//------------------------------//
// AKA New Pest 
// Story: AKA Jessica's Luck 
// by Sense of Humor 
//------------------------------//

"...hello? Helloooo? Are y' dead? I hope yer not dead! We literally jes' met!"

And just like that, the headache roared back into consciousness and brought her along with it. Jessica muttered some unkind words under her breath when she registered everything physically; she was somehow back in her bed, yet she was underneath the blankets like before. And with a reluctant look around she discovered that other thing was totally wrong with her morning.

"Howdy ag'n, human!" The weird horse creature offered another one of those blindingly stupid grins, though this time it was evidently nervous. "Puh-leeze don't pass out ag'n! If ya want, I'll got ye sum water...?"

Jessica groggily pushed herself back until her shoulder blades leaned heavily against the wall. What type of grade A drug was slipped in her drink last night? She'd mentally go down the line of drugs she knew, but surprisingly, there were very few that she could recall. Maybe Malcolm could help her out with that later? No, best not to trouble him right now. And asking Trish about drugs would just worry her too much...it was only a horse she was hallucinating. Nothing like a genie or something stupid like that. Just a horse.

Said horse seemed a bit fed up with the awkward silence and broke it once again. "Er, Hello? Can ye' hear me 'r whut? Yer quieter th'n a ded cherry tree 'n a cave frum Appleoosa." The sentence streamed out from her pursed lips in an absolute hurry.

The woman blinked twice. "What'd you call me?"

The horse brightened up at the response, its cute little ears perking up quietly. "Finally, yer talkin'! Speakin' a which, what d'yoo call yerself? Mah name's Applebloom!" She posed for a moment, as if saying the name was supposed to ignite some fireworks above her head.

Jessica blankly stared at the pony abomination for what felt like hours; she sighed loudly and managed to peel herself out of the bed. "Okay. I'm not doing this." The woman stalked her way over to the restroom door and opened it with a newfound strength. "Whatever I drank last night was NOT tequila and I'm not going to deal with this type of hallucination anymore. "

"Yer hallucinatin'?! Whaddaya see?" Applebloom asked innocently and bounded around the bed, searching for whatever Jessica was referring to before stopping. "Wait a sec, why am I lookin'? I won't see anythang."

The private investigator narrowed her eyes at the creature, ready to snap at it in instant until a thought crossed her mind. If she was hallucinating, how did she pass out and wake back up to the same hallucination? She reluctantly to a step towards the creature and attempted to try reaching for one of the cute little ears, only for Applebloom to shrink back in confusion. So, instead, the human snappednher fingers and blinked at the flinch Applebloom involuntarily did. "You're... Real?"

"Eeyup!" The pony nodded childishly, eyes brimming with excitement. Excitement from what was beyond Jess.

Slightly doubtful of the answer given to her, Jessica crossed her arms. "Okay. If you're so real, how'd you get here? We don't have talking horses in this...I dunno, city? World too."

Now the pony frowned, petting her nonexistent chin in deep thought. Finally, the small thing shrugged. "'M not sure...Ah jes' kinda woke up here, Ah guess." There was a short pause and another bright grin. "Maybe I can figure out what's goin' on at a library! Maybe the' ones they got here'll be like Twilaght's!"

Jessica huffed impatiently; of the all the people to be given a talking horse kid, it had to be her; nothing awesome like a cartoonishly buff guy or a dragon-- just a little girl-horse-thing. Perhaps she really was a beacon for bad luck, after all. "Why the f&ck are you talking like that? Just talk normal. This isn't Duck Dynasty or some sh!t."

"Whaddaya mean talk normal? Yer th' one who's sayin' f%ck instead of buck." Applebloom crossed her arms, mimicking Jessica in a way. "An' ye still haven't told me yer name! Or where ah am!"

"Well excuse me, buckaroo, but I don't normally get loudmouth horses in the morning!" The human snapped just before her peripheral vision caught sight of the clock; 2:56 PM. She grimaced at the time and glanced back at the bathroom, then back at Applebloom. "Okay. You're in Hell's Kitchen, New York. I'm Jessica Jones. This is my apartment."

"...What's an apartment?" There was a horrifically adorable head tilt.

"As fun as it would be to spend precious work time explaining things to you, you're just going to have to work with that. Now, I'm gonna go freak out in the bathroom for a sec. " Jessica detailed, already sliding into the bathroom. "For now, don't move. I'll have to do some work and then I'll figure out how to kick you out."

Applebloom gasped and settled herself on her hooves in an instant. "What?! But we just met! An' I don't know where else I could go! You wouldn't really kick me out, would you...er, Jessica?" She asked as innocently as a faker could.





"...yep."

SLAM!