Farmer of the Night
Chapter 1
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“What?” Apple Bloom cried, turning her head between each of her friends.
Sweetie Belle shook her head, levitating several suit cases in her magic. “Sorry, Apple Bloom. But my career isn’t going anywhere if I stay in Ponyville.”
Scootaloo finished strapping her stuff down in the wagon, before getting on her scooter. “Yeah. I gotta bounce, too.”
“But... ya’ll come back, right?” the Earth Pony almost begged as her two friends turned, Sweetie to board the train, Scootaloo to start down the road leading out of Ponyville.
The two glanced back at her. “Dunno,” was their only reply before Sweetie boarded the train and Scootaloo shot off down the road.
“Wait!” Apple Bloom cried, frantically looking from the now leaving train to a furthering Scootaloo. “Don’t go! Don’t GO!”
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"NO!" Apple Bloom screamed, sitting up in bed. She was panting heavily.
Seconds later her bedroom door swung open, revealing Applejack. "Apple Bloom, what's wrong?" she asked as she came over.
Apple Bloom grabbed onto her sister. sobbing.
"Nightmares again?"
A nod against her fur was the answer.
Applejack sighed.
This can't go on. She's barely slept for a week now. We need help.
“Ya sure this’ll work, Zecora?” Applejack asked, looking down at the phial of green potion the zebra had given her.
Zecora nodded. “Taken during the day will ensure a dreamless night, Apple Bloom with feel no freight.”
The farm pony nodded her thanks, put the phial of potion in her saddlebag and headed off back towards the direction of her farm.
Ever since that incident with the Tantabus and Ponyville all sharing that same dream, Apple Bloom had been suffering nightmares, all relating to her and her friends, the Crusaders.
Applejack had thought it was simply Apple Bloom fearing things like she had before, shortly after Babs got her Cutie Mark and that she would get over it like she had before. However, it was clear that, before Luna had created the dream that encompassed all of Ponyville, it had done a number on Apple Bloom and reawakened fears she’d put aside.
While asking Princess Luna might’ve been an easier solution, after having dealt with the Tantabus, Applejack didn’t want to bother the princess with something so soon.
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Apple Bloom slowly walked out the house, giving a loud yawn as she went down the steps. She’d barely gotten any sleep over the last week and it showed. The bags under her eyes were obvious from a distance and she’d been told by Miss Cheerilee to stay home until she got better after falling asleep in class for three days straight.
She’d taken the potion AJ got from Zecora an hour ago, but Zecora had instructed that she souldn’t sleep until two hours after it had been in her system, or else the potion wouldn’t work. She hated that. Knowing she wouldn’t have nightmares for the first time in days, she just wanted to curl up in bed and nap, even if it was only a little after noon.
Her eyes closed, Apple Bloom didn’t see where she was going, and bumped into somepony, falling back on her rump with a small, “Ow.”
“My apologies, Apple Bloom,” said a gentle, yet strong voice. “We didn’t expect you to keep walking.”
Apple Bloom opened her eyes and blinked wearily at the large dark-blue blob in front of her. “Princess Luna?” she asked, barely finishing before giving another loud yawn.
“Oh, dear. It is worse than I thought,” Luna gave a light chuckle.
“Wh—” yawn, “Why’re ya here, Princess?” Apple Bloom tried focusing on all three at once, doing a very good impression of a certain gray mailmare.
Luna chuckled again. “As the Princess of the Night, I am here to fufil my duty and help you with these nightmares.” She sat down and opened a wing, inviting the Earth Pony. Apple Bloom complied, settling down against the Alicorn’s side as the wing was draped over her. “Now, what are you nightmares about?”
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Apple Bloom looked down, shame showing through her tired face at Luna’s question. “Cutie Marks.”
Luna sighed. “Apple Bloom, I thought you learned about this. You’re friends won’t feel any differently about you whether you get your Cutie Mark before them or after them. You will still be friends, no matter what happens.”
Apple Bloom looked down, her shame clear.
Luna thought for a moment, then smiled. “I think I know how to fix this.”
The filly looked up, curious, though her tired expression just made her look bored.
Luna shook her head. “I have a spell that will let you see my own memories from both before and after I gained my Cutie Mark. Maybe, seeing things from my own perspective, you can finally feel at rest with these fears that are plaguing you.”
Apple Bloom gave a tired nod... or maybe her head just bobbed as she tried to stay awake.
Either way, Luna took that as a cue and leaned down, her horn glowing as she cast the spell.
At first, things seemed to be fine. Her memories started lining in place for Apple Bloom and the filly’s mind became open to receive them... but then something changed.
Luna could sense a magic within Apple Bloom corresponding to her own. Frowning, she widened the spell, so that she may see what it was, whilst not disrupting Apple Bloom.
This proved ill-fated, however, as, the moment she did so, the magic lashed out at her. Unable to defend herself from the surprise and uncertain attack, her magic grew stronger, before a blinding flash obscured her vision.
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Apple Bloom blinked, rubbing her eyes with a hoof. What was that? She thought Luna’s spell would let her view Luna’s memories, but she didn’t see any memories play out involving the Alicorn.
She frowned. Something didn’t seem right. The farm looked different than it had before she closed her eyes. She couldn’t put her hoof on what, just that something was different.
Suddenly she winced. It felt like a drill was going through her forehead. It made her ruffle her wings in discomfort.
...
Wait a minute. Wings?
Apple Bloom looked to her sides and gasped. She had wings! Large, yellow-feathered wings.
“What the hay...?” she trailed off at the sound of her own voice. It was deeper. She sounded almost like Applejack, only at a slightly higher pitch.
“Wh-what in Equestria?!” a high voice, that of a filly, said from her side.
The now winged-Earth Pony looked down to see a small Earth Pony filly with a slightly dark-blue coat and a blue mane and tail and no Cutie Mark. She was looking over herself, fear all over her face as she frantically searched herself.
Wait. Wasn’t Princess Luna there a moment ago?
“Um, who’re you?” Apple Bloom asked, still shocked by the voice that didn’t sound like hers, yet was coming from her mouth.
The filly looked up, before her eyes widened in shock and horror. “A-A-Apple Bloom?!” she cried, staring up at the pony.
Apple Bloom frowned, for several reasons. One, how did this filly know her? She felt she remembered the filly, but couldn’t tell where from. Two, why was she looking down at the filly? She was a filly herself, yet their height difference would suggest Apple Bloom was an adult.
The filly looked Apple Bloom over, before her eyes brimmed with tears and she wailed, “NO!”
Apple Bloom looked to where the filly was looking, towards the yellow pony’s flank— before her jaw dropped. Sitting on her own flank was a blotch of black and a white crescent moon.
While part of Apple Bloom wanted to cheer at the sight of a Cutie Mark on her flank, she recognised that Cutie Mark. It was Luna’s.
A thought occurred to Apple Bloom that made her blood run cold. Gulping, she raised a hoof to her head and felt where that drilling feeling, which had become a feeling of something being there now and nothing more, had been.
Her hooves passed over what was clearly a horn.
Apple Bloom then looked more closely at the filly, before her eyes widened in horror. She had seen this filly before, but older and with wings and a horn... and the Cutie Mark she herself now bore.
She gulped. “L-Luna?”
The filly just burst into tears in front of her.
Apple Bloom reacted without thinking, extending one of her new wings and pulling the sobbing filly close, where she began dampening the other’s fur with her tears.
As Luna cried into her fur, Apple Bloom’s heart pounded in her chest as she understood what had happened. Somehow, Luna’s spell had gone wrong. Instead of seeing things from Luna’s past from Luna’s perspective, it had switched them around, letting Apple Bloom see things from Luna’s perspective by turning her into an Alicorn... and, for whatever reason, giving her Luna’s Cutie Mark.
Ah’m gonna be in so much trouble fer this.
Author's Note
This is another of the stories that has been whirling in my head for a bit that i've wanted to get out.
It won't be updated again for a while, but i hope it's caught your interests.
There are several other fics i plan on getting out between now and Sunday. Once they're all out, i'll be able to return my focus to my Five Score story, which i know a lot of people have been waiting for an update on.
Hope you liked this so far and, til next time, goodnight everypony
