good father, and help her bear the child, but it just didn’t feel... right. Like most of his life, Dinky had screwed up, passively let things get out of hand, and now he was stuck in a situation he didn’t want to be in. He wanted to feel confident and proud when they sat together and held each other, and Diamond told him what being pregnant was like, of all the changes she’d been going through, but all Dinky felt was... some sort of longing, for something he was missing, but he just didn’t know what it was. Something was going wrong, and he just didn’t know what it was.

He wanted his mommy.

Meanwhile, Diamond Tiara was extremely bored, in stat class. In front of her, Dinky was spacing out as usual. He was really torn up about this whole baby thing, and she honestly didn’t know if it was her he was worried about. It really wasn’t all that bad! She had no idea how she was going to be a kid and raise one too, but all she had to do was like, not leave, and she’d automatically be better than her own parents, so how hard could it be?

Diamond cruised through statistics, and Dinky made sure to give her a warm hug afterwards. They didn’t kiss, because frankly the entire school were already weirded out enough by them, and anyway kissing was lots funner in private it turned out, when it could escalate into doing other things. Things people didn’t want them to do, but hey, now that she was feeling tired and irritable all the time, what more harm was it gonna do? Heck, Diamond owed it to Dinky, for how good he was being about this, because it’d be a total waste if they didn’t do it, while she was still safe from getting... more pregnant.

But except for that, her life was pretty normal actually. Boringly normal. She ate her lunch, a pre-prepared bologna sandwich just like all the other orphanage kids, and also had some toast with peanut butter, because Dinky read about how like, fats were actually really important since the baby needed them, and salt too, and it really helped the cravings to know what they were there for.

Diamond missed sitting with the technies, because actually some of them had really cool things to talk about. They actually knew how cars worked for instance. Diamond thought you just... put the key in and drove them. But it was really complicated, and kind of fascinating how it all came together like one big ensemble, but it actually did something instead of being just clothes. But they were being a bunch of jerks about this especially Silver, so Diamond just blew them off and sat by herself with Dinky.

Diamond went through her days mostly normally. It didn’t even seem like she had a baby sometimes, even though she was like, halfway through. Exponential is what they called growth that all happens near the end, so Diamond wouldn’t even have to be like, fat for very long. Really, it was the best result she could have expected, given what she’d gone and done.

No, it wasn’t until after Diamond Tiara was done with school, and went to see her therapist, that there was... a problem.

“Why’m ah blindfolded again?” Big Macintosh said in confusion.

“Oh there’s a very good reason,” came the sound of that pony lady Cheerilee. “Now, I’m going to put this chainsaw in your hands, after I rev it up.”

“Chainsaw? What?” Big Mac squawed a reply, but his only answer was the sound of a small engine recoil starter, known as a pull cord. It zipped out a number of times, before the machine coughed to life, and the low bbrumble of a power tool greeted his ears. Then the chainsaw was carefully, lovingly placed in his hands, which wrapped around the handle, afraid of dropping it on someone or something.

“Alright, now, I’m going to remove your blindfold,” Cheerilee said enigmatically, “And you’re going to see a tree in front of you. It is of utmost importance that you cut down that tree.”

Big Macintosh had no idea what was going on, but this was the most surreal experience of his life. Standing there, holding onto a chainsaw, with a thick blindfold over his eyes, while ponies moved around him in mysterious ways that he couldn’t observe.

“What?” he asked finally, just completely confused about the current situation, and how his life got so strange. He just wanted to go back to his designs for pony operable machinery and scaled down construction to pony sized stuff. But no, he had to be the big, strong, man and sit here holding a live chainsaw while blindfolded. Yup, that had pretty much nothing to do with manliness, he was pretty sure.

“Just think about the tree,” Cheerilee said soothingly, “You need to cut down the tree.”

Big Macintosh was about to drop the chainsaw and Nope the fuck out of there, but he heard his little sister Apple Bloom then, saying,

“Please, Big Macintosh? Cheerilee is telling the truth. It is important to cut this tree down. It could be hurting everyone here! It hurt my friends, and our family! Ah cain’t tell you why because you won’t re—because you just gotta trust us, bro. Okay? ...please?”

Big Mac sighed, and knew he would regret saying, “Eyup,” but he said it nonetheless. He tensed as the librarian’s mouth came up close to his ear, untying the blindfold in ways that only a pony could. Big Macintosh’s resolve firmed, and he tightened his grip on the chainsaw. He’d never used one of these things before, but if this tree were threatening his family, didn’t matter if he could make sense of the situation, that tree was going down.

The blindfold fell away to reveal a tree just getting ready to bud into spring. Its trunk was solid and thick, and in Big Macintosh’s solid red hands, he held a rumbling machine that was said to cut through trees like butter. Beside him was the maroon librarian in pony form, his little sister, and her two friends, and they all had... cotton balls stuffed in their big conical ears. Go figure. That also explained the headphones they gave Big Macintosh, which would protect his ears from noise, hopefully.

Now, he had used a powered saw before, just not one this heavy duty before. So he knew enough to rev it up before cutting, and to cut a groove before going straight through the trunk. If he hadn’t, Big Macintosh probably would have destroyed his chainsaw, and hurt someone to boot. But though the person to fell this tree was chosen poorly, he wasn’t chosen all that poorly. So while the ponies watched, Big Macintosh got to figure out how to use a chainsaw pretty quickly.

The tree trunk gave a worrying crack when he was almost all the way through it. Nervous about his saw jamming, Big Mac pulled it out, and stopped its spin, then just put a hand on the tree’s firm wood, and tried giving it a shove. It didn’t want to go at first, but then there was a bigger crack as the tree toppled forward. crashing into the bush and flattening everything in its way. The tree would be fine of course. It could put up suckers and be grown as big as new in as little as twenty years straight. So basically it wouldn’t be fine. He hoped he hadn’t flattened any woodland critters on its way down. His sister’s friends and Cheerilee stayed well away while watching him.

“Great!” Apple Bloom said, “That’s perfect! Now cut down this tree!”

She indicated a tree just a few paces further ahead, which had a big red X on it drawn with chalk. And beyond it was another tree with a red X on it, and another, and another.

Big Macintosh sighed. This was gonna be a strange day, he just knew it.

He did... pretty good. Didn’t get anyone killed, always felled trees away from where anyone was standing. He wasn’t sure why they kept telling him to cut these trees down so urgently, because it can’t have been all that important. His saw got stuck more than once, but Cheerilee always managed to dislodge it, and fell the tree to boot, with a good strong kick from her hind legs. Mac didn’t even know why he was here. He sorta figured he shouldn’t be here, and had more important things to do, but the CMC got in his way defiantly, but looking with fear at the chainsaw in his hands. What? When did he get a chainsaw?

“You have to get this tree, Big Mac!” Cheerilee called to him from behind... ish. “Just this last one!” He had trouble finding her at one point, and finally a tree crashed down, and there wasn’t anything beyond it. Was he just cutting it down, or something? He stood there looking at his handiwork where he’d already cut down the trees he hadn’t cut down yet, and he had, so he just got turned around, but he turned around and there was a whole cleared out line of fallen trees behind him. He tried turning around—he—tried turning—

He just kind of started running, dropped the chainsaw and ran.

His heart was hammering, and his breath was coming in short gasps, and when on earth had he gotten this worked up before? He didn’t remember when he started getting terrified! He couldn’t even think about stopping until he’d run into the house and blocked the door behind him. But from what? What was he so afraid of?

Well, it couldn’t be that important. Probably just something to do with school, or classes. He sighed, and decided to go retreat to his room again, before these ponies asked him to pet them more, or got up into his lap. Big Macintosh had homework to do.

Meanwhile, Apple Bloom was staring with disbelief at... herself. She was staring at Sweet Apple Acres in both directions of this cleared out alleyway in the forest. No, not both directions, but like, all sorts of directions. Up, down, left, right, inside out, it was impossible to even look at.

“What the heck is this?” Apple Bloom asked frightfully, as her apparant doubles, and triples, and 4.5pls mimicked her motion with an unpredictable delay.

And then Cheerilee was beside her, just like poof beside her. That was how things... worked out here? “Apple Bloom, there you are!” Cheerilee said in a fright. “We need to get out of here. Big Macintosh ran—and—I don’t know if this phenomenon is safe!”

“Are you seein’ this?” Apple Bloom asked, looking at the distorted reflections of herself and now Cheerilee.

“It’s... some kind of... spatial anomaly?” Cheerilee said in utter confusion, looking at her own duplicates coming to stand beside Apple Bloom’s. “Apple Bloom, I had to go left to go right, to reach you back here. Something is not right about this place. This is... this is that magic, like what those alien girls were speaking of. It’s the only explanation!

Apple Bloom shivered and leaned against Cheerilee, and soon as she moved she was like 20 feet away from her.

“Just keep walking, Apple Bloom!” Cheerilee shouted out encouragingly, vanishing by walking into a mirror of herself, from Apple Bloom’s perspective. “Follow the farm,” her voice came from behind Apple Bloom, “I don’t think we can get closer to this, so just walk!”

So Apple Bloom scrunched up her muzzle, and took a step, and then another step. It seemed so ordinary. She was just walking through a forest. But in this corridor they cleared out, it looked so weird any more than ten feet ahead of her. She stared at the ground, and just walked in a straight line. It wasn’t long at all, before she risked a look, and all that weirdness was gone. She was at the mouth of the forest, with the ranch spread out before her.

“I think we should try to talk to those girls about this,” Cheerilee said afterward, after everypony was safe, inside, with chocolate.

“Maybe they can’t remember it either,” Apple Bloom mumbled morosely as she nibbled at her candy bar.

“We’ll never know if we don’t ask,” Scootaloo replied, with only a smear of chocolate on her muzzle to indicate she ever had one at all.

“Can’t hurt, right?” Sweetie offered.

“Or, it could blow up in our faces,” Apple Bloom replied.

“Apple Bloom, this is very obviously... magical,” Cheerilee said. “If these girls are telling the truth, then it could be vital to whatever they’re trying to do.”

“I suppose we gotta,” Apple Bloom sighed. “But ah’m tired of getting sidetracked by them. They only say what they wanna say, and I just want the truth!”

“Maybe you don’t want the truth,” Sweetie Belle told Apple Bloom worriedly. “They might not be telling you because it’s something bad.”

“Ms. Cheerilee is right though,” Apple Bloom said to Sweetie. “Those girls are our best hope of understanding it, knowing what to do about it, and it could really mess ‘em up if’n they don’t know about it.”

“They have different Equestrian brain waves or something,” Scootaloo offered, “So they’re probably already immune, just like the time loop!”

“Huh, yeah that makes sense...” Apple Bloom pondered.

“Well, you three sit tight, and I’m going to go find those girls,” Cheerilee said nervously. “I’ll try to reason with them, and if they remain obstructionist about it, I think we can take it to the authorities. Perhaps someone else in the city can deal with it.”

“You?” Apple Bloom said surprisedly, periscoping up and looking at Cheerilee, “I thought ah was gonna tell her!”

“You look like you could use a break from all this, Apple Bloom,” Cheerilee said to her warmly. “I know you’ve had a lot of responsibility lately, but don’t forget that you’re still a high school Freshman, and you still have a lot of growing up to do.”

Cheerilee prepared for the inevitable rebuttal, but Apple Bloom just looked away, saying meekly, “Okay, Ms. Cheerilee. That seems sensible.”

“W-well, of course I could use your help,” Cheerilee stated, surprised that she’d have to defend a teenager’s independence. But, now that she thought about it, Apple Bloom was a lot younger than a teenager now. Did she even notice how easy she was, to... influence?

“You know, why don’t we all go together?” Cheerilee asked with a placating smile. “I can talk with the girls, and surely one of those two will have questions for you.”

So Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo all ended up tagging along after Cheerilee, as Cheerilee pony-trotted to the portable building and combined laboratory of Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer. She knocked on the door, and when the yellow and red girl answered, Cheerilee said, “Sunset, we have to talk.”

Inside the building, there were some strange distillation experiments going on, as well as numerous charts, maps and diagrams on the wall, and a chalkboard covered with statistical... stuff. Cheerilee was never all that good at mathematical things. What looked like a photo development booth was sort of... installed on one side. And there was a small side room, more of a cubicle really, with two beds in it on the other side.

Sunset Shimmer was in here, but not Twilight Sparkle, and thankfully the building was sans Professor Discord at the moment. Cheerilee could have used Twilight’s presence, but she, along with the whole school, knew how irritated the professor got when you brought up anything supernatural. So, only Sunset here was fine, if not ideal. When the CMC filed in after Cheerilee, the girl seemed to figure out something serious was going on, Sunset asking,

“What’s this about, Ms. Cheerilee?”

Cheerilee... blanked for a second on just what to say to her. But she recovered quickly, looking up at the girl and saying with concern, “Apple Bloom and... the others found something very strange in the forest outside their property.”

Sunset frowned at that, and asked, “Is this about another dream?” She looked down expectantly at the three foals beside Cheerilee, who looked aside uneasily, trying to think of what to say.

“No, we’re fairly sure this wasn’t a dream,” Cheerilee reported for them. “There’s some kind of... spatial anomaly in the forest outside Apple Bloom’s property. They discovered it when Diamond Tiara apparantly led them to prove that you could walk in a straight line through the forest, and still end up where you started.”

“We left twine!” Sweetie piped up. “She unrolled this big thing of twine, and tied both ends in the same spot, without turning around!”

Sunset’s eyes widened in surprise, and she said in a pleased tone, “Oh, you can remember that?”

Then, her eyes took on that of a cornered animal, and Sunset Shimmer did not clarify her sudden stiffening, or wringing her hands, or nervous smile, with any words to indicate she was being honest with them.

Cheerilee sighed. This wasn’t going to be pretty, she imagined. She didn’t want to know, but... Apple Bloom wasn’t ready for this by herself either, and Cheerilee just hoped she could support them somewhat in dealing with all these crazy things happening.

“There’s a... magical something,” Cheerilee clarified reluctantly. “By chance, with the help of a letter from... erm... Diamond Tiara, Apple Bloom and I were able to break free of it. The... enchantment? We could help other ponies break free, by confronting their amnesia, but humans seem entirely unable to even detect that there is anything going on. We hoped you weren’t affected, and you might... know something about it?”

“At first we couldn’t even think about it!” Scootaloo spoke up with enthusiasm over her worry. “We were total jerks to Diamond Tiara, because she’s the only one who could remember it. And once Diamond figured out it was something weird, she tricked Apple Bloom, by leaving her a note that’d force her to remember it.”

Sunset sat down heavily in a plastic chair. “Wow, that... makes a lot of sense. Of course Diamond would be... well I was going to say too crazy to be affected, but I can’t say there are good words for it.”

They looked at her silently.

“Diamond Tiara has a certain... predisposition for insanity,” Sunset said reluctantly, “And while this does not make her insane, her mind doesn’t work quite the same way that ours do. That could possibly lift the veil for her. Just like with her unusual resistence for time loop resets.”

“Oh, because she remembered about the time that you two...” Apple Bloom trailed off, fussing about the wording for it, “Blew up the gymnasium?” she tried. “With that whole thing about the raging she-demon and—”

“Yes, Diamond seems to have held onto that for... four years,” Sunset said, clenching her teeth. “It was a very traumatizing experience for her... for everyone really, but she... well, she’s a very unique individual.”

“You can say that again,” Scootaloo grumbled.

“So about this veil,” Cheerilee persisted. “Is it related to the spatial anomaly? What’s going on out there?”

Sunset looked out the window at the trees outside, and then at Cheerilee. “You probably won’t like the answer,” Sunset said with a grim visage.

“I think it’s quite important,” Cheerilee replied testily. “If there’s some magic affecting our minds, it could have terrible consequences. Are our thoughts even our own?”

“Funny you should ask that...” Sunset cryptically replied.

Her eyes darted around the room then, and she leaned forward, saying to them, “This isn’t to leave this building. Not that I can stop you, but it’s just a warning that you’ll probably want to keep it low key too. As in, you don’t want a citywide panic, mass insanity, possible deaths on your hands, desperation and despair... you know, that sort of thing.”

Cheerilee didn’t want to know. She didn’t want to know. She did not want to know.

“Alright,” she said tensely.

“There’s nothing outside the forest past the Apple family’s farm,” Sunset stated.

Cheerilee stared at her.

“You’re gonna deny it now?” Apple Bloom squealed, “Ah’m dying of curiosity! What is that anomyaly, and what’s it doing outside mah family’s ranch? What—”

“No, wait, what I meant is—” Sunset grimaced, holding her hands up at the irate filly in the pretty pink bow. “There is nothing outside the forest past your farm. That’s it. There is nothing past it.”

And now they were staring at Sunset for a very different reason.

“Princess Celestia told me a story once,” Sunset Shimmer said with a distant look into her memories. “She told me of when they first discovered this land. We thought it was... fictional.

“Books can be enchanted you see,” Sunset continued, “And any who read them are drawn within the story. It’s a very restricted technique, because well... nopony is really sure of just how alive the characters within this book have become. Is it a mere delusion, or is it a pocket... universe?

“This place appeared fictional, to the ponies at the time,” Sunset clarified. “Remember, this was a very long time ago, before any of you would have been born, when my Equestria came upon your world. The assumption was that ponies cross the mirror, just like getting trapped in a story. You complete the story, and the story... ends. The universe is gone, and everything goes back to reality.”

“Of course we concluded this was not true of your universe,” Sunset said hastily to the alarmed ponies, “It only bears some puzzling signs of a fictional one, but certain things don’t make sense. The time loop, for instance.

“That was the next theory, is that this world was a trap,” Sunset went on, “An enchanted book that deliberately never ends, so that any who tried to read it so to speak, would be trapped within it forever.”

“How many ponies got trapped in here, before they figured it out?” Sweetie Belle asked in shock.

Sunset winced at that. “It was before my time,” she admitted. “We’re talking centuries before. There are certain ways to... erase a pony, that stop them from looping, at least. When the original exploration team had gone irrevocably insane, they were... well, removed. Dead as dead can be. Obviously I’ve been trying to not... have that happen, myself.”

“So y’all thought we were a story?” Apple Bloom asked in confusion. “But we’re not?”

“We’re pretty sure you’re not,” Sunset said with a half smile. “If it wasn’t for the Edge of the—” Sunset cut off abruptly looking at them with sudden worry. But she closed her eyes, and continued calmly.

“The Edge,” Sunset continued, “Is the physical edge of your universe. It’s a point where space becomes infinitely chaotic, beyond which there is no space, no time, nothing determinable but chaos. You can think of your universe as a bubble in a sea of chaos really, except that the sea is dimensionless.”

“How... big is our universe?” Cheerilee asked uneasily. If Applejack’s farm was at the edge, then...

“It extends around your city limits,” Sunset stated, “From Canterlot High, in an oblong ellipse, whose densest edge is just beyond Sweet Apple Acres.”

“But what about people who leave?” Apple Bloom said confusedly.

“Yeah, people leave all the time!” Scootaloo agreed, but paused in confusion, saying, “I think? I can’t remember anyone actually leaving, but...”

“Mah history teacher Ms. Berry leaves all the time,” Apple Bloom stated frankly. “She goes off for the weekend, gets rip roaring drunk, and sort of fails to teach history.”

“Yeah, Cherry Berry has a lot of interaction with the Boundary,” Sunset agreed, “She um... she thinks that she drinks a lot. See, out here at your farm, the edge is dense. You can get total logic failures from one step to the next. Space just starts breaking down. But most ways to leave the city are less confusing than that edge.”

Sunset sort of pantomimed with her hand, saying, “You’ll be driving along, and then” she closed her fist, “You’ll have the amazing story of your trip abroad, as well as any supplies you gathered, just sort of piled into your vehicle, or your bloodstream in Berry’s case.” Then she slid her other hand in the other direction, saying, “And now you’re turned around and are returning to the city. It’s a classic technique by writers of enchanted stories, to utilize chaotic manifestation to limit the needed size of their universe. While beyond is formless chaos, the vacuum pressure of your ordered universe causes any inconsistencies at the boundary to resolve to something logically sound.”

“So you’re saying we cain’t leave the city?” Apple Bloom said perplexed. “That can’t be—why would this chaos boundry even be in place?”

“Because you aren’t fictional,” Sunset offered warily, “But I’m pretty sure the rest of the world is.”

She was sad.

She was sad, and she was tired. So tired. But she couldn’t sleep.

She lit up her horn. That could stop her dreaming sometimes, but it only exchanged dreams for this black nothingness. She didn’t know how to wake up. She hated being alone. She hated being alone.

She wasn’t alone anymore. She was so alone. It was so dark and she didn’t want it to be dark. She wanted it to be bright, and happy, and she wanted to see the sun again. She wanted to see her friends again. She wanted to hear them calling to her, and playing with her, and showing her what things are again. Anything but this nothingness, this cold darkness. But she couldn’t.

She couldn’t see. She couldn’t hear. She couldn’t feel. She couldn’t taste. She couldn’t smell. She couldn’t sleep. Because sleep meant hurting. It meant the bad things that didn’t make any sense but just hurt so much that she wanted to forget them forever and ever. She only wanted to forget that, not anything else. She didn’t want to forget who she was again, or forget her friends. She just wanted to forget what she had done.

She couldn’t sleep. She couldn’t let herself sleep. She didn’t want to hurt them!

Not again...

She lit up her horn.

She had to stay awake.

She couldn’t stay awake.

She didn’t want to hurt them...

She slept.

Pregnant Pause

”What?!”

Birds scattered overhead

“What...?” Sunset replied uncertainly at Twilight Sparkle’s expression of unbridled horror there in their portable laboratory building. “I mean, it sucks, sure, but I just want to know if they’re going to have any problems, if it comes to giving birth as a pony.”

“No, no, no,” Twilight stated, pacing frantically before Sunset as she said, “Of course they’re going to have problems. Huge problems! You said Dinky and Diamond Tiara? Diamond Tiara is pregnant?”

“Y...eah?” Sunset replied, backing up from the incensed purple girl, not quite to the door she walked in from. “I know they’re just kids, but remember that humans mature much earlier than ponies. This is earlier than normal, but it’s not unheard-of. Think of it like they were 30 or um... two bunches.”

“No, you don’t understand,” Twilight seethed not even seeing Sunset as she ruminated to herself, “I know Diamond Tiara from the other side.”

“And...?” Sunset replied uncertainly.

“I...” Twilight said, sitting heavily into a plastic chair. “I was at her cuteciñera. About a year before I left Equestria, she had a big celebration when she got her cutie mark. Her father’s kind of well-to-do, see, and he dotes on her way too much. So I know h-how old she is. As a pony, I mean.”

Sunset’s blood went cold. Colder.

“So you mean, if the temporal pivot point was your entry as we seem to have observed, then Diamond Tiara is only 18?” Sunset said in shock. “Can she even bear a foal at that age?”

“Actually... I really didn’t emphasize how much of a spoiled little brat she is,” Twilight stated anxiously. “Diamond Tiara had her cuteciñera the moment she got her cutie mark, not when she entered apprenticeship. Like, a week afterward. Which puts her current age at more like... thirteen.”

Spike poked his nose in the open door, yelping, “Some ponies wanted to ask if—holy moley what’s gotten into you two?! Nopony went and died, did they?”

“Not... yet, Spike,” Twilight said dismally.

In the therapist’s office, Diamond Tiara lay on the couch, rather than sitting in the chair. It was less comfortable to sit in the chair on account of what was... happening to her belly. It was getting all heavy and tight, nothing painful, but that kind of made it even weirder with how it wasn’t obviously hurting to get big, like... this.

“We’ll be doing something different this week, Diamond Tiara,” the colorful Dr. Blossomforth told her. “Do you know a girl by the name of Twilight Sparkle? Because she’s asked me to mediate for you two, as she has something ...troubling to discuss with you.”

“Uh—” Diamond said, her mind immediately going to the baby. “Like, I guess so?” she said uneasily. “I know Twilight, but why does she even want to talk to me? You’re not gonna let her rub it in, are you? You said that nobody had any right to do that!”

“That’s why I’m going to be here, Diamond,” the therapist said patiently. “If she tries anything, she’ll find out that I have a mean right hook!”

Diamond blinked, and then snickered despite herself. “Only kidding,” the therapist said, ceasing trying to show off her biceps, “But that’s what mediation involves, is to help two parties resolve their differences, without either one taking advantage of the other. You can rest assured I wouldn’t agree to this if I thought this Twilight girl was a danger to you, or...”

Diamond’s therapist glanced down briefly at Diamond’s waist. “...a danger to you,” she concluded conservatively, but Diamond understood what she meant.

“If Twilight figures out how to lecture my baby I’ll be actually impressed,” Diamond replied snidely. “Yeah, I suppose we can like, talk, but can I still like, um, talk with you, and stuff?”

The colorful woman nodded. “I was hoping you would be free afterwards. It shouldn’t take long, honestly. I think your friend may be a little overly concerned about her own judgement, to involve me in this.”

“She’s not my... look, let’s just get this over with,” Diamond grumbled, stalking into the hallway. There was that purple girl again, sitting right there in the rather nondescript waiting room. Twilight brightened as Diamond walked in, then wilted again, whatever that meant. Nothing good.

“You can come back now,” Dr. Blossomforth said agreeably, in that calculatingly agreeable manner that she said anything. That just made Diamond want to get in her way more, to try to disrupt that peaceful veneer of lies, but Diamond Tiara was going to be the bigger girl this time. She did take some amount of satisfaction from how the therapist had to lean around her while Diamond stood in the doorway, wishing she could really take control of the situation instead of more posturing, and lies.

“You better not try to make me give this baby up,” Diamond told the nervously approaching purple girl, “Or I’ll... do something unladylike!”

“Perhaps we should wait until we have some privacy, Diamond?” the therapist said in a very slightly pleading manner.

Diamond flopped onto the couch once Twilight was in the office, moving to cautiously sit in the chair. “Have a lot of people been trying to get you to give the baby up?” Twilight asked curiously, while the doctor took her place behind the desk.

“No, nobody’s even tried to make me do it,” Diamond said, wishing she could... put into words what she was feeling. “But if they did, I wouldn’t do it, because I can’t even think about doing something so... horrible!” The genuine horror that crept into Diamond’s voice surprised her. Why was she so bothered by the idea?

“Nobody’s going to make you do anything here, Diamond Tiara,” the therapist said, folding her white fingers together “This is a safe place. Now, Miss Sparkle,” she said, turning to face Twilight still squirming there trying to get comfortable. Serves her right for taking the chair. “It seems you know each other already, so maybe you could start by telling Diamond Tiara why you wish to speak with her?”

The purple girl didn’t look like she wanted to. But with difficulty, Twilight said, “Hello, Diamond Tiara. I’m sorry I don’t come with good news. I came to talk to you about... well... your pregnancy. I’m really worried about it.”

Diamond wanted to snap at her that everyone was really worried about it, but glancing at the therapist, she held her tongue. “I’m almost sixteen,” Diamond explained, “My body has been ready for like, years. They just make you wait until eighteen because they don’t want you to miss school, but there’s nothing like, dangerous about it. I can have a baby just as easy as someone twice my age. That’s kind of freaky actually, but like, it’s true.”

Neither of them seemed to want to say anything in response, though Dr. Blossomforth gave Diamond a sympathetic look. Twilight forced herself again though, clenching her hands on her legs anxiously, and saying, “Yes, that’s what I came to talk to you about. You know people have been changing into ponies.”

“Yeah, but what does that have to do with—” Diamond blinked. “W-wait, that means... what if I change first? Or if they do? Won’t we change at the same time? How would it even work if we didn’t? I’m not the only pregnant girl in this city, so what do they all do about it? Why are you only talking to me?”

“Because you have something much, much more to worry about,” Twilight said. “I don’t know if you should... go through with it. The pregnancy, I mean.”

“Oh now you want me to abort,” Diamond said dryly, “I’m not going to—kill the baby! Why do you want me to... to kill this thing? How could I murder an adorable little—”

“Please, please just hear me out,” Twilight said while Diamond got shriller. Her therapist got in Diamond’s face though stating commandingly,

“Diamond.”

“Like, sorry. But it’s just—” Diamond said in frustration, and a bit of terror. They were going to take her baby away? She was past the first trimester! Wasn’t that like, illegal or something?

“I’m only here to mediate,” Dr. Blossomforth said, “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to, but I would like you to let Twilight speak.”

“Okay I wasn’t... like, sure... whatever,” Diamond said, shrinking down in the couch cushions with a blush creeping onto her face. Diamond realized she had stopped speaking dryly, and was fighting not to burst out crying right there. “Sorry I like...” she wiped her eyes, “I like, don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

“I wouldn’t even think about suggesting it, if we weren’t facing dire consequences,” Twilight said holding up her palms appeasingly. “If you... if you want to have that baby, then you should be able to. I mean yes you probably can’t afford it, or have time for it, and the orphanage isn’t legally—”

“I know,” Diamond said furiously. “I just can’t even think about... it’s just not right, okay? I tried to—to ask about abortion, but I didn’t want to! I just... I mean, Dinky gave it to me! I have to—I don’t even know. It’s just not something I can even do. Just thinking about it is like...” She curled up on the couch, just... hiding that firm spot on her abdomen, that would become a child.

“But that’s not what I’m worried about,” Twilight said with a look of honest concern, and maybe a bit of terror. “I wouldn’t bother you, if it was just a matter of choice, Diamond. I know Diamond Tiara from Equestria. She lives in Ponyville, and I’ve seen her before. I was even at her cuteciñera, I—I know her, is my point. She’s not... Diamond Tiara you’re not...

“She’s about four years older than Apple Bloom,” Twilight said, biting her lower lip. “You know about how Apple Bloom is a filly... right?”

“Right?” Diamond said uncertainly. “So like, the other Diamond is an adult then? I mean, even I was a little kid like 4 years ago.”

“Not even... close,” Twilight said nervously. “Humans have a different life cycle than ponies. Diamond Tiara—my Diamond Tiara at least—is... a filly. She may have reached journeypony age by now, but this timeline is getting on five years behind the world I come from. What I’m trying to say is... she can’t get... pregnant.”

“Like, good for her, I suppose?” Diamond said chancily, “What’s that got to do with me, though? I’m like, already pregnant.”

“That’s what I’m worried about,” Twilight stated. “It’s not that she isn’t pregnant, it’s that she can’t be pregnant. We don’t—we haven’t had any pregnant mares—women arrive on the farm yet, so we can’t say what effect the transformation has on them, them or their babies. But one thing we do know is, it’s transforming people into the physical analogues of your pony self in my universe, including your gender, and... age.”

“Wh—are you saying I’m gonna turn into a dude?!” Diamond exclaimed in alarm.

Twilight shook her head, but didn’t seem comforting, when she said, “No, the Diamond Tiara I know is a filly, which is a female pony. A young female pony.”

“So what’s the problem, then?” Diamond retorted fussily. “I can still like, have a baby, can’t I?”

“If someone were to transform into a mare, and the transformation also transforms the fetus inside, then there shouldn’t be a problem in theory,” Twilight said, “It’s just... you’d be transforming into a filly.”

“So I wouldn’t be like... big enough?” Diamond asked, with a nervous flutter in her heart.

“Nopony has ever gotten pregnant earlier than the age of 20, Diamond,” Twilight said somberly. “It’s just not biologically possible. Even if the transformation also transforms the fetus, your body won’t be able to sustain it. I’m sorry, but if you don’t abort now, the transformation could—could seriously endanger your health, and your foal wouldn’t... couldn’t possibly make it to term.”

Twilight fell silent then, and the only sounds that could be heard were the cars driving down the street outside the therapist’s office. “How long do I have?” Diamond asked finally.

Twilight blinked at that, admitting, “It is totally random, so it could be tomorrow, but it seems to be accelerating exponentially, and that means whoever is transforming is probably going to be doing so sometime in the months of August and September.”

“So... I can’t keep it?” Diamond said feeling her eyes welling up with tears. “But I can’t get rid of it. You don’t know what it’s like! Even thinking about it is like—like dying! How could I hurt such an adorable b–baby uh... baby pony, but it’s still my baby!”

“I don’t know what to tell you Diamond,” Twilight said with an unhappy grimace, “It might be possible, if... when exactly did you conceive?”

“When did I what now?” Diamond croaked confusedly, wiping at her stupid eyes.

“You know, when did you and Dinky first start...” Twilight trailed off, looking at the ceiling and twirling a finger in the air. Oh. Oh.

“Twilight, you have no right to invade Diamond Tiara’s privacy like that,” the doctor said with a furious glare. “Why would that have any relevance here?”

“Because if she concieved early enough, then she might be able to carry the child to term before she transforms into a pony,” Twilight replied with a confused look.

“Oh, that—oh I suppose that—” Blossomforth stuttered, but Diamond interrupted saying mutedly,

“No it’s like, okay. Not like it’s a big secret anymore.”

She paused in thought, saying, “Uhm... it was a while after the dance. Dinky thought I did something to Scootaloo at first, so we didn’t... g-get together at first. I think, maybe... around when December started? We held out for a while, just kissing before y-you know. I know it was before Christmas at least, because we like—uh—”

Diamond blushed heavily, as she remembered what they did to celebrate Christmas. “Did...things...” she said quietly.

“Halfway through the month of December means you’ll be giving birth halfway through the month of September,” Twilight said unhappily. “Which is well after any hopes you had of not being a pony. If you’d done it a month earlier... even then you’d be pushing it.”

“So we had to do it on like, the night of the dance, or like... I’m screwed?” Diamond said angrily. “That’s not fair! How was I supposed to know?”

“Well, when Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo transformed, you might have thought to show some restraint,” Twilight said a bit snidely. “But no, you had to go and—”

“Twilight,” the therapist said warningly. Twilight’s response?

“You go and have sex with Dinky!” Twilight shouted at Diamond, confusion and rage in her eyes as she couldn’t help but glare at the pregnant girl. Twilight closed her eyes then, saying evenly, “I’m sorry. I just had to say it. Why did you... why even think about that at such a young age?”

And for all that Diamond wanted to be angry at the shuddering girl, she just couldn’t. “It really gets like, under your skin,” Diamond said frankly. “I wasn’t gonna do it, but just being around him was amazing. I mean, it was only okay at first, but then we started kissing, and—and it puts you in just the right position, you know?”

“...no?” Twilight said curiously, opening her eyes enough to peer at Diamond.

“To—um—start making a baby,” Diamond said with a blush.

Twilight’s eyes widened, and she said, “Ohh, right... like minotaurs.”

“Ponies don’t—?” Diamond started to say, but then winced, and said, “Never mind, I don’t want to like, know.”

“So you just sort of accidentally...?” Twilight said, twisting her fingers together.

“This is starting to get very personal,” Dr. Blossomforth said. “I think this is Diamond’s own personal business, not anything you should be concerned—”

“She should is the thing!” Diamond protested. “It started out so innocent! We liked each other, and we were kissing, and I like, didn’t know it would go further than that! It just felt better and better, and it started getting hard to even care about like, being careful, and stuff. I wish I’d known that! Before long I was—was doing him, and not even—not even caring about like, anything. It’s crazy!”

“You’re not crazy, Diamond Tiara,” Dr. Blossomforth repeated.

“I know, just... I wanted to like, warn her or something,” Diamond grumbled. “So at least she doesn’t ruin her life, because she didn’t know how hard it would be to like... um... to stop.”

Diamond had a feeling she knew what she and her therapist were going to be talking about after the mediation today.

“I’m not here today to ‘steal’ your baby or anything,” Twilight assured Diamond. “I just wanted you to be aware of the danger. If you start transforming, it is absolutely imperative that you get to a hospital right away. And—you’ll most certainly lose the child, so I really think you should consider taking care of it sooner than later. I don’t know what complications could arise if you are halfway through changing into a pony during a late term abortion, but I’d wager it’ll be less pleasant than if you go get it taken care of tomorrow.”

Silence.

“Just... think about it, okay?” Twilight pleaded.

“The first week,” Diamond said tightly. “It was near the end of the first week of December that we—started messing up. Technically. Not really, but yeah, kind of really.”

“Diamond, please,” Twilight said urgently.

“Okay, I’ll like... think about it,” Diamond said. “But I don’t know what to do I—”

“I think we might be able to talk about that in our session,” the therapist said. “Don’t worry Diamond, you have people who care about you, and we’ll do everything we can to help you make the... decision you least regret.”

She didn’t say Diamond could make the decision she didn’t regret at all, because it didn’t look like that was going to be an option for Diamond Tiara anymore.

With Twilight on the way back to her temporary home at Sweet Apple Acres, Cheerilee and three fillies were just finishing up a very important conversation with her friend Sunset Shimmer. The muffled voices inside Sunset and Twilight’s lab became audible as a magenta mare with bright pink curls trotted stiffly out the door, continuing to say, “No, I’m done. I am done. I did not want to hear about it. I do not want to even entertain the thought.”

She tromped on four legs, legs that still felt like weird fingers to her, but she tromped on them nonetheless. Sunset Shimmer followed Cheerilee out, saying, “Wait, hold on, but—”

As the dirt clomped underneath the nails of her bare hooves, Cheerilee replied, “I’m just going to go over here, and... and be a pony, over here, and we are not some kind of storybook fiction and we did not just imagine up the contents of every single book in my library!”

“It makes sense though, it—” Sunset said, but Cheerilee cut her off, saying,

“No! I am done. I could take other worlds, but this is too much. I can’t believe that the entire world is—” her voice caught in her throat, as an unexpected sob welled up in her chest. “...is gone,” she said quietly, a little confused. What was so terribly sad about this? Cheerilee didn’t know. She just shook her head and repeated, “I’m done.” Then she busied herself with trying to eat the grass.

Sunset looked like she wanted to just stand there in the sunlight, yelling the truth at Cheerilee, but she sighed and relaxed, and said, “I’m sorry. I thought you were... I really am sorry. Just... don’t look into it anymore. This is one time where the less you know about it, the better.”

Cheerilee didn’t answer, and actually this grass was pretty good... Sunset turned to retreat back to her lab anyway. With the snow melted, all the grass was starting to come back, and the thin blades were downright sweet and juicy compared to the hay that Cheerilee had had to subsist on the past month or so. It was slow going though, chewing the tips off of the young grass blades, and Cheerilee ceased bothering with it once she was free of Sunset’s troubling revelations. But was she free of them? It was entirely preposterous, but there had been something strange going on in that forest, and some weird magic affecting all their perceptions. Cheerilee had to conclude in the end that it was just Sunset being evasive, and that the truth yet remained to be seen.

Meanwhile, Sunset Shimmer walked back into her portable building with a weary sigh, only to come right up to three attentive fillies: Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo and Apple Bloom.

“We ain’t done!” the darling little Apple Bloom said with a cheeky smile. “Why don’t you tell the three of us all about how the entire world’s a work of fiction?”

Sunset wasn’t sure whether to laugh or to cry.

“Works of enchanted fiction,” Sunset said carefully to the three fillies assembled before her, “I haven’t been able to experiment with them as much as Twilight has, but she’s obviously... busy right now. Works of enchanted fiction mimic a pocket universe, while not really being universes themselves. They’re more of... simulated universes. Like a hologram, sort of.”

She held a piece of chalk, looking at the chalkboard she had set up thoughtfully, before drawing a small, flat plane. “Your world is more like this,” she said, “Think of your world as the side of a square, and as you reach the edge of the square, you go over the side. You can never leave the square of course, but you’ll always be on the edge of it, or the side. So that’s sort of what happens when you travel through the forest. It’s like walking over the edge of the square, and you’re on the same square as you started on when you return.”

“Except it isn’t the same side,” Sweetie Belle pointed out.

Sunset nodded. “The exact geometry is... complicated, but sort of like a higher dimensional... any of you know what a Klein bottle is?”

All three shook their heads.

“The square’s a bad metaphor really, but... it’s sort of like that,” Sunset said. “The thing is, beyond these edges, you can theoretically project a fictional universe. Sort of like...”

She drew a large flat plane on top of the smaller square.

“Sort of like this. In projecting this hologram, the world seems much larger than it is, and much less strange. It’s effectively pulling your entire universe, which is to say your city, into a mass delusion, a beguilement of the highest degree.

“It’s clear whoever set up this time loop, also established the illusion of a larger world,” Sunset continued. “They are very closely interconnected. That’s how I found out about the Golden Apple in the first place, is subtle clues left in the er... fictional story, that pointed to things in the real world.”

“Um, I’ve never been outside of the city before,” Scootaloo said uncertainly, “But you mean like... New York is imaginary?”

“Seriously, Scootaloo?” Sunset said with a smirk slipping onto her face. “That city? That’s the place where the French built a giant statue out in the middle of the bay, as a prank, and got away with it!”

“A prank?” Sweetie Belle interrupted. “The Statue of Liberty?”

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free?” Sunset countered. “It was a huge slap in the face to the anti-immigration and pro-monopoly government at the time. They had to allow it out of shame because they couldn’t be caught dead admitting that their land wasn’t a place like that. What are the chances that could have actually happened? It’s overdramatic grandstanding, just like you’d find in some over the top drama.”

Sweetie Belle... didn’t know how to respond to that.

“And Iowa,” Sunset went on, “Millions of acres of identically cloned corn, with no forests to speak of in between them? It’d be a total disaster if it was real! Pests and diseases would eat it alive! I don’t care what kind of pesticide you’ve got, on that scale something is going to go wrong, big time. Unless it’s fictional of course.

“Don’t even get me started on Tokyo,” Sunset said with a roll of her eyes. “A hundred miles of dense urban development. Akira is more realistic than any ‘real’ books on that place, because at least in Akira they showed how the ecosystem would collapse without a single field for hundreds of miles.”

“That... makes a creepy sorta sense,” Apple Bloom admitted, “But how do we know you aren’t just funning with us? Maybe there’s some other explanation for why things get so weird in the forest out by the farm.”

“Anything’s possible,” Sunset shrugged, “But that’s just my best theory. You can understand why I might not be super eager to let everyone know about this. I didn’t even think gaining pony magic would break the beguilement. Magic isn’t the sort of thing that ponies have been able to experiment without before, so this is all ground breaking for me, seeing how things go from absolute zero, to normal magic levels.”

“Well, we did break it,” Apple Bloom frowned, “And some other ponies gonna be able to, too. And what are we supposed to tell Diamond Tiara then? That there wasn’t anything strange out there?”

“Frankly... I don’t know if you should tell her anything,” Sunset said with a wince. “She’s got enough to deal with right now.”

“Oh, right, with the baby...” Apple Bloom said mutedly, curling her tail around her legs.

“To make matters worse, Twilight knows her,” Sunset said glumly.

“Knows her?” Sweetie prompted.

Sunset nodded. “Yeah, knows her Equestrian counterpart, I mean. And Diamond Tiara’s is a filly, just like you three. A little older, but way, way too young to be able to bear a foal.”

“Oh no!” Sweetie shouted in fright. “So that means she—”

“...yeah, that’s what Twilight’s going to talk about with her right now,” Sunset said. “Soon as Diamond gets horse ears, we’ll be saying goodbye to the foal, one way or another.”

Sweetie’s own ears went down at that, and Apple Bloom said glumly, “Well ain’t that a shame. It’s for the best though. Ah guess Dinky won’t be stuck with bein’ a father no more.”

“How can you say that?” Sweetie Belle asked in shock. “This is her child!”

Wincing at the ringing in her ears, Apple Bloom rubbed her head and said, “Yeah it’s a shame and all, but it ain’t really a ‘child’ yet. She’s still makin’ it.”

“She’s second trimester, so it kind of is a child,” Sweetie said offendedly, while Sunset pointed out,

“Actually, in human fetal development, it doesn’t really start growing until the third... it’s mostly amniotic fluid in there right now. The fetus itself won’t be bigger than a cantelope, until the last three months.”

“So it’s... a little baby?” Sweetie asked with an uncertain hoof lift.

“The baby doesn’t even start to move until the fifth or sixth month,” Sunset said with a shrug.

“That’s um... this month though,” Sweetie Belle said.

“Diamond’s not just tossing it or anything,” Sunset said. “She’s trying to keep it, but if she changes before she can give birth... it could endanger her health, and there’s no way she could carry a foal to term.”

“That’s terrible!” Scootaloo said crossly, “It’s not even gonna get a chance?”

“Must be especially hard for you,” Apple Bloom said with concern to Sunset. “You’ve actually seen the baby get born and all, haven’t you?”

Sunset smiled gratefully, saying, “Yeah it—” she really did get a chance to see that darling purple/pink baby’s sleeping face, before the—the time loop stole it away. “It is pretty hard, sometimes,” Sunset said, sniffing and wiping her eyes with her sleeve. “But if it isn’t to be, then it isn’t to be,” she concluded. “It could have been even worse if the loop didn’t reset, and Diamond had to raise a child without graduating high school.”

“Great,” Scootaloo moaned, “So New York City is just a drama play, Tokyo really is an anime, we’re all turning into ponies, and Diamond Tiara got laid before we did!”

The others stared at her.

Sunset was the first to laugh. Now the others were staring at Sunset. “Sorry—haha ha,” she crowed, rocking in her chair, “She always—hahhaha—always says that.”

“Ah don’t know how funny it is,” Apple Bloom pouted grumpily. “Ah don’t even get to try to get laid, until like... a decade!”

Sunset didn’t reply in words, so much.

The laughter fell eventually to silence, Sunset saying jovially to Scootaloo, “You’ve never said anything about New York and Tokyo before; the veil always held for you. But that third part? Just hearing it from the mouth of a foal, hoo... it’s bad enough when you say it as a teenager!”

“I don’t see what’s funny either,” Scootaloo blushed. “Dinky was my boyfriend first. I could’ve been the one stuck like Diamond.”

“While it was physically possible, at one point,” Sunset Shimmer said evenly, “You never did anything with Dinky that I heard about. He and Diamond are kind of... uniquely suited for each other. Kind of a shame, considering that Dinky’s pony form is supposedly

As she rode on the rumbling bus, Twilight Sparkle wondered if she had done that right. There would be no do-overs now, though. She certainly wasn’t comfortable with the idea of Diamond Tiara having a foal, but... whatever happened, she wished for the poor girl to at least find happiness in it.

“Maybe I should have told her,” Twilight said to herself with a sigh. “It’s just too much to get it out all at once. Would I be motivating her to commit more licentious acts? What’s she going to think, when her boyfriend Dinky turns into

“a young filly, about Noi’s age,” Sunset concluded solemnly.

...

“Wow,” Scootaloo’s voice broke the silence. “Wow, so he’s gonna know what it’s like from both sides.”

Scootaloo looked around. “...what?” she said, as everypony facehooved, and Sunset facepalmed too.

After recovering from... whatever that was, Sweetie Belle asked Sunset curiously,

“What was our world like before all this happened?”

“I really don’t know,” Sunset admitted. “It’s like someone set up your world to look like an enchanted book, and why they did it? Perhaps everyone was too frustrated with your world’s size, and they wanted to live in an illusion that it was a much bigger place? Even I think it’s ridiculous to use contrived plot holes like an outer space that never ends or loops back on itself, but maybe the people of your world were so confined, they thought that kind of openness would be...” she shuddered, “Comforting?”

“Is that why we’re all turning into ponies?” Apple Bloom asked. “Because the magic fiction thingy is wearing off?”

Sunset laughed, “No, no the hologram is only reflective within the boundary of your universe, so it affects you, but only in your perception of what lies beyond. It’s not altering anything inside.”

“So, maybe there’s another holothingy?” Apple Bloom speculated. Sunset shook her head though, saying,

“You’re not fictional, I’m almost one-hundred percent sure. You follow slightly different plots, and react differently, every time the loop happens. Twilight has done some pretty exhaustive research, but pretty much it boils down to the fact that if this was a story, then her and I would have to be fictional too.

“What connects our worlds,” Sunset explained, looking across the room, “Is a physical portal. A gateway that—barring the change in species is physically traversible. An enchanted story would be more like... just appearing in the middle of a story, with no portal involved. The story could have a portal, of course, but only a fictional portal, to another fictional universe.

“And if both our worlds were part of a work of fiction,” Sunset concluded, “There’s no way any of us could ever tell. So we have to assume that as far as I’m concerned, your world, and yourselves are... somehow, real.”

This was all pretty heavy stuff, and fascinating to listen about, but not so fascinating when you go to sleep at night, and think about how the Taj Mahal or the Swiss Alps are forever beyond your reach, that you can’t even leave the city limits... Apple Bloom had a hard time sleeping, because she was starting to understand why Cheerilee ran away rather than learning about this stuff. Apple Bloom wanted to explore, to travel to distant lands and see amazing things, and she couldn’t even get past the forest on her farm? And to top it off, there was a mystical dream princess who didn’t want to be found.

“The thirteenth top secret meeting of the Cutie Major Crusaders is now in session,” Apple Bloom declared, using her hoof as a gavel, which echoed beautifully in the stony room where they’d assembled. Behind a secret passage in the library, the three ponies had smuggled in a few wood blocks, stacked them to the right height and affixed a sturdy board on top to act as a stable surface. They couldn’t just use a real table, because even the folding tables were too high for comfort, but building their own table at pony height was pretty easy.

Atop this sturdy board was a plush panda which was their ostensible, potential mascot, but mostly because that’s the one Big Macintosh let Apple Bloom borrow. There were a few sets of sketches of possible logos for their club. As always, a list of possible careers had been affixed to the wall off to the side. Sweetie’s old—which is to say, Rarity’s old camcorder was in here, if they could ever get it working again to film more movies.

There was a reclaimed coat rack by the entrance, on which each filly hung their outer garments with relief upon coming inside, a hoodie, a dress, and a pair of overalls. On the wall alcove, Sweetie had snuck in a few candles for atmosphere, even though they had the indirect sunlight from the window, and a battery powered lamp hanging overhead, that Apple Bloom got from the supplies that pony refugees kept dumping off.

And of course three ponies in the dimly lit stony room, three young fillies determined to make the most of this, and be best friends forever.

“Our first order of business is about the whole pony thing,” Apple Bloom said smartly, “A’course most of our orders of business are about the whole pony thing. Anyways, ah wanted to know if anybody’s been bullying y’all, for being a pony and all.”

Scootaloo snorted. “C’mon Apple Bloom,” she said teasingly, “What is this, middle school?”

“It’s not like the bullies went away,” Apple Bloom retorted. “And there are way bigger bullies now, from upper classes! And way bigger now that we’re all smallified!”

“Yeah, but this is high school,” Scootaloo said rolling her eyes. “We don’t even have recess anymore. When are bullies gonna get together to bully us, lunch?”

“I... well, they could knock your tray offa your back or... something I guess?” Apple Bloom said confusedly. “I ain’t actually seen a whole lotta bullying so far this year, pony or no.”

“Come on Scootaloo,” Sweetie Belle cut in dryly, “I know for a fact that people have been doing something you don’t like.”

“Yeah, but that’s not...” Scootaloo blushed, “It’s not exactly bullying, and I dunno it’s not all that bad it’s just like everybody wants to touch my wings!”

Scootaloo paused and looked away. “It’s really embarassing,” she mumbled. “I don’t want to let them down, but I kinda do. It feels really weird.”

“Yeah, you’d think they’d give a head’s up that you’re not supposed to just touch a pegasus’s wings without permission,” Apple Bloom said soberly. “They must be real fragile-like.”

“It’s not that they’re fragile, it just... I mean they’re kinda strong actually, especially when I flap,” Scootaloo said frankly. “I almost hurt someone’s hand when I pulled away from them. But it’s just like... it’s kinda like... if someone grabs your foot.”

“Grabs my foot?” Sweetie Belle asked, looking back and lifting one of her own candy white feet in the air.

“Yeah, like... like I use my wings to move, so when someone grabs one, I can’t... move,” Scootaloo said, tilting her head back and forth as she tried to figure out how to describe it.

“Until you hurt their hand by pulling away,” Sweetie prompted cautiously.

“Yeah, yeah, but I don’t want to do that,” Scootaloo grumbled. “Maybe we should try to get a school announcement that wings are um... unnerving?”

“I dunno about the intercom,” Apple Bloom suggested, “But I bet we could post up some flyers. You wanna work on that today?”

“Sure, that’s a great idea Apple Bloom!” Scootaloo said appreciatively. “But nothing too weird or embarassing.”

“Since we’re desigining them,” Apple Bloom replied, “We can make the flyers be whatever we want!”

“Do we need permission to post them?” Sweetie asked uncertainly.

Apple Bloom shook her head. “Dunno. I ain’t never done nothing like that before... an’ ah don’t know much about how anyone else did it. Guess I’ll have to ask.”

“Then it’s settled!” Sweetie announced proudly, rapping a hoof on the table. “We’ll design the flyer, and Apple Bloom will ask if we can post it. So, what’s next on the agenda?”

Apple Bloom glanced down at the list she’d made out saying, “Oh! Uh, yeah, next on th’ agenda is a club motto. If we’re gonna be a real club, we gotta have a fancy motto.”

“Ooh, how about ‘We will never stop the journey,’” Sweetie Belle immediately suggested.

“We already sang that though,” Scootaloo protested. “I say we should use ‘With our determination we will rock the Earth!’”

“We will graduate and show our worth!” Sweetie replied excitedly.

“What about our name though?” Apple Bloom whined. “We oughta use the club name!”

Scootaloo shook her head, saying, “Don’t be silly, Apple Bloom! Club names don’t go in mottos!” She looked at Sweetie Belle. “...do they?”

Sweetie looked between them, and said, “I have no idea, so don’t look at me.”

It was a productive meeting.

“There are four pregnant women here already?!” Sunset yelped at the nurse outside the improptu medical tent.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Twilight asked anxiously. “We’ve needed to know this information for weeks now!”

“What happened to their babies?” Sunset asked, “They didn’t die, did they? You’d have told us if they died, right?”

“N—” the nurse started to say with a scared smile as the two girls accosted her.

“Are they pregnant with human children? Are any of the unborn babies foals?” Twilight asked rapidfire.

“Girls, please!” said white clothed lady interrupted. “We have a—unique problem here. The pregnant women are fine. Don’t ask me how. Ultrasound shows that they seem to transform at the same time, which is well and good, but the problem is—”

Sunset growled, “Then what is the prob— oh. Uh. Please do go on.”

“Thank you,” the nurse said flatly. “The problem is your... mail order oracle thingamajig. See a pregnant women arrived just now with a report from you two that she was going to be too young to sustain the fetus!”

“Why did we not anticipate this sooner,” Sunset groaned through clenched teeth. “We need a public news broadcast. Attention citizens, cease having sexual intercourse or there could be dire consequences. Ask your local constable for a rubber! Yeah that’ll work great without any possible complications!”

“Wait, are you serious?” the nurse asked, her cool blue eyes widening. “Ms. Aura is beside herself! Are you saying her child won’t be...”

“We don’t—” Sunset said angrily, before Twilight cut in, saying more evenly,

“We don’t know what the effects might be. Our... my ability to predict Aura’s... really? Little Aura is... a grown woman?”

While Twilight shook her head in consternation, Sunset stood in for her, saying more, more evenly,

“What we observed is just some... guesswork, peering into a process that we can’t really understand. Think of it like, everyone starts getting transformed into copies of our relatives, and we don’t know why, but we can still help people understand what they are.”

“Keep her under constant monitoring,” Twilight advised, “If her... pregnancy starts to make her ill, you might consider surgery, or induced ab—miscarriage. I don’t know how surgery could affect the transformation either. But you know how to handle this better than we do at this point. Is there any chance that she could deliver... early?”

The nurse shook her head, saying, “She’s still in the second trimester. The fetus won’t stand a chance for at least another two months.”

“Could we talk with her?” Twilight asked with worried eyes. “I know it can’t be easy to break it to her that we can’t offer much help, but it’s the least I could do.”

“It’s okay, I heard already,” came a new voice, startling the nurse like mad as a green haired, purple woman with horse ears eased herself around the doorjam. She wasn’t extremely pregnant, but it was enough to notice, beneath her suspiciously loose fitting t-shirt, and her choice of sweat pants instead of jeans. “Sorry for worrying you,” Aura said, “I just thought I’d ask, you know, just in case.”

Unconsciously laying a hand across her abdomen, she said, “It’s been a crazy year for me and my... boyfriend. I never thought I was cut out for motherhood, but you know? And then there it is. But now?”

Shaking her head, Aura tried to laugh as she said, “At least I’m giving the docs something to study. Really it’s more valuable then...” she cast her eyes down. “Anyway, I just want you to know it’s okay it’s only the second trimester so it still wasn’t a sure thing, and I’m ready to lose... the baby.”

“They’ll take good care of you, no matter what happens,” said Sunset Shimmer, in a tone that made Twilight look at her in surprise. “And it should be all over in a day, at most. You’re going to make it through this.”

“I know?” Aura said, also caught by surprise at the soothing words from this still apparantly younger girl. “I’ll be fine; I wasn’t ready for it anyway. Just a stupid decision... we didn’t think before we got into this pickle.”

Twilight nodded, and said, “We’d still like the full record of what happens, in case we can use it to better understand what’s going on. Would you be willing to...?”

“Oh, sure!” Aura said genially. “The thought that you could get something out of it makes me feel a little better, even though I’m still turning into... a little kid, and a horse.”

“Pony,” Twilight corrected automatically, “Anyway, I suspect the doctors will want to take more vitals pretty soon. So, good luck, and if there’s anything we can do, Sunset and I will be right there to do it.”

“Thanks...” Aura said, “And good luck yourself.”

“Me?” Twilight said cluelessly.

“Yeah, everyone says you and Sunset Shimmer are trying to save the world,” Aura replied with a smile. “And you’re so young, too! I’m really grateful for what you’ve done already. I would be so scared if this happened without any warning.”

“Thank you, Aura,” Twilight said, blushing heavily. “It’s no problem, really. We’re all just doing what we can.”

“You take care, okay?” The green haired lady said, flashing a smile. She and the nurse headed inside then, and Twilight and Sunset had a long, slow, uneventful afternoon to think about what was transpiring in this tiny world of human beings. They went to sleep that night without answers, but with the assurance that there had been no apparant complications, and Aura seemed to transition to foalhood smoothly and without issue. Her baby though...

Tornado Bolt woke up suddenly, to the sound of a crying foal. The morning light was streaming in through the window in this portable they were camped out in. Going to sleep together, they were still together when they awoke. They had to be together. They would always be there to look out for each other, and nothing would happen that Tornado couldn’t get through with her around.

Yet there was only one human being here. The pony who awoke on his chest was tiny... so tiny. It was her, yet it wasn’t. The size of the foals hadn’t hit him, until he saw her so changed. She was like a toy, a plush animal pony of his girlfriend, and her soft sobs sounded so raw, so... young.

“Aura?” he asked in a high baritone, barely above a whisper. “You okay? You made it through the night.”

She didn’t seem consoled though, and he kind of really understood why. “Oh Aura, I’m so sorry. I never meant to...” he said, uncautiously embracing the distressed filly laying atop him in the warmest, most all encompassing hug that he dared.

She clumsily tried to hug him back, finally speaking in a heartbroken tone, saying, “My baby sh gone...”

She wasn’t the only one crying that morning.

Meanwhile, Bee Bop ran panicked into the employee restroom at 11:17 in the morning, just like she did at 11:02, 10:47, 10:26.... She was a yellow haired lady of 23, whose color could be affectionately referred to as bleen, with a stupidly massive abdomen. Oh of course she doesn’t get maternity leave. Of course she has to pee every freaking 15 minutes. The kid inside her was kicking an awful lot today, which made her situation even worse. Holding her ponderous belly to try to bend over enough to hit the toilet was bad enough. Releasing her bladder, only a pitiful amount came out, because oh gee, it looked like there was something else taking up all the room in there!

“Rassafrikken kickin bastard” she grumbled to herself grumpily, washing her face in the sink. Bee Bop wiped her puffy face off and looked in the mirror, and had fuzzy horse ears.

One panicked scramble later, involving her car, seven liters of raspberry jam, and a flamingo, Bee Bop found herself at the hospital. “You don’t get it! I’m f**king pregnant!!” she shouted in a panic to the receptionist, “I need to get this kid out or I’ll like, explode!”

“You won’t explode,” the woman at the reception desk said unsympathetically, “Now please fill out these forms, and sign and date each one.”

“F**k your forms I’m in trouble here! I gotta get to that pony place, before I explode!” Bee replied, shoving the forms at the receptionist and running out of the hospital as fast as she could waddle.

“I said you won’t—” the receptionist replied crossly, but the pregnant, teal lady was already out the door.

One mad dash involving a flash mob, a hole through a billboard the shape of Ted Turner, and 7000 gumballs, Bee Bop made it to the farm. There were a bunch of ponies around, and there was a medical building place there that pregnant uh, ponies were supposed to go, so she kicked open the door, saying, “Holy f**k I need to get this kid out or—”

“You are not going to explode,” several nurses and doctors all told her in unison. Seems they got this line of reasoning a lot here.

So Bee Bop... sat and... filled out forms and stuff, and she had to use her freaking belly as a desk. Her skin had started looking... weird. They said it was normal, but she was scared because she had this huge baby in her abdomen, and she didn’t know what exactly was going to happen.

“What exactly is going to happen,” the nurse told her once Bee Bop got seen, “Is something a lot of people don’t want to talk about. It’s very upsetting, and an emotional strain. You have to know, but ready yourself for a huge disappointment. That’s why people don’t want to talk about it. You could give birth today, but it isn’t likely. We’ve only had 12 pregnant women transform, and only 3 into fillies, so we’re not sure exactly how it works, but a woman named Aquamarine did immediately go into labor at about noon, delivering her child before she finished transforming into a filly.”

“It’s like 2:15 though!” Bee Bop protested. “I’m like a foot shorter, and I can’t feel all my fingers anymore!”

“Yes, the height you’re approaching is consistent with the um, length of younger ponies, so we’re pretty sure you can’t carry this child to term,” the nurse said uneasily, “And um... with your decreasing size, if you were going to deliver, you would have to be um... swollen up like a... grape by now.”

“What do you mean, doc?” Bee Bop said, laying a “hand” across her swollen belly. “I’m still just as huge!”

“Your ...pregnancy is shrinking along with yourself,” the nurse replied. “That’s what happened to the other two women.” Her voice caught, as she said, “I’m so—so sorry, but we believe your child is just going to ...disappear.”

“...disappear,” Bee Bop replied disbelievingly.

“Yes, in the other two transformees, the fetus appeared to be re-absorbed during the transformation,” the nurse said unhappily. “I wish I had better news for you, but by tomorrow morning, it’ll be like you were never pregnant at all.”

In shock, Bee Bop realized her kid hadn’t been kicking since this morning.

“Are you kidding?” Bee Bop exclaimed stridently at the nurse. “What could possibly be better news than that??”

The nurse blinked.

“That you’d... give birth to a healthy baby um... boy?” the nurse tried uneasily.

“Seriously?” Bee Bop said flatly, “You think I want to give birth?”

“W–well—” the nurse started, but Bee Bop shook her head, holding up an imperious hand, saying,

“No no, let me tell you the story of just how I got pregnant.”

One story later, the nurse said rather shocked, “Wow, that was... really irresponsible.”

“I know!” Bee Bop crowed proudly, “Stupidest thing I’ve ever done! I don’t even think God knows who the father is!”

“So, you...” the nurse said unsurely.

Bee Bop nodded at that, saying, “Yeah, I got pregnant. Like, really pregnant. By the time I figured it out uh... I didn’t know much about abortions, and I thought it’d be really bad if I did. Got over that real fast after the morning sickess started. My family gave me a hard time about it though, so even after I did find out about abortions on my own, I couldn’t really save up enough to afford one until uh... second trimester. And then... they kind of said no, it’s too late, so here I am.”

“Well, uh, um... congratulations?” the nurse attempted, still flummoxed.

“F**k yeah, I’m not having a baby!” Bee Bop cheered, pumping her fist.

The next morning, Bee Bop woke up, took one look at her furry, slim belly, and pumped a hoof, squeaking joyfully, “F**g yeah, hI no’ having a bha’y!”

“Hory shi’ I’m a fony!” shouted someone else who’d just woken up.

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash was taking the bus.

Author's Note

Did I say rolling? I meant stalling to harp on pregnancy.

Figured I ought to give a spectrum of the reactions people could have.

Rainbow Dash

Rainbow Dash sat on the 10 o’clock bus, with her hands in her lap, and a shapeless bag stuffed under the seat at her feet. She hated taking the bus, but getting her driver’s permit meant getting her dad to agree to it, and seriously, forget that guy. Might as well try to squeeze tears out of a stone if it didn’t involve kicking a ball.

She stared idly forward, as the noisy vehicle roared and rumbled around her. Maybe Rainbow wouldn’t have to... ride this bus, anymore. Was she ever gonna be able to drive, though? She really hadn’t thought about driving at all until today, but now she might never be able to do it.

Everyone on the bus kept staring at her, but Rainbow Dash wasn’t trying to hide it. It wasn’t secret anymore, or anything, so why should she cover it up? “There a problem?” she asked the guy across from her, who was staring the most dumbfoundedly.

He didn’t answer, other than to stutter and quickly look in the other direction, not that Rainbow Dash expected much different. It was the bus, after all. Nobody hung out on the bus, right? Though now that she thought about it, she couldn’t imagine why. Nevertheless, after she told off that guy, nobody was gonna do anything now but stare, especially considering what Rainbow Dash had going right now.

A lot of thoughts were drifting through her head, stuff she hadn’t had to worry about, and just random stuff that kept popping up. She knew where to go, and sort of knew what to do, so what was the problem? It wasn’t anything special, it was just... losing some things she didn’t even use, and gaining others, that she could actually use. Just sort of swapping parts out, just with her own... body. She couldn’t do anything about it, and plenty of people were already going through it, so why was she so scared? She was gonna get what she wanted... right?

It was not a good mindset to be in when you’re stuck taking the bus. While it trundles slowly, along however fast the driver wants to go, all you can do is sit there with your duffel bag stuffed with everything you could grab from home, and only your thoughts to keep you company. Was she going to have to go back? What would Dad think of her? Would he even care? Did she even care if he would care?

Patrons got on and off, but mostly off the bus, until finally Rainbow Dash was the only one on it. They weren’t avoiding her or anything, just that her destination was the end of the line. She stepped off the bus platform, not feeling any sort of weirdness yet, but boy oh boy was it gonna be weird when it got weird. She looked at an outstretched hand, trying to imagine it... different. How would that even look? How would it feel? Would it feel like an arm still? Or would it feel like a leg, and her arms would be her....

Rainbow Dash felt a lance of fear in her heart, and shouldered her duffel bag across her back. She just started jogging from that point. Not much point in trying to get anyone to come out to the entrance to the ranch on such a nice day, while Rainbow Dash still had the ability to jog. Spring was in full bloom around her, the meadow clearings dotted with flowers, flashes of color amid the green. The bushes, and even the trees were blooming. Last of the snow had melted a while ago, and no more had fallen, so it was definitely past the point of winter. The sun was warm overhead, the air was cool and fresh, and Rainbow Dash just really loved running.

Just under a half hour later, she saw the big red farm house down the road she was running on. Her blood was flowing, and her legs were pumping, and she felt pretty good like this. Only problem was when got close, she had to slow down and think again. The house she jogged up to was a much different place than it usually was. There were tents, a station for medical personnel, even a bunch of port-a-pottys off to the side. Bunch of portables had been trucked in, set up in a nearby pasture. And besides that, there were ponies everywhere.

There were ponies clumsily stumbling around, ponies capably trotting around, ponies laying on the ground and staring upward at the clouds, ponies of all colors, shapes and sizes. Dash didn’t see any of the winged ponies flying, but well, why should she? Pegasi were already super rare, or something. Plus none of them hardly knew how to fly, at least not outside of Scootaloo, and also that little white one who Scootaloo was showing the ropes. Dash wasn’t sure on the specifics of it.

Was Rainbow Dash going to have to get Scootaloo to give her lessons? Was that even possible? Could she convince the poor kid to do that? Dash didn’t know. She didn’t know much of anything anymore. But one thing she knew, as fear flared in her chest again, Rainbow Dash had to know. For sure.

“Hey, Sunset!” she called out, leaning in through the open front door of the Apple household, looking around the living room at (you guessed it) more ponies. “You in here, Sunset?” Rainbow asked, trying to sound confidant about it, but with an unavoidable creeping quaver in her voice.

“You mean the girl with the red and yellow hair?” a little round grey pony asked her.

Rainbow Dash nodded and said, “Yeah, about my age? Thinks she’s an alien pony unicorn?”

“Try her porthable,” another one suggested, and that seemed reasonable enough. Rainbow hardly paused to say hi to anyone. No one she knew would be in right now, considering it was a school day. But unlike Applejack, Rainbow Dash felt that she had a pretty good excuse for playing hookey. She turned right around from the door to the Apple family’s house, and jogged over to the dumpy looking portables, looking around for something sciency. Sunset’s laboratory was pretty obvious. It had all these radio antennas on the top, very sciency stuff. Plus you could see Sunset Shimmer standing there, in the window.

“Hey, Sunset!” Rainbow repeated, pressing her face to the window to be heard better.

Sunset saw her, and jogged over to the door, opening it up, with a look of surprise asking, “Rainbow Dash? What are... oh.” And there went the look of surprise.

“Yeah it’s... happening to me too, I guess,” Rainbow said looking aside awkwardly, trying not to blush as the girl no doubt noticed Dash’s ears. “But that’s okay, I’m here and all, I just really need to know something.”

“Something about... being a pony?” Sunset prompted without comprehension.

“Yeah, sorta... it’s just something I’m pretty sure I know, but not pretty sure pretty sure. Like I mean it’s totally obvious, but maybe it’s not entirely obvious and I sort of just wanted to make sure, for... sure,” Rainbow summarized eloquently.

“Well, what do you want to know?” Sunset asked in her annoyed voice.

Rainbow told her.

“Oh, well... it’s pretty obvious, right?” Sunset said, to Rainbow Dash’s great relief.

“Yeah, it’s just you said you knew that sort of thing, so I wanted to make sure,” Rainbow Dash replied with a relieved smile.

Sunset shook her head at that though, saying, “Oh, no, it’s not me. I hardly recognize anybody in the human world here. Besides Princess Celestia, most people are from Manehattan, Trottingham, and mostly Ponyville, and any I would know would be a whole lot older than I remember. You need to talk to Twilight Sparkle. She’s the one who lived in Ponyville recently, and knows all sorts of ponies over there... over here.”

“Oh, so it’s a... other world her thing, not just some magic thing, then?” Rainbow asked.

Sunset took a moment to process that, but nodded, responding, “Twilight’s the one you want to talk to, though she’s currently busy trying to determine... a-an issue.”

“Okay, but it’s kind of important,” Rainbow Dash said impatiently. “I’m kind of freaking out here. I mean, if I’m not, then I can sort of be okay with that I guess but it’s just really something I need to know! Are you sure none of your... loop things gave you any idea about it?”

“Actually there was Twilight’s first loop,” Sunset said, raising a thoughtful finger to her temple. “You did adopt certain pony features, but I don’t know if that was something to do with the Elements of Harmony or something else.”

“Fine, well... I want to ask her anyway!” Rainbow insisted. “Where is she?”

“She’s at... the library,” Sunset replied noncommitally.

Rainbow facepalmed. “Does she have a phone?” she asked hopefully.

“Oh! Yes, actually,” Sunset said, standing up and hurrying across the room, “Hold on while I go find what her number is.”

Sunset Shimmer found the number for the phone, that apparantly some thoughtful person had supplied Twilight Sparkle with, so that needy people like Rainbow Dash could ask her questions from anywhere in the world. Rainbow dialed it up, and let it ring... and ring... and pick up the answering machine.

“Pick up your phone, Twilight!” Dash told it, hanging up and calling again. And then again. And one more time for good measure—Twilight picked up.

“Stop making noise, you infernal... oh it stopped,” Twilight’s voice came through.

“Twilight!” Rainbow announced, “You gotta help me!”

“Oh, it picked up?” Twilight responded. “Rainbow Dash, is that you?”

“Yeah, I just need to know something I forgot to ask you,” Rainbow replied, holding the phone to the side of her... to the top of her... just holding it in front of her and shouting at it.

“What is it I can help you with?” Twilight’s pleasant answer chirped through.

“You know the other me, right?” Rainbow Dash asked. “The one who lives in Ponyvale or whatever?”

“Ponyville, and yes, she’s one of my best friends,” the girl stated over the phone.

“Great, great, and you said that I’m gonna turn into her?” Rainbow replied. “I mean, every person over here gets turned into the same pony as over there?”

“You are not going to turn into her!” Twilight stated hastily, “I have good evidence that there is a third factor involved that does not involve any sort of mind wipes or history rewriting. I’m still trying to put together a good case to announce publically, but you are not going to forget who you are!”

“What?” Rainbow said in confusion. “Look, I know that all the ponies remember who they are. Everyone knows that. I just want to know if I’m going to be her. Like, physically. You know, instead of some other... kind of pony.”

There was a frighteningly long pause on the phone, but a faint noise could be heard on it, and when Rainbow brought it closer to her ear, she could definitely hear the sound of Twilight Sparkle laughing on the other end.

Glowering at the phone, Rainbow had to wait, staring at it until Twilight became audible again, breathlessly saying, “Okay, okay...”

“Well?” Dash demanded.

“Rainbow Dash,” Twilight’s voice came across the phone confidently, “There is no force in the universe cruel enough to make you any pony other than a pegasus. You are quite possibly the epitome of what makes a pegasus a pegasus. There is no pony I know more pegasus-like than you, in this world, or in any world. If there were a world where we were all deer instead of ponies, I’m sure you would still be the flying one.”

“So my other me is a pegasus, then?” Rainbow said hopefully.

Twilight replied seriously, and definitively, “You are going to be a pegasus, Rainbow Dash. You are going to have wings. Use them wisely.”

Twilight sighed and hung up the phone. It didn’t seem like Rainbow Dash was going to stop squealing any time soon. It was that sort of situation for the rainbow haired girl right now, where you’re trying to make words, but you’re so excited that you can’t get your vocal cords to work right.

Twilight just had to smile at that. Same old Rainbow Dash. Even if it wasn’t, it still was. If Twilight ever made it back to Equestria, she resolved to never get involved with parallel universes again. Too much was hauntingly familiar, but at the same time dangerously alien. She was tired of making assumptions about ponies... people who were so much like her friends, when those assumptions just didn’t quite fit at just the wrong time.

Still, it was pretty clear that Rainbow Dash continued to love flying.

Twilight Sparkle replaced the square communicator back into her pocket, satisfied with herself for having figured out how to answer an incoming transmission so quickly. Then she returned to her reading material with a heavy sigh, reading out loud and grumbling to herself.

“This popular supplement among post-menopausal women was refined from mare urine and combined with... ugh I hate the passive voice. These articles have absolutely no information on the process or chemistry behind it. How am I supposed to tell if it’s another dead end, if humans won’t even tell anypony how their medicines work?”

Scootaloo sighed as she sat on the 4 o’clock bus. Sure she could have got a ride from Rarity like usual these days, but Scootaloo just wanted some time to herself, after a whole day of just getting drilled with school stuff she couldn’t care less about. The wind ruffled her hair, as the bus rumbled smoothly underneath her. She was pretty inconspicuous like this. They wouldn’t even have noticed the addition of a small orange pegasus on the bus, looking to get a break from winging it everywhere.

They were going down the highway at a steady forty mile per hour clip, which was another thing Scootaloo could do now, though she had to see a speedometer at first to figure out the exact numbers behind it. Safe? No. But fun? Heck yeah. With wind like this sliding over her, Scootaloo could catch instant air if she wanted. Actually that did kind of make it safer. Heck this bus could go off a cliff and everyone in it would get squashed, and Scootaloo would just... fly away from it.

Not that there were any cliffs around here. The hilliest part of town was over by Apple Bloom’s farm, and even that was just hilly. There were buildings in the city though, and some tall apartment complexes, and it was kind of like a cliff when Scootaloo took to standing on those, like a furry orange little gargoyle. She hadn’t gone up there much lately though, because it just wasn’t as exciting when you could flap off right into the air if you fell. It was kind of like being close to the ground all the time.

Still, it was fun enough. And Scootaloo wasn’t... too bored, here atop this commuter bus. It was just really, really, really... safe to be a pegasus. The sun peeking out through the clouds felt really nice on her wings. She couldn’t feel anything underneath her hoodie though, besides sweaty. Probably time to wash this thing again. With how days had been getting warmer, Scootaloo was not looking forward to having to wear clothes over the summer. She loved this thing, and how it let her wings come out, but she honestly couldn’t wait to get it off.

Someone else actually got off the bus when they arrived, but it was just one of the people living at one of the nearby farms, not any sort of half pony. Nobody in their right mind would go ride the bus if they were changing into a pony; they wouldn’t have the guts! And Scootaloo kind of didn’t blame them, but she also kind of thought it was silly, especially now when nobody had anything to hide. Scootaloo was all the way a pony, and she’d gone to school and learned... something. And she was even able to get herself all the way home still, even if her home was way out in the boonies on Apple Bloom’s farm now. So there shouldn’t have been any problem for someone half changed into a pony to ride on the bus.

But Scootaloo could understand not wanting to be stared at.

Having arrived at her stop, Scootaloo hopped off the bus and fluttered to the ground. Neither the occupants, nor the single orange-headed man walking down the other road saw her, which was probably good since technically you weren’t supposed to ride on top of the bus. Doing that sure beat sitting on those bus seats, with all those silly people who couldn’t stop staring at her in fear. Scootaloo understood that they didn’t want to be ponies, but she still wished they didn’t have to be so serious about it all the time.

Once a few paces down the Apple family’s driveway, Scootaloo paused on the road to step on her hoodie and wiggle out of it. Then, taking it in her teeth, she hurled it behind to drape over her thick neck. She held a sleeve in her forehooves as she used her mouth to pull the other sleeve into a crude knot under her chin. The hoodie still fell across her back and on the little bags she had strapped to either side of her under her wings with her school supplies in there, but it let her skin breathe a bit better like this. Facing forward, Scootaloo picked up the pace from a steady trot to a gallop.

Scootaloo could go really fast even just running on the ground, and that was kind of awesome. Her wings twitched, but she didn’t want to take off with them just yet. Too busy enjoying the pounding run down the crumbly dirt road, her tail flagging behind her like a banner. Her legs were small and short, but they still pumped powerfully underneath her, and propelled her forward at a good clip. Feeling the wind in her hair again and smiling despite herself, Scootaloo just really loved running.

It wasn’t long before she reached the house and... the complex that was starting to go up around it. There was some talk about setting up a second one of these pony recovery places at the fairgrounds downtown, which would be a lot more convenient for people to get to, not to mention it was getting pretty crowded here. Scootaloo wasn’t so involved with pony stuff anymore though. She had honestly only heard about that by proxy; Twilight and Sunset, Granny and officer Linky were mostly the ones organizing this thing. Scootaloo and her friends were all too busy with school to even participate.

It was frustrating, because Scootaloo was pretty sure all that time she spent at school was pointless, as for instance she couldn’t even remember what they studied today. But when it was so important to people that Scootaloo attend it, she just couldn’t say no to attending it, and at least trying to do good. It did seem like Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were getting a little more sympathetic to Scootaloo’s plight, now that they were foals too. It probably helped how much Scootaloo sort of confessed to them about her learning problems, and head problems, and stuff.

It couldn’t have been more than ten or fifteen minutes, for Scootaloo to get from the entrance gate, all the way to the farmhouse. Rarity wasn’t here yet of course, because she and Sweetie went for afternoon makeovers, another reason Scootaloo wanted to take the bus home. That namby pamby prissy primping, Sweetie seemed to like well enough, though she was kind of tough in her own way. Sweetie Belle was delighted that her hair was still... stylable as a pony, almost as much as her sister. But for Scootaloo, you just couldn’t beat a windblown hairdo, because that’s what she liked: the wind in her face, and exciting things happening around her.

Scootaloo saw no signs of Sweetie Belle, though she did see the green truck parked, and that meant Granny Smith, Big Macintosh and Apple Bloom were here.

Sticking her head in the door to the farm house, Scootaloo called out loudly, “Hey, anyone know where Apple Bloom is?” Some of the ponies there looked like they were going to answer, but not as quickly as a rainbow haired head shot up from the couch, shouted, “Scoohaloo!” and then its bearer ran over to her, immediately tripping over at least three ponies, going down in a “Woah! Woah sh–oopsh ack waouh—uff!”

“Rainbow Dash?” Scootaloo said, trotting quickly over to the fallen girl, who was helping the disgruntled ponies out from under her and sitting up on the floor there. “What are you doing here? It’s a Tuesday!”

Scootaloo answered her own question in the next half second as Scootaloo realized that with the ears, and the nose, and the blotchy patches of sky blue fur growing all over her body, that Rainbow Dash was turning into a pony! Open mouthed, Scootaloo’s rear thumped onto the ground of its own accord. The corners of her mouth twitched but she just never thought this day was going to come. No way it would get Rainbow Dash! This was a bad thing, right?

Well, see, the big issue with that was this giant unconquerable grin that Rainbow Dash sported on her new pony muzzle.

“Scooaloo!” Dash repeated excitedly, “Scoo’loo you’re no’ gonna believe zhis! No wai, you are gonna believe zhis, becauzhe it’s sho obvious, but Twiright say I’m gonna be a pegashus!”

“Wow! That... is really obvious,” Scootaloo said in whatever the opposite of astonishment was, that was still astonishment somehow. “B-but why tell me?”

“Becauze you’re a pegashus, sho you know jus’ how it feels!” Dash said practically hopping in place as she climbed to her feet, “You can freaking fly Scoohalloo!”

“Heh... well, um...” Scootaloo blushed and had to admit that yeah, she sure could fly.

“Thishis gonna be sho awezhome!” Rainbow chirped excitedly. “I’m gonna lear’ howwa fly and I’m gonna go toush the cloush! Be’ I coul’ get all the way across the counzhry in no time flad! You know how fas’ birz fly? Twili said pegashi are really fas!”

Yeah... this was kind of... weird. Scootaloo was really really glad that Rainbow Dash was here now, and together with Scootaloo in this thing. She was glad that Rainbow Dash was so happy. But wasn’t this a little... too happy? “It’s not all good though,” Scootaloo said in confusion. “Aren’t you worried about losing your hands?”

Rainbow Dash scoffed, and said behind her weird looking hand thing, “For wha? Wriding eshays? C’mon Scoodz, my biggesh shkill iz kicking a barll aroun’. Wish my feet.”

She made a show of kicking her legs under her, with another two or three ponies getting out of her way again, with very annoyed looks on their faces.

“W-well they won’t let you play football,” Scootaloo said, desperate to make Rainbow Dash less annoyingly cheerful about the situation. She had to be upset about something. “Because you’d have an unfair advantage!”

“So wha’?” Rainbow said with a challenging look in her eyes, “I’ll make up my own shportz. Pegashus sportzh! Like, shkyball or quiddish or something!”

“...quiddish?” Scootaloo asked uncertainly.

“Eh, obshcure referenze,” Dash said offhandedly. “Point iz tha’ flying addz a whole new dimenzhion to any game you play! Up!”

“Wow, you’re serious?” Scootaloo said, as the possibilities started hitting her about that. “You’re gonna make a whole new game all on your own, just for pegasi?”

“Nah, nah, we can’ shink shmall like that,” Rainbow Dash insisted getting up close to Scootaloo to talk with her conspiratorially. “We coul’ have like, earsh pony goaliez. An’ unicornsh... something. Maybe they coul’ fly wifh magic!”

Scootaloo laughed at the thought of it, Sweetie Belle or one of those others just magically floating up into the sky. But something occurred to her then, and she gave Dash a wry look, saying, “Come on Dash, what would be the point of being a pegasus then, if unicorns could fly?”

Rainbow Dash was stumped about that for a second, but then she folded her arms and said confidently, “Becaush maybe a unicorn can fly, but pegashi live for flying.”

Scootaloo’s smile faltered a bit, and she replied, “Y-yeah, you’re probably right there.”

Rainbow Dash was infectiously cheerful, and Scootaloo just couldn’t fault her for it. When her wings started to come in, Dash was like a kid in a candy shop, trying to get them to move, and trying to get her tail to move, and stuff. Rainbow Dash’s tail was getting really pretty too. The solid stripes of color in her head hair extended down there too, and it really did make her look like a rainbow.

Scootaloo thought she figured out what was bothering her by that evening, when Rainbow Dash had finally run out of energy enough to collapse in one of the beds they had downstairs for people or... half people to sleep in. Scootaloo stayed down there that night, just in case Dash needed—uh, well, Rainbow Dash was being amazing about this and clearly didn’t need anyone to help her through it, but... Scootaloo stood by the bed of her exhausted hero that night for quite a while, before climbing up onto its surface. Rainbow Dash was smaller than she had been before, but not that much smaller. Her legs had grown shorter and thicker, and her torso had grown longer. She was still pretty huge by Scootaloo’s reckoning, but... not as huge.

“Hey Shoosh,” Rainbow Dash said tiredly when Scootaloo jumped up next to her. “Whassup?”

“N’much,” Scootaloo lied casually, lowering to her belly there beside the not-quite-pony. “Lots of people here really don’t want to be ponies,” she said. She tightened her muzzle and then added, “I didn’t want to be a pony.”

“Washisha...” Rainbow said, sitting up a little bit more as she looked to Scootaloo with genuine concern. Then crossed her eyes at her own tongue. “Shorry can’ talk sho hwell,” she said in a surprisingly humorless tone.

“Yeah, that takes a while to get used to,” Scootaloo admitted. “Don’t worry though, I just wanted to tell you um... about the other ponies.

“Some of them were really upset and c-crying when they turned into ponies,” Scootaloo stated, “So it’s really hard on them. You’re being so... awesome about this, I think some ponies might feel like you’re better than them, and you don’t care if they’re upset, because you’re happy and that’s all that—sorry.”

“Shokay, Schoohs,” Rainbow said understandingly. “Mayfe I am phu—laying i’ on a bi’ zhick.”

“I just think you could tone it down a little,” Scootaloo said, glad the darkness hid her blush, “For those other ponies, I mean. I mean, you’re like some kind of hero! I think it’s awesome that you’re so cool about this. I wish I could be half as brave as—as you.”

“Y’know, wasz prehhy shcared at firs’” Rainbow said evenly to Scootaloo. “Didn’ know I be a pegasush, an’ Twi shaid I wasz. I go’ sho egshited a’ thaht. Bud uh... maybe no’ sho great affer all.

Pink eyes wide in the cool blue night, holding up one of her new bony, slim appendages, Rainbow Dash said, “Can’ thalk, can’ hwalk anymore, an’ my wingsh don’ have fezzers. No fezzers, Schooahloo! I can’. Fly,” Rainbow Dash emphasized.

Rainbow then pulled back and frowned, pausing to correct herself, “I mean to say can’. No’ wai’ I mean. Opposhi’ of can.”

“Yeah, I... I get it,” Scootaloo replied with a little smile.

“Sho I’m shtill kinna shcared affer all,” Rainbow confessed in the night. “F’you tell anyone I’ll deny i’ bu’ I’m fugging herrified! I can’ even move. Got sho much to catch up. Wha’ if I’mma ba’ flyer? Ozzer Rainbow Dash bee flying her whole life.”

“What? But... I mean yeah, but... you’re gonna be awesome too, and I bet she doesn’t know anything about football!” Scootaloo said, not ready to defend her hero against... her hero? “But you don’t act scared at all!” she blurted out.

“Shwa’sha hero’sh all about,” Dash said with a yawn. “Ac’ing brave when you’re schared.”

“Oh, yeah I... guess so,” Scootaloo said with an uncertain smile that cracked open with a yawn herself.

Rainbow yawned even more dramatically, and just let her eyes drift closed. And Scootaloo was still... still up here with her on Rainbow Dash’s sleeping cot. Did Scootaloo have to get down? Or could she stay with her? Rainbow Dash was just pretending not to be scared? Her? And did Scootaloo have to leave, or could she just sort of...?

Scootaloo inched closer to the drowsing form of Rainbow Dash, and instead of kicking her off the bed or calling her lame, Rainbow just reached what was almost a hoof over, and laid it against the small of Scootaloo’s back. And so together, they drifted off into the

Apple Bloom snorted awake as Scootaloo jumped up on the bed and crawled under the covers beside her. Apple Bloom looked to her friend with worry, as Scootaloo turned away from her and curled up, grumbling, “You would not believe how much Rainbow Dash snores.”

Even the next day, it kept bugging Scootaloo, though. She was sitting in class alone, surrounded by students all working on their own thing, and just started thinking. Rainbow Dash would wake up today as a pegasus, and she wouldn’t be able to fly yet, but she sure would be flying pretty soon. It wasn’t that Dash was too confident, or too pleased about the whole thing. That didn’t bother Scootaloo so much, and Rainbow really did tone it down a bit after Scootaloo asked about it.

Rainbow Dash was the... would be the best pegasus ever. It was the perfect fit for her. If she changed into a pegasus pony, she’d be able to fly on her own power, and she wouldn’t have to keep nagging Scootaloo to do it. That... really was the problem there. Scootaloo loved making Rainbow Dash’s day, she really did, but it didn’t feel like she was losing anything, for Dash to take over on her own. Because that would mean that Scootaloo didn’t have to...

...fly.

Elias Doolots sat there uncertain about what she could possibly do here. She was sitting on a lab bench, in front of an electrophoresis chamber, a spectrometer, and some other familiar things. Gone was the ranch that saved her sanity, so to speak, but back in her normal occupation, it was really obvious how different she was now. Everything and everyone was huge. The horn on her head might not work for years, and what was once five slender blue digits had been reduced to only one. Four, if you counted all her limbs.

“Doing alright there, kiddo?” came a rough baritone. He called her kiddo, but he did that even when she wasn’t a kiddo, even when she wasn’t a she. She turned far too easily to face behind herself and said to the balding magenta man, walking up in plain brown slacks and a pocket shirt,

“Hey Uncle Star,” she said, looking back to her apparatus, “I can’t figure how to swab my mouth. I got everything else ready, but...”

“Say no more,” he said, reaching a hand for the swabs that still flummoxed Eli.

“I still want to do it myself,” she blurted hastily, making his hand hesitate. “But you can um... help a little.”

It was an amazing opportunity that Elias’s uncle, Dr. Amethyst Star, let Elias intern in his laboratory for post graduate studies. Amazing, until she turned into a pony at least. This return to the lab for testing had been her uncle’s idea, for the most part. A way to cheer her up? Feeling sorry for her? Well, either way, he said she was a valuable member of the team no matter how many fingers she had, and he needed her help to perform this analysis.

She had to admit, at least he needed her body.

“Alrighty then, open your mouth,” he said, and swiftly swabbed the inside of it. One experimental procedure later, and they were both puzzled by the results.

“I guess we’re still related?” Elias said in confusion, in a sweet lilt that she had become mostly accustomed to.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” her uncle replied. “Your DNA had to change.”

“I know!” Elias replied. “The pony metabolism is so different! Humans can only metabolize fructose in the hepatocytes. I could practically absorb the stuff by swimming in it! There’s so many genes devoted to things like height, and fingers, and and...”

“Not to mention you have a horn!” her uncle said.

“And I have a horn!” she agreed, wide eyed. “And... and a... X chromosome...” She blushed, looking down at the table.

“Aw, kiddo, don’t—”

“No, it’s,” Elias gulped, “It’s fine. It’s just something in these results should have been different. Peachy’s DNA was further away than yours!”

“What I wouldn’t give to have a measurement of your DNA before you turned into a pony,” Dr. Star said, shaking his head sadly.

Elias looked at the results for another moment, before brightening. “But,” she said, “We could have yours measured, right now!”

“Yes, but I’m not a” he said distractedly, then looked up, blinking. “Oh, hey, I could turn into a pony, couldn’t I?”

“We could be prepared this time!” Elias squeed, standing up and stepping around on the lab bench they sat at, “We could have instruments and tests and all sorts of readings beforehand!”

Her uncle folded his arms saying, “Not quite as excited about it as you, I’m afraid. They say you have a 50/50 chance of turning into a mare.”

“It’s not all that bad,” Elias whined. “Anyway, I’m sure you’d end up male. I can’t even imagine you as a mare. You wouldn’t know what to do with yourself! Do you think you’ll be a foal?”

“Maybe I should send out to that mail order thing,” he replied noncommitally. “See if they know? But uh...” he tousled the blue unicorn short purple mane, “It’d be a shame, since I was getting used to being the bigger one here.”

Her heart reaching out to him, Elias rubbed her cheek on her uncle’s shoulder and said, “Well, whatever it is, I’ll be with you the whole way.”

Rainbow Dash woke up, a pony. She was all alone when she awoke, in a strange bed, in a strange house. She knew what happened quickly enough though, because with the dawn filtering in through the window, it was clear that there were other ponies sleeping in here.

Other ponies.

Rainbow Dash hadn’t even fallen asleep with a blanket on. She remembered falling asleep with some... pony, but they weren’t there anymore. What was there was a sleek blue body covered in blue fur, with her legs all bunched up in a pair of spandex shorts, weird freaky chicken wing looking things alongside it, and a t-shirt that was uncomfortably bunched up around her neck right now.

“Um...” she murmured, lifting a hand to pull at the shirt and—wow, did that feel different! She lifted her smooth hoof, stared at it in fascination. Was this really happening? This was gonna be a thing? Hooves at the end of her arms? They kinda felt like... toes.

Well, her “toes” weren’t very good at grasping things, so despite how Rainbow Dash hooked them under the shirt and tried pulling it off her head, she had no luck. “Hnnngh!” she declared, but to no avail. Why didn’t she take this shirt off last night, like she should’ve? It’s not like she had anything to hide at the time!

Oh as a matter of fact, that reminded her... curling forward, Rainbow felt with a weird curly hoof, to confirm that she was more flat chested than she’d ever been. Her chest was just a chest, and her tits were... still pretty small, there down at the bottom of her round, blue, furry belly.

“Weww, thas’ kinna freag—oh,” Rainbow Dash started to say, then remembered about how ponies have a hard time with the talking thing.

“Ship,” she swore despondently, flopping her head back on the inflatable mattress that she’d woken up upon.

Her dolor was short lived though, because she wanted to get up and running ASAP! Rainbow sat up again... sorta, and the shirt was really constricting around her neck! How was she supposed to get this thing off?

“Uh... little helf?” she asked in as loud a tone as she dared, but nopony around her stirred. Actually there weren’t many ponies sleeping near her at all. They stayed a good distance away for some reason. Of the ones nearby, they were sleeping with their pillows over their heads. Weird. Well, it gave Rainbow Dash enough room to get off this bed and stand—woah—try and stand up.

As Rainbow Dash struggled to get to her hooves, it started to dawn on her just how much trouble this was going to be. She’d never been like... this before. Her wings were featherless, and her legs didn’t move the way she expected them to. And standing on her hooves felt more like stilts than feet! She wobbled on her toes, and then just sank to her belly, heart beating fast as she told herself, “Okay... thish ish fine.” Her expression of fear didn’t really support that idea, though.

She ended up just sitting there until other ponies started to wake up, and someone noticed her. “Oh hey, you’re new here, aren’ you?” said a green mare with a pink mane, strutting up to Rainbow Dash with a pragmatic cheer in her voice, and only a slight slur. “You shoulda shlept with the ozther newbies. They’re heading out to do shome walking practice, if you want to join them.”

“Shure... ishm...” Rainbow Dash frowned, at least that she could do. How was she gonna talk to people, if she couldn’t talk?

“Don’t worry about shpeaking, jus’ follow me,” the mare said, turning her back and swishing her tail agreeably. Wait, agreeably? Well, she swished it, somehow.

After a few paces, she looked back and trotted up to Rainbow Dash. “You can stand up, can’t you?” she asked.

Rainbow wanted to protest that she could do a million things more better than every other pony, but not even she was buying that one. Instead, she looked with watery eyes at the lady pony, saying miserably, “My clorthes’re shtuck.”

“Oh uh... here, lemme help,” the pony said with a worried expression, walking around beside Rainbow Dash and—holy crap she was gonna bite her!

Rainbow Dash jerked away from the pony’s seeking teeth, and the green pony stopped, saying in a miffed tone, “Hold shtill, I need to get your shorts off!”

“Wh— y—” Dash couldn’t have found words to say even if she could speak, so she just had to sit there weirded out as all heck, while the green pony took off her shorts, with her teeth! Rainbow Dash would normally be all in for the idea of another girl removing your pants with her teeth, but she hardly knew this one! This was a pony anyway, and... and a pony who didn’t have anything but teeth to pull with, so that made it feel less... special?

Anyway, Rainbow Dash got a rear hoof loose, and then another hoof, and then as her shorts came loose, she saw it. It was bright, and bold, and... uncanny. The patch Dash had been wearing on her t-shirt had somehow gotten stuck onto her butt. It was a cool mark and all, a tri-colored lightning bolt leaping out from a puffy white cloud, but she was looking at it on a horse’s butt now, not on a teenager’s t-shirt. Did it rub off, or something? Rainbow Dash’s t-shirt was stuck way up on her upper body though. Her shorts didn’t have any symbols on them!

The green pony tilted her head at the pitiful looking Dash, still tangled up in that t-shirt, and said, “Hol’ on, I’ll go get someone with handsh.” She wasn’t gone long, and a redheaded police officer followed along behind her, the pale yellow lady trying not to laugh as she saw Rainbow Dash stuck there. “Yeah, people forget to take their restrictive clothes off sometimes,” she said matter-of-factly, holding up a pair of scissors. “This is the easiest way to get it off, I’m afraid.”

Rainbow looked down at her shirt and frowned, and then rolled onto her belly again, saying, “Cu’ ih on my bagck...back,” she said carefully, “Wanna shave zhe pash.” Not sure she was understood, at least the part Rainbow Dash wanted to save was protected under her. She just closed her eyes then, and waited for the inevitable, the other woman’s capable hands lifting up the tight fabric of her t-shirt, and its abrupt loosening in little snip snips of cloth shears.

Dash sucked in a breath as it came loose, her shoulders getting all unkinked from where her arms had been being squished together. She stared at the ruined shirt mournfully, then tried pushing herself up on her front legs. Her toes planted on the bed, like she was pointing her fingers at it, but more solidly, and supportive. The policewoman helped Dash slide the shirt sleeves down her really weirdly thick arms, and then off her body entirely.

“Wai’” Dash said before the cop could take her ruined shirt away entirely. “Lemme shee zhat.”

The policewoman couldn’t exactly hand the shirt to Dash, so she just... draped it over Rainbow Dash’s side. Rainbow half sat up, using a hoof... finger thing, to slide the shirt around so that its design lined up with the mark on her hip. And wait... wasn’t this the other hip now? Did Rainbow Dash have a mark on both of her hips? It was just like her t-shirt, but made out of fur.

“Oh, that,” the green pony from earlier said looking with interest at what Dash was doing. “Don’t worry, itsshome weird pony thing,” she said amiably. “Ponies who aren’ the little kid ponies get those marksh. They didn’ say there was any reason for it, jusht that it sort of... randomly picks it from what sort of clothing you like to wear. Look, see?”

Sure enough, this pretty green pony had a bright yellow star on her rear end.

Well... that was kind of weird. But it made as much sense as anything else. Ponies had patch butts?

“Shoulda worn m’ firebhall theeshirt,” Rainbow remarked, dazedly.

“You have a fireball t-shirt?” the pony asked excitedly.

Dash looked at her and asked skeptically, “Ca’ hyou rearrly unherstan’ me?”

The pony’s smile got a little strained, and she said, “Don’t worry, you’ll get the hang of talking again, jus’ go find the hnewbies. Newbies.”

Rainbow Dash tilted her head up and down at that. She supposed it counted as nodding. Free of her clothing, she was... actually, totally naked. That pony had even got her underwear! So totally naked, and free of her clothing, Rainbow Dash tried to walk like a pony.

Dash tried not to panic when she couldn’t even get one foot in front of the other at first. The green pony who saw she’d woken up was happy to let Dash lean a... hoof on her... shoulder blades or something, which got Rainbow Dash outside at least. Rainbow Dash had to just... balance on her... toe things, trying not to freak out about how this felt, and how bent over she was, and how bent over she wasn’t because her pony body just moved in different ways. Didn’t Scootaloo say something about sitting like a rabbit?

At the door, Rainbow decided to sit back on her haunches, bouncing a few times testily. Her legs folded naturally underneath her as she sat back, to push her heels to the ground, but her feet felt sort of... sideways for some reason. From there, Rainbow Dash pushed herself up to a straighter four-legged stance, looking herself over to see if she had everything standing right. She was walking a little better this way, and could sort of... clomp along, just by moving her feet stiffly. Her back legs were especially stiff. They would hardly bend at all at the knees. They seemed sort of... springy.

With that, Rainbow Dash made it through the back door finally, looking out into the beautiful spring morning. It was a sunny yard full of human colored mythological ponies prancing around like we owned the place. And then there was the smaller group of ponies over there, struggling to remain standing and having trouble walking forward or turning. Yep, that’s where she was supposed to go.

“Wai’ up!” Dash shouted, squeezing around the door frame, and then squeezing her rear around the door frame, stopping her forward motion as her finger hit dirt. And it was a hoof, not a finger, right. Rainbow Dash stepped onto the dirt, one hoof after another, and unsteadily walked in their direction. And that was how Rainbow Dash came to introduce herself to this pony farm.

Other ponies had to show her how to walk. Rainbow Dash hadn’t thought it’d be this hard. It was just so confusing being herself like this! And the wings were every bit as aggravating as Scootaloo had described. The darn things wouldn’t move when Rainbow Dash wanted them to, and they kept throwing her even more off balance. And her tail was... well...

Ponies had figured out by now that the best way to get used to having new limbs was for someone else to touch them, and stimulate them until you could feel what it was like to move them from within. Apparantly it was a big faux pas to do that with pegasi wings, so Dash was pretty much stuck for finding anyone to help with that, but her tail, there were any number of human beings armed with combs and brushes who were all too happy to offer her stimulation. Since it was helping her feel out her own tail, Rainbow Dash tolerated the attention, at least.

Rainbow Dash was not as tolerant when they started to pull out the bows and ribbons.

Really, she should have let them dress her up all pretty. Rainbow Dash wasn’t a big fan of dressing in style, but she had no clothing at all at this rate. She didn’t think it was turning anyone on or anything, so she was grateful for that. Though honestly, she couldn’t fathom why. With her sleek flank, and the graceful curve to her breast, Rainbow Dash had to admit she was was pretty hot for a pony. She caught a look at herself in a mirror at one point, and just had to stop and look, and pose a little. It was so awesome having wings just right there, whenever she wanted to use them, or it would be once her feathers finished growing in, and she figured out how to use her wings.

None of Dash’s friends had gone through this. None of her family had, but she had, and Rainbow Dash still couldn’t believe it. She woke up with hooves, and a tail, and nice, strong, chicken wing looking stick things. Okay, it was... kind of creepy seeing those sticklike things rise away from her side, way creepier than seeing a horse face in the mirror. But after she started to get feathers, Rainbow Dash knew it was going to be awesome, because feathers meant flying.

It was okay if Rainbow Dash had to wait a bit for the feathers too, because she also had to learn to walk again, and talk. Talking was the hardest part, but there were plenty of ponies, and people to help with that. Too many, really. So many people trying to help each other out, it was kind of awesome but also confusing. But it wasn’t long before Rainbow Dash was talking... good enough, and running around well enough that she could kick a ball, sort of.

Yeah, yeah, dumb sports chick at ten o’clock, but kicking balls was familiar to Rainbow Dash, and she kind of... needed familiar right now. She actually really wanted to go back to living with her dad, if he could have taken care of her. He didn’t want anything to do with this pony business though, and she kind of sort of told him off, before getting on the bus to come here. So that wasn’t going to happen.

But kicking a ball, that was something Rainbow Dash was familiar with. Even if she had to kick with her hands now. She tried kicking with her hind leg once... and ended up having to stumble across the field, down the hill, over the stream, up the hill, and across another field to get her ball back. That thing got air!

She kind of wanted to jump after it.

Rainbow was supremely pleased when her feathers came in, and when they just kept growing longer and longer, while they extruded out of that... feather maker thing that grew out of her wing. They were big, beautiful and blue. What’s not to like? Sure they were really itchy, but that’s growing pains for you. Rainbow Dash loved it when she figured out how to spread them, and it was so neat how you used muscles in your back to fold and unfold them, while actually beating your wings down was like clenching your... chest sort of. Like doing a push-up! Except pushing up with your wings.

Rainbow Dash hadn’t asked Scootaloo for much help. The poor kid had enough to deal with, rather than having to order around a pony who was like twice as big as she was. It was awesome being small-er, because it put her more on Scootaloo’s level, but Rainbow Dash was still definitely not a little kid. That Twilight Sparkle chick put Rainbow Dash at about uh, like, double her age now, but like maybe eighteen in “pony” years. So Rainbow Dash was more mature, and way cooler, and had to be the responsible one now instead of relying on some younger kids to take care of her.

She was pretty successful in that regard. She was already starting to talk pretty good, even with her weird horse mouth with its freaky alien tongue. She could do that gallop thing, and sort of trot a little without losing her balance. And she already knew how to flap her wings. She was getting used to being a pony, a naked little blue pony with rainbow hair. She sat on her haunches atop a hill one bright, sunny spring day, looking up at the clouds puffing along in that deep blue sky, and just itching to get up there. It almost felt like the sky was calling to her, and Rainbow Dash was ready to answer.

Author's Note

Well Bloom Filter wasn’t cool enough, so I’m changing the story to Rainbow Dash the Autobiography.

Mind Games

Author's Note

Roll, damn you. Roll!

Mind Games

“Go, Scootaloo!” Sweetie Belle cheered.

“Take... that!” the little orange pony declared, and as she did, she released the rubber band on her impromptu catapult, sending a wobbling red balloon flying right for the high school’s brick walls. When it hit the school, it exploded into a giant red splatter of paint, covering the windows, and dribbling down the ruined eaves.

“I’m gonna wreck this place,” Noi said indulgently, the smoothly tan earth filly loading blue balloon after blue balloon into her launcher, and aiming them right for the school statue. Soon, the statue was covered with globby, blue paint, completely ruining its stone surface and making the passing cars screech to avoid being splattered.

“Watch me! Watch me!” Apple Bloom squealed excitedly, kicking a balloon full of yellow paint into the ballista assembly, and cranking it back with her mouth. She let loose, just as a teacher opened the window with a completely flabbergasted look on her face to shout at them. The poor guy ended up with a face full of paint, spluttering as he fell back from the window, coated from the waist up in yellow paint.

“You got a teacher!” Scootaloo said in surprise. “You really are magic, Apple Bloom!”

“It’s a gift,” she smirked, kicking out a paint splattered hoof.

Sweetie was in the middle of barraging the cafeteria in puce, when Apple Bloom didn’t notice someone watching them sadly from the forest nearby. “Code 3, girls!” she shouted, “Go!” And as one, they all started hurling whatever they could find on hoof into the forest, which in this case was paint filled balloons. There was a surprised squawk, as the forest sort of ballooned like a distorted lens, then shrank into nothing with a pop.

“Into the paint!” Apple Bloom shouted, and threw down a blue balloon on the ground, jumping bodily into the blue splatter like it was a doorway into a world of uniform blue. The other two soon followed, and soon they were falling endlessly, with nothing but blue around them as they fell through nothingness, peering around intently.

Then Scootaloo shouted, “I see her! Grab on!” and she tossed two tow bars on ropes, that the two friends hooked their hooves around while Scootaloo shot forward like a bullet, her wings buzzing as the blue turned into a warped star field, each star streaking around them like they were going at light speed.

As they came out of warp, they found themselves in low orbit around a bright blue-green planet rich with life. Scootaloo’s voice came over the com unit shouting, “I lost her!” The four fillies were dressed in sealed space suits from head to toe, with domed helmets, and rocket boosters on each of them. Noi pulled out her ray gun and set it on scanner sweep, knowing they only had seconds to work here.

“She’s on the planet’s surface!” Noi shouted urgently, firing her boosters to power her head-first at the planet right into a freefall. Jets burning to either side of her indicated her friends were there as well, and they all hit the surface with a thundering crash.

Stalking through the dense jungle below, Scootaloo whispered to Sweetie Belle, “She just came this way. You go left and we can head her off.” Sweetie nodded, and melted silently into the foliage. At a single hoof wave, Noi went the other direction. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo spread out too, stalking their target like lions in the jungle. Their paws were silent on the ground as they crept around with a feline grace, their quarry unable to tell where the sound of a growl, or a swift guttural roar was coming from. As they closed in for the kill, they had her surrounded on all four sides. Nowhere left to run. As one they all prepared to leap.

Sweetie Belle spun around then and leaped behind herself. Her white lion’s paw was abruptly a smooth white hoof again, connecting right with the nose of a surprised looking winged unicorn. The lilac dream princess stumbled back as Apple Bloom, Noi and Scootaloo had doubled around, surrounding her for real this time. Scootaloo tackled her, holding tight on her back, while Noi hooked her hooves around the princess’s neck, and Apple Bloom outright bit down on the princess’s starlit tail and hung on for dear life.

Meanwhile, Princess Twilight started bucking like a pony at a rodeo.

“We just want to talk!” Sweetie Belle shouted, standing before her as the princess bucked mightily, reduced to the actions of a startled horse as she tried to dislodge the other three fillies. But Apple Bloom had a jaw like a steel trap, and Noi had successfully ridden Winona before as practice, so there was no chance of escape there. And Scootaloo had her hooves hooked right under the princess’s wings, because as the old adage goes, it doesn’t matter how much bigger they are than you. They’re not flying anywhere without their wings. Or uh, something like that.

“Please go away! I don’t want to hurt you anymore!” exclaimed the horrified Twilight Sparkle, who was not the Twilight Sparkle they knew in the waking world.

“You won’t hurt us!” Sweetie Belle insisted.

“But what if I do?” Princess Twilight retorted fearfully.

“Then Noi will hit your horn!” Sweetie Belle countered. “Twi—the other Twilight told us you can’t use magic if we can hit your horn!”

“I ...can’t?” the princess said in confusion, lighting up her—Noi whacked her horn from where she perched atop the princess’s head, and it flickered like mad. “Gah!!” the princess shouting, and what remained of the jungle dropped into a simple star field.

“So you have to talk with us now,” Apple Bloom stated from where she now stood atop Princess Twilight’s ethereal tail. “An’ we won’t take no for an answer!”

“What was Scootaloo dreaming about in that castle town?” Noi said suspiciously. “What did you remember?”

“And why did you try to give me amnesia!” Scootaloo shouted from her place perched on the princess’s posterior.

“I...” the princess couldn’t back away from them. “I don’t remember!” she shouted desperately, turning in circles to escape Apple Bloom. “I don’t remember enough! I only remember that everypony was screaming and running and scared and I—I didn’t care! Because I only wanted to hurt Scootaloo!”

Apple Bloom looked around nervously, as things started to fade into that castle town again. “Please princess, try to remember,” she pleaded. “Why were you trying to hurt Scootaloo?”

“I don’t know!” the princess wailed.

“Yes you do!” Apple Bloom shouted back. “You said you remembered! What did you remember?”

“That I had to—to do something horrible to her!” Princess Twilight exclaimed. “She was my friend and I had to hurt her, because... because I...”

“Princess, come on,” Scootaloo said wearily from her position back there. “You don’t want to hurt us. You’re just remembering something bad. You don’t have to hurt me anymore. I’m fine. Everything is fine, and you’re just having a bad dream!”

“I... I’m... dreaming?” the princess asked in confusion. She looked at Scootaloo curiously, who was still hanging on her back for dear life mind you, and Noi readied her hoof just in case the princess decided to try something.

“Of course I’m dreaming,” the princess said in realization. “I’m always dreaming! I can’t not dream, because there’s nothing besides dreams, except... except you.”

“And you!” she said turning to face Sweetie Belle. “And you!” she said looking back at Apple Bloom. “And... you too,” she said, crossing her eyes and looking up at Noi, “And so many ponies,” she said as... things started to swirl around them. “Why are there so many ponies now?” the princess asked, feeling like she was surrounded by swirling faces. “Why are they all real?”

“Just calm down, princess,” Noi said patiently. “We just need you to calm down, so that you can remember.”

“I... remember, I...” Twilight said unhappily, while the shadows of ponies gone past thundered around them, as they all tried to outrun... something. “I had to hurt Scootaloo! I don’t want to hurt her!”

“But why?” Sweetie Belle pressed the beleagured princess. “Why do you need to hurt her? Can’t you just leave her alone?”

“No!!” the princess said, staring at Sweetie Belle in terror. “I can’t let her die! I can’t let her just disappear! She saved you! You were all going to be fine! I—I didn’t have any choice!”

“There’s always a choice, princess,” Noi said calmly. “You chose to hurt Scootaloo, because you didn’t know what else to do. But what should you have done instead?”

“I should have... I... I don’t know,” Twilight said mournfully, sinking right down to her belly on the cobblestones. They were all the way back in that castle town again, but rather than being crowded by ponies, everything just seemed... empty, dilapidated... sad.

“I felt like she would... die if I didn’t do that,” Twilight said softly. “No, worse than die. She would disappear, like... like waking up but the opposite. Her timeline would... she needed to be erased, before she was... erased.”

“What do you mean, princess?” Sweetie Belle asked. “What do you remember about a... timeline?”

“It’s a... time... thing that goes back behind you,” Twilight tried to explain, scrunching in confusion. “It’s everything that happened before, but just your own dreams but... I’m probably remembering wrong. I just remember that something... bad happened to her, and it was all my fault for letting you leave, and I had to fix her or... or something really bad would happen.”

“Well, you fixed me!” Scootaloo said nervously. “I’m already fixed! Nothing bad’s happening. Everything’s perfectly fine. So you don’t have to do it again. Okay?”

“Again...?” the princess asked, peering at the pony on her butt in more horror as she shouted, “Oh Celestia I almost did it to you again oh no oh no I made a mistake I should have oh no oh Celestia oh no oh no...”

The princess walked in panicked circles, until Scootaloo jumped down. The princess then descended into sobbing on her belly, with her hooves wrapped over her face at this point, the exact opposite of threatening. Noi remained poised on the princess’s head, just in case. As Scootaloo joined Sweetie Belle, the little white unicorn asked, “Princess, who is ‘Celestia?’”

The princess grew quiet at that. “I don’t remember,” she mumbled, then lifted her tear stained face, to look at them with a silly, awestruck expression, saying distantly, “But she was as beautiful as the sun.”

The spring was in full swing as May went on. Grass was growing, flowers were blooming, and ponies were finally finding out what a joy it was to taste such delights.

“Oh my god. I am growing zinnias forever!”

“You think those are good? Try these crocuses!”

“Oh those are amazing, but they aren’t blooming anymore! Besides, now we have alliums coming in. You can eat them like cotton candy!”

“Aster~ aster~”

“Stop rolling in the asters!”

Spring was definitely a hit among ponies.

And of course Apple Bloom had to spend it sitting inside, trying to do homework.

She hated, hated, hated this. She should have been happy with her success. Lots of ponies even brought her tasty flowers! She just didn’t have any free time to pick them herself, or smell them, or roll around in them. Apple Bloom didn’t want to wish it, but she did. She wished she would get suspended. She had one more month to go until summer vacation, and the closer it got, the more tortuous it was. She didn’t want to keep getting in trouble like she was, but... but... the sun was shining outside!

Maybe she could just take a little break.

Apple Bloom found Scootaloo downstairs with a bunch of ponies, young and old, all vying for the video game system that someone had dragged in. It was that go-kart tournament game that was pretty popular or something.

Of course, watching ponies squeeing in excitement and twisting around trying to get their controllers to respond faster to the crazy car crashes onscreen was ten times as interesting as math homework, but Apple Bloom kind of wanted to go out and play in the sun. “Hey, Scootaloo!” she said over her friend’s shoulder.

“Hold on Apple Bloom, my turn is next!” Scootaloo said distractedly, eyes on the race. Apple Bloom shrugged, and settled down to wait. She could do Scootaloo’s thing for a bit, and Scootaloo’d be more than happy to help with hers. Settling down on her haunches, she watched the ponies go at it.

Ponies played on the controllers with their forehooves, by and large. Even the few unicorns who’d gotten the hang of levitation, well Scootaloo said it was hard for them to just levitate the button and not the whole controller. So Apple Bloom actually wouldn’t be at a huge disadvantage, if she liked playing these things, that is.

It was a strange coincidence that a game controller when set upright on the floor had two circles on it, one for the plus thingy, one for the buttons. Humans used just their thumbs on those, at a kind of awkward angle, but a pony could use a forehoof for each thumb, rotating it like a thumb to change directions on the plus thingy, or to press different buttons. The side buttons were a problem, but a swift hoof could snake out and hit one without a lot of trouble.

“The best player so far actually plays the controller pointed away from the screen,” Scootaloo explained at one point, “Button hits the top buttons with his hind hooves, and just switches up for down on the D-pad.”

“The what-pad?” Apple Bloom had replied.

Scootaloo groaned and clarified, “The plus thingy.”

Well, Scootaloo got her turn to play, and she was no slouch either. She held the controller tight against her chest with her wings, and used the individual feathers to push the side buttons... somehow. Seemed like each “tribe” as it was supposed to be called, had their own way of managing those side buttons. If push came to shove, Apple Bloom just figured she’d use her tongue or something, and gross everyone out of competing with her.

“Yes!” Scootaloo cheered as her little guy crossed the finish line first.

“Aww...” said the curly haired blueberry colored full grown mare Scootaloo was playing against. “I’ll never ge’ it!”

“Sure you will,” Scootaloo chirped up to the larger mare. “I’m Scootaloo! I’ve had way longer to get used to this. See how you do against the next pony. I bet you’ll kick her tail!”

The blue mare glanced at the next pony, who rolled her eyes as Scootaloo passed the controller over to her: a curly chocolate haired filly with a flour colored coat of fur. The brown filly half smiled at the blue mare and said sympathetically, “I ha’ to play six people before I bea’ someone last thime.”

“See, Rainy?” Scootaloo said to the mare with confidence. “Why don’t you show her what you’ve got!”

The blueberry mare smiled at that, and they went to playing. Scootaloo watched a little longer, until Apple Bloom said, “Hey Scoots, ah’m taking a break! Wanna go out an mess around?”

“Would I?” Scootaloo said excitedly, turning to face Apple Bloom. “Did you see the weather out there? It’s awesome!”

They were making their way out of the room when a cheer went up behind them, and a blushing victor, the blueberry colored mare got to hand off her controller to the next contestant, just like Scootaloo said she would. Something about that made Apple Bloom smile. Scootaloo was a credit to any team she was on.

A few ponies were always outside, at least trying the prospect of grazing. The novelty wore off quickly, since a push mower was so much faster, and now you had a bunch of fresh green hay to eat. And it really did taste better in a salad, or candied, or fried. Nobody’d figured out how to bake grass yet, but it was only a matter of time.

But thanks to judicious use of that chainsaw last winter, there was plenty of land to grow grass on. They expanded the meadow, and consciously or unconsciously stayed far away from the northeast edge of the farm where lurked the Edge. There were still a lot of stumps around, but apparantly stump removal was something your average earth pony could do with practice, and a good, strong chain.

Scootaloo went on to challenge Apple Bloom to a hoof race, which was a foot race with hooves. Apple Bloom beat her to the finish, but Scootaloo wasn’t using her wings to assist, and the two both laughed it off at the end there, having a great time and just enjoying each other’s company.

Meanwhile, in a shaded room, Sweetie Belle squinted, and bit down on the eraserless pencil, marking another column in her derivation, mumbling, “Maybe if I shubstitute the shecant... yessh...”

The door slammed open, and Cherry Berry joyously shouted, “Ish hishory time!” She walked—well she didn’t walk, more like fell into the classroom. Her students were staring at her, but she didn’t care. They couldn’t tell her what to do! She could climb back to her feet—woah—okay maybe to her hands and knees, but all on her own!

“I know wasshur thinging,” she groaned, lurching up to stare them down disapprovingly, though it was hard, because the world kept swaying from side to side. “Bu’ I’m the teassher here. No’ you. Me! You couln’ teash me ‘cause I’m the teasher hehehe... sho! I get to,” she had to pause to hiccup. “Sho! I ge’ to teash... th’... wha’mm I teashing again?”

Scared to her core Cherry demanded to the class, “Wha’m I teashing? I’m a teasher sho you have to tell me wha’m I teashing!”

“We’re studying the reign of King Charlemagne,“ said a cute little pony, just sitting in her classroom for some reason. Laughing indulgently, Cherry had to pet the little pony on the head. She had such adorable curls! On the way there though, Cherry fell over again. Having fallen down for some reason, she picked herself heavily off the ground, lurching over to the chalkboard, shouting,

“Hokay! Sho Sharlemagney... hehe hish namesh funny. Ish Frensh you know! He’sh from Fransh. I know aaaaall abou’ him. Righ’ over zhere in Fransh das a plashe I was going to, essept noreally. I wash going to ev(hic)rywhere.”

She couldn’t get her fingers to hold the chalk for some reason, and it just clattered to the floor, as she stared after it dumbly, saying, “Wash.... wash going to a plashe, a wa’erfall wish my friendsh, jus’ lash weeken’ I jush...” She kind of accidentally lay down beside the chalk, and it was like she was chalk. She was just a bunch of colored chalk, all ready to be written with. “Wash weirld,” she sang, “I’ was like Franshe and... Shaaaarlemayne.”

“He wash born in sheven foury two, an’ I know zheshe thingsh,” she instructed from the floor, because it was easier to just stay down here. Someone ran past her out the door as she explained, “Know aaall about Sharley man, even zho doeshn’ matter. Why’sh anyshing I know mattersh?” Then she realized, flailing at the door saying, “Hey! You can’ run out on me! I’m a big impor’ant teasher, who knowsh abou’ thingsh! But zhen I wen’ there an’ zhey weren’ zhere! I jus’ wanned to go onna road shrip wish my friensh, an’ there’sh no even road!”

Cherry was crying now as she said, “Theresh no Franshe ou’ zhere jush a bunsh of sh..sh... shtuff, an’ zhere washn’ any road or Franshe or my friensh! Shaid zhey meet me onna Shunday bu’ zhey weren’ zhere. Ish it poniesh? Do zhey hate poniesh? How coul zhey hate adorable lil’...” she blanked out for a second.

“Sharleymane da Jus’!” Cherry roared authoritatively. Why was she lying on the floor? “Sharley... shomething,” she said, struggling to climb up onto her desk. Looking at her students with terror again. “Shomething’s wrong!” she had to warn them. “Sharley’sh... gone zhere’sh no road an’ I don’ even...” her voice quavered, as she shouted, “I don’ even know wha’ to teash!!”

Cherry awoke slowly. She’d... she’d been doing something, hadn’t she? She blinked her eyes open, and blinks felt... weird. She was laying in a... oh no. She sat up from the hospital bed she awoke in. Pain flared in her head and she hissed, grabbing her head. Her hand just kind of... curled around her head though, like a hook. What was wrong with her hand?

She looked at her hand and... there were no fingers. Blinking, she curled the one finger she could feel, and the tip of her arm... curled in front of her? She was staring at a furry cylinder instead of a hand. It was thick and strong, and made for walking on, tipped with a crescent of bony material, the same bright pink color as the rest of her, save for the golden yellow, volumnuous tail emerging from beneath her oversized hospital gown.

“Uh oh...” she said scratchily, looking at her other arm, which had a pale spot that had been... shaved, into which was going a needle connected to a tube. She could feel the I.V. tugging at her own arm, a regrettably familiar feeling, but not a familiar arm.

“Nurshe?” she called out in alarm. Her voice was raw though, like it got sometimes, and her ears were... strange. The loud noise out of her mouth made her ears jerk or something. Everything felt painfully sensitive. She remembered this place had a... call button. So instead of calling louder, she looked around and spotted it on a table near her. Reaching for it with her free hand, she grabbed... oh. It skittered away when her new hand thing smacked it, and she sat up faster, scrambling to hook it back to her somehow.

She cradled the precious device to her chest, sinking back down into the bed with another flare of pain in her head. Her chest was smooth and round, entirely devoid of the cleavage she was so used to seeing. So, she really was a... Cherry pushed the call button. Though she ended up having to do so with her nose, it was certainly a big enough nose for the task.

A pink and white dressed nurse came in soon, poking her head in and then walking in with a smile. “Oh, you’re up. That’s great!” she said cheerfully.

“Coul’ I have shome wa’er?” Cherry asked, smacking her dry lips that felt so different from what she was used to.

“Certainly, one moment,” the nurse said, retreating behind the door jam. She returned presently carrying a uh... dog bowl.

Cherry’s ears sunk. She needed a drink. From a glass.

“Alright, do you need assistance, or can I just put this on your belly?” the nurse asked pleasantly. Cherry looked at her own hand...things, that didn’t even have fingers anymore.

“Go ahea’” she sighed, letting the nurse set it atop her, bracing her arms on either side of it, and staring into its surface. Her distorted reflection stared back at her from the water’s surface, so familiar and yet so strange. She glanced up at “Smiley” still standing there. It was bad enough Cherry had to drink like this, but did the nurse have to stand and watch? Cherry finally just swallowed her dignity and dove in, soon swallowing the sweet, sweet elixir.

She felt... done after just a couple of gulps, so lifted her dripping muzzle, licking her lips and saying, “Tha’s good... thanksh.”

The nurse took away the bowl, and when she returned to check Cherry’s vitals, Cherry looked at her hoof dangling in the nurse’s hands, and asked, “How long have I be’ a pony?”

“Oh, since at least yesterday morning,” the nurse said speculatively. “You gave your students quite the scare there, you know?”

“Oh...” Cherry was starting to make sense of that mush in her head about the past. “Wai’ sho I was a pony zthen?”

The nurse nodded hesitantly, saying, “I didn’t hear the full story, but they say you showed up as a pony, extremely inebriated, trying to teach your class until one of the students went for help. Most faculty give some forward notice I’d imagine, before showing up as a pony.”

Cherry’s eyes widened as she started to remember. “Oh no, I came to shool drung again,” she moaned.

“You were a lot more than drunk,” the nurse said admonishingly. “You arrived here with a blood alcohol level of 0.36%. That’s enough to kill a—horse, forgive the pun. I’m honestly curious how you did it.”

Cherry stared at the nurse blankly. “By dhrinkging?” she suggested.

“Oh! You probably don’t know!” the nurse said with a gasp. “You’re a pony now, see, and—”

“I know I’ a pony,” Cherry grumbled, holding her head in her uh... hooves.

“And ponies appear to be extremely opportunistic herbivores,” the nurse went on undaunted. “So that means you can eat hay now!”

“...an’?” Cherry asked flatly. Heck, she’d seen one of the ponies at her apartment eating hay just last week. That was old news.

“And hay, or cellulose, is digested by microbial action,” the nurse unhelpfully clarified. “Microbes that break it down to ethanol, among other things!” she said, making no sense whatsoev—wait.

“Hyou can ge’ drunk from eating hay?” Cherry asked, looking at her in astonishment.

The nurse shook her head. “Oh no. Quite the opposite, really! To be able to digest hay, your body produces loads of alchohol dehydrogenase, a very special molecule that breaks down alcohol into harmless byproducts. Humans have comparatively small amounts, which lets the alcohol reach their brain. That’s why you’ve been the talk of the recovery wing this past day. You are the first pony on record who has successfully become intoxicated!”

Cherry stared at the smiling nurse in several shades of incredulity. Finally, she just sank back in her bed, staring at the ceiling and groaning, “I nee’ a drink.”

“Hey Rainbow Dash!”

After school got out, Scootaloo called out eagerly to her hero, now her pony hero, only to have Rainbow Dash jump up into the air with a yipe.

“Oops, sorry,” Scootaloo winced. “I thought you heard me coming.”

“Oh, hey Scoosh, ish...” Rainbow tucked her frizzy wings tighter against her sides. Rainbow Dash was looking kind of frazzled in general, actually. She had hairs that were askew, and her tail was drooping, and she just looked... exhausted. Probably from all that flying practice, but still it didn’t seem quite right in Scootaloo’s mind. Was something bothering Dash?

“I was jus’ cashing up on reading a lil’” Rainbow Dash said with a jaunty smile that filled her pony snout elegantly and cooly.

“Huh, whatcha reading?” Scootaloo asked curiously, craning down to look at the book Rainbow Dash had with her.

“Ish an old seriesh I already read,” the rainbow pegasus said, waving a hoof dismissively, “Not much elshe here to do but read though.”

“And practice flying, right?” Scootaloo said with a wink.

Rainbow Dash must have misstepped then, because she stumbled on the spot which made her stutter a little when she said, “Y-yeah... that.”

“Have you flown yet?” Scootaloo asked with an eager smile, “It’s really tricky but once you get the hang of it, it’s really easy! I bet you’re gonna be amazing at it!”

Rainbow Dash smiled from the eyes down, and said, “You go’ that right, squirt. Shoon as I get the hang of it, I’ll be zhe best flier yet!”

“Oh, you haven’t got it yet,” Scootaloo said, her ears going down. “Well... you’ll get it soon. It can take a while.” She looked up at the larger pegasus, asking, “Have you tried jumping from higher up, like on the roof? It’s actually easier that way, because you have more time to react before you hit the ground.”

“Insheresting,” Dash mused calmly. “Maybe I’ll thry that shome time.”

“I could give you some tips, maybe,” Scootaloo said, peering around Dash’s side. “Spread your wings and—” But Dash just rotated to face Scootaloo, so the little pegasus couldn’t really get a good look at Rainbow Dash’s wings.

“No!” Dash squeaked. “No,” she said more calmly, “I’m fine. Pretty sure I can fighure it ou’ on my own.”

“Yeah, that’s what I did,” Scootaloo said feeling a little disappointed, but also relieved. “I wouldn’t really know what to tell you. So, I guess I’ll let you get back to um... ‘The Tangle Box’?” Scootaloo took a double take, gaping at the book, “Wait, I read this! This is Landover!”

“Yeah, so?” Rainbow Dash said in honest confusion. “Those shtories are awesome!”

“I know!” Scootaloo replied, “But I mean, I thought you only read adventure novels like Treasure Island, and Moby Dick.”

“Wow...” Dash said bemusedly, “Been forhever sinshe I read zhose. My tastes kinda changed sinsh then. This one is totally an aventure, bu’ I been reading differen’ stuff. When did I shay I was reading only that?”

Scootaloo frowned, saying, “Well it was a few years ago, but... I don’t remember exactly when you talked about it. Have you read all of the Landover series?”

“Wishes’ Brew was zhe lasht one, right?” Dash asked. Scootaloo nodded. “Then, yup,” Dash said agreeably. “Jus’ rereading. It’s hard to fin’ shtuff to read aroun’ this ransh.”

“Who’s your favorite character?” Scootaloo asked, looking again at the book curiously.

“I like Abernashy,” Rainbow Dash replied. “He’s a total egghead, ish adorable. An’ he keepsh saving zhe day just by being shensible.”

“I like Strabo!” Scootaloo said, shining eyed. “He’s evil but mostly he’s just the last of his kind. He’s awesomely powerful and always sticks to his code of honor.”

“Yeah, Shrabo’s pretty cool,” Dash said, kicking a hoof to the side with a smile.

Scootaloo decided that she was going to check out more books and really surprise Dash with something cool that she hadn’t read before. Thinking about what titles to choose, she’d entirely forgotten anything Rainbow Dash said about flying.

Dinky had a lot to think about. It started at that Fall Formal, where so many strange things happened. It seemed like meeting Diamond Tiara face to face had been the least life changing moment for him. Finding someone turned into a pony was kind of hard to top on the weirdness scale. Little did he know, but things would spiral out of control with that girl, in a way that was both amazing, and predictable.

Had he known, he... might have gotten help for them both, before they had stopped wanting to be helped. When that fiery haired girl had burst in and ruined everything, he couldn’t help but be grateful. Sunset Shimmer was so worried for him, like she was his mother or something, even if she was just an upper classman. And... really it was the best way anyone could have dealt with this disastrous situation.

Dinky then went and made the situation even worse, but the counselors told him not to think of it that way. His feelings of helplessness and failure only worsened when the mysterious alien pony girls came and told him what kind of pony he was going to be. Diamond Tiara seemed to take the news even worse than he did, practically, no, literally calling out for the blood of whoever did this to them.

He managed to calm Diamond Tiara down though, and at least make her feel better. Make her feel a lot better, in fact. When they got close, it was frightening and fascinating how pregnant she was. Diamond Tiara’s abdomen was slowly becoming smooth and tense, swelling outward in a way that definitely did not have the ‘give’ to it that fat would. She was showing no signs of trying to abort, and in a way, learning of Dinky’s fate gave her even more resolve.

“This might be your last chance,” Diamond Tiara had said, laying back and looking at her round belly.

“I don’t want you to do it for my sake,” Dinky said in a strained tone. “I didn’t even want to go this far.”

“And you did,” she replied, with a little odd smile. Her smile was lost, as the pink girl said, “If I can’t have this, then you might never be able to give me one ever again.”

“I suppose that’s literally true,” he replied morbidly. “I wonder if there are magical sex changes.”

“Already thinking like a unicorn, huh?” Diamond said teasingly.

“She said I was going to be very young,” he replied honestly. “It might be years before I even have magic.”

“Well, you’re not young yet,” she said with a grumpy pout.

“And I’m not a unicorn yet,” he answered smoothly. “I am still pretty young, anyway.”

“Oh, I think you’re old enough,” she said coyly, taking his hand and placing it on her belly. It was so smooth and warm... “And you’re still a boy right now,” she added, “So let’s make the most of that while we can.”

Dinky blushed, pulling his hand away. “Again?” he gulped.

Diamond Tiara responded by rolling over on top of him and pressing her lips against his.

Canterlot General Hospital was an interesting place these days, with 4% of the population as ponies. It was a surprisingly un-busy place though, because they were only admitting people whose health was at risk, and turning into a pony was not considered a health risk. There were a lot more injuries now from accidents, but natural pony resilience was also playing a part.

“Are you sure about this, Sweetie Belle?” Twilight Sparkle asked cautiously, speaking in quiet tones. There in the hallway outside one of the hospital rooms, she waited together with two little ponies: Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, and Sunset Shimmer gazing at the door thoughtfully.

“We are both sure,” the little yellow farm pony asserted to the purple girl, standing firm next to Sweetie Belle. “Perfessor Berry broke th’ veil thingy, alright. Didn’t make much sense, but she made enough!”

“She said there was no road,” Sweetie Belle added quietly. “I think she saw the... Edge. She’s always travelling.”

“No, what I mean is, should we tell her?” Twilight asked with a wince.

“Cherry Berry is in and out of Canterlot all year,” Sunset Shimmer cut in.

Sunset looked at the other three and said, “She only thinks she’s taking trips, but she still interacts heavily with the Edge. That’s one reason she’s... you know.”

“Yeah, ah know,” Apple Bloom agreed glumly.

“Worst history class ever,” Sweetie Belle groaned, rolling her eyes.

“She should be pretty sober now,” Twilight pointed out. “She’s had enough time to clear the... whatever out of her system.”

“It’s the best time to tell her,” Sunset agreed with a nod, “And she really needs to know. She could get hurt or worse, if she keeps trying to... leave the city.”

“I don’t get why she was leaving in the first place,” Sweetie Belle grumbled. “Wasn’t the whole city under quarantine?”

“People do stupid things under the influence of alcohol,” Sunset told the little filly, “And this city doesn’t really have the resources to enforce a quarantine. Not that they need to, but... to make a long story short, she was drunk.”

“Ah thought ponies couldn’t get drunk,” Apple Bloom said skeptically.

“Maybe she wasn’t all the way a pony when she got drunk,” Sweetie suggested. “I know she was all the way human last Friday.”

“And she transformed inside a chaotic geometry?” Twilight winced. “We’re lucky that drunk was all she got.”

“So, let’s be careful about this, but we do have to tell her,” Sunset said solemnly, “We should let her know gently, so she doesn’t get too upset.”

The four were nodding at each other, when from the inside the room the patient bellowed, “Hey! Nurshe!!”

Twilight and Sunset hurried in, faces a mask of alarm to find a very familiar (to Twilight Sparkle) yellow haired, bright pink earth pony, who did not appear to be in any serious distress. She was laying in her oversized hospital bed with an I.V. in her arm. Cherry Berry was a good deal departed from the life of a mare Twilight knew, who piloted a balloon for a living. Below line of sight of the bed, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle crept in after, Sweetie’s hoof hitting the box of a dropped call button on the way in.

Looking only at the girls, Cherry asked sloppily, “Ca’ I ged zhish Iphee out?” presenting the arm with the I.V. in it. “I feerl fine.”

Twilight brightened, raising her hands and stepping forward, until Sunset grabbed the collar of Twilight’s shirt, dragging her back to a halt.

“We’re not nurses,” Sunset explained to Cherry. “We’re just some students, here to wish you well, and tell you something important.”

“Oh, righ’” Cherry said, blushing pinker. “Shorry I still soun’ drunk. Ish jus’ zis weilrd mouf.”

“Press your tongue harder to the roof of your mouth!” Apple Bloom spoke up. “Then you won’t miss your t’s as much!”

“Tee, thee,” Cherry tried, blinking at her success. “Wow, thanksh!” she said, to the empty air. “Uh...” she leaned forward until she caught sight of Apple Bloom down there, remarking, “Hey, you’re tha’ pony in my firsh... firsht period!”

“Yeah, about that...” Apple Bloom replied, looking aside and raising an uneasy hoof.

“You need to stay inside the city,” Sunset said cautiously to Cherry.

“Wha’? Why?!” Cherry said, staring at Sunset, and sitting up straighter.

“There’s a kind of ...realm anywhere beyond the city limits, that is very dangerous,” Sunset explained seriously. “You thought it was the real world, but that’s actually just a hologram.”

“It’s kind of... unpleasant to directly interact with,” Twilight added with a wince. “Space loops around weirdly, and eventually sends you back the way you came. You broke the glamour concealing it when you became a pony, so you can’t really... you see, you’ve been under a sort of beguilement. The road trips you thought you were making across the country actually are...” she trailed off uncomfortably.

“Fake,” Sweetie Belle finished for her.

“Wha’ d’you mean faeg?” Cherry asked, looking at the little white unicorn who’d softly trotted to alongside her bed.

“It was a trick,” Apple Bloom said to Cherry, with sympathy and sorrow in the orange embers of her eyes. “There is no outside world past this city.”

“The spell tricked you into thinking there was a place to go,” Twilight said urgently, “Into thinking you actually went there. It conjours supplies, souvenirs, road dirt. A lot of what appears around here is the product of your world’s interaction with the limitless chaos outside.”

“Wh—wha’re you shaying, zhat my friensh are fake?” Cherry said incredulously.

“Well, do you have any friends inside the city?” Twilight asked uneasily.

“A—An’ magic?!” she replied equally astonished, and a little offended, “Is zhis a trick?”

“You turned into a pony,” Sweetie Belle pointed out a little tiredly, like she had to do that a lot. “Magic is real.”

“We figured you were going to try again, to find out what happened out there,” Sunset said. “You don’t have to believe us. My friend and I just wanted to warn you, so when you do go out there you won’t be totally confused about what’s happening.”

Cherry was quietly thinking for a while, then said in a lost voice, “I don’ have any frien’s in the city.” Then it dawned on her. Something dawned on her at least.

“You’re wrong!” she said in aggravation to Sunset. “I know my frien’s an’ they’re not jus’ made up. I meet wish zhem every weekend!”

“No, you see it’s just an illusion that—” Sunset started to say, but Cherry interrupted, shouting back,

“I’sh no’ an illusion! My friensh are hreal, an’ I go shee zem all zhe time!”

Brow darkening, Sunset replied challengingly. “You’re not even remembering any specific friends, only the general concept of friends! Can’t you see how they could be fake?”

“Shu’up!” Cherry shouted at her, “I know my fren’s anq they’re real, and they’re realy out there!”

“Do you even remember their names?” Sunset shot back.

“Yesh!” Cherry shot back. “I ‘member Flitter an’ Clou’ Chaser an’ Cohme’thail an’ Slipshream an’ they’re really oud zhere! Shop saying zhey’re not, because they are ou’ zhere, an’ I’m going to fin’ zhem!”

This had gone past arguing, as Cherry continued to shout, “You’re lying! They’re shtill hout zhere! I have to find zhem I shwear zey’rehout there!” Sunset backed up from Cherry with a look of surprise on her face, as the pony continued to unload at her, standing from her hospital bed, moving towards Sunset shouting “You can’ stop me. I have to go fin’ zhem! Zhey were righ’ here! I don’ care if you shay zey’re gone zey’re not an’ you can’—”

“What the blazes is all this shouting?” the nurse shouted, running in the room, seeing immediately, Sunset backed to the wall by the angry pink pony who’d forgotten about her I.V. entirely. “Are you accosting the patient?! What’s going on?”

“She won’ let me go shave my friens!” Cherry shouted in outrage to the nurse. Cherry really didn’t look so good. Half crouched by the bed, her eyes were unfocused, and her pupils were pinpricks. Sweat was tricking down the left side of her head.

“Okay, let’s just calm down here,” the nurse said nervously. “No one is holding anyone here. We’ll just get your I.V. out and—”

“No!” Cherry shouted in wild eyed alarm, taking the I.V. assembly down with her as she lurched back and fell off the bed, scooting up against the wall, “You’re doing i’ too! Shay away! You jus’ wan me to forge’ about them! I’ll never forge’ zhem no as long ash I live!!”

“We’re—” the bewildered nurse held her hands up, saying, “We’re leaving!” She glared dangerously at Sunset and said, “We’re all leaving.” Turning back to Cherry, she said, “We’ll leave you alone! You can do whatever you want. Just relax, and everything is going to be okay—”

The I.V. rack slammed into the wall next to the nurse as Cherry screamed, “Noshing ever ‘nna be okay!!”

Everyone booked it.

Outside, even with the door closed, the sound of a pony loudly sobbing could be heard. “You all need to leave,” the nurse told the group beside herself with barely repressed fury. “I don’t know what you said to her, but you need to leave. Now. I’m going to call security if you don’t—”

“We’re leaving, we’re leaving!” Sunset said frantically. “Come on, everybody, leave the doctors to their... thing, we have to go!”

Outside the hospital, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were holding each other and crying together, and Sunset and Twilight were looking like they wished they could do the same thing.

“Did you hear what she said?” Twilight asked fretfully. “What could that possibly mean?”

“She must have gotten more messed up by the chaotic manifold than I thought,” Sunset said, looking pale. “She was absolutely desperate to preserve the illusion. Could it be controlling her somehow? Making up people that don’t exist, to keep her from realizing the truth?”

“Sunset,” Twilight said seriously. “Cloudchaser is one of Ponyville’s top athletes. She has an award for long distance speed flying framed in town hall. Her sister’s name is Flitter. I knew of them through Rainbow Dash. I didn’t know the others, but—but there isn’t anypony even remotely like Cloudchaser on Rainbow Dash’s football team here. My point is that Cloudchaser is a real pony. There couldn’t be people stuck out at the Edge, could there?”

“Okay, okay we’re going to talk to Rainbow Dash,” Sunset said, holding up her palms calmingly, “And find out if she knows Cloudchaser’s counterpart here. It could be severely mixed up though. Cloudchaser could be all the way across the city doing something totally different. She could be a guy here. We can’t assume. We’ll just have to look for... records of her, and see if Cherry is willing to tell us what she was talking about back there.”

“It was more like a... a fit of some sort,” Twilight said frankly. “I don’t even know if she knew what she was saying.”

Apple Bloom was standing before them then, wiping her eyes with a pastern. “Ah’m sorry,” she said tearfully, “Ah didn’t know why you didn’t tell nopony about this an’... an’ now ah do.”

“We don’t want to hurt anyone. We just want this to stop...” Sweetie said in a quavering voice coming to stand firm or try to stand firm beside Apple Bloom.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry, girls,” Twilight said shamefully, squatting down to their level. “I didn’t know this was going to happen. I’m sorry you had to see that. Whatever... that was.”

“We’re going to get to the bottom of this,” Sunset said, standing behind Twilight and putting a hand on her back. “We’re not remaining uninvolved anymore. We’ll take measurements, and—and get help from who we can. We’ll do our best to find whoever’s out there, and save them from ...whatever it is they need to be saved from.”

“Yeah,” Apple Bloom sniffled, “Ah know.” Adopting a small smile she said, “You girls really are amazing. Ah cain see why you’re heroes back in your old pony world.”

Sunset paled at that, saying, “Oh no, I–I’m not a—”

“Anypony can be a hero,” Twilight interrupted, saying warmly to the two fillies, “Heroes are just... normal people who had a chance to change things for the better, and decided to take that chance. It’s fine to recognize someone for their accomplishments, but that doesn’t make them different from you. There’s no reason people couldn’t be calling you a hero someday. It’s all a matter of being at the right place at the right time.”

Leaving Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle with a lot to think about, the two girls took the two pony girls home, where they joined with Scootaloo and Noi, talking in excited tones. Twilight and Sunset then headed to their portable, to plan a course of action for investigating the edge of the universe. The first thing they did was ask Rainbow Dash, and the rainbow maned pegasus was flustered to have her private training disturbed, but was happy enough to provide what help she could.

“Gah!” Rainbow Dash shouted, rolling off her back and hastily stuffing her wings against her sides. “I’m in here uh... doing wing eshercises!” she called out the doorway. Sunset Shimmer and her lilac friend came into the shed then, and Rainbow Dash wished the sun hadn’t been shining so brightly through the window on the spot she had been laying in. It made her too visible now. She must look like a mess with all this training she was doing. ...yeah, training.

“Yo,” Sunset managed to say, waving a hand in the air. “Nice to see you’re getting the hang of being a pony.”

Dash blushed, and would have thought of a snappy response, but right then the Twilight girl got in her face and said, “Rainbow Dash! I’m so glad we could find you! We need your help with something important.”

“Sssure, if I can help wif something, all ya need ta do ish ashk,” Rainbow said, trying to lean back from Twilight, while also leaning on a hoof jauntily. At least she remained standing, so she counted that as a win.

“I just wanted to know if you knew anyp—” Twilight cleared her throat, “Anybody named Cloudchaser? Somebody on your team, perhaps? Or a coach maybe?”

“Cloudchaser, huh?” Dash said, trying to remember, but only feeling a curious tugging on her heart. “Sounz familiar...” she said, “But nothing’sh coming to mind. I might’ve met someone by zhat name before? What are her colors?”

“She would be a dark lavender, slightly lighter shade than my own, with white hair,” Twilight said, and it did sound very familiar. “Her hair was always really messy, I assume from her reckless attitude,” Twilight went on, “And in my world, at least, she had a sister named Flitter. Quieter, same coat but green haired, Dash always called her a mouse. My Dash, that is.” Twilight sighed with nostalgia and said, “They were friends of the other Rainbow Dash, so I hoped you might know the ones here, in some form.”

“Hmm...” Dash murmured, tapping a hoof. “From anozher school maybe? Rival team? It’s jus’ on the tip of my tongue. I sink I...” she wracked her brain but no details were forthcoming. “Can’ say I heard of zhem before, sorry,” Rainbow Dash said sadly, “Bu’ good luck finding them, if itsh important. Anyshing else I can do to help?”

The girls just stared down at her awkwardly making Rainbow Dash squirm with anxiety for a moment before Sunset asked, “Dash, are you... okay?”

“Sure I am!” Dash said, trying to smile accomodatingly, but she was feeling funny. “Why woul’n’ I be?”

“You’re crying,” the other girl blurted out.

“No I’m not!” Dash said in confusion, touching the side of a hoof to her cheek. Her cheek was wet. “...huh,” she said numbly, staring at the teardrops staining the soft blue fur of her hoof. “I’onno,” she said guiltily, shrinking back from the two. In this shed there was nowhere to retreat though. “It’s jus’ kinda sad for some reason, I dunno...”

“Please, if you know anything at all, this is very important,” Twilight pleaded. “Flitter and Cloud Chaser might be in trouble right now, and any information at all could be useful to help them.”

Dash laughed bitterly. “Help them? Yeah, that—” wait, what was she even thinking? “That might be a good idea?” she said uncertainly, “Assuming there’s anything left to help.”

“Anything left?” Sunset said in horror, “What happened to them? What do you know?”

“I’onno I just—” Rainbow Dash held a hoof to her head, saying, “I jus’ feel like I should know them, like I—let them down shomehow.” She sniffled. “A-an’ now it’s too late. My old team maybe? I kinda walked out on them when I came to thish shcool—school, but there washn’t any bad blood I waz jusht moving on. I still have Gilda’s number. I could give it to you I guess?”

“That’d be appreciated,” Twilight said tensely. Rainbow Dash gave it to her, but Dash really didn’t know if it would help. Whatever it was, Cloud Chaser’s... thing had been long after Rainbow left the Cloudsdale Flyers. Twilight left with Sunset to do whatever she did, and Rainbow Dash returned to laying prone in the sunbeam, reminiscing on her old days back in middle school.

Some of Dash’s best memories were from that old team. Kicking the ball around, learning how to kick the ball around, learning how to work together with a team. She’d always been pretty independent, and it’d taken her coach time to beat it in her head that she couldn’t win every game alone, or even if she could, it wouldn’t be fair to the rest of them.

Rainbow Dash looked in the direction of where her phone was stashed. Maybe she could try to get in touch with her old team again. Maybe she should think about calling her dad again. She whimpered as turning made her feathers catch on each other when her wings shifted uncomfortably.

Maybe later.

Gathering Data

The other Princess Twilight Sparkle didn’t really understand why that was her name, but it was. She felt more like herself every day in fact, when her friends would return to dream with her. They helped her recover so much. She remembered about the distant mountains to the north, about the picnic they had overlooking the valley. She remembered running through the cool woods as the autumn leaves cascaded down around her. She remembered books, and how much she loved to read them, and share them with others. She remembered that she was a princess, and she remembered her name. She remembered so many things now!

And she remembered how much she had hurt Scootaloo, twice, but even those memories she secretly cherished. It was so hard to hold onto anything in a dream. Memories slipped away so easily, like snuffed candles, leaving you lost in the darkness. She hated the darkness.

Princess Twilight didn’t have to hurt Scootaloo again. She knew that now. She knew what she did was wrong, and she never ever wanted to do it again. She just... didn’t remember what it was exactly that she did, only that it was a bad thing to do to somepony, and vaguely how to do it.

The four fillies had found the princess. Somehow, they caught her. And they made her realize that things were okay now, and she wasn’t going to hurt anypony. Now having fallen asleep for another night, they were walking together with her again, through that strangely familiar castle town. To that strangely familiar castle.

“I still don’t know how this could be my dream,” the purple princess said in disbelief, laying a hoof on the gate into the stone edifice, while the fillies clustered around her legs. “If it was you who dreamed it.”

“It’s gotta be your dream, princess,” the pumpkin orange Scootaloo said, in bright encouragement. “I literally cannot dream what’s in this castle, and if we’re in this dream, the others don’t wake up when I do. I must have just... accidentally fallen into one of your dreams, and I only thought I dreamed it up.”

“Hmm...” Twilight said, not entirely convinced by that. She remembered that it was very hard for a pony to leave their own dreams, and for Scootaloo to just do so accidentally it just didn’t add up. “Well, if it is my dream, then I will do my best to dream it,” Twilight said, facing the castle doors. “Shall we give it a shot?”

“Yeah!” came the chorus of four excited young voices behind her. Twilight pushed open the door.

The door opened with a creak, revealing a grand hallway with a vast, arching ceiling of clear glass panes. The fillies seemed particularly interested in that, looking overhead with awe, but what Twilight was surprised by was the automatic torches, which lit in eerie blue as they entered the room. It was... something that happens. Twilight remembered that.

Was it her dream, after all? Why did it feel so... real, then?

“Well, that worked,” Twilight said, trying to conceal her nervousness. “And it’s a lovely palace. I think it was supposed to be more um... crowded?”

Abruptly they were cheek to cheek with hundreds of ponies crowding around them on all sides, worried ponies, fearful ponies, and very pushy ponies. The fillies disappeared beneath the mass of ponies entirely, before Twilight managed to evert, the hundreds of constructs fading into shadows of memories as the castle was empty again.

“OK... not doing that again,” Twilight muttered, surrounded now by only 4 frazzled looking fillies. They got over their confusion fast though, exploring around with Twilight at all the amazing and new, yet familiar things.

The walls were beautifully adorned with tapestries by the way, of many beautiful styles. The blue ones had moons and stars on them, the yellow had sunlit fields and pastures, the brown ones full of colorful ponies, frolicking together in harmony. Twilight could not remember their purpose, or their significance, only that they reminded her of old friends, friends she hadn’t seen in so long, she couldn’t even recall their faces.

“Let’s try going up the stairs!” the odd tan filly known as Noi said over by a long staircase into the levels above. “I bet there are more clues up there!”

“Well I sup—” Twilight started, but the other three were already scrambling up the steps after Noi. Twilight trotted after them, a bemused smile on her face as once again the tireless efforts of her friends was winning her back more memories. Twilight remembered what was up the stairs, by travelling up them. Travel and memory recall went arm in arm with dreamwalking, Twilight recalled. The second floor had many hallways, and rooms of mysterious purpose. Then there was a banquet room, and what looked like a room for laundering tapestries.

After an incident with rediscovering the reason for a commode, one of the fillies found a secret passageway, that revealed itself when the little white unicorn tugged down on one of the tapestries. She moved aside before falling into it, thank goodness, but the three went down willingly then, flying along a steep spiraling slope that ended them up in a dank stone chamber, far beneath the earth. There were steps leading out, and Twilight followed the fillies up the stairs again, as they traveled left, and right, whispering among each other occasionally, but always knowing where to go next.

“So... is this my dream?” Twilight asked nervously. “You all seem awfully familiar with it.”

“It might be all our dreams mishmashed into one,” Apple Bloom suggested. “Parts of this we ain’t never seen before, but other parts are stuff we saw in th’ waking world.”

“I guess that could happen?” Twilight said cluelessly. She sure couldn’t think of why it wouldn’t happen, though a collective dream was supposed to be more... unstable, wasn’t it? She couldn’t remember. And really every part of this dream was so familiar to Twilight. She felt like she’d walked these halls a thousand times before.

“I don’t recognize any of this,” Noi said sadly. “Everything stopped being familiar the moment we came inside.”

“Huh, but you remembered something outside?” Twilight said curiously.

“I just... I wanted one of the houses out there to be my house,” Noi said, blushing, “It’s always been a fantasy of mine, to live in a land like this.”

“Oh, here, these stairs should lead to the roof,” Sweetie Belle chirped, running over to a final flight of stairs. The others hurried over, and peered upward into the darkness, and Twilight remembered.

“Yes, it does lead to the roof!” Twilight said engrossedly. “And I went up to the roof for something, I remember! We should go to the roof. Maybe I can remember what I did!”

The fillies clustered close together, Noi saying suspiciously, “You aren’t going to go loopy on us if you do, are you?”

“I will never do anything like that again, Noi,” Twilight pleaded. “I made a mistake. I was upset and I wasn’t thinking. I... I don’t know.”

Noi lifted her right forehoof up to the princess and gestured with it. Twilight sighed, lowering her head so that Noi could clamber onto it. So enwreathed in Twilight’s ephemeral, starry mane, with Twilight’s horn at her mercy, Noi said, “Okay, let’s go!”

Up the stairs they went. Through a door, to a parapet high atop the tallest tower. The silvery surface of the barrier around the castle seemed oppressively close up here. Twilight didn’t like that. It wasn’t supposed to be like that. She peered out over the town sprawling away from the castle, seeing it cut in half by this barrier. That wasn’t... right.

“I... I failed,” Twilight murmured distantly. “Somepony was trying to do something and I came up here because it didn’t work, and... at least I could save your farm, even if there was nobody there. I was trying to save everything I could. Noi, can I please try something with my horn? I want to try moving back the barrier.”

“I don’t think we can risk that, princess,” Noi said stubbornly. “If you lose control again...”

“I... don’t think I will,” Twilight said calmly, “But if I do... can you fillies make an exit?”

“Way ahead of you princess,” came Scootaloo’s voice, staring at the door back into the castle. She pulled open the door, and it led into the princess’s personal library this time, and from there, Scootaloo laid out a book pathway into one of Noi’s dreams.

“...alright,” Noi said cautiously, sliding down the princess’s neck and clopping to the floor. “If there’s anyone attacked, I want everyone to grab them and take them to my dream. I’ll wake us up from there.”

“That sounds reasonable,” Twilight said sadly. She wished she wasn’t broken. She wished she hadn’t failed. She wished everything would be okay, but she knew that it would never be okay. Nevertheless, Noi went to wait in her dream of a cottage interior. The other three fillies backed up what they felt was a safe distance, and the princess lit up her horn. She remembered an old, gravelly laugh, telling her the secrets to the manipulation of this magic. She... shifted her horn, and the light from it flickered, then grew bright. The silvery almost-opacity of the barrier indicated it wasn’t complete yet. It wasn’t absolute. She focused on that, worming her magic into the substance of it, and pouring her heart into saving as much as she possibly could.

A bright pulse from her horn spread throughout the barrier, and it began to move, sliding inexorably forward, swallowing house after house. Twilight faced away from the forest grimly, facing her town, seeking the beauty that it had once had. The barrier was straining, the tension too great at this obliquity, but she had to do it. She had to save that poor filly’s home. At the very least... it was all she knew how to do.

Once the barrier could not be widened a single inch more, Twilight spoke the words to end the world. The ancient power washed over her, and her hypercharged mane swirled behind her like a galaxy or a cataclysm. The barrier became... Opaque.

“There, it’s done,” she said with a sigh, the light dying from her horn as the weariness began to set in. Twilight hadn’t exerted herself like that in... a long time. “I don’t know exactly what I did, but it’s done.”

From within the library dream, the four fillies peeked out of hiding, looking at her warily.

“I’m done, Noi, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo,” Twilight said with a smile. “The barrier is finished. Would you like to see it?”

Cautiously they all ventured out the door, out onto that parapet overlooking a once thriving castle town, now illuminated in the barrier’s omnipresent grey glow. The fillies stared, wide-eyed at the scene before them, which Twilight created.

“Are you seein’ this?” Apple Bloom asked incredulously.

“What’s your house doing way out there?” Scootaloo asked in confusion.

“Which one is your house?” the princess asked curiously.

“It’s that tiny lil’ red one way out there,” Apple Bloom said, pointing to the distant edge of the barrier. “Ah wouldn’t recognize it, but the hills around are just like at our ranch.”

“Are we seeing into another dream maybe?” Sweetie wondered, and Twilight really just didn’t want to think about this. She was afraid of that little red dot, and what she couldn’t remember about it.

“Can we please go to a funner dream now?” Twilight whined, crouching down before them. “I’m sorry I did this, and I don’t know why. I really wish we could think of something else right now.”

“Y-yeah, prob’ly a good idea, princess,” Apple Bloom said somberly. “We cain always come back to this later... just the four of us, now that we know how to get in.”

“So... pirates or robots?” Scootaloo asked thoughtfully.

“Let’s do robots!” Sweetie exclaimed, “We always do pirates.”

“I call grunge monkey!” Noi said, running into the library dream, followed by the others. They were no doubt in search of that incredible “show” the four had shared with Twilight, about those giant mechanical suits of armor. Twilight grinned despite herself, trotting after the four fillies. She really loved that show.

“The fourteenth meeting of the Cutie Major Crusaders is now in session!” Apple Bloom called curtly, rapping her hoof on the stone of the table. The three of them stood in the mysterious CMC HQ behind the secret door in the library, sans Noi who couldn’t yet be trusted with such sensitive information. Noi already had her major, even if she couldn’t really do it anymore. Plus Noi didn’t attend high school.

The lighting in this stone chamber was better after Scootaloo got through with it, with a string of lights hung around the edges of the room, but they still had the candle lit for show. They did bring in a small shelf, on which was an emergency change of pony sized clothes (one of Apple Bloom’s outfits), a cheap scavenged still camera and film, a clock telling them what time it was so they didn’t miss next period, and a bunch of drawing paper alongside a box of crayons.

“Now we don’t got a lotta time before we have to find Big Mac an’ head home,” Apple Bloom stated, “So let’s be quick. First on our agenda is summer break. What’re we gonna do over break?”

“Well, sports camp is out,” Scootaloo said grumpily. “Even if there was a sports camp, the whole city is under quarantine. I’m not gonna turn the whole world into ponies just so I can go kick a ball around.”

“You have to admit, kicking a ball around is pretty fun,” Apple Bloom said with a giggle.

“Can we talk about that dream?” Sweetie whined, “We have plenty to do this summer, if everyone’s going to be a pony by the end of it. That’s not what we should be worrying about!”

“Okay then Sweetie,” Apple Bloom said uncomfortably, “We cain always move to item 2. About the dream, could it have just been mah dream leaking into it? It was a mighty peculiar dream.”

“But she said she wanted to save your farm!” Sweetie Belle protested. “...sort of. She dream-said she was moving the shield to ‘at least’ save your farm, Apple Bloom, and then your farm house was right there. It was like she was apologizing for demolishing it! But it hasn’t been demolished, so I don’t know what her barrier was supposed to save.”

“Where were we?” Scootaloo asked, “I know Canterlot City doesn’t have a... a castle, so where were we standing, if this dream is about the city?”

“We need to go to mah house,” Apple Bloom said, “And find where the other edge of this barrier is. Scoots cain scope out what side of the building we were on, and we just look away from there, to where she was in her dream. Then we cain find where that castle is. Think about it girls, there could be ancient ruins buried underneath our very city! She could be in a dungeon somewhere, held in a magical sleep!”

She frowned at her yellow hoof, adding, “If’n it’s not in the direction of the city, maybe the barrier moved somehow, and the castle is outside it. If that’s so, maybe the princess is out there too, and all she has to do is expand the barrier thingy, and we cain go find her castle and wake her up.”

“Better bring your brother along,” Sweetie said demurely. At Apple Bloom’s look of puzzlement, Sweetie chirped, “You know, in case she needs to get woken with a kiss?”

“Swe—” Apple Bloom turned beet red. “We are not using mah brother to kiss sleeping princesses!” she said in furious outrage.

“No, he’s perfect Apple Bloom,” Sweetie persisited, “He’ll be her real prince charming~”

“Wait, does that mean Big Macintosh is going to have to kiss a horse?” Scootaloo blurted out.

There was a moment of stunned silence, before all three of them were giggling. Sweetie Belle was blushing red now, gasping out, “That’s not what I... meant...!” in between giggles.

“Maybe we should bring along Gummy!” Apple Bloom crowed, and the three devolved into laughter again.

Professor Discord was thoroughly puzzled about this data distribution. At first he was quite happy to disregard it as nothing more than random chance, but there did seem to be a patern to it that wasn’t statistically insignificant. “What you know so far,” he said to the unusually attentive girls who had forced his hand in helping with this mess, “Is that there is a positive correlation between transformees and their location at Canterlot High. The school seems to be a hotspot for transformees, with more than 13% being students or faculty from here, and more than a third of the foal transformees.”

“That’s right,” Sunset spoke up, looking at Discord’s figures with as much comprehension as a teenage high school girl could muster. Which wasn’t all that impressive if as these girls claimed, Sunset was actually older than he was. You would think she could act her age. “We finally have enough data to see some correlation, and we’re pretty sure that something about the high school is doing it.”

“But the statue is quite distant from the mean location at which people began to be transformed!” Twilight said. “And that location isn’t anything strange, or magical that I can fathom.”

“Yes, a location quite separated from the school, out in the front parking lot,” Discord reported. “But do recall that the average is not necessarily the source, if the distribution is skewed. Furthermore, as Canterlot is on the southeast side of the city, so the population to the south and east of us is going to be sparser than that to the north and west.”

The greying man moved his pointer to a map of the school, continuing, “So if the mean location is here, the population distribution is going to bias it, so that the actual source lies somewhere... here.” He moved his pointer slightly south and east, right in the middle of the school’s back lawn.

“But that’s even farther away from the statue!” Twilight protested petulantly. She thankfully was not Discord’s senior, though she was far too old to be in high school. Or to be whining at him.

“Well perhaps your precious horse statue isn’t as important as you thought it was,” Discord replied grouchily. “What we need is permission to dig here, to see if we can unearth some kind of... alien device that could be generating this effect.”

“We can’t go digging in the school’s back lawn,” Sunset sighed, “We’re already in hot enough water as-is. If the principals don’t turn into princesses like Twilight predicted, then I don’t know how we’re going to convince them, until this has gotten so far out of hand that we can’t hope to deal with it.”

Discord shook his head, saying, “Perhaps the issue is not related to the where, but the when. I have something you might be interested in here. You’ve been collecting several different data points, at several different times. You recorded the incidence of ponification organized by where people were at the time of that... facture thing.”

“Quasispatial reified facturation,” Twilight offered unhelpfully.

“Yes yes, whatever,” Discord rolled his eyes, “But you also tried to find where people were when they first started changing, and where they were when Apple Bloom first had that prophetic dream. Here I’ve got the three datasets next to each other. See anything unusual about them?”

After staring at them, neither Twilight or Sunset did, but Sunset Shimmer at least attempted saying, “You mean, the clustering towards Canterlot High...?”

“Yes and no,” Discord granted. “What I did was I measured the standard deviation from that vaunted center point we’ve been talking about so earnestly. And here’s the funny thing, the data set involving the facture has a smaller deviation than the data set based on the moment they began changing. And the data set regarding Apple Bloom’s dream has the smallest deviation of all. I can’t say it’s statistically significant, but what is statistically significant is if you examine the outliers.”

He put up three new diagrams, that had cut out the bulk of the transformees, only displaying locations for the ones who had varied the most from diagram to diagram. And now the girls were starting to get it.

“They’re closer together, the earlier you go!” Twilight said in fascination.

“So maybe we’ve been going about this wrong,” Sunset pondered. “Maybe the moment she found the Golden Apple was the only time we had to measure, because the deviation is the smallest!”

“Well, I can’t say it’s the smallest,” Discord replied contrarily. They looked at him again, and he said, “I’m not sure what I can do for you, with no statistical correlation outside of pure random chaos. Which you claim is my bread and butter, but you simply don’t understand that chaos theory is at its most fundamental state one of unpredictability. If this transformation is a chaotic system, then I’m afraid you’ll never find out when it started. It would be like trying to guess when all the billiard balls on a pool table were all in one place, just by their random position at any given time.

“But if we KNEW when the billiard balls were all in one place,” Sunset postulated.

“Then yes,” Discord admitted, “You could probably make some statistical claims about the probable distribution of this effect.”

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking, Twilight?” Sunset asked with a rare smile.

“I think so Sunset,” Twilight said amiably, “But surely all the balls have fallen in the pocket by now.”

“These billiard balls are people,” Sunset said excitedly, “They remember where they were!”

“So all we need to do is...” Twilight said wide-eyed.

“Figure out when the first transformees were all in the same place!” Sunset crowed.

“Wait, uh...” Twilight frowned. “Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo? I think we might have a few false positives there.”

“Then Noi,” Sunset persisted, “Piña, and Elias. There’s got to be some point that they were all in one place.”

“Along with Cheerilee, yes!” Twilight brightened, “They have to recognize each other somehow!”

“Noi in particular,” Sunset said, “When where a police sergeant and a librarian in the same place? They have to remember!”

“Well what are we waiting for?” Twilight cheered, “Let’s go gather some data!”

The two girls hurried out then, while Professor Discord raised a hand going, “So I should just... stay here then?” but they were already gone.

“Welcome to the club,” came a glum voice at Discord’s feet. The purple girl’s dog was there. He jumped up onto the bed and made himself comfortable, saying smugly in plain English, “You get used to it. Those two really need us quiet supporter types to keep them on the level.”

“A talking dog,” Discord said flatly.

“At your service!” Spike announced. Discord ignored its very absurd existence.

“Hard to say, really,” Noi replied, from where she sat on the fence out in the bright sun, idly chewing on a straw of hay. “I never knew any of those three girls as anything but ponies,” the little tan filly with the violet eyes said in her cute yet bold voice, “Though except Cheerilee... she’s the school librarian, right?”

“Yes?” Sunset and Twilight said, notes at the ready.

“Well, there was a police fair back at the beginning of the school year,” Noi offered speculatively, “We had a whole bunch of the squad out there, teaching kids about safety and good conduct ‘n stuff. That’s really the last time I ever went to Canterlot High, though I could still have run into the librarian at the grocery store or whatever, I dunno.”

“But do you—” Twilight started, only for Noi to interrupt, whining,

“I wasn’t done yet!”

Both girls fell silent.

Noi rolled onto her back, sighing at the clouds overhead, then said, “I remember seeing the librarian at the police fair. Dunno why. She was just standing in the back. I think she got lost or something.”

“But—”

“I don’t remember essactly when it was,” Noi answered Twilight, “You could call the station though.”

Walking alongside a pony was difficult, except when that pony was careful to keep themselves to your pace, and nimble on their hooves. Cheerilee was both those things, now. She accompanied Twilight and Sunset to their portable, happily telling them,

“Why yes, I was at the police fair, just by chance mind you. Scootaloo was there too, I’m sure of it, and no doubt her little friends too.”

Cheerilee frowned, rubbing a foreleg under her chin as she said, “I never could figure out why I left the library to attend that thing. Was just curious what was going on outside, I suppose. It was a slow day.”

Standing outside and chatting had attracted the attention of the people within the portable, and both Professor Discord and that adorable little talking dog came loping out, curious as to what the girls had wrought.

“Do you happen to remember exactly when this police fair was?” Sunset asked the very fuscia pony Cheerilee was now. “Noi didn’t recall, and we’re going to ask the station to look it up, but...”

“I do recall it was early in September,” Cheerilee said frankly. “Right at the beginning of the school year.”

“September 7th, at 12:03pm?” Sunset asked suddenly.

Cheerilee blinked at her, then said, “Yes, actually. That’d be the day, and it was in the afternoon.”

“The time loop...” Twilight mouthed quietly.

“The time loop, of course!” Sunset cheered practically triumphantly.

“Oh dear god, the time loop,” Cheerilee groaned, ears going flat.

“The time what?” the professor asked in puzzlement.

Spike said nothing because he is a dog.

“Oh yes,” Twilight remarked, glancing towards the confused professor, “Your world has been trapped in a year long time loop, for quite some er...time now.”

“And when were you going to tell me about this bit of information?” Discord replied with a very raised brow.

“I did, several times in past loops,” Sunset said teasingly, “You wouldn’t remember, of course.”

“Of course,” Discord said, staring at the girl in disgust, “So, why are you two able to remember?”

“Well, I can’t speculate to the how exactly,” Twilight said, in utter clueless unawareness of Sunset and Discord’s little staring match here, “But it’s most certainly because we’re native Equestrians.”

Discord lost. He looked at Twilight incredulously, asking, “Because you... are horse caretakers? What does that have to do with anything? What do you mean native?”

“Well, we actually came to your world through an alternate dimension,” Sunset said, drawing Discord’s attention again. “Twilight and I were born in the magical land of Equestria.”

Discord stared, speechless.

“I know it’s hard to believe,” the Twilight girl offered earnestly.

“What I believe nonwithstanding, when were you going to tell me about the alternate dimensions to magical worlds?!” Discord snapped at her, “Am I supposed to solve all your problems without knowing that salient fact? What other unimportant factoids haven’t you told me? That you put the stars in the sky? Let me guess, your world has nothing but these adorable ponies in it, who frolic about idylically all day in the Elysian fields. Oh no wait I’ve got it. I’m God, right? I’m some sort of omnipotent being, just deluding myself into thinking I’m the world’s most frustrated math professor, facing a world shattering dilemma?”

“Um, no,” Twilight said uncertainly, “Princess Luna is the one who put most of the stars in the sky, not me. I haven’t been a princess long enough for the opportunity to come up. Equestria is really more mountainous than the Elysian fields, but it does have some lovely fields that ponies have cultivated in its valleys, and I suppose we frolic in them. I think idyllic is a matter of opinion. Oh and... yes, you’re...”

Twilight bit her lip, informing him and Sunset, “Well, in our world you’re technically considered a spirit, but everypony did pretty much come to the conclusion you were some kind of mad god thousands of years ago, when you took over the world and all.”

When Discord could find no words, Sunset facepalmed and told the purple girl, “He was asking rhetorically, Twilight.”

“Oh, heh heh,” Twilight said with a blush, “Heh.”

“I took over the world?” Discord finally managed to blurt out.

“Yep!” Twilight replied pleasantly, “You got better though, after you were harmonized, uh... twice.”

...

“It’s a great treatment for all sorts of manaical maladies!” the purple girl added.

“I’m done,” Discord replied.

“What?” Twilight asked, looking moonstruck.

“I’m done,” Discord repeated curtly, walking away from the trailer, and back to sanity.

“No, wait, where are you going?!” Sunset exclaimed, jogging after him, closely followed by Twilight herself.

“I’m done! I am done. I am not doing this anymore,” Discord calmly explained, perhaps a tad shrilly.

“You have to help us!” Twilight protested.

“Can’t hear you!” Discord shouted, jogging away from her, and singing, “la la la la!” with his fingers in his ears.

Cheerilee stared after the retreating trio, saying, “So, should I wait here or...”

“Welcome to the club, sister,” Spike said sagely from where he stood by her side. “Welcome to the club.”

Cheerilee gave him a thoughtful look, and asked, “...wanna play fetch?”

“Do I?!” Spike said, brightening immediately.

The two of them then hurried off on all fours to seek out a good stick.

“We have to find out exactly where everyone was at 12:03pm on September 7th,” Sunset said, with a wary look at the professor, not currently fleeing the premises of the portable building they’d all finally returned to. (Spike wasn’t there when they got back. Nobody noticed.) “We’re going to... oh, for the love of god,” she facedesked with a weary sigh.

“Yes?” Discord asked curiously, “If you do that, then I can tell you whether the deviation has continued to go down, or if it already passed its lowest point, which is our target time where a data distribution might have some corellation.”

“Yeah, but that means we’ll have to interrogate everyone again,” Sunset groaned, “And try to get them to remember what they were doing almost eight months ago.”

“I don’t suppose you could...” Twilight asked, looking thoughtfully at Discord. The professor raised his palms though, shaking his head, and saying,

“No, no. I’m not a... ‘people’ person you may have noticed. I’ll be happy to crunch your numbers when you’ve come up with some though.”

“I think we’re really onto something this time though,” Twilight said eagerly. “And now with Spike helping, we can go 1.5 times as fast! Say... where is—”

“Well, what are we waiting for?” Sunset said with clenched fists and a vigorous smile. “Let’s go gather some data!”

“Item 3,” Apple Bloom said. Perched on the table in that stone chamber that was their new clubhouse, she continued to look at her short list of agenda items written in blue crayon. “The pony girls.”

“We need to tell them about this dream,” Sweetie Belle said, “But... maybe we shouldn’t tell them just yet. I know they want to help, but...”

“Yeah...” Apple Bloom said glumly. “Poor Ms. Berry.”

“Did she seriously freak out over some imaginary friends?” Scootaloo asked. “I wish I was there.”

“Hey now,” Apple Bloom said admonishingly, “If y’all disappeared, and everyone was telling me you were all made up, I’d be freaking out too!”

“I know, I just... I wish I could do something to help her,” Scootaloo said in frustration. “We could talk to her, and tell her... something, or go out to that barrier thing and find them. If we could find them, then we’d be her heroes!”

“Maybe we should leave that one up to the grownups,” Sweetie Belle said touchily. “We don’t know enough about what’s going on yet, and they have all kinds of equipment to deal with stuff like... that.”

“The edge of the universe is totally something the adults know how to deal with,” Scootaloo said rolling her eyes, “With their extradimensioney magical ghostbuster equipment, right?”

“Okay maybe we should do something,” Sweetie said, blushing deeply.

“Aw, I didn’t mean it in a bad way, Sweetie,” Scootaloo said consolingly, “I just meant you shouldn’t sell yourself short just yet.”

“What we oughta do is find out where that castle is,” Apple Bloom said, “And what we’re dealing with there. Then we cain tell those other girls about what we dreamed. Ah just don’t want them to get all excited and go do something we coulda avoided if we checked out the situation beforehand.”

“I’m okay with that,” Scootaloo said tentatively.

“As long as we leave a note,” Sweetie said, with a calculating look in her cool green eyes, “Otherwise we could get trapped too, and nobody would know to rescue us.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Apple Bloom stated in relief. She was concerned about this point, on account of it felt kind of like going behind their back, but at the same time it seemed like jumping the gun to run to them about every little thing. This adventuring stuff was hard!

She looked at the agenda and faltered in her cheer. “Uh, item 4,” Apple Bloom said, “Diamond Tiara.”

The other two looked at each other silently, before Scootaloo said, “I think we should let her into the club.”

“Well, she ain’t a pony,” Apple Bloom protested, “And she has her major already.”

Scootaloo blushed, saying, “Yeah, but I dunno if she’ll be able to, you know, pursue it. I mean I don’t know how that s-stuff works really. I just thought she really likes mysteries and cool discoveries like this clubhouse, so it might help take her mind off... it.”

“She is definitely pregnant,” Sweetie said in amazement, “It’s starting to get really obvious. I didn’t think that would happen to any of us until after high school.”

“You think she’ll make it, before, you know... pony?” Scootaloo asked worriedly.

“At this point, I don’t know if it would be such a bad idea,” Sweetie said uneasily, “If she just... changed into a filly. You know what happened to the others...”

“Yeah, but a lot of the new ponies are adults now, so new foals are rare,” Scootaloo said hopefully, “She’s taking like, super long to change compared to the other younger ponies. Maybe it’ll... wait?”

“Ah don’t know about you two,” Apple Bloom said a little crossly, “But Diamond Tiara seems fine. She’s tough enough to weather it no matter what happens, and everybody’s all concerned for her.”

The others noticed she was rolling her eyes, and Apple Bloom blushed, stammering, “A-ah just think that Diamond ain’t gonna have no problem. Everyone thinks she needs all sorts of extra special help, but she’s y’know, just bein’ herself with a little bit of a belly.”

Apple Bloom sighed, saying, “She’s not the one ah’m worried about.”

Dinky was so tired of being such a failure. He probably should have been in class, but instead he was hiding out behind the school, sitting by himself, alone. The year was almost over and he wasn’t even ready for finals, but he had so much more to worry about than that it was just excruciating.

He wished he had controlled himself better. He should have seen it coming a mile away. He wished he had never met Diamond Tiara. He wished he’d never even gone to high school. Well, if what that girl said was true, he’d be getting his wish. He couldn’t be a father. He didn’t want to and he couldn’t, and now because he tried to be one, someone else was going to get hurt, who hadn’t even been born yet.

Dinky didn’t blame Diamond if she got rid of it, or had to give it to the orphanage. Dinky wasn’t even going to be able to be there. He was going to have to be something else, someone who couldn’t handle any of this. He did what he wanted without caring about others, and now some kid was going to be forced to go through life without a... father.

He wanted Diamond Tiara again. It built up over time it seemed, bothering him more and more, until he couldn’t help but go to her. Just an innocent desire to be close to her and spend time with her, until it became anything but innocent. He knew not to trust himself anymore, but he didn’t stop feeling it! He loved how un-innocent it got, and he hated himself for loving it. It seemed like he ruined everything he touched, and everything he loved just hurt people.

When they even noticed he existed, that is.

He and Diamond... failed to control themselves, but it might have been salvageable. He’d have to raise a child and go to school, and probably get a job right out of high school instead of attending college, but at least the kid wouldn’t be... gone. At least Dinky would have stood a chance at taking control of the situation, and being the best father he could be. But then that purple girl had come to see him about his destiny as a pony...

Dinky didn’t want to think about that now, or ever, so he forced himself to get up and head on towards his next class. He didn’t know why he even bothered at this point though. He didn’t know why anyone did.

“Yeah, he’s been kind of standoffish,” Scootaloo admitted, “I guess he feels guilty or something. I know like half the school thinks he is, now that they suddenly care about Diamond Tiara.”

“Yeah—well—ah know,” Apple Bloom said in a strained tone, “But ah dunno if it’s just him getting picked on. Diamond’s drinking in all the attention, an’... he’s just being sorta quietlike, you know?”

“Dinky is a very quiet person in general,” Sweetie Belle countered.

Apple Bloom nodded to the unicorn filly. “Heaven knows you’re right, Sweetie Belle,” she admitted, “Ah just got a bad feeling about this. Something ain’t right with that boy.”

There was an awkward silence between the three, and Apple Bloom broke it by saying, “Ah’ll go talk to him. Make sure he’s... y’know, alright.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” Scootaloo said in a relieved tone. “I’d say we all should, but that’d be kind of like ganging up on him, and those white knight kids are already doing plenty of that.”

“And, should we let Diamond know about our secret clubhouse?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Nah,” Apple Bloom said, “Pretty sure Diamond’s doing as fine as she cain be. I wanna make sure he ain’t thinking of dumping her or nothing before we go do anything like that.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Scootaloo said with a grin. “So, do item 5.”

“Oh, right!” Apple Bloom said happily, “Item 5, our club mascot!”

“We need a cool mascot,” Scootaloo said eagerly, “Like not a pony like the school mascot, but maybe a pet, or a—a gerbil!”

“That sounds like a lot of work,” Sweetie Belle replied uneasily.

Twilight prepped her clipboard, asking, “Alright miss, now where were you on September 7th of last year, at 12:03pm?”

The pony tilted her head, and answered, “Well I hthingk I wahs asshool ash hueshoell, bu’mayfee i’wahsze weegkeng?”

“...this might take a while,” Twilight grumbled.

One bright afternoon in May, two ponies stumbled out of the old, abandoned barn, laughing with each other side by side. One was a caramel brown stallion, aptly named, with smooth, dark brown hair, a blush on his face and a very dusty tail. The icon of horseshoes adorned his thighs.

The other pony’s tail wasn’t dusty, but it was very dissheveled. She was a blue mare with a lot of green in her blue fur. Her blonde tail was ruffled and rubbed the wrong way, and very perky as the two of them trotted away. Dissheveled blue wings clung to her sides, and on her thighs was a bright yellow lightning bolt.

“I can’t believe we zhust did that!” Sassaflash whispered beside herself with excitement.

“Hey it worked, didn’ it?” Caramel whispered back.

“What if shomeone saw us?” she said eagerly.

“We’re poniesh, whassit matter?” he replied. “Zhey don’t even have clothes for us!”

Dancing in a circle and looking at herself anxiously, the pegasus mare said, “They could shtill see me! We need to ge’ cleaned up.”

“I’d give you a hot shower, bu’ zhe creek ish closer,” he said apologetically.

With a yell and a shriek, they sat down in the cold water, sidling up against each other and trying to get used to the cold.

“Did shoo mean that before,” he asked quietly, after they’d gotten used to the water’s temperature, “Abou’ wanting pony babiesh?”

“Yeah, I dunno,” she said looking at her soaked tail unsurely, “I woul’ nevera done that in a million years when I firs’ shange, but I jus’ been really wanting it lately. Have hyou even sheen the foals? They’rh sho cute!” a gleeful smile leapt on her face, despite herself.

They could see three foals in fact, over beyond of the shaded creek, by the main farm house. The orange one was a flier it seemed, and they were playing some game by which the orange one would fly up and look around, then drop down to confer with the others. Then the yellow and white one would accompany the orange one to run around to another side of the building and repeat their actions.

“Too many foalsh already,” the stallion said self consciously, “Sure you wanna add more of zhem?”

“Bi’ late for that, Gashonova,” she said teasingly, splashing water his way. He laughed and splashed back, and that occupied their attention for a while. Once they had calmed down though, laying belly up on the banks of the creek, the mare gazed forward and said,

“It prob’lly won’ work the firs’ time. We should be shafe, but Iunno. Maybe could we do it jus’ a lil bit more, an’ you can just finish outshide?”

“Sheesh, you haven’ had enough already?” he asked her wryly.

“I know!” she crowed, wiggling her hooves in the air. “I’m inshashiable!”

“Remember when you firsh’ change?” he asked. “You didn’ even want anyone to toush you.”

“I feel differen’ now,” she said evenly. “Dunno wha’ it is, jus’ started feeling sho darn good to be a pony. Plush my boyfrien’ turned out to be a hot one.’

“You too babe,” he replied smoothly, using his long, supple lips to give the green pegasus a peck on the cheek. It wasn’t long before they were doing a lot more than that.

“Alright, Cutie Major Crusaders!” Apple Bloom said excitedly as Sweetie Belle finally trotted up to her and Scootaloo. The three of them were once again outside the classroom, preparing for an exciting search through the school’s empty halls for mysteries and secrets. “Once we reach th’ roof we’ll know for sure what we’re dealing with. Are we ready to ‘rock the Earth?’”

When the other two didn’t answer, but stared, wide-eyed at a spot above and behind Apple Bloom, she tilted her head, puzzled.

“What’s wrong, girls?” she asked worriedly. “The motto ain’t working? C’mon we can’t sit around here lollygagging. We gotta get moving or we’ll get spotted by a—”

Someone cleared their throat behind Apple Bloom.

“Hall... monitor...” she finished, soon joining the others in shrunken pupils and laid-back ears.

The three fillies were escorted by the hall monitor straight to the principal’s office. Not even given a lecture to this time, or a warning. An ugly ball of revulsion rose in Apple Bloom’s heart as she kicked herself a thousand times for doing this again. She just... she wasn’t having no fun in class, and she wanted to just play with her friends, just a little. And it didn’t hurt to sneak out just this once. Even though ‘just this once’ turned into almost every day.

Why was she getting in so much trouble now? Couldn’t she sit still for one stinking hour? Well, one hour was fine, but 7 periods was just impossible! Apple Bloom didn’t know why she was turning into this big bad troublemaker, but it was certainly her fault as much as theirs. She’d encouraged her friends to come play with her, and tried to pass off what they were doing as no big deal, and they believed her. It wasn’t their fault. They didn’t know just how much Apple Bloom didn’t have control of herself. And now they were all going to see the principal. Again.

Never in Apple Bloom’s whole life did she think she’d say the word “again” in regards to seeing the principal.

The three of them tried to stand strong together once they got into the principal’s office, but Apple Bloom just wasn’t feeling it today. She wanted to protect her friends to bear the brunt of whatever punishment was coming down on them, but she just didn’t feel like fighting anymore. The three of them stared forlornly at the ground in front of the principal’s desk. Nobody spoke at first, the principal just sitting at her desk looking down at them... judgementally.

“I don’t think you three should finish the school year,” Principal Celestia said cooly. “This is the fifth time that you’ve been truant in the last 3 weeks, and I’m afraid that’s only counting the times that hall monitors have been able to catch you. You continue to fall behind in your studies, because let me guess, it’s ‘boring’?”

“Well it is,” Sweetie Belle said resentfully, not willing to look at the principal, not even sideways.

“I know what you’ve been doing,” the principal said with little compassion. “I know how exciting it is to try and find the ‘school secrets’ but I can assure you that there’s no secrets about this school that I wouldn’t freely give you. You need to stay in your classes, and focus on your studies, or I don’t think you belong in this institution.”

“This is just because we’re little kids!” Scootaloo said resentfully. “You just don’t want us to be allowed here because you think we’re not old enough!”

“That is a very hurtful way to put it,” Principal Celestia said in a chiding tone, “There are many reasons that your... transformation might mean that attending high school is not in your near future. Firstly, you may have many opportunities in the future to succeed in high school, once your bodies and... minds have matured to the point that you can handle it. Secondly, the school is going through some troubling times, and I think it might be too distracting, for you to focus on your studies. Thirdly...”

Apple Bloom kind of sympathized with what the principal was saying... what the principal was repeating, really. It was all stuff she’d heard before, but Apple Bloom didn’t want to admit it. She didn’t want to be some stupid little kid who had to sit around the farm all day not doing anything important. She wanted to be in high school, succeeding at... something. Having heard all this stuff before it was entirely too easy to tune her out, and Apple Bloom’s friends weren’t having much more luck themselves.

Scootaloo kept getting distracted, looking curiously at the literature in the principal’s bookcase, or what she’d written on her whiteboard regarding staff reviews, or the degree Principal Celestia had framed on her wall. Apple Bloom had to admit it was natural to be curious what kind of college degree you had to get in order to become a principal.

Sweetie in the meantime seemed less remorseful as disgusted, with herself and with the whole situation. She just flopped down on her belly, toying with a hoof at a very important piece of carpet in front of the principal’s desk, staring dully forward while the principal’s words drifted into her ears. Apple Bloom kind of wished she could join her, because it was kind of nerve racking trying to stand here and be brave all by herself, defending the three of them from the principal’s accusations.

There really wasn’t much that they could have said to defend themselves. The principal was right. They didn’t belong in this school anymore, and it’d been a mistake to think that they could handle it. There wasn’t anything Apple Bloom could do about it. All she could do was stand there letting the principal’s words wash over her. Scootaloo yawned and scratched at her side with a wing, while Sweetie Belle seemed to have scooted forward out of view of the principal entirely, just fiddling idly around with the hoofprint trim at the border of the principal’s desk. Apple Bloom didn’t like being useless, but what was the point of fighting it, if all the three of them could do was sit there and take it?

“Sweetie Belle?” Principal Celestia said, leaning over her desk to peer at the little pony’s bubblegum colored tail. “I need you to listen to me, Sweetie Belle.”

Sweetie Belle grumbled an affirmative, not lifting her head, so much as turning her ears up straight again to hear the principal better. “Sweetie, I really need you to pay attention for this,” the principal said commandingly.

“We’re all payin’ attention,” Apple Bloom said defensively. “You’re right. We shouldn’t be attending school, and we should all just go home and give up.”

Surprisingly, it wasn’t her friends but the principal who consoled her. With a look of worry to Apple Bloom, Principal Celestia told Apple Bloom gently, “You are all wonderful girls, even if you might have trouble being the best students sometimes. I can’t blame you for anything that’s happened. It just might not be the best idea to continue to put you through the rigors of a high school education.”

“Yeah, okay,” Apple Bloom grumbled. She didn’t feel consoled by that, only babied and resentful.

“I really do have your best interests in mind, when I...” the principal started into it again. Apple Bloom sighed to herself, and just looked to her friends for support. Scootaloo wasn’t much help, standing there with her head tilted back and a bored look on her face. Sweetie Belle had just gone back to messing with the decor lining the bottom of the principal’s desk. It was weird how the school had such a consistent horse theme going on, with their mascot being the Colts, and this hoof print decor everywhere.

“Apple Bloom, are you listening?” the principal asked, and Apple Bloom snapped her head up, saying,

“Yes’m! Ah’m listening about the... interests in mind and stuff.”

“You see? This is what I’m talking about,” the principal said. “Grade school is different from high school for a reason, and you three no longer have the attention span to... Scootaloo, are you asleep?”

“What? No!” Scootaloo snorted, tilting her head forward and cocking her ears. “I was just um—with the thing at the place.”

Sighing jadedly, the principal said, “And you Sweetie Belle, could you please stay where I can see you, while I’m talking to you?”

Ignoring her, the white filly continued so play with the hoof print decor. “Sweetie Belle?” the principal asked again. Silent treatment. Leaning forward, the principal said in exasperation, “Sweetie BeeeeEEELL” Celestia trailed off in an undignified squawk as she, the chair she was sitting in, her desk, and a good portion of the floor started sliding to the side.

The three fillies scrambled back from the principal’s desk, as ponderous, gravelly stone mechanisms ground in the floor underneath them, and a yawning chasm opened up in the floor. Methodically, stone steps slid out deeper and deeper as the pit skewed sideways more and more. Then with a shuddering clash, everything stopped moving, and all was silent and still.

“I can explain!” Sweetie Belle squeaked.

Author's Note

Paying Attention

The CMC were sent home early that day, and Scootaloo wasn’t sure if she would ever understand exactly why. Somehow, Sweetie Belle had discovered a school secret, no, the biggest school secret ever while they were in the middle of being reamed by the principal, and it was under the principal’s desk!

After the principal had to climb over her desk to get away from where it had been slid to the side of the wall, she took one look at the staircase leading downward, and the three curious fillies peering down its depths, and immediately herded them out of the room.

Was that like, doubly in trouble, when you get kicked out of the office you got sent to for getting in trouble?

The principal hadn’t seemed mad, just... frightened. She actually apologized to them, and said that they should take the rest of the day off while she tried to find a way to deal with this new development. Scootaloo didn’t get it. Why wasn’t Celestia mad? Scoots knew she would have been mad if someone had discovered their new secret clubhouse. So why wasn’t the principal mad when they discovered her secret staircase?

Then again, Scootaloo would have been mad when Big Macintosh discovered their old secret clubhouse, but she had been way too frazzled at the time due to transforming into a little pony, so maybe it was something like that?

One thing Scootaloo couldn’t complain about though, is getting out of school early. She tried not to feel too relieved, as the three of them sat in the back seat of the Apple’s big green pickup, while Granny drove them back to the farm, grumbling the whole way about not raising no hooligans. After kicking them out of the truck (natch) and giving them the evil eye, Granny said not to do nothing, and that she was gonna get to the bottom of this. Then she pulled the truck out of the front yard and went back down the road to Canterlot High.

“So... we’re supposed to do something?” Sweetie Belle asked in a bit of shock, standing out in front of their house there.

“Whadya mean, Sweetie Belle?” Apple Bloom replied in confusion.

“Well,” the candy white unicorn pondered, “Granny said not to do nothing. So doesn’t that mean to do something?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Sweetie,” Apple Bloom said, rolling her eyes. “That just means to especially do nothing, not no how, not no way!”

“But ‘not nothing’ is something!” Sweetie protested.

Apple Bloom shook her head, arguing, “No way! ‘Not nothing’ is extra not nothing!”

And Scootaloo saw Rainbow Dash soaring overhead.

While her friends started arguing, or... not arguing (Scootaloo wasn’t sure), Scootaloo thought she finally saw Rainbow Dash soaring overhead. Scootaloo actually hadn’t seen Rainbow Dash flying before, or even learning to fly, which was really frustrating. It wasn’t just that Scootaloo was always being kept busy with school. Dash had been so excited when her feathers were coming in, so why was she being so secretive about her flying practice?

Scootaloo had been worried that Rainbow Dash was trying to make her feel better, by not trying to one-up the little orange pegasus in flying skill. But the truth is, there weren’t any feelings in Scootaloo that were going to be hurt. Scoots already knew Rainbow Dash would be a natural at it, and she wanted to see her being amazing. Scootaloo didn’t feel even a little bit self conscious. Now that she finally got to see Rainbow Dash finally in the air, high overhead from where she’d leapt from the roof, a smile grew on Scootaloo’s face.

Scootaloo’s smile turned to an expression of horror, as Dash’s soaring soon turned to flailing in mid-air, and falling, and then crashing hard into a set of bushes that didn’t look like Rainbow Dash’s original destination. Alarmed, Scootaloo ran away from her friends, galloping over to the bushes where a rainbow maned head was emerging, groaning in pain.

“Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo shouted, “Are you alright? What happened?!”

As soon as Rainbow Dash heard her, Dash froze in place, then turned slowly to face Scootaloo with a nerve wracked smile on her face.

“Oh, hey Scootaloo!” she said with that fake smile, “This isn’t what it... looks like. I was just testing theshe bushes to see how they uh... landed on.” Rainbow Dash’s mane was full of leaves and twigs, and she had a rough spot on the side of her cheek, where her face had planted in the dirt. “Aren’ you sh’pposed to be in... school?”

“We got in trouble, in trouble, and Granny took us home early,” Scootaloo said warily, raising a cautious forehoof and looking over her big pegasus friend. “You were... testing the bushes?”

“Yep, definitely not good landing material,” Dash said confidently, walking out of the bushes and trying to hold back a hiss of pain as her left foreleg hit the ground. Walking on three legs, she hobbled away from Scootaloo. With her brilliantly colored tail drooping, she looking a lot more ashamed than she should have ever looked.

Scootaloo snapped out of her dumbfounded paralysis, and trotted after the larger pony. Rainbow Dash seemed so embarassed, and everything about Scootaloo was making it even worse, even the stupid dress she was wearing! The fact that (like most ponies here) Rainbow Dash was totally naked made Scootaloo keenly aware that she had a brown dress on. She tried not to draw attention to it but Rainbow Dash just seemed really vulnerable like this. Why else would Rainbow Dash be acting so weird and embarassed?

Saying, “What was that? You totally crashed and burned! Didn’t you jump off the roof?” Scootaloo trotted alongside the limping pegasus and tried not to trip on her own dress, looking up at her hero with big, worried eyes.

“Leave me alone!” Rainbow Dash replied tensely, “I’m fine! I just had a bit of a shlip-up an’ I’ll figure it out any day now.”

“You... you said you had flying figured out, though!” Scootaloo retorted, both worried and hurt by that.

“I do!” Rainbow Dash said desperately, “I jus’ have to figure out how to... you know, stay up there. I’m doing fine, and I’ll be a—a good flyer before hyou know it!”

“Please, Rainbow Dash,” Scootaloo said, trying to follow along with the pony. Rainbow Dash was just going... any way she could, to get away from others. To get away from Scootaloo.

Scootaloo followed Rainbow Dash over toward the cattle pasture, increasingly distressed as she said, “What’s wrong? I thought you had this whole flying thing beat! Have you been doing this every day? Maybe you’re tiring yourself out too much! C’mon Rainbow Dash, what’s wrong? It can’t be because it’s hard, because all I do is flap and I can pull myself up into the air. Rainbow Dash, why are you running away? Rainbow Dash!”

Why was Dash ignoring her? Scootaloo was so—

Scootaloo scrambled back in shock as Dash rounded on her. There were genuine tears in the blue mare’s magenta eyes, as she shouted angrily at the little filly, “I can’t. Fly! Okay?”

Dinky recalled the time that she’d told him.

“I was lucky enough to remember seeing your counterpart in Ponyville,” Twilight had said to Dinky Doo.

“My what, in where?” Dinky had replied cluelessly.

“Well I come from a... alternate universe, so to speak,” Twilight told Dinky in private confidence earlier that month, in one of those conference rooms in the back of the library... with the sound proof walls. “That appears to be erm... leaking into your own. Each one of you has a counterpart in my world. Unfortunately I don’t know everypony in my world, but those such as yourself, I do remember.”

“Is this a joke?” Dinky asked, looking around the plain white room for cameras.

“No joke,” Twilight answered quickly, “And you don’t have to believe me. I just want you to be aware, so that when the time comes, if the time comes, you won’t be caught completely off guard. I can’t do that with everypony, and with you, it’s the least I could... the least I could do.”

Trying to digest the purple girl’s words, Dinky asked, “Why do you keep saying ‘everypony’?”

“Because in my world, everyone’s a pony,” Twilight answered. “That’s the reason, I suspect, people are turning to ponies here. Some sort of... leak I suppose. The fact remains that you’re each transforming to the physical analog of your pony counterpart in my world. And I don’t know everypony in my world, but those I do, I can warn their counterpart here what kind of pony they’re likely to end up being, if this phenomenon continues to accelerate.”

“Warn them?” Dinky asked, “As if being a pony isn’t bad enough? What kind of pony do you think I would change into?”

Twilight seemed nervous about this saying, “I-it’s not always the most pleasant news. I mean you all want to stay as you are obviously, but considering the... thing you have with Diamond Tiara, it’s kind of... important.”

Dinky didn’t like the sound of that.

“In my world,” Twilight said seriously, “I know of a mare named Ditzy Do. She’s a very kind pegasus mare, who on occasion delivers my mail.”

The implications of that were way too heavy to take in all at once, so Dinky had blurted out, “You mean the drama girl?”

Twilight blinked at that, saying, “The who?”

“There’s a dramatist...” Dinky said uneasily, “A drama major named Ditzy Do. My roommate Written Script mentions her a lot. Says she’s good at destroying things.”

“She’s grey and blonde, with golden eyes that don’t go the right way?” Twilight prompted.

Dinky blushed at that, saying, “I don’t know that he mentioned what she looked like... you might just ask?”

“I might just do so...” Twilight said ominously to herself.

“But isn’t that Ditzy’s counterpart? What does that have to do with me?” Dinky asked in confusion. “I’m Dinky Do, not Ditzy Do. Wait you don’t mean...”

Twilight gave a grimace of a smile and said, “Yes, in my world, Ditzy is your... uhm... mother. I learned about you mostly because Ditzy loves to talk about her daughter. Though there was the muffin incident...”

“Daughter?” Dinky asked faintly.

“Yeah, um...” Twilight swallowed, “Sorry.”

Dinky mumbled, “So I’m going to change into a pegasus...”

“Unicorn.”

“Mare.”

“Filly.”

Dinky had a sinking feeling, asking “What do you mean by filly?”

“Well out of diapers, obviously, but roughly the age of seven?” Twilight replied. “Ponies age differently from humans, but seven is about right by the human time scale. So that would put her, by your school system, roughly in... second grade of elementary school.”

“And she’s a... she?” Dinky asked uneasily.

Twilight nodded. “About half of the males undergoing this transformation have... become female. It’s just whatever your counterpart is, and pony females statistically outnumber the males, 3 to 1. So what I’m saying is... if you transform into a pony, you’re likely to transform into a young unicorn filly, and you should prepare as such. I don’t know what consolation I can give you, but at least you’ll know.”

“How could... my counterpart be female?” Dinky asked in sheer disbelief. “What says who is your counterpart? What could be so different between our worlds that makes me a guy?”

Twilight paused at that, before asking curiously, “Aren’t you more concerned about what makes her a girl?”

“That’s not the same thing?” Dinky replied cluelessly.

“No, it... just something I’ve been noticing,” she said thoughtfully. “You don’t want to be a girl, do you?”

“A little late if I did,” Dinky grumbled bitterly. Then realizing what the girl was asking he said, “Wait no, I don’t. Why would I want to—you know what I’ve done, right?”

“...yes, I’ve been told,” she said reluctantly. “I don’t judge you for it at all. You’re still a... decent boy, I suppose? But I get the impression you’re not exactly happy with the situation.”

“Of course not,” Dinky replied, an unusual amount of emotion creeping into his voice as he said, “I don’t want any of this! I don’t want her to be pregnant. I don’t want to be the one who caused it. I don’t want to be... to be dangerous like this. Girls and even guys think I could hurt them, like I hurt... her.”

He took a shuddering breath. “I just don’t want to feel like this,” he said, wiping at stubborn tears coming unbidden to his face.

“Like what, exactly?” the practically persistent girl said. Dinky looked at her, suddenly paranoid. She couldn’t be trying to do that with him, could she? He hated the joyous hope that rose in him at the prospect of that. He was supposed to be Diamond Tiara’s boyfriend!

“It’s nothing you’d want to hear,” he grumbled, turning away. “Just stupid guy stuff.”

“That’s what I’m curious about though,” she replied. “What sort of ‘guy’ stuff has been bothering you? It just seems like a lot of guys around here are bothered by um... ‘guy stuff’ so I’m curious.”

“Well,” he said somewhat resentfully, “When I act on my desires, bad things happen. What’s wrong with not wanting that? You don’t know what it’s like; what it was like. I’d look at her and just... want it. I’m not used to feeling that way. I’m just a kid!”

Dinky’s head dipped enough for his blonde bangs to fall in his eyes as he said, “I was a kid at least. But then this happened. And now I don’t get to be a kid. I just have to be a... I d-don’t want to be a father I want...”

He couldn’t tell her what he wanted. He wanted a woman holding him, surrounding him, enveloping him in her gentle embrace, whispering to him that everything’s going to be okay. And he couldn’t have that, because guys who want that stop being able to control themselves, and end up as fathers.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you,” Twilight said in confused apology. Dinky tried to pull himself together for her sake, so she didn’t have to see him making a fool out of himself. It felt... far too easy to calm himself.

Taking another deep breath, Dinky said, “It’s fine. I just have a lot to deal with now. No matter what problems I have with being a guy, I have to be, because Diamond Tiara is... pregnant, and I have to l-live up to th–that...” Okay maybe not too easy. “It’s out of my hands now,” he bit out tightly. “I have to be a guy, end of story.”

“Uh...” the girl said with a very conflicted grimace that might have passed for a smile. “I did come here to inform you that you’d probably be transforming into a young unicorn filly. You understood that, right?”

“Yeah, but what—” Dinky froze. Let it never be said he was swift to the draw, but the implications of this crazy thing finally hit him. He couldn’t be a guy. He might be physically unable to be a child’s father. This was terrible!

“But what if Diamond Tiara has a baby?” he asked looking at the purple girl in terror. “Who’s going to be the father? I can’t abandon it! I’m not gonna make Diamond have to do what my... my mom did! I’m really gonna be a... a little kid? And a girl? How would I even... how would we even care for... dammit!”

Well Twilight was no help, and really Dinky didn’t think anyone could be of much help with this. He might as well just be alone, then. He took a breath in the relative quiet, looking around where he was. The roof was a good place to go for some peace and solitude. You weren’t supposed to come up here, but whatever. Dinky didn’t really care anymore.

He leaned on the railing, looking at the students moving around far below, not really seeing them. It was nice to be able to get away from the other kids for a while, but it was so hard not to think of stuff up here. Stuff Dinky didn’t want to think about. What that girl had said to him, how it was probably totally true.

He cursed himself for his stupid reaction to her revelation. It wasn’t what a high schooler would do, at least not a boy one. But after realizing he couldn’t be a father at all, he just couldn’t hold it all in, and was soon making a teary eyed fool of himself for no reason at all.

Twilight Sparkle then actually got up and tried to hug him! He jerked away from her, pushing her hand away. He didn’t want to do it to her too! She’d never let him. He didn’t want her to let him! Even if it would feel really good. What was he even thinking? Did he have to feel like this about every girl now? Was there something wrong with him? Other guys said things like that about girls all the time, so why didn’t Dinky want... to do what he wanted?

He sighed, pushing away from the railing and stepping lightly toward the roof access doors. He preferred when it was the other kids who were attacking him; it didn’t hurt as much.

Rainbow Dash was in huge trouble. This was a total disaster! Nothing she did seemed to work! Talking? Easy. Walking? No problem! But flying?

She groaned, crawling out of the mud pit she’d nose dived in. Why were farms so dirty? It was getting all over her wings! And the rest of her too. The polychrome pegasus plodded stolidly to the nearby creek, where she knelt in the cool water on four legs, and tilted a wing down to splash water on herself. Rainbow wasn’t sure if you used hooves or wings for that, but by kind of hugging her own body she could use a hoof to loosen the dirt that would otherwise become encrusted to her wings, the creek water rinsing it cleanly away.

That didn’t do any good though. Rainbow looked at her wing in despair before sort of folding it and stalking away from the riverbed. Once she was in the sun dappled clearing again, Rainbow spread her wings, just like that one pegasus had told her you do it. That pegasus had heard it from her friend, who got it from a pegasus who was actually flying, so it definitely was how you were supposed to move a wing.

Pegasi, Dash learned, didn’t need to be as aerodynamic because these magic airfoils would extend from their wings, and they could control their weight pretty much at will. Some pegasi found that terribly amusing, making the scale go up and down as they stood still upon it, or chattering about how they always meant to lose some weight but never figured this was how they were going to do it. Rainbow Dash wasn’t quite as impressed, but it definitely made getting up in the air easier. You had to sort of... let go of the ground, that’s what it felt like, and then Rainbow Dash would be bouncier and flutterier just like magic. Well, literal magic.

It wasn’t hard to use her wings. In fact, it was hard not to. She wasn’t exaggerating about fluttery. She felt like her wings were on a hair trigger, not that she knew what it was like when they weren’t. They were just so twitchy and itchy, and no matter how Dash rubbed against the fence she couldn’t seem to get it to go away.

Rainbow Dash reluctantly had to conclude that there was something wrong with her wings, like seriously wrong. They were just getting so disarrayed and skewed, and they were more of a fluffy mess of feathers than an actual wing. She participated in one of the daily flying lessons some ponies were doing around here, like three or four times, but no matter how hard she tried, she could barely stay off the ground. Other pegasi were in the same bind, but Rainbow Dash was supposed to be a good flyer! She was supposed to have an alternate universe self who was like, the best at flying!

Once she humiliated herself enough in front of the others, she went off to practice alone, but not even that helped her situation. She spread her wings with a wince of anticipation as the feathers caught on each other, and leaped into the air. The soft arc she traveled was far higher than it should have been, but it still wasn’t flying. She tried to flap her wings, and... it just wouldn’t work. Dash had to flap them faster and faster as something just drained out of her, and then she crashed heavily to the ground, again.

Maybe she didn’t want to fly. Maybe she just hated herself, and was psyching herself out so that she could never get in the air. Rainbow Dash wanted to fly, not kick stuff really hard, or run around like a pony. She didn’t just want to fly. She wanted to be good at flying. But it was like she got screwed over at the starting gate, and as her wings grew in they just seemed to be getting worse, not better. Rainbow Dash didn’t know. All she knew is she could not let Scootaloo know she was having any problems, like, at all. The kid still looked up to her, unbelievably! Rainbow Dash couldn’t let a brave kid like that think that her favorite athlete wasn’t any good at something like this.

Rainbow Dash practiced in futility, and she could sort of get a glide going if she climbed on top of the fence to jump off first, but the air just whistled right through her wings instead of gliding alongside them, and it wasn’t long before she was nose diving again. She pounded the dirt with a hoof, groaning in utter outrage, but for once in her life, there was nothing she could do. With no outlet for her frustration, Dash just headed droopily for the farm house. Maybe she would feel better if she got something to eat, and got fat so it’d actually make sense why she couldn’t fly.

Instead, she tried jumping off the roof again, right when Scootaloo got home early. And you all know how well that went over.

There at the edge of the meadow, Rainbow Dash rounded on that infuriating kid, who was just saying all the wrong things, and shouted, “I can’t. Fly! Okay? I can’t fly. There’sh something wrong with my hwings! They’re just growing in wrong, and I can’ fly. I’m shorry if I can’t do everyfing you want me to, but I can’t—”

Rainbow Dash turned away from Scootaloo abruptly and sat on the grassy field, a horrible blush that should never have been on her face flooding through her. “I can’t... fly,” she said dully, staring at the ground. “I tried everything. It’s jus’ not gonna happen.”

Scootaloo ran around to face Rainbow Dash in a panic, the filly not... flying, but still spreading her wings in shock, where they poked out of that cute little brown pegadress.

“What are you saying, Rainbow Dash!” Scoots shouted shrilly, as Dash tried to look away from her, but Scootaloo kept moving to face her. “You have to fly! That’s what you wanted more than anything else! More than any pony else! Miss Twilight said you had to fly! She knew the other you who was a great flyer and she—”

“Well maybe the other me got to fly her whole life,” Dash shot back angrily, “And I just got theshe wings a monshago and I already broke them!” Crossing her forehooves, Rainbow Dash tried to conceal a choked sob as an exasperated huff, but it wasn’t very effective.

“How did you break them?” Scootaloo replied in wide eyed shock, trying to look at Dash’s wings now, but now Dash kept rotating them away from Scootaloo seeing them. She didn’t want Scootaloo to see how bad they were. “Are you hurt?” Scootaloo asked, “What happened?”

“I’m not hurt!” Dash said to the little pegasus, “Why don’ you just leave me alone?”

“Because you’re Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo insisted, “And you’re the best athlete in Canterlot High, maybe even in the whole division! Even though the division is supposed to be imaginary, but that makes you the best athlete in the whole world! There’s nothing you can’t do! You have to fly, because... because I’ve never seen you this sad before! What happened? You can tell me I won’t laugh! I’ll ask my mom, and she’ll know how to fix them!”

Rainbow’s heart caught in her... weird pony chest. This kid was just... something else. She always knew how to make Rainbow Dash feel like she was on top of the world. Cared for. Scootaloo might not have been the most helpful, or reliable of people, but her adoration was genuine, more than Rainbow Dash could have imagined she ever deserved.

“I didn’t do anyfing,” Dash said quietly. “They just grew in bad, and I can’t fix them. I’m jus’ deformed or the transformation didn’t work right or something.”

“They can’t be that bad,” Scootaloo whined, edging around to try to look at one.

“Oh yeah?” Dash said challengingly, “You think you could fly wif... zheez?!” She spread her wings, wincing as a feather caught on—another feather, but staring at Scootaloo defiantly. Her wings were a complete mess, with the raggedy feathers looking more like fur than feathers, pinions going every which way, their tips broken and thin. Even her secondaries looked stiff and stuck out in unnatural angles.

Scootaloo’s eyes widened in shock, as if the sight stabbed deep in her on a level she didn’t really understand, a primal revulsion that made her feel like it was the worst thing she’d ever seen in her life. It was terrifying to see Scootaloo react that way. At Scootaloo’s speechless gape, Rainbow Dash struggled her wings folded again, and said anxiously, “S-see? That’s why I can’t—”

But Scootaloo’s paralysis again broke, and she darted with blinding speed to Rainbow Dash’s right wing, physically pulling it out with her hooves, shouting, “Rainbow Dash, what did you do to these? This is terrible!”

“I didn’ do anything!” Rainbow snarled, pulling her wing back with a snap that made the little pegasus yelp as the feathers almost clipped her on the way. “It jus’ grew that way, and no sthupid alien girl is gonna fix it. I give up. I’m just broken, okay?”

“How could this happen?” Scootaloo said frantically, “They grew in like that and preening didn’t even help?”

“No it—” Rainbow Dash frowned, glaring at the filly self-consciously.

Scootaloo was extremely nonplussed as Dash glared at her, looking up at Dash with scared violet eyes, folding her own wings and asking, “...what?”

“What’s preening?” Rainbow Dash asked leerily.

The gentle breeze whistled around them. A few foals were playing in the distance, chasing each other and laughing as children are wont to do, even if one of them used to be a 40 year old truck driver. “In the last month,” Scootaloo said in the quiet of the meadow. “You didn’t preen your wings. Your feathers were all growing in and you didn’t preen them, not even once.”

“Why, was I supposed to?” Rainbow said suspiciously. “Nobody shaid anything about anything shpecial I had to do with zhem.”

“I... I forgot to tell everybody,” Scootaloo said anxiously, turning away from Rainbow Dash to look away over the empty meadow. “I thought they knew you were supposed to preen your wings. How many pegasuses here aren’t preening?”

“What’s preening, already?” Rainbow asked impatiently.

Scootaloo blushed at that and looked at Rainbow again, down at Rainbow Dash’s hooves at least.

“It’s uh... it’s kind of weird, and embarassing,” Scootaloo said haltingly, “But it really is important. Like, really, really important. Like, ‘I didn’t even realize how bad it would be if you didn’t’ important. Oh jeez I really messed up now...”

“Could you pleaze stop telling me, and jus’ show me how to fix my wings?” Rainbow asked anxiously. “How do I do preening? Serioushly, these things are killing me!”

“Y-yeah, they must be really itchy,” Scootaloo said, only for Rainbow to grab one in her teeth and just yank—”Not like that!” Scootaloo yelped, head jerking back in alarm.

“They are sho itchy,” Rainbow spat out bitterly, along with a few feathers. “I can’t even think wif them all... messed up.”

“Okay, okay, just...” Scootaloo cautiously approached Rainbow Dash’s side. “Just spread your wing, and hold it so it’s in line with the ground.”

Rainbow Dash did so, but warily. Scootaloo then went up close to Dash and almost stuck her nose right in the pit of the thing, but jerked back at the last second going, “Uh—wow. Okay, so you see that um... oily stuff right there at the base of your wing?”

Dash blinked, but looked closer, and... it did have kind of a greasy sheen right there.

“You uh... rub that on your nose,” Scootaloo mumbled, “And then lick your feathers into place. I know it sounds weird, but that’s how it works.”

Rainbow Dash eyed Scootaloo warily. A blush tinting her own cheeks, Dash said incredulously, “You’re kidding, right? Tell me you’re kidding.”

“Sorry, I know it’s weird,” Scootaloo said, ears low. “It’s important though, and it makes your feathers less itchy, and... just try it, I guess?”

Rainbow Dash was really reluctant to even touch her own wing anymore, with how messed up it was, and Scootaloo was right there, too. Rainbow Dash wasn’t gonna go sticking her nose into... it was really sensitive in there, and Scootaloo was kind of... right here, so... Rainbow Dash just looked at the filly with apprehension.

“Okay, look, I’ll do it,” Scootaloo said placatingly, “Then I’ll be just as weird as you, and you can see how I... how I do it. It’s kind of embarassing but, um... this is how you do it.”

And it actually wasn’t so much weird as it was completely adorable, watching the little filly nuzzle into her wing, then start grooming it kind of like a cat, if cats had wings that is. Scootaloo kind of... pulled herself out of it after a second, and looked up at Rainbow Dash, saying, “See?” Spreading her wing, the little orange wing laid against her dress looking so sleek and smooth, and un-itchy.

“Ffffine,” Rainbow Dash said, curling around to—pause before trying anything. “Jus’ don’t laugh,” she cautioned. “I don’t know how to do this, so don’t laugh if I do it wrong.”

“Cross my heart and hope to die,” Scootaloo said seriously, “I will not laugh.”

Rainbow still hesitated, but something told her the kid was serious about this, and about... everything she’d said just now. So Rainbow Dash took a tentative... poke in the pit of her wing with her nose. It was so oily a whole freaking... glob of the stuff stuck to the bridge of her nose. “Ackgth,” Rainbow said distastefully, pulling back from her own wing.

“Now rub it into your wing,” Scootaloo encouraged, and a glance at the filly showed that she actually... wasn’t laughing at all.

Well, carefully preserving the weird goop on her nose, Rainbow Dash sort of... nosed it into one of the feathers on her wing. It just kind of sat there on the wing, so she had to nose it again, to rub it in smoothly. The pale blue feather seemed to soak up the oil entirely, looking sleeker already. Dash got a bigger glob and started rubbing it into the rest of her feathers, and oh it was kind of good to move her feathers with her tongue, licking the oil deeper into their fibers.

She did it more, and more, and that awful, dreadful itching started to fade from her wings. “Oh my god,” Rainbow Dash mumbled in giddy relief, licking and nibbling, and...and using her teeth to pull out that loose clump of down that had been driving her absolutely up the wall. She did it to that wing until she didn’t have even one drop of that oily stuff left at all, then she went to the other wing.

Hesitation was not in Rainbow Dash’s mind, as she nosed out the goopy stuff that’d accumulated for who knows how long, and rubbed, and licked, and chewed it into her wings. The urge to bite the things and rip out the feathers faded as everything in her whole body relaxed, and she methodically pushed the feathers in line, one after the other.

Rainbow Dash was disappointed when she ran out of excess oil on her other wing, but the place on the one wing was already starting to get a little oily. How often could she do this? This was incredible! She groomed that little bit of oil into her wing, and stared at it, feeling curiously settled inside herself. The wing was still a mess, but the pinions were mostly lined up now, and most of the cracked secondaries had fallen out all on their own, once either the oil or her grooming had loosened them. She never even thought about grooming wings before. She felt kind of like a cat, or more like a parrot really. Getting every feather right just felt really... important to her.

After she worked on the second wing a little more, Dash looked back at herself, spreading them out to either side of her. And there wasn’t a rustling noise this time, when she did so! They just opened smoothly, if a little crookedly. She wanted to fix that crookedness, but how? Would she just have to wait until she got entirely new feathers? There were some of those... weird feather blood sacks that Rainbow Dash had been warned about, so she wasn’t worried about getting more feathers. But the feathers she already had felt so... so much better than they had before.

Rainbow Dash smiled and looked forward, seeing Scootaloo sitting there with Twilight Sparkle, while the purple girl seemed to be teaching Scootaloo about some sort of mathematics. Out here on a... grassy field.

“Hey Scootaloo—” Rainbow Dash started to say, only for Scootaloo to yelp in surprise and jump up.

“Oh! You’re done, Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo said, settling to the ground in relief. “How did it feel?”

“I... I dunno how to say it,” Rainbow said kind of foggily. “I don’t think I’ve hit these levels of chillax in years.”

“Yeah, you were out of it for a while,” Scootaloo said frankly.

Rainbow squinted at that, saying, “Whaddya mean, a while?”

“Well, you were um... busy preening, so I went to the portables to get my mom,” Scootaloo said, “But Twilight wanted to come instead, and mom was busy. Then when we got back you were still preening, so we were just waiting for you to finish.”

“I... really?” Rainbow blinked. The sun was lower in the sky, she had to admit...

“I am so sorry, Rainbow Dash,” the purple girl said with the saddest look on her face. “I should have thought of this. Of course you don’t know how to preen! And I went and got your hopes up, telling you of course you could fly. Ohh, this is all my fault! I’ve just been so busy lately and I know that’s no excuse, but—”

“Hey, ish no problem,” Dash said to her, squinting as she addedd “Uh... Twilight, right?”

The girl blinked like a deer in headlights, and then her shoulders just... sank wearily. “Yes, my name is Twilight Sparkle,” she said. “I’m Sunset’s friend, remember?”

“Sure do,” Rainbow Dash said uncertainly, “Bu’ yeah, so Twilight. It wasn’ your job to get me flying. You did plenty to help losha people, already.”

Twilight smiled softly at that. “Thanks, Rainbow Dash,” she said, “I just wish I could’ve saved you all this trouble. I mean, I had to learn to preen, so I should have realized that you would too.”

“Woul’a coul’a shoul’a,” Dash said, flicking her tail dismissively. “All I wanna know is if my wings’ll be okay.”

“Oh they should be fine,” Twilight said, “Though it might take you a while to be flight ready if too many of your pinions broke.”

“Wha’ are—” Rainbow started, and Scootaloo cut in saying,

“Pinions are the really big feathers.”

“Oh,” Dash said, feeling oddly guilty as she spread her wings one at a time and counted, “Um... four.” It was pretty bad too. Some were just snapped in half, or dangling by a thread.

“It could be a while...” Twilight winced. “I haven’t read about how long it takes wings to recover, but you only have around eight pinions total, so four is a lot. I guess maybe about... three weeks at most?”

Rainbow’s head dipped glumly. “Well ish better than not at all,” she said. “Still, lots of people who don’t know about preening aroun’ here.”

Twilight cringed at that, saying, “I can’t even imagine. I don’t think there’s ever been an instance in Equestria where a large number of ponies suddenly acquired wings, and weren’t taught to preen them. It’s fascinating really, if troubling.” She stood up, and Rainbow Dash fought to keep her ears from going down, as in standing, the very human Twilight Sparkle rose to stand so far above her.

The towering girl looked down at Rainbow Dash, saying solemnly, “You probably won’t be able to fly right, until you replace all those damaged pinions in your wings. I’m no expert in this, and I certainly never ended up with that much drywing myself. It’s harder to stop from preening than it is to keep up with it, honestly. I don’t know what I’d do, if I didn’t know how!”

“Well—if you don’t know how,” Dash said a little nervously at the girl who like every other human being was like twice her height now. “Then you just... bite them now and again ou’ of frustration. At least that’s what I was uh... doing.” She looked forlornly at the wing folded to her side, saying, “I hope I didn’t damash them worse. I... I can’t believe that’sh what you do to take care of them.”

Rainbow Dash looked at Twilight pleadingly, and said, “You seriously have to make oil in your pits, and rub it all over the feathers?”

“They don’t call it a uropitgeal gland because it isn’t in the pit,” Twilight remarked wryly. “Wings just take a lot of maintenance. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

Twilight then bent over and took the tip of Dash’s left wing in her fingertips, pulling it out much to Rainbow Dash’s nervous discomfort. “You should be proud of it, in fact,” Twilight said, tracing the gleaming pinions with her fingers. “The more you do it, the healthier your wings will be. Of course you shouldn’t spend all your time preening,” the girl murmured, fiddling with the crook in Rainbow Dash’s wing arm—okay!

Rainbow Dash pulled her wing back closed, surprised at the haste in which she did it. Not only did it fold easily to her side, but it kind of left Twilight Sparkle hissing and sucking on her finger to staunch the—oops.

“You okay, Twilight?” Rainbow asked worriedly, putting a hoof on the girl’s thigh.

“I’m fine. I shouldn’t have been messing with your wing,” Twilight said abashedly, looking at what was only a thin cut in her finger. “I’m just so curious what a dramatic effect a single preening can have on a wing.”

“Well... I’d show you, but it’s kind of...”

“Weird, I know,” Twilight said, blushing and looking aside. “Most pegasi only let their special someponies get ahold of their wings.”

“Special someponies?” Rainbow asked curiously. “Is that like your special someone? Like, romantically?”

“Relatively, yes,” Twilight admitted. “There are a lot of similarities, at least. But special somepony specifically refers to ponies, so that it won’t be confused with a pony who woos a minotaur, or joins an eyrie. Which is a gryphon nest...flock...thing. Um... I’m really not sure what you call bonded gryphons, but I know that minotaurs call each other husband and wife, much like humans, despite using the words ‘stud’ and ‘doll’ during courtship.”

Twilight looked at her hands, saying, “Humans bear a lot of resemblance to minotaurs, actually. It’s almost like if you took an ape, and tried to mold it into the shape of a minotaur.”

“Minotaurs?” Rainbow Dash asked, “You mean like thoshe bull headed things in mazhes?”

Twilight gave Rainbow Dash the most uneasy look, biting her lip, saying, “Right, you’re not... it’s... yes, they do have an architectural culture that builds... mazes, but it’s a lot different than the monster in Greek mythology. As for bull-headed, I can’t honestly say I know whether minotaurs are cow headed, or whether cows are like minotaur headed ponies. ...actually, cows would be more like giant minotaur headed ponies, that... wow that is a weird concept. Thank you Rainbow Dash. I have something new and invigorating to think about now! See ya!”

Twilight waltzed off smiling just a teeeeny bit disjointedly. Shrugging, Rainbow Dash faced Scootaloo with a grave, serious expression. Then, a smile bursting from ear to ear, she said, “Thank you soooooooooo much!” she flopped down in front of the filly, clinging to her forehooves, saying, “Thank you thank you thank you! You have no idea how much that was bothering me thank you so much thank you”

“Ack—Rainbow—Dash!” Scootaloo said, trying to edge away from the bizarrely affectionate pegasus. Rainbow sort of realized she was doing it again, and stopped trying to kiss Scootaloo’s hooves, blushing instead and standing again.

“So... I can’t fly,” Rainbow said glumly. “Twilight said I still couldn’t fly, until new feathers grow in.”

“It took me a month before I started shedding pinions,” Scootaloo said, “But that was from scratch, and grownup—er...” she blushed looking up at Rainbow Dash, who really didn’t want to be referred to as such, but Scootaloo said cautiously, “Grownup ponies are growing in their feathers faster, so you might be able to fly pretty soon. At least before July, right?”

“Yeah, if nothing elsh goes wrong,” a grumpy Rainbow Dash replied.

“Mom and I will make sure every pegasus in this place knows all about preening,” Scootaloo assured Dash. “And if there is anything else, we’ll do that too. Don’t worry, we’ll figure something out!”

Rainbow just had to tousel the bright eyed kid in her human/pony hair, saying, “You sure are something else, you know that Scootaloo?”

Scootaloo couldn’t think of anything to say that would make her any happier, and remained silent, sidling up close to her favorite person in the whole world, except maybe her mom, because her mom was just secretly awesome, even if she wouldn’t admit it.

Her head in her hands with her back to the sanctuary that was her portable building, Twilight Sparkle cursed herself for not having a more tactful way to get out of that conversation. It was so hard to remember that that Rainbow Dash wasn’t her Rainbow Dash, and seeing her as a pony made it a thousand times harder.

It wasn’t even the same Rainbow Dash Twilight befriended four time loops ago. Circumstances had changed, every human was a stranger again, and forgetting that, Twilight was getting too close to them again. Twilight just wished she could get past all this. She really needed her friends.

“Attention, everyone!” Cheerilee shouted out through a megaphone which her plum purple hoof was wrapped around. On that bright, sunny day, ponies and people moving around outside, going to various tents or buildings all turned to face the farm house porch where Cheerilee was standing at the center of it all... on three legs. “I need every pony with wings to meet me in the barn next to the cattle pasture! Every pegasus, please meet me in the barn by the cattle pasture! This is very important. If you have wings, come to the barn.”

Ponies started to move, a small fraction of the ones that were already there, but a definite amount. There were over a thousand ponies filling the surrounding farm. Even when you cut out the earth ponies, and the unicorns, that still left more pegasi than could comfortably fit in that barn. Big Macintosh had helpfully moved all of the hay outside, leaving as much space as possible, but pegasi were still spilling out the big open front doors. The ones who could fly were... not taking up space, but they were far fewer, and far farther between than they should have been.

Cheerilee kicked herself internally for not seeing this coming. Was it because she wasn’t a pegasus? Was she so self centered that she didn’t notice how ponies weren’t aware of principles of basic hygiene? How were any of them supposed to know this? Cheerilee had been lucky to stumble on it reading about wings with Scootaloo. She’d assumed Scootaloo was passing on the knowledge to the pegasi she helped, who would then pass on the knowledge further down the line, but it was just such an... embarassing and sensitive topic for ponies like these, that so many were getting lost in the shuffle.

The farm just couldn’t handle this many people turned ponies. They were getting overwhelmed with the sheer numbers. There were three hundred some odd ponies who had returned to their original homes and/or occupations, but with hundreds more, and almost fourty more pouring in every day, it was just too hard to find beds for everyone. Granny Smith had a whole team of people, and occasionally ponies, helping preparing the food for them all, and even the experienced cafeteria lady had never had to deal with volume like this. There was some talk of converting the fairgrounds for use by new ponies, but even that would get quickly filled up, and temporary buildings simply did not suffice for giving people a place to sleep, who had not adapted to their new forms enough to return to wherever they had been sleeping before.

Climbing up on a stack of hay bales, Cheerilee nosed on her megaphone again and spoke into it.

Alright! Now I’m sorry for the crowded situation. If any of you cannot hear clearly, I want you to please come speak with me personally afterwards. It has come to my attention that pegasi may be having problems with their wings, and with flying. Many of you may have noticed you have itching wings, dry or cracked feathers, and difficulty using them to achieve flight, and you may have not been informed about this important factor in pegasus hygiene! Much like your hair, your wings need regular care and maintenance, and unlike hair, you already have everything you need to take care of your wings, built-in.

Cheerilee’s ears twitched sympathetically, in a way she couldn’t twitch the wings she didn’t have. As she spoke, her daughter approached from behind the hay bale, ready to fly up on command as planned. Cheerilee continued to address the crowd, saying,

I am not a pegasus, but my daughter is one, and we learned something very important about wing care as she adapted to the pony she had become. What we learned is called preening. Now, I know this is a sensitive subject, and I’m not here to make anyone feel humiliated, but this is a matter of serious concern to your health. Plus, I’m sure that most of you wouldn’t mind being able to fly.

There was a murmuring of agreement going through the seemingly endless array of packed pony faces on the barn floor in front of Cheerilee’s impromptu hay podium.

Preening is, in short, an instinctive method to clean your wings, removing old feathers, aligning misaligned ones, and applying a natural body oil to ensure each feather remains supple and strong. I’m told it’s a very ...vulnerable experience, and I’m not going to ask any of you to practice it here. My daughter, Scootaloo is going to demonstrate for you the basics of it, but following this speech, I want you all to take note of the lists of names, and color schemes on the door.

These ponies are the ones Scootaloo has already taught how to preen their wings. Anyone who would like to volunteer to help teach other ponies may sign up with any of the ponies on these lists. You’ll be taught how to take care of your wings, and in exchange, you can teach others how to do so. I hope we can get this matter settled as easily as possible, and I’m sorry for going so long without knowing what has been the problem here.

“So without further ado,” Cheerilee announced, turning sideways as her daughter fluttered up into the air to land securely on top of Cheerilee’s back, “I present to you, Scootaloo!”

Cheerilee passed the megaphone up to the orange filly who was... standing on Cheerilee’s back, then watched with appreciation as Scootaloo grabbed it and declared, “So, who wants their wings to stop itching?”

The crowd was still shocked by the news, so their cheer was surprised and quiet, but Scootaloo launched right into the speech she’d practiced. Public speaking had always been one of Scootaloo’s strong points, not that she would ever admit it. But when she could get the crowd a safe distance away from her, Scootaloo didn’t have any of the fear that plagued some people who tried to get up on stage. Of course Cheerilee had encouraged this as much as possible, and it didn’t hurt that she wasn’t too shabby at addressing crowds either, at least not for an ordinary school librarian.

Cheerilee had not been doing library duties lately, but rather helping ponies transition from being clumsy victims of an unwanted transformation, to being competent and capable individuals who could realize their own potential. And frankly it was a lot of fun! As disappointed as she felt when she missed something so important as preening, when Cheerilee helped someone become a better person or... pony as it were, it was a seductively thrilling experience.

Except of course when she had to go intervene at times, for instance if those two alien girls happened to start disrupting Scootaloo’s speech by interrogating everyone in the back of the crowd.

Author's Note

Glad we got that very important matter out of the way.

Don’t worry, the secrets of the stairwell will be revealed in the (next) next chapter.

Really really really hope Dash isn't going to be flightless the way Equestria Scootaloo is. T_T - Rhawkas

Disturbances

Towards the end of Scootaloo’s speech, there was a mild disturbance in the back, as those alien pony girls started squeezing amongst the pegasi, asking questions and writing down results on clipboards. Scootaloo had since launched off of her in her... enthusiastic demonstration, and also off of Cheerilee’s back, so on her own, Cheerilee squeezed her way over there through the crowd. She was actually a little bit wider as a pony than as a human, but only back at the hips. Nevertheless, she made her way through the crowded pegasi, approaching the girls and saying quietly, “Excuse me girls, but this is a very important presentation. Could you please wait until afterwards?”

Looking frazzled, the lilac one, Twilight Sparkle turned to Cheerilee and speaking a little bit too quickly, said, “Presentation? What does that have to do with where were you on September 7th at 12:03pm?”

Cheerilee blinked, and then looked up at the girl more seriously, whispering, “Please quiet down. There is an important presentation going on.”

Twilight clammed up then, and looked around nervously, as if noticing her surroundings for the first time. She then hurried over and grabbed Sunset, shaking the other girl out of her own data collection spree. Both of them were being quite busy beavers it seems. Twilight was the only one who apologized afterwards though. Sunset didn’t seem to think it necessary, but at least one of them had a good head on her shoulders.

“I’m sorry, Ms. Cheerilee,” Twilight Sparkle said afterword, to a certain fuschia pony who was seated on her belly at rest on a hay bale at the moment. “I did want to help with that presentation, beyond correcting any mistakes you might have been making regarding preening technique, but I’ve just been so busy lately. We’ve been trying to interview as many ponies as we can, to find out where they were when the time loop started. Professor Discord suggests that physical location at that time might be strongly connected to time of transformation.”

“Oh, so the police fair, you mean?” Cheerilee speculated. Both girls nodded at that.

“We still need to know where everyone was,” Sunset said. “So we can try to identify a pattern.”

“Well, good luck with that, but don’t get too carried away,” Cheerilee cautioned. “Make sure everyone’s okay with it before you start interrogating people.”

“Will do, and I’ll try not to disturb your presentations again,” Twilight replied. “We probably have enough data samples collected anyway, and can finally get a good picture of the statistical distribution of this.”

Once the girls had left, Cheerilee busied herself with herding around the crowd, some of whom had stopped on the spot to try preening themselves. It was adorable in its own way, how affectionate pegasi seemed to be over their own wings. Even the untameable Scootaloo seemed to love her wings, though Cheerilee had the distinct impression that Scootaloo wasn’t all that impressed with her own flying ability.

A moment of guilt welled up in Cheerilee before she quashed it with reason. Just because she changed into an earth pony didn’t mean that it would only make her daughter half of a pegasus. Sunset said that pony tribes breed true, and there are no half breeds, and Cheerilee had given birth to Scootaloo as a human anyway, so there was no way her transformation into an earth pony had affected Scootaloo’s.

If anything, Cheerilee should have been proud that she had been so helpful in regard to Scootaloo’s wings. She couldn’t even imagine what it would be like having wings, yet she’d managed to work things out with her daughter so well that Scootaloo was the first pony to fly. Some things just seemed so obvious to Cheerilee that should have been obvious to the one who actually had the wings. She wondered if it was her own mental or physical maturity, or if it was some sort of insight into what made earth ponies special, a sort of mindset that just remained more... grounded than that of other tribes.

Cheerilee then groaned, and bonked a forehoof on her own forehead for even thinking of such a terrible pun.

“Well, here it is, your big revelation,” Professor Discord said, going to the map. Inside Sunset and Twilight’s portable building, it was laid out on the wall covered in little pins.

“Here, is the earliest transformation, Apple Bloom,” the professor indicated with the marker he was holding, “Next after her are Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo,” he drew two very short lines in an ink marker, connecting Apple Bloom’s pin to where each of the two were standing in the courtyard. “From Sweetie, there is Noi, then Truffle, then Elias... and only then does it proceeds from Scootaloo, with Piña, and Cotton Cloudy, then to the one adjacent to Apple Bloom in the back here... Ms. Cheerilee. Now, notice what happens when I draw lines from the previous ‘pony’ to the next, but only when travelling away from the epicenter.”

They watched for a while, and Sunset declared, “They’re branching off!”

“Yes, a new... branch only seems to start very close to a pony who transformed earlier,” Discord replied. “This is certainly not random. If you two will be dears, could you perhaps help me in filling out these connections?”

They worked for a good ten minutes, three markers inking in connection after connection, jumping back to the center, and then wandering outward again. Finally they’d gotten all 327 data points connected, all the former people who’d been able to remember where they were when the time loop started, connected in order of those who’d first transformed. Two high school girls and a statistics professor stared at the data distribution, not sure they wanted to comprehend its meaning.

Each transformation followed the next radiating out from the center where Apple Bloom, Sweetie and Scootaloo had been in the back of the crowd, radiating vaguely straight, but randomly wandering in direction. Some branched off, with two transformations leading to two new radiating lines. And those branched off from there, and so forth. Some lines ended close to the center. Some seemed to stretch all the way across the city, getting people who were even at the edge. With the lines drawn on the map, it looked like someone had fired a bullet at a glass window.

“It... it is contagious,” Twilight said in a stunned tone. “More like lightning than a disease.”

“At the moment the loop started,” Sunset replied equally astounded. “It traveled through them all, the moment the loop started.”

“Or somewhere thereabouts,” Discord corrected. “But that’s within the time window where the data has the least randomness in it.”

“Then why didn’t it happen when the time loop started?” Sunset pondered. “Why did it take the Golden Apple to start this going? They should have all changed into ponies on the very first day, if this is the case!”

“Was it a delayed effect?” Twilight countered. “Some... secondary enchantment, that needed a catalyst in order to take hold?”

“I don’t...” Sunset stared at the map in frustration. “I don’t know,” she said unhappily.

Footsteps echoed in the silence, as officers Green, Background and Redshirt came walking back up the stone steps that descended incongruously into a pit in the middle of Principal Celestia’s office. They were empty handed. “It goes forever in there!” the red one stated in aggravation. “We couldn’t find the end of it!”

“We didn’t find the end of it,” officer Green added, “Because the way had gotten blocked by fallen shelves.”

“Crumbled shelves, more like,” Backy replied. “It looks ancient in there!”

“Shouldn’t we be calling an, I don’t know, an archaeologist?” Redshirt suggested nervousl y.

“I could see if there’s an archaeology team available,” the lady Sergeant Safari said uneasily, “But I don’t know what this city will have.”

“How about a history teacher?” came the suggestion from the high school’s principal.

Some time later, footsteps echoed in the silence again, along with a set of rather unsteady hooves. With police officers at her every side, Professor Berry found herself faced with the task of investigating an archaeological ruin... underneath the high school. Berry should have been at a party, but no. There had to be some freaky road annihilating... thing making everything outside the city all weird and twisted around. She had to be the history teacher, teaching students about strange stories not even she could believe. She had to be the only pony teacher in the whole school, which made her the worst candidate for going down stairs, and they still wanted her to perform some kinda miracle. The teacher grumbled as a headache started to make itself known, trying not to fall over herself navigating this dark hallway at the bottom of the stairs. She really needed to get wasted.

She’d changed into a pony so recently, Berry still hadn’t got the lisp out of her voice, but there was no rest for the wicked ponies it seemed. First, they needed her back to teach her class, when she could barely articulate, and now this! “Well alrigh’,” Cherry Berry said at the bottom the dusty, stony darkness, lit only by their electric flashlights. “This looksh like the obshtruction.”

She craned her head down to examine the dusty piles on the ground that were blocking the way into some sort of chamber. She would have knelt, but she found that as a pony, she could already lick the floor if she wanted to, without even bending her knees. If it sounds like a very weird experience to be standing up straight, with your nose to the ground, that’s because it was. Before her pink snout was—or had been—apple wood shelves. That much was obvious. In this state of decay, the shelves had to have been hidden down here for longer than the school had been built, heck longer than anything she could imagine. But Berry was pretty sure Native Americans didn’t make a practice of binding books and putting them into cut wood shelves, so all she could conclude was this was some sort of elaborate hoax.

“No idea,” she said flatly to the police clustering around her. “Can’ your forenshics guy jus’ clean this out?”

“But what about what’s written in the books?” one of the officers said.

Berry shook her head emphatically. “Oh no, I’m not gonna go toush crumbling booksh an’ try to read them. These aren’ books they’re piles of paper shcrap,” Berry said in aggravation, a flutter of worry in her chest at just how incongruous everything seemed. How was she arguing about impossible books in a cavern underneath her school, with four hooves that could feel the cool stone floor as they bore her weight? How was this even a thing?

“Even if you could read them, who am I shupposed to say pu’ them here? Atlantish?” Berry said crossly. “Thish town doesn’t have a history of anything. It was a seh’ler town for cattle ranchersh, and before that it ha’ been a camp for travelling wagonsh, wishout a single permanent building or bookcashe.”

She tossed her straw blonde mane, grumbling in an increasingly shrill tone, “What d’ you want me to do, try to write down the words zhat are shtill legible? The ink’sh faded! My advishe is bring your forenshics guys to figure out wha’ to do abou’ this, and come bother me when you need someone to just sit there telling students about what someone elshe discovered. Wha’ do you shink I’m good at? Do you think I’m goo’ at anyshing? ”

Berry realized her ears were flat against the sides of her head. Dammit, but that made her want to just kick something. Berry relaxed, and resisted the urge to swat at the officers with her tail, because apparantly that’s a thing ponies want to do. Saying, “Tha’s all I can tell you. Lemme out of here and get a forenshics team in here. Or a proper archaeology team, whish I’m not qualified for by the way,” Berry turned around and marched right back up the stairs to safety, and away from... adventure. She tried to ignore the disappointment that welled up in her at that, and just... didn’t look back... too much.

The third time was the charm, and the forensics team managed to at least get the shelves cleared out of obstructing the way, without damaging the paper fragments covering their crumbling forms. Though they didn’t have Berry’s questionable expertise this time, the exploration team forged on. Their footsteps echoing in the darkness, three police officers emerged into a vast cavern, the likes of which nobody would have predicted was hidden underneath the school. Their torch flashlights were the only thing lighting up this dark space as they crept through it, finding more piles of rubble and scrap as they did, except for in the very back of the cavern, where a soft glow was emanating.

Again, the police charged back up the steps into the principal’s office, but this time there were only two of them. Fear in their eyes, one of them said, “Sergeant! You gotta see this!”

“What happened?” the sergeant asked in alarm. “Where’s Green Daze?”

“It got him!” Redshirt complained fearfully. “The glowing light just snatched him up, and froze him on the spot!”

“What on earth is going on down there?” the police sergeant shook her head utterly puzzled.

“It... wasn’t threatening,” another officer said cautiously. “He just started to go into the lit room and... stopped. One of us almost got our hand stuck trying to get him out. It’s some kind of... time stop? Magic? Thing? He’s just stuck there!”

“Why is there a magic thing in a giant crypt under the school?” the sergeant asked in exasperation, “That’s older than the oldest settlement here?”

“I think I might know of someone who could help,” principal Celestia said quietly. All three officers turned to look in her direction. “The question is whether she will help us anymore.”

“Okay, trigger spell happens almost instantaneously, with a random delay before the transformation, randomized by...” Twilight trailed off, then groaned, thudding her forehead on the table. “This is getting me nowhere...”

Sunset Shimmer also groaned, from where she was laying on her back with a book flat over her face.

“C’mon Twilight, you can do it,” the little purple dog known as Spike the Dragon said, putting a paw on her thigh. “If there’s an answer, I know you’ll find it!”

“That’s just it, Spike,” Twilight said sadly down to him. “I’m starting to think there is no answer. We just don’t have enough pieces of this puzzle to make a complete picture. Why is everyone turning into a pon—”

There was a knock at the door.

“Now who could that be?” Spike said brightly, turning away from Twilight and loping over to the door. He had to stop there of course, as he couldn’t open it, but his twitchy nose told him that the old Apple lady was on the other side of it.

Twilight stood up and walk to the door beside him. When she opened the door, she found the elderly Granny Smith there, standing with a thick sheaf of envelopes in her hands.

“Mail’s here,” Granny said matter-of-factly, tugging out a letter and handing it to Twilight.

“Oh, Sunset, were you expecting any... mail?” Twilight asked as she looked at the letter and saw her own name on it. “Someone’s sending me mail?” she asked dumbfoundedly.

“It’s from th’ school,” Granny said dourly, “Yer better read it.”

Sunset lifted her head, letting the book slide off of her face. “You got a letter from the school?” she asked.

“I–I don’t know,” Twilight said clutching it nervously. “We haven’t even been to the campus since the last incident. We’ve done everything they asked for. What could we be doing wrong?”

“Hold on, there’s no evidence that they even think we’ve done anything wrong yet,” Sunset said cautioningly. “Why don’t you open the letter and see what’s inside?”

With great trepidation, Twilight did so.

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

I wish to apologize for my actions at our last meeting. It’s been a difficult month, with my students disappearing and such strange things going on. While I don’t know what you say is true, you have a wonderful passion for pursuing the things you believe in.

I believe you may have an opportunity to demonstrate the veracity of your claims regarding the school and any sort of supernatural phenomenon. As I’m sure you know, the three girls known around campus as the CMC recently discovered a very strange secret hidden within our school. Far from an out of place crawlspace, this is by all estimates a large and very ancient archaeological site.

Twilight paused in reading out loud, to ask Sunset in confusion, “Did any of those three tell you anything about an ancient archaeological site?”

Sunset shook her head, frowning. “Why wouldn’t they tell us about that?” she asked suspiciously.

Twilight had no solid answer, so she just continued reading.

I wish I could say that this discovery convinced me to trust you at first, but I can be a bit stubborn in my presumptions at times. Thankfully what we recently discovered deep within the complex convinced me that you may be the only people who can understand it. I am prepared to swallow my pride and ask for your help. It is my fond hope that you’ll forgive my rash treatment toward you, and come visit the school again. If you can make sense of what is happening here, I will very seriously entertain your demands to excavate the building walls.

Please make an appointment at your earliest convenience. I’ll be happy to adjust my schedule however you need.

Principal Theresa Celestia

Twilight stared at the letter open-mouthed. Sunset stared at Twilight, open-mouthed. “She’s asking you to advise her?” Sunset said incredulously. “After what she said to you before? Why would—”

“Her first name is Theresa?! ” Twilight squeaked.

Sunset paused. “Her... first name is significant?”

“No, it’s just...” Twilight let her arm go limp, the letter dropping by her side. “I could never get Princess Celestia to tell me much about her past. She has a right to her privacy, but I just realized that I never... knew the princess’s first name.”

“I remember Princess Celestia pretty well,” Sunset said cagily, “She was always a pony of secrets. You don’t get to be that age, without having a lot of secrets to keep.” She glanced down at the letter in Twilight’s hand, adding, “Also Theresa isn’t a meaning-word, so it’s probably different in our world.”

“Yes, but... just the thought that I know so little about her is disturbing,” Twilight said, folding her arms. “Princess Celestia practically raised me—” and then Twilight realized who she was talking to. Looking at Sunset guiltily, Twilight mumbled, “—oh. Right.”

“I was one of her little secrets, huh?” Sunset said with a half smile. “She probably didn’t tell you a word about me until I went and grabbed your crown.”

“Princess Celestia... when she lost you, it hurt her a lot, Sunset,” Twilight said seriously. “It’s not that she was keeping it a secret from us. She just misses you, and without any hope of getting you back... why would she talk about it?”

“I... guess,” Sunset said glumly, staring off into the distance.

“But this,” Twilight said, pulling the letter up to look at it again. “This is very good news. Very, very good news. If we can get Principal Celestia on our side, if we can prove ourselves by whatever it is she’s found, then the full support of the school will be invaluable should this situation continue to spike toward crisis levels. It’s almost July. We only have two months left. And then this entire city... we really need her help.”

“What I want to know is why didn’t the Crusaders tell us about it,” Sunset said suspiciously. “We’ll work with the principal, but I really want a word with those three. There’s something fishy about all this.”

“Oh, right! That thing,” Scootaloo realised in a surprised tone.

“What do you mean ‘oh right that thing?’” Sunset said in aggravation. It was hard enough to track down these three with them at school most of the day, and Scootaloo didn’t seem to see any problem with this. “You didn’t think it was important to tell us about a secret chamber opening at the school, after Twilight practically freaked out over the other one you found?”

Sunset had managed to track down Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle at least. With school and the pony crisis, the three fillies were way busier than a filly should be. Apple Bloom was who knows where right now, but the other two, Sunset managed to find.

“Didn’t the principal tell you?” Sweetie Belle asked. “She didn’t believe it was anything big before, so she should have told you once she found something big like that.”

“No—” Sunset rubbed her own face, saying, “Yes she did, but I would really appreciate it if you’d tell me about any other secrets you’ve found.”

Sweetie Belle stared at her.

“Woah, I forgot about the thing!” Scootaloo exclaimed, pushing Sweetie Belle away, continuing to say to Sunset over her shoulder, “Sorry we have some important business to do. Important dream business, about our pony club that is about pony things.”

“Right!” Sweetie squeaked, reviving herself and coming to trot beside Scootaloo, “Dream pony things. Real important. We’ll tell you later!”

“Hey wait, you—” Sunset lifted a hand, but the fillies were already galloping across the field. “Darn,” she growled knowing how futile it was to try and follow, “Well at least I know they’re hiding something. They know to tell us now, so there shouldn’t be any more surprises. Still, I wonder what that dream princess has been telling them...”

Alone in his house, a lime green man with poorly shaven blonde stubble was making himself busy avoiding the front page of the newspaper as he got ready to drive into the office again. He rubbed his thick, meaty fingers on his receding hairline unhappily as he flipped past the front page article. It was a full page article on that pony craze, again, with big headlines saying, “INSIDE SOURCE MAY KNOW YOUR PONY SELF” or some trash. Instead, he flipped back to the sports section like he always did in the morning, looking wistfully at the results of the sectional tryouts.

Canterlot didn’t place, again. Thanks to his no-good daughter, of course. He tried so hard to instill in her the spirit of competition, but frankly he barely knew how to raise a teenage girl on his own in the first place. She just got lazier and lazier, and never wanted to push herself past her comfort level.

He didn’t know why she couldn’t be like he had been in school. He’d been fast, and powerful, and respected. Everyone knew how awesome he was, because he always blew away the competition. He could practically have soloed most of the football games he played back in his prime.

Looking at the statistics, Rainbow Dash’s father sighed in frustration. Nobody even came close to his daughter’s level of achievement, which was pretty much a given, but she didn’t have anyone who could compete at her level. If he could’ve been in there with her, she’d have someone to run with, to fight against. She’d be unstoppable. They’d be unstoppable.

He sat back in his chair, looking with disgust at his own gut. Too many doughnuts again. Gone was any hope of a six pack, and the rest of his body wasn’t in too great of shape either. He still worked out, and pushed himself where he could, but... at some point you just have to accept that you’re not going to achieve anything anymore. He went from awarded athlete, to washed up nobody who just played ball on the weekends, when he didn’t have to work all weekend in the office. He thought he was gonna be somebody once, between his physique and his cunning wit, they had to let him in the Air Force, even got his pilot’s license at one point.

It was probably a stupid idea. Bunch of rich assholes got in there, and he couldn’t afford the training. There were other branches, but he didn’t like the idea of slogging through the mud for a military career he could afford. Years passed, and when Rainbow Dash ...happened, all hope was lost. He’d never have what he once had, and all that left him to look forward to was another decade or three of getting older, weaker, and fatter if he was lucky. He hated her for it, but he loved her nonetheless. He wished she’d never been born, but at the same time he couldn’t blame her. She wasn’t the one who got horny and drunk, and ended up knocking up some bitch who didn’t believe in abortion.

He never even dated, after that went to hell. He’d never admit it, but it was scary how easy things had got out of control. He didn’t like being unable to control himself. You feel like the big man in control when you hold her down and... do that, but it’s just a feeling. The reality is a promising collegiate athlete instead had to quit and get a job, and he knew it’d happen, but he did it anyway. Why? Because the closer he got with the lady, the more he wanted to do it, simple as that. It felt good to do it, but having your hormones make you want to hurt the only chance you had at a future? That felt fucking horrible.

Rainbow Dash was honestly the only reason he didn’t go show his coworkers what he thought about that office by blowing his own brains out at his stupid cubicle. Her, he wanted to see succeed. He couldn’t take back the burden of life from her, but he wanted her life to be... better. It was genuinely thrilling to see her win, and thrive. He didn’t want her to get friendly with some guy, and get stuck like her dad had been. He didn’t want Dash to be all impulsive and out of control. He wanted her to do what he couldn’t do, and give her a chance he never really had.

That’s what he felt, until every afternoon that she came home, and refused to talk to him, and he had completely reasonable expectations of her that she just didn’t even care about. She might have been a rising star, but she never listened to him, and he told her that. He told her what she could be, and what a little shit she was instead. He felt bad about it afterwards but also had a smug sense of satisfaction, that maybe it’d stick this time. Maybe she’d start taking things seriously, and stop trying to give everyone else a fair chance.

He had given everyone else a fair chance once, and look where it got him. Washed up, eating donuts and beer for breakfast, and his own daughter ran away from home, again. He just... wished he could be the one in there instead of her. Not because he didn’t want her to win. He wished she didn’t have to put up with his shit, and he could be the only one who had to put up with his own shit. He hated having to push her to push herself, when it was him he wanted to be in there, and he couldn’t... he couldn’t even run an eight minute mile anymore.

Good old dad hadn’t been doing so well since Rainbow Dash ran out this time. Frankly, he felt like his daughter was the one who took care of him, sometimes, not the other way around. She was always so good about everything, good at everything she did, and all he was was a bitter jerk who couldn’t stand to see her flying effortlessly across the field, even though it was the most beautiful thing in the world to him. He wanted... he wanted that. What she took for granted. And he got the booby prize instead.

Swigging another gulp of his booby prize, he turned to the sports section again, checking the latest statistics. Maybe he could find a better goalie for his fantasy football team this time, instead of that aquamarine sophomore.

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash was trying to turn the pages of a book.

The rainbow haired pegasus pony got the book open easy enough, after she’d finally managed to wrestle a book from one of the many, many ponies clamoring for something to do around here. Her prize currently lay on the floor of the shed that she’d absconded to, the light from the doorway well sufficient to read it, where she could easily nudge the pages over with her nose.

It wasn’t even a good book, just some detective novel. The sort of thing Rarity would get a real kick out of. But Rainbow Dash hadn’t read anything in days! She was sure the latest Shannara was out, and she still had to finish the Dark Tower, but it was kind of hard for her to get to the bookstore like this. Not without herself in peak pegasus condition!

Rainbow Dash’s wings had only improved after the day that Scootaloo had helped her so much. The kid was sure dedicated to getting the blue pegasus into the air with her. Scootaloo wasn’t letting Dash alone until all of her broken pinions had been shed. Rainbow also managed to get her nose into that book on birds, and on top of that, Scootaloo got that Twilight girl to give Rainbow Dash some personal tips. Twilight Sparkle really knew a lot about stuff, when she stopped thinking so much, that is!

Rainbow Dash was at the point now that she was showing other new ponies about wing care and stuff. And thanks to that crowded lecture earlier this month, more and more ponies were beginning to flutter up into the sky. Dash hadn’t done it... yet, but that’s because she still had some broken feathers, and Twilight said that it was better for your wings if you only did light wing exercises while those feathers were working their way out.

It took Rainbow Dash the better part of the afternoon to get through the book. She was laying on her back by the time she finished, with her wings to either side to catch her from rolling, holding the book up overhead in her forehooves. Her eyes darted idly back and forth, reading the text therein with a mild disinterest. The story was just adding on more and more mysteries and suspects and people getting murdered in more and more ridiculous ways. They really found a boat hook, where?

Dash definitely wasn’t a fan of mystery novels. She preferred fantasy, where the monsters were monsters, and the heroes were heroes, brave adventurers that ventured into wild, uncharted lands, and made the impossible possible. All this shades of grey whodunit stuff was just boring, and Dash wasn’t going to figure it out, so why didn’t they just tell her?

Finally, Rainbow Dash let all the pages on the right slip down, and wedged them up into her left hoof, nosing through the end of the book. Of course it was the protagonists’ wealthy father the whole time. “Lame,” she grumbled, letting the book flop down between her raised forehooves onto her fuzzy, naked blue chest. Because she was a frikkin horse now, albeit a horse with wings.

It wouldn’t be long before Rainbow Dash could go to the bookstore, or the school, or Tulsa, Oklahoma, if she wanted to! Being able to fly would be so awesome. Rainbow Dash could hardly wait to get off her hooves. She closed the book and sat up, looking off into the distance as she thought about her future. Still had a lot of loose ends to take care of. The old man didn’t even know about her yet. And Rainbow Dash was pretty good at not slurring too badly, so maybe she could think about maybe making up with him, maybe.

She sighed, not really getting as much out of this story as she thought she would. Taking the book in her teeth, Rainbow Dash trotted out of the shed, and headed for the main building.

On the way, a filly came running up to Dash with a delighted expression, saying in a sweet voice, “I’m so glad I found you!”

Rainbow Dash threw the book at her.

The pink filly, Cheery by name, caught the book in her forehooves, and pushed it over her head, onto her back. With the base of her tail vaguely holding onto the thing, the filly went happily trotting back inside the farm house to read it. Yup, that filly there was the reason Rainbow Dash had to hide away when she was reading her book. Just her luck, the next in line to read it was always some adorable foal, who Rainbow Dash just couldn’t say no to. She wouldn’t have thought little kids could be so cute, before this all happened. If anything, turning into a pony only made the littler ponies look cuter to Rainbow Dash!

Her obligation fulfilled, Rainbow Dash then wandered into the main building, thinking about just... stuff. It’d been a while. Surely he’d cooled his jets enough to talk with her. She was pretty much obliged to at this point, anyway. He just needed a while without putting up with her. Then they’d be cool again. Okay, maybe a month or so wasn’t long enough, but at least Rainbow Dash felt like she could tolerate him again. Well, she could tolerate him maybe, until he starting telling her how she was so much better than those other kids, and complaining that she never pushed her limits.

There was a line to use the phone, go figure. Rainbow Dash had her own phone though. She was really glad she was one of the lucky ponies whose phone had a stylus on it, though it was a pain to slide the stylus out of the slot with your lips. Lots of people, or, ponies couldn’t really use their phones at all, since hooves and noses were both quite too large to press anything with reliability. Some of the technies from the high school had got a thing going where they tried to make impromptu styluses (stylii?) from aluminum foil and Q-tips, but those had to be moistened, and... it looked like a real hassle.

So instead Dash took her slim, blue stylus in mouth, and carefully tapped out a number. Her phone was almost out of batteries; pretty soon she’d have to get it to one of the generators they dragged out here. Wouldn’t be too long before Rainbow Dash could fly though, and when she did, she could... maybe she could go home. The answering machine picked up, of course. Dash had the slim rectangle that was her phone laid before her on the floor, as she spoke into it cautiously,

Hey, dad?

Ish me. Sorry, it’s me. Look, I know you’re mad at me and... ugh. I know you want me to practishe harder, but something... something came up. Like, something huge. So I’m... I’m shorry I said I didn’t care about the football team. I’ve just had a lot on my mind, and something... happened. You know that pony thing? I’m a uh...

Rainbow Dash ended the call, blushing furiously. She could tell him later maybe, maybe when he actually was willing to pick up the phone. Working at a call center hadn’t done her dad any good, and it certainly hadn’t made him any better at answering calls, despite the fact that he was probably right there at the phone this very moment. It was getting kind of late in the afternoon anyway, and she really wanted to check if any of her other friends had started changing yet. Rainbow dialed another number.

“Yo, P,” Dash soon spoke into her phone.

“Still an HB, RD!” came Pinkie Pie’s bright voice through the speakers. Dash’s conical ears easily picked it up, and though she was disappointed, she still felt a warm sense of relief at hearing from her friend.

“Anyone else yet?” Dash asked hopefully.

“Nope,” Pinkie said, “Fluttershy’s as swamped as ever with everypony’s pets at the animal shelter, and Rarity’s still coming to school with bags under her eyes trying to make clothing for everypony. And you know about Applejack and Sunset better than I do. Anything fun happening in your neighb?”

“Oh, heh, actually yeah!” Rainbow Dash said, looking up at the thought of a very odd pair of ponies she recalled seeing the other day. A confusing reunion to say the least.

“Why’my stho big? ” the berry colored mare exclaimed loudly, making Rainbow Dash jerk awake, sticking her head up out from the pillows. At least a dozen others in the room joined her, so this was a pony with a set of lungs on her.

It was morning again, time for another bunch of people to figure out that they turned into ponies. Dash liked to hang around the newbie area, in case any of them needed a hand, or a hoof or a wing however that worked. This wasn’t her business though, just sort of amusing, because the berry colored mare had been sleeping together with a light pink filly, who also woke up with that shout, and gazed up at the older mare with big, grey-green eyes.

“Oh my god Berryshine, you’re adorable!” the filly chirped out in unreserved glee. “You look like you’re all grown up!”

“I... wha? bu...” Berryshine said staring at her in absolute, wide-eyed confusion. “Thstill older zhan... you?”

“Just like you always wanted!” the filly exclaimed, laying on her side to push her hooves against the larger mare’s belly. “Now you get to be the mom, and I can be the bratty kid!”

“Mom, thatsh—” Berryshine cut off, as she looked down at the filly smiling up at her, as if seeing her for the very first time. Turning away, her face was even pinker than the rest of her as Berryshine mumbled, “Thashridigckuloush.”

“Come on, ‘mom,’ gimme a big hug!” the filly asserted insistently with an unrepentant grin, spreading her forehooves.

“Howhieven,” Berryshine replied in a frightened tone, looking at her own hoof that she extended out in front of her. “Howhieven dho hanyfing? ”

“You’ll figure it out, cutie. Lemme handle the hugging for now!” the filly said, and promptly climbed on top of her... anti-mother? “Mmm...” the filly said settling against the mare’s thick purple pink body.

“Mom, shtop, mom tha’ feelsh weird, mom! ” the mare said in increasing agitation. She sighed in disgust then, and looked away from the filly, at the ponies around the room.

“An’ wha’re hyou arll loorking aht?”

Other newbies were surprised with what they saw of themselves waking up that morning, but with how loud those two were being, it was pretty obvious to everyone that you were gonna wake up with hooves. The transformation always seemed to start, and end really early in the morning, but it was happening with lots of people at once now.

Rainbow Dash lost track of those two in the crowd over the day, but she relayed the news to Pinkie Pie who (of course) knew them.

“Berryshine and her mom switched? ” Pinkie said excitedly, “Oh that’s so superincrediriffamazing! Were they supposed to switch? Her mom’s always been so silly, maybe she’s a kid at heart! Is Berryshine coming back to school even though she’s not a filly? No of course she is, because other the ponies are coming back like that.”

“Maybe give her a chance to learn how to walk first,” Rainbow said frankly.

“Is she a unicorn? Or a pegasus? Or an earth pony?” Pinkie asked eagerly.

Dash kind of blanked on that. “Y’know I kind of didn’t check, so... earth pony? I would have remembered if she ha’ wings.”

“I’ll mark that down as a ‘maybe’” Pinkie reported.

“Wait, are hyou writing this down?” Rainbow asked nervously.

“Can’t talk, busy planning,” Pinkie stated, hanging up the phone.

Dash stared at it in confusion for a second, but a smile broke on her pony face, and she shook her head. “She better be planning something totally crazy, or I’ll be disappointed in that girl,” Rainbow Dash said to herself. Then, she went to call Rarity.

“Oh, hello Rainbow Dash,” Rarity’s voice came pleasantly over. “How may I help you?”

“Yeah, I’ like to order new uniforms for the entire team, and I need 6 prom dresshes by tomorrow,” Rainbow Dash rattled off easily. At the sound of hyperventilating, she added, “Jus’ kidding, Rares. You been really busy, huh?”

“Yes I’ve... I’ve had my hands full as it were,” Rarity said a little breathlessly. “People all over the city are starting to realize that this transformation may be a very big deal indeed. I don’t think there is anybody left who doesn’t know at least someone who’s been transformed into a pony.”

“Still waiting on you and the others,” Rainbow Dash said, “Jus’ checked in with Pinkie.”

“Oh, I am not looking forward to that day,” Rarity said glumly. “To have to relearn everything all over again... at the very least I will have a horn to make use of. But to teach myself to speak with a new mouth? What if I lose my carefully cultivated accent?”

“What accent?” Rainbow asked in confusion.

There was a pause over the phone, before Rarity said thinly, “Never mind. Oh, could you be a dear and check up on Sweetie Belle?”

“She—sure thing,” Rainbow said reluctantly, but resignedly. Being the only pony of the six, Rainbow Dash was a good choice for Rarity to keep up with her sister, when Rarity couldn’t be there for Sweetie Belle, herself. Still it was kind of awkward, not really Rainbow Dash’s favorite thing.

“Have you called Fluttershy yet?” Rarity asked hopefully over the phone.

“Not yet, wash gonna call her next,” Rainbow replied.

“Oh good,” Rarity said in relief. “Could you tell her that the outfits for the shelter are ready for her to pick up?”

“Outfits for... petsh?” Rainbow Dash asked uneasily.

“Oh, no no no, heavens no,” Rarity says, “We have our priorities straight here at Carousel Corner. Fluttershy has also been volunteering at the soup kitchen, which has since been adapted for use in pony rehabilitation. Rest assured I won’t design one single silly pet costume until every pony has their decency restored. Not even for that adorable talking puppy of Twilight’s.”

“Clothing’sh really not that big a deal,” Rainbow Dash said dismissively, “We have those marks on our butts, sho that’s basically like clothing already.”

“I... I thank you for your opinion,” Rarity said politely, “Was there anything else?”

“Nope, just checkin’ on ya,” Rainbow replied.

She then called Fluttershy, for a typically brief conversation, just happy to hear her voice really.

“Hey Flutters, it’s me,” Rainbow said. “How you doing?”

“Oh hello Rainbow Dash, it’s wonderful to hear from you,” came Fluttershy’s slow, soothing tones. “I’ve been very busy. With finals approaching, and the pet sitting, and all.”

“Jus’ checked with Pinkie and I wanted to let you know I’m still the only pony,” Rainbow replied. “You know, of the shix of us.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Fluttershy said sympathetically. “Do you want someone to come pay you a visit anyway?”

“Nah, I got thish,” Rainbow said smugly, “Jus’ a head’s up though, because somepony might be paying you a vishit soon. My wings are looking pretty good, and if all goesh well I should be flying by nexsh week.”

“Oh, that’s wonderful!” Fluttershy gushed. “I’m so happy for you!”

“I’m happy for me too,” Rainbow replied smugly. “Oh, Rarity jus’ told me that she had some outfitsh ready for the shelter.”

“That’s very good news,” Fluttershy agreed, “Ponies here really do appreciate having something to wear.”

“Not me. I’m going straight out, full pony!” Rainbow Dash declared. “I can’t wear clothesh anyway or they’ll slow me down.”

“Oh, that’s...” Fluttershy trailed off into a squeak that a few of her dogs seemed to be able to hear.

“Alright, Flutters,” Rainbow said, “I can hear thoshe dogs whining, so I’ll let you go do your thing.”

“It’s no trouble, really,” Fluttershy said, clearly rubbing a few heads from the grummles and rumbles coming from around her. “These cuties know I’m going to take good care of them.”

“Good luck with that, Flutters,” Dash replied. “See you later!”

And now the only one she had left to call was her dad. Rainbow Dash stared at the quiescent phone, then slid the stylus into it, and put it back in her bag. It was no big deal. She could call him later.

“Ah don’t believe it!” Apple Bloom exclaimed, amazed.

“This is the exact same spot,” Scootaloo replied, “I’m sure of it!”

Sweetie Belle said nothing, as she was busy trying to deal with the bulky camera that they’d brought up here with them.

Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle had... not snuck out of class, but just taken a little bit of an extra long lunch break, got the camera out of Sweetie’s locker, and snuck up to somewhere they weren’t supposed to go. The three fillies stood atop the roof of the school at its highest point. Scootaloo was gazing out in the distance, where the land seemed to travel on endlessly, but was only an illusion. You could see it if you knew what to look for, where everything just started... repeating.

“Okay, now we gotta tell those girls,” Apple Bloom stated. “The evidence is overwhelming!”

“Well, the evidence is here, at least,” Sweetie Belle corrected. “It’s definitely something they’d be interested in.”

“Maybe they’d take us more seriously then, too,” Scootaloo said, rolling her eyes.

“No, but this really is the first time we’ve been able to find any real world connection,” Sweetie said urgently, “I didn’t even take myself seriously, but now... I’m actually kinda scared.”

“We’ll be alright, Sweetie,” Scootaloo said, chucking her on the shoulder. “There’s nobody here to get upset, even. I bet they’ll take measurements, and just conclude that huh, now we still don’t know anything at all, so keep us posted if you find anything. Like they always do.”

“Maybe...” Sweetie said skeptically. “I definitely agree we should tell them.”

“Then, it’s decided,” Apple Bloom said. “We’ll tell ‘em soon as we get done with school today.”

“I’m all for that,” Scootaloo smiled.

“I guess this means we have to go to class...” Sweetie Belle said in disappointment.

“There’s only a few weeks left,” Apple Bloom said. “We gotta push hard now to get through our finals. Ah do not want to have to take any of these stupid classes a second time.”

“Let’s hurry then,” Scootaloo urged. The Crusaders trotted around to the door off the roof, but before they went in, Apple Bloom’s ear turned behind her.

“You two go on ahead,” she said. “Ah think I gotta go talk with someone.”

The other two winced, and Scootaloo said in a whisper, “Good luck!” Then they tip toed down the stairs, and Apple Bloom was alone, except not... quite.

“Sure is a nice view up here,” she announced loudly, startling the quiet purple boy who’d been staring at the horizon, lost in contemplation.

“Apple Bloom?” Dinky asked, “What are you doing up here?”

“Ah might be asking the same of you,” she said. “What’s been bothering you Dinky?”

His face hardened, and he turned away, saying, “Don’t act like it didn’t happen. You know what’s bothering me.”

Apple Bloom had to blush at that. Here was a boy, who was not only a boy, but had been a boy. Or, been a man, or however you implied what he went and did. It made her feel kind of... scared actually, because he actually went and did something that she could never understand. And it made him all... sour about it and stuff. Was it like mind control or something?

“A-ah just wanted to know you’re not a... ah’m here for you if’n you want to talk about it,” she said uncertainly.

“Well I don’t, so leave me alone,” he said angrily, staring away from her.

“See that’s how ah know something’s bothering ya,” Apple Bloom quipped, “You always wanna talk about people’s feelings.”

“Other people, yeah,” he said, “But why would I want to talk about mine?”

Apple Bloom thought about that, and said, “How d’you think Diamond feels about you being like this?”

“Doesn’t matter, does it?” Dinky asked bitterly, “She’ll be giving birth either way. If her baby even survives.”

“It’s your baby too, y’know,” Apple Bloom pointed out.

“Yeah I—” Dinky scrunched his eyes shut, having trouble controlling his voice saying, “Yeah I know. Could you please leave? I c-came up here to be alone.”

“Look, Dinky, ah...” Apple Bloom huffed in frustration. “Ah know the other kids’ve been beating you up.”

“So?” he said, “Why do you think I’m hiding up here?”

“They couldn’t do nothing to you in class,” Apple Bloom said, but he snapped at her,

“They could still look at me in class. Why should I give them the satisfaction?”

“Dinky... you don’t needta hurt yourself like this,” Apple Bloom said carefully, “You gotta stop letting it get to you. Those kids’re wrong and you don’t need—”

“Are they?” he asked dangerously, turning to look at her with incredulous golden eyes. “Are they really?”

Apple Bloom had to back up as Dinky rounded on her. Stalking up to her, the boy said, “I fu—did something bad to Diamond Tiara, and I wanted to do it to her, and I still want to do it to her.” Oh this was a bad idea, she realized as the giant of a boy loomed over her, staring at her with angry, predatory eyes that almost seemed to glow. She was fighting not to just run as he said, “They aren’t doing anything I don’t deserve! I just—I don’t want to be this way, but I am! Why are you even trying to help me? There’s no point!”

“You’re wrong!” Apple Bloom shouted tearfully. “You don’t deserve none of this!”

“Even you’re scared of me,” he said in amazement, looking down at her quivering form. “You think I wouldn’t even care if you’re an animal? Why would I? Might as well, right?”

“That’s not why ah’m—” but Apple Bloom was sure thinking about it now. It didn’t help that she was right at the level of his pants, and she didn’t have anything on but a dress. Pony underclothes were not a thing at the moment.

“A-ah’m not scared of you,” she lied, “An’ you better not be even thinking about doing nothing, ‘cause ah’m real strong and...”

“...great, now I am thinking about it,” Dinky groaned. He turned and stalked back to stare out over the city again.

“Well—well you...” Apple Bloom wiped at her eyes furiously. “There ain’t nothing wrong with me, an’ there ain’t nothing wrong with you, even if you think that sometimes.”

He didn’t respond.

“Diamond Tiara needs you!” Apple Bloom said desperately.

“Ha!” was Dinky’s reply. He didn’t even turn around.

“Well... ‘ha’ to you too!” Apple Bloom shouted, “Maybe if’n you stopped beating yourself up so much, other kids would stop helping you do it!”

More silence.

“Ohh!” Apple Bloom squealed, turning on her toes and galloping for the door outta here. She shut it behind her with a snort, and started loping her way down the stairs. Maybe that boy did need some time alone, because he sure wasn’t very pleasant to be around anymore.

She at least had presence of mind to check for hall monitors, but she was definitely late slipping into her next classroom. A tardy slip weeks before school got out, the last school year they’d have before everyone was a pony. Apple Bloom swore inwardly as she stared at it, and in the grand scheme of things, it shouldn’t have even mattered to her that she had a tardy slip. It shouldn’t have. She didn’t understand nothing sometimes.

Author's Note

Was gonna have this just happen off camera, because it really isn’t plot relevant, but I thought it came out cute, so did we just get a reversal here with ~~Ruby Pinch (Berry Pinch)~~Piña Colada and Berryshine (Berry Punch)? The mother becomes and daughter, and the reverse is true. - Canary In The Coal Mine

Highs and Lows

“It’s a library...” Twilight stated breathlessly.

She panned the flashlight around as they inched through the darkness. The officers present with her were mostly perfuctory, yet the presence of the high school principal was inexplicably appropriate. Twilight struggled to understand how Celestia could have such a strong authority in this world, despite only being in charge of the city’s high school. Human customs were still strange to her, and this was technically high school grounds, but even in something far greater than one little high school, Celestia remained in charge. It sure wasn’t doing Twilight’s nerves any good that the humanized double of her teacher, mentor and princess was following along, silently judging her every action.

They had to be at least a hundred feet underground here. The descending set of stone steps that had... extended, were joined far below by a more permanent set of steps, spiraling downward into seemingly endless darkness. At the very bottom of this stairwell, there was a doorway, whose door had rotted clean away. And through that doorway was... a library.

There was nothing else down here, nothing alive that is. Not even a spider or a bug. Twilight had to suspect that this... this tomb of literature had been hermetically sealed, until they opened it today.

That hadn’t saved the books. Time had taken its toll on them, and their shelves, thus to crumble and rot they all descended. There were fragments of paper left, at best, fragments that crumbled to dust if you tried to pick them up. Not something Twilight was equipped to deal with in the slightest, but she wasn’t here for the piles of paper on the ground.

Twilight wished she had her magic so bad. She knew at least three dozen book preservation spells, and several molecular stabilization spells that could have proved invaluable to transporting these fragile remnants. There was no way for anyone to tell what was on these books at this point, and in fact by opening this passageway, they may have accelerated the rate of decay. It could be a mere decade before anything that could be saved from this was gone forever.

Nevertheless, Twilight had at most 3 months to wait before she got her horn back, so she wasn’t overly concerned about running out of time before she could aid in preserving or recovering these forgotten tomes. No, what she was interested in was what they found at the end of the library, through a once locked set of double doors hanging broken and ajar, their hinges rusted away, behind which were the remains of broken signs, and a bronze placard so corroded that whatever was etched in it was completely unreadable.

Beyond that was a simple reading room.

Princess—Principal Celestia stood close at hand, while Twilight and Sunset were cautiously escorted down here. They faced a darkened reading room, down which everyone panned their flashlights. The powerful beams played along the walls, illuminating walls lined in bookshelves with actual books on them, a few worn looking cushions, a central pedastal on which a book was prominently placed, and a police officer, frozen in the act of creeping forwards. His flashlight had been shining without fail for days.

“They stopped time,” Twilight said in shock. “Whoever it was, they stopped time. ”

“They slowed time,” Sunset corrected her. “No need to get dramatic about this, princess. The light from our flashlights is going in there and coming out just fine. What’s going on here is incredible, unprecedented... but the same could be said about the kind of sorcery it would take to establish a time loop.”

“Even if you did have the incredible magnitude of magic needed to loop time back on itself,” Twilight grumbled, “It would only do so once. You’d be undoing your own spell in casting it. A stable time loop is... a lot more impressive than this, I suppose. You’re right. But still, they almost stopped time!”

“What we need to know, Ms. Sparkle,” the commanding officer said in a worried baritone, “Is how to save our officer here.”

“Oh, well, end the spell obviously,” Twilight said shortly, “There should be a focus somewhere, that’s stabilizing it. Probably within the time bubble, to maximize its duration. If you can disrupt that, then... it should fix everything.”

“Does it have anything to do with the big red target in the back, with the mysterious writing next to it?” one of the officers asked, shining his flashlight down there.

Sunset and Twilight peered after the beam and their eyes widened. There was what looked like a wooden disc in the back, with red and white stripes drawn in concentric circles on it, leading to a red dot in the center. Next to it was a perfectly preserved sign on the wall, with the most astonishing contents.

“Th–that’s Presentation!” Twilight exclaimed dumbfoundedly.

“Modern Presentation!” Sunset replied in equal astonishment.

“Were ponies here before?” Twilight pondered, looking at Sunset wide-eyed.

“Is Princess Celestia setting us up?” Sunset asked anxiously, looking back.

“Wait,” Principal Celestia’s voice spoke up, making the two startle like little fillies. “I assume you mean... the other Celestia, across the portal?”

“T-t-there’s no way the princess is setting us up,” Twilight said facing the tall lady with a curiously quiescent form of her princess’s mane, and rubbing the back of her head. “Why would she do any of this? Just because she could have sabotaged the portal and perhaps been lying about being unable to manipulate this world without being trapped here doesn’t mean oh hayfeathers I’m going to shut up now.”

“I... hate to be the voice of reason here,” Sunset spoke up beside the blushing Twilight, “But while the princess could be setting us up for something, what that sign says isn’t it.”

“Oh, right, yeah,” Twilight said, still red-faced. “That sign is definitely not in any way mysterious or vague.”

“You can read the sign?” one of the officers asked incredulously.

“It’s written in an alphabet from our world,” Sunset said emphatically. “One used for signs and large public displays.

“Well, what does it say?” the principal asked, sounding a little miffed.

“Shoot this target to disable the time bubble,” Twilight said simply.

Dinky couldn’t hide up on the roof forever. He had to eat at some point. So every day, he would have to make his way through the cafeteria line, trying to ignore stares from kids like Octave who were so furious that he’d deflowered an innocent maiden who they didn’t even know, that they didn’t even want to let him get lunch anymore. Dinky wished he could just bring his lunch, but to bring his lunch he’d have to have a family, so all he got to do was get fed from a cafeteria every day.

Nevertheless, he was relatively safe under the scrutiny of the adults manning the cafeteria. No kid would risk throwing trash at him or trying to knock him over and take his stuff, or try to hit him, or try to approach him at all for that matter. Even the kids next to him in line were keeping him at arm’s length, pushing him away if he accidentally got close enough to touch them. Nobody in the school knew how to deal with a boy like him, and he didn’t know how to deal with that. But at least he could get his food in peace.

Dinky was astonished, therefore, to see a girl coming into the cafeteria make a beeline straight for him. It was a grey girl with straw blonde hair, a shade darker than his own. She had a frown on her face, and two yellow eyes, neither of which pointed in the same direction. It was the... dramatist? Dinky hadn’t even asked his roommate about her yet, but those unaligned eyes were pretty unmistakable.

She stood in front of him, staring at him with those eerily familiar eyes. This was supposed to be the pony in the other world who was his mother? But it was just a girl! Dinky didn’t know what to say, or what he was even feeling right now. It was as if he should know her, but Dinky had never even noticed her before. Did his roommate tell her about Dinky on his own? Why was she here?

Before Dinky could think of anything to say, the girl drew back, and slapped him so hard it knocked him into the kids in front of him. His cheek exploded in pain, and he held a hand to it as silence fell in the cafeteria, then loud murmurs, and whispers and stares . He didn’t know you could slap someone this hard! Why did it hurt so much? Why did she do it?

She just stormed away without even a word, away from him and out of the entire cafeteria. What was going on? Why was she leaving him? Why did it hurt so much? Everyone was laughing at him, or hating him, or pitying him. Dinky felt stupid, salty tears running down his cheeks as he just... fled. He dropped his tray and stumbled, then ran out of the cafeteria. Not after the girl who had slapped him, but just away.

Huddled outside by the fountain and crying to himself, Dinky felt like his whole world was ending. Why did she hate him? She didn’t even know him! Yet it felt like... it felt like the other world was real, and his mother wasn’t gone, and she hated him, and that’s why she left him at the orphanage. It was completely illogical. Even if the girl was a senior that would only make her 3 years older than him. That somehow made it worse though, because Dinky couldn’t understand why he was feeling what he was feeling.

He didn’t want to feel this way anymore. He just wanted to be loved, but all he did was hurt people. Dinky couldn’t help anyone; he was just worthless.

Ditzy Do was in a good mood this morning. She got another letter from her secret admirer! She couldn’t believe that an odd looking girl like her would ever have a secret admirer, but she did! She was amazed when she first got a letter in the mail addressed to her, not her parents. Nobody ever wrote to her! It had no return address, and all it said was that she was adorable, and that he loved seeing her “just as you are.”

Then she got another one! She couldn’t believe it! Someone was mailing her letters, who liked her. Someone who really, really liked her! He never said who he is, but he said the most endearing things. He said she was his favorite little pony, which didn’t make sense until some students started changing into little ponies, and then it did make sense! He told her he couldn’t wait to see her again. Ditzy didn’t know who it was. He only ever wrote a sentence or two, and a letter only arrived on Tuesdays. But just the thought that someone at school thought she was special enough to send her these letters always brightened her day.

Her day got less bright when she found out who it was.

The grey girl with the golden hair sat in her airy upstairs bedroom before school, looking with confusion and then anger at the letter in her lap that said, “Dinky needs you.” Nothing more, nothing less. That boy, that... boy! That boy had been writing these?!

It made so much sense the more that Ditzy thought about it. That must have been how Dinky got Diamond Tiara, by writing her such nice, loving letters, until he had her completely fooled that she was in love with him. And now he was announcing his needs to Ditzy like some kind of beast as if she would actually... even consider...

“Ditzy!” her mom called, “Time to get going!”

Ditzy left the letter with the others and went to school, but she couldn’t stop thinking about it. Now that he’d used Diamond Tiara, suddenly Dinky decided to confess his identity to Ditzy? Soon as he had his baby inside that other girl, he tossed her aside and looked for a new victim, and Ditzy Do was next! It made perfect sense. Diamond looked like she was popular, but she was too mean for any boy to really like. And Ditzy was too... clumsy and derp eyed for any boy to really like. He was just picking out lonely girls and—and using them for sex!

She couldn’t believe that someone so... awful could even exist, but there was the letter in plain words. Dinky wasn’t even trying to hide it. He needed her for his nefarious schemes, and he was just gonna take her! It was like he had lost control, like an out-of-control animal, who just said what he wanted, and didn’t care what you thought, only about his own primal satisfaction. Dinky needs you. That made Ditzy feel... funny inside, but still. It must have been because he got caught, and now he was desperate to move onto his next conquest. He thought he could keep doing this, even though everyone knew how dangerous he was.

She approached him in the cafeteria at lunch to confront him about these letters he wrote, all these kind loving words that were just lies to trick her, until Ditzy’s tummy was as big as Diamond’s! She went right up to him to tell him that she wanted... that she secretly wanted... that she wasn’t that kind of girl!

He wasn’t even an upperclassman! He had to be at least a year younger than her! He was just some stupid... kid who was just toying with Ditzy’s heart and didn’t even care about her. She wanted to tell him that, wanted to tell him just what she thought of his letters and his plans, but one look from those innocent, golden eyes, so similar to her own, and she just didn’t know what to say. He seemed surprised, like he didn’t even recognize her. What was she to him, just a faceless set of hips that he didn’t even feel a shred of guilt or remorse or even recognition in—

She hadn’t realized she was going to hit him, until she did. He deserved it, for doing that to Diamond Tiara, and then dumping her and trying to do it to Ditzy. How many other girls had he done this to?! With those eyes that made her feel so... so longing for something, he could have fooled whoever he wanted. She kind of... accidentally hit him so hard it sort of knocked him into the other students in line, and then shame and guilt added onto her already tumultuous emotions.

She—she gave him what he deserved, and Ditzy didn’t want everyone looking at her like that, and she was afraid he would try to talk to her, to make her think she could trust him again, so she just stormed out of the cafeteria. Ditzy Do would have to miss lunch that day, but it was worth it. As she sat there out by the stairs crying her stupid broken eyes out because all those beautiful letters were lies and fake, and nobody loved her at all, it was...

...

worth it...

With a full film crew present, casting generous light into the dangerously slowed room deep within the catacomb of books, Twilight Sparkle, Sunset Shimmer, a history teacher transformed into a pony and drafted to be an archaeologist, and the high school principal were... actually all the way on the surface, watching from a monitor displaying the video footage of deep within, just in case it did turn out to be some sort of trap. With the camera rolling, a very intrepid officer by the name of Shady Daze decided to take the risk, entering the view of the camera as everyone else watched avidly from the surface.

“Okay, I’m going to shoot the target now,” he said, lifting a rifle. Canterlot cops didn’t usually carry firearms, but they sure had some in storage, as well as training in how to use them. Releasing the safety, and bringing his finger to the trigger, the speakers hissed out as the loudness of the rifle shot overwhelmed the microphones. And Twilight and Sunset both watched with particular fascination, as camera number 3 tracked the bullet as it jetted through the air in slow motion.

With a cracking report, it struck the target dead center, and Sunset pushed a button on her stopwatch. She showed it to Twilight, who whispered to her excitedly, as a shimmering magical gneep came from the camera speakers, followed by the sounds of a second police officer speeding up saying, “Ooooooookaaay, I think I see a book or some thiIIIPE” he yelped as the other officer immediately tackled him in a hug.

“Dammit bro!” the one said to the other, “Could you please not just rush into things like that next time?”

The visiting sergeant cleared her throat into the microphone.

“Oh! Um...” Officer Shady Daze looked around nervously, breaking his hug and patting the other man on the shoulder. “We’re kind of being filmed right now. Let’s get out of here, I’ll fill you in on the way...”

“That was sho cool! ” Professor Berry exclaimed up on the surface, “It shlowed th’ bullet down! Did you shee zhat? How mush did it get shlowed down?”

“Given the muzzle velocity of the officer’s rifle, and the distance travelled, time was over one hundred times slowed!” Twilight reported, with a big smile. “110, with two significant figures.”

“If we look at shtuff in the hroom, and out of the hroom, maybe zhe relative decay coul’ give ush an eshtimate of how old zhat stuff is!” Berry suggested excitedly.

Looking discomfited, the principal said to everyone, “I believe that’s enough excitement for today. We can have the professionals—”

The eyes of two girls and a pony zipped as one from the screen, to the tall white lady.

“With all due respect prin—cipal,” Twilight said testily, “We are running out of time here. Every day means another two dozen people changed, and it will only get worse.”

“That was Presentation, an Equestrian alphabet,” Sunset said equally urgently, “We may be the only people in this world who can translate those books.”

“She’s got a poin’,” professor Berry said, tilting her head and peering back at the screen showing the sign next to the remains of the target. “The closhest I can find to that alphabet is hcuneiform, and thish ishn’t any shymbols I’ve ever seen.”

“There isn’t even a 1:1 correspondence with symbol to letter,” Twilight agreed emphatically, “Our world has a—a different situation as far as languages are concerned. There are only three major—”

“Fine, you can go take a look,” the principal said running her hand over her face wearily.

“Yess!” Professor Berry said, pumping her hoof. She blushed then, and said, “I mean uh, yes, that sounds reasonable.”

“You’ll have an escort of course,” the principal added, “And at the first sign of danger, you let the police handle it.”

Chattering at each other eagerly, the pony and two not-really-high-school girls began to scramble about to make preparations to venture downward.

“Alright, I’m moving forward,” the officer known as Shady Daze said, once the entire party was down the stairs and at the threshold of the mysterious back room. “If I hit any timey wimey shi—stuff I’m expecting you to bail me out.”

Him and his brother, two other officers, Twilight, Sunset, Cherry, and sergeant Safari were there. Two of the inferior officers both carried impressively bright lanterns, lighting up the area beyond that which the cameras were aimed at.

“Seems clear!” Shady soon called back, once he’d set the lantern down in there. Cautiously the others moved forward.

The reading room had an old musty smell to it, like old books left alone for too long. Twilight cautiously sniffed the air, and remarked, “These books seem well preserved. The air is dry, and I don’t smell any sort of rot.”

“Not surprising, with how slowed the flow of time was in here,” Sunset replied sounding loud in the quiet chamber. “They clearly wanted this preserved, whoever they were.”

“Still, we should be careful,” Twilight said, “No telling what condition these books are in.”

“It would take thousands of years for age to begin setting in,” Sunset pointed out.

Twilight pursed her lips, and then said, “...I know.”

Twilight and Sunset approached the podium in the center, accompanied cautiously by the sergeant. There was a large, ornate book laid upon it, as if for anyone to come up and read it. The podium was about 2 and a half feet off the ground, making both girls kneel down to be at level to read it. The rest of the group spread out through the room, Cherry looking curiously at the spines of the books on the shelves, and the officers searching in the passageway beyond it, while Sunset and Twilight just... wondered.

“What could this mean?,” Twilight whispered reverently.

“This library was isolated from the time loop,” Sunset said, “Yet they were trying to preserve this. Why?”

“A better question might be who brought it here?” Twilight responded.

“Or how did this get here?” Sunset said in disbelief. “Is this from our world? Not even Princess Celestia knew how to stop the time loop. She couldn’t have! Ponies have died from it!”

“A real ancient book,” the sergeant said behind them in rapt fascination. “Can you read it?”

Twilight nodded explaining, “The title is in Symbol, a common font to use for etching book covers in my... world. It says...” She frowned uneasily, not quite seeming comfortable with continuing.

Sunset gave the silent Twilight a worried look, but turned to the sergeant and said, “It says ‘The Journal of the Princesses.’”

“Princess Celestia must have known, if this is her journal, but...” Twilight stared at it as if it was going to jump up and bite her. “But the journal the princesses kept was called the Journal of the Two Sisters. Because they’re sisters, night and day, sun and moon. Is this another journal? Why would it be here? ”

“I dunno,” Sunset said lifting a shaky hand to the binding. “I’m gonna open it.”

Everyone watched on baited breath, as the flame haired girl opened the ponderous looking tome, folding it open to the front. “The princesses want us all to write a diary together,” Sunset read. “It’s so exciting to finally—”

“Pluto’s Balls! ” came a shout from a passageway in the back of the room. “Everyone, come quick! Bring a lantern! This is huge!”

Sunset and Twilight scrambled to their feet, running after the other officer with the lantern followed by a trotting pink pony. On the surface, Principal Celestia said something like “don’t you dare” that couldn’t possibly have been heard over the speakers down underground. The dark passageway that the bright lantern illuminated bit by bit looked very recently carved into the bedrock, with curious depictions of what were unmistakably ponies in various states of disarray all along it.

Sunset wanted to stop and look, but she knew this couldn’t have been what provoked that officer’s excited yelp. She just wanted to know what role ponies really played in all this. The passageway opened quickly into a cavernous chamber, over which the light played crazily, until the officer set down the lamp and cranked it up to full brightness. Sunset stared, as she and Twilight spilled out into that room, both of them coming to a halt at the sight of it.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Sunset said faintly. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” she said less than faintly. “What is this? What is this?! What is all this? Why is this here? Who carved it? What is going on? Is this some kind of sick joke?”

“Tell me this is a joke, Twilight,” Sunset said, grabbing the distracted lilac girl by the lapel. “Is this supposed to be a lesson for me? Did you and Celestia plan this? What is going on?!”

“I–I don’t know, Sunset!” Twilight said looking fearfully from the statue to her friend and back. “There’s no explanation for this. There’s no way this could possibly be here. This is hundreds of years old, at least! I haven’t even been a princess for 8 years yet! And you haven’t—I—” Twilight hugged Sunset fiercely against her, whispering, “I don’t know who did this, but I’m sorry. I would never joke about this to you, not ever, ever.”

“...what’s so bad about another horse statue?” Cherry Berry asked, ambling up behind them.

The chamber everyone emerged in had ornate carvings all along the edges of its smooth walls, save one wall that was covered in scratchy, rough grooves. It was a completely empty chamber, but for a stone dias erected in the center, where it looked like a solid block of stone had been carved into a pedestal, on which two horses were made to be standing, rearing up in opposite directions. This would have been uneventful in and of itself, but the carving was done in the most meticulous detail, and both Sunset and Twilight knew exactly what they were looking at.

One of the horses, one of the ponies was Twilight Sparkle herself, no mistake about it, from the familiar curve to her snout, to the blank, oval eyes, to the straight cut bangs. Even the flutes on her horn were lovingly sculpted to the length Twilight always kept it at, and her own wings spread broadly behind her.

The other pony could only have been Sunset Shimmer. In a mirror of Twilight’s pose, the stone was carved into a second pony with wavy blades of hair, and sharp, oval eyes, a slightly angular snout that Sunset had been seeing more in past years, since she was forgiven and forgave the Princess Celestia, along with a crisply curved tail that in her life so resembled the flame in her heart. This statue had a horn kept just a little longer than Twilight’s, and her own wings spread broadly behind her.

Twilight had a lot to think about. Sunset had a lot to think about, but Twilight had a lot to think about, and also a warm dog sleeping on her chest. Twilight lay there in the dark for yet another night, trying to understand what she saw, trying to understand why Sunset was... was a princess. Had this world’s Sunset gone a different path?

But this world didn’t have a Sunset Shimmer. It wasn’t supposed to have a Twilight Sparkle. That was nothing unusual. There were lots of ponies in Equestria, who didn’t have a counterpart here in Canterlot City. Any who did have counterparts, you’d be able to find them caught somewhere in this time loop. But Sunset had scoured every corner of the city, and found no duplicate of herself, nor of Twilight. There was no alternate who could have written those diary entries, those innocent lessons of life that Twilight found endearing, but ultimately frustrating.

Nobody, or nopony writes a diary anticipating that those reading it will need to know the circumstances surrounding it. The other Sunset was just there, leaving entries happy as a clam, and then vanishing along with Twilight Sparkle rather than appearing anywhere in the time loop that anyone could find. The other books in the room were completely unrelated, but very pony related. An encyclopedic history of Equestria you could have found in the Canterlot library. Books on the three tribes, on modern farming and weather techniques. books on wing care, hoof care, horn care. Instruction books for any number of things.

Books from their world.

Twilight had been too shaken to read much more from the diary. And every time she read an entry like,

Today was such a beautiful day. The sun was warm and friendly, just like the one who raises it. I’ve learned so much from the princesses, that I can not find words to express how grateful I am. They teach me and Twilight, and love us both so much. I only hope I can live up to their dreams someday. I’ve come a long way, but I still have such a long way to go. Sometimes I can be rash in my decisions, but if I just listen to my heart and care about other ponies, then I can find the right thing to do every time.

Princess Shimmer

it looked like Sunset was going into a full blown panic attack. So Twilight stopped reading, and barely inventoried all the old, worn, faded books on the shelves around them, and together the girls went home... home to their portable building on the Apple family farm. The walls of the portable building were covered in notes, maps, pins, and laying on the bed, Twilight Sparkle was covered in Spike.

Twilight’s eyes drifted to the other bed, as Sunset was asleep, but not happily so. Sounds of her grumbling, or moaning quietly in her sleep drifted through the dim room.

“Spike,” Twilight whispered in the darkness, nudging her friend awake.

Spike gave a muggy little grewl, projecting his dog biscuit breath as he spoke, saying, “What’s up, Twilight?”

“Could you... sleep with Sunset tonight?” Twilight whispered, cringing.

“You know she doesn’t like me sleeping with her,” Spike said irritably. “I don’t wanna get kicked off the bed again.”

“Don’t worry, Spike, I—” Twilight sighed. “I think that right now it’s just what she needs.”

“If you say so,” Spike said reluctantly, cautioning Twilight “I’ll tell her it was your idea though.” Jumping down from the bed, he padded off in the direction of Sunset’s bed, ever so carefully climbing up to sleep next to the belabored girl.

Twilight lay in silence, and she might have heard a whimpered protest from Spike again, but once Sunset had her living teddy bear clutched in her arms, her troubled noises calmed down, and her breathing eased and slowed. Yet another Friendship Problem taken care of, Twilight thought distantly. Sunset Shimmer had wanted to be a princess more than anything, and to see her likeness carved in that visage... Twilight was going to have strong words with the sculptor, if she ever managed to find them.

One thing was for sure, if there were any answers to find, it would be in that diary. For all the shock of its discovery, Twilight was beyond eager to return to that room and study the heck out of that diary, not to mention all the other books in there. Maybe she’d go alone this time though, because Sunset really didn’t look like she was ready to venture once more into the deep.

“Sho in refiew, Charlemagne encourashed zhe Carolingiam Rennaishanshe.”

Berry needed a drink.

No, that’s not quite getting it. Those doctors weren’t kidding when they said that ponies couldn’t get drunk. Cherry Berry got completely sick of whiskey before she could even get a pleasant buzz. She wanted to get drunk, and she wanted to get drunk with her friends, because here she was trying to teach history when she didn’t even have hands to hold the pointer anymore.

She couldn’t stop thinking about that impossible underground library, that freaking magic room that had pony books in it. How much influence had ponies had on human history, and why was it that all Berry had been taught was crazy stories about stupid conquests and wars? The most she had ever heard of ponies were just myths and legends, of the unicorns, and one pegasus. So why was she teaching this crap, if the myths and legends were true?

“Anna shthal—scushe me.”

Berry spat out the pointer in disgust, abandoning it to say more clearly, “And a standardized writing syshtem. Once he conquered the Saxons, he shrove for univershal education.” And what a ridiculous history it was, too. Someone who could in one breath order the murder of dozens of innocent civilians and in another promote the value of educating them, and he just happened to be the one who was crowned emperor? She couldn’t whitewash it enough for these freshmen. Even they had dull looks of skepticism and disbelief.

“He instituted scholashtic reforms, while also purshuing his agenda of...uh...”

...

Berry looked out the window. It was a bright, sunny day outside, but there was something... wrong with it. She thought she saw a... a bird? It was just a bird fluttering off away from the school, but something about it filled her with dread.

“The agenda of Christian dominance in the Frankish Empire,” a student named Archer said, snapping Berry’s attention back to the classroom.

“Right,” Berry agreed, much to the blue girl’s delight, “And in thish, he gave sanctuary to the Antipope Paschal the Third.” Oh there was another rich story. Somehow this pope just barely escapes getting killed by the emperor in the nick of time, just at the time that the greatest conqueror France had ever seen came to power. And that string of coincidences just happened to be why modern Europe was male dominated. Sure it was more complex than that, but... why didn’t any lucky stuff like that ever happen to someone like Catharine the Great? Why would ponies remain uninvolved in everything?

“Which shemented the pope’s superiority over Charlemagne in his...” Cherry trailed off again, looking out the window again, for... something. Okay now she was getting scared. Was she seeing things? She wasn’t seeing anything though, because what was bothering her wasn’t in sight. She craned her head down, squinting to try and see higher outside the window. What was she even looking for? Everything looked fine, not terribly wrong.

“What are you looking at?” one of her students asked, following her gaze curiously.

“N-nothing!” Berry said fearfully, tearing her eyes away from the window again. “Just felt like shomething was wrong out there, but it’s too high to see from here.”

“The roof!” Apple Bloom squealed.

Berry blinked, looking at the wide eyed red and yellow pony sitting there at her desk.

“Ye—” the teacher said, just as Apple Bloom went tearing out of her classroom as fast as her hooves could carry her.

“Hey!” Berry shouted, leaping after her. She didn’t even hesitate or tell anyone to stay put, or stop to notify the hall monitor, because it was absolutely imperative that she catch up with that little filly. The halls were empty, which would have been an advantage, had Berry not been so damn terrible at running like a horse. Apple Bloom was way better at that, making the older pony look clumsy at best, but Berry had longer legs. Where the filly scrabbled at the smooth floor as she slowly turned the corner, the heavier Cherry Berry just sort of slammed into the lockers with her broad pink furry side, and charged on after her.

Apple Bloom made it to the fire access stairwell, but couldn’t open the door before Cherry caught up to her. “What are you doing?!” the history teacher demanded.

Apple Bloom backed up from the pink pony a step, looking up with scared amber eyes and saying, “Ah gotta go to the roof! Ah just realized why Dinky’s going up there all this time!!”

Cherry Berry felt all the fur on her back stand on end as she knew exactly what Apple Bloom was talking about. She yanked the stairwell door open with her mouth and braced it on a hoof shouting, “Go! Get up there! Shtall him or something!”

Apple Bloom didn’t need to be told twice, and lickety split she was clattering her way up the stairs. She didn’t even think twice about the loud alarm bells hurting her ears. She was running short on time, and she needed to do something before this horrible... thing that she didn’t even want to imagine occurred. The door to the roof was open when she got there. She pushed it open and looked around frantically—there! That shock of light yellow hair was unmistakable. There was the boy named Dinky, just sitting up on the roof like nothing was wrong, sitting on the—he was sitting on the railing!

“Dinky!” Apple Bloom shouted, startling the boy so badly she was sure she ruined everything and he was going to fall. But he gripped the railing in his hands, and turned to see her.

“Apple Bloom?” he exclaimed in wide eyed shock, “How did you know I was here?!”

“Ah don’t know!” Apple Bloom whined, “Dinky, what are you doing? ”

He adopted a guilty look for a moment, then said in low frustration, “What do you care?”

“Ah care!” Apple Bloom protested, walking a sideways circle around him, afraid to approach him. She didn’t want to make him do it! “Ah care a lot about you!”

“Why?” he shot back, “Why do you even care if I... do this?”

“Ah don’t want anyone to do this!” Apple Bloom said, “Ah’d be just crushed if anyone went and did something like this!”

He stared at her a second with those scared looking eyes, before turning forward and saying, “Well maybe you should go talk to anyone then, and leave me alone.”

“Ah’m not gonna—” Apple Bloom was at a loss. “What?!”

“You know it’s... it’s really freeing,” Dinky said with a giddy tremble in his voice. “I’ve always been so afraid to act, but now I don’t care about what happens, because I don’t care about myself.”

“Well then, why don’t you just come over here and get off that ledge,” Apple Bloom said tearily, “If’n it don’t matter what you do!”

“Oh, and what then?” he countered. “I should impregnate some more girls? Then change into a pony? Maybe I’ll get pregnant then, and drop some baby off at the orphanage to live her whole life without a family!”

“Y-you don’t have to do that,” Apple Bloom tried to be brave, though her legs felt like jelly, “You cain though. A-an’ what happens after she lives at the orphanage?”

“I don’t—” Dinky looked at Apple Bloom again, and said, “Have another baby? I don’t know! This could all be avoided if I just stopped being... here.”

He started to turn back, and Apple Bloom said, “No, it... n-no it wouldn’t!” She stomped and said, “There would still be people growing up in orphanages, and Diamond Tiara would still be pregnant, and she needs you!”

“No she doesn’t!” he shot back, “She can keep it, or she can get rid of it, or she can leave it at the orphanage, but all I can do is just sit there watching it, watching what I did ruin her life!”

“It ain’t—” Apple Bloom caught herself, instead asking, “How is it ruining her life? She’s gonna have the baby and then she’ll be living on easy street, right?”

“Are you crazy?” he demanded, “She’ll have to raise it, and feed it, and—and breast feed it, as a pony! She’ll have to spend her whole life doing nothing but taking care of it, and all because of me!”

“Oh, so it wasn’t her fault at all?” Apple Bloom shot back. “She wasn’t trying to get you to do it at all?”

“N-no, she wasn’t,” Dinky said mutedly, turning away.

“Bullshit!” Apple Bloom squealed, “You think ah don’t know her? She was probably... probably jumping on you when she started to get into it. She don’t do things half way!”

“Well good for her!” he shouted back, “Fine, it’s all her fault, and I didn’t want to do it, then she just forced me to get an erection, and forced me to put it in, and try as hard as I could to—to make her pregnant!

“What does it even matter?” he added tiredly, looking forward again. “I can’t even own up to my mistake. I can’t even be a man. I already—I already abandoned my child, because I’m just going to be some kind of a useless toddler. It’d be better if I just wasn’t even here anymore. Nobody would miss me.”

Apple Bloom stopped fishmouthing at his very male candidness, and said, “Ah would miss you,” but he shot right back,

“You would miss anybody! You don’t care that it’s me. There’s no one in the whole world who cares only about me, because I don’t even get to have a mother!” There were tears running down his face as he looked at her again, saying, “She hates me! She doesn’t even—she left me all alone. I wanted to see her for so long and nobody cared about me after that, only Diamond only cared about what I could give her. Well she has it now, so let me die already!”

“Look, it cain get better...” Apple Bloom said desperately, “You feel bad now, but it’ll get better if you just—”

“I don’t want it to get better!” he protested, “I can’t stand it Apple Bloom. Everyone hates me because of what I did, and I deserve it! I just want it to end! ”

Apple Bloom didn’t know what to say, and he was pushing himself off! She just ran forward and—and just wanted so bad to just pull him away, she couldn’t hold back. She just wanted everything to be okay again and that this terrible thing that did this to him never happened. He pushed off the ledge and fell so fast that she didn’t even have time to blink before he was gone.

“Dinky!” she shrieked. Clambering up on the ledge, Apple Bloom frantically tried to find something she could stretch to grab in her teeth, the collar of a coat, or a sleeve, or for some fingers hanging on the edge, but there was nothing she could do but watch Dinky falling away from her. Staring down at him, it seemed like Dinky was descending in slow motion, frozen in the act of reaching up at her for help, after it was far too late for her to help him.

“Oh,” Apple Bloom said in a bemused tone of voice, looking down from where she perched way up atop the school roof, “Huh.”

As soon as the little pony student darted up the stairs, Cherry Berry ran in the opposite direction from the stairwell, right over to the nearest fire alarm. She yanked it and her ears went flat as blindingly loud alarms started blaring into them. Feeling like the siren was digging into her brain, Berry went gallumping down the hallway, yanking open doorways with her mouth and looking in to see if she could find anyone at all who was... yes! Fuck yes!

Cherry Berry was a pretty noteworthy presence at the school as she was, with bright yellow hair and a pink furry ass that the bomber jacket she wore didn’t cover nearly enough, certainly not the tattoo of cherries that had appeared there. Three teachers had changed into ponies so far, if you counted that librarian, but Cherry was the only pony teacher who’d come back to school, making her the only pony teacher in the whole school. So people noticed Berry, and what she was. What she wasn’t, was the only pony.

The pony didn’t have any clothing sized for her yet, which made it easy to see her cream colored fur, the bright flowers on either side of her butt, her hair oddly remniscent of a watermelon, and other important anatomical features. She was a student. She had to be a student, or Berry would have got a memo—yet looked like she was just as old as Cherry Berry was. That was disturbing to experience when the student was in one of your classes, but not nearly as disturbing when you were breaking into someone else’s classroom after having faked a fire alarm.

So it was with confidence and authority that Cherry Berry shouted, “You!” to her fellow pony, and demanded of her, “Can you fly yet?!”

“M...me?” the other pony asked dumbly.

“No, the other winged pony in the room,” Cherry snapped, “Yes, you!”

“I can fly a little?” the pegasus replied too uncertainly.

“Wait for me at the west courtyard,” Cherry said seriously, “There’sh a boy. On the roof.”

As the pony student’s eyes widened, Cherry said clearly, “Don’t just fly up there. Shtay low. You have to be able to catch him if he falls.”

“I–I–I couldn’—” she stammered, and Berry’s reply was,

“Yesh, I know. Humans, big. Us, shmall. I’ll find more ponies, but I need you to go there now before he falls!”

That particular figure wasn’t totally accurate. Cherry Berry had lost 20 pounds when she went pony. The bigger ponies were around the same weight as a small human. Cherry herself was on the small side for an earth... uh, mare, and far as she could tell, pegasus ponies were all on the small side. Cherry shoved her way through the crowds forming to assemble outside, getting in the face of another student, a stallion this time, with dark grey fur, and a bright blue mane and tail. “You! Can you fly?” Cherry demanded of this tall but sleek stallion who she probably shouldn’t be thinking of in that way because he was probably like sixteen and a pony and what was she even doing thinking about that at a time like this?

“I–I’m not very good—” he said in a plain baritone, but Cherry said,

“Good enough! Boy on the roof over the west courtyard. Go wait below with the others, and stop him if he jumps!”

Next, Berry was running down a teeny little filly with orange fur and light blue hair, asking, “You, fly?”

The filly nodded silently, rising up on silent wings, and Cherry nodded back saying, “West courtyard. Meet the others. Don’t let the boy jump!”

Cherry hoped that would be enough. She didn’t know how many students were ponies, and pegasus ponies. She thought maybe unicorn ponies could do some sort of magic thing, but that was a real long shot. There was one more she got, a pink haired mare with pretty golden fur, and then Cherry ran herself out of the halls, and around to that courtyard.

When she got there, there were more like five pegasi, all in the process of milling around uncertainly beneath the dangling shoes of a lavender boy up on the roof. “Okay, you go up there and push him back onto the roof,” she told the little filly. “You two wait right below and catch him if he falls,” she told the stallion and that one mare. “And you two—” her heart leapt in her throat, “Never mind!” she shouted in panic, “Just get up there! Save him now, hurry!”

The filly darted up into the air first, right when the boy shoved off the roof and started to plummet. Her eyes bugged out as the falling boy landed on her back on the way up, and they both began to fall. That slowed their fall enough that two of the slower fliers could grab him, while one flew up underneath him, and the fourth caught the filly as, free of the boy, she somersaulted in confusion through the sky.

After that, it was a nice and easy controlled descent for all involved. Cherry watched with a grim expression though. The hard part would be keeping her alive after your friend has tried to kill herself. Wait... no. No it was the student who’d fallen. Cherry never had to talk her friend out of killing herself ...had she?

Nov 3, 1393

My fellow princesses are more ardent about this shared journal than I, I’m afraid. A testament of our daily lives to future generations seems like a good idea, but I never know what to write into it. We have been entertaining tedious petitioners, and caring for the night sky. What else is there to say?

Pony dreams are as troubled as ever. Apparently some ponies have gone missing on the outskirts of Fillydelphia, and their families are on watch for where they might be being held. My night guard has been dispatched, and will make swift work of any ne’erdowells. Many ponies were injured in the recent dragon migration, and they need consolation in their dreams, while they recuperate from getting on the wrong side of a rutting dragon (hint: every side is the wrong side.) There have been a series of robberies in Manehattan, and ponies are still afraid of being threatened, until we bring this new gang to justice. I give them a week, at most.

Overall, ponies are worried about the cold months ahead, and the long slow trek back into spring. I am frankly inclined to agree with them at this point. The chill even reaches these old bones of mine, and I will greatly appreciate not having to bear the majority of the burden of the night and day. My sister’s turn can’t come up soon enough. Two more months until the longest night of the year...

Princess Luna

Twilight Sparkle did not know what the buck she was reading.

Intake

“I guess now we know what it takes to close the school early,” Scootaloo quipped, trotting back up to Apple Bloom, there outside the school on the bright green lawn. Apple Bloom forgot to laugh.

Scootaloo’s earth pony friend looked kind of lost actually, like there was something bothering her that she was having trouble letting go. “You okay, Apple Bloom?” Scootaloo asked. She glanced over toward the center of a mess of adults, where a blonde haired boy sat on the ground, with a blanket on him for some reason, staring off into nothing.

“Ah dunno if ah like magic,” Apple Bloom said resentfully, drawing Scootaloo’s attention again.

“Are you kidding?” Scootaloo exclaimed, incredulous, “Your magic... thing helped everyone stop him!”

“It don’t make any sense, though!” protested her glum, yellow and red friend, “Ah wasn’t using no magic. I was just thinking about it, and I figured that he wasn’t just up there admiring the view. But... but... and if ah had thought that a second later, it mighta been too late.”

“It couldn’t have been a coincidence that he was up there!” Scootaloo insisted, “I think it was your ‘earth pony intuition’ or whatever they’re calling it.”

“I sat there all through class, wondering what wasn’t... what wasn’t quite right with it all,” Apple Bloom said disconsolately, “What if ah had sat there longer? What if Perfessor Berry hadn’t reminded me?”

“She did though,” Scootaloo pointed out, “And you didn’t just sit there. You were there just in time.”

“Why couldn’t it have been earlier?” Apple Bloom responded angrily. “All this time, ah never thought the bullying was getting to him that much. None of us knew anything was going on until he was already up there. How long was he sitting up there, waiting for someone to stop him?”

“Earlier would have been nice,” Scootaloo admitted, “But none of us noticed anything was going on. He was bummed about Diamond Tiara, and some kids were picking on him for doing it to her, and then... this,” she waved a forehoof around the scene in general. The students were still milling around outside on the courtyard while the staff decided what to do with everyone. The day was bright and sunny, and the grass was green underhoof. The big, rectangular building sat there like a somber edifice, inserted in the middle of a beautiful day.

“If it’d been earlier, he would have just hidden it,” Scootaloo assured Apple Bloom, “You had to be there right then, or nobody would know for sure there was something wrong.”

“We coulda been a little more attentive,” Apple Bloom grumbled glaring at the grass. “We all knew there was something wrong, just didn’t do anything about it until... until some magic thing forced me to.”

“You saved his life! ” Scootaloo pleaded to the droopy bowed filly.

Apple Bloom looked over at Scootaloo sadly, and replied, “Ah couldn’t stop him from jumping, though.”

Scootaloo didn’t really know what to say to that.

Sweetie Belle did though. “Hey you two!” she said brightly, trotting over to them, “You are missing the announcement! The principal said we should take the rest of the day off, but be ready to hit the books in the morning.”

“Guess two days is too much to ask,” Scootaloo said with a weary yawn.

“At least we have some time to talk with the pony girls,” Apple Bloom said. “Never thought a dream’d lead us to pulling some boy offa roof.”

“I wonder what was really bothering him?” Sweetie pondered, with a steady look at the boy who was being led to a white van labeled “Canterlot General Psychiatric Services” with all the enthusiasm of an execution.

“Besides the bullying, and making Diamond Tiara pregnant?” Scootaloo offered wryly. Sweetie Belle nodded.

“He talked to me a little,” Apple Bloom said quietly. “About what he did to her, and feeling useless. He’s gonna be a little kid pony just like us, but he might have a baby!”

“So, like Piña Colada,” Sweetie Belle prompted unhelpfully.

“That girl/mom is so cheerful, so that can’t be the only problem,” Scootaloo agreed with a roll of her eyes. “There’s definitely something else wrong.”

“The only other thing he said was about being an orphan and all. You know, without a family?” Apple Bloom said uncertainly. “Maybe he just misses his momma.”

“I miss my mom,” Sweetie Belle said glumly. “And my dad. It’s so strange that I’m technically... you know, and Apple Bloom is too.”

“Hey, cheer up Sweetie,” Scootaloo said, laying a hoof on her shoulder. “Maybe your parents are... wherever the dream princess is being held captive.”

Sweetie shrugged unenthusiastically underneath Scootaloo’s arm. “I still have Rarity,” she said, “And you have your mom, and Apple Bloom has a wonderful family too. But kids like Dinky and Diamond Tiara, they don’t have anyone.”

“Pretty sure Diamond ain’t gonna jump offa building,” Apple Bloom said dryly.

Sweetie Belle groaned at that and slumped her head. “So much for that theory,” she grumbled in frustration.

“It ain’t really our business, figuring out what pushed him over the edge,” Apple Bloom told her soothingly. “Let’s leave that up to th’ perfessionals, and try to take care of our own business.”

Dinky had a lot to think about. He didn’t even know Canterlot had a mental ward. What kind of a psychologist was he shaping up to be, if he didn’t even know that? He did know that he was absolutely terrified to be here. People here had problems. The doors had locks on the outside. They watched you and watched you, because they didn’t trust you. It was a place for people who couldn’t speak in anything other than rambling made-up words. People who needed assistance eating, because they didn’t care enough to do so themselves. No seriously, Dinky actually saw people like that here.

In retrospect, when the intake counselor asked Dinky why he felt he had to jump off of a building, Dinky’s answer shouldn’t have been because he didn’t know how to get access to a car in a small garage. That was seriously the most effective and painless way to do it though! He looked it up after he’d been... considering it. He wasn’t actually gonna do it though, just sort of trying to find out how to do it with the least amount of trouble.

He didn’t even mean to jump off the building. He was just up there to think, and maybe he had been thinking about it, how much attention it would attract, how the kids who hated him would see what he had done for them. They’d feel guilty, and regretful, and even horrified, but she wouldn’t—hate him anymore. And then Apple Bloom started yelling at him, and trying to stop him, and caring for him. She just... she just didn’t understand he was doing this for other people, and she made him feel all the hurt that he didn’t want to feel for himself. Dinky realized she didn’t really care, that she was just stalling him, so he pushed off the edge before she could stop him. And then, he...

And then he really, really did not want to die. Falling like that, knowing he wasn’t going to make it once he hit the ground, it was this gut feeling, a primal need to live that Dinky honestly hadn’t felt before that moment. He didn’t even realized they caught him right away, those ponies with wings. He just... huddled there in shock, unable to believe that he’d just almost done something so horrible. Literally in shock, he felt so cold he was shivering at the time.

So it didn’t make sense that they’d take him here. He didn’t want to kill himself now, just like a normal person! Dinky didn’t have problems. He was just a normal boy, who’d gotten tired of being such a screw-up, and made a mistake about what to do about that. He wasn’t going to do anything like that again, probably. It’s better to just keep suffering, than to feel like you’re going to die, right? He never wanted to feel like that again.

“I’m afraid the only reason you’re trying to get this over with so quickly is because there’s something you’re afraid to face, and you want to just sweep it all under the rug,” the intake counselor had said. “But if you do want to get this over quickly, why don’t you tell me why you jumped off that roof?”

“Because... kids hate me, and I was just tired of it?” Dinky tried.

“And has that problem gone away?” the counselor smoothly replied.

“Well... no,” Dinky had to admit.

“And do you know how to deal with it?” said counselor continued to press.

“Not... really,” Dinky said dimly.

“An orderly will show you to your room,” he said curtly. “We’ll have someone you can talk to about this by tomorrow morning, but until then, we wouldn’t feel safe not keeping an eye on you.” At Dinky’s darkening gaze, the counselor added, “It’s okay to be frustrated. Just be aware that you would feel like we’ve thwarted you, only if on some level you still intended to do something drastic. I’m optimistic that you’ll be out of here quickly, once we’ve had a chance to work with you. It’s not too much to ask that you stay alive for just a few more days, is it?”

“No it...” Dinky blinked in surprise, “It’s really not,” he said. “Long as someone actually wants me to... um.” And he was blushing now. Why did he even have to say that?

Thus, Dinky found himself most thoroughly owned. They even confiscated his shoes, and gave him slippers to wear instead. He had a lot to think about, and a lot of time to do so. Halfway through that contemplation, an orderly came to Dinky’s room, white coated and everything. A pleasant, pink, portly lady who smiled a little too much and told him, “As long as you’re here, why don’t you come down by the cafeteria for some lunch!”

Dinky didn’t really think it was optional, though.

So he was served his food, along with the other crazies, and got to eat his meal as always: in a cafeteria. It was here that he started to realize just how much he didn’t belong here. Dinky had never been so glad to just blend in with the background before. Most of the people eating just seemed moody or glum, but then there was a butter yellow haired lady with an off white complexion trying to have a conversation with a very... very grey man, who didn’t seem to realize she was there. That wasn’t a problem for her though, because the lady didn’t ever seem able to finish a sentence, saying something along the lines of, “Did you ever side for weeks have left me flying terrible wind black get the robe tinder sand will be sure to leave left weeks weak super potato when I wanted for five weeks back robe...”

There was a bright pink lady with dissheveled purple and white tresses, holding up a spoon and announcing that the paper wrapped chocolate brownie wasn’t home cooking because kitchen counters are polished with fluoride, a white lady with purple stripes in her hair who was crying into her custard without even realizing it, a blonde boy with ridiculously fluffy hair and pure white skin who was having a conversation with empty air beside him, and to make a long story short, Dinky really didn’t feel like he belonged here. He was pretty sure he wasn’t hallucinating at any rate, when he saw a blue lady with grey hair in a poorly fitting gown, sitting on the floor against the wall and worrying at a chew bone.

After his first talk with a counselor, Dinky was a little clearer on how long he was going to be in this place.

“Hello there,” the counselor said to a nervous Dinky with his hands clenched in his lap. A middle aged man, the counselor had short, messy reddish brown hair, a light brown complexion, and pale orange eyes. Not that Dinky was particularly making eye contact. It was embarassing; he didn’t want to be the one being counseled.

“My name is Sunny,” the man said with a smile, consulting the papers on his desk, “Sunny Song. Says here your name is Dinky Do?”

“Uh, yeah,” Dinky said unenthusiastically.

“Why don’t you tell me a little about yourself?” the counselor asked, readying his pen.

Dinky stared at the counselor like a deer in headlights. Did he want Dinky to admit to what he did? Just... talk about himself? “I’m uh... a student?” he said cagily, just as the older man gave a thick laugh,

“Ha ha! That was a little joke, don’t worry about it,” he said. “All I need to do today is tell you about what we think of you, and how we’re going to treat you here. You can take however long you need to tell me about yourself, if you don’t want to say anything. Have you been to the cafeteria yet?”

“Y-yes,” Dinky said. “But you would know that, wouldn’t you?”

“Hah, fair enough,” he responded. “We’re gonna make sure you’re clean and fed at least, though it looks like you aren’t going to have any problem with cleaning yourself. Mostly we have you here because we want to make sure you won’t have any repeats of that stunt you pulled yesterday. Doctor Saavy was your intake counselor, and he thought you might still be at risk of doing something drastic.”

“You even...” Dinky started resentfully, clamming up and turned his head away.

“Go ahead, I’m listening,” the counselor said. “You’re not gonna offend me if you say something stupid.”

“You even—” Dinky said with a heavy blush as it was still hard to say. Why was he such a pushover? “Took my shoes,” he forced out on a mumble. His voice got slightly more confident as he spoke, “These stupid slippers, did you think I was going to strangle myself with my own shoelaces?”

“Well, in most incidents, patients try to use them to cut their wrists open,” the counselor replied smoothly to Dinky’s horror, “But no it wasn’t a huge concern with you.” He looked Dinky in the eye and said seriously, “People have lots of different reasons to commit suicide. Some want it so bad, they’re hurting so much inside, that they’ll do anything to stop the pain. Some can’t control their emotions, and fall into such a terrible low that they can’t control their own actions. Some people hate themselves, some people hate their life. And then there’s you.”

He glanced at the clipboard again, saying, “You got a lot of reasons to kick the bucket, yet here we are having a nice normal conversation. You’re not being overwhelmed by your emotions. You’re lucid, and pretty smart for your age. I’m confident we can work together to convince you that life’s worth living, and until I at least give it a shot, you’ll be too curious to think about doing something creative with your shoelaces. I want you to trust me, Dinky. If you want your shoes back, I can arrange it. It’s just a precaution for people who might be desperate.”

“I think I’d like that,” Dinky said distantly. He was torn between the respect and even awe he had for this guy, and his masterful delivery, and between the fear that someone this calm and capable could easily manipulate Dinky into doing something he didn’t want to do.

“Alright,” the counselor cheered, writing a note down. “Now I would like to ask you a few questions to see where you are on this whole situation. Some of them might hit too close to home, and if they’re making you upset I want you to let me know if we should talk about something else, but I can’t know if it’ll bother you unless I ask. Are you alright with that?”

“What if I’m not?” Dinky asked in genuine curiosity.

The counselor looked at him thoughtfully. “Then, we take you to your room, and you have to stay here for a while, until you can find a way to convince us that you’re not gonna go jump off a building.”

“But I can’t go, even if I answer,” Dinky replied resentfully.

“You can go,” the counselor assured him, “It might take some time. I guess what I’m saying is, it’s fine if you don’t want to work with me at all, but working with me is the only way you’re gonna get outta here. So, I’m gonna ask you the questions I have and there isn’t really much of a choice, but all I ask is you try to answer, and that’ll help me work on getting you out of here. Now, is that okay? Sorry I have to ask, even if it seems dumb.”

He has to... oh, so it’s just policy. “Yes it’s fine,” Dinky replied. “I was just curious what would happen if it wasn’t.”

“Curiosity is good!” the counselor said happily, “Shows you still have a passion for knowledge. Now stop me if this is asking too much, but pretend I’m completely clueless about even the most obvious thing, like you’re explaining yourself to an alien who doesn’t understand how human brains work. Could you give me a few reasons why what you did to Diamond Tiara is a bad thing?”

Dinky couldn’t look at the counselor again. “I didn’t mean to do it,” he said anxiously. “It just sort of happened. I never wanted to hurt—”

The counselor had laid a hand on Dinky’s shoulder, startling him with the lightest pat before drawing back to sit down again. “I have two kids,” the man said, “A beautiful son and daughter. I know how you feel. My wife and I, we’ve been there. At least twice, heh!”

Dinky blushed at that and started to look away again, as the counselor said, “It just seems like you’ve been beating yourself up over that a lot, and I’d like to know why it’s a bad thing. Imagine I’m some clueless boy who’s asking you for advice about that.”

“Wish I could’ve had some advice,” Dinky grumbled under his breath.

“Didn’t catch that,” the counselor said.

“Sorry, you’re right,” Dinky said looking at the counselor again. “I’ll try. I mean, it’s really obvious, but you said to imagine like it wasn’t.”

“Precisely!” said the counselor, “Now lay it on me.”

“It...” actually it was hard to come up with reasons on the spot, but Dinky knew they were there. He just hadn’t been thinking about them during all this time he had been... beating himself up because of them. Hm. “The baby—Diamond Tiara is 15,” Dinky said. “A-and I’m 14. We’re too young to be allowed to do that together.”

“You sound like you’re more resentful of that, than think it’s a bad thing,” the counselor stated entirely too perceptively. “What do you think is actually bad about it?”

“Well it—I don’t have a job,” Dinky said. “I can’t afford to feed a baby, or Diamond Tiara. I need a job or I can’t be a good... father. But if I get a job, that’ll mess up my schooling. It’s bad because I’ll end up a... unskilled worker who didn’t even get out of high school.”

The flood gates were sort of opened by then, and he said, “And I’ll probably have to give the child up for adoption, which is terrible by itself, and Diamond Tiara has been getting sick and feeling tired and it’s my fault for doing it and making her pregnant. Nobody respects her because she has this huge I mean she’s obviously pregnant. And labor is going to hurt her so bad, and she’s not even worried about it!”

Dinky blinked as silence descended in the room again. “I–I’m sorry,” he said at his outburst, “I’m just a little—”

“No, it’s fine,” the counselor replied, “These are good reasons you got, now keep ‘em coming! She’s not worried about labor?”

“I–I wish she didn’t have to go through labor,” Dinky said, feeling bizarrely flattered as he went on. “I saw it on T.V. before, and the girls are always screaming, and really angry at the husband. It’s funny—supposed to be funny, at least, but that’s really going to happen to her! And I just... sit here uselessly, while she gets bigger an bigger, and I’m sort of... I don’t know... jealous?”

Dinky shook his head, saying, “No, I’m not jealous that’s silly. I just don’t want someone else to suffer just because I wanted to do the—thing that makes the baby.”

“You’re worried she’s going to suffer. That’s a great reason why what happened is bad,” the counselor said, “Anything else?”

“I...” and yes, there was something else, but Dinky wasn’t sure he wanted it to be real. “I can’t even be a father,” he explained uncertainly. “It would be terrible to ruin my life and get a job and stuff, just for her, but I can’t even do that. Because I’m going to be a... little filly.”

“A little what?” the counselor asked, caught off guard.

“Filly. It’s a young... female horse,” Dinky said. He couldn’t even imagine what it would be like. What was it even like to do that without an... erection? Was he going to start liking other guys?

“Oh, the whole pony thing,” the counselor realized, looking up from his notes. “That’s really happening all over now, isn’t it.”

“I–I suppose,” Dinky said, “But the um... alien pony girl knows a lot of us, sometimes knows what sort of pony we’re going to transform into. She said I was going to be a young filly. I can’t even imagine. That’s just... I don’t know how to deal with it.”

“Few of our patients have become ponies,” the counselor said uneasily, “They seemed surprisingly fine for the most part. It’d be nice if it cured their head problems too.”

“They’re not turning into fillies, ” Dinky said resentfully, then paused and stuttered, “I–I mean maybe they are. There’s a 50% chance any guy will be a girl after the transformation. Um... I don’t know much else about it, but I doubt many people will be turning into girls, and little kids, and expected to be big, strong fathers.”

“Sounds like it bothers you a lot,” the counselor said solemnly.

“Yeah it—yes,” Dinky said frankly. “I just... I just don’t know what I’m going to do.”

“Nothing,” the doctor quipped, “If you jump offa building.”

Dinky had to laugh at that outrageous statement. “I guess that was one reason I did it,” he admitted, just a bit before realizing what he was saying and clamming up again. Dammit, this doctor was good.

“So you’re um... changing into a pony, who’s also young, and also a girl,” the counselor said, “And you’re worried for the baby?”

Dinky nodded. “They say kids need a father to grow up right,” he said, “And I can’t be one.”

“Not worried for yourself at all?” the counselor prodded, “You’re gonna lose your gender and everything?”

“No, I’m... not,” Dinky said in mild bemusement. “It seems really weird and all, and I can’t even imagine what it’d be like. Until it happens, I can’t really say whether I’ll hate it or not. I’m just an ordinary boy, who’s never done anything transformey at all. If anything, I’m more worried about losing my fingers!”

“Huh... kind of odd. I’d flip if I woke up as a girl one day,” the counselor said unironically.

“And then there’s Diamond Tiara,” Dinky grumbled. “What if she doesn’t want me as a girl? What if I’m not into her?”

“If she truly loves you then it won’t matter what you are,” the counselor said confidently.

“Sorry if my love’s not truthy enough for you,” Dinky said irritably, “But there are certain things a filly cannot do, that Diamond Tiara really, really likes to do.”

“That you and Diamond Tiara like to do?” the counselor asked.

“Ye–yes,” Dinky said, less than confidently. The counselor made a note on his clipboard.

So Dinky had problems, that much was clear. He hadn’t even really even thought about them himself. He didn’t think they were all that bad, but they just festered inside him, some things bothering him more than they should have. He didn’t remember a lot of details from those sessions, just a feeling of mental exhaustion from going over everything that was bothering him. He wasn’t sure how that would lead to a solution, but he really had nothing else he could do.

Ditzy Do wanted to die. She groaned, and fell back onto her bed, an open letter clutched in her hands. How did she mess up that badly? As if she wasn’t already feeling horribly guilty over what she’d done. She just wanted Dinky to take his relationships seriously. She didn’t want him to kill himself! And like a big bully, she didn’t tell him that, and just slapped him, and... and... and the next day there was a fire drill.

After that day, Ditzy wasn’t sure if it was possible that she could feel any worse. She had been afraid to tell someone about the love letters, about Dinky’s seduction of her, because then she’d have to tell them she looked him in the face and—and almost killed him! Or... did the thing that makes him almost kill himself. She wasn’t sure how that worked.

Ditzy was just going to keep her head down, and not make any trouble, and let Dinky deal with his weird boy problems on his own. The doctors would find out he’s been seducing girls over the mail, she thought. They would fix him, so he stopped being so... hurtful. It wasn’t her responsibility to help him, just because she was almost his next victim. Nobody had to know.

That’s what Ditzy had thought, and so she just let things get worse and worse for Dinky. And now a week later, as she lay lifelessly in bed, the letter in her hands felt like it was going to burn her. Ditzy only got a letter once a week at most, and this was no exception. She locked herself in her room and opened it, because she didn’t know if she wanted her parents to know what was in it.

Why did he send her another letter? Did the looney bin allow him to write letters? Was it an apology letter? Begging her forgiveness for his creepy attempts to warm her up to getting pregnant? Was it more creepy attempts, that would make her face flush red and her heart beat fast as that boy relentlessly tried to steal her virtue?

But no, it was something else entirely.

I’m not Dinky, you ninny!

Ditzy wanted to die.

A bright day in the early summer, Rainbow Dash woke up ready and raring to go. She went with the level 2 flyer teams, hoping for the best, and with her wings finally cared for properly, she was not disappointed. They practiced vertical wing pushes with heavy grounding at first, but once Dash got that down, it was pretty easy to get aloft.

“Alright, now your feathers have natural channels underneath them, through which you can cause something like a sort of levitation. It has very little to do with how hard you flap, so always keep in mind that your flaps are for steering, not propulsion,” the pink and purple pegasus mare who was leading the group stated smartly, while everyone else tried to look at their own wings.

“Everyone, extend your wings and hold them like this,” the lead mare said, standing and spreading ‘em. “Flat out to either side. I want you to partner up, and trade off with this exercise. What you’re going to do is put one of these baskets on each of your wings, and your partner will fill them up with rocks. Then you switch places. You should be able to hold your wings up without exerting your muscles. That is how you’re going to get up in the air, by using your innate magic to push your wings upward. Yes I know it sounds crazy, but believe me it works. Magic is very real now, and we all need to learn how to use what we’ve got.”

The instructor looked at each of them, pointing with her hoof as she did so, saying, “So, you and you, go get a couple baskets. You and you, go. You and you. You and you. You and you.” she finally pointed at Rainbow Dash and another mare with a deep purple coat and a fluffy blonde mane. “I’ll keep an eye on your progress and help out if I can,” the instructor added, “But remember I’m new at this too. I’m just telling you what my instructor told me, and what her instructor was told, by Scootaloo and Twilight Sparkle. Everyone along the way has added their own discoveries too, so I’m pretty confident it’ll work. But don’t expect me to have all the answers. If you have any questions, you might be on your own for answers.”

All-in-all it seemed like a pretty efficient system, and as a bonus it saved Rainbow Dash from having to get instructions straight from Scootaloo, which would have been totally embarassing for them both. “Name’s Rainbow Dash,” she said, raising a wing to her partner.

“Oh, um,” the purple mare said in a dopey alto, raising her own wing, “Berry—Blueberry Banana.” Neither of them could really figure out how a handshake would translate to wing motions, but Dash smiled anyway.

“You want to go first?” Rainbow asked. Blueberry nodded with a cautious smile, holding her wings out flat. Rainbow used her mouth to lift the baskets up onto each wing, and said, “Okay, just tell me when you’ve had enough.” Then she went to the box full of rocks, and started tossing them, one in each basket.

Blueberry swiftly adopted an alarmed expression, and her wings started shaking, as she blurted out, “Wait! Enough!”

Dropping her latest rock, “Okay, hold on, let me just...” Dash said worriedly, craning up and catching the basket’s handle in her teeth right as the mare’s wings dipped alarmingly, and Blueberry lifted them up with an alarmed squeak. Then, they just... stayed there.

“Thanks,” Blueberry said, hanging her head in relief, “It was getting really heavy there.”

Dash blinked at her, and looked down at the basket her mouth was carrying, full of rocks. It felt lighter than it should have. She placed the basket down, and said, “Blueberry, I only got one of the baskets.”

“What?” Blueberry said in surprise, looking at her right wing which still had a basket suspended on it. “Oh, huh...” she said in wonderment. “It doesn’t even feel like I’m lifting anything.

“I’m gonna put the other one back,” Dash announced, picking up the basket and returning it to Blueberry’s wing. She started with the rocks again, and the box got pretty empty as the other pegasus just stared at her wings with curiosity. Blueberry tried rearing up, as if she was going to lift off the ground, and that... tilted her wings backward. The two baskets slid right off, and with a surprised whinny, Blueberry Banana flipped backwards, tumbling right through the air in an uncontrolled spin.

“I gotcha!” Rainbow shouted, leaping forward to put herself in the path of the other pony’s descent. She spread her wings to try and soften the—Blueberry collided with her, the two going down into a crumpled heap as the instructor galloped over.

“Are you hurt?” she asked with worry.

“Just my pride,” Rainbow Dash grumbled, flicking her tail irritably, and the base of it squished up against Blueberry kind of funnily with how it was stuck in—oops. The other mare squeaked in surprise and jumped right off of Rainbow Dash’s back, landing stiff legged, and blushing.

“Looks like we’re both fine,” Rainbow Dash covered for her, standing redfaced between Blueberry and the instructor. “Guess we can get back to it.”

“How many rocks were you using?” the instructor asked, staring at the fallen baskets.

“...all of them?” Dash tried.

“You weren’t supposed to—okay hold on I need to make an announcement,” the instructor said, galloping back to the front of the meadow.

“Can I have your attention please!” she said loudly, drawing all ears her way. “I forgot to mention, you do not have to use all the rocks. There should be a point that you feel it suddenly become easier, and that’s when you should stop. I just want you to get familiar with the feeling. This isn’t a test of wing strength.”

“Gosh, I messed up,” Blueberry said, still red-faced to Dash.

“We both did,” Rainbow Dash said, a little self-conscious herself. “And uh, sorry for um, getting kind of close there for a second. It’s so annoying how we have to go around without clothes, isn’t it?”

“No, it’s fine, I’m just not used to feeling like that down there,” Blueberry said, toeing the ground shyly. “Girl parts are weird... no offense.”

“Oh, so... you used to be a guy,” Rainbow said looking a little sideways at the mare.

“Yeah, but don’t worry, I’m okay with it, just not used to everything yet,” Blueberry said with a soft smile. “I guess I got lucky; I was one of those who actually wanted to be a girl.”

“There... really?” Rainbow Dash asked in surprise, “There’s guys who want to be girls?”

“Oh, you’d be surprised,” Blueberry replied chattily, “There are actually a bunch of us. Before this all happened, I never knew how many guys weren’t exactly... okay with being guys. It’s not exactly something you talk about.”

“Huh, that is weird,” Rainbow Dash said thoughtfully, and at the dip in Blueberry’s ears she added, “But kind of cool, I guess. You got what you uh, wanted?”

Blueberry gave a sad smile at that, saying, “Yeah, I feel sorry for anyone who can’t get over having changed like that. But I mean, we’re ponies! What’s a little ...girly stuff compared to that? I miss my hands more than anything.”

“Hah, we are pegasi, ” Rainbow Dash said proudly, lifting a wing, “We still get to have hands.”

Blueberry spread one of her own wings, and lifted a single feather on it briefly. “Not the same,” she grumbled, letting it fold closed again.

“Yeah, you’re right,” Rainbow Dash said, sort of bummed by that, “But hey, at least we get to fly?”

“We do! ” Blueberry replied happily, and both immediately brightened up again. “So let’s see if you can do it! I bet you can.” Blueberry demonstrated what she was talking about by picking up one of the fallen baskets in her mouth. Dash... wasn’t sure all this mouth holding was sanitary. But she grinned nonetheless, and spread her wings confidently. Rainbow Dash was gonna figure this out, or die trying!

The baskets got heavier and heavier as Rainbow Dash tried to call on her innate flying thingy. The weight wasn’t so much a strain in her chest, which had very strong flapping muscles, but rather a strain in her shoulders, where the wings pivoted, under more and more stress. She couldn’t hold it straight, and almost lost it, but then caught something and her wings smoothly lifted right up flat to the ground again.

“Hang on, I think I got it,” Rainbow said excitedly, looking at the baskets on each wing. “Try putting more rocks in.”

“But she told us not to do that,” Blueberry said uncertainly.

“Just a couple!” Rainbow pleaded. “I just want to see if it stopped getting heavier or not.”

No matter how many rocks Blueberry mouthed into each basket, it was like they didn’t weigh anything at all. Dash tried to pay attention to what her wings were doing. It felt like there were... wispy things underneath them, like a wind that was completely still. Dash was tempted to repeat Blueberry’s mistake, to test if she could get any aerodynamic lift with this, but though the consequences probably wouldn’t have been as dramatic, she managed to restrain herself.

“Oh man, this is so awesome!” Dash said excitedly, overjoyed at standing in one place and holding up rocks with her wings.

“Can I try it again?” Blueberry asked with equal excitement.

“You bet!” Dash said confidently. Then she looked at her wings again and said less confidently, “As... soon as I figure how to stop doing this.”

“Oh, hold on,” Blueberry said, trotting up and helpfully removing rocks from each basket on her wings. Rainbow Dash almost felt like her wings’d... buoy her right up into the sky, but with the pressure lifted, she managed to release the... wispy feeling. And so quiescent, when the baskets were removed, her wings folded naturally against her sides, as though she was born to have these babies.

The two of them traded off more, until they had it down pat, and from there it was almost self evident. It felt good to spread her wings, better than it had felt before. Rainbow Dash had just preened this morning in preparation, and everything was feeling sleek and smooth. As days went by, some ponies in her team had just started flying, but it was still amazing when it happened to Rainbow Dash. The moment Rainbow Dash herself popped right up into the air, and stayed, a delighted cheer escaped her.

Sure she was doing uncontrolled backflips, a little shaky from the twisty irregularities she felt in what broken feathers remained, but Rainbow Dash was in the air, and she was staying in the air. She was flying! The wing pushy... thing kept her aloft no matter what angle her wings were at, just like the instructor said. Wing movements were all about steering, not lift. Flapping gently seemed to stabilize herself, and once Blueberry joined Dash up here, the two hugged like old friends. They were flying! They were here! And everything was gonna be okay.

Everything was gonna be okay.

Saturday morning dawned peaceful and sunny at Sweet Apple Acres. Oblivious to this, Sunset Shimmer was sleeping face down on the bed. In the bed beside her, Twilight considered getting up, if she could do so without rousing Sunset and Spike. Ever dutiful, Twilight’s number one assistant was sleeping curled up on top of Sunset’s prone form. It was good that Sunset got some sleep anyway. She’d been stretched to the breaking point lately, first by the startling revelation about her alternate universe counterpart, and now with what the news had been going on about all today...

Twilight didn’t want to admit it, but the whole city was going through a trial that they might not all come out from unscathed. Emotions were high, and there was starting to be a risk of panic setting in. Everyone’s lives were being overturned, even the ones who were not transformed into ponies. And that boy in particular...

He’d never done anything so drastic, not in any of the loops in Sunset’s memory. That was terribly hard on Sunset because not only was it a preventable tragedy, but it was something that hadn’t happened before. A powerful reminder that the security and safety of Sunset’s prison was coming to an end.

And Sunset’s counterpart was a princess. After going through so much, after failing so hard trying to become a princess, after coming to terms with the fact that it was wrong for her to want to be a princess, that it just wasn’t her lot in life, now Sunset was confronted by the very vivid journals from a world where she was a princess, and she did deserve it. Twilight decided not to disturb Sunset, because Spike was sleeping on her, and because Sunset was losing so much sleep worrying about this. She needed all the sleep she could get.

There was a small knock at the door.

Twilight slipped out from under the covers, standing up and hurrying over to the door, before whoever it was decided to knock harder and risk waking Sunset.

“Yes?” she whispered quietly, opening the door to see four fillies standing before her door, wreathed in the misty morning light. The foals Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Noi, probably because of another dream they’d had.

“Please, quietly,” Twilight urged the foals, walking out into the chilly night, shooing the fillies away from the portable. “Sunset’s had a hard day, and she needs her sleep.”

“Uhhhm....” came Apple Bloom’s voice very uncertainly. “So we... had a dream with you in it, and...”

“Aren’t you cold?” Noi asked blatantly.

Twilight looked down at herself, and then nodded to Noi, “Yes, but I can spare a few minutes. Summer’s well on its way, after all.”

“No I mean... ugh,” Noi facehooved.

“We’re just used to you... wearing clothes,” Sweetie Belle said leerily.

Twilight blinked.

“Ack, sorry girls!” Twilight said with a blush. “I have just been such a forgetty forgetterson these days. I’ll go get some clothing for you.” She hurried into her portable and padded on the soft balls of her feet to grab her nightgown, and struggle it on over her head. Then she padded back outside, pausing to shove some slippers on just to make it easier to walk across the rough ground.

“Now,” she said once she’d gotten the girls safely outside, and away from the trailer. The four fillies crowded anxiously around her. “What was it you wanted? Something new about the dream princess?”

The four seemed conflicted over what they were going to say. Scootaloo spoke up first though saying, “You said there was an... infinite chaos thingy at the boundary of our city. Could you have... created something like that? When you were a unicorn? I mean princess?”

“Goodness no!” Twilight exclaimed. “That magic would be more in the realm of impossible to extremely impossible, or possibly Discord impossible.”

“There’s really a category of impossible dedicated to Discord?” Sweetie Belle said skeptically.

“Well... no,” Twilight admitted, “But there should be!”

“We had a dream, princess,” Noi said urgently. “You were—the other you was in it. We talked with her, and we explored the old castle.”

“The old castle?” Twilight asked curiously.

“You remember, from Scootaloo’s dream?” Apple Bloom asked.

Twilight looked at her blankly.

“Gawsh darn it,” Apple Bloom grumbled, “We probably oughta have told you about that at some point.”

“Scootaloo was dreaming about a castle town,” Sweetie said urgently. “Like a medieval castle town, with a castle. And she was taking us to it in a wagon, right out of Apple Bloom’s apple orchard, and past a bunch of fields.”

“I was really weird when that happened,” Scootaloo said. “I don’t remember it at all, but they said I didn’t have a face or something? I remember after that though. There was this huge town, with these old style cottages, with straw roofs, and wood borders, and white painted walls.”

“They were pink painted,” Sweetie Belle corrected Scootaloo.

“They looked white to me!” Scootaloo protested.

“They were light pink,” Apple Bloom said to them.

“It sounds a lot like Ponyville to be honest,” Twilight said. “But I’ve described my town before, and you probably just incorporated that into your dreams.”

“Maybe it’s our Ponyville?” Sweetie asked unsurely.

Twilight shook her head, saying, “If Ponyville existed at all, it’d be on top of the suburbs of Canterlot City, over by this ranch. This world doesn’t even have the same geography though. In my world, Canterlot is high up on a tall mountain, not in a valley like this world.”

“So... whatever the case, the dream village had a castle in it,” Apple Bloom stated excitedly, “But this shell thing came down. It covered the whole castle, and the surrounding area! We barely got inside it before it... cut us off or something.”

“And we went into the castle,” Sweetie Belle continued, “The princess managed to dream her way right into it, so that we could explore.”

“Somehow her dreams were mashed together with theirs, or something,” Noi said uncertainly. “But we ended up at the very top of the highest tower, and the princess pony... did something.” She frowned frustrated. “It’s... it was like...”

“She expanded the barrier. She called it a barrier,” Sweetie Belle said. “She doesn’t remember but sometimes little things like that slip through. And she made it go really big, because she said she failed and wanted to save as much as she could.”

“So... what’s this got to do with me?” Twilight asked in confusion. “I know how to surround a city in a barrier in theory. It would depend on the nature of the barrier. Do you think the dream me was trying to tell me something?”

“We’re saying it wrong,” Noi whined. “I’m trying to explain and—and I just want to—” She sniffled.

“Ssh, ssh,” Twilight said, squatting down to the dirt and hugging the small pony against her. Noi didn’t seem all that upset though, and pushed Twilight away with a hoof, muttering,

“I’m fine, I’m fine.”

Twilight nodded, folding her hands in her lap, saying, “Let’s just calmly go over what you all wanted to tell me.”

“You know all the strange architecture, and the secrets all over Canterlot High?” Apple Bloom asked cautiously. “And how there’s a sorta barrier thingy around our whole city, stretching out in an eggy shape from the high school to mah ranch?”

“...yes, but I told you that I couldn’t create a ‘barrier’ out of pure chaos, much less bound space with it,” Twilight said. “There’s nothing beyond the Edge but an endless sea of Chaos.”

“Yeah, but th’ shape, ” Apple Bloom said urgently. “You know the shape about, right?”

“Yes...?” Twilight said very unsurely.

“In the dream, that barrier, the princess stretched it out so far, you almost couldn’t see the far edge from the top of the highest tower, but Scootaloo could see it,” Apple Bloom said vindicatively. “And we all could see it, but she could see it absolutely one hundred percent fer sure.”

“Apple Bloom’s house,” Scootaloo said. “The dream princess remembered it. She could only remember bits and pieces of things, but she was the one who remembered it. At the very edge of her barrier was Apple Bloom’s house, and her ranch, just like here, where the Boundary is right outside her property!”

“If you go onto the roof on Canterlot High,” Sweetie Belle said. “We checked this and it’s the same shape. ”

“It’s true,” Noi said. “Sweetie practically scanned the photo we took right into her dream, and it matches up exactly.”

“What matches up?” Twilight asked in confusion.

“Twilight,” Apple Bloom said in an urgent tone, “Canterlot High was built on top of that castle!”

Twilight looked at Apple Bloom seriously.

“And Canterlot City was built on top of that castle’s village!” Sweetie Belle said. “It’s in just the right place for that!”

“The dream princess keeps dreaming of a place that looks like your world’s Ponyville,” Apple Bloom urged, “Maybe it was her world’s Ponyville too. And her world had an Apple family farm, just like our world does, because it’s the same farm! ”

“The dream princess must remember what our world was like before the time loop,” Noi clarified. “It used to be a medieval town, and that town had a castle. Then this happened! It’s the only explanation!”

“But... but your city is in the wrong place, if it used to be Ponyville,” Twilight contested unhappily. “The Everfree Forest would cover half the city! And Ponyville does not have a”

Author's Note

A reminder, this is based on the first Equestria Girls movie, back before season 4 had even started. No Starlight, no Tirek, no nerfing of the Elements of Harmony, no box, and no crystal castle. But I’m sure everyone can put 2 and 2 together by now.

I am nearly sure that this universe is a part from an alternate equestria( Ponyville) that got turned into this city. - Astorius

Revelations

After a while, Apple Bloom asked, “Twilight...? You okay?”

“I—” Twilight gulped, eyes snapping to the small yellow ponies. “I have to check my notes,” she said, standing up, “I have to—I have to check something my notes, be right back sorry,” and she fled the fillies, running back into her portable, closing the door behind her and turning on the light. Running over to the front wall and spreading out the map of the city.

“Wh—?” Sunset said in surprise at being awoken, not able to rise for something lying on top of her. “Spike?”

“No time to explain, Sunset!” Twilight said, “I need to do some geometric estimates!”

Sunset didn’t protest Spike’s place this time, as predicted. Spike climbed right off, while Sunset sat up in her bed, looking curiously Twilight’s way. Twilight got out her protractor, and ruler, and started measuring things on the city map. “Hmm... and if it took me ten minutes at a 13 mile per hour trot, then...” She made a red dot on the map in the city outskirts, labelling it “Town Hall” and then a line to the west, where she put a dot saying “The Library.”

“And then, if we cross the city... east by southeast...” Twilight said, counting steps with her ruler. “Hmm... Zecora’s...” she marked a point on the city labeled “Zecora’s hut.” “And if the trail goes west by northwest for three... then that means... here.” She put a red dot right on top of Canterlot High, labelling it, “The Castle of the Two Sisters.”

“Twilight, what the heck are you up to?” Sunset asked in confusion.

Twilight spun to look at Sunset, twitchy eyed, and said, “Don’t you see? This is a divergent universe! This was always a divergent universe! This universe doesn’t just parallel our own. They share a common past! Somepony’s been hiding it all this time, and they’d hidden it so well, but the pieces are all here.”

She paced back and forth in the front of the portable building they were in, located on a very iconic property. “Sunset,” she said, “We’re living on Applejack’s family farm. Not an imitation, or a copy. The same farm. The same ponies in Ponyville, are people here for the most part. All this—this human stuff, it’s been built right on top of what used to be Ponyville. Canterlot City is Ponyville, Sunset!”

“But the placing of the city is...” Sunset offered weakly.

“Around the high school,” Twilight declared. “Around the castle. I thought this was Canterlot, and it was Canterlot! The high school is the direct analog of the Castle of the Two Sisters, don’t you see?”

Sunset blinked. “...the what of the what now?” she ventured.

Twilight looked at her blankly, then her eyes widened in dawning realization. “You don’t know, do you?” she murmured.

“Know what?” Sunset said a bit taken aback by Twilight’s sudden serious demeanor.

“When my friends aided Princess Luna in escaping from the Nightmare,” Twilight said seriously, “We found the Elements of Harmony left petrified in an old, ruined castle. That castle it turns out is where the princesses Celestia and Luna reigned together over Equestria. When Nightmare Moon came, the... city was demolished, and rather than try to rebuild it, Celestia instead moved Equestria’s capital to the top of the mountain.”

“I’ve... never heard anything about that,” Sunset said cautiously.

Twilight nodded, “It was very restricted information. Princess Celestia didn’t want ponies to know what she had done, because Princess Celestia felt it was her burden alone to know why Luna was imprisoned in the moon. I only found out as a consequence of freeing Luna, and seeking out the resting place of the Elements of Harmony.”

She faced the map again, looking to where she’d scribbled over the high school. Shaking her head, Twilight sighed and said, “What I’m trying to say is that there is a castle right next to Ponyville. This must be a world where the... sisters never fought, perhaps? I can’t imagine how Luna would be free of the Nightmare otherwise, as clearly she is, despite this world knowing nothing of the Elements of Harmony. The reason Canterlot City here is displaced from our Ponyville is because it’s built around the Castle of the Two Sisters... just as it would have been in ancient times, before the princess moved Canterlot, and let the Everfree reclaim the old city.”

Tapping the map, Twilight said, “It all makes perfect sense! The secret passageways, the stonework, the library. Someone literally took the castle, and covered it up with a high school, and they took Ponyville, and put a city there instead. The only thing they didn’t try to make completely unrecognizable was... Applejack’s farm. Even there, they must have...”

Twilight got a little quieter as she said, “They must have cut down all the apple trees, just so nobody would recognize the similarities.”

“That makes no sense though!” Sunset said quaveringly, “Why would someone go through that much trouble to make us... to make us think that this was a derived universe, but not a divergent one?”

“The journal,” Twilight declared, staring at the map, “There have to be answers in that journal. It’s our only clue.”

“The journal that was lying out in the open, next to a sign that said ‘Here’s how to disable the trap?’” Sunset said skeptically. “If ponies or—or people went through so much effort to hide it, to make this land look like it was straight out of a work of fiction, then what do you expect to find in that? An explanation of what they were doing, telling us exactly what’s going on?”

“We might as well look,” Twilight said with a helpless shrug.

Some time later, Twilight and Sunset had gotten access to the journal again, deep beneath the high school. Twilight opened its worn cover, and flipped through it, searching for something to jump out at her.

Apr 13, 1376

Twilight is my best friend in the whole wide world, but she can be pretty silly sometimes! Today she told me she was going to play outside, but I caught her studying instead! Only she would get caught doing schoolwork. I love learning new things, and making the princesses proud, so I guess I’m guilty of it too. It was such a beautiful Wednesday today though, that I invited her to go flying with me! Oh flying is so much fun. I love every minute of it, even when I got stuck in that cloud, and Twilight had to help me out. What are friends for, right?

Well that’s what I wanted to say, and I just want to say that life is amazing and wonderful if you just get out there, and spend some time having fun! Cya, mysterious future journal reader person!

Princess Shimmer

“Why is my counterpart so fucking cheerful? ” Sunset growled in agitation, while Twilight kept thumbing through entries. “She’s like some stupid bubbly cheerleader,” Sunset sneered, “Not me! Grew up living a sheltered life, with nothing she wanted ever denied her? Born a princess? Is that even possible?”

“Oh,” Twilight said in surprise.

“What did you find? What does it say?” Sunset asked excitedly, leaning closer to read again.

“No I’m not talking about what it says. It’s just...” Twilight turned the journal to almost the end, where the pages fell apart naturally, revealing a small green card put into place.

“There’s a bookmark,” Twilight remarked.

“A bookmark, huh...” Sunset said, scanning over the next entry past it. Sunset’s eyes widened, then narrowed, and then she groaned, pinching her brow.

“Hmm?” Twilight said, looking curiously at the journal herself.

This is not a normal journal entry, because it’s written not to myself, my sister or my mothers, but to anypony who finds this. The following is a summation of what we have done, that will hopefully explain exactly what is going on. Please read the previous journal entries to gain context for all of this, and to learn how everything went wrong. And please believe us, when we say we’re truly sorry for what you’re going through.

Those were several signatures below that introduction, not just the signature of the one writing their journal entry. One in Twilight’s handwriting, one in Sunset’s, and one Sunset knew as Princess Celestia’s signature. She hadn’t seen the new princess Luna’s signature before, but Sunset figured that’s exactly what she was looking at, and finally a fifth signature that was next to, if not completely illegible. What followed, and preceded those words would challenge everything they knew about the world, and themselves.

Dinky’s first few weeks at the psychiatric hospital were kind of rough, but it wasn’t long before the last week of school had passed. This place they had him at was dreadfully boring, probably to keep people from being triggered in bad ways, but it had a sort of timeless quality to it, like it was a world in of itself, separate from the outside. Dinky wasn’t too beleagured by the sudden slow pace of things, because there seemed to be no end to the fascinating people to observe who gathered here together, and their creative ways to approach life. It was really, really boring in the facility grounds, but people watching was something Dinky loved to do.

There were some patients who insisted that their lunch was “outside” and refused to eat unless they ate outside, because it didnt taste right otherwise. An anorexic patient had to be fed liquids only, because solid food would send her into a fit and was seen as a choking risk. She ate a lot of milkshakes... and Dinky half suspected that her reaction was more of a self fulfilling prophecy than anything. He knew if he were traumatized by choking on something, he would throw a fit if that something ever started to happen again, which would make him even more traumatized. That was kind of odd actually, because Dinky was supposed to be suicidal. But focusing on these other people, his own problems didn’t seem to hurt as much.

In particular, one of the people close to his age was a peculiar sort, and it turns out he and Dinky shared something very uncomfortable in common. That poofy haired blonde and white boy had tried to commit suicide too, and was so curiously detached about it that Dinky started to wonder about his own detachment in that regard.

Dinky found this out at lunch one day, when the boy came to sit by him. Dinky had been sitting there, being ignored as usual, but this time the boy who was ignoring Dinky was talking with someone on his right, who wasn’t there. It was... strangely logical. Dinky suspected the other blonde boy only sat beside him today, because there were two empty seats next to Dinky, one for this boy, and one for his imaginary friend.

The first sign of trouble Dinky heard was the boy’s voice coming up behind him, distracting Dinky from his lackluster lunch. “Well here we are, another day, another breakfast,” the boy said resignedly in his bright tenor, sitting beside a nervous Dinky, and staring in the other direction at empty air. Dinky looked in befuddlement at the insane youth, and probably shouldn’t have been listening in, but the boy certainly didn’t object to Dinky listening in on his one-sided conversation,

“Oh no, please do sit down,” the other blonde boy said, “There’s not much you can do about that. I certainly hope they’ll have sausages tomorrow.”

“Who are you talking to?” Dinky asked, before he even realized he was talking. “Uh, I mean, you know...” he trailed off in embarassment. Dinky hadn’t even meant to say anything, only quietly listen, but then he just went and blurted out the first question that came to mind. The other boy didn’t seem upset though, and was even responsive!

He immediately turned to Dinky with startling purple eyes, smiling and saying, “They’re my team mates, duh! I would introduce you to them, but they’re dead so only I can talk with them.”

“Oh, um...” Dinky said, trying to find some way to avoid insulting this guy’s dead team... mates. Team? “What... team?” he asked uncertainly.

“Oh, I was on a superhero team!” the boy said excitedly, “Just like the Fantastic Four except there were six of us. It—” he abruptly stopped smiling. “It went poorly,” he said calmly. Too calmly.

“Well, um, you can still introduce them,” Dinky said carefully, “Even if only you can talk with them, you could tell me about your... thing here?”

“I can talk with them because I can still hear their voices calling to me,” the boy replied distantly.

“What?” Dinky asked weakly.

The boy focused on Dinky again, saying, “Neeever mind. Hey you’re new here, aren’t you!”

“I... sorta, yeah,” Dinky admitted.

“Well you’re new, and since you’re new maybe I can introduce you!” he declared with a bright smile.

“That’s what I was saying...” Dinky attempted, but the boy just talked over him now.

“This is Madame Fire,” the boy said, not gesturing anywhere, “She was the fastest and the best, and the loudest. She could catch on fire like the human torch and she always knew what to do. This is Captain Clipper, the husband of Madame Fire, and he had powers too. He could fly like Superman and had super strength! Oh and this is Flatter, who can make things flat, I think? She’s not really flat.”

Dinky was quickly getting overwhelmed by this boy’s sudden attention, so did what he did best: passively weathered the storm and tried to listen. At least the boy actually gestured towards the empty seat when he mentioned uh... Flatter. Apparantly she was the one sitting there.

“There’s Slowpoke, who’s like the Flash but she can go super slow,” he said, adding in a conspiratorial whisper, “She always finds some way to make that super useful! And there’s Silencer, who’s super quiet at flying and makes things silent by covering her mouth. And then there’s me! The Dizzitron!”

“Wait, no need to demonstrate,” Dinky shot out, holding up a hand, terrified that this boy was going to stand up and start spinning around or something. “It sounds really uh... cool? Where did you meet um, them?”

“Oh that was ages ago, I don’t remember,” the boy... the Dizzitron? said. “Do you remember?”

It took Dinky a moment to realize that the boy was asking Flatter back there. “Uh huh,” he said to her seat, “Yeah. Uh huh. Nope, no idea. Well maybe it was Clipper’s idea!”

“Sorry, she doesn’t really remember when we met,” the boy said, turning to face Dinky with a sheepish smile, “Being dead will do that to you.”

“How did—” Dinky choked on his words. He was not going to ask how they died. “You...” he struggled to find something innocuous to ask, “Get... to staying here?” he asked. “In the hospital?”

“Well, I really wanted to be with my friends again,” the boy stated, “And I tried to a lot, at first. There’s this trick you can do with shoelaces, that—”

“I’m familiar,” Dinky said shortly.

The boy regarded him a second, before going on, saying, “But the doctors wouldn’t let me, and I had to stay here, and finally I just realized I can only talk to the friends I have in my head, because the real ones are gone forever.”

Dinky was well on the way to panicking at those words, but the boy just stared off into space and solemnly said, “Dr. Redheart said my team wouldn’t want me to be gone too, and even if I died, I couldn’t follow them. I’d just be dead. So there’s no point in anything like that.”

“You don’t have to—” Dinky managed to squeak before getting interrupted.

“Aaaand,” the boy said abruptly more cheerfully, “The doctors want me to stay here because I still talk to my team, and they tell me things and they’ll always be alive for me just a little because my head keeps making them. So... that’s why I’m here. Why are you here?”

“I um... hurt someone, and I can’t take it back,” Dinky said uncertainly, “And everyone hated me for it, so I got sick of... it, and sort of did something... stupid.”

“Oh, you’re the boy who jumped off the school!” the other kid declared, eyes widening. Dinky’s eyes widened too.

As if detecting his surprise, probably because Dinky’s eyes were widening in surprise, the boy raised his hands appeasingly and said, “Some people have TV privileges, and your story was all over the news, so they told me about it. Total bummer, huh?”

“It’s dumb,” Dinky admitted sullenly. “I shouldn’t even be here. I don’t have um...”

“Dead friends?” the boy prompted, glancing aside a little self consciously.

“...yeah,” Dinky said reluctantly. “I don’t have trouble talking, or thinking or anything. I’m just a little... messed up, I guess. Don’t know how it happened.”

“I would feel bad for you,” the boy replied, glancing behind himself, “But Flatter says that people don’t treat me well because I talk to people who aren’t there, even if they’re there for me. So it’s actually good that you don’t have that.”

“It is,” Dinky agreed, “I just feel out of place. Just like everywhere, I suppose.”

“You shouldn’t kill yourself, you know,” the boy said evenly.

Dinky blinked in surprise at the abrupt change in topic to something he didn’t really agree with, saying, “W–why?”

“Because of what the doctor told me,” the boy replied, touching his plainly clothed chest with a smug grin.

“What’s that?” Dinky asked nervously.

“I’d like to go join my team again, but the doctor says that’s a bad idea, and she’s right,” the boy explained, “Because if I did, then there wouldn’t be anyone here to be me! So you need to stay alive, because nobody else can be you.”

“Well that’s true, but who cares if someone is you or not?” Dinky asked critically.

“I do!” the boy replied, “And the doctors do. And you do.”

“Me?” Dinky asked, surprised.

“You’re talking to me, even though I came here with Flatter,” the boy explained. “You really wanted to know who they are, instead of just thinking I’m weird and stupid, or instead of only caring about your own problems. You really—” the boy was... crying? He was wiping tears away from the bottom of those violet eyes as he said, “You really made my day a lot brighter, just by coming here and talking to me, and being so nice, and saying the things that you say.”

“You’re... welcome?” Dinky said uncertainly.

“So that’s why you should be alive,” the boy replied, smiling and dry-eyed once again, “Because you’re nice, and you let me tell you about my team, and you haven’t laughed at me even once.”

“You might think differently, if you know what I did to Diamond Tiara,” Dinky grumbled, disconsolately.

“I told you, it’s all over the news,” the boy said frankly, “So, do you know if it’s a boy or a girl?”

Dinky planted his face on the table and groaned. He couldn’t even escape it, way out here. “Oh that’s why you’re talking to me. Fine, laugh at the stupid boy, ” he said, “Sorry I don’t even know, because I’m such a heartless jerk. Why don’t you just leave me alone if you’re just gonna make fun of me?”

“Well you are a jerk, because you don’t even care what’s going to happen to her, when it’s all your fault!” the other boy did not say. Dinky was ready for it, but he heard different words instead.

“I don’t remember what your name was though,” the boy said sheepishly, “I think the news couldn’t say your name out loud. Could you at least tell me that?”

Dinky lifted his head, looking at the boy skeptically. The other boy was looking at him with worry, but wasn’t trying to cut Dinky down. Or telling everyone what a terrible person he was, getting everyone to agree so they could work up the nerve to start shoving him. Dinky was starting to realize just how odd this situation was. This kid was... just not even caring about what Dinky did? He saw the news, and still wanted to get to know him?

Confused, Dinky told the boy, “Oh, it’s... Dinky. What’s yours?”

The boy smiled and said

Apple Bloom never felt more trapped than she had in a long time. Twilight said there was a whole world outside the city limits! Well, that’s not such a surprise, but it wasn’t the world that Apple Bloom had been taught was reality!

Twilight said Canterlot City was surrounded by some kind of magic barrier! There was no telling what could be on the other side, except it would be way, far in the future from her own magical land. Twilight said they were still trying to date just how long the time loop had gone and repeated, and all she could tell Apple Bloom is it was a real long time. So like, space ponies, or something! She seemed kind of ill when Apple Bloom excitedly asked about space ponies though, so probably not.

And here Apple Bloom had to sit with her cheek against her desk, listening to Ms. Harshvoice go on about some book about a war in a place that wasn’t even real. England? Shmeengland! Summer vacation couldn’t come fast enough! It was just finals week after this, and then freedom! Maybe less freedom because of all the ponies who needed help, and with being aware of her inability to leave this city’s limits. But for now Apple Bloom had to sit and stay still and couldn’t even run around outside. There really was a real mysterious world out there, and she couldn’t explore it!

The P.A. system came on unexpectedly toward the end of the period, which suited Apple Bloom just fine. Any break in the monotony was welcome in her books. She almost wished they hadn’t discovered that crypt, or whatever it was hidden in the principal’s office, because then she and her friends might have been suspended that day, and wouldn’t have to go to school!

“This is a reminder to all staff,” the principal said, “A faculty meeting about the summer school will meet directly in the faculty lounge after school. Please do your best to attend, as there are very important matters to discuss.”

Well that got Apple Bloom’s attention. After school, Scootaloo practically knocked over the two others hurrying together, charging up to Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle in a flash and shouting, at the exact same time as Apple Bloom,

“We gotta sneak into that faculty meeting!”
“We gotta sneak into that faculty meeting!”

The little white unicorn looked between the two before saying, “I think we should find out what they’re saying at that faculty meeting.”

“And you know how we’re gonna do that,” Apple Bloom said with a wink.

Applejack jogged up to an irate looking Granny Smith. Granny was standing her bulky, hulking form next to a cardboard cutout crudely scribbled over with the shape of three little horses, a white one, an orange one, and a yellow one. The yellow one had a crudely drawn smile on its muzzle and a speech bubble that said “Be back in a bit!”

Three saddlebags full of books were piled next to it.

“Reckon you might take a look around for your little sister?” Granny said dryly.

Applejack sunk her shoulders, saying, “Ah’ll check the cafeteria. You see if they’re in the library.”

Applejack was surprised to see Granny smile then, a big crinkly smile and say, “Yer a mighty fine Apple, young’n. Now let’s git er done.”

Meanwhile, in the secret passage that connected the west and east wing, no the other secret passage, the one they hadn’t told anyone about, the three fillies were creeping along another tunnel, this one with flat diases on the floor at even intervals. By jumping on a dias, it would swivel around and you could switch places with a table, or a bench. Or the faculty room’s coffee maker, as Apple Bloom discovered, thankfully not during a faculty meeting.

But by just leaning on it, the dias depressed and a space cracked open that the three fillies couldn’t risk going, or looking through, but they could risk listening through. Three pairs of conical ears perked as one as they heard the principal Celestia say, “It’s good to have you all here. I’m sure you’re aware of the current pony crisis. I have two things to discuss in that regard.

“Firstly, the rate of change seems slow now, but it is already overwhelming our support networks. We simply don’t have enough room reserved for helping all these people walk again. Now, the vice principal and I have worked out an agreement with the city by which the school can be reserved after the end of the current school year as an emergency pony training facility.”

There was a thoughtful murmur going up among the others there, but Celestia quelled it with her serenely commanding voice, saying, “The pony crisis will only get worse as time goes on. I regret to say that the school will have to take a more and more active role as this happens. Summer classes will need to be cancelled, because this simply must take priority. Students, and even faculty, need time to adjust to being a pony, as Professor Cherry Berry here can attest. In particular, many of the er... more skilled winged ponies seem to think the school gymnasium would be a good place to practice flying. It’s a controlled environment, with a lot of space to move around... vertically.

“The classrooms can be of use for training speech, writing ability, and how to manipulate the surprisingly dextrous hooves that ponies seem to have,” the principal said, “Other suggestions are welcome.”

“Hey, is anyone going to be teaching... magic?” said a thin voiced teacher, whom none of the three secret observers had a class with.

“Yes, especially those of us who become... unicorns,” Celestia said uncomfortably. “The unicorn magic seems very useful, but expert opinion is that it can only be mastered through practice and study. There are accomodations in the plan for part of the school to be dedicated to that. Part of the school will also be dedicated to the recovery of ancient literature, cataloging and transcribing it off of its crumbling medium. On that note...

Principal Celestia shuffled some papers around and announced, “The second order of business is the history of the school’s construction. I’m sure you are all curious what has been going on in my office. It so happens that I have been very thoroughly convinced that this school was built on, or from, the ruins of an ancient archaeological ...site. We have made some very strange discoveries that all seem to hinge on someone being changed into a pony. In my office, a girl named Sweetie Belle was able to open a secret passage with a mechanism that was clearly designed for a pony’s hooves.

“It led to an ancient underground library, and before any of you get too excited, I mean ancient in a bad way. What literature was in it, save a small section, has since crumbled into fragments and dust, along with the shelves. I wanted to ask if anyone had any ideas how we might go about recovering what information in it remains. Do you have any connections with larger universities or archaeologists, whose aid I could request in salvaging this ancient writing?”

A secret, ruined library, underneath the school? That was amazing! But what could it possibly mean? None of the three fillies had any clue.

There was another murmur, before someone spoke up, saying, “I had a roommate once who was an archaeology major in grad school. I don’t know if they graduated, but I might be able to track them down. Has anyone heard of an archaeologist by the name ‘Dr. Yearling?’”

There wasn’t a positive answer, and Apple Bloom certainly hadn’t heard of anyone like that.

“Let’s put that on the back burner for now,” Celestia stated. “If you do get ahold of your friend though, please let us know.”

There was the sound of papers shuffling.

“There is one request I have of you in particular, Ms. Berry,” Celestia said to the pony in the room.

“I told you before, I’m not an archaeologist,” Cherry Berry grumbled, no doubt with a frown on her scrunched up face. It wasn’t very effective.

“Through unknown means,” Celestia went on to the group at large, “Certain books were almost perfectly preserved. They are written in an ancient alphabet, but as luck would have it, two... specialists have approached me who understand it.”

To Berry specifically, she said, “I need you to learn this alphabet, so that you can work with them to begin translating these works. In particular, there is a journal left by... four ancient influential figures, including Twilight Sparkle, Sunset Shimmer, and... two people who may be ancestors of the vice principal and I.”

“Right, I know what you mean,” Berry could be heard to say. “It’s outright suspicious that they’re claiming two of the people writing in it were you, and the vice principal.”

“I’m merely concerned,” the principal said cautiously, “It may be no coincidence that Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer have offered to translate these works, only to find the authors of the journal include two authority figures named Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer. They claim that the ‘princesses’ of long past are named Twilight, Sunset, Luna and Celestia. I’m concerned that they may be lying about this, as a rather shallow attempt to appeal to the ego of Ms. Luna and I.”

“That does sound awfully shifty,” Berry had to agree.

Celestia did not contest that, saying agreeably, “Your knowledge of real world history will surely aid you in determining whether they’re simply making things up and inserting themselves as heroic historical figures.”

“Oh, right,” Berry’s voice came, sounding nervous and somewhat disgusted. “That is totally a thing I know, is real history. No way I could get fooled by anything that was fake history.”

“Thank you very much for aiding me in this,” Celestia’s voice said in genuine, if clueless gratitude. “I will fill you in on the relevant details after the meeting.”

“Did you hear that??” Apple Bloom whispered excitedly. “They’re talking about the other Twilight and they have no idea!”

“They have her journal? ” Sweetie whispered in excitement and shock. “If we could read that to her, she’d get her memories back for sure!”

“I bet the library they found is her library,” Scootaloo also whispered, “The one she always dreams about!”

“What? No! Her library is above the ground, in the bright sun,” Apple Bloom whispered back, leaning her hoof down a little too firmly on the podium. With three surprised shrieks, the platform tipped up and in a blur of motion, yanked them all into the faculty room, where a coffee maker once stood. All the adults turned to look at the three of them, including Ms. Harshvoice, a pink haired yellow pony who hated teaching history, Vice Principal Luna, and Principal Celestia.

“I can explain!” Sweetie Belle squeaked.

Jan 7, 1394

More disappearances, and still no sign of the missing ponies. There had been a rash of strange disappearances lately in the Fillydelphia area, and petitioners are beginning to question what is being done to find them again. There certainly hasn’t been any syndicate claiming to have them, or trying to ransom them. I hope for the best, but I fear the worst, that perhaps the Divine Sun are rearing their heads again, or even those of the Imperium, who could have done something terrible to the missing ponies.

Fortunately, we have some good ponies on the case, ponies who have proven themselves diligent and effective, even in the throes of a crisis. I remain confident we can find the missing ponies, both privately and to the public, but here in this journal I can’t help but express my worries and concerns. There’s something not right about this. Why would farmers be vanishing from their fields, while the dense city remains untouched? Is this a guerilla invasion? Make no mistake, we will get to the bottom of this.

Princess Celestia.

Rainbow Dash landed heavily on the roof. On a roof, rather. She had no clue which one. Her chest was burning and her lungs aching for air as she landed. She really should have thought this through before going off on her own again.

Dash had barely been flying for days, when suddenly this crisis came up. And now she was halfway across town, trying to remember the layout of the city streets that she was more familiar with from below. It was unbelievable that she could get all this way on her own, without even taking the bus, but somehow she’d managed it. After she got up into the air and could get a good glide going, it was simple to cover huge distances!

Hard, but simple.

Dash got to thinking about what made her unceremoniously abandon the farm and come soaring into the city. As her wings were tired there was plenty of chance to sit here on a rooftop of this random building and just ruminate, alone, on why she’d come here.

Rainbow Dash had been making a phone call earlier at the farm, feeling a lot better than the last time. She started to get the hang of flying, and Rainbow Dash just felt better about herself in general. The call didn’t go as well as it could have, though.

Hey Dad, it’s me again.

I was kind of not in the best mood when you started laying into me back then. I didn’t know if I was even going to be uh, flying. So that pony thing sort of... happened to me. So that’s why I said I’m quitting football, because I sort of don’t have feet anymore. Haha, lame joke sorry. But what I meant is I’m actually flying now, which you have to admit is pretty awesome. I’d just rather focus on that than on my sports scholarsh—

Rainbow Dash cut off then, because she’d been talking into the answering machine, only to hear an echoey clatter emit from the phone as her dad... as someone knocked the receiver off the hook. “Hello? Dad?” she asked the phone, but there was no answer after that, just the very faint sound of someone breathing. “Dad are you okay?” Rainbow Dash asked worriedly. In response there was no words, but a huge staticky crash, that cut out suddenly for a second, then another second, and then a dial tone rang out.

Rainbow Dash tried calling back, but it didn’t even get to the answering machine, now! It just sat there ringing endlessly, with no one answering it. She wanted to talk to someone about it. No, she wanted to talk to Applejack about it, but Applejack was busy helping retrofit the school for ponies. The others of her friends wouldn’t have understood Rainbow Dash’s relationship with her dad, so as usual, she didn’t bother burdening them with it. Instead, she used the stylus to hang up her phone, and throwing caution to the wind, Rainbow Dash decided that it was a very good idea to start hurrying home.

In the present moment, atop a random building in the city, a lone pegasus named Rainbow Dash lifted a wing, looking at it worriedly as her muscles were aching just in spreading it. She didn’t feel too exhausted, though. The hairs on her rainbow tail fluttered in the breeze as she wrapped it conservatively around her hindquarters. The strap holding the fireplace poker that dangled beneath her belly was chafing the pit of her wing... arms, but the presence of that was non negotiable. Her cell phone was still taped to it too, in case her dad broke the home phone. Because he totally did. The rest of Rainbow Dash seemed fine, better than she expected. How many miles had she flown now?

Rested up as much as she was willing, Rainbow Dash took to the skies again. It was surprisingly hard to just glide, as the wind above the buildings blew her around quite a bit, but Rainbow Dash couldn’t get over the novelty that she was up here, flying! Not even in a plane, like her dad had tried to get her to do years ago. It was just herself up here, nothing between her naked body and the rushing, biting air. Nothing to stand on, while the world passed underneath her, she was actually flying!

The best Rainbow Dash could understand her feelings is that she felt like one of those Brainships from those old stories, where someone’s brain and senses were hooked up to the ship itself. She was in the sky, not sitting in a plane. That had to be why back in the day, Rainbow Dash hadn’t been able to get enthusiastic about a pilot program. Despite loving everything about the idea of flying, Rainbow Dash now knew how much she needed to fly on her own.

Her dad had been such a jerk about it though. Soon as Dash didn’t like something that he wanted her to like, he just blew up at her. It’s not like she could argue. At the time, she hadn’t understood her feelings about flight enough to even really argue with him, aside from just angrily yelling at him. But now, actually flying like this, Rainbow Dash understood herself better. She hoped she could use that to patch things up with him somehow. Much as Rainbow hated the guy, her dad had enough shit to deal with, without her letting him down all the time.

It was much easier than she expected to navigate from up here. From above, the roads actually looked like the map. She got a lot of strange looks when she had to check which road it was, but it was probably understandable, considering nobody had ever seen a pegasus pony descend from the sky to perch on a street sign, taking off into the air again after peering at it closely. People could just deal with it if they had a problem, because her dad was in trouble and she might be the only one he had to help him.

Descending in clumsy flutters that made her wings ache from the strain, Rainbow Dash finally landed in front of her house. The sun was shining overhead, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. There was even the tweeting of birds in the trees alongside the streets. It was a beautiful day, and there was probably a pony in that house. She figured that the pony thing might have happened to her dad. She hoped that’s all it was at least. She wouldn’t be able to live with herself if something happened to him, like getting actually hurt.

Yet she had a hesitant approach to her house, because Rainbow Dash did not want to get outright trampled if her dad was out of control. Dash did not want to deal with a panicked stallion. The stallions back at the farm were big! Rainbow Dash was supposedly full grown, according to Sunset’s friend at least, and she appreciated how being smaller made her faster in the sky, but only foals were smaller than her. She had to look up to most mares, and compared to them, stallions were like mountains of beefy pony muscle. Rainbow Dash tried not to let it get to her, but she definitely was not going into this house to confront her dad, without a fireplace poker in her mouth.

And of course the front door was closed. Go figure! It was closed, and it had one of those stupid doorknobs. Doorknobs sucked. Rainbow looked instead for an open window, and there was one open... on the second floor. Crap. How was she supposed to climb the side of a house, without any hands? Oh wait.

Rainbow Dash let her weight fall away, and fluttered up to the open window of her house. She lived in a pretty rundown neighborhood, with houses of lots of weird shapes and sizes. It’d normally make sense to construct them all the same, but this gave the area a refreshingly rustic feel because they were so different. Her own house was on a tiny plot of land, not even room for a front yard, unless you counted the driveway. It was two stories though, and she had a pretty cool room of her own, even if her dad required she keep her door unlocked, so he could check what she was doing at any time.

It sounded abusive, but it was actually kind of hilarious, like the one time he came in and caught her doing... something guys don’t do. His whole face turned from green to red, and he slammed the door so fast it made the walls shake.

Plus without his nagging, Rainbow Dash’d probably never get her homework done.

It was into her own room she squeezed, having to toss the poker in beforehand to fit. She was a pretty small pony, but it wasn’t a very large window. The lights were off in Rainbow Dash’s room, but she could still see her bed: now gigantic. She could see her desk, dresser, pile of dirty clothes, and... no father.

Peering out to the hall, it didn’t look like there was any lights on in the house at all. OK, totally not creepy. Cupping the poker in the crook of her forehoof, Dash shouted out, “Dad?”

There was an immediate crashing sound, someone downstairs running around and running into things, with heavy hoof beats. Biting down around the poker, Rainbow Dash trotted out of her room and cautiously walked her way down the stairs—

Oh right.

Poker in mouth, Rainbow Dash jumped, gliding down the entire stairwell, using her wings to slow her landing just like when they were practicing jumping off the roof yesterday.

She landed... not horribly, but very noisily.

Down there on the first floor, Rainbow Dash craned around, looking for—yes! Her ear moved to the noise of a bottle falling over in the laundry room. Spitting the poker into her hoof again, Rainbow briefly cursed her somewhat quadrupedal form of locomotion, but then called out, “Dad? It’s okay. I already know you’re a pony.”

No answer.

“I’m coming in,” Rainbow Dash said confidently, despite the racing beat of her heart in her chest. Once again biting the fireplace poker, she slowly ventured up to the laundry room.

Diamond Tiara could not believe the irony of the situation. She stared up at the mental hospital, with its beautiful grounds, in its location way out on the edge of town so people didn’t have to think that crazy people even existed. Diamond’s belly was heavy, noticably weighing her down, and that only explained half of why she got so tired after the slightest exertion. The other half was that there was a baby inside that heavy belly of hers, and Diamond was dumbstruck at how hard her body was working to make the baby grow. But dumbstruck or not, it didn’t stop her from being tired, like, all the time.

She was the one who went and did this to herself. She was the one who was out of control and violent and crazy. She was the one who saw ponies! Yet she had to ask permission to enter the mental ward, while it seemed like everyone else besides her was in here!

Diamond only gave a grumble of acquiescence at the desk clerk, pulling the sign-in book over and writing her name into it. The orphanage caretaker with Diamond then signed it too: a light brown lady named Zipporwhill who was annoyingly cheerful, but had enough tact to avoid blabbing to the rest of the orphanage that Diamond Tiara was visiting the insane asylum.

“Are you excited?” the caretaker said eagerly, “You might be able to meet with your fellow, Dinky!”

“Yeah yeah,” Diamond said, not even giving her eye contact. But somewhere deep behind Diamond’s calm facade was a terrified little girl who almost lost her friend and really really wanted to see him again. She wasn’t like, 12 though, so Diamond Tiara was totally cool about it instead of flipping out with worry. She came during free time, which was the best time to visit at this hospital, and headed, flanked by her supportive adult caretaker and a rather burly looking member of the hospital staff, into the day room, to see if maybe she couldn’t catch Dinky in here.

What was she going to say to him? What he did was beyond dumb, it was stupid and didn’t make any sense, and Diamond couldn’t believe she didn’t see it coming. Were kids just not bullying him when she was around? Yeah, probably. They didn’t want Diamond Tiara to come kick their asses, and she had an unfair advantage now, what with being the fighting equivalent of two people. Okay, so that was a lie, but Diamond still felt pretty good, for what she... was.

Especially now that he knew the truth about her, Diamond Tiara wasn’t sure she wanted Dinky to see her again, and look at her like everyone does who knows. Thinking less of her, pitying her. But she’d been putting it off for long enough, and Diamond was determined to at least be there whenever he turned into a pony, if that was the last thing she did. Someone had to be there for him, after all.

Diamond Tiara still couldn’t believe what was happening was really real. She didn’t think she was crazy, but she just felt so... surprised to sit up after waking in the morning, and feel her own belly yanking on her in there, hanging a lot more heavily than it would if it was just fat. Diamond looked it up, and her baby wasn’t even 2 pounds yet, just like, football sized. So she didn’t think she’d be this big yet, but in fact her belly was round, not baby shaped. All that extra fluid that filled her to the point of tension was heavy! It’d get even more later, scarily enough, but she could already majorly feel the weight of it. She felt like a walking... fish bowl.

That was hard enough to believe, but she had to check every morning to see if her ears had begun to change into horse ears. She only did it out of dread, not with any hope for the baby. With her pregnancy only in the sixth month at most, no baby could survive outside of her womb after only the second trimester. The alien girls said they figured out what happened, what would happen. If you didn’t change into an adult, your pregnancy just... went away. Diamond would be okay, but... her baby would be gone. So here Diamond had an actual baby in her, and it would just disappear if she hadn’t given birth before she changed.

Diamond didn’t... really know how to feel about that, but it was definitely hard to believe. She could understand if things were so crazy, that it drove the sensitive, fragile Dinky over the edge. She just didn’t know what to say to him about... her... secret. She hated that it was secret, and there was no reason it had to be, but it... it was.

Dinky was there in the day room, and Diamond’s heart skipped a beat on seeing him. She was pretty sure it was terror, and not her hormones messing with her again. Dinky wasn’t doing anything, just sitting there watching people like he likes to do, though this time he was sitting next to someone else. It was that “Sixth Sense” boy: another blonde who had a much more gigantically curly hairstyle, and was much more white than Dinky. They were not directly next to each other, but it was obvious the one would talk with the other. Swallowing, Diamond headed over to her boy in particular, that beautiful blonde haired Dinky, with those careful, attentive lavender hands that she had some very intimate experience with.

“Hey, Dinky,” she said, as he looked over, and almost cartweeled flailing back against the boy he was sitting with. Well great, why was Dinky staring at her fearfully?

“D-d-d-diamond!” he squeaked.

“Well that’s a great way to greet your friend,” Diamond said, rolling her eyes at him dramatically. “I’m coming to visit you, or don’t you think I should? Didn’t they tell you I was going to be here?”

“Oh, i-it’s ten o’clock alread—sorry, I—” Dinky collected his wits enough to start apologizing to the boy he was with. Said boy just glared unsympathetically until Dinky yelped, “Right, right!” He shoved out of the spot he was sitting then, putting himself about a body length away from the boy.

Then Dinky apologized to the empty air saying, “Sorry for running into you too, Madame Fire.”

“Don’t tell me they made you crazy?” Diamond exclaimed in alarm. “What medication have they got you on, Dinky? You’re seeing things?”

“Please, just drop it,” Dinky said astonishingly firmly. “Even if I was, there’s nothing wrong with seeing things. It’s a bad idea for you to make fun of that right now.”

Diamond’s eyes widened as she recalled who Dinky was sitting with. “Oh, him! ” she exclaimed in relief. “You were just like, playing along.”

“Oh no!” the other boy exclaimed in anguish, “Why must you be so cruel to me, that I—”

“Can it, Surprise,” Diamond said flatly.

“Eheh, sorry,” the boy said sheepishly, twiddling with a lock of his curly hair.

“You two know each other?” Dinky asked incredulously, looking between Diamond Tiara and the boy named Surprise.

“Uh, yeah?” Diamond said tilting her head at Dinky, “How many other people here are like, even close to my age?”

“Yes but, I mean...” Dinky said in a fluster, “How did you... meet?”

“That’s really not important,” Diamond said leerily, looking around with worry. “I just wanted to come and say hi and... oh.” Oh right.

“Why the—heck didn’t you tell me anything was wrong?” Diamond accused Dinky, poking him in the chest with a finger. She was supposed to avoid asking about the jumping off the school thing directly, but she figured she was owed at least this. “You ended up here and I didn’t even know you were like, being bullied!”

“Not like they weren’t right to do so,” Dinky grumbled, then looked at Diamond and blushed, saying, “I–I mean, I’m really happy for you, whatever you want to do, and I’m sorry that I—I mean you know I’m not always sorry, but I want to be sorry, and—sorry.”

It was actually kind of adorable to see him trying futilely to cover up what he was clearly still torn up over, now that Diamond knew what to look for.

“Am I missing something?” a clueless Surprise said, looking curiously at the beet red Dinky, who looked like he wished he could go crawl under the couch and hide from reality. Well! Nice try, but Diamond wasn’t going to let that happen!

“Yeah,” Diamond said confidently, facing Surprise directly. “It so happens that I’m the girl that Dinky knocked up!”

“Oh?” Surprise said faintly, looking at her with innocent violet eyes. Then his innocent eyes moved down to her midsection, where he could see... it. “Oh. Wh—pffffahaahaha!” he abruptly erupted into laughter. Diamond watched incredulously as he gasped, “Rock hard... for...” in-between giggles.

“Hey!” Diamond said in offense, “That’s not... like, what you’re supposed to say to... like, someone!” She didn’t really know what to say to it, because whatever Surprise was thinking was probably true, technically true, but you can’t just... say that! And why was he finding it so amusing?

“Sorry,” Surprise said, wiping at his eyes, “Firey has a very inappropriate sense of humor sometimes. So you’re the one who drove Dinky crazy, huh?”

Both Dinky and Diamond Tiara protested “No!” at the same time.

“Eh close enough,” Surprise said with a shrug.

“Look, I just wanted to say hi to Dinky and catch up with him, before everything goes all to heck,” Diamond said grouchily, glancing around again, not that it ever helped.

“Why would it go to heck?” Dinky asked with golden eyes so free of judgement or ire.

“Well, like, because, like,” Diamond said, a blush creeping up on her face as she said, “Like, you know, my mom?”

“What about your mom?” Dinky replied cluelessly.

Diamond was going to answer, but her jaw dropped as the room seemed to shrink around her. “Oh my god you don’t know,” she said in horror to a wide-eyed Dinky. Of course he didn’t know because he was the stupidest, most clueless—

“Bubbles!” squealed a delighted, very familiar voice, right behind Diamond Tiara. After jumping out of her own skin, then using her psychic powers to reverse time so no one had to see that, Diamond Tiara turned around with a slight twitch in her eye. The woman she faced was an even darker pink than herself, with very similar purple and white hair, that curled in sworls rather than waves. She seemed... mostly lucid? It was about the best Diamond could ask for.

“Dinky, I’d like you to meet my mother,” groaned Diamond Tiara, as the older woman pulled Diamond into a crushing hug.

Lord Discord also thinks he might be able to alter the barrier, so it... provides for us, much in the way he can pull the things he needs out of thin air. I’m not sure this is a good idea because, for all our lord’s boasting of being all powerful, this sounds to me like a stretch, even for him. I can’t imagine how he’d keep his power, and still iterate over our time loop, and meddle with an AR barrier. He says the boundary between worlds is perfectly understandable, but I confess I struggle to grasp even a pale shadow of his great wisdom.

Princess Twilight

Deep beneath the earth, Twilight Sparkle stared down at the journal of the princesses. Then, she slowly, gently closed its cover. She stood, and turned to face the direction of the chamber that held statues of herself and Sunset. Then she screamed at the top of her lungs in frustrated rage.

Author's Note

And then the author successfully said the name Candleja—

Reconciliation

“I’m telling you, I have no magic powers, no ancient memories, and no way to undo this in any fashion. I’m a statistics teacher!”

“No!” Twilight shouted back, “You have to be able to fix this! I refuse to believe that somepony like you would have done something like this to himself without some sneaky way out of it.”

“I am not a pony,” the scruffy grey man known as Discord countered, “And if your experience is any indication, I wouldn’t even be a pony across the portal!”

“You’re the only one who could end this!” Twilight outright pleaded, stalking after Discord as he hurried down the school hallway for what was clearly important business, certainly not to get away from these girls, “Please, Discord! We can’t tell anyone what’s going on, if they can’t remember what happens on the Edge! There might be ponies trapped out there!”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Discord replied, “It’s certainly nothing I’ve been doing, unless I’ve been imprisoning ponies in my sleep?”

“We’re almost finished with the journal,” Twilight said miserably, “But I don’t know if it’ll have the answers we need. They tell us everything about what is happening here, except how to stop it!”

“Well if it were me, I’d just have your damsel in distress wake up on her own,” Discord pointed out. “If she doesn’t, then maybe there is a reason for that. My advice it that unless you can find out the reason princess Sleeping Beauty is having trouble waking up, I suggest you turn your attention to more important things.”

“Such as?” Twilight asked.

“Everyone is turning into ponies!” he practically shouted at her. “Maybe you could, I don’t know, think about possible ways to solve that problem?”

“It’s... complicated,” Twilight said with a wince.

“Oh, of course it’s ‘complicated’” Discord finger-quoted.

“The thing is,” Sunset said twirling a lock of her hair, “We’re not sure that everyone wasn’t a pony in the first place.”

Discord honestly had no idea what to say about such a ridiculous sentiment.

“So.”

“Um.”

“Yeah.”

“Your mom is... nice,” Dinky offered uneasily. It was technically the truth, he was pretty sure.

“My mom is completely flipping nuts,” Diamond groaned. The two of them were sitting together in the day room, after that whole... thing just happened. Surprise had scarpered off, and a certain special someone had left by other means. “Where did she even get a pine cone?”

“She’s not so bad,” Dinky replied, “She just sees things ...differently than the rest of us.”

“Differently enough to get a timeout,” Diamond said grumpily, “From her own daughter!”

“Sorry I... told her about the boating terminology,” Dinky mumbled, apologetically.

“Not your fault. She just gets wrapped up in ideas sometimes. I like, try not to understand her,” Diamond said glumly, staring at the table they sat at.

“Why not?” Dinky asked innocently.

Diamond looked at him curiously, saying, “You know. You’re so interested in this psychology stuff, I thought you’d like, know.”

“Afraid I don’t,” Dinky replied sheepishly, “Or if I do, I’m just not seeing it. Wouldn’t you want to understand your own mother?”

“She wasn’t always like this,” Diamond replied soberly. “It started with just little slips. Mixed up words and... getting confused. They say it might have been brought on by stress. Her job as a court advisor just... got the best of her, but I think it was going on before that. She was getting more and more obsessed with her schedule, and having things always exactly a certain way. She had to eat the same things, and had all sorts of timers for when she was supposed to cook dinner, and brush teeth, and reading time, and budget time, and... she even timed how long she’d relax outside.

“It was a long time ago,” Diamond said wistfully, “But I remember when she used to take care of me. And I think the stress was because... she was already slipping, and it was the only way she knew how to keep herself like... there. Eventually it got so bad, it didn’t work anymore, and now she’s... here.”

“I thought you didn’t know your parents,” Dinky admitted quietly.

“Yeah that’s on purpose. Like, why would I want anyone to know my mom had to give me up because she was crazy? ” Diamond asked him with a little flare of anxiety.

“It must be embarassing,” Dinky replied, looking the way her very enthusiastic mom had been er... dragged.

Diamond took a while to respond to that. “They say like,” she said, swallowing, “Schizophrenia runs in the family. It’s something you can... inherit.”

“Not always, though,” Dinky said, laying a hand over hers. “You turned out fine,”

“Yeah, now, but—” Diamond’s fingers clenched into his. “They have me, like,” she said haltingly, fighting to find the words, “I’m like, taking, like... pills.”

When Dinky didn’t know what to say, Diamond Tiara had to continue. “They say if I take these pills then I might be ...okay. They keep me really like, sluggish, and relaxed. I guess so I don’t start ...slipping.”

“Diamond...” Dinky said softly, at a loss of how to comfort her.

“I don’t feel like I’m slipping,” Diamond said with an edge of fear to her voice, “I just get like, confused sometimes, and things stop making sense. A–and then someone’s shaking me, or telling me to calm down, even though I thought I was calm, and then they told me I should start taking these pills. I—I started seeing people turning into ponies, before it even happened. I thought they had like, horse ears or something.”

She too stared off after her mother, saying, “They say it’s really rare for schizophrenia to hit you until you’re in like, college. Because of the stress, I guess. So the pills are kind of just in case. So that’s why I try not to understand her.”

Dinky looked along with Diamond Tiara and said, “She seemed pretty happy.”

“Well like, yeah,” Diamond rolled her eyes, “I don’t think she even knows she’s in a mental hospital.”

“Then at least if it happens, you’ll be happy, right?” Dinky said. “Doesn’t seem so bad to me, really.”

“I’ll be happy, but what about everyone else?” Diamond complained. “What about the other people who get hurt?”

Dinky leaned against Diamond Tiara saying, “She hurt you pretty bad, huh.”

“I wish I could go home,” Diamond whimpered quietly.

“Me too,” Dinky sighed.

Twilight Sparkle stared forward at nothing.

“Twilight, we don’t have to continue...” Sunset said from where she sat in a folding chair laid out in the strange reading room hidden deep beneath the earth. She had a laptop open, with a transcription therein, possibly the most valuable document in the world, currently.

Twilight Sparkle was sitting on a cushion they’d brought in, reading from a large, worn, faded looking book. Or not reading, as it were, because it didn’t look like she could bring herself to read it.

The third accompanying them was sitting on her belly next to the podium, and reading over what Sunset had just transcribed. The yellow haired pink pony known as Cherry Berry whistled, but didn’t seem to know what to say about it, or them.

“We have to continue,” Twilight said quietly, to herself as much as Sunset. “The fate of the world could be resting on it. What’s in these pages...”

“I know, but—but just humor me for a moment, okay?” Sunset said. “So our counterparts were... both princesses, and they had to fight something worse than anything we could ever have imagined. The—the other princesses are still here, right? The principal and the vice principal? So our counterparts are probably not um... dead? Yours is inside the dream realm somehow, so she’s alive! You don’t—”

Sunset rubbed her face, saying, “Look, this is just... I don’t know if you’re ready to read something like this, that’s all. I’m over a hundred years old. I’ve murdered people for fun, gone insane, driven people insane, committed suicide, and this is still seriously fucking with me. I can’t imagine what it’s doing to you. I can translate it on my own, and get it to Professor Berry. Let them deal with it for a while. We can just go through our portal when our time comes, and get home to all our friends and family.”

Sunset was taken aback as Twilight glared at her almost resentfully. Then Twilight’s features softened, and she said faintly, “It’s mostly written in Scribe. I could make a basic transcription code to Latin English. We could... we could let other people save the world for once.”

“Let’s just go ho—back, for now,” Sunset said, reaching past Twilight and closing the book. The purple girl did not resist or protest this. “I really think we’ve been here long enough,” Sunset said, helping Twilight to her feet, and looking around at the lamp-lit stone reading room they were standing alone in. Either of them could have easily touched the ceiling. “Let’s get back to the surface,” Sunset said bleakly, “And get out of this... tomb.”

Feb 9, 1395

Fillydelphia is gone. I can’t believe I’m writing this, but it’s just gone. As if it were never there. They’re all ~~dea~~ gone. So many ponies, just... torn apart from their long agos.

The refugees started arriving today, and they all confirm that there is nothing even left to remember. So few of them, yet we’re already stuffed to the gills here. It’s our duty to protect these ponies, but instead we’re checking them for Anathema, and imprisoning them for doing no wrong, until they die... horribly.

We still have no defense, we still have no treatment. Our preventative measures are failing. All we can do is try to make them comfortable, and keep them separate from other ponies. What is this thing, to be so effective at destroying us? What should we do about this? Ponies are on the verge of total annihilation; it’s like a Hearth’s Warming tale come to life. I wasn’t prepared for this. Princess Celestia... what should I do?

Princess Twilight

Cherry Berry was having the strangest day. She was driving down the crowded inner city streets, and she was having trouble with the wheel in just her hooves. She couldn’t keep her car on the road, because it kept slipping off to the left or the right. Even when she forced it onto the road, it started slipping upward, like it was being repulsed from the road like a magnet. It didn’t help that her back seat passengers kept complaining, “Are we there yet?” and “Almost there!”

She stuck her head out the window to look at the problem, and somehow, Berry could stretch her neck all the way under the car, where the wheels were actually just hanging there, and there were no gravomatic repulsors like in that one movie. How was this possible? Staring forward, she yanked the steering wheel to no effect, her wheels spinning uselessly as she tried to figure out what was going on. It was like a hand was picking up her car, no not a hand. There were ropes attached to it, and the roof of her car was missing. What?

When she looked up, Cherry Berry sighed with relief. Oh, it was just the car’s balloon. It must have deployed then lifted them into the sky as a failsafe for the difficulty she was having staying on the road. She was worried there for a minute, but now she could just gaze forward at the horizon, drifting wherever the wind took her.

“Ms. Berry?” a voice came from her backseat passengers. “Ms. Berry?”

“What?” Berry asked crossly, turning from the wheel to find three little fillies sitting on the bench around the edge of the balloon’s basket. Two of them were her students from first period, and the third was that orange filly they’d been doing pony stuff with.

“What’re you doing in my car?” Berry asked, confused as she didn’t even seem to be in her car anymore.

“We were looking for you,” the white unicorn said, standing and hopping from the bench to the floor, looking up at Berry with searching green eyes. “Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and I could really use your help.”

“Oh, sure, you had a question on the history exam?” Berry asked. She frowned and said, “I can’t give you a better grade I’m sorry.”

“Don’t worry,” the Apple Bloom filly said, “It’s summer! We’re just riding in your balloon with you.”

“Yeah,” the orange one named Scootaloo said, “Thanks for taking us up here. We really appreciate it.”

“Um, okay, but I don’t remember giving you a ride,” Berry said, in puzzlement.

“Yeah, we kinda stowed away,” the white one said with a blush. “Because we really had to ask you something important.”

“What could be so important that you’d sneak onto my balloon?” Berry said, glaring at the three of them.

“The Journal,” Apple Bloom replied. “Of the Princesses.”

“Oh,” Berry said gloomily, falling heavily on her haunches, “That.”

“We really need to know what that journal says,” the white one said, giving such a heartwrenchingly pleading gaze.

“It’s for a friend!” Apple Bloom replied joining the white unicorn in pleading.

“I can’t...” Berry said uneasily, “I can’t just tell you. You’re just kids! This is some really disturbing stuff here.”

“Really?” Scootaloo said with a worried look in her own violet eyes. “Maybe this isn’t such a good idea, then.”

“It’s her only chance!” Apple Bloom said frustratedly. “Th’ Princess has nothing left in here, and she’s aching so much to find out who she is.”

“Of course it’s going to be disturbing,” the white unicorn said, rolling her eyes. “Princesses don’t get trapped in dreams without something really bad happening.”

“What are you all talking about...?” Cherry said in confusion, while the soft breeze sped the balloon silently along high above the ground.

“Sorry,” Scootaloo said to Cherry, tossing her head to indicate the others, “They get a little bit wrapped up in stuff sometimes.” It looked like she was trying to act like she was the mature one, which was totally adorable, especially with how the filly was fluttering her wings proudly. “We need you to tell us what’s in that journal,” the little pegasus said, “It’s for a friend.”

“I don’t care,” Berry said in a shaken voice, stomping enough to rattle the basket. “This journal’s about a deadly plague and a—a lot of people who died, and it’s not something I can just tell to a couple of kids!”

“We kinda thought you’d feel that way,” Apple Bloom said slyly, with her lowered ears raising, and a smug smile, “But maybe there’s somepony else you could tell it to.”

Cherry stared at the little filly in puzzlement.

Apple Bloom stared back with an increasingly nervous smile.

“That’s your cue!” the white filly whispered, hanging on the basket’s edge, and talking to someone off the other side. There was an inaudible response, and the white unicorn said, “It’ll be fine! Just tell her who you are.”

“What—” Cherry started to say, as a force of nature swept over her balloon, circling it and diving into it/her before she so much as had a chance to squeak. The... presence furled its wings, and it was a pony, but not just any pony. This one held a regal grace that emanated from every inch of her deep lilac body. Her indigo hair was a sea of stars, glowing at the edges like the end of day. She was... beautiful, no, she was more like beauty itself.

“Hi!” she said in a disturbingly familiar voice. “I’m Twilight Sparkle.”

Somewhere in the suburbs of Canterlot, within the walls one of the innocuous looking houses, a rainbow haired pony stood outside a laundry room that was ominously silent. She didn’t know what happened to her dad, how big of a pony he was, not even how much he had changed, if he wasn’t done changing yet.

“Da’, ish okay. I know you’re thurning inho a pony. You don’ hahta hide anymore. I jus’ wanna levwel with you,” Rainbow Dash said around the infuriatingly difficult fireplace poker clutched in her mouth.

The one thing of which Rainbow Dash was sure is that her dad was probably not in the best mood right now. That’s why Rainbow Dash held the irony tasting fireplace poker in her mouth. Not that she wanted to use it to subdue him or anything, but, you know, just in case things got dangerous for her in there. She might have face that angry man, or stallion, when he was panicked and backed into a corner, or laundry room as it were.

Her heart fluttering at the fear of what she might find in there, Rainbow Dash hollered out another warning, “M’mm coming in!”

The only question now was if this time Dash would have the guts to follow through with it. She didn’t want to see her dad... broken...

Still no answer, but more sounds of motion from the laundry room. They stilled, and then the light turned on in the laundry room. Taking that as a grudging olive branch, Rainbow cautiously moved forward, turning the corner swiftly so she could see into the laundry room, and fend off any threats. There before Rainbow Dash on the tiled floor, between the hulking bulk of the washing machine and the wall, stood a petite little pegasus mare. Her bony wings were folded tightly against her green furred body, her four slim legs were uncertain and shaky, and her ruddy golden eyes were full of fear and defiance.

Rainbow Dash dropped her fireplace poker with a clank.

It definitely was her dad. She had the same turquoiseish skin—fur now, the same slicked back yellow mane, a good deal more disarrayed now. The mark on the mare’s rump was unquestioningly the emblem for his old football team that Dad obsessed about so much. It was like a girly pegasus version of her dad. Gone was the pot belly, the thinning hairline, the broad shoulders, the firm jaw and the strong, meaty fingers, and in their place something so absurd, Rainbow Dash couldn’t believe it even though she was seeing it with her own two eyes.

It was like looking into a mirror. No more a tall, imposing man, Rainbow’s dad looked uncannily like Rainbow Dash herself. Yet her dad almost seemed, no definitely was just a little bit shorter. The silent pegasus mare was just a bit shorter than Rainbow Dash, and with how short Rainbow Dash was, did that mean her dad was... a foal? Too gangly and skinny to be one of those compact foals. Was her dad some sort of pony... teenager?

A shaky laugh rose up in Rainbow’s chest, which to her surprise turned into a genuine laugh, and when her dad’s response to that was to angrily scrunch up her muzzle, Rainbow Dash just lost it. We’re talking collapse on your back belly laughs. And when her dad tried to tell her to stop laughing in a cute chirpy voice with a horrible lisp...

“Ou’! Ou’! Ou’! Ou’!” her dad was suddenly howling, in some girly voice, battering clumsily at Dash’s side, and Rainbow Dash could hardly walk she was laughing so hard, but she was being absolutely horrible here, so Rainbow Dash let herself get herded out, and then stumbled into the small living room before collapsing in another case of the terminal giggles. There were no survivors. Billions perished.

Finally crawling back to the threshold of the laundry room, Rainbow Dash said breathlessly, “Dad... dad... okay I’m not... laughing at you... whoo. It’s just the whole thing is kind of messed up. How much do you know?”

Silence was again her answer.

“Okay, not much,” Rainbow Dash said uncomfortably. “So, at the farm—my friend has a ranch that’s like, pony central. Anyway it’s mostly random, but there are a lot of guys turning into girl ponies. It’s some genetic pony thing I dunno. And lots of ponies are turning out to be foals. That’s a little kid pony. You’re not a foal, I uhh... think. We both got lucky and turned into not um... quite kid ponies. That means you can probably fly pretty good. You need to get to the farm, or... or the fairgrounds is also being set up as a pony place I think. Did you read about it in the paper?”

More silence.

Rainbow lifted a hoof up, wings half spread, saying worriedly, “Listen, you’re gonna sound funny for a while, so don’t worry about how you sound. Lotta people going through this right now. They can show you how to walk and talk right again. And how to take care of your uh... wings.”

Dash blushed and stared at the badly painted wall outside the laundry room, with the height marks her dad made still there. Rainbow Dash’s height marks: drawn in black pen, from a little girl to a lanky teenager, almost all now high above the little rainbow pegasus. She gulped.

“Sorry I’m bad at this,” Rainbow said, “It’s just so weird. I thought you would be a stallion for sure. I’m okay with it, I mean. Totally okay! I just uh, how long have you been a... I mean your feathers are coming in, so it must have been a few days at least. Sorry for uh, running out on you. I think it’s gonna be okay though. Nobody is going to laugh at you like I uh... did, and sorry for that. I just want to know if you’re going to be okay.”

Rainbow Dash looked around her old house, even more a mess than usual. Some chairs were overturned, one slid over by the cabinets presumably to reach up there. Cereal boxes were tossed around on the floor, with a lot of spilled food. At least the ants hadn’t got to it yet.

After a long silence, a girl’s voice drifted from around the corner to the laundry room, asking in an absolutely heartbroken tone, “Wha’th do I doo?”

Dash didn’t know what to do. She didn’t know what to say. It had never happened before, literally never before had Rainbow Dash’s dad ever asked for her help. It wasn’t supposed to happen. None of this was supposed to happen. It was wrong for Rainbow, just some young girl, to treat her father like this, as if he wasn’t the one in charge.

But someone had to do something because her dad was really hurting here, like genuinely scared, and Rainbow Dash was never all that big on obeying the rules.

“Okay you’re a pegasus, so I know you’ll appreciate this, but you’re gonna have to trust me,” Rainbow said. “Just follow me outside, and I promise nothing bad’s gonna happen.” Rainbow Dash then turned and headed for the back door. The sliding glass door was easy to open, with a simple lever to unlatch it, and a large metal handle she could hook her hooves on. She stood outside in their tiny backyard, hoping that her dad or... whatever he was now would listen to her.

Rainbow Dash was kind of afraid to wait out here, afraid that he would reject her for pitying him. It wasn’t a fear without reason, but this was sort of unprecedented. She’d never seen her dad so shaken as to ask her what to do. Some guilty corner of Rainbow Dash’s conscience hoped that this kind of a jolt might be just the thing to snap her dad out of his impenetrable funk. Even if he had to be a short little mare like herself... it was one hell of a funk, that Rainbow Dash wouldn’t wish on her worst enemy.

Dash didn’t have to wait long, before a slim turquoise snout came poking out the glass door from inside the house. Her dad came out all the way, once she saw that Dash saw her. Her ears were turned back almost sulkily as she hobbled out into the beautiful spring day, looking at Rainbow Dash out of the side of her face. No, definitely sulkily. Time to fix this.

“And up we go!” Dash declared, hooking her dad around the shoulder elbow things, and beating her wings strongly to heave them both ponderously into the air. The muscles in her chest flared up in pain, and Rainbow Dash started to wonder if this was such a good idea, especially when her dad started struggling.

“Whahyouoing?!” the other pegasus squawked in shock. “Lemmegho!”

“Stop moving!” Dash shouted back, bobbing erratically a few body lengths above the ground, “I just wanna show you how awesome being a pegasus is!”

“A...wha? Hyu... flying?” her dad uttered in utter shock, going limp and staring up numbly at Rainbow Dash. Dash took that as her chance to ascend higher, every inch of altitude a struggle for her, and all worth it.

“Check it... out,” she said, as their house diminished below them. “This is what I saw coming here. Isn’t... that awesome?”

Dad’s only response was her own wings spreading out, smacking against Rainbow Dash’s blue belly. “OK I’m gonna put you down now,” Rainbow Dash said hurriedly, trying to get back down without sinking like a stone, and without her aching wings falling off. She succeeded, and her dad... mom... sister or whatever just crumpled onto her front lawn, into a dazed pile of green and golden pony.

“You shouldn’t try to fly yet,” Rainbow Dash explained. “I’ve actually been working on it all May and um... June, after I uh... ran away... again. I’m gonna get us a ride. My friend’s family’s been running a sort of pony training camp, and they’ll be able to set you up better than if you were just stuck in your house for... how long now?”

Her dad was staring at Rainbow Dash now with a sort of weirdly astonished expression. “Couple daysh,” the young mare said, looking away and not offering any more than that.

“Yeah, so... I’m gonna go call them on my phone, to get a ride for us,” Dash said bashfully, “Much as I’d like to fly you the whole way back, I’m kinda new at this too, and my uh... wings aren’t used to flying across town yet.”

“...alright,” her dad said cooly, trying to stand up on her hooves again. It was adorable really, like watching a newborn... pony get her legs under her. An adorable that didn’t belong anywhere near Rainbow Dash’s dad. He’d hate if she ever tried to imply that he was anything but tough... wouldn’t he? Rainbow Dash couldn’t recall a time where she had ever tried, but... it was obvious, right? Dads just didn’t... like that sort of thing, right?

Nov 13, 1394

Twilight is more wise than she admits. The resemblance of this phenomenon to the ancient Windigo plague is unmistakable. I am firmly convinced that the same power that saved our people then is the key to saving our people now. The Fire of Friendship. If I can piece together these ancient records... only fragments remain of course, this is a prediscordian era after all. But I sincerely think that if I can figure out just how they did it, it could lead to a solution to the problem we face, even now.

Princess Shimmer

Ditzy Do had to admit, one nice thing about being left alone at lunch is that it gave her a lot of time to write a letter. She wanted to tell him in person, but there was no way she was going to get permission to do it. She wasn’t his family, or even his friend. They wouldn’t allow her anywhere near him because they surely thought she was just some dumb, violent bully, and he did too. So she was writing him a letter instead. Surely they would let her write a letter to him, especially because of what she had to say to him. She wasn’t under any illusion he’d forgive her for what she did, but at least it would make him feel better, that there’s someone at school who doesn’t hate him for... for what he’s done.

It was a shock to Ditzy to realize that she didn’t hate him for what he had done. It wasn’t the sort of thing you were supposed to forgive! Getting a young girl pregnant, in her very first year of high school... Ditzy couldn’t even imagine what would bring him to do that. Sure she had been... curious about boys before, and she’d spent many lonely nights wishing she had... that. But she’d never get herself pregnant! And she was sixteen years old, so it was natural for her to start having those... thoughts sometimes. He was a Freshman, so wouldn’t that make him 14? Did he not know what he was doing?

She didn’t think it was possible to not know if you were doing that.

Yet any animosity she had for the boy had since faded. The shock of realizing she’d been so mad at him over nothing, it made her feel less mad at him in general. And the thought of what Dinky did after she hit him... Ditzy just couldn’t imagine Dinky as an uncaring monster, if he’d been hurt so badly by her that he... tried to kill the monster. She never thought it might actually be something he couldn’t control, that maybe there was a real person in there, who was trying to fix the problem too, but just had to sit and watch while he um... overpowered a girl, or whatever.

Besides, Ditzy had felt like her urges was controlling her, when she was at her most um... right before finishing. She realized in those moments that she would say yes, even if it got her pregnant, because she just... wanted to feel someone close to her, and really close to her. Was that what happened to him? He didn’t know and they both pushed it too far together, and then he couldn’t stop saying yes until it had happened?

Ditzy felt what she could probably call mild terror at her own hormones. She didn’t want to be pregnant, not in a million years, knowing she wasn’t ready for it, that it would not end well for her, and that giving birth was supposed to hurt. A lot! But as a teenage girl, Ditzy discovered that she was only one quiet evening with a back massager away from changing to wanting it so bad. When she did... that sort of thing, Ditzy got to where she didn’t even care if it hurt anymore.

Did meant he wasn’t a monster, either? Maybe Dinky didn’t want to impregnate girls all the time, only when he got really worked up, just like Ditzy Do but opposite. He was just a boy who at the worst possible time, felt an urge he couldn’t control.

Ditzy didn’t write all that. Half of her thoughts were on the danger of communicating with boys. One thing could lead to another, especially at age 16. That was like, the worst age to be if you were worried about that sort of thing. She had to have a lot of care and restraint in what she said, knowing that she was talking with a boy and how dangerous that could become. So she lifted her pen, closed one eye, and began to write.

Dear DInky,

You don’t know me. I’m just a sophomore at your school. My name is Ditzy Do, and I’m writing to apologize. I know what you’re going through, I think, maybe. You were just having fun, and let things go too far, and that’s okay. It’s not okay because what happened was a problem, but you’re okay, is what I mean. You’re still a good person, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything mean about you, besides this. Maybe if I had friends, I’d hear about how mean you were, but

Okay, she was going to have to throw that one out. She wasn’t trying to talk about her own problems. Getting a fresh sheet of paper, Ditzy tried again.

Dear Dinky,

I’m sorry for hitting you on the day before you did something bad. It was all a terrible misunderstanding, I think. I have been receiving letters from a secret admirer, you see. I know, crazy isn’t it? Little old me? But I started getting letters one day, every week. He said beautiful things about me, and it’s the nicest anyone has ever been to me before. But then one day he told me that you needed me. I’d heard about what you had done, making Diamond Tiara pregnant, and I thought you were the one who wrote those letters. I thought you were confessing! All it said was “Dinky needs you” and I thought you wrote it because you wanted me and I was next and

Another crumpled ball of paper landed next to her wastebasket, but Ditzy Do was determined, and this time she got it right.

Dear Dinky,

You don’t know me, but my name is Ditzy Do and I’m a sophomore at your school. I am writing to apologize. I’m the girl who hit you, before you were seen atop the roof. I’m sorry I hit you. I should have been mature and just told you how I felt. Believe it or not, I’ve been getting letters from a secret admirer for quite some time now. When I received one that said nothing but, “Dinky needs you,” I thought it was you who had been writing them, and you were telling me you were going to come after me, like I thought you did with Diamond Tiara.

I thought all these letters were insincere. Just you buttering me up so you could get me pregnant too. You didn’t write them though, because my secret admirer saw what happened, and told me in his next letter that he wasn’t Dinky. He was just trying to warn me that you needed me. So I wanted to tell you I’m sorry and I shouldn’t have hit you. It’s sad what happened to Diamond Tiara, but I think I understand why you, and she, did it. You didn’t go after Diamond Tiara. You were just having fun, and things got out of hand, I think. So, yeah.

Take care!

Ditzy Do

Now she just had to figure out how you get a letter to the hospital.

“Ditzy! It’s time for dinner!” came the voice of her mom from downstairs.

Sighing, Ditzy left her letter on her desk for now, but determined to get it to him in any way she could.

So it turns out you can just ask the mental hospital to deliver letters to patients! Who knew?

Dinky hadn’t felt better than he did right now, not since all this started happening, and maybe even before that. Now that he thought about it, that Ditzy girl really had been the last straw. It was probably just bad timing, but maybe his secret yearning did have something to do with it, wishing that his mother hadn’t left him at the orphanage. Ditzy Do wasn’t really his mother, but she was... important to him, for some reason. It was crazy since he hadn’t even met her, before! Maybe that other world was closer than people thought.

“Well, what’s it say? What’s it say?” the indefatigable Surprise uttered at the open letter in Dinky’s hands. Ditzy had apparantly left it with the front desk, which deemed it safe for Dinky to read, and now Dinky had read it. Both Surprise and... Flatter were very curious about it though, so Dinky told the boy accomodatingly,

“It says she’s sorry for hitting me. She was... one of the kids who were picking on me, I guess. Just came out of the blue and knocked me across the floor.” He continued to look at the letter in wonder, saying, “She’s... okay with me now, and the only reason she was mad was a big misunderstanding. It says here she was receiving letters from a secret admirer, and when he... I guess he tried to warn her that I was getting picked on, but she thought I was writing it and was just... bragging, I guess. Ditzy Do thought I wrote those letters in order to earn her affection, so I could... y’ know...”

Dinky made finger guns, closed one eye and clicked. Surprise winced, understanding immediately. Dinky added with some relief, “Well, at least there’s one person at school who doesn’t hate my guts.”

“Two,” Surprise pointed out.

“Two?” Dinky asked.

“Her secret admirer!” Surprise said, “He was looking out for you, too!”

“Oh, huh, I guess he was,” Dinky said, giving the letter another bemused look.

“Does she know who he is?” Surprise asked.

Dinky shook his head. “I don’t think so. She certainly didn’t say she did.”

“How did he know that you needed her?” Surprise asked even more curiously.

“Well, it wasn’t a secret I was getting pushed around,” Dinky said sullenly, “Or that I deserved it. I didn’t think so at the time, but I really did need help.”

“No Dinky,” Surprise whined insitently, taking the other boy’s shoulders in his hands, “How did he know that you needed her ? Did you even know her?”

“Not... really?” Dinky said looking back at surprise in confusion, “We never talked or anything. She’s an upperclassman, and...” He looked at Ditzy’s letter more critically. “And no one would have known that she was supposed to have anything to do with me, except perhaps... a girl I met, named Twilight Sparkle.”

“You think Ditzy’s secret admirer is a girl?!” Surprise squeaked in eager astonishment.

Dinky shook his head at that, saying seriously, “No, but she’s the only one I know who could have known to connect me and Ditzy together. Perhaps I should ask her if she’s got a moment to talk about this...”

“Well I’m not closed minded, and you know Flatter. She swings that way too sometimes,” Surprise said frankly, “It’s totally okay with us if Twilight like likes Ditzy.”

“It could be that,” Dinky admitted, “But something tells me that girl might have a different reason for sending love letters to Ditzy Do.”

In her balloon, Cherry Berry cowered beneath the inscrutable darkness that this pony was. Who was she? What was she?

“Hi, I’m Twilight Sparkle,” she said.

Berry gaped, and blurted out, “No you’re not!”

She then slapped her hooves over her mouth, pupils narrowing in fear as the being took a step... back? The being took a step back in shame, not forward in outrage, and again in Twilight Sparkle’s voice said, “Oh, sorry, you’re right.”

What was going on?

“I’m the other Twilight Sparkle,” it said. “You know, the one who’s stuck in dreams?”

Now that she knew what to look for, it was... possible to perceive the being, though it made Berry feel electrified to do so. The being was a... a pony, clearly. She had wings, and she had one of those unicorn horns. “You’re a...” Berry squinted at her, “A... pega...corn?”

“A what?” the pegacorn asked in confusion.

“She’s the dream princess,” the white unicorn insisted by her side. “I don’t actually... know what kind of pony you’d call that.”

“But that’s not important,” the orange filly said, buzzing up impatiently, “This is the real Twilight Sparkle... the one who wrote that journal!”

“Eh heh...” the princess said, lifting a hoof and... blushing? “I don’t suppose you could y’know... tell us what’s in it? I have this memory problem, see, and I... really could use something to jog my memory.”

“I... you wrote that?” Berry said, open mouthed, “You went through that?”

“I guess?” Princess Twilight replied. “I don’t really remember. It was a long time ago.”

“A-and you want to remember?” Berry asked weakly. “Because some of it is okay, but some of it is... horrifying! I—I don’t know if I can take much more of translating it. My friends, they— I— you... a lot of ponies... died.”

“Oh, I know ‘died’” Twilight said, rolling her eyes and waving a dismissive hoof, “That’s when they fall over and flop around, then hold a flower to their chest.”

“A–actually the flower is placed there post-mortem...” Berry replied uneasily, “But no I mean... ponies were in a lot of pain.”

There was a glimmer of understanding in the princess’s eyes, as she said evenly, “I know pain.”

“C’mon Ms. Berry!” Scootaloo pleaded with her. “You know what it’s like! The princess can’t even remember her friends anymore, and some of them might still be here! She needs to know who she is, and this journal might be her only hope!”

“But...” Berry said, feeling trapped in her own balloon’s basket by three eager, pleading, earnest fillies, especially the orange one. “Well, I guess, if it’s her journal? But a lot of it is terrible!”

“It’s okay,” the princess said eagerly. “I want to learn, even if it’s terrible. Did I have any friends?”

“You... yeah, you do. You are one of four princesses,” Berry said, looking up at her thoughtfully from where she was sprawled in the balloon basket, “And someone else who isn’t writing in the journal of the Princesses. There’s you, the principals, and um, does the name Sunset Shimmer ring a bell?”

“The other Twilight an’ Sunset are friends too?” Apple Bloom asked, in amazement.

“It does sound familiar...” Twilight said, staring off into space.

“They’re not friends, Apple Bloom,” Berry corrected her student. “They’re sisters!”

Rainbow Dash’s house still had a land line phone, which was currently in three major pieces. It looked like an angry filly had been stomping on it. Dash had her cell though, and it had a stylus, so she got ahold of someone to pick them up pretty easy. Soon, a couple of people arrived at their house to give them a ride, human people who Dash vaguely recalled were at the farm just to be with their ponifying relatives. Her dad didn’t want to face them, but Rainbow Dash half pushed, half goaded her into going along with it.

As Dash sat in the back seat next to her dad, he—er, she, sprawled in a miserable pile of pegasus, sprawling even more awkwardly than Rainbow Dash felt about their relationship. Yet... as miserable as she looked, her dad was upset and all, but not... jadedly so. He stared forward in a daze, as the world outside the car window passed by them. It was so weird; her dad was absolutely miserable about what happened to her, so utterly lost, and yet this was the most content Rainbow Dash could remember him ever being. It was like he was waking up from a long nightmare.

The effect was made all the more poignant by the fact that he was well... cute! Not that he—er—she was girly cute, but it was to Rainbow Dash like watching a younger, more shell shocked form of herself, in colors of green and gold. It made Rainbow Dash feel curiously... protective.

Her dad was aware of the strangeness of all this too, and he called Rainbow Dash on it when they arrived, seriously testing her patience. With ponies gamboling all over the ranch, Rainbow’s dad firmed her jaw and said stubbornly, “...I don’ wannha go ou’ zhere.”

“Dad? Come on,” Dash said looking back at him worriedly, “You see all the ponies out there? There’s nothing to be embarassed about.”

“don’ wan’ zhem to shee me liek zhis,” the young mare replied, furiously fighting back tears. “Not shposhha be like zhis.”

The humans who gave them a ride were helpful enough, but they weren’t anyone Rainbow Dash knew. They looked helplessly in the car door, as the little mare her dad had become curled herself more protectively against the back seat.

Rainbow Dash sighed, and settled next to him. Her. Whatever. “You don’t have to get out right away,” she said comfortingly, “I’ll stay with you as long as you need.”

“Why?!” her dad shot back, her head twisting around to stare at Rainbow Dash in anger and confusion. “Why h’you doing zhis? You shoul’ yelling ah me anh’ being shupi...shupi theenasher an’ now you gonna ghrow up? You shink you’re my mom now? Turnin’ intho a poyy mae’ your ballsh drop?!”

Her dad lost her fury abruptly, glancing aside before adding mutedly, “Or howe’er you shay zhat... for girlsh.”

“Actually, they kinda did,” Rainbow Dash replied, somewhat in surprise. She hadn’t thought much about herself yet, but... “My counterpart is some shorta pony hero, an’ she’s full grown, Twilight Sparkle tells me. So I guess I am more mature? I don’t feel any different, but... this pony curse or whatever has been really messing with our ages. Some of us get older, and some get younger. Like you. You’re... probably almost as old as I am? I think you might be a little... uh, younger...”

Dash shook her head apologetically, saying, “Not that I don’t totally respect you. I just um... want you to know I’m here for you.”

“Shoul’n’ be here for me,” came the grumble.

“Oh no.” Dash said, getting good and comfortable there on that faded car seat. “I already let you down once, when you needed my help, and I’m not gonna leave you hanging like that ever again.”

Her dad didn’t protest at first, just sitting there unnaturally quietly. But when she spoke, it was not in anger, but confusion. “When?”

Rainbow Dash started to answer, but had to stop because, “When I uh... ran out to turn into a pony?” she tried impotently.

“Never hlet me down, becaush alwaysh dishapoinmen’” her dad drawled, turning her yellow maned head away from Rainbow Dash in disconcerted disdain.

“No, thish’s really bugging me now,” Rainbow Dash said, “It was when I uh... shomething big. Your uh... flight school?”

Her dad turned to look at her again.

“You jus’ wan’ me ta talg hwhile I can’ say anyzing,” her dad concluded in an unamused tone. “But hyou were jush a ba’e. Tha’ one was not your faul’.”

Rainbow Dash really wanted to thank him. She really did, so she did.

Rainbow Dash was not a complicated girl.

“Thanks, dad,” she said quietly, “I was just thinking I know a friend who knows the real —I mean, the other me. She’s gotta know you too. We hate each other! The other me had to have mentioned you at least once. I bet Twilight can tell you how old you are. She said I’m 29, can you believe it?”

Dad raised an eyebrow, saying, “No’ in zhe sligh’est”

“Plus she might know why I keep getting this feeling like I majorly let you down,” Dash added. “I never really thought about it until this year, but it’s bugging me.”

“Goo’ for you,” he said, curling up again.

Rainbow Dash groaned, saying, “Come on, dad you’re being stupid. This isn’t even your car. You gotta come out some time, and the sooner the better!”

Her dad said nothing.

“I get that you want to tough it out and get past this... whatever it is that happened to you,” Rainbow Dash said in exasperation. “I do too! But you’re going about it in the wrong way. Those ponies—people out there aren’t your enemy. They don’t expect you to be some untouchable badass, or—or some delicate little girl. I don’ know what you think people’ll see with you like this, but nobody wants you to be anything besides what you already are. So come out here, and... and deal with it, and I promise things’ll get better.”

“So I shoul’ jus’oo wha’ever you shay,” her dad said sarcastically, lifting her head again, “I don’ know whas goo for me, huh? You jus’ kinap me from my owhn housh jus’ becaush I... I don’ know any beher?”

“Look I’m not—” Dash facehooved, “Okay maybe I am saying it, and maybe it is for your own good, but—”

“I am my own man!” her dad shouted. “Sop threating me liek shome lil kid!”

“Then stop acting like one!” Rainbow Dash retorted angrily.

Her dad just glared at her, scrunching up her muzzle furiously, and refused to budge.

“Fine, we’ll do zhis the hard way,” Rainbow Dash growled at last, and she... she didn’t have hands, okay? So there just wasn’t any less humiliating way to do this. She bit down on the hair of her dad’s new golden tail, and backed out of the car. Her dad gave an undignified squawk, but wasn’t coordinated enough to hold onto anything, and with her tail sort of... slung over Dash’s shoulder, still in the grip of those strong pony teeth, Rainbow Dash trotted forward, carting her dad turned bratty kid sister off toward where Sunset’s trailer would be, and hopefully Twilight Sparkle.

As luck would have it, it was that skinny purple girl who answered the door. The one who knew the other her. Rainbow Dash immediately said, “Hey mh dhh th—”

Then she spat out her dad’s tail, and said, “My dad turned into a pony too, and she looksh familiar or something, so I want to know if other-me knew other-him—I mean—other-her. I don’t know who she’s sh’pposed to be. She’s way too young and too uh, not male, to be my counterpart’s dad in your world, so who is she? Do I know her?”

“The... pony you just dragged here by the tail?” Twilight Sparkle queried woozily. She didn’t look so good; it was clear from the frazzled hair that she’d been losing sleep, and there was this sort of haunted panic in her eyes, like when the horror you want to escape is just the truth. “Who’s now refusing to look at us, and attempting to cross her arms?”

“...we’re working out some personal issues,” Rainbow Dash said testily. “I just wanna know if you know her and how old she is, and... stuff.”

“Well, what’s her name?” Twilight asked innocently, then grimaced, turning to Dash’s dad and asking, “Sorry I mean, what’s your name?”

That earned her a glare from Dash’s dad, and a reedy, slurred soprano sounding as vicious as a chipmunk could possibly be, saying “I can’ even shay my name anhymore.”

“Sorry, sorry! I’m a little distracted at the moment,” Twilight replied, squeezing her forehead in the fingers of a hand for some reason. Then she turned and re-asked Rainbow Dash in a tight whisper, “What is her name? She does look familiar, but I can’t quite place her. And did you say she was your dad? ”

Disregarding Twilight’s surprise, Rainbow Dash said, “Yeah. And my dad’s name is Lightning Dust. I dunno what a girl version of that name would be.”

“Lightning Dust?” Twilight asked, and whatever reaction Rainbow Dash could have expected, it would not have been for Twilight to stare at the fallen and newly minted mare with her eyes bugging out it surprise, pointing and shouting in outrage, “You almost got me killed!”

Rainbow Dash was rolling on the ground with laughter. Her wings couldn’t even stop it. “Yeah!” she crowed when she could breathe, “That is so totally my dad!”

“But wait, I haven’t even got to the part about the tornado!” Twilight whined. Rainbow Dash was going to die here, wasn’t she.

Author's Note

Some slowdown may be expected.

I'm guessing that this is more related to what, if, importantly, anything, was in this world before the time loop. - Reese

He's Lightning Dust, right? :pinkiecrazy: - Alkarasu

Girl Talk

There was a knock at the door.

Twilight jerked up from where she was slumped over on the desk, in the portable building she and Sunset were living in. Had she fallen asleep? Wait, did she sleep last night? Twilight woke up face to the desk, so she could only conclude that no, she had not gotten herself to bed last night! There was another knock.

Twilight got up, taking care to note she was still fully clothed, then answered the door.

“Mail’s here,” said a rather harried looking Granny Smith, with a whole armful of mail.

“You need any help with that?” Twilight asked, wincing at Granny’s load.

“You betcher,” Granny replied too grumpily for summer. “The principal cain’t git that school opened up for the ponies fast enough. There’s just too many of ‘em, what don’t know how to walk and talk yet!”

“Oh, well, that’s true,” Twilight admitted, “But I meant specifically the mail.”

“Already got three people deliverin’ it!” Granny replied hotly. “Ponies cain’t not barely write with their mouths, but everyone else wants to send ‘em letters! And as for you, I gotcha a special one.”

Granny handed Twilight a lone, thin letter. Utterly unremarkable except for the fact that the return address was Canterlot General Hospital. “It’s probably just... asking for more advice on treating ponies,” Twilight said uneasily, even though she knew full well that the hospital had always called her about that on the portable telephone before.

“Well, don’t worry yourself too much missy,” Granny said, with a soft, sympathetic look Twilight’s way. “We’re all strugglin’ in this, and it’s okay if you cain’t always hold up your end of the bargain. Things’ll be better once this is all over.”

“I... yeah, you’re right,” Twilight said disconsolately. She still hadn’t told them, about what she was reading in that diary. About Anathema, and its wanton slaughter, the terrible fate of those afflicted. About why everyone was changing into a pony, and somewhere in those pages was the very origin of humanity. Twilight wasn’t sure things would be better; it was all she could do to soften the blow at this point. People had been taking this really well, but... panic was on the horizon, and the city was running out of resources to keep track of everyone.

Twilight opened the letter and started reading, only for her eyebrow to go up at who was writing to her. The contents of the letter were... strange to say the least.

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

This is Dinky. I’m still recovering from when I got hurt a few weeks ago. You came to me once, to tell me what kind of pony I would become, which I’ve been trying to come to terms with, but there was something else you told me, that I would like to talk with you about. What you told me was that in your world, a girl named Ditzy Do was my mother, and while that would be physically impossible for her in my world, I think we are connected somehow.

I’m writing to tell you that my world’s Ditzy Do has been recieving love letters from a secret admirer. One of the letters told her “Dinky needs you,” right before my unfortunate incident. You’re the only one I know who has made any connection between her and me. Do you like Ditzy? It’s fine if you do, but I sort of accidentally told her about you being her secret admirer. Ditzy was going to ask you about this directly, but I don’t think she is very good at approaching people.

Twilight looked up at that, recalling one strange incident recently in which she emerged from the ancient library, having finished translating one of the books on botanical cuisine, because she didn’t want to face another horror story in that diary. She’d been getting ready to hop on the bus, when she noticed that googly eyed grey girl standing there right in beside her. A blush crept onto Ditzy’s face, as Twilight made eye contact (singular), and Ditzy opened her mouth as if to speak, but only a nervous laugh escaped her. Ditzy backed away then, shortly running away across the courtyard. Twilight never knew what to make of that, until now.

“This better be Sunset’s idea of a joke,” Twilight grumbled worriedly, looking back to the letter.

Please let her down gently if you aren’t interested in her. I don’t think she has any friends, so she might be in a very fragile situation. She gave me all her letters, as if I could make sense of them, but I think it’s also that I’m the first person who’s given her attention in a long time. She’s actually been visiting me even more than Diamond Tiara!

Best of luck, and sorry for the trouble with Diamond.

Dinky Do

Twilight hadn’t even told Sunset Shimmer about Ditzy’s daughter back home. It just didn’t seem important. And Twilight certainly hadn’t been writing any letters herself. Could this be another Equestrian from her own world, who wasn’t nullified many centuries ago? But the last incident before Sunset had happened centuries ago! How would any of them know about a modern Equestrian family, like Dinky and Ditzy Do?

It all added up to one thing. Somepony had come through the mirror recently, somepony familiar with Ponyville town culture, and somepony who hadn’t yet made contact with Twilight Sparkle. It was the only conceivable explanation.

She basically had to get ahold of these letters.

Twilight wasn’t sure how to do it, though. With her responsibilities over translating what could be recovered from the library, and acting as an informal mediator between her world and this one, she didn’t have much time to spare. Plus she’d never visited a mental hospital before, and the prospect was actually kind of freaky. Twilight Sparkle couldn’t pass this up though, just because she was a little nervous about crazy ponies! People. Whatever.

While Twilight sat at her desk, lay her chin in her hands and stewed, three blurs of yellow, white, and orange streaked by outside.

“It’s over! It’s over!” Apple Bloom cheered deliriously.

“I think I flunked everything and I don’t even care!” Scootaloo shouted alongside her.

“I think I didn’t flunk everything, and I don’t even care!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed as the three of them charged straight out of the car that brought them into the bright, sunny summer day. While Apple Bloom took off across the meadow, Scootaloo took to the sky, and surprisingly didn’t try to outrace the little yellow earth pony, but just turned cartwheels up there in the air. Sweetie Belle trotted in circles looking up at Scootaloo, while Apple Bloom shot across the meadow.

There were many ponies out here, like a bouquet of giant pony shaped flowers all over the meadow. There were many ponies everywhere, but these ponies saw the three and several recognized them, with exclamations of, “Apple Bloom!” and “They’re back!” and, “Wow, look at her go,” and “Hey Shcooaloo, wash how high I can fly!” The more landbound ones clustered around Sweetie Belle asking for news, and she happily told them,

“It’s over! School is officially over, and we can be here all the time now!”

Her smile kind of froze then, and her face dawned with horror, as everypony around her all began asking questions at once.

Summer was officially here, and it wasn’t looking good for the Cutie Major Crusaders. Any thoughts of a summer of peace and leisure were but distant pipe dreams. With over a thousand ponies on the farm, and dozens more showing up every day barely able to walk and talk, there was just too much work to do, to spend a lot of time playing around. The Crusaders quickly found themselves overwhelmed, as it seemed that school had actually been sheltering them from the brunt of it, but soon as finals ended, it seemed like everyone had a problem for them that absolutely needed to be solved. Sometimes, it was a problem that actually did!

Like even Sweetie Belle found herself conscripted into aiding the other unicorns, despite her frustrating inability to form a spark. Apparently a lot of what went into making unicorn magic was mathematical, with an actual geometry in the horn that could be exploited to produce cool effects. Unfortunately while there were plenty of people better than Sweetie Belle at math... well, quite a few at least, she still was the first one to study magic, and Twilight and Sunset were so busy with their ancient artifacts, it was nearly impossible to get a private magic lession with them.

Unfortunately that meant she had to spend a lot of time watching other ponies use magic.

“Alright,” she said wearily to the unicorn standing before her. A dark grey haired pony with a greyish blue coat of fur, Neon Lights was one of the rarest of the rare: a woman who transformed into a unicorn stallion. She/he found magic a thankful diversion from his other horn. Sweetie Belle was honestly having a harder time with keeping these pronouns correct than anything else regarding the surprisingly upbeat man... girl... stallion.

“So one more time,” Sweetie said, “Levitate this protractor, and slide the bevel around to where you feel the most resistance.”

The protractor reliably slid to the exact same angle as the slope of his horn. “Well that’s not it,” Sweetie said in puzzlement. “I don’t know why your levitation would be flaking out. The angle of influence is what was supposed to make it stable, but I’m pretty sure the complement isn’t too obtuse. I don’t really know how to do it right, because it’s in three dimensions and I only studied two. Or, three... and a half I think?

“Hey don’ ask me. I’m a flipping waitress,” he said with a downturned, discouraged slump, “I never even go’ past Algebra. All I wanna do is get sho I can lift stuff when walking aroun’, so I don’ have to carry every flipping thing in my mouth.”

“Try levitating the protractor again, and move it a foot to the right first,” a new voice piped up.

“Oh, Elias, thank goodness, ” Sweetie Belle said, turning to the other filly, a pale blue unicorn with a bright purple mane. “I need you to do your integration thing.”

“Integration thing?” Neon Lights asked the two curiously. The little blue and purple unicorn filly turned towards him and looked like she was going to say something, but the moment their eyes met, Elias blushed and looked away. If Sweetie Belle hadn’t been snooping on Elias’s dreams, she might even be confused what was going on.

Instead, Sweetie stepped in front of Elias and gave Neon a steady look of soft green, saying, “The magical potential of an energy field is proportional to the integral of the wave function. But I’m only a Freshman so I barely know what a wave function is. I don’t know why people keep asking me for help. I’m studying as fast as I can, but I mean...”

Sweetie Belle paused, looking down at Elias, who still silent, was actually crouching low and trembling in her anxiety.

“Calm down, Elias,” Sweetie Belle whispered. “He just wants to know why he keeps dropping things. He’s not even a real guy.”

“I’m fine Sweetie,” Elias said unconvincingly, unable to look at the larger male unicorn, “I just—”

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?” Neon whined, hovering over them with an offended look.

“Elias just isn’t used to being a girl, still,” Sweetie Belle told Neon Lights, still standing in between them protectively “You know the feeling, right?” she said searchingly.

“Oh, yeah, uh,” Neon stammered, backing up a tic, “I uh, don’t know how much help I can be though. Being a girl just sucks.”

“Oh, so you used to be a...” Elias said, looking up at Neon with wide, purple eyes. A sigh of relief almost escaped Sweetie Belle, as she was worried the filly wouldn’t be able to put even two words togther. She cautiously moved aside so the two could talk to each other directly.

The stallion didn’t seem to pick up on the knifelike tension in the air, but... he sure seemed relaxed, so maybe that’d rub off on her? “It is serioushly overrated,” he replied with a roll of his eyes. “So don’ ask me for advice on girly shtuff. I was terrible at being a girl. All I want is my horn working. This schanging gender stuff doesn’t bother me.”

“Well, it bothers me,” Elias said, looking away somewhat resentfully.

“Do ya wanna schange back?” Neon asked, with a sympathetic wince.

“Ye—” Elias said, looking back toward Neon, and then a look of surprise crossed her face.

“I... guess?” she said less certainly than she thought she would. “If I could, I suppose I would? What I really want is to stop being so shy around... guy ponies.”

“You’re doing pretty good with me,” Neon said with a sloppy smile that brought a blush to Elias’s face.

“W-w-w-well it’s because you used to be a girl,” Elias stuttered, looking away again. “So you know how I... feel.”

“Frankly Elias,” Sweetie Belle announced gruffly, “I don’t think I know how you feel, and I’ve been a girl my whole life!”

“We all have our weird experienshes here,” Neon said, “And mine’s a flaky horn. So could we maybe worry about that a little? I’d leave ya alone, but it almost sounded like you were onto something with the integral thingy.”

“Sure, it’s um... lift the protractor in your horn field,” Elias suggested. Neon did as she instructed, and she said, “Now start moving it to the right. Now up a little bit. Bit more forward. There, that’ll be the—” The blue light surrounding the protractor flickered and died, and it went clattering to the floor.

“Aw, man!” Neon said, snorting at the stubbornly quiescent protractor.

“No that’s what I expected,” Elias said. “You have a node forming at a zenith of 36 and an azimuth of... you have a dead zone in your magical field. It probably oscillates in an elliptical orbit, but what you need to do is adjust the frequency of your horn field, until those points of turbulence smooth out.”

“And how do I do that? ” Neon asked.

“Ooh, I know this!” Sweetie spoke up. “You need to imagine like you’re pulling a string within your horn up into your head. Once you find the right frequency for your horn’s angle, you should stop having any uh... dead spots!”

“Yeah, that’s right!” Elias said with a bright smile at Sweetie Belle. “Go ahead, try it,” she urged Neon. “It helps to move something in a parabolic arc while you do, so try levitating that again.”

When Neon fixed his shit and delightedly made the measuring device fly around in a figure eight, Elias laughed out loud. “Good job, you did it! That’s so cool!” she cheered happily. While the blue filly clapped her hooves and egged Neon Lights on, Sweetie looked at Elias more than the stallion. Sweetie Belle wanted Elias to see this part of herself, but was afraid to say something to avoid ruining the moment. It’s just that Elias was such a nice um... girl, when she wasn’t always trying to second guess her girlhood.

44 more ponies woke up the next day, completely at a loss of how to walk on four hooves, just like every other day. Apple Bloom saw the ponies she’d helped, in turn help whip the new ones into shape pretty easily, but it was still a lot of ponies to deal with. Sweetie Belle stuck with the mental unicorny/talky aspects of acclimatization, and Scootaloo spent her time giving lessons to flyers, so the three of them actually had very little time to play together, even though it was summer vacation.

The three came to realize with some trepidation, that this would only get worse, all the way up until the first day of school next year. And then they’d all be ponies. What would happen then? Was anything really going to change at all? Despite all the things for them to be worried about in this strange situation, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo found the most worrisome fear, that when it was over, they’d be pushed right back into the daily grind of high school.

Twilight Sparkle was... well, she was at the asylum for purposes of helping patients adjust to being ponies, but the pony she wanted to speak with actually wasn’t a pony at all. Dinky remained a human, at least for now. She found him together with another blonde boy, and a lady with bountiful curly hair of white and purple swirls, doing laps around a... chess board.

There was a minder there looking as weirded out as Twilight felt, as the three marched in tight squares, the older lady calling out marching orders... sort of. “7 8 9! so very fine! 7 8 9! stay in a line!” she commanded, seeming pleased as punch every time the other two turned to a different side of the chessboard.

They marched around a chessboard on which a game couldn’t possibly be played. The white chess pieces were scattered on their sides, rather than placed on the board. The black ones were all gathered up on the board in a small disorganized pile. Twilight didn’t like it.

“Is this... okay?” she whispered to the attendant uneasily.

He blinked, looking at her, and her guest badge, and whispered back, “This’s actually the most coherent ol’ Screwball has been here in a while. That kid’s got a touch, I say.”

Twilight stared at the purple lady with worry, for a different reason now.

“Did you say...” she asked hesitantly, “Screwball? That, er, that woman’s actual name wouldn’t be Diamond Dazzle, would it?”

“Why,” he asked, glancing at Twilight, “You come to visit her?”

Twilight shook her head. “No,” she said, “It’s just... I have a... friend who I thought was an orphan, and...”

“Ey, hold it,” the guy said, suddenly getting in Twilight’s face. “You gotta remember you signed a non-disclosure agreement. Unless there’s danger to life and limb, you could get in a lot of trouble for blabbing out a certain patient’s private life. She’s got family, you hear? It’s nobody’s business, and the last thing we want is to ruin Diamond—to ruin the life of a certain someone. Telling people they’re crazy is a bad idea, okay?”

“Bubble bath for breakfast is a crazy bad idea,” the white and purple haired lady commented gravely, standing together in the huddle with Twilight and the tweed shirted minder, who both about leapt out of their skin at her sudden closeness. “But don’t worry,” Screwball said soothingly, “I know which door to go through.”

“Izzit door number 1?” the minder asked disgustedly, returning his hat to his head.

“It’s door number 1!” she announced joyously, “The medicine is behind the table tongue. Trust me, I know these things!”

“Hey, um,” a quiet boy’s voice came behind her, “Your queen got knocked over again.”

“Oh no!” the lady exclaimed, unfocused purple eyes widening in alarm. She spun around and ran past the boy over to the chess board shouting, “Don’t worry Bubbles! Mommy’s almost got this game beat!”

“Sorry about that,” the lavender boy named Dinky said, while the pink lady retreated to er... roll on top of the chessboard, giggling, “I assume you’re here about the letters.”

“As a matter of fact, I—” Twilight glanced at the minder, “Am here to consult with the staff regarding their pony patients, after a simple presentation, but could I look at the letters, while I’m here?”

“Sure thing,” Dinky said happily, then glanced at the minder adding, “Um... hold on, let me get Ditzy.”

“Could you meet me in the group room?” Twilight said, before Dinky scurried off. “I’ll be setting up in there for a while.”

Several minutes later, Dinky and a familiar grey girl with blonde hair and mismatched golden eyes came walking into the group room, Dinky with a handful of letters, and the girl with a handful of anxieties.

“Ah! Excellent!” Twilight chirped, looking up from fiddling with the projector inserted in the desk she sat up on, there at the back of the room. “Are those the letters?”

Dinky nodded, looking down at them.

“Thank you, Dinky,” Twilight said with a smile that she moved to the girl, “And you must be Ditzy Do?”

The girl’s mouth dropped open with genuine surprise as she stammered out, “Uh, ah, yea, that’s me. You didn’t—write the letters, did you?”

“No, and I totally understand why you were reacting that way towards me,” Twilight replied soothingly, “I was just as silly and tongue-tied with my first crush on a stallion.”

Ditzy shut her mouth, and adopted a curious twitch in her eyelid.

“Could we focus on the letters?” Dinky said, uneasily, “And less on the whole... being a horse thing?”

While Ditzy’s mind went into strange territories she had never before once contemplated... or something, Twilight nodded and said to them, “Thank you for letting me look at them. I’m hard pressed to find any leads at all into the nature of this crisis. I think we’re finally putting the pieces together, but I need all the help I can get. You said there was something strange about the letters?”

“Well, other than that they’re all only a few sentences long, um...” Dinky fiddled through them, handing Twilight a letter. “Some of them really don’t seem like... they exactly match up with reality.”

“Oh? Like what?” Twilight said, looking at the letter.

I had no idea you were with Brad. You care for him? Perhaps I should just fade into the shadows.

“Oh, that’s sad,” Twilight said, wishing she had ears to lower. “I–I mean—” she stuttered, looking at Ditzy, “If you’re with another boy that’s okay; it’s fine. You have every right to decide who’s special to you.”

That didn’t stop Ditzy’s blush from deepening, and she looked away.

“What’s wrong?” Twilight said, desperate to console the girl.

Ditzy mumbled something too quiet to hear, and wincing inwardly, Twilight just had to say,

“Didn’t catch that, sorry.”

Ditzy said shyly, but more loudly, “Brad doesn’t even know who I am.”

“But your secret admirer thinks he does?” Twilight asked confusedly. Ditzy nodded mutely.

“The last letter is even weirder,” Dinky said in a more intrigued tone, “It says he ate her cookies, but she never even baked any.”

This week you were so clever, I thought the world of you! The cookies are tastier than I imagined.

Twilight looked at it in puzzlement, saying, “I thought you said your secret admirer hadn’t confessed.”

“He hasn’t! ” Ditzy blurted out anxiously.

“Are you sure he’s writing letters to you?” Twilight asked.

Ditzy frowned at that, saying a little grumpily, “Yes, he even said my name once!”

More than all the world, I want you to be happy, Ditzy Do. Five fingers salute your courage.

“Salute your courage? ” Twilight said skeptically. “Wait, was this the fifth letter you received?”

“I guess so?” Ditzy said, “They don’t have a date on them, but I can remember the order I think.”

“Please do,” Twilight said, folding her fingers in front of her mouth. “Something’s bugging me about these that I want to check.”

After some time, the grey girl handed Twilight a sorted stack of letters, and Twilight looked through them.

•

Year two sophomore here. One who thinks you adorable, and loves seeing you just as you are.

•

In time, I want to confess to you. Two of us would be so perfect together.

•

Others are loop in the head to ignore you. Three things special about you: golden eyes, cheerful smile, big heart.

•

When I go outside, I want to go riding with you. Four legs and you’d be my cute little pony.

•

More than all the world, I want you to be happy, Ditzy Do. Five fingers salute your courage.

•

Our love is not an illusion. Six angels could not call me away from you.

•

Imagine if we rode together on ponies. Seven and so on commands for horses, did you know?

•

My love for you is so very real. I hope I can prove it by speaking to you for the first time.

•

What kind of cad is one such as I? Watching you from the shadows, afraid you won’t be the angel I see.

•

I had no idea you were with Brad. You care for him? Perhaps I should just fade into the shadows.

•

I don’t know what our future holds. One thing is for sure, I’m totally sweet for you.

•

When I saw you kiss that boy, I thought I lost you, but now that he snubs you, maybe I stand a chance.

•

Oh for the love of—I tried to leave you, but I’m stuck with these heartfelt feelings for you.

•

Sorry for last week. I never know what to write. When I go outside, maybe I can find inspiration.

•

I should have confessed to you by now, but hopefully love can surpass this barrier. We were meant for each other, you and I.

•

I’m working up the courage every single day. You won’t have to hold out much longer.

•

This week you were so clever, I thought the world of you! The cookies are tastier than I imagined.

•

Dinky needs you.

•

I’m not Dinky, you ninny!

Twilight only peered at them a short while before murmuring, “Hm...? Oh, huh. Interesting.”

“What is it?” Dinky asked curiously.

“The first seven letters all have the letter’s number starting the second sentence,” Twilight said. “See? ‘Five fingers’ on the fifth letter?”

“Do you know what is a five finger salute?” Ditzy asked confusedly. “I could never figure that one out.”

“I think these messages are in some sort of code,” Twilight said, “It might just be to indicate that it’s the fifth love letter, and something about it... hmm...”

She looked through the letters again, muttering quietly to herself.

“Wh—” Dinky said, right as Twilight shouted,

“Aha!”

The golden-eyed kids both blinked.

“Look at message number 3,” Twilight said, holding it up and pointing for them, “Others are loop in the head to ignore you.”

“Yeah, loopy,” Ditzy said with a smile, “He’s not always the best speller.”

“No, he is,” Twilight replied, pointing to the letter again. “Which word in this letter is the word ‘loop’?”

“The... third,” Dinky said, leaning forward to look closer at the letters laid out in order on the table.

“It’s a simple code,” Twilight explained eagerly, “Take the first word from the first letter, the second from the second, and so on, and they form a secret message!”

“What message is it?” Ditzy asked in an engrossed tone.

Both looked toward Twilight eagerly, as she flipped through the letters again, saying the words, “year time loop outside world illusion ponies real I care for you stuck outside barrier longer than”

“...well?” Ditzy asked with an expectant grin, “What’s the secret message?”

Twilight blinked, looking at the two of them, saying, “Year time loop—oh.”

“Right,” Twilight grumbled disgustedly, glaring at nothing in particular.

“What’s wrong?” Dinky asked, puzzled. “Something you can’t tell us?”

“Yes, literally yes,” Twilight said with a sigh. “I’m afraid these letters are a dead end. I clearly found no secret message in them.”

“Yes, that’s what you said, right?” Dinky replied unsurely. “They’re just some silly love letters, but from who?”

“That, I’d really like to know,” Twilight said darkly.

“Hi!” said the white blonde boy from earlier, startling the darkly glowering Twilight so much that she flailed right off the desk, landing hard on the floor.

He continued in rapidfire alarm, “Oh no, I’m so sorry! It’s just Firey saw you and said you were Dinky’s friend and I thought that meant you might be okay to say hi to even though you’re a big important guest speaker and I’m sorry I always—” until Twilight held up a hand from her splayed out position on the floor.

“No problem!” she yelped, picking herself up with his assist, and brushing herself off, “I’m fine. It’s no problem, uh...” She looked at him questioningly.

“I’m the Dizzitron!” the boy announced excitedly, “But you can call me Surprise!”

Oh no.

Jan 12, 1395

No events have occured as of late. It seems too quiet. Ponies all around the kingdom are bunkered down and dealing with their own internal cases of Anathema. Our natural resistance seems to be our only saving grace. The surviving Wonderbolt is in stable condition, thanks to the brilliant physicians of Canterlot, and of course our dear Princess Twilight. Stable physically perhaps, but mentally... the nightmares she faces are beyond compare. If only we had gotten to her, before... but this is not a record of our failures, but a diary of our hopes for the future.

There have never been this many princesses in the world, and with two to bring the day and night, that leaves two to find a solution to this damnable problem. Surely they can find one. I only wish they were more experienced. Though Twilight is swift as a swallow to learn what I know, she is too inexperienced to watch over the dreams of ponies, especially in these troubled times. Would that I had a moment to... but even this journal must fall short. A princess’s duties only grow heavier as her kingdom comes at risk.

Princess Luna

“It’s funny,” Professor Berry told the dream princess, “You aren’t the only one of your sisters with memory loss. Vice Principal Luna and Principal Celestia are both princesses in this journal, and they have nothing but good to say about you.”

“Uh huh?” Princess Twilight asked, enraptured along with Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, who sat with Cherry on the carpet in a dream version of her apartment flat.

“The difference is they have memories instead, ” Berry said in an intrigued tone, “Whereas you have just... nothing.”

“I have some things,” Twilight said, hurt by the implications of that. “It’s just been so long!”

“Well you know, the forensics guys were saying that the fading in the ink and the dust accumulation were between 40 and 50 years of aging,” Berry said, “And that was in the time stopped room, where one year was like a hundred!”

“Okay,” the princess said awkwardly. There was a pause.

“Tell me more about Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom,” Princess Twilight said hopefully.

“There actually aren’t many entries matching them,” Berry replied, “Are you sure you don’t remember the names Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow Dash?”

“They sound familiar, but it’s been a while, so...” Twilight inwardly cringed, feeling guilty for not even remembering what marks went with those names.

“Well, these three remember them,” Cherry said a bit smugly, gesturing a hoof at the fillies sitting beside them, “See, your sister Sunset made friends with them, and introduced you. But Apple Bloom had—has a big sister called Applejack—”

“I’m related to Rainbow Dash?! ” Scootaloo asked, buzzing up giddily into the air.

“Well—yes, I guess?” Berry replied in confusion, “Sunset left an entry saying how she was impressed Rainbow Dash wanted Scootaloo as a sister, considering that she—er—you couldn’t fly.”

“I couldn’t?” Scootaloo asked, wide-eyed.

“She said Rainbow Dash was working with getting you flying, and doing that made her an incredibly dedicated friend to all,” Berry said, rolling her eyes. “The journal’s Sunset was a bit of an exaggerator though, so I think it just meant Princess Sunset thought really highly of Rainbow Dash.”

“Rainbow Dash deserves it,” Scootaloo said confidently, settling to the ground again. “Even if this time she learned to fly after I did.”

“What about me?” Sweetie Belle asked, leaning forward eagerly.

Rubbing a bright pink hoof under her chin, Cherry said, “Nothing so dramatic. But Twilight did once say how much she wished she and Sunset could be as good of sisters as you and Rarity. Which was silly since Sunset and Twilight seem to get along great, in the journal at least. So I guess you two were extra specially good sisters.”

“And still are,” Sweetie replied smugly, tilting her head with what she thought was graceful pride.

“So what did the journal say about our sisters?” Apple Bloom asked, “An’ Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie ah guess. What kinda friends were they to th’ princesses?”

“Oh, let me tell you about one of the entries Twilight left about an adventure between her and Fluttershy...” Cherry responded eagerly.

It was a good dream.

Dinky was extremely confused. First Twilight just ignored the fact that the mysterious letters predicted that Ditzy and he were connected, and now she stared silently at Dinky’s new friend as if she’d seen a ghost. No, it was as if Twilight was seeing a ghost, right now, right in front of her. Could she see Surprise’s friends?

“Uh... sorry?” Surprise said uncertainly, “You didn’t hit your head did you?” He gasped, “Oh no, you did! Now I—”

“I’m fine!” Twilight barked loudly. She looked around frantically a moment, before saying more evenly with an unsteady smile, “I’m... fine. So you’re... Surprise, huh?”

“Yup, and this is Madame Fire,” Surprise said, gesturing to the air to his right. “She was really curious about you, because you looked important, and kinda familiar.”

“Madame... Fire?” Twilight asked weakly.

“Yep, and Captain Clipper,” Surprise said seriously, “He thinks you’re important, and it’s not even pie related!”

“Pie?” Twilight squeaked.

“Jeez, she’s even less talkative than Slowpoke,” Surprise said critically to thin air on his left. “Why do you ponies all think she’s so special?”

“Ponies?” Twilight barely audiblated.

“What about ponies?” Surprise replied abruptly, blushing heavily like a cat with a canary, “I mean people, come on, because ponies haha who ever heard of talking pony people eheheh...”

“Don’t you have television privileges?” Dinky asked Surprise thoughtfully.

“Yeah,” he said distractedly, “And boy those talking pony people have been all over the news lately oh my GOSH it’s true!” his purple eyes went wide, “It was true all along! Captain Clipper, you’re a pony!” Smiling from ear to ear, he then wrapped Captain Clipper up in a bear hug. Which is to say, Surprise wrapped his arms around empty air and went hurtling forward, face-first on the ground.

“I’m... okay,” he coughed unconvincingly.

“Alright, what are you all doing in here making such a racket?” a woman in a nurse’s uniform said, striding in the room, “The presentation doesn’t start until the end of day hour. You’re not giving the miss Twilight here any trouble, are ya?”

“No trouble!” Twilight declared, with a tight lipped smile, “They were just... helping me set up. No problems here, whatsoever!”

“You’re not touchin’ any of the equipment, are ya?” the minder said, giving Surprise the evil eye. “An’ not any of your friends neither?”

“Please, my friends can’t touch anything,” Surprise said casually, waving a dismissive hand, “I said they were ponies, not that they were alive. ”

“Po—oh lordy, not this again,” the minder said with disgust, “Didn’t you finally agree that your old friends were human? I hope we don’t have to up your medication again.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Twilight stated loudly, “I was just talking with him about what he used to believe, and he’s much better now, with no need for anything like additional medication or anything additional.”

The minder was eyeing Twilight now, saying, “Listen miss, I know what you’re thinking, but these are very sick kids here.”

“I’m not sick,” Dinky declared offended, “I’m not even supposed to be here! And Surprise sees dead people, so what? Neither of us are going to kill ourselves anymore, and both of us are gonna—live.”

“Both of us are gonna live,” he repeated in surprise. It was easier to say that than... any of the other dozens of assurances he’d given counselors since coming here, about himself alone. Dinky was going to live, because... someone wanted him to.

Diamond just got mad at him for dying. The city sent him from the orphanage to here to help him, so he wouldn’t kill himself. Apple Bloom tried to save him, to talk him out of... jumping. Everyone seemed to want to stop Dinky from dying, but Surprise was the first person Dinky could remember who wanted Dinky to live. Actually really wanted him to live. They were going to live.

“Everybody out!” the flustered minder shouted, herding Surprise and Dinky out of the room, “Leave the lady girl alone, the presentation’s in an hour, an’ stop wandering off out of sight!”

The presentation went... poorly. It started out well enough, as far as Dinky could tell. It wasn’t anything Twilight hadn’t already personally told Dinky, though. A few of the patients made a fuss, but the minders were close by to remove anyone who started acting out, or freaking out. Unfortunately, they weren’t perfect at doing so, and they certainly weren’t minding the presenter.

“One final note,” Twilight had said at the end, “As I explained, I know all this because I come from a parallel universe to your own, where you all have counterparts who are already naturally ponies. Since I know many ponies from my own world, I can identify many of you here by your resemblance to them, and give you some idea of what pony you might become. I can’t promise I’ll know any of you. I don’t know everyone in the world after all, but I’ll be happy to tell whomever I can what kind of pony you’re going to turn out to be. Surprise here, for instance,” she gestured at Surprise, “Is a pegasus pony in my world, an adult mare, and a very strong flyer. If anyone else is interested, I’ll call your names out, and you can talk to me after the presen...tation...”

Twilight trailed off, staring above Dinky’s head. Then she shouted in increasing agitation, “Never mind. Presentation over. This presentation is over!” grabbing her easel with a clatter, hooking an arm in her bag, and striding hastily towards the door.

That was when some lady in the back started screaming, “No! Don’t go! Come back!” and lunged for Twilight. She was quickly wrestled to the floor as other patients scrambled out of the way and chairs went toppling around the floor.

“This presentation is over!” Twilight repeated in a frightened tone, staring at the lady who kept fighting the minders, screaming out for her while one of them fumbled for a sedative. Twilight staggered out of the room then and slammed the door behind her. And now other people were starting to panic because of the berserk lady, various cries of confusion and alarm as everyone lost their wits. It was chaos.

Dinky wanted to run out the door too, but Surprise grabbed him by the arm and dragged him into the crowd, shoving him face to face with a screaming woman he had never even talked to before. Dinky had an idea what Surprise wanted him to do, so he just shouted, “Calm down! What’s wrong?”

“They’re coming for us!” the dark grey lady shouted with unfocused pupils, “She was one of them, she’s going to get us all they’re going to get us all!”

Us...? “We’ll stop them!” Dinky lied as firmly as he could, “They won’t hurt you because we won’t let them do anything to you! She can’t do anything, you’re safe now. You’re safe with us.”

“You can’t stop them,” she replied shrilly, but at least focusing on Dinky, “You’re just a kid! Soon as they take one look into your eyes—”

“So don’t let them!” Dinky replied angrily, “Cover your eyes, calm down. They can’t get you if they can’t see you. Come on, cover your eyes, hurry!”

For some reason the lady did, covering her eyes and sobbing in fear. At least she wouldn’t be triggered by the chaos around them that way, but she seemed truly terrified! You weren’t supposed to touch the other patients, but it just... seemed like she was most frightened about being alone. So he gave her a cautious hug. She didn’t stiffen, which was a good sign, and he kept saying, “It’s okay, we’re gonna get them, you’re safe. It’s okay.”

The uh... minder was looking down at them cooly, from where they were sitting there on the floor. Dinky glanced up briefly and said to the huddled lady, “Okay now, a friend of mine is going to help you up. I know he looks like a hospital employee, but he’s a friend, and he’s going to help you.”

The minder did, and she didn’t protest being led away, and the chaos in the room was beginning to die down anyway. Diamond Tiara’s mom was still piriouetting around the center, but it looked like her attendants were gonna catch her any second now. Otherwise, dutiful application of calming techniques and sedatives had returned the place to its artificial and careful sense of serenity.

Twilight Sparkle utterly bungled everything. She was basically totally aware now, that someone like her coming to the asylum was a terrible idea, and she should have never done it. She thought nothing could be worse than seeing Surprise, and knowing that every time he talked about dead ponies, he was telling the truth.

But Surprise had been easy to deal with. He was so well adjusted given what Twilight read about him in that journal, and Twilight had never been close to Surprise in her own world. Twilight only knew of the pony in Rainbow Dash’s (her Rainbow Dash’s) curiously exhaustive knowledge of Wonderbolt facts. Twilight had only really seen Surprise in passing at certain perfunctory gatherings.

So, in witnessing Surprise still suffering from the horrible... loss of her entire team, even after all this time... it was terrible, but Twilight could deal with it. It didn’t make her completely lose her cool and freak out. The day had been going well. She got to look at the letters, and figured out their secret message. She got invaluable information that Sunset Shimmer would be eager to learn. Twilight comported herself relatively professionally for the course of her presentation, but then...

“Surprise here, for instance, is a pegasus pony in my world, an adult, and a very strong flyer,” Twilight Sparkle concluded, scanning the crowd for any other faces she might recognize, however humanized they may be. “If anyone else is interested, I’ll call your names out, and you can talk to me after the presen...tation...”

Twilight then noticed a lady in the back staring at her intently. The resident outfit did not conceal the lady’s eggshell white skin tone. The flat stripes of purple and white in her hair were very distinctive, and one could not mistake the color of her piercing blue eyes.

Mom...?

Oh yeah, Twilight... definitely could have handled that better. It wasn’t her mother, of course, and that made it even worse. What was Twilight going to tell her, that her daughter was (at best) trapped in an unknown location in an enchanted sleep? Twilight still hadn’t finished going through that awful journal, so she didn’t know the ultimate fate of the princesses... Celestia and Luna were accounted for of course, but of the other Twilight, only a dream remained, and of Sunset’s counterpart, there was no sign at all.

It was so hard for Twilight to read through that journal. It was so hard seeing people she knew as ponies, and having an idea of what they went through. It was so hard not seeing the ponies, not seeing so many missing ponies who should have been with their friends and by their side. There was no Shining Armor in the police force. No Night Light had appeared in any form around the city. Twilight had thought her family was just... gone, and then she ran into her mother, all alone at an insane asylum.

Twilight could understand why she was in there.

And the worst part about it was, Twilight Velvet didn’t remember her. Her mother’s mind was so... distorted? Erased? It was hard to say. But all that was left of her mother’s deep love for them all was this confused, paralyzed wanting for something she didn’t know, a desire that had never seemed more attainable than when the doppleganger of her daughter mistakenly stumbled into her life. The best Twilight could have told this Twilight Velvet was that she had a daughter, who resembled Twilight, and that they were searching for her, but had not yet found her.

She... wasn’t sure if it was healthy for Velvet to know that.

Mar 27, 1395

I think Applejack might be the element of Honesty! She’s certainly the most honest pony I know. I could wager that she can tell a lie, even if she didn’t know it. The world tree crystal reacted to her, so she must be something! But it didn’t transsubstantiate. I can’t figure out if it needs to be activated somehow, or if she needs to be especially honest, or what.

I wonder how many Element bearers could be hiding under my nose? I suspect Pinkie Pie might be Kindness, because with all she’s been through, she still smiles for other ponies, and only wishes well of us all. Sometimes I wish I could help her forget what happened in Nickerlite. I wonder what kind of pony she would be, if it wasn’t tragedy that brought us together? I’m thinking Twilight for Loyalty, for all she does for everypony under her rule, though I don’t know if a princess can wield them. Clover’s notes just say they give ponies the power without end, and combined they would be unstoppable. If only she had found them. It sure is a puzzle! Maybe that’s what the sixth Element is. Mystery!

~~Maybe I’m the Element of Laughter haha~~

Princess Shimmer

“So, what do you wanna do?”

“Ah dunno, what do you wanna do?”

“...well don’t look at me. I’m just the dream princess.”

Sweetie Belle was off with something on her own, while Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and the dream princess found themselves kicking it in the sun on a grassy meadow underneath some sort of fanciful cloud city. Apple Bloom was on her back staring up at nothing, trying to understand how sleeping could feel so boring. Scootaloo was on her belly, her wings relaxed to her sides. And the dream princess, Twilight Sparkle was laying on her side like a horse might, looking torn between contentment and nervousness as she looked between the two fillies.

“You wanna go swimming somewhere?” Scootaloo asked thoughtfully.

“Not really,” Apple Bloom shrugged. “You two could go flying, if you wanna,”

“Hey, why don’t you come fly with us?” Scootaloo suggested brightly.

Apple Bloom lifted her head and raised an eyebrow, saying, “You remember I ain’t got no wings, right?”

“Apple Bloom, did you forget already?” Scootaloo said in a chiding tone. “This is a dream! ”

“Oh right!” Apple Bloom realized. “Yeah, let’s all go flyin’ then! You two use your wings, and I’ll just uh, dream mahself up there or however it works. Unless ah could dream that I was a pegasus?”

“I’m fairly sure that is a thing you can do, maybe, probably,” the princess responded uncertainly, “But maybe you should just... fly.”

“Well you could just... fly I guess?” Scootaloo said disappointedly. “But now I wanna see you as a pegasus! Go ahead, try it Apple Bloom!”

“I don’t know if this is such a good idea,” the princess cautioned. “Why shouldn’t Apple Bloom be happy with what she is?”

“It’s just for fun, princess!” Scootaloo protested to the purple regent. “Why would we even have dreams, if we can’t do cool stuff in them?”

“Why are you asking me? I don’t know! I don’t remember anything!” the princess said, backing up in agitation, to which Scootaloo groaned,

“It was a rhetorical question.”

“Ah ain’t havin’ any luck, y’all,” Apple Bloom sighed, looking at her bare yellow back. “What would wings even feel like? Ah only got four legs!”

“Well, just use me as an example!” Scootaloo suggested. “I had plenty of time to figure out what wings feel like. They’re like... construction cranes on your sides, with feathers on them.”

“Hmn...” Apple Bloom murmured, concentrating on Scootaloo. Wings like that were... weird, but they sort of made sense, in a Scootaloo sort of way. Construction cranes on your sides? Apple Bloom imagined how Scootaloo would imagine those cranes moving around, and then pulled her focus back to Scootaloo, and something slid into place in her head.

“Woah!” she said, wobbling on her hooves. “I think I... did it?”

Scootaloo was staring at her, smiling uncomfortably though, saying, “Maaaybe you overdid it, a bit.”

“Why? What did—” Scootaloo caught a look at her raised hoof, as pumpkin orange as Scootaloo’s.

“This is fascinating!” the princess, said to an increasingly alarmed Scootaloo, next to a rather weirded out looking Scootaloo. “You mimicked a dream construct, who was a dreamer!”

“How do ah turn it off?!” Scootaloo said querulously, and even her voice sounded like Scootaloo’s, just... more farmy. She turned around on her hooves trying to figure out how weird she felt she—she could feel the wings! They were all coming out of her back and she couldn’t stop them from sticking out and moving!

“Um, um, um,” Scootaloo said desperately, searching around on the forest floor. She picked up an apple she found and kicked it straight at Scootaloo. It filled Scootaloo ’s vision before smacking her in the forehead and knocking her backwards, to land on her back with a whump.

“Good thinking, Scootaloo!” the princess cheered, as Apple Bloom lifted her head groggily, trying not to lose the dream just out of reflex.

“I can’t believe that worked,” Scootaloo said amazed, as Apple Bloom came to realize she was herself again. Yellow and red, with four, and only four limbs accounted for. Oh, five if you count the tail.

“That was too wild!” Apple Bloom whined, rolling to her feet again. Her beautifully familiar yellow hooves. “Thank ya Scootaloo,” she said in her old, familiar voice. “How did y’figure that would work?”

“I uh... I guessed that it had to be my brain doing it, so I had to think you were Apple Bloom again,” Scootaloo offered hesitantly, “So I found an apple, and made you an Apple again.”

Apple Bloom blinked. Then she burst out laughing. It was just so absurd. She laughed until she awoke, chuckling even as she roused in the middle of the night. What even were dreams?

Author's Note

Before anyone complains, I want to point out that this chapter passes the Bechdel Test.

The Golden Apple

“Legend has it that in this very forest lies the Golden Apple.”

Sweetie Belle gave Scootaloo a very wan look at Apple Bloom’s words, only to find Scootaloo was giving her a wan look in return. In front of them, a young redhead known as Apple Bloom knelt down, pushing aside the bushes with her hands, and forging a way forward through the dense brush. The night air was cool, despite the approaching summer, and only moonlight lit their way through the forest surrounding the Apple Acre farm.

Scootaloo was as eager as Apple Bloom to go hunting after this legend, even so late at night. Sweetie was less eager, but if what Apple Bloom said was true then they might really find one of the seven secrets of Canterlot High. The bracken scraped at the white girl’s forearms, where she was sure little welts would be forming. Her coiffure as her sister would put it was already full of leaves and debris. But she honestly couldn’t be happier to be exploring the dark woods together with her friends.

Scootaloo was trying to remember the way they came, but wasn’t having much luck. The light from the farm house could be seen from here but only if you stood up straight and looked for it. It wasn’t like she was scared or anything, no no. Scootaloo didn’t get scared. She just was being cautious, and making sure that they wouldn’t get lost. Apple Bloom was the one of the three so determined to find this, of course, apple related legend. Hopefully it would just be some prank, or trick of the light, and they could find out the truth and get out of the embrace of these spooky trees. It wasn’t like the trees had faces that were glaring at Scootaloo. She was just checking, to make sure that they just seemed to look that way in the moonlight.

Apple Bloom stood up again, “I found the path, girls!” she exclaimed excitedly, brushing off her coveralls and jogging forward into the darkness.

“Hey wait up!” came Scootaloo’s voice from behind her. Apple Bloom didn’t want to lose the path, so she couldn’t turn around, but she just waved her hand behind her saying,

“Over here Scootaloo!”

The two eventually joined her and they traveled down the deep path, as it curved around tall living trees and dipped under huge fallen trees. It was almost like the forest was egging her on. She had searched for this for so long, she couldn’t even remember when she started, but she had a hunch that tonight was the night. If she just stuck to the path and kept putting one foot in front of the other, then she’d have her hands on a real live treasure. Some said it would grant immortality. Some said it would grant you a wish. Really Apple Bloom didn’t take truck in much superstitious nonsense, but she really wanted to find it, just to reassure to herself that the Golden Apple was real.

The path finally opened out to a clearing. The almost perfectly circular grassy meadow was silver in the light, and danced against Apple Bloom’s shins as she stopped short at what she saw on the edge of it. She didn’t even want to say herself because maybe it was just her imagination. Maybe she just wanted it so bad that she was dreaming it up. But if her friends said,

“There it is!” whispered Sweetie Belle. Apple Bloom heaved a sigh of relief. She might not have been a high schooler yet, but she liked to think that she had good judgement, sense and tact. And her tact led her right to this very clearing, looking like the moon on the earth for its silvery circumference. And in the center of that clearing was a small tree, completely separate from all the other trees. It wasn’t much. It looked like it might have just been a sapling. It even bent forward, with the weight of the one large fruit it carried.

The Golden Apple wasn’t silver in the moonlight. No light from anywhere in the world should have made it glimmer as brightly golden as it did. It wasn’t just a golden delicious; it looked like it was made of smooth, solid gold. It was like a song, welcoming her home.

“I’m gonna try to get it,” she said eagerly.

“Are you crazy??” Scootaloo hissed to her left.

“It could be dangerous!” Sweetie Belle said, “Maybe we should wait, and come back some other time with a grown-up.”

“It don’t appear any other time!” Apple Bloom declared, “This is the only chance we have! I just wanna take a closer look, okay?”

“Okay Apple Bloom,” Sweetie said uncertainly. Scootaloo just scuffed her shoe on the ground.

When Apple Bloom started moving forward, the three of them started moving forward, the other two hesitantly backing her up from behind. They could see each other clearly in the moon meadow, albeit in shades of blue and white. Apple Bloom’s bright red curls looked black, and her skin was as white as Sweetie’s, while Scootaloo was a two toned grey. Sweetie’s hair was the only part of them that was dimly blue. It was like they were washed out in a technicolor landscape, like a painter had gone to stroke out reality with his brush, only to find he had only three colors to work with.

Three colors, and Gold.

The light reflecting off the apple actually brought more color to Apple Bloom’s features as she neared it looking down at the tiny bent sapling. The apple wasn’t reflecting anything around them, though in its distorted curve you couldn’t rightly tell what it was reflecting. Nothing moved in that reflection. The apple wasn’t swaying in the breeze on the bent bough that held it. Only the grass was softly whispering, and the girls were flanking Apple Bloom protectively.

“It’s beautiful!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed in a captivated tone.

“It sure is something,” Scootaloo admitted, “And I thought you were joking all this time, or crazy!”

Apple Bloom was already reaching forward.

“What are you doing Apple Bloom?” Sweetie hissed harshly.

“Ahm just,” Apple Bloom said hesitating, “Mah family name has Apple in it. It don’t make sense that we’re herdin’ cows. We should be pickin’ apples. I just, ah feel like I really wanna just...”

The sapling shrank into the ground like it was growing in reverse when the Golden Apple fell off its bough all on its own and landed lightly in Apple Bloom’s outstretched hands. It was... it wasn’t metal. It was a real, living apple. It was cool to the touch, but its light was warm and welcoming. The two beside her inhaled sharply, but she just brought it to her face fascinated, trying to discern what was reflected in its surface.

After a moment of silence, Apple Bloom looked up at Sweetie saying, “Okay, we got it. Now let’s pack this away and get—” the apple exploded in a shower of light. Three screams pierced the night. Then the light dimmed, and descended back to darkness, leaving Apple Bloom fallen back on her back, with no apple to be seen anywhere.

She picked herself up, sighing disgustedly and saying, “...or that. Gosh darn it. I thought ah had it this time!”

“A-apple Bloom.....” Sweetie’s quavering voice came from above, Apple Bloom on her left. She looked, and immediately fell over again.

“Sweetie?!” Apple Bloom exclaimed scrambling back and looking up at the giant version of her best friend, who knelt there looking down at her in terror. “How’d you get so big?!”

“Apple Bloom, look at yourself!” Scootaloo said urgently behind and... above her. Apple Bloom’s head snapped to her right where Scootaloo was crouched, grown just as huge as Sweetie Belle. Then Scootaloo’s words sank in, and she looked down at herself. Now, the lighting wasn’t so good, so her furry coat was still whitish looking, and her tail was the black of red in moonlight. Her forelegs started shaking as she looked at them in complete shock.

“Ahm a... ahm a...”

Apple Bloom shot up in her bed. She was breathing hard in big gulps, at the intensity of the dream. She didn’t even know what she’d been. Some kind of... some kind of animal, though! She pulled off the blankets—it felt like she had hands, but, but after that?

Apple Bloom swung her feet off the edge of the bed, and threw the blanket aside, standing up and padding quickly on her feet, to her nightgown on the hook. She was just going on automatic at this point. She shoved it around her, then fumbled around with her fingers for the light switch.

The electricity came on, her overhead light illuminating the room brightly enough to make Apple Bloom squint and cover her eyes with a hand. A hand! It was a hand! She checked over her unflattering torso, her strong but small arms, her legs lean from running around with her fellow Crusaders. There wasn’t an inch of fur anywhere on her. She didn’t even have hair on her legs yet like her sister, not anything besides her usual baby fuzz. Considering her hair and skin color, Apple Bloom was really not looking forward to having to shave her legs. Or anywhere else for that matter, but that part you could cover up.

The important point is, there was no fur. No tail, no hand... paw... things. And she was just as tiny as she always is, which is to say not as tiny as in her dream. Apple Bloom breathed a sigh of relief. It had been such a vivid dream, she really thought that for a second there... well, it was just fine then. She flicked off the light, and padded back to the comfort of her bed. She still had an hour or so before the cock crowed, which she was determined to spend sleeping off that weird dream. It was going to be a long day today, another long day of high school and trouble. Only thing she had to look forward to was the one hour of freedom she had with her friends called lunch period.

“Oh man you guys,” Scootaloo said inaccurately, “I just had the craziest dream!”

Apple Bloom choked on her juice box.

Scootaloo continued to describe with arm motions, “It was a real dream I swear, and I actually remembered it for once. We were looking for this, well you guys were there I mean, and we were following Apple Bloom who was looking for the—”

“Golden Apple,” Apple Bloom interrupted.

Sweetie Belle looked silently from Scootaloo to Apple Bloom and said, “I had the same dream too,” in a somewhat haunted voice, “And we found it. The Golden Apple I mean.”

“Wait, so you two both had the same dream?” Apple Bloom asked not really wanting to go where this conversation was going.

“You were in it too, Apple Bloom!” Scootaloo declared. “And you went and grabbed the apple! And it exploded! And turned you into a um...”

Scoots looked to Sweetie Belle imploringly, but Sweetie just shrugged and said, “I don’t know what animal that was.”

Apple Bloom folded her arms, and lay her head down on them. The cafeteria was bustling in lunch hour, so the three of them had relative privacy in the sense of the ambient noise keeping anyone from hearing them. Still, she wasn’t sure she wanted to even remember that. Not because it was horrifying, but because she just felt so comfortable about it, it was scaring her.

“Ah had the same dream too,” she mumbled, hopefully loud enough that Sweetie and Scootaloo could–

“What was it?!” Sweetie asked Apple Bloom eagerly. “What did you change into?”

Apple Bloom blinked, then laughed, lifting her chin up and saying, “Ah have no idea. I didn’t do it; that weird apple did. Why were we even searching for it?”

“It was one of the school’s seven secrets, I think...” Sweetie trailed off. “It’s not really, I mean, I don’t know what the secrets are, but in the dream I knew it was one of them.”

“Never mind that,” Scootaloo said, taking a hearty bite of her complimentary, school provided hamburger. “What did it feel like?” she asked somewhat messily.

“Well, you saw right?” Apple Bloom ventured. “I didn’t even notice until you pointed it out. So I guess it didn’t feel like anything. But you two were huge!”

Scootaloo laughed at that, “You did get a lot smaller I didn’t think about it the other way.”

“I guess it was just one of those dream things,” Sweetie Belle suggested thoughtfully, “Where you don’t feel any different, and you just look like you do.”

Apple Bloom paused enough for the two to almost go right back to eating quietly, but then she blurted out, “It felt different. Way different.” Her friends stopped, looking at her inquisitively. “Ah had a tail I mean. My hands were gone. I had to check myself when I woke up to make sure ah wasn’t covered in fur!”

“I thought you said it didn’t feel like anything though,” Scootaloo said confusedly, “But it did?”

“Sorry Scoots I, uh I just don’t know what I was feeling exactly,” Apple Bloom shrugged apologetically. “It felt way different,” she reasserted.

“But you didn’t even notice,” Sweetie Belle pressed her from behind, “If it felt different then you would notice!”

“It felt different,” Apple Bloom said slowly, with difficulty, “...even though it didn’t feel like anything special. It was like, normal. Nothing you’d notice riding by on a gallopping horse. Like it was all... familiar-like.”

In the ensuing uncomfortable silence the three friends regarded their food without looking at each other, until Scootaloo just blurted out, “Dreams are weird!”

“You said it!”
“Yeah!”

...the other two pitched in. Then they got to eating their lunches more dedicatedly, and that was the end of that.

It was so troublesome for Apple Bloom, being a Freshman in high school. For one thing it made going to and from class an exercise in acrobatic ballet. When you were a head shorter than everyone else you never knew what was around the next shoulder or pleated butt. Didn’t help that they changed periods the same time as the upper class students. It was troublesome being ignored because everybody thought she was just a little kid and also because of the noodle incident, even though they were only like a year older than her. She hated being all the way at the bottom of the pecking order and having to fight to earn what other kids just got handed to them, just because they were older.

But really, it was high school itself that was the problem. High school just plum sucked. Apple Bloom was sure there weren’t anything good about it that didn’t have three bad things to imbalance it out. Her afternoon today offered a good description of that, in fact.

Her very first class was Geometry, and Apple Bloom thought she knew math pretty good before she got to that class. She still thought she knew math pretty good, but Geometry was hardly about math at all it seemed. You had to just eyeball half the exercises and mark off the equivalent angles and such, trying to walk your way through a problem that didn’t have an obvious set of steps to reaching a solution. She couldn’t figure out when a triangles angles had to be the same, and when they didn’t, it just seemed so arbitrary. You could draw it like they were the same, but then you drew it wrong, and they were actually a tiny bit different. The teacher was enthusiastic enough, but he wasn’t real good at explaining things, so Apple Bloom spent a lot of days just lost as he whizzed through the intuitive leaps that led him to the area of a polygon or something.

Then there was History. And man, you couldn’t learn a thing about history in history. The textbook was just a bunch of meaningless wars and conquests, with so-and-so marching on such-and-such, and about how terrible feudalism is because the system we have now is so much better for some reason. And the professor Berry barely even covered the source material. She just spent the whole class talking about her family problems and road trips and stuff. Apple Bloom felt like the class was a joke, and she suspected that the teacher might be partaking of illicit substances. At least Sweetie was in her class there, not that they could do more than give each other meaningful looks and pass notes silently.

Apple Bloom got Geometry and History done with before lunch, along with her elective which was metal shop. That sounds a lot funner when you sign up for it, until you learn that Freshmen aren’t allowed to use the arc welder or the rivet gun or anything cool like that. So you get the lovely task of learning how to make stamps, and cut pipes that are already forged, and maybe bend a pole into the shape the upper class student wanted. But it wasn’t too bad even though it was disappointing. No it was the afternoon after lunch what really sucked.

English class was alright. If by alright you meant that there was only one good way of talking and anyone who might have a different way of expressin’ themselves got put down and told they were wrong, even if it was an ancient family tradition and she’d been talking this way since she could first remember. Apple Bloom liked the idea of learning to write and stuff, but all the stupid rules that didn’t make no sense to the students who weren’t a backwoods hick were entirely lost on a hopeless case like Apple Bloom.

Then came Physical Education. You couldn’t possibly make going outside and running around any more clinical, soulless and academic. They counted how many pushups you did, and they assigned you to what you were going to be doing, and it always ended with a team sports game that had assigned teams, not ones made from friends, with complicated rules like when you could tear off a flag or how long you had to wait before you could hit the ball. She was so sick of being called out by the coach for a “hand ball” when she wasn’t even trying to and it just hit her hand on accident. Why couldn’t you just grab the ball and run with it?

Already hungry from lunch, then she had to go to her next period, which was a foreign language, and she hated it. Learning French was so hard, it killed her every lesson why they couldn’t just speak the same way that they always do. And the stuff were were taught to say was... well the teacher was assuming they were all going to be stupid tourists wandering around in France trying to find romantic landmarks and such, so it was all about learning how to say how can I find the Louvre and what is on your menu, and stuff that Apple Bloom would never even ask even in English. What about the stuff like adventures and talking about what you’re doing with your life, and asking important stuff like telling someone how to cook a recipe or build a house? She didn’t even know the word ‘recipe’ in French, and she suspected recipe was already in French, in English!

And finally was her stupid Biology class. There wasn’t really anything especially wrong with this class, though the teacher did have an unnatural affection for slime molds, but by this time she was too exhausted to enjoy just about anything. She sort of paid attention, sometimes. Wasn’t doing very well though, and was finding it really hard to summon enough gumption in herself to care. She liked the idea of Biology in theory, but in practice there was absolutely zero invention or discovery, no creating new forms of life, no deeper understanding of the body’s inner workings. No, it seemed like 90% of it was memorizing the categories that ancient biologists thought up to sort all the animals into. Recognizing plants and animals, the properties already known about them. And nothing else.

So after 8 grueling hours of nothing but being told what to do, and never asked what to do, the day was almost over, and Apple Bloom now had the exciting task of shoveling cow poop to look forward to. The worst thing is, she didn’t mind the cow poop half as much as she did some of the bullshit she had to deal with during the day! Applejack and Granny and her guidance counselor all told her that it seemed hard now, but if she put up with it she’d look back on it one day and be grateful that she had.

It was so hard to ruin her life now though, on the pure assumption that she’d suddenly start finding it worthwhile a lifetime away. People told her that if it seemed like everything else sucked, then it was her that was the problem, but there were plenty of good things she could see in life; she just wasn’t allowed them anymore now that her whole life had to be about high school. High school was nothing like her old school, and she missed that school so much. Miss Cheerilee had been so nice, and they had learned so much, and had so much fun and, now?

High school didn’t even have a homeroom class. Apple Bloom hadn’t believed it at first. They were just so delighted to hand her that class schedule, and tempt her excitement with the novelty of being able to choose an elective, from a limited selection of course, with special caveats for being a Freshman, and no good idea what the class was going to be like. But once she started school, it hit her that teachers had more than one class, loyalty to none of them, and she had no one teacher. So soon there she was, in that hallway, every day, every hour, running sometimes to get all the way across school, a little girl lost in a hall of giants.

Did it matter that she and Sweetie and Scootaloo were such fast friends for so long, and through so much? Not a bit to these administrators. They just randomly decided what classes you were going to be in. She was lucky as heck to get Sweetie in her history class, and of course the teacher preferred to lecture and prattle on rather than get her students working together for anything. The three of them only got to meet during lunch, but Scootaloo was even more lost than they were, doing really poorly in her classes and... well she didn’t like to show it, but Scootaloo was hurting inside from being all alone. And all this, because there was no homeroom.

Apple Bloom’s teachers were now these unapproachable strangers, people who talked at her and not to her, because they couldn’t get to know her. She was with them for an hour, and then she was gone, one of hundreds, thousands shuffled off to the next stranger trying to teach her stuff. It made her feel worthless, like she was just some playing piece in some demented god’s chess game, and it made her work five times as hard just to get by.

She couldn’t blame them really. How could eight teachers communicate with each other effectively, to keep from assigning homework that didn’t leave their students feeling overwhelmed? The answer is they couldn’t, and Apple Bloom found she was doing nothing but homework where she used to have free time to do what she wanted. No, her teachers couldn’t possibly coordinate, except for testing periods which they all had timed to be simultaneous, so you couldn’t ever be ready for all of them to hit you at once.

The faculty didn’t say they hated her, but you couldn’t argue with the evidence. That kind of treatment is not something you do for someone that you have any regard for as a human being. Or at least, that’s what Apple Bloom wrote in her diary, angry after she had to cancel a sleepover because she got a C on that math exam. It was just terrible in every respect not having a single teacher, or even a homeroom. And that, that wasn’t the worst about high school. The worst, most unbearable wrong that this place was cursed with, the one thing that convinced Apple Bloom the universe just hated her was... recess.

Recess was becoming a forgotten memory.

That was it. That was what the worst part about high school was. No recess. They took away your recess and gave you P.E. instead. There was no time to play, no chance to get together with her friends and make big plans for the future, no time she wasn’t under strict supervision, except the all too short lunch hour. Recess had become regimented physical assignments. Apple Bloom felt more like a prisoner than a student, cooped up in this high school place.

There was no recess for Apple Bloom, no time to have fun, just class after class. She missed the old days when all she had to worry about were the lessons from Miss Cheerilee. Now she had 8 different teachers breathing down her neck, and they never checked with each other to make sure they weren’t collectively assigning too much work.

To make a long story, and a very long day short: high school sucked. It sucked the life right out of living. Apple Bloom couldn’t wait for it to be over, so she could just shovel cow poop and have some gosh darn time to play outside with her friends.

In retrospect, she probably should have been careful what she wished for.

The only other thing of note that day was the dinner that she and her family shared. Granny Smith was a lunch lady by trade, which is a considerable step down from a cook and totally wasted her amazing cooking skills, but that just gave the old lady more motivation to make delicious dinners. She fought to at least give them one square meal a day. Mashed potatoes and steak with a hearty gravy drizzled over both of them three heads of bright green broccoli, expertly steamed to where it was both sweet and savory. As exhausted as Apple Bloom was she had to thank Granny every single time for the great meals she cooked. It was the brightest highlight of Apple Bloom’s day.

Or it was, until that dream started getting to her again. What kind of animal had she dreamed herself as? Those hadn’t been paws on the end of her arms, well, forelegs they probably would be called. They weren’t cat paws, or dog paws, but maybe Winona’s, or... or Mooella’s. Really, they looked kind of like...—and maybe it was a silly thought but—looking down at the delicious half eaten slice of animal meat, suddenly Apple Bloom wasn’t feeling so keen on eating it no more.

“Something wrong with your steak?” her big brother asked, in that chocolatey soft voice of his.

“Yeah I’m just... I’m just kinda full,” Apple Bloom said, pushing her plate away. “Ah think I’m just gonna go do mah homework.”

Now, if that were Scootaloo, everyone would have bugged their eyes out in shock and demanded to know where the body snatching alien had hidden their friend, but Apple Bloom was diligent with her homework, as diligent as she could be considering every Freshman was the Sysiphus pushing the boulder of homework up the hill, only to have it assigned again the next day. But for now, she could hold out, and that meant her family trusted her, so Granny smiled at her and said, “Get on then, sooner you get done the sooner you can relax.”

Apple Bloom just wished ‘relax’ didn’t mean do homework then fall bone dead asleep. But after a quick tooth brushing, she just had to doggedly struggle so long through all those darned geometry diagrams that she just ran outta time for anything else. Dinner, homework, bed. There was literally that much homework to be done.

She wondered, as she lay in bed with her hands cradling behind her head, if she would dream again. Maybe she’d start the dream where it left off. There was something magical about the dream that had her suspicions raised, that her two best friends somehow shared it. That wasn’t normal; there weren’t no way for the dream in her head to jump all the way into town, where their heads were dreaming away. It could have been coincidence, but it could also have been something more significant. Apple Bloom resolved to find out tonight, if when she slept she could dream together with them again.

Her dreams were confused and scattered, something about standing in the farmhouse with a chicken, and a giant geometry monster stomping on students who couldn’t answer the math questions, but not a sight of Scootaloo nor Sweetie Belle, no golden apples, and no transforming into a tiny little calf. When Apple Bloom woke up, she actually felt a little disappointed. The sun was filtering in through the cracks in the wall... needed to weatherize that, before it next rained. The light was good for getting her up, though. She sat up in bed, thinking about the events of yesterday. She’d have to ask her friends if they saw her in their dreams.

What Apple Bloom finally concluded that morning, was that the reason the three of them shared a dream must have been something the three of them were talking about, some time in the past, and it just stuck in all their heads until they slept which made them dream the same thing, pretty much. That made good sense to her, and as Apple Bloom devoured a stack of apple pancakes drizzled in syrup and butter, she was actually starting to feel confident about today. She had her math homework done and she was making good progress on her book report—sorry, “literary analysis” in English. There was that math quiz coming up tomorrow, but she’d probably find time to study for that too, sometime.

Apple Bloom grabbed her backpack and ran out the farm house after her sister. It was too far for a little girl to walk from the farm to the high school, but it sure wasn’t too far for Applejack’s truck. The beat up old green thing had been inherited from Applejack’s parents apparantly, the ones Apple Bloom had been too young to meet. Applejack might have only had her learner’s permit but she was responsible enough, and responsible for enough that the police knew not to give her a hard time. It was a contentious issue among Applejack’s friends apparantly, because although she was the one among them who could drive, she had to play it safe or she’d endanger the ability of not only herself but Apple Bloom too, to get to school.

Frankly Apple Bloom wouldn’t have minded not having to go to school. She loved learning and she loved school, but, well... this just wasn’t the school she loved. She didn’t understand how Applejack got so much out of it, but it was probably another upper class thing that Freshmen didn’t get to enjoy. They got off the dirt road and the truck’s carriage smoothed out as they rode down along the pavement. AJ was sitting next to Apple Bloom, with her hand on the wheel, and Apple Bloom was just looking forward at the approaching scenery.

“Yer bow’s a little crooked, Apple Bloom,” Applejack said to her, so Apple Bloom leaned forward to look in the side mirror, tugging and teasing it with her fingers, before finally undoing it entirely, and wrapping up her bouncy curls the right way this time. She smiled when it was arranged right. She might wear jeans and shirt one day, and coveralls the next, but this bow was kind of her signature mark, like how Applejack’s boots had apples stitched into them. And Big Mac’s jacket had... apples stitched into them.

What was it with her family and apples?

Once they arrived at school, Apple Bloom jumped out, then jerked back as her pants started to slip off. Applejack was getting out herself but looked across the cab at her sister’s yelp. “S-sorry sis,” Apple Bloom said blushing hard, tugging her belt secure. “Ah must have left mah belt unfastened, heh, heh heh.”

Applejack just headed off right away, and from the look on her face it was clear she was doing so to avoid busting out laughing at her sister’s near disaster. Taking a frantic look around it didn’t look like anyone else in the parking lot had noticed, and thankfully no boys. She would have just died if the girls at school started giving her a hard time for showing off her underclothes to a boy, however accidentally. Shouldering her book bag, Apple Bloom tried to look nonchalant as she headed away from the truck and walked toward that boring old math class. She managed to stay alert for that at least, but History class was something else entirely.

“And tha’s when I broked down, right inna middle of the Ozarks. You wouldn’ believe it I hhad to wait for the police to come, an’ give me a jump start for the entire night! Met my friendsh in Arizona and lemme tell you that was quite a party...”

Apple Bloom risked a glance at Sweetie Belle, whose eyes were also glazed over from trying to get something significant out of Ms. Berry’s uh, “history” lesson. Apple Bloom doubted the curriculum called for the teacher’s trip to Arkansas to be on the test. She looked at the teacher again, just... sighed, and pulled out the history textbook on her own, flipping through it idly trying to find something she hadn’t read yet, something about the Battle of Hastings, hm. Oh right, the Domesday book. Heh, that sounded like Doomsday book. Man those Nords were total jerks. Helping your friends is well and good, but pushing other people over to give their stuff to your friends just wasn’t right. And that was supposed to be the foundation of modern land rights legislation?

“I said eschuse me!” Ms. Berry said in a loud tone, putting one pink hand down on Apple Bloom’s desk, making Apple Bloom snap her head up. The teacher was right there, glaring at her.

Apple Bloom shrunk before her gaze, saying, “Ah was readin’ history! I didn’t mean to ignore you I was just, ah mean the test and...”

Ms. Berry gave her a thin lipped smile then and staring above her head said to Apple Bloom, “I bet Voishey set you up to thish.” Then, she straightened up and staggered back over to her desk, where something that smelled like alchohol from halfway across the room was certainly not waiting for her.

“Tell her it wassa good joke!” the teacher cheered loudly, then went right back to her diatribe. “Sho the rocks were stacked up in a pyramid shee, but the wallll wasn’t leanin the right way...”

Apple Bloom just blinked, and looked at Sweetie Belle, who just gave her big eyed confusion and shrugged.

Later at lunch, the Cutie Major Crusaders were all laughing at Ms. Berry’s antics that day, when a familiar voice approaching got Apple Bloom’s attention.

“Hey, you three!”

“Well look who it is,” Apple Bloom declared, turning and pulling back her chair to see the new girl better. “How you been?”

Sweetie Belle paused from her health shake thing, long enough to add shyly alongside Apple Bloom, “We haven’t talked in a while.”

“Well, duh,” the girl said to Sweetie, “Your sister is like, a total slave driver!”

Sweetie Belle actually laughed at that, just a little throaty giggle.

“Teaching you all about clothing design, huh?” Apple Bloom asked amiably.

“Well, what do you think?” Diamond Tiara said, posing jauntily with her lunch tray in hand. She was still clinging to the idea of pink, but it looked like she’d figured out how good a light lemon chiffon looked in contrast to her rosy pink skin. The pink she chose for highlights was a darker shade more of a magenta really. It added up to what amounted to a simple sundress worn over a long sleeved white blouse.

“Hmm,” Apple Bloom said, stroking her chin critically, “The tiara is a bit much.”

“Whatever you say, Bow Girl,” Diamond Tiara said with a half smile. She was still familiar enough with Apple Bloom to know that was a complement, it seemed. If there had been a problem with her ensemble, she sure could trust Apple Bloom to say it straight, without any forced politeness or distrust.

“Where’s Silver?” Scootaloo asked abrasively, earning a glare from Apple Bloom. Taking a drink of her milk, the orange girl tried not to show interest.

Diamond Tiara’s self assured expression faltered at Scootaloo’s remark though. “Study hall,” she said in a dismissive tone, looking aside.

“Again?” Apple Bloom exclaimed in surprise, “Doesn’t that girl ever stop to eat?”

“Hey it’s not my fault she took all those AP classes!” Diamond shot back hotly.

“Wasn’t sayin’ it was,” Apple Bloom said raising her hands defensively. In the awkward silence Diamond started to walk away, so Apple Bloom called after her, “Hey uh, you wanna sit with us today?”

Diamond paused, a long time before turning around. “It beats sitting alone again,” she said darkly, plopping down beside Apple Bloom, with Sweetie and Scootaloo peering at her from the other side. The three of them had been fighting with Diamond when they first met, but circumstances thrust them together, and now that they were all going to the same school Apple Bloom had learned the less horrible side of Diamond. Her friends weren’t quite so convinced yet, but Apple Bloom suspected they would warm up to her. Diamond was just a really passionate girl who tried to do everything perfectly, and got upset when she found herself less than capable of doing so.

“You and Silver Spoon used to hang out so much,” Sweetie Belle ventured cautiously. “What happened between you two?”

“What happened is this stupid school!” Diamond Tiara exclaimed making Sweetie squeak and retreat back behind Apple Bloom. “Now she has to spend all her time with those stupid mluhh technies and there’s just no time left for me! Why couldn’t she have been a fashionist?”

“You think you got it so hard,” Scootaloo said at Diamond bitterly.

“Can it, Scoots,” Apple Bloom said to her harshly.

“At least you know what you’re going to major in!” Scootaloo outburst, then looked at Apple Bloom guiltily. Not the least bit of a repentant look at Diamond Tiara though. Fortunately Tiara had the thick hide of a yak when it came to insults.

“So?” she sneered back at Scootaloo snidely, “If you cared so much about it, you can decide any time you like. I bet you would fit right in with the jockheads!”

Apple Bloom was beginning to suspect bringing them all together for lunch might have been a bad idea after all.

“Are you calling Rainbow Dash a jockhead?!” Scootaloo said starting to stand up.

“Scootaloo!” Apple Bloom shouted tensely, pinching her forehead with her fingers. “Diamond Tiara just literally told you she thinks that you’re as cool as Rainbow Dash. Nobody is insulting no one.”

“Wellll,” Diamond said temptingly, but Apple Bloom said,

“Diamond, please.”

Scootaloo frowned, sneaking sideways glances at Diamond Tiara, before saying in a sullen tone, “I would decide, if I was good at anything.”

Diamond surpsingly didn’t jump on that, just poked at her food with a fork in her hand, eating daintily.

“You’re good at lots of things!” Sweetie Belle admonished Scootaloo.

“Oh yeah?” Scootaloo rolled her eyes, “Like what? I can’t kick a football to save my life. I can’t pass these stupid classes. I don’t have a farm,” she said, with an acidic look at Apple Bloom, “So I’m no good at that.”

“You are really good at your scooter,” Sweetie responded without pause.

“Nobody ever heard of a scooter major,” Scootaloo grumbled, squeezing more ketchup on her burger.

The candy curled girl continued, “You are good at the jungle gym, and gymnastics, and machines and repairing, and you really like dancing and ballet and–”

“Okay okay, enough about what I’m good at Sweetie!” Scootaloo said frantically. It was too late though, a slow smirk was starting to spread across Diamond’s face.

“Ballet?” she said like she just found a juicy plum she was going to bite into.

“It’s a good elective!” Scootaloo protested hotly, “I can try it out if I want!”

“She’s amazing at it,” Sweetie said dreamily. “She already can do a whole song all the way through.”

Diamond’s smirk faltered again, and she exclaimed, “Wait, you were serious?”

Scootaloo didn’t answer, and her naturally pumpkin colored skin tone was unusually rosy this afternoon as she buried her face in her hands.

“That’s a fashionist class!” Diamond continued in a flabbergasted tone, “You are going to be a fashionist? You?”

“I’m not going to be anything!” Scootaloo shouted back. “It’s just a class.”

“But—”

“Now hold on Diamond Tiara,” Apple Bloom said sticking her face in between them to glare at the purple haired beauty. “Before you go making mah friend talk about something she doesn’t want to talk about, maybe you should take some time to earn her friendship, first?”

“Just want a nice quiet lunch,” Apple Bloom grumbled, biting into the cheese sandwich she prepared for herself this morning. “No teasing, and no fighting. She’ll talk about it when it’s important to tell you, and if she never does then too bad because that means it ain’t important anyway.”

Scootaloo looked like she was going to shout something, either at Diamond or at Apple Bloom, but she just said, “Thanks Apple Bloom,” turning to her burger again, finishing it off and going for the fries.

“...just tell me you aren’t majoring in costume design, Sweetie Belle,” Diamond Tiara said flatly.

“Nope!” Sweetie Belle said to DT with a smile. “I was thinking about trying cooking!”

Thunder rumbled overhead in a clear blue sky.

Author's Note

I hate my brain sometimes. But here you go have that other thing that’s been tickling my story bone.
Cover art:
Source of human cutouts
Source of doomedbloom
Smugaloo
Sweetemused.
Cheeristonished.

Carbon Fire

The dream was still on her mind clear as crystal, when Apple Bloom woke up into the sunlight. She squirmed to all fours and jumped down from her bed, gallopping all the way to Big Mac’s room, pounding on his door again. She wasn’t sure how he became the designated dream recorder, but he never objected, so when he opened the door Apple Bloom let him have it. He patiently wrote down for her all the juicy details of her most unusual dream.

The day, that day, was a Big Macintosh day. It was a school day that is, where Apple Bloom got to look forward to not going to school at all and being watched over by Big Macintosh. Sacrificing his schooling for her, Apple Bloom didn’t even want to ask what kind of unholy bargains her family was having to make with the administrative faculty, to avoid flunking the lot of them. Big Macintosh let Apple Bloom watch him working at the sewing machine, now that the surprise was over. After lunch he was sewing her up a bow that Apple Bloom could—in theory—just slip in place, instead of having to get someone to tie it. It was really slow work though, and as patient as Big Mac was with everything, Apple Bloom found herself about as patient as a weasel in a cocaine factory these days.

So she just went outside to play instead. She ought to have paid attention to her surroundings probably, instead of just kicking the ball around, until she got so enthusiastic that it rocketed off and fell into the creek. She probably shouldn’t have killed so much time splashing around in the cool but pleasant, almost belly deep water to get it. She was laughing up a storm though as the ball jittered and bounced in the water, despite her efforts to rouse it from its watery bed. Eventually, a calculated application of her hind legs ejected it and Apple Bloom chased it right up the bank. She ran after the ball out of the creek, shaking herself off then...

...stopping short, as Apple Bloom realized that she just shook off like a dog.

Then she just shrugged, and continued to run after it. When in Rome.

As Apple Bloom nose-bumped the dripping ball ahead of her with a half gallop, down around the side of the farm house, it probably shouldn’t have been a total surprise to her what she saw. But it was.

Diamond Tiara out of nowhere! Screeching to a halt, Apple Bloom found herself facing off with none other than Diamond Tiara just walking up like she owned the place. The two of them stood there for a timeless moment, staring at one another in speechless astonishment: one on two legs, one on four; one stunned by what she saw, and the other paralyzed with the anxiety of being singled out, and ridiculed.

“I—ah can explain, it’s just,” Apple Bloom was the first to speak, but the young, reedy sound of her voice shocked her into silence again, reminded her of just how different she was now. That broke Diamond Tiara out of her trance though, and the girl exclaimed loudly and without restraint,

“Apple Bloom?!”

Apple Bloom’s horsey voice caught in her horsey throat, looking up at Diamond Tiara sheepishly, with her ears no doubt at the angle that made them looked like sheep ears, instead of horse ears. “I...uh...yeah,” she mumbled haplessly.

“Why are you a horse?” Tiara demanded, suddenly furious with her. “You’re not supposed to be like, all the way a horse!” she accused, glaring down at Apple Bloom. “You’re just supposed to have the ears! And the tail!” She seemed outright outraged with Apple Bloom, making Apple Bloom shrink down even more, mumbling out confusedly,

“I... uh... what?”

“Never mind,” Tiara snapped irritably, flouncing around, and just storming off without another word. “I really thought I was onto something too,” she mumbled quietly to herself, once she was out of earshot. Of course, Apple Bloom heard it, because nothing was out of her earshot. Yet Apple Bloom still had no idea what just happened. She just sat there like a lump, watching Diamond Tiara storming off, without a clue of what to do. Then she got to her hooves, and stood there silently, watching Diamond Tiara storming off.

Then Apple Bloom tilted her head, still watching Diamond Tiara storming off, down the road away from their farm house. Where was her vehicle? Didn’t someone drive her here? Apple Bloom certainly didn’t recall a car pulling up. She didn’t... Diamond didn’t walk the whole way here, did she?

“Somethin’ goin on out here?” Big Macintosh said, poking his head out the front door.

Apple Bloom couldn’t spare him an explanation though, and just shouted, “Diamond, wait up!”

Then, Apple Bloom charged down the road after that pink girl, after that bouncing, retreating mop of purple hair and its white highlights. Diamond Tiara didn’t wait, and if anything she seemed to walk even faster. But Diamond Tiara didn’t have four legs, or whatever it was that let Apple Bloom run around this fast, this easily.

“Diamond, stop!” Apple Bloom called out without effect, trotting up to the retreating girl, asking her, “Did you walk here? Why aren’ you at school? What’s going on?”

“Leave me alone!” Diamond shouted angrily, picking up her pace to a run, and literally running away from Apple Bloom. Apple Bloom stayed there in shock for a moment, but then charged determinedly after the fool girl. There was something seriously wrong here, and it wasn’t Apple Bloom being a pony.

She didn’t have to run very far, anyway. It wasn’t long before Diamond Tiara stumbled to a halt, bending over with her hands on her knees and gasping for breath. And Apple Bloom settled to a halt beside her, not even winded, looking over the exhausted girl worriedly. The soft weave purple jeans Diamond Tiara wore were all filthy with road dust. Her hair was in such disarray that even her tiara was crooked. And she looked about ready to drop on her feet. She had walked here! From where, the bus stop? Further than that?

“Ah ain’t lettin’ you alone until you tell me what’s wrong, Diamond Tiara,” Apple Bloom said stubbornly. It felt so wrong taking what amounted to a parental role, when she was half the other girl’s height, and with such a little voice. Diamond had to hear her though. Apple Bloom wasn’t going to let her run away from... whatever Diamond Tiara was running away from.

“Maybe I’ll... to town and then... you’ll have to leave me alone...” Diamond said quarrelsomely, while catching her breath.

“Well, we got about three miles to go, so why don’t you tell me about it on the way?” Apple Bloom said with an unsympathetic simper. When Diamond Tiara looked with measurable dismay down the road, Apple Bloom added lightly, “Or, we could go home right over there, and talk about it over a snack.”

Diamond Tiara held out for a few more seconds, but sighed in resignation, shooting a glance at Apple Bloom saying, “Well you’re clearly as sneaky as ever.”

“Ah take offense to that!” Apple Bloom protested loudly. It wasn’t very convincing.

The walk back to the farm house was slower than the run away. Which itself was disturbing because Diamond was in fact, barely limping along. It gave Apple Bloom a chance to catch up on her friend’s life, at least. Even catching up with current events wasn’t working very well though.

“So, how’s school been?” Apple Bloom asked while trotting in quick steps alongside the steadily walking girl.

“Fine,” Diamond answered, looking forward fixedly, despite Apple Bloom down there to her side looking up at her.

“Anything new going on?” Apple Bloom asked hopefully, and a little nervously.

“Not really,” Diamond said flatly, sticking her hands in the pockets of her purple jeans.

They walked along silently, and Apple Bloom piped up again, “So about Silver Sp–”

“Can we not talk about me please?” Diamond said grumpily, thus causing a small body of readers to stand up in disgust and unfavorite a certain fanfic. “What about you?” she offered nosily, “Did you really dream up a golden apple and then, then— this?” Diamond didn’t say what she meant, just waving vaguely over Apple Bloom’s diminutive form. Apple Bloom had a good idea what she was talking about, though.

“Sure did,” Apple Bloom answered confidently, “It was when ah first changed. Ah mean, not for real, but in the dream. Soon as ah laid hands on that dream apple, poof, ah was lookin’ up at Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, and they were looking at a pony between ‘em.”

“They were in your dream too?” Diamond asked uncertainly.

“Yeah, an’ tha’s how ah knew it was special,” Apple Bloom said excitedly, “Because they remembered it too when they woke up. So it was like, a magic dream.”

“Did they have horse ears in your dream?” Diamond said hopefully... overly hopefully.

“Uh, no it was just me that touched the apple,” Apple Bloom said, “An’ it disappeared when ah turned into a pony, in a big ol’ flash of light.”

“So, neither of them had like, horse ears, or a tail?” Diamond continued to confirm.

Apple Bloom shook her head. It occurred to her that, without being willing to look down at her, Diamond wasn’t going to see Apple Bloom shaking her head. “No they didn’t,” Apple Bloom also confirmed verbally.

“How about Applejack?” Diamond responded quickly.

“She wasn’ even in the dream!” Apple Bloom squealed sharply. “What is it with you and horse ears?”

“It...” Diamond’s face firmed up. “Never mind,” she grumbled, hunching her shoulders.

They were at the farm house then, and Apple Bloom had run out of ways to try and get Diamond Tiara to open up. Big Mac was standing out on the porch when they got there, and Apple Bloom looked up at him, saying “This is mah friend Diamond Tiara.” Diamond stood stiffly by Apple Bloom’s side, looking straight at Big Macintosh, her fists clenched at either side of her. You couldn’t really tell, but she was trembling, just a bit.

“She came all this way to see me,” Apple Bloom continued, giving him as knowing a look as she could give, “So ah was hoping she could stay over a bit. Ah don’t suppose you would mind fixing us a little snack? She’s been on the road a while.”

“Nope,” Big Macintosh said. It took Apple Bloom a while to process that, in which time her brother turned around, and walked into the house, heading for the kitchen.

“C’mon in,” Apple Bloom said then, trotting easily into the open doorway and turning back to Diamond with a happy smile. “Ah wanna show you aroun’!”

Diamond was still looking after Big Macintosh with something of a perplexed look on her face, but she masked it off and said neutrally, “Okay, fine,” and followed Apple Bloom into the house.

“Mah room is upstairs,” Apple Bloom said confidently. “We can hang out there until he’s got something ready, and ah can also get mah–” She paused, her tail switching back and forth confoundedly. “...never mind,” she finished. “Just follow me.”

It was halfway up the stairs that Apple Bloom noticed Diamond Tiara covering her mouth, to hold back a smile. “Somethin’ wrong?” Apple Bloom asked with an eyebrow raised. Or however Apple Bloom’s huge freaky eyes worked, now.

“It’s just going up the stairs, you look like, kinda like a cat,” Diamond said amusedly. Apple Bloom rolled her eyes. “They sure are big for you now,” Diamond suggested, “I don’t know how you even manage.”

“Ah. been. like. this. for a. week,” Apple Bloom said, punctuating each of her words with a leap up the stairs, turning around to look down at the top, “Two weeks, ah mean... easy to lose track of time. Ah’ve had plenty of time to get used to it.”

Down the hallway, Apple Bloom paused briefly at her door, which had a thick layer of socks sort of nailed and wrapped around the corner so it wouldn’t close right. “Honestly climbing’s even easier,” she said offhandedly to Diamond Tiara behind her, pulling the door open with the edge of her hoof. “It’s doors that are lots harder now.”

Apple Bloom walked in through the door. On reaching the center of the room, she turned her head around to wait for Diamond to finish coming in. Which of course prompted Diamond to tease her with,

“Wow. How far can you turn your head around?”

Actually it didn’t really... sound like teasing at all. Diamond had a look of incredulity, more than amusement. Apple Bloom looked down at her own butt, and walked on her hooves in place to turn totally around. “Ah don’t really know,” she said, now entirely facing Diamond, a hoof lifting up anxiously despite herself. “Not all the way around, but lots further. Ah’m not much like a horse at all in some ways,” she admitted, asking snarkily, “You ever seen a horse who could look at their own buh...uh... hold on.”

Blushing quickly, Apple Bloom darted over to the other reason she came up to her room. Biting down on it with her teeth and pulling the sewn cloth off from where it was laying flat against the top of her dresser, she gave it a few shakes before tossing it up so it’d fall over her head.

“What on earth?!” Diamond exclaimed, while Apple Bloom’s head was still surrounded by cloth.

“What?” Apple Bloom said self consciously, struggling through it and sticking her front hooves out the sleeves. Her head came next and... dang it, she always forgot to take off the bow! She’d just have to squeeze it through this time. No way she was going to repeat her usual awkward dressing ritual for Diamond. Her head popped out, and the bow came askew in her hair but held in place barely.

“Is that a dress??” Diamond Tiara demanded of Apple Bloom.

“Of course it is!” Apple Bloom said tinnily, trying not to appear too ashamed or weak or anything. “Somethin’ wrong with a pony wearin’ a dress?”

She shook the bottom of it down over her hindquarters, and curled her tail up like a snake to thread it through the hole in the back. Then she twisted around to bite down on the crude hitch threaded around the tail hole, pulling it to cinch it up, so nobody was going to see her ...pony bits or anything. As if she hadn’t already been giving Diamond an eyeful, going up the stairs just now. Darn it!

“Ah’m sorry Diamond,” Apple Bloom said a bit more apologetically, standing straight. “It’s the only dress ah got, an’ ah cain’t go gettin’ it filthy or anything, so I only been wearing it when we got guests over. Didn’t expect you were coming, so uh... sorry about that.” Boy howdy, running around naked in the woods. If Diamond didn’t think Apple Bloom was an uncultured hick yet, she sure did now!

And yet, Diamond didn’t seem... concerned with that at all. “You call that a dress?!” Diamond continued to utter shrilly, staring bug-eyed, and Apple Bloom wasn’t sure if Diamond sounded furious or horrified. It was like Diamond cared more about the dress than Apple Bloom being decent!

“W-well it’s a little stained,” Apple Bloom admitted, lifting a hoof.

“A little?!” Diamond exclaimed.

“A-and the sleeves aren’t quite aligned, but it’s okay if it wrinkles a bit,” Apple Bloom said, shifting uneasily against both the attention, and the ill fitting seams.

“A bit?!” Diamond continued to blurt unbelievingly.

“Hey, if it works, it works!” Apple Bloom said touchily. “It’s not that bad ...is it?”

“Apple Bloom, that dress is a disaster,” Diamond Tiara said emphatically. “Are those grass stains? You used white fabric? It looks like you just tore off some window curtains!”

Apple Bloom fidgeted uncomfortably, saying, “W-well that’s why the downstairs window ain’t got no more–”

“My god, you did use window curtains,” Diamond said, sinking to her knees before the little pony. Almost on reflex she reached out and started adjusting Apple Bloom’s loose bow, griping, “How can you even bear to walk around in that thing?”

“It’s all I got!” Apple Bloom shouted suddenly at Diamond Tiara, making the other girl jerk back. It surprised even Apple Bloom with the way it belted out of her, her heart just aching in her chest. “Just... let me have this,” she pleaded, “Let me have this one thing, Diamond. Please!” Apple Bloom pleaded, staring at the ground, both furious and sad.

Though Apple Bloom couldn’t bear to look her in the eyes, she was still surprised at how Diamond didn’t have any sharp snarky replies to that. She risked a look at Diamond, only to find the girl had the cheesiest most insincere smile on her face. “It looks really...” Diamond said, struggling mightily with her impulses, “...functional?”

Apple Bloom squinted at Diamond, who attempted to smile wider. “Okay, fine,” Apple Bloom said, blinking and turning away. “Just—let’s not talk about it any more. Let’s talk about something else.”

“Like what?” Diamond said, flopping carelessly back on Apple Bloom’s bed.

“Like why you walked three miles just to yell at me.”

Diamond didn’t answer, just staring up at the coverlet silently.

“Y’all wanna come down?” came Big Mac’s voice. The older boy poked his head into the room slightly, drawing both their attention.

He ducked out once they saw he had the snacks ready. Diamond Tiara stood up and made to leave, but Apple Bloom got in her way then, and fixed her gaze, saying, “This ain’t over. You cain’t just leave that stuff bottled up. This ain’t just a silly little thing. Something is really botherin’ you.”

“How’s it any of your business?” Diamond sniffed, folding her arms and turning her nose up and away.

“Don’t matter if it’s mah business,” Apple Bloom said grumpily. Diamond lost her aloof look and glared down at her angrily, ready to retort, so Apple Bloom qualified, “It’s about you not me. You need to talk to someone, and ah’m your friend, so it just might as well be me.”

They stared at each other challengingly, and Apple Bloom looked away this time, turning for the door and saying, “C’mon let’s go eat.”

Yet another thing Diamond didn’t protest at all.

Apple Bloom descended the stairs all on her own, much again to Diamond’s surprise and amusement. At least this time she wasn’t getting flashed by Apple Bloom all the way down. The snack meal was a bit of an odd experience. It could be said that Apple Bloom was a lot smaller now, and most of her diet was taken up by silage, but it could also be said that Diamond Tiara was eating the cheese and crackers like there was no tomorrow. She started out eating them delicately and daintily, but you could see the girl had worked up an appetite. Probably by walking three miles just to yell at Apple Bloom.

Diamond did pause eating, when Big Mac set down a second plate of crackers with cheese already spread on them in front of Apple Bloom, sitting up there in her high chair. Apple Bloom craned down to lip up one of the crackers taking a bite out of it and enjoying the way the gummy cheese melted the crunchy cracker while the cracker smoothed out the stickiness of the cheese, and Diamond Tiara said,

“So... you can still eat anything, now?”

“Juth abouth,” Apple Bloom said glancing over to the girl. She paused to finish her mouthful and said, “Just about, yeah. Ah tell you, it was a sore situation we started out in.” Apple Bloom paid mind to Big Macintosh as she talked, who was trying not to hover just off in the other room. “Ah thought ah could only eat hay and grass, ‘cause I’m a horse and all. But half a week later, and ah was eatin’ stuff just fine.” She wasn’t going to specifically mention the chocolate cake incident, for her dignity and that of her family.

“You afe hyy?” Diamond said through a mouthful of crackers. She took a drink from her glass and said, “You ate hay?!”

“Yeap,” Apple Bloom agreed frankly, “And grass too. Still do, in fact. Ah can only eat a couple of these cheese cracker things, and then well...” she pointed over to her hay bale, where about a tenth of it was gone. “Ah gotta eat that stuff.”

Diamond followed her hoof’s direction with her gaze and said, “That’s gotta be so weird.”

“Y’have no idea,” Apple Bloom mumbled, taking another bite of cheese and crackers.

After the snack, Apple Bloom got down from the table, where she went to fill up her water bucket. That got the salty stickiness out of her mouth, and sure as rain Diamond Tiara got to stand there impatiently, while Apple Bloom went and bit off pieces of hay. She made sure to chew them placidly, keeping quiet with a wan eye on Diamond Tiara.

“How long is this gonna take?” Diamond said predictably.

Apple Bloom stuck the bolus in her cheek and said, “Ith takes a while, sorry. Maybe while ah eat, you can tell me what brought you here today.”

She resumed innocently chewing then, and Diamond’s glare got more vehement. “You sneaky little pony,” she said, but... gave a half smile and said, “Alright, fine. You got me.” She pulled up a chair and sat backwards in it, saying waving a hand unsurely, “So I have these weird... dreams.”

“Say what?!” Apple Bloom and Big Macintosh exclaimed. Somehow without making a sound, her brother had come right up, listening to them in a completely absorbed manner. Diamond actually looked at him fearfully, as he blushed full in the face and said, “Right...sorry.” He retreated then, going upstairs to his room no doubt, leaving Apple Bloom alone with Diamond Tiara, and her hay.

Apple Bloom swallowed, and repeated, “Say what?” in a more level tone. “You weren’t in mah dream, were ya?”

“No, it’s not a dream,” Diamond Tiara corrected, scrunching the palm of her fist against her forehead. Apple Bloom bit off another mouthful of hay as Diamond explained. “It’s– it’s more like something that really happened, except it didn’t. Like I remember that it didn’t happen, but I still remember what didn’t happen even though I can’t remember.” Apple Bloom... had no idea what the fuck Diamond Tiara just explained.

Diamond looked aside, frowning angrily and saying, “I’m not crazy.”

Apple Bloom paused her hay, and carefully worded out, “Ah never said you were,” going back to chewing it. She took another sip out of the water bucket.

“You were thinking it though,” Diamond said snidely.

Apple Bloom sighed inwardly and paused again, saying, “Ah wasn’t thinking it, but I sure am now. Diamond Tiara, what’s wrong? You can tell me.” And there was that little tremble again. Now or never, it looked like.

So Apple Bloom got to stand there and chew on some hearty alfalfa while Diamond Tiara sat there in a chair and poured her very conflicted heart out. “So I have these things,” she attempted to clarify. “It feels like they’re a dream, but I know they’re not? But they have to be, because they’re things that never even happened. It feels like they did happen, but it also feels like they didn’t. And your sister had horse ears.”

That made Apple Bloom’s ears perk. Diamond was having dreams about Applejack? She still didn’t really understand what Tiara was saying though, and Diamond didn’t make it any easier, by correcting herself again with,

“I don’t mean... she didn’t for real, but just like in these not-dream things? Your sister, and Rarity and like... some other students too. And there was something really scary and dangerous that they were fighting? It looked like a demon! And—”

Diamond paused, pressing her fingers to her temples, “I can’t remember. It’s all just in pieces. I think she like... did something bad to everyone, to... to me, and then ...it was like it never happened. Everyone was just going to school every day, and nobody remembered, and... and...”

Diamond opened her eyes, looking at Apple Bloom with terror blurting out, “I think she wiped everyone’s mind!”

Apple Bloom had stopped chewing her hay.

Diamond Tiara scrunched her face up, turning aside and saying, “No, that’s not right, that’s just stupid. I don’t know why it didn’t work on me I don’t... I don’t think it happened at all. I just... I just remember. But I’m like the only one who remembers, and it just doesn’t like, remember, the right way! And the worst thing about it is, this all happened at the Fall Formal.”

Apple Bloom frowned at that. She swallowed, and said, “...but you’re a Freshman,” as if that weren’t obvious.

“I think I’m just going crazy,” Diamond said in a defeated tone, “I remember it happened at the next Fall Formal. The one coming up next month. The one I actually go to. That makes like, no sense at all.”

“Maybe you’re psychic!” Apple Bloom suggested, trying to sound encouraging.

“Yeah, well, there are only two kinds of psychic,” Diamond said acidly, giving Apple Bloom a disgusted yet distant look, as if Apple Bloom wasn’t the one Diamond was looking at with disgust at all. “The crazy ones who are just babbling nonsense,” Diamond jeered, “And the liars.”

Apple Bloom stared at Diamond silently. And it all seemed so clear to her now, she just couldn’t imagine how Diamond Tiara is even having a problem. “Diamond,” she said flatly, “You’re psychic.”

“I’m not crazy though!” Diamond said anxiously, covering her head in her arms. “I don’t want to be crazy!”

“No, you’re not crazy,” Apple Bloom said, standing and sticking her neck forward. “You really are psychic!”

“That’s impossible,” Diamond Tiara said dismissively, rolling her eyes at Apple Bloom and crossing her arms across the chair. “Psychics don’t really exist,” she pouted, looking away.

“Diamond, look at me,” Apple Bloom said encouragingly. “Just do it!” she added at the girl’s hesitance, and Diamond Tiara looked at Apple Bloom steadily if uneasily.

“Ah’m a little pony,” Apple Bloom explained, tapping her chest emphatically. “Ah had a dream a couple weeks ago, where ah psychically communicated with mah friends, and they confirmed it the next day, without me even asking. And then ah just magically turned into a little pony. Ah been livin’ life as... this... whatever ah am, for the last two weeks, and ah haven’t woke up from it, and no one who saw me said ah was crazy for claiming to be a little pony.”

“Look,” Apple Bloom admitted, moving her hoof to massage at her forehead exasperatedly, “It sounds like you been dealing with this for a long time, tellin’ yourself you ain’t psychic, an’ not wanting ta be crazy, but you’re talking to a pony right now. A little human colored pony who is your friend, and who can talk.”

“Diamond Tiara,” Apple Bloom said evenly, “Magic is real. You’re psychic. Deal with it.”

The little pony then looked at her leadingly, and started to say, “Now what’s this about—” but that’s as far as she got, before she saw Diamond Tiara’s chest heaving and her eyes dripping with tears.

“I have to, like I... I have to,” Diamond said unsteadily.

Apple Bloom looked away politely, waving a hoof saying, “Go into mah room ah’ll make sure no one bothers you in there.” Diamond stood, and almost fell. She was practically running up the stairs then, and Apple Bloom heard a door slam... poorly. She winced at that, hoping it wasn’t stuck again. Then she sighed, and it was a shuddering sigh, Apple Bloom’s own emotions bubbling up again from the sounds coming through the ceiling. Good lord that Diamond Tiara could wail.

Swallowing dryly, despite just having drank a bunch of water with her hay, Apple Bloom trotted over to the stairs. She ran up them determinedly, and sure enough her brother was already starting across the hall, called to the unprecedented sound of Diamond Tiara, crying her eyes out in Apple Bloom’s room. Apple Bloom shoved her hooves against her brother’s shins, stopping him in his tracks and shaking her head silently at him. Then she sort of slid him back into his room, not that he was resisting in particular. There, she tried her best to fill him in on what little she knew.

“Diamond Tiara walked here,” Apple Bloom said gravely. “Like, all the way here. Ah don’t know where from.”

“What–” he said but she interrupted, saying,

“No, let me finish. She’s been havin’ some kind of visions or something. Ah think it’s connected to what happened to me, more of that crazy magic stuff. Somethin’ terrible is gonna happen and it’s been eating her up for ah don’t know how long. She thought she was crazy, so she came out all this way for... something about her visions ah didn’t really get it, but ah told her that magic was real and ah’m a little talking horse so she couldn’t deny it. So she just found out that she ain’t crazy and um... something, so she’ll be fine. She just needs some time to let it out... ah think.”

Apple Bloom started out confidently, but her grasp of the facts was weaker than she thought, and she was curling her tail against her dress by the end of it. Big Macintosh sat down at his swivel chair at his desk, sat there and looked down at her quietly as she finished saying her peace.

“Eeyup,” was his answer, turning back to his desk and pulling his chair in. He was working on engine designs, if the scattered papers on the floor were any indication. Just the sort of thing he did, when Big Macintosh was feeling worried or anxious about something.

Apple Bloom fidgeted there, and said quietly, “...thanks for the snacks. It really helped, ah think.” He turned and looked down at her again, and gave her a warm smile. His smile faltered at a particularly loud sob from Diamond Tiara though, and he just turned back to his desk and started running his pencil along the edge of his T-square.

Apple Bloom just waited there on the floor quietly. And then waited there on her back quietly. And then sighed, and waited there on her side, quietly. After an interminable amount of time, Diamond finally sounded like she was calming down. The sounds of her cries and Big Mac’s pencil scratches diminished to only Big Mac’s pencil scratches. Apple Bloom lifted her head, struggling to her feet and craning her ears. All she heard were sniffles though, quiet sniffles she had no right to hear, were it not for those darned ears on her head. Eventually, they too came to a halt.

Apple Bloom took that as the best hint she was going to get. She stood, looking at Big Macintosh, who gave her a silent thumbs up, and then Apple Bloom walked herself out of his room, and down the short hall to her door. Apple Bloom’s door had gotten wedged shut, go figure, but that was Apple Bloom’s fault for using this stupid sock to hold it from latching. After a moment of consternation, and a serious consideration to call Big Macintosh, Apple Bloom finally just bit down on the corner of the door sticking out, and pushed her little legs backward, falling on her butt as the door jerked unstuck again.

She trotted in to find Diamond Tiara sitting on her bed looking, well, deflated is a good word for it. She definitely wasn’t liable to burst into tears after that little episode back there. Apple Bloom was trying to think of something to say to comfort her, but Diamond spoke first.

“I stole a laptop,” she said dimly. Like it wasn’t even any big thing. “I stole a laptop, because I couldn’t think of any other way,” she continued. “I heard about the news broadcast and I just like had to see it and... I couldn’t sleep I—I started remembering again. So I had to steal the laptop. There was no other way to watch it at the orphanage. They only have like TVs, not computers or anything. So I found the news broadcast online and downloaded it, and you were like, a girl with horse ears. Just like what I remembered. Except it was Applejack, not you.”

She sighed, saying, “My roommates hate me it’s just... it’s nothing special it’s just a little like, competitive there. Everyone wants to be adopted, even if you’re like... even if it’s too late. I was okay for a while, but then they found where I was hiding it, and the laptop disappeared. I thought they were going to tell on me; I didn’t think they were going to steal it. I guess I did think they were going to steal it, but I like—I didn’t care I had to have something to tell me I’m not... like... crazy.”

“So they stole it,” Diamond reiterated, with a hint of anger in her exhausted voice, “And I couldn’t watch it anymore. And I couldn’t stop thinking how crazy I was and get any sleep. I know I like, stole it, but I just like, took it from some kid who just, like, used it for games. I really needed it!”

She looked at Apple Bloom, who was already back on her haunches, ears lowered, as Diamond finished her story. “So they found out I stole it. The laptop, I mean,” Diamond said hesitantly, “The school found out, I mean. So when I went to school I had to see the principal, and I couldn’t give back the laptop, so I got suspended.”

“So then I came here,” she finished quietly.

“And... um...” Apple Bloom said in that stupidly tiny voice of hers, but she just had to know. “How did you pay for bus fare?” she asked weakly.

Diamond paused again an uncomfortable amount of time, before admitting, “I didn’t take the bus.”

“Diamond...” Apple Bloom said warningly, “It’s a long way from here to Canterlot High.”

“I don’t care,” she said hastily. “I had to see you! I had to know whether or not I really was... like...”

“You are crazy,” Apple Bloom said, standing up and pausing significantly for the girl’s eyes to widen in alarm, “Crazy in a good way! You know what ah was talkin’ about last night? You couldn’t come to visit!” She walked slowly towards Diamond as she talked. “Ah was stuck here at the farm, and you were stuck there with all sorts of paperwork and rigamarole. Ah wasn’t gonna get to see you for weeks! And you’re just like fuck that noise and you came here. It’s an honest to gosh Christmas miracle!”

She put a hoof on Diamond Tiara’s denim wrapped shin, from where the girl’s legs were dangling over the edge of her bed. “You’re the most stubborn girl ah know,” Apple Bloom said to her as she looked down at her. “You can do things nobody else in the world can do, just because you never give up. If that’s crazy, then ah want you to be crazy. Because that’s who you are!”

She took a look at Diamond’s face and, oh hell no. She had that dumb silly smile that Apple Bloom had become all too accustomed to seeing in people these past two weeks. Apple Bloom made a show of trying to escape, but Diamond Tiara just compulsively reached down and picked her up like a giant doll, and hugged her tight enough that Apple Bloom thought she was gonna pop.

Diamond Tiara lay back on Apple Bloom’s own bed and, wouldn’t you know, the girl did find it in her to start crying again, just quietly this time. Apple Bloom just curled her hooves above her passively, held by Diamond Tiara, trying not to feel disgusted by the fact that she was being used as a teddy bear right now. She also had to fight not to think about how nice it felt, once Diamond stopped crushing her and just lay there, gently stroking the fur where her belly was unprotected by the dress.

Apple Bloom was still laying there awkwardly, with Diamond’s hand just resting against her, when a quiet snore started to issue from the girl underneath. “Oh for the love of Betsy!” Apple Bloom wanted to shout. But instead, she just quietly wiggled out from under her friend’s limp arms, and rolled right off both her and the bed. Apple Bloom winced as she landed on all fours with a loud clump, but Diamond Tiara didn’t even stir. She must have been really tired.

Apple Bloom tip toed out of her room. Well, to be fair she was always tip-toeing, but she sort of—somehow sort of... walked, quieter-like. Apple Bloom closed her door as best as she was able, without getting it jammed again, then went to check on Big Macintosh, to fill him in. As much as she thought she had any right to fill him in, at least.

“She walked all the way from high school,” Apple Bloom said quietly, to the even quieter fussy brother of hers.

He hunched his shoulders, before turning to look at Apple Bloom and saying uneasily, “That’s almost 20 miles away.”

“Yeah, all the way across town,” Apple Bloom said, morosely. “She had plenty of time, on account’a she got–” Apple Bloom bit her lip looking aside, then said, “...suspended this morning.”

“What about?” Big Macintosh asked neutrally. Apple Bloom didn’t answer right away, thinking really hard about what she should say about this.

“Nothin’ that was her fault,” Apple Bloom said, her throat feeling tight as she said it.

“She okay?” Big Macintosh said concernedly, and much to Apple Bloom’s relief he was kind enough not to press any further.

Apple Bloom looked behind her quickly, then said to him quietly “She’s sleepin’ in mah room. Ah’m gonna go play outside, so as not to disturb her. If she gets up, you can let her know, right?”

Big Macintosh nodded, with that stolid, even look of his. Apple Bloom smiled back gratefully saying, “Thanks. Ah hope this is ain’t too imposing on you.”

“Ain’t your fault either,” he said raising an eyebrow.

Apple Bloom blushed at that, saying, “T-thanks,” as she backed away out the door into the hall. Before going downstairs, she snuck into her room again on an afterthought. She couldn’t exactly leave a note without hands to write with, but what she did was turn her head sideways, so she could get at the bow there. Pulling it undone, she took it in her mouth and reared up as gently as she could against the side of her bed, tossing the ribbon onto Diamond’s chest. The girl may have stirred fitfully, but she didn’t awaken.

Apple Bloom didn’t take her dress off in her room for fear of waking her. She hurried downstairs instead, and slipped out of it in the relative privacy of the living room, leaving it draped up on the couch, so she wouldn’t mess the thing up while she was running around out there.

Then, Apple Bloom trotted through the door and out to the world, where she stood blinking in the bright light of the afternoon. The sun was shining through the silver white clouds boiling all over across the sky. It seemed... inappropriately pleasant. Apple Bloom went over to her ball and kicked it unenthusiastically. All the creek water had dried off it, though it still picked up moisture from the grass as it rolled around.

Apple Bloom shook her head and left the ball where it rolled to a stop. She headed restlessly out to the pasture, instead. She got herself into that gallop, and really picked up speed fast. She didn’t want to let Diamond Tiara know, but it was real easy to keep up with the exhausted, fleeing girl.

Apple Bloom didn’t know if it was the four legs or what, but she ended up running so fast, it was exhilirating. Coming down out of the cover of the trees into the broad, wide pasture that separated the Acres from town, Apple Bloom tore across the land like a little ketchup and lemon torpedo. It made her want to laugh out loud. It was just so easy to leave her troubles behind, when she could run around like this!

Apple Bloom stopped by a couple of the cows, who were standing around grazing unconcernedly. The cows had warmed up to Apple Bloom’s new shape real quick, not that much of anything phased them, long as it wasn’t a snake. “Hey there Mooella, Moohilda,” she said all friendly-like. “Gettin’ yourselves big and strong, huh?” They didn’t even look at her. Mooella just lowed deeply, walked a few more paces to the not yet chewed down grass. Apple Bloom didn’t mind though. One thing cows were good at, and that’s grazing. They didn’t judge you or make trouble. They were like big dumb grazing machines.

Even with Apple Bloom’s new habit of sampling the terrain, she couldn’t hold a candle to how quickly these cows could mow down a field. Made sense, considering how big they were. It occurred to Apple Bloom that cows were in fact even bigger than horses, at least in terms of mass. But for some reason, they weren’t nearly as intimidating. Probably because she was part horse now or something.

Maybe it was like, looking at chimpanzees or something. Apple Bloom remembered seeing pictures of those wizened faces in her biology book, and going and visiting them in the primate exhibit at the zoo. It was a real creepy experience actually, like they could stare into your soul.

Apple Bloom made a note that she was going to have to pull out the ape section of her Biology book, to see if she didn’t have a different reaction to them now. Maybe after Diamond Tiara was done sleeping off that really long walk. For now, Apple Bloom just ran freely across the fields, pausing now and again to graze, to keep her energy up. And before she knew it, she had meandered all the way to the long white painted fence delineating the cow pasture and Apple Family property. Beyond it was a small stand of trees, and then the main road into town. The road the bus ran along.

Apple Bloom reared up and dangled her hooves over the fence slats, poking her head through the thing to look towards town. The sounds of cars were a lot louder here. “3 miles...” she murmured, pulling her head back to check the sky, but the angle of the sun had hardly even changed. She had half a mind to keep running, crossing the fence and just going into town, and running all the long way across, to where Canterlot High was nestled far in the southeast. Just to see if she could do it too.

Of course, she wasn’t even a quarter of the way there yet. But still... the one thing Apple Bloom liked the most about this transformation is how much further, and faster she could run without even feeling winded. Sure the actual horses could leave her in the dust no doubt, and so could the cows if they cared to, but Apple Bloom could just keep going. It was great having so much energy, and a body that just wouldn’t quit.

Putting on an impish grin, she ran for the gate to the farm road, down which a certain green pickup truck would be travelling pretty soon. She stayed there in wait, just killing time by kicking rocks around, seeing if she could hit trees with them. When the sound of a familiar engine started to get louder in approach, Apple Bloom backed up, standing right at the entrance to the Acres, waving at them with a hoof as they approached and smiling cheekily, shouting “Hey Applejack! Hi Granny!”

The rumbling pickup turned onto the gritty crumble of the farm road, and rolled to a stop. Applejack stuck her head out the passenger seat window then, saying, “Apple Bloom, what happened?! Why you all the way out here? Did something happen back at the house?”

Apple Bloom’s smile twisted guiltily and she stopped mid-wave saying, “O-oh, right. Everything’s fine! Ah was just runnin’ around the pasture this afternoon, and made it all the way out here. Just thought ah’d say hi. Sorry, I guess it does look sort of worrisome.”

“Near gave us a heart attack, you did!” Applejack admonished in a relieved tone. “You uh...” she touched her mouth with a finger pensively, saying “You want a ride back?”

“Thanks sis,” Apple Bloom said, “But ah wanna run back! Ah’ll meet you there.”

“You’re gonna be okay?” Applejack said uncertainly.

“Yeah, it’s fun!” Apple Bloom assured her.

Behind Applejack in the driver’s seat, Granny Smith smiled approvingly and said, “That’s the spirit, young’n!”

“Oh, hey,” Apple Bloom asked quickly, after Applejack had already started to pull her head in. Her sister paused at her, and Apple Bloom said “If you get back before ah do, I uh... I got a guest over. Just uh... just ask Big Macintosh about it.” Apple Bloom ran off before they could ask any questions, shouting over her shoulder, “And be quiet because she might be sleepin’ still!”

And with that, the race was on.

It wasn’t really a race. Apple Bloom just found it fascinating how she could actually keep up with the truck if she really pushed herself. She followed the road from an increasing distance keeping pace as the truck trundled along. She knew that truck had trouble with the uneven dirt of the road so couldn’t exactly go blazing along, plus Granny was with Applejack, so she would be keeping Granny from really putting the pedal to the metal. But still, that had to be pretty fast! Apple Bloom found herself tiring quickly at this speed though, and stopped to catch her breath, watching the truck pull ahead of her.

Then she gave a small smile and started galloping again, letting the truck continue to pull ahead of her, but still making a lot better time than she ever could if she was walking there on just two legs. Apple Bloom’s favorite part about being a pony was definitely running, hands down. Hooves down. Whatever.

The truck was parked and empty when she arrived at the farm house, and she just kept running through the gate and charging up through the front door. Applejack and Granny Smith were standing there both facing Big Macintosh. From the frustrated look on Applejack’s face, it was clear he hadn’t managed to spill the beans just yet. Apple Bloom had already thought of what to say during the run here though. So Apple Bloom ran up, sliding to a halt once her hooves hit the floorboards, and saying quickly,

“Diamond Tiara thought she was goin’ crazy but she really was having visions of the future which might be terrible and they had to do with me being a pony so she got in trouble because I wasn’t there to confirm it and all she could do was watch the news broadcast, but the orphanage only had televisions so she had to snatch a laptop and then it got double stolen and she got suspended for it and she was so upset that she walked all the way here, so ah thought maybe she could stay over until she gets better from walking.”

All eyes were on her, and Apple Bloom just waited for someone to disapprove of her decision, so she could start taking apart their argument.

“Uh,” Applejack said bemusedly, “Could you run that by me, again?”

Author's Note

I honestly wasn’t going to include her so soon, but the timeframe has been moving along for a few weeks and it’s about time for her shaky situation to fall apart. Also it has to come before the beginning of November, where (I think) the Fall Formal dance is scheduled.

I had a California accent for the longest time, until an English professor beat it out of me. I like, totally resent him for that.