“It’s mah big sis! Quick, hide Spike!” They scrambled for a blanket and quickly covered the drooling drake. Apple Bloom went to answer the door, but then glanced back and relayed to the two crusaders to hide the baby stuff. “A’hm in here, big sis!”
The door swung open revealing the farm mare with her signature stetson hat. “Ah, there you three are. What you’ll buggin’ Twi for?”
“We’re not buggin’ anypony, uh, she’s not really here right now,” Scootaloo explained while nervously glancing around for her.
“Not here? She just left you three here alone? That doesn’t sound like her,” she muttered to herself while glancing around at the mess of foal supplies. “And what’s all this then?”
“Heh, well we’re working on, uh, school stuff. But she left us in charge of the library while she left to-”
“Go get some new books!” Sweetie improvised, watching Scootaloo struggle to think of something to say.
“Books huh? Hmm,” Applejack picked up a random toy from the pile and shook her head. “What sort of school project is this? Seems mighty odd to be about foal stuffs.”
“Ah bah,” Spike muttered from under the blanket. Applejack’s head whipped around and her eyes narrowed.
“What was that?”
“Uh, um,” Sweetie Belle muttered just under her breath. “It’s a project about foals! And… Scootaloo was just practicing, erm, well acting like a big baby in front of the class! It’s part of our presentation!”
“It is?- ooph,” Scootaloo said as Apple Bloom nudged her in the ribs painfully. “I mean, ah bah!” she said while blushing and giving Applejack a nervous smile. Applejack glanced around at the three crusaders, not looking the least bit convinced as she gave the three a deadpanned stare. She straightened out her hat and, without much warning at all, grabbed the end of a blanket with her teeth so she could tear it away from the floor.
The crusaders nearly gasped twice upon realizing they’d almost been found out and, as luck and horror would have it, Spike had gone missing. Applejack quirked a brow at the empty spot where the drooling drake had just been, then quickly shot her head back to the crusaders. The three straightened up and tried to seem as non panicked as possible
“Right, so where’s Spike then? Ah kind of doubt she’d leave the place in your care without him helpin’ out,” she noted.
Scootaloo squeaked out something which sounded suspiciously like “I dunno”, but was swiftly interrupted.
“I’m up here, Applejack,” Twilight said, hoping her impersonation was growing better. “Something wrong?”
Twilight smiled at Applejack while remaining perfectly still, facing her at an odd angle. She gulped and rubbed the back of her head nervously with her claws. Didn’t have enough makeup to fully color myself! Please don’t come upstairs, please don’t come upstairs! she thought.
“Um, you tell me,” she said sternly. “Ah know for a fact that my little sister wouldn’t do a project on babies, and why don't you come on down?”
“Well I’m kind of busy and--”
“Boo- ga bee,” Spike interrupted, his body still not showing up.
“With a research project on the- the strange, alien species of the magical Ga-Bees. Was there something you needed?”
“Magical…” Applejack trailed off and sighed. All four occupants stared at her, blinking nervously as they waited for her to respond. “First off, ignoring the fact that this is the first time I’ve heard about this big school project of theirs, and that it’s about, uh, babies… I can see your tail, Spike, and it doesn’t look green,” she noted out loud.
Twilight gasped quietly and subconsciously shoved her tail back from the railing. “Uh… heh heh. Um…”
“Second off, what you just said, Spike, sounds about as made up as they come. So out with it, who’s gonna tell me the truth on what’s goin’ on?” Applejack asked while impatiently tapping her hooves on the wooden floor. The four remained silent, but Applejack started to notice some other noise than her tapping. Everytime she would tapp, something off in the distance would tapp back. She glanced around then looked under their couch and squinted her eyes. “What in the…”
A loud raspberry echoed against the walls as Spike blew and blew at her while giggling. “Bah boo!”
Applejack nodded and looked up at the imposter Spike with a menacing glare. “You’d better start explainin’ and fast.”
Twilight sighed and began to rub the makeup off her scales. “I’m sorry, Applejack, a spell of mine backfired and, well, you’ve seen Spike,” she said in her natural voice. She nodded as the “baby” crawled about happily near her hooves. “And, um, I ended up as this,” she said as her cheeks flushed. “And I sort of had your sister and her friends watch over him while I try and fix this.”
Applejack nodded again while looking slightly less peeved than she had. “Okay, ‘least you still know how to tell the truth,” she chastised.
“S- sorry, Applejack. I’m just kind of stressed and I still don’t know how to fix this…”
“Ya try contacting the Princess?”
She shook her head frantically. “You can’t! She'll Find out I ruined that artifact and throw me in magical dragon daycare or something!”
Applejack chuckled and shook her head. “Uh huh, if’in you say so.” She then glanced at the three crusaders who had taken the moment to hang onto Spike and were attempting to distract him with mild play. “Well, you’all got your hooves full here. So I’ll just get back to the farm for now, but remember, Twi: the truth is always best. Always.”