//------------------------------// // Bad Apples and Rowdy Weather // Story: Normalcy // by Coufnsiou //------------------------------// Celestia’s sun rose from the horizon, bringing its golden light from the hills and onto the world. The bright yellow glow quickly spread throughout a quiet town, one familiar to many for its reputation of happenings. From the lush pastures and trees of Sweet Apple Acres to the sweet smells of early baked goods at Sugar Cube Corner, all was right with the world. Well, almost. Within the walls of the newly relocated Crystal Oak Library stirred something . The crystalline structure held a large assortment of books, so large in fact that the Equestrian Records Society had listed it now as the fourth largest library in Equestria, and sixth on Equus! But within its glassy crystal walls was a dark secret. Something wrathful, something dark, something... purple. Twilight Sparkle had spent the better half of the morning looking for an out of place quill, which had mysteriously disappeared from her careful vigil. She had done all but tear the library apart by the roots-which she could have done easily- to find this unruly and eerily stealthy quill. Spike was sifting through shelf after shelf of books in an effort to calm down the mauve monster of organization. “Oh where is it?!” Twilight’s voice practically cracked, “I swear I put it precisely next to ink pot J-43, and right next to scroll I-67!” for the sixth time this morning, she repeated the process of levitating each and every scroll, ink pot, quill, and piece of parchment in the desperate search for the missing quill. “Twilight, calm down! I’m sure we’ll find it, you just misplaced it!” Spike reassured her, before putting away the last of the books he had just sifted through. “Besides, nothing’s truly lost till Spike the Dragon can’t find it!” He struck a dramatic pose, heroic in his mind, over-exaggerated when executed. Twilights purple aura surrounded near everything in the library, which included Spike. “Woah!” he exclaimed, suddenly lifted from his spot and mixed in with the countless office supplies. “Twilight! Put me down!” Spike pleaded, but she was too busy searching for the quill in the blur of lavender that she didn’t bother noticing the purple dragon in the myriad of light mauve. Spike meanwhile, felt as if his balance had been taken, crushed, built back up,and crushed again. He spun like Sandra Bullock in Gravity, trying to center himself before he lost his recently eaten breakfast. Suddenly, he spotted it. “Twilight! I found the quill!” Everything dropped. Spike fell to the ground with an audible ‘oof’, before suddenly facing two saucer wide eyes, “Where?! Where is it?!” Twilight near accosted the poor baby reptilian, before he reached to her ear with a deadpan expression. He pulled back, a quill in his claw, still keeping his deadpan face. Twilight let up on the poor baby dragon, blushing and squee-ing in embarrassment, both at her reaction and her mad hunt for a quill that was on her the whole time.   “Honestly Twilight, you gotta calm down! You lose a quill and it’s like you’ve lost your mind!” Spiked exclaimed, standing and dusting himself off from his sudden drop. “I can’t help it Spike! A place for everything, and everything must be in place!” Twilight said, striking an equally dramatic pose. “And besides, what would happen if I lost something important? Like the Elements? It’d be a catastrophe!” Twilight explained, thinking back to those instances where she and her friends had used the Elements of Harmony and the Power of Love on Equestria’s greatest foes. “Oh come on Twilight, no one’s going to misplace the Elements! They’re way too important! And you’re a princess now! No one would even think of messing with you!” Spike went ahead and began picking up the paraphernalia that had been tossed about in Twilight’s mad search. Twilight meanwhile, felt something off. Nothing serious, but never the less, something to tuck away in the back of her mind. Speaking of tucking things in her mind, she had promised Apple Jack and Fluttershy she’d help them around their orchards and cottage, respectively. “Spike!” Twilight called out as she head out the door, “I’m going out to help Apple Jack and Fluttershy! Can you mind the library while I’m gone?” Spiked turned and gave off a salute with a quill and parchment in his hands. "Aye aye,  captain!" Twilight giggled at the baby dragon's display, before shutting the door and leaving the dragon to do his work. Once again, that feeling. What was it? She pondered,  a concerned expression on her muzzle. Experimentally, she lifted a nearby flower pot with her magic. There it was again! Like a small nagging feeling in the back of her mind... "Aw well, I'll find out later!" She reasoned with herself. For now, she had a promise to uphold! Onward, to Sweet Apple Acres! ______________________________________________________________________ CRACK This was nuts! CRACK Why?! CRACK Why won't they fall?! Applejack was practically exhausted from bucking all these trees, yet for all her effort, she couldn't get the apples to fall! The ones that did could barely qualify as apples anyway! These apples certainly didn't live up to their name! Starving Fruit Bats wouldn't eat these! They weren't sweet in the least! They were bruised and battered, more often than not had worms in em', and with every buck of the tree, all she seemed to do was splinter the poor thing! "Consarnit ya' stubborn fruits! Get! Off! The! Branch!" She couldn't do it. Her barrels were only a quarter full, and less than that quarter had any usable apples! She'd have nothing for the market at this rate! Big Mac had tried his luck at the ordeal, but the same result seemed to crop up. All that his bucking would do is splinter the tree, with almost no apples to show for it! This was getting out of hand. "Hello Applejack!" Aha! Eureko! Or was it Eureka? No matter! The answer to all of Applejack's problems had arrived! “Twilight! Am I glad ta’ have you here! I need yer’ help…” Applejack said, catching her breath from all the apple bucking. “What’s the matter Applejack?” Asked Twilight, she looked over her friend's shoulder and saw her barrels. Immediately, she began calculating the apples. But… something was wrong here… during her calculation, she came up with a 2:6 ratio of Good to Rotten apples! This wasn’t normal… “Are your apples okay Applejack?” Twilight asked, still running mathematics in her head and calculating the rate at which she needed to harvest good apples to be ready for the afternoon market. Approximately several hours at the best! This was a dire situation! This was definitely not normal!   “Of course they ain’t ok, Twilight! Look at ‘em! I’ve been bucking these trees since first light, and Ah can’t get any barrels worth o’ apples! Big Mac tried, and Apple Bloom tried ta’ help, but ‘dis is completely nuts!” Applejack said, exasperated from the explanation. “Ah hate tah ask Twi, but could ya’ maybe do yer magic light show and help me out here?” Applejack asked, a pleading expression in here eyes. “Of course Applejack! After all, what are friends for?” She said, charging up her horn with magic. Again, there it was again. For the third time this morning, that feeling came back, almost in full force. Things were far from normal.  “No! I need to focus!” Twilight told herself, getting back on track and forcing that unnatural feeling from her mind. She closed her eyes and imagined the apples floating from the branches and into a set of new empty barrels. The tell tale sound of the apples levitating from the trees resounded throughout the orchard. Twilight opened her eyes to see just that. Within her aura, apples of all sizes and shapes were stuck floating in mid-air, some rotten and some ripe. She sifted through the fruity cloud in a matter of seconds, sorting out the rotten apples from the ripe ones. Within a few seconds, the ripe apples had filled all but one of the barrels prepared. “Woo eh! Ah never git’ tired of seein’ that!” Applejack said holding on to her stetson hat. “Thanks a lot fer yer’ help Twilight, ah couldn’t have done it without ya’...” Applejack said, grabbing one of the handles of the bucket with her teeth, and throwing it onto the cart she had prepared. Meanwhile, Twilight felt… nauseous. As if something had been jumping in her stomach. She shook her head violently, not wanting to worry her tired out friend. “It’s… nothing, Applejack. Happy to help! I have to go help Fluttershy with her animal friends! I’ll be seeing you around!” “See ya’ later, Twi!” called out AJ, still busily loading her now harvested apples onto her cart. “Guess Imma need ta’ hire som’ farm hands… wait.” ________________________________________________________________________ Today was a beautiful day! The Sun was shining! drip The sky was clear! drip drip And there wasn’t anything that could ruin this d- SPLASH WHAT!?!   Rain? Why was it all wet?! Why was it raining?! There wasn’t any storm scheduled today! Why was it raining!? Twilight immediately ducked into the nearest awning shaking herself off from the water before an audible “poof”. Standing there now was a fluffy lavender unicorn. Adorable. Twilight looked to the sky when he heard the sound of whooshing. A long rainbow streak was passing through the clouds with little to no effect besides displacing the tufts of moisture and the occasional coughing fit. Hold on a second… “Rainbow! What’s going on here?!” Twilight frantically asked, the rain continuing to hammer down on the town’s square. All around ponies looked either terrified or confused. Had the Weather Team messed up? Had there been some mistake at the weather factory? Discord?! No. This was no time for panic, Rainbow would know! “I don’t know!” Darn.  “What do you mean you don’t know?!” Twilight called up to the cerulean pegasus as she dashed through numerous stormclouds. She coughed out an ounce or so of rain water and turned to Twilight. “I mean I don’t know! The weather was supposed to be sunny and clear, a balmy 70 degrees, with a light breeze! Not even Thunder Lane could mess up this badly!” She quickly resumed racing through the storm clouds, merely displacing them while the rain continued to pound the town. This was madness! First Sweet Apple Acres, now the weather? Something was definitely not normal! Twilight conjured up a spell from her arsenal, before firing it into one of the center most clouds. The spell became a glowing lavender ball of energy, before imploding, and exploding outwards, clearing the storm clouds. “There! All clear everypony! Sorry about the mess!” Twilight called out to all the ponies hiding beneath awnings and inside shops. Rainbow had some explaining to do. “Rainbow Dash! Come down here!” Twilight called out before Rainbow could fly away in a burst of speed. She landed and crossed her hooves with a “I-didn’t-do-it-” face. The face of a terrible liar. Almost worse than AJs. “Yeah? What’s up egghead?” “You know what’s up! Those rainclouds!” Twilight explained, “There wasn’t any rain due till next week!” She continued, again, all sorts of numbers ran through her head for rearranging the schedule of the Weather Team, not to mention the extended responsibilities her crown would give her! All those audiences about erosion and such… “I know it seems fishy Twi, but I didn’t do it!” retorted Rainbow in her defense, “I was minding my own business, and suddenly it’s starts dripping and raining and pouring! I asked around at the factory and they said they were trying to help, but said the clouds were dissa… disse… disappearing, under their hooves!” Rainbow explained, just as worried as Twilight. That feeling again when she had used that spell… a headache this time around… no matter. “Well, alright. I guess I’ll contact the Princess and see if they know anything…” Twilight shuffled away that memento once more into her mental file cabinets. She still had Fluttershy to help! If her cottage is anything like the weather or Sweet Apple Acres, who knows how the animals would be acting up! “You go and see if there aren’t any more storms acting up, I’ve got to go check up on Fluttershy!” Twilight turned and quickly galloped down the path to Fluttershy’s cottage, she may need her help!  “Well alright… say hi to Flutters for me!” Rainbow said, waving her galloping friend goodbye. ________________________________________________________________________ Trapped. That’s what he was right now. A white space, white as the page you’re reading on… yeah that’s right, you wouldn’t expect me to be able to see you now did you? Well I can see you… clear as fucking day. You thought this would be all in third person? Think again asshats. If I’m going along for this shit ride for a FIFTH time… well you’re coming with me! Back to the third person! Trapped. He couldn’t remember how long he had been, nor did he really care. Honestly, he didn’t want to leave. Everytime he did it was the same routine. He tried stopping it. Over and over, he tried so hard, and got so far (but in the end, it doesn’t even matter). He didn’t want the three-peat when it came around. He didn’t want there to be a fourth, a third, or a second time… the only concern on his mind was how the author had come up with ways to fuck him over. And believe me when I say friends… I have plenty in store.