The candle had run out of wick and gone out about ten minutes ago, not that Apple Bloom was counting. She made no effort to find a new one.
The paper crumpled under her face was ruined. It was ruined the moment she set her pencil to it, but now it was even more ruined with tears and punches and possibly a coating of snot.
“I s’pose it’s better now than it was when I was writing on it,” she muttered to herself. “Nopony should have to read that garbage.”
At any other time, Apple Bloom would have found her position slumped over the table incredibly uncomfortable. But after an evening of failed homework, it was a mercy to lower her head, no matter how hard or awkward the surface. Dried salt had all but glued her eyelashes together, a welcome excuse to keep her eyes shut.
Even then, she could see the room suddenly brightening.
She lifted her head, slowly blinking herself back into alertness.
“..loom, what’re you… up so late? You okay?” Applejack’s voice flickered in and Apple Bloom reluctantly turned her head to face her sister, squinting at the light pouring in from the other room.
“Just… homework…” She had to fight a sudden urge to cough, her response catching in her dried-out throat.
“Stay there, I got you.” Applejack’s hooves quickened, presumably headed for the kitchen. “No wait, do get up and stretch your legs. You probably need it.” Apple Bloom did as she was told while her sister threw open a cupboard. As nice as it was to lie down, it was admittedly much nicer to stretch some life back into her body. She shook out her hooves and her head, and when she finally opened her eyes properly, Applejack was sitting at the other side of the table with a glass of water. “Here.”
“Thanks,” she croaked. She grabbed the glass and emptied it in one fell swoop. “Sorry if I’m keepin’ you up.”
“Not at all, sugarcube. I mean, I am up, but I don’t mind it,” she clarified. “Big sister senses kicked in ‘n woke me up, that’s all.”
“Guess Pinkie’s really rubbin’ off on you?” Apple bloom said. “Or it just runs in the family.”
“It runs in all the big sisters,” Applejack said. “We have to look out for y’all. Now tell me, what here’s the matter?”
“You can probably see for yourself,” Apple Bloom grumbled, sweeping a hoof over the table.
“Uh… not in this dark, I can’t. Hang on, I’m turning on the lights.” Applejack moved from the table while Apple Bloom shut her eyes tight, bracing herself for impact. The lone lightbulb that still worked sputtered to life and washed the room in a dingy yellow. She didn’t open her eyes again until Applejack had once more sat down at the other side of the table.
“Yeah. This,” Apple Bloom swept her hoof again, “is it.”
There were two sheets of paper neatly laid at the side, and several more sheets with scribbled-out writing strewn over the table, some scrunched into little wads, some torn, a few that had been swept aside and fallen to the floor.
“Writing assignment?”
“Yeah.”
“What on?”
Apple Bloom turned her head away. “It’s stupid. It’s just a fiction writing assignment. Makin’ up a story. Only has to be three pages long, and I’ve got two. But I just can’t…” She fought not to cry again, but lost. “I just can’t get it right, no matter what I do, no matter what words I try. It just don’t work.”
Applejack thought for a moment. “You know the saying ‘perfect is the enemy of good’?”
“Yeah, but-”
“But we’re not doing that.” She moved to stand next to Apple Bloom. “Right now, it’s ‘good is the enemy of gettin ‘er done.’ You’ve spent too much tears on this.”
“But it has to be good!” Apple Bloom protested. “I can’t just let myself get a bad grade!”
“A bad grade is better than a zero,” Applejack said.
“Well, this don’t seem very honest of you,” Apple Bloom retorted. “Whatever happened to the integrity of doin’ good work? I can’t just do a bad job on purpose!”
“For the jobs that are important, yes.” Applejack pulled one of the discarded papers closer to herself and scanned it. “Not that school is unimportant, but one assignment isn’t worth this much bellyachin’. I doubt it, anyway. How many points is this worth?”
“A hundred!” Apple Bloom said. “Well, the final draft, anyway.”
“...is this supposed to be submitted as a rough draft?”
“Uh, yeah?”
“Really now? This isn’t even the final-”
“But we’re peer reviewing each other’s rough drafts in class tomorrow!” Apple Bloom said, her voice bordering on a scream. “I HAVE to have it done!”
“Okay, keep it down,” Applejack said. “I don’t mind being up but Granny might. Dunno about Big Mac. But let’s just pause and take some deep breaths, okay?” Apple Bloom reluctantly accepted her command. “There you are. Now that’s better.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s all right. Let’s just try to keep our voices down. Honestly,” she admitted, lowering her voice to a whisper, “I probably should too. Now, can we figure out exactly how much we need to be worrying about this here assignment? The whole point of peer review is you’re making it better, right?”
“Yeah, but in order to make something better, there has to be something there to begin with,” Apple Bloom said. “And I know Twist will have plenty of something. She’s my partner for the first peer review.”
“...okay, Twist probably will, yeah,” Applejack conceded, “but is it required to have the entire story as you have it planned so far? For just the first round?”
“It’s only three pages. Of course it is.” Apple Bloom sank back into her chair. “It’s not really all that much work. I have to do it.”
“Seems like more work than it’s worth to me,” Applejack said. “Did Miss Cheerilee directly state that you have to have all three pages?”
“Well, no, but again, it’s only three pages. I can’t just show up without ‘em all.” Apple Bloom fiddled with her pencil. “I just have to write one more page, but it has to be something I can work with tomorrow.”
“Seeing as how we’re less than an hour away from tomorrow,” Applejack said, with a glance at the clock on the wall, “I say you should focus more on being a well-rested review partner. That’s what the point of this particular assignment really is, right?”
“Mmmhm,” Apple Bloom groaned, pushing the pencil back and forth. Applejack didn’t reply right away. The silence felt like a warm blanket, cooing to Apple Bloom and telling her she should give up on the paper entirely and come to her cozy bed. If it weren’t for the adrenaline still coursing through her, she would probably be asleep slouched over the table right that minute.
“Is there something else bothering you, sugarcube?” Applejack asked.
“What do you mean?” She fought back a yawn as she turned to better face her sister.
“I dunno, it feels like all of a sudden you care about school a lot more than you used to,” Applejack explained. “Not that you were ever a bad student, but you always seemed to focus more on other stuff, and it seems like now school is all you think about. I mean, this,” she gestured at the meltdown paper pile, “is new, but even over the past… month, say, you talk about your assignments a whole lot more and everything else a whole lot less.”
“I guess so.” Apple Bloom sighed. “I just… don’t want to limit myself by not doing well, y’know?”
“I do know that feeling,” Applejack said, “but again, you have more time to do well and make your work better. Is there some specific reason you think you need to have everything really good from the get-go?”
Now it was Apple Bloom’s turn to fall silent. Far from the cozy blanket of silence from before, she was fighting her answer.
“Is there?” Applejack prompted.
“I… I can’t, Applejack. Not tonight. Not while it’s this late. It would just break you.”
“What do you mean by that?”
Too late. Applejack had tensed up and was staring Apple Bloom down. She couldn’t bear to look her in the eyes right now. If only she had just kept her mouth shut, said nothing until Applejack gave up and went back to bed.
Not like Applejack would give up, she thought to herself. Not like Applejack the notoriously stubborn would give up on her sister. Not like the Element of Honesty, like you said, would let the truth stay buried.
“Apple Bloom?” Applejack prompted her again. “Is there something you need to tell me?”
She sighed, and gave in. “Look, it’s not final yet. I haven’t fully decided on this, and you can talk me out of this if you want to. But… you know how the other Crusaders and I all have our own kind of things that we do, besides just the cutie mark stuff?”
“Yeah?” Applejack said. “I heard Sweetie Belle’s joining the Pony Tones.”
“Yep. Newest singer and songwriter,” Apple Bloom said. “And Scootaloo can’t be kept away from her scooter stunts long. That’s her other thing. But mine…”
She trailed off, shrinking into herself, until Applejack put a firm but gentle hoof on her shoulder. “It’s okay. You can tell me.”
“I… I think you know I’ve had a thing for potion-making for a while now. I’ve been working with Zecora for a while, and I was working with Twilight at one point,” Apple Bloom explained, her words coming out in a rush and trying to pile on top of each other. “But Twilight has to focus on her princess stuff, and Zecora’s gonna be travelling for a while starting soon, and I really want to take more time to focus just on potion making, so I thought, maybe I could go to secondary school for it? Except, I’d have to do well in this school if I want to have a chance of getting into another one. And I never really prioritized school when I was younger, so now I feel like I should really be working hard if I want a chance at catching up. Except I don’t know if I could really do this in the first place, or if you’d even let me, because there isn’t a dedicated school for that in Ponyville…”
“And that means you’d have to leave for elsewhere,” Applejack finished for her. “Look, if you want to try for it, I won’t keep you here.”
“Really?” Apple Bloom said. “I thought you would want me to stay here!”
“I like havin’ you here, yes,” Applejack said, “but if you really wanna do this, it wouldn’t be right for me to hold you back. Besides, it’s not like you wouldn’t be welcome back if you left. We’re family, and I know we’re always gonna find our way back to each other, even if you have to go off on your own for a little bit.”
“Wow,” Apple Bloom said. “This is a long ways away from strapping five helmets on my head when I wanted to go apple-buckin’.”
“Oh I did give myself a reputation with that, didn’t I,” Applejack giggled. “Don’t worry, I learned my lesson. And you are a good bit older now. Just,” her voice wobbled a bit, “if you do go off, you have to write us, okay?”
Apple Bloom rushed to hug her sister. “Of course I would. I’m not just gonna prance off without writing.”
Applejack hugged her back. “Okay good. I haven’t learned my lesson that much.”
Apple Bloom snorted into her shoulder. “I don’t think you’re ever gonna fully learn that one.”
“I guess Pinkie has rubbed off on me,” Applejack laughed, though it was hard to tell whether she was really laughing or crying. “I’m gonna be like her when we saw Rainbow off to the Wonderbolts.”
“Oh, you better not get sucked into a tornado just to come and visit me.”
“You better not be makin’ any tornadoes!” Applejack kissed Apple Bloom’s forehead and pulled back a step. “Now, tell you what, how about you spend the next half an hour on this here paper, and whatever is done, is done. Deal?”
Apple Bloom sat back down. “Deal.”
“Need me to sit on your head to write it or can you do it yourself?”
“I can do it myself.”
“You’re not just gonna sit there ‘n mope, right?” Applejack moved toward the kitchen.
“Nope, I’m gonna work. Once you stop distracting me,” Apple Bloom said.
“Oh, all right.”
Apple Bloom picked up her pencil and pulled over the last clean sheet of paper on the table. She thought back to where the story had ended off on the second page. ExtraordiPeare had just been left to rot in the dungeon of her arch-nemesis, Dry Skies, when she had to think of a crafty way to escape. With nothing but the things she had on her, that should be written down on the next page, she devised a plan.
Her thought process was interrupted by a clink at her right. She was met with a cold glass of apple juice and a cupcake from Pinkie’s latest delivery.
“Don’t stay up too late now,” Applejack said, as she headed out of the room. “Love you.”
“Love you too, AJ,” Apple Bloom said back. She took a sip of juice, and forced her pencil to the paper. She had an idea now, and by the stars, she was going to write it.
“Luckily, ExtraordiPeare had just the thing to work in her saddlebag, just a stone’s throw bit away from her. She pushed through her chains and pulled out some magic seeds, guaranteed to connect her to her roots wherever she roamed and give her the power she needed to break out.”
Author's Note
In all honesty (lol), I'm just trying to knock the rust off my writing gears. This probably isn't my best work, and I have no idea how to punctuate a question that isn't a question because it's a quote within a quote, but I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things and have some less rushed writing coming out at some point in the nearer future.
