Cutie Fixation

by WondersparkOfHope

Chapter 10: The Second Remembering:

Applebloom awoke with a start, gasping. It felt as though she had been trapped in a trance for years. What had happened? The last thing she remembered was.....Derpy! The mail pony had been turned into a cyborg or a robot of some kind. She had to get help, and fast!

She tried to stand, but found that her legs were too weak. No, not weak. Restrained was more like it. She looked down to find herself in a sort-of Southern Belle dress. And her head felt more covered than usual. Glancing upwards, she found a matching bonnet on her head. But what both shocked and embarrassed her was the diaper on her flank, with a strangely familiar cutie mark. But everything else was foreign, especially her surroundings. Looking around, she saw that she was inside of a crib. The steel bars were about twice her height, so even if she wasn't restrained by her new dress, jumping to get out was out of the question.

"What the hay am ah doin' here?" she gulped in a mixture of fear and confusion.
Welcome home, Anna Faye.

Applebloom's heart practically jumped out of her mouth when a voice from a loud speaker began crackling from seemingly nowhere. It had a dialect not too unlike her own, except it was more refined, barely pronounced the Rs at the ends of words, and went a bit slower. It was also extremely distorted.

We're so glad that you've decided to rejoin your family, Anna Faye.
The filly was confused. Was there somepony else in the room with her?
"Hello?" she called out.
"Is there an.....Anna Faye nearby?"
The voice from the loud speaker began to laugh endearingly.
Oh, silly Anna Faye! You've always been quite the prankster, Anna Faye.
That's when it hit Applebloom: the loud speaker was talking about her.
"Ah dunno what yer talkin' bout. Mah name's Applebloom!"
Oh, dear, Anna Faye. You're sufferin' from amnesia, Anna Faye.
"Man memory works fine, thanks! Now lemme outta here!"
I'm afraid I can't allow that, Anna Faye. You see, Anna Faye, when you were younger, Anna Faye, the plantation was practically runnin' dry, Anna Faye. There wasn't enough money to feed all of your brothers and sisters, Anna Faye. So your real parents had to abandon them and you, Anna Faye. Most of them died, Anna Faye. Recently, Anna Faye, your grandfather passed away, Anna Faye, and left a large sum of money to your family, Anna Faye. Now that they're rich, Anna Faye, they miss you so dearly, Anna Faye, and want nothin' more than for you to come back, Anna Faye.

Applebloom was getting tired of this. This random voice was trying to tell her that she wasn't who she thought she was, trying to make her deny her real family? She wasn't about to let that happen! And the name: Anna Faye. Why was that voice saying it over and over again? It was pounding into her head like a steam engine and making her angry.

"Ah dunno who yeh are or what yeh think yer doin', but yeh got the wrong filly!" she yelled defiantly.
"Mah name's Applebloom, spelled A-P-P-L-E-B-L-O-O-M! Now ah dunno who this Anna Faye filly is, but ah'm not her. So jus' drop this, git me outta this dress, and lemme go already!"

The room fell silent and Applebloom waited for something to happen. After a while, she smirked in satisfaction, thinking that she had won. But suddenly, two robotic arms swung down and grabbed her hooves, pushing her up against the crib. Another pair, this one with smaller fingers appeared and headed for her eyes, holding them open. Then from out of nowhere, a ton of books fell into her crib as another set of mechanical arms appeared. They grabbed a random book and opened it to the first page.

Oh dear, Anna Faye, the voice sighed.
This is much more severe than I had anticipated, Anna Faye.

"What the hay is goin' on?" Applebloom demanded to know.
"This is illegal. Ah'm callin' the policemares!"

You must remember who you are, Anna Faye. I am here to help you, Anna Faye. All you have to do is be compliant, Anna Fay. Now start reading, Anna Faye.

Applebloom took one quick glance at the text. It was so compressed. How was she supposed to read all of this? Wait, why did she even want to read this in the first place? None of it was true! Her eyes began to burn.

"Can ah please blink?"

You need to read, Anna Faye. Then you may blink, Anna Faye.

Applebloom sighed and tried to read it aloud, but her vision was blurring up. Her eyes felt as though they were being fried with a blowtorch. She started crying and panicking, begging to blink, her panic soon turning to anger. She thrashed about and screamed, trying to kick the book away, the fingers holding her eyes open practically scratching into them as she struggled, until she suddenly lost consciousness.

In the other room, Cheerilee sighed in frustration. She knew that Applebloom was going to be more of a challenge to brainwash than formerly-Sweetie Belle, but she had not expected this much resistance from her.

"Okay," she exclaimed.
"This is just a small setback. She'll come around eventually, Cheerilee. And even if she doesn't, you can always just activate the device. And even if she somehow breaks free of this, you're prepared."

She knew there was a chance for the more rebellious of the three to break from their brainwashing, but even if they did, the cutie marks were permanent. And there was one thing in their Stockpony Disease lesson that she had neglected to mention: a cutie mark induced by brainwashing would indoctrinate them onto her side of this cause, meaning that even if they could leave, they wouldn't want to.

But in the meantime, she set back to the drawing board, pressing a button to inject Applebloom with a knock-out drug in case she was to wake up before Cheerilee had finished revising her plans so that she could indoctrinate Applebloom as soon as possible.

"It's going to be worth it, Cheerilee," she told herself.
"It's going to be worth it."

Author's Note:

Depression and school.

Comments

[PinkiePieFox]

[Miffington Lemil]

"Depression and school."
All the usual.
You'll be okay, school at least doesn't last very long.

[Fluttershyisacutegal]

9912346
true