April 3rd, 999
Applebaum stares at the wooden model she made of the new house. One thirty-second scale. She had collected the building materials out of pieces they had laying around, scraps and miscuts scattered among the various barns. Doug helped her with the bigger pieces, cutting walls and floors. She then trimmed them to the perfect size, sanding the rough edges. All the pieces were initially made to be interchangeable, carefully constructed so that each floor could be removed and inspected separately, changed if needed, then put back together. This building, though, is the design that has been finalized and signed off, the blueprints stored in Doug's office, the earth ponies going to start excavating tomorrow.
The building will be four stories, in total. Two of them almost completely dug into the hill, making the house more vertical than if it had followed the natural contours of the land. She made the upper crest of the hill out of paper mache with Lemon's help. Then, she constructed the basement floor, starting with just drawings on paper before moving on to wooden boards. She carefully carved out the hill so that the bottom floor would slip in.
The next night, Meringue snuck into Doug's office, where Applebaum was working on the project. Meringue painted the hill brown, even going so far to paint dark rocks and shadows. Along the side of the hill are little orange carrots and green leaves. Long rows of the tiny vegetables, with a dirt path leading up the front. It was so cute that Applebaum couldn't even get mad at the foal, even if it was unnecessary.
Most of the bottom floor will be storage, with two rooms on the outside for either storage or to be used as a bedroom. Nopony wants to sleep in a room surrounded by walls, as her dam told her. 'Always give yourself a second exit, just in case there is a fire.' That means the staircase takes up the center, opening up to the east and a very short hallway. There are two bedrooms in the northeast quadrant. Both have doors to the outside wide enough to pull a crate through in case they get used for storage. Just one bathroom, split between the two rooms. The other three quadrants are purely devoted to storage. One large door on the east, one on the north, both wide enough to pull a small cart through. The long storage rooms themselves can have crates on each side and enough space for two ponies to squeeze by. Or drag a cart through the long L shaped room, though it might bump into the walls a little making the turn at the bend.
The next floor has the kitchen up against the hill, and is the only other floor that needs some part of it to be dug in. Two bathrooms, three bedrooms, and one larger communal room split between dining and living room. The walls are rounded in places, a consequence of Lemon's design suggestion to use a large barrel for many of the walls. It gives the whole building a very unique look. Very fitting with how many of the buildings in Ponyville are styled, with form often taking precedence over function. While it irked Applebaum a little, the inefficiency of rounded walls, everypony else seemed to like it enough to want to live in it. It would all be new wood anyway, no sense in using old barrels that reek of carrots or slightly sour apples.
The third floor has just two rooms, the rest of the area the roof to the second floor. Mostly to be used as a porch, an area to play around outside if they didn't want to be on the steep hill. One room, the one closest to the main Apple farmhouse, is on the south side. It has a flat, sloped roof, so rain can easily flow into a couple of the gutters carefully concealed along the walls. The room on the north side is the first of its own two story tower, pretty much just a square room with a door leading to the porch. This would be the room Applebaum is claiming for her own. There is a trapdoor leading both up and down, in case she or Scootaloo didn't want to go outside in the rain to get in and out of her room, or to move between their rooms and the common room. A free standing wooden staircase leads from the hill to the third floor porch, or one can take the path down the hill to get to the first or second floor.
The fourth floor, if it could even be considered that, consists of one room above Applebaum's. Fairly simple, with two openings that can serve as doors, but also double as windows. They both have small porches just outside, one barely big enough for a flowerbox, the other with enough space for a pegasus to land. The roof is a half barrel, nicely sloped so the rain doesn't pool. It also gives enough of an overhang on the side porch to keep it dry. On top of that would be a weather vane, commissioned by Carrot Top to look like a big carrot. Meringue either didn't know that or didn't have the time yet to fasten one on top, so the model ended with the fourth floor.
Applebaum grins, holding up the large firework Pinkie Pie had carelessly left on the dining table. Or was it intentionally? It could be very difficult to tell with the mare. She takes a step back, admiring the long hours she had put into the project. The small half barrels dotting the sides, forming nice enclosures for windows and roofs. The squishy hill, the wooden walls. No doors, not for this. Applebaum smiles to herself, placing the explosive on the top floor.
She holds a hoof to her chin, considering. Well, the explosion would be the most visible there, as it wouldn't have much of anything to blow up. The lower floors would remain mostly intact, the wood construction absorbing a lot of the potential blast. Maybe with a larger firework it would work, but not with one this size.
Applebaum moves the explosive to the bottom floor. No, too far away from the top floor. And a lot of the power would be channeled into the ground, the paper mache hill. It would blow out the side, whichever gave easier. Maybe some of it reflected back up from the dirt underneath, but no way to make sure.
She puts the firework on the second floor, right in the middle. Perfect. If the initial explosion didn't completely destroy the bottom floor, then it would weaken it enough to collapse the entirety as the remaining supports give out. And the top two floors would both rise with a satisfying thump before they came crashing back down in pieces.
Her sire's voice comes into her mind as she holds up a match. 'Applebaum, if you are ever playing with fire, do it outside, so you don't burn the house down. Also, don't play with fire.' She glances to the unlit match; this hardly constitutes playing. But, outside she would go. Oh, and she should tell Apple Bloom and the others that everything is ready!
Meanwhile, a pair of earth pony mares make their way up the path towards Sweet Apple Acres. The brown and gray ponies are both wearing vests that have a pencil in a pocket in easy reach of their mouths. The brown pony's cutie mark is a set of branching horns, the gray one a large flat piece of metal. Doug waves to them; both pause, a quick glance to each other before they relax and continue on their way. Doug spots a train of fillies coming out of the farmhouse, Applebaum in the lead with her wooden model on her back.
The gray earth pony calls out, getting Doug's attention, "Afternoon. My name is Dozer, and we're here with Cater Construction to take a preliminary look at the hill, make sure everything is ready for tomorrow."
Doug smiles as the two get close, squatting down and holding out a fist for each mare to bump. "Afternoon; my name is Doug." Doug looks to the brown pony, "You must be Bull." He glances to the side; Applejack is making her way over as well, dragging a cart stacked high with baskets of apples.
The brown pony smiles, a touch of exasperation as she says, "I get that a lot, for some reason. Dee Eerie, actually, but you can call me Deer. You done a lot of digging yourself, Mr. Doug?"
"Well, maybe when I first got here, helping around the farm. You want to see the hill?" The two ponies nod, Doug getting up. Applejack drops the cart off to the side, moving up to introduce herself. The fillies of his herd and the Rich fillies are clustering around something, their excited chattering barely audible. He motions to Applejack, the two moving towards the group while the two earth ponies cautiously follow them.
Applebaum sets the model down on the hill where the construction will take place. The other eleven fillies gather around, eagerly looking at the house. Applebaum motions them away, the gleam in her eye telling them something exciting is about to happen. The eleven fillies move back, crouching behind a small rise in the dirt.
"Ugh, this better be good," says Diamond Tiara in a louder voice, the other fillies immediately shushing her as they watch.
Applebaum moves forward, the smile on her muzzle creeping larger and larger as she steps closer to the small wooden house. A long fuse hangs out of one of the windows, tantalizingly close. "Primed and ready," she says to herself, striking the match against her hoof.
She stares at the flame, the colors starting with a dark red, almost black at the base of the match. Further away are the reds and oranges and then the brilliant yellow that begins to hurt her eyes as she looks deeper. She breathes out, a long exhale as her hoof slowly lowers to the fuse. The long cord catches instantly, the filly enraptured as the trail of yellow disappears into the house.
Somepony seems to be shouting, maybe many ponies. High pitched voices, maybe a deep one mixed in. Applebaum turns from the house, an unconcerned walk as she looks away, focusing on nothing, a smile plastered on her muzzle. Images dance across her eyes: an engineer dropping down and covering his ears before an explosion in a mine. A decrepit building, a violent shuddering as a rainbow blur slams into it, the wooden pieces shattering and collapsing. A strange white house, a blue beam from the sky before the entirety explodes outwards.
Behind her comes a deafening explosion, a shower of timbers and sparks, fragments raining down around her but none daring to singe a hair on her hide. She pauses for a brief second, allowing Scootaloo's room to land directly in front of her, the wooden walls smashing into the ground. She doesn't even flinch, her hooves crunching the half barrel roof as she continues her casual walk away from the crater.
Applebaum snaps back to reality as first one, then four, then eleven fillies pile on top of her. "Your cutie mark!" somepony exclaims. The pile backs off, many hooves dancing in circles as Applebaum stands, glancing back at her flank. There it is, emblazoned on her brown coat. One red apple, just like her dam's, but broken into five pieces by a jagged orange and yellow explosion in the center.
"My Cutie Mark!" she shouts, her high pitched voice echoing around the hills. She starts dancing about as her sisters tackle her again, picking her up and raising her above them all. She waves as she sees Daddy sprinting over, her dam galloping with him, a cloud of dust behind them.
Both of them slow, Applejack looking carefully at her filly. Her eyes grow wide as she spots the change, the image a stark contrast on the brown filly. "Oh my Celestia!" Applejack yells, clods of dirt thrown from her hooves as she gallops closer. "It happened!" Applejack's muzzle grows to the widest smile she has ever had, beaming at Applebaum as she nuzzles her filly, "Celestia, it happened!"
Doug lifts Applebaum up, his firm embrace conveying the love and hope he has for her, for each of them. Applejack prances a few more times, rapid circles flinging dirt in every direction. Doug kneels down, Applebaum sharing a nuzzle with each of her sisters, her dam, with everypony who comes close.