isn’t it interesting how the initial reaction to any piece of literature always seems to turn out differently than the author had intended, or perhaps, anticipated? Or how the story itself just doesn’t want to cooperate with the author? it’s like the more you want it to be awesome, the worse it turns out. And the less you care about it, the better it gets.
i mean, you’re probably already thinking about turning the page, and moving on to the next story on whichever website you frequent for your daily fix of fiction. i’m boring you, aren’t i? Well, i suppose i should get on with my promised tale, but i just get so caught up in the fine details sometimes. Oh, you want a story? Okay, i suppose at this point, i’ll have to oblige. Let’s see...
i’ve got it! One little slip.
“it was a beautiful day in Ponyville.” Miss Cheerilee tapped the easel with her hoof. “Now, who can tell me what’s wrong with this sentence? inkling?”
The gray filly’s eyes snapped open as she jumped up up in her seat. “Huh? What?” She had been sleeping in class again. She looked up at Cheerilee, who went on.
“Keep your head up, and please tell the class what’s wrong with these sentences.” She indicated the next two as well, both of which had similar errors.
“Um...” inkling tilted her head, frowning at the eisel. “i don’t know. They look fine to me.”
Somepony in the class snickered.
Cheerilee just sighed. “Maybe if you had taken an interest in paying attention yesterday instead of staring out the window all day, you might know how to fix them.” She scanned the room for another participant. “Applesauce, would you like to help her out?”
Cheerilee pointed to a tan colt sitting next to inkling. He turned his head and winked at her, then faced front and raised his hoof. “None of the ‘i’s are capitalized.’ He turned back to inkling and gave her a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry,” he whispered, placing a hoof on the side of his mouth. “i’ll help you catch up later.”
inkling hadn’t really paid attention to what he’d just said, nor did she pay attention to what Cheerilee was saying next. English was mostly boring anyway. She uttered a mild thanks to Applesauce and returned her head to her desk, picking it up again when Cheerilee scolded her again. She ignored some jibe about an ‘inkling of interest’ made by one of the other students, propped her head on one hoof, and gazed out the window.
A bluebird landed in the tree over near the playground. It had a worm in its mouth and was feeding it to three little beaks that poked up from the bottom of a tangled nest. inkling smiled slightly in amusement as she tried to imagine the thoughts of the baby birds.
”What’s that? What did you bring us mommy?”
“I want it. I want it!”
“Mommy, I’m hungry”
inkling’s stomach grumbled and she looked down at it, rubbing it with her hoof. “Yeah, me too...” She mumbled to herself. A nice big worm sandwich sounded real tasty, too. inkling tilted her head back and chirped, trying to reach the enticing morsel dangling above her. She stretched her neck out as far as it would go, but her head got heavy and she had to sit down again. She tried again, still with no success. She tried again and again, but it stayed out of reach. the end of the worm wriggled toward her, and she jumped up to try to reach it again. As she was about to bite into it, it grew a face, and smiled at her.
“Hey, you coming?”
inkling blinked. She was drooling on her desk, and Applesauce was standing right next to her, balancing a brown paper bag on his back. She sat up and looked around. All the other desks were empty, and there was nopony in the room except for her, Applesauce, and Miss Cheerilee, who was standing in the doorway.
“Come on, you two, let’s get moving. Everypony’s already outside.”
inkling looked back at Applesauce, trying to get some idea from him of what was going on.
He must have read her thoughts, because he responded. “We’re all going outside for lunch. Come on, you sounded hungry earlier anyway. Whatever you were dreaming about must have been pretty tasty. You’ve been drooling for ten minutes,” he laughed.
inkling felt her face heat up as she looked down at the puddle of drool that had collected on her desk, and was now plastered to the side of her face. She tried to hide her embarrassment as she ducked down to reach under her desk and pulled out the lunch bag her mom had packed for her that morning. Rubbing the grogginess from her eyes, inkling followed Applesauce out the door and after the other students.
When they got outside most of the tables were filled up. It was a large class after all. inkling sat down at the only open table left—in the shade under the tree. A butterfly fluttered down landed on her hoof when she went to open up her lunch bag. it was mostly pink, with some brown lining near the base of the wings, and had a yellow body. it blinked at her, and she blinked back. The two sat staring at eachother for a long minute, before it flapped its wings and fluttered away.
inkling hopped off the bench for the table, and followed after the little creature. She nearly tripped over the little step near the outside of the play area as she stared straight up at the pink set of wings over her head. There were a few white clouds in the sky above it that almost looked like a feather.
She smacked into something and fell backward, landing on her rump. inkling shook the stars out of her vision and looked up. She had run into Miss Fluttershy’s wagon, which had been full of butterflies but was now empty. The yellow mare stopped the wagon and turned to notice inkling on the ground.
“Oh, my. Are you alright?” She uncoupled herself from the wagon and rushed to help inkling up off the ground. “You should really watch where you’re going if you don’t want to bump into things.”
“Yeah, i’m fine, Miss Fluttershy,” inkling replied, silently cursing herself for being so distracted. “i’m sorry for scattering your butterflies. i’m supposed to be in school right now, but it’s so boring. Can i help you round them up?”
inkling lit up her horn, trying to reach out and pull the butterflies back in. The wings on one of them lit up blue, then crumpled. inkling let go of it instantly and the little body fell slowly to the ground, where Fluttershy caught it in her hooves.
“Oh my gosh. Miss Fluttershy, i’m so sorry. i was just trying to—”
“It’s okay, i—” Fluttershy replied without turning to her. “i think you should just go back to school now.” inkling left her hunched over the poor creature, stroking it gently with a hoof. She thought she heard Fluttershy utter a soft squeal of dismay as she headed back to the picnic tables.
By now, most of the other kids were playing in the sandbox or on the swings. Applesauce was sitting at her picnic table, however; he was mixing something up in a bowl. He looked up when he heard inkling coming over, and smiled proudly at her. She stopped in front of her lunch bag when she got to the table and cocked her head to the side, staring at the bowl he seemed to be beating.
“Um, what are you doing?” she asked.
He giggled. “Making applesauce.”
Applesauce then displayed a wide toothy grin, as though he’d just done something impressive. inkling leaned forward and peeked into the bowl. Sure enough, there were mashed up apples in the bowl. The aroma filled her nostrils with the fresh scent of macintosh apples. She sneezed and drew her head back quickly, blinking. She then noticed the open lunch bag next to him, a pile of apple peels next to the bowl, and the apple goop clinging to his right hoof, which he held out to her.
“Care to sample a taste?”
inkling stared at his hoof for a moment, then looked back at Applesauce, who chuckled at her gaze.
“Don’t worry. I’m not carrying any diseases or anything. I made it for you anyway, go ahead.”
He gave a small jerk of his head to indicate that it was most likely safe to eat, and she gave his hoof a quick lick. He smiled fondly at her while she savored it.It was certainly delicious. The apples were perfectly mashed—he’d gotten all of the lumps out, and even added— Oh, no.
inkling sniffled as her nose became runny and her throat tightened up. Her eyes went wide with alarm as she realized what was happening.
“Did you put... ?” she tried to say something, but her throat had knotted up. He must have realized something was wrong as well, for his eyes were as wide as hers, and he had turned completely white.
“ink, what’s wrong?” he asked.
inkling put a hoof over her throat and tried to speak. “I need...” she croaked, but at that point her airway had closed up, and she was unable to breathe. She turned and raced back toward the school building, but didn’t make it far. She slowed to a crawl and then collapsed about halfway there. Her vision was blurring and her head felt hot and heavy. Applesauce had followed her, and was standing over her, trying to determine the problem.
“ink! What’s wrong?” His eyes were rimmed with worry, and he finally decided to run for help. “Miss Cheerilee! Come quick, inkling isn’t breathing!” He ran off toward Miss Cheerilee, who was watching the other fillies and colts play. She turned at Applesauce’s call and started galloping toward inkling, by which time her vision had mostly faded out and her face was burning.
“GHUUUUUHH!” a sharp pain exploded in inkling’s leg, after which air came rushing back into her lungs. Several voices—with faces to match—all came flooding back into focus.
“is she alright?”
“What happened?”
“Shh, everypony quiet. Give her some space. She needs air.”
Miss Cheerilee was standing over her, meanwhile everypony backed up a few feet. She sat up and focused on breathing while her heart pounded heavily.
“Applesauce, can you tell me what happened?” Miss Cheerliee asked.
The tan colt nearest her looked up with worried and teary eyes. “i— i don’t know. i made her some applesauce and—”
“Did you add cinnamon?” Cheerilee spoke with a sense of compassion and urgency.
“i—” Applesauce turned white again, his words seeming to catch in his throat. “Y-yes,” he stuttered, then stared at the ground as tears welled up in his eyes.
“That’s alright, Applesauce, inkling is fine. it’s not your fault, you didn’t know.” She took a deep breath before continuing. “inkling has a severe cinnamon allergy. She can’t eat cinnamon, or be anywhere near it. Please try to be careful in the future. Everypony back inside. i’ll meet you all in the classroom.”
Cheerilee turned to inkling while everypony else filed inside except for Applesauce, who remained behind. “Are you alright, inkling?” Miss Cheerilee asked. inkling’s breathing had mostly slowed, but her heart was beating very fast. She looked up at Miss Cheerilee, eyes still wide with shock, then looked over at Applesauce.
“Yes, i... i think i’m alright,” she replied, wiping her nose and sniffling.
“Would you like to go home for today? i’ll excuse you from class if you’d like,” Cheerilee offered.
“Yeah, i’d like to,” inkling mewed.
Applesauce looked up, eyes wide in realization of something. “i could go with her,” he suggested. “Make sure she gets home okay.” He looked over at her. “i could help you catch up on the writing we did yesterday,” he added, hopefully.
Miss Cheerilee smiled brightly. “Sure, that would be fine. Go and get them. Come on, inkling.”
inkling stood up and followed Cheerilee inside. They were almost to the classroom when Applesauce came running out, carrying both of their saddlebags. His cheeks were flushed and he was panting slightly, but he was smiling too.
Oh, i’m sorry. i was supposed to be telling you the tale of a little filly who didn’t know what her cutie mark was, and helped out a grumpy old scientist whom she admired and would criticize her at every turn. it was sort of a love/hate relationship between the two of them. Of course, it had a bit of a tragic ending, but it was heartwarming as well.
The story i told you instead had nothing to do with that one. That story’s main character was named ink Well. Funny how things get mixed up. i think i actually ended up telling you about the time my future husband accidentally poisoned me. The poor fellow. He was so scared, as was i of course, but we had a fun time later.
Oh, i’m sorry about that. Maybe next time i’ll tell you about a story i wrote when i hadn’t learned to capitalize my ‘i’s. Poor Miss Cheerilee had nearly had a fit trying to grade it. I’ll never forget the look on her face, oh my it was priceless. But i’ve wasted enough of your time. Run along now, my little ponies. Story time’s over, and i have some writing i’d like to get to.
Author's Note
i'd like to make an enormous shout out to the great ion Sturm for his inspirational influence and for his contributions to developing this masterpiece. :D Go thank him for me, will you? Be sure to wish him a happy April fool's day for me as well. :P
http://www.fimfiction.net/user/Ion-Sturm
