I pulled my tongue in and took my first breath of air in what I knew would be months—plural. Laying in a field of blue, I rolled to my back and stared up at the sun. Celestia's gift was wonderful, and just as powerful for me as Luna's was at night. I basked for a time, because I literally couldn't do anything else.
Not having forelegs didn't cause me to panic, nor did my horn looking like the wilted stigma of a flower. My brain was slowly taking control again, reaching out for nerve endings long ignored, and beginning the process of waking me from my time with the poison joke.
The air tasted beautiful, and while I could still feel plenty of energy in my body, my belly was starting to "wake up" as well. The day was slow, and passed into night.
When Celestia's sun came back again, it heralded a young mare leaning over me to look down into my eyes. I couldn't focus on what she said, so I just stuck my tongue out at her and giggled. She was the only thing that marked the day as different from all the rest. Night came again, and then another day.
When the mare leaned over me, and I blew a raspberry, she held something down to my lips. Confused about what to do, I tried opening my lips, and tasted amazing sweetness; what she splashed on my lips was pure water. I cried in joy at the amazing taste, and could have been in love with the mare for the moments she poured the life-giving liquid into me. She left again, of course, but she was a pony.
The days passed, and each day a little of my old self came back. It wasn't a fast process, but over the two weeks I lay in the field of poison joke, staring up at the sky, my limbs and horn regrew, and the pony known as Joker woke up fully.
"There ya are. Getting some of ya pep back, huh?" Apple Bloom's voice caused my ears to twitch in delight. They were the same language I had been hearing from her every day, but now I could actually piece them into something real. "Still not talking?"
"I can talk now." I smiled, and stuck my tongue out again regardless. "Thank you for the water, I—" I stopped myself from saying too much, the taste of the water had made plant-me think things that pony-me wouldn't. "It was very nice." Rolling to my side, and then my belly, I pushed up onto wobbly legs, and stretched.
Apple Bloom reached into her bag and pulled out an acorn. "You really tune out when you're—you're like that?" I watched in surprise as she tossed the hard nut into her mouth, bit on it, and then chewed the resulting lemon up with every indication of enjoyment.
"I become a plant, plants don't care what ponies do, we just want the sun, the rain, the soil." I narrowed my eyes on Apple Bloom, and watched her eat another lemon. "Your quest?"
"Ah got it sorted. Took a bit." Apple Bloom munched away happily on the lemon. "I'm not sure if it's exactly what you meant, but I can deal with everything being lemons now."
"Great work, Bloom." Each step was a wobbling fight with gravity, but so far I was winning by attrition. Getting up after a light tumble, I laughed. "How is the farm doing?"
"The tickle vines are growing in well, although I had to cut back on their feeding." As she walked beside me, Apple Bloom finished chewing another lemon and gulped down the whole thing. I was intrigued as to what she had done. "I think Scruffy is pregnant."
I stopped moving and blinked at Apple Bloom. "I can't even think how he did that. I admit I didn't really check in on him too much after he changed, but I figured he was still male." I rolled the idea around, and realized how close to a similar situation I was. "I am sure they will be a hooful." I waited a moment, and finally couldn't hold back any longer; I needed to know about her quest. "So, what did you do?"
Apple Bloom just shrugged. "Ah got her a nice comfortable spot to sleep in the woods."
"I meant about the lemons." I rolled my eyes and hoofed at the dirt a little. When I looked up at her, Apple Bloom had a smile a mile wide; I realized I was the target of a joke. I couldn't help it, I broke into laughter.
"Well…"
Watching my mentor turn slowly immobile and stiff, I couldn't believe what I had just seen. "Get a grip, Bloom. Joker said this would all happen." Realizing I had used his nickname for me was a bit of a surprise, but it felt right.
The first day without Joker involved me tending to the farm. I took care of the plants in the hothouse, following the instructions Joker had left for each. Feeding the chickens was as simple as dragging a wooden fence—that was on a stand, able to be pulled around—to a new patch of the back garden, and watering it. In minutes the fattest and juiciest looking snails climbed up the fence. Clucks and Hazel fell upon them.
The ferocious clucking made me smile, and it was impossible not to love the former chicken's for the simple existence they had. When Scruffy trotted up beside me, and leaned into my side, I had to push back with nearly every bit of my strength. I picked through his side with one hoof, plucking out branches that shouldn't have been there. "Where'd you get a blackberry bramble?" Removing the prickly branch caused a little pain, but it had to be done.
"Just like muh family's farm." The realization wasn't exactly hard to reach. What Joker had here was definitely a farm, and like my sister and brother he farmed plants. I walked to a tree near the pond of water that was used for nearly everything on the farm, and ran my hoof along the ancient willow's hanging leaves. Pure notes rang out on the air, soft and smooth. "Singing willow."
Returning to my chores, I made a point of feeding the emotivores extra, in preparation for my time away from the farm. A full week passed, and the cuddle vines were so big that when I reached a hoof out to them they all reached out to tickle my frog. Cute as they were, I knew they were in the greenhouse for a reason.
Trotting into the house, I hefted up my saddlebags and grabbed an extra apple up from the basket they were kept in. I didn't know what Joker had done to that basket, but fruit never went bad, so long as they were eaten quickly after removing them.
Trotting from the house, I made sure the doors and windows were all closed, and headed east. The sun was at my back for the whole journey to the town where I had grown up: Ponyville. The path took me past The White-Tail Woods, and even as I walked along the path, I remembered that my sister had run through the forest in races.
Picking up my hooves, I trotted all the way into Ponyville as if I had never left. Ponies were about their afternoon task, but one noticed me right away. I returned Scootaloo's wave. "How're you doin', Scootaloo?"
"Apple Bloom!" Scootaloo's face lit up as she trotted over to me. We shared a quick hug. "I'm doing awesome! What about you? Zecora came back and said you had found a new mentor!"
I grinned at my friend. Scootaloo always took life as fast as she could, and it showed in a kind of energy around the mare. "Well, she found him. His name's Joker, and he owns a farm a few hours walk away. Really nice unicorn, and he—"
"A unicorn farmer? I remember you told me a joke about that once." Scootaloo tapped her chin, looking lost in thought. "Something about upside down carrots being good for nothing on a farm, wasn't it?"
The lyrics of the limerick came to mind, and I blushed at how inaccurate they were. What hurt a little more, however, was that I remembered hearing the joke from my sister, first. "Joker knows more about plants than anypony else I know." It was true, after all. Despite family loyalty, who could know a plant better than somepony who turned into a plant?
Scootaloo's eyes went wide, then she laughed and wrapped one of her wings—that had grown in a spurt at last—around my withers. "Come on, I want to see what happens when you tell that to Applejack and Big Mac."
"Actually…" I pulled out a list of ponies to talk to from my saddlebags. Top of the list was not any of my clan. "I need to go see Princess Twilight, first." My eyes ran down the list.
"Who else was on the list?"
"Ah'll get to that."
"I need to see Princess Twilight first." I tucked the list away again. Turning back to Scootaloo, I saw her face had fallen a little. I suddenly realized that the walk to my family's farm would have given us a lot of time to catch up, and that Twilight's castle was a lot closer than Sweet Apple Acres. "Race you!"
I didn't wait for Scootaloo's reaction. I ran. My hooves flew like thunder as I galloped further into Ponyville, and it wasn't until a familiar shadow swooped overhead, that I knew I had picked right. "Of course you would fly! No pegasus could ever beat an earth pony in a run!"
"Yeah?" Scootaloo's voice was indignant.
"Yeah!" The moment I shouted my reply, Scootaloo dove to the ground at my side. "That's better, show me how much you have been neglecting runnin' now you can fly!" I pushed my gait wider, the drum-beat of my hooves eating ground even faster. Scootaloo, however, kept up.
"I,"—Scootaloo sounded so smug—"do not ignore leg day!" With the pace we set it was no time at all before we reached the castle doors. Despite Scootaloo's defense, I could see her panting at the impromptu race.
"Looking a bit tired there, Scootaloo. What's the matter, is Rainbow Dash teaching you all the comfortable places to sleep?" We both broke into laughter at my jab, which was how Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship found us.
The doors of the castle swung open, and Twilight, my sister, and their four friends; were all bracketed by opening. Twilight's smile widened, and as she opened her mouth to say something I was tackled to the ground.
Applejack clung to me as tight as could be (which was really tight), and for the life of me I couldn't help but hug her back. A soft cough broke into our world, and I looked towards Twilight. We were, of course, blocking the doorway, and now that my eyes had adjusted to the dimmer light inside, I could see Princess Luna was just behind Twilight.
"Uh, s-sorry, Your Highness." It was hard to bow and pull out of a hug at the same time, but I managed it.
"That's al—" Luna and Twilight had both started talking over the top of each other. Luna was the first to gesture a deferral to Twilight. "This is your castle, Twilight."
Years had passed since I had seen Twilight's ascension. It had been the single biggest event in the town ever. And yet despite the time having passed, I watched the Princess of Friendship blush up a storm and nod to Luna. "Thank you, Luna." She turned to face Applejack and I. She opened her mouth to say something, when a gasp came from her side.
"W-W-W-Welcome back party!" Pinkie practically jumped a pony-length into the air, and seemed to teleport away.
"You take too long to tell a story." I huffed my breath out, remembering to call on more senses than just sight and sound. Synesthesia wasn't uncommon after my time in a field of poison joke, and on more than one occasion I woke up thinking I could taste sunlight.
"What?" Apple Bloom glared at me for a moment before rolling her eyes. "Ah just want to get it all right. Do you want to know everything, or not?"
"Bloom,"—I reached out with my magic, its glow extra brilliant after my time in the field, and ruffled her mane—"you tell the story you want to, besides, we have plenty of time!"
"Well…" Apple Bloom reached up with a hoof to fix the damage I had done.