//------------------------------// // Chapter 4: Walking // Story: Scootaloo's dia-no, Journal // by Ephedianroyalty //------------------------------// The girls had hugged me until I had stopped crying, and now we were on our way to Applebloom’s house. Something about talking to her sister or something. I wasn’t really listening, being in a stupor from the shock. I was jostled out of my deep thought when the wheelchair hit a bump and I went sprawling. “Oh my gosh, are you alright, Sam?” Sweetie exclaimed, moving around the capsized chair. I sat up. “Yeah, I think so.” I stood up and brushed off my pants, stopping when I heard a choking sound coming from Applebloom. Looking up, I caught my friends staring at me, and I tilted my head in confusion. “What?” “You’re… walking…” Applebloom muttered, blinking and rubbing her eyes. After a few moments, she started to tear up, and she launched herself at me, knocking be back down on my butt. “You’re walking, Sam!” “Yeah, I can walk again. Now can I please get up?” I smirked at my friend's face when she realized what she had done. I responded to her muttered sorry with a concise, “It’s fine,” and carefully got back up on my legs, wobbling a little. “Let’s go.” We moved at a snail’s pace, hindered greatly by my inability to run and general lack of awesomeness. As we neared our destination, I was a little surprised at where they decided to go, although not very much. Honestly, Kurt was probably the best person to tell first. When the farm appeared over the horizon, Applebloom sped on ahead, leaving me and Sweetie to literally eat her dust. Dang that filly can run. The sad part of this cloud is that Sweetie started hacking up a lung, which caused her to drop me, which in turn caused me to start coughing. Fun times, fun times. When Sweetie and I got our breath back, Applebloom was out of sight, though her house could be seen peeking through the trees. The two friends looked at each other and then continued at a much more relaxed pace, though still faster than before. When we reached the sign, I took in the sight of my friend’s farm at a new height and found it pretty much the same. Unfortunately I missed the small emerald flash down near my brand spankin’ new hooves, but I did notice the feeling of kicking something, and I definitely saw a small form go sailing in the air and over the house. As the fillies were heading towards Applebloom’s house, her elder sister, Ashley, was busy preparing the family dog, Winona, for a bath.  “Come on, Winona.  Ya need a bath, girl!” Winona reluctantly went over and accepted her bath.  Once the family pet was washed, rinsed, and dried, AJ placed Winona’s new collar around her dog’s neck.  She had purchased it at the animal shelter her friend Flora worked at. Then a furry ball came flying over the house and landed in a mud puddle near where Winona had been washed with a splat, catching her dog’s attention. It was no bigger than a mouse. Winona began to sniff curiously around the small puddle and Ashley scooped her up, chiding her. “Sorry, girl, just got ya washed up.  Ah’m not giving ya ‘nother bath just ‘cause ya chose to get dirty again.”  Ashley stooped down to see what her dog was so interested in. “Alex, that you in that mud puddle?”  Ashley began to look for something to help scoop Alex out of the mud when she heard the mud grunt in affirmation. “May I help you?” Ashley looked up when she heard someone’s voice. She smiled when she recognized the owner of the question. “Oh, Howdy, Starlight!  Just tryin’ to get my mouse friend out of this mud puddle as I wait on mah little sister and her friends.  They promised to help me out with some baking.  Rarity wanted some o’ mah Apple Fritters.” “Well, I don't know about the second thing, but I think I can help out with the first thing!” Before Ashley could ask, Starlight's magic was already working. She used a levitation spell to get Alex out of the mud puddle. Ashley held out her hands to receive Alex from Starlight’s magical aura, “You okay, sugarcube?”  Alex nodded, wiping mud out of her eyes. Ashley smiled at Starlight, “Thanks fer helpin’ out.  Seems like yer learning a lot about friendship by hangin’ out with us.” “No problem. And yes, now that I discovered it, friendship is such an amazing thing to learn about.” said Starlight. Ashley wiped one of her hands on her jeans before directing Starlight to her house.  “Well, welcome t’ Sweet Apple Acres.  Mah little sister should be coming in anytime now.  She’s got red hair, a pink bow and yellow fur.” “Well, it will be good to meet… um… what’s her name?” asked Starlight, blushing a little. Ashley sighed as she opened the front door, “Amy was her human name, but she wants to be called Apple Bloom.  She’s friends with Rarity’s little sister and Micaela’s sister Sam.  Ah also have a big brother, and mah grandmother.  Plus lots of other extended relatives all around on their farms.” “Sounds nice! Oh, and sorry for asking. I’m still used to hearing human names everyday, so these transformation one’s are still strange to me.” Starlight said, plopping down on a couch. Ashley shook her head as she followed her friends lead. “Ah hear ya.  Turns out we have Trixie at school, as well as Sunset Shimmer.  Both unicorn anthros.” “Oh, interesting… Is any of them bad or both of them good?” Starlight looked at her expectantly. Ashley paused for a second, “Well, Sunset’s really nice and she even sang at a talent show we held.  Trixie used to be a bully and even challenged Twilight to a magic duel.  But it turns out she wasn’t in her right mind.  Apparently there’s this amulet that can cause unicorns to become evil.  I think the amulet’s gone now, but this really evil entity has been causing trouble at school lately.  He’s been turning humans into anthros without their consent.” “Well, at least I know that I wasn't turning crazy when all I could see were anthro ponies everywhere.” Joked Starlight,inciting a small laugh from her friend. Just then, the Ashley’s younger sister ran into the room where the older anthros were talking, skidding to a stop when she saw Starlight, “Sorry, sis!  Ah didn’t know we had company!”  She panted out as she caught her breath. “Oh, you must be Apple Bloom! I’m Starlight Glimmer, nice to meet you!” Starlight’s eyes ‘glimmered’ when she saw Applebloom. Apple Bloom smiledand extended her hand to Starlight, “Nice ya meet ya, Starlight!  Yer one o’ mah sister’s friends from school, right?” Starlight got up shook the little girl’s hand. “Correct! And I was doing a visit there, so we could talk about things.” She responded lightly. “Mighty glad ya stopped by, Starlight.  And, here comes the rest of mah family.” Ashley nodded toward the figures coming through the door. “This here’s Granny Smith and my big brother, Big MacIntosh.  And before ya say anythin’,yes, mah family’s specialty are apple-based products.” “I can see that, you do have a lot of apple trees here! That’s so cool!” Starlight sqealed. Ashley nodded, “Well, those there apples we need for some treats Ah’m planning to deliver to Rarity’s.  Just need t’ find Sweetie Belle and Sam.” Apple Bloom interjected, “Sam and Sweetie Belle were behind me coming as fast as they could but for some reason I got here before them.” Ashley rolled her eyes at her sister. “Ah’m sure they’ll be here any moment.” right on cue, Sweetie burst into the room. “See? There’s Sweetie Belle right there.” Ashley got up and began walking towards the door. “Ah’m gonna go get Sam.” “There’s no need.” Ashley watched in confusion as a young orange Anthro walked into the room, trying to id behind her short mane. “Are you takin’ over for Sam?” The older mare scrutinized the younger one’s face, trying to place why she looked familiar. “Ah’m soory, do ah know you from somewhere?” The filly seemed to shrink, finally figuring out out to hid behind her mane. In classic fluttershy, she said, “I am Sam.” “Ah’m sorry sugarcube, ah can’t hear you. What was that?” Ashley leaned closer to the kid, who in turn shrunk even more. She cleared her throat, and tried to speak up. “I said, I am Sam.” Ashley blinked, rubbing her ear as she stood back up. “And now ah’m hearing things. Starlight, please tell me what you just heard.” “I believe she was telling you that she was Sam. What’d you hear?” Ashley’s eyes widened, and she stumbled back to the couch. Starlight looked at her reproachfully. “What’s wrong?” “What’s wrong? Ah’ll tell you what’s wrong. Sam over there has been stuck in a wheelchair ever since I’ve known her.” Starlight gasped and looked over at the filly, who just smiled at her weakly. Ashley rubbed her eyes. After examining Sam for a few seconds, Starlight looked at her thoughtfully. “I guess that the transformation could fix previous injuries.” Ashley sighed and nodded, “So Sam can walk and run again? Ah guess it’s ok if it only healed injuries. How much magic does that take, anyways?” She looked over at her friend, who just shrugged. “Hell if I know. Oh, speaking of magic and all, I saw something pretty strange on my way here…” Starlight said, changing the subject so as to mask her failure of understanding what she thought was a basic function of the world, however new it was. Ashley tilted her head, “Ya don’t say.  What kinda strange thing, other than us and the other anthros around school?” “Well, I saw some checkered floor, a house floating around, and some kind of… dragon thing?”