It's Not Really Flying...
Apple Bloom was falling faster. Faster, Faster than a Wonderbolt, or Rainbow Dash, or anypony could ever fly. That was because she was falling, and falling is much, much faster than flying. She could feel the wind rushing past her, and her mane trailing behind her. She loved it. She tried to slow down, but the wind wouldn’t let her. She just gave up and let the wind take her faster, faster, free falling. Because Apple Bloom, could totally handle Zero Gravity.
But how did Apple Bloom, an earth pony, get up here? This is the end of this story, so let’s start at the very beginning…
Apple Bloom ran away from Ponyville, away from her friends, away from everything. The Cutie Mark Crusaders had had another failed crusade, which ended up nearly destroying Sugarcube Corner. Apple Bloom had noticed their fear. All of Ponyville was scared of what the CMC would do next. More than one crusade had destroyed something, and each failed crusade just added to the CMC’s horrible reputation. Apple Bloom felt really bad that everypony ran away from the Crusaders when they were just trying to make some cupcakes! Sure, they had almost burned down Sugarcube Corner, but when ponies could have helped, they just ran away screaming!
So she ran. Honestly, she didn’t know where she was going. Apple Bloom ran more, until she suddenly realized she was standing on a small hill. She was in Sweet Apple Acres, with nopony anywhere, except her. Satisfied with her hiding spot, she sat down under one of the many apple trees to think about why everypony was kind of scared of the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
She thought about the CMC capes, and how everypony pretended to like them. Everypony joked about how they should have gotten “cape making cutie marks.” But really, they were scared that having capes would inspire the Crusaders to do even more stupid things. Did these ponies honestly think the CMC thought capes made them superheroes? Maybe the Crusaders themselves didn’t think what they did was stupid, but Ponyville sure did. The CMC made the capes to earn respect from ponies, to show the CMC logo proudly to their town. That was definitely not how things turned out. Now, ponies either got scared when they saw that logo, or they (mostly Diamond Tiara) laughed and called them blank flanks. Now, they have to hide it. Why did ponies act like this? It wasn't like they recked something every time they went crusading!
She needed to do something totally awesome that would earn respect from all of Ponyville, and nopony would ever tease her again. That’s what Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo did. Both of them learned how to fly, and then they put on a really cool show at recess. That impressed their whole class. Even the bullies. Aside from a few pathetic blank flank jokes, Diamond Tiara hadn’t teased Apple Bloom’s friends since that day. Things were different for Apple Bloom. Being an earth pony, she had no wings or magic to hold her in the air, but it needed to be something really good.
“Hi Apple Bloom! What are you doing here?”
Her thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of a certain pink party pony.
“Umm… just thinking.”
“Oooh… are you frustrated that your friends did something totally super awesome and got to learn how to fly and you didn’t and now you wanna do something amazing to make Diamond Tiara stop bullying you because that’s what happened to Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle?”
Apple Bloom just stood there and stared. “Exactly. How did you know that? Do you have a plan?”
“Just a hunch!” she smiled mysteriously. “And yes, I have a plan.”
Seeing the excited look on Apple Bloom’s face, Pinkie just smiled and asked another question. “Can you handle Zero Gravity?”
As Apple Bloom shot out of Pinkie’s Party Cannon, she looked everywhere. Everywhere was the same blue sky. Wanting to see something other than blue, she looked down. Everything looked so small! It was also completely silent. Apple Bloom liked it. She just let her brain go blank and floated there, in silence, enjoying the scenery.
She then noticed that she was falling. Apple Bloom smiled as she imagined herself, a 10 foot tall giant pony, crashing down upon Ponyville. "I would be so fun to scare Diamond Tiara like that!" Apple Bloom said to no one in particular. It would be fun, but sadly, giant ponies were only in books. She thought about how Pinkie had helped her, a blank flank nopony, become a somepony. The first pony to be shot out of Pinkie’s Party Cannon and actually enjoy it. Apple Bloom thought about Ponyville. How everypony probably thought she was crazy. That didn’t matter. If they asked any questions, she would just tell them how she felt about it, and it didn’t matter that she did something stupid. She was free.
"Sweetie Belle! Applejack! Rainbow Dash! Come quick!" Back on the ground, Scootaloo zoomed towards them on her scooter, going faster than she had ever gone before.
"What is it Scootaloo?" Sweetie Belle asked, confused.
Out of breath, Scootaloo just pointed to a small dot, falling through the sky and said, "Apple Bloom."
Instantly, Rainbow Dash started flying towards her.
"She's crazy! What's she doing?" Applejack wondered.
Apple Bloom was falling faster. Faster, Faster than a Wonderbolt, or Rainbow Dash, or anypony could ever fly. That was because she was falling, and falling is much, much faster than flying. Seeing Rainbow Dash in the distance, coming towards her, she just smiled and did a few flips to show off. She could feel the wind rushing past her, and her mane trailing behind her. She loved it. She tried to slow down, but the wind wouldn’t let her. She just gave up and let the wind take her faster, faster, free falling, doing flips, because Apple Bloom could totally handle Zero Gravity.
