//------------------------------//
// Seeing the Forest for the Trees 
// Story: Bloom Filter 
// by ferret 
//------------------------------//

“There ya are!” Apple Bloom declared triumphantly. After being back at school for a solid week and a half, she finally managed to corner Diamond Tiara at lunch. Blocking the way from Diamond going from the lunch line to hide, of all places, with the Techies, Apple Bloom stood there on all fours on the cafeteria floor, with a tray of food on her rump, staring up in outrage at the hot pink girl.

“You been avoiding us!” she asserted frankly. “The whole school has been, but you already knew we were ponies, so you ain’t got no excuse!”

“Oh, hi Apple Bloom, I...” Diamond blushed, shifting on her feet and looking around nervously. “I mean it’s not like I was avoiding you, I just you know, met some other, like, fun people, and—”

“Wayll ah gave you the benefit of th’ doubt so far, but come and sit with us today!” Apple Bloom whined insistently. “You cain spare a day, can’t you? You at least owe us a summation of what you been up to since you last came over. Scootaloo, uh—”

Apple Bloom looked at Scootaloo guiltily, sitting there eating away at her lunch without a care in the world. “Scootaloo uh, misses ya,” Apple Bloom mumbled unconvincingly, blushing despite herself.

It only took Diamond a second to capitulate, groaning and saying, “Fine, I’m sure I can spare just one day, but I’m a busy girl you gotta know! Things are—different now.” She got quieter at that last part, glancing away self consciously.

“Ah’ll say,” Apple Bloom said in amazement. “Ah never thought I’d be in this cafeteria again, but here ah am, and I cain’t see even over the lunch tables.”

“R-right, well come on, let me um... I’ll just tell my f-friends that I just like wanna catch up with you, and I’ll be right like over,” Diamond said relatively sincerely.

Apple Bloom squinted at her, but nodded. “Sure thing, just don’t leave us in the lurch just on accounta you’re not a pony yet.”

Apple Bloom returned on her own to the table that she and the CMC had commandeered. It wasn’t too difficult to do so, with everyone being all shy and boggle eyed around them. Nobody had outright attacked them, but Applejack was telling Apple Bloom the other day about how some people were complaining about her, about... it in general. Turns out not everyone wants to wake up with four hooves one day, who’d have thought?

“What’d she say?” Sweetie asked, giving a concerned look to the yellow pony who hopped up onto the chair and started nosing at the food on her tray, having to stand while she ate. Wasn’t too shabby. Some strawberry jello, and yes she made doubly sure that jello comes from pigs and cows, not ponies. A nice salad, mostly lettuce and spinach with some cheese thrown in there for zest. A good helping of peas.  And some hay. In a bowl. What could she say? You can get used to anything, it turns out!

Apple Bloom wasn’t so rude to start eating without answering though, and she said with a hopeful look to Sweetie Belle, “She’s just checking with her new friends, but she said she’d come over. Ah guess she could just stay there, if she’s in one of those clique things now, and cain’t be seen hanging out with ponies.”

“Wow, even I know how ridiculous that sounds,” Scootaloo said, raising an eyebrow at Apple Bloom’s choice of words. “You know this is high school, not a high school drama, right?”

“Kinda silly, huh,” Apple Bloom said with a nervous smile. “Ah’m sure she won’t do anything mean like that.”

“Besides,” Sweetie pointed out. “Everyone knows she’s been hanging out with ponies all this time, so if they’re worried about getting infected they’d be avoiding her too.”

Apple Bloom looked over to Diamond Tiara, who was bending forward at the Techie table, and laughing with some of them about something, and with... Silver Spoon.

“Hope you’re right, Sweetie,” Apple Bloom said solemnly. Then she went straight for the jello. She didn’t have long to wait though.

“Hey, you three!”

“Well look who it is,” Apple Bloom declared in happy surprise, turning and hooking her hooves over the back of the chair. “Ah guess Sweetie was right after all!”

“Thanks for coming and talking with us,” Sweetie Belle said shyly there alongside Apple Bloom. “Hope it’s not too much trouble.”

“Pff, those guys?” Diamond said, tilting her head towards the table she came from. “As if! They’re total sissies when it comes to a real girl. You just wave your hand and they’re all over—oh, uh, s-sorry. No offense.”

Sweetie tried not to laugh at that, but she wasn’t doing a very good job. “None taken,” the little unicorn said amusedly.

“So, you’re hanging out with Silver again?” Scootaloo cut in somewhat abrasively, not really able to conceal her disappointment. Apple Bloom could definitely feel for her. Poor filly was back to school finally, and all her old friends were treating her more like a sideshow exhibit than an old friend.

“Oh, yeah S-Silver like totally. Well we haven’t like, talked or anything, but you know how it is,” Diamond said lightly, sort of wiggling her fingers at Scootaloo for some reason. “I had to hang out with someone, right? Girl like me can’t just sit here having lunch all by like, myself.”

“Well that’s right nice to hear,” Apple Bloom said happily to Diamond, leaning forward on her perch half atop the table. “Always did hope you two would make up together.”

“Hey, it’s not like we were fighting or anything. She’s just so... blah!” Diamond said rolling her eyes.

“So you ain’t happy to see her?” Apple Bloom asked cautiously. Diamond didn’t want to answer, for some reason. Why didn’t she want to answer? Diamond Tiara finally broke the awkward silence, saying,

“Well she’s, like, not the only friend I have,” Diamond said with a bit of a tremble in her voice, just that tiny hint of fear.

“Diamond, what’s goin’ on?” Apple Bloom asked quietly, greatly concerned over her friend.

Diamond just gave a brazen, toothy grin though, and said, “Oh come on you three. Don’t tell me you all like, forgot a-about Dinky already.”

“Oh right!” Apple Bloom said, along with looks of recognition from Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. Sweetie turned to peer over at the techie table, probably trying to pick him out. Apple Bloom kept at Diamond though, saying, “Ah did forget you were gonna be friends or some such.”

“More than friends, huh,” Scootaloo said teasingly, with a smug grin at Diamond. “You like him.”

“Nice try Scootaloo,” Diamond said frankly, “But that totally doesn’t work when we’re already like, dating.”

“How’s that been going?” Sweetie offered curiously. “Are you doing it?”

“Sweetie!” Apple Bloom cried out admonishingly, “What a thing to say!”

Sweetie Belle blushed, mumbling an apology, but Diamond was quick to settle her fears, saying quickly to Sweetie,

“Haha, what? No, we’re not like, doing it. We’re just Freshmen! It’s nothing serious.”

“Well, what do you do, if you’re dating, then?” Sweetie asked skeptically. And fearlessly, Apple Bloom might add.

“Just... you know, hang out,” Diamond said with a bit of a nervous giggle, “Nothing special. We’re just like, friends.”

Sweetie didn’t seem convinced, and frankly neither was Apple Bloom. “So, if y’all were doing it,” Apple Bloom said leerily, “You would use some kinda protection, right?”

“Oh my god you three,” Diamond said beside herself with bafflement. “Turning into ponies made you into such perverts! Look, we just started hanging out, and he introduced me to some of his... friends. As friends. Nothing’s happening between me and Dinks. I like, like him, but I don’t like, like like him.”

“You sure seem disquieted about something though,” Apple Bloom replied with a searching frown.

Diamond pursed her lips, telling Apple Bloom, “Well honestly, it’s like, really weird to have a bunch of little baby ponies talking about all this sex stuff.”

“Hey, how’d you know about that?” Apple Bloom said a little dismayed at the thought. “The news of our real ages is already going around school?”

Diamond blinked. “No, it was just a slip of the tongue,” she said, “Because you sorta look like baby ponies.”

“Well, don’t go telling no one, but...” Apple Bloom scooted closer to Diamond whispering, “Ah mean it. Don’t tell not a single soul about this.”

“Okay, but about what?” Diamond asked in concern.

“Just between you an’ me,” Apple Bloom said, “An’ Sweetie and Scootaloo. Ah’m technically 9 years old.”

“What do you mean?” Diamond asked confusedly.

“When I changed into a pony, ah changed into a pony you’d find on the other side of the portal to Equestria,” Apple Bloom explained. “She’s 9, or at least she was, so ah ended up lots younger than before I transformed.”

Apple Bloom blushed, adding hastily, “I-it don’t mean nothing. It’s just that ah’m... that we’re pretty young as far as ponies go. Cheerilee actually changed and she’s like twice as tall as me!”

“So, like... chest high instead of waist high?” Diamond replied dryly.

“...and she’s eight times as big!” Apple Bloom said with a disgruntled squint at Diamond’s comment there. “She weighs in the realm of a hunnred thirty pounds! Well it ain’t essactly 8 times, she’s about 3 foot 10 so it’s more like 6 times but—”

“She’s like a pound or so heavier than she used to be!” Scootaloo cut in excitedly. “She’s the biggest pony there! Well, except for that really tall tap-dancer guy, but—”

“Oh and lots of ponies are adults now!” Sweetie cut in, with an excited squeak. “That’s how we found out we were foals all along!”

“Okay, okay, sheesh!” Diamond protested, holding up her arms at the eager fillies. “You girls have been up to a lot, but eat your lunch already!”

As they ate and acted a little quieter and more reserved, Diamond asked worriedly, “So like, everybody’s gonna change into a pony, now?

“Like... even Dinky?”

The other three munched on their hay more, before Apple Bloom ventured an answer. “Y’know why we’re here, right?” she asked.

“To... go to school?” Diamond asked back, uncertainly.

Sweetie took the initiative then, saying seriously, “There’s over a hundred people changed now, and more show up every day.”

“Yeah, you might...” Scootaloo winced, “See a few more ponies here, pretty soon. We’re basically uh... out of room.”

“Nothing wrong with that,” Apple Bloom insisted. “They gotta return to their homes somehow. We been taking classes just fine, so other former students should do fine too, and um... a teacher, and... librarian... and a coach if’n ah recall. But that’s kinda why we are taking classes... to get other pony people to warm up to the idea.”

“How long before... I mean, before like, half of everyone’s changed?” Diamond murmured.

“It’ll be a while... it’s exponentiated or something,” Apple Bloom said, and Sweetie Belle nodded approvingly at that. “Basically means more at the end,” Apple Bloom continued, “Whenever the end is. It looked like a straight up-and-down line to me, but Sunset said it ain’t got an end, but it sure looks like it.”

“Breaking news, math is confusing,” Scootaloo rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, but like... how long?” Diamond persisted.

The three glanced at each other.





“Six people arrived today, Sunset. We’re almost up to 200,” Twilight said in an urgent tone, sitting on her bed, and kicking her very much still human legs out. “Yet we still don’t have a coherent pattern in the transformations. I just don’t know what data to sample! The moment of the facture, nothing. The moment they noticed the transformation, nothing. Their workplace, their living place, nothing at all. How do we find out when, where and how our world leaks, without any working magic detectors?”

“Well, at least there are some adult unicorns,” Sunset offered hopefully.

“With no training, even an adult will be lucky if they can levitate things!” Twilight retorted angrily. “It’s just not fair. The only coherent figure I’ve managed to come up with is the amount of time before they’re all converted. They need answers, Sunset!”

“We’re trying!” Sunset said angrily back, “You don’t think you’re trying? You don’t think I’m trying? There’s nothing we can do, princess! You should just tell them the facts you know, and keep looking. That’s what I’m doing, and that’s what you should be doing. I know I sound like a tired old nag, but you have to stop sweating the small things!”

“We need a statistician,” Twilight insisted. “We need someone who can interpret this data, and make sense of it. Who else could possibly make sense of this much... chaos!”

“Look, I trust you Twilight, and I trust you’re not lying to me when you say that,” Sunset groaned, “I believe you when you say Discord is an all powerful Spirit of Chaos in our world, who had to be locked away in stone to keep his magic from destroying everything, but as far as I know, he’s just a very rude, jaded, depressed, and stubborn mathemetician.”

“And he’s the only statistician in this world!” Twilight retorted eagerly, “There has got to be a reason for this! He is the key to understanding all of this, some key figure we simply haven’t stumbled upon, I just know it!”

“I’m telling you he won’t help us. He won’t help anyone,” Sunset said. “His class is the stuff of nightmares. Students come out of it dumber than they went in! Do you remember what he said we had to do, to get his help? We’re humans! How on earth are we going to do... that?

Twilight frowned and rested her lips on her fist. Then she raised her head and declared in open mouthed shock, “That’s it! Levitation!”





“We don’t know exactly,” Sweetie Belle said, if for no reason other than to break the silence. “But more than two people are coming in every day now, and it used to be just one every day. So we came to school, to help other ponies know that they can come back to school. To get people out here used to the idea that some of us are going to be walking on four hooves.”

“I can’t even tell who’s who there anymore,” Scootaloo said shaking her head confusedly. “I didn’t even realize there were that many people! I mean, until you have to deal with them, they’re just sort of in the background on their own. But now we have to deal with everyone!”

“Okay, like, I get it, but could you find out? I’m just like, curious how long it’ll take,” Diamond stated carefully.

Scootaloo snickered at that.

“What?” Diamond said irritably to the little orange pony.

“Oh I just realized,” Scootaloo said with an odd smile, “You were the only one of us who actually wanted to be a pony.”

Diamond blinked. “Not that!” she said, “I just want to know, because of Dinky! And I mean, like, my friends. And I don’t want to be a pony! I never said that! I just think that it wouldn’t be like, so bad.”

“You really like him, huh?” Sweetie said softly, her concerned gaze flustering the poor Diamond Tiara.

“You’re worried that you’re gonna change into little kid ponies!” Apple Bloom realized with a shock. “An’ that you won’t be able to be boy and girlfriend anymore!”

“Wh–well—like—maybe?” Diamond stuttered, looking even pinker than usual.

“Well don’t you worry about it,” Apple Bloom said comfortingly, climbing more up on the table to speak her mind. “We might be little kids again, but not every pony ended up that way. Maybe you two will end up as adults, even. But if you do end up as f-foals, then you just keep on doing what you wanna do. Twilight said it best. If we’re gonna be foals, we’re gonna act like foals whether we try to or not, so why should we hold ourselves back? There’s no wrong way to be a foal!”

“So you’re a... foal, huh,” Diamond said in a curiously subdued tone, laying her fingers against her cheeks for some reason as she gazed at Apple Bloom.

“Same age as the other me, across the portal,” Apple Bloom asserted, “Just like every one of us. Except a couple more years into the future, on account of Twilight being all... stuck with Sunset and stuff the past 4 years.”

“Sunset is stuck?” Diamond said in confusion, looking at the cafeteria window. “I thought it was like, noon right now. What are you talking about?”

“No, ah mean the girls Twilight and Sunset,” Apple Bloom reiterated patiently.

“Yeah, you know, the aliens?” Scootaloo prompted.

“Ohh, those girls,” Diamond said in recognition, and, “That reminds me. Have you done any more investigating about the forest outside your farm?”

All three blinked cluelessly.

“Oh my god,” Diamond whispered. “I think it’s getting in your heads or something! I’m like, the only one who can remember!”

“Remember what?” Apple Bloom said weakly.

“It’s nothing bad, is it?” Sweetie added in fear.

“No, it’s... you went with me out into the woods, remember?” Diamond said patiently. “When Sweetie and Scootaloo were still like, humans. We took a bunch of string, and went straight out, and things got like, weird, and then we were completely turned around, except we never turned around. You remember, I staked both ends of the twine in the same place?”

“Oh ah do remember that!” Apple Bloom realised suddenly. “With all the crazy pony transforming going on down at the farm, it completely slipped mah mind!”

“Hmm...” Diamond stared piercingly into Apple Bloom’s eyes, making the three of them kind of nervous. “And the note that I stuck on your wall?”

“Note?” Apple Bloom asked weakly.

“Well, never mind,” Diamond said, bending over to fumble through her bookbag distractedly, “It probably wasn’t like, anything important.”

“Well, alright, but you seemed kind of worried there for a minute,” Apple Bloom said, feeling curiously relieved as she did so. It was probably just nerves. “So about Dinky—”

“Can we not?” Diamond said. “I already know you’re like total pervs, and we’re just friends. You really think I’d go do something stupid with him? Good grief!”

“We never said you’d go do something stupid with him,” Sweetie remarked cautiously.

Diamond glared at the sweet little unicorn and said, “Well, we’re not. So just like, drop it.”

“Fine,” Sweetie retorted grumpily. “But for the record, I think it’s adorable, and anyone who thinks it’s something bad is just projecting.”

“Yeah,” Apple Bloom said, “We know you’re good people, even if others are givin’ you a hard time.”

“Plus when you’re old enough,” Scootaloo pointed out, “You’ll already have someone ready for you to, you know,” She pointed a hoof at Diamond and winked, “Get busy with?”

“Oh my god, Scootaloo,” Diamond groaned, turning an even brighter shade of pink with her head buried in her arms.

The rest of the lunch made some conversation, but the ensuing awkward silence really cut into the time they had left. The only thing Diamond really had to say was when the bell rang, she said, “Oh, hold on,” and hastily scribbled out a note on a piece of paper. Then she folded the paper several times, and went and slipped it into Apple Bloom’s bag, saying, “It’s a note for Ms. Cheerilee. You know, the big pony Cheerilee?”

“She’s still the same Cheerilee, but yeah?” Apple Bloom said.

“Well, I just like, had something to tell her,” Diamond said lightly. “Anyway, nice talking with you three!”

Diamond jogged off then, to where the used cafeteria lunch trays were to be deposited. Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo had to hustle their way through lunch too, because it took them longer to pick up the trays and get over there. They weren’t too pressed for time getting to their next class though, because the first week of being surrounded by a sea of giants mingling around the halls was intimidating, but by the third week you got to realize that being small made it so much easier to get around them, squeezing through spaces between legs and dodging feet. They made good time as they trotted on four hooves to their lockers, and then each to their next class.

Not much of note appreciably happened after that, because it was high school where not much of appreciable note ever happened. Nothing special happened when the three met with Rarity at the end of the day, getting in Rarity’s big tuna boat car to get a ride back to the farm. Sweet Apple Acres was the same cattle ranch it always was, albeit with a lot more cars out front, and a lot more people (and ponies) to help out with the cows. But when Apple Bloom and her friends trotted through the crusty snow and up the porch steps into the house proper, they were greeted with a peculiar sight.

“Please, you have to concentrate!”

“Th’ fug you think I’ thryinga do furflebut?!”

“It’s absolutely vital that you lift this feather!”

The two pony girls were there in the living room, the flame haired Sunset, and Twilight “purplebutt” Sparkle. They were cheering on a white pony in between them, an adult pony from the size of it, who had a prominent horn jutting from her forehead.

Surrounding the three of them were a panalpy of ponies, adults and foals alike, but mostly foals, watching with fascination and chattering quietly with each other, as the unicorn stared with increasing frustration at what appeared to be a little yellow feather left lying on a coffee table in the center of the room. It didn’t seem to help the pony’s mood at all that her purple, opaque glasses appeared to be taped to the sides of her head.

“Why on earth are you accosting that poor unicorn?” Rarity said, walking up behind the surprised fillies to stare at Twilight and Sunset. The fillies hurriedly stepped inside to make room for her, as Twilight and Sunset both looked up at their friend.

“We may have a lead!” Twilight said with a bright smile.

“We may have a way to convince someone to helping us look for a lead,” Sunset corrected her. “We’re trying to model the incidence of transformation, see—”

“And if we can find a geographical correlation, then we can tell where the phenomenon is coming from!” Twilight said eagerly. “If say for instance rifts to Equestria were opening because of the facturization/portal interaction, then we could tell who was going to change into a pony next!”

“That sounds wonderful!” Rarity said, hands on hips, giving each of the girls a suspicious look. “But why are you yelling at that poor unicorn?”

“Because Twilight thinks that Professor Discord has some kind of insight into all this,” Sunset said. “His counterpart is apparantly a pretty big deal on the other side of the portal. But he said that he would help us analyze our data sets,”

“—if we showed him one example of magic, that he couldn’t explain without magic as an underlying assumption!” Twilight cut in excitedly. “Which is why Vinyl here—”

“Pohnee!” the blue haired unicorn said irritably.

“Right, PON-3 needs but to perform a simple act of levitation,” Twilight went on, “And we’re sure to win over his support! Unicorn magic is going to save the day!”

“What Twilight means is, unicorn magic is much more measurable than that of other tribes,” Sunset said, pulling Twilight back from smiling gleefully in Applejack’s face. “So if Vinyl—”

“Pohnee,” Vinyl cut in.

“If PON-3 can get her magic working...” Sunset said hopefully, “Well, let’s just say that this professor is someone so closed minded, that he could probably explain away how Scootaloo could fly, with those teeny little wings. Spike outright talked to him, and he just thought he was well trained. We need something that’s genuinely unexplainable by conventional science, and if Vinyl here could just levitate that feather, ”

“Shwha’ I’m thrying to do!” Vinyl squealed out in frustration. She glared at the feather on their coffee table, just some discarded down from one of the pegasi.  “I tur’ intho a sthupid horth who can’ talk, and can’ thurn thables, can’ even ge’ her horm workhing an’... I can’ belhieb how zhis shtupid pohny shid ish ruining everyonesh life!!” Vinyl shouted at the feather, eliminating it with an angry red bolt of light.

Silence descended on the room.

“Woah...” Vinyl said.

“Didn’t see that comin’” said Granny Smith, and apparantly Granny Smith was here too, keeping an eye on them or something, as best as she could.

Rarity didn’t say anything, but instead charged out of the room and vanished into the kitchen, without even taking off her boots.

“That’s... good, but,” Twilight said to Vinyl with a strained smile. “We need an example of nonlocal magic, whereas a magic bolt is localized, ergo travels through space in a predictable path. You need—”

“Magig ish red?!” one of the foals shouted excitedly. “Zhat’sh sho cool!”

The sound of running water could be heard.

“Za was sho awethome!” the big white and blue pony known as Vinyl Scratch, or DJ PON-3 declared, a broader and broader smile adorning her pony muzzle as she realized what she’d done, looking around at every pony and shouting, “Dishoo shee zat? I tothally did zhat! Hey, every pony! I’m mazhic! Haha, I’m mazchic!”

“Doez anyone shmell something burnhing?” another softer spoken foal said. And come to think of it, Apple Bloom could—right about then, Rarity flew out from the kitchen, and dumped a pitcher of water on the coffee table, putting out the fire with a hiss.

“I am very impressed with your accomplishment,” Rarity said with a strained smile, “But perhaps you could practice this outside, where you aren’t at risk of burning down the house we live in?”

“Yeah, okay,” Sunset said mildly, not even looking at Rarity. Just staring at the big white unicorn who wasn’t Rarity, staring at Vinyl’s horn, with an absent look of what must have been longing in her eyes.

Rarity seemed to pick up on that, and her eyes softened as she regarded Sunset. “I must say, that the way things are going, you’ll be back to your old self in no time,” she said putting a hand on Sunset Shimmer’s shoulder.

“Yeah,” Sunset said, still with a guardedly neutral expression on her face. “That’s what I’m afraid of...”

“Afraid?” Apple Bloom piped up, “Why?”

Rarity looked at Apple Bloom, the little yellow pony suddenly wondering whether she should have spoken up. But Rarity didn’t say anything, just walked away, letting her hand leave Sunset’s shoulder with a sympathetic grimace for Apple Bloom. Sunset didn’t seem too upset by the question either. Just... pensive.

“It’s really hard to keep count how long I’ve been here,” Sunset said to Apple Bloom with a sort of sad look in her vividly green eyes. “There aren’t many things that will last through to the next time loop. Most of everything all just goes back the way it was, again and again. There’s the trophy case... it usually lags 3 or 4 loops behind, so I can put my notes in there. There’s the bell tower. Sometimes it... doesn’t move back all the way. But I have lost all my notes before.

“Really, it’s amazing how far your society has come,” Sunset continued, not really addressing anyone in general. “When you can’t advance without... well, suffice to say we Equestrians were convinced for a while that you just spontaneously appeared, complete with your automobiles and your moving pictures and your skyscrapers and stuff. But things do change, slowly, bit by bit. You get by as best as you can, with everything you do wound back year after year. You don’t even know it. You just... remember as if the changes happened last year, or some time ago. Those of you who can remember anything at all, that is.

“So, my point is,” Sunset said to the quietly concerned Apple Bloom, “I’ve been in this time loop for 87 years, and I remember every one of them. My Equestrian neuroform isn’t compatible with your reality, and so the time loop never resets anything other than my molecules. I thought it was even more, until Twilight came and told me how many years had passed. There have been times that I got too depressed or lazy to even bother counting, and I just had to estimate how long that was.

Apple Bloom pondered that. She’d heard some figure like that before, but she really pondered that now. “How old did you say you were again?” she asked the big, flame-haired girl.

“I’m... 37,” Sunset said deliberately. “Or that’s how old I was, when I came here. So that’s why I don’t know if I’m comfortable about this whole ‘unicorn’ thing. I avoided the portal for decades, because I blamed Celestia for what happened to me. The last time I saw myself, I—I didn’t even stop to look at my reflection.

“I’ve been human for 80 years, Apple Bloom,” Sunset said dully, staring off into space. “That’s over twice as long as I’ve been a pony. I just... don’t know if I’m ready. If I change back, if I... if I go back to Equestria, then I’ll never have to be a human again. I remember having a horn, all the amazing magic that I got to be a part of, and I’ll have that again. I’ll be me again. I’m just... not sure if that pony is me, anymore.”

“I reckon it don’t matter though, Sunset,” Apple Bloom said in a consoling tone. There had to be a way to show the girl how to be pragmatic about this. “I changed into a pony, and was so scared it’d change who ah was. But then I just... woke up, and nothing changed. Ah was a pony. That’s it. Some things about me are lots different, but... ah’m not any different a person, just because I got hooves now.”

She put one of those custard yellow hooves on one of Sunset’s folded legs, saying, “I don’t know what kinna pony you remember back then, but if you changed into a pony tomorrow, you’d be the same person you are today, not back then.”

Sunset’s chin lifted a bit, and she said, “Huh. Yeah, you know, you’re right?” Unfolding her legs to kick them out in front of her, over her shoulder Sunset gave Apple Bloom a cautious smile, saying, “You’re pretty good at this whole person-to-person thing. I don’t know why we haven’t talked much before.”

Apple Bloom lifted a hoof, and said, “W-well, we were kinda two friends distant, back in September, and you’re an upperclassman, while ah’m just a Freshman. A year just ain’t enough time for us to get acquainted, ah think?”

She then deliberately placed her hoof down. Seriously, why was she doing that all over the place?

Sunset responded by ruffling Apple Bloom’s hair, mussing up her bow again, saying, “Well, thanks. Good talk, Apple Bloom.”

Sunset rose above Apple Bloom as she stood and strode over to speak with Twilight and a still ecstatic Vinyl Scratch, while Rarity, and now Applejack busily tried to hustle the three of them outside, to practice their hocus pocus out by the fire pit, and leave the farm house alone.

Apple Bloom, along with a number of others over the course of the day, crept up cautiously to peer at the burn mark left on the coffee table. It was amazing, and spectacular, and world changing and all, but on the other hand it was just a burn mark on the coffee table. Somehow Apple Bloom couldn’t shake the feeling that things like her talk with Sunset Shimmer were more important than getting some unicorn’s horn to work.

Sweetie Belle was futilely trying to get her horn to work again when Apple Bloom found her. Apple Bloom helped the poor girl out by distracting her with a cupcake, and letting Sweetie tell Apple Bloom all about the incredible things that Twilight and Sunset got Vinyl to do, which is to say, light a coffee table on fire, and lift a feather. Apple Bloom was glad Sweetie Belle was excited about it and all, but considering that was what an adult unicorn could do, Apple Bloom really wasn’t feeling too envious of unicorns anymore.

She would change her tune, when Sunset Shimmer transformed, but pretty much everyone on both sides of the portal would have been envious of Sunset Shimmer in her prime.





“Alright... yes. No. No. ...no. Yes. No. Nope. Emmmnope. Yes! Yes—oh dear. Yes. No. No. No.”

“What’s ‘oh dear’?” Spike asked Twilight Sparkle, who sat in her trailer for some time alone, with an array of names and photographs arranged in alphabetical order on the desk in front of her. The lilac girl was flanked by her trustworthy assistant, Spike the dragon, the dog. He was watching with interest and occasionally concern as Twilight made little notes on each photograph she seemed to recognize. He knew what she was doing; heck everyone who read the newspaper knew what she was doing, but he sure didn’t know what “oh dear” meant.

“Well it’s just...” Twilight said, pausing as she lifted up one of the photographs. “It says here that the Canterlot Fan Emporium is owned by one Mrs. Breezy.”

“So?” he asked. “Do you recognize her?”

“I do... I think,” Twilight said, wincing. “It appears this is one of the rare cases in which... well, as a matter of fact, you should recognize Mrs. Breezy, yourself.”

Twilight held the photograph down to his level, where a heavyset lady stood with a satisfied smile outside the office next to her warehouse full of central heating, duct and fan supplies. She had pleasant orange hair in a bob, and a green vest over her button-up shirt, her skin was a light tan in color, and her eyes were clear blue.

“You know of a pony who looks like that, who lives in Ponyville?” Twilight asked uneasily, “Usually wears a cap? Sells fans, blow dryers?”

“Oh,” Spike said, looking at it in a new light. “Oh dear.”

Twilight lifted the photograph back up and wrote something on it, saying over her shoulder to the dragon-gone-dog, “It’s so vexing. If Equestrians have a higher ratio of females born to males, then it would make sense if certain Earthling males became females. But this? This just makes no sense at all!”

“Maybe there is a Mr. Breezy?” Spike asked uneasily. “It does say Mrs. after all.”

“Maybe...” Twilight replied unconvinced. “But with the exact same colors, manestyle, special talent and taste in clothing?”

“I guess you gotta be the bearer of bad news then,” Spike said, putting a paw up on Twilight’s thigh in the chair there. “You really are helping people, though. Just imagine if she changed, without knowing about what she was going to change into!”

Twilight smiled down at him making Spike grumble contentedly. “Thanks, Spike,” she said going back to her photos. “And if only I knew more ponies. So few I remember from Canterlot, and even in Ponyville... but I’m the only hope they’ve got, so I’ll just have to pick at my memories, until I find as many people’s pony counterparts as possible.”

She shuddered unhappily, adding, “And stars help me if I remember wrong. They’ll never trust one of my predictions again!”





Meanwhile, having been personally sent letters from the Princess of Friendship herself, one paramedic screeched to another, “You’re going to be a mare?!”

“What am I going to do?” he ...didn’t screech back in an alarmed tenor. “I can’t be a woman!”

“You think you have a problem?” she squealed back, “What am I supposed to do without your thingy?”

He glanced away from the view in front of him just enough to stammer at her, “W-w-well there are ways for two girls t-to do stuff together i-it’s not,”

“How does the purple girl know?” the pink lady complained irregardlessly, “Maybe it’s just a hoax after all!”

“Hoax, yeah...” the man said, running a hand through his red hair. “What a nightmare though! It seems like everyone’s going to end up as a pony?”

“I only hope nobody fucks up and gets themselves seriously injured,” the green haired pink paramedic lady said in aggravation, “I really don’t want to have to deal with the horror of a mass panic right now.”

“Been there, done that, right?” he said with a shaky smile her way.

“Yeah,” she smiled back, planting a kiss on his cheek. “Now let’s get that burn victim taken care of, sweetie bear.”

The speeding ambulance slid to a halt just in time, its siren dying as their faces hardened and the two paramedics cleared out, one getting the supplies out of the back, while the other went in to assess the situation with perhaps seconds to spare. All in a day’s work.





Apple Bloom was up in her room, pulling her books out of her bags, when Diamond Tiara’s note dropped out. “Huh,” she said, craning down and snagging it in her mouth, then trotting herself right downstairs with it. Apple Bloom was awfully curious what Diamond would want with Ms. Cheerilee. Didn’t make sense that they’d have much to tell each other, really. But whatever it was, Apple Bloom was happy to deliver a note.

Cheerilee wasn’t hard to track down. She was trotting around with the best of them now, and she had her mouth noises all worked out, but Cheerilee stayed around the farm house most of the time, helping other ponies work on their new ways of moving and speaking. So Apple Bloom checked out back, finding Cheerilee giving ponies balance practice, using a board up on two crates.

“Looking good, Key!” Cheerilee said to a green earth pony filly with blue hair, then to a peach colored filly, also with blue hair, “Tuck in your wings, Petal. You can balance without them, I promise. Now every pony, take a step with hoof 2!”

Apple Bloom watched with vague interest at the ponies making their way across the boards, without too much trouble. One fell over, but there wasn’t any distance to fall, so Cheerilee just nosed them up and helped them back onto the board. Cheerilee noticed her then, and said, “One second, Apple Bloom!”

Apple Bloom would have protested interrupting their lesson, but it looked like Cheerilee was winding it down anyway, plus Apple Bloom sort of had a note in her mouth. “What’s up, Apple Bloom?” Cheerilee said after all the ponies had gotten to the end of their boards, and were just standing around on the ground at the moment.

Apple Bloom shook one of her hooves free of snow, and spat the note out onto it, holding it up for Cheerilee saying, “Talked to Diamond Tiara today, finally. Turns out she had something to say t’you!”

“Oh?” Cheerilee said, looking at the folded paper on Apple Bloom’s hoof with some uncertainty. The powerful looking fuscia mare leaned her face forward, and it looked like Cheerilee was going to bite the corner, but then she pulled back and just nudged it uncertainly with her hoof.

“Sorry unfolding it’s a little beyond my... capabilities at the moment,” Cheerilee said with an apologetic smile.

“Oh! Right, sorry,” Apple Bloom declared, wobbling on three legs over to Cheerilee’s broad magenta barrel. “Hold still a sec, wouldya?” Apple Bloom asked, then flattened the paper against Cheerilee’s ribs, holding a corner with a hoof as to unfold it, she pulled the other corner open with her mouth. “Sorry, no other dry spot to do this,” Apple Bloom mumbled somewhat apologetically, as she worked it open using Cheerilee as a table.

“No it’s... fine,” Cheerilee said somewhat bemusedly, watching Apple Bloom unfold a piece of paper on her side. Then Apple Bloom took it and bit the top, rearing back from Cheerilee to stand on her own. Standing before Cheerilee, unless Apple Bloom had got it backwards, the full note was on display for the librarian, from where it hung from Apple Bloom’s mouth by the upper edge.

“Mmviffgoo?” Apple Bloom asked, facing Cheerilee again.

Cheerilee smiled, nodding. “Yes, thank you Apple Bloom. Now let’s see... oh, it’s a note for... you?”

Apple Bloom blinked. She couldn’t see the note herself from this angle, certainly wasn’t going to drop it on the ground.

“Here, let me see it,” Cheerilee said with a sympathetic look, carefully taking the note cradled in her crooked hoof. “It says to ask you if you remember what you talked about at lunch today.”

“With Diamond Tiara?” Apple Bloom said in confusion.

“Guess so...” Cheerilee said, looking at the note more worriedly now for some reason.

“Mostly just boy problems,” Apple Bloom said, tilting her head at the magenta pony. Why would Diamond leave a note asking Cheerilee to ask her about that?

“So... nothing else?” Cheerilee asked, definitely looking worried now as her soft green eyes peered into Apple Bloom’s own.

“The... food maybe?” Apple Bloom tried. Didn’t make Cheerilee look any less troubled though. “What’s this about?”

“Well I can’t say why she wrote it, but it says here that something might be messing with your... mind, and making you forget things,” Cheerilee said, glancing between the note and Apple Bloom. “Actually it says, ‘everyone’s’ mind. Apple Bloom, is there something strange going on with the forest outside your farm?”

“Oh! Right!” Apple Bloom’s eyes widened. “We talked about that strange... string thing. See, Diamond took us out there, and she doesn’t think she got turned around, but she had to have, since we never changed directions, and she ended up right back where she started. So now there’s a string out there staked down, with no loop in it, and both ends at the same... place. Wow, that is kinda weird.”

“What’s kind of weird?” Cheerilee asked blankly.

“The string going in and out of the forest,” Apple Bloom said. “It ain’t wrapping around anything!”

“Oh, right, the forest,” Cheerilee said, recognition flickering in her eyes. “It’s... did I just forget too?”

“Forget what?” Apple Bloom asked curiously.

“Forget about the forest!” Cheerilee repeated in agitation, “With the string!”

“Oh, right, that!” Apple Bloom said. “Ah plum... fergot?”

“Take five, everypony!” Cheerilee shouted over her shoulder. She said to Apple Bloom, “We have to do something about this! I think something might be tampering with our memories!”

“What?!” Apple Bloom asked, crouching in alarm. “What makes you think that?!”

“You forgot again!” Cheerilee repeated outright fearfully now. “About the note!”

“What note?” Apple Bloom asked, trembling.

“The note you just gave me!” Cheerilee retorted. She crumpled the note tightly against her shoulders, saying, “Come on we need to get inside, before something makes us forget again!”

Cheerilee stumbled on three legs, but recovered easily enough, and still holding the note, trotted along with Apple Bloom into the farm house. They kicked snow off their hooves and got to the entryway, before Cheerilee said in confusion, “Wait, why are we going inside? I didn’t finish the exercises!”

“Some sorta emergency?” Apple Bloom said uncertainly with a pained grimace, looking at the paper clutched against Cheerilee’s chest. “Maybe that note’s got something to do with it?”

“What note?” Cheerilee asked cluelessly.

“The one you’re holding!” Apple Bloom shouted exasperatedly. “Where did you even get it?”

“What the hay is goin’ on over here?” Applejack shouted, the tawny girl abandoning the ponies she was working, with to stride over to the alarmed pair of Apple Bloom and Cheerilee.

“We cain’t remember!” Apple Bloom squealed in a fright, pointing at Cheerilee, “But it’s got something to do with that note, there!”

Applejack’s face twisted in confusion at Apple Bloom’s words, and she said, “Let me take a look at that,”

“T-thank you,” Cheerilee said, letting the girl pull it away from her. “I’m still not entirely confident about holding things.”

“What, is this a joke?” Applejack asked. “It says to ask Apple Bloom what she talked about at lunch today.”

Cheerilee looked Apple Bloom’s way, and said, “Well?”

Apple Bloom was confused though. “I cain’t remember,” she said uncertainly, like there was some kind of... pressure in her head or something, “We talked about Dinky, and then about... techies, and... and nothing else!”

“Says here, you talked about the forest you went into with her,” Applejack said, “And if you don’t remember, then something’s messing with your mind!”

“Oh, right!” Apple Bloom declared, the memory rushing back to her. “We did talk about that, and I did forget, and then I forgot again! I think she’s right! I told Cheerilee, and she stopped the lesson, to try and stop us from forgetting somehow!”

“Oh, yes! That’s why I stopped the lesson!” Cheerilee exclaimed, wincing at what was threatening to be a huge headache. “I had forgotten... entirely. This is serious, Applejack! What are we supposed to do?”

“What’s serious?” Applejack asked blankly. “Why are you two over here getting all worked up?”

“You forgot too!” Apple Bloom exclaimed, pointing at Applejack. “About the forest, and the string, and Cheerilee, and stopping the lesson, and how it keeps making us forget everything, and the note on the fridge!”

“What note on the fridge?” Applejack said.

“We put a note there!” Apple Bloom shouted, “It’s gone, now!”

“Well, what was on it?” Applejack asked worriedly.

“Ah don’t... remember,” Apple Bloom said, grimacing at the pressure in her head. “Something... about... trees?”

“The forest!” Cheerilee declared. “We keep forgetting. Oh, this is getting us nowhere!”

“Mah head is hurting,” Apple Bloom complained, rubbing at her temple with a hoof. “I don’t think that’s normal!”

“Mine is too!” Cheerilee exclaimed, “Because... of the forest and... um...”

“The string,” Apple Bloom remembered. “It never turns around, but it came to the same spot. Something’s making us forget that!”

“It’s got to be this... pressure!” Cheerilee grimaced, holding a hoof to her own head. “I don’t want to hurt myself, but I really want it to... stop!”

“What are you girls so agitated about?” Applejack asked. “Ah don’t feel nothing! Is it some sickness that only goes after ponies? Oh lordy, are you okay? What do we do?”

“Not a sickness,” Cheerilee muttered, grimacing again, “Something else... it’s... it’s making us forget something. We’re not sick, we’re forgetting. What could make us forget something? I don’t want to forget! If I—”

There was the sound of something shattering. Not really a sound, but a sound nonetheless. With a look of mild surprise on her face, Cheerilee’s hooves collapsed underneath her and she tumbled over into a boneless heap. Apple Bloom’s outright squall of alarm was premature though, because Cheerilee hadn’t even passed out. She just said, “Woah, what was that...” and started climbing to her hooves again.

“You just fell over!” Apple Bloom said to the pony she was reared up to lean on. Clopping to her hooves as Cheerilee stood, Apple Bloom said, “You were talking about forgetting or... something... ngh...” and now her head was hurting. Why was Apple Bloom’s head hurting all of a sudden?

“You okay, Apple Bloom?” Applejack asked, lifting the pony up into her arms and looking at Apple Bloom with worry.

“I dunno, there’s just this pressure in mah head...” Apple Bloom said dully. “Hard to think about... whatever we were thinking ‘bout.”

Cheerilee stuck her head right up to the two of them then, saying with panic in her eyes, “You have to fight it, Apple Bloom! Something’s making you forget! Just keep pushing it back! You have to remember!”

“Remember what?” Apple Bloom said miserably, “I don’t remember nothing, and it hurts!”

“Remember... remember—” Cheerilee gave a quietly exasperated squeal, and tore the note out of Applejack’s hand, scanning over it rapidly. “Remember the forest!” she urged Apple Bloom. “What you talked about at lunch! Absolutely nothing about boy problems!”

“Really?” Apple Bloom said, trying so hard, but... “I just... can’t... I dunno what you’re talking about Ms. Cheerilee. It—” and then Apple Bloom just sort of blanked out as the pressure in her head released all at once.

“Apple Bloom, speak to me!” came Applejack’s voice. 

Apple Bloom realized she was laying on her side, in her sister’s embrace. Dizzily, she focused on her sister, saying irritably, “Ah’m fine, ah’m fine. It was just like with Cheerilee. I just got a little uh, something, because the pressure let up all at once.”

“Did it make that... sound with me?” Cheerilee winced. “I could swear I heard the sound of something breaking.”

“Kind of hard to pay attention, when your head’s emptying out like a bucket,” Apple Bloom retorted grumpily from where Applejack held her tenderly.

“What happened to you?” Applejack asked her sister worriedly. “Ah swear there was something wrong. Are you okay?”

“Don’t tell me everyone’s gonna have to do that!” Apple Bloom exclaimed in exasperation. “What is going on?”

“Okay, Applejack,” Cheerilee said carefully, “Do you remember how Apple Bloom went into the forest with Diamond Tiara...” she glanced at the paper again. “And how whatever she found is messing with her mind?”

“You just said somethin’ along those lines, but that’s silly,” Applejack said, holding up Apple Bloom in demonstration. “See? She’s perfectly fine.”

“Alright,” Cheerilee stated, “Now, do you feel a sort of... pressure in your head right now?”

Applejack blinked.

“Can’t say that ah do?” she said. “You mean like a headache?”

“Sort of, yes. Do you remember what’s on this note?” Cheerilee asked testily.

“How would I remember what’s on your note?” Applejack asked. “Is it important?”

Cheerilee regarded her in frustration. “And... no pressure in your head, at all?” Cheerilee asked uneasily.

“I told you ah feel fine,” Applejack said, looking disapprovingly at Apple Bloom as she said, “Except a certain somepony apparantly decided I was gonna carry her everywhere.”

She put Apple Bloom down to her hooves saying, “Hep, there you go. You cain stand on your own just fine.”

Well, it was plum obvious that Applejack was forgetting anything about the forest that they explored, or the string, a string that seemed to double back on itself, without changing directions. But nothing Apple Bloom nor Cheerilee could do could duplicate that effect that had knocked it out of the two of them. So Applejack went off, mighty confused about herself, while Cheerilee conferred uneasily with Apple Bloom.

“I don’t know what that was,” Cheerilee said to her quietly, “But I think we’re going to have to keep it to ourselves.”

“I hear you, ma’am,” Apple Bloom said glumly. “Ain’t no good to talk about it, if you cain’t even break anyone out of it.”

“Why just us, though?” Cheerilee asked. “Applejack couldn’t even feel it!”

“It is awfully peculiar,” Apple Bloom agreed. “I wonder if anyone else gets to feeling like that?”

“We should try it,” Cheerilee said. “Perhaps those aliens can break out of it. Or perhaps they’re... causing it. Hm.”

“Ah’m getting pretty scared about all this,” Apple Bloom whimpered. “What other things are going on that we don’t even know about? How long have people been forgetting about that forest back there?”

“You can still remember it alright?” Cheerilee prompted hopefully. “Everything you did there?”

“Well, not... everything,” Apple Bloom said. “Just what I was reminded of. Like Diamond’s note reminded me that she reminded me earlier today, that there’s a twine with both ends tied in the same spot. But when ah went walking back there, it’s just... you know, walking. Nothing special happened... not that I remember at least.”

“We should try your friends, at least,” Cheerilee said. “And maybe... the principal? I don’t know anyone else who’d be... especially necessary to break out of this.”

“I know one person whose help we’re gonna need,” Apple Bloom said, with a grim expression. “Big Macintosh.”

“What for?” Cheerilee asked.

Apple Bloom’s answer was swift and final. “Someone’s gotta hold the chainsaw if’n we’re gonna cut down that whole damn forest.”