//------------------------------// // Part 2 - Isolation // Story: Frosty // by Exhelah //------------------------------// Apple Bloom woke up to a blur of colors. All around her, she could hear ponies talking. Trying to make them out, the recognized the mayor, Filthy Rich, Applejack, and Granny Smith. After a short time, her hearing returned to her as well. "...I demand justice for what she did to my daughter!" she heard Filthy Rich spitting at Granny Smith. "I assure ya, she will be dealt with. Ah reckon no Apples fer a year." "How is that a punishment!? There are plenty of other foods available!" "Where we come from, ah assure ya - It's perhaps the worst thing to do to a filly like her." "Well..." Filthy Rich trailed off, thinking. "Alright. Sounds good. But I still demand payment for the hospital bill!" "We'll get all that in order, Mr. Rich," Applejack reiterated for the fifth time. Upon hearing this, Filthy Rich turned to Apple Bloom, the latter of which groaned softly. Filthy Rich leaned down over her, and spoke to her, spattering spit all over her face (which didn't help her sight situation.) "You listen here you youngling," he spat. "You are not to go anywhere near my daughter again. And if I hear of you getting anywhere, I repeat, anywhere near her again, I will personally end you. You got that?" Apple Bloom, in a miracle of woe, managed to speak, "She was insultin' ma family, Mr. Ri-" "I don't care if she was-," he ended mid-scream, a look of confusion on his face. "Wait, what was she doing?" "She was insultin' my family, Mr. Rich," Apple Bloom reiterated, managing - through much pain - to prop herself up on her foreknees. "She was bein' really mean to me." Filthy Rich looked shocked, as if he couldn't believe that his, 'precious perfect pretty daughter,' would do such a thing. He seemed on the edge of brushing it off as a lie, but his eyes said otherwise. They were angry, but Apple Bloom could tell that it wasn't directed at her anymore. "Diamond Tiara!" he screamed in a frenzy, whipping around to where his daughter was being treated for a broken muzzle bone. "Is what she says true? Were you insulting her family!?" Diamond Tiara, who couldn't speak and could barely move, slightly shook her head. Apple Bloom didn't expect any different. "Come on guys," Apple Bloom suddenly pleaded to Applejack and Granny Smith. "Ya heard her! She was callin' us names and insultin' our farm! All our hard work!" Granny Smith and Applejack put on a similar show that Filthy Rich (who was now staring at Applejack, waiting for confirmation) had participated in before. They were conflicted, but then Applejack looked over at Diamond Tiara. "She was insultin' us, Mr. Rich," she said, much to Apple Bloom's delight. If she hadn't been in so much pain she would have sprung up and hugged her. "Yes-er-ee," Granny Smith confirmed, nodding her head. "But that still doesn't excuse this one's behavior." "I agree," Filthy Rich said, glancing back at Apple Bloom. He still didn't like her, but his outright rage was now directed at his daughter. As Filthy Rich apologized, forgave them of the medical bills, and stormed off to give his daughter a good scolding. Apple Bloom was helped up by her sister and grandmother. This process consisted mainly of groans and grunts from Apple Bloom as she was a dead weight for Applejack and Granny Smith. "Yer still in trouble, Sugarcube," Applejack reminded her. "Ahm sorry for punchin' her," Apple Bloom tried to tell them, but they had stopped listening. Here was the usual demeanor of neglect and stiffness that they had adopted before. After making a final check that everything was cleaned up, they trotted off. - - - - - The process of setting up the festival continued as usual, with Apple Bloom's attempts at helping now being spurned more forcefully. She did enjoy not having to do as much work, but she hated that her family was doing it out of hatred, not love. After a few hours more, Apple Bloom built up the willpower to ask Applejack about it. "Sis?" she began shyly, expecting to be ignored. But she was surprised. "Not now, Apple Bloom," she said, not sparing a glance at her. Despite their lack of eye contact, Apple Bloom continued, "Yer not lettin' me help." Applejack dropped what she was holding and stared Apple Bloom straight in the face, "Yer tryin' to blame yer inadequacy on me!?" "Ahm not... In-ad-e-kwa-cy," she replied harshly, trying to sound out the word. She didn't know what it meant, but the way Applejack used it suggested that it was an insult of some kind. "Yer tryin' to be lazy and pin all the blame on yer' family," Applejack responded, going back to what she was doing. "But it's nothin' but yer own silly desire to get outta a bit of character-buildin' work." "Ahm tryin' to help ya, but every time ah try, ya always take it away!" Applejack thought for a moment, and in that moment Apple Bloom foolishly hoped that she would see the truth. But, of course, she "didn't remember" that ever happening. Turning back to Apple Bloom, she scowled, "Ah have nevah taken somethin' away from ya in the entire time we've done this!" "Yes ya have!" Apple Bloom yelled back, now positively angry. "How about this: If ya see me doin' somethin', don' take it away. Let me do it!" "What are ya sayin' about the things ah do!?" Applejack screamed back, her face going beet red. "All ahm tryin' to say is that if ah left right now, yeh wouldn' notice a difference!" Applejack was silent for a moment, seeming to try to compose herself before responding, "Fine. Go home before ah kill ya, yeh rottin' bucket of apples." Apple Bloom almost jumped for joy before quickly thanking her sister and speeding off towards the edge of Ponyville, determined to get back to their barn if it killed her. As she trumped through the deep snow, she reconsidered what she had said to Applejack. Maybe she was being a bit harsh? No, the yelling and screaming was necessary for her escape. Even if the only reason Applejack let her go was to not kill her, Apple Bloom still felt quite accomplished at completing the task she had been attempting to do for the past three years. When she got back to the barn, she was covered in snow from head to foot. Not wanting to anger her family still further, she undressed in the mudroom and dried herself off, shivering violently, before entering the premises of her home. The onslaught of heat from the fire washed over her as if a bucket of pure happiness was poured over her head. "Ahhh..." she moaned in delight as she experienced the full force of this temperature change. She felt instantly better inside; She felt as if all of her troubles were muscles that were being unknotted and unclenched. Instantly lethargic, she moseyed over to the sofa, collapsed, and instantly dozed off into the world of her subconscious. Just a few minutes later, Apple Bloom woke up to a scream. Paralyzed with fear, she looked around. Suddenly, she realized that the scream had emanated from her own mouth. "Whew," she sighed, ending her panicking state. It was all just a nightmare; Nopony was being hung on stakes. After a few more attempts, Apple Bloom decided that trying to sleep now would be pointless. She attempted to get off of the sofa, but it took her a few tries to get back onto her hooves. Although she couldn't sleep, she was still extraordinarily tired. Suddenly, Apple Bloom recalled Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle's goodbye in her mind, remembering that she had promised her friends a giant picture when they got back. Deciding that this was the best option of the moment, Apple Bloom made her way upstairs, groggily lumbered into her bedroom, and plopped onto her desk chair. It was time to get to work. Still half-asleep, Apple Bloom drew out a large piece of paper, a box of crayons, and a ruler from her desk drawer. She halfheartedly picked a crayon from the box, set it to the paper, and began to scribble away. It wasn't her finest piece, but that was to be expected from a half-asleep, traumatized six-year-old filly. A few minutes later, Apple Bloom finished scribbling an unintelligible blob on the paper. She knew that this drawing was going to end up horrible, but she didn't care anymore. This one wouldn't be for her friends - she just needed something to do. Apple Bloom repeated the very slow process of drawing a crayon from its resting place in the box, setting it to the paper, and drawing more unintelligible scribbles. It was not long before she realized that the picture seemed to be... moving. No, it was alive! It was trying to eat her face! "No!" she screamed, jerking her head up off the desk. "What was that, youngin'!?" came an angry voice from afar. At this voice, Apple Bloom instantly went rigid. She had fallen asleep right on her desk, the second crayon still clenched in her hoof. Springing from her chair with some newfound strength, she peeled a wet, sticky something from her cheek; The paper she had been drawing on was now a drool-sodden mess. Discarding the ruined paper in the wastebasket (for there was no saving it), Apple Bloom flung open her bedroom door, yelling, "Ahm sorry! Ah fell asleep! Ah was shoutin' at mah dream, not y'all!" "Good," Applejack replied curtly. Apple Bloom began her journey down the stairs, but was soon tumbling - She had tripped on the third step down! Rolling down the stairs like a slinky, she smashed headlong into Applejack, who began screaming again. Apple Bloom would have begun laughing hysterically if it weren't for the current situation. "Apple Bloom!" Applejack screamed, her voice now raspy from yelling so much. "Ya watch where yer goin'!" "Ahm sorry!" Apple Bloom shouted back. "Ah didn't mean to!" "AH DON'T CARE WHAT YA THINK!" Applejack screamed. She then proceeded to vault herself over the couch (for she had landed on the other side) and punched Apple Bloom across the muzzle. This action was something Apple Bloom did not expect. At no time, no matter how angry or frustrated she was, Applejack had never physically harmed her like this. "AH!" she screamed as her elder sister's hoof connected with her muzzle. The sheer amount of pain was unbearable; Apple Bloom felt a pang of pity for Diamond Tiara, but she still didn't forgive her. These thoughts were interrupted with Applejack picking her up and throwing her across the floor, causing her head to strike the wall. Now she was seeing nothing but blurs, and feeling nothing but pain and grief. She didn't notice as Big Mac and Granny Smith came streaming into the room to see what was going on. "Wha's goin' on here!?" Granny Smith shouted at Applejack. Finally, somepony had a straight head. "Apple Bloom was makin' a right racket, so Ah taught her a lesson!" "Ah don't care if she burned the barn down!" Granny Smith retorted, prodding Applejack in the muzzle. "We nevah use physical violence against each othah!" "Ah... Ah..." Applejack tried to respond, obviously failing to conceive a good comeback. Rather than continuing to stammer, she turned back to Apple Bloom. But Apple Bloom wasn't there. "Why the little..." Applejack silently cursed, but she didn't get to finish the thought. For at that precise moment, there was a loud crash! Granny Smith instantly bolted to the door to find Apple Bloom limping away through the snow. "Come back you silly filly!" Granny Smith called, but Apple Bloom didn't care. She wasn't even sure that she could care about anything, save the overpowering desire to get away from her family. The only thing she wanted to do right now was be alone. - - - - - It was as if death himself had taken the form of a little filly and was limping through the bustling town of Ponyville. Apple Bloom didn't have enough energy to cry. In fact, she surprised herself at how far she had walked. She had expected to collapse long before she reached Ponyville. Everywhere she went, ponies shied away, knowing immediately that this filly was not to be reckoned with; As if she was some sort of parasite that ponies feared of getting close to, lest they become infected and die. Usually Apple Bloom would dislike this and want to be with other ponies - but at the moment, she wanted nothing else but to be alone. As she trumped through the sunlit, bustling town, she reflected on what had happened to her over the last day. It all felt the same - the pain, the isolation, and the annoyance were all still there, strong as ever. She felt as is these emotions were in buckets, and the buckets were completely full. Yet there was still more liquid being poured in, filling the buckets beyond full to overflowing. She didn't know how long she had been walking before she wandered away from Ponyville. Ignoring the screaming pain in her joints from the fall and the cold from the snow, she continued forth, not knowing where she was going, but knowing she would know when she got there that it was the place for her. She was nearing the Everfree Forest - she was now on the opposite side of Ponyville from Sweet Apple Acres. Without caring, she walked straight into it. Although there were plenty of bad things in there, she felt that being eaten by a Manticore would be better than living on. Then, she tripped. "Oof!" she yelled as she began rolling down a shallow hill. She knew instantly that she was going to become both colder and more sore when this was over. She let herself roll, knowing that trying to stop would be even more painful. Since the hill was so shallow, she didn't hit a sudden horizontal surface, but instead it gradually flattened until she stopped. Her head was spinning, and her stomach was doing many uncomfortable flip-flops, but she forced herself to her hooves once more to get a bearing on her location. She had quite literally stumbled upon a small clearing in the Everfree Forest. The amount of trees between the clearing and Ponyville wasn't enough to blot out the town completely, but it was enough that she wouldn't be noticed by anypony. This was the unknown place she had been looking for. And so she flopped onto her back with her coat wrapped around her, curled up, and wretched dry sobs for what felt like hours. She tried to force all of her bad feelings out through these, but her attempts all resulted in failure. Defeated and lost, she slumped her weak body onto the cold snow, completely relaxing and somehow hoping this would all end. As she lied motionless in the snow, her focus drifted in and out of phase. It was like being on the edge of sleep, but not quite getting there. Her thoughts swirled about in random eddies, the fog of despair closing in upon her. Through this fog, she was t able to distinguish a small blur. This blur slowly solidified as it seemed to move closer to Apple Bloom. Ordinarily, she would have attempted to greet the visitor, but her current state made the mere thought of standing and talking painful. Apple Bloom realized at that point that she was completely helpless. Completely alone and without strength, she wasn't capable of the simple task of looking at her visitor. All she could see were its hooves. "Wha...?" Apple Bloom moaned, only to receive a spike of pain through her chest. She wanted the visitor to identify itself, at least so she could know friend versus foe. "Ya' really oughta cheer up," Apple Bloom said. Hold on a second... Apple Bloom had a thought surge through her head: A single, dominating realization, so overpowering that her eyes produced tears for the first tim that day: She hadn't said a word. Instantly, her mind went into overdrive, having gone haywire from this thought. How had she said something if her mouth hadn't moved? Who had spoken? Who was- She was brought out of this panic when she felt a hoof on her shoulder. It was gentle: Not pushing too hard, but holding firm. At this touch, Apple Bloom felt a warm sensation spread from that shoulder and all up and down her body, alleviating a great portion of her pain. She was ready to heartily thank this savior of emotions, but when she looked up at the hoof's owner, her mind was sent spinning again: She was looking up at herself. Her jaw dropped through the ground at this sight. How had herself walked up, herself put her hoof on her own shoulder to calm her own pain, and how did she exist in two places at once!? "Wait, what!?" she sweated, scampering away from her duplicate. It simply wasn't possible to duplicate yourself like this! She hadn't been through any mirror pools that she could remember... "Ahm you," her copy said, winking. Apple Bloom was more confused than ever. A billion questions were ticking off through her head, similar to before. At least now she could respond. "How are ya me!?" she half-yelled. "Ah've nevah gone through teh mirror pool!" "Oh, it's not that," her copy responded, shaking her head. "Ahm not real. Ahm just in yer head." "Yer... Not real?" Apple Bloom repeated her copy's words, not more confused than ever. It wasn't until then that she realized that she was no longer in the forest clearing: She and her "copy" were standing in the white fog that had clouded Apple Bloom's consciousness. Was this a dream? Or was it a hallucination? Or maybe it was Diamond Tiara getting back at her for her punch. "Nope!" said the copy, confirming Apple Bloom's inquiry. "How are ya not real!? Yer standin' there lookin' at meh, ahm talkin to ya, and yer-" "We're in yer head! Ya silly filly. However could ya come up with a pony such as me?" Apple Bloom was surprised at her copy's use of grown-up words. How did she know how to speak like a grown-up? She could talk, but not that well. And why had her copy called her a filly!? "Yer just as old as ah am!" Apple Bloom shouted, growing frustrated with the events of the last minute. She simply was not ready to accept the fact that she was having a hallucination or some kind of mental illness. "Oh no no no..." her copy shook her head, her voice growing pitifully weary at the sentence. She sounded like a pony who had been living for too long of a time. Earth Ponies did live longer than the other races, but not this much longer. "Ya said you were fake!" "Ahm not fake, per say. Ahm just an echo." This confused Apple Bloom still further. Deciding to cut to the chase, she took a few tentative steps closer to this... Image in her head, and asked, "Whaddaya want with me?" "Ah just wanna help ya feel better," her copy responded, producing a small smile. Apple Bloom knew that she needed help, but she wasn't sure how a picture in her head was going to help. "...How?" "We're both lonely. Trust meh, ah know how it feels. But why are ya wallowing about it? Fix it!" "How do ah do that!? Mah family hates me!" "You don't need them. Just make yer own friend! Ya have snow, now use it!" Apple Bloom then did the double facehoof to end all double facehooves, "Of course! Ahm stupid! Thanks, me!" The copy merely smiled and nodded. Then she turned and walked back into the fog clouding Apple Bloom's head, until her form had dissipated completely. Apple Bloom focused, and slowly the fog dissipated as well, bringing her back to the physical world. She gasped. She hadn't noticed while she was in her own mind that it was very warm. The instant she woke back up though, the teeth-chattering chill reached her once again. The change was so drastic and extreme that Apple Bloom somehow managed to produce a few tears from the pain of it. Although she was chilled to the bone, no, deeper than that, she could tell that the muscle aches and depression she had experienced before were suppressed. Of course, they were still there, but something about her copy healing her like she had gave Apple Bloom the ability to put aside feelings she didn't enjoy. It was a wonderful feeling. Remembering what her doppelgänger had told her, Apple Bloom shook off the remaining pain with her newfound ability. She pushed back all of the pain, all of the misery, and all of the isolation she had experienced thus far. It was a wonderful feeling of bliss, being relieved of all these things. And she was off, rising to her hooves to begin her work. After taking a moment to shake off the fact that she was almost frozen solid, she began gathering snow with her damp gloves. No matter how cold or how depressed she was, she was also determined to make herself happy. Apple Bloom silently thanked her copy for helping her. She never knew her own mind could help her like that! She was going to have to research that when she grew up. A few moments later, she looked down at what she was putting together. She had built up nothing but a small pile, but already she was imagining the wondrous things she could create. But she had already decided what to build. Apple Bloom began forming the hooves of her snowpony.