The Old Green Mare

Granny Smith cautiously approached the barn, unsure as to how she was going to approach her grandson.  She was leaning toward the “adhesive bandage” approach: just let ‘er rip and deal with the pain.

“Applebloom?  Is that you?” called out a mare’s voice from around the corner.  “There’s a patch of poison joke back here.  I’m clearin’ it out, but I don’t want y’all to catch it.”

“It’s Granny Smith, Big MacIntosh.  It sounds like you stepped in it already.”

“Eeyup,” the stallion said, poking his head around the corner.  Or perhaps former stallion would be a better description.  At the moment he looked and sounded like Applejack’s twin sister, only with his own colors and cutie mark.  “It must have popped up sometime yesterday afternoon.  I could have sworn I got all of it before the reunion… what in tarnation happened to you?”

“Applejack’s got her friends looking into it, and Applebloom is supposed to be bringing that Zecora character from the Everfree Forest by to have a look-see as well.  Twilight Sparkle said that she has a good remedy for poison joke.”

“Thank Celestia.  I was supposed to see Cheerilee this afternoon.”

“You don’t say?”  The green filly had a mischievous glint in her eye.

“Eeyup.”

“Well, just in case the remedy doesn’t work right away, don’t let that stop you from seein’ her.”

“She can’t see me like this.”

“Why the hay not?  It ain’t like you’re any less of a stallion inside that temporary skin of yours, just like Applejack wasn’t…”

Big MacIntosh raised an eyebrow, wondering where his grandmother was going with her train of thought.

“…well, she was smaller than she used to be, teeny tiny even. But she was still very… big.  Where it mattered.” Granny Smith awkwardly stumbled through the analogy.  “And if Miss Cheerilee is the kind schoolmare that Applebloom says she is, she’ll see that you just had an accident, that’s all.  We ain’t the only ponies to ever catch a case of poison joke.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Big Mac decided.

“Of course I am,” the green filly grinned.  “In fact, why don’t you ask her to come back here for dinner tonight?  I’ll make your favorite...”

“Hmm…” the red stallion-turned-mare considered, and then nodded. “Eeyup.”

Twilight was right, Granny Smith thought to herself.  It may be a little misleading, but if Cheerilee thinks that I caught poison joke like Mac, she’ll probably take the truth of the matter a little easier than if we just bumped into each other in the marketplace… and that will solve my school problem.  It might also lead to solving my “not a Great-Granny Smith yet” problem as well.  She chuckled at that last thought.

~~GS~~

“Granny Smith?  I didn’t expect to find you in here,” Applebloom exclaimed.

“Oh?  Once a filly earns her cutie mark, she’s no longer welcome in the Cutie Mark Crusaders’ clubhouse?” the green filly snapped.  She had been looking out of the clubhouse window at Sweet Apple Acres, contemplating her situation when her granddaughter had interrupted her.

“No, that ain’t what I meant.  I just… I mean… sorry…”

“I know,” Granny said, shaking her head.  Am I always this ornery? she wondered.  “I’m sorry for snapping at you.  I’m just frustrated.  Not that that excuses rudeness,” she said to Applebloom as she looked around the clubhouse.  “This place sure has changed since the last time I was able to climb that ladder to get up here,” she observed.

“You’ve been up here before?” Applebloom asked incredulously.

“Of course I’ve been up here before.  Your granddaddy and I built it for your mom a long time ago.  Then she passed it on to your big sister, and then Applejack passed it on to you.”

“Oh,” said Applebloom, thinking about it.  “Well, I kinda had to replace a lot of the old boards after Applejack showed it to me, but it’s mostly the same place, I guess.  I suppose you don’t exactly need me to give you the tour, then.”

“I haven’t been up here in years.  Please, give me the tour.  I want you to,” Granny Smith insisted, seeing the forlorn look on her granddaughter’s face brighten at her words.

“Well, this is our eating spot…”

Applebloom practically skipped around the clubhouse, overjoyed at sharing some nostalgia with somepony new.  The fact that it was Granny Smith, with whom she had often had difficulty relating to in the part made it even better.

“So this is where you were hidin’,” came a voice from outside.  It was Applejack.

“I wasn’t hidin’,” Granny Smith answered back.  “I woke up this morning, realized I was young again, and came here to think for a bit about what that meant.”

“Didja come to any conclusions?” the orange mare asked with a smirk.

“Well, since things didn’t go back the way they were overnight, I reckon I might as well treat this like a blessing instead of a curse.  I mean, it’s not like anyone got hurt by it…

~~GS~~

From the notes of Twilight Sparkle, as read by Pinkie Pie

Universe Tango Tango Tango – doesn’t this sound like the most fun universe ever?  We discovered later that the pulse caused Applebloom’s mane to go prematurely gray.  No other known side effects.  Applebloom tried to use the bizarre situation to her advantage and earn her cutie mark in hair styling, but mixed up the bottles of dye.  Her mane was yellow, and her coat was red for the next two days.  When Applejack asked her why she bothered dying her coat in the first place when only her mane had gone gray, she replied that it had seemed like a good idea at the time.

That reminds me of this one Nightmare Night when I dyed my mane yellow and my coat white, and went around jumping out and spooking ponies by yelling “Surprise!”

You’re giving me that look again… Oh, right. Not my story. Gotcha. *closes fourth wall with a zipper*

~~GS~~

“Well, I just came up here to let Applebloom know that her cousin Babs is going to be dropping by to visit again.”

“Babs is coming to visit?  Yay!  And this time there won’t be any family reunion getting in the way—“ the pale yellow filly paused, realizing what she had just said and flushed. “Not that the reunion wasn’t tons of fun and all, but Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle weren’t invited to that and they’re friends with Babs too.”

Applejack just laughed. “I know what you meant, sugar cube, no offense taken.”

“Sometimes it surprises me that her parents let that little filly come all the way from Manehattan to Ponyville on a train by herself,” Granny Smith commented.  “It ain’t safe.”

“Aw, don’t be like that, Granny Smith,” Applebloom said.  “Babs has to deal with the streets of Manehattan, and that’s just to go to school.  A train ride to Ponyville ain’t nothin’”

“Someone’s always there to pick her up and see her off, whether it’s at the Manehattan station or Ponyville,” Applejack added. “Besides, I reckon we did the same thing for you the last time you went to visit Uncle Orange.”

“That was different.”

“Don’t think for a second that walker of yours doesn’t scream out to muggers ‘take my bits, I’m old and feeble.’”

Granny Smith crossed her arms over her chest and glared at Applejack, like she had many times during similar arguments.  Coming from the old green mare, that pose commanded respect, but coming from Filly Smith, it took all of the orange mare’s composure to keep from cracking a smile.  She just looked so dang adorable.

“We know you can still take care of yourself,” Applejack conceded, “but it doesn’t mean we don’t worry about you anyway.  It’s not that much different than you worrying about Babs.”

“Well, maybe part of me hoped that Apple Rose would pay a visit as well,” the green filly sighed.  “But what am I thinking?  I shouldn’t let her see me like this, anyway.  It’d probably give her a heart attack.”

She cantered over to the clubhouse window and sat down, gazing out at nothing in particular.

“Um… is there anything that you want to do, Granny Smith?” Applejack asked.

“Yeah, I mean, you can always come hang out with me, Babs, and the Crusaders,” Applebloom offered. Applejack winced in spite of herself.  Three crusaders got into enough trouble as it was, and her cousin Babs was already going to be added to the mix.  Five crusaders…?  That would be a lot of tree sap to clean up.

“I appreciate the offer, Applebloom.  I may take you up on it, now that I have the energy to do… whatever it is you fillies do for fun these days.”

“Great! Ohmygosh, ohmygosh, I have to get ready to meet Babs at the station!  But I also need to tell Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle the good news!  No time to lose!”

“But Applebloom, she’s not—“Applejack started to say, but the pale yellow filly was already out the door. “—going to be here until tomorrow,” the orange mare finished, shaking her head and adjusting her Stetson with a hoof.  She looked over at her grandmother, who had gone back to staring out the window.  “You know, come to think of it, I might feel a little better myself knowing you were tagging along with the Crusaders tomorrow.  Having an adult around might keep them out of mischief.”

“I said I might take Applebloom up on her offer, I didn’t guarantee it,” the green filly pointed out.  “I don’t think they’ll take to kindly to me playing chaperone, and honestly, I ain’t too sure that I want to play that role either.  Like I said, the idea is nice.  I’d love to spend time with the fillies, but I’m not sure I know how to.”

“Well, I didn’t mean to—“

“I know what you meant.  Celestia knows that I since I’m a filly now, I should be playing with other fillies my own age.  But part of not being a filly up here,” she tapped her head with a hoof, “is having wisdom and experience that I just can’t turn off.  Can you picture me trying to ride that little scooter like Scootaloo does?  I don’t have the reckless abandon that those young’uns have anymore. What if they try something dangerous? The responsible part of me would either try to stop them, or be a snitch and tell you or Big MacIntosh. Either way, I’m afraid I’d be a killjoy.  They’d end up trying to ditch me, and I wouldn’t honestly blame them if they did, either.”

“Well, they only do the reckless activities when they’re trying to earn their cutie marks…”

“…and I already have mine.  I know Applebloom says it doesn’t bother her, but what about the other three?  I say let the fillies be fillies.”

Applejack didn’t have an answer for that.  “What about workin’ with me and Big MacIntosh on the farm?” she suggested.

“You say that like I wasn’t intending to pull my weight around here… now that I can actually pull something other than my hip, that is.  Speaking of that, I think the magic gave me back my original one, not the newfangled replacement gizmo that y’all bought for me.”

“Nobody’d ever accuse you of not doing your fair share around here, Granny Smith,” Applejack assured her. “I just don’t want you to be bored, is all.  You may not have the reckless abandon of a filly, but looking at you I can clearly see you’ve got the restlessness of one.  You’ve got all your energy back in spades, and if you don’t use it up, it’s going to drive you plumb crazy.”

“Ain’t that the truth?  In that case, we’d better get going.  There’s plenty of work to do.  I promised your brother I’d cook his favorite dish tonight for his marefriend.  Come on, I’ll race you to the barn.”

And just like that, Granny Smith was off and running, something Applejack only vaguely remembered from her earliest childhood recollections.  The competitive earth pony smiled and chased after her grandmother.  It felt a bit odd when she thought about it, but she pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind and just allowed herself to enjoy the moment.