The Dreamer's Secret

Chapters

Alienated
The Encounter
Odd Happenings
One of Us

Alienated

Alienated

Something stirred in the nightly winds, an unwelcoming presence loomed over everything and everyone; yet as eerie and as prominent as it was, it was veiled out of sight. The trees rustled a bit more than usually and the high cumuli that sailed past distant mountain tops breezed by slower than normal. Every other day, during the quietest moments of the night, it came into the valley where Ponyville slept. The insects hushed themselves and the nocturnal animals came to a halt with ears twitching and eyes on the look out for this disturbance. It posed no known threat, though it set an unknown and hidden fear in the valley.

It came and it went, like seasons to the years; however as much as it came through the town, the denizen ponies had no clue of it. For many years this occurrence happened, this odd and silent event none could control. Not a single pony could feel or had noticed anything wrong throughout the town for all those years–that is, all but one. In a recent matter of turning events, one saw through the shadows of the night, yet still it was unclear to this pony. It had only known of the intruder’s presence for a few weeks, and it had changed everything about this one filly.

The filly looked out her bedroom window into the silent valley. From her home, she could hear the enchanting sounds of the Summer night. The rustling of ripe apple trees in the orchards, the gentle gust of wind blowing back her mane, the silver orb high above the lonesome farm twinkling its rays of majesty upon distant roof tops away from her home. Stirring clouds high above blew amongst the ceiling of the starry heavens. Whisking and tumbling billows danced above the farm in a slow sway as lovers do. It was a perfect night, a calm and peaceful night, but she knew that it was going to happen, and when it did, she was going to witness it as best as she could.

Apple Bloom was in a trance of sorts, not like being controlled by the mind or having the mindset of one without a mind, but an affixed and fully aware, dream-like state. Fully awake, but in the deepest of silence. This was such a notable fact that even her teacher at the local school house realized this and was concerned for her. She had set up a meeting with Apple Bloom’s sister, Applejack, to discuss her sister’s current mood in the classroom a few days prior to this night.

Applejack came into the schoolhouse during the middle of the day when the fillies and colts were out at recess. It was not to Apple Bloom’s knowledge that her sister was coming to her school. The meeting intended was meant to be private and it was, in fact, it done so with the utmost privacy.

“So, MissCheerilee,” Applejack began as she seated herself at a school desk in front of the teacher’s desk, “what seems to the be the matter with my sister?”

The orange mare’s mood was stern, she assumed that Apple Bloom had gotten into a fight or scruff with one of her classmates or said something inappropriate. Besides having the mood that Apple Bloom did something wrong, she was holding back a rising ire that had been building up since she had to take the lunch hour off to see Cheerilee. Applejack was hungry and annoyed, two things she didn’t want to be on a good working day.

Cheerilee sat herself down at her desk and placed her hooves on the table. She made firm eye contact with Applejack and spoke straight to the point, “Well, Applejack, I has come to my attention that Apple Bloom has been acting a bit strange lately and was wondering if there was something going on in your home that had caused her to act this way?”

Applejack rose her eyebrow in concern and entreated, “How exactly has she been acting?”

The teacher turned her head towards the window said, “Take a look for yourself, if you may.” Now both mares looked out the window to witness that all alone under a small oak tree sat Apple Bloom. She was turned away from them, but they knew she looked dazed just by her affixed head looking upwards into the sky. Not even her close friends were around–she sat alone, day dreaming in the cool winds of the day.

“She does this in class too,” Cheerilee started. “She is day dreaming almost all the time, hardly paying attention to my lessons. It’s not like her to act this way, so alienated from her friends and schoolwork. She hardly talks anymore and when she does, she only asks if she could use the restroom. She takes the closest seat to the window and if she gets it she stares out of it all day. Now I can only assume that there has to be something wrong in the household. Be frank with me, Applejack.”

Applejack was just as confused as the teacher was, but didn’t say it upfront. Her eyes read worry as they still remained on her sister in the school yard. After a brief moment within her own thoughts, she turned back towards Cheerilee and replied with hesitation.

“Now that ya say it... she has been acting quite a bit unlike her happy self. She does her chores, does her homework and goes to bed as quiet as before. Instead of playing with her little friends, she has been spending her days walking around and about our land. In fact, if I didn’t talk to her every once in a while, she probably wouldn’t say a word to me.”

“So, what you’re saying is you don’t know what’s happening and you haven’t done anything to offend her or... or perhaps beat her-”.

Cheerilee was cut off by the stamp of Applejack’s hoof. The orange mare immediately rose in protest to the teacher’s remark.

“I would never do such a thing!” The ferocity in her tone assured the teacher that she was telling the truth. Applejack fell back on her haunches and felt it was bit unnecessary to make such an outburst like that; the look of surprise from Cheerilee’s face didn’t wear off until Applejack realized how loud she was. Both felt sorry for what they said and expressed it without the use of words. The looks the two gave each other were enough to express their thoughts.

Cheerilee reinstated her last sentence with another, more apologetic one, “I’m sorry to assume that, but we have had cases like that in this very schoolhouse where my students were beaten by their parents. It was misleading of me to think you, an Element of Harmony, would do something as sinister as that to Apple Bloom.”

Applejack cooled herself down and spoke in a somber tone once more about the current situation.

“Well, if you don’t know, and I don’t know, who can help us figure out what’s going on?” Before Cheerilee could speak, Applejack thought up her own answer and stated it aloud, “Reckon Twilight could help? I know she isn’t no doctor but I know she is smart enough to figure what’s happening in my sister’s head.”

Cheerilee returned a smile and agreed, “That sounds like an excellent idea. You should probably waste no more time and see if you can’t arrange a meeting between Twilight and Apple Bloom.” She looked back out the window and her eyes fell on the lonesome, yellow filly again. “I hope she can help her, Applejack, I really do.”

A sudden and expected tapping came from the outside of Apple Bloom’s door. The young filly’s mind began a mental journey back to the real world while her eyes were still bound to the dark heavens.

In a few long seconds, Apple Bloom finally muttered, “Come in.”

It was loud enough to hear from the outside door, yet so peaceful and quiet it hardly lingered in one’s ears. The door was pushed ajar and Twilight Sparkle was revealed under the door frame. Apple Bloom never acknowledged her, her sight was still scanning the starry skies. The purple unicorn wore a lively, professional smile from dimple to dimple. She was eager and ready to chat with her young friend and came into the bedroom door, closing the door behind her with her magic.

She had been informed about everything Applejack knew about her sister’s recent mood ‘beforehoof’. She even told Twilight about how she wouldn’t even listen to a word she said. The unicorn was happy to help her friend’s sister out and pushed all of her studies and books behind her to aid in the dilemma at hoof. She trotted and joined Apple Bloom beside her window. The earth filly was perched up on a chair with her front hooves and head out the bedroom window. The unicorn tilted her head and looked over the Apple Bloom’s face, studying the young mare’s unbroken focus with a warm smile.

“Isn’t it beautiful tonight, Apple Bloom?” Not a word was spoken back, so Twilight continued, “What are you looking for?”

Finally Apple Bloom turned towards her, something the unicorn didn’t expect. The yellow filly was emotionless as she locked eyes with Twilight. The purple mare revealed her once hidden concern though the expression that was forced out through Apple Bloom’s piercing eyes.

“I want to see it again,” she said in a dry voice.

“What do you mean by 'it’, dear?”

“The great ball.”

Twilight tilted her head back a little and repeated in question, “The great ball?”

“Yes, the-great-ball,” she replied in annoyance.

She didn’t know how to keep this circling conversation going without getting her mad and decided to change the pace of it. She turned her head around and saw a small, empty chair at a desk and levitated it over behind Apple Bloom. Twilight positioned herself in it behind the filly and slowly weaved her hooves into the back of Apple Bloom’s hair.

Twilight commented while untying Apple Bloom’s bow, “You know, you have such a beautiful mane. I’m so jealous that I didn’t have hair like yours when I was a filly.” Apple Bloom was once again in silence and she allowed Twilight to begin combing her hair and straightening it. Twilight changed the subject of the previous chat to a different matter to try and see if Apple Bloom would talk about something else than what she wants to see.

“Apple Bloom, I know being a kid is tough. Me and everyone who cares about you is concerned about the way you’ve been acting, and all we want to do is help.”

The filly bent her head down in shame a little, “I’m not in trouble, am I?”

Twilight gave a light chuckle and replied, “Of course not! You’re far from it!” She brought her mood back down and began talking somberly again, “I want to know why you’ve been avoiding your friends firstly. Did you three get in a fight?”

“No,” She said coldly, “we’re still friends, but I just want to be away from them for a while, that’s all.” Before Twilight could ask her a different question, she continued on the same subject matter, “I just want to be away from everypony now... I... I want to try and figure this out... and I can’t do it with others. Besides, if I told anypony about what’s going on, they’ll all think I’m some loony.”

Twilight stopped combing the filly’s hair for a moment and placed her hoof on Apple Bloom’s shoulder.

“I know for a fact that you can’t always tell your secrets to family members or friends. I assure you that I wouldn’t think you were ‘loony’ or ‘silly’ or even ‘different’. You can come and tell me anything, Apple Bloom, remember that. I swear as The Protégé of Princess Celestia that I wouldn’t tell a word that is said in this room to any other pony.”

A brief moment of silence filled the bedroom. Twilight could tell that Apple Bloom was turning what she had said over in her mind and Apple Bloom was thinking if she should say what she wanted to or not. The yellow filly turned her head swiftly towards Twilight and her face revealed immense and sudden panic.

She spoke slowly at first, but gradually began to clamor faster, “It’s been here for a very long time... longer than I’ve been here... longer than you’ve been here... even longer than the two Princess’ had been here. I want to see it and all its glory... yet I don’t even know what it is. It calls to me from the stars... can’t you hear it? It’s the whisper that keeps me up at night, the booming sounds in the middle of day, the echos of it bounce through the mountains far beyond anypony can see. It scares me and frightens me and leaves me in wonder all at once.”

She now grew closer to Twilight and even the unicorn was beginning to become frightened by the filly’s words and emotion.

“I see it in the corner of my eyes watching me. In the trickle of sun off a pond or puddle, I see its figure and burning eyes take hold of me. In the motion of leaves I witness its presence too. In every aspect of light and darkness, I see a glimmer or shadow or figure stalking my every move and I just want to scream for help or hide or cry but it’s always there, it’s always watching me. It leaves me in fascination though, I must know what it is. Don’t you understand? Please help me! For Celestia’s sake, make it stop, Twilight! Make it stop!”

Apple Bloom broke into a torrent of tears and let out her once contained emotions onto the unicorn. Twilight held Apple Bloom close as the filly cried into her shoulder. Twilight’s mind raced with ideas as to what was going on and presumed that the only logical reason for these visions and actions was the act of some mental disorder which needed to be treated right away. She pressed the filly closer to her and comforted her with her loving embrace. She felt so ashamed that she couldn’t help the filly, for this was a matter of medicine and psychoanalysis.

After about an hour and a half, she tucked Apple Bloom in her bed and put her to sleep. She rejoined Applejack in the kitchen to discuss what had happened.

“Oh... oh my heavens...” Applejack stuttered with watery eyes.

Twilight sighed with defeat, “I can contact a few old colleagues of mine in Canterlot that could help her, if you don’t mind taking her there and missing a few days of work and school... I know this is difficult, but we can make it through this, plenty of regular-joe ponies have had treatment for various mental diseases and have come out perfectly fine.”

“I d-don’t know, T-twi,” Applejack sputtered. Her face was reddened with worry and her eyes tried their hardest to hold back the tears. She tried to remain strong in front of Twilight, she desperately wanted to.

The orange earth pony held her head with her hooves over the dining room table, staring blankly at the table top and searching for the right words to respond.

“We haven’t come out ta’ say it yet,” she slurred with a wavering tone, “but we’re not doin’ so well. The apple business hasn’t been so good to us lately and I don’t know if we have the money to afford such treatments fer’ my sister.” A tear splashed on the the table below and just from the whole scene in front of her, Twilight was beginning to tear up as well.

“I’m sure I can put a word in to the Princess and she could help you out financially,” Twilight said with a new, elated hope.

Applejack looked up and replied, “Really? Oh, bless you, Twi! Bless you!” The mares hugged in the dim light of the kitchen, rubbing each others backs and comforting one another.

However, unbeknownst to the two mares, Apple Bloom was in the dark parlor room across from the kitchen. She had heard everything.

The Encounter

The Encounter

The Apple Family farmhouse slept in the deep of Summer’s night. Applejack, Big Macintosh and Granny Smith had fallen into a heavy sleep, though Apple Bloom remained awake. She continually looked out her window into the stars above, unfazed from the events that took place a few hours ago. Her head turned and her eyes made contact with the alarm clock across the room. She jumped from her chair and made her way over to it to read the time. Once she read it, she dashed across the room to her bed. The filly began to stuff pillows under the sheets to make it appear that her body was in the bed and as soon as she accomplished this she made her way back over to the tin clock. She quickly grabbed it with her teeth and exited through her bedroom door.

As she closed the door behind her, she knew that this was when she had to stay focused. Apple Bloom gently made her way across the hall and towards the stairs. She knew that her house was old and in some places the floorboard’s creaked. She had snuck out of the house numerous times and had a general idea as to which places in the floor and stairs creaked and which ones didn’t. It was a rigorous challenge, but she finally made her way downstairs and out the door successfully.

Apple Bloom wasted no time and hastily hopped off the porch and onto the front yard. The nightly breeze fluttered her pajama gown as she raced through the yard and squeezed between the fence to the apple orchards. She cut across the field, breaking through the parallel lines of trees to a certain spot in the field. It was near the end of their land where she stopped; the farm house seemed so distant that she could most likely scream at the top of her lungs and not wake up her family. In this corner of the field was a small hill that rose above the rest of the orchard just enough to be distinguished from the view of the farm house.

She trotted beneath the trees to where an old stump was. The moonlight shone much greater here and lit up the filly’s white and pink nightgown. She hopped up on top of the cleanly-sliced stump and rested herself there. She let the clock in her teeth drop and read the time to herself. It was about 10 past four in the morning and there she waited nine more minutes, because at that specific time, she knew she would see it.

The time was a minute till and sweat from the uneasiness of it all began to form on her brow. Pressing thoughts of running away again came to her, but she remained faithful to her plan. Too long had she ran, it was now time to confront this being. Though the mystery and suspense of it all was the most frightening part, she had a gut-feeling that it wasn’t going to harm her, but perhaps change her indefinitely. A sudden tick from the old alarm clock alerted her and then she read the time again. It was four-nineteen, she could no longer prepare herself, because it was coming.

She rose her head to the stars above and watched them vigilantly. Then she spotted it, faint white dots which were once random stars moved above her slowly. A dozen or so began to move closer to one another in a single spot in the sky. Before eclipsing one another, they circled each other for a few seconds. The moving stars high above were only about the size of a coin in diameter, but soon they grew gradually larger, still oscillating slowly but getting closer to the ground. In a sudden moment, the congregation of stars shot behind the horizon at extreme speeds, disappearing from the night sky all together.

Then it occurred, like so many times before, it floated through the valley. A silent ball of unnatural light floated over Ponyville. It was a blinding light only when looking directly at it, but a nearly invisible halo to the naked eye. However Apple Bloom could feel its presence coming and waited for it to enter the field; she knew it would pass this way before exiting into the night sky.

It stirred no pony in the village as the great sphere moved over the land as silent as the wind itself. The thing was immensely large, larger than perhaps Canterlot Castle. Phantasmic, ebbing lights circled the beastly thing from the stars and still the magnificent appearance of it all awoke no one and no one ever noticed it.

It sailed slowly over the apple fields and Apple Bloom waited for it. Her excitement and fear rose exponential as the light it gave off entered into her eyesight. It hovered gently over the her spot; her mouth was sealed tight with fear and tried to break though her emotion to call out to it.

Finally, with one powerful effort, she beckoned, “Hey!”

The ball of light stopped, it hovered for a moment in the cool air, taking in what had just alarmed it. Apple Bloom was frozen in terror–her mind told her legs to run, but her legs never responded. She was paralyzed in utter dread as she helplessly watched the looming being above her.

In a flash, it shrunk down to the size of her farm house and the ghostly lights that circled the larger ball came together into a single circle. The light of every circle gave forth a beam of white light that illuminated the area around her. A unknown force began to bend the trees back and slowly began to lift objects off of the ground. Apples from the bent trees began to pluck off and rise slowly into the air, bits of rock and dark also rose above the trees. Even her alarm clock rose above the tree line and into the sky above. The gravity seemed lighter in the area as Apple Bloom’s hair gently fluttered upward and her dress blew calmly in the artificial wind. The ball of light hovered closer to the ground, looking upon the filly with its single, spotlight-like eye.

Then, from the core of the sphere itself, an opening faded into sight. An undefinable figure veiled in silver and yellow gleam appeared in the entryway of the sphere. It changed form in a flash of light and soon the light faded from behind it to reveal its newer form. It changed to a silhouette of a large pony, a stallion from Apple Bloom’s perspective.

A rumbling occurred beneath her hooves and she realized the stump was now being uprooted. It broke from the land and gently carried Apple Bloom closer to the stallion. The further she came to the stallion, the more she could make out its appearance. It had a strong jaw and glowing, cyan eyes. Its skin was as white as a winter’s snow and its long mane was in a translucent, light blue and aqua green hues. Its mane tail fluttered behind him, fanning out and disappearing into nothingness at its tips.

The stallion locked eyes with the filly and bent its head a little lower and towards Apple Bloom. He slowly reached out its hoof towards Apple Bloom when they were close enough to touch. She didn’t know what to do and blankly stared in fright at its awesome appearance, mesmerized by the stallion. So she did what any curious girl would do, she reached out with her hoof to touch his.

As soon as the tips of their hooves met contact, a string of pain shot through the stallion as if he was being electrified. She retracted her hoof and backed up against the stump face as much as she could without falling off. The ball of light which encompassed the stallion faded into a violent red orb. The stallion sunk into the face of the now fiery, red ball and the dozen, smaller circles around the ball spread out again. They whisked quickly around the core orb as the vessel rose into the air. When the smaller balls orbited the larger sphere at such great speeds that they appeared as a ring, the entire thing shot off into the sky leaving a comet-like trail into the stars.

The stump, along with Apple Bloom, fell back to the ground with a thud. The filly rolled off of the stump and onto the grass in a dizzy spell. Around her rained the apples and other things the ship floated upward. As soon as she recovered, she wobbled back to her hooves, only to be brought back down when her alarm clock clashed atop her skull.

She didn’t know what had just happened and continually looked upward to try and see the vessel again. The night seemed the same and nothing had changed except that now the stump she had sat on was uprooted and all the apples in the small area she was in were picked off their trees. She read the alarm clock again and realized only a minute had passed. To her it seemed like an hour, but it didn’t matter anymore, she was as confused as she once was.

With her head down, she slowly walked back to the farm house. As she climbed over the fence again and made her way through the yard, she heard an odd noise from the distance. She stopped and looked about to see where it was coming from and noticed that there was a now distant red star in the night sky. Her eyes widened, it was coming back. It grew larger and louder and sailed towards her through the atmosphere in a burning brilliance. The growing light it gave off shimmered like a blazing bonfire and veiled the farm in a blood red tint. Apple Bloom ducked for cover and protected her head with her hooves as it flew over her house and crashed through her barn. The impact boomed over the landscape and shook the very ground Apple Bloom was on.

She peaked though her hooves and looked to see where it had landed. The large, shattered hole in the barn suggested it fell through there and she began to hurry towards it. She opened the large, barn doors with a lingering creak and peered inside. There was no visible sign of the great orb of light, in fact, nothing was where she thought it had landed, (from her point of view). She looked up to see the hole from where it crashed though and followed the moonlight’s single ray towards where it might have landed. In a large hay pile, Apple Bloom finally saw what had fell through and gasped in shock.

In the depression of the hay stack lied a single stallion. He was very much different in appearance than the one that receded into the sphere vessel and she wondered if the two were even related to one another. Its coat was the color of the sky and its mane and tail were of a darker hue. Its physical features appeared as normal as any other earth pony in town. Apple Bloom noticed that it didn’t have a cutie mark on its flank; but besides that, he was as average of a stallion as you could get, excluding the absence of a cutie mark.

She didn’t exactly know what to do or if she should even be around it. It appeared unconscious before her–his body was on its side and its legs and neck were slightly curled in a relaxed pose. It was certainly breathing from the looks of the exhaling and inhaling chest. The filly thought to herself about all the consequences this ‘being’ brought before her. Was it dangerous, or perhaps even evil? It fell from the sky, so no one in Equestria would know the proper answers to any perplexing thoughts that crossed her mind about the stallion from another star.

She decided to nudge the pony awake and see if it would even cooperate. She had the idea that if any troubles were to occur when he would be awakened, that she could just scream and shout until Big Mac and Applejack were out there with her. With that progressing thought, she wondered why no one in her house was even out there with her in the first place; the collision didn’t even set off the farm animals, something about this whole scenario wasn’t right to her. However, she knew that she had brought this upon the farm and knew it was her responsibility. Apple Bloom kept her guard up, but hoped that the stallion would be just a little on the friendly side.

She looked around the farm floor and first spotted a pitch fork. She galloped over to it and grasped the large farming tool with her teeth. It was quite large to a filly and the uneven balance of the tool made her wobble a bit before steading her stance again. She made her way back over to the spot and stood over the stallion. She pointed the sharp end first at the sleeping pony and aimed for the broad side of its flank. Apple Bloom reevaluated her plan and spun the pitch fork around to the wooden, rounded-edge.

After all, if it was friendly, that would be a terrible first impression for the filly to have on him. For all she knew, this was his first encounter with a Ponyvillian, Apple Bloom had to represent the best of Equestria in the coming moments–if, it was friendly. If he posed a threat, she figured she could spin the pitch fork around and be down with him. That was the mentality of this ‘harmless’, head-strong filly.

With a gentle poke, she nudged the stallion and quickly hopped back. The stallion seemed unbothered by it, so she stepped forward once more and poked him gently again. She did this about four times until he murmured something in his sleep and began to stir a bit. Apple Bloom bounced back and awaited his awakening. She turned her head for a moment to place the tool back on the ground beside her. When the little pony turned back, the stallion was upright, facing her, and bore a blank expression in its face. She froze still with a pale, frightened face. His warm-colored, orange eyes locked into her amber ones.

His expression changed to a small, simple smile and promptly greeted in a friendly tone, “Hi!”

Odd Happenings

Odd Happenings

The two ponies made awkward eye contact with one another. Apple Bloom was lost in thought for a moment as to what to say or even what to ask the stallion. The other cheerful pony just smiled and stared into the filly’s eyes, as if in a constant state of euphoria. When the realization of everything that had transpired came back into Apple Bloom’s head, she quickly grabbed the pitch fork back in her mouth and pointed the sharp end of the tool towards the stallion. The blue pony turned his attention towards the pointed farming tool and raised a hoof to touch it, all while still keeping an innocent smile across his face.

“That looks sharp,” commented the stallion as he placed a hoof on one of the blades. He quickly reared back his hoof upon touching it and uttered strongly, “My word, that is sharp...” His smile turned to a glare as he questioned the filly, “Why are you pointing sharp things at me in the first place.” Even before Apple Bloom could answer, he immediately changed his mood back and questioned her again saying, “What’s your name?”

Apple Bloom was quite confused as to what had just happened. He was very spastic and random with her, maybe even more so than Pinkie Pie. At least she could make sense of the pink mare, most times.

She repositioned herself and tried to reply with the tool still in her mouth, “Oppalboom...”. She maneuvered the pitch fork a little closer to the intruder and inquired, “Orr nom?”

He understood the filly well enough to know what she was saying, but his expression told her differently.

He replied with hesitance, “I... I don’t know...” He leaned a bit closer to her and out of the way of the pitchfork.

He then asked with concern, “Is that normal? You know, not knowing your name and all?”

Apple Bloom finally spat the pitchfork out of her mouth and said dryly, “Not normal one bit, sir. You mean to tell me you don’t have a name?”

“I probably do, but isn’t it exciting?” His faced buzzed with a sudden spark of enthusiasm over his loss of memory.

He continued, “Can you imagine not knowing your name? The only thing that defines you from someone or something else? The one thing in your life that labels you as you! You could become anything now! You can start over and do anything you want to! No more will people remember your past, but now you can make new friends in new places if you choose so! You could even-”

“You fell from the sky,” Apple Bloom interrupted.

“I, uh, beg your pardon?”

“Look at what you did now to my barn!” She flung her hoof towards the new skylight he had created upon impact.

He scratched the underside of his chin and replied with a huff of disbelief, “How do you know it was me?”

“I saw you!”

He rose an eyebrow and asked slowly, “You... saw me?”

“Well, not you in particular. But I found you here where the thing that fell from the sky was falling towards.”

The nameless pony hummed in thought and concurred, “I guess you’re right, you little Sherlock Holmes, you!”

“Who?”

He looked away and laughed saying, “Oh, you know, Sherlock Holmes, a fictional detective created by author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Born on May twenty-second, eighteen fifty-nine and died July seventh, nineteen-thirty. I had a friend who was born in July. A swell month it is. A hot one too on top of that. He had a farm on the outskirts of a town I can’t remember... or at least I think he did? I’ve thought of thirteen reasons why I should have been born in July. Do you want to hear them?”

As he awaited her response, he energetically rocked himself with excitement on the haystack. She stood there dumbfounded by what he had just said. She finally shook her head vigorously to snap herself out of the bemused state she was put in.

“Well,” Apple Bloom began again, “what do you remember.”

The blue stallion thought for a moment, his eyes looked about the room as if following an invisible bird that had been trapped in the barn.

He then spoke as if questioning his own answer, “I... opened my eyes, saw you, said, ‘hi’- No wait, you know this already, you were there. Take this answer as you may, but, I guess I just, ‘woke up’... and here I am! All fresh and new I suppose.

“Where are you from?”

“HA!” he shouted with a burst of liveliness, “We can play this game all day...” He slowed his pace down and continued, “...and still... I... I wouldn’t know.”

He fell over in front of himself and grabbed hold of Apple Bloom’s fore hooves.

“Who am I, Apple Bloom! I’m not special! I’m a nobody if anybody!” She began to worry about his sudden emotionally outbursts and was wondering if he would accidentally wake up his family.

She tried to calm him down, “I, uhh, I don’t know. But... I’m not very special either.”

He looked up at her with a stern look and disaffirmed, “Untrue! You’re a filly for filly’s sake. You have a house and a dog and a family with friends and those friends have friends and families and dogs and houses and fillies like yourself too I bet! They all think you are unique and special and rather small, but being small isn’t always a bad thing, my dear. You can still get cheap tickets to the picture shows, but you can’t watch the nasty movies. Rubbish those things are anyway, they fill your head with garbage. I would know, I once worked at a picture show house... or did I?” He shrugged and stopped talking at that point.

She laughed at his randomness and replied, “Oh no, not that, silly. I meant my cutie mark.”

She arose above her with a quizzical look upon his face. He towered over her like any normal stallion around his supposed age.

Before he genuinely replied to her, he looked down at his legs and whispered to himself, “So this is what it’s like standing... so perplexing.” His attention narrowed back down on her again and he firmly asked, “A cutie-what now?”

“A cutie mark! Don’t you know what anything is?”

He dithered with a long, rising hum of a word, “Wwweeellllll, I don’t know a lot of things and would rather listen to you tell me things.”

He pounded his chest and gave his word to the filly, “As long as you tell me otherwise, I will not talk until you tell me... otherwise!” He flopped down on his haunches and gave his full, silent attention to the yellow filly.

“O...kay. Righty then!” She perked up and explained, “A cutie mark appears on your flank when you discover your true, special talent. It could be anything really.” He nodded in silence, keeping his eyes fixed on the filly. She felt he was waiting for her to say something else about it, but she didn’t know what else to talk about.

“All the big ponies have them,” she stated, “especially in town.” He nodded once more with a grin of happiness. “Oh,” she added, “you can talk now if you’d like.”

“Well about time!” He barked at her. “I mean,” he said more softly. His face had reddened with embarrassment as he continued in almost a whisper, “sorry, I mean... well... sorry I didn’t... I, well, I...” He stopped, looking off out of the barn doors towards Apple Bloom’s farmhouse. He smiled and began to walk away from the filly towards the doors of the barn.

Apple Bloom watched him walk away and was puzzled by his actions. She called out to him, “Where are you going... I’m over here.” She couldn’t tell if he was avoiding her or if he couldn’t hear her as he continued on out of the barn and towards the farmhouse. She exited the barn and watched him walk up onto the porch and face the front door. The stallion pressed up against the screen door to the house, placing his ear on the wooden frame.

“Uh,” she hesitated, “you pull it open.” She didn’t exactly know why she had wanted him to go in her house anyways. She had just met him no more than ten minutes ago, but she felt sympathetic towards the lost stallion. These odd happenings of events that had passed over tonight would have made any filly do the strangest of things.

He continued to do his own thing as he slide himself against the edge of the house and off of the front porch. He maneuvered around the flowers in the garden beds and finally came to a glass window. He tried opening the bottom of the window while pressing his face against the glass, leaving smudge marks behind.

“Blast it,” he stammered with annoyance, “blast these... these roundy-long things!” He looked down at his hooves and threw them into the air while continuing his rant, “Fling these blasted things into the farthest X-Ray jet from this pebble in the sky! Utterly useless!”

His sudden anger frightened Apple Bloom, but her fear only lasted a moment when it was replaced by the laughter that followed. She began laughing at his attempts to open the window with his tongue in the crevice of the seal. She laughed so hard that tears began to form in her eyes. She put her hoof up to wipe them away and as soon as she removed her hoof, the stallion was gone. Her eyes widened with panic at the scene of where the pony once was. She saw something moving in the window he was trying to get in before and realized immediately that it was him.

“How... did he just...” She couldn’t quite make out the sentence she intended to form from the shock of the unexplainable thing she had just missed. Apple Bloom watched him walk out of the window’s sight and raced towards the front door to meet up with him. As soon as she galloped up atop the porch, the door suddenly swung open.

“Apple Bloom!” The filly froze still and came to an abrupt halt.

She stammered in response, “Applejack! I, uh-”.

“You best start explain’n yourself, young missy.”

The orange mare stood their in the doorway in her stripped pajamas, giving her sister the most grave look Apple Bloom had ever seen.

“What in the hay are you doin’ up at four in the apple pick’n morning?” The orange mare’s eyes adjusted above Apple Bloom’s to see the newly formed hole in her bright, red barn.

She gasped in horror, “My barn! What did you do! You tell me right now! You hear me?”

“...Cutie Mark Crusader’s... Rocket Scientists...” she hesitated with a plastic smile across her face.

Applejack brushed the sweat from her bed-head mane and held herself on the door frame. The new chore that stared her in the face about gave the mare a heart attack as she panted for air. She grabbed the front of her nightshirt and cooled herself off while shaking her head in disappoint at her sister.

“You and your... friends. I swanny...”

She then grabbed the filly by the back of the collar and pushed her in the house saying, “I’m double’n- No, triple’n your chores tomorrow. You gonna wish you had two more sets of hooves cause by the time I’m done with you, your’s are gonna be worn thin and covered with blisters!”

Apple Bloom didn’t fight with her sister, she too was tired of it all and accepted defeat. Applejack drug her up the stairs and practically threw her into her room. Applejack stood in the bedroom doorway and gritted her teeth with frustration. Apple Bloom not only noticed her sister’s fuming anger, but the surprising tears that streamed from her eyes as well.

Applejack faltered, “Now I have enough to worry about! I don’t want you out and about this late ever again! I’ve got enough weight on my back already and I’m about tired of all this going on! Now get to sleep!”

She slammed the door closed at that last remark, leaving the filly in the dark of her bedroom. Applejack even placed a chair in front of her sister’s door to keep her in. She sobbed the entire time doing so and shambled back to her bedroom.

Apple Bloom spun around and noticed something was in her bed. She crept around her bed and discovered that the nameless stallion was in her place. He had curled himself up to fit his entire mass on the twin mattress. He had grabbed all of the covers on the bed and surprisingly took all of the covers from Apple Bloom’s closet. She tried to exit her room to see if she could sleep on the couch, but soon realized that she was locked in. She huffed with annoyance as the stallion began to sleep talk.

“Well thanks a lot for getting me in trouble,” Apple Bloom whispered as she curled up on the wooden floor next to her bed.

The stallion was in deep sleep, but oddly replied, “Hey... Hey! Mario... look what I made.... It’s a football... I chiseled it.”

Apple Bloom didn’t even respond, but laid her head on the cold floor and drifted off to sleep.

One of Us

One of Us

Golden rivers of sunlight poured into Apple Bloom’s bedroom. Shadows dispersed into their crevices and the lightening of darker colors became warmer as did the temperature of the room. A lingering smell of a morning meal finally found its way through the cracks in the filly’s door and ventured through her nostrils, awakening the pony. Apple Bloom arose from the wooden floor, a place where the sun rested in an affixed square. The kink in her neck suggested that she didn’t have the best night’s sleep. Dust wavered about her as she blinked in confusion as to why she was on the warm floorboards and not in her warmer, more comfortable bed. Her blank mind began to turn again and the cogs to her critical thinking skills started to spin.

Her eyes were fully opened when her memory came to. The yellow filly spun her strained neck around towards the top of her bed. The spin of the head was followed by a slap from her messy mane hair. The bed though was completely absent of the stallion from last night and was neatly tucked and made up again. A new panic arose from inside Apple Bloom and she wondered if he had been discovered by her family. She pushed herself up off the ground and scrambled to the door in a disorientated blitz of movement.

The door was easily pushed open and she hadn’t thought about it being locked from last night until she had eventually stopped, and she only stopped when she slid into the kitchen to find her sister sitting alone at the breakfast table. Thoughts of last night caught up with the filly; she had remembered her sister’s actions as their eyes met for the first time that late morning.

By this time, Applejack and Big Macintosh would have already been in the fields or finishing their morning chores. For Apple Bloom, it was a Saturday and she had no school, so she was use to waking up to a nearly empty house. It was strange seeing Applejack this early. Such a rare moment was this in the Apple Family that the yellow filly knew something wasn’t right.

An awkward elation of a smile formed upon Applejack’s face as she gestured her hoof up over the table. Breakfast was laid out before the two as she awaited her sister’s company. Applejack wanted to talk with Apple Bloom, but about what, the filly didn’t know. The small pony contained her rising suspensions of where the stallion might be and masked her concern with an emotionless veil, showing Applejack that she hadn’t had forgotten about last night. The two believed that one was bluffing the other and that each pony’s mind were on two entirely different subjects. The filly finally joined her sister and scooted her chair in.

“My, you’re up early,” Applejack noted as she began to eat. She continued with a mouthful of apple mush. “You seem to be in a rush, is something wrong?”

“No,” she lied in a gruff tone. Before the older pony could respond, she went off saying, “Why did you lock my door last night?”

Applejack swallowed while looking away from her sister. “Well...” The mare made eye contact with her sister again and said with increased authority, “Well, I didn’t want you sneaking out again last night! To be frank, I didn’t trust you!” Silence settled back into the kitchen. The older sister’s plans to make amends was already back firing because of her continuous anger getting the best of her. Her face reddened and she tried her best to hide it from her sister.

That night, after the whole ordeal between the two Apple sisters, Applejack laid awake in bed for quite some time. Her ill temper dug a pit in her soul as she turned what Twilight and Cheerilee said in her head. If she would have thought of all that Apple Bloom was dealing with at that moment, she would have been a little more held back, but instead her mind was hooked on the words she used and the tones she rose. She then planned to try and make things right by talking with her that morning and even making breakfast for her. She thought that maybe then they could get back to being sisters. Applejack hated herself and just wanted everything to be right again.

Applejack broke the silence and tried to repair what she had damaged, “I wanted to say that I’m sorry for getting on ya last night, Lil’ Sis. I... I really don’t know what came over me, and as your older sister, I should have handled things differently.”

Apple Bloom was only sparsely attentive to what her sister was saying. Her focus was towards the windows in the corners of her eyes, trying to see if maybe the stallion was aimlessly meandering through the yard. She tapped her hoof anxiously while the voiceless words from her sister went into one ear and out the other. Apple Bloom figured that he couldn’t have gotten far and that by waiting here in the kitchen was a waste of valuable time.

Apple Bloom broke her sister’s speech with the sudden chirp, “I need to go.” Her eyes were still glued to the windows as Applejack sat back puzzled.

“Wha-what do you mean?” she clamored, searching for the right words to say while not ruining their hastened kinship again. “I made breakfast and I thought that maybe-maybe we could spend more time with one another today. Is it something I said? Did I do something wrong, again?”

“No!” she spat out while hopping off her chair. “I just need to... to meet up with my friends! That’s right! I need to go! The Cutie Mark Crusaders need me!” She ran out the door with a spurt of morning energy.

Applejack didn’t even move. She didn’t know what to do entirely. She didn’t want to keep fighting against her sister, so she decided to just lay off and let her do her own thing, for now. From the back door moseyed in Big Mac, the louder thump of his hooves could identify him from any part of the old house. He made his way to the kitchen and over looked the odd scenario. He was met with the strangely depressed Applejack at a full table of breakfast foods.

“What’s going on?” he drawled.

Applejack hastily turned towards her brother and tartly replied, “Nothing! That’s what!” She scooted herself out of her chair and back onto four hooves. “We need to have a sit-down with Apple Bloom soon, that’s all I got to say about that!” She stamped out of the room, leaving only Big Macintosh behind.

He stressed to himself in a long breath, “Mares. I swear.” He sat himself down and began eating their untouched breakfasts, not letting anything go to waste.

Apple Bloom raced through the yard and towards the barn where she thought she might meet up with him again. She pushed open the doors to the cowshed and began quickly eyeing out the place to see if the intruder was here. She discovered nothing to her advantage and left the barn as quickly as she came in. She figured another idea of where he might be and turned her pace towards the location. She squeezed through the fencing to the Apple Orchard and began to make her way back to the scene where that large orb was.

When the bare spot in the field came into sight, it looked empty and with no signs of a blue stallion. She was short of breath upon arriving and flopped herself down on the cut stump in fatigue.

She turned herself over and threw her hooves into the air saying, “Where in the wide world of Equestria is this fella’?”

“Equestria?” A voice called out from behind her. She rapidly turned to finally spot the stallion in an apple tree. He clumsily clung onto the tree with three hooves wrapped around a branch and another holding a half-eaten apple. He continued, “What’s an Equestria?”

Instead of answering his question, she demanded, “What in the world is wrong with you? Breaking into my house, then wandering off... Has anypony spot you yet?”

He smirked and replied, “An answer for an answer!”

With that response, she tried playing his game finally, “Fine... what’s your question again?”

“Equestria. What is it?”

“It’s this.” She stamped her hoof on the soil and continued more elaborately, “This is Equestria. The place you and I are.”

“The town? Cause you said there is a town near by and I wanted to go see it, but I thought I shouldn’t go without a tourist guide, so I waited for you in this place here! I knew you would come back here. I saw a big red guy over yonder a while ago. Is he an intruder too?”

She stood silently, waiting for her mind to conjure the right response.

“No, the town’s name is Ponyville. And that ‘big red guy’ is my brother who tends the fields with my sister. I’m pretty sure if he caught you in his fields you would have been kicked out of here in a buck of a tree.” She immediately digressed with a hoof pointed at him, “Another thing. You ain’t going to town.”

He replied in with a laugh while trying to climb his way down the tree, “Why not? I’m normal enough?”

“Far from it. If ponies see someone as old as you walking around with a blank flank then they’re going to be mighty suspicious about who you are... and not think you’re normal.”

He finally made his way safely towards the ground and approached the filly, saying, “Pish-pash, Applesauce! You’re full of it, kiddo.” He rubbed his hoof on her mane and began to walk past her with a confident stride.

She raced over in front of him and stated, “You’re not going into town! Trust me! They’ll question you and kick you out and think you’re some sort of monster-pony!”

She tried holding him back while walking, placing her two hooves on his chest while pushing back as hard as she could. He continued to walk perfectly without any sign of restraint from the opposing filly. He was sliding her back with her hind legs still firmly situated in the ground, dragging dirt and grass in their wake. The yellow mare finally slipped and butted her chin with the ground. She was amazed at how strong he was and how nothing she tried seemed to slow him down.

She finally dashed a few paces in front of him and blurted out, “Just follow me for a bit. I’ll take you into town as soon as...” She looked away thinking, still figuring out the plan as she went along. “As soon as my friends can figure out what to do with you.”

He finally stopped and with a puzzled look questioned, “Friends? You have friends?”

“Uh, ya? Who doesn’t?”

He looked over and stared into the distance. He somberly said, “I don’t know if I have friends.”

“Well, you don’t know a lot, do ya?”

“...I don’t know...”

She went along with her original idea and told him, “Hey, so, will you listen to me and do exactly as I say? I promise that I will take you to my town as soon as I get my friends together and talk.”

He rubbed his hoof under his chin and replied, “Let me check my schedule...” He reached his hoof around his side and pulled a large grandfather clock out and rocked it to its side, making a tremendous thud as it hit the ground. Apple Bloom jumped back in fright of the random event and couldn’t believe what she was seeing. He peered over into at the face of the now broken clock and read it for a few good moments.

“How in the hay? Where did this-”

“Shhh... I’m listening for my schedule.” He placed his ear on the clock face and nodded his head a few times. He murmured to it, “Uh-huh... yes... yes... go on... talk dirty to me... okay... and yes, extra mayo-Okay!” He shouted, now brightly smiling at his filly companion.

He beamed. “I can make room for your shenanigans today!” She wasn’t sure if he was being serious or sarcastic at that last remark.

She pointed over to the now broken clock on its side and said, “So... where did that come from exactly?”

“Oh, I had it with me.”

She raised an eyebrow at that retort. “You had it with you the whole time?”

He replied as if it was a common answer. “Yes, of course!”

She simply rose her hooves and uttered in defeat, “You know what, forget it. I don’t care where it came from. Let’s just go.”

“Right! Onward, pony!”

The two were walking away from the scene when Apple Bloom stopped and asked, “So you’re just going to leave it there?”

“Yep!”

“In the middle of the Apple Orchard?”

“Yes!” She gave him a silent, irked expression, waiting for him to explain himself.

He finally did with an assuming tone, “I mean, how am I going to use a broken, grandfather clock? This was the only time I was going to use it, and now that it’s broken. It’s no use to anyone. So, I’ll just leave her here to deteriorate. I mean, it is wood... mostly.” She nodded her head and rolled her eyes while turning back around.

The two proceeded through the Apple Orchard with little to no diversions, however at one point, Apple Bloom did have to hold him by the hoof so that he wouldn’t wonder off. Finally the two made it to the other side of the Orchard where the Cutie Mark Crusader's base of operations was located. The ponies went up into the fort and the filly lead the stallion in. The blue stallion had to duck his head to enter the small building and when he did, a growing smile began to form across his face.

“Welcome to the Cutie Mark Crusader’s Clubhouse!”

“Is this where you live? What a fantastic house to live in!”

The yellow filly replied with a sigh of irritation, “No, you were in my house last night, remember?”

The stallion then took a second look around the place they were in and reinstated with less fondness, “Well then, what a terrible clubhouse this is.”

“Thanks...”

She turned back towards the door and replied, “I want you to stay here until I bring my friends over. It shouldn’t be too long of a wait.”

“What shall I do to wait and ensure you that I won’t escape?”

He brought up a valid point as his question halted the small pony in her tracks. She didn’t really think this through and began to scan the messy clubhouse in search for an activity to keep the rambunctious stallion occupied. He watched her anxiously as she sifted through bins, chests and drawers. He sat down in the middle of the room and rocked himself around as his eyes kept on the filly. Apple Bloom pivoted towards him with a box of crayons in her mouth and a notepad in her hooves.

She dropped the items in front of him and asked with hope, “Do you like to draw?” He beat the crayon box with his hoof and stared blankly into the paper.

He spoke emotionlessly, “I don’t know...” He then rose his head back up towards the mare with a grin of satisfaction.

“But! I’ll find out!” He immediately tore open the box with his teeth and scattered the crayons across the tree house floor. He tore a few pieces of paper from the notepad out and tossed those out amongst the room as well.

He began to fumble the crayon he had chosen in his hooves, trying to get a good grip on it. Through trial and error, he was drawing with his two fore-hooves pressed on each side of the blue crayon. He started diligent working on whatever he intended to draw; his tongue was pressed out of his mouth and his eyes were transfixed on the white canvas in front of him. Apple Bloom only smiled as she silently left and then quickly spurted towards the town to gather her friends as fast as she could.

About twenty minutes later, Apple bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo approached the treehouse. To the yellow filly’s surprise, the clubhouse was still intact, but whether or not the stallion was inside was soon to be discovered.

Scootaloo hopped in front of the two other fillies and affirmed the situation over with the group, “So, let me get this straight, Apple Bloom. In our clubhouse is a fully grown stallion you think is an alien from outer space without a cutie mark that landed in your barn, slept in your bed and is now drawing with my personal crayons, correct?”

“That’s right, Scoot. Now I brought you girls here to figure out what to do with him.”

“He’s a blank flank, right?” Sweetie Belle squeaked in. “Maybe he could join the Crusaders?”

Scoot approached the white unicorn and spat, “Boys can’t join the Crusaders.”

“Who says?”

“The rules!”

“What rules? We don’t have any rules except you have to have a blank flank to join. In fact, I thought Babs was a colt for the first day we met and I thought he was cute.”

Her lips puckered up in sudden embarrassment. She had said too much and the two others gave her very concerned looks as her face reddened more.

“I- err... I don’t think so anymore because I know she’s a she and not a he...” A light, forced laugh followed the end of her sentence to try and cover up her previous mistake as a joke.

“Anyways...” Scootaloo said while looking away from the two.

Apple Bloom continued Scoot’s thought, “Anyways, we need to see if he’s even still in the club house.”

“What do you mean if he’s still in the club house?” the pegasus pony asked.

“Look, let’s just go up there and see him already.”

“I don’t know, girls...” Sweetie Belle hesitated, twirling one hoof in her hair and looking towards her other hoof on the ground. “What if he’s a weirdo... or a murderer!”

“Come on, Sweetie Belle,” Scootaloo denoted, “We all know he’s a weirdo because Apple Bloom says he doesn’t have a cutie mark and that he’s suppose to be from, ‘outer space’. And if this guy was a murderer, Apple Bloom would have never told us, because Apple Bloom would be dead!” The white filly shuddered at that last word and placed her hoof up against her mouth.

The three finally made their way up to the door of the club house and opened it. When they peered inside, the trio stood with their eyes goggled in astonishment.

Sweetie Belle leaned over towards Apple Bloom and whispered, “How long did you leave him alone, again?”

She whispered back, “Twenty-so minutes.”

The room was figuratively turned upside down and the walls were scribbled all across with multiple hues of crayon colors. The notepads were obviously not enough for stallion’s imagination as the walls served better canvas space. He was in his own world and had no idea the three entered the club house as he continued to scribble in the very corner of the room.

His drawings were very strange to the fillies, odd contours of undefinable markings which made out to be some sort of language encompassed hyper-detailed schematics of mathematical formulas, astrophysics with planets and all, and other strange things the others had no idea what to make of. Before one of the three could speak, he turned and smiled at the them with a green crayon in his mouth.

“Apple Bloom! How do you do? I have something to show you!” He slide over to a few stray pieces of paper on the floor and began to turn them over and place them together. The trio watched on in silence as he began to form a larger picture from eight smaller pieces of notepad. He stood up to get a better picture of the entire piece once it was all laid out in front everypony.

“Impressed?”

Scootaloo narrowed her vision, deeply looking over the artwork and asked coldly, “What is it?”

The colt gave a displeasing sign of irritation and spat out, “Open your eyes! ... It’s the equine circulatory system, duh. You see, the red crayons make up low oxygen carrying veins and the blue crayons make up the subcutaneous fatty veins. And you wouldn’t believe what I found! I found glow-in-the-dark markers which I used to draw the major and minor organs with, however you’re gonna have to wait till night to see it in its awesomeness!”

Scootaloo turned towards Apple Bloom and said, “I thought you said this guy was cool, not a nerd like Twilight!”

“Oh, I’m cool,” he said while roughly patting the top of the pegasi’s pegasus’s unless I’m unaware, Scootaloo is only one pegasus purple head, “as cool as the inside of a black hole.”

Sweetie Belle finally spoke up in a distraught and frightened tone, “Rarity says that if she finds me in a room with another stallion, she’ll hang me by my hooves in leave me out to dry for a week.”

Apple Bloom approached the unicorn and comforted her, “He’s not like that, he’s alright. In fact, he’s more like a kid than us, heck, he doesn’t have his cutie mark yet!”

“Technically...” he started, pondering on thoughts about his supposed age, puberty, and other apposing facts to her statement, but stopped himself to give Apple Bloom’s friend a break.

“Well, okay, whatever you say, talking horse creatures.”

Scootaloo was overlooking the rest of his drawings on the walls and asked aloud, “What are these supposed to be then?”

“Ha! Oh... you know... thoughts...”

The white filly’s courage had risen and she said to the stallion, “Apple Bloom says you don’t have a name.”

“Oh, I do have a name, Sweetie Balls, I just can’t remember it. Nearly everything has a name once you think about it, except I can’t remember mine. But if you want to think that way, sure, I don’t have a name.”

She had awaited that response, or at least the end of it, to ask the burning question, “Could I give you a name?”

He burst into glee as he placed his hooves on each of her cheeks and shook them vigorously saying over and over again, “Yes! Yes you can! Yes you can!”

He then pivoted her head with his hooves still on her cheeks towards Scootaloo in the corner of the clubhouse. He stated, “She can’t though, she doesn’t like my drawings.” He motioned her head now towards Apple Bloom and said, “She can’t either, she’s boring and annoying.”

“Hey!” the earth filly called out, but the nameless pony ignored her.

The stallion and Sweetie Belle met eyes again and their faces were at close proximity with one another. He told her, “Only you can name me! I can decline your given names, but eventually we’ll come to an agreement.”

She, surprisingly, smiled back and the blue stallion let go of her face. She rubbed a hoof underneath her chin and thought about his future name.

She then sang out the answer with delight, “Sweetie Belle Two!”

“No.”

“Ah, it was worth a try...”

She tried again while the other two watched the process take place. She began to rattle off different names as he shook his head in lack of approval. Her silly and simple names seemed to disapprove with him and she was about to give up on the whole thing.

“I don’t know if I can think of any more, my head’s starting to hurt.” She began to look around the room for inspiration and that’s when it finally hit her.

“How about... Sketch! Because... from what I see... you like to draw! And another word for draw is sketch!”

She awaited his response with an eager gleam in her eyes. His eyes looked about, pondering on the given name. He showed signs of uneasiness about the name, and those signs worried the unicorn of her choice. He saw the sadness beginning to build in her eyes and he surely didn’t want her to be sad.

He finally answered, “Okay.”

“Yaaaaay!” she rejoiced as she hopped around the stallion in utter bliss. “New Cutie Mark Crusader Sketch!”

Apple Bloom approached him saying, “Well, Sketch, me and Scoots were talking about what to do with you, and we decided that we will bring you into town.”

He softly breathed the word, “Yes!”

The yellow earth pony continued, “We’re taking you directly to the smartest, purpliest pony in town to figure out why you don’t have a cutie mark.”

His brief joy came to sudden stand still as he rose his eyebrow and repeated her, “Purpliest?”