Apple Bloom woke up with two things on her mind: Her blank flank and an overwhelming sense of Deja Vu. Comfortably ensnared in her bed, her mind wandered away to the possibilities of a cutie mark she was definitely going to earn today but remained anchored by the dreaded feeling she’d had this thought before.
She turned, facing a chair that held a paraglider she’d ‘borrowed’ for today. Swearing, no, knowing that she’d flown one of these before, and unfruitfully at that. She lay there soaking under her covers in this sense of familiarity before her youthful restlessness caught up with her. She flung herself out of bed and made for her window. The dawn had yet to arrive but was near the time where it ought to. The farm was tinted a soft cobalt, changing itself slowly to a warm orange before the sun fully rose and bathed the world in light.
Apple Bloom was always mesmerized by the sunrise and sunset, finding it dumbfounding that the sun both rose and fell with one pony controlling it. Sometimes she wished she could be a princess, but her daily duties always swatted that hope down and had them shatter upon hitting the ground. She was an earth pony born to a farming family, this was likely all there was to her life.
Maybe that was the reason for her Deja Vu. The usual realization that it wouldn’t matter what her cutie mark would be because she couldn’t escape the farm regardless of what it was. She wanted to crawl back into bed, but the weight of her farm duties kept her from it. Apple Bloom approached her faded bedroom door and heard birds singing. It wasn’t out of the ordinary, they did that every morning. The second chorus got under her fur. The third time struck a cord and the fourth snapped it. Their song didn’t change from the first time to the fourth, there was absolutely no difference.
Things can sound similar, and something like a bird song is unremarkable when she had heard it thousands of similar times. But when they were identical, she felt something was off. She couldn’t quite place her hoof on it, and that scared her. The filly had no idea why she felt fear, it was just a bird song. Yet, it was still there at the bottom of her stomach, clawing its way up through her.
She shook her head and opened the door as the breakfast bell rang. Reflexively Apple Bloom marched into the upstairs washroom and started washing up for her morning meal. She never understood why she had to wash her hooves and face before a meal, they’d both just get dirty again. It was one of those things that Applejack told her to do irrespective of how she felt about it. Like doing homework and eating her vegetables, she never wanted to do them, but she couldn’t argue with her older sister. Apple Bloom chuckled. What would her sister say to her thoughts this morning? What a silly thing to be upset about.
She raced down the stairs, gleeful about the prospects of the day and to tell Applejack all about them. Winona zoomed down faster than her, but Apple Bloom noticed something off about the dog as well. Winona was walking differently. Her back left leg limped whenever she took a step like it was limited in its motion. Perhaps she had always walked that way, and Apple Bloom had gotten so used to it that she failed to notice. No, that can’t be right. If it was always that way, why would she think that it’s odd now? She shook her head, but it didn’t clear from her mind.
She was fixated on that… Mutation of motion Winona carried herself with. Her eye twitched with the weight of the irritation the day had already given her and intensified when she realized the entire day would be like this. Why couldn’t she get past her dog’s strange walk? Apple Bloom loved Winona, but why did she suddenly feel like that wasn’t Winona? Was it the walk? It had to be, and this had to not be her dog. A replacement!
She let out a gasp. The birds sang an identical song because it was only a single recording, and Winona walked differently because that’s not an organic leg, it’s robotic! She couldn’t let a soul hear about this understanding though, she’d be looked at like she was crazy. Applejack in her inability to mince words would probably call her a loony. She enjoyed her freedom and time with her friends, she didn’t want to be locked up in some facility.
She heaved a sigh. What was she thinking? Applejack wasn’t fond of doctors, much less ‘head doctors.’ The possibility of her getting committed was as likely as all water suddenly becoming dry. Still, that was only for Applejack. She had better watch her step around her friends, especially Sweetie Belle. Not so much for the filly herself, but her older sister was quite prone to being a hypochondriac.
Apple Bloom wiped her brow as she sat down at the table to a plate of warm oats and the usual apple slices alongside buttered toast and apple juice. She admired Applejack for her ability to get an innumerable amount of things done in a day consistently. Her movements seemed rigid as she went across the kitchen filling everypony’s plates out. Impossible, the sister she knew would move closer to a dance than a stiff completing of actions. Apple Bloom ate her breakfast quickly, with an eye on her “family” around her.
The table was set in the usual plaid cloth, and the plain scent of oatmeal crossed with distant fertilizer floated across the small room. The confounded birds’ identical songs drifted in through the open window. Apple Bloom’s eyes darted across the photos hung up across the wooden wall, searching for any sign of a mistake. She found none. It was any morning she’d woken up to before.
“So, Ahpple Bloom.” Applejack started between gasps of her shoveling food into her mouth. “Any big plans fer today?” She gulped, a satisfying release of air following. It was a very realistic replication of her sister, to be certain. “Winter just wrapped up and ahll, you must be just thrilled fer what you cahn do now.” She chuckled. “Must be glad to not sleepwalk in the snow too.”
Apple Bloom limply stirred her oats as a response. She didn’t want to dignify this obvious replacement of her sister with any kind of response she’d give to the real one. She had wished that the false sister wouldn’t pry, but the artificial intelligence of this thing was very close to how her sister would respond.
“Aw, don’t be like that, sugar cube. Ah know that cutie mark ain’t comin’ as quick as you’d like it to, but you just gotta be patient and uhm…” She glanced around to the others at the table. “Eat yer greens, right Granny?” She looked to the wizened green mare expectantly.
“Ah! Oh yes…” Her words trailed off, her processors must’ve been overheating thinking of the next thing to say. “Once you grow big ahn’ strong-like, you’ll get yer cutie mark. Just don’t go an’ rush it now, won’t come that-a-way no siree.” Sounded convincing enough, especially Big Mac adding an ‘eeyup!’ for good measure.
“See, there you go, sugar cube! You’ll, uhm, get it in no time! So what’re your plans fer gettin’ it today? Ah like seein’ you so driven, makes us proud here!” Applejack smiled, stary oats clinging to her teeth like flies to sticky paper.
“Wouldn’t you like to know, you… You… Imposter!” Apple Bloom clenched her teeth with her accusation.
“What? What are you talkin’ about, Apple Bloom?” Her eyebrow raised, concern hanging off her every word.
“You’re not my sister!” She jabbed a hoof at her, then to Big Mac. “And you’re not my brother!”
Applejack hit the table, prompting both Apple Bloom and Granny Smith to recoil. “Now look here, Ah don’t know what’s gotten into you, but we’re your kin sugar cube. Me ahn’ Granny ahn’ Mac has been raisin’ you since you were this tall!” She put her hoof just above the table. “Ah don’t know where yer gettin’ this imposter nonsense, but it ends here!”
Granny Smith rested a hoof on Applejack’s shoulder. “Maybe that was a lil’ much, dear. She’s just a lil’ cooped up is all. Let her go with her friends fer the day, get it all out of her system.”
“After she just raised her voice at us like that? Ah think she should go to her room without supper tonight.” She stared frustrated at her grandmother.
Granny Smith started to respond but stopped when she saw Apple Bloom running out of the farmhouse. Applejack started after her, but Granny held a hoof out and smiled warmly. A sigh ended the conversation.
***
Apple Bloom’s day both started and ended with frustration. The feeling that floated above her family followed her and rested among her friends. She had lashed out on them. She knew not only that they were imposters, but that every pony in Ponyville was as well! No, Granny’s words were wrong, she didn’t feel any better with a day out of the house. Nor did she feel that she had any friends anymore, not after what she said.
She was at her wit’s end and had only one remaining option before she started seeking to prove that she was correct. A night’s rest could see an end to these foalish observations. She’d have to apologize to her friends and her family if she was wrong. It would be difficult, but if that was the case, she would owe it to them. She’d owe it to herself too, the feeling of guilt likely wouldn’t subside if she let such incendiary words remain unforgiven.
Apple Bloom sat on her bedside, anger and optimism stewing together like flaming oil and freezing water beneath it. She didn’t want to be wrong, but at the same time, she hoped that she would be. The thought of everypony being replaced was terrifying, they even swapped her dog and Rarity’s cat. Celestia’s sake, they even switched Spike! Where would they get another baby dragon or the scales to replicate him?
She shook her head and sunk beneath her covers. She just wanted this terrible day to end already. With some initial difficulty, alongside tossing and turning, she fell asleep.
***
Apple Bloom sat restlessly in her desk facing Cheerilee, trying desperately to make out anything on her board that she was lecturing about. Focus eluded her, and she kept glancing over to her fellow peers, all of them locked onto their teacher. She leaned over to Scootaloo, hoping to gain some insight into the nebulous words her teacher was saying. She looked down at her friend’s notebook and only found scrawled spirals amidst ones and zeros haphazardly peppered across the page.
She tilted her head to her pegasus friend. “Hey Scoots, what’s all this supposed to mean?” That’s when she noticed it. Her face had no features to them. It was completely smooth and barren of any detail beyond color and a ring etched around where a face ought to end. Horror drowned any confusion she felt before. Then the mannequin resembling her friend turned, the front falling off, revealing a mess of wires across a field of lime-colored metal.
“SYSTEM_ERROR. User: SCOOTALOO NOT FOUND. ERROR. ERROR.” It twitched, each repetition growing faster and making the mechanical voice sink deeper into demonic toned. Apple Bloom toppled out of her desk, hitting the ground. Hard. She dizzily looked up to find a pearl-colored face blankly pointing at her. She froze, only able to look on in mortal terror, her pupils a single dot in a sea of white. The front cover of this figure crashed directly on Apple Bloom’s face, it was heavier than it seemed.
She stumbled up, the world spinning. She clutched her nose, which stung deeply in pain. The sickening taste of iron filled her mouth as she spat out blood and a tooth. She blinked, the world glassily doubling itself as she lurched away from these automatons. She had known it from the start!
The window next to her shattered and a lapis alicorn stood nobly in the shards. Princess Luna? This must be a dream then! This all must have been a bad dream! The princess vaporized the robotic ponies effortlessly and looked at the young filly with a face matching conviction and concern. “Young one, are you hurt?”
Apple Bloom blinked, the room becoming clear and singular. “Ah’m alright, it’s only a dream, right?” She wiped her nose, blood smearing across her forehoof.
“Even so, I’m worried about what brought on such a nightmare. I’ve never seen anything quite like this.” She looked up, lost in thought.
“Oh, that’s easy!” Apple Bloom exclaimed, pain shooting through her mouth as she did, causing her to wince and rub her cheek. “Ow… Today was just awful. I thought everypony was replaced by robots or somethin’ silly like that. But whew, am Ah happy t’ know that it was all just a dream.”
“In the waking world? You had thoughts like this before you went to sleep, I mean?” She returned her royal glance to Apple Bloom, streaks of fear coloring her eyes.
Apple Bloom tilted her head. “Yeah, why? Ah thought goin’ t’ sleep would get rid of that.”
The princess winced. “I’m… I’m uncertain of what to tell you, young one. But what I can tell you is that sleeping this off won’t get rid of that feeling. You took that suspicion into your dreams with you. I can also tell you, I’m not a… Robot, as you say.”
Apple Bloom hung her head, anger claiming every rational thought. This wasn’t the princess. This is some sort of chip that’s been implanted in her head while she was sleeping by that Applejack imposter! It was trying to make her forget, make her complacent in their scheme! Her fury rose, building to an impossible boil that captured and burned away any rationality. Apple Bloom rushed at the thing that looked like Princess Luna, hitting it across the muzzle.
It yelped, clutching the wound with terror in its eyes. She hit it again, drawing immeasurable strength from the realization she was in a dream. Its eye swelled shut with another punch, the other followed. She was about to strike a blow to the object’s teeth with she heard a dog’s yelp.
Her eyes snapped open, she was holding a trembling Winona in her hooves. Apple Bloom’s eye refused to cease its twitching. She had sleepwalked into the barn, her shaking dog in tow. Apathy scorched across her mind and she dropped the creature and walked carelessly away from its battered body.
She returned with a shovel, and in one quick strike to its head, knocked out the quaking dog. Apple Bloom was going to prove she wasn’t insane. She was going to prove to herself beyond any measure of doubt that there were replacements and that they have taken over Equestria!
She retrieved a pair of gardening shears and plunged them into the object’s rear leg, the source of her suspicion. It struck bone with a sickening thud, and she started tearing it open with resistance. The synthetic tissue lay splayed open, and there among the artificial sinew and fake blood was an iron leg.
A sneer stretched across her face. She was correct! There was no doubt in her mind that everypony was an imitation! She was the only real one left! She needed to leave, but where? Where would she go and what would she do with this realization? The castle wouldn’t have her, and even Princess Luna was gone. Wherever it was, she wasn’t getting any nearer to it by standing around.
She opened the barn doors to find a sleepy Big Mac blinking back at her. His eyes shot open, and he sprinted towards the farmhouse. Apple Bloom was dumbfounded, but she couldn’t say she was surprised. The robots were onto her! The ringing of that bell was their call to arms! And that chariot racing towards the house was their leader! It had to be! They needed to put her down!
All Apple Bloom could do was collapse in a laughing fit. There was nowhere she could go, she was in the robot’s domain. No one she could talk to, even her family and rulers were all replaced. They even got to her in her sleep! Soon she doubted she would even be herself anymore, and there was nothing she could do about it but laugh. It was over. She was on the losing side of the robot’s history.
***
Applejack walked down a tunnel of ordinary white lit by fluorescents. Despite her unending endurance, she felt weighed down. The stress of her sister being committed pulled on her pride, and nearly threatened to break it. She didn’t want to lift her head from its hung position. Her life had become a virulent mix of depression and worry, cut with shame and served in a padded room. She didn’t want to look her life in the eye, but there it was, glaring at her.
Applejack peered into the solitary room containing her younger sister, a lonely white cube. Her sister leered at her with magmatic intensity. Her reflection shone on the glass looked back at her at the same time. Faces of both utter sadness and volcanic fury stared at her. She closed her eyes and let a tear streak from both. Her mouth curled to a straight line, straining to hold in her sobs like a dam would a river.
She wanted to open her eyes and see her sister again, that bouncy innocent filly with the world in front of her. She loved that filly, she knew that filly. She desperately yearned for her to be that foal that always wanted more applesauce. The one that wanted to go higher on the swings, or the one that came home from school with two new friends in tow. Applejack knew however that when she opens her eyes, she won’t be met with that foal that she loved. She’d see a mare in a straight jacket that she didn’t recognize.
Her hooves felt anchored to the plain tile floor, and her eyes didn’t want to open. She wanted to keep them closed and let the world go away. Applejack was an adult though, and she knew that the world would keep turning despite her. The bills wouldn’t wait for her to get better and nor would her crops and livestock. She pleaded with any listening higher power that her sister get better, that she might become that adorable sister she knew.
That wasn’t her in the room. That was somepony else who forced her hooves into burying the family dog, the dog that they’d both grown up with. She wanted to be angry, she wanted to enact her wrath on whoever that was in that padded cell. Love held her back. She loved Apple Bloom, and even though she was tormented by something in her head, it was still her.
Applejack squeezed her eyes tighter as a hoof laid itself gently on her shoulder. It was the doctor that called her earlier. Bottle Cap. He’d relayed the entire situation to her, the dream in which she assaulted Princess Luna and had woken up to… She shook her head with a sigh strained through her teeth. “What’s the damage, doc?”
She could hear the mechanical click as he pushed his glasses up, still refusing to open her eyes. “To tell you the truth, Applejack. We’ve never seen anything like this. It’s a completely new set of symptoms.” There was a twinge of glee in his voice.
Applejack turned and opened her eyes, staring hollowly at the young white stallion. “That’s muh sister in there, y’hear me? Not some prize pony you can write yer dissertation about.”
“I understand.” He adjusted his glasses and cleared his throat. “We’re not quite sure how to go about treatment. We’d need to run more tests, but the ones we’ve given so far haven’t been very helpful. She doesn’t seem to want to cooperate.”
Applejack removed her hat and gripped it tightly in her hoof. “‘Course she don’t! She thinks we’re all robots. How in the sam hill are you gon’ do anythin’?” She leaned over the buck, fire in her tone.
“N-now now!” He stammered, backing away from the farm pony’s ire. “We’re not sure yet, we just started with a completely new disorder. It’ll take some time before we can properly go about anything.”
“Perfect.” She wanted to spit on this pony.
“Now that it’s all said.” He tried to rest a hoof on Applejack, only to have it hurled off. “I think we can get her to recover. We have a solid record of success here.”
Applejack bit her tongue. “You don’t gotta sell me on nothin’! Just get my sister back!” She choked with her last sentence, her mouth returning to a trembling straight line.
“We’ll do our best.” Cap’s voice sank, realizing he’d been operating without any emotional discretion. “I’ll… I’ll leave you two alone now.”
Applejack glared at the stallion as he walked away, returning her hat on her head with a grinding of her teeth. Things were tight as it is, and now she’d have to pay for this too. She pulled the hat over her face. There’s no way she could handle the cost, and her pride wrote a check that would bounce. Rarity’s loaded, maybe she can ask her for some help, she’d understand. Generosity is her element after all.
Applejack shook her head. She’d wait until the very last instant before asking, she was going to get as close to doing it herself as she could before asking anypony else. She knew that she shouldn’t and that she could depend on her friends, but how could she tell them about this?
***
A lowly farm pony sat at her plaid kitchen table, a small glass of cider set with twin pieces of ice clutched in her hooves and a paper in the other. They couldn’t fix Apple Bloom, and they had done the very thing Applejack didn’t want to happen. Her case became a household talking point, everypony in Ponyville knew. They called it Cap-Apple Syndrome. What a terrible taste it left in her mouth.
She couldn’t show her face anymore, and her pride hadn’t come back to her since the first time she had to ask for money from Rarity. Applejack didn’t want any of this. She wanted her life to be decent and Apple Bloom’s to be better. She didn’t want to be a public figure to toss pity at.
Applejack just wanted her sister back.
Author's Note
The one-shot you've all been looking forward to! 
I hope you enjoyed (suffered through) my fic! 
If you did, be sure to upvote! 
